Wednesday, November 27, 2013

News: THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN Season 5 DVDs Announced

For those of us who didn't buy the deluxe, Time-Life complete series set of The Six Million Dollar Man a few years ago, the good news is that the fifth and final season of the show will be receiving its standalone DVD release on February 18, 2014 from Universal Home Entertainment:

In Season 5 of this science fiction cult classic, the dangers are never greater and the assignments never more impossible as Steve Austin tackles national security threats on land, beneath the sea, and beyond the stars. 

Summoning every last atom of his bionic strength, Austin leaps into action against man-eating sharks, a reawakened Bigfoot, a murderous computer, hostile extraterrestrials, treasonous space explorers, and a nastily revitalized scientific probe. Revisit the astounding astronaut's final journeys in this unprecedented, digitally remastered DVD set featuring 21 uncut episodes!

This final Season not only includes Colonel Steve Austin (Lee Majors) in rematches with both the Bionic Bigfoot and the dreaded Venus Death Probe, but also features guest shots by a number of Space: 1970 favorite thespians, such as Pamela Hensley (Buck Rogers), Jenny Agutter (the Logan's Run feature), Ted Cassidy (Genesis II and Planet Earth), Rick Springfield (Battlestar Galactica), Jack Colvin (The Incredible Hulk), Jared Martin (The Fantastic Journey), Bibi Besch (Star Trek II), and in the final episode, John Colicos (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, The Starlost).

The six-disc set has a suggested retail price of $39.95, and will not contain the extra disc of bonus material included in the Time-Life edition.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #46: KING KONG

Jessica Lange is in good hands in this rare behind-the-scenes shot of the full-scale animatronic gorilla arms built for Dino de Laurentiis' production of King Kong, on the blue-screen stage in 1975-76. Carlo Rambaldi's much-hyped, life-size robot Kong turned out to be an unconvincing dud, but these robot appendages were actually pretty remarkable feats of 70s engineering...

Monday, November 25, 2013

Captain's bLog: 1125.13

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here - over a month, in fact - and this is the first post I've made in November... and that's nearly over. I even missed marking Space: 1970's fourth anniversary on the 1st. Really rather embarrassed about that.

I have no good excuse. November's just been a bad month for me overall, writing-wise, and this site has suffered from that unfortunate (and frustrating) motivational drought along with all my other writing projects.

But that doesn't entirely account for the reduced posting here since the Summer. I've kinda been feeling like it's getting harder to find cool images to post, and the more involved articles - essays, film and DVD reviews, "Fave Episodes," "Fave Fives," "Hall of Fame," etc . - well, it's always been difficult for me to make the time to really do them up properly. And that's always been frustrating, because, for me, anyway, those are the most personal and satisfying posts to write.

Another factor in my Space: 1970 ennui is that due to recent changes in my state's tax laws, I no longer receive any kickbacks from Amazon's affiliate program. Don't get me wrong - this site was never about making money, and it never amounted to much anyway, but the couple hundred bucks a year at least helped me justify to myself the time and effort I put into Space: 1970, and it did allow me to buy more cool 70s sci-fi stuff (videos, books) for my collection. (I do still have the Paypal button over in the right-hand sidebar, but nobody's donated anything in over a year.)

Now, I know this all sounds pretty grim, but I'm not about to abandon this blog. My passion for disco-era sci-fi (and sci-fi disco, for that matter) hasn't diminished one iota. I'm just going through an extended  low-energy phase (or as they're referred to around here, a "funk"), and with a little luck, I'll be back up to speed soon. In the meantime, I'll try to scrape up a few more interesting photos over the next few weeks so the site doesn't go completely fallow. I appreciate your patience.

  I did pick up the Hanna-Barbara series Space Stars on DVD from Warner Archive, and will try to post a review here soon. I will say now that the transfers are surprisingly good, and Warners has included some fun additional content that was not included in their original network airings. If you're a fan, it's a great package.

In upcoming video releases, I'm definitely still looking forward to the imminent release of 1980's Stanley Donen sci-fi gothic, Saturn 3, on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory, which goes on sale on December 3rd.

I'm somewhat less excited about Sony's new manufactured-on-demand Salvage 1discs - I'm deeply annoyed that the studio has chosen to release only a couple of random episodes on standalone (expensive) discs, rather than assemble a complete series package. Also, my interest in the show diminished after the moonshot pilot, so I have little incentive to pick up these releases. If you're interested, TV Shows On DVD has the release info and packaging pics.

Friend of the blog/Star Kid Paul Quinn recently sent me some cool stuff - all but one of the Beyond Westworld episodes and the 1983 Roger Corman flick Space Raiders, along with a complete run of Starlog magazine on DVD-ROM. This kind of "audience participation" certainly helps motivate me to keep plugging away at Space: 1970, and I wanted to publicly thank him for his generosity.

Finally, I'm still working on my sci-fi adventure webcomic, Perils On Planet X, which is illustrated by the talented Gene Gonzales, and colored by the equally-talented Ian Sokoliwski. It runs a page a week, with a new one posted every Friday, and it's absolutely free. We're about halfway through the second chapter now, and the story is moving along like a rocket, packed with Flash Gordon-styled pulp thrills. I hope you'll check it out, if you haven't already.