WELCOME TO YESTERMORROW!

In the life of the Universe, 6 years is an instant of time. Yet it was for that small fraction of a cosmic second that we witnessed a brilliant spectacle of the ultimate aspiration and adventure of Mankind.

Called "space opera", it presented the universe, not as it was, or even as more serious minds would envision it. Rather, in the words of Aristotle concerning fiction; "as it might and ought to be". This was not science fiction in the true sense, but it may have been the beginning of lifelong love affairs with that genre. Goodness knows it was not science fiction, it was science fantasy. It projected a world run on yet-to-be-discovered principles or yet-to-be-discovered science. As such it was the fantasy, not of a medieval society, but of a nation on the brink of space travel.

What made it good, specifically in the moral sense, was that it projected a pro-science, and therefore pro-reason worldview. But why is that good? Look at the lifesaving medicines, processes and materials that have come from science: Ask yourself what life would be like without plastics, anti-biotics, computers, radio/TV, the printing press, mass-production processes or modern farming techniques. Look at the founding of the United States of America, a product of the Enlightenment which was the follow-on to the Age of Reason, inheriting the best that Western Civilization had to offer, and at her best when she practices and honors those principles; the "Shining City on a Hill", and worse than the meanest tyranny when she violates them: and let me stress that those violtions are abberations: NOT the norm. To grasp more fully--and firmly why this is good, compare and contrast it to the world before the Age of Reason; ridden with superstition, ruled by connivance, violence and brutality; the age of the short, miserable lifespan lived in grinding poverty, sickness and back-breaking toil from which (hopefully a quick) death was, and would be, a welcome respite: Talk about stress and self-esteem issues. Further, these programs had a positive slant and offered the heroic view of Man which appealed to the best in us, in a way that made it comprehensible in a very immediate timeframe, drawing a short, straight line, subconsciously understood (meaning apparently self-evident), from presentation to the governing principles of a sound and morally good people. Also, they showed individual persons using their faculty of reason in solving the problems posed by nature or villain. Buzz Corry used his brain as well as his fists-and was not averse to using either. By being set in one or another future, it staked a claim to the future as a whole in the name of the best in us. It presented in a living, vital way what would ordinarily be dry academics and it presented it such that it was understandable by a 7 year old, as self-evident and fun. Derived from the Western and Adventure, these added the promise "tommorrow" to what had been of the past or immediate present This established continuity from past to future.

The main outlet for this kind of thing was Television, with its even now largely unfullfilled promise of educational uses and mostly to project those ideals and beliefs that would send Mankind on his voyage to his ultimate destiny. The conquest of space and its inhabitance as the rightful dwellers in the utopia created by reason and enlightenment. It had to be Television, the medium of the future: New, multisensory and up and running at a moment's notice by the flick of a switch in the very homes of the populace that would be the conduit for such a bold enterprise and its participants.

This supernova of the human spirit burned from 1949 to 1955 in the very early days of Television in the United States. Some of us were lucky enough to have seen this in its full glory. Before Star Wars, Star Trek and before Dr. Who The giants: Captain Video, Tom Corbett and Buzz Corry laid the foundation for the future.

If you were one of those persons who was there at the Big Show then enjoy the chance to relive your experience and refresh your soul. If you are not, then take the opportunity to see a world you may have heard about but never saw. Others who did see and appreciate it, and I, invite you to look in and come in and play. If you liked Han Solo or Captain Kirk, you'll love Buzz Corry, so drop over to Terra City and the Space Patrol Complex of the thirtieth century. I hope you brought your play clothes with you; you're not just gonna stnad around like a dope and gawk. We have games, people to meet and toys-including a Space Patrol Rocketship that you can take home with you (eat your heart out Ricky Walker, better yet, come in and get one). If you have ever heard the term "Space Cadet", usually used derisively and wrongly: Meet the Solar Guard and Tom Corbett at their academy in the tweny-fourth century, done well before the movie, Starship Troopers (the total abortion of Robert Heinlein's excellent novel) was made. Or find out about Captain video courtesy of Tom Powers, both a cadet and a Starlogger. Or just groove to the sound of Roaring Rockets. All of these are accessible from the ROCKET CITY SPACEPORT which you get to from the TERRA CITY TRAVEL PLAZA! So, if you think Space started wtih Star Wars or even Star Trek. We were doing it long before they were. BY encompassing all of the "space cadet" fan sites I can find for as many of the shows I can find, Retro-Rockets is a celebration of the whole deal. By focusing on Space Patrol, it is showcasing my particular interest and gives a look at the ideas and ideals that shaped my deepest principles.

This is not a professionally made site. Do you think a pro job would have all these typo's and grmmatical errors? There is nothing slick or glitzy about it (sigh). All the space cadet sites are homebrew by those who brew it best.

BLAST OFF FOR TERRA!