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THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION www.infinitymagazine.co.uk THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION IT’S GORILLA WARFARE! BEHIND THE SCENES OF DOUBLE-SIDED POSTER INSIDE! THE TV SERIES

PLUS: • VWORP, VWORP!

SAPPHIRE AND STEEL • CAPTAIN & THE VINTAGE COMIC UNIVERSE RIP HUNTER - TIME MASTER SCARLET NEWS, COMPETITIONS & MUCH MORE… ALAN IS 50! MOORE JOIN THE COMICS PARTY THE INCREDIBLE TO MOVIES INSIDE THE NOT-SO-JOLLY GREEN GIANT! !

INFINITY ISSUE 5 - £3.99 ISSN 2514-3654 05

9 772514 365005

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05 THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION www.infinitymagazine.co.uk THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION IT’S GORILLA WARFARE! BEHIND THE SCENES OF PLANET OF THE APES DOUBLE-SIDED THE TV SERIES 8 14 POSTER INSIDE!

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PLUS: • VWORP, VWORP! SAPPHIRE AND STEEL • THE INVADERS CAPTAIN DOCTOR WHO & THE VINTAGE COMIC UNIVERSE RIP HUNTER - TIME MASTER SCARLET NEWS, COMPETITIONS & MUCH MORE… ALAN IS 50! MOORE JOIN THE COMICS PARTY THE INCREDIBLE HULK THE NOT-SO-JOLLY GREEN GIANT! TO MOVIES INSIDE FROM HELL!

INFINITY ISSUE 5 - £3.99

Cover art by Peter Wallbank (www.petewallbankart.com) 20

48 08: ADVENTURES IN TIME A look back at the TV cult classic Sapphire and Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. 14: A STUDY IN SCARLET It has been 50 years since Captain Scarlet first battled the . Something to celebrate! 20: GORILLA WARFARE Mark Phillips reports on the monkey business behind the Planet of the Apes TV series… 38: DOCTOR WHO’S VINTAGE COMIC UNIVERSE Giacomo Lee chats to a very special about some of ’s lesser known adventures… 42 42: IS FOR MOORE That’s , the undisputed bearded Northampton-based God of the British comics realm 52 56 46: A RIP IN TIME The adventures of Rip Hunter… Time Master, a DC comics hero from their Golden Age… 48: THEY’RE HERE! 50 years on from its debut, The Invaders still packs a punch. Remembering a landmark sci-fi show. 52: AN ENTERPRISING ENDEAVOUR Effects wizard on organising the visual excess of Captain Kirk and company... 60 62 56: NOT-SO-JOLLY GREEN GIANT He was Marvel’s first big TV success and we loved him when he was angry. The Incredible Hulk revisited… 60: THE OF CRIME Allan Bryce takes a look at ’s swinging 60s spy-fi classic, Danger: … 62: THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. The life and cinematic crimes of B-movie maestro Bert I. Gordon, whose films were bigger than life!

Editor: Allan Bryce Web Master: [email protected] 06: INFINITY NEWS ROUND-UP Design & Production: Kevin Coward Website: ww.ininitymagazine.co.uk Advertisement and Subs Manager: Published by: Ghoulish Publishing Ltd, 12: YOUR LETTERS AND EMAILS Yannie Overton-Bryce 29 Cheyham Way, South Cheam, Surrey SM2 7HX. 19: THE DARK SIDE PROMO ULISH [email protected] 27: TAKE THE HELM

O Printed in the EU by Acorn, W. Yorkshire. Online publisher: Ghoulish Publishing Distribution: Intermedia, Unit 6 The Enterprise 29: REVIEWS ww.ininitymagazine.co.uk Centre, Kelvin Lane, Manor Royal, Crawley, West

GH PUBLISHING 45: SUBSCRIPTIONS Advertising enquiries: Sussex RH10 9PE [email protected] © Copyright 2017 Ghoulish Publishing Ltd. 67: NEXT ISSUE PREVIEW INFINITY 3 SCI-FI MOVIES AND THE HUMAN TOUCH…

ne of the tricky things about doing a of strong laxatives all the time. We also wanted to see magazine that only comes out every him in a proper punch-up with . Where’s six weeks is it’s impossible to keep fully the fun if your villain can’t be arsed whether he lives up to date with all the new releases. or dies? was judged the second greatest OFor example, hit UK sci-fi film ever made in a Time Out poll earlier this cinemas on October 6th, but it wasn’t year. Doesn’t surprise with that lot. 2001: A Space screened before we went to press at the end of Odyssey was their number one and I think that’s September, so though we would love to have brought overrated and pretentious too. I saw it as a teen and you a review we just never had a chance. I’m guessing wasn’t impressed. I quizzed my mum about the ending it’s going to be good, but it does seem to be hellishly and she suggested drugs were involved. The original long, a good forty minutes longer than the original Planet of the Apes movie followed it into cinemas and in fact. Wouldn’t it be odd if this followed the it was a lot more fun. I saw that one twice. The pattern of the original and was a big flop in Time Out mob also judged Terry Gilliam’s 2017 and feted in 2049? I bet the studios Brazil one of the top ten sci-fi films of all wouldn’t see the funny side though… time. Yeah, sure, much better than War of Infinity may be a mag about futuristic the Worlds (1953), Forbidden Planet (1956) movies and TV shows but we do love to and The Thing From Another World (either look back more than we do forward. It’s version). At least they got it right that The a cosy nostalgic approach that is yielding Empire Strikes Back was the top dividends because five issues in and our picture, after The Ewok Movie of course. sales are going from strength to strength. Yes, Blade Runner and 2001 are great sci-fi Luckily there is not a shortage of great old TV shows films but for me they are too cold-hearted and lacking and movies for us to cover, and we have some cracking in humanity, though they probably fit right in with ones for you this time out, everything from Planet our modern world. But I recently rediscovered on of the Apes and The Invaders to The Incredible Hulk YouTube one great little sci-fi film you won’t find on and Sapphire and Steel. The latter was a particular Time Out’s list, namely Charly (1968), an intensely favourite of mine back in the day, but kids nowadays moving adaptation of the Daniel Keyes novel, Flowers would probably have a right old laugh watching the For Algernon. Cliff Robertson (pictured above), show because the effects were very tacky - all the deservedly won an Oscar for his portrayal of Charly budget went on the salaries of stars Joanna Lumley Gordon, a man with an IQ of 68 who becomes a genius and David McCallum. overnight after taking part in a scientific experiment. Getting back to the first Blade Runner, I must His advancement parallels that of Algernon, a confess that I didn’t like it when I first saw it, and super-mouse who has been operated on, and when that was back when it opened in the Leicester Square Charly sees that the mouse is regressing he realises Theatre in 1982. My pal Gary and I came out enthusing that his super-intelligence will also be short-lived. A about the amazing special effects but we were both really poignant and touching film with a great deal of disappointed with the rather dreary storyline. We humanity, sadly an ingredient that many so-called wanted to see Harrison Ford in chipper Han Solo sci-fi classics seem to lack. guise, not looking like he was miserable and in need Allan Bryce.

HELP US KEEP UP TO DATE WITH WHAT YOU WANT We value every single reader and they value us, which is why we are flourishing at a time when print magazines everywhere are having a tough time. We want to encourage you all to send in your views on Infinity so we can get a lively letters section going, and if you have news of sci-fi-related conventions, movies, books etc, we will be happy to give you some publicity for them. Most importantly, THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION please tell us what we are doing right and (perish the thought) what we are doing www.infinitymagazine.co.uk wrong! You can reach us by via: WEB: www.infinitymagazine.co.uk EMAIL: [email protected] FACEBOOK: Infinity Magazine ADDRESS: INFINITY Magazine Ghoulish Publishing Ltd 29 Cheyham Way, South Cheam, Surrey, SM2 7HX 4 INFINITY DO YOU DARE JOIN US FOR OUR VERY FIRST DARKFEST?

The Dark Side, The World’s Best-Selling Print Horror Magazine is now throwing its irst ever one day ilm festival. It’s Sunday For One Day Only - naturally - and you are all invited - well, as long as you buy a ticket in advance of course!

Our very irst DarkFest is being held on Sunday November 26th at ’s fabulous retro Genesis cinema. It’s going to be a fun event. There’s an all-day bar, decent parking nearby and you will get to meet all the Dark Side team and Sunday a host of celebrities in between enjoying some classic vintage horrors on the November 26th giant screen. We might even lay on some choc-ices and Kia-Oras! 12 noon - 11pm Genesis cinema A PLUS! We will also be launching the new Dark Side book - Hammer, 93-95 Mile End Rd FULL DAY OF FEAR, The Haunted House of Horror, the deinitive history of Hammer Films! London, E1 4UJ FROLICS & FUN FOR ONLY THE FILMS* £30!

SUSPIRIA - IN 4K! LADY FRANKENSTEIN NIGHT OF THE DEMON ASYLUM HORROR EXPRESS In association with CultFilms The irst ever UK cinema Jacques Tourneur’s 1957 You have nothing to lose Tickets please for a Dark we are proud to present screening of the Nucleus Night of the Demon needs but your mind. An Amicus Side favourite, and let the the stunning new 4K Films 2K restoration of 1971’s no introduction. It’s one of compendium classic from train take the strain as you restoration of the 1977 Dario Lady Frankenstein (1971). It’s the greatest horror movies 1972 on the big screen! We share a tense and terrifying Argento classic, made in the most complete version ever made and we will be will be premiering the great big screen HD journey with collaboration with Italian ever seen of this movie, and showing the longer HD new 2K restoration from Peter Cushing, Christopher, partners Videa under the Sara Bay will look amazing version straight from the Severin/Second Sight. You’d Lee and a prehistoric version aegis of Dario himself! on the giant screen! BFI National Archive. have to be insane to miss it! of The Thing! MORE MOVIES TO BE CONFIRMED, AND EVERY FILM WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY TRAILERS AND SCARY SHORTS!

OUR VERY SPECIAL GUESTS* DARK SIDE BOOK LAUNCH MORE GUESTS TO BE CONFIRMED TO BE GUESTS MORE HAMMER THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR Join us at Dark Fest for your chance to purchase our hot-off-the press, brand new Dark Side Book - Hammer, The Haunted House of Horror, the deinitive history of Hammer Films, written by highly respected VALERIE LEON CAROLINE MUNRO MARTINE BESWICK Dark Side contributor Denis Meikle! (Carry On Girls, Blood From (Dracula AD 1972, Golden (Doctor Jekyll and Sister The Mummy’s Tomb, Space Voyage of Sinbad, Captain Hyde, Thunderball, 1999, Never Say Never Again) Kronos, The Spy Who Loved Me) Prehistoric Women, Seizure) *The Films, Guests and Attractions listed are subject to change

THE ATTRACTIONS* YES, I wish to attend the very irst Dark Side FORMORDER • FILM MEMORABILIA • COLLECTABLE FIGURES DARK FEST! Ticket Price - £30.00 (inc P&P) • DVD, BLU-RAY & VHS • STILLS • POSTERS • Please state how many tickets you require: MAGS and MORE! THE DETAILS I enclose my cheque/postal order for £ SUNDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2017 - 12 Noon to 11PM Made payable to Ghoulish Publishing Ltd THE GENESIS CINEMA - ADMISSION: £30 Payment in advance only. Use the form on the right or via Name: our website shop at www.thedarksidemagazine.com Address: Post your order form to: 29, Cheyham Way, Cheam, Surrey, SM2 7HX NB. A photocopy of the order form will sufice

Once payment is received we will post you a signed, Postcode: bespoke individually-numbered ticket! Ticket Purchase Deadline: Friday 17th November You can also pay online via our Paypal account: www.thedarksidemagazine.com

Name of feature THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

The Infinity team bring you the latest news on your favourite TV shows and movie franchises, including our exciting one-day film festival and brand new book on the history of Hammer!

COME TO THE DARKFEST to happen because the film hasn’t even started shooting yet. It also has a new Let’s start with some personal news. As publishers of The director in Damien Szifron. Never heard of him? You’d better run, not walk, and Dark Side magazine we are holding our very own DarkFest rent Wild Tales then, a work of sheer cinematic genius that has been the on Sunday November 26th and we hope that many Infinity Argentinian-born filmmaker’s calling card to a big Hollywood career. readers will also consider joining us for a day of fun and According to Hollywood sources the movie will be focused on the fearful frolics. Aside from screening five great television series starring Lee Majors as a former astronaut who is movies we are delighted to be able to host three of “upgraded” with bionic parts and employed by our government to embark our favourite Bond movie glamour girls, Sister Hyde herself, on convert missions. The show, though, was also inspired by Martin Caidin’s Martine Beswick, the lovely Caroline Munro of Starcrash fame novel Cyborg, and it has been suggested that the Mark Wahlberg movie THE DARK SIDE PROUDLY PRESENTS: and Valerie Leon, famous for her Carry On film roles. It’s going HAMMER may borrow from the pages of that book, as well. Chances are we won’t to be a great day out and we’d love to see you there. You can THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR see this one until late 2018, because appropriately enough the production THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF HAMMER FILMS – BY DENIS MEIKLE find details of how to order tickets in our advert on page 5. seems to be running in slow motion… Be sure to get in before the ordering cut-off date! Also check out our brand new 180-page glossy, full colour book: Hammer: The Haunted House of Horror. Those who bought our earlier history of Amicus films will know what to expect - pages and pages of gorgeous rare stills and posters, plus entertaining and informative text by Denis Meikle, one of the world’s leading authorites on Hammer. Go to our website at www.thedarksidemagazine.com for a sneak preview and you can even get your name in it if you order a copy early!

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO The first annual Thunderbirds Day took place on 30th September 2017. To launch this historic celebration of the beloved Thunderbirds franchise and the premiere of new episodes of on CITV, ITV SIZE DOES MATTER Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS In our book they really don’t make enough movies about people being shrunk to GE) and Transport for London (TfL) are minuscule size, and we even love the likes of Attack of the Puppet People (which partnering on a Thunderbirds Are Go you can read about elsewhere in this issue). So we are delighted to see that this takeover of TfL’s iconic Emirates Air Line is the theme of a new sci-fi comedy called Downsizing, which is already being car in east London. The activity will run until Sunday 29th October offering tipped as potential Oscar material. families and visitors the chance to travel through the themed cable Directed by regular Oscar nominee Alexander Payne (Sideways, The car terminal featuring large models of Thunderbird 1 and Thunderbird 2, and Descendants, Nebraska), Downsizing is set in a world where scientists have take off in one of the themed cabins amidst the palm trees to the iconic 5-4-3-2-1 discovered a way of shrinking people down to the height of five inches as a countdown. The cable car terminals and all the cabins will be fitted with plenty of solution to overpopulation. and Kristen Wiig star as a middle-class selfie opportunities for all the family to enjoy. couple who decide to undergo the procedure after learning that their savings will Emirates Air Line family tickets will be available at the discounted price of stretch further in this downsized existence, allowing them to live a life of luxury. £27.50 for two adults and up to three kids. Christoph Waltz, Neil Patrick Harris and Laura Dern also star. To complement the activity at the Emirates Air Line, InterContinental London, The film marks something of a departure for The O2 will be hosting a Lady Penelope-themed Afternoon Tea. Visitors will be Payne, being his biggest budget movie to date able to relax in the stylish and decadent surroundings of the Meridian Lounge and his first entry into the mainstream Hollywood as they sample delicious themed treats fit for International Rescue’s most sci-fi arena. It premiered at the Venice film stylish field agent including Tracy island coconut pineapple verrine, FAB 1 festival to a favourable critical response and after pink bonbon torte and Lady Penelope macarons. Two specially created Lady a screening at this year’s London film festival it Penelope cocktails will also be on offer providing the perfect finishing touch to opens in UK cinemas in early 2018. a decadent afternoon. The event will also be attended by the Lady Penelope and Parker puppets themselves, as seen on TV recently in the ‘Halifax Savers Are Go’ BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT adverts. The Meridian Lounge will display bespoke prints from cult pop art studio “If only you could see what I’ve seen with your Art & Hue. Guests will receive a welcome card with a special message from her eyes!” Well now you can see Blade Runner in the Ladyship, signed by Rosamund Pike as Lady Penelope, her role in CITV’s reboot best ever picture quality with the release of the Thunderbirds Are Go. movie on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. Now it is regarded as a classic it is easy to forget how troubled a MARK IS MR. BILLION production it was. was It was revealed at the end of 2014 that Mark Wahlberg fired and the film edited against his wishes, and it flopped on was planning to make The Six Billion Dollar Man, an release in 1982. It found new life on home video and went adjusted-for inflation movie of the classic TV show from strength to strength, going on to have a profound The Six Million Dollar Man. He was originally going influence on modern cinema. to make it with his regular collaborator, director Like Close Encounters, this has had lots of Peter Berg (Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon, Lone different releases in various different cuts. The first Survivor) and the plan was to get the movie in release of Ridley Scott’s Director’s Cut came on VHS cinemas on December 22nd 2017. That isn’t going and LaserDisc in 1993. It was followed by a DVD

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On the big screen, Stanton’s earliest, mostly uncredited work was in Westerns and war pics, making his feature film debut in 1957’s Tomahawk Trail. He also guested on many TV Westerns, including The Rifleman, Have Gun — Will Travel, , and . Genuine movie stardom of a sort came late in life to him. He was 58 years of age in 1984 when he starred in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas and in the cult hit Repo Man. In 1986, Stanton enjoyed one of his biggest mainstream roles as Molly Ringwald’s unemployed father in Pretty in Pink. A close friend of , Stanton was best man at Nicholson’s 1962 wedding, and they lived together for more than two years after Nicholson’s divorce. He was also a friend of Marlon Brando’s and appeared opposite both Brando and Nicholson in The Missouri Breaks (1976). Stanton also led his own band, first known as and the Repo Men and later simply as the Harry Dean Stanton Band, and would play pickup gigs in L.A. area clubs. He was friends with Bob Dylan, with whom he worked on Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Hunter S. Thompson was another close pal and Stanton sang at his funeral. release in 1997, and then The Final Cut DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD release in 2007. A confirmed bachelor, he never married, but when asked about it he said he had Now, on its 35th anniversary, Blade Runner: The Final Cut has landed on 4K Ultra “one or two children.” HD Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers in a four-disc + Digital HD set. Let’s leave the last word to David Lynch, who wrote: “The great Harry Dean Designer Kev is a masive of the film. He attended a screening of it recently, Stanton has left us. There went a great one. There’s nobody like Harry Dean. and pronounced the sound quality amazing, though he and I saw a 2K version Everyone loved him. And with good reason. He was a great actor (actually beyond projected at the BFI’s Stephen Street cinema and he tells me that he couldn’t see great) – and a great human being – so great to be around him!!! You are really much difference between the two. I guess that’s a whole different debate, but if going to be missed Harry Dean!!! Loads of love to you wherever you are now!!!” you are a Blade Runner fan who is lucky enough to own a 4K telly and a 4K player then this is a must. FAREWELL TO OSCAR GOLDMAN Extras include three audio commentaries with Ridley Scott, Hampton Fancher, We also recently lost Richard Anderson, a familiar character actor whose credits , Michael Deeley, Katherine Haber, Syd Mead, Lawrence G Paull, spanned more than 180 film and TV roles over six decades. He will be best David Snyder, , , and David Dryer. We also get the remembered, however, for playing Oscar Goldman, the handler of the bionic duo SD documentary: Dangerous Days which at 211 minutes is longer than the film! of Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers, played by Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner And in case The Final Cut isn’t enough you can watch all three different versions in The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. The combined franchise ran of the film: the original 1982 domestic cut, the 1982 International version, and the for more than 150 episodes from 1973-78 and spawned several TV movies, two of subsequent 1992 Director’s Cut. There’s more, but we haven’t the space, just buy which Anderson produced. The Goldman character was so popular that Kenner it already. introduced an figure of him - complete with an “exploding briefcase” that would “detonate” if opened incorrectly. Anderson’s film credits include the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, ’s Paths of , Martin Ritt’s The Long Hot Summer, John Sturges’ Escape From Fort Bravo and John Frankenheimer’s Seven Days in May. On TV he had roles in Gunsmoke, Five-O, Dynasty, , Perry Mason, The Fugitive, Charlie’s , The A-Team, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Bonanza, Ironside, Daniel Boone and Murder, She Wrote. Born on August 8, 1926, in Long Branch, NJ, Anderson was raised in until moving to California at age 10. After serving in the Army during World War II, he enrolled in the Actors Laboratory in Los Angeles, which later became the Actors Studio in New York. Lee Majors paid tribute to him saying: “I met Richard in 1967 when he first guest starred on The Big Valley - we worked together on five episodes. In 1974, he joined me as my boss, Oscar Goldman, in The Six Million Dollar Man. Richard became a dear and loyal friend, and I have never met a man like him. I called him ‘Old Money.’ His always stylish attire, his class, calmness and knowledge never faltered in his 91 years. He loved his daughters, tennis and his SOMETHING ABOUT HARRY work as an actor. We sincerely hope that there’s not a ‘No Smoking’ rule in heaven, but if there is He was still the same sweet, charming man then they are sure to waive it for the great Harry Dean Stanton, who managed to when I spoke to him a few weeks ago. I will miss survive to the grand old age of 91 despite seemingly puffing away on the old coffin you, my friend.” nails from dawn to dusk. He was gaunt and bedraggled and nobody’s pin-up, but as film critic Roger Ebert once said: “No movie with Harry Dean Stanton in it can be altogether bad. Though never a major star he was certainly up there as one of the greatest character actors who ever lived, and boy did he have some great roles in his long career. Sci-fi fans will remember him as Brett, one of the ill-fated crew members in (1979) and as Brain in ’s Escape From New York (1981), as well as the degenerate Bud in Alex Cox’s Repo Man (1984). Among my own favourites are his unlucky gangsters Homer in Dillinger (1973), and Jerry in Straight Time (1978), plus all the great work he did with David Lynch. Born in West Irvine, Stanton served in the Navy during WWII. After the acting bug bit he headed to California to study at the Pasadena Playhouse. He made his small-screen debut in 1954 in an episode of the NBC show Inner Sanctum. He was credited as Dean Stanton in most of his early roles to avoid confusion with the actor Harry Stanton, who died in 1978.

INFINITY 7 This page: Though Sapphire and Steel was originally planned as a children’s show, the signing of big name stars Joanna Lumley and David McCallum made it too expensive for a teatime slot. The marketing spinoffs, however, were obviously aimed at a younger audience

Strange, enigmatic and disturbing, Sapphire & Steel entranced television audiences in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as Robert Fairclough reports…

8 INFINITY TWO ELEMENTS OF CULT TV GOLD

here was definitely something in the air they were named after.) with Hollywood star Tony Curtis to winning effect in T in the 1970s regarding the paranormal, Crucially, audiences could relate to them – The Persuaders! (1971-72). possibly as a hangover from the interest and the series – because the investigators were McCallum was a blonde-haired, striking and in mysticism that counter-culture essentially “good cop” (Sapphire) and “bad cop” sophisticated British-born actor who’d made his had helped popularise. In 1971, David Bowie sang (Steel), Hammond being a prolific and experienced name in America opposite in the about making way for “the homo superior” in ‘Oh! writer of police dramas: between 1969 and 1978, groovy TV secret agent caper The Man from U.N.C.L.E. You Pretty Things’ and, throughout the decade, he wrote 33 episodes of the BBC’s Z Cars, and also (1964-68), and the rather more serious World War advanced beings with powers such as telepathy contributed to New Scotland Yard (1973-74) and II BBC/Universal Studios drama Colditz (1972-74). and ESP were a staple of children’s TV drama: The Sweeney (1976). Despite the promising and The statuesque, regal Lumley, acting since the late of Wands (1970-72), The Tomorrow People (1973-79) unusual scenario, however, Hammond recalled that in small and supporting roles, had become and Sky (1975) all featured characters who could lay “(Thames) couldn’t see how good it was… Director of a household name in another spy show, The New claim to being the heralded master race. Programmes Jeremy Isaacs said it had no mileage.” (1976-77), a revival of the stylish 1960s series There was also a concurrent fascination with malign Undaunted, the author submitting the project starring Patrick Macnee. Both actors were perfect supernatural forces in the chilling series The Changes to Southern TV, who had a reputation for quality casting as their respective characters: Sapphire (1975) and Children of the Stones (1977), as well as in children’s programming with series such as The dazzling, beautiful and mesmerizing, while Steel was adult TV fiction like Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale’s Black Arrow (1972-75, based on Robert Louis focused, enigmatic and, occasionally, threatening. unsettling The Stone Tape (1972) and the series it may Stevenson’s adventure novel), but the company have inspired, The Omega Factor (1979). apparently wanted to consider more episode PICTURE THE SCENE Sapphire & Steel, arriving in July 1979 courtesy breakdowns before they committed to a series. A remote, windswept house, a variety of clocks of ATV - one of the regional TV stations that, at When The Time Menders was subsequently ticking in the many rooms. A teenage boy does his the time, made up the ITV network - was in many forwarded to ATV, it found an immediate ally in Head homework at the kitchen table while his parents ways the culmination of British television’s 1970s of Drama David Reid; Hammond recalled that Reid play with their small daughter, singing her the fascination with the paranormal. Peter J. Hammond, had been unable to sleep after reading the proposal nursery rhyme ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses’. Slowly, all who had written for both Thames Television’s Ace of and, on the strength of the initial script’s unsettling the clocks wind down and stop ticking. The voices Wands and the company’s supernatural anthology power, gave the green light for a full series without of the parents suddenly fall silent, replaced by an series for younger viewers Shadows (1975-78), was hesitation. It was also Reid’s idea that the title be unearthly, vaguely electronic murmur… asked by both series’ producer Pamela Lonsdale to changed to the more alluring Sapphire & Steel. Steel, who somehow knows the boy’s name, devise another paranormal-leaning series aimed at arrives with a young woman, Sapphire. He says a young audience. AURA OF MYSTERY they’ve been sent to help, speaking of “lots of “I’ve always been fascinated by famous Adding to the aura of mystery, no individual story old, old echoes” in the house, while Sapphire mysteries like the Mary Celeste and Bermuda titles were given on screen, and when the series cryptically mentions “a corridor… the corridor is Triangle, and also by stories of time travel,” began in July 1979, ‘Adventure One’ betrayed time. It surrounds all things and it passes through Hammond remarked. “I watched my children its genesis as a children’s series by having as its all things. You can’t see it – only sometimes, when watching an old version of H.G. Wells’ The Time ‘audience identifiable’ characters the young Robert it’s dangerous… You cannot enter into time, but Machine and they were riveted. So I decided to write Jardine (Steven O’Shea) and his younger sister Helen sometimes time can enter into the present. Break in. a story about time from a different angle. Instead (Tamasin Bridge). Burst through. Take things – take people.” of people going from everyday life into time, I had However, during production of this first six-part In the small girl’s bedroom, as Sapphire recites time breaking into everyday life.” serial, Sapphire & Steel’s producer/director Shaun ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses’, ghosts from the past appear In effect, time became the enemy: a mysterious O’Riordan quickly realised that, as Reid’s sleepless and one wall of the room telescopes alarmingly into force attacking the present, personified in ghosts night suggested, “If (it) had gone out at 5.30 it would the distance… from the past and creatures from the beginning and have terrified children.” Hammond’s powerful, adult In a time before convention-breaking dramas end of its span. In Hammond’s new series, originally mixture of “suspense, mystery and unseen horror” like Twin Peaks (1990-91, 2017), Lost (2004-2010), titled The Time Menders, these esoteric threats were was consequently promoted to an early evening slot, and (2017- ), Sapphire & Steel really was combated by the two title characters, a male and running for half an hour (with a commercial break) revolutionary. At the time, the only series that female duo of mysterious agents with powers that, from 7.30pm for all 34 episodes, between 1979 and matched its deliberately ambiguous format was in the trend for super beings in childrens’ TV of the 1982. Each episode ended on a cliffhanger. Patrick McGoohan’s paranoid, open-ended spy time, possessed powers that marked them out as Another factor that may have promoted Sapphire thriller The Prisoner, made over ten years before (for ‘more than human’. & Steel to a primetime slot was the engagement of ATV’s international arm, ITC). Steel, the man, could take his body temperature two stars in David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. Where that had combined the filmed action down to zero. He also possessed great strength and Both actors were A-list and not the kind of artists thriller with surreal fantasy, Sapphire & Steel was the ability to move objects and immobilise people you expected to see in a low budget children’s minimalist and sinister: recorded on videotape through thought control. His partner Sapphire was drama. As O’Riordan noted, the “above the line” – as the majority of domestic British TV drama able to manipulate time (to a limited extent), project cost of one episode of Sapphire & Steel in 1979 was between the 1950s and 1980s – it relied on illusions and (somehow) discern people and objects’ was a modest £5,000, and McCallum’s fee added an ambience of menace and suspense, powered biographical and background details. up to almost the same amount. He and Lumley by dialogue and usually confined to one, isolated Stressing their separation from normal humans, were attracted to the series by the originality of location: Adventure One’s family house, followed by there was also telepathic communication between Hammond’s writing, the discerning McCallum a railway station, a time machine berthed on top of the pair. There was no more back story to them proclaiming the first story “great stuff,” while a tower block, a rundown boarding house, a country than that, a striking departure for the TV drama of Lumley found it “a thrilling idea”. house and a motorway cafe. the time (apart from the suggestion, in the solemn Their starring roles were brokered by ATV’s In this respect, it’s not pretentious to suggest that opening voiceover, that Sapphire and Steel may charismatic chairman, Lew Grade, whose had Sapphire & Steel was the telefantasy equivalent of have evolved from the “medium atomic” elements previously paired The Saint’s suave the British playwright ’s work.

INFINITY 9 NameROBERT of FAIRCLOUGHfeature

Such ground-breaking plays as The Birthday of viewer tolerance,” as well as the programme’s saw the whole network off air between 9 August Party and The Dumb Waiter (both 1957) defined carefully constructed air of mystery: “Who and what and 23 October, but Sapphire and Steel’s second his ‘Pinteresque’ approach – a term he hated – to Sapphire and Steel are remains unclear. During the assignment gained more devotees when it was drama: a tense atmosphere in a confined, claustro- production McCallum told me he thought he was an repeated from the beginning in November 1979. phobic space; an ambiguous approach to time, place . I offer that titbit without any confidence that and the characters’ identity; tense, long pauses and it will be in the least helpful.” ith such an enthusiastic response to the a sense of threat expressed largely through what the Significantly, a more positive opinion could be first series, ATV commissioned two new characters say. found in the broadsheet Daily Telegraph, with the Wstories which were transmitted in early Sapphire & Steel incorporated all of these paper’s Sean Day-Lewis appreciative of the series’ 1981. Adventure Three’s attempt to do something new Pinteresque touches, together with the binding creative ambitions: “It was… quite gripping in its with Sapphire & Steel’s ‘isolated location’ scenario element crucial to the success of any drama mysterious way and though Shaun O’Riordan’s wasn’t entirely successful: the only location filming in production – absolutely committed, convincing direction ensured performances unexcitable to a the series – on the top of a nondescript city building performances. fault, the sinister atmosphere was well made and – didn’t add much to Hammond’s story of futuristic McCallum and Lumley compelled the viewer’s maintained.” vivisection in a time capsule, while an increased attention from the start, the latter easily winning Unshackled from the need to cater for children, demand for overtly science fiction-style effects the trust of the Robert and Helen, at the same time Adventure Two is arguably the definitive Sapphire showed up the limitations of the series’ budget. suggesting an alien otherness with her sometimes & Steel story. Set at night in a derelict railway The third serial did, however, develop the blank expressions and blue, pulsating eyes. station and adjoining hotel, the unquestionably characters’ back story, with the introduction of McCallum, meanwhile, conveyed focused intensity adult subject matter features the resentful ghosts Silver (the equally well cast David Collings), a in underplayed, quiet phrases like “take (the nursery of a dead soldier, fighter pilot and submariners, Specialist Technician skilled in electronics, who was rhyme) downstairs – and burn it.” O’Riordan’s belief recruited by time as a fighting force. Its eight parts also able to create new tools from the raw material in a theatrical production style suited to atmospher- last for nearly four hours and are remarkable for of different objects (another agent, Lead, a strong ically lit, shadowy video won a loyal following from demonstrating how a mood of unease and tension man played by Val Pringle, had appeared in the first the start, with the first episode accruing 11.8 million can be maintained by a small cast, with only three story). Lumley and Collings played well off each viewers as the fourth most watched programme, principal actors to the fore – McCallum, Lumley and other, implying a flirtatious relationship that Steel nationally, of the week 7-13 July 1979. Gerald James as the naïve ghost hunter George Tully. was clearly jealous of. The story also reinforces the agents’ ruthless side, At a concise four episodes, Adventure Four PRETENTIOUS NONSENSE? as Steel brokers a deal where in exchange for letting challenged the duo’s second assignment for the Despite the series becoming immediately popular, the wartime ghosts rest, time takes Tully’s life. accolade of the archetypal Sapphire & Steel story. perhaps because of its designation as science Hammond recalled that the second adventure “Old photographs have always fascinated me,” fiction – a genre frowned upon by critics at the time was made to a very tight schedule: “The first five Hammond revealed, “and the idea of sepia children – reviews in the press were initially unenthusiastic. episodes were in production while I was still writing climbing in and out of them was exciting to write. “I’m told that Sapphire and Steel, the twice-weekly the last three. In other words, no-one, including I also enjoyed creating ‘Mister Shape’, the first sci-fi serial, is becoming a cult programme among myself, had any idea what the ending was going to identifiable adversary that Sapphire and Steel had children,” noted Margaret Forwood in The Sun, be while the show was being made. A nerve-racking so far encountered.” The duo’s enemy in this story going on to say rather more damningly, “The only experience but an exciting one, often bringing the was truly unnerving, a black suited, bowler-hatted explanation I can think of is that the little dears best out of all those involved.” man with no face, a close cousin to the similar are watching this pretentious nonsense strictly for There was some compensation for the author at characters portrayed in the paintings of the laughs… It has no right to be hogging primetime the end of recording, when he spent an enjoyable surrealist artist René Magritte (1898-1967). Mister once a week. Perhaps a time warp allowed it to evening “drinking with the railway station ghosts in Shape, or The Shape, features in Sapphire & Steel’s escape from Children’s Hour?” the bar.” single most disturbing scene, when the screams of In The Daily Mail, two different reviewers With the series now fully into its mature stride, a young woman trapped inside a photograph can be grumbled at, respectively, “An unvaried, unrelieved the TV reviewer in The Scotsman praised Adventure heard as The Shape sets it on fire. half an hour of… haunted stuff up and down the Two’s “genuine feelings of loss and waste and death.” The character was played by ingénue actor Philip stairs (which) struck me as a conspicuous abuse The story was interrupted by an ITV strike that Bird. “The fitting of the mask to cover my face was fairly frightening,” he remembered. “I just had a little straw to breathe through, they slapped stuff all over With the series ending, ’s Peter Knight my face, and I felt very vulnerable and claustropho- bic. I remember standing in front of a blue screen so was on hand to pay tribute: “The end of the current series that they could isolate me and slot me into various photographs (the character I played, The Shape, was will mark the end of one of the cleverest, most intriguing a kind of Zelig who could hide in photographs) and it was terribly important that I stayed on the mark and little sorties into television sci-i we have seen for some time all the movements were exact. My eyes were opened

10 INFINITY SAPPHIRE & STEEL

steel stick”. Amusingly, whoever had written the copy for the ice cream’s advert clearly knew their subject matter, as it included the nursery rhyme ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses’. Even the blurb for Sapphire and Steel was in character: the former enthused that the lolly was “Out of this world,” while the latter typically stated, “I don’t trust it!”

A LASTING IMPRESSION Despite only being shown once (apart from the repeat of the second story), Sapphire & Steel is one of those programmes, like The Prisoner, and Doctor Who, that made a lasting impression on the young (and not so young) minds that originally watched it. In 2004 the company Big Finish, best known for releasing original Doctor Who audio dramas, secured the rights to produce full-cast Sapphire & Steel plays, written by enthusiastic authors inspired by the TV series. McCallum and Lumley were asked to reprise their roles but declined, so the central roles were recast with the veteran actor playing Steel and Susannah Harker ably taking on the mantle of Sapphire. David Collings returned as Silver, and there was a new addition to the ranks of the time agents with Lisa Bowerman playing Ruby, an element who has an affinity with music. Unlike the TV series, the audio plays had to the kinds of things actors are asked to do. It’s Collings’ recollection is that although individual names, with evocative titles such not just shouting in the evenings.” another series was planned, in the as ‘Water Like a Stone’, ‘Cruel Immortality’ After four stories Hammond was temporarily end the two stars decided that they and ‘The Mystery of the Missing Hour’. The at a loss for ideas, so on the six-part Adventure didn’t want to continue. When ATV new writers pushed the story forwards, with Five, premiering in August 1981, writing duties lost its broadcasting franchise in all the new adventures taking place after the were split between Anthony Read and Don 1981, it seemed an appropriate time events of Adventure Six. Houghton, two experienced script writers who for the series to end. The last story After 13 stories, the audios ceased in had both worked on the BBC’s evergreen sci-fi was transmitted in August 1982 2008. Seven years later in 2015 – with series Doctor Who (1963-89, 2005- ). Presented in by Central Television, the new ITV Sapphire & Steel now 25 years old – the the trappings of a 1920s’ country house murder, network which replaced ATV. enduring power of the concept was highlighted Read and Houghton wrote alternating episodes, Adventure Six has both an ominous air of Above: when Neil Cross, the creator of the BBC detective Lumley and delighting in devising cliffhangers for the other finality and tantalising hints at more back story, McCallum as series Luther, announced that he was reviving to write his way out of. as for the first time Sapphire and Steel become Sapphire and the two investigators in a new series that would By now, critics had become accustomed hunted. Together with Silver, they are lured to Steel. Not that feature “ghost stories and monster stories” in we want to be to the series’ individual style. Peter Knight a remote motorway cafe cut off from the rest pedantic but the which “time is the villain.” Despite the suggestion praised the latest adventure at considerable of time and space. Most of the humans there introduction talks that a prominent UK broadcaster was interested about elements length in The Daily Telegraph: “If it were not from different time periods – a pair of lovers, and their atomic in financing the revival, and P.J. Hammond’s done with such style and conviction, with the an old man and a children’s entertainer, Jolly weights, but involvement, a rebooted Sapphire & Steel has (so sapphire is statuesque Joanna Lumley and the enigmatic Jack (a young and sinister Christopher Fairbank) a gemstone far) failed to appear. David McCallum holding everything together, – are really “Transient Beings” from the past, composed of Hammond himself remains proud of the show it would collapse like a pack of cards. Some of matching the investigators in strength and the mineral and has fond memories of the production team corundum, an the past series have been a little too clever for power, hunting Sapphire and Steel for unknown aluminum oxide, who worked so hard on his series over three their own good, taking themselves much too enemies. The story, and the series, ends with the and steel is an years. “Because Sapphire & Steel was regarded alloy of iron, seriously and often sinking without trace in their duo imprisoned in the cafe “forever”, looking out carbon and other as something of an innovation at the time of its own complexity. This time the correct balance from the window at a bleak starscape. elements. We’ll production, all those working on the show became seems to have been struck between the scientific With the series ending, the Daily Telegraph’s get our coat, er, I very involved. I suppose it made a change from all mean our anorak! mumbo-jumbo and the realism of the setting, Peter Knight was on hand to pay tribute: “The the social realism dramas that had been around even though the clock has been wound back 50 end of the current series will mark the end of one for so long. Actors and production crew alike years and has a disturbing habit of hiccupping of the cleverest, most intriguing little sorties into would often come up with ideas.” backwards and forwards from time to time.” television sci-fi we have seen for some time… “I think we were one of the last shows Usually (the stories) have had just enough hard where the visual effects were hand-made,” FINISHING ON A CLIFFHANGER logic behind them to support even the most O’Riordan adds. “If we had had the facility of The following August, it was announced in preposterous developments… Joanna Lumley digital enhancement or digital effects, I believe the press that Sapphire & Steel was coming is as stunning as ever while David McCallum Sapphire & Steel would have lost some of its to an end. Making the series was particularly looks suitably worried and determined at each penetration… The acting and the strength of problematic for McCallum as, during his last surprising eventuality.” thinking that went into the stories was heavier twelve months of working on the production, he During its run, the series’ fans could delight in than it is now with a computer-generated effect.” did the 6,000 mile round trip between America, typical 1970s TV spin-offs: a novelisation of the With that in mind, perhaps it’s best that – the where he lived, and Birmingham – where the first story, an annual (for 1981) and a well-drawn audio plays aside – Sapphire & Steel’s haunting series was recorded – 20 times. “‘It meant a lot comic strip in the “junior TV Times”, Look-In, tales of isolated places where extraordinary, of jet lag,” McCallum told the press, with some as well as a prestigious senior TV Times cover bizarre events occur remain mesmerising understatement. “But I was supervising the promoting the first series. video-era period pieces. building of my home in Long Island, New York. I The most bizarre item of merchandise As rewatching the six Adventures illustrates, wanted to be there as often as I could.” associated with Hammond’s sinister saga has the enigmatic ‘fantasy Pinter’ has a power, Joanna Lumley remembered that Adventure to be Lyons Maid’s Sapphire & Steel Ice Lolly, intensity and strangeness unlike anything seen Six was designed to finish on a cliffhanger, while featuring “Cool blue raspberry ice on a stainless on television today.

INFINITY 11 YOUR LETTERS AND EMAILS

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Dear Infinity, Dark Side that intrigued me so. After reading it, Great magazine, a real goldmine you only print I now know you are affiliated with of good stuff. I was prompted to letters of praise I The Dark Side (which I also get). write to you after reading Kevin thought I’d better All the issues were very Coward’s excellent article on The include a few interesting, although I’m not a Black Hole in issue 3. I am the mild criticisms, great fan of Dr Who and Star Trek, same age as Kevin and I also so here goes. I skimmed over these. I really went to see The Black Hole in There were a enjoyed the pulp science-fic- 1979, in the wake of the cultural couple of errors tion section, and overall a very earthquake that was Star Wars. in your article. Mr nice little magazine. I have Unlike Kevin, I must admit that Jinx, which you now organised with my local I was a little disappointed in the “I told you that eating credit to Brown, is newsagent to pick up the issues all that Weetabix film at the time. As Kevin said in would bind you up” a story by Robert from them, but I did miss out on his article, the film dragged a bit Arthur. More issue 2 which I have today ordered in the middle. The problem for me was that I thought glaringly you mis-remembered the from your website. it dragged at the beginning and the end as well. title of Brown’s magnum opus. It’s Before I go, just wanted to However, after reading of Kevin’s obvious enthusiasm Answer, not Question. A question that put it out there that I still can’t for the film, I decided to go back and take another arises for me is how an error of this understand why people insist look at it. You know what? It wasn’t as bad as I seem kind could originate since you quote on digital instead of good old to remember. Let’s face it, any film will fall short in the final sentence almost verbatim. magazine format. There truly is comparison to Star Wars, right? But if you view The Am I right in detecting the pernicious influence of nothing like holding a magazine / book in your hand. Black Hole as some sort of bonkers Hammer horror in Wikipedia or is this just my immense anti-internet KEEP ON GOING WITH THE PRINT FORMAT! space then it’s much more satisfying. bias coming out? Anne Nolan, All the way from Australia So thank you, Kevin, for prompting me to take As you can probably tell from the fact that I’m another look and rediscover this classic. By the way, writing this letter using pen and paper, I’m something As I have said to our readers many times before, Anne, sorry to hear about your incident with the evaporated of a dinosaur, a bit of a technophobe. You could call there will never come a time when we go just digital milk, but don’t get me started on how many me a TrogLuddite. But I do find these basic errors with either Dark Side or Infinity. I would rather close thousands of Weetabix I ate in order to collect a few worrying. They undermine one’s confidence in the the mags than do that, but we are doing better than free cardboard figures. other info. ever with both now, which I think is proof that if you Yours queasily, Mark Finlayson, Crawley, Sussex Of course an alternative explanation for your lapses produce a consistently good product at a reasonable could be the three bottles of vodka you consume price then people will buy it. Also, you can’t swat flies Kev thanks you for your kind comments, Mark. I too daily, as reported in Dark Side 185. with a rolled up iPad. wasn’t a big fan of The Black Hole when I first saw I don’t want to finish on a negative note and so I it, but I still bought the John Barry score and I was will return to the praise. I love Fred Brown so much Hi Allan, impressed by the film’s ‘haunted house in space’ vibe. ans he made me very covetous of Mrs Murphy’s After 45 summers of living on this earth, this is the Even then it struck me as odd that the Cygnus craft Underpants. Isn’t there a warning about that in the first time I’ve ever written a ‘fan’ correspondence was as spacious as Dracula’s castle. It can’t have been Old Testament. of any kind. I just felt compelled to write to you fuel efficient, surely? Unless it ran on evaporated milk. Nigel Taylor, Rickmansworth, Herts. to say how much I’m enjoying reading your new Infinity magazine. I purchased a couple of Dark Side Dear Allan, There is indeed such a warning, Nigel, it is in there magazines (which are very good by the way) and I’ve been meaning to congratulate you on Infinity for alongside the warning, ‘verily it is written that nobody through that I was introduced to your new Infinity some time, since issue 1 in fact, but what has finally loves a smartarse.’ Having said that, yes, the old grey mag. I have to say, I’m loving it. made me put pen to paper is your article on Fredric matter isn’t what it used to be and just remembering As an avid Trek fan I am particularly enjoying Brown, an author I have long regarded as one of the things off the top of my head doesn’t always work the articles on the original Star Trek series. I always greats. It says a good deal about your great taste and these days. In my defence, I do have ice in my vodka. loved watching the intrepid adventures of Kirk and judgement that you have put the spotlight on Fred so And a slice of lemon. Great to meet another Fred crew. I mean, The Next Generation was okay, but I early in Infinity’s run, when there were so many more Brown fan anyway, keep spreading the word and I will found Picard well… a bit boring really. He was always famous SF writers you could have covered - more keep an eye out for your ! a bit too serious for my liking. Now Kirk on the other famous but often inferior! hand, well what a cool dude (not sure it’s right for a I’ve been banging on about Fred Brown in the Hi Allan, bloke in his forties to say cool dude but bollocks to it, pages of The Paperback Fanatic for many years now, I wanted to let you know my thoughts on the first it just feels right). He just had this knack of cheating beginning with an article in 2011, but your piece issue of Infinity. I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I death, working out how to destroy the boss alien and will introduce many new readers to the great man. I saw a copy at my local newsagent and had to have yet still have time to kiss the bird covered in green enjoyed your amusing anecdote about trying to order it (and it was reasonably priced), as the front page paint - what a guy. So what if he sported a black curly a Fred Brown book from WH Smith in the far-off BC days - that’s Before Computers. “I’ll be back to I fondly remember that giant catalogue into give you laser surgery on the which the assistant would peer. It seemed to be full other eye later” of promise, a promise not always fulfilled, which is why the advent of Forbidden Planet with its shelves of imported US paperbacks brought such joy. Incidentally, issue 2 of my ‘zine, Worlds of Strangeness, to be published in Autumn of 2017, includes a story by Graham Andrews with the droll title of The Lights In The Sky Aren’t Stars. Just thought I’d mention that by way of a plug. Bearing in mind Barrie Wright’s complaint in The

12 INFINITY Name of feature CARPENTER’S CRAFT THE APOLL0 11 MOON THINGS AIN’TIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE LANDING - THE TRUTH?

ohn Carpenter is a legend. If youou were reading that statement in 1984, you wouldn’touldn’t be questioning it for a moment. At the time he was only 36 yearsars of age, but had already done enoughh to takee his place among the giantss of the moviemovie world.rld. In the past decadee alone he hadh directedirected a number of horrororror andd sciencessci ce fi ction classics: Darkark Star,r, ,HalloweeH ween, The Fog, Thehe Thing, Starmantarman, notnot to mentionm thee iiconic thriller Assaultult oonn PrecinctPre 13. Youou couldld mentionmmentention him inn thet e samesam breathath ass StevenS ven SpielbergS g andand StanleyStanleSt ley Kubrickick withoutw out provokingprovokinngg a fi ghtg t amongstam a nearbyarby crowdcrowd of fi lmm geeks.g ks. ForF r hereh was a young manan with a solidd CVCV of classicsclac assics under hish belt, somee hits, somee near-misses,near-n ar-misses, but as yety t non 1941-stylestyle disasters.disasterters.s. Here,HereH we woulduld agree,agree, wasas a man withwithh a brightbrib future. So, likee a wwaiwaiteraiter oonce famouslysly saisaidd to Georgeeorge Best,Beest,, wherew ere didd it alla goo wrong?wro g? Becauseecausee herehere wewe are ini 20172017 and wew canan all agreeagreee thattthat John CarpenterCar enter didn’tdidn’t manageanage too livel e up tot all that earlyearly promise.promise. whichwh hasas seen them systematically destroyingd FilmFilms of John Carpenter,r, DaDarkk Starar “failed“faileailed as Above: Jamie Lee Curtis AT THE HEIGHT OF THE US/USSR SPACE-RACE, HENRY KISSINGER Now nearlyarly seventy,seventty, hehe was obviouslyobv usly notnot the “unstable”“u le” planets unsuitable for colonisation.colo a calcalling card, the averageage mmoviegoerviegoerer hahad not braves a right pea second comingg ass hadh beenb predicted inn some The captaintain having been killed during an really understood or likeded DarkD Star veryery much.”mu souper in The Fog SECRETLY FLEW TO LONDON TO MEET WITH STANLEY KUBRICK, quarters. He wasn’tasn’t evene the fi rst M. Night accidentac t in hyperdrive, the remaining crew are at Neitherither CCarpenterarpenter orr O’BOO’Bannon madee muchmuc Inserts: THEN DIRECTING 2001 - A SPACE ODYSSEY As the man behind Shyamalan, becausecaus he didn’t manage too make a lowlo ebbb and the ship is in a state ofo disrepair. moneyy frofromm it either,, ttheyy wwere ppaidd $5,000 A sniper takes a signifi cant comebackmeba after making too manyany A cultc favouriteourite today, Dark StarSt sufferedered aas apiecece fofor severaleveral yearyearsars off wwowork, andd CarpenCarpenterenter aim in Assault On Precinct 13 Halloween, The Fog, mediocreediocrere moviemmovies. a result ofo creative tensions betweenen CarpenterCarpen wass forcforcedd to resortt tto writingwriritin to make hiss living,living and Michael CarpenCarpenterenter has doned ggood fi lms sincee the andand co-writer DanD O’Bannon (who alsoso playspl veryery mmuchh a secondsecond-best-bestest oopoption from Myers realises 1980s,0s, butut hish outpoutputput hahas been erratic, too say Sgt. Pinbackback ini the fi lmm and who laterl wrote his viewpoint. Joan Crawford is Escape From New not going to be KISSINGER, HAVING SEEN FOR HIMSELF THE INCREDIBLE SETS the least.east.. TheTh qualitqualityty of hhis movies has beenen up 1979’s Alien. A studentt fi lm mmadee over a lonlong He was not unproductivedu ve dduringg thiss ttime, very happy in and downownn liklike a fi ddlerddler’ser’s elelbow. That said, ass with period of time, it was turneded into a rather however,wever producing a scriptript whichh wouldw ld llater Halloween FOR THE MOONBASE SEQUENCES, ASKED KUBRICK TO ASSIST York and The Thing, the mostst famofamousamous J.C (al(alsolso a ccarpenter),), legionlegions uneven full-length featurere with cash frofrom movie become the FFaye Dunawayaway boxx offi cee hith Thee EyesE of fans stilltill awaitait a spectasspectacularacular ccomebackeback from entrepreneurren Jack H. Harris.is. HHowever, many of Laura MaMars and writingriting thee babasiss fofor whawhatt would HIM WITH ‘FAKING’ THE APOLLO 11 MOON LANDING John Carpenter was their hhero.. Couldd it hhappen?? DDon’t eexpectect any ppeoplee (not all of them stoned at the ttime) later becbecome Escapeape Fromm New York.YYorkrk. propheprophecies fromromm me. enjoyed sscenes likee the nevnever-ending fi ght In 11979, hee directedd a TV fi lmm bbased onon the life undeniably one of But enenoughh generalitgeneralities.eralities. Let’ss beginb at tthe between Pinback anand a beach ball-like alien.. The of thee thenen rerecently deceadeceasedeceasedd EElvis PrePresley.resley. When beginning. AAnd itt all begangan iin space… fi lm also showed CCarpenter’s talent for getting it comess tot Elvis fi lms,ms, tthereere haveh bbeenen more than the major directing greatt resultsre on a vvery low budget. onee forf the money,ey, withw h ValV KilmKilmer, Jonathanhan RRhys A (DARK) STAR ISIS BORN At the time, Dark StStar failed commerciallcommercially.ially. Meyers andd MicMichaell ShannonSh amamong the actors talents of the 70s Fourr losers in spacespace. The conceptt was later the AAs John Kennethth Muir writes iin his book The playingg “the KKing”.g”. ButB CarCarpenter would have premisee for the UK sitcositcom Red Dwarf butut in causese tot rememrememberember the sstar of Elvis: it was his fi rst and 80s. Chris 1974 it formeded the basis for twenty-somethingt collaborationation with KurtK Russell, until then best John Carpenter’ster’s $60,000 featurefea debut, which known foror his workw with Disney. Hallam takes a look coincidentally youu can read morem detail on By 1979, Carpenter was himself a star. This elsewhere in this issue. was partly a result of his action thriller Assault back and wonders, Like the Dwarfers, the four-man on Precinct 13 (1976). Following the release of crew of Dark Star have been driven Dark Star (1974), Carpenter was approached slightly out of their minds by by a group of investors who gave him carte where did it all the loneliness of deep space. blanche to make whatever kind of picture They are twenty years into he wanted, albeit with a very limited go wrong? an emotionally unrewarding budget. Although he wanted to make

Illustration: Rick Melton - www.stunninglysavage.com Illustration: mission a , he knew he wouldn’t have the resources to make a period piece. He wrote Assault on Precinct 13 as a highly stylised, modern-day western, KISSINGER EXPLAINED THAT, NASA DID NOT HAVE THE TIME OR essentially remaking Rio Bravo (1959), which was directed by Carpenter’s hero, FINANCIAL RESOURCES TO GET A MAN ON THE MOON BEFORE . Carpenter acknowledged this debt to Hawks and Rio Bravo by using THE RUSSIANS, AND THIS WAS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE OPTION the pseudonym of ‘John T. Chance’ for his FOR PRESIDENT KENNEDY fi lm editor’s credit, which was the name of John Wayne’s character in Rio Bravo. Assault on Precinct 13 was a bigger hit in Britain than it was in America, largely because

62 INFINITY INFINITY 63 hair toupee in TJ Hooker? The bloke’s still a hero in her autograph and had my photo taken with her. There my eyes. is an event at the NEC in Birmingham every March I’ve just read issue 3, there is so much stuff I loved and November. They have some really great guests. about it, Space 1999, John Carpenter, The Man from It is now called ComicCon which is mostly Manga and U.N.C.L.E, the list goes on. anime stuff. One thing I was thinking of, was maybe including Last November, Collectormania was held at the KUBRICK ACCEPTED. HOWEVER, BEING A PERFECTIONIST AND ENSURING 100% ACCURACY IN THE PROJECT, HE… a piece on the golden age of the video shop, perhaps NEC for the first time and my brother and I attended. focusing on cult sci-fi/video nasties? I think that I got John Barrowman’s autograph, he of Torchwood, …INSISTED THAT IT BE SHOT ON LOCATION! nothing will ever beat the feeling of trawling through Arrow etc. I have met Colin Baker in the past as well a video shop looking for the next cult classic to watch as Katy Manning and one or two other Doctor Who (although I do like my Netflix subscription haha). As companions. a kid growing up in the eighties, I vividly remember Will your issues continue doing episode guides? I going round my mates house and watching The Thing hope so. It would be great if you could do articles on on his parents’ betamax. And there was always a Irwin Allen and his shows. Of course you have already cocky kid at school who managed to get his hands on done Land of the Giants. It would be great if you could the latest pirate videos. The picture quality was crap do articles on Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea, The but no one seemed to care. Terminator, now there is Time Tunnel, Lost In Space and of course other Gerry another good film to cover in your mag. Anderson shows such as UFO, , Captain Nick Mandis, by email Scarlet and Stingray. I am happy that a magazine like Infinity is finally on Don’t be ashamed of calling Bill Shatner a cool dude sale. Keep up the good work. I used to get Dreamwatch mag. However, we put Salem’s Lot on the cover of The Nick, I’ve heard him singing ‘Rocket Man’ and ‘Bohemian magazine (remember that?) and was sad when it Dark Side and Tobe Hooper died, so watch this space. Rhapsody’ and there is nobody cooler. It’s singing, Nick, finished, and it is nice to have you take its place. The candids of Lady Penelope are in the post and we but not as we know it. We are indeed planning a video Paul Craig, are waiting for Alexandra to return our call, but, for shop feature but that will be in The Dark Side, a cunning now, you can make do with this cracking image of her! way to make sure you buy both mags! Plenty of great suggestions there, Paul, and you can be sure that and Irwin Allen shows will Dear Infinity, feature heavily in future editions, starting with our Congratulations on a great magazine. I love the great Captain Scarlet coverage in this very issue. Are mix of articles that you have, including the TV and we good to you or what? films of the 50s and 60s etc, also including shots of merchandise. It brings back memories of my youth, Dear Allan, especially the Gerry Anderson article as I was into Loving Infinity. I’m 51 years young but I feel like I Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet etc. I still have a photo used to waiting for your mag when I was 14 waiting for of myself wearing a Captain Scarlet outfit. There are my Titan comic. The covers are great. Noticed you put not many magazines that deal with past Martin Landau on your cover and he died. Can sci-fi programmes and films. I have you please put George Osborne and Piers got Infinity 3 and again a great Morgan on your next cover? Could issue, especially the Adam you do an article on Alexandra West interview even though Bastedo (The Champions) or it was done 30 years ago. at least run a picture of her, Also the Space 1999 The new series of she’s the sexiest female in article. It was sad that Strictly gets off to sci-fi - after Lady Penelope a shaky start… Martin Landau died a of course. Great mag. few days before the Alf Cage (51 1⁄2), magazine came out. I Mossley, Manchester met Catherine Schell who played Maya at You’re a bad lad Alf, we a memorabilia event can’t put Piers and George in Birmingham in on the cover of Infinity, November 2009. I got because we are not a horror

INFINITY 13 A STUDY IN SCARLET

First aired in 1967, Captain Scarlet and has a huge . Roger Crow AT talks to puppeteer Mary Turner (right), and ’s daughter Dee about the most grown-up of all the TV shows…

14 INFINITY

NameROGER of CROW feature

Left: Dee Anderson, daughter of Sylvia. Now Captain Scarlet is 50, Dee thinks it will attract a whole new generation of fans. “There is nothing like this on TV at the moment,” she says…

it to the body, the craftspeople could craft smaller was different because the weight of the solenoid heads and more realistic characters. was moved down into the chest, making the heads much lighter. The movements had to be more subtle MODEL MAESTRO too, and it was very important that the costumes One of the maestros behind those characters is did not bind the neck.” Mary Turner, who literally created Scarlet. She Making a puppet series with state-of-the-art helped control him and other ’actors’ from a gantry characters and effects must have been far different or ’bridge’ overlooking the set. to most shows. Mary remembers a typical working It was great to be able to have a chat with Mary, day for her “would be to arrive well before the wouldn’t like to meet him who’d worked on Anderson productions since starting time of 8.30 to have everything ready for down a dark alley”. It’s a 1958, honing her skills on Thunderbirds’ Lady when the directors expected to be able to start phrase that suits TV legend Penelope and Brains. For starters I wondered if Paul setting up their first shot. Captain Scarlet to a tee - for Metcalfe’s more famous alter ego was a favourite “There may be requests for extra puppets, which the countless villains he faced. Spectrum’s most puppet, or if she preferred a lesser character? I would have to chase up, and I would make sure dashing agent, forever cool under pressure, with “Captain Scarlet was my favourite character everything was being prepared for what was coming ’s charm (and a not dissimilar voice, from the series – mainly because I modelled him I next during the day. Everyone needed a break by care of ), was always the guy you expect, but I was quite fond of Captain Blue as well,” lunch time as it was quite concentrated work. Six wanted on your side in the 1960s. she explains. O’clock we finished and then went to the viewing Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, now Asked about her happiest memories of working theatre to see what had been filmed the day before, celebrating its 50th Anniversary (having been first on the show, she says: “By the time we got to the hopefully with no retakes needed – no digital broadcast on 29th September, 1967), opens on Captain Scarlet series with all the main characters cameras then!” Mars in 2068. A few minutes in, it sees one Earth made, and filming having started, I was supervising

team’s fateful destruction of a base. Even and making sure the puppets were on the right As with just about now the thought of manned vehicles exploring the set on time, and ready for action rather than every other Gerry Anderson TV show, red planet in 50 years’ time seems feasible, but if manipulating the puppets from the ‘bridge’. The Captain Scarlet the first explorers do find life, let’s hope they don’t happy moments were when filming was going well, inspired some shoot first and ask questions later. no strings breaking and all puppets working.” great collectable merchandise! Most know how that turned out for series There were so many incredible scenes, but Mary antagonist Captain Black. Yes, a lifetime as a pawn says: “I am afraid it is too long ago to remember for vengeful , the Mysterons. and I have not viewed them much since. What I In case you hadn’t gathered by that chilling intro enjoyed was helping to set up the crowd scenes of an offscreen gunman trying to kill the eponymous as they were quite a challenge. Controls and wires Spectrum agent, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were had to be workable round the ‘bridge’ above and setting their stall out early. Darker and edgier puppeteers stretched to their limits.” than previous shows, this was Thunderbirds’ more The Captain Scarlet puppets are more in human anatomically correct big brother. proportion than Thunderbirds. Mary remembers In previous Anderson series, a solenoid which that: “Because the Scarlet heads were so small, they operated the mouth in time with recorded dialogue were much more difficult to work than our previous was located in the large puppet head. By moving series with the larger heads, and the feel of them

16 INFINITY THE TERRIFIC TRIO! Dinky Toys was the brand name for die-cast miniature vehicles produced by Meccano Ltd. They were made in England from 1934 to 1979, at a factory in Binns Road in and were among the most popular diecast vehicles ever made. Now they are extremely collectable and we are grateful to PR legend Richard Leon for letting us showcase some of his enviable Captain Scarlet Dinky Toy collection. He wouldn’t let us come round his house and play with them though!

I was hooked on every episode as a five for Captain Scarlet, we, the puppeteers, were year old, (and still am, 44 years on). In Mary’s upset that they had to be made to human opinion, the show was a bit too dark for kids proportions as we thought it would not be easy under five at the time. “But nowadays they to portray their characters. Looking back, I look at anything and everything,” she explains. think they were right for the stories they had “TV is like wallpaper.” to portray, so I personally would not want to Back in 1967 things were a lot different change anything.” and Mary didn’t realise that she was helping make TV history. “At that time, TV programmes A SLOW PROCESS came and went and were forgotten – stored Gerry Anderson’s idea for Captain Scarlet away,” she explains. “New things were coming didn’t arrive fully formed. After Thunderbirds on all the time. There were no . It never was cancelled in the summer of 1966, backer crossed our minds we would see any of the Lew Grade wanted a new series. puppet series again. I have been amazed at the A slow process during pre-production popularity of them on coming back as there is led from Scarlet’s creation to the rest of the so much else around now.” colour-themed agents. Put all the Spectrum Finally, I asked her if she was making the hues together and you have arch villain characters on Captain Scarlet now, what one Captain Black. thing would she change? Inevitably was chosen to score Her answer was refreshing. “At the time the series after the success of his work on when we were asked to make the puppets Thunderbirds. Using an orchestra on a kids’ show was unheard of, let alone a maestro who conducted in his vest. But he and his fellow musicians conjured up the mood with assured skill. And when it came to special effects, nobody did it better than in his pre-Bond, and (1989) days. The fact movie guru Stanley Kubrick had wanted Gerry’s effects crew for 2001: A Space Odyssey says it all. Derek was tasked with designing the SPV, and the Angel Interceptors. As he thought other vehicles in the show would be “less important”, he left them to colleague , who really “went to town”, designing props such as the Spectrum patrol car, Spectrum Maximum Security Vehicle, Helijet and Spectrum Passenger Jet.

INFINITY 17 involved always wanted to do better than the preceding shows. It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle: without one of the pieces it would not work. “It’s because of the care from the effects department, sound effects, puppet workshops and of course Barry Gray, that the show is timeless and certainly will stand up against today’s television.” Finally, Sylvia Anderson referred to Derek Meddings as “a genius” and his work on Scarlet underlines the fact. What are her thoughts on his work with Spectrum and company? “Derek and the rest of his amazing crew would try anything,” she says. “No effect shot was impossible for them. With the more lifelike puppets from Scarlet onwards “the effects had to a more “real” feel to the show. I think we can say Derek and his team succeeded in this task. SIG.”

AN ALIEN CONCEPT These days, with DVD box sets available to any that made Scarlet stand out from the crowd. in the puppet workshop a few times, sanding heads, collector, it’s easy enough to binge watch entire While the Spectrum ground agents were of all things!” series in a day. predominantly male, in the air was a formidable Her own favourite episode is Seek and Destroy, However, in the 1960s, the thought of repeats was female force. The Angels added sex appeal in their “with Scarlet, Blue and under attack at the an alien concept to Gerry. He thought once a series Interceptor fighter planes, and obviously Sylvia roadside following the destruction of their SPV by had been shown it would be “locked in a vault”, Anderson was key in ensuring the show didn’t get the Mysterons. Of course it all works out in the end.” never suspecting it would have the longevity it too macho in an era when feisty TV heroines were Dee’s mum had such a powerful influence on achieved in the decades that followed. few and far between. Captain Scarlet. I wondered if there was an episode And when the format was revamped for a series I imagine if there was one thing better than for her which stood out as pure Sylvia Anderson, in the noughties, I’d hoped a new generation would watching Captain Scarlet on TV as a kid, it must whether through the look or the attitude. warm to Spectrum’s adventures. have been growing up with a mum who was one of “Sylvia’s influences show in all the episodes,” I had a phone chat with Gerry a few years before the most glamorous creative forces on the series - she replies, “but maybe , (featuring) the he died (he passed away in December 2012, Ed). Sylvia Anderson. fashion show with the Angels as models.” He was unhappy with the way the revamped CG I had a chat with her daughter Dee Anderson The Angels were pretty empowering for a Captain Scarlet had been aired. He’d expected it to about the show, her memories and thoughts on generation of girls, and Dee says: “As my mother be a prime time event instead of being sandwiched Spectrum’s longevity. Sylvia created them all, I was definitely inspired by around Holly Willoughby’s early days on Saturday her. I was always encouraged to take on challenges, morning TV. SYLVIA’S DAUGHTER SAID… and take risks as a female, and not to let that stand Given Peter Jackson’s passion for all things Captain Scarlet was the first series I fell in love with, in the way of my achieving anything at all. Similar Gerry Anderson, let’s hope he’ll work his magic on and I began by asking Dee why she thinks it is still to the Angels.” a revamped version of Scarlet for a 21st-century so popular 50 years on? Now Captain Scarlet is 50, Dee thinks it will audience one day. Or rather a Century 21 audience. “It’s because it appeals to everyone,” she explains. attract a whole new generation of fans. “There is Happy 50th Captain Scarlet. It seems you “It certainly inspired a few female pilots to take up nothing like this on TV at the moment. I’m sure if a genuinely are indestructible. flying, either in the military or passenger jets.” channel were to pick up the show that they would Her own early memories of the show come from have a big hit on their hands, just like in the previous *With thanks to Mary Turner, Dee Anderson, the initial development stage “where Gerry and showing on BBC2 in the nineties.” ITV Studios Global Entertainment (for all Captain Sylvia would sit on the sofa at our home bouncing According to Dee, the show still stands up so well Scarlet stills), and Richard Leon PR for help with ideas around. I did help the wonderful Mary Turner technically “because all the various departments this article. WIN A FULL SPECTRUM OF CAPTAIN SCARLET GOODIES!

ere’s a fantastic prize that will appeal to all Captain Scarlet fans. Thanks to the 1. The Vault, by Chris Bentley: The definitive story of the television classic. Hgenerosity of ITV Studios Global Entertainment we have these FAB goodies to 2. Captain Scarlet: The Complete Collection: All 32 episodes and extras. give away to one lucky reader, and in addition we will be sending copies of Captain 3. 9” Collectors’ Figurines: Hand-painted figurines of your favourite characters, including Captain Black, Captain Ochre and Symphony Angel. Scarlet: The Complete Collection to two runners up. 4. Captain Scarlet Board Game: A rerelease of the 1967 original. All we want to know is who voiced Captain Scarlet? You can send us your answer 5. 50th Anniversary Audio Box Set: Audio shows and a great documentary. via post to 29 Cheyham Way, South Cheam, Surrey SM2 7HX or via e-mail to editor@the darksidemagazine.com. The comp closes 12th November so don’t delay!

18 INFINITY

THE MAGAZINE OF THE MACABRE AND FANTASTIC! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF

MAGAZINE!BESTWORLD’S SELLING PRINT HORRORTHE

Issue 187 £3.99 OFFICIAL!!!

f you enjoyed this issue of Ininity and are not of a weak or nervous disposition we MISTRESS OF Irecommend you pick up a copy of our sister THE DARK magazine, The Dark Side, which is guaranteed to EMMA TALKS scare you to death* (*or your life refunded, terms and conditions apply, not eligible). Rick Melton’s stunning cover painting of as the evil witch in Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (1960) ushers in one of our most spellbinding issues to date, with a whole host of fascinating features from the weird world of the macabre and fantastic. Bava was one of Italian cinema’s master visual stylists, and his movie has long been thought of as one of the inspirations for Ridley Scott’s Alien. KONGA We take a look back at his eventful career and VS GORGO single out his scariest movies in our deinitive MONSTER FIGHT OF THE CENTURY! cover feature, which is packed with amazing stills from the Dark Side archives! Also in this issue you’ll ind interviews with up and coming British scream queen Emma Dark and Night of the Living Dead’s Barbra, actress Judith O’Dea. And if you enjoy a good punch up then we can offer you a ringside seat for the titanic tussle between Gorgo and Konga, REMEMBERING which did more than Brexit to harm property GEORGE values in London. If you are a fan of the video ROMERO JUDITH O’DEA WITCH nasty era then you are deinitely going to want INTERVIEWED DAWN OF THE to read John Martin’s article on Suffer Little DARKFEST Children, a movie about possessed kids in New WILL YOU BE THERE? REPORT Malden that fell foul of the BBFC in a big way just as the Video Recordings Act was coming FALL UNDER THE into force. The story behind it is certainly much more fascinating than the movie itself, but at SPELL OF MARIO BAVA - least its makers didn’t suffer the kind of curse OF PLUS: that has aflicted some of the most famous ITALIAN HORROR horror ilms ever made - we look at the strange HP LOVECRAFT, SUFFER LITTLE events that brought tragedy to the making of the likes of Poltergeist, The Exorcist, The Omen and DEATH ON CHILDREN, HAMMER HORROR BOOK, Twilight Zone - The Movie. There’s a lot more of THE SET CURSED MOVIES REVIEWS, NEWS AND MUCH MORE! course, but we will leave you to discover that for yourself - if you dare. That’s Dark Side 187, in shops right now. Accept no substitute.

Calum Waddell Sybil Danning THE DARK SIDE PROUDLY PRESENTS: A RICHARD HOLLISS PRODUCTION Howard Hughes Mario Bava

irector, cinematographer and special effects THE GREATEST MONSTERS OF THE 60s virtuoso Mario Bava was one of Italian cinema’s great visual stylists and a craftsman of the highest order. He remains a great favourite MISTRESS OF THE among clued-in Dark Side readers who realise that his groundbreaking work paved the way for the likes of and Bill Mac chats to award-winning (as well as one very lucrative US horror lick Dfranchise). ilmmaker, actress and model Dubbed “The Maestro of the Macabre” by those in the know, Bava’s gorgeously grotesque horror ilms were Emma Dark, star and director a cosy, creepy treat back in the days when ilms were largely shot on studio sets. The Mask of Satan/Black Sunday (1960) is still of Seize he Night and one of the most atmospheric horror ilms ever made, and (1964) sears the eyeballs with its amazing colour Salient Minus Ten… palette - and hotcha cast of sizzling fashion models. It started the slasher craze, but Mario didn’t boast about that. This image: Kill, Baby…Kill! (1966), Danger Diabolik (1968) and A Bay of n the early 1960s, interest in Gothic horror ilms had demolishing the greenhouse in which the sinister botanist is forcing Barbara Blood/Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), the latter an obvious DARK Steele’s evil superseded the science iction monster movies of the his attentions on his buxom lady friend, Konga does very little apart inspiration for the Friday the 13th series, have also come to be HEAD witch Asa previous decade. Yet the genre that had spawned a from rolling his eyes at some trigger-happy soldiers in the shadow Vajda has the revered as cult classics, but Bava never really hit the big time in multitude of prehistoric creatures (The From of Big Ben. Mask of Satan his own lifetime. He was a hard-working ilmmaker who went to 20,000 Fathoms, Godzilla, Behemoth The Sea Monster), Konga was the brainchild of American B-movie producer Herman hammered his grave little realising that one day he would become legendary TO on to her radioactive mutations (Them, The Beginning of the End), Cohen, who co-wrote the screenplay with Aben kandel (Horrors face before for his triumphs over shoestring budgets and his colourful, talented, yet modest and very approachable project after doing such a fantastic job of scoring of my and huge creepy crawlies (Tarantula, The Black Scorpion) was of the Black Museum, Black Zoo). Cohen was a showman, whose being burned imaginative approach. person, Emma Dark irst came to notice in previous short ilm, Seize the Night. His music attracted an about to end with more of a bang than a whimper, thanks to a giant previous ilms included two teenage science iction movies, I Was as a witch in Mario Bava’s 2010 as a glamorous model with an Goth look. incredible amount of compliments when the ilm was it’s HEAD gorilla named Konga, and an enormous dinosaur called Gorgo. a Teenage and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957). Black Sunday DAWN OF ITALIAN CINEMA Then in 2012 she joined the Indie/synth band primary festival run, and I have to say his score for Salient Both were low-budget stories of disaffected youths swapping (1960). The Mario Bava was born on 31 July 1914 in the town of San Remo, X-kiN as their female vocalist and featured in Minus Ten is nothing less than stunning. oth ilms were funded by American money and both were an embarrassing outbreak of acne for a terrible and monstrous inset shot on the Italian Riviera’s Mediterranean coast. He was the son of opposite several of their videos. I wanted a retro synth score, which admittedly is something released within a few months of each other in 1961 ( Konga disigurement. But these daft movies were extremely popular shows Bava Eugenio Bava, the father of Italian special effects. Mario trained In 2013 she appeared in the Kim Wilde that’s become more popular these days. Eric surpassed all Bin April and Gorgo in November). Extensive ad campaigns, among groups of leather-jacketed teenagers at the local drive-ins. clowning with to be a painter, but ended up following his father into the ilm horror-themed music video, Every Time I See of my already high expectations and I really think his score and shameless ballyhoo guaranteed strong box ofice receipts business, working initially at ’s ilm academy, the Istituto A You, as a sultry vampire and this whetted is going to blow a lot of other stuff well and truly out of the for UK distributors Anglo Amalgamated and British Lion, as well CHEESY APE SUIT on the set of Luce, where in the 1930s he found himself creating opening Black Sabbath Emma’s appetite for making movies of her water. He’s genuinely captured an authentic retro essence. as Associated British Cinemas (ABC). And, unlike some of their So it was on the strength of their combined success, that Cohen (1963) credits for imported American ilms. own. And so it was that she teamed up with genre fan Merlyn Davy Simmons was back on VFX after providing some monstrous 1950s predecessors (The Beast of Hollow Mountain, The announced a third ilm in the series entitled I Was a Teenage Gorilla. In 1939 Bava became an assistant cameraman to the cinema- Roberts to make and star in a horror short, Island Of The Blind explosive effects for Seize the Night, again which garnered Giant Claw, or ), whose ilms are long forgotten, This was soon changed to Konga, after the producer paid RKO tographer Massimo Terzano, and worked on ilms directed by Dead, an homage to classic 70’s horrors. This led to Seize The a lot of attention, and Mike Peel provided the SFX makeup. the legacy of the over-sized ape and the city-stomping dinosaur Radio Pictures, the studio responsible for King Kong, $25,000 the great and Roberto De Robertis. Bava’s Night, her inest work so far. Mike is an SFX pro, having worked on ilms the likes of The lived on, thanks to two long-running series. to re-use the Eighth Wonder of the World’s moniker in the new camerawork was an instrumental factor in developing the screen In this acclaimed horror short, which she wrote, starred Descent (2005), and Harry Potter and the Order of the In Konga, a small, loveable chimpanzee grows overnight into a ilm’s publicity campaign. ‘Not since King Kong has the screen personas of such stars of the period as , Steve in, directed and produced, we saw Emma as Eva, a vampire Phoenix (2007). giant gorilla, which is then sent on a murderous spree through the thundered to such mighty excitement!’ was the exciting tagline Reeves and . assassin forced to work for a top secret agency. After Finally, I brought Chris Collier on board as sound designer. darkened suburbs of South London by mad scientist Dr. Dekker. above American artist Reynold Brown’s poster design. Depicting As the Italian ilm industry got back on its feet following the escaping, she is hunted down and has to ight various I wanted the sound design to have a very prominent place in In the ilm’s colourful climax, an overdose of the doctor’s a ferocious-looking giant ape towering over the London skyline devastation of the war years it gained international recognition vampires and werewolves. The ilm won numerous awards the ilm and really sit alongside the visual and score and be experimental growth serum clutching a scantily clad young for Neorealism, a national ilm movement characterised by and deserves to be a feature/series. You can still ind it online noticed as an artistic element rather than something that just transforms Konga into a woman in his monstrous paw, stories set amongst the poor and the working class. But Bava This page: and I urge you to check it out. ‘is’. Chris did an absolutely amazing job, his sound design just 30-metre-high monster. Brown’s artwork portrayed a far wasn’t interested in ilming grainy ‘everyday life.’ In an interview FOR Claire Gordon Emma followed this up by appearing in the funny horror really brings everything together and adds so much. Again, Gorgo on the other hand is has a tough more dynamic looking gorilla, Howard Hughes published in 1979, he noted: “To me, shooting a ilm means tricks, short Frankula, alongside Hammer stars Caroline Munro and like the rest of the cast and crew, Chris is a true professional ONE MAG already a colossal 20 metres choice to than the cheesy ape suit with its discusses the movie inventions, magic. When I think about Neorealism, I can’t help but Judy Matheson and Please Sir’s David Barry (better known to and really easy to get along with. I brought back more Seize tall when he is captured by two make, should rictus grin that appeared in the laugh: that wasn’t much of an effort, was it? You just have to walk ONLY! she go with fans of the show as Frankie Abbott). the Night alumni in other crew roles too. unscrupulous businessmen and tall, dark and actual movie. career of the legendary along a street and shoot!” Multi-talented Emma also writes regular articles for Digital sold as a zoo exhibit to Dorkin’s hairy Konga Yet, contrary to the Mario Bava, a Jack-of- Bava was more interested in creating fantastic imagery and Filmmaker magazine where her Ask The Filmmaker column Did all go as planned when making your film? Circus in Battersea Park. The (this image) advertising tagline, the screen one area in which he excelled was in his (often uncredited)work or (below) all-trades in the Italian is a popular helpline for budding ilmmakers. She is deinitely Does anything ever (laughs)? In terms of keeping to my vision problem is, Gorgo is just an lecherous didn’t thunder to any kind of on the popular ‘peplum’ (costume) epics ilmed in in the going places, so we decided to grab an interview before she it certainly did. In terms of the time it took to make it deviated infant and halfway through the ? Kong-style excitement, because ilm industry, who 1950s and 1960s. gets too famous to talk to us! a reasonable amount. I originally shot some scenes with a movie, his 76 metre-long mother A tough call most of the budget was spent indeed… different lead actor, but things were not really working out comes to , decimating on an overly chatty subplot was a cinematog- TECHNICIAN, MAGICIAN Hi Emma can you tell us about your latest film? and it would have been a mistake to have continued down half of London in the process. about Dr. Dekker (Michael rapher and special As a friendly, reliable Jack-of-all-trades, Bava was often called Yes, it’s called Salient Minus Ten and is a 12.5 minute sci-i/ that path, for the actor’s sake and for the sake of the ilm. THIS IS THE BIG ONE! THE MIGHTY BEAST! Mama Gorgo’s destruction Gough) and his infatuation with in to ‘save’ ilms when there were production problems. Proliic horror starring the amazing Alan Austen (Star Wars, Indiana It’s safe to say that things don’t always work, and I think it’s of the metropolis was akin to big-bosomed blonde-haired effects designer Italian director became something of a mentor to Jones) as the protagonist, with a secondary lead role for better to hold your hands up and learn from your mistakes the devastation caused by the student, Sandra (Claire Gordon). as well as writer, him, and when they worked together on (1957), which myself as the antagonist, plus very strong supporting rather than trying to push on regardless. original King Kong’s rampage It’s not until the inal reel that was Italy’s irst ever sound horror ilm (Mussolini having put the performances from actors Chris Hampshire, Beric Read and I can only blame myself for miscasting, it happens in through New York City in 1933. the ilm attempts to live up the director, and producer block on the genre). Samantha Oci. It’s set in the present, although it has a retro Hollywood, it also happens in the indie world, whether people Whereas, apart from smashing hype generated in the publicity, of some of Italy’s most Bava was originally hired as the cinematographer, but when ‘near future’ sci-i vibe. care to admit it or not. It doesn’t make anyone feel good, but through the roof of Dekker’s when Dekker’s jealous Freda walked out on the project midway through production, It’s very much a cerebral ‘last man standing’ style ilm with rather than ploughing on it’s better to stop and take stock of suburban domicile, and assistant, Margaret, famous genre movies Bava completed the ilm in several days, even creating the a surrealist dreamlike quality. I wanted to make something everything. Essentially pressing the reset button seemed the innovative special effects that were needed. Freda did a similar very beautiful and was super lucky to have Philip Bloom better option, though it was also an incredibly dificult disappearing act on Caltiki – The Immortal Monster (1959), and onboard as cinematographer. Philip is a household name in one as well. Contrary to the advertising tagline, the screen didn’t Bava once more took the reins. the realm of independent ilmmaking and is highly respected This ultimately added a number of months to the shooting In 1961, two monsters unleashed their on bewildered cinema audiences. One was a thunder to any kind of Kong-style excitement, because By 1960 Bava had earned his irst solo director’s credit, and as a world leader in DSLR cinematography. He actually schedule and diminished the budget. On the positive side of Promo chose to make The Mask of Satan/Black Sunday (1960), a period worked for on the ilm Red Tails (2012). So things I believe I really did, ultimately, ind the most itting photograph giant ape called Konga, and the other was an enormous dinosaur called Gorgo. most of the budget was spent on an overly chatty subplot horror ilm that mixed witchcraft and vampires, giving British that’s two people in my cast and crew that have worked for actor for the role in Alan, who replaced the previous by Victor actress Barbara Steele one of her most iconic roles. Kerzwell Richard Holliss takes an affectionate look back at these screen giants… about Dr. Dekker (Michael Gough) and his infatuation with George - Philip and Alan. I was also so pleased that US-based actor. And we would not have had Philip, Mike or Chris Over the next 20 years, from 1960 to his death in 1980, Mario composer Eric Elick was able to come onboard the new working on the project otherwise. big-bosomed blonde-haired student, Sandra (Claire Gordon) Bava directed ilms in many genres – from sci-i spectaculars to

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thedarksidemagazine.com and on our Facebook page Dark Side MagazineINFINITY 19 This image: Apes always look great on horseback. Mark Lenard is the hostile gorilla Urko Opposite: The stars of the 1974 CBS TV series: Ron Harper, Roddy McDowall and James Naughton

Images supplied by Mark Rogers

If you thought the recent War for the Planet of the Apes was rough, check out the monkey business Planet of the behind the Apes TV series, as Mark Phillips reports…

SMALL SCREEN SIMIAN STARS GORILLA WARFARE 20 INFINITY ew people, network executives in 1973. Serling created the storyline or otherwise, felt that Planet of two 20th century astronauts Virdon of the Apes needed much publicity before it and Kovack, accompanied by the premièred on CBS in 1974. As a reporter told its friendly chimp Galen, as they explored star, Ron Harper, “You finally have a TV series that this strange world of the future, finding will be a winner – this one can’t miss!” new civilisations every week. They Despite that prevailing optimism, one gimmick were pursued by gorillas, who wanted backfired. A popular TV host agreed to be made up as to kill the astronauts before they could a Planet of the Apes chimpanzee, but someone got contaminate other humans with their the bright idea of bringing in a real chimpanzee to thoughts of freedom and technology. meet its alter-ego and the fur flew. The small chimp Serling specifically noted, “Galen took one look at the host’s ape makeup and screamed will have the precise logical mind of in horror. The terrified animal ran off the set, threw Star Trek’s Mr. Spock.” Jacobs died several books at reporters, slammed its fist into a wall suddenly in June 1973 but executive and then burst into the studio’s control room, where it Fred Silverman continued to press began ripping telephones from the wall and smashing CBS network President William Paley electrical wires. A local vet, two trainers and several to do an Apes series. Paley refused, police officers converged on the agitated primate and still upset over an awful “monkey” managed to subdue it, placing it in handcuffs and show from 1972, Me and the Chimp, a debacle about series Garrison’s Gorillas. Virdon was determined to escorting it from the studio. a fugitive NASA chimp who lives with a suburban get back his own time of 1980, so that he could be Veteran stuntman George Robotham was grateful family. Paley was against “any more ape shows on reunited with his wife and son. James Naughton, the apes on the TV series were portrayed by mere my network.” But when CBS aired the first three Apes as the other astronaut Pete Burke, played it more humans. “The guys playing gorillas were all great motion pictures to huge ratings, Paley changed his humorously. Naughton turned down the role three stuntmen and real gentlemen,” recalls Robotham, a mind: could a weekly series, based loosely on the first times, finally accepting it because of the money. Years first-class stuntman himself who started his career in film, really work? later he would say, “The only wonderful thing about Batman serials of the 1940s. “Real chimpanzees are Anthony Wilson, who had written the pilots for doing Planet of the Apes was that it led to a lifelong unpredictable, they can go wild on you,” he said of The Invaders, Land of the Giants and had one of the friendship with Roddy McDowall.” his own experiences. “I could tell you stories that you best creative minds in Hollywood, re-worked Serling’s CBS was surprised when Roddy McDowall’s agent probably couldn’t print. For instance, there was one outline, making it less science fiction and more told them the actor would be interested in starring time where…” No, on second thought – never mind. like , the successful 1930s Depression as Galen, the friendly chimpanzee. A deal was made, Planet of the Apes (the TV series) ran for an embar- family saga because Paley wanted a programme that rumoured to pay him 25,000 dollars per segment, with rassingly short time, September to December 1974 reflected warm human values. a 100,000 insurance policy taken out on his face, in case (14 episodes). Robotham’s time on the show was even The expensive ape makeup would be its biggest of damage done by 50 hours per week of wearing the briefer. “Two bloody hours,” he says, “That’s how long challenge (the ingenious prosthetics were originally makeup. Mark Lenard, best known as Mr. Spock’s father, it took me to realise I couldn’t stand being stuck in devised by John Chambers, who won an Oscar for the had narrowly lost getting the role of Captain Gregg in that miserable gorilla makeup. It was the only time first film). Dan Striepeke and Frank Westmore took the Ghost and Mrs. Muir series in 1968, and was often I’ve ever quit a job.” He ripped off his gorilla face and over for the TV show, armed with a big budget and a overlooked as the villain on TVs Here Come the Brides, handed it to his shocked friend, stunt coordinator Paul team of makeup men. A tragic setback occurred when so he jumped at Apes “because I knew it would be a Stader. “I said, ‘Paul, I’m done. I don’t need this crap. famed monster maker Janos Prohaska and his son big hit.” But when he learned they wanted him to play See you later. Good luck.’” Robert, who were looking forward to participating in chief gorilla Urko, “My feelings were hurt,” he said. “Why The apes needed more than luck. Lavishly budgeted the TV series, were killed in a plane crash in March didn’t they consider me to play one of the astronauts?” and strategically placed in what seemed to be a good 1974. Top stuntmen such as Tom McDonough, Ron After much soul searching, he took the role. time slot, Apes became the subject of media ridicule Stein and Eldon Burke were hired, and they also played Herbert Hirschman, the show’s executive producer as it died a humiliating death. Network executives many of the gorillas. (and previously a Twilight Zone producer) stated, struggled to understand how their prized show had One near-casualty of the TV series was the “We’re not aiming primarily at kids, we’re appealing ended so disastrously. It never cracked the top 35, spaceship, seen only in the first episode. Built in 1966 to the entire family. We’re seeking honest stories that could not attract sizeable audiences over the age of 14 for almost 30,000 dollars, the ship was used in the first make comments on our times.” He stressed it was not and finished the 1974-75 season at an average of 67th three films. Arthur Jacobs kept the spaceship sitting going to be a fantasy. “We’re not writing exotic tales place out of 84 shows, becoming the lowest rated CBS outside in the 20th Century parking lot for years, with of science fiction. These will be real stories that make show of the year, aside from Khigh Dhiegh’s dismal seemingly no future (Conquest and Battle were space- valid statement’s on today’s society.” Stan Hough, detective show Khan, which had replaced Apes and ship-less). Many people at the studio grew to hate the the producer, also weighed in. “We understand our ended up doing worse, at 80th place. Fantasy-wise that spaceship. One top Fox executive wrote a scathing series will lack the sweep and pageantry of the motion year, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (74th) and Six Million memo urging that “this eyesore” be either trashed, pictures, so our thrust will be good stories.” Dollar Man (51st) hadn’t done so well either. traded or hauled away. But Jacobs kept his investment Harper was embarrassed to say he had not seen any and even paid property taxes on the rotting vessel. of the films until CBS screened the first movie for him, EXPENSIVE RISK Jacobs didn’t live to see the ship re-appear in the which impressed him. “I’m cautiously optimistic our The original 1968 movie was an expensive risk for 20th 1974 TV series, and it looked spectacular as it lay show will run two years, maybe more,” he said. This Century Fox but it made a fortune and was a critical smoking in a mountain valley after a violent crash- was his fifth TV series and all of his previous shows success. Charlton Heston played the astronaut who landing. “To kids in our audience, I bet that spaceship had failed. However, media reports in the summer of landed on a post-nuclear war Earth of the future and looked really amazing,” said Ron Harper, who played 1974 said that Apes was going to be a winner. As UPI found it ruled by apes. James Franciscus took over astronaut Virdon. “But it wasn’t much of anything. It predicted, “This fall, Planet of the Apes will wipe out all as another astronaut in Beneath (1970), where the was just a wooden, hollow shell. There was nothing of its opposition. What kid in his right mind could pass world was finally blown up. Friendly chimps Cornelius inside. But what did look great was the way they dug up such a show?” (Roddy McDowall) and Zira (Kim Hunter) travelled back that deep burning burrow behind the ship, to make it Two other sci-fi pilots, Gene Roddenberry’s Genesis in time in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, landing look as if it had taken half a mile to land.” 2, about a scientist (Alex Cord) who awakens in the far on present-day Earth where they are eventually killed future, and Space: 1999, a British series with Martin by hostile humans. But their son, Caesar, (Roddy CASTING CALL Landau and Barbara Bain, were rejected by CBS in again) survives to lead a revolt of apes in Conquest. Casting came next. A columnist asked Charlton favor of Apes. President Robert Wood liked both pilots The movie series ended with Battle (1973), more apes Heston if he had any regrets about not being in the but said, “We only want one science fiction series on vs mutants, and very modest box-office receipts. video show. “None at all,” Heston replied, adding our network at a time.” E Producer Arthur P. Jacobs decided the features that he wasn’t interested in playing the same role had run their course, but he wanted to produce a TV very week but he did wish the series luck. James PRODUCTION CHALLENGES series. He asked Rod Serling (creator of Twilight Zone Franciscus turned down the role of Virdon, so it The TV Apes endured many production challenges. and co-writer of the first movie) to devise an outline went to Ron Harper, best known for his 1967-68 war Angry wasps spooked Roddy McDowall’s horse,

INFINITY 21 Name of feature

which reared up and dumped McDowall to the through a straw. You couldn’t laugh either, that ground. It took him hours to recover. could crack your face. I never got used to looking Long-time western actor Ron Soble found that like a chimpanzee. I would glance at myself in playing a gorilla, “was a miserable experience” a mirror and it scared the daylights out of me. I and the long hours of makeup drove him back remember my mother hated to see me as an ape to a dreaded habit he once conquered, smoking. on TV! But the casting director, Marvin Paige, David Sheiner, a guest chimpanzee, tried to avoid said that Beverly Garland and I were the two the 110 degree heat by sitting under a tree and actresses who dealt best with the makeup. After reading a book. Still, he admitted he could not a few days, Roddy came up to me and said, ‘I’ve wait for the experience to be over. Other ape noticed the makeup doesn’t bother you as much actors lost up to ten pounds a day, some passing as it bothers other people,’ and it didn’t. out and collapsing from the heat and others were “Roddy was just marvellous. He and everyone constantly wheezing, scratching and swatting at else who played apes looked out for one another. hungry flies. Comedian Beatrice Arthur (Maude, We’d check each other’s face for cracks or The Golden Girls) brought her two sons to the set smudges and offered morale support.” because they were such fans. Another fan was McDowall, as the lead ape, had makeup that ’s wife, who arrived via a jeep from the was painstakingly applied. “I wish I could tell nearby M*A*S*H set to watch filming. you what it was, because I can’t explain it, but Jacqueline Scott agreed to do two guest there was something different about Roddy’s roles, as a mother chimp of a farm family in makeup,” Scott says. “It was not the same as “Good Seeds” and as Galen’s fiancée in “The anyone else’s. Ours seemed glued onto our faces Surgeon,” where she performed life-saving but his had much more flexibility.” surgery on Virdon. Scott, who had appeared in For his own comfort, McDowall had an air-con- TV shows such as Twilight Zone, Outer Limits ditioned motor-home and a stipulation he would and The Fugitive, recalls, “They had at least work only four days a week, to preserve his face. seven full-time makeup artists on the show and It didn’t always work. “After four or five episodes, they were the absolute best but it was all very his face looked like raw hamburger because of expensive.” the rubber appliance,” recall Ron Harper. “He had Even though it took three to four hours to to take a week off for his skin to heal.” apply the makeup, she adapted right away. “Just One thing McDowall wanted to do but couldn’t before they applied the bottom chin, they fed was to curl his lips back in a snarl, exposing his you breakfast because once it was attached, teeth (like Tarzan’s Cheetah). But his mask didn’t you could not eat. You had to sip nourishment allow that. McDowall loved the Galen character, describing him as a bit of a conman with a great sense of humour. “As Galen, I am suppose to be both intellectual and sensitive. How do I convey that? Well, for one, I sound British.” During the production of Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) in Beverly Hills, a woman had pushed past security guards and fiercely grabbed Kim Hunter (Zira). ‘You’re so cute,’ the woman exclaimed and tried touching her face, nearly bringing Kim to tears. Roddy, who justifiably called the intruder “a dumb woman,” angrily stepped in and stopped the woman’s harassment of his co-star. “When we are in makeup, people will do the most annoying

22 INFINITY PLANET OF THE APES - THE TV SERIES

Images on this spread: Behind-the scenes shots from the show featuring the main stars, and Roddy McDowall being made up as as Galen

Left: Booth Colman as Dr Zaius and Mark Lenard as Urko before and after the application of their Ape make-up

All images supplied by Mark Rogers

While dressed as a chimp, McDowall was prodded, poked, badgered and disrespected by some people. “There should be a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Actors,” he said. When wise-ass reporters began making jokes about “going ape” or “monkeying around” McDowall rolled his eyes in frustration. “Truly, I’ve really grown soooooo tired of trying to touch our faces. Oh, it was very rude! It charade that often worked. Out on location, Ron hearing those expressions…” was not a fun experience but it was fascinating Harper tried to demonstrate to a TV Guide writer how these normal people became so impolite how easy it was to identify the stuntmen playing and pushy. Roddy McDowall told me that’s how gorillas. “Tom, hey Tom!” Ron yelled to a nearby things. They can be very intrusive,” McDowall he learned to really hate people because they ape. The gorilla ignored him and briskly walked snapped. did the same thing to him all of the time.” away. “Sorry,” a chastened Harper conceded, “so Ironically, while filming the first movie in The media reported that many actors were it wasn’t Tom.” 1967, McDowall’s makeup often frightened clamouring to play apes but she doubts that. bystanders, who staggered away in revulsion “I personally knew many actors who refused to EATING PROBLEMS and fear. “People were put off when they would do the show, they didn’t like the idea of all that After filming “The Trap” in the city backlot, an see me,” McDowall claimed. That changed over latex and rubber on their faces and vanity was episode where Urko falls into a subway station, the years. While dressed as a chimp, the actor probably a part of that. But I loved the challenge Mark Lenard was horrified to find his mask and was prodded, poked, badgered and disrespected of expressing myself as that character.” suit infested with hundreds of blood-sucking by some people. “There should be a Society for Guest stars who endured the makeup well, fleas. On another occasion, Lenard ordered a hot the Prevention of Cruelty to Actors,” he said. and were brought back, included John Hoyt, plate of spare ribs, only to discover his heavy When wise-ass reporters began making jokes Martin E. Brooks and Pat Renella. Even James ape snout prevented any eating. “All I could do about “going ape” or “monkeying around” Naughton’s younger brother David got a kick was sit there, as my plate got cold, and drool.” McDowall rolled his eyes in frustration. “Truly, out of playing a chimpanzee for one segment. He switched to munching carrots and celery but I’ve really grown soooooo tired of hearing those McDowall said there could be confusion over who the Planet of the Apes sound-man found the expressions,” he said. was under the makeup. Director Don Weis once crunching sounds unbearably loud, so Lenard “People really did treat us like animals,” says drew “Galen” aside to instruct him on how to play was forced to go back to quietly sipping liquids Jacqueline Scott. “I was walking outside the a scene until a muffled voice from within the ape through a straw. studio with a fellow ape when a car suddenly identified himself as Davey Rodgers, Roddy’s “The Good Seeds,” about an ape family who help screeched to a halt. People jumped out and stand-in. the astronauts and Galen, was actually the first grabbed us. ‘Come here! Don’t run away – we When accosted by annoying people while episode filmed, designed specifically to imitate want a picture with you!’ We had no say in the wearing his ape guise, McDowall would suddenly the family-friendly ambiance of the CBS hit, matter. They didn’t speak to us kindly or with adopt an American accent and tell visitors he The Waltons. “Escape from Tomorrow,” the first respect, they were very demanding, and kept was actually Roddy’s brother from Chicago, a episode telecast (which introduced the astronauts)

INFINITY 23 Jon Abbott

This page: was actually the third episode filmed. The idea in the make-up chair as my Scenes from the show plus was to give Ron Harper and James Naughton life-mask was made.” some original more time to develop camaraderie and chemistry She got the role and Dietz promotional advertising, between themselves for the premiere show. performed well in the blistering and two of the “Jim and I, for whatever reason, were never heat of Malibu Canyon. “The only four spin-off as close as we could have been,” says Harper uncomfortable thing were our paperback novels written by vaguely. “Maybe it was the old thing of two big ape feet had sneakers hidden American sci-fi leading men trying to work together.” inside them and that made our author George Alec Effinger, There was actually a third astronaut, Jones, feet really sweat. But everyone published who didn’t survive the spaceship landing and was nice to me, especially Roddy.” between 1974 and 1976 was quickly buried by the gorillas. Everyone But her feelings did get hurt. from Ron Harper to A.D. Bill Derwin has racked “In New York, whenever a show was finished, the said, ‘Eileen, are you ever going to play a part their memory in vain, trying to recall who played cast and crew would always get together for a where you can show your face?’” Eileen is proud that bit part. Whoever he was, he deserves credit drink and talk about the day’s work. But in Apes, of “The Good Seeds” and has seen it several for maintaining an impressive dead-eye stare after we wrapped for the day, everybody just left. times. “It showed the kind of backward racism as he is seen slumped over in his chair with a They all disappeared. I remember standing there the apes had towards the humans. The story broken neck. alone, going (plaintively), ‘Where did everybody examined their fear and prejudice.” It ends with Some of the program’s other guest stars go?’ It took me awhile to realize that it was the ape family and humans becoming friends. included Marc Singer, Sondra Locke, Royal Dano, nothing personal. Everyone lived so far away that Roscoe Lee Browne, Geoffrey Deuel, William they had a long drive to get home. They didn’t PERSISTENT MYTH Smith and Jackie Earle Haley. Eileen Dietz have time to sit around and chat.” As the series geared up for its CBS premiere played the teenaged chimp in “Good Seeds” who She couldn’t wait to see her show on TV. “I was on September 13, McDowall tried to correct develops a crush on the injured Galen. She had really excited and I invited everybody I knew the persistent myth that he was continuing just completed the role of the green-faced devil in California to my house to watch it. But as it his role from the original film. “No, that is not (doubling Linda Blair) in The Exorcist and a week played on my TV, everybody got really bored and true - Cornelius is dead,” McDowall said. “Galen after moving to Los Angeles, heard about the began talking. I remember being very distraught is an entirely new character.” The confusion was Planet of the Apes TV show. She snuck into the and saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute, people – stop caused by a chimp in the first film named Galen, 20th Century-Fox building and located casting talking. Please! My show is on.’” played by Wright King, but he had no relation director Marvin Paige. “I told him I had just done After doing Apes, Eileen played a cavegirl in to the TV character. “We are not borrowing The Exorcist and was used to sitting for hours Hanna-Barbera’s series Korg 70,000. “My Mom anything from the motion pictures,” McDowall

24 INFINITY extensive repairs after lunch.” There was also a lot to move between filming – horses, goats, chickens trailers and lots of extras. “The directors learned to compromise their ‘dream shots’ in order not to fall behind stressed. “They have run their course.” Towering Inferno and Escape from New York, schedule.” She remained on the series Apes was originally supposed to air Tuesdays, recalls thinking that doubling as a chimpanzee for its entire six months of production. competing against Adam-12 and Happy Days. for Jane Actman in “The Deception” would be “Roddy was my favourite person on But when comedian Redd Foxx walked off “no big deal. I just sat there as they applied the the whole show but I worked later with Sanford and Son, CBS knew a Foxx-less Sanford prosthetics for two and a half hours, breathed James Naughton who was also a real on Friday nights would be extremely vulnerable, through a straw and fell asleep.” professional.” so Apes was switched opposite Sanford and a As a blind chimpanzee, she falls off a cliff into Story-wise, kids looking for fantasy new show, Chico and the Man. Unfortunately, the Pacific Ocean. “I was in the water, screaming instead got mundane scenarios Foxx returned to Sanford at the last minute, and splashing, and James Naughton’s character about the astronauts curing malaria, with a lot of publicity. Still, many people placed swims out to save me.” By the time work was teaching a human to fly a hang-glider, their bets on Planet of the Apes, including many over, “I had worn this makeup for over six hours. being subjected to brainwashing or advertising executives in New York. We wrapped for the day, I sat down for them participating in a horse race. Outdoor An agency man named McHugh said, “Apes to remove this stuff from my face and… they locales boiled down to either the Fox will trample its competition at first but if the couldn’t. The salt water had adhered the makeup Ranch, the Pacific Ocean or the old show turns out to be poorly done, ratings will fall to my face. The reaction by everyone around ruined city sets. No matter how far off immediately and CBS will be left with a real me was ‘Oh no!’ I will never forget sitting there, the trio travelled, the same mountains kept This page: bomb.” Another advertiser agreed that Apes had holding on tightly to the arms of the chair, with popping up behind them. Virdon’s goal was to Stuntman Tom McDonough a good chance but he resented how CBS kept tears rolling down my eyes and they were trying find an advanced civilization with a computer takes a break saying Planet of the Apes would get a huge 40% and trying to get it off my face.” They finally did, that could interpret Virdon’s flight disc, and then from filming with an umbrella as of the audience every week. “No one can say that but Gimpel recalls that experience as “horrible, build them a spaceship. Had the astronauts a sun shade - for sure,” the agency man warned. Sadly, Apes just horrible.” decided on Houston or Florida as a specific many thanks to Tom himself for would end up averaging a pathetic 24% share. walking destination, to locate old spaceships this pic The early reviews of the premiere episode LONG, HOT DAYS stored at NASA centres, it would have given were encouraging. Movie historian Steven H. A very young Cheryl Downey was halfway them a geographical goal rather than aimless Above: More Scheuer noted, “the wooden astronauts and apes through her Directors Guild of America appren- wandering. mechandising riding on horseback are silly but it’s a lively show ticeship to becoming an Assistant Director As the show continued, critics became spin-offs including a 1976 and Roddy McDowall is delightful as Galen.” when, as a DGA trainee, she worked on Apes with tougher. “If apes in zoos had TVs, this show paperback and Charles Benbow of The St. Petersburg Times said second A.D, Ed Ledding “where we had to handle would be number one,” said columnist MIchael 3D Viewmaster Apes was “excellent” television, betrayed only everything.” She had to be at the Fox ranch (now Drew, “but humans over the age of 14 will be images. Bottom image above by one disappointing production short-cut: “The called Malibu State Park) at 3:30am to check very bored.” The Monster Times said, “The series is a single that landing of the spaceship happens off-camera!” on the makeup and hair team. Her day finished rests primarily on the capable talents of Roddy designer Kev bought of a tune The predicted Apes and around 9:30pm. McDowall and a fine supporting cast – and no, that was used in Born Free (also destined to die by mid-season) “Almost everything was shot at the Ranch, so we’re not talking about the third-raters imitating a Levi ad back in the 1990s, and would be big hits. The Christian Science Monitor five days a week I had a 45 minute commute, Charlton Heston and James Franciscus.” he has included called Apes “fascinating and superb” while Rex speeding each way! Those 18-hour days were The Calgary Herald suggested viewers read it to show how Polier of The Philadelphia Bulletin said, “It is brutal, especially in the summer heat. I had to Pierre Boulle’s original Planet of the Apes novel similar it looks in design to the Apes well-produced, provocative and entertaining.” Jay sleep round the clock Saturdays to try and make instead, bitterly complaining that series could Viewmaster cover. Sharbutt of The Associated Press was one of the up for my week of four hours of sleep per night.” have been a winner, “if it had more thought and few naysayers: “Apes will slip on its own banana It was an experience she has never forgotten. good writing.” Even NBC got into the fray, with its peel by December.” Columnist Ken Murphy was “The Prince of the cast was Roddy McDowall. vice-president calling Apes, “A Saturday morning just plain mean: “The only people who will have The foam rubber appliance glued to the faces of cartoon show that is not working.” However, when use for this garbage are Star Trek fans.” the principal actors playing chimps and gorillas NBC’s friendly lion series Born Free got cancelled, But it was the ratings that would kill the prevented eating anything until their removal. the NBC men shrugged and said, “Well, I guess beast. The first episode ranked 37th out of 56 Only liquids could be consumed. Roddy faced this wasn’t the year for apes or lions.” shows. The second episode was 43rd, the third this daily prospect with good cheer. He was A California viewer named Bill pleaded with episode 47th and the fourth episode 53rd. The always prepared, never complained, even though CBS to move the show to a different time period, competition, Sanford and Chico and the Man, the skin on his face deteriorated from the glue Wednesdays at 8pm, where it would be up was always in the top five. The Chicago Tribune and the glue removal.” against Michael Landon’s Little House on the noted, “Apes has been getting creamed by NBC She recalls only one landline telephone on Prairie and a comedy, That’s My Mama. “Yes, if and it has turned into a sorry flop for CBS.” The the ranch, “no mobile phones” which added Planet of the Apes still remains a poorly rated death watch had begun. to the challenges of production coordination. show after that, then I would not fault CBS for Yet the show must go on. Sandra Gimpel, who “We tried to shoot all of Roddy’s scenes as soon taking it off,” he said. But no one was listening, was Billy Mumy’s stunt double on Lost in Space as possible,” she recalls. “The heat and sweat the network had determined that nothing could and performed hundreds of stunts in films like caused the appliance to sort of melt, requiring save the show.

INFINITY 25 RACIST ACCUSATIONS cancelled shortly thereafter,” says Cheryl Downey. claptrap of unimaginative, inferior stories. Still, with Besides ratings, there were other concerns. One angry “Although the show was very ambitious, it could not time, it could have gotten better.” viewer wrote to a newspaper to say she didn’t like “the approach the standards set by the feature film.” Mark Lenard said, “It was a big mistake for the way this awful show is pushing evolution.” A.D. Bill Its surprising demise left a lot of questions. “We human villagers to talk – I liked it better in the first Derwin recalled that the series was also being unfairly don’t know what went wrong,” said ’s movie, where the humans were mute and kept in accused of being racist. “As the show went on, the father-in-law, Perry Lafferty, an executive at CBS. cages!” McDowall considered Planet’s loss a tragedy. behaviour of the gorillas was toned down and it soon “We are shocked that our judgment was so wrong. We “It was a much better series than it was ever given became The Planet of the Benevolent Apes.” figured Planet of the Apes would eliminate Sanford credit for,” he said years later and felt the apes An associate director of CBS research remained and Son in quick order. The first three Planet movies merchandise could have carried the show in lieu of aghast at how poorly Apes was doing against Sanford last year had amazing ratings on CBS. But when we bad ratings but that wouldn’t have compensated for and Chico. “I find it hard to believe NBC is doing so well ran the fourth movie this year (Conquest), it got a very sponsors’ products of soap and automobiles not being on Friday nights against us,” he lamented. Adding to poor rating.” was annoyed too: purchased by Apes’ biggest demographic, kids aged the confusion was that Apes merchandise was selling “For months we heard how Planet of the Apes couldn’t 2-11 years old. like wildfire, everything from toys, action figures and miss, that it would be in the top ten – and now, come “Maybe if Charlton Heston had starred in the TV puzzles. The department store Woolworth’s reported January, its missing!” version and Rod Serling had written all the scripts, it that the merchandise was selling so well, “it’s hard to Charlie Pike of High Point Enterprise offered might have survived,” opined The Evening News but keep it in stock.” false hope when he wrote, “There’s still a very good that was unlikely too. Apes fever on television had Another network executive was so disbelieving possibility Apes will pop up on another network.” simply waned. of the reportedly bad ratings that he did his own That didn’t happen, although NBC made a Saturday In 1980, 20th Century-Fox syndicated 10 of the 14 stealth research by pointing his telescope out of his morning cartoon series, Return to the Planet of the episodes by combining them into a total of five TV high-rise apartment on Friday nights and scanning Apes, in 1975. A fan asked columnist Dick Kleiner if movies, and gave them such outlandish titles as Life, all of the TV sets flickering across the New York City astronauts Virdon and Burke would ever get back Liberty and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes. Some of skyline. He discovered the bitter truth: almost every TV home? “No,” Kleiner said. “Never. The show has been these ersatz movies contained new footage of Roddy reflected the antics of Sanford and Chico. The Nielsen cancelled. The astronauts will never get home. Those McDowall as an ancient Galen, sitting in a cottage ratings were right, these two situation comedies were two guys are trapped there forever, with all of those with a 1970s Commodore PET computer flickering conquering the planet of the apes. apes.” Cecil Smith of The Los Angeles Times liked the behind him. Galen provided brief commentary but his The Oakland Tribune’s Robert MacKenzie loved series but was surprised when his own children and eccentrically coy dialogue was dull, except to reveal literary science fiction but with the exception of their elementary schoolmates begged him to stop the that, “Virdon and Burke did find their computer and praising Land of the Giants, he felt every other show in cancellation. But there was nothing Daddy Cecil could they disappeared back into space….” Galen turned the genre - Star Trek, UFO, Invaders, The Starlost and do. Nevertheless, when the series’ 14 episodes were down their offer to fly back with them. now Apes - had blundered their potential and produced later sold to countries such as England, Japan and As late as 1994, McDowall held out hope someone bad television. “Planet of the Apes is just men wearing Australia, the show proved to be a big hit. would ask him to do a TV reunion film. “After all,” he plastic masks and it’s one dull chase after another,” he said, “you could be 90 years old and yet, with the said. He also felt the franchise was being mercilessly UNIMAGINATIVE WRITING makeup on, you would still look the same!” exploited. “These poor apes will be worked by the Many of the show’s actors felt the show could have Planet of the Apes is still fondly remembered by studio until there is not another dollar left to be been better. “The stories went progressively downhill a generation and in retrospect, much of its acting, squeezed from their furry hides.” and it got boring,” says Harper. “If you analyse the humour, and many well-written (and often poignant) TV Guide made the first official pronouncement episodes, we used one basic plot - one of us gets scenes still play well. Gerald Finnerman’s cinematogra- that the Apes saga was doomed in their October 26, captured, the other two have to rescue him. Well, phy was also excellent. 1974 issue. “The network and many other people were that is not very imaginative writing.” Harper felt that, “I thought it was really stupid for the network to positive a new series based on the features would be a among other ideas, it would have been interesting for cancel Planet of the Apes in the first place,” says solid success,” the magazine said. “Not so and Planet the trio to have encountered a rescue expedition from Jacqueline Scott, who counts herself as a loyal fan. of the Apes is as good as gone by January.” Earth. Booth Colman, who played Dr. Zaius, agreed. “Children just loved the show and even today, it has not “When we shut down in November, we did not know “The only episode done well was our premiere show, dated. It’s now on DVD and it will go on if the network was going to renew us and we were it had a good script. After that, we fell into the usual forever and ever.”

26 INFINITY ‘TAKE INFINITY FANS TELL OF THEIR OWN SCI-FI EXPERIENCES THETHE HELM’ TRAVELLING APE SHOW Simon Pritchard heard through the ape vine that we were doing a Planet of the Apes special so he sent us this fun piece on his childhood memories of seeing General Urko and company on stage!

t was the scarecrows that triggered the Besides Urko way in and out of the rows of I first real sense that things didn’t bode they had pics and seats before going back into well, a sinister sting to the senses that badges of Galen, the arena. something malevolent loomed just over Zaius and astronauts The show was packed the ridge. In a short time that feeling of unease Burk and Virdon from with impressive stunts and erupted into full blown disorienting fear and one the TV show, but it well-choreographed fights of the most iconic and nerve-shattering set pieces was obviously too and shoot outs. All the time in fantasy cinema history - a shocking attack on a expensive to buy them the characters drew bunch of helpless humans in a field of corn. Some all. General Urko was whoops, cheers and of the barely-seen attackers were on foot, slicing the coolest character delighted squeals

the corn with switches, others were on horseback, though, every kid in the This image: from the kids in stampeding the fleeing people like cattle. The playground wanted to be Young Simon with the audience. And scene culminated in a stunning shot of one of the him, if only for an excuse one of his Apes there were gasps heroes. He hasn’t horse-mounted riders in a final mind-blowing reveal: to duff up his human changed a bit since and jeers as the a ferocious ape in black leather wielding a rifle. mates. Only the wussier then (see right) villainous Urko and This was my adrenaline-charged introduction kids wanted to be Galen, his henchmen baited to the original 1968 Planet of the Apes on UK or maybe the elderly the fans, drawing the odd television. I was aged about six and it was in the mid Dr Zaius. frightened grizzle from 1970’s. I’m not sure of the exact year, but it must Taking our places in the more ‘delicate’ kids, have been around 74 because the TV spin-off started the bleacher-style seats, the ones who rooted for that year and I promptly became an avid, excitable the show finally kicked off, Walter the softie from viewer of the show. and although the passing the Beano’s Dennis Planet of the Apes, in both its movie franchise of time has distorted the The Menace. Of course and TV show formats was a phenomenon for exact plotline I vividly recall the two astronaut credibility is key to being pudding basin haircut sprogs like myself, and it characters being chased around the circus-like suckered into the fantasy, quickly became an obsession. Me and my mates arena by a squad of soldier apes led by the and the costumes and ape wanted the lot: Mego action figures, comics, jigsaw mighty General Urko, gorilla leader of the ape masks were very convincing puzzles, masks etc. Weekly trips to the shops army. Some were astride horses, with a band to my six-year-old eyes. ensured that parents, nans granddads and monkey’s of soldiers on foot firing rifles. The humans Looking at photographs from uncles were parted from their pennies. were captured, then escaped again, were the touring shows online I’d While all this monkey business was going on, to my chased into the audience and weaved their say they stand up incredibly great delight I discovered that The Circus Hoffman well after all these years, so Planet of the Apes live touring show was coming to no expense appears to have a town near me. Real-life apes on stage. I had to go, been spared in the show’s and used good behaviour as a bargaining chimp, er, production design. chip. So it was, one chilly Wolverhampton Saturday When the show reached its rousing climax, evening in November of 1975, that I persuaded my swarms of babbling children got to meet, and get parents to take me to see it. The journey there was their photos taken with, their favourite characters. exhilarating to the point of seizure for an impres- General Urko was the most popular and the queue sionable kid like me, and I was beside myself with to meet him was too long so I got my pic taken gleeful anticipation, swinging from the trees as we with Dr Zaius instead. At least my Urko badge was travelled from West Bromwich to Wolverhampton proudly displayed on my green 70s coat that my Racecourse in our blue Austin Maxi. Nan always said I looked a right Bobby Upon arrival at the venue I was lured by the in (and I really did folks). It was one of the most siren call of the merchandise stand, where Dad delightful experiences of my childhood and has bought me a General Urko pin badge, a slightly remained a cherished memory. bigger than 8 x 10 colour photo of the same Urko picture and a plastic ape mask with movable jaw. APES ON STAGE I was a very lucky boy indeed and knew it, so I Of course being just a kid I knew nothing of the treasured these. origin of the Planet of the Apes shows, but here we are in the age of the internet and so I decided to check into their background for this article. Better late than never, eh? The transition of Apes from film and TV to live touring shows was apparently the brainchild of Big Mike Caulfield, who in 1975, as head of

INFINITY 27 Simon Pritchard

Left: Television Character Simon’s superb Promotions, hit upon rendition of the Planet of the Apes the genius idea of TV show characters taking the basic character and plot downsized its elements from the office in Piccadilly Planet of the Apes to a smaller one TV series which had in Ilford and aired its one and only season the year had dropped its before. Ironically for advertising for something so beloved the when of kids everywhere their Planet of the and backed by a Apes comic was wealth of popular cancelled. merchandising, the TV A few minor show was cancelled Apes shows were after only one series performed during due to low ratings. 1978 and the Talk about slipping on same year Mike a banana peel. Caulfield was Back at Television invited to direct Character Promotions, a revived Planet Big Mike landed the of the Apes stage rights from Twentieth show at the Pier Century Fox studios Pavilion Theatre to create a touring in Cleethorpes. show that would visit It seems to have venues across the been be a great UK between 1975 success. Caulfield and 1978. To further expressed his secure the show’s delight with the success another deal show and added was cut with the UK that he hoped to arm of Marvel Comics, take it on tour, but who published the nothing came to Planet of the Apes fruition. comic book here in That’s where Blighty. The deal was my research hits that Marvel would a brick wall as it endorse a Planet of appears Television the Apes fan club Character through the comic. Promotions The Apes comic disappeared off proved a success the radar after and was inundated August 1978, with , so taking the UK’s eventually TCP took the strain off Marvel by joining A DIFFERENT DIRECTION only official Planet of the Apes Fan Club forces with an official Apes fan club through which it By the end of the summer of 1976 the company with it. What happened to Big Mike, his family and could promote the live touring shows. This new club decided to cut back on the live arena shows and other team and show members I don’t know, so if was launched in 1975 and Big Mike and his team of take their apes in a slightly different direction, anybody knows any further details I’d be interested five TCP employees (which included his wife June) creating a Planet of the Apes stage show with newly to hear them. set about creating a spectacular Planet of the Apes written scripts. Pre-recorded dialogue was utilised production utilising the most inventive costumes, for the ape characters so that audiences could hear his feature has been a simplified overview masks and make-ups they could muster on the lines that were muffled behind the masks. These Tof the live Planet of the Apes shows from budget they had. Mike himself wrote the scripts for characters mimed to the dialogue while the humans the 1970s. I just wanted to express my the shows and also cast himself in the role of ape recited theirs live. Two groups of players were formed own memories of that special day back in 75 leader General Urko in a number of the performances. so two stage shows could be running in two separate when I saw the touring show in Wolverhampton, With Marvel running the ads for the club it was theatres for the 1976 summer season. One was experiencing an exciting spectacle that was an quite a winner, gathering memberships from all booked into Stratford’s Theatre Royal in East London amazing extension of that wonderful TV show and around the globe. Fans received combo packs of and the other one into the Windmill Theatre in Great the films that spawned it. Judged by modern high badges and colour photos featuring characters from Yarmouth in Norfolk. tech standards that same show would probably the TV show plus other sundry goodies like stickers Both runs were sellouts, proving incredibly come across today as basic, threadbare and I and of course a regular newsletter. popular with general audiences and fan club guess simple. Yet I recall it being full of action and Then the live shows hit the road, travelling the members alike. It was hoped that they could be intensity with decent stunts and special effects. country like an army of marauding chimps and expanded into a full-on countrywide theatre tour, More important at the end of the day was its sheer invading circuses, festivals, fairs, showgrounds and but by the end of 76 it became apparent that this entertainment value, all in the best vaudeville racecourses like the one in Wolverhampton where was not to be. By then Mike Caulfield was working on and pantomime tradition. All it needed was for I saw it in 75. Meanwhile, various offshoot groups other projects for the company and the Apes shows someone to say, “Look out, Urko’s behind you!” from TCP made appearances at shopping centres, were beginning to wind down. They still appeared at and everyone went apeshit. Happy days. supermarkets and department stores to promote the Tesco supermarkets across the country during 1977, full blown performances, drawing crowds everywhere but probably just to buy bananas. You can see more of Simon’s glorious artwork at: they went. Meanwhile, Television Character Promotions had www.artbeat64.com/

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BLU-RAY, DVD & CINEMA

Review Ratings Allan Bryce, Steve Green, David Flint and Mark = Excellent = Good Foker cast a critical eye over the latest sci-fi = Average = Below Average and fantasy movie and home video releases… = Abysmal

the world food shortage. But the old film’s all-round entertainment value. and 5.1 surround sound audio options. erupting volcano routine puts paid Superb stuff for kids and adults alike. Extras: audio to his plans. The plot has plenty of The great Bernard Herrmann wrote the commentaries, and an additional holes, but in general this is one of the inspired score. Mysterious Island better-written Harryhausen ventures, The final film in this set is First with film historians Randall William supported by lively direction and an Men In The Moon (1964). One of Ray’s Cook, C. Courtney Joyner and Steven C. impressively atmospheric Bernard most enjoyable movies, this colourful Smith. There’s also an additional Jason Herrman music score performed by the adaptation of the famous H.G. Wells and the Argonauts audio commentary London Symphony Orchestra. story is nicely scripted by Nigel with filmmaker Peter Jackson and THE WONDERFUL WORLDS OF RAY Next up is Jason And The Argonauts (Quatermass) Kneale and has a bright . Other features HARRYHAUSEN, VOLUME TWO: (1963), to my mind the very best of the performance from Lionel Jeffries as the include Jason and the Argonauts 1961-1964. Blu-ray. Ray Harryhausen/Charles H. Schneer eccentric Victorian inventor Professor original skeleton fight storyboards, Out: November 13th. Powerhouse/ fantasy epics. This wonderful movie Cavor, who winds up on the moon when Ray Harryhausen on Mysterious Island Indicator. Cert: PG. brings you right into the fanciful world testing his new anti-gravity paint on and on Mysterious Island, of Greek Mythology, with dragons, a spherical metal ship. Along for the Islands of Mystery a vintage featurette, Powerhouse continue to be the living statues, harpies and Gods. The ride are playwright Edward Judd and Randall William Cook Introduces Ray Harryhausen fan’s best friend film’s only liability is the wooden Judd’s fiancee Martha Hyer. They are First Men in the Moon, Tomorrow the with a second great volume of the performance of hero Todd Armstrong, captured by Selenites, funny little Moon, another vintage featurette, stop-motion effects maestro’s sci-fi/ who isn’t anywhere near as engaging insect creatures who are actually new and exclusive interviews with fantasy favourites. a character as Nigel Green’s crusty children in suits. Harryhausen uses crew members, including camera For a start we have Mysterious Island Hercules (who goes out of the movie his amazing stop-motion animation assistant Ray Andrew (Mysterious (1960) a fast-paced and entertaining far too early on). The screenplay is skills elsewhere in the movie to create Island) and production manager Ted fantasy set at the time of the US Civil better constructed than usual, and a giant caterpillar and the Great Lunar Wallis (First Men in the Moon), Back to War. Michael Craig is the leader of a Jason’s seagoing quest to find the creature who rules over the Selenites. Mysterious Island comic-book, archival bunch of Union soldiers who escape Golden Fleece and regain the throne Great fun, and the ingenious framing documentaries and interviews, Super from a Confederate jail by hot air that was stolen from him at birth has flashback is the icing on the cake. Nice 8 versions of Mysterious Island and balloon. They descend into the sea quite a number of visual highlights. Laurie Johnson (The Avengers, The Jason and the Argonauts (used to have and wash up on the shores of a remote The Harryhausen effects are uniformly Professionals) music too. these!), isolated scores, original trailers, island where they are menaced by excellent, particularly the bronze All three films look stunning, with teasers, TV spots and promotional giant bees, monster crabs, and other giant Talos, who gave me nightmares 4K restorations of Jason and the films, trailer commentary outsize perils. The creatures are the as a 10-year-old! The sword-fighting Argonauts and First Men in the Moon for First Men in the Moon, limited results of growth experiments carried skeletons are also unforgettable, and and a 2K restoration of Mysterious edition exclusive 80-page book. This out by Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom), the vivid photography of the beautiful Island, all from the original camera comes in a Limited Dual Format Edition who hopes his mutations will solve Mediterranean adds immensely to the negatives. All movies come with mono Box Set of 6,000 numbered units. AB.

INFINITY 29 INFINITY REVIEWS

here, none of your old Public Domain dupes like you get in the States, and so at around fifty quid this is a worthwhile purchase even though it contains a few duds alongside the B-movie treasures. I’d also argue that Dr. and The were never B-movies, by the way. AB.

CYBORG 2087 (1966) Blu-ray. Out Now. Kino Lorber. Cert: N/A.

2087 must have seemed a long way away when they made this movie, now it is only just around the corner - I’ve pre-ordered my 2087 iPhone already. There’s not much future in watching this crappy sci-fi movie THE KILLER COLLECTION. DVD star of a film like this!). Loads of stock footage and though because it’s a boring cheapie which wastes the Out Now. Fabulous Films. Cert: 15. poor effects make this tough going even for the most germ of a decent premise - later used to much better dedicated fan. effect in The Terminator! Fabulous Films have been putting out a lot of great The Time Travellers (1964) is an imaginative Made back-to-back with Dimension Five (also old sci-fi and horror movies of late and just in case low-budgeter that has a group of 1960s boffins reviewed here), this anti-Communist effort stars a you missed them you can scoop up nine of their most accidentally stumbling 107 years into the future through tired-looking Michael Rennie (who died four years later popular titles in this 9-disc set for around a fiver a film. a time portal. There they find that nuclear war has at the age of 61) as Garth, a Cyborg from the oppressed Best of the bunch for me is The Blob (1958), starring almost destroyed the human race, apart from a small future (2087 to be exact) who time-travels back to a young Steve (then Steven) McQueen in a classic teen bunch of survivors who live underground and are trying 1965 (in a machine that looks like a giant spark plug) sci-fi horror which really sums up the spirit of 50s to construct a spaceship to escape to another planet. to confront Eduard Franz, the scientist who invented drive-in movies. The setting is a tiny Pennsylvania The efforts of the survivors are being hampered by a Cyborgs in the first place - hoping to prevent him from town, where a blob of purple goop from outer space race of mutants who want to destroy the last remnants going ahead with his work, and in the process saving starts consuming the locals, getting bigger and bigger of normal humanity. What the film lacks in budget it the future from becoming a world where free thought with each meal. McQueen and the boring female lead, makes up for in imagination, with some striking scenes is banned. Anti-Commie? Well it’s no accident that the Anita Corseaut, try to get the grown-ups to believe and a highly effective - if downbeat - ending. scientist’s name is Marx! their story, but in the end it’s up to the teen population We covered Dr. Cyclops (1940) last issue, it’s Rennie is pursued by two killer cyborgs from the of the town to settle the Blob’s hash. Some of the a gorgeously Technicolored fantasy thriller with future who look like a couple of refugees from the effects are a bit cheap and cheerful, but the film is still Albert Dekker in the signature role of his career Blue Oyster bar in the Police Academy films. I hasten a lot of fun and has a lovely small-town atmosphere as the not-so-good Doctor of the title who shrinks to add that I have caught flack from gay allusions in about it. Classic scenes include the Blob taking over a unwanted visitors to his secret Amazon jungle lab. the past and to avoid offence I am sure these guys are movie theatre and swallowing a diner. The title song by Amazing special effects for its day and still tense and straighter than the pole that your mum dances on. Burt Bacharach is pretty groovy! entertaining almost 80 years on! Phew, dodged a ‘causing offence’ bullet there. Also a lot of fun is 1951’s The Man From Planet X. The Beast With A Million Eyes (1961) is one of But back to Cyborg 2087, half-human, half-machine, A fine example of what can be done on a low budget, the cheapest monster flicks around, an early Roger all fairly rubbish. The film has a plastic, made-for-telly this imaginative little sci-fi flick was shot in six days Corman effort set in the desert and telling of a family look about it, and has special effects that could have by cult favourite Edgar G. Ulmer on sets left over from menaced by a creature from space who inhabits the come free in a Corn Flakes packet, but if you enjoy bad Joan Of Arc (1948) and cost a mere $50,000 to make. It bodies of normally tranquil animals and turns them sci-fi movies from the 60s then this could supply you features Robert Clarke as a reporter who visits a foggy, vicious. Thus Corman neatly gets round the problem of with some entertaining viewing, particularly as the studio-bound Scotland to confront a friendly bug-eyed having to show his “Beast,” though those suckered by Blu-ray looks so good. alien in a fishbowl helmet. The alien has come to plead the lurid poster and title can’t have been pleased. Extras: Former Fangoria editor Chris Alexander for aid for its freezing planet, but since this is the Also pretty bad is Angry Red Planet (1959), one of provides a decent commentary in which he discusses paranoid 50s he gets blasted by bazookas. Short and the low-budget science fiction movies produced by the whole Terminator/Harlan Ellison Soldier, Outer sweet, with pacy direction and performances, this is American Sidney Pink in Scandinavia in the late 50s. Limits episode inspiration for the tale. Trailers for easily one of the director’s best efforts. This tawdry effort takes place amid sets that look like other Kino releases: The Satan Bug, The Earth Dies The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) is the third they were all painted on glass, and yep, they were. A Screaming, Chosen Survivors, Panic in the Year Zero Creature From The Black Lagoon movie and starts out group of astronauts blast off for Mars in a cardboard and The Quatermass Xperiment. AB. well with scientists tracking the “Gill Man” (still played spacecraft and encounter a giant spider-bat and some by Ricou Browning in the underwater scenes) down in strange-looking monster plants. Then they get in the DIMENSION FIVE (1967) Blu-ray. his Amazon lair. A frantic battle ensues, during which ship and come home again. Because Mars is known as Out Now. Kino Lorber. Cert: N/A. the fish-man is badly burned. Returned to the U.S. for the red planet, Pink shot his movie in a process called study, he is given an emergency tracheotomy enabling ‘Cinemagic,’ which makes everything look negative, At the same time as Jeffrey Hunter starred in the him to live on land. It also seems to make him grow a but with a reddish glow. It also gives you a headache. Star Trek pilot show, he toplined this silly sci-fi thriller lot bigger - but maybe that’s because the monster on Finally, when I was a young lad at the mercy of playing Justin Power, a smooth secret agent working land is played by bulky Don Megowan in an ill-fitting raging hormones I spent many a late night developing for Espionage Inc. (a clever title that explains exactly suit. Penned up like a dog in the home of scientist Jeff hairy palms and double vision over the extremely what they do for a living). Better than Universal Morrow, the Creature looks out to sea yearningly, but racy paperback version of (1962) issued Exports we reckon. he doesn’t get up enough energy to bust out of his as a movie tie-in back then. When I eventually got Powers is sent to stop the nuclear bombing of Los chains until Morrow tries to frame him for murder. A round to seeing the movie after many years I was Angeles by a Chinese communist organisation called mediocre script and routine direction make this the very disappointed to discover that all the sexy stuff in The Dragon. This entails him travelling back in time least of the series despite one or two exciting scenes. the book was nowhere to be seen in the movie! What via a handy dandy Time Belt, which also helps keep The Deadly Mantis (1957) is one of the cheapest we’re left with is a pretty pathetic low-budget monster his trousers up. He’s accompanied on his low budget and least satisfying of 50s Universal monster movies, movie, shot in Scandinavia. A group of oil drillers come mission by the sultry France Nuyen (wife of I Spy’s which sees a giant praying mantis thawed out of the up with a mangled tail of some prehistoric beast. The and a frequent guest on that show), and Arctic ice and flying to America to cause havoc in tail starts to regenerate, and it grows into a fierce his nemesis is a sinister character called Big Buddha - Washington DC and New York. It finally meets its end beast that wreaks havoc on Copenhagen. Ridiculous played by Goldfinger’s himself, Harold Sakata, in the Holland Tunnel. Craig Stevens is the stolid hero puppet-type effects doom this one from the start, but who has been dubbed here by . He’s also whose rugged charms steal Alix Talton away from it’s good for laughs on a cliched level. in a wheelchair throughout, like an evil Man Called the arms of boffin William Hopper (good name for a To be fair, all of the movies look pretty decent Ironside, though nobody pushes him around.

30 INFINITY SCIENCE FICTION LIBRARY

Whilst the plot sounds like fun, it’s not. Little use is 1984 interview by Keith Harrison with Briggs’ 1995 minutes, so that the 1980 Special Edition was three made of the Time Belt, Hunter’s character is arrogant follow-up. Notable by her absence is Lalla Ward, who minutes shorter than the original 1977 release. and stupid, and he has zero chemistry with his female seems to have maintained a polite distance from the The Special Edition features several new character co-star. Director Franklin Adreon started his career Who phenomenon (and ex-husband Baker) until 1993’s development scenes, the discovery of the SS Cotopaxi shooting Republic serials but you’d never guess it non-canonical charity reunion Dimensions in Time. in the Gobi Desert, and the aforementioned view of the from the flat way he stages the action scenes. In Whilst I could do without the superfluous scripted inside of the mothership. fact he doesn’t seem to have any directorial flair at sequences (the footage of Mary Tamm and Nicholas But that’s not all folks. In 1998, Spielberg recut all, preferring to leave the camera rolling in a static Briggs as Alice and the Mad Hatter are especially Close Encounters again for what would become the location and pop off to the canteen for a cup of tea irksome), this series provides by far the most in-depth Collector’s Edition, a re-edit of the original 1977 while the actors try in vain to make Arthur C. Pierce’s personal insights into television’s longest-running release with some elements of the 1980 Special naff dialogue sound convincing. You’ll probably want science fantasy franchise. SG. Edition, but omitting the mothership interior scenes to join him. Two sugars please, and a Garibaldi if which Spielberg felt should have remained a mystery. there’s any left. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND 40TH He now regards the Collector’s Edition - also dubbed Extras: Audio commentary by Videodrome (Gideon ANNIVERSARY EDITION (1977) Blu-ray. ‘Director’s Cut’ as his definitive version of the film. Kennedy, Matt Owensby and John Robinson). Opened Out Now. Sony. Cert: PG. Which one is the best? Still the original for me, I’m in 1998, Videodrome is now Atlanta, Georgia’s only afraid. I’m not in favour of all this tinkering. But you video rental store, and these guys find a lot to say Can it really be 40 years since Steven Spielberg’s UFO can make your own minds up because all three are on about this movie in an entertaining fashion. Trailers blockbuster was first released? Apparently so, though this new 4K Blu-ray release. If you have an Ultra HD and stills gallery. AB. it seems like only yesterday to me. Mind you, I was player you can see it in all of its 4K glory. I saw it on abducted by a flying saucer not long after the release normal Blu-ray and it still looks stunning. THE DOCTORS: THE YEARS (2017) DVD. and have spent the last 4 decades in limbo being Extras: All-new interviews with directors Steven Out now. Koch Media. Cert: E. probed in unmentionable places. Anyway, watching Spielberg, J.J. Abrams and Denis Villeneuve reflecting this digital 4K restoration had me entranced and on the legacy and impact of this iconic sci-fi classic, Even as someone who regards Jon Pertwee as “my” humming the aliens’ theme tune - a five-note John Steven Spielberg’s home videos and outtakes, Doctor, I wouldn’t deny Tom Baker was the first of the Williams motif - all over again. Making Of documentary. Steven Spielberg: 30 Years Tardis’ tenants to inhabit the role totally in the public’s In the unlikely event you didn’t know already, the of Close Encounters featurette, 1977 featurette: Close eyes, combining relative obscurity (The Golden film stars (in a role turned down Encounters Of The Third Kind – Watch The Skies, deleted Voyage of Sinbad fortuitously opened just as the by Steve McQueen) as cheerful Wichita, er, I mean scenes, storyboard comparisons, stills and trailers. AB. casting process began) and a personality which could Indiana lineman Roy Neary, who experiences a close fill even a blue box considerably larger on the inside encounter of the first kind when he witnesses UFOs THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957) Blu-ray. than the inside. soaring across the sky. Out November 13th. Arrow. Cert: PG. By 1989, Reeltime Pictures founder Keith Barnfather A close encounter of the second kind then comes had built up a professional relationship with Baker by with government agents unearthing physical evidence Here’s a movie I am absolutely delighted to see getting hiring him for voiceover work on TV commercials, but of extraterrestrial visitors - in the form of a lost fighter an HD upgrade, one of my favourite sci-fi thrillers of was still understandably delighted when the actor aircraft from World War II and a stranded military ship the 1950s, scripted by the great Richard Matheson agreed to be interviewed by Nicholas Briggs for one that disappears decades earlier only to reappear in the from his classic pulp novel. of Reeltime’s Myth Makers video profiles. Unsure middle of the desert. While on holiday with his wife, Scott Carey (Grant exactly how much material would emerge from their Meanwhile Roy becomes increasingly obsessed Williams) is enveloped by a strange cloud. A few days encounter in East Hagbourne, the sleepy village with subliminal, mental images of a mountain-like later he discovers that the cloud was some form of originally used as the setting for 1975’s The Android shape and begins to make a mashed potato sculpture atomic waste, and it is causing him to shrink in stature. Invasion, Barnfather recruited John Levene to provide of it. Seeing a television news programme about a He gets smaller and smaller, until he is eventually dramatic padding by recreating his performance as train wreck near Devils Tower in Wyoming he realises forced to relocate to a doll’s house to get away from the serial’s fake Sgt Benton. As it turned out, Baker was the mental image of a mountain plaguing him is real the family cat! in fine form and Levene’s participation was limited to a and sets off to reach the site where both he and the Later he becomes insect-sized and takes up a rather vestigial cameo at the close. government agents will have a close encounter of the sewing needle to do battle with a spider before the film As with the previous Troughton and Pertwee third kind – contact. reaches its remarkably existential conclusion - one volumes, this two-disc compilation also includes When I first saw Close Encounters I thought it was that leaves us with an interesting view of humanity’s interviews with Baker’s on-screen companions: Lis great, though perhaps slightly overlong, and to be place in the universe. Sladen (filmed in 2000 at Peckforton Castle, location quite honest I was a bit pissed off the aliens were so The special effects are remarkably convincing, and of her first appearance as , The Time benign. Spielberg apparently rushed to complete it the oversized props created for the film were a feature , with Jeremy Bulloch popping up briefly to and when it was a smash hit Columbia gave him $1.5 of the Universal Studios tour for many years, but it’s mention how he’d hoped mediaeval archer Hal might million to produce what became the “Special Edition” Matheson’s intelligent writing that gives this one classic become a regular); actor and novelist Ian Marter, of the film. Their only insistence was he showed the status. Kudos also to director Jack Arnold, who whips interviewed weeks before his sudden death in 1994 inside of the alien mothership so they could have the tale along at a fair old pace, bringing out the 50s (this release includes 12 minutes of previously unseen something to hang a reissue marketing campaign on. paranoia inherent in the scenario. material); Louise Jameson, filmed at a Victoriana In retrospect Spielberg regretted it. This special edition The only false note is struck by the hero’s brief affair museum in 1993; Mary Tamm, wandering around added seven minutes of new footage, but also deleted with a circus midget - the use of a full-size actress for castle ruins in 1990; John “K9” Leeson, combining a or shortened various existing scenes by a total of ten the role was a bad mistake.

INFINITY 31 INFINITY REVIEWS

Extras: Auteur on the Campus: Jack Arnold at Extras: Audio commentary with film expert, Fearful for his daughter’s safety in the wake of Universal – an extended documentary about the Paul Talbot. Audio commentary with Producer, Paul a planet-wide emergency, military officer Kane early career of director Jack Arnold at Universal-In- Maslansky. Interview with film Expert Chris Poggiali. (Daniel MacPherson breaks out of the orbiting base ternational studios. He was of course the filmmaker Run: a look at the challenges of adapting the where he’s stationed and crash-lands upon the behind many of the studio’s greatest sci-fi and horror celebrated novel with Co-Screenwriter, Alan Sharp. surface of his home world. He encounters escaped movies, such as Creature From The Black Lagoon and Road To Hell: Producer Jerome Zeitman details the convict Sy (Kellan Lutz, Ghosts of Goldfield and the Tarantula. There Is No Zero: Writing The Shrinking process of making the film and the difficulties it Twilight series) and offers him sanctuary in a secret Man is an in-depth conversation with author Richard encountered along the way. Landmaster Tales: a underground bunker in exchange for helping rescue Christian Matheson about his father and the creation detailed examination of the now-famous Landmaster the missing Indi (Teagan Croft). Director Shane Abbess of the original Incredible Shrinking Man novel. And as Vehicle from the film. AB. and co-writer Brian Cachia have sketched out a rather a final nice bonus we get the Super 8 cut-down version grim future, but there’s clearly much more in store of the film, which I must have seen about a hundred PHOENIX FORGOTTEN (2017) DVD. for Indi, whose story arc is far better indicated by back in the day. “The mist… that mist!” AB. Out Now. Signature. Cert: 15. film’s US title, The Osiris Child. Ms Croft is impressively confident in her movie debut, and I certainly hope this DAMNATION ALLEY (1977) Blu-ray. I’m no great fan of the “found footage” format; for release proves successful enough to justify a second Out November 20. Signal One. Cert: 12. every [Rec] or The Last Broadcast, there are a dozen instalment. entries where concocted context is deployed to Extras: None on this screener. SG Fox didn’t initially think that Star Wars was going to be excuse ‘shakycam’ amateurism and ill-conceived a box office success, but were really enthused about narrative inadequacies. Unfortunately, Phoenix FEED THE LIGHT (2014) Blu-ray. this movie, thinking it was sure to be a blockbuster. Forgotten falls heavily into the second camp. I’m not Out Now. Intervision. Cert: N/A. Boy did they get a wring number. While Star Wars entirely certain what “shocking untold true events” became a box office phenomenon, Damnation Alley inspired first-time feature director Justin Barber and Based very loosely on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Colour out of tanked so badly that it took me a year to catch up co-writer TS Nowlin (one of the team behind the Maze Space, Feed the Light is an ultra low-budget ($14,000) with it as it slunk round the UK fleapit circuit. Shame, Runner screenplays), but it’s established fact that movie that makes up for any budgetary restrictions because being a big Jerry Goldsmith fan I was looking thousands of people reported seeing unidentified with a great deal of imagination and style. Shot in forward to hearing what his score sounded like in flying objects during the 1997 ‘Phoenix lights’ black and white (apart from intrusions of red, mostly in ‘Dimension 360.’ As it happened, the tiny cinema I incident. The duo use this alleged close encounter the form of blood, and sudden flashes of psychedelic saw it in hadn’t even upgraded to stereo. Jerry had as a springboard, building their initial storyline colour), it’s a bizarre, hallucinogenic trip of a film. previously scored The Illustrated Man for Damnation’s around three Phoenix teenagers who decide to shoot Lina Sunden plays Sara, a young mother who is director Jack Smight. a documentary investigating the phenomenon. (This determined to snatch back the child that she has lost Based on Roger Zelazny’s novel, Damnation Alley section includes one of the film’s rare entertaining custody of. Tracking the father to huge warehouse, she kicks off in a post-apocalyptic environment where the moments, when two elderly astronomers pour scorn breaks in, only to find herself in a strange, timeless only survivors leave an underground military base to upon the youngsters’ “ufo footage” and urge them to world where a mysterious woman and her assistants trek across the desert in a pair of tank-like all-terrain learn how to focus properly.) are keeping a mysterious light source – and where mobile homes. For some odd reason Albany, New The Scooby Gang’s subsequent disappearance in strange shadow monsters lurk in the dark corners. This York is the only place not wiped out, and that’s their the Arizona desert is still a mystery 20 years later, is a world where doors appear and disappear, and no destination. Along the way George Peppard, Paul when a new investigation is launched by Sophie one can leave – but as Sara makes her way through the Winfield, and Jan Michael Vincent encounter mutated (Florence Hartigan, from forthcoming animated various levels of the warehouse, looking for her missing cockroaches, psycho rednecks, weird electrical storms horror Malevolent), whose elder brother was one of daughter and a way to escape back into the real world. (the sky is a different colour in every scene) and pick the original three. Needless to say, her own trajectory This is a film that is more about atmosphere than up sultry Dominique Sanda and juvenile delinquent is equally ill-fated. However, there is a genuine narrative coherence – which is not to say that the Jackie Earle Haley. Oddly enough there is no sex conundrum at the heart of this tiresome 85-minute film doesn’t make any sense but simply that it is between Sanda and any of the men, despite the fact home movie: what on Earth (or elsewhere) persuaded more concerned with creating visual nightmares and that they haven’t had a nibble in years! Ridley Scott to come on board as a producer? For creeping the viewer out than in giving us a straightfor- You know a film is in trouble when the vehicles some, regrettably, Phoenix Best Forgotten will be ward story. In that, it succeeds well, the intentionally the heroes travel in are more interesting than the further proof that his retirement is long overdue. SG degraded monochrome and sepia visuals and the characters themselves, and the effects here are simple but effective shadow creatures, together with pretty awful for a big budget studio production. ORIGIN WARS (2016) DVD / Blu-ray. a succession of weird and unsettling characters, make Okay, so it is just about watchable on a bad movie Out now. Lionsgate. Cert: 15. this a dream-like experience that is best enjoyed by level, but wait until you see that ridiculous ending. not worrying too much about what it all means, and Fair play nevertheless to Signal One for giving this Pitched as the opening chapter in a new science fiction instead allowing it to flow over you. There’s an almost a nice-looking HD upgrade, though the increased franchise, Origin Wars should appeal strongly to fans old-fashioned underground cinema appeal about Feed definition doesn’t help the ludicrous opening scene of Josh Whedon’s short-lived TV series Firefly and its the Light, and director Henrik Moeller does a fine job where we see Jan Michael Vincent on a motorbike with big-screen spin-off Serenity. This is SF without the with minimal resources. This is well worth an obviously human passenger which he ditches to more fanciful Star Wars-style trappings of aliens and checking out. decoy some giant scorpions. We then see that it is an telekinetic monks, a more gritty and character-driven Extras: Making of featurette; interview with Moeller; obvious store mannequin he has fed them. Yeah, sure. action drama than most of its genre contemporaries. trailer. DF.

32 INFINITY THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION

www.infinitymagazine.co.uk www.infinitymagazine.co.uk THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION YOUR BEYOND THE MAGAZINE

IN CINEMAS NOW

KINGSMAN AND THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (15) Their shared nemesis comes in the guise of Poppy () a psychotic megalomaniac who has a thing about 50s TV programmes. Her secret Vietnam hideaway is in the form of a 50’s Diner in the middle of the jungle, where she makes have never seen such excitement by movie fans as I witnessed in London handmade burgers using a man-size mincer…you’re way ahead of me here. recently. The circus had truly come to town as swallowed up Moore is obviously having fun with this character and camps it up to eleven. But ILeicester Square. There was a plethora of stars who turned out for the not as much as her hostage Sir (played by Sir Elton John) who she forces premiere, and each one of course thoroughly delighted to be working with to perform private gigs or get be snuffed out like a candle in the wind. director . Poppy deals in all kinds of drugs and just wants to be taken seriously as a The star names were , Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Jeff Bridges, businesswoman. So she decides to teach the world a lesson by flooding the market , Julianne Moore, Channing Tatum, Hanna Alström, Keith Allen, Pedro with her own brand of deadly narcotics, but can the joint agencies Kingsman and Pascal, Edward Holcroft, Poppy Delevingne, Sophie Cookson and Sir Elton John - I Statesman thwart her evil plans and save the world? Well, anything James Bond kid you not! can do… It was back in 2014 when a British secret service agent called Harry Hart ‘code I loved the first Kingsman. It was fresh and funny, a brash new take on the name Galahad’ (Colin Firth) recruited a young rough and unrefined London lad spy genre done with flair. At its heart was the Professor Higgins/Eggsy Doolittle called Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and trained him up to be a Kingsman, defenders of relationship that really worked well. the downtrodden and saviours of the World. Unfortunately, (I’m sorry to say) the plot of this one isn’t strong enough to sustain The film came from a 2012 graphic novel Kingsman: The Secret a running time of two hours twenty minutes. Having big US stars on board was a nice Service, and was turned into a screenplay by Jane Goldman and Matthew touch, but Channing Tatum’s character doesn’t have enough screen time and I would Vaughn, who also directed the movie which became Kingsman: The Secret have liked to have seen his character getting more involved. Halle Berry’s Ginger Service. The 007 spoof delighted audiences with its action-packed fight Beer is also underused. Queerly. sequences, a razor-sharp wit and an unusual chalk and cheese relationship Jeff Bridges, who I always love to watch, mumbles his way through the film, but between the two main characters. the man does have screen presence. And just to get a little bit ‘Points of View,’ “why, Fast forward to 2017 and Eggsy has matured into a real gent of an agent why, why?” was Sir Elton John asked to be part of the plot? If you use a famous face but maintains his London roots. His friend and mentor Harry was murdered by as a cameo, it’s funny that one time but he keeps popping up as himself ‘effing & Samuel L Jackson’s character Valentine at the end of the first outing. But faithful jeffing’ in silly extended cameos which seem increasingly pointless. gadget man Merlin (Mark Strong) is back, still looking out for Eggsy and doing The other minor gripe I have is the way that the move brings back a couple of his best Sean Connery imitation. There is also a new man in charge, Arthur ( characters who clearly died in the first movie. Yes it’s nice to have Colin Firth recover Michael Gambon). from being shot in the head last time out but this sort of takes away any feeling of Eggsy bumps into an old adversary Charlie real danger. No matter what happens to the main (Edward Holcroft) who went through the Kingsman protagonists, there’s a chance they will still pop up in training school with him but now has an artificial the next in the series, as spry and chipper as ever. hand and works for the bad guys. The early I only have one more grumble, about an confrontation between them turns into a thrilling unnecessary icky-scene where Eggsy has to plant fight in the back of a black cab and on the roof and a tracking device, literally inside the lady parts the open door while speeding through the streets of of Clara, Charlie’s girlfriend (played by Poppy London. A great opener to the film. Delevingne) so she can lead Eggsy and Merlin to a The Kingsman headquarters then get blown up by secret drug factory. Most of the audience made an the unknown organisation who Charlie now works for, ‘Eyeeew!’ sound in unison. leaving Eggsy and Merlin to look for help with their Having said all that, there are some great American counterparts, The Statesmen, who reside moments of comedy and a few good action set in a whisky brewery in the heart of Kentucky. pieces to saver. is a great addition Their first encounter with The Statesmen brings to the cast as agent Whiskey, looking like Burt Eggsy and Merlin face to face with ‘Good Ole Boy’ Reynolds in his Smokey and the Bandit prime. Tequila (Channing Tatum) complete with massive Matthew Vaughn was looking for a Reynolds type for Stetson and shotgun. Tequila introduces them to The the role and he certainly found one. Champ (Jeff Bridges) head of The Statesmen and Taron Egerton is solid, as is Mark Strong as Merlin, the rest of the team, data analyst Ginger Beer (Halle and of course Colin Firth is Colin Firth, always good Berry) and Whisky (Pedro Pascal, Netflix’s Narcos value for money. The film was slightly disappointing and Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones) another for me but I’m sure if the Leicester Square crowd cowboy with laser whip (this is almost getting into was anything to go by it will make a huge amount innuendo territory now). Plus, they have a special of money. surprise in the form of an old Kingsman colleague. Mark Foker.

INFINITY 37 VWORP,Name of feature VWORP! Doctor Who & the Vintage Comic Universe Giacomo Lee chats to a very special fanzine about some of the Doctor’s lesser known adventures…

38 INFINITY Doctor Who Fanzine

n the latest Doctor Who finale, The Doctor also comes with Falls, we saw our titular tied to a free audio a chair, explaining to his captors a theory tale called The Ihe holds that Cybermen are an inevitable Mechanical part of intergalactic evolution. Amongst Planet, a the planets he named where people eventually specially unleashed the peril upon themselves produced were a few of the more familiar names, such as adaptation of Earth and Mondas, along with a reference that a comic would have gone straight over the head of many written by Dalek viewers sitting at home, glued to their own creator himself, Terry chairs : ‘Marinus.’ Nation. This willingness to Any Grant Morrison fans who also watch push out the boat for fans in the movies. Now that the BBC Opposite: ‘Frobisher the the show may have got the reference, though, both content and bonus ephemera has a tighter rein on its licenses, shapeshifting Marinus being the location of his struck me as a reader, and I didn’t the related merchandise is a lot more ’, 1984 art by tale The World Shapers, a comic strip released hesitate to reach out to the zine’s creators, faithful to the TV series and consequently, John Ridgway in a 1987 edition of , back Colin Brockhurst and Gareth Kavanagh, to in my eyes, often a lot less creative and when Morrison was yet to break it big with his find out more on this humbling project of work. colourful compared to the early days. Above left: Vol 3 cover art trademark ‘meta’ take on heroes in capes and by Adrian ‘Ade’ cowls. Marinus on the TV show had been location The main impetus behind Vworp Vworp! Your latest volume features interviews with Salmon

to a species called the Voord, as encountered seems to be to ensure such a rich history comic god Alan Moore and the , Top: Black and by the ; by the time the Sixth Doctor behind Doctor Who is never forgotten, Colin Baker. Who would you like to feature white art by John arrived there in the comics, the Voord had begun regardless of whether its canon or not. Would in future? Do you have a list of ‘dream’ Ridgway from Grant Morrison’s to upgrade themselves into Cyberman form. you say that was the main reason behind interviewees? 1987 World Despite having a history as long as the show, starting the zine? Colin: Alan Moore was such an incredible coup, I Shapers strip this is one of the very few times the revival of Colin: It was Gareth who had already come up don’t know if we could ever top him. But we’d still Also shown: Doctor Who has given a nod to the comics, thus with the idea of Vworp Vworp!, some time before like to talk to Grant Morrison, because he’s Grant Vinyl sleeve art by Tim Keable and making them canon. With so much history and I was brought on board. It was originally to have Morrison and because his Cybermen-on-Marinus the front cover of so many stories told in the Doctor Who universe, been a book, which evolved into a magazine. strip, The World Shapers, is now canon. It would Vworp Vworp! with though, the greatest danger isn’t forgetting Soon after, Gareth was looking for a designer be lovely to chat with the new series’ Doctors, work by various artists what’s in continuity and what isn’t, but how easy and, having worked with me on promotional especially Peter Capaldi - how interesting it it could be to lose hold of all the great material material for the pub in Manchester he was would be to discuss comic strip art with him. and charming idiosyncrasies from the comic running at the time, he asked me. I’d had And Neil Gaiman. And Russell T Davies. Actually, side of the franchise. And that’s where Vworp experience putting together since the lots of people. Vworp! comes in. early 90s, but nothing as sophisticated as Vworp Gareth: I think Colin pretty much has it covered, A fanzine that was first unleashed on the Vworp! - colour, gloss, free gifts! It was very although there’s still so much more to cover. world in 2010, Vworp Vworp! stands out from exciting. Once I’d got my teeth into the project, I’d actually add Martin Geraghty to that list other Whovian projects in the printed realm in I brought in all the stuff about Doctor Who - arguably THE most influential Doctor Who that it solely covers the world of Doctor Who Magazine, and it kind of snowballed from there. comic artist in recent years. comics, with a special emphasis on material To me, the non-canonical material inspired published before the revival. by Doctor Who over the years is often more Vworp Vworp! is unique in how it Coming in at two hundred pages with over interesting than the series itself, and I celebrate commissions artists to finish sadly three covers to choose from, the latest volume everything from the annuals to TV Comic to half-finished comic tales from yesteryear, or

INFINITY 39 Name of feature

then, of course there’s always the increasingly bonkers free gifts we produce, upping the ante every time.

What are your favourite eras of the comics? And are there any eras readers should avoid? (Controversial!) Colin: For me, the exuberance of the 60s comic strips, most of which played fast and loose with Doctor Who as we know it but remained wildly entertaining - often, admittedly, for the wrong reasons. And I think there’s pleasure to be had in all eras. Some I don’t often revisit but there’s always enjoyment to be found when I do. Gareth: For me, it’s unquestionably the post-’79 Tom Baker strips. A portrayal of Doctor Who as bold, bright and conident which must have had an inluence on the last 10 seasons of the show. The backup strips are also wonderful. Dark, grim, nihilistic little slices of death where the universe has to get by without the madman and his box. Moving forward, the Eighth Doctor run is another game changer for the strip, with Scott Gray and Martin Geraghty conidently reshaping Doctor KNOW YOUR ENEMY Who at a time when it would have been all too 1964 was when Doctor Who irst appeared in sequential art form, with all-new adventures for the First Doctor easy to just look back nostalgically. As for those appearing in the weekly anthology TV Comic. Anyone looking to read about the Doctor’s battles with the would that are less successful, the early Sylvester have been disappointed though as despite the advent of Dalekmania there was no sign of the tinpot foes within its McCoy stuff is a little dumbed down, sadly, pages. This was due to the rights being owned by creator Terry Nation, who would soon allow rival comic TV Century 21 although it’s still not without merit. Which, to to publish The Dalek Chronicles, a strip where the species were the starring show - but with no sign of the Doctor, due be fair goes for every era of Doctor Who in every to his usage rights being owned by the BBC. medium! An interesting inversion, you’d agree, and soon necessity demanded the Daleks turn from baddies to anti-heroes in absence of the good Doctor. Many strips saw them ight for survival against the greater of two evils, aliens which never Which classic foes do you think have had appeared on the show such as Mechanoids and Monstrons. Intriguingly, other comics would see extra dimensions interesting portrayals in the comics, showing added to other classic foes, especially in the backup tales that appeared in Doctor Who Magazine, which would pick them in a different light to the TV show? up the comics baton from the end of the ’70s onwards. These stories left out the Doctor to focus on the villains; Alan Gareth: Without doubt, this is a real strength Moore’s The Black Legacy for example saw the Cybermen at the mercy of a sentient virus that haunted their dreams, of the backup strips. The monsters get their in a spooky strip that practically humanised the metal men. These comics also saw the creation of popular characters day in the sun! The Black Legacy Cybermen are such as Abslom Daak, the Dalek-hating mercenary who was popular enough to have his mugshot shown during recent particularly memorable, as is the friendly Kroton revival episode Time Heist. from Soul of a Cyberman. I love the way Steve and Alan Moore are able to consider a single aspect of, say, the Cybermen and spin it off into Above: follow up on forgotten characters specially Even if it was just a whisper or proposal, I think a satisfying and thought-provoking story. Two 1993 Abslom created for the classic strips, e.g. imagining these ‘what if’ pieces is an area in The same goes for Adrian Salmon and Alan Daak sketches by Lee Sulivan Agent 2K. Are there other examples of which Colin and Vworp really excels. Barnes’ The Cybermen strip from the 1990s, these you’d like to do in future, or any other Colin: Haha, we’ll have to talk about that one! which is bold and bonkers. It’s funny how the Right: A Dalek from a comic stories you’d like to re-introduce to a Gareth and I have yet to agree on what falls Cybermen have become the bellwether for 1965 TV 21 comic modern audience, as you’ve done with The within Vworp Vworp!’s scope. For me it’s the change and innovation in the strip! Of course, strip, artwork by Richard Mechanical Planet? art and design of Doctor Who, plus Doctor Who all of these innovations surely have their roots in Jennings (and a Colin: There are actually, most of which I think comics and magazines. the TV 21 Dalek strip, which is almost a Dalek I, big ‘thank you’ to we’d like to keep under our hats for now. One Gareth: Keeps it interesting though! Always Claudius. As far as they are concerned, it’s their Christopher Hill for the scan) day, maybe, we’ll inish Iron Empire, the sequel plenty to explore, within reason of course. And story, they are the good guys! to ( strip) The Iron Legion which Lance Parkin wrote for us that didn’t get beyond a script and a couple of pages of cracking artwork. Gareth: Iron Empire for deinite, such a great story.

I love how VV! not only talks about the comics, but also printed ephemera such as story cards given away with sweet cigarettes back in the 60s. Are there any obscure parts of the Doctor Who franchise you’d like to tackle next? Colin: I’d like to leap into the crazy world of the annuals and get a feel of what it was like to work for World Distributors from artists like Paul Crompton. And I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of Doctor Who Magazine’s comic strip - all 38 years’ worth of it! Gareth: There’s deinitely something to explore in some of the wildly inappropriate merchandise from over the years and the art behind them!

40 INFINITY Name of feature

Above: Which characters or tales from the comic 1980 Black Legacy, art by , and directly would you like to see either on the show or below is the Japanese variant revisited in the current comics? of the Mechanical Planet Colin: I’d like to see the REAL Emperor of the vinyl album, with art by Phil Stevens and Andrew Orton Daleks - I find it quite bizarre that such an iconic design as the Golden Emperor hasn’t made it onto the screen (I’m not counting Remembrance). Editor’s note: a Golden Emper- or-lookalike called the Imperial Emperor featured in TV arc Remembrance of the Daleks. Gareth: You’re spot on with the Emperor Dalek, Colin. It’s a curious miss that one. Alpha and From top: his Humanised Daleks from Children of the The Woman Who Killed The Doctor, art by Steve Andrew, 1979’s Kroton, The Cyber Revolution would be wonderful. Same goes for Companion, art by Steve Dillon, Frobisher (Cyberman companion) Kroton, especially if they the Shapeshifting Companion art by can make him like Luke Cage as Ade Salmon John Ridgway, Vworp Voworp! and Doctor Who Weekly always imagined! Oh, and the Voyager arc, but only as long as they can get Peter Jackson to reconsider directing. At last, the show can approach the heights of visual flair the strip has been delivering for nearly 40 years! Colin: I think Abslom Daak should be seen over Jodie Whittaker’s shoulder in a big Daleky battle scene, but off in the background because I don’t believe any actor could match the Daak conjured up in my head by and Steve Dillon.

Finally, what’s been your proudest achievement to date with the magazine? Gareth: I’m thrilled we managed to get Alan Moore to not only talk about Doctor Who but to engage so thoughtfully and energetically about his work and the contemporary series. It’s also a very sad fact that the Grim Reaper has taken his toll in recent years, so getting the chance to talk in detail with Steve Moore and Steve Dillon about their amazing Doctor Who work was all the more important and really justifies the decision THE MARVELS OF MORRISON AND MOORE we made back in 2009 to explore some of these The monthly Doctor Who Magazine is well-known for being home to original comic tales of the Doctor, but lesser trodden paths. less well-known is that the publication was owned for almost twenty years by the UK branch of Marvel Comics, Colin: Probably finding something new to beginning with its original inception in 1979 as Doctor Who Weekly. Fitting, then, that this would be the place say about the TV Century 21 Dalek strip, and where future stars like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison would cut their teeth. completing a further instalment in the story. Before writing classics like and The Killing Joke, Moore was one of the writers on backup tales in the And giving away an audio play starring David magazine, working for the first time with his future collaborator on for Vendetta, artist David Lloyd. The mag Graham as the Golden Emperor of the Daleks! meanwhile may have been where fellow Brit Grant Morrison picked up his penchant for surreal science-fiction. I’m ridiculously proud of our third volume. Long before Doom Patrol and The Invisibles, Morrison was writing for the Sixth Doctor, the incarnation who arguably had the trippiest escapades of them all in comics (read the dream-based delirium of Voyager for an apt And so they should be! Grab your own copy introduction). These were the same comics where the Doctor was partnered with a shapeshifter most comfortable of Vworp Vworp! Volume 3 at in the body of a penguin, after all. Said shapeshifter, Frobisher, appears in two of Morrison’s tales for the magazine; www.vworpvworp.co.uk, where you can also his final script would see the Seventh Doctor take on an alien-infected dinosaur, of all things. Neither Morrison nor read exclusive excerpts. Thank you to Gareth Moore have written for Doctor Who since the 1980s, but Morrison did sneak a Dalek into the for his first and Colin for talking to us, and I look forward issue of DC’s JLA: Classified! to their next volume.

INFINITY 41 Name of feature

Alan Moore is the undisputed bearded Northampton-based God of the British comics

n 1977, Alan Moore, a twenty-four-year old “The idea that there is something realm, and he has been employee of the Northampton gas board, prestigious about having your work notoriously prickly on the decided to quit his job and pursue a career as made into a ilm, that is something which Ia comic writer. The timing might have seemed infuriates me because it seems to be subject of film adaptations odd to some. Moore was not rich and he was something that everybody else in the married with a baby on the way, but for him it was a industry absolutely believes.” Alan Moore. of his own works, as Chris “now or never” moment. “I knew that if I didn’t give up the job and make Hallam reports… some sort of stab at an artistic career before the baby was born that… I knew I wouldn’t have been up strange connection between the timing of the 1888 for it once I had those big imploring eyes staring up Whitechapel murders and the conception of Adolf at me,” he said later. “So, I quit.” Hitler in Austria-Hungary which occurred at about The gamble paid off. First, it was just a few the same time. From Hell thus seemed rather an odd cartoons in heavy metal magazines and the odd choice for the big screen treatment. Tharg’s Futureshock for the new science fiction On screen: The Hughes’ Brothers broke with the comic 2000AD. But then the trickle turned into a original story early on, choosing to make the tale a flood. Soon came in Warrior, The whodunnit (something Moore had gone out of his way Ballad of Halo Jones and then, amongst many other to avoid doing) and viewing it from the perspective things, Watchmen, perhaps the most acclaimed of Inspector Abberline (’s performance graphic novel ever. In full flow, Alan Moore was virtually identical to his turn as Ichabod Crane in Tim arguably the biggest name in British comics to Burton’s Sleepy Hollow in 1999), rather than from emerge in the Eighties. that of the Ripper himself, who in the graphic novel is Moore was initially keen enough when people identified early on as Sir William Gull (). began to talk of filming his works. The first was Moore’s view: As Moore’s biographer Lance Parkin Return of the (1989), based on a DC has written, the author’s approach to the films at this strip by Moore, but early plans for a V For Vendetta stage was more one of indifference than outright TV series and a film of Watchmen faltered. The hostility. He accepted payment for the film and was timing was not yet right. apparently pleased by the casting of actress Heather By the start of the 21st century, following the Graham as she had a small part in one of his favourite success of Blade and The X-Men, filmmakers began A RIPPING YARN TV shows, Twin Peaks. But having recognised early snapping up every comic or graphic novel they could The comic: From Hell (1989-1996) produced with on it was not going to be very similar to the original get their hands on: Road To Perdition, Ghost World, A illustrator Eddie Campbell. The film: From Hell (2001). story, Moore distanced himself from the film and has History of Violence and TV’s The Walking Dead were Directed by the Hughes Brothers and starring Johnny never bothered to watch it. all consequences of this trend. But the four attempts Depp, Heather Graham, Jason Flemyng, Ian Holm, at filming Alan Moore’s works in the first decade of Robbie Coltrane, Sir Ian Richardson. Verdict: “I’d be quite happy if they made Carry On the millennium yielded somewhat mixed results, In print: Moore’s take on the notorious Jack the Ripping. It’s not my book, it’s their film.” Moore’s and they did not make their creator happy at all. Ripper case is probably one of his less accessible verdict is correct. From Hell is a silly, over-the-top film stories. At one point, for example, it draws a rather full of clichés and bad acting.

42 INFINITY Alan Moore

Worse was to come. A lawsuit was brought against Moore’s view: Although artist David Lloyd enthu- the film alleging it had plagiarised another script siastically endorsed the film, Moore disassociated called Cast Of Characters. Moore, who had never himself entirely from it, even going so far as getting wanted the film anyway was questioned for hours his name removed from the credits. He also expressed because of the suggestion that he had only written anger (apparently still without having seen it) that the the comic as a front to disguise the film’s supposed Wachowskis had used his story to satirise Bush era unoriginality. The case was settled out of court but in America, rather than maintaining the Thatcher-era the meantime the author got very annoyed indeed. anti-fascist perspective of the original.

Verdict: Guilty of the crime of ending Sean Connery’s Verdict: Although not a cinematic triumph by any long film career, The League of Extraordinary means, V For Vendetta was reasonably well received Gentlemen also turned Alan Moore off film versions of by audiences and critics. It’s certainly interesting his comics forever. Not that he was ever exactly super enough to make you wish Moore would lift up his own keen in the first place… self-imposed mask for a moment and take a sneaky peek at it.

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN “Mr. Alan Moore, author and former circus exhibit (as ‘The What-Is-It from Borneo’), is chiefly famed for his chapbooks produced with the younger reader in mind. He astounded the Penny Dreadful world with such noted pamphlets as ‘A Child’s Garden of Venereal Horrors’ (1864), and ‘Cocaine and Rowing: The Sure Way to Health’ (1872) before inheriting a Cumbrian jute mill and, in 1904, expiring of Scorn.” Author description of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (illustrated by Kevin O’Neill, 1999-2007). The film: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). Directed by Stephen Norrington and starring Sean Connery, Shane West, Jason Flemyng, Peta Wilson and Stuart Townsend. In print: Not to be confused with the classic 1960 British movie crime caper starring Jack Hawkins, or the early 21st century Royston Vasey-based dark REMEMBER, REMEMBER… BBC comedy series (both just called The League The comic: V For Vendetta (1982-1989), art by David of Gentlemen), this witty Victorian pastiche was Lloyd (and Tony Weare). The film: V For Vendetta reportedly optioned before artist Kevin O’Neill had (2006). Directed by James McTeigue, written by the even finished drawing the first issue. Bringing together Wachowskis and starring Natalie Portman, Hugo the cream of fantastic Victorian fiction - Captain Weaving, Stephen Fry and the late John Hurt Nemo, the Invisible Man, Allan Quatermain and Jekyll amongst others. and Hyde amongst others – into a formidable In print: A chilling portrait of a futuristic Britain that -style team, it should have been perfect has succumbed to fascism after a limited nuclear war for the big screen. In theory… has destroyed much of the rest of the world. The “hero” On screen: A commercial success, LXG (as some (if hero, he be) is V, a mysterious masked Jacobean promotions referred to it) was an unruly disaster vigilante prone to speaking in strange verse, playing and remains the worst Moore screen adaptation yet. nasty practical jokes and setting up impressive Minor changes were made, such as the introduction and time-consuming displays for his own TRANSFER of characters Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray and amusement. But who exactly is he? And can he save The comic: Watchman is Moore’s masterpiece, there were also issues affecting the copyright of the young Evey Hammond from the dark forces which completed with artist between 1986 and Invisible Man’s character - in the end “an” rather than threaten to engulf her? 1987. It is listed on Time Magazine’s list of ‘’The 100 “the” invisible man appeared. On screen: One big problem with filming V For greatest novels’’. The film of it was directed by Zach But these seemed minor quibbles because the film as Vendetta was the story’s obsession with the concept Snyder in 2009 starred Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, a whole was a chaotic mess and a complete travesty of November 5th. Virtually everyone outside the UK Matthew Goode and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. of the original. It was also a notoriously bad shoot, is unfamiliar with Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Summary: A brilliant and complex saga which with Connery (playing King Solomon’s Mines hero Plot and so a short sequence explaining the idea was transformed the world of comics forever, Watchman Quatermain) falling out big time with director Stephen added for the benefit of our American cousins. The incorporates superheroes, pirates, nuclear “Blade” Norrington. According to some reports, the two nuclear war of the original is replaced by a backstory and an all-powerful blue man who likes sitting around men actually came to blows on set. Connery, a screen involving a devastating epidemic, but generally the in space. legend then in his seventies, vowed never to appear in film is surprisingly faithful to the original. This is, after The film: After a fan-pleasing, superbly made title a film again, and he has kept his word. Norrington has all, a film in which the hero is a terrorist who blows sequence in which we get to see such sights as Dr. never directed another feature film since. up underground trains and it was released only a few Manhattan meeting President Kennedy (before Moore’s view: “The League film cost 100 million months after the July 2005 London bombings. In short, The Comedian, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan because Sean Connery wanted 17 million of that - and some bits don’t work that well - V’s strange rhetoric assassinates him), this does a largely faithful job of a bigger explosion that the one he’d had in his last doesn’t always work on screen and the Benny Hill-like translating Moore’s vision to the big screen. It’s not film. It’s in his contract that he has to have a bigger sequences in the TV show seem a bit odd. Other perfect: Matthew Goode’s Ozymandias is a bit too explosion with every film he’s in. In The Rock he’d elements such as Stephen Rea’s performance as an obviously villainous from the outset and many scenes blown up an island, and he was demanding in The investigating officer and the near-perfect recreation of seem unnecessarily violent. But some sequences– the League that he blow up, was it Venice or something like the powerful ‘Valerie’ sequence from the comic, creation of Dr. Manhattan, for example – are, like the that? It would have been the moon in his next movie.” work marvellously. Valerie sequence in V For Vendetta,

INFINITY 43 Name of feature

transferred perfectly from the comic. Dean Morgan Verdict: Probably the best film adapted from Moore’s has been the animated adaptation of his Superman is especially well cast as the ultra-conservative works. A shame he hasn’t seen it really. He’s not alone, story, Justice League Unlimited: For the Man Who Has Comedian, a man who, despite no obvious super because although not an outright flop, Watchmen Everything (2004), because the producers asked his powers, successfully wins the Vietnam War for the US disappointed at the box office. permission before production and he was pleased at and prevents the Watergate Scandal from happening. the reasonable changes done to the story. The three-and-a-half-hour home video extended FAITH NO MOORE version even incorporates animated Tales of the Watchmen did not mark the end of TV and movie et’s leave the last word to the man himself. “The Black Freighter sequences into the film, pirate stories versions of Alan Moore’s comic stories. We haven’t Lmain reason why comics can’t work as films is which overwhelmed the narrative of the original even mentioned Constantine (2005) starring Keanu largely because everybody who is ultimately comic. Some viewers might be left wondering if Reeves and future Oscar winners Rachel Weisz and in control of the film industry is an accountant. deliberately unleashing a sudden massive unexplained Tilda Swinton which was based on a character Moore These people may be able to add up and balance the explosion would be the best way to defuse a Cold War had created for DC. The well received film spawned books, but in every other area they are stupid and superpower stand-off. They might also ask if Richard a short-lived TV series starring Matt Ryan and will incompetent and don’t have any talent. And this is Nixon really looked like that or if Dr. Manhattan needed soon appear in animated TV form. There is also talk of why a film is going to be a work that’s done by dozens to be so annoying. But these are mostly failings of the rebooting The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of people. comic, not the film. and a TV series of Watchmen is in They’re going to show it to the backers and Moore’s view: Terry Gilliam had originally planned development. And we mustn’t forget then they’re going to say, we want this to direct Watchmen in the eighties with Arnold The Killing Joke, an animated film in it, and this in it... and where’s Schwarzenegger tipped to play Dr. Manhattan, Robin version of Moore’s celebrated the monster? Williams the sinister , Jamie Lee Curtis the Batman story produced with “To quote Raymond Chandler. Silk Spectre and , Nite Owl. Gilliam was Brian Boland in 1988. This was People said: ‘Raymond, don’t ultimately unhappy with Sam Hamm’s script, which released in 2016. Reviews were you feel devastated by how saw Ozymandias travelling back in time to prevent Dr. bad. Meanwhile, Moore now Hollywood has destroyed your Manhattan’s creation, thus changing the course of the continues to refuse official books?’ And he would take Cold War and ultimately saving the world. The project credits and licensing fees for them into his study, point to the fell apart. Twenty years later, it was resurrected, by any film adaptations of his works bookshelf and say, ‘There they which time Moore was dead against it. on principle. The sole exception are. Look, they’re fine.’”

44 INFINITY

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INFINITY Overseas Subscription Rates: Postcode: Europe 6-issue subs: £42, 12 issues: £80 USA and Canada/Rest of the World: 6-issue subs: £48, 12-issue subs £90 You can also pay online via our Paypal account: www.infinitymagazine.co.uk COMIC HEROES A RIP IN TIME It’s time for Allan Bryce to recall the adventures of Rip Hunter… Time Master, a DC comics hero from their Golden Age!

in an effort to blackmail him into giving him , and Rip later helped out Swamp some weapons from the future, but Rip wasn’t Thing and Superman. But in his original having any of it. Good for Rip, I say. He gave incarnation he was just an ordinary guy who him a right pasting at the end, an old-fashioned knocked up his Time Sphere in the garage or uppercut being good enough to defeat even something and then set off on his adventures in the most talented of evil wizards. But Kraklow company with his mate Jeff Smith, his girlfriend managed to hide his magic for the inevitable Bonnie Baxter, and Bonnie’s thoroughly return match. annoying kid brother Corky. Any character I loved that mag and read it many times, but named Corky has a right to be a pain in the arse, was disappointed it was issue 28, which meant I but Corky abused the privilege. had missed 27 issues of Rip’s adventures. If only I had a time sphere I could have gone back in CONSTANT ADVERSARY time and picked them up. I still could, come to In his original incarnation, Rip battled dinosaurs think of it. I live in hope. and had a constant adversary in the shape of A bit about the Time Sphere. It was quite a John Charles James, who was competing with nifty little vehicle, though the see-through look him for a research grant. Why Rip needed a grant probably precluded the inclusion of an onboard was beyond me. A time traveller would surely toilet, which was not a problem because Rip just slip a day ahead, get the down-low on the “What do we want?” and his companions could easily travel back in winning gee-gees and make William Hill suffer. time to before they needed a poo. There was no That was Golden Age Rip, and to be honest “Time travel!” onboard sat-nav, but an Encyclopedia of Time it was the only time I bought his adventures. “When do we want it?” was useful in steering our hero to events that He went to ancient Rome, visited Atlantis and “Relatively speaking, now!” needed correcting. Rip was sensible enough to read the riot act to dinosaurs, giant spiders and create two Time Spheres just in case something aliens. Historical accuracy was apparently not a went wrong with the first. Because you can’t call big deal to the DC writers. ’ve always had a fascination for movies, out Green Flag to the Middle Ages. Having been retired in the 60s, Rip returned books and comics about time travel, which Now a bit about Rip himself. Created by in the 1980s looking not a day older when he II guess stems from when my mum took me writer Jack Miller and artist Ruben Moreira, the aided Cleopatra in her dealings with Julius to see the George Pal film of HG Wells’ The British-born character first appeared in DC’s Caesar (well she did have a lovely asp) and met Time Machine when I was a tender lad of about Showcase 20 in May 1959. The Showcase series up with Adolf Hitler (though he never asked him 11. I loved the movie then and I still love it now, was basically a way of trying out new characters about that one ball rumour). But comic books of and the whole concept of time travel as depicted to see if the public liked them. The most popular the 80s didn’t appeal to me in general. I was out in that wonderful film really sparked my fertile of the Showcase startups was Barry Allen, aka of short trousers by then. Just. young imagination. The Flash. Rip did okay too and after three more Given Rip’s status as the DC Universe’s most I also thought, back then, that I had solved Showcase appearances he was given his own prominent time traveller, I reckon he should the way to create a time travel device. I said to series that lasted 29 issues - so the one I bought definitely get a movie of his own soon, or even in my mum, “If you go really fast from one place first was the penultimate Rip adventure. the past (because he has the capability). On telly to another, you can do it in ten seconds, so it The character was also seen in Challengers he gets a mention in the first season finale of The stands to reason if you go ten times as fast of the Unknown, a quartet of science-fiction Flash show, an episode entitled Fast Enough, and you can get there before you left.” Over to you, adventures created in 1957 by the legendary he popped up in the animated series Batman: Stephen Hawkins, but I think I cracked it, mate. Anyway, not long after I solved the riddle of time travel I discovered Rip Hunter… Time Master, an early and much undervalued DC Comics hero who had the ability to travel in time with the aid of his handy-dandy Time Sphere. The day of revelation came in the summer of 1965 when I was on a monster mag hunt in the long-gone Baldwins newsagents in West Street, Dorking (“only two schoolchildren allowed in the shop at any time and a guaranteed strip search at the door”) and came across a cover in which a long-dead wizard had changed hero Rip into a toothy creature. ‘Beware,’ warned the cover line. ‘This may happen to YOU next.’ Ooh, yes please, I thought. My mates at school wouldn’t half have been impressed. That one issue was all it took for me to get into Rip’s time-hopping adventures. As I recall, the wizard from the past, known as Kraklow, turned Rip into a number of different monsters

46 INFINITY The Brave and the Bold (2011). Nowadays he can Doom. To be perfectly honest I haven’t watched this Anyway, after his wife and son copped it, Rip be seen in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, played by show, so a toss do I not give. went , apparently, which would have been British actor Arthur Darvill (seen above, right) as a What really gets me is the modern age has a unthinkable in my day. He never even tried it on Time Master from the future who has come back to habit of taking our old comic book heroes and with Bonnie Baxter, and she was the sort of bird I’d assemble a team to oppose a powerful immortal. sucking all of the fun out of them. Why does have had a real crush on if I was a cartoon drawing. Rip was written out of the superhero series after the Batman have to be such a miserable bugger these The producer of Legends of Tomorrow says: season two premiere, in a complicated plot involving days? Is it just because Ben Affleck only has that “We’ve got big plans for Rip for next year.” It seems time travel and an atomic bomb. It seems that the one particular look? History has been rewritten, he will be heading up The Time Bureau, which may actor needed to be back in Blighty to film his role which would piss Rip off mightily, and he is now bring him into conflict with the Legends. So our as Rev. Paul Coates in the third and final series of a Time Master from the 22nd century, the son of boy may yet have his time in the sun. Good for him Broadchurch. If he had a real time machine he could Booster Gold (don’t ask because I have no idea who then, but it’s not the Rip Hunter I first discovered on have done both parts at the same time. the feck he is) who is on a mission of revenge after a spinning rack in a long forgotten newsagents of But Rip is back in the new series of Legends of his wife and son were murdered by the villainous my childhood. If only it was still walking distance Tomorrow, having formed his own Time Bureau Vandal Savage. Do I care? Nah. Mind you, if Corky I’d be back there like a shot. The same goes for a to protect the sanctity of history. And now he has had been killed I’d have been having a few sherbert great mate who is a member of my time travelling been transformed into a villain by the Legion of dips in celebration. club. We go back years.

INFINITY 47 CLASSIC AN ALIEN ANNIVERSARY TELEVISION THEY’RE HERE!

he Invaders irst landed on Earth just over 50 years ago. It had only been 20 years since pilot Kenneth Arnold caused a sensation with his June 1947 claim to have seen ‘lying saucers’ above the Paciic Northwest of the US. Now, every week on American television, aliens from a dying world set out to make Earth their new home. Only one man stood in their way: David Vincent, architect. It was up to him to convince Ta disbelieving world not only that the aliens were already here, but that they had taken human form and had begun to iniltrate society… The ‘saga sell’ at the top of each episode of The Invaders set the scene perfectly, with an ominous voice-over narrating images of Vincent’s late night irst encounter with the alien saucer, followed by an eerie theme tune from Dominic Frontiere (The Outer Limits). Each episode would see Vincent - played by Roy Thinnes - uncover the alien presence on Earth, often at a military or research facility or other isolated community, attempt to raise the alarm, and then face the prospect of tackling the aliens alone, or with the help of that episode’s guest star, or battling against human collaborators (in episodes like ‘Vikor’, ‘The Ivy Curtain’, and ‘The Watchers’). So concerned was he with tackling the aliens, David Vincent did very little architecting.

STIFF LITTLE FINGERS The Invaders ran for two seasons across 1967 and 1968, and despite being almost as formulaic as all other Quinn Martin productions that preceded it (The Fugitive, The F.B.I.), there’s something eerie about this show that holds the viewer’s attention, even to this day. The strange alien iniltrators - only recognizable thanks to a defect in their pinkie ingers (where UK punk band Stiff Little Fingers got their name), and with a tendency to vanish in a lare of red light when ‘killed’ - could be all around us at any moment. The background to the aliens was deliberately left unstated, with their planet or species unnamed, allowing the viewers’ imaginations to do the work. Leading man Roy Thinnes (who was paid $7,500 per week) had been a frequent American television guest star (on shows like The Untouchables, The Eleventh Hour, and The Reporter, and as a two-year series regular on ), so was a familiar face, but had never successfully led his own show before. ‘I was very cautious about doing The Invaders,’ Thinnes said in the 1990s, ‘because I always felt that if science iction wasn’t done well, it was embarrassing. (We had) good writers. I was never disappointed, and that’s why the show holds up.’

SOLO QUEST The Invaders was a replacement for the Quinn Martin-produced The Fugitive, which ended in August 1967 with a two-part inale that saw Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) unravel the mystery of the one-armed man and the murder of his wife. Larry Cohen (later the director of the 1982 cult classic Q: The Winged Serpent) created the series, drawing inspiration from ‘alien doppelganger’ movies Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Enemy From Space (1957, the American release title for Quatermass 2, the Hammer movie based on the British 1950s’ TV serial). Cohen also referred to several ‘man on the run’ movies as being inspirations, among them The 39 Steps (1935), Saboteur (1942), and North by Northwest (1959). ‘ABC invited me to come in and pitch some ideas,’ recalled Cohen in a book-length interview with Michael Doyle. ‘In those movies, it was always dificult to distinguish the humans from the aliens, and that was a scary idea.’ Cohen needed a justiication for his hero to move from town to town, never going to the authorities, so he conceived of loner Vincent and his solo quest to thwart the alien menace. ‘ABC went for the idea immediately,’ said Cohen. ‘The Invaders was originally envisioned to be two half-hour shows a week (like the 1960s Adam West Batman), a serial with dramatic cliffhangers. Instead, they decided on a regular one hour show and brought in Quinn Martin’s company to produce it.’ Cohen supplied executive producer Quinn Martin with over a dozen possible storylines for individual episodes of The Invaders, most used in 1967’s 17-episode irst season, although he didn’t directly script any. Anthony Wilson wrote ‘Beachhead’ - the impressive pilot, that set the scene for the series - and The Fugitive’s Alan A. Armer produced. ‘The major thing that the show had going for it,’ said Armer, ‘is the fact that we are all a little bit paranoid. That’s what all real heroes are, if you look at the great myths and legends. Frequently it is one person ighting society, ighting the government, ighting (against) an invisible force... We all relate to that,

48 INFINITY This image: Roy Thinnes as David Vincent, tackling the illegal alien RE! problem head on! Opposite: Roy in scenes from The Invaders episodes ‘Beachhead’ (above, with Diane Baker) and ‘Counterattack’ (below with Ahna Capri), plus some tasty merchandise that we hope the aliens got a cut of the profits for

50 years on from its still debut, The Invaders packs a punch. Eerie and ominous, the series made a star of Roy Thinnes and paved theThe way for the likes of X-Files. Brian J. Robb examines the creation of a landmark science fiction show.

INFINITY 49 BRIAN J.ROBB

in the atmospheric opening episode. Kids across Outer Limits, though it occasionally hinted at America would later build their own Invaders elements of both, but neither was it as childish saucers from model kits, and eventually as Irwin Allen shows like Lost in Space or Land of Top: because his job and his goal are so difficult to got a closer look inside the ship in the early the Giants tended to be. Both in production and Barbara Luna, achieve. Conceptually, that’s what made the second season episode, ‘The Saucer’. on screen, The Invaders was a serious business. Campanella, Allen Emerson and show strong.’ ‘Beachhead’ established Vincent and his Guest stars across the two seasons included Carlos Romero in the Before The Invaders could, um, invade, they ongoing quest. Each episode would unfold across such television or movie faces and soon-to-be- ‘’ episode needed a ship to arrive on Earth in. Designers four ‘acts’ (labelled on screen) and conclude with stars as Susan Strasberg, Forbidden Planet’s Anne Above: for the show drew upon a famous 1950s UFO an ‘epilogue’ wrapping things up. Francis, (The Entity), Jack Lord Roy Thinnes with photograph for the iconic design of The Invaders Quinn Martin Productions was a television (Hawaii Five-0), Peter Graves (Mission: Impossible), Carol Lynley in ‘The Believers’ flying saucers. The notorious 1952 UFO photos factory, producing a high quality shot-on- Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes), Ed Asner of an archetypal flying saucer by hoaxer George location product with little variation. Martin (Lou Grant), , Burgess Meredith, The Above right: One of The Invaders goes Adamski provided the primary inspiration, while was a control freak who oversaw every aspect Day the Earth Stood Still’s Michael Rennie (as an ‘poof’, and we mean a more contemporary 1965 case, when traffic of production, but believed in firmly following alien leader, in the episode ‘The Innocent’), and that in a politically correct fashion engineer Rex Heflin photographed a saucer a formula. As a result of this, there was little Star Trek’s William Windom. Quinn Martin paid in Santa Ana, provided additional details. It episode-to-episode continuity (as was the style over the odds for his episodic guest stars, and so was this ship that Vincent would with most 1960s TV shows), although late in the was able to attract some big names. witness landing second season Vincent does attract a group of ‘believers’, led by industrialist Edgar Scoville PARANOID POLITICS (played by Kent Smith), in one Although the ‘red scare’ of the 1940s and 1950s of the series’ best was in the past, its effects lingered on into the episodes (unsurpris- 1960s with some of those in Hollywood who’d ingly entitled ‘The been blacklisted as suspected Communists Believers’). only beginning to get proper credit for work More often, though, completed under fake names (screenwriter the series played Dalton Trumbo was credited on 1960’s Spartacus out like a formulaic after being blacklisted for almost 15 years). It anthology show, with was easy to see the paranoia of The Invaders - Vincent and the aliens the inability to superficially tell the difference as the only continuing between the infiltrating aliens and humans factors. Despite a - as an analogy to the effects of the cold war distinct lack of humour between the US and Russia. (a frequent Quinn Martin Cohen’s movie inspirations had themselves trait), The Invaders was a hit, been disguised reactions to the McCarthy era, at least at first. The show was not and in a DVD audio commentary for the episode as weird as The Twilight Zone or The ‘The Innocent’, Cohen admitted to essentially

50 INFINITY THE ANDRSON TAPES This image: The classic image of a flying saucer was utilised for the series, and on the left David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) gets to look inside one

replacing Communists with aliens. In the second season episode ‘The Trial’, an alien is even referred to as ‘a card-carrying member from outer space’. ‘The Invaders was definitely a show of its era,’ noted Cohen. ‘It related to the fraught times we were living in and the paranoia about Communist infiltration in America. It was this FAN FAVOURITE EPISODES atmosphere that made me want to write The Invaders, (as) a way to explore the political climate. I thought the subtext was obvious, but The Invaders -the top ten episodesThis according page: to some people involved with the show it clearly The lovely Monica to the show’s fans! Vitti as Modesty wasn’t. They didn’t understand any of that!’ Blaise, seen with The Invaders concluded at the end of the 1: Storm: David Vincent is contacted by a meterologistco-stars Dirk to Bogarde and extended 26-episode second season without a publish comics based upon Star Trek) also issued help investigate the suspicious nature of a hurricaneTerence Stamp. along proper wrap up, unlike Quinn Martin’s previous a comic book version of the show. the Eastern U.S. coast. Above, Patrick show The Fugitive. In a kind of victory, the That was it for The Invaders, apart from McGoohan as John Drake, also final instalment, ‘Inquisition,’ does see Vincent occasional re-runs (BBC2 in the UK repeated the 2: The Ivy Curtain: Vincent discovers that a schoolknown as in Danger New achieve one of his aims by persuading an series periodically from the mid-1980s through Mexico is really a front for an alien indoctrinationMan and centre Secret Agent influential figure, an assistant to the Attorney to the early-1990s). The premise was revived with some otherworldly students. General, that the alien threat is real. The invaders in 1995 for a disappointing two-part themselves are repulsed, temporarily at least, television mini-series starring Scott Bakula 3: Wall of Crystal: David’s brother, who also thinks he is and the closing narration on the final episode (Quantum Leap, Enterprise) as the new crazy, is kidnapped by the aliens who intend to destroy the suggests that when they return Vincent will no investigator of the alien threat. At the oxygen in our planet’s air. longer be operating against them alone - he now star of the second episode Roy Thinnes has powerful allies. appeared in a brief three-minute cameo 4: The Innocent: An alien (Michael Rennie) captures Unfortunately, there would be no third season as David Vincent, effectively passing the torch Vincent and convinces him he’ll be taken to a paradise as that would see the aliens face such an organised to Bakula’s Nolan Wood. Despite that, the new proof of the invaders’ peaceful treatment. The invaders counter-attack. The high ratings of the first mini-series featured little continuity with the conspire to destroy both of them. season had all but collapsed during year two, original show. so a disappointed ABC pulled the plug on The At its best, the original show had anticipated 5: Valley of the Shadow: After an alien is captured in a Invaders after 43 variable episodes. Cohen, the 1990s alien-battling series like The X-Files small town, Vincent warns the townspeople, who assume having moved onto pastures new by then, and Dark Skies, while this mini-series was simply that their captive is a madman. learned about the cancellation in the Hollywood a poor imitation. In an homage to the show, The trade papers: ‘I was so removed from the show X-Files featured Thinnes in a pivotal role at the 6: Dark Outpost: While investigating the invaders’ at that point; I really had nothing to do with end of the third season. susceptibility to minor human ailments, David Vincent is it by the time it was cancelled. As the show Looking back on the series, Larry Cohen unknowingly taken aboard an alien spacecraft. progressed I tried to give them some advice on laments his lack of creative control - although where I thought the show was going wrong, (but) the show’s creator, he had not been involved in 7: The Enemy: Despite Vincent’s warnings, a nurse tries to they weren’t interested. I wanted to make my its production. ‘I would have insisted there be help an injured alien survivor of a saucer crash. own movies; television was too difficult fewer invaders, that’s for sure,’ he says. ‘Every and restricting…’ other person on the show seemed to be an alien! 8: The Watchers: A hysterical hotel manager tells Vincent The open-ended nature of the conclusion Roy Thinnes was knocking them off left and that he fears aliens are taking over his hotel. left the way clear for future follow-ups. A series right, (so) there was no real suspense or fear. of nine pulp novels inspired by The Invaders The invaders were so vulnerable to Vincent, 9: The Saucer: Vincent battles, then destroys an alien appeared between 1967 and 1969, with the it negated the threat. They just went ‘poof’ guard and captures one of their spacecraft. authors including acclaimed science fiction and they were gone! The infiltration idea was novelist Keith Laumer (who also wrote a trio of intended to generate paranoia and suspicion. 10: The Organization: Vincent joins forces with the mob novelizations of classic British telefantasy series That was part of the fun. Ultimately, The Invaders when the aliens inadvertently take their illegal shipment The Avengers). Gold Key Comics (the first to was executed with a lack of imagination.’ of drugs.

INFINITY 51 This image: The USS Enterprise as seen in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984) and below two scenes of it in action in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Oscar-honoured effects wizard Ken Ralston takes Infinity’s Calum Waddell through his time organising the visual excess of Captain Kirk and company...

52 INFINITY THE TREK EFFECT

pecial effects geniuses rarely get more hired. It was as simple as that, or at least that is how S legendary than Ken Ralston, who can simple it used to be (laughs). They shipped us off to boast about being a five-time Academy the Enterprise and off we went. Award winner, including nods for (1983), Cocoon (1985), Who Framed Unlike the first film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Roger (1988), (1992) Khan was a critical success, fans loved it and, to and (1994). A Hollywood legend in his this day, it is rightly seen as a sci-fi classic. The field, Ralston also worked concurrently on the first visual effects are obviously top notch and you three Star Wars films and the very best of the Star really helped to reinvent the franchise. Trek cinematic universe. It is the latter achievement Well, yeah, it was a really rewarding film, and then that Infinity explores in this candid interview which when we did The Search for Spock we had a lot more takes in his time working alongside the late Leonard money, and it showed on the screen. Nimoy on 1984’s often undervalued space epic The We had all these different sets, very ambitious Search for Spock sets too, and a lot of new spaceships had to be designed and created for the film. That was a really You swapped Star Wars, on which you were an exciting project to make because there was so much assistant cameraman on the special effects unit to be done. for both the 1977 movie and 1980’s , for Star Trek in 1982 when you Why do you think 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion signed on as the visual effects supervisor for Picture didn’t work so well? The Wrath of Khan. Then you were back with It was trying to be a big epic film, maybe a bit like Lucas for Return of the Jedi before supervising 2001, and quite pretentious, but the fans wanted the visual effects for Star Trek III: The Search Star Trek though a more cinematic version of it. With sure the audience was not, for instance, going to for Spock in 1984 and Star Trek IV: The Voyage The Wrath of Khan we gave them that. question the Enterprise and how fast it was moving. Home in 1986. That makes you quite an anomaly Everything needed to look smooth. This was not Star - a fixture of sci-fi’s two biggest franchises Trek for television, this was Star Trek in the same era during their greatest cinematic outings. You Talk to me about some of the pressures you as Star Wars. must be incredibly proud? faced on The Wrath of Khan given that this was That is a good question but I am actually unsure ‘make or break’ time for the franchise... The Wrath of Khan also famously features the on how to answer it because I honestly do not even It was a challenge and I had a great team of people monstrous Ceti eels, which are placed in the know how it even happened (laughs). I was working working with me on the visual effects, I had a lot ear of the luckless character of Chekov. It is a at ILM, and ILM was the place to be for visual effects of model guys who would jump through hoops nightmarish moment that few fans have ever - there was no competition to speak of at that time. I for everything that I needed and I had a bunch of forgotten and it really sets the pace for the think that probably boils down to how much money people helping me with the lighting as well. I was film, indicating it is going to be a very different the Star Wars movies were making and how much doing a lot of testing on a lot of the set-ups so I experience from the more benign original talent came out from that film and faced demands needed a good, fast team of helpers. Trek movie. Did you get free reign to design on their time. There really was not a lot of time to mess around these creatures? What I remember about getting Star Trek II: The on Star Trek II. I was shooting everything myself, if I Nicholas took some of my suggestions on board. So, Wrath of Khan was that they wanted to make a could, and I had a bunch of people helping me to do yes, a lot of the stuff with the Ceti eel, I was left to sequel but they were disappointed about how much that, including at night. shoot that thing. Nicholas was very open to ideas the first film made and the whole experience of it. We had a lot of work to do at night, which was and happy that everything was looking good. After So the producers came in to ILM and just started obviously exhausting. Then I would go into the that he just backed off and let us do what we wanted. talking to us. It was general, optical department and check on the shots to see We did have storyboards of course, it was not as if I just a case of ‘What can we do how they were looking. I would go to the dailies, was saying ‘hey, I am going to just make a bunch of better and different this time?’ look at them with everyone and comment on how stuff from the top of my head.’ We ran everything by I think the director, Nicholas the ships were looking against the blue screen, we him that we were planning to do. Meyer, was also there at that wanted this to look as impressive as it could given it initial meeting, because we was model work and this was in the days before CGI. Do you remember the Ceti eel scene fondly? hit it off and after that I was So getting the light right was vital - you had to make I recall that everyone was very accommodating and was willing to do whatever it took for the shot. So I was sticking these eels on Chekov’s face and no one was complaining that we were going too far or anything (laughs). The actors were just doing what needed to be done. Every one of the cast knew we were working hard to make our special effects scenes look special so we probably had an audience for that moment (laughs).

It has been rumoured that the sequence was more gruesome originally but it was cut down. Oh no, no, no, what could there possibly still be to use? I think you have seen every last frame

INFINITY 53 NameCALUM of WADDELL feature

Above: of everything that we shot on The Wrath of The Wrath of Khan Khan. I mean, what else could we put in that may be the Trek film that is closest in spirit scene? It went as far as we possibly could. to the original TV show, but The Search The Wrath For Spock (below) is Was the turnaround on completing also a fan favourite of Khan quite demanding? and Ralston enjoyed working on the movie Yeah, it was a very compressed shoot. The shoot with its director in LA went very fast and then at ILM we had Leonard Nimoy to get a lot of work done very quickly, which required a great deal of creativity. I think it was all done in under a year. Again, Star Trek: The Motion Picture had been a disappointment, so they wanted Star Trek II to work, but that meant they were still being cautious, it was only with the third film that we got more budget.

Do you have a favourite of the Star Trek films you worked on?

54 INFINITY KEN RALSTON

For me it is The Search for Spock. Can you talk about the design process for the Above: The new Star Trek films, of course, are Star Trek movies? Another view of powered by CGI. How do you feel about the the Enterprise I really like The Search for Spock too but the I tend to sketch everything. Even if my sketches from The Search new technology? general consensus is that The Wrath of Khan are somewhat less than I want them to be, it just for Spock. Visual If CGI is in the hands of the right people and effects supervisor is the better of the two. puts my brain into a place where I can begin Ken Ralston and used the right way then it is wonderful. You The whole tone and intention of The Search for looking for basic forms (laughs). So when I am his team were see a lot of bad work and a lot of stuff that Spock was different from not just the previous asked to design something I just start to sketch involved in this relies on it too much. movie from the film but everything we knew about Star Trek. I because I have done it that way for my entire planning stages It is still a problem, although it is getting grew up as a huge Star Trek fan, I really liked the life. I start to doodle and draw and if something better all the time, but any kind of computer show, I had a lot of fun watching it and I never clicks I will try and explore that in a drawing graphic stuff is very difficult to composite, dreamed that I would end up working on it. So up to a certain point but, rather than show the light, and get it to the point where it looks any chance to be involved was great but I always director a bunch of sketches, I prefer to assemble real without it becoming a nightmare. Some pick that movie out as the one I had the most a model because it gives them a better idea and people are certainly doing it well but it is very fun on. What I really enjoyed about it was the makes the thing a lot easier to sell. difficult for most houses to accomplish this. creative freedom - for instance, I loved working So for the Klingon dog, I sculpted that for Star It is a hard thing to take you to a place where on the Bird of Prey ship that you see in that film. Trek III rather than say ‘here is a sketch’, but I you build a model, or have a real creature on showed them a handful of drawings of the ships the set, you get all that for free. You mean on the visual effects and design? that we were designing for that movie. That is The only thing you don’t get, and this is the Yeah, for instance one of my favourite creations also how we created the Cite eel in The Wrath of only issue with anything that is on a set – and is the Klingon dog that you see in The Search for Khan, I sketched them before I sculpted them. these stories are rampant – you build this Spock. I designed that, and it was great. I loved It really just depends. Sometimes I want to see beautiful thing or not so beautiful puppet and creating that beast (laughs). something in three dimensions so I can tell it just breaks. if it will work. If it is a large enough thing, the physics of How was Leonard Nimoy as a director on The how you build puppets and things... there is Search for Spock? You mentioned that you were a fan of only so much you can do and you cannot cross I had a great time with Leonard, he was a really Star Trek as a young person - was it the line where you get into the subtleties and good guy. He was just as nice on The Voyage surreal to work with Leonard Nimoy as nuances that you can get into with computer Home. A great man to collaborate with. a director? animation. There is just no way. But each one It was hilarious just to walk on the set of has its use and each one has its pros and cons, Did you sense any concern from him that he The Wrath of Khan and see all of those practical or CGI. It comes down to the movie was not going to be in this movie until a brief guys who I had grown up watching on and the design of it. appearance at the very end? television. It was good to get to know them I am happy to use CGI but it just comes Some, but it was purely the call of what the a little bunch. They were a pretty quirky down to what is best for the film. In the end I movie was going to be about. He was gone at the bunch and I really liked their company but, have to say that Star Trek 2 most successfully end of The Wrath of Khan so he knew that his yeah, being such a huge fan it was quite a captured what the old show was – whether hands were tied. weird experience! good or bad (laughs).

INFINITY 55 CLASSIC TELEVISION THE NOT-SO- GREEN GIAN

‘DON’T MAKE ME ANGRY - YOU WOULDN’T LIKE ME WHEN I

56 INFINITY O-JOLLY BANNER BANTER GIANT The Incredible years ago in November of 1977, long Hulk before computer-generated FX, turns 40 television audiences were introduced to a living, breathing Incredible Hulk 40 this year, and loved him, starting a worldwide interest in Marvel superheroes that continues to this day. well, his TV In an age when Marvel movies dominate the box office and even the most obscure of their characters seem to merit their own television shows - Daredevil, Iron Fist, incarnation Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Agents Of Shield (which is hitting 100 episodes), Legion (an X-Men spin off) and does, anyway. even the cancelled Agent Carter, it’s hard to imagine a time when there were no Marvel TV programmes at all. Pat Jankiewicz The Marvel age truly began in 1977, the same year that George Lucas’ Star Wars changed Hollywood and started takes a look an audience thirst for all things fantasy. The two most recognisable Marvel characters worldwide to this day are back at the The Amazing Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk, so it’s only appropriate that they would be Marvel’s two original live action adaptations. small screen What made Marvel Comics stand out is they gave readers the opposite of the staid superheroes to be found origins of one of in DC Comics. and a battery of now-legendary artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created anti-heroes Marvel’s most who did right thing but still found their motives questioned by a suspicious public and were hunted by memorable the police. Spidey was a nerdy teenager who would turn had just come off a long run on The Six Million Dollar sarcastic only when his mask was on. Bruce Banner was a Man TV series and he had created the incredibly popular mild mannered scientist who was caught in the blast of spin-off character, The Bionic Woman, so he was a bit characters… his own gamma bomb and miraculously survived, only tired of science fiction. to find that in times of stress he would turn into a “Universal Studios had just bought the rights to seven-foot green monster full of incredible strength several Marvel Comics Superheroes, including Captain and limitless rage. America, The Human Torch, Ms. Marvel and the Hulk,” Johnson remembers. “(Then head of Universal television) BLAND DO-GOODER Frank Price asked me which one I wanted to do and I The first TV movie out of the gate, The Amazing thought to myself, ‘Gee, Frank, none of them!’” Spider-Man, failed to capture Spider-Man’s flippant While trying to think of a polite way to pass on the personality, something so beloved by readers of the characters, “I was reading Les Miserables, a gift from my comics. TV Spidey was a bland do-gooder who saved the wife Susie. I had Jean Valjean and The Fugitive TV series day because that’s what TV heroes did. He never started in my head in the shower, as I was thinking of how I was out selfish and learned right from wrong after indirectly going to turn Frank down on the Marvel superheroes, causing the death of his Uncle Ben because there was when I suddenly thought, ‘Maybe there’s a way to take no Uncle Ben (unless he was selling rice during the this ludicrous thing called The Incredible Hulk and turn commercial break, Ed). it into something with Victor Hugo and Robert Louis His comic book supporting cast didn’t fare much Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll And Mister Hyde.’ better, particularly J. Jonah Jameson, his biggest critic, “I read The Incredible Hulk comic and it has an who knows Spider-Man is really a good guy but beats him interesting concept at the core of it. I wanted to do that up in editorials because it sells newspapers. On TV, the as real as possible, wanted to take this man, who turns irascible Jameson is an avuncular Perry White type who into this large green creature, and translate it into the real just wants to meet Spider-Man. world. I wanted it as realistic as it could possibly be. My “They put Spider-Man in situations that any TV Hulk would NEVER meet The Men From Outer Space!” detective could handle,” grouses Spidey co-creator Stan Lee. “I tried to tell them what they were doing was wrong, HIDDEN STRENGTH but they just wouldn’t listen!” Johnson’s 1977 pilot was sombre and interesting. N I’M ANGRY!’ Marvel’s second TV project, The Incredible Hulk, took a Dr. David Banner is mourning the death of his wife Laura, vastly different approach. Its producer Kenneth Johnson lost in a car accident that he failed to free her from.

INFINITY 57 journalist from a tabloid rag. I didn’t want to do The Incredible Hulk at all originally, but now I was actually getting excited about it. McGee is the one who names him ‘The Incredible Hulk’ in the pilot! If you read my original script, you would notice that the word ‘Hulk’ never appears outside of the title - only in Jack’s mouth. In our scripts for the show, we always called The Hulk ‘the creature.’” Attempts to cure Banner of his monstrous condition lead to the accidental death of Elaina on the tyre iron, an exasperated Banner suddenly Marks, which is blamed on the Hulk. Banner begins a monstrous transformation. His pupils lets the world believe he is also dead as McGee dilate, his skin takes on a greenish tinge as his pursues the Hulk for crimes he did not commit, mass increases, ripping through his shirt, and and Banner hits the road looking for a cure. his feet explode from his shoes. He growls and The pilot was impressive, a thoughtful, serious roars in guttural rage, as he demolishes his own look at the character that took his situation car and hurls it into a ravine and races off into seriously. Although Hulk co-creator Stan Lee the night. wasn’t thrilled with Johnson changing Bruce The next morning, the creature comes across Banner’s first name to David, he appreciated the a little girl, who flees in terror in a canoe. She approach: “It wasn’t our Hulk, but it was a good starts drowning, so he knocks a tree over to Hulk,” Lee declared. rescue her. Misunderstanding what’s happening, her father shoots him in the shoulder. Bellowing AN ESTABLISHED STAR in rage, he smashes the man’s rifle and hurls The biggest change over previous comic book him into the water. Catching his reflection in the adaptations like Superman and Batman is water, the creature changes back into Banner. that it wasn’t hokey or a parody, and all of it Making his way back to The Culver Institute was centred by a brilliant lead performance (Culver is Kenneth Johnson’s middle name) he from Bill Bixby. When Bixby agreed to do tells Elaina everything and enlists her help for the series, he was taking quite a chance. All a cure. previous TV superheroes, George Reeves’ Being a scientist, Banner looks on his Hulking Superman, Adam West’s Batman and Lynda alter ego as a disease like cancer, referring to it Carter’s Wonder Woman were unknowns. Bixby clinically as his “condition”. The brilliant conceit was an established star, and he was taking a of the series is that its reluctant hero is trying to chance because he believed in the concept and bring it to an end by curing himself. “I want to be Johnson’s strong pilot script. Above: Now Banner is at the Culver Institute, studying Dr. Banner NOT Dr. Jekyll,” he pleads. “I am terribly proud of that first movie, the How many can you handle? “The hidden strength that all humans have” and Reports of the creature have caught the origin of The Hulk,” Bill Bixby prophetically told interviewing people who were able to save their attention of seedy tabloid reporter Jack McGee Marvel’s Hulk Magazine in 1978. “I believe that clowns on set with loved ones in similar situations. This concerns his (Jack Colvin), who suspects the science centre in the long run, the original movie itself will two of his stunt doubles fellow Doctor, Elaina Marks, who feels his interest has something to do with the creature sighting. become a classic - a television classic. I really borders on obsession. Banner believes gamma McGee confronts Banner and Elaina with a do believe that. The sensitivity of the Hulk is as Top: Bill Bixby about radiation is the key to triggering that strength. plaster cast of The creature’s footprint. McGee important as his strength. In fact, a great deal of to transform into Alone one night, Banner gives himself what says the footprint comes from a “Big Hulk, about his strength may be the fact that he is sensitive Lou Ferrigno he believes is an injection of 300,000 units of seven feet tall. Greenish tinge to the skin. Pretty as well as strong.” gamma radiation. Instead, it’s over two million mean looking.” Johnson feels part of the show’s appeal is units, sure to be fatal dose. He also notices his “Jack McGee is the Inspector Javert character that Bixby’s Banner “has problems; Banner’s strength hasn’t increased. His theory is a bust. from Les Miserables,” Kenneth Johnson explains. problem before anger, was obsession. With the Driving home in the rain, Banner gets a flat “ I didn’t want to make McGee a cop like death of his wife in the pilot, I wanted to draw tyre. Trying to change it in a storm on a lonely Inspector Javert, because The Fugitive did that the audience into his obsession. He could not country road proves frustrating. Cutting his hand with Inspector Gerard, so I made him a yellow save his wife, so that fed his obsession to find out why he couldn’t and why other people could under similar circumstances. It’s very poignant, “ Lou, a 6’4” muscleman, really had the ‘Hulk look.’ Lou sweet and human. I was trying to humanise The Hulk and get him away from his comic-book had never acted before, but did a really great job. Lou is sensibilities and into the real world.” FINDING THE PERFECT HULK deaf, but he worked really hard. He never gave us any As important as casting Banner was, the success of the show was even more dependent on casting trouble or bullshit getting the acting and makeup on. ” The Incredible Hulk himself. Could they find

58 INFINITY someone the audience would accept as a giant and Kenny were nervous; they had to re-shoot green manifestation of Bill Bixby? “Finding the half the pilot and they really didn’t know if it was perfect Hulk was also a challenge,” sighs Johnson. gonna work or not.” “I actually cast Richard Kiel ( in the James The Hulk’s green skin was provided by Kryolin Bond movies) as The Hulk for the pilot and we Makeup #512, which the company later dubbed shot a week with him. There’s a shot of him “Incredible Hulk Green.” For the ongoing series, looking down before he pushes the tree over to Banner would show up, working as a janitor, save the little girl and that is the only shot of Dick gardener, handyman or chauffeur, staying Kiel as The Hulk that remains in the pilot.” with a local family, become involved with their less, The Incredible Hulk went an astounding five Above: Mean, green and While Richard Kiel is tall, he doesn’t resemble the problems and try to help them resolve them. seasons, the last one abbreviated by a Writers’ on your screen. muscular Marvel Hulk. “I wanted an actor for the When the bad guys attacked him, he would Hulk Guild strike. We loved him part of The Hulk,” says Johnson. “We looked at out twice an episode. “That’s basically all we when he was angry and The the dailies, and his Hulk wasn’t really giving us could afford,” the producer jokes. TV MOVIE TRILOGY Incredible Hulk the visual that we needed for the character. The On the show, Banner helped families dealing The adventures of Dr. Banner proved so popular, became one of the most popular and network and studio both wanted us to re-cast with alcoholism, stress, rage, even child abuse. he was revived for three TV movies 10 years longest-running Hulk and go with a muscleman.” Metaphorically, he was dealing with people who after the series. Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno superhero shows The late Richard Kiel was not enamoured with had a Hulk of their own - a problem that was hadn’t aged that noticeably when reprising their on TV! the role. “I was The Hulk in part of the pilot that impacting them from enjoying their own life. greatest roles. In The Incredible Hulk Returns, we shot. I had a really difficult time with the Johnson had ground rules for the show. The Banner teams up with a loosely adapted version contact lenses that you had to wear as the Hulk. Hulk was less powerful than in the comics, his of to battle gangsters (including Charles When the first night of shooting was over, they strength was now more in line with a TV budget. Napier). There is a short but fun Hulk/Thor fight. handed me a towel and a jar of paint remover He felt The Hulk talked stupidly in the comics, so The second one, The Trial Of The Incredible and said, ‘You’re on your own, baby.’ What you on the show, he could only growl in inarticulate Hulk, pitted the Hulk and Daredevil against really need after playing The Hulk is a little rage. Those guttural sounds were provided by a really crappy version of the Kingpin. In a Japanese woman with a scrub brush. The green , ‘Lurch’ on The Addams Family, who historical footnote, it featured the very first body makeup covered everything - legs, feet, also did the show’s opening narration. When cameo by Stan Lee, as jury foreman at the Hulk’s arms and face!” he passed away in the show’s second season, trial. The finale, directed by Bixby himself, Death Johnson “had already met with Arnold character actor Charles Napier, the luckless cop Of The Incredible Hulk, killed off David Banner Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno when I was Dr Lecter murders and strings up in Of and The Hulk. There were plans for a movie looking for The Hulk. Arnold’s 5’10”, but the The Lambs did the honours through the run of reviving them, but they were never followed creature is much bigger. Lou, a 6’4” muscleman, the series to the later TV movies. up on. Rumour has it that Bixby’s battle with really had the ‘Hulk look.’ Lou had never acted The Hulk actually got to speak in a later pancreatic cancer may have started at this time, before, but did a really great job. Lou is deaf, episode (sort of), when Banner, caught in mid when he decided to leave the Hulk for dead. but he worked really hard. He never gave us transformation in the Johnson written/directed Bixby did reprise the character for a She-Hulk any trouble or bullshit, getting the acting and two parter “Prometheus”, speaks in a guttural, TV movie, but the studio and network pulled the makeup on.” rage filled voice, provided by Bill Bixby. plug on it early on. His disability was something the show had The Hulk could not hit anybody. (“It would be Of course, The Incredible Hulk TV show’s to overcome, “particularly in the beginning,” totally unfair, with the size of his fists - which biggest contribution to pop culture may be the Johnson says. “During one action scene, Lou was made sense, David Banner was a doctor, not phrase “Don’t Make Me Angry. You wouldn’t tiptoeing gingerly at a snail’s pace. I’m shouting a brawler so, in theory, The Hulk wouldn’t be like me when I’m angry”, made famous in the at him, ‘LOU, GO FASTER! FASTER, LOUIE!,’ and either. The Hulk was not bulletproof as he was show’s opening credits. The pilot introduces the it suddenly dawns on me, ‘He’s deaf!’ I realised in the comics and occasionally bloodied by line where Banner cautions McGee to back off. I didn’t need a megaphone when I worked with bullets and meat cleavers. Hulk would grab and Banner snaps, “Mr. McGee, don’t make me angry. him, but a magnifying glass, so he could read throw opponents, who would land on a couch You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” my lips!” or cardboard boxes (which were what stuntmen “I do love that line,” says Kenneth Johnson. used before airbags became popular). “For take one, Bill Bixby played it angry, ‘DON’T ou Ferrigno remembers his first time as Poor Hulk was also kept from his usual comic MAKE ME ANGRY - YOU WOULDN’T LIKE ME The Incredible Hulk. “The entire crew was book opponents, like aliens, robots and other WHEN I’M ANGRY!’ I said ‘Cut, cut, cut,’ then Lstaring at me, because I had the contact gamma-spawned creatures, although this rule went up to Bix and whispered. ‘Bill… it’s a joke.’ lenses, wig, green paint and everything on. I was relaxed by the fourth season two-parter He said, ‘Oh, okay, got it!’ and he came was excited to get the part because I had been a “The First”, where Banner battled an older Hulk back and did it. Take Two is the one that is in huge Hulk fan, I loved him, Spider-Man and The (played by a pre-Swamp Thing Dick Durock). the pilot and is seen in the main title. Of course, . When I was a kid, I used comics While most superhero shows like Batman, we the audience already know why you wouldn’t to help me overcome things in my life. The key to Wonder Woman, Spider-Man and The Greatest like him when he’s angry - we saw what he did The Hulk is his sensitivity not his inner rage. Bill American Hero stalled out at three seasons or to the car.”

INFINITY 59 MARIO’S MADCAP MASTERPIECE

f you pick up the current issue of our sister magazine The Dark Side you’ll be able to read all about the fascinating life and career of Mario Bava, a Jack-of-all-trades of the Italian film industry who worked in just about every genre going, Iback in the day. Though Mario is most remembered for really atmospheric, beautifully photographed horror movies like Black Sunday, Black Sabbath and Blood and Black Lace, he also worked on everything from Viking epics such as Erik The Conqueror (out now on Blu-ray from Arrow) to spaghetti westerns like Roy Colt and Winchester Jack and daft spy-fi movies like Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. Also pretty daft, but a whole lot of breezy fun was Danger: Diabolik, Allan Bryce takes a released in 1968 and based on the hugely successful Italian comic strip character, ‘Diabolik’, a master criminal who fought evil with look at Mario Bava’s evil, even resorting to murder if necessary. Diabolik was a jet-setting superman sort of like the James Bond of crime, though he made his swinging 60s spy-fi own gadgets rather than relying on ‘Q’ branch. classic, Danger: AFTER BARBARELLA A psychedelic pop art extravaganza with colours that sear your Diabolik… eyeballs, Danger: Diabolik was a follow-up of sorts to the same year’s Barbarella. Roger Vadim’s sexy sci-fi opus featuring Jane Fonda as one of the sexiest space babes of the 41st century. Italian movie mogul was behind both ventures, and the day that Barbarella finished shooting, Danger: Diabolik took over many of its elaborate sets for what was envisioned to be a whole series of comic strip adventures. THE JA

But while filming on Barbarella had proceeded smoothly, Danger: Diabolik was a troubled production from the start. French heartthrob Jean Sorel (Belle de Jour) was originally cast as Diabolik, and American actor George Raft had been given one of the bad guy roles but became ill and was replaced by Gilbert Roland. The film’s first director was British-born Seth Holt (The Nanny), a man who reputedly loved a snifter or two to start the day. When Dino saw early footage of the film he may have needed a stiff drink himself. In fact he was so horrified that he stopped production immediately. Dino wasn’t happy with Roland, nor with Elsa Martinelli who had been cast in the role of Diabolik’s sexy accomplice, Eva. But mostly he wasn’t happy with Seth Holt’s take on the movie and so he gave Seth his marching orders, which is when Bava came on board. By now the film’s original $3 million budget had been cut in half, but it was still the most money that Bava had ever been given to work with. Using his camera trickery skills, he actually managed to bring the movie in for under half a million dollars, which delighted Dino no end, but Bava later passed up on the chance to film a sequel because he said the experience of working for Dino was not a happy one. Jean Sorel didn’t last long as Diabolik under the new regime, and he left after a few days of filming, to be replaced by handsome American actor . Meanwhile, Repulsion’s Catherine Deneuve had been given Elsa Martinelli’s role as Eva, but she wasn’t happy with doing a nude scene that called her to make love with Diabolik in a huge pile of lolly. No distasteful ‘coming into money’ jokes, please. Unhappy with her attitude, Bava insisted on hiring a new actress for the role, and he chose a gorgeous one in the shape of Marisa Mell. Born in Austria as Marlie Theresa Moitzi, Mell had appeared in Ken Russell’s French Dressing (1964) and the 1965 thriller Masquerade before earning her 60s spy-fi credentials as a Bond-style babe named Charity in Secret Agent Superdragon (1966). Yes, she did give it away there, as it happens. It seems hard to believe but this incredibly beautiful actress had suffered severe head and facial injuries in a 1963 car accident in France, which led to her undergoing a series of plastic surgery procedures. Close-ups in Danger: Diabolik

60 INFINITY HE JAMES BOND OF CRIME

reveal a slight scar on her upper lip, but those plastic BRIGHT AND BREEZY surgeons obviously did a fantastic job. As you can tell, realism is not an issue in this bright Unlike Catherine Deneuve, Marisa had no problem and breezy comic book yarn, which Bava films in with onscreen nudity and in fact she posed for garish psychedelic hues that match the elaborate Playboy in 1976. Sadly her career dwindled though, sets - many of which are actually not sets at all, but and by the time she died of cancer at the ridiculously elaborate Bava miniatures painted on glass! young age of 53 she was virtually penniless. All of this is set to a background of groovy 60s Danger: Diabolik was to become Marisa’s signature cocktail lounge music by the maestro himself, Ennio role, and she brings a breathtaking beauty to the role Morricone. A crazy mix of jazz, funk and orchestral of bad girl Eva Kant (don’t even go there). No wonder drive, the score is packed solid with mad melodies, her lucky boyfriend will do anything for her. Mind none more so than the sultry title track, ‘Deep Down,’ you, John Phillip Law is not a bad looking lad himself, warbled by Italian songstress Christy, who has a bit of and his Diabolik has charm to spare. He’s a Robin Hood type who a Shirley Bassey vibe going on (she also did the amazing ‘Run, Man drives around in a black Jaguar and has a nice line in fetish gear to Run’ on Morricone’s The Big Gundown soundtrack). As a pastiche of please both ladies and gentlemen of a certain persuasion. He may a Bond song it works beautifully. be a rogue but the people of Italy just love this guy because one of his ‘crimes’ has been to destroy the country’s tax records! adly it was Morricone’s only collaboration with Bava and Like any good super-criminal, Diabolik has a pretty snazzy Sremained unavailable to soundtrack collectors for years because underground lair where he chills out with sexy blonde Marisa in only a single was ever released and the master tapes were alleged between capers. This place is packed with electronic gadgets, and to have been destroyed in a fire. Luckily modern day technology has one might wonder (if this was the real world) how he managed to made this masterpiece available to all and you can now download it get it built in complete secrecy. The local council surely would have from Amazon as the soundtrack to your own criminal exploits. had some complaints. They are building a new bungalow round the Danger: Diabolik was not a big commercial or critical success corner from us and we’ve never heard the end of it. when first released in Italy on January 24th, 1968. Trade paper Those fetish outfits ain’t cheap so Diabolik specialises in crime on Variety criticised its “bizarre sets, poor process work, static writing a grand scale, which includes the theft of a valuable emerald necklace and limp direction,” though the UK’s Monthly Film Bulletin were belonging to a British minister’s wife, and he has his eyes on nicking a more on target with their comments that: “Bava’s superb visual 20-ton gold ingot, which unfortunately happens to be radioactive. sense stands him in good stead in this comic-strip adventure which Where there are robbers there must be cops and hot on his trail is looks like a brilliant pastiche of the best of everything in anything Chief Inspector , aided and abetted by comical finance from James Bond to Matt Helm.” minister Terry-Thomas. Since Diabolik is basically a nice villain I think that pretty much nails the appeal of this delirious spy we also get a nasty one in the shape of Thunderball’s , spoof, a film that could only have been made at the tail end of the another master criminal who is being blackmailed to turn Diabolik swinging 60s, when the wheels were coming off the Bond spoof over to the cops. In Thunderball Adolfo’s secret lair had a floor that bandwagon, Danger: Diabolik may make Austin Powers look like fell away to dump his victims in a shark tank, here he has a floor Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, but it is nevertheless enormous silly that opens up to dump people out of his plane. At one point Celi and fun and an endless treat for the eyes and ears. No wonder that, Law fall out of the plane together, threatening each other all the deep down, it has become a huge cult success and favourite guilty way down. pleasure for many.

INFINITY 61 The N

“ The A-bomb may have helped America to win the war, but it unleashed a wave of paranoia at home about its effects. Hollywood reacted by producing a string of giant bug movies through the 1950s, where various animals or insects were inlated to gigantic proportions by ‘atomic radiation’”

62 INFINITY MASSIVE 50s ATOMIC MUTATIONS

B-movie maestro Bert I. Gordon believed in one thing wholeheart- edly: everything on a movie screen should be bigger than life. Brian J. Robb examines the work of the e Notoriousauteur responsible for some ofB.I.G. the most fondly remembered American giant monster movies of the 1950s… Above: Bert with his Cyclops mask, worth keeping an eye out for on eBay along with his amazing autobiography (right)

ert I. Gordon’s career as a maverick filmmaker was launched by the birthday gift of a cine camera from his aunt when he turned 13. It was a present that would change his life. Bert Ira Gordon was born in 1922 in Kenosha, the same small Wisconsin town where a more accomplished filmmaker named Orson Welles had been born just seven years earlier in Gordon was 1915. Gordon would later sign up Orson to star in his 1972 film attempting to Necromancy. Young Bert quickly used his gift to begin crafting get a job in Hollywood 16mm home movies and making ‘’ ghost movies at that time. ‘I had no where the effect was little more than simple double exposures. contacts, I was ringing doorbells A movie fan from an early age, Gordon took in countless everywhere trying to get a job,’ he said in matinees at local vaudeville and burlesque houses. However, 2003. ‘Agents don’t want to talk to you. Nobody all this activity was laying the foundations for his future career wants to talk to you out in Hollywood. Unless you’ve got as the giant of monster movies. some money, they’ll talk to you then…’ Aware of the monster The advent of the Second World War changed the direction movie boom and recalling King Kong (1933, re-released in of the young would-be filmmaker’s life, and he dropped out 1952), the would-be movie kingpin determined to get himself a of college to sign up for the Army Air Corp. Coming out of the piece of the giant creature feature action. Army, Gordon was certain of only one thing: ‘I decided that The big screen was awash with ever-bigger creatures in filmmaking was what I wanted to do.’ the mid-1950s, all of them mutated by radioactive fallout: Now married, he and his wife Flora set to work in the giant ants in Them! (1954), a huge reptile in Japanese sequel new medium of television, making commercials for local Godzilla Raids Again (1955), and giant spiders in Tarantula companies to air in the ad breaks. Gordon also got extra (1955). ‘I had been in Hollywood about a year,’ recalled Mr. experience of working with film when he was assigned the job B.I.G. ‘I had been a production supervisor on the Racket Squad of editing bought-in British movies down to the 60-minute TV show. I was approached by a man who had a little bit of mark to fit a pre-determined broadcast slot. These jobs kept money and who was aware of my various skills. the budding auteur happy for a while, but by the mid-1950s, was the result.’ Gordon was determined to make his own movies. That man with the money was budget conscious producer Al Zimbalist (Robot Monster, Cat-Women of the Moon) who had a ATOMIC AGE TERRORS deal with Lippert Pictures and knew the cheapjack studio was The A-bomb may have helped America to win the war, but looking to cash in on the giant monster craze. If Gordon could pull it unleashed a wave of paranoia at home about its effects. off the kind of cinematic tricks he promised, Zimbalist reckoned Hollywood reacted by producing a string of giant bug movies they were both in with the chance of making some money: he through the 1950s, where various animals or insects were wrote the story and roped in Gordon to handle the camera. inflated to gigantic proportions by ‘atomic radiation’. One of the King Dinosaur (1955) was notoriously shot in just one earliest was The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953, with classic weekend at a cost of just $18,000, and used a Ray Harryhausen stop-motion effects), in which a dinosaur is photographically-enlarged iguana woken from hibernation by atomic bomb tests and storms New to represent a giant York - a year before Godzilla would do the same to Tokyo. rampaging

INFINITY 63 Brian J.Robb

dinosaur. The patience and artistic skill of Ray all the other giant creature movies by featuring Harryhausen wasn’t for these guys. giant humans - they were certainly easier When a new planet, imaginatively dubbed to control than iguanas or the grasshoppers ‘Nova’, appears in the solar system, a band of he’d use in his third movie, Beginning of intrepid astronauts set out to explore it, only to the End (1957). The stoic Peter Graves (TV’s encounter the ‘king dinosaur’ of the title - which Mission: Impossible), the gorgeous Peggie they promptly destroy with the handy atom Castle (Invasion U.S.A.), and bomb they’ve brought along. Gordon was able to (typecast as ever as an Army General) were the stretch this premise to 63 minutes, just barely respectable cast up against photographically reaching what might charitably be considered enlarged insects that crawl through a cardboard feature length. ‘It was a very, very cheap film,’ he model cityscape and up (and sometimes right admitted, ‘prehistoric in a number of ways!’ off) picture postcard images of tall buildings. King Dinosaur was hardly Bert I. Gordon’s Nonetheless, it’s one of Gordon’s best movies. equivalent to his fellow Kinoshan Orson Welles’ 1941 first feature, Citizen Kane. That didn’t COLOSSAL SUCCESS matter to Gordon, though - he’d achieved what Gordon’s success (each of his movies had he’d set out to do, make a movie, even if much fabulous posters, far better than the actual films of it was voiceover narration and stock footage. they promoted) brought him to the attention of Now he had a foothold in the industry he wasn’t American International Pictures (AIP), Samuel about to let go. He’d also discovered a formula Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson’s ultra-low and had the technique required to pull it off: budget studio. had been AIP’s giant creatures combined with matte shots, rear go-to guy for low budget thrills for a couple of projection and special effects photography. It years, so they recognized something similar in was to be a furrow he would plough for most of Gordon’s larger-than-life movies. They agreed his creative life. to distribute his next pair of pictures: 1957’s The Bert Gordon’s next movie was a whole three Amazing Colossal Man and 1958’s War of the minutes longer, but this one featured a couple Colossal Beast. of ‘star’ (well, B-movie) names in Lon Chaney The year that director Jack Arnold released Jr. (The Wolf Man) and Gloria Talbot (All That The Incredible Shrinking Man, ever the Heaven Allows). While Talbot’s career was in contrarian Bert Gordon went in the opposite the ascendancy, Chaney’s was on a long, slow direction - his monstrous man would be both slide as a result of his alcoholism. The Cyclops ‘amazing’ and ‘colossal’. (1957) featured former lifeguard Duncan Parkin Again, a nuclear explosion was to blame for as the one-eyed giant of the title, discovered the plight of Army colonel Glenn Manning (Glenn by an expedition to Mexico (actually filmed on Langan) who is caught up in a mistimed Nevada the cheap in LA’s Bronson Canyon). While The plutonium bomb test - in a well-realised and Cyclops featured more giant animals, it focused quite gruesome sequence. Healing unusually on the 25-foot mutated title character, the rapidly from life-threatening burns, Manning missing fiancé of Talbot’s character. grows to over 16 feet in height (thanks to Gordon set about distinguishing himself from absorbed radiation), much to the distress of his fiancée Carol (Cathy Downs). Unusually, for such a low budget effort that Gordon set about distinguishing himself from all relies on spectacle, does make some effort to deal with the the other giant creature movies by featuring giant psychological realities of the unlikely physical transformation that has taken place, both in humans - they were certainly easier to control Mark Hanna’s script and Langan’s anguished performance. Of course, B-movie tradition is than iguanas or the grasshoppers he’d use in his quickly re-established as the ever-growing Manning begins to lose his mind and goes on third movie, Beginning of the End (1957). the rampage in nearby Las Vegas. A perfunctory

64 INFINITY ending sees the army attack their former People. In turn, two characters in Puppet People colonel, seemingly killing him as his body are shown watching The Amazing Colossal Man tumbles from the Boulder Dam. during a visit to the drive-in. The later Village of Playing in a double bill with Cat Girl, an the Giants (1956) features War of the Colossal unofficial made-in-Britain remake of Cat People Beast on a magazine cover. Not for nothing did (1942), the film was something of a hit, spawning Famous Monsters of Filmland (the mag appeared an instant sequel in the following year’s War of in Earth vs. the Spider) editor Forrest J. Ackerman the Colossal Beast, in which Manning’s sister nickname Bert I. Gordon ‘Mr B.I.G.’. Joyce (Sally Fraser) comes to believe her giant brother survived his fall. IMITATING HITCHCOCK Duncan Parkin returned from The Cyclops Earth vs. the Spider was the final effects-driven (and appeared in similar disfigured facial movie from Gordon in the 1950s, largely because make-up), replacing Langan. Most notable about the entire ‘giant bug’ craze had run its course. this replay (aside from heavy reuse of material Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 shocker from the first movie) was the use of colour at the Psycho and William Castle’s move into similar climax as Manning electrocutes himself on live psychological gimmicky thrillers, Gordon power lines by the Griffith Observatory in LA. attempted to follow suit with 1960’s Tormented The sequel lacked the psychological depth of the and 1966’s . Unfortunately, original, and even the special effects (nothing here he was very much producing an imitation of too special to begin with) were below par. an imitation. Richard Carlson featured alongside Susan Gordon in Tormented as a man haunted FROM TALL TO SMALL (literally) by the ghost of his ex. Even stranger, The next few years were busy for the Notorious Picture Mommy Dead featured fellow Kenoshan B.I.G. He finally properly aped The Incredible Don Ameche as a man whose wife dies in a fire and Shrinking Man with 1958’s Attack of the Puppet whose daughter (Susan Gordon again) is caught up People and attempted to out-arachnid Tarantula in the search for her mother’s missing jewels. (1955) with the lower budget thrills of Earth vs. In between those two ‘masterpieces’, Gordon the Spider (1958, AKA The Spider). John Hoyt made two kids fantasy adventures - 1960’s The starred in Puppet People (which also featured Boy and the Pirate and 1962’s The Magic Sword - Bert’s actress daughter Susan) as a lonely and another of his ‘giant’ movies in 1965’s Village eccentric doll maker who figures out a way of of the Giants. No good beatniks and teenage miniaturizing people, only to use it to kidnap delinquents (including Tommy Kirk, Toni Basil, his assistant and secretary (who are leaving him Ron Howard, and , all too old for to get married) as well as several other unlucky their roles) grow to giant size (surprise!) after individuals, all because he wants some company. ingesting a new compound and terrorize a fearful The film was released by AIP on a double bill with town. was based loosely on Gordon’s own War of the Colossal Beast. H.G. Wells’ 1904 novel Food of the Gods, and was In Earth vs. the Spider, Space Patrol television the first of a trio of attempts by Gordon to adapt star Ed Kemmer lead an undistinguished cast as Wells’ work. He returned to the same source for high schoolers battle a giant spider unearthed in 1976’s The Food of the Gods (featuring a series that favourite low budget LA location, Bronson of unconvincing giant animals), which Gordon Canyon. Bert Gordon was a master of self-pub- somehow managed to get Ida Lupino, Ralph licity, ensuring that each of his films worked Meeker, and Pamela Franklin to appear in. Suffice as promotion for another, even if they weren’t it to say, the Golden Turkey Award taken by the appearing on the same double bill. In Earth film for ‘Worst Rodent Movie of All Time’ was This spread: All creatures great and small - a selection of images from vs. the Spider, one character works in a movie well earned (amazingly, it even beat 1972’s giant some of Bert’s most famous (and notorious) features. theatre plastered with posters for The Amazing rabbit movie, Night of the Lepus!). He has the distinction, dubious though it may be, of having the most movies shown on Mystery Science Colossal Man, while the marque indicates the Wells was again the source for 1977’s Empire Theater 3000 (1988), but you have to admit he came venue is currently screening Attack of the Puppet of the Ants, in which Joan Collins battled some up with some great poster images…

INFINITY 65 that Bert I. Although he made two more little seen Gordon was movies (1981’s Burned at the Stake and 1990’s effectively Satan’s Princess) Bert I. Gordon seemed to stranded in disappear from view. He’s made something of the atomic a public comeback in recent years, writing an ‘big bug’ autobiography (‘The Amazing Colossal Worlds world of the of Mr. B.I.G.’), made personal appearances at 1950s when various conventions (including annual turns as he’d done his the Monster Bash event) where he introduces best work. screenings of this 1950s greats, and even Aside from directed a new movie (at the age of 91) in 2014’s a couple of Secrets of a Psychopath. sex comedies Truly a giant among 1950s monster and trashy moviemakers, Bert I. Gordon, the Notorious horror flicks, B.I.G., can lay unique claim to being the director there was whose films have been featured the most on little from Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Eight of his here forward titles (including The Amazing Colossal Man, of worth from Beginning of the End, and Earth vs. the Spider the Notorious - probably his three best movies) have been B.I.G. affectionately spoofed, while MST3K spin-off RiffTrax tackled Attack of the Puppet People photographically-enlarged ants (who’d eaten He did pull off something of a coup, however, for good measure. He may have been no Orson radioactive waste—as if it were still the 1950s) with 1972’s Necromancy (AKA The Witching) Welles, but the films of the popular showman in special effects that suggested Gordon had by signing up fellow Kenoshan Orson Welles to that was the Notorious B.I.G. were probably not progressed further than 1957’s Beginning of star as the sinister Mr. Cato who has the power a lot more fun - imagine the possibilities in the End - remember, this was the year that Star to revive the dead. It was no Citizen Kane, but it a rebooted Bert I. Gordon shared universe! Wars hit cinemas! The 1970s simply confirmed did allow the two Kenoshans to reconnect. Hollywood, are you listening?

66 INFINITY z

IT’S NUMBER-CRUNCHING TIME IN THE NEXT OUT-OF-THIS WORLD ISSUE OF

THE MAGAZINE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION www.infinitymagazine.co.uk

or issue Number 6 of Infinity is was a bit of a no-brainer ISSUE 6 - LANDING 23.11.17 to celebrate one of the greatest cult TV shows of all time, Fnamely Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner. An allegorical mixture of spy action and sci-fi, it was to be McGoohan’s most personal project, and though it only ran to one series, what a series it was! We’ll also be rolling back the years to look at some of our favourite animated childhood shows such as Hanna-Barbera’s Super TV Heroes and the original Spider-Man, where he did whatever a spider can, except eat flies. And if you are old enough to remember Saturday matinees at your local cinema then you are going to very much enjoy our fabulous feature on the sci-fi movies made by the Children’s Film Foundation, which included 1956’s amazing Supersonic Saucer, a movie which predated E.T. with a friendly alien that enjoys a bike ride! The effects weren’t quite so realistic though. Next, Ray Harryhausen fans are in for a treat with our look back at the making of The Valley of Gwangi, and if you are into Doctor Who we are sure you will love our suspense-packed look at the show’s greatest ever cliffhangers. On the literary front we will be remembering the works of two of the genre’s greatest non-living authors, Brian W. Aldiss and Ian Banks, and we bring you that promised feature on the history of 200AD. Yes I know I said it would be in this issue, but I am the law around here, not . There’s a lot more of course, including a cracking feature on unsold TV pilots and a journey through the Time Tunnel. Just be sure that you tell your newsagent to reserve you a copy of Infinity Number Six. And for those of you saying, it is not just a number it is a free mag, I’m afraid you are wrong. Mind you, £3.99 is still a bargain. Be seeing you.