HAPPY BREAKAWAY DAY

 Don't forget the Alphans!

THE PERSUADERS ANNUAL COVER 1973: CENTURY 21 MERCHANDISING

Cover And Copyright page to 'The Persuaders!' Annual 1973 kindly supplied by Bernard Dunne.

SWEET POCKET ROCKET?

I'm having fleeting visions of a sweet I had as a kid in the Sixties. It was a sort of basic hollow plastic see-through rocket, which was filled with sherbet or kali. Something must have come off - maybe it split - to allow you to lick the sherbet. It could fit in your pocket.

Ring any bells?

THE SAMARITAN

Now Sly Stallone is one of those Hollywood actors you either love or hate.

I love Sly. His no-nonsense minimal-dialogue style is a tonic and you always know where you are with the big guy. OK he can go off-piste and play the victim too as in the brilliant Cop Land and be all emotional as in Rocky but its when he dishes out vengeance in his explosive you-better-get-out-the-way style where he really makes his mark.

I recently enjoyed his version of the seminal Michael Caine gangster flick Get Carter, so I had no trouble opting for his off-beat super hero vehicle The Samaritan on Netflix. 

I actually thought it was a series for some reason, so I was pleasantly surprised when I realised it was a movie. They take less commitment than a full series and I had struggled watching some other online super hero series like Luke Cage and Daredevil, where the serialised format allows the directors far too much time to indulge the cast in that awful nicety, talking!

Sly doesn't say much in his action flicks and when he does it's something grunty and pithy and The Samaritan is no exception. 

I won't spoil anything, just to say I really liked this movie. It recalled that unusual Bruce Willis super Hero picture, The Guardian, where an average working Joe has non-average skills!

I've now moved onto Liam Neeson for Netflix kicks, currently watching The Marksman. Liam seems to make a film every year, sometimes two, so I've a few to catch up on since 2020!

Do you like Sly and Liam?

DON'T TAKE AWAY MY BREAKAWAY!

 Don't forget what day it is tomorrow!

I may even post the odd Eagle Transporter pic!

BLUE FLAME

Now that's a sleek machine I saw online.!  Looks like a 3D print to me. Reminds me of the Breedlove 3D model on MC recently. Do you like it?

https://www.renderhub.com/cosplayitemsrock/diecast-model-blue-flame-jet-car/diecast-model-blue-flame-jet-car-01.jpg

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE 16/12 DRAGON'S DOMAIN SET

 Another look  at the Sixteen 12 Collectables Deluxe ‘Dragon’s Domain’ Die-cast Episode set .

The set features an in-scale Ultra Probe Command Module. This has always been a popular design with Space: 1999 fans, especially with garage kit creators and builders.

Obviously the Ultra Probe Command Module is the selling point for this latest set, and it is, of course a great looking model, and a must for those who prefer an instant display item without the hassle of painstakingly building one.

The Command Module has lots of detailing, as well as poseable (or articulated) rear docking clamps. It also comes with its own display stand.

The Eagle that comes with the set has a detachable ‘beak’ nose cone, as seen in the episode, which magnetically attaches to the main body, helped by gently clicking it into place.

The Eagle itself has an added component not on previous Sixteen 12 versions in that the rear engines have the ring of tubing around the back of the engine bells which I believe first appeared in the opening second season episode, The Metamorph, and was fitted to supply the Freon gas to create the rocket trail effect from the engine bells. 

The more pedantic fans will no doubt point out that Dragon’s Domain is a first season episode which didn’t have the tubing, but I can’t see anyone complaining, as it’s a nice addition!

The Eagle comes with a loading platform display plinth, and aluminium engine bells, plus the little Alpha Moon Buggy which helps to give an idea of scale.

The Dragon’s Domain episode is another fan favourite, and is inspired by the story of St George & the Dragon.

 The ‘George’ in the story is Ultra Probe pilot Tony Cellini (played by Italian actor, Gianni Garko) who, while travelling to the planet Ultra chances upon what looks like an abandoned  group of derelict alien spacecraft. After docking with one of the vessels and opening the airlock, the crew encounters a huge one-eyed, tentacled alien space monster.   All the crew except, Cellini are consumed , and after failing to destroy the hideous creature, Cellini locks himself in the Ultra Probe Command Module, and separates from the main ship leaving the creature behind. He uses the planet, Ultra in a slingshot maneuverer to begin a long journey home.    

Eventually he gets back to Moonbase Alpha, prior to its breakaway from the Earth in 1999.

Much later, the 877th day to be precise, since the wandering Moon left Earth, Alpha detects the abandoned ships ‘graveyard at around the same time as Cellini begins to suffer nightmares about the creature.

Cellini, haunted and tormented by his memories, hi-jacks an Eagle and makes his way back to the Ultra Probe.  He detaches the Eagle ‘beak’ and re-attaches it to the front of the Probe.  

Koenig, Bergman and Helena in another Eagle, dock at a different point and enter the Ultra Probe. They find Cellini held by the creature’s tentacles, stabbing it repeatedly in the head, before he too, is consumed.

Koenig picks up an axe, and swings it into the eye of the weakened monster, finally killing it.

What a guy! 

It’s interesting to me that the episode was originally to have focused on Eagle pilot, Alan Carter (played by 1999 regular, Nick Tate), giving the character a back story, but it later transpired that main star, Martin Landau wasn’t happy with the idea and persuaded the production team to rewrite it for a guest actor.  

When asked about this at the Alpha: 2014 convention, Nick diplomatically replied that, ’Martin knew how to be the star!’

Ironically, Italian, Gianni Garko was not a fluent speaker of the English language and asked Nick Tate to help him with his lines.

Other notes from the episode include that rumour has it that a model of the USS Enterprise and Doctor Who’s Tardis were filmed as part of the spaceships graveyard scenes; could be true, but the footage was certainly never used.

Another point of interest is the scene set in Commissioner Dixon’s office on Earth was actually M’s office seen in the EON James Bond films at the time.

UK Science Museum opens Major Science Fiction Exhibition

Reader Chris J let me know about this cool event in London:

EXPLORE NEW WORLDS IN THE SCIENCE MUSEUM'S BLOCKBUSTER EXHIBITION – SCIENCE FICTION – OPENING ON 6 OCTOBER

 

• A month today the Science Museum will open the most ambitious exhibition it's ever staged: Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination, placing visitors at the heart of an interactive science fiction story;
• Through over 70 objects visitors will uncover fascinating connections between significant scientific innovations and celebrated science fiction works, brought together in the UK for the first time;
• Science Fiction has been designed by BAFTA and Academy award-winning creative studio Framestore who have created an immersive experience inspired by an alien spaceship, featuring an AI Guide and new alien language created exclusively for the exhibition;
• An accompanying science fiction themed live events series will include a special Lates, Astronights, panel discussions and music performances;
• As part of Lates the museum will host the Arthur C. Clarke Award on 26 October, celebrating the best in science fiction writing;
• The Science Museum is running a science fiction writing competition in partnership with Hodder & Stoughton – Science Fiction Debuts;
• An accompanying book, edited by exhibition curator Glyn Morgan, will be published to mark the exhibition opening.

Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination

6 October 2022 – 4 May 2023

Press preview: Wednesday 5 October 2022

Tickets available: sciencemuseum.org.uk/science-fiction

 

On 6 October, the Science Museum will open its most ambitious exhibition yet. Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination will place visitors at the heart of an interactive science fiction story which is filled with objects that explore how scientists and science fiction creators have inspired each other through innovation and imagination

Science fiction invites us to boldly go and explore strange new worlds and visitors will embark on an adventure through the cosmos aboard an extra-terrestrial spaceship accompanied by an AI guide, touch down on an unexplored world and gaze over planet Earth. The immersive experience, featuring a specially-developed alien language, is designed by award-winning creative studio, Framestore, and curated by the Science Museum Group. 

 

Science Fiction uncovers fascinating connections between significant scientific innovations and celebrated science fiction works through over 70 objects, brought together in the UK for the first time. On display in the exhibition will be classic literature that imagined and inspired new understandings of the world around us, incredible set-pieces and props from iconic films and TV that envisioned new forms of life and other worlds – from Star Trek's U.S.S. Enterprise, to the Daleks from Doctor Who and a Darth Vader helmet created for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back – and contemporary artworks from across the globe that explore alternative futures for humanity. 

 

Sir Ian Blatchford, Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group, said: 'Science fiction invites us all to be explorers, venturing across time and space while reflecting on the deepest existential question there is – what makes us human? Our ambitious exhibition is unlike any other and I cannot wait for visitors to join us on this immersive and interactive journey through the extraordinary worlds of science fiction and scientific discovery.'

 

Dr Glyn Morgan, Lead Curator for the exhibition, said: 'Science fiction offers us the chance to observe our own planet and consider our impact upon it. Visitors will see bright futures the genre has imagined and be confronted by some of the biggest threats to our existence – climate change, ecological devastation and nuclear war – as we invite them to consider how often-dystopian imaginings could give us the intellectual and emotional tools to imagine and create more utopian futures.'

 

Once inside the exhibition visitors will explore the vast Exploration Deck of the spaceship, filled with iconic items that the AI Guide has identified from science and science fiction that delve into our human drive to journey beyond our world. Whether through the technologies we imagine and create to take us there, including a scale model of a radio telescope used by scientists at SETI in their attempts to detect intelligent life, a model of a Saturn V rocket and a replica of the Apollo 17 Space Suit worn by Gene Cernan, the last man on the moon, or literary and cinematic musings on space travel and the other intelligent civilisations we might find, from Daleks to Darth Vader and an alien from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Visitors will also see a first edition of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, a model of the U.S.S. Enterprise from Star Trek signed by Nichelle Nicols and George Takei, a hypersleep chamber from Prometheus, a gold spacesuit from Sunshine and a Pan African Flag and Traveller Suit from artist Larry Achiampong's Relic Traveller series.

 

In the ship's Bio Lab visitors will examine what it means to be human with objects that explore how science fiction imagines the evolution and replication of the human form through the depiction of cyborgs, AI and gene editing. Visitors will get to see titans of science fiction cinema from Frankenstein's monster and Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet to Darth Vader's helmet created for Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and Iron Man's iconic armour. The Bio Lab will also explore how scientists have been inspired by the technological possibilities presented in science fiction, with incredible innovations including prosthetic arms developed by Open Bionics, the smallest ever pacemaker - the Medtronic Micra - and the DxtER medical diagnostic unit, winner of the XPrize, inspired by the medical tricorder used in Star Trek. 

 

Visitors will then take part in an away mission, using a wormhole jumpgate to visit another world. Arriving on the planet, they will enter a strange subterranean world where they will encounter a beautiful swarm of bioluminescent creatures who interact through the intelligent communication of a collective hive mind, inspired by different depictions of aliens across science fiction. 

 

Back on the Visualisation Deck visitors will be prompted to think about how science fiction reflects contemporary concerns and challenges. On display will be artworks including Passing Spring at the Ancient Dock by artist Yao Lu, a photocollage that initially appears to be in the style of a traditional Chinese landscape painting, with motifs of natural beauty, that on closer inspection is a landscape filled with waste and modern construction sites. Visitors will also see a poignant metal urn from Hiroshima, distorted by the heat of an atomic blast, displayed alongside a poster from the original Godzilla, highlighting how the development of nuclear weapons shaped post-war anxieties. Visitors will encounter objects from films that explore climate change, from a society depleted by water scarcity portrayed in Kenyan film Pumzi, to rising floodwaters engulfing Manhattan in the novel New York 2140, and the food shortages and poverty illustrated in the graphic novel version of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. Both science and science fiction also offer hope that we may overcome or mitigate global challenges and visitors will see a short film featuring scientists and futurists examining the importance of creativity in finding solutions to the grave threats we face.  

 

Visitors will end their journey overlooking Earth through a huge window from the Observation Deck. Few have savoured this unique view from space and this extraordinary vista will provide visitors with a moment to reflect on our place in the universe and the boundless creativity and imagination that exists on the blue planet we call home.

 

The exhibition is designed by BAFTA and Academy award winning Creative Studio Framestore, and the design will play with ideas of how alien life forms might communicate with each other through innovative audio-visual design interventions in the space and will give visitors the sense of taking a journey off-world. An alien language developed specially for the exhibition will adorn the different sections of the ship, evoking the sensation of having left the familiar behind. The alien language – Bhaux – looks mechanical, as if the language was generated by a machine intelligence, has a unique vocabulary of a few thousand words, its own grammar structure and is unique to the exhibition. Bhaux phrases also feature in the soundscape for the exhibition and are woven throughout the design, enhancing the immersive feel of Science Fiction. 

 

Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination is accompanied by a richly diverse events programme that explores the impact of science fiction literature, TV and film on the modern world. Live events range from a science fiction themed Lates, a popular after-hours public event for adults, where attendees can find out the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, to expert panel discussions and live music performances, including a collaboration between The Radiophonic Workshop and Stealing Sheep, and a science fiction themed Astronights, our popular sleepovers for children.  

 

Science fiction is an ever-evolving genre that seeks to make sense of our changing world. Recognising the importance of celebrating science fiction creators the Science Museum will be hosting the Arthur C. Clarke Award, which celebrates the best in science fiction writing, on 26 October at the museum's science fiction Lates.

 

The Science Museum has also launched a new writing prize to champion science fiction writers - Science Fiction Debuts - in partnership with leading publisher Hodder & Stoughton, helping to nurture and support the science fiction creators of the future. Open for submissions until 30 September the prize will offer unpublished writers the chance to submit original science fiction works that will be reviewed by an expert judging panel of authors and industry figures. The winner of the prize will receive £4,000, alongside a full critique of their work, a six-month-long mentoring programme with Hodderscape Editorial Director Molly Powell, and introduction to three literary agents. 

 

Accompanying the exhibition is a book, Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination, published on 29 September by Thames & Hudson. Edited by the exhibition's lead curator Glyn Morgan, this compelling, fully illustrated companion book encompasses a range of themes explored in the exhibition – from people and machines, space travel, and aliens, to communication, threats, and anxiety, through interviews with an array of international science fiction authors, essays by experts, and reproductions of classic ephemera, graphics and objects.

 

The exhibition is curated by the Science Museum and designed by Framestore, the BAFTA and Academy Award winning creative studio. Science Fiction is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation (Major Funder) and Bridget and David Jacob (Supporters).

 

ENDS

 

NOTES TO EDITORS 

 

Visitors to Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination can depart on their journey of discovery from 6 October 2022 to May the Fourth 2023. Tickets are £20 for adults, £19 for seniors, £18 for concessions, £10 for school groups, and ages 7 and under go free, alongside discounts for families and groups of 6+. For further information or to book tickets for Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination, please visit sciencemuseum.org.uk/science-fiction. 

 

Science Fiction ticket gift vouchers are also available for the perfect Christmas present, with more information via sciencemuseum.org.uk/science-fiction/gift-vouchers.  

 

Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination will be staged in the museum's largest exhibition space, which covers an area of 1,100m2.  

 

For further information, please contact Naomi Burgoyne in the Press Office at naomi.burgoyne@sciencemuseum.ac.uk or 020 7942 4818 / 07894317849. Please find images available to download here.

 

About the Science Museum

The Science Museum is part of the Science Museum Group, the world's leading group of science museums that share a world-class collection providing an enduring record of scientific, technological and medical achievements from across the globe. Over the last century the Science Museum, the home of human ingenuity, has grown in scale and scope, inspiring visitors with exhibitions covering topics as diverse as robots, code-breaking, cosmonauts and superbugs. 2020 marked a decade of transformation for the museum with the opening of the largest medical galleries in the world - Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries and Science City 1500-1800: The Linbury Gallery - the story of how London became a hub of discovery during 1550-1800. The Science Museum was named a winner of the prestigious Art Fund Museum of the Year prize for 2020. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk. Follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

 

About the Blavatnik Family Foundation

The Blavatnik Family Foundation is an active supporter of world-renowned educational, scientific, cultural, and charitable institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and throughout the world. The Foundation is headed by Sir Leonard Blavatnik, a global industrialist and philanthropist and the founder and chairman of Access Industries, a privately held industrial group based in the U.S. with broad strategic interests. See more at www.blavatnikfoundation.org. 

 

About Science Fiction Debuts

Science Fiction Debuts will open for submissions from 4 June 2022. Applicants will need to submit 10,000 words of the opening of a novel that fits into the science fiction genre and a 500-word synopsis. Writers must be unpublished and not represented by a literary agent, and residents of the United Kingdom. The deadline for submissions is midnight, 30 September 2022. A shortlist will be announced at the Science Museum's Lates on 26 October 2022, with the winner selected in January 2023 by a panel of authors and industry figures. The winner of the Science Fiction Debuts prize will receive £4,000, alongside a full critique of their work, a six-month-long mentoring programme with Hodderscape Editorial Director Molly Powell, and introduction to three literary agents. The runner up will receive £2,000, alongside a full critique of the work submitted, and the rest of the shortlist will receive a cash prize of £800, and feedback from the judging panel.  

 

About Science Museum Lates

Bringing together a host of themed talks, workshops and activities, Science Museum Lates are free adults-only, after-hours theme nights that take place in the museum every month. Science Museum Lates began in September 2008, and the museum has since hosted over 120 Lates events with themes ranging from sexuality and medicine, zombies and Frankenstein, to Zombies and AI. Find out more about past Science Museum Lates events here.

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