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Men on Film. Or tape, as the case may be.
Jul. 12th, 2009 09:20 amIt was a dark and stormy day. By late afternoon, Eleanor was still not home, work and workout were behind me, but the ground was still too wet to mow. No Mets until the evening, no unseen Dexters or Jackies to be had. Thus it was I gave in to the call of the past and popped in disk one of the Four-series Genesis of the Daleks.
Oh my stars and TARDIS.
The cheesy effects. The brain-at-door implementation of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development (it's in the concordance, Mel, look it up) which explains the iron crosses on the Kaled bad guys. The fascination, even then, with redonkulous anagrams. The Time Lord (I thought the Doctor was the last one?) who rather resembles Marty Feldman playing Eyegor. Most of all, though, the fascinating flipping between outdoor film and on-set videotape which I know was a staple of the 1970s Beeb. Python had it, too, and they rather made fun of it- such as in this one, right after the first appearance of the Spanish Inquisition, about 6:20 in.
And yet? and still? He's the Doctor. Practically in a pith helmet, and that scarf! (Was that perhaps the inspiration for Arthur's towel?) Somehow, the lack of as many toys, and as much CGI, makes his character all the stronger. Plus, I finally got to meet Sarah Jane. Get that Phil Collins song out of my head.
So, yeah. I'll be watching the rest of them, and probably not waiting for dark or storm before I do so.
----
The visual effects from it did remind me of one other, much less-loved, series of that era, which I know I've written on here before- called The Starlost. It was developed by Harlan Ellison, who was so pissed by the final product that he slapped an Alan Smithee pseudonym on it and I never even knew, watching them on channel 4 as a teen, that Cordwainer Bird was the same guy who wrote "City on the Edge of Forever." I did know that the star, Keir Dullea, had been Dave in 2001, and that this role was pretty much the proof that HAL had sent his acting career out the airlock, too.
What I didn't know, until this morning, is that Starlost is now available on Netflix.
Naturally, I've ordered the first disk. Hey, my DVD played Incubus and didn't explode, right?
----
ETA.Em called this morning. She's getting the full spectrum of college life- a kid already expelled for bringing the chronic; the town water supply getting full of tiny livestock due to all the excess rain; a 2 a.m. fire alarm that turned into an arrest of one of the counselors' ex-boyfriends who'd been stalking the place; and in between, they do some actual work-
You can scroll through the rest of them here; she's not the only one with pink hair.
Oh my stars and TARDIS.
The cheesy effects. The brain-at-door implementation of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development (it's in the concordance, Mel, look it up) which explains the iron crosses on the Kaled bad guys. The fascination, even then, with redonkulous anagrams. The Time Lord (I thought the Doctor was the last one?) who rather resembles Marty Feldman playing Eyegor. Most of all, though, the fascinating flipping between outdoor film and on-set videotape which I know was a staple of the 1970s Beeb. Python had it, too, and they rather made fun of it- such as in this one, right after the first appearance of the Spanish Inquisition, about 6:20 in.
And yet? and still? He's the Doctor. Practically in a pith helmet, and that scarf! (Was that perhaps the inspiration for Arthur's towel?) Somehow, the lack of as many toys, and as much CGI, makes his character all the stronger. Plus, I finally got to meet Sarah Jane. Get that Phil Collins song out of my head.
So, yeah. I'll be watching the rest of them, and probably not waiting for dark or storm before I do so.
----
The visual effects from it did remind me of one other, much less-loved, series of that era, which I know I've written on here before- called The Starlost. It was developed by Harlan Ellison, who was so pissed by the final product that he slapped an Alan Smithee pseudonym on it and I never even knew, watching them on channel 4 as a teen, that Cordwainer Bird was the same guy who wrote "City on the Edge of Forever." I did know that the star, Keir Dullea, had been Dave in 2001, and that this role was pretty much the proof that HAL had sent his acting career out the airlock, too.
What I didn't know, until this morning, is that Starlost is now available on Netflix.
Naturally, I've ordered the first disk. Hey, my DVD played Incubus and didn't explode, right?
----
ETA.Em called this morning. She's getting the full spectrum of college life- a kid already expelled for bringing the chronic; the town water supply getting full of tiny livestock due to all the excess rain; a 2 a.m. fire alarm that turned into an arrest of one of the counselors' ex-boyfriends who'd been stalking the place; and in between, they do some actual work-
You can scroll through the rest of them here; she's not the only one with pink hair.