TV-Times Spetember 21 - 27 (1968)

I stumbled over this image a couple of days ago of the TV listing magazine  TV-Times from September 1968.  From what I can gather the cover is not a specific image from a TV show but it caught my eye because to me that looks like one of the Windak suits, which featured in a variety of places through out the 60s and 70s.  Ill update the post with more details should I discover them.

 

 

Steve

A Suitography of the "Windak" Spacesuits (1962 and onwards)

A work in progress

Further pictures and details to be added later but to better help you explore the blog, here is the second of our suitographies for the spacesuits with the more varied and interesting of CV's.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the mighty Windak - High altitude pressure suit and so much more.

Windak Suits (1962)  Real Life
First Men in the Moon (1964)  Film
Doctor Who The Tenth Planet (1966)  TV Show
Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space (1968)  TV Show
Star Wars: A New Hope - Part 2 - (1977)  Film
Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)  Film
Star Wars - Return of the Jedi (1983)  Film


Steve

Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space (1968) - A Gallery

We've been here before of course but that was before I was pointed in the direction of episode 6, one of the two surviving episodes of this second Doctor and the Cybermen, six part story from 1968.  And the reason to explore episode 6 in greater detail is that, as you will see, it reveals that the BBC actual used three Windak suits and not just two as originally blogged.  It is my belief that these were the same suits as featured the film; First Men in the Moon in 1964, and again in Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet, the first Doctor's last story and the Cyberman's first, in 1966.  I would make a fairly safe bet that between their appearance here in The  Wheel in Space and then guesting in Star Wars IV in 1977, they did feature in other sci-fi shows and films as well.  As of yet I've no idea what that might be but if anyone has caught a glimpse in an episode of Out of the Unknown or Doom Watch, etc, I would love to hear about it. Until then enjoy the images.

Thanks to Philip Ayres for telling me where to find these.  You are a star, sir.


Steve

Star Wars - Return of the Jedi (1983)

It's Bossk in a blink and you'll miss him appearance in the third of the original Star Wars films.

Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

A recent comment from blog reader Sword Takeda in regard to Windak space suits, got be looking back at all my old posts and I realised, that while filling in the back story up to its best known appearance I had actually managed never to complete the journey.  So this is me doing just that.

Ladies and Gentleman, may I present Bossk in what seems likely to be the last known appearance of the yellow Windak high altitude pressure suit.

 

 

Steve

 

 

Doctor Who The Tenth Planet (1966)

The Tenth Planet was the first of the Cybermen stories.  It was the last of the William Hartnell adventures.  And it also appears to be the first Doctor Who adventure to feature the Windak spacesuits.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to remember these suits are featured in the story.  It could be because I've never actually seen it but somehow that doesn't excuse the oversight.

 

The DVD is out at the end of this; the shows 50th anniversary year and I'm sure I'll be picking it up.  Expect a nice gallery of images soon after.

Happy Birthday Doctor Who


Steve

Star Wars: A New Hope - Part 2 - (1977)

Lets look back at Star Wars IV (The first one)  I keep trying to re-watch it to capture a little of the excitement I once felt about it as a kid but it's just not there anymore. I find this very odd because I watch all sorts of other old stuff from back then and get right into it again but not this.  ?
Ah well!

Anyway lets look at the few remaining spacesuits on view in the cantina scene.

As well as Bo Shek in his black Windak, which we looked at ages ago, there are a few others.

Unfortunately it's hard to get really good images of them so we'll just have to settle for these.

There are three spacesuited characters in this background scene.  Some of them may well have inherited character names in the intervening years but clearly at the time they were just there to make the place look sufficiently sci-fi.  And they were there to do it within a budget as well which is why they are all existing suits and helmets.  What we have to do now is identify them...well we don't have to but it's a fun game to play.

lets do the easy one first.

That's the yellow Windak, the twin of Bo Shek's black one.  The two suits have had something of a career but their most famous previous appearance will be in the 1964 film; The First Men in the Moon.

Sitting next to him is Danz Borin who's suit has that distinctive black patch that suggests it's from the same place as Duros (?) Ellors (?), the blue skinned, red eye'd chap below.  The helmet is from somewhere else and I know I've seen it before but I just can't place it.  If anybody wants to chip in with an idea or two, feel free to post a comment. I thought it would come to me but it's not happening.

 

Not sure about the silver suit above. It's been suggested elsewhere that it's from the TV series Lost In Space but I can't be sure.  The helmet however is from Escape from the Planet of the Apes, 1971 and has also done the rounds in a series of film and TV shows prior to this. 

This image, if you've the eyes of a hawk and look into the top left hand side seems to suggest that there might have been two of these identically clad spacemen, both with their back to us while talking to Borin.  Mr yellow Windack, is sitting down by this point, on the very edge of the picture trying to pull some space floozie

 

And that white suit there, identical to Borin's above, is one of the actual spacesuits from the 3rd of the Ape movies although like the helmet it started life in the early 60's, featuring in a number of films and TV shows.  It used to be a classic silver colour too, like the Gemini suits.

 

 

Steve

Something for the Weekend 7

It's been a while since I've done a; Something for the Weekend post but this makes the wait worth while I think.

This is Martha Hyer in a publicity still for the 1964 film version of First Men In the Moon.  A lovely bit of ephemera this and brought to you just a soon as I discovered it.  There are a few other similar pictures out there of the scantily dressed starlet but I can only really justify showing this one on the grounds of the equally sexy spacesuit.

Hey Love, show us your Windak


Steve

First Men in the Moon (1964)

We’ve already looked at this film once before way back in December 2010 when this blog was less than a month old.  Back then we had a quick look at these;

Which, as you should all know by now, are the real world high altitude Windak pressure suits.  Lovely aren’t they.

But what we’re going to look at now though are these;

Though First Men in the Moon starts and ends in the modern day of 1964, the bulk of the film is told in flashback to the 1890’s.

And that’s why Professor Cavor and Bedford’s spacesuits are based upon the deep-sea diving suit of the time even if they do seem to be serviced with oxygen from an anachronistic 1960’s style aqualung.

And also, it seems that the gentlemen of the British Empire were a sturdy bunch too who’s gloveless hands were impervious to the airless cold of the moon.

Oh and while we’re here on the lunar surface, let’s have a quick look at these.

This is what the 60’s astronauts were wearing inside their spaceship before they climbed into their Windaks to go explore the moon.

Rumour has it these are the same suits and helmets that are seen in the Department S episode The Man from X.

What do you think?


Steve

Star Wars: A New Hope - Part 1 - BoShek (1977)

BoShek,  I hear you say.  Who’s he when he’s at home?  Well his home is Corellia, according to the
Star Wars Wookieepedia, and BoShek is one of its infamous smugglers, although not of course its most infamous, old Bo might be good but it’s not like he ever managed the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs, is it.

Now being of the original Star Wars generation and one of those kids who actually saw it at the cinema the first time around I have to tell you that in reality, or at least my version of it, BoShek is just that human dude that hooks Obi Wan up with Chewbacca in the Mos Eisley cantina.  He didn’t have a name back then.  They made all that stuff up afterwards, long after I had painted over the wall paper and put the toys up the loft.

Now though, I quite like old BoShek and not because of who he became but because of what he’s wearing.  You see that there is a Windak High altitude pressure suit.  Which is, for those that don’t know; a very real, very British would-be spacesuit that never quite had the rockets to make it in the real world but managed instead to carve out a minor career in both film and television space travel.  Somewhat unfortunately though, to the best of my knowledge, that first Star Wars film was the end of this particular suits career as everything  was loaded onto the back of the big Lucas Films van and carted off never to be seen again.

But just as BoShek must live in the shadow of that more famous Correlian smuggler; Captain Han Solo, then so too must his Windak pressure suit live in the shadow of its slightly more famous and yellower counterpart.  Though a drinking companion in the first film, a second Windak suit would go on to make it all the way to the sequel and to the very front of that film’s action figure list.


Steve

Late for Lift-off

This is the Windak high altitude pressure suit being put through its paces.  The issue here being that once the suit had been pressurised, movability was compromised somewhat.  So the logic went that if you could still ride a bike then you could probably manage plane controls or a rocket!

They had bikes back then and they had planes too, shame they never managed the final one.

Still, at least they left us this amusing picture if nothing else

Steve

Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space (1968)

What a difference a year makes.

Arriving in the future, The Doctor and his companions find themselves on an Earth space station in time to thwart yet another Cyberman invasion.  That’s about it really!

Whilst not considered to be one of the classic stories in the shows history, it does however feature what is probably its most realistic space suite to date.

Yes, that is indeed a Windak high altitude pressure suit, developed for the RAF and first seen embarking on an acting career in the 1964 film version of The First Men in the Moon.

I’ll make a couple of assumptions at this point and say that the BBC hired these from a costume suppliers rather than recreating them in house and that these are therefore most probably the very same suits to feature in the HG Well’s classic.

Although there are only black and white reference pictures, you can still see the tonal difference between the two suits, suggesting to me that these are the dark blue/black one and the yellow one. 

We’ll catch up with these two again in the future in a galaxy far, far away where they’ll be keeping company with some equally starry space suits from across the pond.

Steve

The First Men in the Moon (1964)

Windak Goes to the Moon

The First Men in the Moon (1964) was adapted from H G Wells’ book by Quatermass creator and noted television scriptwriter, Nigel Kneale.  The film features two types of space suit.  The Victorian conceit of a Deep-Sea Diver’s suit with 60’s aqualung cylinder and then there's this one; the far more modern (for the time) Windak High-Altitude pressure suits which having been retired from active service with the R.A.F. were seen here embarking on the start of a long and successful career in film and television.

Note the two different colours which, while being interesting in its self, will also assist us in tracking which particular suit makes it into the sci-fi hall of fame.

Steve

Windak Suits (1962)

A very British Astronaut...

This is the High-Altitude Windak Pressure Suit developed in 1962 by Baxter, Woodhouse and Taylor Ltd. to fulfil R.A.F. requirements.  The suit was constructed from a single layer of gas tight rubberised silk bonded to strong cotton. It was internally pressurised by air in order to achieve a higher pressure upon the wearer's body than naturally occurs at very high altitudes and beyond.

And if Britain had have got to all of those German rocket scientist after the war instead of the Americans and the Russian then we would have gone into space most probably dressed like this.

Alas it wasn't to be, and our own attempts at a getting a man into orbit never really got off the drawing board, let alone the ground, and so these suits were eventually retired having never had the chance to become all that they might have been.

Except.....

Steve