WHO - ZINES IN SFX

From a recent issue of   SFX,   a nice if  rather brief article on Dr Who fanzines .

ELLISON IN FUTURE LIFE

Another interview with the late  Harlan  Ellison,  this time in   STARLOG's  sister title   FUTURE LIFE .


At one point,  Ellison also wrote a regular column for the magazine.

ELLISON VS HAMILL IN STARLOG

After  Harlan  Ellison's  famously  negative  review  of    STAR WARS  ,    Mark Hamill   retaliated in  this  STARLOG  interview  :

Needless to say ,  Ellison  dashed off an angry letter in reply  ;

The pair later made up after Ellison wrote a more positive review of   EMPIRE  STRIKES  BACK.


The writer also took Sean Connery  to task in another letter over the  script for   OUTLAND.




I also recall an Ellison interview from the 90's magazine  SCI-FI  UNIVERSE  in which his antipathy for STAR TREK  and its fans reached new heights.


His involvement with  BABYLON 5  would partly account for this since the two shows were by then deadly rivals.


I'll post that interview here at some point.

HARLAN ELLISON IN STARLOG

Life   was never dull when the late  Harlan Ellison was around.


As these interviews from  STARLOG  prove,  he didn't suffer fools gladly  and took no prisoners .


But he  was always entertaining and  gave  great  quote.


Love  him or loathe him ,  agree with him or disagree ,  he was impossible to ignore.


Despite his  aversion to  Star  Trek  and being  labelled a  sci-fi writer,   he was very much  a major force in the genre.


At one point during the 90's,  it seemed that I couldn't go into  Forbidden Planet  without  buying some new collection of his work  including the original script book for  City on the Edge of  Forever.


And he was a frequent presence in the pages of   STARLOG  during its golden era  (   issues 1- 100  )


Apart from these interviews,   he also contributed a  memorable  review of   STAR  TREK : THE MOTION  PICTURE  and  several angry letters on various actors who had  annoyed him.


Here  is an interview from  STARLOG  issue  8 :

and from issues 100 -101  :

BOY OF THE ROVERS ?

Here is some coverage from last weekends papers on the re-boot of   ROY  OF  THE  ROVERS.


Old Roy seems to have de-aged somewhat   !

CHILDHOOD ' S END - THEN AND NOW

You may recall a  more  recent sci-fi  mini-series called     CHILDHOOD'S   END   in which Charles Dance appeared as a demonic looking alien  :

I cant be the only viewer who was reminded of    Tim Curry's  character from  LEGEND.  ( 1985)

The plot concerned a race of  benevolent aliens who visit earth and improve the quality of life for humanity.






However in a chilling twist,  it turns out they were not so benevolent after all and were in fact just fattening us up for slaughter.






But how many of you know that this  show was being touted as far back as  1981  in the pages of STARLOG  ?

The art depiction of the aliens is actually quite close to how they were eventually realised.


The producer clearly had high hopes of getting the show made but  sadly it didn't happen at that time ,  presumably due to the  high costs involved.

THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES - A RETROSPECTIVE

Hard to believe but   THE   MARTIAN   CHRONICLES  tv  mini-series  was first broadcast almost 40 years ago.

When it received a dvd release in 2010 ,  SFX  magazine gave it a five star review, and called it


  '   awesome genre tv,   far surpassing any nostalgic memories you may have of  it.  "




For me,  this perfectly encapsulates how I feel about the show.   I  was enthralled by it as a kid and then again as an adult.




Like a fine Martian wine,  it has aged very well.   It' s both of its time and timeless.




I've got to admit up front  -  this show blew my mind when it was first screend on  BBC1 in  the summer of  1980.    Certain parts were very disturbing and downright frightening to my 10 year old self.  




It even secured a coveted   RADIO  TIMES  cover  story  :

If memory serves,  the show was repeated on  BBC2  in the mid-80s in the 6pm   ' cult tv  ' slot.    I do recall watching it again but maybe I was less impressed second time around.






And then for  years , the show receded to a dim memory.




Until the dvd release I mentioned before.

It was a  revelation  to say the least.   I was stunned by the show's outstanding quality which still holds up to this day .   All the more remarkable when you consider  that shows like   BUCK ROGERS   were the norm for  sf  tv  at that time. 














THE   BRADBURY   CONTROVERSY




Here is the author  of the original book,   Ray Bradbury :

and here is the cover of my copy  :

He looks a jovial sort but sadly ,   his ego seemed to get the better of him and he ended up  hating the tv adaptation almost as much as Stephen  King hated the movie version of   THE SHINING.




Bradbury was already dissing  the show before it  was even broadcast,  calling it  dull  and boring.   He would  subsequently dump on  both the show and the late  Michael  Anderson  whenever the opportunity arose.  








Here are the opening credits of the show  :

But it might as well have been called    '   Michael  Anderson's  The Martian Chronicles  '   or  '  Rock  Hudson's   The  Martian  Chronicles  '   since they are the people who actually made the show.




Bradbury continual disdain for the show began to seem petty and mean sprirted.


Just beacuase he wasn't allowed to write the script  ?


That's just sour grapes and most regrettable.






But  now back to the show itself.










THE   ANDERSON  TOUCH.




From the first haunting notes of   Stanley Myer's  score,  you  could tell  that   THE  MARTIAN CHRONICLES   was going to be something special.    And it represents  Anderson's best work in the Sf genre.    At times , his  direction is  incredibly  subtle such as the moment when the camera slowly pans across from  Sam Parkhill to reveal a masked martian.

    Or the slow reveal of the martian christ figure :


.

All genuinely  spooky and memorable scenes.





At times ,  the show can seem mundane especially in the scenes back on earth  but that only makes the martian scenes even stranger.
 


The martians themselves are well realised even if at times   they resemble refugees from STAR TREK....i.e.  big heads and googly eyes :

DIDNT  I  SEE  THIS  BEFORE   ?




The show is not perfect by any means and at times seems derivative of other  sf shows.   For example, this scene could have been lifted from an episode of  STAR TREK ;

Yes the old superior,  disembodied aliens with booming voices cliché.






And  I seem to  recall a scene  like this appearing in an episode of   BATTLESTAR  GALACTICA :

Having said this ,   THE  MARTIAN   CHRONICLES   is very much its own show with its own unique and distinctive feel.












THE  APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE






Much has been made of the show's lack of scientific logic and there's some truth to that.




f
For one thing,  how can anyone breathe  on Mars without a helmet   ?    And why do the priests  arrive there in monk's robes instead of spacesuits  ?   Maybe they changed  before getting off their phallic looking ship  ?

And  how is Rock Hudson able to return to Earth after it was destroyed in a nuclear war  ?




The special effects have also received much derision but they are nevertheless effective.




In this shot ,  we can see the spaceship in the foreground and the fake  town in the background.   The town later disappears leaving only  the ship and the graves. 

At any rate , the show  is not about special effects.  its  about what it means to be human and martian and sometimes a bit of both.

 

IS  THERE  CHRIST  ON  MARS  ?







Without question , the series single most powerful scene is  Father  Peregrine's   encounter with the Martian Christ.   

Even as a kid,   I was familiar with the  Christ image  but I remember freaking out as I wondered why the hell   Christ was  in such a place.   The acting  between   Fritz  Weaver  and   Jon  Finch  here  is astounding.










SORRY  TO  DROP  IN  UNANNOUNCED




The martian mask design is very  unsettling,  especially in  this scene :

This scared the crap out of me  first time around and still unsettles me now  !


 Even though   Darren   MacGavin   resembles  Evel  Knievel  on an off day.




There is also something really eerie about the first appearance of  the  martian sandship  on the horizon.   Although the effects look laughable now,  this really scared me at the time.






THIRD  TIMES  THE  CHARM   ?




Its arguable that part 3 is almost an uneccessary  epilogue  to the more interesting  stuff  in  parts  1-2 but there are still some fairly powerful scenes.


Hudson's reaction to witnessing his  brother's death is devastating and his meeting with the martian ghost is very moving :

And the final image of   Wilder and his family looking down at their reflection in the martian canal brings the story to a perfect close.

It could  also be argued that the  mini -series is simply a lot of   twilight zone-ish  vignettes all  strung together but this would be a unfair assessment.    Richard  Matheson took  Bradbury' s book and fashioned a coherent and literate story that still rewards repeat viewings.


I salute the talent of all those  who worked on this show,   still the finest single piece of  televisual sci-fi ever made.