Doctor Who and the Tomorrow People (1973)

Benign Time Lord endorses the rights of Homo Superior to have their own long running science-fiction TV show.

Steve

Usborne World Of the Unknown (1977)

These were an essential part of my education back in 1977.  The three books in this series were all purchased from the Bookworm Book Club who used to come into the school every so often and set up stall so that parent could be reunited with their child, mid morning, to peruse the wares together.  Once decisions had been made, orders would be taken, money exchanged and the books would be delivered to the school a few days or weeks later, most probably to be hidden away until Christmas.

 

At 95 pence a pop I guess these were a commitment at the time but I can honestly say I had my money's worth out of them and all these years later they are still a pleasure to behold.  There are illustrations in all of these that have haunted my imagination for decades now and I will treat you all to a gallery or two of the best ones in the future.  For now though, simply enjoy the covers and rest assured that although titled: the unknown, we were all amateur investigators of the supernatural back in the 70's.  We already believed in all of it, we just wanted to know more.

 

Steve

0002 When I was a boy

I was in a service station a couple of weeks back and happened to notice a shelf of heavily discounted CD's. Being a chap that likes a bargain I had a little look-see and stumbled across this;

That's the latest album by ELO and their first since 2001.  Now although I'm not a hardened ELO fan they were a band a liked once upon a time, when aged about 10 or 11, and £3 seemed like a bit of a steal. So, adding it to the TV listings book and the Mars bar I went in for, I paid up and headed on home for a listen.

I wasn't completely oblivious to the album's existence prior to that moment and had heard the single; When I was a Boy, and a couple of radio interviews with Jeff on the albums initial release the year before.  I knew I was going to get something reasonably familiar, nostalgic probably, but certainly a thing of quality because Jeff Lynne is a master musician, an excellent song write and a stunning producer of beautiful sounds.  I know this because I owned Out of the Blue...

...and had done since 1977, when I had requested it as a Christmas present from my parents. I spent a lot of time inside that double disc album, both musically and visually, because in both respects its an almost cosmic piece of work.

 

Its hard to explain good music and so much easier to just go off and have a listen.  To which ends you'll find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIt9t11xgY8 and probably lots of other places as well.  Enjoy.  But before going off and doing that, lets get back to that amazing artwork.

 

The album cover's spaceship was designed by John Kosh with art by Shusei Nagaoka.  It was based on the logo Kosh designed for ELO's previous album, A New World Record and has now become synonymous with the band.

 

This is post 2001-A Space Odyssey and  pre-Star Wars technology.  It's big, clean, bright and optimistic. It's tripy, progressive sci-fi that doesn't need to fully explain itself because the ideas are from our future and we don't quite grasp them yet.  We need to evolve and grow.  We need to aspire and work at attaining that understanding.  We need to dream big and then chase that dream into reality.  Who wouldn't want to go on that journey of discovery.  I did. I imagined myself aboard, one of the many crew.  This would be my future one day.  I was 10.

 

I've journeyed round the sun a few times since then and most of it with my feet firmly on the ground.  I still like a big idea though and I still value the power of the imagination.  Jeff Lynne's a lot older as well but he can still write a good tune or two.  The new album is OK although its very reflective of where Jeff is now in his life.  The lyrics are less optimistic, the scale more personal.  This is to be expected I suppose.

 

I'm not sure the big ELO space ship featured on the front cover is quite the same vessel any longer either.  It seems smaller to me, remote and unmanned.  And the kid on the front seems content just to sit and look at it.  There's no immediate or visible desire on his part to get on board.

 

And inside the album, inside the spaceship, its altogether different as well.  Its a small corridor or maybe a room.  Its functional, off-white and lined with pipes and conduit.  There's an empty chair by the window and photos stuck on the walls. Guitar, radio set, coffee cup and a towel.  These are the possessions of just one individual who isn't even there anymore.  Nobody is dreaming of the future in here, this is all about the past.

 

 ...and I find that a little sad!

 

I have this theory, and it's one of the reasons I'm drawn to examine the past of my childhood, that we used to dream bigger back then.  And the artwork above would seem to reinforce that. There used to be a greater a sense of wonder, of possibility and of our own enormous potential.  We don't seem to project all that far forward anymore.  Perhaps we think this is it; we are already here. This is the future now!

 

It doesn't seem like it to me though and I liked us all so much more when we knew we had farther to go.  I find myself contemplating, not how we can bring the past back but how we can remember who we used to be.

 

Funny how a bit of album art can make you feel.

 

Steve

 

 

Oh and yes; I think they know they ripped-off the corridors of the Nostromo from Alien (1979) they were just hoping you wouldn't!

Lake Monster books of the 70s. (+1 from the 80s)

1975                                                                 1976

 

1973                                                            1982

The Triple Echo (1972) - Lobby Cards

Watched this evening for the first time in decades; The Triple Echo remains a wonderful piece of British cinema with a bucolic English landscape cast as the back drop to a tale of moral ambiguity and brooding sexual tensions.  Its powerful storytelling, subtly played by some of our finest actors of the day.  Seeing it again now after all these years and realising that it is still every bit as good as the vague memory recalled, makes me appreciate what excellent taste I had as a kid but it also makes me wonder where it developed from?   Something to ponder upon in another post, perhaps.

Steve

Madam Sin (1972)

Having just watched Madam Sin for the first time, all the way through, I have to say that I really liked.  It does sort of fizzle out at the end in ways that I can't quite put my finger on but could be either a lack of money, a lack of care or just a quick fix to give it any kind of end once they realised it wasn't going to get picked up as the pilot of a new series.

The opening is strong though, the music and cinematography striking and with sonic guns, dastardly nuns and the casual charm that is Denholm Elliot, I was instantly hooked

In its set up it's a little bit; The Prisoner, a bit; Man in a Suitcase and maybe even a little bit The Avenger. None of which are bad things, especial at the start of the 70s

What I find most interesting about the movie though is that if, as had originally been intended, it had have become a TV series, exactly who's series would it have been?  Madam Sin the Moriarty style villainess as played by Bette Davis, Retired CIA agent Anthony Lawrence as played by Robert Wagner or even the presumed dead CIA agent and love interest Barbera as played by Catherine Schell.  Or all three of them?

Without giving away the movie's surprise ending, which may not have been true to the original pilot script, quite where episode 2, 3, 4 and so on would have taken us is anyone's guess but its fun to imagine what might have been.

Steve

BBC TV Centre. A hub of industry from 1960 to 2013.

There still seems something very wrong about the BBC having to get rid of TV centre.  I'm all for having regional TV production centres in other areas of the country but that building was iconic and of huge historical significance.  It seemed to feature in as many productions as it made and thanks to live Saturday morning kids TV, Blue Peter and the like, we were always getting to see around the corridors and behind the studios.  I would have loved to have gone on one of the official tours when it was an option but feel like I know it fairly well regardless.

 

Plan from Ladybird books 'How it works' Television
 

 

 

Steve

From Sin to Who - Recycling the Future

How did this:

Madam Sin (1972) ITC

End up here:

Doctor Who Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) BBC

Well lets go for a bit of a ramble and speculate...

ITC (Incorporated Television Company) or ITC Entertainment as it was known in America was a British television production and distribution company best remembered for a string of cult TV shows made during the 60s and 70s.

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Champions, The Prisoner, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Stingray, Joe 90, Man in a Suitcase, Department S, The Persuaders!, Jason King and The Protectors, to name but a few of the ones we may look at here one day.

In addition to television programming, ITC also produced several feature films, including; Capricorn One, The Eagle Has Landed, The Boys from Brazil and Madam Sin.

The latter; Madam Sin, had started life as a pilot for a potential TV series but had failed to excite the American network schedulers and so, following its initial broadcast in 1972 on ABC, it saw distribution to the rest of the world in the aforementioned guise of a movie.

And, having recently viewed the cinema trailer, I can now identify it as one of those half remembered movies I started watching on my portable TV late one night in the early 80's (?) without ever knowing its name.  I think I fell asleep without seeing it to conclusion but I do intend to rectify that quite soon because it looks like fun.

Its perhaps also worth mentioning at this point that ITC was founded by television mogul Lew Grade who, with fingers in many other TV pies of the day, was also co-owner of Century 21 Productions, alongside founder and creator Gerry Anderson.

Now when the Century 21 partnership ended in 1970, many of its costumes, sets, and props from its various TV productions were sold off to hire companies, with quite a few of the smaller pieces going to the special effects boys from the BBC who, rumour has it, filled up a van with goodies for 70 quid.

So my guess is that the sonic gun from Madam Sin was mixed in with the Century 21 stuff as part of the clearance and as such destined to be recycled as a dinosaur stun gun in Doctor Who.

There are a few other bits and bobs from the back of the van that are worth looking at in the future but this seemed as good a place as any to start, if only because its that little bit more obscure than the sonic screw driver and various spaceships... and a bit of speculation usually brings the experts out into the open and starts discussion.

In the mean time it is a hansom prop and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it had featured in further roles as well as these.

Steve

Sun, Sea and Cybermen (1973)

Stiffkey Marsh and Cley Beach, Norfolk, sometime in 1973.  An important birthday celebration looms and actors Anneke Wills and Michael Craze are invited to improvise a Doctor Who'ish scene or two for the Radio Times 10th anniversary special.

Of all the "companions and monsters" pictures taken for the souvenir magazine, this photo shoot is perhaps the most successful in capturing a sense of story, and a very Doctor Who kind of story at that.  Not just because its Ben and Polly and the Cybermen but because of locations that are at odds with mechanical men and because its aliens in the English ideal.

What happens next?  Well obviously a sunshine yellow Edwardian Roadster skids to a halt and the firm but kindly voice of an eccentrically dressed, white haired gentleman commands that if they want to live, they should get in the car and quickly.  They accelerate away at great speed as cyber weaponry tracks their escape with a chaser of smoke billowing explosive charges.  Later when they are safe, he will ask them if they are alright and call them by their names.  They will be surprised because his is a face they have never seen before.  But when he tells them who he is, they'll know straight away that its true because they were there the last time.  Of course its the Doctor, who else could it be....and then the adventure will begin again.

Steve

The Herb garden (1968)

Steve