June's Space Babe: Ayshea

June's Space Babe is pretty, pouty Ayshea, as SHADO Operative... "Ayshea," on Gerry Anderson's first live-action sci-fi series, UFO. A fixture of SHADO's underground HQ beneath England's Harlington-Straker film studio, the raven-haired lovely with the prominent monogrammed pendant seemed to be one of the organization's most efficient and appreciated operatives. At least, Straker seemed fond of her.

Actress and singer Ayshea Brough was born Ayshea Hague in 1948, and had her first film role at age 9. She was a popular recording artist and TV presenter in England the 70s, hosting such music and variety shows as Discotheque and Lift Off before moving to Los Angeles for most of the 80s and early 90s. According to online sources, she was a well known Beverly Hills socialite and ran a property development and interior design business. She returned to the UK in 1993.

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #39: UFO

On the set of Gerry Anderson's UFO during the filming of the episode "Flight Path." I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing that's director Ken Turner and actor George Cole as disgraced SHADO agent Paul Roper. I'm certain someone will let me know if I'm wrong.

News: UFO Movie in 2013?

Well, according to the production company's website, the long-in-development feature film based on the late Gerry Anderson's 1970 television series UFO will begin shooting in the "first quarter of 2013," directed by Matthew Gratzner (a visual effects veteran who's worked on films like Alien: Resurrection, Iron Man and Spielberg's War of the Worlds) from a screenplay by Ryan Gaudet and Joseph Kanarek. Of course, the same site provides no definite casting information (not even the previously-announced Joshua Jackson as Paul Foster), so I'm not sure how ready to film they really are.

In any case, it's the first new "news" we've heard on this production in a couple years....

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #34: UFO

The late producer Gerry Anderson on the set of his first live-action sci-fi television series, UFO, having a very serious (it would appear) conversation with actors Peter Gordeno (SkyDiver One Captian/Sky One pilot Peter Carlin) and Ed Bishop (SHADO Commander Ed Straker).

Obit: Gerry Anderson R.I.P.

I've just learned that producer Gerry Anderson, creator of the Space: 1970 television favorites UFO and Space: 1999, has passed away at age 83. Anderson, who also produced the 1969 sci-fi feature, Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun (a/k/a Doppleganger), the TV special, The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity, and the 1990's program, Space Precinct, was diagnosed with mixed dementia two years ago, and moved permanently to a care home in October of this year. He leaves behind four children and his widow, Mary.

Of course, in England and elsewhere, he is probably best-known for his "Supermarionation" programs - including Fireball XL-5, Thunderbirds, Supercar, Stingray, Terrahawks and Joe 90 - which combined sophisticated puppetry with extensive miniature effects. Many of these shows aired in the U.S. during the 60s and 70s, but didn't have quite the cultural impact here that they did at home.

Obviously, I am a huge admirer of Anderson's live-action genre efforts. Space: 1999 and UFO are both milestones in the realm of 70s sci-fi, and classics of their kind.

R.I.P. Gerry, and thanks.

Captain's bLog: 1217.12

•   Obit: I begin this Captain's bLog with some sad news. I've learned that actress Dolores Mantez, who portrayed lovely Lieutenant Nina Barry, the purple-wigged moonbase commander on Gerry Anderson's 1970 series UFO, passed away in November.

She appeared in 23 of the series 26 episodes, with probably her most memorable appearance being in "Sub Smash," a tension-filled hour of drama where her character was trapped on a crippled SHADO submarine with Ed Bishop's Commander Straker and very little air.

Although a busy actress on British television during the Sixties, she retired from acting in 1972 to devote her attentions to her family. Rest in peace, Ms. Mantez.

•   Star Wars Graphic Novel Giveaway: While I remain disappointed in how few of the folks who entered actually followed directions - even after I repeated the instructions - I'm otherwise pleased by the overall response to this first Space: 1970 Giveaway. After disqualifying all the entries that didn't follow the rules, I randomly drew the winning name of Star Kid Mark Holmes, from far-off Willingboro, New Jersey.

Sometime in the next few days, I'll be shipping out the Dark Horse Star Wars Omnibus Vol. 2 and the adaptations of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Keep an eye on the mail, Mark!

 •  Press: Last friday, Huffington Post blogger Jason Apuzzo wrote an article about the upcoming Disney Star Wars sequels and 70s science fiction cinema. I enjoyed the article for the most part (especially the parts that seemed to be borrowed from - or at least influenced by - my writings here), but the best part was that he included a link to Space: 1970 at the end of his post. This resulted in a nice uptick in hits from new readers. Hopefully, some of them stuck around!

•  Blatant Cross-Promotion: And here's my usual shameless plug: anyone who enjoys my writing and the DVD reviews on this blog  should check out my DVD Late Show site, where I have been reviewing B-movies, cult films and genre television shows on DVD and Blu-ray disc since 2005. Among the over 700 reviews on the site are plenty of Space: 1970-era favorites, like Battle Beyond The Stars, Damnation Alley, Starcrash, The Starlost, the Space: 1999 Blu-rays, and many more. 

UFO (1970) Paperback Novelizations

Here are the covers to the two UFO novelizations published by Warner Books in the United States. I actually have both of these, picked up at a yard sale in the mid-80s, if I recall correctly. At the time, I hadn't seen the series since I was a little kid of five or six years old, and really only remembered the cool SHADO interceptors, the purple-haired moonchix and the UFOs themselves. I didn't really recall the characters or how dark and grim the  stories were... reading these books, written by British author John Burke - under the pseudonym, "Robert Miall" - based on the original scripts, really surprised me with their paranoid tone.

It wasn't until a decade or so later that I finally saw the show again during its run on the Sci-Fi Channel in the mid-90s, so for many years, these two books were my only exposure to Gerry Anderson's classic series.

UFO (1970) Photo-Novel

I'm not entirely certain what this UFO book is exactly; the site where I discovered it had it listed as a French (though it looks - as a couple folks have pointed out - Italian) "Photo-novel, presumably an adaptation of the episode, "A Question Of Priorities." But any piece of UFO artwork that has Straker punching out an alien astronaut on the moon - without a space suit! - is just too friggin' cool not to post here at Space: 1970.

Man, Straker is a badass.

ADDENDUM: According to Space: 1970 reader Roberto Baldassari, ‎18 photo-novelizations from UFO were released in Italy In 1974. Seven of them were also released in France. This appears to be one of the Italian editions. My question is: how much of a badass is Straker on the other covers?

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #18: UFO

SHADO Interceptors race across the surface of the Moon with the help of a special effects technician in Gerry Anderson's 1970 series, UFO. Still one of my favorite spaceship designs of the era - even if they only had one missile each!

UFO (1970) International Movie Posters

Here's a selection of "fab," International (mostly Italian, I believe) posters for ITC's feature film compilations of episodes from Gerry Anderson's first live-action science fiction series, 1970's UFO, all of them featuring Ed Bishop's Commander Straker. I love how some of them look like James Bond spy movies, while others have a very 50's pulp "alien invasion" vibe - which, now that I think of it, is a pretty fair way of describing the program.

Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote about these UFO "movies" and posted some art from a couple of the film releases, but I knew there were a lot more of them. I've been hunting and collecting scans over the last year or so, and here are the results of my various Google safaris. Gorgeous, aren't they?

UFO Italian Movie Poster

back in the early days of this blog, I wrote about the 'feature film" compilations made up of episodes from Gerry Anderson's UFO television series, and posted some art from a couple of International movie posters. Well, here's another one...

UFO (2011?) Teaser Poster

While I'm increasingly skeptical that the proposed feature film remake of Gerry Anderson's UFO television series is ever going to get off the ground, I do like this teaser poster design. I'm not entirely clear on whether it's "official" or fan-made, but it's a nice update of the classic Interceptor design, and the SHADO-wy composition at least suggests that the intended tone of the film is/was appropriately serious.

UFO (1970) Publicity Shots

"Every mother's nightmare, every schoolboy's dream..."

Here are a couple of nice publicity stills from Gerry Anderson's UFO, featuring the lovely Wanda Ventham (Colonel Lake) and one of the "futuristic" automobiles originally constructed for Anderson's feature film Journey to the Far Side of the Sun/Doppleganger.

Ms. Ventham was our Space Babe for May 2010.

Dinky Toys: UFO and SPACE: 1999

I never had any of these, although I vaguely remember having or seeing catalogs for them. I suspect that they were a lot more common in the UK than the US.

Great ads, though!

UFO (2011) Movie Website

While I'm thinking about Gerry Anderson productions... this may be old news to most of you, but there's a pretty cool official website for the forthcoming feature film adaptation/remake of Anderson's 1970 television series UFO. Not a lot of information there about the actual film - in fact, I haven't heard anything about the production since it was announced last November (!) that actor Joshua Jackson of Fringe had been cast as Paul Foster in the movie - but the site itself looks cool.

After watching the first season of Fringe, in which Jackson pretty much scowled his way through each episode in a manner not unlike the original series' Michael Billington, I think he's a fine choice to play the role. The much more important casting, though, will be that of Ed Straker, the brilliant, calculating, obsessed defender of humanity and iron-fisted leader of SHADO. My wife and I have tried to think of a single contemporary actor who would not only be right for the role of SHADO's commander, but who would also be someone that a studio would feel comfortable casting in the lead of an expensive movie; i.e. a "box office draw." So far, we haven't thought of a single star worthy of Ed Bishop's white wig.

Who would YOU like to see play Straker in the new UFO film? Bear in mind that your choice should not only be appropriate for the part, but also someone that a studio exec would consider "bankable." Post your choices in the comments.

Space Babe: Wanda Ventham

Gorgeous Wanda Ventham as the no-nonsense Colonel Virginia Lake on Gerry Anderson's UFO. In the second production block for the series, actor George Sewell didn't return to reprise his role as Colonel Alec Freeman for some reason, so the producers brought back the statuesque, blonde Ventham, who had appeared briefly in the pilot, to take his place as Commander Straker's No. 2 at SHADO.

Lake was a very strong character, a tough and tough-minded officer who also happened to be a very sexy woman. She was competent, commanding and able to hold her own on screen with Ed Bishop's Straker - not an easy task.

Ventham has had a long and prolific career on British television as a popular guest artist and as a regular on numerous series. Among those appearances were roles in three Doctor Who stories.

Space Babe: Gabrielle Drake

Beautiful Gabrielle Drake as Lieutenant Gay Ellis on Gerry Anderson's UFO. She may have worn a purple wig and a silver miniskirt, but for the first third or so of the series, the sexy astronette commanded the SHADO moonbase, Earth's first line of defense against alien invaders bent on conquest (or at least human organ harvesting).

While the tone of the series was actually pretty grim, the style was pure, late Sixties' "mod," and nowhere was that more evident than in the outfits designed for SHADO's female staff. Sure, they were entrusted with the responsibility of a multi-billion dollar moonbase - not to mention the defense of all mankind - but form-fitting spacesuits and miniskirts were the uniform of the day.

Frankly, I'm not complaining. I even dig the wig.

UFO (1970) Movie Poster Art

As with Battlestar Galactica and other science fiction shows, the home video boom of the Eighties led to various TV episodes being repackaged and distributed on VHS and syndicated to independent television stations as feature films. Gerry Anderson's groundbreaking live-action sci-fi series UFO was among those programs; in 1980 two episodes were edited together and released as Invasion: UFO. The art above was created for that release.

Earlier than that, though, in the 70s, several compilation features were derived from the series and released in Italy. The art above was used to promote one of these movies, UFO Prendeteli Vivi.

I don't know who the artists were who painted these illustrations, but as a fan of the series, it's fun seeing this artwork