"Welcome to Man's most magnificent achievement in the conquest of Space: the man-made planetoid Space Academy, founded in the star year 3732!"
—Commander Gampu's Opening Narration
Space Academy was a television series produced in 1977 by Filmation, as part of their block of Saturday Morning live-action children's programs on CBS. Exactly What It Says on the Tin, the show follows the adventures of a Five-Man Band of students at a quasi-military/space-science academy as they encounter Negative Space Wedgies, enemies-cum-friends, and other such Star Trek stuff. Ran a single season, but was given a rebirth of sorts in Jason of Star Command, in 1979. It's also notable for starring the late Jonathan "Lost in Space" Harris as the Academy's commander, Isaac Gampu. (Harris had earlier appeared in episodes of Filmation's Ark II.)
Welcome to Mankind's most magnificent achievement in the conquest of Tropes:
- Enemy Mine: the Vegan warrior in "Countdown". Technically, the war with the Vegans has been over for a long time, but he's a Human Popsicle and doesn't know this, so the trope plays out as normal.
- Flash Step: Loki can does it. It's not exactly Chekhov's Skill because Loki rarely uses this talent in any practical context.
- Heel–Face Turn: Most of the villains encountered in this show are, at worst, really Anti Villains, and end up turning over the proverbial new leaf by the end credits.
- Human Popsicle: The Vegan warrior in "Countdown"
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All / Leeroy Jenkins: Matt Prentiss in "The Cheat".
- Magical Girl: Laura has vague psychic powers. Sometimes she could use these powers on her own, sometimes she needed her twin brother Chris, and sometimes she needed all her friends to bolster her.
- Meaningful Name: "Loki" is quite a little trickster. And "Tee Gar" is supposed to put one in the mind of a tiger.
- Mildly Military:
- About the only indication that this is a military installation are the uniforms, and Gampu's and Chris' respective ranks.
- One episode features Gampu submitting a letter of resignation. Chris is entrusted to send this notice to HQ for him; but Chris presumes that he might reconsider, and does not send it. Gampu later gives Chris a perfunctory dressing down for this 'lapse of duty', but it's abundantly clear he's happy that Chris did what he did.
- Opening Narration: For once, it's recited not by producer Lou Scheimer, but by star Jonathan Harris.
- Really 700 Years Old: Commander Gampu. Oddly, they never explicate what exactly has kept him alive for so long (he seems to be a completely normal human otherwise).
- Robot Buddy: Peepo
- Series Continuity Error: The premiere episode shows how the group finds and adopts Loki, and features Paul as a full-fledged member of the Academy. The very next episode tells how Paul first joins the Academy, and features Loki as an already established member of the group. Oops. (For what it's worth, the producers do acknowledge this little flub.)
- Short-Runner: a whopping 15 episodes.
- Stock Footage: Naturally. On the other hand, its use here is more justifiable; after all, SFX shots like these are a lot more expensive than just filming a pimped-out RV driving around.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The opening title sequence showcases a couple of Space Explosions, for no apparent reason (in the show itself, Stuff rarely Blew Up).
- Super-Strength: Tee Gar. As with Gampu's longevity, this enhanced ability is never explained.
- Title, Please!: Par for the course with most of Filmation's live-action shows.
