Space Sentinels

The Space Sentinels was a fun series which sadly only had a 13 episode run, a great pity as the episodes show plenty of imagination and the characters were a likable and for their time progressively diverse cast that I for one would have been happy to have seen more of. The series always felt like it had run for longer in the UK as most of the episodes were repeated a few times during the late 1970s.

The artwork is fine and generally richly coloured, and while people tend to get rather snooty about Filmation's work owing to their tendency to recycle their animation footage (albeit with whatever tweaking is required) this does lend their shows a consistency of style and character design (I've watched series by other studios where a perceptible change of artists jarringly makes familiar characters appear less so. Filmation doesn't have that problem at least).

The team comprises a trio of teenagers chosen from different parts of the world by a benign alien force and given super-powers to guard and help the rest of humanity. Astrea leads the team and has the power to transform into any creature she wishes. Hercules is a muscular blond Samson-type with super strength while the more slightly built Mercury has a more humorous edge and the ability of super speed. All three use belts which give them the ability of flight and normally reside in their space ship, hidden away inside a defunct volcano! They are watched over by Sentinel One, a huge holographic computerized head (representative of the alien force that empowered them and an impressively rendered visual). Maintenance robot MO is also on hand for lighter moments of interaction and comic relief.

The stories naturally belong mainly in the sci-fi / fantasy realm though occasionally featured antagonists from mythology and literature (Egyptian god Anubis, Norse god Loki and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo). The setting fluctuated between Earth and outer space with each episode having quite a distinct feel and theme, it was thus a shame we never got more of them.

This was perhaps my first ever favourite show as a young child in the late 1970s. The diverse casting of African, Asian and European main leads was a welcome change from other shows and progressive for its time, though this wasn't something we really thought about back then as we just accepted and liked the characters for who they were.

The release of the series on DVD was most welcome and enabled me to reconnect with all those cherished childhood memories of watching this show. The release features another series called Freedom Force (which I don't recall ever seeing) which also features Hercules from the Sentinels (though with a different voice actor and character) and slightly unfairly gets equal prominence on the DVD packaging despite only consisting of 5 episodes.

In summary, the Space Sentinels was a fun series that deserved a longer run and seems to have been almost forgotten in the US. Thanks to its more generous repeat airings in the UK it is perhaps better remembered by my generation here. Re-watching episodes from the series always makes me smile with nostalgia and gratitude that we had such fun and engaging shows when I was young.