The Greatest Sci Fi/Fantasy TV Shows: Considering the case for the sci fi and fantasy television shows that should be counted among the greatest of all time.
What Is It?
Earth is attacked by the Gamilon Empire and the planet bombs used by the aliens force the survivors to move underground due to the radiation. But that is just a temporary solution as the radiation will eventually eradicate all life on Earth. Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar contacts the remaining humans and informs them that she possesses “Cosmo DNA” which can clear the radiation. A sunken battleship from past wars is repurposed into a space cruiser and named the Argo and it sets off on a perilous journey to Iscandar with the Gamilons trying to stop them from reaching their destination. Subsequent seasons dealt with the Argo taking on other alien threats to Earth.
Aired: Syndication, 1979-84, 3 Seasons Totaling 77 Episodes
Starring: Kenneth Meseroll, Eddie Allen, Amy Howard Wilson, Mike Czechopoulos, Jack Grimes
Created By: Leiji Matsumoto
Argument to Count It as One of the Greatest Sci Fi TV Shows:
Before there was Star Wars there was the Japanese Anime series Space Battleship Yamato from 1974 which was brought over to the U.S. shores starting in 1979 under the title Star Blazers. This offered a vast space opera with season-long story arcs that included well-developed characters, grand adventures, and epic space battles that appealed to viewers young and old. And unlike other Japanese imports of the time such as Battle of the Planets (which adapted Science Ninja Team Gatchaman) and Voltron (which adapted Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV), it provided a more faithful translation of its source material. The characters’ names were Westernized, the significance of the original battleship was played down (the Yamato was a sunken WWII Japanese ship), and some of the violence was edited out (and all that “fresh water” they were drinking was actually sake). But the series still delivered the tale of a cosmic war and addressed the consequences of the conflict (including characters dying) and the feelings of those involved. This was not just a kiddie action-adventure show that wrapped up each episode with a nice moral. It was a series with a grand scope that explored such themes as survival and perseverance, sacrifice for the greater good, the horrors of war, and more.
The animation does look rather old-school to modern eyes, and they repeated many of the battle sequences ad infinitum while also blowing up the Argo on a regular basis (only to be fully restored by the next episode). And the week-to-week stories could get rather repetitive. But the over-arching story and the characters carried the show as it proved more successful than Prime Time’s Battlestar: Galactica (the 1978 original series) and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century at delivering an epic, space-based series to television. It also acted as an introduction to Japanese Anime for many viewers and certainly turned quite a number into fans of that genre. Star Blazers may have since fallen off the radar with all of the other Anime output that followed, but it made its mark and counts as an important sci fi TV entry. (You can read more about the series at this link.)
Argument Against:
Star Blazers has its moments and it is certainly an important early Anime entry, but it has not stood the test of time. The animation is choppy and very repetitive, as was common at that time, and the episodes became quite redundant as well. The show also relies on quite a number of genre tropes, and the dialogue–at least in the dubbed version–can be quite trite. And then there is that annoying robot that showed up all too often.
The basic premise for of the first two seasons was solid, but the story was padded out way too much and this one would have benefited from shorter episode runs. And the third season proved particularly disappointing, especially after they rushed to wrap it up and new voice actors were brought in. The show is certainly notable for staying mostly faithful to the original series and introducing American audiences to one of the better Japanese Anime entries, but it does not quite make it up there as an all-time sci fi TV great.
Johnny Jay’s Take:
I did not catch Star Blazers in its original run because it did not get much exposure in my part of the country (it might have been shuffled to early morning timeslots and I don’t believe the entire three seasons aired in my market). I learned of its existence, though, and always hoped it would get an encore run on one of the cable channels. To my knowledge, that never happened and I ended up finally watching it years later on a combination of DVD and streaming. I do acknowledge that the animation is not quite as polished as later Anime entries, but it still accomplished quite a lot for the time it was created. This show delivered a tale of interstellar conflict on a grand scale, unlike we had previously seen on television, and it explored many important themes related to that. In addition, the artwork was magnificent and Leiji Matsumoto’s vision certainly helped carry the show. It was also a much better science fiction entry than either Battle of the Planets or Voltron, both of which suffered from their heavily Westernized edits. And while you do have to give Star Blazers some leeway as an older, less-polished genre entry–just like with the original Star Trek and Twilight Zone–it was certainly an important sci fi series for its day and counts as one of the all-time greats.
Where Can You Watch It?
You can find the complete Star Blazers series on DVD, though it is rather pricey to collect all the volumes available. The show is not currently streaming on any of the major services, but you can find episodes on YouTube.
Do you consider Star Blazers one of the greatest sci fi/fantasy shows of all time or does it not stand the test of time? Chime in with your thoughts below or at our discussion thread at r/SciFiTV.
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