The Morecambe & Wise Show (1970)

Well I always knew there were more appearances of this space suit and helmet out there, I just wasn't expecting one of them to be in something as high profile as The Morecambe and Wise Show

This is from a sketch in the first episode of the BBC's run which aired on 1st of July 1970.

I've also found yet another appearance of this spacesuit and helmet which I'll be posting next and then I'm probably going to have to do an index of all the known  appearances, dates  and colour changes.

If you are new here and dont recognise them, these were the suits first used in Doppelgänger, a 1969 British science fiction film written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.  They then became even more prolific in the Anderson's TV series UFO, as well as being loaned out to make lots more appearances in other TV shows, adverts, book and record covers.

Steve

Doctor Who - The Ambassadors of Death (1970) Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes images from the 7 part 1970 Doctor Who story:The Ambassadors of Death. 

These seem to be the actors gathered in the makeup room prior to filming and of course features a reuse of the Moon Zero Two space helmets.  The suits I believe are original BBC made costumes for this show

Steve

Advertising Space - Gallery 1

Do you see what I did there?

 

OK, time to clear the files a bit.  I've been holding onto these images for years waiting to date them but lets throw it out to you people out there.  If you know, or know how I can find out what year these images are from then feel free to pop a comment in below and I'll update accordingly.

 

 (1965)

 

 (1970)

 

 Smirnoff  Vodka (1967)

Its been suggested that this is the same space helmet as one featured in You Only Live Twice and on study I would have to agree.  Its also the same year as that James Bond film and given the smart dressed chap and the girl I'm now wonder if this whole advert is trying to capture the Bond thing, officially or not.  Thanks "Unknown" for spotting that

 

Twinkies TV advert (1970)

Infinity One - Cover art by Jim Steranko

Obviously Steranko is all kinds of genius but a Steranko spacesuit is a thing of beauty.  Click on this to see it in all its glory.  Then go search the internet for some of the finest comic covers you will ever see.


Happy New Year, people


Steve

Spaceship Medic by Harry Harrison

What an absolute peach of a cover by Peter Jones for this Puffin edition from 1983

And here is the 1976 (?) version from the same publisher.  Artist Tony Roberts

 

1970 Faber Hardback cover design by Gask & Page

 

1970 Doubleday edition Artist unknown

Steve

UFO - Alien Helmet (1970)

A couple of scans sent to me quite a while ago by friend to this blog: Tim Armstrong.  If I recall we were discussing where the Doppelganger/UFO spacesuits had ended up and as Tim revealed, with evidence to back it up, that at least one of the alien helmets from the show had been saved for posterity by a collector.

 

Click on image to make larger and read away.

 

Sorry its taken a while, Tim, I had trouble getting them to appear larger than a thumb-nail on my computer but I seem to have cracked it now. 

 

Steve

UFO - Close Up (1970)

Just another episode of Gerry Anderson's UFO with its lovely often recycled space suits.  Here they are looking all yellow and freshly painted from being in Journey to the Far Side of the Sun.

You can even see both types of helmet and all the usual space-tech gubbins a chap might need in space

 No oxygen tanks on the back though, not in this show.  Its all in the shoulder unit

 Hang on a minutes!  What's all this about then

 Wow!  Is that what I think it is?

Blimey Crickey!   And Kubrick was adamant that everything should be destroyed after filming, lest it all get recycled and cheapen his original.

 Not sure?  Think its a copy?

Well, firstly, every other type of spacesuit's chest and back unit from 2001 turned up in Doctor Who and other shows through the 70's so why not this one.  And secondly picture 4 shows this...

which looks a lot like this.... 

...from picture 7.

My best guess is when they picked it out the skip at Shepperton Studios it needed a bit of repair work and the top seems far more likely a place to stick it back on than where it appears on the original.

All that remains is to say thanks to Mr Nowak for leading me to this.  You are a star.


Steve

Doctor Who - The Ambassadors of Death (1970) - A Gallery

 

Steve

Planet of the Apes - Unseen moments

One of my first great loves as a youngster was the Planet of the Apes movies, and the comics, and bubble-gum cards and the TV series and even the cartoon show.  Sci-fi and monkeys and across multimedia and at a time before we even called it that - What's not to like?

One of the great joys and fascinations of the Apes movies for me was the way that the five stories all circled round and joined back up with themselves.

And what I want to share in the this post is a little bit of that story arc with the inclusion of some stunning artwork that reveal a deleted scene or two.  I'll justify its inclusion in this blog simply by it being full of spacemen, a spacewomen and spaceapes but really its just about enjoying the artwork.

The Planet of the Apes (1968)

 

 

A crew of four reduced to three.

A ship crashed with barely time to mourn

Taking on water and beginning to sink

Evacuation, abandon the ship

The Icarus slides beneath the waters, lost forever or so it seems.

How could things get any worse.

 

Oh!  OK

 

Beneath The planet of the Apes (1970)

Oh no!  But as bad as this seems it can't end any worse than Taylor's day

 

No don't press that!

 

And here endeth the franchise, not with a whimper but with a great big bloody bang.  Everybody dies and the world blows up.  Not much chance of another sequel here, and yet....

 

At some point between the end of The Planet of the Apes and the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes this must happen...

The illustration is by Erik Marcus Gist and is simply called: Ape Diver.  It's a truly provocative and stunning piece of work and you should go and check out it's creator online in order to appreciate and support his great talent.

 

There's a whole other film's worth of story in regard to the hows whys and wherefores of three chimps, finding, raising and fixing that ship.  Maybe they found and used parts from Brent's ship as well.  We'll most probably never know in any official cinematic and canonical way but  in the version I imagination this would be the closing shot..

 

 

This is the clean artwork used on the cover of Planet of the Apes #12 in the US and #50 of the UK weekly reprint back in October 1975.

 

The artist was Ken Barr and its the view from the commandeered, bailed-out and repaired ship as the future Earth is destroyed by the last spaceman standing.  Such a clever composition this and for me it must rank as one of my all time favourite comic covers.

 

All of which gets you to this iconic moment...

 

Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

The end of the journey for our lost astronauts, finally returned home?

 Or simply the beginning of the end ?

 

 

I'm off to watch a DVD but can you guess which one.

 

Steve