Silver Needle in the Sky- 1954

Rocky Jones is a kids show.  I mean, seriously here look at this:  Rocky is dad.  He represents the father that we all had when we were young that was our hero: calm, level headed, strong, and smart.  Winky is our older brother, or close-to-us older friend or cousin or whatever.  A few years older, entering the higher grades and talking to other, cooler kids.  Later he'd be entering the work world or talking to girls.  Then there is always the kid that's thrown into the plot, in this movie it's Bobby.  That kid's awesome, working on a rocket-ship, but he's still humble and childish.  We (the kids watching the show in 1954) are basically Bobby, or want to be.

The villain in this is a woman.  She's our mother.  She's wicked and full of evil laughs.  She is vaguely pretty, but not in a sexual way.  She has disposable henchmen, and they're all young males: would these drones symbolize us if we followed her rules?  There are no good females in this.  The only other female is a young woman on the ship who is in love with Rocky.  She obviously wants to be his butt slut, but she's too young for him and he's too adulty for that.

In the plot, Cleolanta of Mars (or somewhere like that) has kidnapped some of Earth's great scientists.  Rocky and Winky have to save them, and they have some mild tricks up their sleeve.  With the help of Bobby and the butt slut, Rocky and Winky will eventually emerge victorious of course, despite Cleolanta and her military chief Atlasande's efforts to try and stop them.

I will admit straight out that this one was way better than Planet Outlaws.  The plot's way more linear, the story moves along quicker, and this movie is shorter.  I enjoy Rocky more than Buck Rogers anyway, so there's that too.  This one also makes more sense in that it came out the same year the show was on TV, it's not like Outlaws where is came out way later.  Obviously, being 1954, the budget and effects were still minimal, but this one manages to pull off a decent flick despite that.

There was a point when I was watching this that I realized it felt extremely "classic" in that classic sci-fi sort of way.  Now, since it's made for TV and low budget etc, there are basically no effects.  Most of the action is in form of dialogue, and everything the characters actually DO is all very ABC, you know "run over here, talk to this guy, smart your way outta the situation".  Just like, again, Planet Outlaws.  However, it does make for an interest factor that you're either going to have or not have.  If you decide early on that you don't want to approach this openly, then you'll hate it.  But if you roll with it, you'll like it.  Basically.

I don't want to give this too high a rating, of course, since I only gave Outlaws like 2 stars I think.  This is better, and like I said it felt "classic".  I give it 3 stars.  BTW, this is going back to my Sci Fi Invasion boxset.  I'll finish it one day!!!