Help Wanted!

I received an e-mail the other day from a reader in Germany, who wanted my help in identifying a sci-fi movie that he remembered from the 70s. Since I haven't been able to help him, I thought I'd post his query here, and see if any of you guys out there could identify the film/show he remembers:

Hi there Christopher,

I am writing to you from Germany and was wondering wether you could help me find a movie that I have been looking for - for, literally, ages.

One scene has stuck in my mind since childhood and has seen me scouring the web for an answer as to it's origins.
I don't recall at all what the story of the movie in general was about. It aired here in Germany during the late seventies and all I remember was that it was profoundly gripping and terrifying.

This is the scene that I remember:
The film was set in a strange future world, where two people were stuck in a hilly desolate landscape. The sun was setting and the rolling hills were lit by the late afternoon twilight.
The two characters were talking urgently and needed to get away from that spot to evade an 'enemy' or alien force, which was closing in on them. This 'enemy' had begun to appear on a broad front over a ridge behind our heroes. They were silver or white and had an egg-shaped or balloon-like appearance. There might have been ten or twenty of these creatures, which moved along in a nightmarish bouncing slow motion dance.
The balloon creatures could have been bobbing down the slope toward the sunset. The two heroes might have been near a shuttle-like vehicle.

Thank you ever so much for your time!

So, does this sound familiar to anyone out there?

A Word From Our Sponsor....

Most of the longer DVD reviews on this blog originally appeared in my DVD Late Show review column, which I have been writing regularly (mostly) for the last five years. The column originally debuted on filmmaker Kevin Smith's Movie Poop Shoot website in 2005 as a bi-weekly feature. Subsequent incarnations of the column appeared online at Quick Stop Entertainment and, later, Forces of Geek. Several print installments also appeared in IDW Publishing's DOOMED magazine.

This past January, I moved the feature to its own, dedicated website - DVD Late Show. New reviews - between 1 and six new articles, depending on what I have on hand - appear there weekly, and the archive contains over 400 DVD and Blu-Ray reviews - mostly sci-fi, fantasy, horror and action films/TV. If you enjoy the reviews here at Space: 1970 (all of which were updated and revised before re-posting, BTW), you'll find a lot more of the same at the Late Show.

PLEASE check out the site, and if you find it entertaining and/or helpful, bookmark it, and make it a regular stop. Spread the word, link to it. I'm going to need a lot of traffic/hits to make it feasible and keep it going.

Thanks, guys.

I now return to your regularly scheduled programming....

BLACKSTAR (1980)

Blackstar (1980-81) was probably the last Filmation cartoon I remember actually getting up early to watch. I was into D&D then, and anything with a sword & sorcery theme caught my interest. Unfortunately, if I recall correctly, it aired in the same timeslot as Ruby-Spears' superior Thundarr The Barbarian on another network, so unless Thundarr was a repeat, I usually opted for the post-Apocalyptic barbarian over the sword-slinging astronaut, John Blackstar.

Loosely inspired by interplanetary romances like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ "John Carter of Mars" pulp stories, Blackstar tells of an American astronaut, who, after passing through a black hole, finds himself stranded on the primitive planet Sagar. The planet is ruled by the evil, Darth Vader-esque Overlord, and opposed by a motley band of freedom fighters, including the sorceress Mara, shape-shifter Klone, and seven pink "trobbits." John Blackstar somehow comes into possession of the Starsword (an adventure never related on the series), a mystic blade that can be combined with the Overlord’s Powersword to become the Powerstar – an ultimate weapon that the Overlord desperately covets.

Watching it today as a 40+ adult, I find that Blackstar is actually somewhat better than I remembered. The animation still looks pretty slick and, oddly enough for a Filmation adventure show, uses very little, if any, rotoscoping. The character designs and background paintings are excellent, really selling the alien environment of planet Sagar. The scripts – mostly by animation and sci-fi veterans J. Michael Reeves (Batman - the Animated Series) and Marc Scott Zicree (Sliders) – are fun and fast paced. I still hate the little pink "trobbits," though, and prefer the episodes that play down their child-friendly antics.

My favorite episode is probably "Shipwrecked," written by Reaves, where Blackstar's old fiancee - also an astronaut - follows his ship's trajectory through the black hole to Sagar. Of course, she's captured by the Overlord, who wants her starship's technology. She is rescued by - and reunited with - Blackstar, but is ultimately forced to leave Sagar without him. The best part, though, is that when she emerges from the black hole to her own side of the galaxy, she contacts Earth command and sets them to work preparing an invasion fleet! She wants to go back to Sagar in force and bring her fiance back! Unfortunately, that intriguing plot thread is never revisited during the remainder of the series.

A few years back, before BCI/Eclipse went wherever it is defunct video labels go, they released the complete series on DVD. The full-frame transfers are excellent; the source material on Blackstar looks much better than the prints used on their previous Flash Gordon set, with bright colors and virtually no visible debris or damage. Extras include an informative booklet of liner notes, writer and producer commentaries on two episodes, on-screen interviews with many of the creators of the show, two image galleries, and "The Magic of Filmation" documentary.

If you're nostalgic and want to revisit your childhood – or know kids who are into fantasy adventure – Blackstar is well worth hunting down and picking up.

Back in the mid-90s, I was an editor at a short-lived and now-forgotten comic book company called Tekno*Comix. Their gimmick was publishing comics created by science fiction personalities, and their premiere title was Leonard Nimoy's Primortals. I wrote eleven issues of that comic, beginning with #3, and it was a great deal of fun - as well as a huge nerdy thrill, since I'd always been a fan of the actor and his portrayal of Spock on Star Trek.

During my tenure as writer of Primortals, we had several phone conversations, and met in person once. Leonard was extremely enthusiastic about the project, gracious, and complimentary of my efforts on the title. Meeting him - and working on his creation - is a high point of my professional career.

Leonard Nimoy turns 79 today. Here's wishing our favorite Vulcan a very happy birthday.

News: FLASH GORDON (1980) Blu-Ray in June

Figures. Almost to the moment that I revise and post my three year-old review of the Flash Gordon - Saviour Of the Universe Edition DVD to this blog, Universal announces that the exact same version - but in high definition - will be hitting the street in June on Blu-Ray Disc.

The format will be 2.2:1 1080p and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. D-BOX Motion Code will be included as well as BD Live. Bonus features appear to be identical with those on the Saviour edition DVD: An interview with screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., and interview with illustrator/fan Alex Ross, the first chapter of the 1936 serial with Buster Crabbe, and the original theatrical trailer. I'm assuming the promo for the now gone-and-forgotten SciFi Channel disaster will not be included this time.

Universal's SRP is $26.98. But you can pre-order Flash Gordon [Blu-ray] (1980) from Amazon at that link now for less than twenty bucks.

Coming Attractions: STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (1979) Teaser Trailer

As I said, I liked the new Star Trek well enough, but those kids aren't the real crew.

Chris Pine who? Here's wishing a fantastic birthday to the real Captain James Tiberius Kirk.

Starfleet's finest - and the man who made me love this stuff - William Shatner, turns 79 today. Happy birthday, Rocket Man!

Vinyl Movies... In Space Age Stereo!

It's sometimes difficult to remember a time before home video. We have so much media literally at our fingertips these days, that a time before VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, Tivo, streaming video, etc., seems almost unbelievable. Those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s loving TV and movies had to resign ourselves to watching the shows we liked only when network programmers scheduled them (assuming our parents let us at all), and if we wanted to revisit a favorite film, the only option we usually had was a paperback novelization (by Alan Dean Foster, most likely) - if we were lucky and the film we liked even got novelized.

When Star Wars came along and surprised everyone with its incredible mainstream popularity, Lucas, Fox and hundreds of licensors scrambled to create new products that they could sell to Wars-hungry masses while said masses waited impatiently for the sequel. Among those new products was The Story of Star Wars - a long-playing record album that contained an abridged version of the film story, composed of dialogue, sound effects and music from the movie soundtrack, with additional narration (by actor Roscoe Lee Browne, who had played "Box" in Logan's Run) to smooth out the audio narrative.

I had this album on cassette, and I listened to it so often that even today, I can recite large swaths of the dialogue in Star Wars from memory.

Of course, being Star Wars, and with affordable videocassettes of the movie itself still several years away, the Story Of... album sold like crazy. Millions of kids like myself re-experienced that movie over and over in our heads for years. It was so successful that similar story albums were released for the next two Star Wars films, and several other genre productions, too. I know there were similar albums for Raiders of the Lost Ark ('natch), Battlestar Galactica, and The Black Hole. Probably others, as well.

If you hunt around online, you can find downloads of most of these records. They're actually pretty amazing. Most of the abridgements are expertly done (the Saga of Battlestar Galactica LP plays better than the actual pilot, in my opinion), and they're damned fun to listen to.

In fact, I often listen to them while I work on various projects - this blog, for example - at my computer.

GALACTICA 1980 TV Guide Advertisements

More vintage TV Guide ads, from my collection, for Galactica 1980. Can't say that ABC failed to promote this show, though the ads - as they're supposed to - promise a lot more adventure than the show actually provided.

Seriously, I know that this series is utter crap, and in fact, sinks to whole new depths of sci-fi crapitude, but still... I own it on DVD.

For one thing, I absolutely adored the original Battlestar Galactica when I was a kid and was friggin' traumatized when it was cancelled. I was further traumatized when the low-budgeted, kiddie-oriented spin-off, Galactica 1980 came about, because I missed damn near every episode! I never saw the three-part premiere (although I did eventually rent the truncated "movie version" on VHS) and only caught the ends of the next few episodes because my family never seemed to be home at 7:00 on Sunday nights.

I do remember seeing the Halloween episode (or the first part of the two-parter), "The Night The Cylons Landed," which introduced human-looking Cylons (long before the new series) and guest starred Wolfman Jack. My folks were visiting friends and to keep me occupied, I was sent into their rec room to watch TV.

But I never saw the final and best episode, "The Return of Starbuck," until Goodtimes Home Video released it on budget videotape in the mid-80's.

I did manage to clip and save these ads, though. Gotta admit, too, that I love seeing Lorne Greene posed like Superman in that first ad!

LOGAN'S RUN (1977) Opening Titles

I've decided, for the time being, not to do my previously announced episode-by-episode review of the Logan's Run television series. When I came up with that idea, I wasn't aware that the series was readily available on iTunes. I may still write about one or two of them in my forthcoming Favorite Episodes feature, though.

For now, though, here's the opening titles. Someone posted in the comments a while back that they thought it had the worst theme music of any genre show - I disagree. I actually rather like it, even if the melody, for some reason, reminds me of John Williams' "Leia's Theme" from Star Wars....

The Human Adventure is Just Beginning....

Just a few random musings about this blog...

• I finally put a hit counter on this blog to track traffic, and I am astounded. This is, by far, the most-read and most-linked to site in my "Atomic Pulp Network" of pop culture blogs (list over there in the sidebar). It seems to come up most often in Search Engine searches, too.

I guess there's a lot of forty-something geeks out there. :)

Of course, it's also the blog that I've been updating most frequently. It seems that outer space is where my mind is lately.

Still, I am surprised at how many other people seem to be into this stuff. Most of my life, these shows and movies - except Star Wars, maybe - have been generally dismissed with derision by people I ran into. Now, I'm a fan of lots of stuff - 60s spy movies, classic horror films, giant monster movies, private eye fiction - and all of those seemed to be more acceptable/respectable than being a fan of Space: 1999, the original Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers. Hell, even around other science fiction and comic book geeks, mentioning those "old" shows was an invitation to abuse. Nice to finally see that I'm not the only one with such arrested taste....

(Most of you also read - and/or run - role playing gaming blogs. I'm not surprised. I spent a lot of time dungeon crawling back in my teen years, too, and D&D first really started catching on in the late 70s and early 80s, so it's all part & parcel of our shared experience.)

• Oh yeah, I wanted to clarify something from my "Reality is Overrated" post: I don't hate the new Battlestar Galactica. I don't even particularly dislike it. I own the entire series on DVD, and will, one of these days, probably sit down and watch them again. But I won't be rewatching them anywhere near as often as I rewatch episodes of the original series, and I absolutely do prefer the 70s version over the more recent incarnation in most respects. I think it says something that my favorite moments on the new BSG were those that directly referenced or homaged moments and elements from the original.

• I've noticed that those who came of age in the 60's and grew up with Forrest Ackerman's Famous Monster of Filmland magazine and the "Shock Theater" syndication package of old Universal monster movies refer to themselves as "Monster Kids."

Does that make those of us who grew up with Starlog, Star Trek reruns and Star Wars (not yet a new hope), the "Star Kids?"

• Anyway, a huge thanks to everyone who reads this blog. I'm working on my first Favorite Episodes post - "Return of the Fighting 69th" from Season 1 of Buck Rogers In the 25th Century, and it should be up sometime this week. I was going to launch the feature with "War Games" from Space: 1999 since I haven't written much about that show yet, but the passing of Peter Graves over the weekend made me want to bump the Buck episode he guested in to the front of the queue. I'll also be posting some more vintage TV Guide ads from my collection in the next few days.

Making calculations for lightspeed......

GALAXINA (1980) Theatrical Posters

I reviewed the movie a while back. Here are two of the original theatrical one-sheets for the sci-fi spoof Galaxina, starring the late Dorothy Stratten (who also appeared as "Miss Cosmos" in the Buck Rogers episode "Cruise Ship to the Stars.")

The poster at top was painted by Robert Tanenbaum, who also painted posters for Battlestar Galactica.