Earth is attacked by the alien Gamilons. Humanity fights back, but Gamilon bombards the entire planet, forcing everyone on Earth underground. Radiation from the bombardment sinks ever deeper into the planet, and forecasts are that this will mean all life on Earth will be wiped out in one year.
At this darkest moment, Earth receives unexpected help: a message from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar, offering a device called "Cosmo DNA" which will remove the radiation. However, since Iscandar is 148,000 light years away, Starsha also sends plans for the experimental Wave Motion Engine that, when constructed, will help whoever can travel to Iscandar. It will be up to Earth's last surviving starship captain, and a small crew of volunteers, to convert an old WW2 battleship into a spaceship and brave the long voyage to Iscandar in pursuit of Earth's last hope for survival ...
Star Blazers (or at least, the Japanese animated show from which it was adapted) feels like it was probably an inspiration for the later Star Fleet / X-Bomber. They even both have a comedy relief robot. This feels like a rather more downbeat show overall, however. There is considerably more bickering and tension between the human crew, and it goes to some surprisingly dark places at times. Unfortunately, it's undermined by some awkward writing and some very awkward voice acting. If your main goal is entertainment value, Star Fleet is a better bet; I'd say you should probably only check out Star Blazers if you're an anime aficionado, as it definitely was an important work within Japanese animation.
Note: This review is going up on Saturday bonus review because I plan to watch and review seasons 2 and 3, but I already watched my DVDs of season 1.
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