I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 10 - The X-Files 1.10 - Fallen Angel

We're back in the UFO-abduction-conspiracy mythology this episode. Although I don't have a lot to say,  it's a real step up in quality...

The X-Files 1.10 - Fallen Angel

In terms of the ongoing story arc, there is not much that's new here compared with the early episodes of the season..Something odd is found in the woods. Mulder becomes obsessed with it and believes it's UFO related. Scully is sceptical to the point of stupidity. The military covers everything up. All this plus Deep Throat says something cryptic. So far, so "Conduit". But it's the first time we've truly seen Mulder willing to throw his entire career away in the pursuit of what he perceives to be "the truth"  - and moreover challenge those with authority to stop him, especially as they seem to be looking for any opportunity to shut the X-Files down.

It's also revealed that Mulder isn't just an obsessive FBI agent investigating odd cases - he has a whole other side to him as a member of the UFO / paranormal fraternity, writing articles for fringe magazines and so on. He clearly sees a large part of himself in Max Fenig - it's an alternative path that Mulder could have gone down and he genuinely seems to care about the guy and what he is going through. I'm still slightly unclear as to why the alien needed Max or what was so important about him that it needed to haul him off to god knows where, but it certainly made for a surprising and affecting conclusion. Nice effect as he was raised up into the air as well.

The end of the episode call's Deep Throat's true motivations into question, which adds a nice new wrinkle to things. It's possible that Mulder and Scully are going to have to contend with adversaries on multiple fronts and I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out over the rest of the season.

The final interesting thing is with the title of this episode as I can see that it potentially has multiple meanings. Sure there is the obvious fact that an alien craft has fallen from the sky and its occupant is wandering the backwoods blasting anyone who gets in it's way with a heat ray, like some kind of invisible H.G. Wells Martian invader. But the moniker could also be applied to poor old Max , the innocent yet tragic UFO enthusiast who didn't ask for any of this to happen to him and who has been suffering for years with seizures and visions at the expense of any kind of normal life. Finally I think it could also be applied to Mulder himself - one of the FBI's best and brightest who had the chance to go onto big things, but finds that his personal obsessions made him an outcast.

Intriguing stuff...

Other thoughts and facts:

• There have been quite a few real-world U.S. Air Force investigations into UFOs over the years, particularly between 1948 and 1970 under the headings of "Project Sign", "Project Grudge" and "Project Blue Book". Whereas "Sign" was quite open about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, "Grudge" was blatantly hostile. "No matter what you see or hear, don't believe it" was the mantra. There's a lot more about all this (both real and fictional) included in the excelleny "Secret History of Twin Peaks" book that came out a short while ago. It's fascinating stuff if you have time to dig into the reams of archive material.
• A laser grid to protect the alien crash site? Really? Do you have any idea the amout of energy that would be needed to power one of those?
• If the government wants to keep this alien thing secret, why bring down dozens of men and trucks? Somehow, somewhere, it's going to leak out.
• Naming the doctor who attends to the aliens victims "Oppenheimer" is hardly subtle, especially when they have been poisoned by a form of atomic radiation...
• Did Mulder just happen bring those exact files about the abductees with a scar behind their ears with him to the motel room? That was convenient...

Random Ravings 12 - That's Lobstertainment

Just time for a second look at the TV adaptation of one of my favourite comics...

Preacher Season 1

I wrote about my first thoughts on this show a few weeks ago, but now I've finished watching the whole of the first season and...well that certainly wasn't what I was expecting. Spoilers from this point on folks.

So it appears that the entire ten episodes was a mash up of various scenarios into what amounts to a prequel to the "road-trip to find God" main storyline (effectively the first issue of the comic),  The Odin Quincannon "Meat Man" plot, Arseface being trapped in hell and oh...a God impersonator being called up by video phone in Jesse's church are just a few of the changes. All this plus the Saint of Killers *finally* get's his mission (after some lengthy and slightly confusing recaps). It's utterly nuts and goodness knows what the average viewer who doesn't know the comics made of it. After this, I don't want to even try and predict where season two will go. All bets are off.

I can live with the twisted up story and extra invented details. That's all part of the transfer to a different medium. As I've said before, I can accept Jesse with a beard and Tulip as being non-white. It's somewhat odd, but I'll deal with having ten episodes of characterisation for the townsfolk only for them to all be wiped out in a massive methane explosion (the shit literally hitting the fan). I'll even tolerate Joe Gilguin as Cassidy if I have to. These are just cosmetic changes really. What I can't deal with is the fact that everyone is just so damn unpleasant. There is not a single one of the main trio that's at all likeable. Jesse is meant to be a good man, despite everything that was done to him, but he comes across as a complete arse (pun intended). As for Tulip, she just appears to be a self-centered whiny psychopath. There is no sense of the deep love that she and Jesse feel for each other. Trotting out the "til the end of the world" line does not make a relationship.

I actually think there is a worthwhile case for a fan-edit here, paring down the seven or so hours into a tighter more focused story, seeding the Saint of Killers backstory properly throughout the narrative and cutting out the extraneous characters (why should we care about Emily Woodrow and her life if she just gets blown to bits at the end?). It would take some excellent editing skills to rescue the central characters though.

The best thing about that final batshit-crazy episode of the season is the music - including tracks I have never heard of and some superb cover versions.. Starting with a montage undercut by Willy Nelson's "Time of the Preacher" followed by the novelty Country-yodelling  of "Bowling Ball Blues", it's just one excellent musical choice after another. Okay some of it might be a little on the nose, but when Tulip and Jesse (apparently) let the double-crossing Carlos go, who doesn't want to hear Johnny Cash's amazing version of the Depeche Mode classic "Personal Jesus"?

The highlight of the soundtrack though is the song that plays when Annville descends into chaos as the residents reel from the shock that God does exist, but he's missing. Singer / songwriter David Lichens performs a cover of "No Rain" by alternative rock group Blind Melon. Now I've never heard of either the song or the band before, but this sent real shivers down my spine. It fits the mood of the episode perfectly. Sadly there doesn't appear to be an official version available, so I'll have to satisfy myself with a cut from the episode itself - complete with dialogue and sound effects:

Will I be bothering with season two? I guess so, in that I want to see what the writers come up with next, but I think it's clear that I'll need to throw all my expectations out the window and just go with the flow. It's time for the real story of "Preacher" to begin...

Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 12 - 1978

As we move further forward in time, the choice of which one important thing to pick from my childhood gets more and more difficult. Take this year for example - there were at least four things vying for the top spot. But when it came down to it, there was just one I keep returning to again and again and again...

1978:

The trivia:

• Geologists working in the wastes of Siberia found a family of six people who had not seen another human being since 1936.

• Mathematician and philosopher Kurt Godel was so afraid of being poisoned that he would only eat food his wife cooked. When she was hospitalised for six months in 1978, he starved to death.

• The French created their own 1970s version of the internet called Mintel, where you could shop, chat to friends, send mail and check stock prices. There were still over 800,000 terminals in use when it was finally shut down for good in 2012.

The memory:

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds

"No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinised, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us..."

How many versions of this incredible album have I bought now? The LP records (twice), the cassette, the CD (the first thing I ever bought in that format), the 7-disc Collector's Edition, the DVD of the live stage performance. It's never enough. Across 95 minutes Jeff Wayne manages to beautifully tell the classic H.G. Wells story of Martian invasion through music and song in a way that has never been equalled.

Like most people I guess, I first came across the album via the song "Forever Autumn" which was released as a single and reached number five in the UK charts in August 1978. Justin Hayward's haunting vocals were perfect and as the presenters of "Top of the Pops" announced that it was from a musical version of "War of the Worlds", my ears pricked up even more. I'm sure I had read the original book by this point (I went through a phase at around ten of borrowing all the "classics" from the library - Ivanhoe, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers, etc).

I persuaded my parents to buy the record for me as a Christmas present for that year and once the usual festivities were over and the relatives had all gone home, I was allowed to listen to it. I may have been familiar with the story, but what I wasn't expecting was the surprise of that opening narration from the superb Richard Burton and then those first few crashing chords. I was hooked instantly.

This was (and continues to be) a truly immersive audio experience. The thumping bass guitars, fabulous repeated themes and melodies, and extended sequences of prog-rock-esque music swept me away to Victorian London and the strangeness that was to come as a cylinder from outer space landed on Horsell Common. The sound design was just perfect -  no-one can forget the noise of the cylinder unscrewing or the ear-shattering "ULLA" cry of the Martians as the tripod war machines rose above the terrified onlookers.

To help with the visualisation, the original LP version was accompanied by a 16 page booklet featuring several paintings by artists Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim. From that classic cover as a war machine attacks the warship Thunderchild, to the creeping of the Red Weed across the English countryside, to the crows picking at the dead flesh of the aliens after they are defeated  - the images reinforced the power of the story. I used to pour over the details for hours.

Richard Burton of course is responsible for much of the heavy-lifting of the narrative in between the music and the songs. His sonorous Welsh tones drive everything forward and if you listen to the out-takes (available in the Collector's Edition) you can hear how much he was enjoying getting his lips round the various passages of text, many lifted directly from the novel. I particularly like his reading of the description of the hideous Martian creature, as it prepares to dispense death from the heat ray:

It's lipless mouth quivered and slavered - and snake-like tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated".

There were other versions of the narration recorded for overseas language markets, including one featuring Anthony Quinn, but nothing can supplant Mr. Burton in my memory. He is as intrinsic to the success of the production as the music and lyrics.

He's not the only excellent voice on the album though. Jeff Wayne fills out the rest of his cast with some very talented vocalists, many of whom were / would go on to become musical legends. The previously mentioned Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues), Julie Covington, Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earth Band), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) as Parson Nathaniel and not forgetting David Essex as the "The Artilleryman". Each voice adds something special to the story. Essex is steadfast at first as the loyal soldier and then increasingly deranged as he wants to rebuild the world underground. Lynott is perfect as the poor religious man who finds himself doubting his own faith in the face of the Martian's overwhelming alien superiority and believing that they are heralds from Satan.

I must have listened to the record over and over and over again in those first few weeks, the headphones glued almost permanently to my ears. If this was my introduction to the idea of the "concept album" then I couldn't have picked a better one! Yes it deviated from the source novel in a few areas, but I didn't care.

As time went by "War of the Worlds" was a constant companion and then in the early-80s, the music impinged on my other burgeoning interest - computer games. I was a big devotee of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum - a primitive machine by today's standards but with it's 48K of memory and 256 colours it was a revolutionary and ridiculously successful product at the time - spawning an entire industry of software houses and home programmers. In 1984, CRL released a Spectrum version of "War of the Worlds". I bought it of course, but to be honest it was a pretty poor arcade graphical adventure. I just kept wandering around various locations looking for the Martian base and dying of hunger. After a few days of getting nowhere (and I always considered myself pretty good at these kind of games) it was abandoned. I've found out since that you had to visit the locations in the same order as they were on the album, but even so, it's not something I have any desire to revisit.

In 1989 there was a resurgence of interest in the album when Ben Liebrand released a remixed version of the classic first track "The Eve of the War" and it got to number three in the singles charts. I still have the 12" around here somewhere. This led to other alternative mixes and eventually a double CD full of them in 2000 known as "ULLAdubULLA - The Remix Album". I think I borrowed a copy from  somewhere but a few of the alterations were too extreme and  it was veering into the club / dance genre - really not my thing. They re-released it in 2006 with even more versions but to me they are an interesting curio, nothing more.

2005 / 2006 was also the time when Jeff Wayne really began to ramp up his use of the material in the new century, partly to capitalise on the release of the Spielberg film starring Tom Cruise. First there was the 2-disc 5.1 Suround Sound Hybrid Super Audio CD set which was then included in the 7-disc collectors set along with a hardbound version of the booklet and 80 pages of behind the scenes photographs, the best of the remixes, hours of out-takes and rare unused tracks and songs (most never heard before) plus a "making of" DVD. It truly was the best set a fan could hope for and I quickly snapped up a copy. Just thinking about it makes me want to pull it down from the shelf and listen to everything again.

Jeff's next trick was a live stadium tour of the full work, complete with 48-piece string section and rock band. The centrepieces were a 11 foot high 'virtual' Richard Burton, which via image projection and lip-syncing moved along with the words of the Journalist, and a giant Martian fighting machine appearing on stage complete with heat ray. Some of the original musicians and cast returned, as wel and various other singing roles were taken by performers such as tenor Russell Watson, ex-pop star Jason Donovan and a host of former reality TV singers.The tour was so successful that it went to Australia and New Zealand and mainland Europe - and continued in one form or another right through to 2011. I never got to go sadly, but I do have the DVD of the 2006 Wembley Arena show. It's a great set of performances, even if the images they used of Burton for the huge virtual head were of his younger self rather than the craggier, older looking man I remembered from his later career.

During a break from touring, Wayne worked on a *new* version of the album. Dubbed "The New Generation". it 'allowed the composer to re-interpret his music and 'use more modern production techniques'. All the major roles were recast and in a moment of absolute sacrilege (at least to this listener), Burton was dropped in favour of Irish actor Liam Neeson. "Kaiser Chiefs" frontman Ricky Wilson became the Artilleryman and "Take That"'s Gary Barlow provided vocals for the sung thoughts of the Journalist. Soul singer Joss Stone was also cast as Beth. So big question  - was it any good? 

Despite his film pedigree, Liam Neeson just couldn't compete with the golden voice and gravitas of Burton. It came across as more of an flat "audio book" performance rather than an acting one. He got quite a bit of new dialogue too, but I can't think of one line that felt like an essential addition. Gary Barlow and Ricky Wilson did actually make reasonable stabs at their roles, "Forever Autumn" was actually pretty good, if a bit less orchestral, while Wilson was no David Essex, but I quite liked his Artilleryman. Elsewhere though Joss Stone could certainly sing, but definitely NOT act. Parson Nathaniel was here played by Maverick Sabre (yes I had no idea who he was either) and the problem was a total lack of chemistry between the two, which made "Spirit of Man" just a bit of a damp squib. There were also a few bits taken from a 1998 PC strategy game (I had to look that up) including, would you believe a couple of lines of Martian dialogue. 

It was all still recognisably "War of the Worlds" with the brilliant songs and themes from before but to be perfectly frank it's been "tinkered with" a bit too much. Wayne had added lots of sound effects and extra "whoosh" noises and drumbeats - and they all stood out at right angles from the original score. It's a bit like the "updated" versions of the original "Star Wars" trilogy - the core is still there but the digital frippery around the edges detracts rather than adds to the experience - and like those CGI creatures, these additions will date very quickly. What was once a timeless classic became something...less.

Don't get my wrong, anyone who came to this for the first time would still be blown away by the power, excitement and vibrancy of Wayne's vision, but for those of us who grew up listening endlessly to the 1978 version, the "New Generation" version just reinforced how good that really was. Maybe it did introduce a host of younger people to the music - I would have just handed them a copy of the original...

This new take on the album also went on tour under the sub-title "Alive on Stage!" between 2012 and 2014 with some of the cast repeating their roles and Liam Neeson appearing via much improved holographics. Former pop stars Marti Pellow, Brian McFadden and Shayne Ward also popped up during various iterations of the round the country performances. There was more new material in the live shows which was not present on the CD (including new scenes), plus enhanced pyrotechnics and special effects. At one point they even had actor Callum O'Neill on stage as author H.G. Wells across three ages of his life. Again I did not go to any of these shows , but bearing in mind my less than high opinion of the "New Generation" in the first place, I don't think I even considered it, nor did I get the eventual DVD.

The most recent of my "War of the Worlds" memories brings us bang up to date. In 2015 it was announced that Jeff Wayne would be debuting a full theatrical "re-imagined" production in London's West End for a very limited run, conducted live on stage by the man himself. As well as the virtual Liam Neeson (no Burton sadly), the cast was to include Jimmy Nail as Parson Nathaniel, Heidi Range (Sugarbabes) as Beth, Daniel Bedingfield as the Artilleryman and  "Robin of Sherwood" star Michael Praed as "George Herbert". Most interesting of all was the news that David Essex would be returning to the Victorian era for the first time in over 35 years! I looked to my wife (also a big fan) and she looked at me - "We have to go!" we said almost simultaneously.

So on a cold Saturday in March 2016 we found ourselves in the fourth row of the Dominion Theatre, eagerly looking forward to a night of revisiting the greatest concept album ever made. Surrounding us were hundreds of other people of a similar middle-age, and as the curtain rose and Mr. Neeson spoke those opening words, there was a ripple of excitement the air...

Hmmm. Perhaps I'd been too excited and expected too much. It was more than the previous "live on stage" shows I'd seen on DVD, that was for sure, but less than a full blown musical, so it fell somewhere in between into a realm that was all a bit...odd. That's not to say the production team didn't throw everything at the wall. There were flame-throwers, lasers, alien tentacles, back projections of Victorian London, a full height Martian fighting machine clomping on and off stage at various moments, Liam Neeson popping in and out from all directions, diminutive Jeff Wayne sliding backwards and forwards on his podium as he conducted his heart out -  and lots and lots of people running around.

Michael Praed looked and sounded great, but when most of his lines were given to holo-Liam, he ended up spending a lot of the time just staring up at a screen. They should just have dumped the pre-recordings and let Michael do the whole lot live. Jimmy Nail was suitably boggle-eyed and raspy as the Parson experiencing a crisis of faith and Heidi Range could hold the high notes  - but the biggest surprise for me was Daniel Beddingfield who had a really excellent voice and belted out the songs originally performed by David Essex.

David himself had the more undefined role as the "Voice of Humanity" so didn't do a huge amount of solo singing, but his croaky fading voice probably wouldn't have been up to it anyway - after all he was 69 years old - and let's be fair - his name was really there to draw in the punters. My least favorite part of the second half was the interpretative dance sequence where red-clad ballet enthusiasts rolled around pretending to be the Red Weed. It seemed to go on for ever.

Despite these flaws it was still an enjoyable show and there was a deserving standing ovation for Jeff and the cast as they took their bows, The truth was, it didn't matter how much spectacle you threw at it, the main attraction was clearly the music. Even though it was the less-preferred "New Generation" version (with added bells and whistles), it was hard to deny the thrill of hearing it played live and at full volume. It took me right back to that Christmas in 1978...

So after all that, it's been a long and winding journey across the decades. "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds" has been with me for nearly forty years now and I have no doubt that I'll still be listening to it for the rest of my life.

ULLA !!

 does last a long time - which for those who aren't a fan of the impressive interpretive dance Honourable Mentions:

• The Wild Geese - My second Richard Burton starring vehicle and what a film. What a cast. Richard Harris, Roger Moore, Stewart Granger, Frank Finlay. Hardy Kruger. I love the old ensemble war films like "The Guns of Navarone" and "Where Eagles Dare" and this has a similar feel, but with a harder, more modern edge. It tells the story of a bunch of older mercenaries contracted to rescue an African leader from imprisonment, with deadly results. Burton and Co are perfectly cast and I've lost count how many times I've seen it. An absolute classic. 

• Blakes' 7 - After "Doctor Who" my second favourite Britsh SF show and for a while during it's four series run it held the top spot. I remember making my own teleport bracelets and ORAC computer out of cardboard so my friends and I could create out own adventures. But as much as Blake was the good guy, we all wanted to be Avon didn't we?

• Superman - The original Christopher Reeve movie and still the best despite todays's amazing special effects. Reeve embodied Clark Kent and the Man of Steel like no other actor before or since and was a personal hero of mine.

• Centennial - During the 70s we saw the rise of  the historical blockbuster "event" TV mini-series, which my parents greatly enjoyed. First in 1974 there was the Burt Lancaster starring "Moses the Lawgiver". Then in 1977 there was "Roots" and "Jesus of Nazareth". The most ambitious of these (and the one I have the most fond memories of) was "Centennial" - the 26 hour story of the area around a fictional town in Colorado between 1795 and the then present day. Starring almost every well-known TV actor of the time, the world "epic" doesn't begin to do it justice. If you have any interest in the history of the American West, you owe it to yourself to seek it out.

• Starlord - 2000 AD's more colourful, short-lived sister comic - most notable for giving the world "Strontium Dog" and "Ro-Busters". Lasting a mere 22 issues it's legacy is huge. As good as those famous strips are, I personally loved "Mind Wars" - a complex space opera featuring telepathic twins, by Alan Hebden and Jesus Redondo. It really needs a collected edition.

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 9 - The X-Files 1.09 - Space

I've just watched a dodgy episode, with some even dodgier effects -  but to be honest I'm more interested in the real world events that inspired it...

The X-Files 1.09 - Space

I'm old enough to remember the excitement of the two Viking probe landings on the surface of Mars in July / September 1976. They were historical moments, and I can recall sitting down with my dad to watch the evening news and being fascinated by the first images back from the surface of the planet. The information gathered and experiments conducted by the two spacecraft transformed scientists ideas about Mars, especially with regards to how much water once existed on the now barren world.

The "face on Mars" image used in the episode? That's real. On 25th July 1976, Viking 1 took a picture of a flat-topped hill (known as a mesa) in the Cydonia region of the planet, which appeared to show something with the appearance of a human face. Of course this was seized upon those fascinated with extra terrestrial life and their supposed visits to Earth as proof of their opinions. Some also theorised that it was evidence of a long-lost Martian civilisation. Subsequent missions to Mars with higher resolution cameras have proven that it was all just an optical illusion - an example of 'paeidolia', where the mind sees a familiar pattern where none exists. After all, how could there also be a smiley face (as used in "Watchmen") in the Galle crater?  We see what we want to see...

This episode spends a lot of it's time revolving around the disruption of a Space Shuttle mission - in this case "Discovery" delivering a satellite payload. There is a launch sequence near the start which seems to go on for just slightly too long, but then you have to remember that the Shuttle mission were still really big news back in 1993. Discovery itself had carried the Hubble Space telescope into orbit back in 1990 and would go on to perform dozens more missions - including delivering parts of the International Space Station - before finally being retired in 2011. 

I was lucky enough to 'witness' the launch of a Shuttle myself when I was on holiday in Florida at age 18. This was the maiden voyage of "Atlantis" on 3rd October 1985. I'd been very excited to go on a tour of the Kennedy Space Centre just a few days earlier, and had seen the Orbiter on the launchpad attached to the distinctive orange fuel tank. Obviously I wasn't able to be in the direct viewing stands but even from miles away you could hear the roar as the engines ignited and clearly see the plumes of white hot energy underneath the craft as it rose into the sky. It was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience.

This personal event means that I can relate to Mulder's love of the idea of human space travel (to go along with his belief in extraterrestrial life). He acts like a giddy fanboy when he gets to meet a boyhood hero in the form of Colonel Belt and see a Shuttle take-off. Who wouldn't? (Well, Scully maybe...) His other assertion that the problems with the Hubble Telescope and the -  back then -  very recent loss of contact with the "Mars Observer" spacecraft were the work of aliens are slightly less believable.

The sad thing is, one other aspect of this story - the fact that the Shuttle mission may have been sabotaged and at risk from terrorists -  was also based on real world fears. The dialogue was correct - there really are 17,000 different things that could go wrong but it would take a very experienced fanatic to damage something and not be noticed by the checks and triple checks and system redundancies. But despite this, as space travel was still popular in the period when "The X-Files" was first transmitted, there were genuine concerns that those extremist factions who wanted to take the U.S.A. down a peg or two would focus their efforts on one of it's most obvious symbols. Unfortunately as the world knows, less than eight years later terrorists would attack something much more fixed to Terra Firma and with hugely devastating consequences.

The main problem with this episode is that even with the high concept of an poorly-defined alien with poorly-defined motives wanting humans to stay away from outer space, the actual result is to take Mulder and Scully away from their normal spooky and mysterious territory and just place them in a big room to stare at a lot of empty screens for thirty-odd minutes. There are a few stock shots of Shuttle launches and orbits, but the effects don't stretch to filling the monitors with any kind of realistic looking data, not matter how much technical jargon you throw into the dialogue. What budget they had for snazzy visuals must have been severely limited (after spending all their cash on that pointless Mission Control set). The "face" super-imposing itself over that of the gurning Colonel  is pretty poor, even allowing for 90s limitations.

I also still don't understand what the whole point of linking the "space ghosts" to the face on Mars was for apart from having a real world element to hang off the back of. It's not as if  there is any reference to them stopping any previously existing Martians exploring space or why they would choose to build a gigantic head on the surface of the Red Planet (unless they are incredibly vain).

In fact it's all a bit poorly constructed when you think about it too much. Was Belt possessed by an alien floaty presence since his spacewalk years ago? What exactly did the aliens not want us to find out and why were they only doing it now - years after man had landed on the Moon? Did they cause the "Challenger" disaster as well? (a bit of an ill-advised link in my personal opinion) How was Belt able to resist right at the precise moment that his skill was needed to get the craft down to Earth? Carter tries to go for mysterious and just ends up with frustrating. I like conspiracies as much as the next man (I am watching "The X-Files" after all) but this was just a  muddle of unanswered questions. In the end the antagonist throw himself out of a window. Much like the plot.

Other thoughts and facts:

• The "O2 leaks" mentioned are a clear reference the Apollo 13 mission in 1970 where an oxygen tank exploded two days into the mission, crippling the craft. The Ron Howard directed film is well worth seeking out.
• There are lots of references in the NASA control room to "OTC". This stands for "Orbital Test Conductor", who is the person in charge of the engineers who monitor the hardware and software on board the shuttle orbiter. This includes the main engines, communications, power, fuel and manoeuvring.
• The hostile commander's full name is Marcus Aurelius Belt. Chris Carter clearly loves his history as Marcus Aurelius was the Roman Emperor from 161 - 180 A.D. 
• I know that the space administration / military have lots of clout, but a full spectrum radio blackout across a wide area? Some things are a little too far-fetched.
• I did wonder why Belt seemed to live out of a hotel room rather than having a house if he spends all his time at NASA.
• Was there a reason they contrasted the Colonel's fall from a window with his original spacewalk? Was it just to suggest the alien was dying with him or was there some more metaphorical link?
• "The chances of anything coming from Mars...". Hmmm there might have been a concept album on that subject released sometime in 1978...

Random Ravings 11 - The House of Wellibob

Time for more short randomness...

Pax Britannia  - The Gods Of Manhattan - by Al Ewing

Yes I'm still continuing with this series, in e-book form at least. If you recall, I wasn't that impressed with the last Ulysses Quicksilver volume I read back here, but this is the second in Al Ewing's "El Sombra" trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed the first one and Mr Ewing hasn't let me down with any of his novel or comics writing, so this seemed like a pretty safe bet.

Half-naked and all-crazy sword-wielding Mexican vigilante El Sombra is back, this time stalking the streets of Manhattan in search of those further up the chain in the Ultimate Reich hierarchy (in this world Hitler is still alive  - well his brain is, housed in a gigantic robot body). However the tale of El Sombra's vengeance takes a back seat to that of New York's very own hero - the near superhuman, Doc Thunder.

Thunder is obviously a parallel to the classic Doc Savage character that I wrote about just a few weeks ago, blended with the original less powerful version of the Man of Steel. Possessing extraordinary strength, able to heal from virtually any wound and leap tall buildings at a single bound, he is America's greatest hero. Involved in a scandalous three-way relationship with the immortal Maya, queen of the Leopard Men of Zor-Ek-Narr and his best friend the apelike Monk, Doc puts the world to rights and stands up for decent folk everywhere.

If Doc is the light, then the Blood Spider is the dark, The vicious alter-ego of rich socialite Parker Crane, he's a cross between Batman and The Shadow (double pistols included) with the violence and fractured personality turned up to eleven. Aided by a cadre of informants who are terrified of him and with a steely blonde as his driver, the Blood Spider guns down anyone who gets in his way.

The plot kick starts when Heinrich Donner, the former head of the Nazi-fronted "Untergang" is killed (for the second time) and Doc's lover Monk is violently attacked and hospitalised. As the different worlds of these three men clash in spectacular fashion, mysteries are unravelled and long held secrets revealed - and not everyone will emerge unscathed.

So this is possibly be one of the most enjoyable retro-steam-punky homage to the authors favourite characters novels I've read in a good few years. Heroes and villains ply their trade in a alternative United Socialist States of America where Joe McCarthy started a second Civil War. New York is a steam-powered city where psychedelia rubs shoulders with punk and mad science collides with superheroes.

Ewing displays his influences loud and proud (Doc's nemesis is called Lars Lomax after all), but rather than being a poor mans rip-off, we ends up with a rip-roaring adventure featuring the archetypes of pulp fiction and comics history. It's Philip Jose Farmer's 'Wold Newton' universe via Alan Moore's "Tom Strong" but with an awful lot more violence.

It proves once again that Ewing is capable of taking what might seem to be a well-trodden or dull old idea and breathing new life into it. This is a novel packed with imagination and brimming with confidence. The characters might be familiar but the world-building here is just excellent. To be honest you could remove the "Pax Britannia" strapline and let this world stand on it's own. I'd compare it to the best of the George R.R. Martin edited "Wild Card" novels, which for me is high praise indeed.

Jonathan Green might be happy extolling the moribund adventures of Britain's most cliched super-spy, but Al Ewing is forging ahead with the best kind of alternate-world novel - one that takes existing tropes but still tells an exciting original story. I can't wait for book three, "Pax Omega". Highly recommended !

Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 11 - 1977

This is one of those landmark years. A time when a number of things came together. I can categorically say that the things I read and viewed and listed to in this year changed my life forever. So although officially there is one 'memory', there are actually lots of things to talk about. Science Fiction and Fantasy was about to fill my world...

1977:

The trivia:

• On 15th August 1977, an Ohio State university radio telescope known as "Big Ear" heard a 72 second long radio transmission from deep space near the Sagittarius constellation, on a frequency that many scientists believe intelligent races might use. It has not been heard since.
• At 5.10 pm on 26th November, the audio signal for a UK 'Southern Television' news broadcast was hijacked for 6 minutes. The voice claimed to be "Vrillon" ("Asteron" in some transcripts) from the "Ashtar Galactic Command," with a warning to the people of Earth that we should remove all our "weapons of evil".
• A Filipino couple accidently received one million dollars into their account in Manila due to a clerical error, which they promptly spent on property, medical expenses and gifts for friends and family. Although the Mellon Bank tried to recover the funds and even instigated a law suit, it is still unresolved and the cash has never been paid back.

The memory:

"Hang on a minute" you might think. "Surely 2000 AD should be obvious choice for 1977 ? This is where 'Thrill Power' began isn't it?". Well you'd be right - the writers and artists and stories within it's pages shaped my love for comics. The fact that it's the only thing from forty years ago that I still collect today and still have every single issue of is testament to its undeniable influence on my life. The spirit of 2000 AD is embedded deep in the DNA of the person I am today and this blog.

The thing is, I could never do justice to the everlasting energy of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic in just one post of a few hundred words, or limit myself to the stories of one year (as good as they are). 2000 AD is too big and important. I've already written about Dan Dare and M.AC.H. 1, plus it's been mentioned in numerous other posts across the last couple of years. There's going to be much. much more to come - but in recognition of 2000 AD's debut, here's a montage of some of the covers that came out in that first year (with credit to the excellent retrosmackblog for pulling these together) :

The Memory:

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

So Steven Spielberg takes the top two slots in my favourite films of all time. "Jaws" may have wowed me with its story and excitement, but this, this is on a whole other level. It's not surprising really when you consider how much I was interested in space exploration and aliens, even from an early age - plus UFO interest was at its absolute peak in the late 70s. I think it's also far to say that after this film my love for all things science fiction was rock solid.

The odd thing is, "Close Encounters" is so ingrained in my memories that I'm honestly struggling to remember when I first got to watch it. Did I get taken to the cinema by my late grandfather in early 1978? (the timeline just about fits and there are memory flashes about sitting in a darkened room watching something about UFO's - and no, it wasn't that *other* SF film) Did I get that first feeling of astonishment when I saw it on BBC1 around age 12 or 13? I guess the exact moment doesn't matter, it's the fact that "CE3K" sits there in my personal history like an enormous black hole making a gravitational dent in space-time.

"Close Encounters" is really the story of everyman Roy Neary and single mum Jillian Guiller as they have differing encounters with something not of this world. Both are deeply affected by the experiences. Gillian's three year old son vanishes. Roy gets third degree burns on his face and finds his stable family life torn apart by forces which he can't understand. They both become obsessed with a mysterious mountain in Wyoming. Travelling to the site and avoiding the military, they arrive in time to see dozens of UFOs. As government specialists communicate with the ships via colours and tonal frequencies, a gigantic mothership lands and strange aliens emerge, along with many people long thought lost, having not aged in the intervening decades. Roy is selected to join a group who are to visit the mothership and after a final conversation using simple hand geastures, the aliens ascend to the stars with their new friends.

A paltry few words can't begin to explain the sheer mesmerising power of this film. It's full of iconic moments - images I can picture immediately when I just close my eyes. The lost ship stranded in the Gobi desert. The screws unwinding in the golden light of Jillian's apartment. Roy sculpting a replica of Devil's Tower out of rubbish in his living room. The five notes played to the alien spacecraft are as recognisable now as the theme to James Bond's adventures or "Raider of the Lost Ark" (they were also the first thing I could ever copy on an electronic keyboard). All these things pale behind one of the most astounding, awe-inspiring sequences in science fiction - the mothership appearing above the mountain and then slowly turning over. I sat there with my mouth open I'm sure. Cinema doesn't get much better than this.

It's not without some minor faults and unanswered questions. Why did the aliens take the people in the first place? Did they lure little Barry away just to get his mother to Devil's Tower? That seems particularly cruel. Doesn't Roy Neary give up on his family and kids to go off in a spaceship just a little too easily? Yet at the time of viewing, you don't even think of these things as you are swept up in the story and visuals. Despite the various tinkering around with the "Special Edition" the original ending is clearly the best - it maintains that sense of wonder and allows your imagination to run free.

I think we all really want our first meeting with intelligent beings from another planet to be as peaceful and magical as that pictured in this film  - both sides putting their efforts into communicating and making friends rather than immediate aggressive actions. Sadly the current reality is probably going to be more like the recent "Arrival". As a species we are just not ready for a close encounter...

Watch the skies...

Honourable mentions:

• The Fantastic Journey - Although it only lasted a brief ten episodes, this show is remembered by me at least for the Bermuda Triangle / time-travel / Mysterious Island concept and for the cast of interesting characters, including Roddy "Planet of the Apes" McDowall and Ike "Witch Mountain" Eisenmann. My favourite was Jared Martin as Varian, a "more evolved" man from the 23rd Century with his multi-purpose tuning-fork-like Sonic Energiser  - which looked much cooler than the Doctor's screwdriver. Sure, as the group travelled through the various zones the things they encountered were familiar SF plots - a giant pulsating brain controlling the population, Joan Collins as the leader of a group of female revolutionaries who overthrow their male oppressors, a society of androids fighting green-skinned aliens - but it was still thoroughly enjoyable. For some reason it's always stuck in my mind.

• Logan's Run - Not the classic Michael York film (which I adore) but the 14-episode spin off set in the wilds outside the City, as Logan 5 and his friends search for Sanctuary. My over-riding memory is of android companion REM (played by Donald Moffat) and the cool cars than the Runners and Sandmen travelled around in....

• A Spell For Chameleon - Not the first fantasy novel I ever read (I guess that honour goes to Enid Blyton's "The Magic Faraway Tree") nor my favourite published in this year (that's getting a mention in a later post in this strand for a different reason) but the one that informed me that fantasy could be exciting - and funny. The first in Piers Anthony's "Xanth" series (which currently runs to an astonishing forty volumes) it concerns the adventures of "Bink" who is exiled from his homeland because he *doesn't* have a magical talent. It's full of strange creatures, people with amazing abilities and groan worthy puns and I collected, read and re-read all of the Xanth books for many years -  although eventually I grew out of them as my tastes changed and the plots became rather repetitive. The first eight or so are probably the best and at the time were a good introduction for youngsters to fantasy. Pratchett is far better though, as I was to discover in just a few short years...

• Space - Magic Fly - A sublime piece of French electronica which reached #2 in the UK charts. It took me years to find the album. 

• The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction  - The first SF reference book I ever bought, from the much loved bookshop in Sudbury, Suffolk. A fascinating trawl through the history of the genre and it's major themes. Nowhere near as exhaustive as the later "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", but it did have a lot more pictures and I loved picking through it. I still have the same copy on my bookshelf.

• The Man From Atlantis - Included in this list because incredibly it was the series that first made me stop watching my favourite TV show, Doctor Who (see here for a few more details).

• Children Of The Stones - Seven of the scariest half hours of children's television ever transmitted. Some of the scenes in this show (along with "King of the Castle" from later in the same year) terrified me for a long time afterwards.Notable of course for the spine-chilling music, the brain-twisting plot and the appearance of a pre-"Blakes' 7" Gareth Thomas. I also had a thing around this time of being somewhat scared of actor Freddie Jones. He was everywhere during the 1970s and I kept coming across him in a variety of forceful roles. I think it was those extraordinary attack-eyebrows..

• Star Wars - Nah, it'll never take off...

Random Ravings 10 - I Worship His Shadow

So what media have I consumed recently? Something big...

Black Science Deluxe Edition Volume 1 - The Beginner's Guide To Entropy

As time has moved on and I have got older, my comics purchasing has changed. Sure there is still the regular weekly dose of "2000 AD" and monthly "Judge Dredd Megazine",  but there are almost no US comics where I now purchase individual issues - like many I've shifted to getting the trade paperback collections. Where in the early days these used to be somewhat sporadic and could stop with next to zero notice - leaving readers hanging - it's now a normal occurrence to see entire runs collected in this form as a second revenue stream. I have the entirety of "Astro City", "Fables" and "Ex Machina" sitting on my bookshelf rather than in a long comic box.

What's also become prevalent in recent years is the rise of oversized hardback collections of a particularly notable title. I used to be somewhat dismissive of these thinking "I can just get the trades", but just in the last twelve months or so I've been drawn towards them more as a fantastic way to show off the beauty and skill of the artwork - plus they look great on a shelf.  The huge DC "Absolute" editions are generally excellent but very pricey, so I have splashed out on just two of those so far - the complete "V For Vendetta" and Neil Gaiman's "Sandman Volume 1". There were other similar sized things from independent publishers, but nothing has caught my eye.

More affordable are the Image Comics "Deluxe" versions, originally pioneered by Ed Brubaker across his multiple collaborations with Sean Murphy. Larger that the monthly comics or the trades but no where near the heft of the "Absolute" format, they look incredibly inviting. Image has extended this formula to a number of their other popular series and I've been tempted enough to pick a few up, mainly based on whether I think the story / art is worthy of the extra investment.

The "Judge Dredd" comic is shown over the "Airboy" hardback to illustrate the size difference

However recently having perused a couple of digital editions of the monthlies and liked what I saw, I purchased the first deluxe edition of "Black Science" a creator owned SF series by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera. When it arrived in the post I discovered that this was a different order of magnitude from the other hardbacks:

(Monthly comic vs "normal" Deluxe vs "Black Science"

This is almost the size of the "Absolute" books, which I was not expecting (but much less expensive). It's a weighty tome, containing the first sixteen issues of the comic plus background material. Rather than trying to consume it in one go, I limited myself to a single issue a night, so I had time to absorb the big concepts within...

So the question now is was it any good and does this story justify the larger size?

I can honestly say the answer is a resounding yes...

"Black Science" is like a dark, violent pulp version of the old TV show "Sliders". Anarchistic scientist Grant McKay has spent his life working on the "Pillar" - a device that will allow travel through the infinite alternate worlds of the Eververse. Since everything is possible somewhere in the layers of what he terms the "Onion", Grant and his team plan to trawl the dimensions for the solution to all the planets ills. A cure for cancer, unlimited clean energy, faster than light travel - it's all just a hop away.

While celebrating the completion of the project, the device activates unexpectedly, grabbing McKay and his team plus his two children, a security guard and  Kadir, an old college rival. Flung randomly into the increasingly dangerous worlds of the Eververse, the "Dimensionauts" need to try and find a way back home to their own universe. The problem is something is wrong with the Pillar. The homing beacon and timer have been smashed, maybe sabotaged. They cannot control their destinations and with the Pillar now powering up at unpredictable intervals, on every different world they could be stuck for an hour or a week or forever...

The thing is, the further they get into the Onion, the more they discover that they are not the only ones travelling the dimensions. After all, in an Eververse of infinite possibilities, there must be alternative versions of themselves - alternate version of the Pillar - which means in some places they get there first and in others their alternate selves did - and things did not always end well with the locals. Life may have developed very differently too - in fact their first jump brings them to a layer where intelligent amphibians with electrical energy powers are the dominant species - and they are *not* friendly.

There is much, much more to this, including exactly what all this travel is doing to the Eververse, and Remender keeps the twists and turns coming. It's very fast paced. Anything goes. No one is safe from the terror and violence and characters can die suddenly. A lot of the backstory is also told via flashbacks across multiple chapters, which means that revelations about character relationships or the reasons behind their actions or agendas take time to develop. All of the main characters are flawed in some way. Grant McKay is cynical, obsessed and self-absorbed. Kadir obviously has a big chip on his shoulder. Grant's daughter Pia is not as helpless as she first seems. No one could be called one-dimensional or black and white. What helps with this is that each chapter is narrated by the internal monologue of a different member of the team, so you really get inside their heads, their hopes and fears and so on.

As for the art? Well it's just beautiful, especially on this larger scale. I've not seen any other comics with work by Matteo Scalera, but after reading this I will definitely be looking out for them. Some of the pages are simply stunning. Surreal alien landscapes, bizarre creatures and frantic action - Scalera manages to make it all look effortless. Sometimes the pages are jam-packed with detail and sometimes there is a quiet calm with a huge double splash page of the vast scenery. There is a hint of Jim Cheung in some of his art, but with a more angular pointed style. I also really like the paint splatter effects that occur throughout the book, as if the artist was working so passionately that the brush was flinging ink everywhere. What really makes it work though is the colours by Dean White and others. Sometimes there are more hues on display in one page than in entire issues of other series.

Remender, Scalera, and White have created a universe full of mysteries that are only beginning to be explored in this first collection. What lies at the heart of the "Onion"? How can the team get home and what is the nature of the true threat they face? All extremely interesting questions. As far as I know this storyline is set to run to around a maximum of 40 issues, so answers will be coming. I'll certainly be there for the second volume.

Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 10 - 1976

I didn't get where I am today without knowing a thing or two about British situation comedies...

1976:

The trivia:

• In this year doctors in Los Angeles went on strike. The mortality rate dropped by 18%.
• On April 1st, the BBC convinced many radio listeners that a special alignment of the planets in our solar system would temporarily decrease gravity on Earth. Phone lines were inundated with callers who claimed they felt themselves lift off the ground.
• There were no red M&Ms between 1976 and 1986 due to a controversy involving a synthetic food dye. However that dye was never used in the colouring of M&M's at all - the colour was just withdrawn to avoid "public confusion".
• In 1976 Ronald Wayne sold his 10% co-founders share of Apple for $800. Today it would be worth 35 billion.

The memory:

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin lives in suburban Climthorpe with his wife Elisabeth. Every day he walks the same route to the same railway station, to sit in the same carriage, across from the same faces on the same train (which is invariably late) to the same office at pudding and ice cream manufacturers "Sunshine Deserts" to do the same sales executive job he has done for the past goodness knows how many years.

Every aspect of Reggie's working life is grating on his already fragile nerves. His boss C.J. is a pompous oaf, who talks in mis-quoted cliches and how he "didn't get where I am today without...". His two subordinates Tony and David are next to useless yes-men who just parrot that everything is "Super" and "Great". The new sales campaign for Exotic Ices seems utterly pointless. It's all so boring. It's enough to make him want to scream...

Reggie begins to imagine having a passionate embrace with his secretary Joan across her desk and pictures his mother-in-law as a waddling hippopotamus. He starts to act very oddly - writing rude letters to the train company, arguing wildly with the tea lady about pieces of cake and experiencing more and more outlandish daydreams. As time goes on his eccentricities get crazier and his friends and family begin to worry. Reaching crisis point, Reggie ends up giving a drunken rambling speech at a conference and vows to end it all. Walking to the beach he leaves his clothes there and... well a story of apparent death and rebirth is just getting started...

 Across three increasingly absurd series, Reggie keeps trying to leave his past behind and live a life of anonymity, individuality and peace, but finds himself drawn back to his family, firstly in disguise and then under a false name. Incredibly no matter how bizarre the schemes he comes up with - including "Grot", a shop that sells only useless things (square footballs, tins of melted snow, empty cardboard boxes, etc,etc) or a commune  where people could learn to be better human beings - Reggie keeps succeeding. It's exactly what he doesn't want.

It's perhaps hard to imagine a show about the apparent utter pointlessness of modern 1970s life and a desire to escape it all being funny, but it is - enormously so. This is partly down to the subtle, clever and satirical writing from creator David Nobbs, and partly to the ensemble cast of oddball characters - each with their own catchphrase - that surround Reggie Perrin. Sunshine Desserts boss C.J. is my favourite, but there is also wonderful humour to be had from politically correct son-in-law Tom ("I'm not a ---- person..."), company quack Doc Morrisey and especially Elisabeth's brother Jimmy, played with typical world weary laconic charm by the always reliable Geoffrey Palmer ("Bit of a cock-up on the catering front I'm afraid...").

Of course the glue that holds all this together is the wonderful central performance from Leonard Rossiter as Reggie. Already a household name for his turn as grubby landlord Rigsby in ITV's "Rising Damp", this series sees him take his particular form of  frenzied acting to new heights. It also helps that he is able to reel off the writers occasionally stream of consciousness dialogue at an incredible pace, adding to the manic nature of Reggie's character.

It's an almost note perfect display of a man going through a mid-life crisis - questioning the meaning of existence and needing to break out of the confines of everyday life and go off and do something - anything - more adventurous. Rossiter manages to play this with just the right mix of madness and pathos so that you genuinely feel for the man and the stresses he is going through, even when he is acting in the strangest ways. It veers close to the cliff-edge of over-acting but never quite goes that step too far.

It's a performance and a programme that always makes me laugh, no matter how many times I have seen the episodes. While it's true that series one and two are the best, there are glorious absurdist moments throughout all three. Those character catchphrases have entered into everyday use (each time my wife tells me to have a good day at work, I respond just like Reggie with "I won't!"). But it's also the little things that delight -

•  The letters gradually falling off the Sunshine Desserts sign. 
• The fact that the computer picks the best flavours to start the Exotic Ices brand with as "bookends, pumice stone and West Germany"
• The ever more bizarre reasons why the trains are late ("Twenty-two minutes late, escaped puma, Chessington North").
• The fact that Doc Morrissey always has the same symptoms as the patient he is diagnosing and his prescription is *always* two aspirin.
• Son-in -law Tom's odd choices for home-made wine, including sprout, turnip and banana gin.

The belated fourth series "The Legacy of Reginald Perrin" from 1996 features many of the original cast but is sorely missing it's late star. It raises a few smiles, but it feels a bit like a corporate TV decision with a lack of originality, rather than having something worthwhile to say about 90s Britain. The Martin Clunes "Reggie Perrin" remake from 2009-2010 is just awful. Avoid it like the plague.

As I get older, I have more and more appreciation for Reggie and his frustrations. At times I am sure we can all feel trapped by the confines of the roles we have defined for ourselves - whether that be exhausted parent in the middle of the night, middle-manager dealing with a difficult employee or high-powered executive with the responsibility of a huge company. Some days we all just want to escape...

Honourable mentions:

• Action comic (UK) - This would have been my number one choice - except for the fact that I have already (albeit briefly) written about it here.

• Imperial Stars - The first in the ten volume "Family D'Alembert" sequence written by Stephen Goldin based on a novella by space opera grand master E.E. 'Doc' Smith. Brother and sister circus performers Jules and Yvette are really the Empire of Earth's top agents and travel the galaxy to investigate a conspiracy that threatens the Emperor himself. I adore this series and will be writing *much* more about it later, along with 'Doc' Smith's epic "Lensmen" novels. It's also part of the story of how I got my first ever author autograph...

• The Big Bus - An "Airplane" style spoof of the disaster movie genre which follows the world's first double-decker, 32-wheeled, nuclear powered bus on it's maiden voyage. No Leslie Nielsen, but it does have Stockard Channing, René Auberjonois, Larry Hagman and Lynn Redgrave - plus lots of very silly jokes. It really is a guilty pleasure.

• The Eternals - Finding an issue of this cosmic Marvel Comics series in a seaside newsagent was my first real exposure to the story and art of Jack "King" Kirby. I was hooked from the first panel. The tale of genetically enhanced humanoids living in secret parallels his early work with the "Inhumans" or the magnum opus that is the "New Gods", but with a mid-1970s spin.

•  Oxygène  - I didn't really get addicted to the sublime electronica of Jean Michel Jarre until 1981s "Magnetic Fields", but I can clearly remember hearing "Oxygène Part IV" on the radio and being very, very interested. There's an ongoing story about my musical tastes in the re-named "Reminiscence Bump" strand which I started in August 2015. One day I'll get back to it...

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 8 - The X-Files 1.08 - Ice

An isolated frozen location. An alien that turns friends into enemies. Lots of dead bodies. We are not who we are...

The X-Files 1.08 - Ice

Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way - this is clearly a homage to the SF classics "Thing From Another World" from 1951 and John Carpenter's "The Thing" from 1982 - even down to having the arctic station's dog be a host of the parasitic worm. Thankfully unlike the other recent episodes which riffed on genre staples and just went through the motions, this one actually turns out to be pretty good. Although I don't think there is much mileage go be gained from an analysis of the "alien" creature itself, this weeks entry is far more interesting when you consider the mistrust, fear and paranoia it creates and what it reveals about those trapped in the facility.

It's a episode where the tension is kept wound tight as a drum - anyone could be an infected homicidal maniac controlled by a worm - so no one sleeps, tempers are frayed and all of the survivors are scared. Amongst all this claustrophobia it's actually Mulder who cracks first, refusing to let himself being examined and then pulling his gun on Hodge and then on his own partner. When Scully responds in kind, it is really putting their trust in each other to the test. Thankfully they come out of the other side of this stand-off and the whole situation appears to bring them closer.

Hodge appears to be a self centred, sexist and thoroughly nasty guy and his actions made him the prime candidate for having the worm inside him - but I thought it was a reasonably clever red herring played on the viewer.. All that unpleasantness was just to divert your concentration from the fact that meek and mild Doctor DaSilva was the real host.

It's also worth noting that it makes a nice change for Scully to not have to be the sceptic. The worms are real, everyone can see them and what their deadly effects are. It means that her rational and calm side is able to be used to help resolve the crisis rather than playing devil's advocate to Mulder's theories.

There is a slight hint at a wider government conspiracy when the Arctic base is destroyed before Mulder can get back in and grab some evidence, but it's not really trying very hard. I guess that meteor is still there buried under the ice if some shady types want to dig it up...

Other thoughts and facts:

• Obviously I got "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" flashbacks with the worms being put in people's ears. One of my own personal nightmares, along with dreaming that there is a giant spider on your arm only to wake up and find there actually *is* a giant spider on your arm (this really did happen).
• Typical 90s network television. Two men blow their brains out in a confined space and there is not a speck of brain matter to be see anywhere. Nowadays it would be splattered all over the place.
• A lovely rugby tackle from Scully when she brings down Bear the pilot. I never liked him in "Buffy" either.
• Would Mulder really have tried to bring the worms back from the frozen North? I know he is a man obsessed with proof and vindicating his belief in all these strange occurrences, but that seems a little reckless even for him.

There's not much else that I want to say really. The notes I took while viewing were amazingly brief which means that the series must be heading in the right direction.

Next week - Space !

Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 9 - 1975

Bear with me. It's going to be quite a time-twisting, decades-hopping path before we get to the memory in question this time...

1975:

The trivia:

• In July of 1975, Neville Ebbin from Hamilton, Bermuda was hit by a car and killed whilst riding his bicycle. It was exactly one year after his brother Erskin was also killed - riding the same bike, at the same junction, by the same taxi driver, who was carrying the same passenger.
• During an episode of "The Goodies" comedy television show called "Kung Fu Kapers", a Scotsman battled a master of the Lancastrian martial art known as "Ecky-Thump" - which involved wielding a black pudding as a weapon. Viewer Alex Mitchell laughed so much that he died of a heart attack.
• When Agatha Christie killed off Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in the novel "Curtain", he  receive a front-page obituary in the New York Times.

The memory:

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze

Doc Savage first appeared in his own magazine in March 1933, following on from the success of "The Shadow". Although often classed as the world's first superhero, he actually had no powers. Instead Clark Savage Jnr had been trained almost from birth by a team of scientists assembled by his father. This punishing regime honed his mind and body, giving him huge strength, agility and fighting skills, a photographic memory and a vast knowledge of science. Main writer Lester Dent envisioned him as a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan, coupled with an innate sensed of goodness.

Headquartered on the 86th floor of Manhattan's tallest skyscraper (implied to be the Empire State Building), Doc also possessed a large array of vehicles, futuristic gadgets and weaponry, including the "mercy bullet" which only put its victim to sleep. His fortune came from a hidden South American gold mine that was bequeathed to him after his very first adventure. He also had a secret retreat in the Arctic wastelands known as the 'Fortress of Solitude' (Superman stole that idea) where he could carry out experiments, meditate and get away from the stresses of everyday life.

Possessed of distinctive bronze skin and hair and golden eyes (traits shared by his cousin Patricia) and accompanied by his five friends who were all experts in their fields - Ham, Monk, Renny, Long Tom and Johnny - Doc punished evildoers and solved mysteries across 181 'super-sagas' all the way thorough to 1949. Controversially, Doc also sometimes operated on the brains of the criminals he subdued, curing them of their evil ways.

I'd first come across Doc and his friends in my mid-teens via some very battered Bantam paperbacks that my friend Matt showed to me at a London comic-mart. Bantam had been reprinting the stories since the 1960s, many featuring the now classic James Bama cover images of a titan of a man with a sharp widows peak hairline and a tattered shirt showing off his huge muscles. The artwork on the front was certainly intriguing enough but at the time I was more interested in comics and modern science fiction and fantasy novels than pulp stories from the 1930s, so I dismissed them as a relic of the a bygone era...

-----

Back in the days before it was a countrywide chain of hugely successful multi media pop culture stores, there were only two shops called "Forbidden Planet" in London. In St Giles High Street you had "FP2", which was the film and television hub. This was less than two minutes walk from the flagship store in Denmark Street - and in the 1980s that was the absolute mecca for fans of science fiction, fantasy and comic books.

(From the comics in the window this picture was taken in mid-1987...)

I absolutely *loved* Forbidden Planet. Even now, decades after they moved premises, I just have to walk past the old shop front and the memories come flooding back from the myriad times I visited over the years from around 1980 onward. I even went weekly when I started working in the big city. There was no CCTV back then, so after spending five minutes gawping at the current weeks comics displayed in the window, you had to hand any bags you had into the guy sat on the stairs as you walked in through the narrow doorway off the street. In return he would hand you half a playing card and clip the other half to your possessions with a clothes peg. Thus identified and secure, you were then allowed through the door on the left into the shop itself.

It was a long narrow space with dozens of  low shelves of novels at the front and racks of comics at the back - with everything else crammed in between. Back issues, posters, artwork, models - it was an absolute cornucopia of stuff, suffused with that old comic book smell which you just don't get in today's pristine mega-stores.  I still have a T-shirt with one of the Brian Bolland promotional images on it (although I'm far too large to fit into it now). I attended signings, made new friends and purchased hundreds of new comics and novels - all thanks to this magical place.

This is all very interesting you might think, but how does this relate to the "Man of Bronze"? Well, Forbidden Planet was where I rediscovered this classic Golden Age character...

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On one of my regular visits to the shop in the summer of 1988, I was doing my usual trawl through the bookshelves in search of something new to read when I came across a deep blue cover showing the figure of a burly man in a ripped shirt in front of a bolt of lightning. "Doc Savage Omnibus  #5" it proclaimed "Five Doc adventure classics in one giant volume!". Vaguely remembering a similar image from many years ago I took a look at the back cover and inside blurb. Hmmm... these stories sounding quite interesting.

You see, in the intervening years I'd learned a new appreciation for the characters from prior decades and those that had been the antecedents of the superheroes that I loved. There was a vast wealth of history out there, both prose and pictorial and now being in my early twenties  - and only very recently having read the bombastic update of "The Shadow" by Howard Chaykin, I was just in the right frame of mind to explore the world of the pulp heroes of the past. Forgoing my usual insistence to only buy a new book series from the first volume (#1-4 not being present on the shelves at the time), I took the omnibus to the friendly guy behind the counter and paid my £5.99.

It's worth mentioning here that it wasn't until much, much later that I discovered that not only was this not the first omnibus in the series, but the stories collected each each book were not even necessarily in chronological order. As I mentioned earlier, Bantam had been reprinting Doc Savage since 1964, but as the tales got shorter they combined them first into double novels and then these multi-story omnibuses. Volume five reprinted "super-saga's" 170-174, but such a sequence was unusual and other books had adventures seemingly at random from across the decades.

At the time though I didn't known any of this, so as I worked my way through "No Light To Die By" and the subsequent stories, I lost myself in a world of 1930s mystery and intrigue with ex-Nazi's, a rented gorilla suit, a female poisoner and a sunken ship. Sure the plots were a bit creaky and obviously of their time, but I found them very enjoyable. This first quintet only featured, Doc, Ham, Monk and a guest appearance from cousin Pat, but mentioned other characters that were "off on their own adventures" or "busy". I wanted to know more, so a few weeks later I went back to Forbidden Planet and found Omnibus # 6. That was it - I was hooked...

Over the coming months and years I would buy all of the Omnibuses and through second hand book-shops and similar places also purchase quite a few of the older Bantam reprints. I never did amass a complete collection of all 181 stories (I have since through the wonders of e-books), but that was okay. In 1991 Bantam began printing *new* Doc Savage novels, beginning with "Escape From Loki" by long-time Savage aficionado Philip Jose Farmer (remember him from back in 1971?) and I got all those too, right through until 1993 when the series was first cancelled.

As an aside, Farmer also wrote a 1973 biography of  Doc from the viewpoint that he was a real person and that "Kenneth Robeson" was just recording fictionalised versions of the Savage memoirs. Farmer also linked Savage to dozens of other fictional characters in the "Wold Newton Family". Alan Moore has commented that this concept was a significant influence on his work on the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" comic book and its various sequels. It's a fascinating idea, and one that I may come back to at a later date.

So, we have established that I developed a love of the Doc Savage stories from the 1930s, which I rediscovered in the 1980s and that I read the books well into the 1990s - so how does all this fit into a memory of something from 1975 ? The answer involves Tarzan...

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When I was much younger I loved the "Tarzan" TV series. Although it was originally transmitted between 1966 and 1968, the British TV channel "ITV" showed the series on what seemed like a continuous loop on Saturday mornings in the 1970s. Like the Adam West "Batman" show, it became imprinted on the memories of most children of that decade. I was already familiar with the character from the black and white Johnny Weissmuller movies that my dad liked to watch, but this was a more educated ape-man, returning to the jungle after becoming tired of living amongst "civilised" men. With high production values, action packed storylines and filming in real jungles (admittedly Brazil rather than deepest Africa) it was a technicolour feast for the eyes. Accompanies by local boy Jai and ever-present chimpanzee Cheetah, Tarzan was one of my favourite TV heroes.

The real reason for the show's success was of course the amazing Ron Ely in the title role. An impressive well-built figure who could act, swim, fight and interact with animals - and do all his own stunts - he had a real screen presence and embodied the the role of the Lord of The Apes for a generation.  I've never forgotten him.

Which brings us, at last, to the point of this long rambling piece. One Saturday somewhere around 1989, I was flicking through the TV channels and paused to watch the end of a TV show (the name of which I can't remember). After the credits rolled, there was an announcement of the following programme, something along the lines of "Up next it's the afternoon film. Ron Ely is Doc Savage - The Man Of Bronze".

What !?  WHAT !? There was a Doc Savage movie? How had I missed this? Somehow in the year since I'd started reading the books I'd not come across this fact. Quickly I took a look on the "Teletext" pages for the channel (this is pre-internet remember. Oh and if you don't know when Teletext is, I recommend you look at the pages here. Hours of fun.) Ah, this film was made in 1975 -  that might explain why I had missed it. That plus it probably wasn't shown that often. Or when it was shown the name didn't ring any bells. Who knows. The point was it was on now! This was too good an opportunity to miss. Quickly I grabbed a blank videocassette, put it in my machine and pressed record just as the sonorous voice over and the patriotic strains of John Philip Sousa's "The Thunderer" march began...

Adapting the basic plot of the first novel, "Doc Savage: Man Of Bronze" sees our fearless hero investigating the death of his father. Vowing to solve the murder, Doc and the "Fabulous Five" attempt to travel to the republic of Hidalgo, but are opposed at every turn by a stream of tribal natives, relentless assassins and supernatural creatures - plus the ruthless and maniacal Captain Seas - who wants the riches of Hidalgo for himself.

Many of the core elements of the character are present - the 1930s setting, the 86th floor headquarters, Doc's daily exercise regime, the Fortress of Solitude, the strange "trilling noise" that Doc makes during times of mental stress or excitement and the various eccentricities or habits exhibited by his faithful companions. Even Monk's pet pig Habeus Corpus gets a look in. There are also plenty of bronze coloured retro gadgets and vehicles.

 But if you are expecting a straight-laced action / adventure story in the mold of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", which faithfully adapts the usual serious tone of the novels, well this is not the film for you. If however you enjoy the kind of tongue in cheek, camp, self-aware, winking at the audience kind of thing that the "Batman" TV series did so well and can go with the flow then you will "get" it. It's very very silly in places  - for example the cartoonish villain's henchman sleeps in a giant baby crib and the final fight sequence (with subtitles) has to be seen to be believed, The production values are great but there is some cheap looking animation and the acting is sometimes so far over the top, it comes back down the other side. But the truth is that all of that can be forgiven because it's just so much damn fun and outrageously entertaining - I adored the film that first time I watched it and I still do. This is the kind of film that the words "cult classic" were invented for.

Ron Ely was perfectly cast as Doc. Benevolent, intelligent, always three steps ahead of the bad guys he exuded charisma and inhabits the role as if it was made for him. Like Adam West before him, Ely plays it absolutely straight even in the oddest of situations. Likewise the look of Johnny, Long Tom, Ham, Monk and Renny may not be exactly true to the books, but they are close enough that you can recognise the characters that Lester Dent created.

Apparently not everyone could see the fun side of having a humourous Doc Savage movie. "Purists" absolutely hated it. I can kind of see their point. They had probably been waiting years for a faithful adaptation of their favourite pulp franchise - and this certainly was not it. Maybe because I had come late to reading the books and only discovered the film fourteen years after its initial release I was able to enjoy it more on it's own merits rather than weighing it down with decades of expectation. It seems that the musical choices (the Sousa marches, etc,) came in for particular scorn. If you want that all removed and some of the effects updated, there is a fan-edited "Detarnished Edition" out there on the interweb. I do have a copy and while it turns the film into something more akin to a colour version of the old Republic cliffhanger serials, it also loses some of the charm.

There's one other thing that I want to mention about "Man of Bronze" and that's Doc Savage's car. It's a now extremely rare bronze Cord Model 810 convertible with modified running boards (for Clark Savage Jnr to stand on) and it is just absolutely stunning. I have always appreciated cars from the early decades of the 20th century and for me this one is just at the top of the pile. I. Want. That. Car. Sadly unless I win the lottery and can have one custom adapted to look just like that picture below I think I'm out of luck..

In conclusion - nearly thirty years after reading my first Savage story I still enjoy Doc's adventures in novel and comic book form and I'm looking forward to the Dwayne Johnson movie in a few years. But - and I know I may be in the minority here - despite it's flaws, watching "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze" just makes me smile. It's not a guilty pleasure at all.

Time for some music...

Honourable mentions:

• Jaws - Probably my favourite film of all time and certainly the one I have purchased in more different versions than any other. Just about everything is perfect and forty-odd years later it's as powerful and scary and dramatic as ever.  The USS Indianapolis scene is an acting masterclass from Robert Shaw which sends shivers down my spine every single damn time.  I'll never tire of watching this film. 

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Back when my Rocky Horror enthusiasm was at it's height  I must have been watching this on a weekly basis. Richard O'Brien was my idol. I went to every live stage show and film screening I could find dressed as Brad in his white lab coat and underwear. I personally didn't have the figure for the full basque and fishnets as Frank N Furter - but that didn't stop my short tubby friend Matt -  though his full beard was a bit incongruous.

• Space:1999 - Gerry Anderson's finest live action series (in my opinion), which also had one of the best theme's in the history of SF television (up there with the original "Battlestar Galactica"). Martin Landau was never less than brooding magnificence and Barbara Bain was worthy if a little dull. My favourite however was the wonderful Barry Morse as Professor Victor Bergman. A shame he only lasted the one series. Oh and yes, like every school boy I had a massive crush on Catherine Schell as Maya...