Jason of Star Command

TV Series
1978–1981
30m

IMDb RATING

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James Doohan, Craig Littler, and Susan Pratt in Jason of Star Command (1978)

Superhero Action Adventure Family Sci-Fi

A young Space Command officer fights the evil space lord Dragos and his minions in his jurisdiction of the universe.A young Space Command officer fights the evil space lord Dragos and his minions in his jurisdiction of the universe.A young Space Command officer fights the evil space lord Dragos and his minions in his jurisdiction of the universe.

Creator
- Arthur H. Nadel
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

419

YOUR RATING

Creator
- Arthur H. Nadel
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Episodes28

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TopTop-rated2 seasons2 years

Trivia
Jonathan Harris was supposed to play Commander Gampu on "Jason of Star Command", as this was to be a spin-off of his series "Space Academy". In a personal interview, Harris related that while the stories about his demand for higher pay was not wrong, but also not completely accurate. According to Harris, Filmation planned to film the series like an old movie serial, with each episode running about 15 minutes. "Space Academy" was a half hour series, and Harris was asked to recreate his role of Gampu for half the money he was paid on "Space Academy". He felt just because they cut the running time in half, the producers felt they could get him for half the money. So when Lou Scheimer said he would have no problem getting Harris because they were friends, this meant that he thought he could con Harris into taking less money and save on his production costs. Harris refused to take the paid cut and James Doohan was brought in as a replacement character.

Quotes
Narrator: Danger hides in the stars! This is the world of Jason of Star Command. A space-age soldier of fortune determined to stop the most sinister force in the universe: Dragos, master of the cosmos. Aiding Jason in his battle against evil is a talented team of experts, all working together in a secret section of Space Academy. Jason of Star Command!

Alternate versions
The first season was originally presented in sixteen 15-minute chapters, with scenes from the previous week, a cliffhanger, and scenes from the next installment. When aired in later foreign syndiation (1990s), all first season segments were combined into 8 half-hour episodes with the first half's end credits and second half's beginning credits being removed, though all "chapter" title screens were retained. The "scenes from next week" were also removed from the first half of the "new" 30-minute episodes.

Connections
Follows Space Academy (1977)

User reviews11

Review

Featured review

Season One Was Fun

The 28 episodes of the Saturday morning sci-fi series "Jason of Star Command" were originally broadcast on CBS from 1978-1980. The first season's 16 episodes (15 minutes each) were the live action portion of "Tarzan and the Super 7". The 12 episodes from Season Two had their own thirty-minute time-slot.

The series was a "Space Academy" spin-off with a number of "Star Wars" features. It may remind contemporary viewers of the "Buck Rogers" series, or at least a low budget version targeted at pre-teen boys. Craig Littler plays the title character, a space pilot assigned to defend Star Command (a Division of Space Academy) from a "Ming the Merciless" type, the evil "Master of the Cosmos" Dragos (nicely overplayed by Sid Haig). Dragos commands a legion of mumbling creatures with moth heads, mostly they just sit around a table and listen to him rant about Jason. Littler is pretty much devoid of any real acting talent but at least knows enough to not look directly into the camera when speaking his lines.

Littler and Haig are about all that links the two seasons as the show was recast when it was renewed. You are unlikely to find a more extreme example of producers shooting themselves in the foot between seasons than what happened with this series. The show's original draws were James "Scotty" Doohan (who attracted to "Star Trek" fans) and Susan O'Hanlon (who filled out her costume so well that male viewers kept tuning in).

For Season Two Doohan was replaced by John "The Lawman" Russell, a decent actor who must have needed work very badly because he let them paint his face blue; although this make-up arrangement had no vital link to the storyline. O'Hanlon was replaced by Tamora "Cleopatra Jones" Dobson, who might actually have been a worse actor than Littler; which might account for the perception that his acting improved during the course of the series.

Also of note during Season Two was the three-episode appearance of an aging Francine York as Queen Medusa (a character probably based on her guest role as Queen Niolani ten years earlier on "Lost in Space"). Queen Medusa looked like my cub-scout den mother, but dressed in purple spandex and wearing way too much make-up.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.