There may be no moment more thrilling for long-time science fiction TV fans than that of a spaceship blast-off. Beloved characters race to their ships, strap into their seats, activate rockets...and adventure begins.
The image of a space-ship leaving Terra Firma behind for parts unknown is an important part of the genre's equation, an indicator that new horizons are about to be breached. Sometimes a blast-off is about starting an exploration, and sometimes it is about escaping disaster.
Of all the science fiction TV programs in history, those created and produced Gerry Anderson are among the most potent in terms of this visceral "blast off" imagery. From Fireball X-L5 right up through Space Precinct, vehicular launches into "the black" have been lovingly and memorably rendered.
UFO (1970) may be the champion in this regard, since it features both Skydiver -- a rocket-powered jet that launches from the nose of a submarine (and underwater) -- and Moonbase Interceptors, which blast-off from a dusty crater. The series has more blast-offs and landings than you can shake a stick at.
Although some critics have called these images of Space:1999 (1975 - 1977) tiresome, one of its great and persistent appeals, in my opinion, involves the realism and detail of Eagle blast-offs.
Throughout the forty-eight episodes of the series, audiences witnesses Eagles leaving every kind of planetary and cosmic environment imaginable. Eagles blast-off from planetary surfaces ("All that Glisters"), from asteroids ("Collision Course," "Seed of Destruction"), from mind-blowing alien landscapes ("Guardian of Piri") and even from weird proto-planets ("The Seance Spectre). All such moments are rendered in spectacularly believable fashion.
Following Star Wars (1977), both Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979) and Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century (1979 - 1981) focused on the hardware details of space fighter launches. In both series, we see pilots (in their cockpits) take the control stick, and accelerate through a lit, colored tube which then spits the fighter either into the air, or into deep space. The focus in these blast-offs is clearly velocity. The re-imagined Galactica retained this aspect of "launch" or blast-off from the original series.
Two very popular outer space series, Star Trek and Doctor Who tend not to feature blast-offs on a regular basis. In effect, both series attempted to avoid the expenses associated with dramatizing space vessels launching or landing, and resorted to ideas such as teleportation (the transporter) or materialization (the TARDIS).
It may not have been pictured flying that far immeadiately afterwards but surely the greatest blast off was "ONE!" in the Tunderbirds countdown. That sequence was the most exciting thing I had ever seen when I was five and frankly there has not been to touch it in the intervening forty years (ok first equal is Space 1999). The shots from Guardian of Piri are beautiful. That story may make zero sense when you break it down but it is my favourite episode notwithstanding.
ReplyDeleteLove the Eagle blast offs. Another good one was the Flying Sub takeoffs from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, even with the sometimes wobbly wire work.
ReplyDeleteI love how in Buck Rogers they reused the launch tube footage from the pilot episode ad nauseam. It's amazing how many races used Draconian launch tubes in their ships or ground based hanger bays.