Year:
1979
Studio:
Claster Television Productions,
Sunwagon Productions
Feature: 2/5
DVD:
1/5
Yearning for a bit of nostalgia I rented and watched the first season
of "Starblazers". Sadly it doesn't stand the test of time. Mostly I
think it's because "Starblazers" is aimed at a young audience as
compared to "Robotech" which is still enjoyable today.
Anyways, season one is subtitled "The Quest for Iscandar". It is 2199
and Earth has been invaded by the Gamelons who have irradiated the
surface with planet bombs. The radiation has driven the survivors
underground but even there all life will end in one year.
In Earth's bleakest hour a message from Iscandar arrives. Queen Starsha
(voice of Lydia Leeds) is offering salvation for Earth in the form of
the Cosmic DNA which will scour the radiation from Earth. Also included
are plans for the Wave Motion engine to give Earth faster-than-light
capability because Iscandar is 148k light years from Earth.
The Starforce is created with one ship: the rebuilt Japanese WWII
battleship Yamato, outfitted with the Wave Motion engine and
rechristined the Argo. Captain Avatar (voice of Gordon Ramsey) leads a
young crew of Earth's best as they battle the Gamelons on their long
journey to Iscandar.
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Two memorable
parts of the show are the theme song which is quite catchy and the
countdown. At the end of each episode the announcer tells the audience
how many days are left before Earth perishes. I also have a vivid
memory of the Argo fighting off a missile attack with lasers and
missiles that throw these spidery walls. But apparently that was only
one scene of one episode.
Anyway the stories are simple and the morals are simplistic and the
themes are sappy. It was great when I was eight but at my age watching
the series again was painful. The animation is a bit primitive at times
with lots of static pictures but there's also lots of moving scenes.
Overall it was ok to watch again but some memories don't need to be
relived.
Extras
Each of the six disks has one extra or two. Mostly these are production
sketches or short descriptions of the chacters and equipment. The last
disk has a set of four starmaps showing the path of the Argo, with dots
showing where the various episodes took place.
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