First shown in 1977 – and repeated for years afterwards – Space Sentinels was Filmation’s attempt to cash in on the emerging post-Star Wars ‘disco sci-fi’ boom, charting the heroic escapades of teenagers with the powers of gods Hercules, Mercury and Astrea – not to mention their mysterious sentient computer floating head mentor Sentinel One and his maintenance robot MO – as they battled dastardly cosmic villains and intergalactic ne’er-do-wells across prog rock album cover-like landscapes to the accompaniment of a relentless wah-wah-drenched disco-funk soundtrack.

Back during the first lockdown, I joined fellow TV Cream alumnus Graham Kibble-White on TV Cream Stays Indoors for a chat about Space Sentinels; although I remember watching Space Sentinels very clearly indeed, I can recall very little actually about the series itself, so it was especially interesting to watch it as if it was ‘new’ and I found that there was plenty to say about the cacophonous backing music, the late seventies preponderance of Evil James Galway villains, whether every single Filmation cartoon had the exact same storyline every single week, and how Star Wars changed everything that sci-fi meant to space-hungry youngsters literally while Space Sentinels was still on the drawing board; and no, MO hasn’t got any more competent in the meantime…

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There’s lots more about Space Sentinels and tons of other imported animations that purported to offer a dash of cinematic excitement to your post-school viewing in The Golden Age Of Children’s TV, available in all good bookshops and from Waterstones here, Amazon here and directly from Black And White Publishing here.

You can find plenty more about the strange world of late seventies and early eighties sci-fi, including a feature on the Space Sentinels‘ contemporaries in Battle Of The Planets, in Can’t Help Thinking About Me, a collection of columns and features with a personal twist. Can’t Help Thinking About Me is available in paperback here or from the Kindle Store here.

Alternately, if you’re just feeling generous, you can buy me a coffee here. Just please don’t ask MO to deliver it.

Further Listening

You can hear me chatting to Rae Earl about Space Sentinels‘ close rival Battle Of The Planets on Looks Unfamiliar here. You can also find a Looks Unfamiliar Disco Sci-Fi Spectacular – looking at some of the most ludicrously overdressed examples of the ‘genre’, including the hastily forgotten second series of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century – with Jonny Morris here.

Further Reading

The Sci-Fi That Time Forgot is a nostalgic – and not always especially reverent – look back at more of the space-themed entertainment that fans used to keep themselves amused with between Star Wars movies and series of Doctor Who in the absence of any other available options; you can find it here.

© Tim Worthington.
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