Space Cases

How many people remember this show?  It was on in the mid-90s on Nickelodeon, and it was essentially a cheap-as-hell “for kids” rip-off of Star Trek: Voyager.  It was created by Bill Mumy - who played Will Robinson on Lost in Space - and Peter David - who has written comics (The Incredible Hulk), TV (Babylon 5), and novels (Star Trek) - and it starred Walter Jones (then famous for being the original Black Ranger) and Jewel Staite (who is now famous for playing Kaylee Frye).  The show also got some pretty good guest stars, including Mark Hamill, Katey Sagal, and George Takei. So was it awesome?  Kind of.

I haven’t watched the show since I was barely a teenager, so most of my memories have been filtered through nostalgia goggles.  I remember the story of a group of space academy (not quite sure what they were studying) students and their two teachers finding a strange ship and getting sent lightyears away from the solar system, then trying to find their way back.  I remember the second season saw the group stranded on some bizarre planet.  And I remember that Kaylee left the show and was replaced by her character’s imaginary friend who turned out to not be imaginary.

This link provides a funny overview of the show, which is a fun trip down memory lane for people who saw it.  The author makes fun of and praises the show in turn, leading me to believe that if I watched it now, I’d find it stupid but cute.  (I thought about the show while watching old episodes of another cheesy-cheap-but-kind-of-awesome Nickelodeon show, Are You Afraid of the Dark.  Some Twitter friends and I have been watching old episodes of AYAOTD on YouTube and making MST3K-style jokes on Twitter.  You should follow along next time we do it.)

And now, here is a picture of Jewel Staite on Space Cases.  Because the world can never have enough Kaylee: