Super Space Theater 2

Back in the early eighties, ITC's New York office put together a series of movie-length compilations of Gerry Anderson's TV shows under the imaginative umbrella title of 'Super Space Theater'. It was an attempt to breathe new life into the properties which were not as big in the US as they were in other countries. There was also the fledgling cable television market which needed cheap product to fill its schedules outside of prime time. 

The titles were: 'The Incredible Voyage of Stingray', 'Invaders from the Deep', 'Thunderbirds to the Rescue', 'Countdown to Disaster', 'Thunderbirds in Outer Space', 'Captain Scarlet versus the Mysterons', Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars', 'The Amazing Adventures of Joe 90', 'Invasion:UFO', 'Alien Attack', 'Journey Through the Black Sun', 'Cosmic Princess' and 'Destination: Moonbase Alpha'. 

There was also an additional film culled from a non-Anderson series 'The Champions' which brought the total to fourteen.

The package was not a huge success in the States. In the UK, they fared better when Channel 5 Video released many of them on VHS into the then new sell-thru video market - The compilations sold very well and prompted them to continue to release tapes with unedited episodes on when the movies ran out. 

There's a good article about the 'Super Space Theater' features on the official Gerry Anderson website. 

Fast forward to 14 April 2021 and it's the very first international Gerry Anderson Day. To celebrate, in my own way, I came up with the idea of imagining a second run of 'Super Space Theater' features entitled 'Super Space Theater 2'. I managed eight - picking specific episodes and depicting them through the medium of faux movie posters. Here they are... 

MEGA TRUCK INFERNO

(Compiled from the 'Thunderbirds' episodes 'Pit of Peril' and 'Path of Destruction'.)

Two mighty vehicles are in danger. The incredible jungle cat SIDEWINDER is trapped in a pit of dangerously unstable explosives. The giant CRABLOGGER construction machine is locked on a collision course with a huge dam that threatens a South American village. International Rescue is their only hope.

THE DEADLY DANGEROUS ADVENTURES OF LADY PENELOPE

(Compiled from the Thunderbirds episodes 'The Cham Cham' and 'The Man from MI5'.)

Lady Penelope and her right hand man, Parker find themselves travelling from the French Riviera to the Swiss Alps as they track down foreign agents.

Features an animated Bond-style title sequence features Sylvia Anderson's rendition of 'Dangerous Game'. 

"The only Super Space Theater movie especially for girls!" 

JET ANGELS IN THE 21st CENTURY (Compiled from the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes 'Seek and Destroy', 'Model Spy', 'Manhunt' and 'The Trap'.

In the 21^st century, mankind battles a cold war with the strange Mysterons – an alien race from the planet Mars. Frontline in the battle, are the Angels. skilled jet pilots from all points of the globe dedicated to protecting mankind from the skies.

ON HIS HOLINESS' SECRET SERVICE (Compiled from four episodes (TBA) of 'The Secret Service'.)

 

The Reverend Stanley Unwin is no ordinary English country clergyman. He's a secret agent working for the British government!

Features some new specially filmed live action framing footage of the real Stanley Unwin being interviewed by a reporter (Keith Alexander) at a nursing home with the elderly priest relating his adventures as a secret agent with a miniaturised gardener. The closing scenes see the reporter dismiss the stories as the ramblings of a madman.

STRAKER VS STRAKER 

(Compiled from the two UFO episodes 'Confetti Check A-OK' and 'A Question of Priorities'.)

Earth is at war with alien body snatchers. Humans are being kidnapped and reduced to spare parts for a dying race. But they aren't the only victims of this secret battle. USAF Colonel Ed Straker has recently married his fiance Mary. He is unable to tell her that the Earth is in danger and that his work must take precedence over a settled and normal home life. It is a secret that will tear their relationship apart and cost him the life of his only son...

DOMAIN OF THE DEVIL GIRLS

(Compiled from the Space:1999 episodes 'A Matter of Balance' and 'Devil's Planet'.)

Violent alien she-devils from an anti-matter universe take Commander Koenig prisoner. Their strange leader, Vindrus, temps teenage botanist Shermeen Williams into releasing the anti-matter aliens from their dimensional prison so they can take over the galaxy. Will shape-changing wonder woman Maya be able to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality? 

THE UNDERSEA NIGHTMARES OF TROY TEMPEST

(Compiled from the Stingray episodes Raptures of the Deep, Cosmic Cavemen, Tom Thumb Tempest and Pink Ice.)

The evil underwater emperor Titan uses his new nightmare ray on the Captain Troy Tempest. The deadly beam sends him into a dangerous coma – where in a nightmare dreamscape he confronts cosmic cavemen, giant aquaphibians and destruction in a palace of treasures as Titan threatens the world with pink ice.

THE QUESTIONABLE ADVENTURES OF JOE 90 

(Compiled from the episodes Operation McLaine, Double Agent, The Fortress, Project 90.)

There are many strange secrets within the espionage business but none stranger than the case of Joe 90 – a nine year old boy with incredible skills thanks to a brain implant that allows him to become expert at any skill or task. But is it right to use a child in such dangerous situations. This is the report. You are the judge...

Features additional live-action framing scenes with Patrick Allen as Government Investigator Connors investigating the moral aspects of the Joe 90 case.

If you appreciate the incredible effort and imagination I've put into this silly excursion into silliness, then you can show your appreciation by purchasing me a coffee via my Ko-fi account here. Thank you.

Supermarionation Movie Blockbusters!

The wonderful Talking Pictures TV channel recently broadcast 'Captain Scarlett' here in the UK. I didn't watch it. It's not my cup of tea. 


"Why?" I hear you ask. "It's the popular Gerry and Sylvia Anderson supermarionation TV series from the sixties featuring an indestructible secret agent and his battles against intangible slow speaking aliens from Mars."

"Ah, but it isn't." I say (somewhat smugly). "Take a note of the extra 't' at the end of 'Scarlett'. This is in fact the 1953 movie 'Captain Scarlett' - a period adventure film that starred Richard Greene - TV's Robin Hood - as a Napoleonic swashbuckler who attempts to save a Princess from a dodgy marriage. So not really my cup of tea in any world even though it was shot in Technicolor in Mexico and was Brazillian actress Leonora Amar's final film." (You can tell I've looked it up on Wikipedia, can't you!) 

I thought it would be a tremendous wheeze to create a cinema poster for the indestructable Captain Scarlet based on the original one for 'Captain Scarlett'. So I did.

And as usual, I got carried away. I also did ones for 'Stingray' (Based on the poster for 'War Gods of the Deep' (1965) aka. 'City Under The Sea', 'Fireball XL5' (Based on the poster for 'Rocketship XM' (1950) and er... 'Timeslip' (Based on the poster for er... 'Time Slip' (1950) a movie that shares the same name as the eponymous children's TV serial from 1970.)  

If you've enjoyed these efforts, why not buy me a coffee via my Ko-fi account to show your appreciation. Even if you don't, the link will also take you to a Gallery featuring what I consider my finest pieces of work. Both of them. Thank you. 

Crossroads Mini-album Adventures from Century 21 Discovered in Skip!

There was a skip of stuff at the bottom of the street where I live. I had a rummage through it as any good citizen would and what did I find...? A selection of old single records no less. So I scraped the now rancid baked bean juice from them and took them home.

There were fourteen of them in all - mostly original sixties releases. In amongst them was a pleasant surprise!

An original Century 21 mini-album!

Sadly, it was not that 'Doctor Who' Dalek one with the odd narration on it. It was one of the very rare 'Crossroads' ones that I'd only heard talk of in very exclusive and hushed conversations at comic marts. 

If I recall correctly, Century 21 tried their hand at releasing non-Gerry Anderson material back in the mid-sixties and they dipped their toes into new markets with a handful based on the ATV soap opera. 

Needless to say, it didn't really catch on. I mean, who wanted to pay and listen to a show in sound only when they can watch it four nights a week for free on the telly. 

I put the record on and found it to be crap. They used a dreadful 'space-age' version of the 'Crossroads' theme performed on a theremin and the narration by 'Sandy' was inaudible - either due to poor mixing or the actor's adenoids. 

Pretty shit day really...

More "rare" Century 21 Mini-albums here.

TV21 - Today's News Tomorrow from Yesterday!

Paper arrived this morning...

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Crossroads - The Movie - Direct to Video!

Back in the early eighties, ITC had a habit of joining episodes of its successful TV shows together and marketing them as movies to TV stations too stingy to fork out for the full series. 

Titles like 'Journey Through the Black Sun', 'The Incredible Voyage of Stingray' and 'The Amazing Adventures of Joe 90' soon found their way onto the fledgling VHS rental market via the label 'Precision Home Video'. 

I still have a copy of 'London Conspiracy' - two episodes of 'The Persuaders!' shamelessly bolted together and displaying a complete disregard for the title by not having any scenes set in the British capital! Uniquely, these tapes came in robust music-cassette style plastic boxes and like their audio counterparts, easily broke and became very scuffed and filthy looking as the years went on. 

ITC attempted to create a movie from its popular soap opera 'Crossroads'. A selection of episodes chronicling the fire at the motel that resulted in the sad departure of Noele Gordon were edited together into an hour and half mini-epic. Additional scenes set at an inquiry into the fire at the Birmingham coroner's office were filmed with actors Geoffrey Keen, Shane Rimmer and Nina Baden-Semper were added to cover the joins and an additional scene which changed the storyline was filmed with Jane Rossington weeping at the graveside of her dead mum. (The latter had originally been passed off as a hoax by the press!) There we also some extra effects scenes spliced in from 'The Medusa Touch'. It was a bit of a mess really and very few broadcasters took up the option on it. 

I hear that it was broadcast once in Singapore.

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Unreleased Century 21 Mini-albums Uncovered...

In the mid-sixties, you couldn't move for Century 21 mini-albums - 7 inch 33rpm records each with "21 minutes of adventure". The likes of Scot Tracy and Lady Penelope narrated bite sized audio cut downs of classic Thunderbirds rescues whilst Steve Zodiac and Venus kidnapped a young boy and played sound effects from the moonshot to him. There was even a chance to go on a date with Troy Tempest...!

No Gerry & Sylvia Anderson puppet series was left untouched... except perhaps 'The Secret Service'. (We don't talk about the priest and his little gardener any more...)

There were a few that didn't get released. They tried to make them more instructional at one point but the arrest of Captain Zodiac and Dr. Venus and their subsequent trial put paid to that. 

One oddity was their 'Daleks' record - a laboured re-telling of "Doctor Who's" battle with the Daleks on the planet Mechanus featuring the soundtrack of the final episode of 'The Chase'. It was narrated by an enthusiastic David Graham and book-ended by Eric Winstone's dance band version of the Doctor Who theme. They were going to do another Dalek themed one for Christmas and prepped a cover for it - until someone told them that the series' special Christmas episode - which occurred halfway through a mammoth twelve part Dalek adventure - had replaced the Daleks with a silent movie skit that wasn't really suited to audio... despite Tristram Cary's fun music. 

Here's a selection from the archives. As always, none of this was ever released. It was just another dream episode...!

SUPERMARIONATION SCANDAL! What if the 'Daily Mail' had published 'TV21?

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