This is one of those landmark moments. A time when a whole bunch of important things came together. I can categorically say that what I read, watched, and listened 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 in Delaware, Ohio, a State University radio telescope known as "Big Ear" detected a 72 second long narrowband radio transmission from deep space - originating near the constellation Sagittarius. It was on a frequency that many scientists believed intelligent aliens might use. Named the "Wow!" signal (due to the word astronomer Jerry Ehman wrote while reviewing the data), it was never repeated. Despite decades of investigation and speculation, it remains unexplained - but continues to inspire new generations of enthusiasts and those involved in SETI (the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence).
- At 5.10 pm on 26th November, the audio signal for the ITV Southern Television news broadcast was hijacked for six minutes by a distorted voice. It claimed to be from an extra-terrestrial entity named "Vrillon" ("Gillon" or "Asteron" in some transcripts) - a representative of the "Ashtar Galactic Command". The message urged humanity to abandon our "weapons of evil", embrace peace and spiritual evolution, and prepare for a 'great awakening'. Despite local alarm, most investigations concluded that it was a technically sophisticated hoax, especially as "Ashtar" is a name associated with UFO and New Age lore dating back to the 1950s.
- A Filipino couple accidently received the equivalent of one million dollars into their account in Manila due to a clerical error by a Mellon Bank employee in the US. They promptly withdrew the whole sum and spent it on property, medical expenses and gifts to friends and family - then disappeared. Mellon Bank tried to recover the funds via legal means, and while the Philippine court initially ruled in the couples favour, that judgement was eventually overturned. But by then, the money was all gone and the couple were nowhere to be found...
"Hang on a minute" you might think. "Surely 2000 AD should be an 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 its pages shaped my love for comics in a huge way. The fact that it's the only thing from forty plus years ago that I still read today, *and* still have every single issue, 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 in the subjects I enjoy writing about on 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 those from 1977 are). 2000 AD is too big and too important. I wrote about my love for the early Dan Dare stories many years ago, and M.A.C.H.1 got a hefty mention in the post for 1973, but there is much, much more to talk about - and I'll get to it all, in time. But for now, in recognition of 2000 AD's debut, here's a montage of some of the covers that came out in that first amazing year (with credit to the excellent retrosmack blog for pulling these together).
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
So after those stunning examples of Thrill-Power, it's time to move on to the main event - and Steven Spielberg takes another slot in my favourite films of all time. Sure, "Jaws" may have wowed me with its scares and excitement, but this - this is on a whole other level. I guess it's not surprising really when you consider how, even from an early age, I was fascinated by science and space exploration and the idea of aliens from other worlds.
Interest in UFOs was at its absolute peak in the late 70s, but much like me, Spielberg had been intrigued by them since he was a young boy. He wanted to create a film where the extra-terrestrials were benevolent, not creatures to be feared - and had begun to develop the idea years earlier under the title ’Watch The Skies’. But it was after the huge success of “Jaws” gave him more clout with the Hollywood studios, that he finally found himself with the freedom to pursue it fully.
After securing a deal with Columbia Pictures, Spielberg assembled a team that could match his vision. He brought in special effects expert Douglas Trumbull - fresh off “2001: A Space Odyssey” - to lead the visual effects and John Williams was on board for the score, continuing their creative partnership. By 1976, the pieces were falling into place. Filming took place in Wyoming and at a massive hanger in Alabama, while Trumbull and his effects team had to invent new techniques on the fly - combining miniatures, matte paintings and practical lighting. As the scope expanded, studio executives grew nervous and Spielberg had to fight to maintain the tone he wanted. It was a deeply personal project.
And for me, even before I saw a single frame, I knew there was a kind of buzz in the air. Posters, trailers, magazine write-ups - all hinted at something vast and mysterious. The haunting image of a lonely road leading to a glowing horizon - and the tag line of “We Are Not Alone” - was everywhere. British TV aired documentaries on alien encounters. Queen Elizabeth went to a Royal Premiere. This was a big event.
But 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* famous SF film) Did I get that first feeling of astonishment when I saw it on BBC1 around age 12 or 13? Who knows for sure - I guess the exact moment doesn't matter. What does is that "CE3K" sits there in my personal history like an enormous black hole making a gravitational dent in space-time.
For those that have yet to experience it, the film 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. The result is that both become obsessed with a mysterious mountain in Wyoming.
Travelling to the site and avoiding the military courdon, 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 thought lost decades earlier - and they haven’t aged in the intervening years. Roy is selected to join a group who are to visit the mothership and after a final conversation using simple hand gestures, 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’m sure I sat there with my mouth open. Cinema doesn't get much better than this.
The film is 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. You are swept up in the story and visuals.
Honourable mentions:
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’m sure I sat there with my mouth open. Cinema doesn't get much better than this.
The film is 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. You are swept up in the story and visuals.
It’s well known that Spielberg was pressurised by the studio to release the film quickly, which meant he was unable to refine things quite the way he wanted. It was a huge success anyway, but Columbia offered him the chance to re-edit the film for a 1980 “Special Edition” re-release. It’s…okay, and the scenes inside the alien mothership are impressive, but they really weren’t needed and remove some of the wonder. The director regretted it too, so in 1988 he released a final “Director’s Cut”. While that version may be the closest to his vision, the original is still my favourite.
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 antagonistic. As a species we are just not ready for a close encounter...
Looking back, it’s hard to overstate what “Close Encounters” meant to ten-year-old me. It wasn’t the spectacle - though the FX, music and sheer scale were unforgettable. It was more that it opened my mind to the possibilities of science fiction. That it wasn’t all heroes with ray guns. It could say something about the who were are as humans. From that moment on I was hooked. Books, films, TV shows, comics - you name it - I wanted to experience it. It was life changing.
Watch the skies...
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 actors - 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, the things the group encountered as they travelled through the various zones were overly 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. It was only in later years that I learned of the production troubles, abandoned characters and curtailed episodes. Within a few months of its cancellation, many of the the production crew had moved on to a new show - namely:
- Logan's Run - Not the classic Michael York film (which I adore) but the 14-episode TV spin off. The premise was basically the same: in a post-apocalyptic future, survivors live in a domed city where life is a disco-tinged party - until you turn 30, when you undergo “Carousel,” a rebirth ritual that actually kills you. Logan 5 is a Sandman, hunting down “runners” trying to escape their fate, but he starts to question the system and along with rebel Jessica 6, flees the city in search of the mythical “Sanctuary”. It’s a modestly budgeted show (lots of reused sets) and the plots are again your standard hoary 70s SF fare - but my own over-riding memory is of dry-witted android companion REM (played by Donald Moffat) and the cool silver cars than the Runners and Sandmen travelled around in. Despite its brief run, the series tackled some big ideas: freedom vs. control, aging, identity, and the search for truth - but it arrived just months after the debut of that tale from a ‘galaxy far, far away’ and audiences suddenly wanted space battles and cinematic spectacle on their TV screens, not philosophical thoughtfulness…
- A Spell For Chameleon by Piers Anthony - 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 made me realise that fantasy could be charming and funny. The first in 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 - perfect for younger readers. I collected, read and re-read the Xanth books for several years, but eventually I grew out of them, as my tastes changed and the plots became rather repetitive - plus some of the portrayals, especially of female characters, have not aged well. The first eight or so are probably the best and at the time were a good introduction to fantasy. Terry Pratchett is far, far better though, as I was to discover in just a few short years...
- Space : Magic Fly - I still remember the first time I heard this sublime piece of French electronica. It just didn’t sound like anything else on the radio - not rock, not disco - it was something…alien. No lyrics, no vocals - just a hypnotic funky instrumental track that pulsed and shimmered like a satellite signal from another galaxy. “Space” were producer Jean-Philippe Iliesco, composer Didier Marouani and keyboardist Roland Romanelli - and they predated Daft Punk by wearing cosmonaut helmets in all their performances, adding to the mystique. Released in May 1977, “Magic Fly” became a massive hit, reaching #2 on the UK Singles Chart, predating the synthpop boom and solidifying my love for electronic music, even though it took me *years* to find the LP. But enough talk, it’s time to get groovy…
- The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - The first SF reference book I ever bought, from a much loved bookshop in Sudbury, Suffolk. The smell of the pages as I opened it, the glossy sheen of the illustrations, and the feeling that I was holding something important. At £3.95 it was a hefty purchase (standard paperbacks were only £1 back then) - but I had to have it. A fascinating visual and thematic history of SF, it opened with a chronology that tracked the evolution of sci-fi across books, magazines, films, TV, and fandom from 1805 to 1976 - before moving into deep-dives on things like space travel, time machines, alien contact, robots and other dimensions. All of this was accompanied by illustrations galore - cover art, comic panels, pulp magazine spreads, and film stills filled every page. I poured over this book for days, reading it cover to cover multiple times. It’s definitely nowhere near as exhaustive (or text heavy) as the later "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", but as a time capsule from an era when the genre was exploding into the mainstream, it’s amazing. And yes, I still have the same copy on my bookshelf.
- The Man From Atlantis - Included in this list because - incredibly - it was the series that made me stop watching Doctor Who (see here for some more details). Heresy, I know. Sure it had a suitable muscled and attractive star in Patrick Duffy as the last survivor of the lost city of Atlantis - discovered washed ashore with webbed hands, gill-like lungs, and no memory of his past. Okay, it was glossy and sun-drenched and had a weekly parade of covert missions, government scientists, sea monsters and camp madmen. And yes, the way “Mark Harris” swam was strangely mesmerising. But honestly - what was I thinking?
- Children Of The Stones - Seven of the scariest half hours of children's television ever transmitted. Astrophysicist Adam Brake and his son Matthew arrive in Milbury, a seemingly idyllic village surrounded by Neolithic standing stones. But something’s off. The villagers are too happy and they all seem to be under some kind of psychic influence. As Adam and Matthew investigate, they uncover a web of time loops, cosmic forces and ancient rituals. The stones aren’t just relics of history - they’re part of a sinister supernatural event. The show is notable of course for the spine-chilling music full of wailing voices, the brain-twisting existential plot and the appearance of a pre-"Blakes' 7" Gareth Thomas - not to mention Ian Cuthbertson as the terrifying Hendrick. It also features actor Freddie Jokes and around this time I had a thing of being *very* scared of him. He seemed to be everywhere during the 1970s, and I kept coming across him in a variety of forceful roles. I think it was those extraordinary eyebrows..
- Star Wars - Nah, it'll never take off...
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