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Roger Manning (Jan Merlin) was the rather abrasive "wise guy" of the Polaris unit. Jan assumed the character in a most believable fashion. He was the cadet we loved to hate- but not for long. Even when Roger was behaving in his worst fashion, such as apparently deserting his unit mates to join a band of space pirates, he always reverted to his inherent "good guy" self, double-crossing and defeating the space pirates and rescuing his unit mates in the end. The scenario was often repeated, and we fans always wondered if Roger had really "gone bad for good, this time". Of course he hadn't.
Jan has been most helpful in advising me of the true colors of the Space Cadet uniforms. The colors seen in this portrait have been obtained and verified by correspondence and phone calls with both Jan Merlin and Frankie Thomas. (Frankie was looking at his actual uniform as he described it over the phone to me a few months ago!) |  Photo 3 |
