SUMMARY
To put the whole thing into a few short paragraphs, what you get is some material that was pretty advanced for the time. The audio and video, considering the age and mileage are good, Overall, the sound is OK by today's standards and the video, if you can hack the b/w and are willing to do some adjustemts to brightness, contrast and color (disable it) is pretty good. Both the aud and vid are better than I thought they would be, The native audio is mixed. Sound effects and music range from poor to excellent by today's standards and the visuals are, with rare exceptions, a little better than just good.
The ideas are, with the exception of a few dumb things, first rate. The science wasn't mangled although a few corners were cut. The remoteness of the future setting allows Space Patrol to get away with things that they could not if they were set it in a nearer future. The storytelling was crisp and clean, with a good deal of humor, of a fairly well settled and united Solor Systm with a wide range of genres, crime/detective, security/espionage "sea" and western style adventure.
The "look" is fantastic: Futuristic Art Deco which I still love. Hi-tech aviation and wide ranging costume combine with sets that were well inhabited by things when they had to be and spacious looking when they had to be to tell the tale of the thirtieth century from the perspective of the main culture of the very middle Twentieth Centruy.
The more SF and socially hip will notice that what you had was white middle class culture but that was the going thing at the time beucause that's who had the sets. The names are maybe way too 20th century US and the lack of black and others may smack of racism but it was not, it was just there. So you're gettng a look at the fifties as it was lived.
The acting was very good. the dialogue and body language were there to such an extent that Space Patrol won some professional awards. The manner of speech was contemporary with a few concessions made to the fact that it was set in a spacefaring civilzation. The speech and expressions were natural and not hyperbolic, with an occasional exception from Cadet Happy, Baccaratti and some of the more eccentric characters who are only there for one story and the characters, especially Ed Kemmer's Buzz Corry exhibit a wide range of speech and emotion, adequate to the plots. The ensemble, particularly Buzz and Happy works. Did you know that Buzz Corry was an amateur archeologist with an abiding interest in the lost race of Carnacans? I bet you thought Jean-Luc Picard was the first spaceman with such interests. I don't remember Captain Kirk or Dr. Who with such an interest.
If you saw the original as a child, you will find that, while the "spacey"ness of the thing may have lost some of its appeal, your expanded perception of the dramatic range will give you some rewards. and if you have never seen it. So long as you evaluate it in its proper context, you are in for a treat. It has all the fun of good adventure, some educational value and an above-average IQ (true of most all the space shows; again for its time which is probably higher than for today but not up to the hard science fictioners for whom it was not intended and to whome "space opera" means "garbage", but any fiction with less than 5 mathamatical equations with at least ninteen parameters does not meet their demands anyway) so it's a good deal all the way around
Try it, you'll like it.
As we know, Space Patrol ended in 1955 yet I am discussing it having a present and a future. What is up with that? .This question has two parts. The first being what would SP have evoloved into and the second being what has happened since?
To answer the first. I would say it would have evolved into the civilization of the original Star Trek. The United Planets of the Solar System could have easily become the United Federation of Planets.and the early Captain Kirk was a good version of Buzz Corry and the Space Patrol cruiser could have easily evoloved into the USS Enterprise. Unfortunately ST was set before SP.. The other thing the Space Patrol could have evolved into was presented on the contemporary show Flash Gordon. In this Frenco-German show, the focus was on Flash, Dale and Zarkoff. However these characters shared only the names. Beyond that, there was no resemblence whatsoever. neither in time nor place. Flash and Co worked for an outfit called the GBI--Galaxy Beureau of Investigation, the center of civilization was the "United States of Earth" and the thing was set in the fourth millenium between 3152 and 3306. However the numerous habitable plaentoids from Space Patrol were still there and some of the other things were still there. If you look at Flash and Trek, programs, you can see a place in their past where Space Patrol would have fit as the key space organization and may still play a minor role. If Star Trek were moved to 3100, I could well envision the Space Patrol as the major police agency of the Solar System while Starfleet handled the interstellar chores.
what has happened since the mid fifties? Of the major space shows, Space Patrol and Rocky Jones have fared the best. as shows, having the most surviving episodes, and of the players Tom Corbett did best with at least five members of the cast stil living. SP was syndicated in the latter fifties as Satellite Police (I guess they did not like my idea of Sputnik Five-0; Book 'im, Happy!) as well as the late seventies/early eighties show Night Flight and an attempt was mad in the early eightes to make a movie of it. and Rocky was seen again in the latter fifties and sixties in syndication. Sitll-living cast members of thise shows are Frhakie Thomas and Jan Merlin of Tom Corbett along with the actors who playce Astro (the third member of the Polaris cadet crew) Al Markim, Dr. Dale and Alfie. and Ann Robinson of War of the Worlds and the gorgeous Suzarane Juliandra, a secondary character of Rocky Jones. This is all I can speak to. and who knows who we may lose, or find, tommorrow. that had some part in this grandest and greatest dream -- and accomplishment -- of the twentieth centuy. If this dream becomes fact, and history is told aright then these persons, along with a few others, will be the giants of the future because they gave us the real reason to go out there and make it happen. By putting forth the ideal of spacefaring civilzations, both fancifully and somewhat realistically, they lit the Fire under Humnity.
UPDATES: Ed Kemmer; Buzz Corry of Space Patrol passed away in the last quarter of 2004 -- He is greately missed and will be so in these quarters fot some time to come. But, wash your ears out with This -- The Space Patrol book is out
Though there was never any competition between the shows becuase they each had their own styles and settings and there was no real overlap and not all shows were available in all areas, Most "space cadets" did have their favorites, with most of that going to Tom Corbett and Captain Video followed by Space Patrol and with Rocky, the least long-lived of the major 4 coming in fourth, ahead of several others. When I discovered the SOLAR GUARD ACADEMY I was surprised to find that, unbeknownst to me, there had been a low-level thriving space show culture, with Ed Kemmer welcoming others into the "space Patrol Family" in 1981 and his dictum when some Corbett fans tried to draft him to play the part of Captain Storng,"It's not right for one to play the part of other space heroes" and the space heroes had gotten together from time to time. Did you know Frankie Thomas is but one year younger than Ed Kemmer? There now exists a recording of a new episode of Tom Corbett: Space Cadet that features the space Patrollers with a slight change--Cadet Happy is played by Jean-Noel Bassir, the writer of the book about Space Patrol. the story is called "Water Rights" and establishes that Cadet Happy is a descendant of Roger Manning. Both of the two main Solar Guard cadets were played by the original actors as was Buzz Corry. This took place in 2003 at the Williamsburg Film Festival at Williamsburg VA.
Also, Dr. Warren Chaney is trying to generate interest in reviving and updating Space Patrol having re-issued and added to the SP Trading Card set. Another update procedure going on is the costumes. When Space Ranger Mikde Elmo created the gorgeous Space Hero jackets and tee-shirts (available at SWAPSALE), and Ed Kemmer approved, them, this set off a flurry of activity and you can find quite a bit of Space Patrol Space Ranger and Solar Guard gear, and it's pretty good gear, too, created and approved by persons with a real feel and heart for the subject matter. Then there is the Space Patrol Book by Jean-Noel Bassior who is a heavy contributor to the insider publication FilmFax.
It is my contention, given that Space Patrol, as well as the other "space opera" shows now seem to be getting a new lease on life, that we need some sort of Canon (a kind of list of things taken to be the case and not violated) and semi-Canon (a list of things that: a, may be true or b, believed to be true by the people of the civilization or c, are "urban legends" of the civilizations). The difference is that semi-Canon can be violated if you can cover the violation. They add elements of umnpredictability and "wiggle room" for stories as there are in real life. Then there is "outlaw canon" Totally false stories that fuel speculation and add interest and spice, like the mysterious "Space Patrol pinball machine"; a story totally fabricated by me-and I have the picutres of this bad boy to prove it! A sort of Space Patrol snipe hunt. I have also been told by the highest sources that shortly before his passing, Mr. Kemmer indicated that he liked the idea that has been floated around concerning a redux of the official Space Patrol club. I am not naming names here because I don't have permission, but I love that idea and am doing all I can to erm...make it so. Knowing who are involved in this, I am absolutely confident that if it is brought to be, it will be top-flight. In fact, if I make this sqad, I'll definitely be the weakest link. I am not known for modesty and this is not outlaw canon! ADDENDUM: The name that I am not naming has not shown any sign of doing anything on the matter in the last 1-1/2 years. As a result of gettin antsy and hanving waited a fair amoutn of time for him to act, I have grabbed up the personnel that he said that he was using and the result is this site: Pity, I'm still the weakest link here.
There is yet another story that I am getting bits and pieces of from time to time. Over the years, it appears that Mr. Kemmer has been involved with post-cancellation Space Patrol activities. This is a tale that deserved much telling.
Anohter sad note: Frankie Thomas, Tom Corbett of the show with the same naem and the "face" of the character passed on earlier this year.
I would like to end this with a profound "thank you" to Ed Kemmer for making Buzz Corry the man he was. Also, I would like to thank Mr. Kemmer, Frankie Thomas, Jan Merlin and the rest for the inspiration that fuelled some of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the world: including the CAT scanner (I Was so infomred by Jean-Noel Bassior in October of 2004) -- and for a great ride that came during my lifetime. Further, I would like to thank "Cadet Ed" Pippin (the only Hobbit with a rocketship license) for creating the Solar Guard Academy website, Cadets Jack McKirgan II and Chuck Lassen, Space Ranger Mike Elmo and half a dozen others for doing their parts in helping us boogie along and Cadet Bruce of Edge Publishing/Swapsale for helping me re-connect with some of the best things that the twentieth century had to offer. In short
ENJOY!
Space Patroller Laser
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