Episode 327: Tom Corbett, Space Cadet - Emergency Repairs to the Polaris (November 13, 1950)
Just whack it to get the engines working
What I watched: An episode of kid-oriented sci-fi serial Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. The series starred Frankie Thomas Jr. in the titular role, as well as Al Markim, Jan Merlin, Edward Bryce, Margaret Garland, and John Fiedler. “Seek and Destroy” first aired on November 13, 1950 (my negative-49th birthday) on CBS at 6:45 pm, and is available to view on YouTube.
Previously on: On the last episode of Tom Corbett, cocky cadet Manning put the engines of the Polaris on maximum thrust and burned them out. This caused some major issues with the crew’s mission to stop a runaway asteroid headed to Earth.
Starring: Tom Corbett was created by Joseph Greene, a veteran comics and pulp writer. After working as an uncredited writer for many DC superhero titles, Greene created the Tom Corbett character in the mid-1940s as part of a series called Space Academy, which was alternately pitched as a comic book, a radio series, and a newspaper strip before eventually becoming a TV series. Part of why this series is so charming is that it was a genuine passion project, made by someone who really cared about sci-fi.
What happened: We start immediately where we left off, with Captain Strong preparing to go on a space-walk to fix the ship. He seems a lot more relaxed about it than before. Astro wants to go on the job with Tom and Manning, but Strong refuses. We get our second ad for Kellogg’s two minutes into the show.
Higgins calls Dale up to tell her that the space walk has begun. We see the crew going out to fix the ship, standing upside down (although probably it was just a camera trick.) Manning is amazed at the vastness of space. It’s explained that they’re using magnetic boots to stick to the spacecraft. Strong loses his boots as he climbs across the spacecraft.
In the cockpit, Astro frets about what’s happening to the crew. On the outside, Tom and Manning try to throw a rope to Manning, but miss because they’re not used to the weightlessness of space. He tells them to leave him to his fate. Dale calls in, and Tom gives her no indication that anything’s wrong. Got to spare the woman’s feelings. He prepares to throw the rope a second time, comparing it to his time playing baseball in the academy. After a commercial break, he’s able to make the throw and bring Manning to safety. But there’s still more problems, Astro has found that the asteroid they’re supposed to be tracking has disappeared from the sensors.
What I thought: We’re only two episodes into Tom Corbett, but it’s easy to see how this show could maintain a kind of serial momentum. The crew spend most of this episode addressing a problem, then we end with a cliffhanger revealing a new problem, which will presumably be dealt with in the next episode. It’s an old bit of structure, taken from film serials and serialized novels before it, but it works.
The actual spacewalk is a pretty entertaining scene. It’s worth remembering that this was before any human, or even human-made satellite, had been to space in the real world. When Tom Corbett explains things that may seem obvious to us, such as space not having gravity or directions, it may have been mind-blowing to a child or even adult audience. Outside of pulp sci-fi magazines or the occasional film that cared about the science, this was not a familiar scene.
I was also interested in how the zero-gravity scene was filmed on the series’ low budget. After some consideration, I think that the cast was likely moving horizontally on the ground, with the camera taking a birds-eye view. I can just imagine how a bunch of actors would feel crawling around on the floor in rubber suits for the sake of a mid-afternoon TV show. Still, for all the silliness inherent in Tom Corbett, they more or less got the science right in this scene. So maybe you can learn something from TV after all.
Coming up next: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie getting into the thick of the football season.