Comments on: Space: 1899, RIP Gerry Anderson

By: Warren Grant

Warren Grant — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 03:50:00 +0000

I absolutely agree. UFO is one of those series that seems to have been bypassed by everyone. People keep mentioning Space:1999 (which I considered absolute dreck at the time) when they mention Gerry Anderson, and while I loved Thunderbirds when I was a kid, UFO was always my favorite of his efforts. Almost alone at the time, it was SF with a plot, with characters etc. It is a little laughable to look at their “High Tech” environments now mind you.
I would love to see a remake of UFO to be honest. I think it would still fly these days, but if given a more “BattleStar Galactica” style treatment might make an excellent series.

UFO TV Series Opening Credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7IF31wDVM

By: Daen de Leon

Daen de Leon — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 19:47:00 +0000

This was done by a friend of mine who, rather engagingly, didn’t know it had been boingboinged.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:27:00 +0000

At a minimum, they could have made her any of the stock alien characters (scientist / diplomat / soldier / criminal / slave) instead she was merely one more prissy Brit actor.

By: jimh

jimh — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:34:00 +0000

I remember “Journey To The Far Side Of the Sun.” I always ask people if they remember it. It’s a foggy memory, I watched it as a kid on the Sunday afternoon movie. I just remember the ship being very cool.

By: Dave MacLachlan

Dave MacLachlan — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:56:00 +0000

She was right up there with Hawk, the lame character introduced in the second season of Buck Rogers.

By: Dave MacLachlan

Dave MacLachlan — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:53:00 +0000

I absolutely love the UFO series! The Interceptor craft that had nuclear missiles for their nose were awesome.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:58:00 +0000

I always had mixed feelings about Maya, because her shape shifting got a little silly. Remember when she morphed into a kendo master? That was more sorcery. She was always a deus ex machina plot device, and there was nothing alien about her emotions or affect. Still, viewers did not hate her the way they hated Wesley Crusher.

By: Dan Donaldson

Dan Donaldson — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:06:00 +0000

The original and greatest parody, which is also a bit of love letter is by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore : Superthunderstingcar!!!!

I grew up with the Thunderbirds, love this stuff. I think Anderson’s work got me interested in people like Svankmajer and Fellini, masters of artifice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmvrFg-EhmI&feature=share&list=PL014FA121573AEBD2

By: cbhaughn

cbhaughn — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:31:00 +0000

In addition to Thunderbirds there other shows like Stingray, Supercar, and my favorite Fireball XL5. All very heady stuff for prepubescent nerd like myself growing up in the 60′s. If today’s production techniques had been available to Anderson in his day he would have been unstoppable.

By: planettom

planettom — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:36:00 +0000

A YouTube clip of 10 minutes of SPACE:1999 Eagles exploding!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEtxHX25GZw

By: robuluz

robuluz — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:33:00 +0000

Gerry Anderson did ‘Thunderbirds’, and pioneered a technique he called *marionation*? That’s a pretty big scoop for this audience you’ve got right there.

The Boing Boing editorial staff weren’t personally available to hear the sad news of his passing directly from you? Well fuck me, the Mayans were right after all. It’s the apocolypse.

By: Jamie Anderson

Jamie Anderson — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:33:00 +0000

Mum and I absolutely love this – thanks for sharing it.

By: AllyPally

AllyPally — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:17:00 +0000

Thanks, getback, you wrote what I was thinking. Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet will be around for a long time.

Space 1999, the raw material for this vid, will not.

By: getback

getback — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 07:05:00 +0000

This shit and its one-liner text has nothing to do with the legacy of Gerry Anderson and his globally beloved ‘Thunderbirds’ TV show nor is it any type of fitting goodbye to him here…

When he died after Christmas, I immediately tried to email boingboing to let you guys know. However, the boingboing masthead has wiped away all its editors contact info ( I quit Farcebook and don’t tweeter) so there was no way to get to word to you. But if showing crap out-takes from some old movie is how you send off Anderson — the creator of 1960′s hit TV show ‘Thunderbirds’, curator of its museum in London and sweet inventor of iconic puppetry he called *marionation* among other tributes — then I’m proud you didn’t learn of his passing from me first.

Here’s the world-famous dance track version of the show open, famous everywhere but San Francisco where it would merely be annointed the hackneyed term, ‘mash-up’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g2W_JF8QfE

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 06:02:00 +0000

The D-Generation did a great parody of Thunderbirds.

By: Lee Hauser

Lee Hauser — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Man, I loved UFO! And no one seems to remember “Journey To The Far Side Of the Sun.” All the exploding spaceship miniatures at the end are fantastic…

By: Mitchell Glaser

Mitchell Glaser — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 04:52:00 +0000

That was the real shiznit!

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 04:11:00 +0000

Wow. I totally forgot about the crochet eyebrows. Of course, 1889 was a long time ago.

By: Marja Erwin

Marja Erwin — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 04:10:00 +0000

This is Space: 1899. The roleplaying game is Space: 1889. Incidentally, I don’t like the ways the new version changes the setting from the old version, although I admit there were a lot of rules problems in the old version.

By: Tim H

Tim H — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 03:14:00 +0000

I wanted to see the wonky RPG…

By: kopper

kopper — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:22:00 +0000

I think you mean Space: 1899, not ’89…

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:18:00 +0000

that was excellent. hey didn’t they have little knuckle-duster side-arms that could do everything needed by a tired script writer? and what about purple-haired moon console babes? http://www.scifibabes.co.uk/images/ellis.jpg oh wait, that was “UFO” why isn’t that remembered fondly as well?