So that was Captain Marvel – genuine super hero and wit. He dispatched the bad guys and all was right with the world. A change of pace is called for – enough of logic and sense and normality. We need something that sets out to be absurd right from the very beginning.

Thank you.

Interesting break with tradition – we don’t see who these people are even in the first episode. I recognise the name Aline Towne. I think she’s been in one of these shindigs before.

Then come the next batch – also runs and nobodies to a man.

LEONARD NIMOY~!

For it is he.

I’m pleased to see that modesty has won out and the effects are described as "optical" rather than the patently absurd "special".

Having dispensed with photos and all that gubbins, its time to get straight down to business…

A rocket ship is flying somewhere. We don’t yet know where it is going, where it has come from or who is on board. Right away they have grasped our attention. This will be a good twelve weeks. I can feel it. These men are professionals.

The aircraft is officially "unidentified" and these merry few are listening to urgent radio broadcasts. I spy a familiar object on the shelf. Could one of these four be Commando Cody? Perhaps nature has taken her rightful course and Cody has been made into a desk.

Ok – the one on the right is called Bob and the one in the middle is Mr Steel. That means Commando Cody (or possibly Jeff King from King of the Rocket Men) is the one on the left. It can’t be the woman – she’s not even allowed to vote or drive or smoke a cigar yet.

Hmm – Commando Cody is being referred to as "Larry". Larry Cody. It isn’t good. I can see why his mother christened him Commando. Or I might really know that they changed the central character at the last minute for reasons best known to themselves but kept every other detail the same. Whichever explanation gets more laughs.

Larry Martin – for he is our hero for the next twelve gripping chapters – usually operates in the "inter planetary zone". Wherever that is. This time he’s happy just to put his flying suit on and go meet the newbies.

And here are the newbies.

What a great ship – one lever, a big light and a clock that is missing two of its three hands. The earth is doomed.

The alien ship lands in almost the exact same spot Cody’s rocket ship took off from in Radar Men from the Moon. It’s lucky he’d gone or they would’ve had to circle round and round waiting for him to go.

Excellent – we now know that Larry Martin lives and works in the same building Commando Cody occupies. Now – here’s a thing – this rocket man has a huge radio on his belt. You can tell stock footage from earlier serials by the presence or un-presence of said radio.

Meanwhile, back at the alien rocket, a lorry pulls up. Collaborators or delivery men? Wait and see.

They unload their rocket ship and give boxes of stuff to the crooks and heavies in the lorry. That seems to be all they came for as they immediately prepare to depart.

Ah no – swerve – only one of the aliens is going home. The other two are going off with the gangsters. The invasion of earth has begun.

Hoorah – they haven’t upgraded the hilarious rocket suit control panel. It’s still rubbish. I’m happy.

There is a thud on the roof. The alien looks up.

Look – it’s Larry. He’s on the roof. Hence the thud. This is fitting together like a glove shaped jigsaw so far.

They try to shake Larry off the roof. He’s not having any of it. Sidebar, I think the aliens are blacked up. Classy.

Larry drops something through a convenient panel in the truck’s roof. He then abandons truck at the first sign of a branch.

The chap in the back of the truck spots him and takes a couple of pot shots. Larry is fine. I wonder what he dropped into the truck?

Bugger – I think he’s broken his flying suit.

The truck arrives at some kind of rendezvous. I was hoping Larry had dropped a grenade in the cab or something. He was obviously just pissing about up there. He can’t have dropped a tracker in as a mere radio is the size of a lunchbox so an actual tracking device would be bigger than the truck itself.

They have a meeting. The alien with the medallion and the huge chin seems to be in charge. The one on the left is LEONARD NIMOY~! And yes I think I will do that every time I write his name.

They go their separate ways. There is talk of a Doctor Harding which makes me think they have more human allies willing to betray their entire race and all that jazz.

They arrive somewhere.

This must be their evil scientist friend. He looks shifty – as if he’s always got one eye looking over his shoulder.

He wants to know what his friendly neighbourhood member of the Ant Hill Mob wants. The latter unveils his big surprise – a genuine alien from the planet Alia. Or somewhere – I don’t think they’ve said yet.

Info dump time – they are from the planet Mars and have been in contact with the scientist’s helpers for some time. The Martian ruler says he’s working on a project. That clears up the thing he’s carrying – it’s obviously a Gantt chart. That joke won’t mean anything to anyone not involved with project management.

Blimey – it IS a Gantt chart. Maybe. Anyway, back to the info dump – the scientist is reluctant to help but the Martian knows he’s been selling secrets to a foreign power. Unless he helps the aliens he will be exposed. Because obviously the government of the United States would be only too willing to believe a blacked up, big chinned man who claims to be from Mars.

Brace yourselves – this is the plan. Use an H-Bomb to blow the Earth out of its orbit, send it spinning off into space and for Mars to be moved into its place. Because Mars is too far from the sun to have a decent atmosphere. So how did life develop there then? If Mars sucks, how do these blacked up weirdoes come to exist? If that question is pondered or explained later in this serial I will eat my mouse.

This isn’t a plan that has been thrown together in a moment – he’s already chosen the right cave in which to build his bomb and he’s moving materials from his island in the Pacific (he has a holiday home?) in his rocket ship.

The Martian needs some extra materials. So he writes a list. This picture alone makes Saturday Morning Serials worthwhile.

This is his chosen cave. It seems to have a ladder down to the basement. And a basement. That is one well chosen cave.

It’s a shame that the basement is flooded. But don’t worry – LEONARD NIMOY~! explains that Martians can survive underwater for half an hour because the atmosphere on Mars is so thin.

He emerges a short distance away. I think it would’ve been easier to knock through that wall rather than build a short underwater passage but that’s just me. It is something different though. In a serial where everything else has been pinched from somewhere else (except LEONARD NIMOY~!) it is nice to see something that is both unusual and looks relatively expensive.

The boss arrives with some more stuff. Pity LEONARD NIMOY~! as he has the job of taking it to the secret nook via the underwater bit every sodding time. Sucks to be him.

The plan is to raid a train carrying uranium. The stooge memories the map and burns it at the ninth attempt.

The boss then follows LEONARD NIMOY~! into the underwater bit.

Hey – I’d forgotten about him – his flying suit has been repaired and Larry is ready to follow the truck. I knew he’d dropped something in – it turns out it was a radio transmitter unit. He’s got a handy hand-held device to track the signal. And he’s got great hair. His black and white photograph should be put on every barber’s wall.

He flies off in search of the truck. He doesn’t know the world has moved on – it’s trains and rockets now. Trucks are so 1950.

He’s found the cave. That took Commando Cody eleven painful weeks. Larry already pisses on Commando Cody. Euww.

He finds a pudding. Or possibly the charred remains of the map. Not that it will do him any good – you’d need a magical machine to get anything useful from those few blackened shards of ex-paper.

They have a magical machine. They know where the attack is going to take place.

They have so much ground to cover that they have to split up – Larry goes one way, the other chap and the woman go the other way (together). Larry almost immediately happens upon this – some men climbing onto a train the hard way.

Swerve – one of the men is Bob (Larry’s friend). The woman explains that they found the Ant Hill Mob trying to steal the train and Bob leapt in to help. Or stop them. He leapt anyway.

It would be fruitless (or bootless) to try and chase the train in a car. So Larry borrows a convenient tank. Yes, tank. It was there because someone was planning on turning it into a tractor. That sounds dangerously like alchemy to me. Larry gives chase.

On top of the train a fight breaks out. Bob is getting his ass handed to him.

These men – who have handed Bob his ass by now – are remarkably calm considering they are stood on top of a train that is moving very quickly along some fairly winding track.

Here comes Larry in his tank.

The hoodlums see Larry in his tank and decide to give up immediately. Sod the uranium – they’re jumping for it.

They leave Bob behind, cuffed to the train and sleeping like a baby log.

The tank catches up with the train but the train is out of control.

Larry leaps from the tank and boards the runaway train.

This man has been radioed and told to divert the runaway train into a siding. He does as he’s told. A bit of a dull interlude in what has been an exciting chase so far.

Bob is free but the train seems to be heading for some mangled track. Oh crumbs.

See.

CARNAGE~!