BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) NBC Television Intro

Here's the NBC television intro for their early-80s presentation (the video says 1983, but I'm pretty sure it actually aired in '82) of Roger Corman's space war epic, Battle Beyond The Stars. This was the first time I saw the film, and I remember that I had some friends over that evening and we had a great time watching it. I always thought it amusing that NBC blurred out St. Exmin's (Sybil Danning) cleavage, especially since the network was well known for its T&A-centric programming.

Hall of Fame: John Saxon

Today marks the 79th birthday of actor John Saxon, who has had a long association with science fiction roles, both on television and in feature films, dating back to, at least, 1965's Blood Beast From Outer Space! In that decade, he also appeared in the creepy space horror flick Queen of Blood and an episode of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel, but it's his forays into Seventies sci-fi that we celebrate here.

In 1974, Saxon portrayed a very Jim Kirk-ish, heroic Dylan Hunt in Gene Roddenberry's unsuccessful television pilot, Planet Earth. A year later, he played a similar role, Captain Anthony Vico, in Warner Brothers' equally-unsuccessful follow-up, Strange New World. In both films, he was a very Roddenberry sci-fi hero, tough but brainy, quick with his fists and his wits.

He appeared a couple of times on Universal's The Six Million Dollar Man (and Bionic Woman); first, as a lethal android that gave Steve Austin a helluva fight (and inspired Mattel's "Maskatron" action figure), and then a season or two later as an evil alien using the legendary Bionic Bigfoot in his malevolent schemes!  On Wonder Woman, he played a Nazi, and also showed up as an extradimensional tyrant on The Fantastic Journey in '77!

In 1981, he starred as the tyrannical Sador, the smoothly sinister galactic baddie of Roger Corman's space opera epic, Battle Beyond The Stars. He rounded out the Space: 1970-era with another villainous role in the 1983 Richard Hatch vehicle, Prisoners Of The Lost Universe.

Of course, while we focus here on his science fiction accomplishments, in his sixty-year career, the actor has played a couple hundred roles in every genre imaginable. Equally adept at playing tough guy heroes and despicable villains, Saxon has had - and continues to have - a career to be admired (and no doubt, envied, by other actors).

Happy birthday, sir!

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #48: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS

From the 1980 Roger Corman-produced Battle Beyond The Stars (probably my favorite of the Star Wars feature film rip-offs): the New World effects crew carefully sets up a shot featuring the intricately-detailed Hesphastus Station miniature.

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #42: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS

A young James Cameron works on a matte painting of the Akira village from Roger Corman's 1980 epic space opera, Battle Beyond The Stars. The multi-talented, future Academy Award-winning director Cameron handled a number of special effects and design duties on the film, including designing and building the main starship, Nell.

Happy Birthday Sybil Danning!

Today marks the birthday of Space: 1970 favorite Sybil Danning! Best known to Star Kids (probably) as the Valkyrie Warrior St. Exmin in Battle Beyond The Stars, the statuesque Sybil also had a prominent guest role on the original V television series.

For more of the stunning Sybil, check out this VHS intro for the Space: 1999 compilation film, Alien Attack. She was also our Space Babe for March, 2011.

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) Press Kit Stills

Roger Corman's Battle Beyond The Stars is a great favorite of mine, and I'm always looking for memorabilia from the movie - although there doesn't seem to be much. No novelization that I'm aware of (wouldn't an Alan Dean Foster adaptation been cool?), no model kits based on Nell (or any of the other awesome spaceships in the film; I would have loved a Hammerhead kit), no action figures (imagine a St. Exmin figure?). There was a ViewMaster reel, though...? Well, at least James Horner's score is available, and of course, the stunning Blu-ray of the movie itself from Shout! Factory.

Today I have a small selection of B&W press kit stills from the movie to share with you. Enjoy!

Flight of the Valkyrie!

"Live fast, fight well and have a beautiful ending." The statuesque Sybil Danning - also known as St. Exmin of the Valkyrie in Roger Corman's 1980 space opera, Battle Beyond The Stars, celebrates her birthday today! Space: 1970 wishes the galactic goddess a very happy 60th!

A Space: 1970 favorite, the stunning Ms. Danning was our Space Babe for March, 2011.

Captain's bLog: 0728.11

• Obviously, the big event since my last "Captain's bLog" entry was the arrival (at last) of Shout! Factory's Battle Beyond The Stars and Damnation Alley Blu-ray Special Editions. I reviewed both discs for my DVD Late Show website; if you missed them when I announced them here a few days ago, you can find the complete reviews linked below:

Battle Beyond The Stars Blu-ray Review


Damnation Alley Blu-Ray Review

I've been really looking forward to the HD upgrade of Battle Beyond The Stars since Shout! Factory first announced that they'd acquired it almost two years ago. I'm pleased to say that the new edition doesn't disappoint, and makes a great companion piece not only to the other Roger Corman sci-fi Blu-rays (Galaxy Of Terror, et al), but their Starcrash disc, as well.

• Bionic Woman update: I received my replacement disc from Universal today, replacing the defective Disc Four from the Second Season set. The audio problem has been corrected, and the exchange was easy, painless, and prompt. Kudos to Universal for correcting the problem so quickly.

•  I'm determined that my reviews of Strange New World (the conclusion of Warners' "PAX Trilogy"), the complete Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon series, and the 1978 TV movie, The Bermuda Depths, will be posted in August. I can guarantee that there will be reviews of the Man From Atlantis DVDs, too. I will try and get at least one new essay up. There will also be a new Reader's Poll and - barring unforeseen complications - a second Space: 1970 Podcast, as well.

•  Stats: The site now has over 300(!) "followers" here on Blogger, and the Facebook fan page is up to 636 "likes." Thanks to everyone for your support and loyalty! I also want to thank everyone who have used the Amazon links on this site to make purchases (and the few who've made Paypal donations). Every little bit helps.

•  I've "disapproved" a few comments lately. I don't like doing that, but I want to keep this site a positive place, and free of snobbery and snark. If you think one of the movies or TV shows we celebrate here is crap, well, keep your opinion to yourself, or post it somewhere else. I love this stuff, and this is my blog. You're not welcome here if you're going to insult my tastes, plain and simple. That doesn't mean I don't have a sense of humor or can't appreciate some light-hearted goofing on this stuff, but mean-spirited derision is not going to be tolerated.

•  This keeps coming up, so for newer readers: I was born and raised in Maine, in the United States, and this blog is about the sci-fi flicks and television that I grew up with - roughly covering the years between 1969 and 1983 (the original Star Trek slips in because it was really more of a success - and more prevalent - in syndication in the 70s than it ever was when it originally aired in the 60s) . Aside from UFO and Space: 1999, I am woefully unfamiliar with pretty much all other 70s British sci-fi. I've never so much as seen an episode of Blake's 7, Star Maidens, etc., so I cannot write about them with any authority - and I have no personal nostalgia for them. I'm sure it's my loss. (Of course, if anyone wants to send me R1 NTSC videos of those shows...)

As for Doctor Who - I am a fan of the classic series as well as the new, but I didn't see an episode until well into my 20s, so it's not part of my childhood, either. That does not mean that I'll never mention Who or the other shows, but it's why they don't get the same attention as the U.S. programs (or foreign material that was distributed here).

•  People seem to be digging the "Behind the Scenes Pix" - if anyone stumbles across one they think I should showcase here on the blog, please send it along. I'm also open to suggestions for Space Babes (I haven't picked August's babe yet, for example), "Fave Fives," and Poll questions. I always appreciate reader feedback and suggestions.

Thanks for stopping by!

My BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) Blu-ray Review

I've just posted my review of the Battle Beyond The Stars Blu-ray from Shout! Factory over on my DVD Late Show website. In short, it's gorgeous, although I would have liked to see them scrape up more bonus materials. The new interview with Richard Thomas is nice, and the effects retrospective is very good, too, but I'm greedy and would have liked to seen more.

An unabashed mash-up of George Lucas' STAR WARS and Akira Kurosawa's THE SEVEN SAMURAI/Robert Sturges' THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, this satisfying and exciting space opera is graced with a witty, intelligent screenplay by John Sayles (PIRANHA, LONE STAR), a game cast comprised of veteran character actors and TV stars (Jeff Corey, Sam Jaffe, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, Morgan Woodward, Marta Kristen, Sybil Danning, et al), and remarkably accomplished miniature spaceship effects by a talented crew of enthusiastic young technicians, including James Cameron and the Skotak brothers. Wrapped up in a sweeping, Jerry Goldsmith-inspired musical score by James Horner, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS is probably the best of the STAR WARS imitators - and in some ways, it's maybe a little better.

I didn't mention this in my main review, but I found it amusing that the still gallery was just ported over from the New Concorde disc, apparently, and still contains those two photos of Thom Christopher's alien character from Space Raiders (as well as another of some alien from some other movie altogether)! And Shout! actually used both of the Space Raiders stills on the Battle disc packaging!

I'm not set-up to snag screenshots off of Blu-ray discs, but Blu-ray.com has a nice selection of screenshots (as well as a snobbish review) at their site.

Read my full review HERE.

New Shout! Factory Blues

I couldn't wait until this afternoon to go and pick up the new Shout! Factory Battle Beyond The Stars and Damnation Alley special edition Blu-rays, so late last night, I headed out to my favorite place to buy vids (Bull Moose Music in Waterville, ME) and walked out with both discs at three minutes past midnight.

I have not yet had time to sit down and watch either film all the way through (although I'm probably going to spin Battle right after I finish this post), but I have given both discs a quick scan. Battle looks gorgeous. There are a few specks and scratches here and there, but it's a quantum improvement over the original New Concorde DVD from a decade or so ago (that print looked like it had been stored in a ditch). I would never have imagined that this low-budget Roger Corman space opera could ever look as good as it does here. For one thing, you can finally appreciate all the skill that the miniature crew put into designing and detailing the model spaceships.

The Hephaestus Station flyby (with James Horner's homage to Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek - TMP "V'Ger" theme) in particular was a revelation - on the old DVD the scene was so dark that you could barely make out any fine detail on the space station model at all. Now, it's crystal clear. In fact, everything - sets, costumes, etc. - looks remarkable, and I'm eager to kick back and watch the whole movie - and the supplemental featurettes.

The Damnation Alley transfer doesn't quite fare as well; the film was shot on very grainy 70s film stock, and all the optical effects that were added in post only degrade the image further. Still, it looks vastly better than any cable TV print I've seen, with much stronger colors and contrast - and it's in its correct 2.35:1 'scope aspect ratio.The extras look promising, too.

Look for full reviews shortly, both here and at my DVD Late Show site.

FAMOUS MONSTERS #170

As I've said many times, I was a Starlog kid. Until my late teens, I had little-to-no interest in horror movies (although I love them now), so Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine wasn't even on my radar. However, this issue - #170, cover-dated January 1981, so I probably picked it up in November or December of 1980 - did catch my eye. This was the first Famous Monsters I ever bought, and pretty much the only one I ever bought off the newsstand, although I've purchased various other issues from back-issue bins over the last couple of decades.

It's not difficult to see what caught my attention, with Battle Beyond The Stars and Flash Gordon taking up three-quarters of the cover real estate. (You know, I've still never seen The Awakening.) I can even remember where I bought it - at the LaVerdiere's drugstore at the JFK Plaza in Waterville, Maine. That store (along with the rest of the chain) is long gone now, but I still have this magazine.

Anyway - on a tangentially related note - one more week until Battle Beyond The Stars gets its HD release from Shout! Factory. I can't wait....

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) DVD Review @ TCM Blog

I personally haven't yet gotten my hands on a copy of the eagerly-anticipated, forthcoming Battle Beyond The Stars DVD or Blu-ray yet (I'll be picking up my Blu-ray disc when it goes on sale, with everyone else, on the 12th), but the TCM "Movie Morlocks" blog has just posted a nicely enthusiastic advance review of the upcoming Shout! Factory disc, and of the movie itself. Nice to see it getting some respect elsewhere on the Internets.

Check it out HERE.

News: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) Blu-ray & DVD Details

After months of rumors and speculation, Shout! Factory has finally issued an official press release regarding the forthcoming DVD and Blu-ray editions of Roger Corman's 1980 space opera, Battle Beyond The Stars, which will be on sale on July 12, (just a few days after my birthday!). Here are the details:

A Battle Beyond Time … Beyond Space

A long time ago, in a studio far far away (actually 1980 in Venice, Calif.), Roger Corman gathered together a fledgling team of filmmakers to make one of the best low-budget science fiction films of all time, Battle Beyond the Stars, a space opera that managed to playfully borrow from Star Wars and The Magnificent Seven, to come up with an enduring cult classic. Long out of print, Battle Beyond the Stars has been meticulously restored with a new anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.85:1) from the internegative, boasting a new 5.1 DTS Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray, and featuring a galaxy of extras, including commentary by writer John Sayles and Roger Corman; a new interview with actor Richard Thomas; a behind-the-scenes technical featurette and much more. Roger Corman’s Cult Classics: Battle Beyond the Stars 30th Anniversary Special Edition is a must-have for fans of Roger Corman, science fiction enthusiasts and collectors — available July 12, 2011 on Blu-ray ($26.97) and DVD ($19.93) from Shout! Factory, in association with New Horizons Picture Corporation. Pre-order now on Amazon.com and major retailers.

Special Note: Fans who pre-order Roger Corman’s Cult Classics: Battle Beyond the Stars 30th Anniversary Special Edition from ShoutFactoryStore.com will receive an iron-on of the original Battle Beyond the Stars theatrical key art as a gift-with-purchase.

“This was the most expensive production I had financed. I always liked science fiction, and my idea was to do something of the feeling of Star Wars. What I came up with was The Seven Samurai in Outer Space.” — Roger Corman

Corman brought together some extremely talented people — who went on to bigger and better things — to make Battle Beyond the Stars. John Sayles (Eight Men Out, Lone Star) wrote the script, his third for Corman after Piranha and The Lady in Red; James Cameron, who went on, of course, to be king of the world with Titanic and then king of the universe with Avatar, handled the art direction and special effects; Academy Award®–winning composer James Horner (Titanic, Avatar) wrote the score, which he recycled two years later for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Also on hand as production manager was Gale Anne Hurd, who went on to produce The Terminator with Cameron as well as The Incredible Hulk and AMC’s The Walking Dead.

What’s a small, peace loving planet to do when they’re threatened with destruction by a group of malevolent mutants headed up by the most despicable villain? Why they enlist a sweet young boy to travel the galaxy in search of mercenaries to fend off the tyrant.

When the evil Sador the Conqueror (John Saxon) and his hideous Malmori army threaten the peaceful planet of Akir, the inhabitants, known as the Akira (in reference to Seven Samurai director Akira Kurosawa) sends young Shad (Richard Thomas of The Waltons) on an intergalactic journey to hire mercenaries to defend the planet. Piloting a sarcastic pre-LEXX talking female spaceship (with breasts!), Shad assembles a fleet of seven spaceships to fend off the bad guys.

There’s love interest Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel), whose spaceship houses a sophisticated computer to help the cause; a scotch-drinking space cowboy from Earth (George Peppard of The A-Team); Gelt, an outlaw with a bounty on his head, played by Robert Vaughn in a role similar to the character Lee he played in The Magnificent Seven; the reptilian Cayman (Morgan Woodward), who has his own score to settle with Sador; Saint-Exmin of the Valkyrie (the voluptuous Sybil Danning), whose motto, “Live fast, fight well and have a beautiful ending” carries her into action; five clones with a collective consciousness known as the Nestor; and a pair of aliens who communicate by emanating heat from their bodies. The “magnificent seven” mercenary ships — headed up by Shad and Nell — travel back to Akir for the final conflict.

The cast of Battle Beyond the Stars also included Marta Kristen (Judy Robinson of TV’s Lost in Space), Jeff Corey as the wise old Zed the Corsair, Sam Jaffe as Nanelia’s father, and a very young Julia Duffy (Newhart and Designing Women).

Made on a reported budget of $2 million, the film opened in late 1980 and quickly made back its investment. The film grossed $1.7 million on opening weekend alone. And the spectacular space battles and explosions were used over and over again in future Corman productions.

Roger Corman’s Cult Classics: Battle Beyond the Stars 30th Anniversary Special Edition Special Features:

New anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.85:1) from the internegative

New 5.1 DTS Master Audio (Blu-ray)

Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD)

Commentary by writer John Sayles and Roger Corman

Commentary by production manager Gale Anne Hurd

The Man Who Would Be Shad – New interview with actor Richard Thomas

Space Opera on a Shoestring – A comprehensive look at the technical challenges and postproduction of the film with Aaron Lipstadt, Alec Gillis, Alex Hajdu, Allan Holzman, R.J. Kizer, Robert & Dennis Skotak, Thom Shouse and Tony Randel

Trailer, TV and radio spots

You can pre-order the discs from Amazon through these links:

•   Battle Beyond the Stars [Roger Corman's Cult Classics] [Blu-ray]

• Battle Beyond The Stars [Roger Corman's Cult Classics]
 

News: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) Blu-Ray & DVD Available For Pre-Order

Thanks to a head's up from Space: 1970 reader Brandon Gantt, I can report that Amazon has just made the Shout! Factory "Roger Corman's Cult Classics" Blu-Ray and DVD for Battle Beyond The Stars available for pre-order through their site.

The listing says it will be out on April 12th (this week!), but I believe they are mistaken. The last I heard, the disc is due out this Summer, probably in July.

Here are the links for the Blu-Ray and DVD editions:

Battle Beyond The Stars [Roger Corman's Cult Classics] (Blu-Ray)

Battle Beyond The Stars [Roger Corman's Cult Classics]

If it turns out that Shout! is indeed stealthily releasing the title this month, and any of you Space: 1970 Star Kids actually get your hands on it, please drop me a line. Battle Beyond The Stars is currently my most-anticipated forthcoming Blu-Ray release, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

UPDATED  4/11: Just updated this post with a large scan of the Blu-Ray packaging.

More BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) Theatrical Posters

Here are a couple more international one-sheets for the Roger Corman-produced space opera, Battle Beyond the Stars.

Unfortunately, Shout! Factory has still not - as far as I've been able to determine - announced an actual, official release date for the new, presumably-remastered, Battle Blu-Ray and DVD. Internet rumor has it as coming out this Summer. I certainly hope so -- I've been waiting for this one a long time (and the old new Concorde DVD looks like crap on my HD TV).

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) View-Master Set

 

I don't recall there being much Battle Beyond the Stars merchandising back in 1980 (Man, I would have loved model kits of the spaceships, never mind action figures!), but apparently Corman's New World Pictures did license at least one toy - a View-Master set!

I stumbled upon this rarity over on the Temple of Schlock blog - where you can also see scans of the booklet that was included with the reels. Check it out!

March's Space Babe: Sybil Danning

March's Space Babe is Sybil Danning as the Valkyrie warrior St. Exmin in the Roger Corman-produced space opera epic, Battle Beyond the Stars. One of several intergalactic mercenaries recruited by farmboy Shad (Richard Thomas) to protect his homeworld from the malevolent Sador (John Saxon), the uninhibited amazon adventuress St. Exmin was aggressive, lusty and courageous.

The statuesque Sybil Danning was born in Austria, and, after a number of small roles in European films, became a familiar face and body in the exploitation films of the Eighties, featuring prominently in such fantasy and genre epics as Luigi Cozzi's (Starcrash) Hercules, The Seven Magnificent Gladiators, Holwing II, The Phantom Empire and Amazon Women On the Moon. She also appeared on the original V.

News: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS and DAMNATION ALLEY in 2011

I was directed today to a message board post that listed a number of Shout! Factory's planned titles for 2011. Among those was the long-anticipated Battle Beyond the Stars, which, if the information is to be believed, is now scheduled for next Summer for both DVD and Blu-Ray formats. Reportedly, it's taken Shout! some time to prepare an adequate HD master for the film. Other Corman Cult Classics titles listed for 2011 include Timewalker, a Deathstalker double feature and The Arena (hopefully in widescreen).

The post also listed a number of other upcoming discs, including a slew of old 20th Century Fox catalog titles, some of which were previously issued on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment (Death Hunt, Race With the Devil, etc.). Of most interest to Space: 1970 readers was the announcement that 1977's Damnation Alley is on tap for sometime next year. There were no further details provided, but hopefully, Shout! will put together some sort of special edition.

Let's hope that the information is accurate. I'm eagerly looking forward to both releases.

Captain's bLog 1105.10

A few quick notes from the bridge:

•  The Space: 1970 Facebook page is now up to 337 "likes."

•  I just received the first two books in the 1980 Tempo Flash Gordon series by David Hagberg. Thanks to everyone who helped me track these down. Once I finish That Man on Beta, I'll start on these. If I like them, obviously, I'll be trying to acquire the remaining four. Hopefully, they'll be easier to find - and less expensive - than the 70s Avon Flash novels.

•   Still no updated word from Shout! Factory on the Battle Beyond the Stars DVD/Blu-Ray that they originally announced for September - at least, none that I've heard. I'm going to guess that they're having trouble finding a high-quality source print - the one used for the old New Horizons disc was pretty beat-up. If anyone hears anything definitive, please report in! I've been holding off writing much about the film until the new disc came out, but I'm wondering if I should stop waiting. Usually when I post a review here of an old product, a new version is announced within a month....

•   I haven't been re-posting every news item from TV Shows on DVD site for The Six Million Dollar Man Complete Series set from Time/Life, so here's a link to the site's $6MM news page, where you can find shots of the final packaging, complete details, etc. LINK.

•  Here's a question for you: should I cover 70s superhero shows on the site? There are some shows here that are on the cusp already - Man From Atlantis, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Invisible Man - but would it be of interest to those of you who read the site if I also occasionally wrote about shows like Isis, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, etc.?

I've been on the fence about it. It would broaden the scope of the blog and give me more stuff to wax nostalgic about (not to mention putting Joanna Cameron and Lynda Carter in the running for the Space Babes feature), but I wonder if it would broaden it too much, since the site has had a sci-fi focus so far. Anyway, your opinions would be welcome.

• And, finally, apropos of nothing, I'm now on Twitter: @AtomicPulp.

News: STARCRASH and BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS on DVD in September

According to a report at DVD Drive-In, two of the announced titles in Shout! Factory's new arrangement with legendary exploitation film producer Roger Corman are new DVD and Blu-Ray special editions of Starcrash and Battle Beyond The Stars - both of which are due in the U.S. on September 7, 2010.

Since these are authorized editions and Shout! will have access to the Corman film library - and, presumably, master prints and/or negatives - I expect that these will be high quality transfers. Also, Shout! has a very good reputation for really going the extra mile on their releases both technically and in terms of supplements.

Both titles have been released before (there was an authorized version of Battle from Corman's New Horizons video, with a decent array of extras but a non-anamorphic, fairly-beat-up looking transfer, and various bootleg versions of Starcrash are floating around out there from different outfits, none of which look very good) but I expect these editions to blow those away.

I'll keep people posted as more information becomes available.