RETURN To The Beach With Slave Girl Leia!

Really... what needs to be said?

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #20: ALIEN

You know, I haven't seen Prometheus yet. The trailer looked cool, and I was initially intrigued that director Ridley Scott was supposedly returning to the Alien universe, but the reviews and word-of-mouth really made me lose interest. I guess I'll wait and rent it from Netflix when it becomes available.What did you other Star Kids think?

STAR TREK Giant Poster Book (1976) Cover Gallery

Another example of how the original Star Trek had become a much larger phenomenon in the Seventies than it ever had during its original run, were the sheer number of nationally-distributed newsstand magazines devoted to the show. Virtually every issue of Starlog and Fantastic Films had one Trek article or more, of course, but then there were mags like the awkwardly-titled All About Star Trek Fan Clubs and this monthly fold-out poster magazine, which ran for at least 16 issues, from the Fall of 1976 to early 1978. Each issue had a handful of articles and would unfold to make a gigantic poster - basically a big, grainy, 34" x 22"  frame blow-up from the show.

Here's a gallery of some of the covers. Enjoy:

I had about a half-dozen of these issues, including a couple not pictured above. I had the poster of Uhura in her "Mirror Mirror" alternate universe uniform on my bedroom wall for several years.  Hard to believe now, but I thought a buck for one magazine - especially one that was so thin (because it was one huge sheet of paper folded over twice) - was a lot to pay back then, especially when that same buck could buy me four 32-page comic books. Ah... childhood economics....

New Space: 1970 Poll: Heroes & Heroines

Hey, Star Kids, it's time for another reader poll! Our last poll, way back in November, asked whether the Space: 1970 blog should include the super-hero shows and movies of the era in its sci-fi coverage. The answer was a resounding "YES!," so I've been mixing some super-hero material into the site over the last few months.

As a follow-up, this poll asks: "Which 70's LIVE ACTION Super-hero Show Or TV Movie Was YOUR Favorite?" Note, I'm only asking about non-animated television programs and made-for-TV movies/specials, so no Superman - the Movie write-in votes, please. You'll find it over in the right-hand sidebar, right on top. You only get one vote, so make it count!

If I forgot to include something, be sure and let me know here in the comments (as if I'd expect anything less).

MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK (1980) Japanese Movie Poster

Presenting the cool Japanese one-sheet for the second Battlestar Galactica "feature film," Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (incorporating the episodes "The Living Legend," parts 1 & 2, with portions of "The Fire In Space."). This one leans heavily on the Ralph McQuarrie promotional art, and apparently Dirk Benedict's Starbuck was considered a major selling point in Japan...

SATURN 3 (1980) Deleted "Blue Dreamers" Farrah Fantasy

A year or so back when Seventies icon Farrah Fawcett was our Space Babe for July, 2011, I had a number of folks questioning a publicity still that pictured her in the black leather ensemble pictured in the Saturn 3 poster above (which, by the way, appears here courtesy of Jerome Wybon's Forgotten Silver blog). As I stated at the time, the actress wore the "futuristic" sexy outfit in a fantasy sequence deleted from most (and, until now, I assumed all) versions of Stanley Donen's quirky sci-fi thriller.

Well, Space: 1970 reader Jon Goss has unearthed a video of the "blue dreamers" scene, dubbed into German. (Thanks, Jon!) So, for all you curious Star Kids, here's that "lost scene" - Farrah shows up in the space dominatrix gear at around 2:36 - accompanied by some late 70s disco music:

Now, if only someone would release a proper, anamorphic widescreen DVD of this movie. The US disc from Artisan is a crappy, 4x3 presentation, and the UK one is widescreen, but not 16x9 enhanced. Saturn 3 is not a great film, but John Barry's production design is remarkable (I still like that robot), and the effects are pretty good, and it certainly has a "name" cast. I'm betting that if Carlton (current rights holders for the ITC library, I believe) re-issued it, it would probably sell pretty well.

FLASH GORDON (1980) Video Game Cartridge

My family didn't have an Atari 2600 or any cartridge video game system when I was a kid. We did get a Pong clone console around 1975 or so, that had a few very simple games pre-programmed in, but within a week or two of Christmas, I don't think it was played very much. So I was always envious of the few of my friends whose families did own the futuristic game machine. This 1980 Flash Gordon cartridge, obviously marketed as a tie-in to the 1979 Mike Hodges film, although the game "story" bears no resemblance to anything in the movie - was manufactured by 20th Century Fox Games and sold through Sears for their own cartridge system - although it was Atari compatible.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1977) TV Guide Ads

Here's a handful of vintage TV Guide Ads for CBS' 1977 Amazing Spider-Man series, which starred Nicholas Hammond as the web-shooting wall-crawler.As with all of the super-hero shows of the Seventies, I really enjoyed the show (although admittedly, I haven't seen any of the episodes since).

As we've said here many times - these shows (and movies) didn't have the slick computer special effects and gargantuan budgets of today's genre productions (the total cost of all of these episodes probably wouldn't cover the craft services on this Summer's Amazing Spider-Man feature film), but that gutsy determination to try and put wall-crawling superheroes and star-spanning spaceships on the screen - crude as the results may look to today's jaded eyes - was a large part of their charm and appeal. We didn't see the flaws and technical weaknesses back then - our imaginations stepped up to fill in where the limitations of technology failed.

Coming Attractions: WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (1978) Theatrical Trailer

And... speaking of warlords Of Atlantis (as I was in the last post), here's the theatrical trailer. Looks like fun to me!

WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (1978) International Posters

Back in the Summer of 1978, I was on a trip with my parents to the Pennsylvania Dutch country and then, Washington D.C. I believe that it was on that trip that we drove by a movie theater marquee with the title Warlords Of Atlantis emblazoned upon it. Based on the title alone, I knew it was a movie I had to see.

Unfortunately, by the time we returned home it was no longer playing in area theaters (if, indeed, it ever had), and strangely, it never seemed to show up on network or local TV. Some years later, I found out more about the film (no doubt through articles in Starlog or Fangoria), and discovered that it was part of the John Dark-produced, Kevin Connor-directed cycle of 70s fantasy adventure films that included The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and At The Earth's Core - all of which starred (or featured, in People's case), the indomitable Doug McClure. But although I eventually saw all of those other films on television, Warlords never seemed to crop up in the TV Guide. I never found it on VHS in the Eighties, either. And once DVD came along, MGM released all the others on DVD... but not Warlords, dammit.

A few weeks ago, I finally got a multi-region DVD player. I knew that Warlords (also known as Seven Cities To Atlantis) had been released on DVD in the UK, so I set out on an Internet safari to try and track a copy down for purchase. Unfortunately, I haven't found one that I can afford... so it looks like it will be a while longer before I finally get a chance to see the film. I could probably find it on YouTube... but I hate watching movies that way.

So, for now, I've got these terrific theatrical one-sheets to enjoy - and I hope you do, too.

THE BIONIC WOMAN (1976) TV Spot

Here's wishing the eternally-lovely Lindsay Wagner, THE Bionic Woman, a very happy 63rd birthday today! Lindsay was our "Space Babe" for May!

STARCRASH (1978) Lobby Cards/Press Stills

Here is a colorful selection of Starcrash promotional photos and lobby cards from around the world. I've been gathering these up for some time. Unfortunately, scouring the Internet for Starcrash material means putting up with a lot of "worst movie ever made" bullshit. Look, I'm not going to claim that Luigi Cozzi's Starcrash is a 70s sci-fi masterpiece (although I may privately think so, at times), but it is tremendous, Saturday matinee entertainment, and remains one of my personal favorite intergalactic epics of the era. (In fact, I'm listening to John Barry's score for the film right now!)