RETRO TOY FLASHBACK # 40: Board Games

Bored? How about a board game?! One with science-fiction TV/film themes? That's the subject for this, the blog's 40th retro toy flashback.

TV/Film board games are probably somewhat out of fashion today, since we all have great video game platforms like PS2, X-Box and Game Cube, not to mention DVD box sets, to occupy our time. But let me bring out that broken record again: when I was a kid, we didn't have that stuff! We didn't have air conditioning, or automobiles either...

Just kidding. We did have those things. But as far as sci-fans were concerned, if we wanted to re-capture at home the glory of Star Wars or Star Trek, we had to weave a complex tapestry of interesting, ancillary collectibles. Model kits, comic books, photo-novels, color forms. Blah, blah. Yeah. All right.

Anyway, kids of the 1970s had great fun with board games. I know I did. But then, I liked to cheat.

One of my personal favorites, naturally, was the board game from the Gerry/Sylvia Anderson 1970s classic, Space:1999, a "game adapted from the television series." Produced by Milton Bradley, the goal of this board game is to be the first "commander" to fly his Eagle fleet to a planet on the far side of a rotating galaxy. The game came with little Eagle markers, and a board with a spinning cosmic center. Very, very cool. I played this one with my nephew about ten years ago. I think he liked it.

In 1974, just a few short years before the Space:1999 craze, Hasbro released a Star Trek game for ages 4 - 10. The box art is kind of Gold Key comic-book style, and the game promised "action and adventure in outer space." This game came equipped with two spinners, one for impulse drive and one for warp speed, and involved players racing to complete a spiral path through the final frontier, deep space.

By 1979, the Star Trek movies were upon us, and Milton Bradley had acquired the license to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The company consequently released a board game (in an oversized box...), one which enabled two-to-four players to complete three space missions, return to Earth, and get promoted to the rank of "Starfleet Commander." Each player for this game would move a starship Enterprise icon across the board and select mission types ("Explored Stars," "Advanced Civilizations" and "Hostile Aliens.") This is actually a really fun game to play, and when my son is old enough, I intend to share it with him.

The same year, Milton Bradley introduced kids (ages 7 - 14) to a Buck Rogers in the 25th Century board game, one based on the NBC Gil Gerard series.. The goal was to get Buck and Twiki aboard Princess Ardala's mothership. Funny, I always wanted to land on Ardala's mothership...

Probably every science fiction series and film worth its salt has seen a board game version. Parker Brothers introduced a Battlestar Galactica game in 1978 (goal: to lead the rag-tag fleet out of Cylon space), and Kenner was all over the Star Wars property with games called "Escape from the Death Star" and "Destroy the Death Star."

In the 1980s, there were games for the Transformers, Escape from New York, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and many more. I had to have them all. The Escape from New York game was especially cool. For a while there, I really wanted to be Snake Plissken.

By the time of the 1990s, even Star Trek: The Next Generation was resurrected in board game form (by Cardinal; for "Game of the Galaxies.") The goal was to make Captain Picard stop talking and actually do something. No, that's a joke. I kid Captain Picard...

The last board game I got (received as a gift...) is one I'm particularly thrilled with. Yep, it's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Board Game.

Finally, I've got Sarah Michelle Gellar right where I want her.

So, any favorite childhood board games? Which one? The one I always wanted (but never had...) was the one from the 1970s Planet of the Apes TV series. It had a "cage" or something that humans would get trapped in.

One of these days, I'll get my stinkin' paws on one.

The New Captain Scarlet: "Instrument of Destruction" (Parts I & II)

Dateline: "The Day after tomorrow..." S.I.G.! (Spectrum is Green!)

Now animated in impressive and dramatic CGI (or what the series nostalgically terms "Hypermarionation,") Gerry Anderson's classic supermarionation program Captain Scarlet (1967) has received a glossy, high-tech twenty-first century re-boot.

As in the original series, this 2005 effort revolves around an top-secret organization called SPECTRUM and the continuing efforts to defeat an extra-terrestrial menace, the Mysterons..."a deadly threat to Earth's security" that in today's world seems highly reminiscent of the "terror" threat from sleeper cells and the like. In this sense, the new series feels more timely than the 1967 one, which came during the James Bond craze and was an unofficial sequel of shorts to the submarine program, Stingray.

Captain Scarlet focuses particularly on the adventures of stolid Captain Paul Scarlet (yes, each SPECTRUM agent is assigned a color as a kind of "code name"...), the only survivor of an ill-fated trip to Mars. After detecting a strange signal on the surface of the red planet, Paul and his fellow officer, Conrad Leekon (Captain Black) end up inadvertently destroying a super-advanced Mysteron metropolis.

Oopsy...

"This is the voice of the Mysterons," the aliens tell the duo soon after the incident. "We have watched you for centuries. Your violence disgusts us and now you visit it upon us...We will crush your world."

And so the next long war involving mankind begins, with SPECTRUM HQ housed aboard a hovering aircraft carrier of sorts called Skybase and protected by fighter pilots termed "Angels." At first, Scarlet is sent back to Earth as an indestructible Mysteron agent ("You will be our instrument of destruction," the Mysterons tell him...) , but after a sabotage attempt in Sky Base's engineering section, Paul shakes the influence. Later, Dr. Gold tells Scarlet that his DNA has been altered at a subatomic level. He's not a clone, but Scarlet has been "genetically retrometabolizing."

Black is not so lucky; and he becomes the perpetual nemesis on the series....hatching one plan of destruction after the other. In the first two-parter, we see him teaming up with another Mysteron agent, a captain of industry from Trans Global, a corporation with Halliburton-like breadth.

In so many ways, the new Captain Scarlet feels like a holdover from the optimistic late 1960s and early 1970s. Inherent in the series' central story arc is the steadfast belief that we can not only compete technologically with the formless Martian enemies, but actually prevail in that battle. Edited with a sense of hyperactivity, the series - like many Gerry Anderson classics - boasts amazing vehicle designs and plenty of effects shots of vehicles launching, racing and landing. All this material is incredibly impressive.

The new Captain Scarlet, at least in its first two part episode, is so energetic that it iactually proves exhausting at times. There are more techie treats here than the viewer can shake a stick at: transforming space craft, escape pods crash landings, a sky-diving chase replete with a flying motorcycle, vehicles spinning on ice in Siberia, under fire from giant tanks, and the inevitable ticking clock finale, which finds Captain Black threatening to destroy the world with stolen fuel rods that could "blow the planet in half."

All this, and there's time for fetching squadron leader Destiny Angel to experience a crisis of faith too. If only the writers found time for her to reprise the famous UFO astronaut striptease from "Identified." Yes, Destiny is one hot CGI babe...

Also - again like many Gerry Anderson series - there's a shortage of realistic character development in this action-packed opener, but ultimately that's okay. Future episodes get the balance right, and this two-parter serves as a James-Bondian-type re-introduction to the world of SPECTRUM. Some people will miss the puppets, no doubt, but David Lane's direction is so fast-paced, nostalgia is an afterthought, I think. If I were twelve-years old today, and I switched the channel to Captain Scarlet, I would be absolutely spellbound. The series is faithful but not slavish to the source material, and very well-done.

The next episode...."Swarm."

SATURDAY MORNING CULT TV BLOGGING: Land of the Lost: "The Possession"

It's the "dormant season" for the Sleestak during "The Possession" (by David Gerrold and directed by Dennis Steinmetz), but that doesn't mean it's safe for the Marshalls in the land of the lost...

"The Possession" opens with a scene inspired, apparently, by Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Paku (Tah, Sah and Cha-Ka) go about their monkey-man business (eating grapes) when suddenly a pylon appears nearby, and beckons them with a mechanical hum; not unlike the curious apes in 2001 and the strange Monolith ("The Dawn of Man")

The similarities soon end, however, as Cha-Ka enters the pylon and becomes possessed by the "Great and Powerful" One, the "sleeper who has awakened" (no, not Paul Atreides...), "the watcher of the pylons." This entity takes control of Cha Ka and gifts him with a power wand or baton that sucks the power from crystal matrices and such.

Before long, Holly also becomes possessed by the Great and Powerful One too, and after zapping Will with her *ahem* rod, heads to the Lost City to drain more crystals. Rick Marshall intervenes at the last possible moment, and learns that the watcher of the Pylons appears to be an Altrusian, one of Enik's people. Furthermore, this entity believes it is his destiny to "rule all."

"No one has the right to rule all," Rick Marshall counters in true Captain Kirk fashion, before cutting the Watcher off from his crystals and stopping him once and for all...

"The Possession" is a kind of ho-hum episode from Land of the Lost's first season. Besides the early, obvious nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey, not much of interest really happens, and the final battle is kinda dull too. Everyone seems to be having a bad week here, and I'm not sure how this episode "jibes" with others about the pylons and their nature and power.

Still, next week's episode is one of my favorites, and a series high point. "Follow that Dinosaur..."

Production Diary # 4: The House Between: Special Effects

I've made no-budget films before, but my independently produced new TV series (now in post-production), The House Between is different because - wow - I actually had a real special effects artist making my crazy imaginings come true.

In this case, that special effects man is the versatile Rob Floyd (ably assisted by his sweet and helpful wife, Phyllis). My hat is off to Rob, because he came to the shoot completely and totally prepared not only for the special effects we had discussed on the phone in pre-production, but for every other possibility too. This means that in the middle of a hectic and intense shoot, he was able to conjure miraculous effects for us on the spot. This is good, because I'm a fickle director, and occasionally I want things on the spot. Yep...I'm a pain in the ass. Ask the cast...

For instance, there was a scene wherein we had to burn...*ahem*... something, and it just wouldn't catch fire satisfactorily. Let's just say that with Rob's help, that item burned up real well, and I didn't have to resort to 65 takes. (Though, in true Kubrickian fashion, I was ready to do that...)

Throughout the seven episode shoot, Rob accomplished some amazing effects for us, including the make-up for the "Out Dwellers" in episode # 4, "Visited" (which I don't want to reveal in close-up yet...), and boiling skin for a villainous character (played by Florent Christol) in episode # 6, "Trashed," some of which you do see here (below).

Rob also served as our regular make-up artist and our stunt coordinator too, so I'm really, really happy he was present and engaged for the entire shoot. Whenever I look at the footage, I'm amazed at the quality of effects he conjured.

So today I'm featuring a few effects shot on the blog, so you can check out Rob's (occasionally gory...) handiwork.

RETRO TOY FLASHBACK # 39: Iron-On Transfer Books!

So, you're in the fourth grade, it's 1979, and you want to look stylin'. What do you wear? Well - of course - you don your iron-on Battlestar Galactica T-shirt! You have twelve images to choose from, including a Cylon Basestar, a fleet of vipers, a Cylon raider, Apollo, Adama, Boomer, Starbuck and more.

So you get your Mom to iron on the image you want and you head proudly to school...

And then you get beat up for being a geek...

No, just kidding.

When I was a kid, way back in the bygone disco-decade, I remember lots of school kids wearing these "iron-on" shirts, meaning regular T-shirts emblazoned with the imagery of popular TV shows. It wasn't just Battlestar Galactica, either. I seem to remember a lot of kids wearing Welcome Back Kotter ("up your nose with a rubber hose!") and Fonzie ("sit on it!") iron-on shirts too.

If I were in the fourth grade today, I'd want a Veronica Mars iron-on T shirt with Kristen Bell on it. Heck, I'm thirty six and I want a Veronica Mars iron-on T shirt with Kristen Bell on it. Oops, did I say that out loud?

Anyway...

This is how iron-on T shirts work:

"It's easy to do and lots of fun to transfer these souvenirs to T-shirts, jackets curtains (Mom will love that!), bedspreads, pillow cases..."/etc., read the instructions from Windmill Books/E.P. Dutton in New York. With just $4.95 (or 6.25, Canadian), you were on your way to iron-on bliss.

Why? Because "Colors come alive when ironed on!" Here are the specific directions:

1.) Use a clean, presssed shirt. For best results, apply to material made of 100% polyester , or at least 65% polyester blend, or 100% nylon. Cotton is not guaranteed to hold colors when washed.

2.) Put a piece of paper on the ironing board so colors from transfer will not come off on ironing board.

3.) Set iron between wool and cotton settings. Do not use steam.

4.) Place shirt on ironing board and place iron-on transfer face down on shirt. Fasten transfer in place at the corners with small pieces of masking tape or pins. Do not use cellophane tape. Place tape on white edges of transfer only.

5.) Cover transfer with a piece of thin paper to protect iron from being stained with color.

6.) Press down hard on iron and move it back and forth across the entire printed area for 30 seconds. Keep the iron moving. Be sure to iron over the entire transfer area.

7.) Allow to cool one minute. Carefully remove the transfer and paper.

Ah, the 1970s. There was no better time to be a kid...

Production Diary # 3: The House Between

Episode Two ("Settled") of my upcoming, independently-shot TV series, The House Between, focuses on two characters primarily, Astrid and Bill. In particular, Astrid is confronted with (and haunted by...) an old musical composition (and tape recording...) from her traumatic past.

For this scene, we needed an original song ("The House Between") and Kim Breeding (who plays Astrid) devised a very haunting and disturbing tune. You'll know more precisely what I'm talking about when you see the episode...

Anyway, I thought that for today's production diary entry, I might transcribe the lyrics of Astrid's song. In the show, Kim (lead singer for Cured by Porno...) sings the tune too (even while her character reacts to it.) Kim also performs another tune for episode # 5, "Mirrored."

The House Between
Composed and Performed by Kim Breeding (as Astrid)...

Your good intentions paved the way/for me to learn to hate.

Your rules and restrictions and contradictions led me to my fate.

The chill between us broke me down/more than I care to say.

I'll sacrifice/if that's the price of your love then I will pay.

Chorus:

You left me unclean/Now I wander from room to room
in the House Between.

You may see Heaven or Hell /According to your doom
but I'll eternally dwell in the House Between

These walls will hold me away from Grace...until the End of time.
No Mercy Shown/I'm own my own, just like I was in life...

Another Star Trek XI Tidbit

This little clip about the upcoming Star Trek 11 landed in my e-mail inbox last week, courtesy of my good friend, Chris (a sometimes commenter on the blog here).

The context for the info was an interview with screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci for Creative Screenwriting Magazine. The interview was conducted and written by senior editor, Jeff Goldsmith.

Anyway, Mr. Goldsmith asked if the new Star Trek project was going to be a re-imagination (a la BSG) or something that could be viewed as consistent with the established mythos.

Here's a clip of the response. Be sure to pick up Creative Screenwriting Magazine to read the rest of the article (which also covers M:I:3.):

"There are pockets within the universe, and we know the mythology well, and we are fans of the novels that happen between the movies and all that kind of stuff, which aren't even counted as part of the mythology sometimes and we do know that there is a space to begin to see a lot of the origins of a lot of the things we know and we're going to start there. We're very mindful of being totally true to the mythology and totally true to what's come there, and in a way try to embrace the fact there's such a rich history to it that this is not a case of trying to come in and be so clever that you're going to reinvent everything. It's a case of coming in and using the stuff you know is great and you know really works and not violating anything that's come before it."

You ask me, that sounds good. I don't want to see forty years of Star Trek undercut by a would-be auteur who thinks he's more clever than Roddenberry, Coon, Nimoy, Bennett, or Meyer. Of course, on the other hand, how hard would it be to prove cleverer than Brannon Braga? Perhaps that sounds snarky, but I'm still bristling (12...years...later...) over the way Braga and Moore handled Captain Kirk's death in Generations. (And still asking why Captain Picard didn't pick a better time to exit the Nexus...). But that, my friends, is a post for another day...

Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair -- Now Available!

One more bit of JKM book news this morning: my latest enterprise from Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair, has just been officially published (and you can get copies from Amazon.com).

This book covers the entire career of Indian-born, Harvard-educated Nair, an auteur and heir to Satyajit Ray. My study gazes at all of her films, from the Academy Award-nominated Salaam Bombay! (1988) to the popular hit, Monsoon Wedding (2002), to her recent adaptation of Vanity Fair (2004). There's also a sneak peek at the upcoming The Namesake (2006), based on Jhumpa Lahiri's best seller. The book features interviews with Naveen Andrews (of Lost), who starred in Kama Sutra (1996), Gena Rowlands (who starred in 2002's Hysterical Blindness), screenwriters Sooni Taraporevala and Julian Fellowes, and many more.

Mercy in Her Eyes just got reviewed by Library Journal, and here's what the magazine had to say about it:

"During the 1950s, India became a forerunner in feature film output, and it was in that decade and country that filmmaker Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) was born. Muir (Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company) presents an engrossing, superbly researched study of Nair's career that incorporates material from numerous interviews. He discusses the eclectic components and production of her films as well as delves into the heart of Nair's philosophy and stunning cinematic approach. He further considers her subject matter, which includes social issues, globalization vs. national identity, and the struggle of individuals to find meaning while bridging Eastern and Western cultures. This book -the first to concentrate on Nair's fine achievements - will significantly interest those familiar with her work and should inspire others to further study. It will be especially valuable for university cinema studies programs as well as for academic and circulating libraries. [Nair's The Namesake, based on Jhumpa Lahiri's best-selling debut novel, will be released by Fox Searchlight Pictures in the fall.-Ed]

One Step Beyond Book lands in softcover!

Hey everybody, my 2001 study and analysis of the 1959-1961 paranormal TV series, One Step Beyond (and its 1978 sequel, The Next Step Beyond) has just been re-published in soft-back by McFarland.

The book actually boasts an illustration on the cover this time (and it's creepy too...). The book features the last interview with director John Newland, who crafted all 96 half-hour segments of OSB, as well as an episode guide of all the episodes. Special focus is granted to "The Sacred Mushroom," the notorious documentary episode which found Newland sampling hallucinogenic mushrooms to see if they could enhance psychic powers. Remember, this was 1960, well before the hippie movement...

What makes this book different than some I've written is that I analyze the series not only in terms of television production and themes, but also how closely the series adheres to established, academic paranormal lore (about subjects like automatic writing, rapping, poltergeists, bilocation, alien abduction and the like).

Anyway, the book gets a price reduction along with it's new format, so hopefully a new audience will find it. Dig that cover...

Production Diary # 2: The House Between -- Location/Sets

Yesterday, I wrote here about my new independent production, The House Between, a science-fiction/horror, seven installment TV show, bound direct for the Internet (and DVD sales). I'm cataloging footage, preparing a trailer, and editing the project now.

The series concerns a "house at the end of the universe," as one character terms it, a dwelling of mysteries, mind-states and inner-space. Here are a few views of the home in question. The series was shot in stark black-and-white, and hence these photos are in black and white too.


Left: The main hall. In episode #4, "Visited," this staircase turns into a battlefield between those trapped inside the house, and a force from outside that wants to get in.









Left: The upstairs hallway. This tight space is the location where Astrid first meets Bill, the house's "man of science," also trapped there.

















Left: This is Astrid's room. In episode # 1, "Arrived," Astrid (Kim Breeding) awakens in this room...naked. She finds all her clothes hanging neatly in the closet....










Left: The foyer downstairs. Throughout the series, all the windows are "blacked out" because of a strange "null space" surrounding the house.

Left: Arlo's kitchen. This room proves to be the "heart" of the house, in more ways than one. It's where Arlo (Jim Blanton) lives, and it's also where many core scenes occur. Sometimes the kitchen is a court room, sometimes it's a place to bond, and - occasionally (as in episode # 6, "Trashed") - it's a place for discovery.

Left: Bill's room and sanctuary. Bill (Anthony Mercer) can be a solitary guy, especially when he becomes convinced that the entire house is a prison designed to make him spill his secrets. Bill gets an...unusual visit from Astrid here in episode # 5, "Mirrored."

CATNAP # 38: Lily on the Ledge

I worry about Lily.

This little black burst of lightning is my youngest cat (still a kitten, technically...).

She's the cat who we adopted last year after she was rescued in a Food Lion parking lot near our vet's office. Her tail had been mangled in the fan belt of a car and had to be amputated.

So her balance ain't exactly great...(and without a tail, she looks like a little black bunny...)

Despite this, Lily makes a habit of playing daredevil, and walking the high ledge over our second story foyer and staircase.

She also likes to sleep by the window, and I worry she's going to nod off and fall.

Here are a few pictures of her in action. In the middle two, she's navigating the perimeter of the railing.

In the others, she's perched in the window.

I get vertigo just thinking about her up there...