It’s movie review time! We’re looking at two classic films that you may never have heard of (or maybe you have; I don’t know, I’m not the boss of you).
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The Saucer Life 
Wow, hadn’t heard of these, haha, amazing. I know you’re a fan of classic British telly sci-fi, have you seen Gerry Anderson’s UFO series from the early 70s? Is fantastic and quite mad, the plot is very similar to the darkside conspiracy stuff of the 1980s and the aesthetics are wonderfully cheesy. Space babes, aerodynamic supercars, bad fashions, ubiquitous smoking, Benedict Cumberbatches mum… glorious. Lasted for one series and was replaced by the more well-known Space:1999. Think it was a hard sell at the time because the story-lines went from dark (aliens abducting humans to steal their organs, dying kids, marriage break-downs), to insane (an alien-possessed cat, hippies, seances) so wasn’t really a show for youngsters but looked too kitsch for older SF fans.
Also for kid’s shows, ITV did an adaptation of John Wyndham’s Chocky in the 1980s. Low-budget and very strange tale of a kid with an imaginary friend, only the imaginary friend turns out to be a non-corporeal alien emissary sent to Earth to give humans an evolutionary push. They made a couple of follow-on series that expanded on the original novel.
Rambling here, but two others everyone needs to check out – Children of the Dog Star was a New Zealand show that basically fictionalised elements of Robert Temple’s Sirius Mystery and was pretty cool.
Finally, the Boy from Space. Every British person over the age of 40 will have disturbed memories of this. Was part of a programme to teach youngsters to read – hence the average audience age was the under 8s, and is about some English kids who meet an alien child. Thing is the look of the show is basically George Adamski contactee stuff meets the Men in Black and the alien’s modulated voices make it unforgettable. Ideal fodder for traumatising a generation!
Should be lots of clips of all these shows on Youtube. Enjoy!
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Oh, I need to check this stuff out! I’ve seen some UFO and some Space:1999 but the other stuff is new to me. Children of the Dog Star sounds insane (in a good way!)
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Yeah, is an interesting little show. Not much in the way of fancy effects but good ideas. Think in the past writers tended to reference literary and news sources while modern TV shows tend to reference other visual media. You could watch an episode of the X-Files and recognise what books the writers were inspired by while something like Stranger Things is more a parade of 80s movie references.
Gerry Anderson’s work was replete with bonkers ideas, especially his 1960s puppet shows. Joe 90 was doing the brain download thing nearly 30 years before the Matrix, and Captain Scarlett was all mind-controlling Martians and super-healing government agents.
Glad to have grown up watching such downright weird telly. Has helped me become the well-balanced adult I am today (looks down nervously).
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