Review of The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space

Well, I should have suspected it, but this turns out to be a smug and totally inept spoof of "Captain Video and His Video Rangers", television's first space drama which ran on the Du Mont Television Network from 1949 to 1955. In fact, "Captain Zoom" is set on the Du Mont network in 1955. The premise is that aliens are receiving "Captain Zoom" program transmissions and believe that the Captain really does exist as some sort of super Earth hero, so they abduct the actor who portrays him, for their own purposes. The way this film handles that concept is adolescent and almost totally unfunny. A shame, because it could have been pulled off, had they tried less hard to keep reminding us that they were joking about a long-gone TV series. Precious few remember much about the original "Captain Video" series anyway, as only a few episodes survive. You'll do better to spend the time viewing the remaining CV originals, especially the later ones which were done on a fraction of the budget of this bomb but always played fair with its audience. Anyway, "The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space", which was planned to be a series, faded after this one-shot pilot film. And that's merciful.