The ’90s Sci-Fi Series With Future NCIS Star You Can Stream For Free
Sci-fi as a genre does not do well on the small screen. Thanks to big-budget space operas like Star Wars, audiences crave expensive space battles and creature effects that just aren’t feasible on a television budget. That’s why for every Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica there’s a Space Rangers.
Space Rangers had a cast full of actors who would go on to find stardom in more successful projects. Linda Hunt the show’s no-nonsense Commander Chennault went on to play a similar tough role as Hetty Lange on NCIS: Los Angeles. Similarly, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa who played the show’s Worf stand-in Zylyn made a name for himself a couple years later as the evil Shang Tsung in the first live-action Mortal Kombat.
A forgotten sci-fi cult classic, Space Rangers was canceled after only four of six completed episodes aired.
Meanwhile, series lead Jeff Kaake would go from this ill-fated series to the equally forgotten Knight Rider rip-off, Viper. Clint Howard who played the show’s resident doctor character would pretty much continue to do what he’d always done—cameo’s in his brother Ron’s films mixed with roles in low-budget horror movies.
A forgotten sci-fi cult classic, Space Rangers was canceled after only four of six completed episodes aired. On the plus side, that makes it super easy to binge the whole series on Freevee. However, that just means you’ll get upset that much sooner when you run out of episodes.
Space Rangers was a 1993 CBS series from creator Pen Densham. Two years later, Densham would eventually have his sci-fi success story with the 1995 The Outer Limits reboot. But first, he would have to suffer the crushing defeat of having his scrappy little series about space cops canceled before it could find an audience.
Space Rangers isn’t a secret masterpiece or anything, but it’s as good as, if not better than, many sci-fi shows that manage to stay on the air for multiple seasons. The series revolved around the titular Space Rangers Corps, a ragtag group of interstellar peacekeepers in 2104 inspired by the U.S. Rangers of old. Like their Wild West counterparts, the Rangers defended colonists from bandits and other space-faring ne’er-do-wells.
The Rangers all use conventional firearms instead of beam weapons and their ships need big rings to catapult them past light-speed.
The show took George Lucas’s approach to sci-fi, forgoing Star Trek‘s slick, clean future for a more weathered and lived-in look. Likewise, the Lawmen (and women) of the Space Rangers Corps had a blue-collar aesthetic more akin to Alien than the uptight preppies from Starfleet. Space Rangers also took a novel approach to the space police trope by giving the Rangers budget problems and aging tech that didn’t always work as advertised.
Speaking of tech, Space Rangers was pretty grounded as far as 22nd Century technology. The Rangers all use conventional firearms instead of beam weapons and their ships need big rings to catapult them past light-speed. One character even still wears glasses, although they consist of one long lens no doubt to look more futuristic.
Space Rangers is definitely a concept worthy of a reboot but for that to happen people have to know about it first.
So why did Space Rangers only air for four episodes before CBS pulled the plug? Two big reasons. First, the show aired on one of the “Big Three” networks in primetime. Sci-fi has always been seen as somewhat niche and against competition like The Wonder Years, Beverly Hills 90210, and Unsolved Mysteries, the series never had a chance.
And the second big reason? Too much competition. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, SeaQuest DSV, Earth 2, and Space Rangers all debuted around the same time. Someone had to get lost in the shuffle and unfortunately Space Rangers drew the short straw.
GFR SCORE
Space Rangers is definitely a concept worthy of a reboot but for that to happen people have to know about it first. Hopefully everyone reading this will hop over to Amazon’s Freevee streaming service and check it out. If enough of you do, who knows, maybe Space Rangers will get a second chance. I’m sure Clint Howard could use the work.
