Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion

A mid-1960's black-and-white German TV series, this production was even more bare bones than soon-to-appear "Star Trek." The adventures of the space faring "Orion" start with a routine survey mission to a border outpost by a less than enthusiastic demoted-from-exploration crew.

They find that the station doesn't respond when contacted, which lads to a recon mission by shuttle. The station crew is dead; frozen at their posts, with most systems turned off.

The landing party quickly discovers the presence of an apparently non-corporeal Alien that isn't affected by ordinary weapons. Exploiting the only apparent enemy weakness, the crew of the "Orion" barely survives first contact with a hostile race.

If this sounds a bit like a "Star Trek" episode where Kirk & company discover the Romulan sublight attack ship and it's Plasma-like weapon, it is as exciting.

Another thing that sets this series apart is set design. Using common household items in creative ways, The Future looks visually exciting. Special effects are optical, for the most part, but they work as well as modern DFX to create (somewhat) believable results.

For the curious English apeaking SF fan, there are English-subtitled episodes on YouTube. It is interesting to note that this takes place some time AFTER "Star Trek.";)