| Space Sentinels | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Hal Sutherland |
| Voices of | George DiCenzo Evan C. Kim Dee Timberlake Lou Scheimer |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer |
| Producer | Don Christensen |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company | Filmation |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 10 (1977-09-10) – December 3, 1977 (1977-12-03) |
Space Sentinels (originally titledYoung Sentinels and renamed midway through its only season) is aSaturday morning animated series produced byFilmation which debuted on the AmericanNBC network on September 10, 1977, and ran for thirteen half-hour episodes.[1] Thescience fictionaction series follows asuperhero team during missions to protect the Earth.[2]
Three young Earth people were selected many centuries ago and teleported to another planet, where they were giveneternal youth and superpowers. They were trained and returned to Earth, where they are tasked with protecting the planet and its vicinity, similar to theGreen Lantern Corps.Hercules andMercury through superhuman feats became the basis for the mythologicalRoman deities of the same names. They are joined by Astrea, namesake of theGreek deity but with unrelated powers.
Their base of operations and living quarters is a spaceship hidden within thecaldera of a dormantvolcano. They are supervised by Sentinel One, a member of a series of sentient supercomputers that command and coordinate Sentinel teams, although the race that gave the Sentinels their powers is ostensibly humanoid. For missions anywhere on Earth, the team is launched through vertical tubes and fly to their destination through the use of rocket belts in their suits, which seem to have intercontinental range as well ashypersonic capability (although Mercury can fly even faster). Forinterplanetary andinterstellar missions, Sentinel One transports them within the spacecraft, which hasfaster-than-light capability.
The series was set in 1985, eight years after the series' debut; in the episode "The Time Traveler", Hercules and Astrea use time belts to return to "the present" and set the belts for 1985.
| No. | Title | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Morpheus: The Sinister Sentinel" | Len Janson &Chuck Menville | September 10, 1977 (1977-09-10) | |
Morpheus, an earlier Sentinel candidate given the combined powers of the Earth team, returns to steal and replicate the design of Sentinel One in order to attain universal domination. | ||||
| 2 | "Space Giants" | Unknown | September 17, 1977 (1977-09-17) | |
A gang of thieves fake an alien invasion (similar toThe War of the Worlds) to hide a plot to steal gold from a government depository, but the situation worsens when the giant robots becomeself-aware. | ||||
| 3 | "The Time Traveler" | Kathleen Barnes &David Wise | September 24, 1977 (1977-09-24) | |
The Sentinels race to undo thesabotage of atime traveler from the future who wants the internationalMoon base to fail so his warlike people can prevail in a future conflict. | ||||
| 4 | "The Sorceress" | Kathleen Barnes &David Wise | October 1, 1977 (1977-10-01) | |
A malevolent supercomputer from another dimension seeks to steal an unstable power source from the military. | ||||
| 5 | "The Return of Anubis" | Don Glut | October 8, 1977 (1977-10-08) | |
Anubis, anextraterrestrial scientist who was imprisoned within a pyramid bysuperstitious people inancient Egypt, vows revenge after he is freed in modern times. | ||||
| 6 | "The Wizard of Od" | J. Michael Reaves | October 15, 1977 (1977-10-15) | |
An out-of-control "wish machine" in a dimension where myths and stories are real threatens to alter reality. | ||||
| 7 | "The Prime Sentinel" | Unknown | October 22, 1977 (1977-10-22) | |
The Earth Sentinels answer a distress call from another Sentinel team that is losing a battle to protect the Prime Sentinel from an alien energy-based entity. | ||||
| 8 | "Commander Nemo" | Kathleen Barnes &David Wise | October 29, 1977 (1977-10-29) | |
The Sentinels must find Commander Nemo, a scientist turnedeco-terrorist with an underwater base who threatens to destroy all polluting industries. | ||||
| 9 | "Voyage to the Inner World" | Jerry Winnick | November 5, 1977 (1977-11-05) | |
Herc and Merc try to save Astrea, who was kidnapped by a secret civilization at the Earth's core to power their protective heat shield. | ||||
| 10 | "Loki" | Dale Kirby | November 12, 1977 (1977-11-12) | |
| 11 | "Fauna" | J. Michael Reaves | November 19, 1977 (1977-11-19) | |
An animal attack led by atelepathic teenager raised by wolves on a laboratory researchingevolution results in an intelligent man-wolf who plans to eliminate mankind. | ||||
| 12 | "The Jupiter Spore" | Kathleen Barnes &David Wise | November 26, 1977 (1977-11-26) | |
| 13 | "The World Ship" | Douglas Menville | December 3, 1977 (1977-12-03) | |
Aplanetoid on a collision course with Earth is found to be aninterstellar colony ship. Its crew, once revived, decides to take over the Earth as their new home. | ||||
OriginallyThe Young Sentinels, the show was retitledSpace Sentinels after several episodes had been broadcast, emphasizing the science fiction aspect to capitalize on the extreme popularity ofStar Wars, released earlier the same year. However, as the entire series had already been produced and the dialogue could not be altered, the characters are sometimes addressed as "Young" Sentinels, but never "Space" Sentinels, within the episodes.
When casting the lead voice actors, the producers strove to match the actors' ethnicity to that of the characters. Additional, uncredited actors includingAlan Oppenheimer andTed Cassidy provided voices for guest characters.
Like many Saturday morning children's shows in the 1970s, the scripts emphasizedmorals including tolerance, understanding,environmental awareness, friendship and teamwork, so many of the opponents were simply misguided or misunderstood rather than actual malevolent villains.
As was the case with virtually all Filmation productions of the 1970s, the theme and background music were credited toRay Ellis and producerNorm Prescott under theirpseudonyms Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael, although Prescott's actual creative involvement is unclear.
BCI Eclipse LLC (under its Ink & Paint classic animation entertainment brand) (under license fromEntertainment Rights) released all 13 episodes ofSpace Sentinels on DVD in Region 1 on August 22, 2006, along with all five episodes ofThe Freedom Force, uncut, restored and digitally remastered. This series featured the character Hercules and originally aired as part ofTarzan and the Super 7.[3] In addition, extras include scripts andSpanish language tracks for all 13 episodes, audition tapes, a gallery featuring original images, early presentation images, trivia and interviews with creators Lou Scheimer, Buzz Dixon,Darrell McNeil,J. Michael Reaves, Robert Kline and David Wise.[3]