Blackstar (1981)

Blackstar (1981)

13 episodes, approx 22 mins each.

It's well-known among the Masters of the Universe fanbase that some of the toy-line's action figures were repurposed assets from Mattel's own Big Jim franchise, but what's mentioned much less often is that Filmation's animated MotU TV series did some blatant borrowing of its own, from their short-lived Blackstar (1981) TV series, which came out two years before MotU and is in many respects a kind of precursor to the format that MotU settled on.

John Blackstar's origin is entirely different to He-Man's, and he doesn't have a secret dual identity, but the similarities in other areas are numerous and undoubtedly more than mere coincidence.

The show's opening credits provide backstory, which I'll transcribe below, for anyone who's interested:

"John Blackstar, astronaut, is swept through a blackhole into an ancient alien universe. Trapped on the planet Sagar, Blackstar is rescued by the tiny Trobbit people. In turn, he joins their fight for freedom against the cruel Overlord, who rules by the might of the PowerStar. The PowerStar is split into the Power Sword and the Star Sword. And so, with Star Sword in hand, Blackstar, together with his allies, sets out to save the planet Sagar. This is his destiny."

When the series begins proper, all of what's written above has already happened. There's no explanation of why the sword split and why only the Star half of it is in Blackstar's possession. We just have to take it on viewer-faith that "his destiny" ensured it was meant to be that way.

The planet Sagar is more dusty and barren than Eternia, but what flora it has is of a similarly odd colour, as are the skies. It's Conan-esque in many ways, which is a comparison that applies to John Blackstar himself. A suggestion of Native American ancestry deepens his motivations.

Blackstar (George DiCenzo) isn't alone in his struggles against the forces of evil. He has companions that aid and support him, including a green mount "dragon-horse" named Warlock, an elf-like shapeshifter (Patrick Pinney), and a sorceress friend (Linda Gary) who's older than she looks. The Trobbits can be irritating, but they do at least aid in the fight from time to time.

In addition to the Overlord, the heroes have to contend with rock creatures, a metallic giant with an Argonauts type of weakness, a flying bull-dragon, time-warping shenanigans, gargoyles, seasonal shenanigans, flame people, evil doppelgangers, mindless zombies in a floating city, and standard deception from seemingly friendly folks who are more duplicitous than they seem.

Filmation fans will likely recognise a number of the studio's recurring traits and techniques, including a primary antagonist voiced by Alan Oppenheimer, reused footage (e.g., walking and running animations), familiar audio and visual SFX, the occasional bad pun or wry comment before a fight, and a sword retrieval technique that never fails to give me nostalgia fuzzies.

Episode 06 lays an interesting groundwork that could've enabled future happenings to explore more tragic and/or dual-edged storytelling, but it didn't come to pass because of cancellation. After just thirteen episodes, production on the Blackstar series was ended.

It's a shame that it didn't get to have a proper ending. But, on reflection, if it had proved more popular and ran for multiple seasons, it might've impacted the creation of MotU, which may have come out different to how it did. A worst case scenario like that would've greatly altered my childhood, so there's a silver lining therein for Blackstar's brief run, at least for me.