Parenting Tips from Spaceman Jax?

He may cause more trouble than a Ploridian Lunar Beast, but his heart is in the right place.

As Father’s Day approaches, we’ve been thinking about how some of our favorite fictional characters fare as parents and surprisingly, one of the most inept bumblers ever to cross the galaxy – Spaceman Jax – actually turns out to be a pretty good Dad.

Spaceman Jax wasn’t really a father, of course. The show made it clear that he was Dekkin’s Uncle and explained the sad circumstances of her guardianship. Jax and his young niece Dekkin were the only survivors of Tiberion 3, a planet destroyed for its energy producing zandabite crystals. Jax vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice while ensuring no harm would ever come to Dekkin.

For Jax, this didn’t mean packing little Dekkin off to boarding school. Instead, she lived with him on his space ship where he kept a watchful eye on her and guided her through life with his vast knowledge and experience – or so he thought anyway.

Would Dekkin have been safer someplace else? Most certainly. Jax repeatedly dove headfirst into situations that put their lives in danger – accidentally of course – and it was left to his service robot Artie to pick up the domestic slack (and the mess). But while Jax wasn’t much in the brains department, he was all heart.

To some extent, Jax’s world was in orbit around Dekkin. He was proud of her bravery, kindness and determination, and he thought she was the smartest little neutron booster around. To be fair, that was one thing he was right about. Though she shared many of his qualities – especially the tendency to leap without looking – she was definitely much smarter than he was.

Above all, Spaceman Jax showed his niece that she was truly loved, so even though he was really her uncle, he made a really great Dad.