And so we begin another exciting serial. Twelve weeks of non-stop thrills, spills, chills and kills. A galactic epic which will see the Earth pulled to the brink of destruction and forced into conflict with our nearest celestial brothers. And Earth’s greatest hero? Not Crash, not Flash but Commando Cody. A brand new character. See -

- and one who bears absolutely no resemblance to the King of the Rocket Men, Jeff King, from an earlier serial from the same studio.

Republic is proud to present…

An absurdly named piece of excitement.

We open with scenes of explosive devastation as oil rigs are destroyed, electricity pylons are brought down, buildings explode and the press are outraged.

Three ordinary citizens are pondering the destruction taking place around them. They are clearly waiting for our hero to arrive.

They are waiting for someone important to arrive from Washington. Maybe this will be our hero.

On second thoughts, I don’t think he is.

The newcomer is authorised to tell the three newspaper readers that their rocket ship is to be launched forthwith and post-haste to counteract the wave of explosions. These explosions have been found to be atomic. But not atomic bombs - an atomic ray. And not just an atomic ray on Earth – there is atomic activity ON THE MOON~! Just think of it…

…now stop thinking of it.

The smooth chap lets slip that, although the atomic ray gun (which is the only thing that fits the facts apparently) originates from the moon, it is his guess that the gun is operated from ground level. Here we see two well dressed men proving him right.

They devastate a passing train.

And are pleased about it.

They are also planning to attack a troop train further down the line.

Meanwhile, back in the lab, one of the readers is putting his jacket on. He must be going out to look for our hero, Commando Cody.

Oh drat – he’s obviously put the wrong jacket on. This isn’t his jacket – it’s got controls on it.

Ok, he’s put a bucket on his head. I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

He’s flying. He’s actually flying. That can only mean that we have found our hero. A more unlikely hero won’t be seen again until Lorne Cossette dons his space uniform in 1964.

Oh well, I suppose he better get on with being heroic then. Like hiding behind a rock and shooting at people.

He wins the shoot out and the two well dressed heavies make a run for it. "What else can we do?" asks one of them. Well, you could DRIVE away in your TRUCK. That might be quicker.

So their atomic ray gun has fallen into the hands of the good guys. There is nothing else for it – they will have to seek out a goth who lives in a cave. He’ll make everything right.

One cave.

One goth.

One goth who isn’t bothered about the loss of the ray gun because he brought spares from the moon. He is however bothered about the loss of the ray gun because he doesn’t want the technology to fall into the hands of the Earth people. That would be why he entrusted it to some Earth people. He quickly identifies that the gun is in the hands of "Commando Cody and his flying suit".

The goth – Krog or something like that – has hired these two ne’r-do-wells to pave the way for their invasion from the moon. He sends them to recover the stolen weapon.

A fight breaks out, our heroes are defeated and the bad guys get their gun back. Introduced, demonstrated, stolen and recaptured all in the space of five minutes. It’s amazing what atomic power can do.

Meanwhile, on the moon…

…the king of the moon people answers his phone. It is Krog calling Retick. He brings the news that the Earthmen have built a rocket ship and will be travelling to the moon later in the week. "I did not know they possessed the means of getting to the moon" says Retick. We laugh at his naivety until we remember that, in 2007, we don’t actually possess the means of getting to the moon anymore.

But Commando Cody does – here we see fiction’s dullest looking rocket ship.

Our heroic team of space travellers – a mechanic, Wilma Dearing and a clichéd journalist from a Dick Tracy film.

"This is no trip for a woman" says the journalist.

"You’ll be glad to have someone to cook your meals" replies the male chauvinist pig of a mechanic. Oh wait, it was the woman who said it. That makes it all right.

Good lord – a rocket in a serial which actually features more than one chair. It is clear from the start that they’ve done their research and are taking the business of space travel seriously.

Even if they are said to be travelling at "a lot of miles per minute".

And are walking around as if there is gravity in space.

And they’re plotting their course with a pencil and a children’s diagram.

And a compass.

And they can travel all the way to the moon in daylight.

And they can just open their door when they land on the surface of the moon.

And there is a city on the moon with lots of burning torches on poles.

Commando Cody hears a voice from the city – it tells him to operate the door control and let himself in. He does so.

He is introduced to Retick – ruler of the moon. He knows all about Cody – his people on Earth have been watching Commando’s every move (and it appears "Commando" is his name not his rank or title).

"I see you have adopted our language" says Cody.

"Yes – everyone on the moon is required to speak English" replies Retick in one of those I-wish-they-hadn’t-bothered sort of moments.

Infodump time – the moon’s atmosphere is thinning so the moon people can’t grow food. So they are going to invade Earth instead. They have mastered atomic weaponry thanks to "Lunarium" – a radioactive element only found on the moon. This mastery extends all the way from huge cannons to hand-held pistols.

But Cody has his own pistol and he aims it at Retick.

Who flips an atomic switch…

…and the gun is drawn magnetically to the wall. Cody is appalled.

A fight breaks out and Cody must battle two moon men while Retick shoots at him with his atomic pistol. The only downside seems to be that he has to reload the atomic pistol with atomic ammunition every time.

In fact, after his second or third shot he is seem putting things into the handle of his gun so often that he may be loading each atom one-by-one.

Cody hides behind a doodah.

Retick shoots…

…the doodah explodes…

…and when the smoke clears, Commando Cody has been atomised.