MOONBASE CENTRAL

Thursday, 15 January 2015

CORGI NEW AVENGERS REVISITED

As I recently posted some photos on the Corgi Avengers gift set I thought I'd give these previously published pics of my Corgi New Avengers cars an airing.

First up, Steed's Range Rover.

Mike Gambit's XJS.

The only thing missing is Purdey and her M.G.

TOYS OF THE SIXTIES BY BILL BREUGMAN: MOONBASE BOOK REVIEW PART 3

Third and final part of my look at Bill Breugman's book

Toys of the Sixties.

Anyone else got this book?

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

I've been watching the old 1965 black & white British B movie, 'The Night Caller' which was colourised a few years ago. I got to thinking is it a good thing to colourise a film that was filmed with black & white in mind, and through the use of subtle lighting using dark and light shades had created suspense and stark contrast?

I've enjoyed this, and many other films in black & white for years and don't have a problem with it
( Even the DVD gives the option to watch the film in it's original format).

The end result was not quite what I was expecting as it looked to me like flat colours had been over- laid over a black & white print giving a kind of washed out look.

I'm no expert and I imagine that colourising films isn't a simple process and very labour intensive , as well as budget constraints. Watching it again it occurred to me that the flat colours reminded me of the old Front Of House photos that you'd see outside the cinema, so maybe that had been the intention all along (I suspect the budget had a lot to with it as well!)

Several Doctor Who stories like the Mind of Evil and The Daemons have been colourised using bits of existing colour information. These and others which were originally filmed in colour, and have now been painstakingly restored.

The end results turned out very well, considering these originally started life on videotape.
I can see the advantage of returning these to colour as this is how things were originally intended.

I can think of quite a few series I'd like to see colourised, Dangerman and Burke's Law would be on the list, but when it comes to Gerry Anderson shows there's two series, Supercar and Fireball XL5 that might benefit from the complete run being colourised.

In the UK both series just don't get shown on TV any more because of theIr monotone look. Stingray, being the first ITC programme with marionettes to be film entirely in colour has managed to appeal to several generations due to repeat showings, plus all that lovely new merchandise!

On Stephen La Riviere's excellent Full Boost Vertical Documentary there is a short piece of specially colourised test film footage from Supercar.

When you look at publicity photos from both Supercar and Fireball XL5 it strikes me these two series would have looked great in colour. I've seen bits of test footage of Fireball XL5's opening titles and the opening scenes from the Planet 46 episode which looked great, but with Network DVD's specially commisioned colourised version of A Day In The Life Of A Space General we got a chance to watch an entire episode.

Personally, I'd love to see these old series being given a whole new lease of life and the chance for new generations to enjoy them, and as to colourisation as a whole, I'm certainly not averse... as long as I've got them in their original black & white.

TOYS OF THE SIXTIES BY BILL BREUGMAN: MOONBASE BOOK REVIEW PART 2

Part 2 of 3.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

TOYS OF THE SIXTIES: MOONBASE BOOK REVIEW PART 1

My review of Bill Breugman's seminal book Toys of the Sixties published in 1991.

This is part 1 of 3.

Monday, 12 January 2015

PROJECT SWORD STORY "TRUST JANSON" TV21 ISSUE 208 JANUARY 11TH 1969

Project SWORD

TV21

Issue 208

January 11th 2069 [1969]

BRIAN CLEMENS OBE 1931 - 2015

It's been announced on national news here in the U.K., of the death of screenwriter and producer, Brian Clemens.

Brian Horace Clemens OBE was probably best known to cult TV fans for his work on the iconic British television series, The Avengers, which later returned as the rebooted, The New Avengers, both of which I'm certainly a big fan. Clemens work on The Avengers certainly helped give the show its unique style, fusing drama and sci-fi, with a sprinkling of odd ball comedy.

His other major series was the popular crime/action drama, The Professionals staring Gordon Jackson as the no nonsense head of CI5, George Cowley, Lewis Collins was agent Bodie and Martin Shaw as agent Doyle, Clemens went on to produce a rebooted version of that with none of the original cast called CI5: The New Professionals. Personally, for me it's only memorable redeeming feature was the casting of actor Edward Woodward (Callan/ The Equaliser) as new CI5 boss, Harry Malone.

Although, Clemens created, wrote and produced many film and TV series, which will no doubt be covered in the many glowing tributes that will appear, it is his early work I'm most fond of.

He wrote several scripts for the legendary Danziger Brothers, who produced many low budget but popular series in the fifties and early sixties. One show was Saber of London aka The Vice which starred Donald Gray - later to voice Colonel White in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

While working on the Avengers, he wrote several scripts for some of my favourite ITC series, sometimes using the pseudonym, Tony O'Grady (I believe O'Grady was his mother's maiden name) for contractual reasons.

One such script was The Maze written for The Baron TV series. It contained many trademark Clemens elements of hallucinogenic dream sequences. A similar story containing similar imagery turned up in the Avengers episode Death's Door.

Another ITC series with a script contribution from Clemens was The Sentimental Agent, and the episode A Very Desirable Plot. One of the guest stars in that episode was a young Diana Rigg who would go on, after being chosen by Clemens to star as Emma Peel in The Avengers.