Commander Cody in Radar Men From the Moon; the box art looked promising enough. Fast(not to mention cool) looking rockets, spacemen that look like Scooby-Doo villains, and a alliterated protagonist with a flying suit. What more could you ask for... well, a lot actually. This is Commander Cody's premiere serial story, Serial stories are 15 to 20 minute TV shorts that usually come on once a day, they keep the audience coming back by leaving the protagonist in a life or death situation at the end of each short. Radar Men From the Moon introduces Commander Cody a scientist with a jet pack. Using his ability to fly and his snub nose he must foil the plans of an alien race from the moon, which are trying to take the earth because there own resources are depleting.
When I began watching, I slowly sank into this depraved funk, growing to hate these characters more and more with each passing 15 minute episode. Ham-handed story development, over/under acting, cheesy dialogue, even cheesier special effects. This hate would seem unnatural to anyone reading this here article or anyone that still has VHS in their daily media rotation. At the startling revelation that I was beginning to think like a person of good taste(God forbid) I proceeded to drink my beer faster.
Upon my ingestion of the sweet nectar, I began to appreciate the finer exploits of any vintage Sci-Fi movie, lavishly polished ray guns, villains in ridiculous future clothing, heros in very unsafe space suits, pretty space ladies and brutishly choreographed half-boxing , half-wrastlin' fights that would make Papa Shatner proud. This series is dripping with moments that slip right past you with scientific inaccuracies, tongue in cheek comments and horri-bad special effects, my favorite of being when Ratik, the emperor of the moon divulges his evil plan to use the newly discovered atomic energy to enslave the human race, Commander Cody naturally responds..."thanks for summarizing the information". Writing like this and things like regular street thugs being hired by an alien race make this humble attempt at a Sci-Fi serial into one of the funniest things you can watch.
Far from perfect, the trouble I had with this copy of the series is that they play the series in its entirety, which means the beginning and end credits are all present, along with a brief written summary. In addition each episode begins with the last couple minutes of the previous episode. Which might have been fixed on the DVD copy, but disc based movies are for the weak and girly men.
It comes recommended to those looking for a retro movie that hasn't been over quoted on The Big Bang Theory,
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