[Captain Audio]

Ark II: The Complete Series- (1976)  A Saturday morning sci-fi show that shot its 15 episodes during the summer of 1976 and originally aired them that fall.  I don't remember catching it back then.  Work and school were taking up increasing amounts of my time and I just wasn't catching much Saturday morning stuff anymore.  The Dvd has a number of extras which give a good deal of background on the series.  Apparently all of the jet pack footage was shot in just a few days and then incorporated into all of the episodes later.  Some fine guest stars also enlivened the series most notably Jim Backus and Jonathan Harris. 

Best

Joe

Excellent series for its day and holds up well even now.
The world of their future is a tough place, and some stories are pretty dark for what's considered a kid's series.

Been watching "Starlost" excellent series for its day despite sptty production values and low budget. Top drawer sci fi actors of the day in almost every episode, Barry Morse, John Calicos and others less recognized these days but well known in the day.

Sets are very well done considering limited studio space and resources. The video effects were new tech of the day and a bit under developed and not very convincing so they learned to use these less in telling the story.

[profh0011]

More WHO.  Last night...

"Careful, darling. I don't think he's as stupid as he seems."
"My dear, NOBODY could be as stupid as HE seems."

...and...

"You know what I don't understand...?"
"I expect so."


Tonight...

"What are you laughing at, you hairy-legged highlander?"
"Nothing. I'm just admiring your diplomatic skills."

...and...

"Perhaps you should see a doctor."
"Are you trying to be FUNNY?"
"No... just... just making a suggestion."

[Captain Audio]

A question.
I can vaguely remember a movie I saw on TV many years ago, mid 90's I believe it was.
I missed the beginning and had intended to watch the movie from the beginning next time it was on, but I've never seen anything like it since.

The production values were high, especially for the 90's, and I got the impression it was a UK production.

There was a scene of spacesuited figures exploring a huge space craft which had been built by humans centuries before and found drifting. They were in a area that looked much like a shopping mall with plants and small trees in planters, everything was frozen and airless. There was a rupture of a dome roof and space suited figures scrambling to hold on to avoid being blown into space.

I recently watched an old movie called Night Flyers, a Sci Fi film from a story written by the author of Game of Thrones. Theres a similar scene in that film but though large the vessel is not as large as the one in the film I remember and there was no ice or frost or plants. The lighting was also very different since the Night Flyer still had internal lighting.

Does this scene sound familiar?

[profh0011]

Tonight's WHO...

"Just look at that swimming pool!  I can't wait to dive into that!"
"That's the problem with young people these days... no sense of adventure."

[profh0011]

The last week or so... the craziest run of DOCTOR WHO I've ever programmed for myself...

INVASION EARTH: 2150 A.D.
CITY OF DEATH
THE TWO DOCTORS
PARADISE TOWERS
THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT
THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET
DELTA AND THE BANNERMEN

I have never watched the show in any form like this before... I'm having a blast doing so!

[narfstar]

Does sound like fun viewing.

[unclerobin@att.net]

Good Lord is that ALL you people watch is Dr. Who and BBC programming?

[paw broon]

Well, yes.  A lot of it is seriously good - and tacky at times.
We do watch a lot of N.American shows in our house and I'm not that keen on the re-boot of Doctor Who, finding my favourite monsters, The Cybermen, being just a bit silly when shown marching in those ranks.
BUT, we haven't had t.v. for a few nights as our telly went on the blink and was shorting out the fuse box, so into the bin with it and we're out looking for a new one.  Fortunately we can watch on the computer, if we want to.
And as the weather has improved a bit, there is the opportunity to get out in the garden, go for walks and stroll round Edinburgh, from art gallery to cafe to Botanic gardens.  How good is that.  With no t.v., we can catch up on our reading.

[jimmm kelly]

Not to sound harsh, but I get a bit peevish about what is called a reboot and what isn't. I can understand why folks who grew up on the classic DOCTOR WHO might not like the revival. But it's not a reboot, it is a revival. And that's what attracted me to it--having only been vaguely aware of DOCTOR WHO when I was growing up and kinda scared about getting into it now because the fans seem to be rabid. It is a revival of a series that respects the continuity of the original.

There might be small continuity gaps, but not big ones like you see with other entertainments. And having now seen all of the original, I see hundreds of gaps in continuity, lots of illogic, thundering chasms of chronological confounding in the original series. The designs for the Cybermen alone were updated several times--which was a good thing, as the first model looked like they were put together with scotch tape and chewing gum.

In fact, because the original was cancelled (or put on indefinite hiatus), a lot of the changes that probably would have happened over the next fifteen years never did. So the revival is almost too attached to the classic series. If it had just kept going, the Doctor would have run through all 13 incarnations long ago. Designs would have been updated much more than they have. The original series at one point tried to get rid of the blue police box. Who knows what horrible depths, as well as heights, it might have gone to. The revival has kept a good 90% of the continuity I'd say.

For sure it's open to criticism--but not as a reboot, which it ain't.

*END OF PEEVISH COMMENT ABOUT DOCTOR WHO*

Changing the subject to anything not BBC related. I went to see BEFORE MIDNIGHT in the theatre the other day. It's likely to be the only movie I will bother to see in a theatre this year. Sadly two of my favourite old second-run theatres have both been closed down in the last year.

BEFORE MIDNIGHT takes place nine years after BEFORE SUNSET which took place nine years after BEFORE SUNRISE. Seeing these movies as they come out is like seeing my own life passing by--although the characters are a few years younger than me at each stage. All of these movies are beautifully shot--the director is doing things, like really long takes, which required a lot of skill--but you're not looking at the brilliance of the direction, because you're caught up in the movie itself.

I hope to be in a theatre seat nine years from now for the next one.

[narfstar]

Man of Steel was OK I enjoyed but could have been better. BTW: I agree Doctor Who was not a reboot but a revival. There had been talk of a female Doctor that would have been a reboot.

[profh0011]

Jimmm, I remember how so many fans awaited the WHO revival with trepidation.  Re-boots and (GAG!!) "re-imaginings" were such the rage... and yet, even a couple episodes in, one still wasn't SURE if the new show was a reboot, or e genuine revival.  But slowly, it became clear.  REVIVAL!!!

Up until JNT, each new Doctor tended to bring with him an almost entirely new era for the show.  It's no wonder so many said JNT stayed too long. I doubt anyone would agree with that more than JNT himself, who, right after the BBC ordered him to FIRE Colin Baker, admitted they'd LIED to him and they WEREN'T going to give him some other show to produce... he either stayed with WHO, or he wouldn't work for the BBC for at least another 5 years.  I still think it's a miracle he found Sylvester McCoy at such short notice... and note, those same BBC B******s didn't want to hire him, either!

I always thought the new show started in the best possible way it could have... by focusing on the "regular" characters, and slowly, bit by bit, revealing WHO was this strange guy that seemed to know too much and found himself fighting monsters.  I was reminded just the other day, it's not until the very end of his 1st episode that he let out that-- oh by the way-- the box travels in time, too!  Before that, Rose's first exposure to its interior was actually very similar to that of Roy Castle's in the 1st Daleks movie.  Inside-- disbelief-- outside, slowly walking around the entire thing-- then back inside again.  For something that had been around since late 1963, they found a perfect way to introduce to BRAND-NEW audiences the simple sense of pure WONDER at such a wild, crazy idea!

JNT never really intended to get rid of the Police Box, by the way.  When ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN was previewed at a convention a few months before it aired, he introduced it by saying, "We.... PLAY with the chameleon circuit."  I wish the 2nd half of that story had been a lot less NEEDLESSLY VIOLENT. The first half had a sense of "fun" that had been missing from the entire Peter Davison era (barring the Troughton & Pertwee bits of "The Five Doctors").

I think it's crazy how Derrick Sherwin & Barry Letts each introduced a new Doctor-- before leaving.  Isn't it somewhat perverse for an outgoing producer to hire a new star of a series, and do ONE story, then DUMP him in the new producer's lap?  This happened with both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.  And see how VERY different their debut stories were in tone from their 2nd stories (where the new producers debuted).

Now imagine how things MIGHT have gone if JNT & Eric Saward had BOTH left in between "The Twin Dilemma" and "Attack of the Cybermen".  Both guys had problems, but together, they were TOXIC, for each other, and for the show.

That said, in my current "jumping around" mini-marathon, I'm watching several Colin Baker stories, but, ONLY the ones I actually like-- "Revelation of the Daleks", "The Two Doctors", "The Mysterious Planet", and, tomorrow night, "Terror of the Vervoids".  Robert Holmes surely was capable of writing ANYONE on the show better than anyone else, back then.  (He did both "Two Doctors" and "Mysterious Planet".)  "Revelation" is by far the best thing Eric Saward ever did, but The Doctor & Peri are still terribly written (for the first half at least) and the BEST-written character in it is Orcini, who Saward needlessly kills off at the end.  Among other things, I LOVE the scene where Bostok shouts out, "Behind us!" and Orcini turns, and open fires with his machine-gun, even before he's SEEN what he's trying to kill-- and BLOWS it up!

I haven't liked everything I've seen on the revival, but I did enjoy the hell out of the entire 1st season (it's criminal Eccleston decided to leave so soon after some kind of falling-out with the producer), and while I never fell for Rose Tyler (as I have several other WHO girls), I would have loved to have "known" her.  And of course, from the moment he debuted, I saw David Tennant as nothing less than "Peter Davison DONE RIGHT".  (I really, really like Davison... just, NOT on WHO!!!)

[profh0011]

Tonight...

(as monsters are seen killing quite a few people...)
"You should be concerned for your passengers! Instead, you're just sitting there laughing."
"They're only economy class- what's all the fuss?"

[jimmm kelly]

I get vexed when I hear classic DW fans complain about the "reboot" as if it's the worst thing that could ever have happened. To use a broad analogy, it's a little like someone, without means to even have a home, overhearing a well-off couple complain about the renovations to their summer home in the south of France.

My Superman, my Star Trek don't exist. They've been rebooted--really rebooted. By comparison DW fans are pretty well off--they should look around them and see how bad it could really be. Relative to everything else, they've been extremely lucky.

The bad and sometimes the good thing about British TV is that the programs have short seasons and actors don't stay on a show for very long. It bothers me that I get into a show and there's only a few episodes to watch and then it's over and if it does return, you have to wait a year or two for more episodes to be made.

I can't think of very many British actors who have had wildly successful careers. It seems more like Canada, where you have a lot of actors who do it as work--and then a small few who go to America in search of fame. So I'd think a British actor who gets on a series would feel like he or she had won the lottery and they would stay on the series as long as they could. The problem for Canadian actors is that most shows get cancelled, but when a program lasts for more than a few seasons, the actors all tend to stay, because they appreciate steady work and the ability to feed themselves.

What upsets me the most about Matt Smith leaving DW is this probably means I will have to wait even longer for more new episodes of DOCTOR WHO. How the series maintains a large following with so many long gaps in production is a mystery to me.

[profh0011]

I used to get that back I the 80's, people who would ask me, WHY do they keep changing girls on WHO?  There is a definite difference in attitude among actors between America and England.  Here, generally, if someone gets a series that becomes a hit, they tend to stay with it as long as possible.  In England, it's just a job, and many actors circulate between TV, films, and, MOSTLY, stage.  Stage has become so marginalized in America, it's probably hard to fathom that some people we see on TV or in films might have spent MOST of their career doing live plays and touring around England from city to city.  (Before he came to Hollywood, Claude Rains was one of those.)

In the case of WHO, I suppose the trend was established the moment Carole Ann Ford got fed up with the material she was being given, and left after one year.  I've been delighted to find that so many fans agree with my own feeling that her replacement, Maureen O'Brien, was a huge improvement!

At the end of the 2nd year, William Russell (who'd effectively been the show's HERO for 2 years) and Jacqueline Hill both left.  As did the original producer, Verity Lambert.  The show's star, William Hartnell, was very upset by this.   Incoming producer John Wiles, who took over several weeks into the 2nd season, apparently didn't like or had a falling out with Maureen O'Brien, had her written out of the show.  If it's so hard holding on to actors, you'd think the LAST thing you'd want would be someone in charge deciding they want to REPLACE an actor, especially when they can't even bother coming up with a character worth replacing them with.  But this pattern was also established right here.

For its first 6 years, the show used to run anywhere from 39-44 weeks a year.  The first real gap came between the 6th and 7th seasons.  For a short time, there was a very real possibility the show would end with the 6th year, which is why they wound up finally revealing so much about The Doctor's background in the last few episodes.  But when the go-ahead was given to return, they'd already made the decision to change the format completely, AND, cut the season down to only 26 weeks a year (and in fact, season 7 only ran 25 weeks).  The start date for the 7th season was also pushed back several months, so for the first time, there was a LONG gap between seasons-- but still , less than a year.

The first time they did have an excessive gap was between seasons 22-23 when they show was "put on hiatus", which turned out to be 18 months.  An entire season of stories, already planned, written and ready to go before cameras only days before the decision came down, was lost as a result.  This was the direct result of 2 people, higher-ups in the BBC, who despite an endless series of "explanations", in truth, just PERSONALLY didn't like the show, and spent years trying to find ways to get rid of it.  The BBC's most-successful program worldwide, as far as sales AND spin-off merchandise was concerned, and the guys in charge deliberately sabotaged it!

When it came back it had been cut from 26 to 14 weeks (they actually claimed the season was "longer" since season 22 had been broadcast as 13 45-min. episodes-- a taste of things to come 20 years later!).  During season 23, not only was Nicola Bryant kicked off the show (on the orders of those same BBC guys), but right after the season ended, the producer was ordered to fire Colin Baker-- the show's STAR.

I still think it was completely NUTS that, after it took SO long for the show to finally be revived, and it turned out SO good, that Christoher Eccleston had a falling-out with the producer and decided to leave after only ONE year.  Totally insane!  His departure hit the news after only ONE episode had actually aired in England... can you imagine how that hit fans at the time?  Of course, as I've been reading, nobody picked up the show in America until a YEAR later, by which point they'd already been working on the 2nd new season.

[paw broon]

I read with dismay the reactions to my use of the word, "re-boot".  I'm still not sure what others perceive as the difference between that and revival. in relation to films, comics and Who. My big, relatively new Collins dictionary gives reboot as, "To shut down and then restart (a computer system).  Now, either I and the rest of you used the word in a context for which it is not designed, i.e. t.v. show, or, I used it correctly in the sense that that is exactly what happened with Who.  The show was shut down by the BBC  and restarted years later.  Revival is listed as, "reviving or being revived; a reawakening of religious faith; a new production of a play that has not been recently performed; a renewed use or interest in".  This would apply to Who.  I still feel there are enough differences to suggest this is a new vision for a classic t.v. show, just as the new Star Trek films are new visions of a classic t.v. show. I wouldn't mind a bit of enlightenment on the the difference between the 2 terms in the opinion of those who use them differently.
Apart from all that, jimmm, I can think of a quite a few  British actors who have had wildly successful careers.  And many of our soap stars have been with the shows for decades (those that didn't die in harness, as it were)  Also British t.v.shows such as Dixon of dock Green; Z Cars; No Hiding Place; Robin Hood; Hustle; New Tricks; Taggart; Frost and many more were on for ages.  But British t.v. does differ markedly from N. America in that we have short seasons.  That's just the way it is.  Some people prefer that, others prefer the American model.
Back to Who and I do not enjoy the new whatever you want to term it, not because I am a fan of the original series but because I can't take the continual build up to exaggerated shows of emotion and grinding of teeth, in many episodes, displayed by The Doctor.  So, I watch the start of episodes and often get fed up before the end of most of them and do something else.  Just to add a bit of spice to my wee rant, I repeat, the Cyberman just look silly, not menacing, when marching en masse nowadays. Only my opinion.
And just to try and wind some of you up a bit, Eccleston was a terrible Doctor and I was happy to see him clear off in a huff.  Nor do I think he's a particularly good actor as, in the, admittedly, few things I've seen him in, he always seems the same.
As for why the show took so long to come back, you have to remember that the BBC didn't really want the type of show it ended up being, despite it making money.  There was and still might be, a bit of intellectual snobbery involved.
I had more to say about Carole Ann Ford but I'll leave it for now.
I await with trepidation, any reactions.

[profh0011]

It seems to me the first time I heard the word "reboot" used to refer to anything other than a computer, it was a comic-book series, where they "started over FROM SCRATCH".  And this usually meant from one month to the next, with no break, just, suddenly, EVERYTHING from before was no longer valid, and you were looking at the start of adventures in an entirely NEW continuity / universe.

A good example fo this, in film terms, would be the TARZAN series.  Although MGM only did 6 big-budgeted installments (all with Johnny Weismuller), and then stopped, when RKO (who had already done a handful of separate films, I believe) picked it up, it continued on without any change except for the budgets.

However, it's a fair argument to suggest that when Lex Barker took over, even though you had the same studio and same producer, it had slipped into a "different" universe.

More so when Gordon Scott took over.  And then again, when Scott did the TV pilot.  And then, EVEN MORE SO, when Sol Lesser retired as producer and Sy Weintraub took over.

Strange as it seems, between Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, and Mike Henry, it appears we're supposed to believe it's the "same" version of the character... but there are enough subtle differences to suggest this is not the case.  However, although Mike Henry was supposed to do the TV show, I cannot imagine in my wildest that he and Ron Ely are the "same" version of Tarzan.  (Although, oddly ehough, I CAN imagine Ely and Mahoney as the "same" version-- BUT, only if you imagine Mahoney as Ely when he got older and tougher!)

James Bond of course is a strange one, because while one could imagine Connery & Lazenby as the "same" character (sort of), Roger Moore and anybody else... NO F****** WAY. Ditto, Timothy Dalton (although one might imagine Lazenby & Dalton as the "same" version... sort of.)  And yet, you had the same "M", "Moneypenney", and, ESPECIALLY, "Q", in so many films, it's positively insane!

DOCTOR WHO is a unique situation, however.  They had William Hartnell DIE onscreen and BECOME Patrick Troughton right before everyone's eyes.  The character totally changing his appearance and outward personality (while maintaining his inward personality) became part of the show.  And despite a long gap between Paul McGann & Christopher Eccleston, every indication has been give that they are supposed to be the "SAME" version of the character... with one being the 8th and the other the 9th.  Which has got to be the only series in film history where this has ever been possible.

What fans no doubt feared was that someone would decide they were going to toss EVERYTHING from the entire 26 seasons out the door and start over from scratch.  And that's NOT what they did-- thankfully.  (And, frankly-- incredibly.)


On the other hand, these days a good friend of mine in Wales has suggested that HE likes to look at the STAR TREK films as an "alternate universe" version of the TV show's future.  And as much as I appreciated them over the years (especially 2, 3, 4 & 6), I've come to agree with him.  The Filmation cartoons, however-- THEY ARE "real" STAR TREK.  (heehee)

[jimmm kelly]

I get the point about reboot. In the sense of rebooting a computer, it can be used to mean that something shut down and now it's started up again. But I think when it comes to comics, movies, and TV it now means not simply starting a new production, but starting a character or concept all over from the beginning.

Anyway, I got the point that paw boon was making, but it gave me an opportunity to attach my own peeve about the difference between something like DW and something like the New 52. They're two totally different situations.

I used to watch CORNONATION STREET--for many years--until it got to be too much work to keep up with it. I really liked it for being more real than American soaps and there were actors who stayed on never leaving (and anyway, they have a way of letting Gail or Ken take long gaps, before they show up again on the street). But it was just as frustrating there, where most of the actors would leave just as you started to really like them. Some of the houses should have had turnstiles rather than doors for all the times they took new tenants.

In fact, when the new DOCTOR WHO started, it was a CBC co-production with the BBC, and the CBC broadcast DW right after CORONATION STREET as their kind of British block of TV. Which is how I ended up seeing some of the Eccleston episodes. That version of the Doctor, with the jumper and the leather jacket and the Northern accent, fit with his CORONATINON STREET lead-in. Kind of ironic since in Britain one is on ITV and the other on BBC--and I understand that ITV's success is what contributed to the demise of the original DW series.

It was all a plot by Gail--Helen Worth must've been scheming against DW ever since she played Mary Ashe in "Colony in Space."

[alfje]

I've started to watch the first season of Thierry la Fronde (better known as "Thierry de Slingeraar" in the Netherlands).
I have the complete series, so just 3 more seasons to go......
I'm not sure if the series is well known in the English speaking countries apart from Canada (where it seemed to have been very popular back then).

[narfstar]

And you understand it? Bilingual huh.

[alfje]

I have the option to use subtitles.

[narfstar]

You could have kept me fooled.

[profh0011]

Tonight on WHO...

"You're too late, Doctor!  Nothing can prevent the catharthis of spurious morality!"

[profh0011]

Just dug out my tiny set of UNCLE tapes today for the first time in over 10 years.  Don't have a single regular episode... only several movie versions, including the greatly-expanded feature version of the pilot, and, the 80's reunion movie.

    Just posted at the IMDB boards... 




When I think back to the 60's, I realize that I had a much shorter attention span. I loved half-hour shows, both comedies and adventure shows. (Remember when they used to make HALF-HOUR adventure shows? THE LONE RANGER, THE GREEN HORNET, DRAGNET, etc.) There were VERY few hour-long shows I had the patience to sit all the way thru without getting bored. THE OUTER LIMITS was a rare exception, but for whatever reason, as a kid, I only turned that on occasionally. LOST IN SPACE was the first hour-long adventure show I remember getting really hooked on, but unfortunately, it got sillier as it went.

I sometimes wonder why I watched so little of THE MAN FROM UNCLE. I know I used to watch it occasionally, and even watched some episodes of THE GIRL FROM UNCLE. but it never seemed to be one of those shows I made a point of watching EVERY week.

By comparison, from the day I first ran across GET SMART (about 5-6 weeks into the 1st season), I was HOOKED, and never, ever missed it (unless I was away from, home with my parents somewhere).

Then again, I do seem to have a preference for shows with humor. I much prefer DR. STRANGELOVE, for example, to FAIL SAFE (which is pretty much the identical story).

I know I'm not adverse to COMPLETELY serious shows. I definitely got hooked on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, starting with its 2nd year. (I don't know what it was up against, but to this day, I have still never seen a single M:I episode with Steven Hill in it! But, like UNCLE, I did read the book about the show, which has really made me wanna get ahold of those episodes.)

Incidentally, one thing I haven't seen anyone mention on this site yet is that UNCLE was almost cancelled during its first 13 week trial period. Ratings were so bad, Robert Vaughn & David McCallum launched a cross-country promotional tour to get the word out about the show, making dozens (hundreds?) of personal appearances. IT WORKED. The show was renewed for the 2nd half of the season, ratings climbed steadily, and by the time the 2nd season arrived, they had a bona fide HIT on their hands.

[jimmm kelly]

I have the option to use subtitles.

My favourite thing is MEISTER EDER UND SEIN PUMUCKL. A few years ago, a friend of mine from Austria told me about this children's program and I started watching it on youtube, but there are no subtitles. Luckily I understand some German.

Trying the closed captioning function on youtube produces an English translation that is absolute nonsense. Trying the closed captioning in German produces a mix of correct translation and utter nonsense--which is very distracting for me. I think that the Bavarian accents are too difficult for the closed captioning feature to interpret.

Amazon.de has some of the DVDs, but the price is too much--especially with shipping. When I was in Austria last year, I looked for the DVDs but the few that I could find were priced too high for my blood.

Anyway, I enjoy the show so much that it helps improve my understanding of German. And there are some episodes I never get tired of seeing, no matter how often I watch them.

[Captain Audio]

I've started to watch the first season of Thierry la Fronde (better known as "Thierry de Slingeraar" in the Netherlands).
I have the complete series, so just 3 more seasons to go......
I'm not sure if the series is well known in the English speaking countries apart from Canada (where it seemed to have been very popular back then).

Looked this up and from description and stills this seems to be a rip off of Robin Hood set in France and with the sling taking the place of the Bow and Arrow.
Apparently a remake was scheduled to begin in 2012.