Still Going Boldly...

It's that time of year again! Today, Space: 1970 celebrates the great Leonard Nimoy's birthday, and this past Monday, we saw the anniversary of our captain, William Shatner's birth. Both galactic living legends turn 83 this year!

Look-In: STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979)

Here's another cool cover from a December '79 issue of the British kid's mag, Look-In, featuring the cast of 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I'm not sure who the artist is - it may be the work of Look-In regular (and acclaimed film poster artist) Arnaldo Putzu, but somehow it doesn't quite look like his style to me.Of course, I could be wrong, and if I am, it won't be long before someone lets me know.

News: SPACE RAIDERS (1983) Coming To DVD?

I don't have any product details or a release date - hell, I don't even have "official" confirmation - but it looks like the low-budget 1983 Roger Corman-produced interstellar opus, Space Raiders, will be coming to DVD soon, courtesy of niche DVD label Scorpion Releasing.

My evidence of this is the presence of the Space Raiders trailer on recent Scorpion DVD titles (specifically, the kung fu caper Force: Five, which I purchased not long ago). Scorpion also posted the artwork above (without comment) on their Facebook page last Fall, along with the posters of a few other Corman titles.

This flick from the tail end of the Space: 1970 era (as I loosely define it) stars Vince Edwards and Thom Christopher (Buck Rogers' "Hawk") and recycles copious effects footage from the legendary B-movie producer's earlier space operas, Battle Beyond The Stars and Android (Hmmm. Wonder if Scorpion might pick up that one?).

As more information about this release becomes available, I'll post it here.

SPACE: 1999 (1975) Landau/Bain Intro

Here's a couple of cool video artifacts I recently stumbled across. When the premiere episode of Space: 1999, "Breakaway," debuted in the United States, it was evidently accompanied in some markets by a specially-filmed introduction (and closing tag) by series stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, tailored to specific stations (note in the video above, that Bain name checks the local broadcaster). The clip above also includes the first couple minutes of the episode.

The clip below is Landau and Bain's concluding remarks at the end of the show and a preview of "Dragon's Domain." Enjoy (as long as the vids remain on YouTube, anyway)!!

THE BLACK HOLE (1979) Lobby Cards

 

Courtesy of Star Kid Paul Quinn, here is a selection of colorful lobby cards from Disney's 1979 entry in the post-Star Wars cinematic space opera wave, The Black Hole. These scans are from a set of reproductions included in the 1999 special "tin box" VHS edition of the film, released by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

This is a cool collection, because aside from the familiar "rolling meteor" shot above, and the standard aft shot of the Cygnus, there are a bunch of lesser-seen stills from the movie included in this set. Enjoy.

And, before I forget, I'd like to express my appreciation for the late Maximilian Schell, who portrayed the demented Doctor Hans Reinhardt in The Black Hole, who passed away just a few weeks ago on February 1st. The highly-respected and acclaimed Austrian actor was 83 years of age. R.I.P.

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #47: THE HUMANOID

An Italian effects crew sets up a miniature shot during production of 1979's The Humanoid, director Aldo Lado's answer to Star Wars, starring Richard Kiel and Barbara Bach. I finally got to see the film last year, and while it's not as much fun as Starcrash, it is enjoyably goofy.

I actually thought the spaceship miniatures were pretty decent (as evidenced above), even if the effects techniques themselves were primitive in comparison to their Hollywood competitors.

FLASH GORDON (1980) Hawkmen Teaser Art

I may be mistaken, but I believe that this poster by artist Philip Castle was the first piece of publicity art released for the Mike Hodges-directed Flash Gordon feature film in 1980.

I remember seeing this art of Vultan's Hawkmen attacking the war rocket Ajax, in Starlog and other genre fan magazines months and months before the film's release. I assume that it was a piece of repurposed pre-production art. In any case, I'm glad I finally found a decent scan of it....

BUCK ROGERS Leukemia Society PSA

From 1980, here's a rare TV clip: a public service spot for the Leukemia Society of America, featuring Gil Gerard and the cast of Buck Rogers in The 25th Century.

ZARDOZ (1974) International Posters

To me, John Boorman's bizarre 1974 mindbender, Zardoz, is one of those movies. You know, the kind of sci-fi film that seems really profound when you're a high school-aged teenager, but when you see it again years later, just seems kind of pretentious and goofy. That doesn't mean to suggest that I don't like the movie - I do, and even own the main U.S. one-sheet pictured above.

It's been more than a decade (maybe two!) since I last viewed this surreal Sean Connery vehicle - I do have the DVD, though I've never actually watched it. I think I'll have to dust it off and give it a spin sometime this year. I wonder what my reaction will be this time?

In any case, here's a small selection of International theatrical posters for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Soundtrack Ad

Over Christmas with the family, I was surprised to discover that my teenaged niece was a big Star Wars fan. Of course, I was too, when I was her age, but it wasn't quite the same back then. For one thing, there wasn't all the cool collectible stuff back in my teens. Early on, practically all we had were the paperback novelizations, the Marvel comics, some tee-shirts and the soundtrack albums on vinyl LPs.

Today I've got this whimsical newspaper advertisement (from the UK, I believe, though I may be mistaken) for the John Williams Empire Strikes Back soundtrack album. Really needs a comma between Jaws and Dracula, though... unless there was a vampire shark movie I missed?

Universal Announces: THE BATTLE OF GALACTICA... LIVE!

Happy New Year! Today we've got this colorful 1980 magazine advertisement announcing Universal Studios' then-new "Battle Of Galactica" attraction. Part of the Hollywood Universal Studio Tour for a decade or so, this immersive, Battlestar Galactica-themed attraction featured animatornic Cylons and other sinister aliens (including a few insectoid Ovions) attempting to hijack a tourist-filled tram for nefarious purposes.

You can view a video of the attraction HERE.

Season's Greetings from Space: 1970

Here's wishing you all a very fine holiday season and a fantastic New Year! Thank you for your interest in this blog - and special thanks to those who recently supported my efforts here with donations. The plan is to get back to more regular posting after the holidays.

And yes - I listen to this album every year!