Any fans of Gerry Anderson? (Thunderbirds, UFO, Space 1999)

Agreed. Something fishy going on here. Hey, there's a clue! Maybe they got a load of stuff from the Stingray guys (who must have got help from the XL5 guys,...)

 

The proper and best version of the Captain Scarlet theme. Why they bothered to re-record it with words after the first dozen episodes is beyond me, this versions classic:

 

And this is what they replaced it with:

 

And Stingray had the best intro:

 

Wish I could get me a decent size Angel Interceptor model, authentic old style

 

Here's Arthur Provis (AP Films) and Roberta Leighs attempt at a Stingray knock off:



It's interesting, in some ways it's more advanced than Anderson's productions (no visible wires for instance) but in other ways it's just cheap (especially that intro sequence) plus the Paul Starr puppet looks like DJ Tony Blackburn.

Note that Paul Starr's voice is that of Colonel White in Captain Scarlet, Ed Bishop.

 

Another Arthur Provis and Roberta Leigh pilot. This time Live action, predating Anderson's UFO. This ones pretty bad though, it gets worse near the end, with the constant recycling of the same set just dressed differently to appear like a different area. The chick in the silver suits a looker though:

 

Robert was very cool to this then 6 year old..as was Steve Zodiac..

I loved Fireball XL-5 during it's too short run on NBC Saturday mornings in the early 60's. Fireball XL-5 sparked a personal interest in the US and USSR space programs that remain with me to this day.

And it really made an indelible visual impression as I carried very fond and vivd memories of it for years and years until I was finally able to revisit an episode on a bootleg VHS tape that I bought at a Sci-Fi convention back in the late 80's. Watching it again after all those years made my inner child leap with joy.

I happily bought the DVD set the first week it came out.

As for Fireball lifting the launch ramp idea from When Worlds Collide, Gerry Anderson readily admitted that he did in an interview many years back as he was a big fan of the movie. He also stated with a laugh that only he could "borrow" an idea that he thought was very plausable at the time and find later that it would never ever work in a real-life launch attempt.

Nice to see you back Vidiot. I missed your posts during your recent time away...

 

"Fullllllll power! Fulllllllllll powwwwwer!"

 

Yeah Robert. That's the ticket...

 

Just catching up on this thread..... my favorite was always UFO, as it aired when I was about 10 and it scared the crap out of me. I also enjoyed the Thunderbirds series, but I have mixed feelings about Space: 1999. As another poster mentioned, Barry Morse and Martin Landau were great, but the science was wonky and Barbara Bain was kind of lame. Also, I have to say the Barry Gray music is fantastic, whether it's a Thunderbirds march or the theme from UFO.
I just saw something regarding a new production of Thunderbirds, (http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/thunderbirds-go-show-bosses-unveil-3913785) with live action/CG, and supposedly faithful to the original (I'm skeptical).
And, regarding Thunderbirds send ups, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore did it first:

 

As Master Braun said ..."Excellent!"

 

I still have my space 1999 ship

 

I remember watching "The Protectors" on CBS late night TV after the 11pm news. It starred Robert Vaughn, trying to cash in on the European cloak and dagger formula of the day, but it was a drama squashed into a 30 minute story. I enjoyed watching it, but I was in middle school at the time.

 

Finally found the complete Stingray box set. Only $20 too!. I only had Volume 2 and 3 (which are Discs 2 and 3 in this box set) in Region 2 and Volume two was starting to crack.

The box set looks amazing, really well packaged and metallic (this photo does not do it justice, it's brighter and both silver and blue:

 

I've had that one for a while. You can also get the complete Captain Scarlet in a boxset along with the complete Stingray and Joe 90. JB HiFi Dunedin has it. About $50 from memory.

 

I've got the complete Captain Scarlet in their separate volumes. They're all a different color, about 5 in total. I've also got a box set from years ago which has Supercar, Fireball XL5, The Secret Service plus a special features disc.

 

Anything could happen in the next half hour!

No question in my mind, Thunderbirds had the best theme. But you know, all the Barry Gray themes were pretty good. I have a soft spot in my head for both Supercar and Fireball XL-5, too.

 

This was the first Captain Scarlet episode I ever saw. It also has the distinction of cloudbase actually moving, and the unfiltered mysteron voice at 5:35

 

For those interested the second season of Space:1999 is being released along with a taster featuring the Bringers of Wonder and Destination Moonbase Alpha two parter/feature film that was cobbled together from episodes...

http://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/111414_1000

 

Just started watching UFO about a week ago - it's been on my backlog of shows to watch for several decades but was never televised in my area. Here in the US Hulu Plus is offering it in high def, and it looks pretty fantastic. You can see the eyeshadow they put on Ed Bishop. Not eyeliner - blue eyeshadow. He was kinda bug-eyed and I think they did it to tone that down.

Well, it's not as bad as Shatner's wig on Star Trek, anyhow...

I still think it's the best-designed science fiction show, ever. The Chris Foss-inspired ships are all pretty amazing, the model work is fantastic and much of it still holds up in HD (if you can ignore the occasional wire...), the sets are spectacular and most of the costumes are quality affairs. And Barry Gray's soundtrack is his masterpiece and quite extensive - Fanderson put out a two-CD compilation over a decade ago, with one full disc of music Gray composed for the series and another that the program's music editor compiled, from Gray's library (including tracks recorded for shows like Thunderbirds and UFO) as well as from various studio libraries.

In fact, there was so much music they recently released a 3-CD special edition...

Bain did some great work in the second-half of the 1st season. In the first half she was pretty much directed to act like a robot or - occasionally - a cranky robot. It, uh, did not go well. But when you think about it there hadn't been many women cast as doctors up until that point, so she didn't have a lot to go on.

A scene was scripted and I believed shot where Koenig had one of the lab windows that had been blown out by the probe replaced with a sliding window. It got cut for time.

Very sad. Sylvia's crazy '60s fashions were probably a bit too Austin Powers, but I've always had a thing for Nehru jackets. Unfortunately they only look good on you if you're slim...

I'm watching the series for the first time right now. I'll have to post my thoughts on it, but suffice to say I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, although the first batch of episodes have enormous pacing problems, some dodgy scripts and way, way too many shots of things being launched.

Really? I never cared for the puppet shows - except maybe as camp - and thought the astringent plots of Space: 1999 (at least, its first season) were the perfect antidote to most of Star Trek, which was relentlessly, sometimes stupidly upbeat. (In general, the best Trek episodes - like "City On The Edge Of Forever", "The Ultimate Computer" or "The Doomsday Machine" - had strong elements of tragedy as well.)

 

Sunspot, thanks for the heads-up about UFO on Hulu Plus! Gonna watch a couple episodes every Saturday like I used to do when I was a kid.

 

And just to update this thread: there's a new documentary coming soon called Filmed in Supermarionation that details all the great Gerry Anderson productions of the 1960s:

 

Thanks for the info, Vidiot - I'll be interested in seeing that.

 

I'm over 2/3rds of the way thru screening UFO in high-def over on Hulu. If you watch the show I recommend using the first series-order listed here:

http://ufoseries.com/faq.html#16

And stick with it, because the program - while it always has its better elements - definitely gets better on average as the run progresses. The pacing improves and the themes become more adult.

It's still a terribly flawed and sometimes silly series, but when it works I've gotta say it works very well, and I have to give the Andersons props for having such a cranky lead character (Bishop as Straker) and the ITC casting folks for landing so many great actors (Philip Madoc, Adrienne Corri, Michael Jayston, George Cole, Alexis Kanner, and an impossibly young Stephanie Beecham, to name just a few). It's certainly a huge step up from Thunderbirds, although it isn't as delightfully camp.

Which isn't to say it's not frequently camp. I mean, purple wigs and eye shadow on the guys...