Back in the fall of 1966....ARD (German public TV) produce a science-fiction series with seven episodes...basically referred to as 'Space Patrol'. I've watched the seven episodes and pondered upon the series....so my thought.
1. ARD, after releasing this....came to the Americans and hoped they'd buy the series....thus recouping some of the heavy cost involved. Americans liked the series....but were already going toward color. The series was produced in B&W.....so the potential for more episodes...went to zero.
2. Without any doubt....even today....there is a huge cult-status with the seven episodes.
3. Major McLean is the German Captain Kirk. Great performance.
4. Robots in the series? Mostly all bad in character.
5. The bad guys? Referred to as 'frogs'. Just odd how this label came about.
6. A negativity within ARD headquarters that the whole collection of bosses and leaders....seem fascists' in nature. Yeah....almost Nazi-like is uttered on occasion.
It's funny, as Star Trek is developed....they skip the bosses/leadership discussion entirely. Kirk is normally on his own.
7. After the production/release....there was like a golden-rule written by ARD....don't ever make another science-fiction series.
8. Oddly.....the Lt. Tamara Jagellovsk character is listed as a member of the GSD ("Galaktischer Sicherheitsdienst", German for "Galactic Security Service". Yeah, it's basically like a Soviet-monitoring agency, and she's mostly there to keep McLane (the commander) under control.
One can laugh about these confrontations written into the script. In Star Trek....Kirk never had any 'limits'.
9. All aliens were seen as bad in the German production....unlike Star Trek.
10. There was a fair sized argument before production started, because of the budget required. It only progressed forward when French TV offered up some funds to cover the plan.
If you ever have a chance to watch the seven episodes....I strongly recommend them.
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