One of my favorite episodes stared Sugar Ray Robinson as an aging Jazz musician that Co-Pilot Dan befriended. Some "giant" thugs were trying to push him around and take his music business from him. Having met Dan, who happened to be a horn player, the "little man" taught the "giant" how to play Jazz sounds that were not of his world. . . . interesting. My other favorite on was. . . . 2 time travelers from the year 1, 000, 000 A. D. in Earths future travel back in time to collect information, but they take a detour and accidently land on the giant planet where they meet the crew of the Spindriff. But thier mission and motives become corrupted and they set out to take over the giant planet using thier futuristic technology. As much as they don't want to do it, it's up to Capt. Burton and the crew of the Spindriff to try to stop this deadly duo before they destroy the entire "giant" planet. Wild stuff! Another episode involved this same time machine some episodes later. Capt. Burton (played by Gary Conway) and Fitzugh (played by Kurt Kazner) accidently stumble upon the time machine left behind by the time travelers they defeated some episodes earlier. It takes off with the two of them inside (by accident thanks to the stumbling, fumbling Mr. Fitzugh)and they wind up going back to Earth. . . . only in the wrong time! They go back to the late 1800's where the local yokels of that era think Capt. Burton is an "alien". Throughout this episode, Capt. Burton must convince Fitzugh to return with him to the giant planet to get the others. But Fitzugh turns on him has him locked up and masquarades to be one of the locals. In the end, Burton convinces Fitzugh that they don't belong there, and they escape to the time machine and take off back to the giant planet. Although the time machine was set to go back to it's last destination that it came from (the giant planet) and took them back there, ironically, the knuckleheads forgot to leave it in some stationary state, thus, once they exited out of it upon thier return to the giant planet and the right time, before they could get to the other passengers of the Spindriff, the time machine took off before they could get back to it on it's own to. . . who knows where! So. . . they were still stuck on the giant planet ready for the next weeks adventure!

--w2557

My favorite episode was "The Marionettes. " In it, Kurt Kaznar got to demonstrate his musical comedy background, which includes the original Broadway version of "The Sound of Music, " and Hollywood A-features like "Kiss Me, Kate" (based on Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew"). I also liked it because Heather Young--alias Betty the Stewardess--had a rare major role in the story. That, and the great legs she revealed while wearing that green sequined leotard! *Insert wolf whistle here. * Last, but not least? The puppeteer was played by William Schallert, one of my favorite character actors. He's played almost literally everything! From an uncredited ambulance driver, in the 1954 SF classic "Them, " to a TV commercial spokesperson on behalf of better life insurance for the elderly. In short, then, I really wish there had been a Season 3 for this show. It was good clean fun!

--Carycomic@aol.com