Space Sentinels facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Space Sentinels
Directed by	Hal Sutherland
Voices of	George DiCenzo Evan C. Kim Dee Timberlake Lou Scheimer
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producer(s)	Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer
Producer(s)	Don Christensen
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Filmation
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 10 (1977-09-10) – December 3, 1977 (1977-12-03)

Space Sentinels (originally titled Young Sentinels and renamed midway through its only season) is a Saturday morning animated series produced by Filmation which debuted on the American NBC network on September 10, 1977 and ran for thirteen half-hour episodes. The science fiction action series follows a superhero team during missions to protect the Earth.

Premise

Three young Earth people were selected many centuries ago and teleported to another planet, where they were given eternal youth and superpowers. They were trained and returned to Earth, where they are tasked with protecting the planet and its vicinity, similar to the Green Lantern Corps. Hercules and Mercury through superhuman feats became the basis for the mythological Roman deities of the same names. They are joined by Astrea, namesake of the Greek deity but with unrelated powers.

Their base of operations and living quarters is a spaceship hidden within the caldera of a dormant volcano. They are supervised by Sentinel One, a member of a series of sentient supercomputers that command and coordinate Sentinel teams, although the race that gave the Sentinels their powers is ostensibly humanoid. For missions anywhere on Earth, the team is launched through vertical tubes and fly to their destination through the use of rocket belts in their suits, which seem to have intercontinental range as well as hypersonic capability (although Mercury can fly even faster). For interplanetary and interstellar missions, Sentinel One transports them within the spacecraft, which has faster-than-light capability.

Characters

• Hercules: blond-haired and blue-eyed man possesses superhuman strength and is obsessed with exercise and healthy eating. He was voiced by George DiCenzo, who also voiced Sentinel One and later reprised the role of Hercules in The Freedom Force animated series.
• Mercury: Mercury can run and fly purportedly up to the speed of light. Mercury is Chinese and practices martial arts as a hobby. He is usually the jokester. Although capable of flight like the other Sentinels, he often prefers to run at super high speed on the ground. He was voiced by Evan Kim.
• Astrea: Astrea can morph into any Earth animal and is the de facto field leader of the team. She, along with Super Stretch and Micro Woman and the Super Friends' Black Vulcan, was one of the very few black superheroes in cartoons of the era. She was voiced by Dee Timberlake.
• Sentinel One: Nicknamed S-1, a sentient supercomputer integrated into the spaceship who monitors all situations, alerts the team about threats and provides advice and information during missions. He communicates as a large, hairless, holographic head projected within the interior of the spacecraft. Other Sentinel computers seen in the series include Sentinel Seven (with a female aspect) and the Prime Sentinel, the supreme commander depicted as a bearded, older head.
• MO (Maintenance Operator): "Moe" is a small, boxy service robot in charge of maintaining Sentinel One and the spaceship, similar in purpose to R2-D2 but speaking in colloquial American English, with an appearance somewhat similar to the maintenance drones of Silent Running. He is voiced by Filmation co-founder and executive producer Lou Scheimer. MO is infatuated with Astrea and is often the comic relief.

Episodes