[Andrew999]

I am such a fan of the original series that I am nervous about watching a new version. The movie they made in the nineties was okay but lacked any real emotional connection with the original. Could anyone replace the original Doctor Zachary Smith? Not to mention the ice cold blonde Marta Kristen.

[paw broon]

I should have added that Bill Paterson scared ME and my wife to death.  Wonderful.

[The Australian Panther]

I actually am quite impressed by the Spielberg/ Cruse movie version of War of the Worlds. It was in many ways quite faithful to the original and very effectively described the chaos that would have resulted from such an event.
Q. Has anybody watched 'The Expanse' Series and can tell me if its worth watching? Its now on its 5th season and has had good reviews. Since I don't subscribe I will have to get it on DVD to watch it.     

[misappear]

I

[Andrew999]

First I've come across this. As a bit of a Trekkie / Babylon 5 fan, it sounds right up my street

[paw broon]

The new series of The Brokenwood Mysteries has started over here.  Can't rate this highly enough.
https://thebrokenwoodmysteries.com
Good mysteries; good fun; good characters; quirky.

[Andrew999]

Thanks guys - looks interesting - I'm a fan of Canada's Murdoch Mysteries, so I might give Brokenwood a go.

[paw broon]

New on Alibi is Traces and we enjoyed the 1st episode last night - 2nd episode is on tonight. 
https://alibi.uktv.co.uk/shows/traces/
This could be worth sticking with.  Val McDermid supplied the original idea.

[The Australian Panther]

While looking for something altogether different I found this site.

http://texaveryatwb.blogspot.com/

If you would be happy to spend some time looking at Tex Avery Cartoons and learning something about them, be my guest.

enjoy!

[bowers]

Panther, you made my day! Tex was the greatest and I can watch these by the hour. Thanks for the post, my down-under friend! Cheers (and giggles), Bowers

[Captain Audio]

Been watching episodes of a forgotten sci fi series called "the Visitor".
An American pilot who had disappeared shortly after WW2 returns to Earth after being held by Aliens for fifty years in a colony of Earthly abductees. He is trying to change humanities preset course for self destruction and convince the Aliens not to destroy humanity themselves because humans are deemed dangerous to other intelligent life.

[Andrew999]

I tend to 'catch up' with my watching well after broadcast - usually on DVD.

Currently, I'm watching The Orville series 1 - a Star Trek pastiche that treads carefully the thin line between reverence and revel. The chemistry between the two leads is outstanding. I'm also catching up with Red Dwarf XI and Modern Family X - brilliant as always - and (well behind the rest of the world) Murdoch Mysteries series 3.

Over Christmas, I did watch Dracula on live transmission and found it so-so. Recently, with my wife, I watched Sanditon - thought it was pretty good but disliked the last episode.

Bizarrely, on YouTube, I'm watching the four Tarkan films, adapted from the Turkish comic book in the late sixties/early seventies. Great fun.

[Captain Audio]

"Bizarrely, on YouTube, I'm watching the four Tarkan films, adapted from the Turkish comic book in the late sixties/early seventies. Great fun."

These sound very interesting. The first has the "Sword of Mars" as the object of importance. There are two legends of how Atilla came by this sword. One is that he found it in an ancient grave site, the other that a herdsman found one of his cattle had a badly injured hoof and he back tracked the blood trail to discover the sword sticking up slightly above the surface. In both stories the skeletal remains of many men and horses made it look like an ancient battle ground.

I've always figured this was a Scythian blade. They tempered their sword blades by leaving them sticking out of the ground in areas known for frequent lightning strikes. The lightning heated the blades white hot and minerals in the surrounding dirt acted to case harden the surface before rain quenched the hot steel.
They also worshiped Mars using a massive steel ceremonial blade mounted on a stone column. They sacrificed many horses to Mars . At the graves of their kings his personal guard, who were dedicated from birth to serve him in life and in death, mounted the horses already killed and propped up on frameworks and cut their own throats.

A number of fine swords have been recovered from Scythian and Sarmation grave sites. The Sarmatians, the descendants of the ancient Scythians, were the major enemy of the Huns.

Its been speculated that Excalibur was a ancient Sarmation or Scythian blade that had been mounted in a stone as an object of worship.

[Andrew999]

Fascinating stuff, Captain Audio - many thanks.

The Scythian Empire was huge and because they weren't prone to producing much in the way of paperwork, still little known. Broadly speaking, the warrior nation stretched from Romania as far as China around about the time of Plato and Herodotus

[Captain Audio]

The METV channel here (oldies series channel) has started showing the earliest B&W episodes of the classic western series "Gunsmoke".
Great ep yesterday. We find out why the later opening scenes always show Matt in a gunfight and the sound of his opponent's shot proceeds his. Turns out Matt Dillon is actually slow as molasses compared to most lawmen and gunfighters. He only wins because he forces the other guy to draw while still beyond the normal effective pistol range. He takes time to do it right and make a one shot kill rather than spraying lead everywhere. He's also tough as a pine knot and heals fast when shot, mainly due to Doc being a master surgeon. He is never really afraid of being shot, he's no cherry in that respect, though not fool hardy so he keeps his cool.

[Andrew999]

Anyone want to recommend any movies or TV series they are watching during the lockdown - or books?

[paw broon]

Just to be different, I'm listening , to some Big Finish audios.  Full cast Sherlock Holmes stories. There are adaptations of classic tales - Hound of the Baskervilles, Speckled Band - and original stories.  Nick Briggs is Sherlock and Richard Earl is Watson.  They are very well done.
I also found on archive.org, old Holmes episodes.  One series has John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson and another with Simon Callow and Nicky Henson.  Well worth digging out.
The Big Finish Who stories are very good and I have a lot of them. 

[The Australian Panther]

Want to see some spectacular scenery and sunshine while in isolation?
Here are three 'Old Surehand' German Western Movies.
These are as corny as Cornsyrup, nothing serious about them in anyway. Very much like Golden Age comics in some ways I think. By today' s standards, not PC and bordering on comedy. 
They are a tradition in Germany, but mostly unknown in the English Speaking world.
All dubbed into English, All Widescreen and colour.
The first two are early ones with Stewart Granger.
Among Vultures, ENGLISH Audio . Winnetou & Old Surehand HD . by Karl May
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmZINwSlg38

Old Surehand.( Flaming Frontier )A film with Winnetou ENGLISH Audio HD. by Karl May
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih8FTErcbn4

This one stars Lex Barker and has some really creative camera-work. At the beginning, watch the camera go right through the saloon and then come right back again. Absolutely spectacular scenery. 

The Treasure of the Silver Lake | Winnetou & Old Shatterhand ENGLISH Audio HD. film by Karl May
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBnRnYhnSQ4 

OK, can someone educate me and tell me if there are 'Old Surehand' comics?

Enjoy!

[crashryan]

I'll have to check these out. "Old Surehand" was originally "Old Shatterhand," Karl May's legendary character. Given how popular the books were, I'd be surprised if there weren't at least a few Karl May comics.

[Andrew999]

Thanks Panther - I watch a lot of old German movies (anything with Klaus Kinski, Peter Alexander and Vivi Bach for starters) so these have been added to my watch later list (except the watch later button doesn't seem to be working at the moment)

Karl May comics - you must be kidding - there were hundreds:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hs=mHH&q=karl+may+comics&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=opera&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiF3onu7OToAhXJSxUIHXghCogQsAR6BAgMEAE&biw=1821&bih=853

Like Dickens, May was an industry! He died in 1912 and all his work has long been in the public domain (see below). Much of it is not worth reading, to be frank, but the characters he created, like Winnetou, have been rehashed and recreated by others in many forms over the years.

https://www.karl-may-museum.de/en/

https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.karl-may-gesellschaft.de/kmg/primlit/indexa.php&prev=search

[paw broon]

I'm sure there are a lot of Karl May comics, all in German of course. I don't have any but I have seen them on a website, but that was years ago.  I can't remember where.

[bowers]

 Thank heaven the local PBS stations are done with their pledge drives! Almost three weeks long this year- one can only watch just so much "Celtic Woman" and "50's Doo-Wop"!
Currently watching the new season of "Call the Midwife", "World on Fire" (Masterpiece), and "Baptiste" (Mystery). All very good, with more good stuff coming later.
Our cable Acorn channel just got some new programs (well, new to us!) this week. Currently enjoying all four seasons of "Lovejoy", an old favorite, as well as "Wire in the Blood" with Robson Green, and a hilarious bit of Steampunkish nonsense called "Going Postal".
Hope all of our group's brothers and sisters are safe and well. Remember, you are not alone! You're all part of our online family and if things aren't going very well, please post something and let us know. We DO care!
Cheers to all, Bowers

[The Australian Panther]

here is the first ever cinema James Bond.

Casino Royale (1954) Drama, Action Feature Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq_ZJB8rcsY

In typical Hollywood style, James Bond played by Barry Nelson, becomes Jimmy and is an American, Felix Leiter becomes British, changes his name to Clarence and is played by An Australian, the great Michael Pate, who has trouble keeping the accent. Peter Lorre plays Le Chiffre and he makes it worthwhile, in my opinion.
The female lead is Linda Christian.   

Enjoy!   

[paw broon]

Hi Bowers, have a look for a new short series of Van Der Valk, with Marc Warren as the detective. We've watched the first 2 of 3 episodes and thoroughly enjoyed them and taped the 3rd. Set in Amsterdam, it's a modern take on the original Van Der Valk, played by Barry Foster and which started mid '70's.  Lots of old episodes here:-
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOjgkw4w3sPRatBZfLzZ2Lv434GdhCqNZ
The theme tune, Eye Level, was a big hit.  Unfortunately, there is a problem with the audio on some episodes.
The new series is harder.
One of our cable channels is re-running Unforgotten - Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bashkar.  Sometimes dark and troubling but great performances.
Lighter and funnier is Shakespeare and Hathaway.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7526498/

[bowers]

Hi, paw! We're getting the new "Van Der Valk" (love Marc Warren) series later this year on PBS Mystery, along with more "Granchester", "Endeavour", and something called "Miss Scarlet and the Duke". Last year we got a second season of "Unforgotten" and "Shakespeare and Hathaway"- loved them both! Also "Vienna Blood", filmed in Austria- quite good.  New series starting on Masterpiece soon, "Beecham House" that looks interesting. If we must "shelter in place", then it's good to have something decent to watch! Stay safe, my friend! Cheers, Bowers