A POSTCARD FROM A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

If your'e a Star Wars fan like me then you will probably have already seen the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens or are planning to.

I saw it yesterday with a friend in the morning, when the cinema wasn't full of kids on their Christmas break. It was the 10.30 am showing.

Owing to our excitement we even watched all the adverts this time, which we usually avoid as they take up a good 20 minutes. The trailers for Captain America Civil War and Batman V Superman looked really good.

And so, with bags of sweets in our clammy hands 1977-style, we went to the main event, the seventh film in the  galactic behemoth that is Star Wars. Now in the sweaty hands of Disney, we waited with trepidation. Could anyone other than Lucas Films pull this off?

JJ Abrams was at the helm and this gave us some comfort because he did such a fantastic job of the Star Trek re-boot a few years back. If he could handle that particular icon with such reverence and verve then he might just manage it with this one!

Being a Disney film there was no Twentieth Century Fox banner before the film. I missed it a lot but was it a bad omen? 

No.

The film was everything that me and my friend wanted it to be..... and more. From the moment the back story rolled slowly across the screen in the classic way accompanied by John Williams' iconic opening notes, we knew we were safe.

The confusion we harboured about the last three prequels was swept away like Hoth air as we were blasted, this time, into the Star Wars future.

When the first ship filled the screen we wept. Star Wars had come home!

[impressions of the film welcomed but please keep them spoiler free!]

CHRISTMAS REFLECTIONS

And so this is Christmas. Well nearly. It is my Birthday though. I remember getting John and Yoko's peaceful tune in a bundle of 45's my Sister gave me one December 23rd. They were wrapped in baco-foil, which was typical of my off-beat Sis. It looked superb, a big chrome block with a bow on top, like a slab of light in the darkening season. 

There were Jimmy Osmond and his Long haired Lover, Elton John and Crocodile Rock, Mud's Tiger Feet and so many more. About 10 in total. I loved receiving it and like a silvered window to the past I often think about it.

Material things are strange. They last longer than people. They last longer than the past and move with us into the future. Like time travellers. Heralds. Toys, books, records, ornaments. Our childhoods were flecked with stuff, which now, fifty years later, sparkle in our memories like stars; long abandoned but still emitting light. Some of these things came with us into the here and now, buffeted by the passage of time but still there beside us.

For me toys are a portal into the past; my past, a time of innocence, tinsel-decked fairy lights and unbroken sunshine, when all the people I cared about and who cared about me where still alive. It was their time - and my childhood - and one I am so glad to have had with them as they, my Parents, carried me into the future on their broad shoulders and placed me gently in a life of my own.

Toys emit memories like pulsars and as another year turns this blog is my way of collecting those glimpsed recollections, a screen on which the distant fairy-lit days of a childhood Christmas coalesce and shimmer for one more beautiful day.

Merry Christmas readers.

CHRISTMAS COMIC COVERS

As Christmas is fast approaching, to help get you in the mood here's are a few vintage British comic covers celebrating the season.

RE-ROCKETS

Similar Spaceships on toy boxes and old magazines.

CAPTAIN SCARLET CUTAWAY TREATS

Thesedays cutaway drawings of vehicles from all the Gerry Anderson TV series are fairly common , but way back in the nostalgic days of TV21 , an issue featuring a cutaway was always a rare treat.

The unique connection between TV21 and A.P. Films has always led me to think that many details in those cutaways maintain a certain authenticity in relation to each series. The comic strips though, had broader aspects. (I always preferred the more mature look of the Fireball XL5 strip, in TV21)  But generally, I've always enjoyed that natural affinity between my favourite comic and my favourite TV series'.

As far as I was, (and still am) concerned the so called TV21 Universe of connecting Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet  filled in the gaps not revealed in each series, and helped to enhance my enjoyment of each series. Even though  Joe 90 couldn't be part of this universe, his own comic and annuals still maintained an expanded backstory for the reader/ viewer to enjoy.

So any smarty fanboys who arrogantly state that' if it isn't in the show it ain't canon'  obviously weren't around during the original days of TV21, just ask young Joe McClaine, seen here enjoying issue 183!

Anyway, here's some cutaways.

These cutaways drawn by Eric Eden ,featured some of  the vehicles that appeared in Captain Scarlet, and appeared in TV21 during January, 1968.

And for Tony K , and all other Fireball fans the cutaway from the 1967 TV Century 21 annual

Happy Xmas From Andy B

Hi Woodsy,

Thanks for all the interest and entertainment provided by you and the team over the last year..

Here's a quick "card" which I hope Kev and you think is OK!

Seasonal greetings,

Andy B.

ZOOM SPACE AGE BRITAIN WALL CHART

I so recall all those fab mail-away gifts from ice lollies in the Sixties including this Zoom Wall Chart advertised in TV21 in April 1968 with the help of Alan Tracy. You got a free badge too but I've no idea what that looked like now. Anyone have the full chart and badge?

To remind you, the chart was of all the space bases and missile bays in Nineteen Sixties Britain. I wonder what a similar wall-chart would look like today? Do we have anything left?

SEASONS GREETINGS

It's murder trying to find a parking space for the Buggy at this time of year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY