FantaSci

On Saturday, July 23, 2005, I'll be spending a glorious and exciting day in Chesapeake, Virginia at the annual fantasy and science fiction convention called FantaSci. I'll be presenting one of my favorite seminars there from 12:45 pm to 2:15 pm: SPACE:1970s - SF TV in the Disco Decade!

During this talk, I'll focus especially on the much-maligned, but intensely cinematic and fascinating series Space:1999 (1975-1977), the subject of the first book I ever wrote, way back in 1997, Exploring Space:1999: An Episode Guide and Complete History of the Mid-1970s Science Fiction Television Series (reprint edition: 2005, McFarland, $24.95).

This snippet is from the book's introduction:

"...the first 24 episodes of Space:1999 featured a richly-visualized world where space was a terrifying, confusing and spectacular mystery. Each story explored the unknown and portrayed the Alphan space voyage as a journey into wonder, awe and horror. Unlike the futuristic superheroes of Star Trek, the travelers on Moonbase Alpha were recognizably human and contemporary. They were unprepared both technologically and psychologically for a long voyage into deep space, and as a result their emotions, fears and attitudes often caused more harm than the aliens or space phenomena they encountered.

While Star Trek treated all problems as soluble and offered enjoyable stories laced with light social commentary, Space:1999 episodes were often downright grim. The series was obsessed with mankind's failings and dark questions of existence. As performed by series leads Landau and Bain, the main Alphan characters were tightly-focused and hyper-intense. There was just no time for these men and women to engage in the saucy banter that had won over so many viewers to Star Trek. In many ways, Space:1999 was much more a child of Joseph Stefano's The Outer Limits (1961-62) or Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone (1959-64) than of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Replete with effectively dark photography, stylish feature-film techniques, gothic story lines and a Wagnerian musical score Space:1999 presented the dark side of space adventure..."

So if you want to learn more about this amazing and oft-neglected TV series, as well as other 1970s initiatives including UFO, The Fantastic Journey, Logan's Run, The Starlost, Battlestar Galactica, Planet of the Apes and Land of the Lost, and you happen to be in town on Saturday the 23rd, stop by to visit! Also, visit my Retro TV Files for a look at many of these shows.

I'll be joined at FantaSci by a bevy of interesting guests including authors Pamela Kinney, Elizabeth Massie, David Niall Wilson, Patricia Lee Macomber, Stephen Mark Rainey, Elizabeth Blue, Tony Ruggerio, Richard C. White, Joseph Maddrey, Christopher Curry, and Marshall Thomas, as well as animator Elizabeth Pascieczny, modelmaker David Merriman, Dr. Madblood's Craig T. Adams and Debra Burrell, Saving Star Wars director Gary Wood, Tidewater Alliance's Rick Baer and Odessa Steps Magazine's Mark Coale. Some of us will be doing a panel in the afternoon called "Gone but not forgotten," which looks at great sci-fi TV shows and movies of yesteryear.

I'm really looking forward to this con, and plan to have a table where I will be selling some of my horror videotapes, as well as copies of Exploring Space:1999 and other books (Eaten Alive at a Chainsaw Massacre: The Films of Tobe Hooper, The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television, etc.)