Sunday Fun: Next Week's Big KFC Fight

That's what I heard, folks, a few years ago. I was working on my laptop as the television smoked at my feet. "Next week's big KFC fight."

Kentucky Fried Chicken? ("Well, folks, he chickened out. He had not the stomach for it.")

I looked up from my computer and saw two mean-looking dudes just inches apart, sharing eye lines, staring mortars. Airing threats.

Back to my work.

I awoke the next morning to the result of the chicken fight. (People were anticipating, wagering, and watching that contest? That very idea I found really hard to digest.)

Oh. Pardon me.

I had pictured fractured legs kicking a way to that last drumstick,

crushing knuckles over the tiny tub of coleslaw,

arms swinging for a wing.

Brutes' brutality to a nutritionist's nightmare. In a fast food church.

Thinking back to "Next week's big KFC fight": I do remember getting the impression that those two dudes did not look like the type who would 'dine' at a place like KFC.

Postscript: This all reminds me that the last time I ate at KFC was in the summer of 1993. It was the location at Bloor Street West and Euclid Avenue, here in Toronto. I remember, it was a beautifully sunny and warm day. Before visiting my Film Effects coworker, I felt the need to down some salt and fat. And whatever else was in that box. Fries?

Post-postscript: While tying up this piece I decided to check that particular store location. It's now a Mary Brown's Chicken. This change must have happened fairly recently. Oh... now I can't recreate my "KFC in 1993" experience. The question is, however: Would I have had the stomach for it?

Blu-rays: Black Zero Titles of Four Ready to Go

As noted on its website: "Black Zero is a multimedia publisher specializing in Canadian experimental cinema from the 1960s to the present."

Experimental filmmaker and film scholar Stephen Broomer is its founder and bright light, and his dedication to preserving Canadian experimental films, especially those all but forgotten, is commendable and something I very much appreciate given my strong interest in the form. As a matter of interest, his book Hamilton Babylon: A History of the McMaster Film Board (University of Toronto Press, 2016) is an excellent example of the scholarly kind. This impeccable document of necessary density has the expected academic bent, but Broomer's writing style is breezy and inviting enough that it should engage those readers who might possess even the smallest interest in experimental cinema. And censorship. On that front — the courts — we Canadians fought battles of our own. (It wasn't just an "American" thing.) On that front — reading — it's quite the page turner. What happens next? What's the verdict?

Recently I picked up a few Black Zero Blu-rays, partly as a show of support, and, of course, to enjoy the disc sets' featured flicks, including their commentaries and supplementary material.

Readying to dig into:

* Green Dreams — Josephine Massarella

* Slow Run — Larry Kardish

* A Man Whose Life Was Full of Woe Has Been Surprised by Joy — R. Bruce Elder

* Everything Everywhere Again Alive — Keith Lock

Enjoy!

Believe me, I will....

***

“(Canadian experimental cinema) has a finer vibration, a finer density, a finer matter.”

— Jonas Mekas, 1968

NFB Film: Test Pilot (1957) — Starring James Doohan!

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has uploaded to YouTube a wonderful selection of their old film shorts. One such film, from 1957, is titled Test Pilot, and its twenty-nine minutes are pretty wonderful, certainly for those folk who find such material engaging. And it stars one James Doohan, "Scotty" from Star Trek. (Hearing him say the word "engineers" several times... well, you know. If he only knew then that in a few years hence he would fly to the stars, and fame.) During World War II, Doohan flew observation aircraft while serving with the Royal Canadian Artillery.

"Dave Frost" works as a company (Avro Canada) test pilot; his job is to test various aircraft functions and potential capabilities. As with any job where one is a test pilot for a high-performance aircraft, there is always that risk, that possibility that something might and can go wrong. These pilots are of a special breed: recreational flyers, they are not.

Test Pilot's angle of attack is typical of a late 1950s short film, one with an educational bent. The acting is fine, especially from that famed starship engineer, and the filmmaking sound, which is to be expected from the NFB, old or new. The short-subject was shot primarily on 35mm black-and-white film but contains a few 16mm-35mm "blow-up" sections: some of the aerial photography was captured on the smaller film format, no doubt due to its extra portability. I was somewhat surprised that the filmmakers didn't mount a dashboard camera. That "pilot's point of view" would have given the aircraft climb some extra dimension, even if the viewer would have been treated to little more than clear skies and perhaps a few cloud formations.

 

The featured flying machine: the Avro Canada CF-100 "Canuck" was a great aircraft, an all-weather twin-engine jet-powered interceptor/fighter operated by the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force). It served in that role from 1952 to 1961. However, the air force used the 100 for other roles before retiring the type in 1981. (The Belgian Air Force also bought and operated a few examples.) When I lived in CFB Borden a "Clunk" was parked in a holding area not far from our PMQ (Private Married Quarters). It may have been a static training example... or just forgotten. By the way, my dad worked on the CF-100 as an armourer. (When Test Pilot was produced he had already been serving with the RCAF for a few years — and would serve for many more.) A few years ago, while visiting the wonderful Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, I sat in a beautiful CF-100. One is allowed to sit in the machine, with a little help from the museum's terrific staff, of course. (Military-aviation buffs would enjoy visiting the CWHM. It's located at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Mount Hope, Ontario, Canada. The selection of aircraft is wide and varied.)

Test Pilot was directed by Fergus McDonell, and written by Arthur Hailey, who, the year before, scripted the CBC live-to-air television play, Flight into Danger, starring... James Doohan.

Postscript: Flight into Danger was produced by Sydney Newman, who, after that production was bought by the BBC and aired in the UK, went on to create The Avengers for ABC Weekend TV, and co-create Doctor Who for the BBC. Scribe Arthur Hailey went on to co-write the Flight into Danger-inspired 1957 feature film, Zero Hour!, which, years later, was adapted as the 1980 comedy flick, Airplane! He went on to great literary-pulp fame with his novels, Hotel (1965), and... Airport (1968), which was then adapted for the big screen and released to movie theatres in 1970. Airport was a big box office hit. I remember well the endlessly replayed television adverts.

Those Crazy Canadians and Their Flying Machines....

Athot for the Day: Strange Matter

Cats are caught in that twilight zone between acting like a cat and being a cat.

Picturing: Finch Avenue West, Toronto, Early Evening

My Canon EOS R100 camera data:

ISO speed: 250

F-stop: f/5.6

Exposure time: 1/125

Sunday Happiness: Toronto's Gleam & Sip Visited

As I wrote on Sunday, August 31st, four weeks ago today, I stumbled upon a shop here in Toronto's beautiful "Annex" neighborhood:

Gleam & Sip

Matcha * Espresso * Bar

Vegan & Gluten Free Bakery

This morning I made my first dedicated visit.

I ordered a coffee and an organic oatmeal cookie. Both were very good. Also, the young gent who served me was polite and courteous. Great customer service skills are most appreciated. Coffees and cookies are just half of one's experience at such a store.

What made me happy was seeing that I was not alone, as there were other patrons. It's nice to see a small business enjoy traffic flow. As friendly neighbours, we must support our local businesses.

On my way out I took note of the cozy little patio. Toronto's been experiencing "patio weather"....

Battle of Britain 85th: Battle of Britain Day 1990

The poster said all I had to know. On September 15, 1990, there would be a celebration to remember on the River Thames. That of "Battle of Britain Day, 1990". This World War Two history buff did not plan his trip to coincide with the event, but through a quirk of fate I happened to be in London, England, and would be be able to attend the fireworks.

I stood among a large crowd on the river's south bank, metres upstream from Tower Bridge. The sky darkened, the vintage searchlights fired up, probing and irradiating a low cloud ceiling. All that was missing was the drone of unseen Heinkel, Dornier, and Junkers aircraft. The Blitz was terrible for London's denizens throughout the summer of 1940, so nobody was celebrating the act of war, but the repelling of invaders... German "Luftwaffe" bombers. (Since there had been no definitive and crippling blows to the Royal Air Force, necessary if "Unternehmen Seelöwe" [Operation Sea Lion], the invasion of England, was to have any chance of succeeding, Adolf Hitler lost interest and turned his attention to the east.)

Music blazed from sparking loudspeakers as fireworks of all colours and stripes rose streaking from a barge anchored to the sparkling waters before us. For many Brits here, this sight and sound must have been emotional. I too was feeling it: Composer Ron Goodwin's magnificent themes for the films Battle of Britain and 633 Squadron were the perfect accompaniment, and helped lift us all up high. (Aces High!)

That event was the 50th anniversary of the great battles fought in the skies over England. Now we're at the 85th. Time flies.

Battle of Britain 85th: Book on the Battle

The Battle of Britain

- The Greatest Battle in the History of Air Warfare -

by

Richard Townshend Bickers

Salamander Books Ltd

1999

Battle of Britain 85th: Battle of Britain (1969)

Battle of Britain was a troubled feature film production complete with massive cost overruns and a shoot that seemed to have no end, this historical aviation epic provides some satisfaction for those movie fans who want to see a breed of filmmaking that will never be seen again. No film company today could afford to make a film like Battle of Britain, at least not one using exclusively the same production methods ― much of it would be done using fake CG fakery, by people who've never taken the time to see how an aircraft, like a Spitfire or Heinkel, twists and turns in the sky. (Try YouTube.) As far as the film as a film goes: It depends on whether the viewer can enjoy a 132-minute story about a critical moment of history. The Royal Air Force's warding off of the mighty German Luftwaffe during the summer of 1940.

What one sees are grand air battles and an abundance of name-actors (at that time, of course). Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Curt Jurgens, Robert Shaw, and Trevor Howard are a few of those stars who play historical characters or 'average people' swept up in that pesky thing we humans almost never ask for but often get: War. In this case World War II.

A highlight of many: "The Battle in the Air." It makes me a firm believer in cinema's capabilities.

Kudos must go to director Guy Hamilton (1922 - 2016) for giving a somewhat unwieldy story, one with necessary density, some personality; and for remembering the people, who are so often forgotten in these epics.

Battle of Britain 85th: Battle of Britain Film Extras

My dad took me to see Battle of Britain when it hit the "Astra", CFB Baden-Soellingen's movie theatre. We were living in then West Germany, specifically in a small town, surrounded by Germans, which somehow enhanced my movie-going experience. Not only do I love the sound of that language but in this movie the Germans actually speak Deutsche.

To illustrate how big of a deal this movie was at the time, there was a live-from-London television special one evening celebrating its premiere. German television network ARD or ZDF (I can't remember which) picked up the live feed: There were searchlights and men dressed in vintage uniforms manning an ack-ack gun placement. I could hardly wait to see the movie.

Unfortunately, producing-studio and distributor United Artists lost a lot of money on Battle of Britain. The film did not 'travel' much outside of Europe (read: the USA), which it had to do in order to make back the investment. As a tie-in documentary hosted by actor Michael Caine outlined most effectively, regular folk, including those on the Isles, could tell you next to nothing about the battle. And this was less than thirty years after the events. The idea of an ignorance of one's own history as being an 'American' thing is a false one. (Author Clive Cussler recounts a sobering personal experience in his terrific non-fiction book, The Sea Hunters, where he was taken aback by some of his fellow Americans ― politicians in this case ― not knowing, or, more importantly, not even caring, about their own history.)

Director Guy Hamilton, guiding light of Battle of Britain, claimed that United Artists lost ten million dollars (late 1960s currency) on the deal.

As a child what I liked was Battle's spectacle: The wide-screen; the colour; the music; the you-are-there vibe.

The now-defunct "Festival Theatres" repertory chain here in Toronto would screen the film every few years, and I would be there with interested friends.

As I've told people over the years: "Battle of Britain was my Star Wars."

Battle of Britain 85th: Battle of Britain DVD

Battle of Britain

Directed by

Guy Hamilton

United Artists

1969

Battle of Britain 85th: The Film Score

Battle of Britain

- Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack -

Music Composed and Conducted by

Ron Goodwin

"Battle in the Air" Composed by

Sir William Walton

Battle of Britain 85th: The William Walton Score

Walton

Battle of Britain Suite

- Sir William Walton's film music Vol. 2 -

Sir Neville Marriner Conducts

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Chandos Records Ltd

1990

Battle of Britain 85th: Final Thought for the Day

"Music blazed from sparking loudspeakers as fireworks of all colours and stripes rose streaking from a barge anchored to the sparkling waters before us. For many Brits here, this sight and sound must have been emotional."

― September of 1990, as I stood near the River Thames for a "Battle of Britain" 50th Anniversary commemoration.

Athot for the Day: About Time!

Wearing an analogue wrist watch again for the first time in a while reminds me that time is fluid.

Space:1999/50 ― Space:1999, Cancelled:1977

To be honest, I don't remember hearing that Space:1999 had been cancelled. It probably just fell by the wayside as we geeks went on to something more interesting. The second season ended and a third season never arrived. (No doubt TV Guide's end-of-book yellow 'teletype' page made note of the show's axing. In late 1975 it was that page that announced Space's renewal for another television season of twenty-four shows.)

Clipping from Starlog Magazine, number 5.

(click on picture to blow up)

Space:1999 was cancelled ― or left adrift ― in early 1977, or as some pundits have put it: Space:1999, Cancelled:1977. After two bumpy seasons of meteor storms, face-paint aliens, two-dimensional characterizations, soap bubbles, and even worse, disappointing viewer numbers, the colourful SF/horror UK-import television series finished its run of metaphysical mumbo jumbo and simple creatures not-so-great, ending up discarded mid-Atlantic. (The show never really caught on here in North America). Sir Lew Grade's, and ATV's, initiative to leave cathode ray marks through its own solar-deficient star-fields, while valiant, and not without conviction, was not to meet a successful syndication package. Forty-eight films did not provide enough linear celluloid to make for lucrative "stripping" (Monday to Friday at 5pm, kind of thing). If a commitment had been made to produce another twenty-four shows, more people reading this might have an idea as to what a "space nineteen ninety-nine" is. However, history has made its judgement, cheating me out of a potential conversation with someone, even someone my own age, about a "remember that show?" and leaving me with a dialogue-killing "I don't think I know that one".

It's possible that Space:1999 was simply ill-conceived, getting off to the worst possible start, cutting itself off at the landing pads, leaving itself with enough leverage to break the Earth's moon out of Earth orbit, and sending it straight to oblivion instead of planets of interest. Going through a black hole (or a "Black Sun", in Space's case) knocked the series even further from what the audience expected. Audience expectation should never be overrated. In fact, it's important for the bottom line; the return on investment. It's a business. Introducing the viewer to something a little off the beaten astro path is fine, but any such re-education program is doomed to fail if that new way of looking at space phenomena is too obtuse, and worse, unforgivingly boring. The remote channel-changer was becoming more commonplace in the mid-seventies. Treating its controllers to almost static forward narratives in the first few minutes of an episode will leave that "ep" prone to being abandoned for a mindless sitcom, and television station schedulers moving the series to a less prime time slot, or dropping it altogether mid-run.

Space's second season was aware of what had come before it, and it reorganized its own DNA as best it could without becoming another series all together, and entertained that built-in audience, if leaving those fans who truly believed that the first batch of twenty-four somehow constituted profundity feeling forgotten. While Year Two, on average, was more fun and presented characters at least resembling human beings, it was saddled with that cosmic albatross around its neck: a dusty moon running at indeterminable speeds uncontrollable and, too often, misguided. And stories demanding, but not delivering, enticing drama.

No, I'm not a "hater" of Space:1999, to use modern parlance. I was there, after all, to give something new and seemingly exciting, according to the prerelease publicity machine and its materials, a chance, but this then fourteen-year-old knew what constituted good drama and a solid sense of storytelling. I'll nuke a too-often repeated lie that we Trekkers were hostile to the new kid on the block. To use UK parlance: Rubbish! We were there with bells on! Many of us were kids, and dry sponges ― the fannish protective and reactive baggage was a few years away, at least. Keep in mind that two years earlier my friends and I welcomed The Starlost. If we became quickly disillusioned and disappointed by some strange new space vehicle, it may have been due to a feeling we were being sold VHS box cover "not exactly as advertised" content. (As collectors of physical media will tell you, what's on the covering artwork is often better than the movie itself; like finding one of those binned videotapes marked down: "Was $19.99, now $0.99!") Many of us may have gravitated back to our Star Trek reruns, which were in high rotation in 1975 - 1977, but if we ultimately rejected Space:1999, we did so because we felt that too much promised cosmic-level quality content had been left in the promotional artwork, and in the heavens, not through any perceived encroachment on our precious star treks.

I was there.

Yes, indeed.

And I remember the fabulous sights, sounds, and, disappointments... all leading to my look-back at a television series that could have been so much better, but is now wrapped tidily in nostalgia.

... and that concludes our 50th Anniversary 13-part retrospective of Space:1999. We now rejoin our regularly-scheduled programming....

Space:1999/50 ― Space:1999 Years 1 & 2 (CDs)

In late 1976 I bought the RCA LP record Space:1999. While I was a little disappointed in the incompleteness of the album, and the seemingly interminable space-outs between the cuts, it contained music from the series ― its first season, as that was "1999" at that point.

In early 2022, with a degree of nostalgia, I welcomed a splendid Silva Screen Records CD set:

"Space:1999 - Years 1 & 2"

Barry Gray wrote material, very much in the Gray style, for Year One:

Very much in the Gray style, so much so that Gray pieces from earlier Gerry & Sylvia Anderson shows could be mixed in seamlessly with new cues. Nobody would ever know that these "library" cues hadn't been written by the composer for Space. (Like John Williams and John Barry, Barry Gray had a definite "sound".) As a matter of fact, bits of Gray's music from the 1968 feature film Thunderbird 6 were seamlessly integrated into a few episodes, including "The Last Sunset", "Voyager's Return", and "Collision Course". While I've never been crazy about the show's Year 1 title theme music, with its twanging and wince-inducing guitar riff, which winced me even in 1975, I do like a few cues, especially those that made Space:1999 seem better than it was. Listen to the show from the kitchen while you're doing dishes and you might think: "What am I missing?"

The score for the opening episode "Breakaway" sets the tone for the rest of the series, which is to be expected. For the first couple of acts, the musical strains are generally, and surprisingly, low-key, but when the big blast-away happens, we get those blasts of brass. "Black Sun" tries for the epic, with composer Gray recycling a four-note theme for horn which he originally wrote a few years earlier for the Anderson-produced feature film Doppelganger (known on this side of the pond as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun). Gray sure liked his strings, which tended to make up the bulk of his orchestra on Space:1999 since he felt they gave the stories told some sweep and grandeur — certainly that's what "Black Sun" was aiming for, even if perhaps it wasn't entirely successful in doing so. "A Matter of Life and Death" features musical accompaniment — which also stars abundant strings — that ranges from grand mysteriousness to intimate loveliness.

Any problems I had with the background music for that year were not any fault of the composer. The music editor, Alan Willis, too often retracked the same dreary bits of music: pieces not dreary on their own, but through repetition they cast the series in... dreariness. As I've joked for years: "For the opening of a typical episode, or the start of a new act, we get the same dreary music backing the same dreary shot of Moonbase Alpha."

Another depressing factor would be the lack of scoring variety: Gray was asked — the scripts asked — for music of a fairly unified tone and timbre. The series producers and scripters had such a fixation on the darkness of outer space that an inflexibility too often dictated dark and brooding tonalities, episode to episode. There certainly was no equivalent to a "Jerry Fielding and 'The Trouble With Tribbles'", and that was a shame. As Year 2 incoming producer Fred Freiberger said after screening Year 1 episodes before really digging into his job as part of his mission to improve matters: "Doesn't anyone know how to smile in Space:1999."

Derek Wadsworth jazzed Year Two to great effect:

As I noted in my piece exploring Space's Year 2 opening titles, "Wadsworth grooved with the gardens of playful levity in the Grove of Psyche". While my reference is episode and scene specific in that case, specifically from the second season's opener, "The Metamorph", the idea that happy and warm music made their way onto Space:1999's variable-area optical audio tracks gave one hope that not everything in the series was dark and brooding, wallowing, and suffocating, in its own self importance. Wadsworth could also write pieces of some intensity when called for. His cues for the episode "Space Warp" did not exactly hang about, floating blissfully in pools of pleasure. After all, there was that titular space warp to deal with, and the composer did just that with staff-lines running a frenetic trombone chorus. At times it's almost out of control — as out of control as the David Prowse-manned monster from "The Beta Cloud" — and it can't be mistaken for any other Wadsworth Space score. Neither can his playful and charming music for "The Taybor". I just love those fun and oozy Alto saxophone parts. When I listen to them on this album I can't help but smile.

A standout composition, a cue written for "The Metamorph", is a pretty and enchanting piece titled "We're All Aliens", and it's a keeper. As is "Seduction" from the superior episode "One Moment of Humanity". For the dance section of the track, Wadsworth scored with a stripped-down version of Canadian jazz singer-songwriter Gino Vannelli's "Storm at Sunup". It was that song that choreographer Lionel Blair used to put actors Barbara Bain and Leigh Lawson through their paces on set during filming, so it made sense to keep the final as a close cover. In the episode it works wonderfully well. And on its own it's exhilarating stuff.

These Year 2 music tracks are eminently listenable; taken together in this particular presentation, the disc could almost act as a new-space-age album. After I finish editing and scheduling this piece, I may give 'er another spin. It has been a while since my last listen. Generally I make no bones about the fact that I think most film and television scores are best run with "picture". But some do work on their own, as music. Derek Wadsworth's own "Space:1999" theme tune is fantastic, and sets the tone for everything after.

Spotting:

Due to Space:1999's limited budget, and the terms of the then musicians' union agreement, just five episodes from each of the series' two seasons had full original music scores commissioned for them. More accurately, a total of seven shows in Year 1 had original scores: Barry Gray recorded a short percussion score at his home studio in Guernsey for the episode "The Full Circle", and a small ensemble performed pieces by Alan Willis and Vic Elms for "Ring Around the Moon".

The Off-the-Shelf Scores:

Mention should be made of Space:1999's excellent use of "library music". In Year 1, especially, this method of scoring, an initiative of limits funds, greatly enhanced what we were seeing onscreen. By way of example, Mike Hankinson's Stravinsky-like composition "The Astronauts" was tracked in part into the episode "War Games", driving and complementing the onscreen zaps and bangs, seemingly with a unseemly sardonic laugh. Beautiful. (Those Eagles sure blowed up real good... even the flat cardboard-cutout ones.)

In Year 2, few library cues were used, but a prime example of a music editor buying the right piece is exemplified in the episode "New Adam, New Eve", where Canadian composer Robert Farnon's exquisite composition "How Beautiful Is Night" accompanies a reflective campfire scene. (When I reviewed the library music cues for this article, it was obvious to me that Farnon was a favourite composer of Space's music editors, with his works being licensed a few times.)

A few library tracks are represented on this album. A sampling would include those used for the episodes: "Dragon's Domain", "Mission of the Darians", "The Infernal Machine", and "The Testament of Arkadia"... all Year 1 shows.

The Recordings:

All tracks are in stereo, with the recording quality being of an expected high standard.

In Essence:

Both series scores work in that they match, respectively, Space:1999's seasonal timbres....

Year One: winter

Year Two: summer

Space: 1999

- Years 1 & 2 -

Music

by

Barry Gray

and

Derek Wadsworth

Silva Screen Records

2021

Space:1999/50 ― 30th Anniversary Mega Set (DVD)

Why would I want a complete series DVD set of a show I left behind in my youth, and have vague fond memories of enjoying when its parts were first broadcast? It must have been the agreeable price — the exact outlay of cash is lost to sixteen or seventeen years ago.— for all forty-eight Space:1999 episodes in one box:

"Space:1999 — 30th  Anniversary Edition Mega Set"

Scanning the back of the box reminds me of the plethora of extras, special parts that may have decided there's some space on my shelf. There's a seven-minute piece of 16mm film origination from 1976 featuring special effects director Brian Johnson and his boys as they set up and shoot miniatures for Space at Bray Studios. Watching this Johnson-narrated silent footage now reminds me of the appeal to this then fourteen-year-old model maker.

Also on the set: productions stills; Year Two behind-the-scenes featurette; pre-production artwork; a BBC behind-the-scenes segment; vintage interviews with cast and crew, including the series designer, the talented Keith Wilson.

Three episodes have running commentary: producer Sylvia Anderson's bird's-eye view is very informative, and yes, Robert Culp should have been cast as "John Koenig"; writer Johnny Byrne and writer/script editor Christopher Penfold, two pleasant chaps who talk about the ins and outs of producing a series with its own identity; and Space:1999 authority Scott Michael Bosco, an error-ridden fanboy take not worth one's time, although he does settle down and offers some intelligent analysis of "Death's Other Dominion", a superior episode.

I've since replaced this DVD set with the "Complete Series" Blu-ray set.

Why would I want a complete series Blu-ray set of a show....?"

Space:1999

- 30th Anniversary Edition Mega Set -

A&E

2007

Space:1999/50 ― The Complete Series on Blu-ray

I was a young teen when Space:1999 premiered in 1975, and at that age one's smarts are starting to form, blasting one into a 'critical' mindset. Perhaps if I had been a few years younger I might have become smitten with the on-screen events; events often racing against molasses, on my Zenith television as it rendered cool multi-colour Supermarionation-type explosions too often punctuated by a rudimentary, and leaden, sense of drama.

Space:1999 was re-viewed by my adult self in the mid-eighties when CKVR re-ran it on late-night television, and I saw all of its flaws, of which there are many. This designer wants to go back in time and put some Christmas tree lights into that sparsely-detailed Main Mission set: there's nothing for the actors to do, or to look at. (The actors are forever trading plastic folders with one another.) When 1999 first aired I never got the feeling that it was 24 years into the future. A smart critic at the time noted that it looked more like five years into the future ― true, as my local Radio Shack store had more advanced-looking electronics in 1975. Also, while I watched the show in colour, the monitors onscreen were all in black & white.

Technical concerns, yes.

The scripting was the real issue, as were the characterizations ― the regular cast, that is. Some of the guest casting was inspired. Billie Whitelaw, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Brian Blessed, Joan Collins, and Patrick Troughton were just a few of the stellar guest-shots who gave the programme some much-needed gravitas.

The writers tried to spin profundity by having stories, too many stories, resting all too comfortably and conveniently in ambiguity ― mix it with aliens whispering from behind out-of-focus glistening Christmas tree tinsel, and the viewer can only be swept up in the magic of it all. In Year One, that is. Year Two discovered a sense of fun, and applied it when necessary. And the 'reboot' season more or less eschewed the annoying and trying metaphysical mumbo jumbo.

When the above Complete Series Blu-ray set hit store shelves in the summer of 2019, I walked down to Bay Street Video and snapped it up. Darn right I did. My boss at the time was from Quebec, and he was very much an old fan of Cosmos:1999. He too grabbed the set....

Space: 1999

- The Complete Series -

Shout! Factory

2019

Space:1999/50 ― Space:1999 RCA LP Record

In my continuing look back at the 1975-77 television series Space:1999, it's time I spill some ink on a certain vinyl disc.

Like many young men at the time, I liked the show and bought as much tie-in material as I could find: The Charlton "Space:1999 magazine" was one (I bought a few issues, including the first), but no model kits at all. The Airfix "Eagle Transporter", for instance, never made it to my town.

One element of Space:1999 that I like, although more then than now, are the Barry Gray music scores. When RCA records released an "original television soundtrack recording" vinyl record LP of the Gray music I snapped it up... well, when I discovered it in the bin at Sam the Record Man, that is. This would have been late 1976. I remember playing it for the first time at home and being a little disappointed in the music selections. After I had grabbed the record in the store and flipped it over to the back side I scanned the track titles. These were all named after episode titles (no track called "Koenig Pops His Top, Again!" or "And Yet Another Explosion"), but after spinning the vinyl, I realized that the titles were arbitrary; there was no music from "Breakaway" on the cut called "Breakaway". And the cool 'travelling' music from "Dragon's Domain" was not on there ― I had not known that the piece was called "Adagio in G-minor" and that it had been written by a composer named Tomaso Albinoni; although that attribution is debated today. Also, I had seen the Norman Jewison picture Rollerball (1975) and remembered the tune being used there, too. To top off the Confusion in F major, there were two obvious "that's not from the show" moments.

Once I got past the little surprises including the rather brief track lengths ― there was a lot of looped "bing bong boong baa, bing bong boong baa" gobbling up valuable time between each cut ― the album was a fan's fix.

I still have the LP; it's packed away in a box somewhere (I know where). One of the very few times I have put it on the platter in the last forty years was in the summer of 1994 when friends were visiting. Somehow the subject came up: Perhaps it was my British friend Paul who mentioned "nineteen ninety-nine". Onto the Akai direct-drive turntable went the vinyl. Considering we were no longer fans of the program, some of us would have been mild ones at best when Space:1999 originally ran, we enjoyed a warm and fuzzy nostalgic time that evening.

"SPACE:1999"

- An Original Television Soundtrack Recording -

Music Composed

by

Barry Gray

RCA

1976

Space:1999/50 ― Destination: Moonbase Alpha (Book)

This 418-page book on the television series Space:1999 (1975 - 1977) is a mixed bag. The first thing that struck me while reading Destination: Moonbase Alpha - The Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Space: 1999 — and I can say this due to research I've done on old television programs — was the apparent lack of original research. I got the impression that writer Robert E. Wood didn't interview enough of those all-important behind-the-scenes people, folk important to production of a science fiction television series, with all its parts and pieces. There are no numbers, numbers drawn when one gets access to production paperwork. These deficits make for far too much conjecture on the writer's part. While I may like reading text containing scholarly in-depth detail in any such exploration, there are readers who do not. This treatment just might be the right stuff.

The plus: Robert E. Wood is fair and balanced in his episode reviews ― he's Canadian, eh?

Yes, "Journey to Where" is an outstanding episode ― for Space:1999, at least.

I was surprised he didn't rate "Dragon's Domain" higher given that fans tend to hold this episode in high regard. I would agree that it's up there.

"The Rules of Luton", just 4.5 (out of 10)?! Rubbish!

Destination: Moonbase Alpha is highly recommended to fans of the series. Part of the appeal of the book is Mr Wood's obvious love for Space:1999.

Destination: Moonbase Alpha

- The Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Space: 1999 -

by

Robert E. Wood

Telos Publishing Limited

2009

Space:1999/50 ― The Making of Space:1999 (Book)

The time and space: late 1976: not long after the premiere of Space:1999's second season.

Even as a young teen, when I wandered through a department store I automatically gravitated to the book section; in this case, Woolworths. On a steel-frame island bookrack sat a freshly published paperback with the somewhat intoxicating title of "The Making of Space: 1999", awaiting rescue by a geek in shining polyester. And quickly I read it once I got it home.

It's interesting how one's interests change with age. At the time of my first read, the most interesting chapters for me were "Special Effects", "Art Direction", "Camera and Crew", and "Music" ― essentially the "tech credits". When I reread it a few years ago I found "Scripts" the most interesting essay... probably because this making-of was researched and written during production of the show's second year, when incoming producer Fred Freiberger was on a mission to improve Space's scripts and characterizations ― he succeeded, for the most part. Also, as a teacher would hammer into my classmates and I in film school, the script is the most important element in a film or television series. With a Czech accent: "No script, no movie!" (Luddy was great; tough, but great.) "The Making of Space: 1999" is well worth reading if one is a fan of the show and "production".

Editorial: Century 21, a company set up in the early 1960s to handle merchandising for Gerry & Sylvia Anderson television productions, was headed by Keith Shackleton. He came up with the idea of publishing a book about the making of Space:1999 after hearing that The Making of Star Trek by that point in time had sold four million copies. Journalist Tim Heald was hired in late 1975, while the first year of Space was still in its broadcast run. In search of a good and proper story, he visited the show's production offices and stages, interviewing actors and the people who put a television series together, with all its bit and pieces, and observed the production process and subsequent marketing and sales. As Mr Shackleton stated in an interview, the book sold not four million copies, but forty thousand. He attributed the low sales to a poor cover design — it is bad and not exactly inviting — and the fact that Space:1999 never really took off, especially in the U.S., a vital market for a series which had essentially been produced for that country. Another problem: the first season of Space had been produced in a virtual vacuum, in its own little world, without feedback, and it was this initial batch of 24 episodes that was "Space:1999" to most folk when "The Making of Space:1999" hit the bookstores in late 1976. ("Hey, the Making of Star Trek!")

The Making of Space: 1999

- A Gerry Anderson Production -

by

Tim Heald

Ballantine Books 

1976

Space:1999/50 ― Breakaway (Book)

Though not the first Space:1999 tie-in book, here in Canada that would have been "Breakaway" from Orbit Books, which I saw sitting on a bookstore shelf in the summer of 1975, a discovery of which I described previously here, this was the first one I bought. That September, shortly after the television series began its two-year run, I grabbed Pocket Books' premiere release in their "Space:1999" line. The cover is emblazoned with the bold title of "Breakaway", which is also the name of the show's premiere episode, but there are three other episode adaptations in this volume: "Matter of Life and Death", "Ring Around the Moon", and "Black Sun".

I don't know how well these books sold. Having watched the video side of Space:1999, I can't imagine that many people ran out to collect them ― perhaps they were purchased in good faith, with some hope of discovering profound adventures and engaging characters in the more expansive literary form. Perhaps it's time I dip back into these pages: newfound curiosity might get me to break away from reading On the Road, stories about another space traveller.)

"Breakaway", the adaptations, I read with a charged blast of enthusiasm, and no little reverence, in September of 1975. We young ones welcomed a new space series, and its printed offspring.

SPACE: 1999

"Breakaway"

- first novel in the spectacular new epic -

by

E.C. Tubb

Pocket Books

September 1975

Space:1999/50 ― Opening Titles: Year Two

While the first season of Space:1999 was generally disappointing to this then young teen, I harboured some anticipation for its second: "Year Two", as many fans call it.

During the summer of 1976, the CBC ran, in high rotation, an ad campaign for their upcoming 1976-1977 television season. "See the brightest stars on C B C!" sang the enthusiastic women's chorus over cartoony animated stars, then a voiceover promoted alongside a quick succession of clips from upcoming shows. Space:1999 was looking a little different; still recognizable, but somehow looking enhanced. The imagery was all of a few seconds, but suddenly I couldn't wait.

Saturday, September the 4th, at 5pm... "Breakaway"? Oh, no. I'd seen the series opener a few times. No need to see it again. However, being a full-network presentation, the print was total high-quality 35mm (with the broadcast itself originating from a 2-inch "Quad" video playback).

Okay then. A geek had a hard time waiting, but I understood. The CBC wanted to show the episode that had kicked off the series, and the moon out of Earth's orbit. I'd have to swim through another week of high school. It was going to be a long week.

Saturday, September the 11th, and hello! I really dug that new opening. The most striking change was the theme music. Immediately I loved it. One listen and the tune was embedded. Very catchy space stuff. The beat was wow and now. The images were energetic. Both elements had been recharged and rebooted; dedicated to the concept of a new introductory sequence; a lead-in to a series of necessary alterations.

(As this episode, "The Metamorph", rolled out, I became convinced there was an effort in the production's front office to improve the series.)

As I learned upon watching the end credits, Derek Wadsworth was the composer of Space:1999's new signature tune, and his work had continued into the episode's next hour.

The episode's underscore supported and enhanced the action onscreen, and, at times, it was pretty and inviting. The storyline carried dark moments, including its hinting at an impending exploding home world, but when called for, composer Wadsworth grooved with the gardens of playful levity in the Grove of Psyche ― before the big bang. (The background music wasn't alienating like it had been in much of Year One. That season's repetitive re-tracking of certain cues made for a viewing experience that could be both dreary and depressing.)

Year Two's opening was a much-needed fresh kickoff to a series-premise that was preposterous, but one that did hold some promise. Mr Wadsworth's amazing Space theme was proof that the right opening title music can set one off in a new and improved direction.

Bravo.

Editorial note: The picture cutter must have enjoyed assembling this title sequence. What exactly is John Koenig firing at? The previous season? (Symbolism that I never noticed until I began to key this in. Credit to my space brain.)

Space:1999/50 ― Opening Titles: Year One

My introduction to Space:1999 happened in the early evening of Monday, September 1st, 1975, when CBLFT (the CBC's French-language flagship station) premiered it here in the Toronto-area market. I did not see the colourful new SF series in colour that day, as I had watched it on the 10-inch black-and-white Sony portable in my bedroom. (The chromatic, and English-language, version of Space awaited me the following Saturday morning. This then space cadet was there with bells on to greet "Breakaway", the series opener.) The dynamic visuals alone, even in a monochromatic state, were worth the price of admission. My initial reaction to this television series theme music? Good! Till the 22-second mark: that's when the twangy electric guitar took over. I remember wincing. "That's corny."

The theme was composed by Barry Gray, the talented music man of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson film and television productions. His stellar contributions were an important part of the Anderson's successes. In the case of Space:1999, maestro Gray made the series seem more important, and better, than it actually was. One could argue that the best parts of Space, its first season, that is, were the opening and closing title sections. ("Sections"? Sorry, that's a carryover from when I worked in "titles and opticals".)

Most memorable were the opening title "This Episode" segments. A friend of mine in Grade 9 said one day: "You can tell how good the episode will be." We were young. Quite the reverse was true in a lot of cases. (Utilizing the same device on the earlier Anderson puppet series, Thunderbirds, proved the theory of "how good" to be true, more often than not, certainly for us kiddies.)

Before I go, in the name of controversy the best Space:1999 theme tune is from Year Two....

Space:1999/50 — Ring Around the Bathtub (Review)

I copped "Ring Around the Bathtub" from a friend of mine. That mocking title about sums up Space:1999's most rotten Year One episode: "Ring Around the Moon"

For as much as I like to point out its badness, I find myself being strangely drawn toward this "Ring". There is something I cannot explain about its appeal. Perhaps it's lines like "This is Triton's universe" that keep drawing me back, time and again, with "Plan 9" pleasures. By the way, outside of noting "Triton's sun", "This is Triton's galaxy" is all we need to know. Specifying a universe is completely unnecessary. Unless we're talking of alternate or multi-universes, stating that Triton is of a particular universe is wholly redundant in a uni-universe paradigm.

(This kind of ineptness, unfortunately, happened far too often on Space:1999 ― science fiction produced by people who didn't understand science fiction, which might explain why the show's first season worked best as "horror". The second, and final, season was less horrific.)

The film editing in "Ring Around the Moon" is rough, giving the viewer the impression that there were problems in editorial. The inter-cutting between scenes is often awkward and disjointed; as though a scene or two is missing here and there. Perhaps the script was missing a scene or two, here and there. Without having access to the original script, it's hard to know what happened.

The episode's narrative-logic is also "off". Its opening scene contains one of those crewmembers-going-berserk moments. Fine. But this serious matter goes on for two minutes before Dr. Helena Russell yells to Sandra Benes, "Sandra, get security!" No! What took you so long? Anyone?

Perhaps the biggest problem with the episode is the awful acting, especially by Martin Landau; even the usually above-the-fray Barry Morse suffers from unconvincing deliveries. (In all fairness, Morse thought he was working in a nuthouse with this program. Morse left Space at the end of the first season, telling the producers something like "I'm going off to play with the grownups now".) The one person who shines here is Barbara Bain as Dr. Russell. Her performance is restrained, and applicably subtle. The good news is that Bain had a chance to show her thespian stuff in Space:1999's slightly improved second season.

One element in "Ring Around the Moon" is outstanding: The music; not composed by Barry Gray in this case, but by Vic Elms and Alan Willis. Its sparseness and rawness adds to the out-of-whack nature of the episode's storyline. As a matter of fact, the score's "beat" would foreshadow Derek Wadsworth's vibrant and fitting Year Two music.

(For me, Barry Gray, as much as I love his work on previous Gerry & Sylvia Anderson programmes, was clearly not into this series ― one indicator of this was the composer's reuse of themes he had originally written for the 1969 Anderson feature film Doppelganger [Journey to the Far Side of the Sun]. One can also hear a major smack of his opening theme tune for the 1968 film Thunderbird 6 in the Space title music. Composer Gray produced some fine cues for Space:1999's first season, but most were seemingly telexed in.)

Like a few episodes of this series, "Ring Around the Moon" is best viewed at 2 o'clock in the morning, I think. Which will be the time of the day when I'll watch this one again....

Postscript: Along with "Earthbound", "Mission of the Darians", "Journey to Where", and "One Moment of Humanity", "Ring Around the Moon" is the Space episode I've watched most often. Yes, I did admittedly open this piece with "Space:1999's most rotten Year One episode", but I also said that I find myself being strangely drawn toward "Ring Around the Moon". Not a lot makes sense.

Space:1999/50 — Earthbound (Review)

"Earthbound" is one of Space:1999's finest hours.

When the promising Space premiered in September of 1975, I was there in front of the colour tube to welcome another starfield patch... even if stars were a bit on the scarce side in this colourful import from the UK. Since I know the old SF television series very well, due to my then space cadet rating, I can pick and choose what I want to watch. And I choose this episode.

Despite the chintzy-looking alien 'sleeper ship' set and its even chintzier inhabitants, the Kaldorians, the episode works because of an engaging story and a great character: Commissioner Simmonds, played to perfection by Roy Dotrice, was sorely needed as a continuing foil for the bland Moonbase Alpha regulars ― not in an annoying Doctor Zachary Smith (of Lost in Space) way, but as Simmonds the full-blooded reactive and contrarian human being. It was not to be, however.

Simmonds is the floating variable in "Earthbound". Visiting alien leader Zantor, portrayed most effectively by some dude named Christopher Lee, is an unknown quantity in a friend-or-foe sense; but having the boisterous bureaucrat producing his own sneaky threat made for interpersonal drama that was all too rare on Space:1999. (Year One, that is; Year Two was a huge improvement in that regard.) This dynamic sets up and plays out the themes of "nobility" and "trust".

The episode's middle section, involving a threatened Helena Russell, suffers a little from a false false alarm ― obviously the sequence was inserted to fill out the script's page count ― but the more driven element of the narrative picks up when the good Commissioner does what he feels is right: for him. The ending is potent, and one for the memories bank ― and worthy of EC Comics. Space:1999, Year One, is considered by many of its fans to be more horror than science fiction.

Postscript: Along with "Mission of the Darians", "Ring Around the Moon", "Journey to Where", and "One Moment of Humanity", "Earthbound" is the Space episode I've watched most often.