Space Cadets

This show was a riot, plain and simple. The combined comic skills of Bill Bailey, Craig Charles and Greg Poops were enough to keep my eyes watering for the whole 1/2 hour slot the show filled, and that was without the added attraction of the guests they had on. It may have been slightly esoteric, but that just meant you appreciated the gags more. It still bemuses me to this day why such a perfectly good comedy quiz was ditched when it had so much potential, brought to the fore in the episode with "Admiral" William Shatner..oh how we laughed.

Overall the series was a huge amount of fun, a good way to spend a half hour of your evening and I can only hope that it is not lost with the other discarded attempts that litter the road to TV greatness.

I`ve got to disagree with my fellow reviewer Mark because I didn`t think much of SPACE CADETS . I think the problem is that it was presented by Greg Proops who`s painfully unfunny while Craig Charles and Bill Bailey are just plain unfunny . It`s one of those comedy quiz shows where the regulars and guests have a great time while the viewers don`t

There was one redeeming thing about the format and that was when we had a " What happened next " section similar to A QUESTION OF SPORT except it revolved around these old cliff hanger serials from the 1930s . For example we`re shown an ending from KING OF THE ROCKET MEN where the hero is knocked unconcious and spirals to the ground to a certain death and the contestants have to guess how the opening of the recap plays out . Due to some editing ( ie cheating ) the hero escapes death when he regains conciousness just before he hits the ground and turns on his rocket back pack . Like I said it`s cheating

And SPACE CADETS shows the worst example of this type of cheating with a cliff hanger ending from UNDERSEA KINGDOM where the good guy is captured by the baddies outside a fort . He is tied to the front of a tank and the defenders of the fort are told if they don`t surrender the hero will die . The defenders don`t comply so the episode finishes with the tank smashing through the gates of the fort obviously killing the hero . The contestants scratched their heads and rubbed their chins wondering how the good guy could have possibly survived . They gave up and the recap showed the heavily re-filmed action of the next episode where the chief defender shouts " Open the gates " and instead of smashing through the gates the tank drives through an open gateway thereby saving the hero . This totally bemused the contestants who started moaning that the ending and the recap were totally different , an identical reaction I had after seeing UNDERSEA KINGDOM in the early 1980s