Space Knights

January 9, 2018 4:26 PM

Ever wanted to see the Arthurian legend retold in space? Time to see a weird and obscure kids show from 1989 New Zealand.

In a series of galactically zany adventures, the splendid Space Knights sally forth to defend the Galactic Realm of Avalon from the evil powers of the Prince of Darkness, Mordread Darvoid, whose diabolical design is to take over The Round Space Station, Castle Spacelot, and ultimately the galaxy.

Mordread's forces of Darkness collide with the Space Knights in madcap fashion, featuring high drama, low down cunning, rainbow rocket trails, swordfights and ye jolly olde laser lance jousts amongst the stars. Magically assisted by Merlin Stardust, the Space Wizard and Conrod his space robot, the Knights of the Round Space Station invariably triumph over evil and chaos.

First episode: The Golden Knight (Excerpts, 9’58, NZ on Screen)

Still with me? Here are some full episodes on Youtube:

• The Mists of Time (21’50)
• Electro Excallibur (21’46)
• Double Trouble (2,3) (21’55)
• Confounded Computers (2,3) (21’59)

22 half hour shows were produced but they are unavailable on DVD. Chris Slane created the puppets:

“At the time TVNZ were interested in developing a political puppetry show along similar lines to the English show Spitting Image,” says Chris. “They knew that I’d been extending my cartooning into 3D caricatures of politicians and after their idea for a similar NZ-based political show fell through, I was asked to come on board as Chief Puppeteer for a new kids puppet show.”

Chris says he had six weeks to make eight puppets for Space Knights, develop flow charts for project managing the job and manage the team of puppet makers.

There are a few behind-the-scenes photos here.

There's also a brief TV Tropes page.

But don't forget the theme song!

Dave Dobbyn and the Lunnettes (Annie Crummer & Sue Lynch) - Space Junk (3’33)

Space Junk (Luna Mix, 3’43)

posted by Start with Dessert (16 comments total)

Mordread Darkvoid was one of Lord Buckethead's lesser-known roles when he was still trying to transition from TV to politics...
posted by Skwirl at 5:29 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ah yes, and who could forget that classic duo, Jeevzoid and Maggie.

(ETA: this is good.)
posted by Horkus at 5:57 PM on January 9, 2018

People keep ... doing this.
posted by Naberius at 6:14 PM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

It aired in Canada, so perhaps it's not that obscure :)
posted by Calzephyr at 6:15 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Holy moley.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 6:22 PM on January 9, 2018

People keep ... doing this.

There's also King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, a syndicated cartoon from the early nineties in which Merlin teleports a modern-day football team into Camelot to take the place of Arthur and his knights. It's ostensibly set in the middle ages, but there are plenty of wing suits, battle cars, and lance rockets to keep the merchandisers happy.
posted by Iridic at 7:23 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ever wanted to see the Arthurian legend retold in space?

Nope, not when I have Robin Hood with rockets.
posted by GuyZero at 9:15 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

(Actually this seems pretty trippy but you Kiwis do your space-legend thing and us Canadians will do ours)
posted by GuyZero at 9:16 PM on January 9, 2018

I remember watching this in Australia as well. Best NZ kids show since Worzel Gummidge Down Under.
posted by retrograde at 9:45 PM on January 9, 2018

There was a real Myths
in Spaaaaace thing going on in the early 80s, it would seem.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:15 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

The 80s also brought us the Camelot 3000 comic book series, with typically beautiful art by Brian Bolland.

Do all of these ultimately owe their existence to Poul Anderson?
posted by Quindar Beep at 6:50 AM on January 10, 2018

I love the rainbow flying Space Knight wipe in the opening credits. The production company South Pacific Pictures seems to have had a long and successful career and is still making new stuff today. I was hoping to see some evidence of connection to Weta (I mean, those puppets!) but nothing obvious pops out.
posted by Nelson at 7:33 AM on January 10, 2018

This thread is incomplete without any mention of ROM.
posted by The Tensor at 9:11 AM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

I like this. It's creepy. And I like to think Peter Jackson worked on it while making Bad Taste in his free time.
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:56 PM on January 10, 2018

Thaaaat is some uncanny valley shit right there.
posted by webmutant at 9:50 PM on January 10, 2018

I've been in NZ for 12 years; the boyfriend, for several decades now. We'd not heard of this show. So we start the first episode and five minutes later, I'm kicking my legs, trying burrow my way backwards through the back of the couch. I now have fabulous recurring nightmares that include the kid with the insanely large neck mask.
posted by lemon_icing at 6:23 PM on January 14, 2018