SKY (1975)

It's almost 4:50 on Monday the 7th of April 1975.

 

We have just the one television set in our house at this time and we're watching ATV(1) on it.

I've only just turned seven a few weeks back and with an older sister and brother in the living room with me, its doubtful I'm calling the shots as to what we we're about to watch.  Jackanory is on BBC1 which is an easy pass most weeks but after that its Blue Peter(2) and everybody likes that. Why not today then?  Somebody must know of something better.

 

The TV-Times rests on the arm of the sofa, with the beguiling Jane Seymour illustrating the final episode of The Hanged Man. Its also the "Year of the Yo-yo" apparently and there's a chance to win an Estate Car as well. (insert era appropriate jokes about British Leyland(3) here!)  No clues on the cover of that then.

 

My brother had Look-In magazine back then so perhaps it's him that knows what's coming on next.  That's probably it. Look-In is published every Thursday and is billed as the Junior TV-Times.  As well as the usual listings for all the regional TV suitable for 70's youth, the latest edition is also sporting a full colour painted cover of a strange young man with eldritch eyes.  He looks like an angel or a warlock and he's standing in front of Stonehenge, flanked by bright yellow copy that reads;

 

"Great new sci-fi adventure series SKY starts on TV"

 

There you go then, at least that's one mystery solved, although its worth noting that this kind of sci-fi adventure will become increasingly alien (pun fully intended) to my big brother as the years role by.

 

"What's this about?" I probably ask as its starts.  "Shut up and watch it" they say.  And I do

...and I'm hooked.... forever

It's now the 30th of May 2016 and some time has passed.

I've just watched episode 1 of SKY again for the umpteenth time and it still feels very special.  Its one of those shows that got into my DNA, partly because of the age I first saw it but mainly because of the story telling.  It's quirky and dangerous and the answers don't come easy.  You have to properly watch it and you have to think about it and if you do that then it just keeps giving.

Or at the very least it keeps transporting you back to a time when the answers were enigmatic and powerful and could only be half grasped.

"The Juganet is a circle. The circle is a machine. The machine is a crossover point. The point is a paramagnetic intersection. That is where I must be"

 

And I probably am.

 

 

Steve
 

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An Introduction... of sorts

"Do you remember a guy that's been In such an early song. I've heard a rumour from Ground Control
Oh no, don't say it's true. They got a message from the Action Man;  I'm happy. Hope you're happy, too"

 "The Juganet is a circle. The circle is a machine. The machine is a crossover point. The point is a paramagnetic intersection. That is where I must be"

 

 

"The Prophet has truly said. The behaviour of the white infidels is like blood coming from a stone; A bleeding mystery!"

 

 

"What else can we do?"

"Oh, nothing very much. I suppose you can take the normal precautions against a nuclear blast, like, er, sticky tape on the windows and that sort of thing."

 

"Wait, maybe there's another circle... besides the stones."

"What do you mean?"

"Time. Maybe it's a circle too."

 

Ghosts trapped in the culture, calling out from the past.  Voices, words, ideas that resonate through time.  Yesterday's futures, secrets from the dawn of time, lost histories and sci-fi now.  All of these and more.  Threads, knots and bindings. An inner and outer landscape

Welcome to Strange England


Steve