The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers

While ultimately a show made to sell toys, it breaks from the norm in a couple of interesting ways. It aimed for an older audience with a somewhat serialized story, with more intelligent story lines. It’s not “team up against the monster of the week” but an exploration of the “wild west” of a wide variety of cultures and races. The show is similar to Deep Space 9, Firefly, and Cowboy Bebop. Episodes include themes of respecting other cultures, preventing genocide, ethics and morality, fighting corruption, defending the weak, loyalty to your friends, justice, etc. While the team almost always eventually fights their way out of a situation, they do it usually as a last resort. Though possibly taken for granted these days, this show was also progressive at the time for having an African American team member that is a full member of the team, contributing intelligently and not comic relief or as a “token” minority. Similarly there is a female character who in retrospect may be slightly cliché in her main power being psychic abilities but she is never called out as being inferior. She is a full member of the team and not played as a mother or the girl that stays behind or gets in trouble and has to be rescued. Multiple female characters in the series conjure up images of Annie Oakley... women as strong independent characters who don’t need to be “rescued”. Very much a “Western” in the sorts of adventures portrayed. Disappointing that the show wasn’t more successful.