Space Angel

Did You Know?

• Creator Dick Darley also created the 1950–1955 live-action series Space Patrol.
• The Space Angel's secret identity was concealed by lowering a dark-tinted visor on his helmet; Scott McCloud wore an eyepatch.
• The Starduster's smaller fighter, the Space Dart, looked like the XF-92 with a pointed nose.
• The first season theme music is credited to Geordie Hormel; the second season theme was written by Walter Greene and originally used in Roger Corman's film War of the Satellites (1958).

Setting and themes

Scott McCloud, the one-eyed pilot of the spaceship Starduster, kept his identity as the Space Angel a secret by simply lowering his helmet’s dark visor over his eyepatch. The show’s animation was minimal, relying on the Synchro-Vox lip-sync technique, but the static backgrounds and character designs by celebrated artist Alex Toth gave it a polished look. Each story unfolded over five weekday installments of five minutes each, often ending with a cliffhanger to draw viewers back for Friday’s climax. In one memorable episode, McCloud discovers a derelict ship beyond the light barrier and, peering inside, gasps “Oh, my God!” Another story features the crew in a best-of-three gladiator match, using futuristic visions of Roman combat.

The series follows three astronauts working for the Earth Bureau of Investigation’s Interplanetary Space Force aboard the Starduster: Captain Scott McCloud (voiced by Ned Lefebver), electronics expert Crystal Mace (voiced by Margaret Kerry), and the immensely strong Scottish engineer Taurus (voiced by Hal Smith). When the Space Angel and his team uncover enemy plans, they call in reinforcements from squadrons organized by planetary patrol areas, such as the Venusian or Mars Squadrons. These squadrons used astronomical symbols on their ships—the female sign for Venus, the male sign for Mars, and a circle with an enclosed plus for Earth.

The main villains are the Anthenians, a civilization blending Ancient Rome and Sparta. Their home planet features a Colosseum, toga-clad civilians, and soldiers in Greek-Roman armor with Corinthian helmets, all armed with blaster rifles. Another antagonist, Zorra, the Evil Queen of Space, resembles Nefertiti and commands two henchmen, “the General” and “the Major,” who speak with Central European accents. Their invisible spaceship, used to disrupt interstellar trade, predates a similar concept in the Star Trek episode “Balance of Terror.”

The opening of “Space Hijackers (Solar Mirror)” shows the delta-winged Starduster docking with a rotating space station, matching velocity and using instrument assist—a sequence that foreshadows the space dock scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, released seven years later. The Starduster also carries a smaller fighter called the Space Dart, which resembles the XF-92 but has a pointed nose. The first season’s theme music was composed by Geordie Hormel, while the second season used a theme by Walter Greene originally from Roger Corman’s 1958 film War of the Satellites.

In other media, Alex Toth drew a six-page Space Angel story for Jack & Jill magazine in 1963 to promote the show. Transogram released a board game titled Space Angel Game in 1965. The episode “The Gladiators” later appeared on Cinema Insomnia. VCI Entertainment put out a DVD with nine Space Angel stories in July 2008.