Some friends and I have been trying to figure out the name of an old
tv show or movie (can't remember which it was) that we believe to have
been cancelled or failed around 1996. The show was a children's show
that consisted of what we recall to be several space cadets who crash
landed on a foreign planet. The central motive behind the show was for
them to make contact with someone who could bring them back. The
episode/portion of the movie we remember the most is when they try to
contact someone and some scavenger-type bounty hunters land on the
planet. These new people attempt to search the planet for a creature
rumored to have telekinetic powers in it's spit. One of the cadets has
befriended the only one of these creatures the scavengers can find and
therefore tries to protect it. A small mind-game type fight between a
scavenger and a cadet who gain telekinetic powers from the animal
ensues. This is pretty much all we can remember.

Hello.

I believe that you're thinking of "Space Cases," a show that ran on
Nickelodeon in 1996.

The creature with the telekenetic powers in its spit was the "Rhomby"
(or "Rhombi").

See these various summaries from Space Cases episode guides:

"Our story begins with Rosie and Harlan exploring the planet in search
of materials that they can use to repair the Christa. In the course of
their explorations, Rosie finds a mysterious little creature that
looks sort of like a tiny ostrich with a dog face and donkey ears.
Naturally, she decides to make a pet out of it. Immediately
afterwards, Harlan and Rosie are attacked by Spung.
 Harlan tells Rosie to leave the creature behind, but Rosie brings her
new pet back to the Christa secretly. Suzee discovers it, and the two
of them learn that the pet is a Rhomby, a creature hunted by the Spung
for the psi-inducing properties of its saliva."
http://www.spacecasestv.com/details/scsea2_2/



"In this episode,Rosie finds an animal called a Rombi.It seems as
though the saliva of this animal can enduce teleconeases (sic)
(ability to move objects by thinking of it).Unfortunetly (sic) two
spung hunters are also looking for the animal."
http://spacecases.tripod.com/summ.htm

--------
search strategy:
"its saliva" planet show

Thanks.

very quick and helpful. have been trying to find this for years. thanks alot!!