Space Academy - Plot

Plot

Established in 3732, the Space Academy (located on an asteroid, often shown on camera) brought together the best of young minds, along with those having special skills and abilities, to learn about and experience the unknowns of space as Earth people continued to explore it in the distant future. (It is generally assumed that the show takes place in 3732 A.D. However, series star Jonathan Harris's opening narration says that the academy was founded in "the star year 3732", and the "star year" calendar may not correspond to the Gregorian calendar. Further, the stories could be taking place decades or centuries after the academy's founding; based on this limited information, the actual time frame of the series is impossible to determine.)

Commander Isaac Gampu (Harris) was the head of the academy. His many space explorations, over the course of several years, had exposed him to conditions that immensely slowed his aging process; though appearing to be in his sixties or seventies, his true age was well over 300 years old, giving him a unique perspective on history and some ideal qualifications as a teacher.

Each of the academy students had their own unique aspects:

Chris Gentry (Carrott) and Laura Gentry (Ferdin) were the captain and co-captain, respectively, of the academy's "Blue Team." The siblings (Chris was the elder) had highly developed telekinetic and psychic powers. (A frequent element in stories was the use and display of telekenesis.) Laura was attracted to Matt Prentiss (a pre-Hero High John Berwick), the occasionally seen leader of Red Team. (There was also a Gold Team, but no apparent hierarchy among the three teams.)

Adrian Pryce-Jones (Cooper) was number three in the Blue Team's chain of command (and Chris's love interest).

Paul Jerome (Henderson), a highly intelligent transferee from the Red Team, hailed from an Earth colony. He was number four in the Blue Team's chain of command. (Although Paul appears as a regular academy crewmember in the first episode, with Loki having yet to join them, he is reintroduced in the second episode as if he were a new character, and Loki's already an established member. This was an apparent continuity error, acknowledged in the liner notes booklet of the show's DVD release. However, the mistake can be reconciled because none of the characters introduced to Paul in the second episode had actually met him in the first. In fact, he only appeared in the control room, while the others were away on a mission.)

Tee Gar Soom (Tochi), number five in Blue Team's chain of command, had super-humanoid physical strength and continued the martial arts traditions of his Asian ancestors. He augmented these abilities with newer disciplines, some of which originated in space.

Loki (Greene) was an orphan discovered (in the first episode) on the dying world of Zalon. A playful young prankster - hence his adopted name - Loki could teleport and see infrared or anything on the electromagnetic spectrum. He often used the catchphrase "Camelopardus!"

As with much 1970s children's television fare, lessons and morals were taught in each episode. These included wide-ranging concepts such as that the super-humanoid powers possessed by some academy students fell far short of being a cure-all for problems, and that even the old and wise could make mistakes. As the students encountered members of extraterrestrial races, even mutated descendants of Earth colonists in space, they came to further develop their wisdom and understanding of diversities throughout the universe.

The spaceships commonly seen in the series were called Seekers and used much like a spacebound van or passenger truck. (The Seeker's nose was a re-used prop from the earlier Filmation series Ark II.)

One term of jargon unique to the program was "ORACO" ("Orders Received And Carried Out"), used when orders were acknowledged by academy personnel.