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Yesterday I stumbled onto a show that I'd never heard of before, which apparently ran in the same block as the "Superboy" show in the early 90s (that show had some minor peril and supervillainesses in it, but not especially notable except for being an early DC Comics TV offering).
This show is "Super Force" and it's about a vigilante super-cop with a high-tech suit which allows him to fight threats extralegally. I've noticed a lot of tropes from around that time: the actor looks similar to David Hasselhoff; the exposure of the alien faces (almost identical to 'V'); the high-tech suit shows up pretty often around that time (e.g. M.A.N.T.I.S.); and speaking of MANTIS, you even have the usual black guy sidekick who is super-smart with computers and technology (see: Black Scorpion or Geordie LaForge).
But what I wanted to focus on here were three episodes which featured Traci Lords and fellow ingenue Grace Phillips in a "trilogy" of sorts that can be watched in a self-contained order: Episode 18 "Of Human Bondage", and Episode 3 "Love Slaves from Outer Space" and Episode 11 "Illegal Aliens" from Season 2.
At 60 minutes total, these could serve as a kind of mini-movie, complete with the sexy costumes, sci-fi action, and general campiness that people on this forum enjoy from the peak era of cheesy entertaining television (mid 70s to early 00s). This particular show ran 1990-92, so it fits snugly in the same zone that featured Xena, Cleopatra 2525, and Buffy. Plus, the "Super Force" suit was created by the same costuming genius behind John Wesley Shipp's superhero outfit on The Flash 1990 TV show (and probably the other costumes in that series as well).
Here's the synopsis:
S1 EP18 - Two beautiful alien girls (Traci and Grace) come to Earth looking for specimens for a galactic zoo, and they come into conflict with Super Force.
S2 EP3 - The alien girls come back looking for more specimens, and they encounter Super Force again, albeit with different results.
S3 EP11 - An alien law enforcer named "Nomad" (kind of a Judge Dredd type) comes after the alien girls, and Super Force must defeat Nomad
and protect the girls.
They pretty much wear those tight dresses the whole time. There's no space jumpsuits (like Wilma Deering), and there's no ripping and tearing of the costumes or any partial nudity.
It's especially cheesy and fun how "Nomad" (who looks straight out of a Hercules episode) almost always refers to himself in the third person except for a couple times when he calls himself "I, Nomad". Hilarious.
Throughout Season 2, there are appearances by a female "Esper Cop" (espers were a thing in both Judge Dredd and Babylon 5 at the time, so I guess everyone was using them) named Xander Tyler (played by South African actress Musetta Vander). She looks pretty cute, so I'm going to investigate a little about what kind of costumes she might have been wearing in the series as well.
Here are some shots to whet your appetite. If you want to know where I found and watched these (and all of the Space Force episodes) just PM me.
Close-up of Traci and Grace.
- traci and grace.jpg (58.54 KiB) Viewed 880 times
- traci and grace on trial.jpg (38.14 KiB) Viewed 880 times
- traci and grace knocked out.jpg (66.5 KiB) Viewed 880 times
