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King of the Rocket Men
Jeff King is Rocket Man - scourge of Doctor Vulcan

Having seen the Batman save America from the Nipponese World Order, we move forward a few years to happier, more peaceful and (unless you were black) significantly less racist times. It’s 1949 and we’re about to be introduced to someone we know very well for the first time.

This is the original – the one that spawned "Radar Men From the Moon" and "Zombies of the Stratosphere" and their cardboard heroes Commando Cody and Larry Martin. This time we’re in the hands of Jeff King, played here by Tristram Coffin who was sinister TV man Drake in "Spy Smasher". What else can we see from the cast list? Well, there is a woman in it, what looks to be a sidekick and someone called House Peters Junior. That means a man was christened House Peters and found being called House was so cool that he gave his son the same name. Americans, aye?

I don’t think we’ll ever know who any of these people are. Most of them have names that sound familiar without actually being familiar. We all know a Ted Adams don’t we? And a David Sharpe? Of course we do. But not these ones I’ll wager – they’re obscure.

We’re off to a good start – it looks as if our hero has just fallen out of a window and is about to splatter on the floor. Oh and the villain of the piece is called Doctor Vulcan. With a name like that he was bound to turn out evil wasn’t he?

We open with a plane crash and a newspaper telling us that a noted chemist was on board. That was the 1940s for you – they had notable chemists. We only have paper thin pop stars and illiterate reality TV survivors. Damn us.

Then a building blows up. It’s a mystery. As Toyah once sang.

Oh – I’ve seen this in Austin Powers – he’s going to do something perfectly normal but make it appear he’s pulling objects out of his arse. This is a classic.

No – wait – the shadowy guy is watching Science Associates HQ (which looks exactly the same as the totally different HQs of Commando Cody and Larry Martin in later serials). This shadow man has a television set and we know from Spy Smasher that television is a tool of evil.

A man gets into a car (stop me if you’ve heard this one)…

…he hears and evil voice and is told not to act so surprised. So he tries the door, finds it locked and acts all surprised. He said don’t act surprised, cloth ears.

The car is driven by remote control. No matter how much Drake – for it is he – tries to operate the wheel, it goes where it will go, when it occurs to it to go there.

The car goes over a cliff before I can even launch into the now traditional "how-does-evil-have-so-many-impossible-camera-angles" bit. Sucks to be Drake.

The papers go to town. In the 1940s they even had notable cyclotron experts. Ooh – and the council are going to vote on the park plan. I hope it carries – it’s a good plan for parks.

In another Science Associates building, another notable scientist is hard at it when he hears an evil voice over a conveniently placed speaker. This evil shadow genius has really put the hours in to make his dastardly scheme of death by proxy work a treat.

The unnamed notable scientist is killed by fire.

There’s nothing in next morning’s paper about the park plan. I hope it went through ok.

Reading aloud from the paper – and in his new temporary laboratory – is our hero, Jeff King. I’m guessing this rather dour creature is the woman.

Stop – I’m not as right as I usually am – this isn’t Jeff King. This is Burt Winslow, the sidekick. But that is definitely the woman. I think.

Ah – this looks like Jeff King. This must be our hero. I only say that because he has a moustache and I’m fairly sure Tristram Coffin had a moustache seven years earlier. Some people would do research but I always say research is for wimps.

We’ve name checked him now – that is definitely Jeff King. Jeff goes through the other members of Science Associates as they conveniently come through the door in matching intervals. The woman writes them down. Is it to be the case that one of these men (OR WOMAN~!) is the shadowy man (OR WOMAN~!) of evil? It seems likely.

The meeting is called to order. Baldy even has a little hammer that he hits the table with to bring the already silent meeting to a respectful hush. The woman has been dismissed, by the way, because science (and evil) is man’s work.

It seems that Millard – one of the recently deceased – had a theory that Doctor Vulcan was behind recent deaths and that he was stealing secrets from within Science Associates. Baldy puts a hand on Jeff’s arm and asks him to investigate. Meanwhile, the man with the glasses starts talking about a vital rocket experiment that is about to take place and that this should be Jeff’s first assignment as the new hero of the piece. The meeting ends with murmured agreement.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, two hoodlums are smoking cigarettes and waiting for orders from Dr Vulcan. The one on the right is getting jumpy and wants some fresh air. Well you shouldn’t have smoked all those cigarettes then should you? Dolt.

The phone rings – it is Dr Vulcan. He wants his hoodlums to go round to Jeff’s place and look for any evidence he might have on Dr Vulcan.

This they do. Jeff’s place is definitely the same building Cody and Martin will use later. Apparently it was the studio’s offices so they could use it for nothing. Serial budgets aren't what they used to be by 1949.

Someone – I’d say Jeff but I’ve already been made to look foolish once in this episode – disturbs the hoodlums mid-rummage.

It is Jeff. He’s held at gunpoint while he asks just what the ruddy heck these generic hoodlums think their asses are doing in his temporary laboratory.

A fight breaks out.

Jeff gets one of their hoodlum guns and they run away. So Jeff wins. He’s officially our hero. Swoon.

Jeff’s first port of call the following day is a mysterious cave. We know not why.

It has a lot of machinery inside. That’s why.

He finds the boffin in charge of this little set up and recaps the plot so far. This guy is my pick for Doctor Vulcan by the way. Look at the evidence – he’s got a secret laboratory, he’s about the right height, he’s more than capable of owning a hat and has the wherewithal to operate a radio. Yes – this is our chap. I’ll stake my reputation on it.

Oh – new info – this was the chap apparently blown up in the lab blast. He’s pretending to be dead and only Jeff knows it. Hence the hiding. Maybe I was hasty. Or maybe that’s what he WANTS US TO THINK~!

In brighter news, the boffin has finished the rocket suit. He gets it out and shows it to Jeff who – like all of us at Christmas – has to pretend he likes it.

He takes the rocket suit away for testing (won’t that give the game away that the man who was known to be building a rocket suit has just finished it from beyond the grave?) and visits a warehouse. I think it has something to do with the secret missile test he’s meant to be preventing. Or enabling. I forget if missiles were good or bad in 1949.

Some hoodlums are waiting for him at the warehouse and a fight breaks out.

There is also a spare hoodlum to tinker with the Jeff Mobile.

Jeff is firmly and decisively waffled. The hoodlums steal a vital truck and make good their escape.

Jeff wakes up, works it all out in an instant and dashes for his car.

But rather than drive the fatal vehicle he instead dons the ROCKET SUIT~!

The sidekick and the woman arrive. They find Jeff car empty and conclude something must be wrong.

A quick tweak of his nipples and Jeff is ready to fly.

Off he goes.

The woman sees a man flying. She is appalled.

She takes a photograph of it. If that sidekick had any sense he’d smash that camera into a million pieces. Security, man, security.

The hoodlums smoke satisfied cigarettes and look at their lovely new missile. Little do they know that a man with an atomic rocket pack on his back is about to interrupt their contentment.

Yay – our first proper look at the legendary and nonsensical control panel.

Jeff – in his first go with the rocket suit – lands perfectly in the back of a moving truck. A third fight breaks out.

Oh bugger – the missile has been activated.

It launches, flying off in the opposite direction. As long as it can’t lock onto the truck it can’t hurt them. It’ll probably just kill a bunch of children on a nearby bus.

The children get to Jeff's conscience and he flies after the missile.

This is where it is going to land – AMERICA~!

What? He’s going to shoot the missile down with a wacky looking pistol? This serial has climbed to new depths already.

He hits it but at the cost of his own life. The blast knocks him and his backpack out and Jeff King is sent crashing to Earth. Dead.

You can’t fault them for brutal accuracy.