Untitled - Peter Elson (19??)

Another lovely Peter Elson painting.  If anybody out there wants to offer a date, a title or where the image was used, I will gladly update the post.

Steve

The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World - Harry Harrison (1984) Peter Elson

There are a whole set of these Stainless Steel Rat books all with wonderful covers by the late and great Peter Elson. This is my favourite and the one that is almost definitely a spacesuits.

Steve

When the Dream Dies - A B Chandler (1981) Peter Elson

The painting is titled; Rendezvous on a Lost World  but the book is When the Dream Dies, Volume II in the Rim World series.  Just how good is Peter Elson.

Steve

Bring Back Yesterday - A B Chandler (1981) Peter Elson

What I like about Peter Elson's work, or rather one of the things I like about it, is that although there is a house style there he's not painting the same spacesuit over and over again.

Steve

The Martians - Kim Stanley Robinson (1999) Peter Elson

Art from the cover of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Martians.  This is by Peter Elson and it's rather nice.  We'll be looking at more of Elson's stuff in the future as I'm something of a fan.  It's just a shame this is a blog about spacemen as that excludes a lot of his other stuff.  Go look him up.

Steve

Doctor Who - Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974)

It was quite a surprise to find a spaceman lurking in a story about dinosaurs that are being time scooped into modern London and you have to watch the whole six episodes to find out why but there it is.

Looks good.  Looks almost exactly like one of the space suits from Doctor Who producer Barry Letts' between seasons distraction Moonbase 3.  Which is understandable given that it is.  That show didn't go down very well and was unlikely to ever have been offered a second series.  They have added some detail to the helmet but otherwise its the very same thing.  Makes you wonder why more of the props, models and costumes didn't end up adding value to the next season or two of Who.

As a side note I'm going to have to confirm that the dinosaurs in this Who story, particularly the T-Rex, are pretty bad and pretty distracting and ruin what actually turned out to be a fantastic story.  Lets have a special edition with some nice CGI monsters.

Meanwhile here are some more pictures of the spacesuit.

Steve

Moonbase 3 (1973)

Created by Doctor Who producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dick during the break in production between series 10 and 11.   Moonbase 3 was intended as a more realistic strand of TV science fiction and dealt with the day to day problems faced by people living on the moon in futuristic 2003.

I've only watched 2 episodes so far and would agree with the general consensus that its so busy being realistic and taking its self seriously that at times it almost forgets to illustrate the wonders of living in space.  That said there's something about BBC TV and especially BBC sci-fi from this era that I  find enormously charming.

If anything unusual happens in the sixth and final episode, such as the cybermen  knocking on the airlock doors or the entire base turning out to be a testing ground for another Kraal invasion, then I'll come back and blog some more.  Otherwise I'll just mention that I quite like the space suits and that I am a little surprised that I've only found a couple of cameo appearance by them in other BBC productions.

Steve