TV Review Space Force

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1978 – Spoiler Alerts Forty years before Donald Trump and Mike Pence started wasting US dollars on a military task force to supposedly defend us in outer space. The idea was put to the test in one of the worst sit-coms ever made. Space Force understandably perished after its own pilot episode aired. Thanks to the Trump initiative that totally disregards the work of NASA (an actual space mission service that works), this terrible comedy was created to quickly cash in on the success of Star Wars. It came out at the same time as the original Battlestar Gallactica. TV show. In the one episode series, Fred Willard (who went on to better things like This Is Spinal Tap, the Anchorman movies and Wall-E) is the commander of a remote space station, who are supposed to protect Earth from anything that comes up. The title song’s lame refrain ‘We’re all you’ve got’ sums up the show’s this is the best we could do attitude. The Commander leers and lusts after the busty leading lady, a woolly-hatted comms reader is nuts and collects string, trying desperately o be Mel Brooks, the engineer gets hiccups when stressed out, so he has them all episode, and the German computer is an egomaniac. The space station looks like a cheap plywood fore-runner to Deep Space Nine. The quick-fire jokes are so lame that the laughter track seems to cut in for no apparent reason. Characters just seem to walk on, say a few lines, and leave the set again throughout. The main alien character is bald and objects to being called a geek. Two children with Beatle haircuts are also supposed to be aliens, stand around wondering what on Earth is going on, but say nothing and then leave the set as soon as they arrive. The whole thing seems like a throwback to the 1950’s rather than remotely futuristic. I half expected the cast of Gilligan’s Island to turn up. Thanks to Donald Trump, the show finally gets a sequel, and sadly the real version will be even less funny than the first time round. It also probably won’t survive to its first season with any luck. The whole episode on Youtube Arthur Chappell