Between Christmas and New Year during that sleepy hollow when the fairy lights and the TV send you off to sleep mid-afternoon I caught part of a flick released in 1979 called The Shape of Things to Come.
Half-asleep I had thought at first it was an episode of Space 1999 as Barry Morse was in it wearing a white jumpsuit and the whole thing I half-saw had that series' feel to it.
It had nothing to do with Space 1999, nor HG Wells's Shape of Things to Come for that matter. It appeared to me to have been influenced by many different Sci Fi shows and films.
Here are a few glimpses culled from around the web.
Shades of UFO?
Hues of Robby the Robot and the Lost in Space Robot?
Hints of Star Trek?
Glimpses of Star Maidens?
You may know much more about this movie filmed in Canada. Please let us know.
Have you seen it readers?
I watched this cheap and cheerful Canadian flick at the cinema when it first came out. It's more of a TV movie really, reminiscent , although not a patch on the original Battlestar Galactica, (which I also saw at the cinema), and apart from the casting of Barry Morse, as Dr John Caball it has little in common with Space:1999 .(or the H.G.Well story, come to that!)
ReplyDeleteBefore someone starts quoting from Wikipedia there's plenty of reviews about it online if anyone is really that interested.
The only thing I found vaguely interesting about it was the' hero spaceship, The Starstreak, which looked like it was thrown together using thinly disguised kit parts including a detachable front section made from what looks like bits from the A.M.T. Star Trek K7 space station model.
For more budget line Star Wars knock off films, check out 'Star Crash' featuring Caroline Munro and David Hasselhoff, or maybe, the slickly titled, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone starring Peter Strauss, to name just a couple!
Interesting stuff Scoop.
DeleteIt's a truly dreadful low budget movie, and has nothing to do with H.G.Well's classic book, other than it's name.
ReplyDeleteI went to see it as an 18 year old and It was, and remains, the most disappointing film I have ever seen.
Naff effects, a truly purile plot and terrible overacting from Jack Palance, as the villain.
You'd have been better staying asleep and not seeing any of it Woodsy.
Wow, the most disappointing film you've ever seen! That's some accolade Mish!
DeleteThe ship
ReplyDeletehttps://www.deviantart.com/digitalexplorations/art/The-Starstreak-The-Shape-of-Things-To-Come-990986729
I seem to remember that the pyrotechnics got a bit out of hand..
Here is a write-up
http://space1970.blogspot.com/2010/08/shape-of-things-to-come-1979.html?m=1
The film
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmlGyKhVC6c
Interesting links Anon, thanks.
DeleteLove this movie, because of its sheer awfulness, and the fact that it is from the notorious producer Harry Allan Towers, one of the biggest rascals in film history! The man was shameless, and it shows in his films! SFZ
ReplyDeleteA shameless rascal! ha ha, what a guy SF!
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