For Sci-Fi Fans Everywhere

[Uncle Al]

The Jupiter 2 - Lost, but not forgotten

Uncle Al

[Kirbstone]

Delightful, Uncle Al. We all like to be 'transported' back to our childhood, but that thing arrived too late for mine. I was a final year Med. student when it came out and I was so preoccupied with study &c. that I took no notice at the time.

I did go to see the 'Forbidden Planet' and enjoyed it immensely. I'd like to get hold of a DVD of it now.

T.

[Uncle Al]

Tom,

Try here..........
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forbidden-Plane ... B000O3HFYM

Uncle Al

[Big and Bashful]

Out of the different ships shown, my favourite is the Eagle, I think Space 1999 was on at just the right time for me to get hooked. Lost in Space hit me when I was a bit young. I do remember it being on, along with 'classics' like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Featuring Richard Baseheart) as it was always introduced. Ah! memories!

[Kirbstone]

This certainly dates me a bit:-

In the 'forties/fifties My parents had just one means of receiving outside broadcasts. This was a Phillips upright radiogram. It had a valve radio over a pull-out auto-change 10-stacker 78RPM record player with a sapphire needle. The radio had about eight shortwave columns and just one medium wave & one long wave column.
After my weekly piano lesson from an adoring old nun across the street I would rush in and agonise while the thing warmed up, thankful that the first minute or so of my favourite programme on Radio Luxemburg, 208 Medium Wave was an advert for Horlicks followed by 'Journey into Space' with Dan Dare and his side kicks, Len & Jocelyn.

Parallel to this was featured on 'The Eagle' comic a visual version of the same thing, Dan's principal foe being the Mekon, a large headed little guy sitting in a little boat-like conveyance permanently up at some height above the ground.

These serials hooked me on sky-fi and I went to all the films of that genre that came round, each trying to outdo the previous ones in the special effects dept., all yonks before computer digital animation &c, Perhaps the most 'real' was the opening scene of Space Odyssy 2001. with that amazing theme music.

T.

[the_scott_meister]

I loved those too. Lost In Space and Space 1999 were in reruns by the time I got to see them (mid '70s), but I'm glad that I got to see them. I recently showed my kids Forbidden Planet on HD-DVD. They didn't get it. So Sad.

[Sarongman]

Don't forget "Pigs in Space" from the Muppet series Pigs in Space was also a term for the police air wing. especially when, in the late 70s, they timed cars between two lines, a couple of km. apart, on the road and radioed a patrol car ahead to book speeding offenders.

[Grok]

I first saw Forbidden Planet as an adult. It occurs to me that the psychological aspects of the plot might be too sophisticated for small children.

[Grok]

Pigs in Space is my favorite!

[crfriend]

Don't forget "Pigs in Space" from the Muppet series Pigs in Space was also a term for the police air wing. especially when, in the late 70s, they timed cars between two lines, a couple of km. apart, on the road and radioed a patrol car ahead to book speeding offenders.

Usually the white lines -- which are quite observable by the astute -- were about a quarter-mile apart so a 15-second stopwatch-timing by the "bear in the air" (an Americanism -- see Convoy by "MC McCall" (the video quality, sadly, stinks)) would yield 60 miles-to-the-hour.

Unfortunately, removing lines and replacing them at shortened (or lengthened) distances was prohibitive for practical jokers. (Been there, contemplated that. It would have been (1) too much work, (2) too noticeable whilst in progress, and (3) would have probably left pavement damage; however, some thought was deployed on the matter.)

[Big and Bashful]

My favourite SF, used to be Close Encounters or Alien. Loved them at the time and went back multiple times to see them. Recently it tends to be series based, loved Stargate SG1 and SG Atlantis. I loved the stories and writing of Babylon 5, but the vis-effects were a bit debatable, still for very early computer generated graphics their Amiga+toaster did a good job. I liked Andromeda, to start with. Also an aborted series called Firefly was brilliant and sadly missed when the plug was pulled (if you don't know it, it is a masterful blend of Western and SF involving spacecraft, decaying civilisation, horses and guns, you need to see it!).
I always watched Star Trek, the first incarnation had great humour between the crew and I remember watching it with my Dad. THG left me a bit cold, the humour was gone and as with most of the ST the writing just didn't have a "natural quality" It's hard to describe, but I just found the dialogue and the societies they visited always looked totally unconvincing, e.g. the way they tried to make a utopian planet (summery colours, wafty clothes, youthful tittering all in a park somewhere) just looked completely poor. For me that has been a problem with all of the Star Treks, original series as well, however the original a;ways had the humour which made it watchable. Voyager was better than most of the offshoots, closer to the original series I think.

[skirtyscot]

I never read Dan Dare. "Dan Dire, Pilot of the Future?" in Private Eye in the 1980s was a good laugh, though. Dan Dire was Neil Kinnock, and his enemy, floating a few feet above the floor, was the evil Maggon, her Toreen underlings fawning beneath her. The question mark in the title turned out to be very apt!

[Uncle Al]

Also an aborted series called Firefly was brilliant and sadly missed
when the plug was pulled (if you don't know it, it is a masterful
blend of Western and SF involving spacecraft, decaying civilization,
horses and guns, you need to see it!).

Ahhh, yes - A Browncoat

If you haven't seen the movie yet, you can get it on DVD.
Serenity features the entire cast of Firefly. It really closes a lot
of the 'holes' left when the series was cancelled. If you're lucky
you can catch the Firefly panel discussion with cast members
and the creator Joss Whedon on your local Sci-Fi channel,
Discovery Channel or National Geographic Channel. I've
seen it on other channels but don't remember them. The
panel discussion was filmed at a Sy-Fy/Browncoat convention
in London around 2010 or 2011. Great Stuff

Uncle Al


P.S. - We have a new channel - PIVOT - on our cable system.
They have another great series FARSCAPE which aired
in 2000 or 2001.

[skirted_in_SF]

Unfortunately, removing lines and replacing them at shortened (or lengthened) distances was prohibitive for practical jokers. (Been there, contemplated that. It would have been (1) too much work, (2) too noticeable whilst in progress, and (3) would have probably left pavement damage; however, some thought was deployed on the matter.)

Ah, but think of how much fun you could have painting in a few random extra lines.
A stencil of the right length and width, and the right shade of paint should do the trick.

[STEVIE]

Al,
That one "hits the spot" for me, it's one of my earliest Sci-fi memories.
Here's a thought, use a "jet pack" while wearing a skirt, choose a style?
Steve.