Sci Fi TV Obscurities: A look at sci fi and fantasy TV shows that made it to the air only briefly before getting cast to the television wasteland.
What Is It?
In the far future, the outlaw space captain Harlock wages a lonely battle against the Mazone, a race of plant-like aliens plotting to conquer Earth after the destruction of their homeworld. At the same time, Princess Olivia (the “Queen of a Thousand Years”), heir to the distant planet Millennia, secretly lives on Earth while struggling to prevent both her own people and the Mazone from bringing about humanity’s destruction. As Harlock fights to defend mankind among the stars and Olivia works from within to uncover conspiracies threatening the planet, their parallel stories chronicle Earth’s desperate struggle to survive against overwhelming extraterrestrial forces.
Aired: Syndication, 1986, 1 Seasons Totaling 65 Episodes
Starring: Michael McConnohie, Dan Woren, Tony Oliver, Rebecca Forstadt
Created By: Leiji Matsumoto, Carl Macek
Is It Must-Watch Sci Fi?
No. It is an interesting curio from a time when anime was making serious inroads into the United States, but it is not a great adaptation, and subtitled versions of the source material provide a much better viewing experience.
The Skinny:
Arriving in 1985, Harmony Gold’s Robotech took three separate anime series—Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA—and combined them into a multigenerational story about an invasion of Earth by alien races. The adaptation (guided by Carl Macek) took liberties with the source material, but it still respected the originals and did not employ the “kidification” seen in previous anime imports such as Battle of the Planets, leaving in the complex storytelling and adult themes. It turned into an afternoon television hit, appealing to audiences who were just starting to appreciate the animated output from Japan. (You can read more about the series at this link.)
Harmony Gold wanted another show to follow Robotech and purchased the rights to the first Captain Harlock series created by Leiji Matsumoto. But since that did not have the 65-episode minimum that syndication generally required, they had to combine it with another Matsumoto entry—Queen Millennia—to pad it out to the proper length. However, unlike Robotech, where each series represented a different generation fighting off the alien invaders, Captain Harlock and Queen Millennia were hacked together, with two separate storylines taking place at the same time and linked to the same events. That did not work nearly as well, and it ended up creating a rather confusing series with notable shifts in tone that could be difficult to follow.
I was a huge fan of Robotech at the time, and I was excited when I heard they were going to follow it up with the Captain Harlock series. I had read about the character but had never seen the original series (I missed the dubbed tryout version that had previously aired in the U.S., more on that below), nor had I read the manga (translations were not readily available at that time). I watched Harmony Gold’s version and enjoyed it because I had very little to compare it to, though I did notice that the storylines did not mesh particularly well. I never saw the entire run (more on that below), but it did succeed in making me a lifelong fan of Captain Harlock.
The show became mostly reviled as a poor adaptation of the Japanese originals, and after its brief appearance in syndication, it disappeared, never to be seen again. A few of us still have fond memories of the show, but in the years that followed, we would get much better anime imports, many of which retained the original dialogue and offered English subtitles.
Cancelled Too Soon?
Sort of. Sixty-five episodes were produced, which was typically the minimum requirement for a syndicated animated series so that it could air weekdays for thirteen weeks without repeating itself. But Harmony Gold’s Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years was available only in limited syndication markets, and it was sometimes relegated to early-morning or late-night time slots. In my market, it started in the afternoons but then disappeared after a few weeks. I scoured TV Guide (link included to the Wikipedia page for younger readers not familiar with that magazine) and could not find it, so I am pretty certain they just booted it from the schedule, and that likely happened in other markets as well. Some stations may have aired the entire series, but after that it disappeared, and Harmony Gold allowed the licenses for both properties to lapse.
Should It Be Rebooted?
No. Robotech was a great way to string together three separate anime series (I know some will disagree, but I thought Harmony Gold and Carl Macek did a good job with it), while the Captain Harlock/Queen Millennia mashup was poorly conceived and rushed to market. You are much better off seeking out the original shows that this one was based on and watching those versions instead (I would also encourage the same with the three series that Robotech came from).
Interesting Facts:
At the time Harmony Gold bought the rights to the first Captain Harlock series, there was a second series available as well, Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX, but it was too expensive, so they purchased the rights to Queen Millennia instead. They did not consult Carl Macek before acquiring the two shows and basically dumped them on him with a very short timeline to turn them into a 65-episode package for the U.S. syndication market. That was part of the reason the storylines did not flow well, the other being that it was simply too difficult to link two unrelated shows together.
In 1981, ZIV International produced an English-language dub of Space Pirate Captain Harlock. Only four episodes were adapted as a tryout, with several changes made to the source material, and they received only limited cable and home video distribution, never resulting in a full series.
The end credits list the voice cast but do not identify which characters the actors portrayed. The IMDb entry assigns names to the characters, but it is unclear whether those attributions are accurate.
Where Can You Watch It?
Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years was never collected on home video, nor will it be since Harmony Gold’s rights to the source material expired. You can find some bootleg DVD transfers on the internet, but the video quality (often coming from VHS) is typically poor. The original Space Pirate Captain Harlock, with Japanese dialogue and English subtitles, is available with a subscription to Crunchyroll and you and stream it for free (with ads) on Tubi and Pluto TV. It has been also released on Blu-ray. Queen Millennia is available with a subscription to HiDive, and the entire series has been released on Blu-ray.
Learn More About the Show:
Wikipedia
IMDb.com
Secret Galaxy
More Sci Fi TV Obscurities at This Link
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