While looking for signs of life on planets orbiting Proxima Centauri, the crew of the XSW1 (Captain Steve Cassel (Harry Geldard), Lieutenant Frank Anderson (Robert Barclay) and Crewman Phil Mitchell (James Doohan)) spot an alien spacecraft just before their ship gets caught in the sun's gravitational field. Sadly, this may be the only surviving episode of the vintage CBC kids show. The series appears to have been similar to American 'space' adventures like 'Tom Corbett, Space Cadet' (1950) and, despite the obviously small budget, seems to have been reasonably well made. The design of the XSW1 is more imaginative than the rockets typically seen in contemporaneous shows (a reasonably clear image of the ship is seen around 14 minutes) and the alien ship looks very much like the Metalunan saucer in 'This Island Earth' (1955). Notably, a young James Doohan, who a decade later would return to space as Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott in 'Star Trek' (1966), is one of the regulars (and even refers to the alien spaceship as perhaps being powered by some kind of "space warp drive") and Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, apparently appeared in at least one episode. The show was broadcast live with kinescope copies made for distribution to affiliates - hopefully more than just the one circulating on-line has survived somewhere and will eventually surface. Well worth watching for fans of the genre and the era.
Review of Space Command
