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

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by goodiesguy, Jul 24, 2011.

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  1. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    (My apologies to @mrz80 , who will now require several months of therapy to recover from seeing those images...)

    :wiggle:
     
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  2. Johnny Rocker

    Johnny Rocker Well-Known Member

    Location:
    DFW
    If I recall correctly, the 50's, 60's, and 70's movies were actually very scary, during and after the 80's they became more gory, and depressing bloody films, maybe the think tanks at the movie round table just decided to go that route? And now the films are too Cg and action packed to take away the fear content and bore people to death with long winded dialogue and such....:confused:
     
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  3. Johnny Rocker

    Johnny Rocker Well-Known Member

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    Of course there are scarier things,,,,,,,boo![​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
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  4. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member

    IIRC, "Dragon's Domain" was the second episode aired in the Boston market (on WCVB-TV, which had opted to go with Space:1999 over Welcome Back, Kotter).

    "Dragon's Domain" absolutely terrified me, and in its aftermath, I always got the creeps if a sudden gust of wind hit me upon opening any doors...:eek:

    They might have also aired "Death's Other Dominion" early on as well, which also scarred my brain with its shocking ending.

    I'm pretty sure WCVB rather quickly opted to go with the network feed (thereby shuffling Space over to channel 56), but not before inflicting tremendous damage to my psyche... (You cannot "unwatch" either of those two episodes, no matter how hard you try!)
     
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  5. Johnny Rocker

    Johnny Rocker Well-Known Member

    Location:
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    Boo![​IMG]From Dracula, to Space 1999, to Star wars, poor Peter Cushing didn't get that Shakesphere role after all. Tis a shame.:biglaugh:
     
  6. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    There were plenty of scary movies, but not many as explicit as "Dragon's Domain", especially "monster" movies, which tended to be pretty ridiculous until the '80s. Well, they were still often ridiculous, but the effects got much more convincing and gory (Alien probably launched that trend).

    The first seasons of Space:1999 is available in HD in the US via Hulu by the way, if anybody wants to check out what we're talking about.

    Space 1999

    I was slackjawed. Nobody saw that coming! A really fantastic ending. I thought the rest of the episode was by turns a bit dull (staggering around in the snow) and overwrought (the crazed former Captain of the expedition) when I was a kid, but seeing it as an adult I thought it might have been the best episode they did, and it actually made more sense than virtually any other 1999 episode.
     
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  7. Johnny Rocker

    Johnny Rocker Well-Known Member

    Location:
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    I read somewhere that the 1st alien film used left over props from space 1999, I'm not sure but that's what I heard?
     
  8. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I doubt that. Not many of 1999's props survived unfortunately. The models made it out for the most part, though.

    The model work in Alien was handled by 1999's Brian Johnson and Nick Alder though, and it shows.
     
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  9. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member

    It's a very moody episode, and I like Koenig's interaction with Jack Tanner.

    I never really thought it was dull, but WTF were they thinking when they clothed the women? It's a frigid ice planet. The men are dressed in warm furs, but the women only get skimpy "One Million B.C." fur bikinis...

    Yeah, it was a different time when it was made (I get that), but Alan's horn-dog attitude when he realizes they could stay (and that look the Ultima-Thulean woman gives him), makes me groan.

    One more thing: why did Dr. Rowland sabotage the radio? What purpose did that serve, other than to make him seem villainous?
     
  10. Johnny Rocker

    Johnny Rocker Well-Known Member

    Location:
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    I have a model spotting, a space ship on 2001, looks similar to some ships on 1999....[​IMG] [​IMG] Pretty darn close eh?
     
  11. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I thought it was because he didn't want Koenig contacting Alpha until he'd had a chance to charm Helena (and to some extent Victor) into supporting his experiments.

    Martin Bower had actually built that model prior to getting hired to work on 1999, inspired by the Discovery from 2001. It ended up getting a lot of use in 1999, appearing (sometimes redressed, or in pieces) in four separate episodes.
     
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  12. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    For a remedy maybe you can find that special episode where Commander Koenig and Dr. Helena Russell double-date on a nearby starbase with Buddy Hackett and Cass Elliot?

    [​IMG]
     
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  13. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Fancy threads, Millicent.
     
  14. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    thunderbird
    Just got The Au Pair Girls DVD. Wander what her forlorn brother Nick Drake thought of this cheeky film.
     
  15. Holerbot6000

    Holerbot6000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Fireball XL-5!
    [​IMG]
     
  16. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    I used to watch Supercar and Stingray when I was little; don't remember much but I'm pretty sure I watched them almost every week.

    Space 1999 on the other hand, from what I saw of it, was awful.
     
  17. I was dumbfounded when I watched a bonus “making of” feature on the DVD Of Team America there was no mention of Thunderbirds or any Supermarionation shows.
     
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  18. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Zienia Merton, who played the reserved Sandra on Space:1999, passed away last week after a lengthy battle with cancer. The Guardian came thru today with a stunningly comprehensive obit. Zienia was vivacious and a natural-born storyteller, on and off-screen, in later years recounting hilarious tales of the various productions she'd been a part of. In spite of her youth at the time the show was produced, she functioned as the Earth Mother of the 1999 cast (perhaps thanks to her already-extensive television and film experience).

    Rest in peace.

    Zienia Merton obituary
     
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  19. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    An image of Zienia to jog our older memories...

    [​IMG]
     
  20. Hash browns!
     
  21. 3
    How sad. I felt she was underused on the show myself.
     
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  22. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Very much so. She described herself as the "emotional barometer" of Moonbase Alpha, and her character of Sandra was unfortunately tasked too often with looking worried, screaming or fainting.

    On the other hand, Sandra was always shown as competent and level headed when it came to the execution of her duties. In fact even thru the dodgy character writing that plagued the show she evolved to be the most reliable member of the command staff when it came to not flying off the handle and doing something stupid. Her relationship with Paul Morrow in the first season - and hints of one developing with Alan Carter as well - provided the program with some badly-needed human warmth. She particularly shines in "The Last Sunset", revealing her desire not only to walk in the open air again but to have children as well. Those dreams of course come crashing down around her by the end of the episode, in typical 1999 fashion. I think she delivers a more engrossing performance in this episode than most of the top-billed actors do across most of the series.

    In the second year Sandra was one of the few besides Maya who was shown to be technically competent, instructing a character by voice only over an intercom on how to build a high-voltage electrical barrier. You'd occasionally get this flash of a commanding presence from Sandra - a bit of Merton herself leaking thru, no doubt - and the popularity of her character was likely driven by Zienia's own formidable charisma. If the show had survived into a third season I wonder if the writers would have finally put her to good use. Sadly, her own career seemed to stagnate a bit after 1999 and never fully regained its earlier momentum. It's unfortunate the industry never provided her with a suitable vehicle, because I think she could have been extremely successful.
     
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  23. drmark7

    drmark7 Forum Resident

    Just to mention- the COMET channel (Which I receive OTA with rabbit ears) is the new home of showings of SPACE 1999. Once over the summer. they also had a Gerry Anderson SUPERMARIONATION one day festival of shows and movies. Now word yet on regular showings of those yet.
     
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  24. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Yeah, forgot to mention that - Comet just started showing the program. The first time it's been broadcast over the air in America since I think the very early '90s. SciFi showed it, but only on cable in the late '90s.
     
  25. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    Zienia Merton was great, I always enjoyed the few interviews with her about the show in the fan magazines, and even about her early Doctor Who appearance (Marco Polo, missing assumed wiped unfortunately) back in it's first season! Apparently she also guested in a Sarah Jane Adventure but have seen very few of that show, not sure it ever made it to any channels I could get over here.
     
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