But, neither Star Trek or Star Wars are at the center of Space 4 Rent.

When I started to consider trying to construct a film around Space 4 Rent!, I started watching some of the old space programs. A Flash Gordon serial, a Buck Rogers serial, several episodes of the American television program Space Patrol. There was a British TV named Space Patrol. I don’t know that much about it except it was a non-Gerry Anderson puppet show.

Trust me, Captain Buzz Corny has more to do with Commander Buzz Corry than he does with James Kirk.

It was while I was watching the second Flash Gordon serial that I decided the main story of the film would be a bacterial release by Wha Maroon Khan. Ming the Merciless unleashed a bacterial infection, called Purple Death on the people of Earth. Flash Gordon, along with Dr. Alexis Zarkov and Dale Arden, return to the planet Mongo to find a possible cure, first seeking the assistance of their old friend Prince Barin. The trio continues to battle Ming and his allies, led by henchman Captain Torch, who has been charged with stopping the Earthlings by any means.

I knew that had to be the central story of the film, but not just a bacterial infection of people. And definitely not a zombie or vampire causing bacteria.

S&H Green Stamps was a line of trading stamps popular in the United States from 1896 until the late 1980s. They were distributed as part of a rewards program operated by the Sperry & Hutchinson company (S&H), founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelley Byron Hutchinson. During the 1960s, the company issued more stamps than the U.S. Postal Service, and distributed 35 million catalogs a year. Customers received stamps at the checkout counter of supermarkets, department stores, and gasoline stations among other retailers, that could then be redeemed for products from the catalog. Top Value Stamps ceased operations in the early 1980s, after which S&H would accept savings books for those left with unredeemed Top Value books, before S&H themselves also ceased business.

S&H Green Stamps had several competitors, including Greenbax Stamps offered by Piggly Wiggly, Gold Bell Gift Stamps (in the Midwest), Triple S Stamps (offered by Grand Union Supermarkets), Gold Bond Stamps, Blue Chip Stamps, Plaid Stamps (a project of A&P Supermarkets), Top Value Stamps, King Korn Stamps, Quality Stamps, Gunn Brothers given by Safeway, Buccaneer, and Eagle Stamps (a project of several divisions of the May Department Stores Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, and offered, notably, by May Company stores, supermarkets, drug stores, gas stations, and dry cleaners in the Cleveland, Ohio, area).

To this day, I have no idea why Green Stamps entered my mind, but they did. Once they entered my twisted little mind, I knew it was the right idea. As I worked, several other ideas came into mind.

The photon reactor is a method and means for producing nuclear energy from heavy elements but not fissile elements. The reaction is not driven by the well known self- sustained, chain-reaction, of U235, rather by an accelerator. The fuel for this type of accelerator driven reactor may be the spent fuel from fission reactors. The mechanism by which nuclear energy is released from non-fissile material is known as photo-fission, wherein a photon or gamma is introduced greater than the photo-fission threshold energy resulting in fission of the target nucleus. For instance, with U238, the threshold of photo- fission is about 6 MeV and results in fission of the U238 nucleus releasing about 200 MeV. A linear accelerator, preferably of the monochromatic type, accelerates electrons which are directed onto a high Z target such as tungsten to generate gamma rays of an energy about 10 MeV, which are directed onto the fuel material such as U238 which results in the (?,f) reaction, thus releasing about 200 MeV. A reactor built according to this principle requiring an accelerator driven by 1 MW will develop about 20 MW of power. The reaction is not self-sustaining and stops when the beam is turned off. This accelerator driven reactor may be used to "burn-up" spent fuel from fission reactors, if simply operated at 10 MeV. The photo-fission results in typical spent fuel waste products such as Cs137 and Sr90 which undergo photo disintegration by the (?,n) reaction resulting in short lived or stable products. Chemical separations of the spent fuel isotopes are not necessary. Of course, more than one accelerator may be used to drive the reactor to higher power levels, and speed-up the burn-up process. Ideally, four spaced accelerators would require about 4.8 MW of power to run resulting in about 100 MW from the reactor.

The ships use “photon reactors” to produce the great amount of energy they need. The energy is fed through Illudium Q-36 modulator to a tantalus hyper power circuit and disbursed out from there. Photons are a particle representing a quantum of light or other electromagnetic radiation. A photon carries energy proportional to the radiation frequency but has zero rest mass. What physicists refer to as photons, other people might just call light. As quanta of light, photons are the smallest possible packets of electromagnetic energy. If you are reading this article on a screen or a page, streams of photons are carrying the images of the words to your eyes. Photons were identified by Albert Einstein.

If you think I made all of that up, go to http://www.meridian-int-res.com/Energy/PhotonReactor.pdf

Star Trek never explained how they controlled the destruction of matter and anti-matter. Star Wars never explained how their engines worked at all. We say “photon reactors” and let it go at that. Thanks to Gerry Anderson for that one. This how he powered his space ships on Fireball XL-5. There are probably several other details that I picked up from Gerry Anderson, but I don’t remember what.

Furthermore, when I was writing the part of the script where the BS Ahimsa Maru sustained damage, I first intended to have them switch over to the emergency batteries. No, not goofy enough. How about a hamster? Yeah, that will do. Chief Labrador would switch over to the emergency hamster to give the BS Ahimsa Maru enough power to land and repair themselves.

Each Space Command fleet is commanded from an orbiting station. The Third Fleet is commanded from Command Station No. 9. While I was trying to decide what the names should be, a song fragment sprung into my mind, “Love potion No. 9.” That was so goofy, I knew it would work, thusly the Third fleet is commanded from Command Station No. 9. Why didn’t I call the fleet the 9th fleet?

I am a historical buff, kiddies. In WWII Admiral William “Bull” Halsey commanded what was first a task force, then became the US Navy’s Third Fleet. As such, the 3rd fleet participated in Gen. MacArthur's liberation of the Philippines. In the European Theater, at roughly the same time as Gen. MacArthur was liberating the Philippines, Gen. George S. Patton led the Third Army in a dash across France and Germany, finally closing in on Czechoslovakia. So, Space Command 3rd Fleet is named such in memory of both of those organizations.

The Hornet Squadron 8 is named for the Hornet Torpedo Squadron 8 from WWII. Hornet Torpedo Squadron 8 was stationed on the USS Hornet. During the Battle of Midway, Hornet Torpedo Squadron 8 was launched as one of the US Navy’s last attacks, but No. 8 became separated from the attack. They lost their way. Our last attack was fought off. Our fleet was wide open to an attack from the Japanese fleet. The Japanese began operations to refuel and rearm their planes for the attack on the US Fleet.

Through intuition, a few good guesses and some good luck, Hornet Squadron 8 found the Japanese fleet, flying in from a direction the Japanese was not expecting. As if it were scripted for a film, Hornet Squadron Torpedo 8 managed to jump the Japanese fleet when the Japanese Navy had their decks full of aviation fuel, bombs and ammunition. Hornet Squadron 8 managed to sink 3 aircraft carriers, all three were burning from bow to stern within 6 minutes of attack. The last Japanese aircraft was sunk the following day. That’s why the Space Command squadron is named Hornet Squadron 8.

The Ships:

Sakaki class ships are squadron command ships. Colonel Mayhem commands Hornet Squadron 8 from the Haiden Sakaki. Sakakis are commanded on a day-to-day basis by a Fleet Captain. If and when Captain Corny is promoted, he will be promoted to a Fleet Captain, then to squadron command. The squadron is commanded by the Squadron Commander on board. The First officer, Second in Command of squadron is a Major.

Maru class ships are commanded by a captain. These are the battleship type of class for Space Command. They are usually commanded by someone who brags the most about their accomplishments and Captain Corny is no exception. Marus are heavily armed with laser cannons and energy bolts (photon torpedoes) Unlike Sakakis, Marus can land on planet surfaces. They do have transporters but they can, in an emergency, land on a planet surface. The Sakakis and the Marus have some shuttle crafts, but, right at the moment, they will not be shown.

Batsu class of ships are lighter armed than a Maru Class. The are the cruiser like ship, but, unlike US Navy Cruisers, they are not armed with special weapons, like nuclear missiles. Just laser cannon and energy cannons. Batsus are placed in command of squads of fighters when needed. Thus both Captain Corny and Lieutenant Error worked their way up to commanding a Maru via time spent on Marus, Batsus and Fighters.

Fighters are long distance crafts commanded by First Lieutenants. Fighter pilots grow up to be Captains of Marus. Think Top Gun. Space Command fighters are built to work equally well in space or in a planet’s atmosphere. Like X fighters from Star Wars.

Imperial forces are organized along the same lines as Space Command forces. As opposed to Marus, Imperial forces have Gojira (which is Japanese for Godzilla, yes). As opposed to Batsus, the Imperial forces have Mosura (which is Japanese for Mothra). All of those ships can be referenced, but, as of this date, not shown.

The Imperial Forces have fighters as well.

One big difference between the Space Command forces is that Wha Maroon Khan has a personal command space ship, the Rocket 88.

Why all the Japanese names for the ships? Star Trek named their ships after Navy ships, especially air craft carriers. I named mine after Japanese phrases. I don’t remember if any of them are named after Japanese Navy ships or not, but they’re all Japanese/far eastern phrases. Best example is our main ship the BS Ahimsa Maru. First of all, the “BS” designation stands for “bullshit,” yes. Ahimsa is a Sanskrit phrase that means “Do No Harm.” Kinda like nicknaming a gun “peacemaker.” “Maru” is the Japanese word for “circle.” I thought naming the classes of Imperial ships after Japanese monsters would be a nice giggle for people who know.