Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe

The unlikely named 'Commando Cody' (Judd Holdren) and his trusty rocket-suit face off against verbose despot 'The Ruler' (Gregory Gaye), who wants to add Earth to his corral of enslaved planets. While Commando seems capable of quickly solving any problem on his own, he is assisted by pretty Joan (Aline Towne) who is a reliable sidekick and competent rocket pilot, steady Ted (William Schallert, episodes 1-3), or excitable Dick (4-12), the latter usually providing some strained episode-closing comic relief. Oddly, Cody, who is now a government agent, wears a mask (supposedly to protect his identity but possibly to facilitate a cast change in case the show's star got restive). As this iteration of Cody's adventures was originally intended for television, the stories are not set up as 'cliff-hangers', otherwise it's a typical low-budget Republic series, with lots of fist fights and last minute escapes (just not at the beginning of each episode as per 'cliff-hanger' format). The 12-part tele-play is generally ridiculous but entertaining in a ludicrously imaginative way. The Ruler's plots get increasingly preposterous as the series progresses and include crashing the moon into Earth, using weather control to flood the planet, cooking us by duplicating the sun, freezing or cooking us by altering the axial tilt of the planet, or paralysing us with a mysterious bio-weapon. Needless to say, each threat is promptly divined and averted by Cody (sometimes with help from Joan, Tim or Dick). Negligible effort was made to maintain scientific plausibility: at one point Commando refers to an alien solar-system as being "west" of our solar-system, the Ruler and his minions can be found on Mercury, Venus and Saturn, all of which have hospitable environments, and, although Dick will put on a helmet to exit the spaceship, he doesn't stop to pull on gloves. Most of the special effects shots were harvested from Republic's earlier 'rocket-man' series (starting with 'King of the Rocket Men' (1949)) or from 'The Purple Monster Strikes' (1945) and the impressive scenes of New York City being inundated by tidal waves are from the proto-disaster film 'Deluge' (1933). If you had not seen the earlier serials/films, you'd likely be impressed with the imagination and production quality, otherwise, CCSMotU is a derivative but silly/fun rocket-powered pastiche. Even in 1953, this show must have had a 'throwback' feel, considering the release of 'realistic' sci-fi films like 'Destination Moon' (1951) and TV space-operas like 'Tom Corbett, Space Cadet' (1952).

"Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe", was a half hour TV series that ran as a replacement series on NBC during the 1955 season. If the series looked familiar...it was! "Commando Cody..." shows its Republic Pictures/matinée serial origins as the title character appeared once under the Cody name and twice under different character names in three different Saturday matinée cliffhanger serials from the late '40's thru the early '50's. Although there were 12 TV episodes (as there were nearly always 12 chapters of a serial), none of them ended in the inevitable cliffhanger ending. All episodes were complete in themselves yet there was a definite continuing story arc week-to-week. The 12 episodes were first shown in theatres in 1953 but by this point in time movie serials were fast becoming extinct due to the growing popularity of network television. Republic Pictures, along with Columbia Pictures, were the last two studios to produce theatrical serials. The "Commando Cody..." series was, along with most of the last of Republic's serial output, very cheaply and quickly produced so as to include tons of stock footage at Republic's disposal from nearly 20 years of serial production. Judd Holdren, who had played the Cody character (under a different name) in the second of the "Rocketman/Commando Cody" theatrical serials, starred as Commando Cody. Aline Towne played his assistant Joan, William Shallert played his assistant Ted for the first half of the series and Richard Crane replaced Shallert as assistant Dick during the second half. The Cody group was battling Gregory Gay as the Ruler who was attempting to destroy the Earth from his base on the Moon. The Ruler was assisted on Earth by Baylor (portrayed by veteran actor Lyle Talbot) and assorted other Earth gangsters looking to "clean up" after Earth's overthrow.

Sci-Fi that seems "hokey" by today's standards but entertaining for its' time in the much simpler '50's.

Cody and his spaceship protect the earth from outer space dangers.

This has now been remastered with a wonderfully clear print which makes it ten times better than it was before. Much the same sort of thing as Radar Men from the Moon but with longer episodes and no cliff-hangers at the end of them.

The key to watching this show: don't think about it.

Just look at the wonderful Howard Lydecker flying effects (of Cody and the spaceship), listen to the wonderfully corny closing lines heard at the end of some episodes...and that is it.

There is a pre-Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV series feel to this production. Lydecker also worked on the flying scenes of VTTBOTS's "flying sub" and the endless bang, bang explosions also happened in VTTBOTS season's three and four.

In the near future, Earth has some interaction with alien worlds, and so the government has named brilliant scientist Commando Cody (Judd Holdren) as the Sky Marshal of the Universe. He is charged with dealing with interplanetary menaces, particularly the machinations of the Ruler of the Galaxy (Gregory Gaye), who uses powerful alien weaponry to try and conquer the Earth. Cody, along with his two sidekicks, uses a fantastic rocket suit and spaceship to battle the Ruler and his minions

This fourth rocket man serial was originally intended to be a TV series. The first three episodes were filmed (with William Schallert as one of Cody's sidekicks), but then production was put on hold, and Republic filmed the 1952 serial Zombies of the Stratosphere. After that was finished, production resumed on this, with Richard Crane replacing Schallert. After its completion, Republic decided to release it theatrically as a serial instead of a TV series, partially due to pressure from technicians' unions which stated that crews were paid more for theatrical productions. Still, Republic did eventually release this as a syndicated TV series in 1955.

This is both sillier and more creative than the previous rocket man serials. Cody wears a domino mask and a jaunty little cap whenever he's not in his bulky helmet, ostensibly due to security reasons. The villains wear a variety of silly hats, as well. There are rocket flights in space and to other worlds, and the Republic robot shows up yet again. There is still the traditional re-use of footage from previous serials and movies, even back to The Purple Monster Strikes from 1945. Each chapter runs a solid 30 minutes, meaning the entire thing took 6 hours to watch. Since this was intended to be a TV show, the chapters are more like episodes, with self-contained dilemmas that are resolved without any cliffhanger endings. This wasn't the last serial released, as that would be 1956's Blazing the Overland Trail.

Being fully familiar with Republic's "Rocket Man" trilogy -- "King of the Rocket Men," "Radar Men from the Moon" and "Zombies of the Stratosphere," I ignored the Commando Cody TV series for years only because I mistakenly thought it was just a repackaging of what I already owned and enjoyed on VHS and DVD. Seeing a still from the show on Facebook, though, made me realize that it might be something different -- and it is! Not a cliffhanger, the series proceeds through 12 self-contained episodes and probably would fit best between the first two serials. There's plenty of plot, fewer fistfights than in the serials, and more imaginative use of Cody's rocket, which even travels against the star-studded blackness of space outside of Earth's atmosphere, unlike its lunar voyages in "Radar Men" or rocket dogfights in "Zombies." Yes, there may have been too much reliance on stock disaster footage, but there's also some decent model and miniature work in evidence. To really enjoy the Commando's adventures, just don't sit down expecting modern CGI-quality special effects or sparkling dialogue. Put yourself in a '50s frame of mind and go with it.