Pathfinders in Space

After Profs. Norman Wedgwood (Peter Williams) and Mary Meadows (Pamela Barney) depart for the moon, the unmanned supply rocket, which is essential for their survival, malfunctions. The only solution is for journalist Conway Henderson (Gerald Flood) and an emergency crew (Wedgwood's kids Geoff and Jimmy (and stowaway Valerie)) to manually fly the rocket. The characters had appeared in the earlier series 'Target Luna' (now lost) but some of the cast was changed (and Hamlet the hamster is now Hamlet the guinea pig). The series, which targeted young people, was intended to be both entertaining and educational and, for what it is, is reasonably watchable 60 years later. The premise is a bit simplistic (but the plot 'complicates' nicely as ancient relics are found on the Moon) and the inclusion of the children in the rescue mission, clearly added to appeal to the target audience, is a bit ridiculous (a study of kid's opinions of the follow-up series 'Pathfinders to Venus' shows that even young audiences didn't believe that children would ever be aboard early space expeditions). The special effects are rudimentary (notably the island space-base) but serve to illustrate the story. Worth viewing for genre fans (as long as context and provenance is considered). Watched on-line May 2022.