Space Stars In A Galaxy Far Far Away!

Star Wars changed the world, at least the the world of pop culture. Space opera was in and new movies about space sought to present a somewhat more "realistic" veneer as the space ships and such suddenly abandoned the sleek aspirational designs of decades past and looked more and more like utiltarian floating housing projects. One place this utter aesthetic transformation can be seen in in Space Stars from the folks at Hanna-Barbera. Seeing that suddenly outer space was in vogue again, the produced snatched up a few of their vintage properties from the 60's who operated in space and we new adventures of Space Ghost and The Herculoids.

To fill out this hour-long show we also get a new feature  called Teen Force which had three handsome adolescents who streak out of a black hole to fight interstellar crime, often at the  side of the aforementioned Space Ghost and Herculoids. Their nemesis is Uglor, a winged B.E.M of outer space villain who was soundly defeated time and time again. Also on board this showis Astro and the Space Mutts which tagged Astro of Jetson's fame, gave him a rudimentary power of speech and made him part of a trio of dogs who fight for justice alongside Space Ace, who looks for all the world like the late Burt Reynolds, porn mustache and all.

It's a hodge-podge of a show to be certain, but  diverting in its way. As  said the sleek Alec Toth designs of the earlier time were cast  aside and suddenly the Phantom Cruiser looked like it was a brace of  awkward panels and other space ships were equally convoluted in their designs. The battles for justice reflected the then current era of sensitivity to violence and so often Space Ghost and the Herculoids  were about saving folks as opposed to battling some arch villain. None of the classic villains from either series are seen. The Teen Force is okay but the costume designs are overwrought (precursors to the days of Image Comics) and their powers are somewhat incomprehensible at times. They are joined by a duo of comedy mugging midgets dubbed Plutem and Glax. The villain Uglor is interesting to me because he looks for all the world like he was designed by Don Heck. Jack Kirby is credited with designs on this series, but there is no evidence of Heck that I could find.

Fans of   the classic Space Ghost and Herculoids will want this one, as did I. for completion's sake, but alas these adventures don't hold up well in the lens of history.

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