Pathfinders to Mars (1960)

The second sequel to Target Luna and following on from Pathfinders in Space, Pathfinders to Mars contained the following episodes in its 6 week run; The Imposter, Sabotage in Space, The Hostage Lichens!, Zero Hour on the Red Planet and Falling into the Sun

Steve

Doctor Who - A Gallery

By way of being a celebration of his 50 year anniversary and as something of a recap of the many and varied spacesuits that have graced the televisual travels of the good Doctor, I present to you all a gallery of Gallifreyan goodness.

Mission to the Unknown/The Daleks’ Masterplan (1965)

Tenth Planet (1966)

The Moonbase (1967)

The Wheel in Space (1968)

 The Ambassadors of Death (1970)

 The Carnival of Monsters (1973)

Frontier in Space (1973)

The Planet of the Daleks (1973)

 Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974)

The Sontaran Experiment (1975)

 

The Android Invasion (1975)

The Face of Evil (1977)

The Invisible Enemy (1977)

Underworld (1978)

Nightmare of Eden (1979)

Terminus (1983)

Four to Doomsday (1982)

Enlightenment (1983)

The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (2006)

42 (2007)

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (2008)

The Waters of Mars (2009)

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (2011)

The Impossible Astronaut/The Day of the Moon/The Wedding of River Song (2011)

Hide (2013)

Well that was fun wasn’t it and I’m sure there are more yet to come in the next 50 years.  But before ending this most lengthy of posts let's go back and look again at 1977’s The Face of Evil.

Of note is that this seems to be another, if not even the final, appearance of the Pathfinder Helmets.  There has been some modification made to the chin area in the form of its total removal, which might just explain why they were never seen on the show again.  I can’t imagine there was too much structural integrity left in the prop after that.

That's your lot.  Now go outside and play

Steve

Doctor Who - The Android Invasion (1975) part 2

It was back in January 2011 that I first posted about The Android Invasion and then it was about these chaps.

I think I said that the DVD release was long overdue and I was looking forward to watching it again at some point.  Well, this week I did just that and what a treat it was.  It's not perfect but its a perfect representation of what good 1970's  Doctor Who was all about.  Killer robots with gun fingers, gravel voiced monstrous aliens, spooky English villages with spooky English villagers, soldiers with guns, cold emotionless duplicates of the heroes and a top-secret Space Defence base within easy walking distance.

And what would you expect to find in such a place?  That's right, a spaceman.

This is Guy Crayford as played by Milton Johns and beneath that eye-patch lurks a plot hole the size of black hole but if  you were 7 years old - or Terry Nation - you probably wouldn't think about it too much. 

Anyway lets talk space suits.

The keen eyed may recognise that as a Thal space suit last seen in The Planet of the Daleks (1973)

And yes, if you look closely that is the same style of safety helmet that is customised still further to become the androids helmet in this story.

And because I've been doing this for a while now, and because I know there is a Barry Letts connection, I can tell you that the space helmet beneath Crayford's arm is one of the helmets from  the BBC tv series;  Moonbase 3 (1973)

And that's a show I'll be blogging on quite soon.



Steve

Not Really A Spacesuit but... 1

Hello and welcome to the first; "Not Really A Spacesuit but..."

As well as the dozens and dozens of spacesuits still pending in the image banks I've also got a few captures that for technical reasons are not actually spacesuits as such but are close enough to merit a look.. or, as in this case, have some special significance to us over here at the; Say; Hello Spaceman blog.

We're going to start with this recent find which is from the lesser known Hammer film; These are the Damned.  Its a very odd film this, well more like three completely different films bolted together.  There are rebellious biker gangs, incestuous undercurrents between seaside siblings, secret government bases and scary intelligent Wyndhamesque children.  Its a strange brew and quite dark and cynical for it's time and I really like it.

But all that aside, what's of interest to us here is an appearance of the Pathfinder helmets we've been previously tracking through various TV shows.  In These are the Damned it's used as part of a radiation suit for which it is every bit as effective.  The film was eventually released in 1963 but actually made in 1961 so this marks one of the early uses of this prop.  I'm sure there are even more still out there.


Steve

Doctor Who The Daleks' Master Plan (1965)

First seen in the story’s prologue; Mission to the Unknown, this alien representative can now be seen again only this time his Pathfinder style helmet appears to have been given a coat of black paint.

Nice!

Steve

Doctor Who Mission to the Unknown (1965)

A  unique episode of Doctor Who which served as a Doctor-less prologue to the 12 part  The Daleks’ Master Plan which aired some five weeks later.  Though the story has long been lost from the BBC archives, a few stills remain which afford us a glimpse of the representatives of the 7 planets which are in cahoots with the Daleks.

And among them, if we look closely, we can see that one of the unnamed aliens is wearing a space helmet that looks a lot like the kind worn in the Pathfinder to Mars series and which, as you will have already read, goes on to feature fairly regularly throughout the whole of the 70’s Doctor Who. I wasn’t sure at first if the plastic visor was in place although the position of the air-hose does seem to suggest that it might be.  In Pathfinders it was replaced with a cross of wire so as not to muffle the actors voice although I don’t think this alien has any specific lines so that isn’t really an issue here.

I think this is most probably the first outing of the prop on Doctor Who, although having only spotted it’s use a couple of days ago, I’m not going to put any money on that.

Steve

Doctor Who The Android Invasion (1975)

The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive in the English village of Devesham, near the Space Defence Station and then they bump into these chaps;

Whilst not technically spacemen as such – but then nothing in this story is quite what it seems to be - they are sporting those ever-faithful Pathfinder style of helmet quite popular with previous Doctor Who costume designers.  This time to mix it up a bit they’ve removed the flat Perspex face plate and added a motorbike bubble visor which makes for quite an effective re-design.  I almost didn’t recognise it.

This story was made about the same time that Space 1999 aired and their space helmets also featured a similar bubble visor look, which may have been the source of inspiration.

Anyway what first appears like creepy spacemen roaming the countryside turns out to really be equally creepy faceless androids.

It’s been a lot of years since I last saw this and a DVD release is long overdue.

 

Steve