Quote RegressiveRock:

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...oh and can I admit that Space: 1999 is my guilty pleasure!

Reg

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Babylon 5 for me!

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My head hurts!

Quote RegressiveRock:

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...oh and can I admit that Space: 1999 is my guilty pleasure!

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Ooooohhhhh!!!! That Space 1999 episode featuring Stacey Dorning!!!! Sigh...

NURSE! IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!!!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote The Elf:

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Quote RegressiveRock:

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...oh and can I admit that Space: 1999 is my guilty pleasure!

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Ooooohhhhh!!!! That Space 1999 episode featuring Stacey Dorning!!!! Sigh...

NURSE! IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!!!

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Are we talking 70s 7 of 9 ?

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My head hurts!

Hmmm, suprised no one has mentioned "Blakes 7" yet.

Blake's 7 was great !
A good mix of characters , now I think about it , they are the complete set of a raiding team from a dungeons and dragons game .
As Orac was made out of perspex , does "he" count as an optical computer ?


OneSecond , I liked Event Horizon too , I do think that Sean Pertwee brought as much , if not more to the film than anyone else , yet billed sooo far down the list .

Somebody call the nurse quickly :

Quote The Elf:

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Quote RegressiveRock:

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...oh and can I admit that Space: 1999 is my guilty pleasure!

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Ooooohhhhh!!!! That Space 1999 episode featuring Stacey Dorning!!!! Sigh...

NURSE! IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!!!

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Hehehe:

After an adjustment to my monthly DVD subscription service I have THX1138 waiting on my desk for a re-watch. (Also Real Steel!)

Hope the latter doe not let down the former.

Reg

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Google less; read more!

Yago, you are owed a packet of chocolate HobNobs any time you're passing the toadstool!

I think my spine just melted...



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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Yago, that's almost NSFW...

If you are going to be all nostalgic about Sci Fi ladies, then Erin Gray should get a mention, not that Buck Rogers is particulary Sci Fi.

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http://soundcloud.com/richie-royale
http://www.mixcrate.com/richieroyale

If we are allowing Space 1999 - great series - then I'll say U.F.O as well. I think the Andersons had a magic touch, and a love of spaceships, aliens, explosions and the wierd.

Shame they never made the big screen, though they say they spent as much on the small screen, and you can see the first generation of model makers and optical effects developers cut there teeth on these series

Starship Troopers ranks highly with me. 2001 probably tops.

And Star Wars. All **cough** six.

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Quote Chaconne:

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Shame they never made the big screen

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Went and saw it back in 1966, I did. Had it's moments, though I do wish they'd kept Cliff Richard out of it.

CC

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Putting the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Ha - yeah of course! I remember being excited by this as a youngster, but in the end it seamed that they just took even longer to get the Thunderbirds off the ground!

Sophisticated pneumatics - shot. Palm trees. Shot. Ignition. Afterburner. Long shot of getting up speed, another close up of deflection plate....

Still what more could you want as a young boy!?

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Quote Chaconne:

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2001 probably tops.

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''Open the pod bay doors Hal''

One of the great moments in Sci-fi cinema.

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17ft here! Too deep for non divers.

Quote Chaconne:

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If we are allowing Space 1999 - great series - then I'll say U.F.O as well.

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Absolutely -- brilliant series, and the first Space 1999 series was essentially a slightly remodelled second (or third,d epending on your point of view!) series of UFO.

And Gerry Anderson did make the big screen on a couple of occasions, and with live actors. Check out Journey to the Far Side of the Sun.

hugh


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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Hehe glad you like the pic

I can't remember how I found it , but there is a forum or something dedicated to Erin Grey , the nerds were fighting to the death over which colour suit was best !!!

The 1999 Eagles had several differing models each one suiting the proximity of camera shot .
The close up one was about three feet long and pretty much all made of brass . the weight of the model was such that it lead to the use of one of the hydraulic (pneumatic?) camera "mounts" to lift the eagle up out of the base in the take off shot (also gave a very smooth motion ) .

I saw one (3 foot eagle) pop up in the antiques roadshow once !

Best 1999 episode imho was the one where an alien (floating blob of light) , took over the body of one of the crew and eventually started to drain its power requirements direct from the bases' nuclear reactor .

Unfortunately , all this is from memory (nooo I am not a nerd , I am a number , erm)
I think these are the latest memories I have until after the age of about 28 !
from nerd to stage to old fart :P

After watching these far to many times, I noticed that some of the Eagle shots - from outside, with the pilots moving in the windows - are just very well painted mattes. They obviously have a hole in like those seaside photo boards - so the helmeted actors can be seen 'in' the cockpit. Before realising this I presumed they had plenty of full size Eagles.

Still thats what great sci-fi is about!

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Quote Chaconne:

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After watching these far to many times, I noticed that some of the Eagle shots - from outside, with the pilots moving in the windows - are just very well painted mattes. They obviously have a hole in like those seaside photo boards - so the helmeted actors can be seen 'in' the cockpit. Before realising this I presumed they had plenty of full size Eagles.

Still thats what great sci-fi is about!

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What do you mean well painted mattes! They're real!!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLhdY6_juDk&feature=related

Reg

...and we talk grind on about analogue all the time!!!

This is analogue!

Reg

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Google less; read more!

Oh man - thats beautiful !

(There is a clip in the sidebar showing an obviously older Barbara Bain - I cant bare to click on it...)

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Quote Chaconne:

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Oh man - thats beautiful !

(There is a clip in the sidebar showing an obviously older Barbara Bain - I cant bare to click on it...)

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Yeah the FX stuff is really quite fun.

(It's a shame time moves on for all of us: at that time Barbara was a stunningly good-looking lady in a very non-classical way. I think a young boy called "Reg" was a little bit in lurve with her in a boyish-heroine-worship-crush kind of way).

More on the Special FX

Cast interviews - Warning it's the 70s so people are smoking

Reg

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Google less; read more!

so this morning the plot of a new Aliens movie popped fully formed into my head. i've written up a plot synopsis and it could be awesome. set after Aliens and before Alien 3 (but consistent with the events of that film), it's what we could have had instead of the big pile-o'-poo that is Resurrection.

anyone want to lend me $100m to make it? if we all chip in we should be able to cover it...

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

Quote onesecondglance:

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so this morning the plot of a new Aliens movie popped fully formed into my head. i've written up a plot synopsis and it could be awesome. set after Aliens and before Alien 3 (but consistent with the events of that film), it's what we could have had instead of the big pile-o'-poo that is Resurrection.

anyone want to lend me $100m to make it? if we all chip in we should be able to cover it...

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I could put a pound coin in the post if that helps? ;-)

Reg

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Google less; read more!

well, we've got to start somewhere...

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

Quote RegressiveRock:

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Quote onesecondglance:

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so this morning the plot of a new Aliens movie popped fully formed into my head. i've written up a plot synopsis and it could be awesome. set after Aliens and before Alien 3 (but consistent with the events of that film), it's what we could have had instead of the big pile-o'-poo that is Resurrection.

anyone want to lend me $100m to make it? if we all chip in we should be able to cover it...

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I could put a pound coin in the post if that helps? ;-)

Reg

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A quid is in the mail onesecond

wow

I've seen people on these forums argue (in a nice way) about everything from guitar strings to how to hold a soldering iron. This must be the first thread where everyone seems happy to agree.

I never realised everyone here was a sc-fi fan. Slightly worried as I am as well.......

How about a couple of new films I don't think have been mentioned (sorry if they have); Pandorum and Cargo. Maybe not as good as some of the classics mentioned here, but it's nice to have some new films to enjoy.

On a slightly different point, am I the only one who finds Waterstones way of lumping sc-fi and fantasy in one section annoying? I had to have a moan the other day when 70% of the sci-fi shelves are Terry Pratchet books (I don't dislike them, but they are hardly sc-fi!). They had not one Aldiss book! The attendant couldn't see my point, nor my problem with shelf after shelf of crime/murder books, never seen the attraction myself.

Sorry back to topic, my vote is split between Alien and The Thing. Although for me there has yet to be a "perfect" sci-fi film made. There are plenty of sci-fi books that would make great films, I never understand why we get so many poor stories from Hollywood.

and Star Wars is fantasy! (that took another 10% of those shelves). I know this is to be true because the X-fighters had no airlocks and the pilots had no space suits. That can't be a good design for a spaceship!

FWIW, the term for Star-Wars-like stuff is "space opera", Fletcher.

I always liked Brian Aldiss's term: widescreen baroque.

CC

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Putting the fun back into dysfunctional.
Mr Punch's Studio

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds, that's "space opera"

Star Wars isn't even in space much, mainly on the surface of a planet - fantasy!

oh and I should add
just to make sure of the tongue in cheek sentiments here.

It's very late and I've not gone through all the posts .. so..

Dark Star. And Solaris.


And many more of course.

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PA stuff on FB

Has anyone mentioned Abres Los Ojos yet? Or the remake Vanilla Sky? I prefer the former.

How about Existenz?

There's also an Austalian low budget TV movie called Virtual Nightmare I really liked when I saw it years ago that deals with the same kind of manufactured reality theme, with a nod to Philip K Dick's Time Out Of Joint.

Stratt

apparently Ridley Scott is going to do a film of The Forever War. it's a great book, but i'm not sure how "filmic" it is?

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

Well most have been mentioned but if we stay with films (yes I AM that old) Forbidden Planet vies with Day the Earth stood still (yes, remake was rubbish)

I don't think you can dismiss Star Wars since it kick started the genre again and airlocks? Never heard of force fields? Anyone mention Close Encounters? Independance day I enjoyed.

BUT! What really bugs me is all the teriffic SF stories that have never been done or done badly. Azimov has been done poorly in I Robot good tho' the film was. But so much of his stuff would make great films and need very lttle in the way of effects. The Foundation series for instance. Waystation and Catface by Clifford D Simac. Stranger in a Strange Land, Time enough for Love, Bob H.... and countless other super stories...

Did anyone mention Dune? No? Just as well perhaps.

Dave.

Going back to Space 1999 - what I didn't get is that the moon is travelling through space because of a nuclear explosion. It must be travelling at sub-light speed and as such everybody on the moon would be dead by the time they reached the nearest star that had alien life around it. And if for some reason the moon was travelling faster than light then how would the Eagles get off the moon, land on an Alien planet and catch the moon travelling at over light speed back up when they left?
I know you have to stretch disbelief a bit in a lot of sci-fi - but at least in most cases you can give a benefit of the doubt, but to have as the fundamental premise of a show something that is stupid and logically impossible however you look at it, just seems stupid.
I liked Space 1999 when I was a child, but this really annoyed me.

That's a 30 year old grievance of my chest.

Quote Neil C:

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Going back to Space 1999 - what I didn't get is that the moon is travelling through space because of a nuclear explosion. It must be travelling at sub-light speed and as such everybody on the moon would be dead by the time they reached the nearest star that had alien life around it. And if for some reason the moon was travelling faster than light then how would the Eagles get off the moon, land on an Alien planet and catch the moon travelling at over light speed back up when they left?
I know you have to stretch disbelief a bit in a lot of sci-fi - but at least in most cases you can give a benefit of the doubt, but to have as the fundamental premise of a show something that is stupid and logically impossible however you look at it, just seems stupid.
I liked Space 1999 when I was a child, but this really annoyed me.

That's a 30 year old grievance of my chest.

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It was travelling faster than the speed of light , the eagles were able to catch up to the moon because the crew knew Stacey was awaiting them .
Back then I think I would have caught up on a push bike :P

Edited by Yago (17/03/12 06:04 PM)

Quote Neil C:

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Going back to Space 1999 - what I didn't get is that the moon is travelling through space because of a nuclear explosion. It must be travelling at sub-light speed and as such everybody on the moon would be dead by the time they reached the nearest star that had alien life around it. And if for some reason the moon was travelling faster than light then how would the Eagles get off the moon, land on an Alien planet and catch the moon travelling at over light speed back up when they left?
I know you have to stretch disbelief a bit in a lot of sci-fi - but at least in most cases you can give a benefit of the doubt, but to have as the fundamental premise of a show something that is stupid and logically impossible however you look at it, just seems stupid.
I liked Space 1999 when I was a child, but this really annoyed me.

That's a 30 year old grievance of my chest.

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In interviews on the subject Anderson often expressed frustration that the fans fixated on this, thinking a little bit of suspension of disbelief was in order.

Perhaps he should have gone with Yago's explanation!

Reg

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Google less; read more!

How the hell did Thunderbird 2 get off the ground?

What kind of space cowboy has a gun that shoots light slower than a bullet?

Why did S.H.A.D.O only have three interceptors for use against a threat to the whole earth?

If Picard and Kirk meet, and yet a quantum space-time tear in the fabric of time causes....

.....

Ad infinitum!

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force fields?! Your proposing that the X & Y fighters had a forcefield now

Well even if I let that pass, if I was piloting one of those I would still be demanding a spacesuit, force field or not!

Wildcard nomination: Donnie Darko.

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Gear List: reverse only.

Quote Chaconne:

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How the hell did Thunderbird 2 get off the ground?

What kind of space cowboy has a gun that shoots light slower than a bullet?

Why did S.H.A.D.O only have three interceptors for use against a threat to the whole earth?

If Picard and Kirk meet, and yet a quantum space-time tear in the fabric of time causes....

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Those all are benifit of the doubt points. In the absence of an explanation I can imagine a reason for all those things. There is though no way round the moon speed point, given the reason stated for the moon moving.

I didn't think that the moon was going ftl - I thought it was hitting spacial anomolies and wormholes. Oh ... and some 'guiding force' also had a hand...

I'm more curious about how they ran in those flares without tripping up all the time..

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)