Say Hello Spaceman: Journey to the Far Side of the Sun

Showing posts with label Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. Show all posts

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

Doppelganger (1969) A Black and White Gallery

Nice

Steve

Saturday, 10 February 2018

The Special AKA - What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend

You know that feeling when you're certain you've seen something somewhere before but you just cant place it? Its like an itch. I get a lot of them doing this blog, when a particular space helmet looks familiar and I just can't recall where else I know it from. Sometimes it takes years and then some friend of this blog casually says; "I think its the same helmet that features in The Special AKA - What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend." And you want to face-palm, because you must only have watched that video a couple of dozen times, bought the album if featured on back in the day and from a band that was just about your local city's biggest musical export. Thanks Richard, you are a salve and a star.

And what was the original helmets appearance you ask? Well scroll down to find out. There are a few cosmetic differences but its the ear grills that nail it.

That's right its the "looks like an alien but actually isn't suit" from Doppelganger AKA Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969)

Lovely. What a find.

Now back to the Special AKA....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHJFGL5P6qE

Steve

Doppelganger - Original Concept (1969)

I was having a little wander around the internet, looking for some pictures for another post and stumbled across this....

Found courtesy of The Prop Gallery website, this is the original concept art by Derek Meddings for the Spacesuit first used in the 1969 film Doppelganger, AKA; Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. The art has long since been sold but go visit the website for a good look around.

http://www.thepropgallery.com/derek-meddings-spacesuit-concept-design

I think that this is rather a special find for Say; Hello Spaceman, as its this suit in conjunction with the Moon Zero Two suit that first got me interested in tracking those spacesuits that feature in multiple media. And to think, it all started here beneath the pencil and paints of Derek Meddings, a man that designed so much of my childhood. What a hero

Steve

Monday, 14 September 2015

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.