Monday 13 December 2010

Journey Into Space (1953)

This is what spacemen on the radio look like...
Journey Into Space ran for 3 original series and 1 remake from 1953 to 1958 on BBC radio.  The costumes seen here being worn by the cast for publicity pictures are allegedly genuine prototype suites made for Britain's potential incursions into space. (I'm a little sceptical of that but I'll look into it and report back at some future point).

So successful was the show that there were novelisations for each of the three series, the picture above coming from the back of one of them.
To publicise the start of the second series The Radio Times went with this rather wonderful cover image of the now classic fishbowl style of helmet and rippled suit which must have been so very potent back then.  This look and feel for a space suit was in keeping with the thinking of the time and, I believe, left an impression upon some of the designers that would go on to work on future television productions in that and the oncoming decade.

Steve
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2 comments:

  1. Cellulord18 December 2010 at 13:21

    The 'ribbed' look also featured in Alien's suits - designed initially by Moebius, if memory serves.

    The image I'm thinking of is here:

    http://theairtightgarage.tumblr.com/post/1723581207/his-design-for-the-space-suit-in-ridley-scotts

    Of course, the finished version - made by British costumiers here in Britannia - seems to emphasise the cricket-pad look more than the drawing that inspired it:

    http://hwcdn.themoviedb.org/backdrops/3b7/4bc906ed017a3c57fe0023b7/alien-original.jpg

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  2. Steve19 December 2010 at 07:05

    Thanks for that Cellulord, I'll be covering Alien at some point in the future, interestingly though I hadn't thought of them as being in the ribbed suit catagory - which they are I suppose - I always think of them as something quite unique in the evolution of things - moebius connection accepted!

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