There was a time when the best way to see a film at home wasn't on a shiny disc. There was a time when the debate over 2001-A SPACE ODYSSEY on VHS or Betamax hadn't even been thought of. There was a time when the only way to watch a science fiction film at home was to catch it on BBC2 as part of the regular science fiction film seasons that used to pop up there.
Part of the reason, a quite sizeable part in truth, that I am an incurable sci fi freak is because BBC 2 would schedule a season of science fiction 'classics' at a reasonable hour of the evening (6.30 or something like that) so that I could watch them between dinnertime and bedtime.
The films were always the same ones, but that didn't matter. Some of them were good, some of them were great and some of them were bloody awful, but they were science fiction and they were there. What more does a growing geek need?
It was there that I first discovered the real joys of SILENT RUNNING, FORBIDDEN PLANET, COLOSSUS - THE FORBIN PROJECT, WAR OF THE WORLDS and THEM! These are films that I have loved all my life it seems and copies of them on tape and disc have always lived in my house. Giant ants, cute robots, killer computers, invading martians and a machine as big as a planet. That was the stuff of imagination.
In the second rank of movies there would be THIS ISLAND EARTH and WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE - pulp to be sure, but quality pulp.
And then there was INVADERS FROM MARS and TARANTULA, movies that were never any good, but always got trotted out to fill out the season.
Without these movies I wouldn't be the sci-fi obsessive that I am. Some would say that's a good thing, but if the alternative were an interest in Morris Dancing? I shudder to consider it.
So, a heartfelt thank you to the schedulers of BBC2 for helping me to find the larger universe that is available out there. And if you fancy doing a quick season of sci fi movies on BBC 2 I could get my kids to watch.
Showing posts with label forbidden planet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forbidden planet. Show all posts
Friday, 1 October 2010
Monday, 23 August 2010
Sci Fi Totty - A Genre's Shame
There can be little more schizophrenic than the science fiction genre's depiction of women. On the one hand the genre was amongst the first to show women as being intelligent and capable whilst on the other it saddled them with ridiculous outfits that made the most of their outstanding assets.
Just think of the original outfits that the crew of the Starship Enterprise wore in the original STAR TREK. Could those skirts have been any shorter? Is that what Starfleet considers to be practical spacewear? And yet the show had a string of capable women from Nurse Chapel and Lt Uhura through to the subject specialists that appeared.
In THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, Patricia Neal was a single mother completely in command of her situation, but Anne Francis in FORBIDDEN PLANET had another of those ridiculously short skirts to deal with. Faith Domergue was one of the world's leading scientists in THIS ISLAND EARTH Julia Adams was a top scientist in THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, but her main contribution was to swim about in a one-piece swimsuit.
That reference is apt because the reason for this speculation is the release in the UK of PIRANHA 3D, which again goes all schizophrenic. It features a female sheriff heroine who is as good as any man, but has so many scantily and unclad females as to completely spoil the effect. Hell, even Ripley, the ultimate science fiction heroine got down to her skivvies in ALIEN.
Alice, the genetic killing machine in RESIDENT EVIL, is as competent a woman as it gets, surviving when all the men around her are killed off, but even she had to be seen being 'born' naked.
The there's Stella Starr, who saves the universe no less in STARCRASH, but she does it in the skimpiest of outfits. Princess Leia led the rebellion against the empire, but she had to sport a gold bikini when necessary.
It seems that no matter how much the genre tries to show women in a positive light, there's always someone who wants to put them in their underwear instead.
Piranha 3-D
Forbidden Planet [Blu-ray]
Resident Evil - The High-Definition Trilogy (Resident Evil/ Resident Evil: Apocalypse/ Resident Evil: Extinction) [Blu-ray]
Creature From the Black Lagoon (Universal Studios Classic Monster Collection)
Starcrash (Roger Corman Cult Classics) [Blu-ray]
The Day the Earth Stood Still
This Island Earth
Just think of the original outfits that the crew of the Starship Enterprise wore in the original STAR TREK. Could those skirts have been any shorter? Is that what Starfleet considers to be practical spacewear? And yet the show had a string of capable women from Nurse Chapel and Lt Uhura through to the subject specialists that appeared.
In THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, Patricia Neal was a single mother completely in command of her situation, but Anne Francis in FORBIDDEN PLANET had another of those ridiculously short skirts to deal with. Faith Domergue was one of the world's leading scientists in THIS ISLAND EARTH Julia Adams was a top scientist in THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, but her main contribution was to swim about in a one-piece swimsuit.
That reference is apt because the reason for this speculation is the release in the UK of PIRANHA 3D, which again goes all schizophrenic. It features a female sheriff heroine who is as good as any man, but has so many scantily and unclad females as to completely spoil the effect. Hell, even Ripley, the ultimate science fiction heroine got down to her skivvies in ALIEN.
Alice, the genetic killing machine in RESIDENT EVIL, is as competent a woman as it gets, surviving when all the men around her are killed off, but even she had to be seen being 'born' naked.
The there's Stella Starr, who saves the universe no less in STARCRASH, but she does it in the skimpiest of outfits. Princess Leia led the rebellion against the empire, but she had to sport a gold bikini when necessary.
It seems that no matter how much the genre tries to show women in a positive light, there's always someone who wants to put them in their underwear instead.
Piranha 3-D
Forbidden Planet [Blu-ray]
Resident Evil - The High-Definition Trilogy (Resident Evil/ Resident Evil: Apocalypse/ Resident Evil: Extinction) [Blu-ray]
Creature From the Black Lagoon (Universal Studios Classic Monster Collection)
Starcrash (Roger Corman Cult Classics) [Blu-ray]
The Day the Earth Stood Still
This Island Earth
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