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

Huge part of my childhood, (if you couldn't tell from my username)

 

Daddy!

 

Watched SUPERCAR and FIREBALL XL-5 as a kid. Made my own shirt cardboard and pipe cleaner Supercar. Have two vintage lunchboxes of each (so I can display front and back). Have only watched parts of episodes and highlights on YouTube since. I remember we rented the THUNDERBIRDS VHS tape in the late 80's or early 90's and my son got bored and I fell asleep.

 

So I'm watching the Blu-ray of season two of Space:1999 Not as bad as I remember it but also dumbed down considerably from season one. There were some really odd music choices by the music editor on a couple of episodes where the music just didn't fit the mood.

 

Derek Wadsworth noted that he wrote way, way too much music for Y2. It was his first big gig and he went absolutely nuts. He probably should have written half as much and made it a little more mood-centric instead of trying to always match the action. Because when they went to edit the music into other episodes...it didn't work very well.

They also didn't use as much library music in the second season, saving money by hacking up Wadsworth's stuff. Y1 used a ton of library tracks, extremely effectively.

Y2 does fix a lot of the pacing problems the show had during its first season. Catherine Schell is fantastic as Maya - much more compelling I always thought than the other regulars. She had this unique ability to recite the most ridiculous technobabble and make it utterly convincing. The method actor leads couldn't do that.

 

I can’t remember which episode it was but my wife was watching it with me and she said “why is this music which is almost whimsical playing with these dramatic scenes”.

I agree about Catherine Schnell. An underrrated actress to be sure and 9ne of the delights of the season as well. I always felt that Barbara Bain was a poor choice for her role. I never felt like she brought much as an actress myself. Her too cool demeanor didn’t translate well and, whenever she was play8ng a much more emotional character, it just never convinced me going all the way back to Mission Impossible.

 

I liked season two as a kid I guess but even at that age I found season one more exciting because it was unique and atmospheric. Oh, and Big Jim Sullivan playing! Season two was more American. Better uniforms, I can say that for it!

 

I thought the uniforms in the second season were insanely tacky. Those leisure suit jackets look like something Don Knotts would have worn on Three's Company.

 

Strange. Maybe it was just seeing Jim Sullivan in the season one unis looking so uncomfortable that put me off of them, and you'd think those metal zippers along one side would be cold on the skin, eck! Don Knotts went into space once though... I remember an old movie of his I saw once.

 

I finally had a chance to watch 1999 on Comet over the weekend. For those who don't know, Comet is a sci-fi/horror/fantasy network that's broadcasting over the air in a ton of markets now.

They're on the second season now, which isn't exactly my cuppa tea. I was surprised by how good the signal looked - usually the sub channels these minor networks roll out on are pretty low-bitrate affairs but 1999 looked better than I recall the DVDs looking, although it didn't look HD. I think they're uncut, but they run with loads of commercials and drag on for over an hour as a result.

Still, it's highly amusing to see this back on the air 43 years after it first aired. Damn we're old!

 

big Captain Scarlet fan here, grew up on all the Anderson TV programmes
got a nice little corner of our entertainment room dedicated to it



the reflection in that last photo is all kinds of wrong but its to late to change it tonight lol

 

I'm still waiting for the big announcement of a complete run of Twizzle to have surfaced followed by deluxe box set! I must be a fan because I even have both volumes of Torchy the Battery Boy and volume two is the one after Gerry Anderson left! It's just that Pom Pom the Poodle is so charming... that must be it. And have Four Feather Falls and Supercar etc. All aired originally before I was born! What a sad time when Gerry's death was announced and then Sylvia's too not so long after...

I'm not an uber fan... don't have too many of the old annuals. Don't have all the CD soundtracks, or every single S.I.G. or Fab magazine, and not much in the way of comics at all. Definitely no bits from the actual puppets I'm restoring (but bless those who can go there, too bad Venus got incinerated way back).

 

sorted

 

When I was a kid my dad introduced me to Thunderbirds and Stingray, but I’ve never actually seen the entire series. The two I was most into were Captain Scarlet (I’ve got the 2001 DVD set I’m going back through at the moment!), and Joe90, but I also haven’t seen that completely. What are the best box sets for all 4 of these?

Also, the SPV will forever be the coolest scifi vehicle ever created. I was OBSESSED with it as a kid, and my dad and I worked hard on restoring his original Dinky model from the 60s.

 

Ron Embleton's artwork was quite something to see 'in the flesh'. He only used black, magenta, cyan and yellow Pelikan ink, and all the different colours were acheived by cross hatching, so he knew exactly how it would look when printed.

 

The current Thunderbirds sets are annoyingly 'fake stereo' but the Stingray box is a beaut.
Stingray The Complete Collection [DVD]

 

re posting the photo that has gone from my contribution to the thread



was lucky enough to get this signed by Frances Matthews as well

 

Comet is wrapping up the 2nd season of Space:1999 tonight here in the US. It looks like they start over again with the first season and "Breakaway" next week on Saturday night.

 

Comet is running a new year's 1999 marathon, something I certainly never thought we'd see on broadcast TV here in America. Their tag is, Party Like It's Space:1999!

 

Big GA fan here, UFO probably my favourite, watching re- runs on Forces TV.

 

I'm currently watching my DVD set of UFO, then Space 1999 is next up. After that it's back to Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet (my favourite) and then Joe 90.

 

Nick Drake's





sister !!!!

 

What is "Comet?"