I've been watching ‘Kadoyng’, a 1972 sci-fi offering from the
Children’ Film Foundation.
While I always enjoy nostalgic memories of going to the
local ABC or Odeon cinemas for the Saturday morning minors club
and watching films showing kids having all kinds of adventures, this
particular cost- effective (low budget) CFF film has a special interest for
Gerry Anderson fans as it features…wait for it… an appearance of the Alien
costume from UFO!
The Alien in question is from the planet Stoikal, and gets
his name from the sound his antenna makes when he removes his space helmet –
Kadoyng!
Other props from UFO can be seen aboard Kadoyng’s Easter egg - like spaceship, which, incidentally can talk and is called Babble. I know we've covered the numerous appearances of the props on the blog but I'm pretty sure Kadoyng wasn't mentioned.
These banks of controls appeared in Moonbase, as did the box
of disco lights supporting Babble’s control stick.
And the circular control was part of the Shado Control
room. (you can just see it under the TV monitor in between Alec Freeman and Ed Straker)
This control panel was originally used in the UFO episode 'Close Up' .
The story was written by Leo Maguire, who also played the
title character. The action takes place in the fictional village of Byway which
is under threat from a motorway being built right through it.
After befriending some local kids who witness his landing,
he embarks, with a little otherworldly jiggery-pokery to help save the village
from the developers.
A couple of other things I felt worth noting is that the
music is provided by Edwin Astley, who wrote theme music to many of the cult
sixties ITC series like The Saint and The Baron;
There’s also an appearance by
the actor Stephen Thorne who played PC Palfrey. Doctor Who fans will know him
as the powerful alien, Azal from the Jon Pertwee story, The Daemons.
There was a kind of hose shoe shaped dj desk thing in 60s 70s dr who labs and other shows - was it just a prop or an actual dj desk? Does anyone kow what im talking about?
ReplyDeleteI think what you mean started out life as the Shado moonbase commander's desk. It later ended up in Doctor Who stories such as The Green Death. I assume it was built for UFO but I don't know.
ReplyDeleteThe Moonbase Commander desk which you're referring to, as well as all the other intrumentation was built by Don Fagan specially for UFO. Once filming finished these were subsequently hired out to other film companies. Check out the link on my post which goes through some of the other appearances of UFO props.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one to think that this was a very sad end for the UFO alien costume & MB props??? :-(
ReplyDeleteA similar sort happened to the Forbidden Planet C57-D spacemen uniform: used and reused in a moltitude of sad low-budget movie.
It seems that Stanley Kubrick in this was more smart and had almost all the 2001 sets and props destroyed at the end of filming (for 2010 they had to rebuild the Discovery model from scratch).
Cheers
Ervino
I can understand Kubrick not wanting to allow his iconic props to be re used in other productions. 2001 was more about art, rather than commerce. I suppose with Century 21 hiring out, or selling off their props it was all about generating money from things that were no longer needed. I imagine the same could be said about Forbidden Planet props too. Sad though, none the less, Ervino.
DeleteHi Scoop!
DeleteOne thing though: I will REALLY REALLY gladly put my paws on that UFO suit!!! :-D
Cheers
DeleteErvino
Ha, ha! You and me both Ervino.I believe someone in Italy has got an original helmet. Now that would look nice on my mantlepiece;)
DeleteScoop,
ReplyDeleteyes, they are the guys from ISO-SHADO (Italian Section Of SHADO): http://www.isoshado.org/
I think these guys are the biggest collector anywhere of UFO related original props! DROOOOL!!! :-D
Cheers
Ervino