diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/plans/logical/LogicalPlan.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/plans/logical/LogicalPlan.scala
index 2b8fbdcde9d37fc693ee50458ceb8b55f3c5bed0..4f641cd3a656bccabcb7aa6a3a1fb002ec4495b9 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/plans/logical/LogicalPlan.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/plans/logical/LogicalPlan.scala
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ package org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.errors.TreeNodeException
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.QueryPlan
-import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.types.StructType
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.types.{StringType, StructType}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.trees
 
 abstract class LogicalPlan extends QueryPlan[LogicalPlan] {
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ abstract class LeafNode extends LogicalPlan with trees.LeafNode[LogicalPlan] {
  */
 abstract class Command extends LeafNode {
   self: Product =>
-  def output = Seq.empty
+  def output: Seq[Attribute] = Seq.empty
 }
 
 /**
@@ -115,7 +115,9 @@ case class NativeCommand(cmd: String) extends Command
  * Returned by a parser when the users only wants to see what query plan would be executed, without
  * actually performing the execution.
  */
-case class ExplainCommand(plan: LogicalPlan) extends Command
+case class ExplainCommand(plan: LogicalPlan) extends Command {
+  override def output = Seq(AttributeReference("plan", StringType, nullable = false)())
+}
 
 /**
  * A logical plan node with single child.
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLContext.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLContext.scala
index 5626f0da2230b8fed7eee5bef9e61b3f25d296b7..fde4c485b58a0a067954c541996d261609478d1e 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLContext.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/SQLContext.scala
@@ -191,6 +191,7 @@ class SQLContext(@transient val sparkContext: SparkContext)
     val sparkContext = self.sparkContext
 
     val strategies: Seq[Strategy] =
+      CommandStrategy(self) ::
       TakeOrdered ::
       PartialAggregation ::
       LeftSemiJoin ::
@@ -256,6 +257,11 @@ class SQLContext(@transient val sparkContext: SparkContext)
       Batch("Prepare Expressions", Once, new BindReferences[SparkPlan]) :: Nil
   }
 
+  // TODO: or should we make QueryExecution protected[sql]?
+  protected[sql] def mkQueryExecution(plan: LogicalPlan) = new QueryExecution {
+    val logical = plan
+  }
+
   /**
    * The primary workflow for executing relational queries using Spark.  Designed to allow easy
    * access to the intermediate phases of query execution for developers.
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkStrategies.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkStrategies.scala
index 6463f47510633983ce786af2039f8f4b02350d41..295c265b1673f7c8cd7e011c00f6d523e7b7b11e 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkStrategies.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkStrategies.scala
@@ -233,4 +233,15 @@ private[sql] abstract class SparkStrategies extends QueryPlanner[SparkPlan] {
       case _ => Nil
     }
   }
+
+  // TODO: this should be merged with SPARK-1508's SetCommandStrategy
+  case class CommandStrategy(context: SQLContext) extends Strategy {
+    def apply(plan: LogicalPlan): Seq[SparkPlan] = plan match {
+      case logical.ExplainCommand(child) =>
+        val qe = context.mkQueryExecution(child)
+        Seq(execution.ExplainCommandPhysical(qe.executedPlan, plan.output)(context))
+      case _ => Nil
+    }
+  }
+
 }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/commands.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/commands.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5371d2f479e73617fbf8689749481494411960e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/commands.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.execution
+
+import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
+import org.apache.spark.sql.{SQLContext, Row}
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.{GenericRow, Attribute}
+
+case class ExplainCommandPhysical(child: SparkPlan, output: Seq[Attribute])
+                                 (@transient context: SQLContext) extends UnaryNode {
+  def execute(): RDD[Row] = {
+    val planString = new GenericRow(Array[Any](child.toString))
+    context.sparkContext.parallelize(Seq(planString))
+  }
+
+  override def otherCopyArgs = context :: Nil
+}
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
index fbab2ac16b896178d6b768a63b0697666b506b58..4b97dc25acf89a3c9f3036dc5745356ac1a5b116 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
@@ -218,6 +218,7 @@ class HiveContext(sc: SparkContext) extends SQLContext(sc) {
     val hiveContext = self
 
     override val strategies: Seq[Strategy] = Seq(
+      CommandStrategy(self),
       TakeOrdered,
       ParquetOperations,
       HiveTableScans,
@@ -304,7 +305,7 @@ class HiveContext(sc: SparkContext) extends SQLContext(sc) {
      */
     def stringResult(): Seq[String] = analyzed match {
       case NativeCommand(cmd) => runSqlHive(cmd)
-      case ExplainCommand(plan) => new QueryExecution { val logical = plan }.toString.split("\n")
+      case ExplainCommand(plan) => mkQueryExecution(plan).toString.split("\n")
       case query =>
         val result: Seq[Seq[Any]] = toRdd.collect().toSeq
         // We need the types so we can output struct field names
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveQuerySuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveQuerySuite.scala
index 125cc18bfb2b5ca0e828ed86655f56fff9f5e67f..c56eee258047f478e3f00a831597e7939bbde113 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveQuerySuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveQuerySuite.scala
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.execution
 
 import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.test.TestHive._
+import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.test.TestHive
 
 /**
  * A set of test cases expressed in Hive QL that are not covered by the tests included in the hive distribution.
@@ -159,4 +160,15 @@ class HiveQuerySuite extends HiveComparisonTest {
     hql("SHOW TABLES").toString
     hql("SELECT * FROM src").toString
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-1704: Explain commands as a SchemaRDD") {
+    hql("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS src (key INT, value STRING)")
+    val rdd = hql("explain select key, count(value) from src group by key")
+    assert(rdd.collect().size == 1)
+    assert(rdd.toString.contains("ExplainCommand"))
+    assert(rdd.filter(row => row.toString.contains("ExplainCommand")).collect().size == 0,
+      "actual contents of the result should be the plans of the query to be explained")
+    TestHive.reset()
+  }
+
 }