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Michael Billington & Ed Bishop R.I.P.
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Topic: Michael Billington & Ed Bishop R.I.P.
Timmer
Standard Userer
Both passed away within days of each other, I'm very saddened, they were so much of my childhood.Ed Bishop played Commander Straker in Gerry Anderson's U.F.O., Billinton played Colonel Paul Foster in the same show and was also shortlisted to play James Bond.
I'm suprised no here had mentioned this before?
More info here....
http://www.fanderson.org.uk/news.html#EdandMike
[Message edited by Timmer on 06-13-2005]
posted 06-13-2005 11:39 AM PT (US) Lou Goldberg
Standard Userer
I just picked up the UFO Megaset (got a good price of $57 for it), 8 dvds, all 26 episodes. the Sci-Fi channel in the US ran these a few years back and I was able to catch one or two back then to get a taste of them. Not sure just when I'll have 22 1/2 hours to watch 'em all, but I'm looking forward to it.
posted 06-30-2005 02:09 AM PT (US) Lou Goldberg
Standard Userer
I'm a couple of episodes into the series now. At one point in the first episode Gabrielle Drake picks up a copy of Design magazine which tells me a lot. After all, Ed Bishop's office has a set of the Eames Aluminum series chairs in it. [In a later episode, a family who can't really afford one has an Eames lounge chair in their house.] Indeed, the series over all seems taken with sets, costumes, and colors in a highly designed way. And speaking of design and color, what is with the Purple Hair? It's never explained why the women on the Moonbase have Purple Hair! And then the Moon staff don't have it when they are back on Earth. Doesn't matter, Gabrielle Drake would look hot no matter what color hair she had. [I just bought the dvd of Val Guest's AU PAIR GIRLS mainly for the nude shots of Gabrielle--who is still alive & acting in theater--I have to admit.]In any case, given the design concerns of the show, sometimes the people seem almost secondary (which is not a surprise for producers used to working with puppets--in fact, considering that UFO has model ships in every other shot, a lot of the series looks like Thunderbirds only with people).
Shot in the same studio as 2001 and only a year or so later, it's amazing how good some of the effects are for a TV series. CGI out-classes all this today but back then it looked pretty good for the budget, especially considering that we were only just getting to the actual Moon around this time to see what this stuff looked like for real.
The scoring is excellent. While Silva puts out 2 discs of Thunderbirds and one of Capt. Scarlet to boot, it's UFO that is needed badly. This may be the best stuff of Barry Gray's career--exciting, hip, funny, the works.
A little too much calling out numbers ("Tracking 2-5-0. Speed Sol Zero-8 Decimal-2.") as is basic to shows of this type and the aliens aren't alien enough but I guess these are minor gripes. [Later episodes try to explain that they aren't aliens but kidnapped humans under mind control by the aliens who use their bodies.]
In any case, I'll have more to say as I dig deeper. It does amaze me how much sci-fi tv I've put myself through over the years: Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc. etc. And I'm a novice compared with some who devote hours per week for Farscape and Andromeda and Stargate SG-1 and all that stuff on a regular basis.
Odd, but did Mankind evolve for 4 million years just to become Homo Tvwatchus "TV Watching Man"? Guess it's true in my case.
[Message edited by Lou Goldberg on 08-25-2005]
posted 07-01-2005 04:13 AM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB