[X] My Assistant

[mchan]

I never saw any of the "STARLOST" series, but I did read the novelization and enjoyed it. The premise was good. In the end, I wanted to read the sequel which of course never came to being.

edited

[nprev]

Oddly enough, the Gold Key Lost In Space comic books were freakin' great!!! Utterly different from the series, no link at all (100% Smith & Will-free!!!), and the plots of the comic books were much more scientifically plausible & entertaining.

Wish I had a few to share, but the few I bought for US $0.12 each in the '60s are long gone...probably collector's items by now made of 99% unobtainium. Neat as all get out, though, and well worth the read if you can find them...

Just out of curiosity, anybody else ever heard of a Gold Key comic called Magnus-Robot Fighter, 4000 AD? Megacool exp^lazy eight!!!!

[mchan]

No, but for Megacool, there is Judge Dredd in Megacity-1 in 2000 AD.

Getting way, way OT here. Quick to put back some space if not UMSF related content before Judge Doug draws his Lawgiver. In the Judge Dredd series, Titan was a penal colony.

And crossing over from another thread here, Judge Dredd did have some memorable egregious science bloopers almost as bad as mentioning astrology with astronomy. In some stories, Titan was a moon of Saturn; in others, it was a moon of Jupiter!

[edstrick]

Apparently Starlost episodes were available on VHS. I have never seen them since they first aired, recieved directly across lake Ontario from Toronto. (I watched them build the CN tower from my driveway W of Lockport NY on the Niaragra Escarpment, some 45/50? miles away.) Watching the first episoded penned by "Cordwainer Bird", you could see the epic story arc with room for multiple independent episodes that he was aiming at and weep in frustration.

[dvandorn]

Oddly enough, the Gold Key Lost In Space comic books were freakin' great!!! Utterly different from the series, no link at all (100% Smith & Will-free!!!), and the plots of the comic books were much more scientifically plausible & entertaining.

That comic book ran under the title "Space Family Robinson" until 1965, when "Lost In Space" premiered on CBS. At that point, to take advantage of the free advertising, they changed the name of the comic to match that of the TV show.

And yes, the comic book was much more interesting and scientifically plausible.

Just out of curiosity, anybody else ever heard of a Gold Key comic called Magnus-Robot Fighter, 4000 AD? Megacool exp^lazy eight!!!!

I thought I was the only one who remembered "Magnus: Robot Fighter"! You're right, it was an extremely well-written and articulate book, for its time. I can particularly remember an issue which dealt with someone sabotaging the worldwide weather control system, and Magnus had to track down the robotic no-goodniks who were responsible...

I had a few other guilty pleasures in 1960s comic books. One of them was "The Metal Men." Another was a short-length occasional feature called "The Atomic Knights." IIRC, both were DC publications. (I liked the DC titles a lot, was a big Superman, Batman and related titles fan, but I also followed the Marvel universe closely. Comic books were a passion for me as a child.)

As you might imagine, I had a huge collection of well-read comic books by the time I was in my teens. A collection that my parents threw away when I went off to college. They were *very* well-read, and likely wouldn't have been worth all that much to collectors. But, for example, I had a first edition Spiderman, a first edition Fantastic Four and a first edition X-Men, to name but a few. (I started buying them with my allowance when I was six or seven, I think -- in 1961 or 1962. My brother started a couple of years before I did, so our shared collection went back to the late '50s.)

I may have come as close to parenticide as I ever would, before or since, when I found out they had thrown away *all* of my and my brother's comics...

-the other Doug

[edstrick]

I had, may still have, the first ?9? or so of Magnus, Robot Fighter. I loaned a lot of comics to a friend who proceeded to move out of the area with them, and I lost a large fraction of what I had. I don't recall what I have that survived the "absconding".

[Guest_MarkG_*]

Didn't know that; looks like it was originally intended to be a serious SF series, but that damn Smith (TDS henceforth) & the kid kind of hijacked the plot threads.

I presume they must have changed the music for the color series of the show, because I've never seen those and I don't remember that version .

I was watching the first series of the show on DVD recently and the change from a serious show at the start to the more silly plots later on was quite pronounced: I wonder if that occurred at the point where they ran out of footage from the original pilot. Smith is still one of my favorite TV characters though, I don't think it would have worked without him.

Certainly I don't think it was much worse than the Gerry Anderson shows of the same era.

[nprev]

Dvandorn, here's the cover of the Magnus you mentioned. In fact, the site seems to have them all, and in most of them he's punching out one or more robots. Magnus must've spent all his time off with his hands packed in ice...

Mark, you're right that Smith was pretty good, and in retrospect the show probably had to go the silly route to survive since the science in the scripts was so incredibly bad that suspension of disbelief couldn't possibly be achieved. It's all about the ratings...

[Mongo]

Watching the first episoded penned by "Cordwainer Bird", you could see the epic story arc with room for multiple independent episodes that he was aiming at and weep in frustration.

I watched the series when it first aired. I have to say that this series had the best premise of any SF television show of the era -- and I would still rate it as one of the top SF premises of all time. It certainly adhered the most closely to literary SF -- as opposed to 'space opera'.

Unfortunately, the execution of the premise was terrible.

Here is what it's main fansite says about the show:

The Starlost premiered on television loosely based on a concept created by Harlan Ellison. Meticulously and lovingly devised by the brilliance of Harlan Ellison and thought out to perfection by Scientific Advisor Ben Bova, the series promised to be a monumental step for SF television. Ellison had contracted great SF writers such as A.E. Van Vogt, Frank Herbert, Joanna Russ, Thomas M. Disch, Alexei Panshin, Phillip K. Dick, and Ursula K. Le Guin to write storylines that would be scripted by the best Canadian writers available. Douglas Trumbull would be Executive Producer and create the special effects via the Magicam system.

It looked good. It sounded good. It fell apart. The Starlost regressed into a low-budget, syndicated show with all the SFX being accomplished ineffectively through chroma-key, the method used in TV newscasts to put pictures behind the commentators. Trumbull left before production began as did Ellison, who used his pen name as series creator and writer of episode one. Only Ursula K. Le Guin's storyline made it into production. The end product was a dismal reflection of the glories promised. After only 16 episodes, The Starlost vanished into the void.

If there were any SF series of the 60s or 70s that I could choose to be redone to modern-day production values, it would be the original Ellison version of STARLOST -- I would much rather have had that than BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, of all shows.

Bill

[edstrick]

" don't think it was much worse than the Gerry Anderson shows of the same era"

The Anderson shows from the same era, as little as I can recall them, were worse, but aimed lower. Later, Gerry Anderson really tried, with "pace '1899'" (that was the level of their astonomical expertise). They had some measure of success, but again, the were clueless and unclueable as to the difference between Science Fiction and SciFi or Skiffy. Like BattleStar Galaxative <my term for the original> ... idea with potential, destroyed by execution. A geekish makeover of the science and a Strazinsky level of plot handling and youi could have one hell of a series with a specatular story arc.


"suspension of disbelief couldn't possibly be achieved"

Oh?... mine was suspended... HUNG FROM THE NECK TILL DEAD! ... then drawn and quartered!

"...(Starlost)... I have to say that this series had the best premise of any SF television show of the era -- and I would still rate it as one of the top SF premises of all time. It certainly adhered the most closely to literary SF -- as opposed to 'space opera'. Unfortunately, the execution of the premise was terrible."

Amen! Bova's "The Starcrossed" is still a fun read, but you read it and weep if you were there for the real story. The series, at least the early shows, were issued on VHS and apparently can be found.

Somehow, these shows remind me of the Space Shuttle... Wonderful Idea, fatally flawed realization <sigh!>

[nprev]

"suspension of disbelief couldn't possibly be achieved"

Oh?... mine was suspended... HUNG FROM THE NECK TILL DEAD! ... then drawn and quartered!

Heh, heh, heh...mine too. Even as a kid, couldn't figure out how the hell the 'Space Family Robinson' modified the J2 to transit interstellar space in less than an hour when the original mission took 50 years to reach Alpha Centauri. Still think it was TDS' doing, and we oughta drag that @#$& home to claim his Nobel Prizes, then throw him in the joint...

Oh, Ed, BTW: Ellison used 'Galaxative' in print at some point...I use it liberally when speaking of the show myself. However, some have told me that the new remake is rather good, albeit prone to the extremely convoluted plot lines that seem to be endemic to current "SF" series. Don't want to do research in order to understand an episode, just give me an entertaining & scientifically interesting/stimulating hour!

[edstrick]

<GRIN>
Harlan (The mouth that walks like a man) Ellison also used (as book titles, no less) (and probably came up with...) the term "The Glass Teat" for the boob-tube.

I'm a Harlan fan, though I have issues with his big fight with ?Fantagraphics? over copyright and permissions and stuff. But unless youi're a personal friend of Harlan (and he makes a VERY good friend, I'm told), being around Harlan is like being on a golf course during a thunderstorm... shall we say "electrifying"?

There are fools. There are people (like most of us) who do not tolerate fools gladly. And there are people like Harlan, who do not tolerate fools. At all. Pyrotechnically!.

And Harlan is a fool magnet. He attracts them (the way a candle flame attracts moths) to immolate themselves in his fury. I get the impression he's been tired of it for decades, but...

[nprev]

Me too... . I've read most of Harlan's stuff, in fact all he wrote prior to 1980 or so. He's gettin' up there in years, haven't heard much about him lately.

Can you imagine what kind of script he could have done for Lost In Space? That would have been the episode where Guy Williams finally throws Smith out the airlock wearing nothing but his long-johns... Of course, Judy might've been pregnant by Don, June Lockhart would probably have some sort of substance abuse problem, and Will & the robot would finally snap for a variety of reasons. (Penny would have continued to look worried all the time). The chief of CBS standards & practices would have had a stroke on the spot at the time...

(Working title: "I Have No Smith, So I Can Stop Screaming... )

[Greg Hullender]

Didn't think I'd ever participate in a discussion that included Fireball XL5, Supercar, Magnus Robot Fighter, Lost in Space (the comic), and The Metalmen. All we're missing is Solar, Man of the Atom.

Sigh. The 60's were a good time to be a kid. :-)

Also, getting back to UMSF for a bit, my elementary school would routinely stop class and turn on the TV so we could watch space launches -- even unmanned ones. I remember watching at least one Ranger launch that way.

One less-than-ideal thing that I remember was seeing Saturn through a telescope for the first time. This was a 20-inch telescope at the local (to Chattanooga) observatory, so not too bad, except for the fact that it didn't have any rings! Just a straight line across it. When they told me it'd take years to see the rings properly, I was just crushed. Hard to believe it's been all the way around almost one and a half times since then . . .

--Greg

[nprev]

Sigh. The 60's were a good time to be a kid. :-)

--Greg

Yes, they were. Unbridled optimism regarding the future of spaceflight & technology in general...wish we could recapture that today...