Saturday, March 05, 2016

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Jason of Star Command: "Through the Stargate" (October 27, 1979)


The Tantalution story arc is now behind the series, and Jason of Star Command's second season continues with an episode entitled "Through the Stargate."  

Here, a minion of Dragos named Adron (Rod Loomis) pretends to be an ambassador so that his disabled ship, "The Space Flyer" can be repaired at an unsuspecting Star Command.

Jason rescues Adron after he experiences a blow-out in his engine. Specifically, Jason "piggybacks" the alien ship to Star Command in a dangerous, perfectly-timed maneuver.  

Once at command, Adron reveals a precious and "fragile" artifact aboard his ship, one that shares an emblem with Samantha's (Tamara Dobson necklace.  Thus, the artifact may be from her world, which she still can't recall because of amnesia. This similarity proves an irresistible mystery to the alien woman.

Soon, Samantha, Jason and Parsafoot use the artifact to transport to an alien world, one where they encounter a giant, injured creature, and nurse it to health. Soon however, Adron shows up too, and reveals his true form.  Before long, he traps his enemies in a cavernous prison edifice.



"Through the Stargate" features a new alien monster costume (Adron), a new stop-motion creature, and even a new spaceship miniature for the "Space Flyer."  Unfortunately, the moments set on the planet surface all look abundantly familiar. We've been to this sound stage and seen these rocks at least three times before during the second season.

Also, we seem to be in bit of a rerun, story-wise. 

In "The Power of the Star Disk" and "Secret of the Ancients" episodes, Parsafoot learned that an alien device was actually a matter transporter, and Dragos used it to strand the crew on a planet in another dimension.


In this episode, "Through the Stargate," yet another matter transmitter strands the heroes on another planet...and the same sound-stage to boot.  This planet, like its predecessor, seems to be set in another dimension, since Dragos tells Adron "We have intruders in your universe." All the same story elements are repeated, only this time, the narrative promises to reveal more about Samantha than Commander Stone.

The twin-highlights of this episode of Jason of Star Command are the piggy-back action sequence set in space (which forecasts a similar scene, done with CGI, in Star Trek: Insurrection [1998]) and Samantha's telepathic communication with the affectionate, stop-motion monster.  Otherwise, this is a case of been there, seen that.


2 comments:

  1. Filmation's production value is shown in the last posted photo behind Parsafoot and Jason we see the full-scale mock-up Minicat Escape pod used in multiple episodes which the actors can sit inside. The Minicat Escape pod is usually docked to the bow of the Starfire, although it does operate independently too.

    SGB

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  2. Anonymous1:22 PM

    The series' planet scenes were obviously filmed on a small, cramped stage. The flat mountain cut-outs in the background were reused so often they became a bit too familiar(and sometimes cast shadows on the sky backdrop). Few older sci-fi shows had the budget for impressive planet sets. Even into the late 80's, some of Star Trek: The Next Generation's planet sets looked rather cheap. Once in a while, some shows featured some memorable sets, such as "Piri" on the first season of Space:1999.


    Again, the talent of this show's effects artists shines in the scenes with the stop-motion rhino-dog. It's a beautifully detailed puppet that could withstand close-ups that the models in Land of the Lost couldn't.

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