William Shatner is well-known to Star Trek fans for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk during the show’s original run from 1966 to 1969 (and beyond) as is James Doohan who co-starred with Shatner as Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (aka Scotty). But that series was not the first to find them traveling through the cosmos together as both appeared in another space-based sci fi TV show thirteen years earlier called Space Command.
That little-known early Canadian sci fi entry bowed in 1953 and starred Robert Barclay in the lead role of Frank Anderson. Co-starring on the show for its two-season run was James Doohan as Phil Mitchell, and in the show’s first year William Shatner was onboard in a recurring role. Like the U.S. space operas of that time such as Captain Video and Space Patrol, the show was geared to a younger audience, with the crew of space ship XSW1 exploring the galaxy and searching for alien life. The show begins with the following opening monologue:
Challenging the stars themselves, spaceships pierce the vast blackness of outer space carrying with them the infinitesimal lives of men dedicated to the planet Earth and to her perilous Space Command!
It aired on the Canadian CBC stations and we can only assume that it had little or no exposure in the United States over its two-season run that ended in 1954.
The series was broadcast live, as were most television shows of that time, and videotape copies of the episode do not exist. Kinescopes (film recordings of the episodes broadcast through the television) were made but have apparently since been lost. One archived episode is known to still exist, though, and that is currently available on YouTube (see below). The special effects are as cheesy as you would expect from a low-budget ’50’s TV series, but the episode delivers a fairly straightforward space exploration story. It even acknowledges the effect that thrust would have on humans in the ship. Sadly, Shatner does not appear in this episode, so it does not deliver the hoped for historic early team-up of two of the most iconic actors from science fiction television. But it still provides some retro-fun and is worth your while to give it a look.
