Sunday, May 26, 2013

26 May 2013


Birthdays
Helena Bonham Carter b. 1966
Tarsem Singh b. 1961
Ron Donachie b. 1956
Peter Cushing b. 1913 died 11 August 1994

Regular readers will know I usually go with the pretty girl in the picture slot, but when you see tomorrow's birthday list, it becomes obvious that Cushing has to be the pick today, no disrespect to Ms. Carter intended. Singh is a director of several genre films and Donachie plays Ser Rodrick Cassel on Game of Thrones.

Movies released
X-Men: The Last Stand released, 2006


Prediction: In 1973, the Seaview, designed by Admiral Harriman Nelson, sets off on its maiden voyage, piloted by Commander Lee Crane.

Predictor: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, first aired September 1964

Reality: Over the next few weekends, we will commemorate Irwin Allen. And by "commemorate", I mean "rake over the coals". Allen made several of the worst TV shows ever produced. This one was merely dull and unfocused, two of the trademarks of Irwin Allen productions, but it did avoid the third important feature of several Allen shows, creepiness.

Many serious fans of science fiction had a lot of negative things to say about Star Trek when it first aired, but compared to Irwin Allen, Gene Roddenberry was a wonderful breath of fresh air. To take one small example, Voyage had a regular cast entirely comprised of white males. Just two years later, Star Trek had a cast that was integrated both in terms of ethnicity and gender, though the upper levels of Starfleet were still pretty much all white guys.

To show Voyage some respect, I will say the flying sub looked cool. The physics of a flying sub is nearly impossible, but if I had been a fan of the show, I totally would have bought the model kit.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!


Another dip into the OMNI Future Almanac, a great source of predictions that should have transpired by now.

 
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

8 comments:

  1. When my siblings and I would watch "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" my father would always comment: "That's the most dangerous ship on the seas! Who would want to be assigned to it?"

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  2. The Enterprise wasn't such a great assignment, either. John Scalzi wrote a clever sci-fi novel about a similar bad luck space vessel called Redshirts.

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  3. Credit where due: Irwin Allen shows had better music (which is nothing against Alexander Courage).

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    1. Interesting point, Ken. I've watched way more Trek than Irwin Allen and I have a lot of fond memories of the incidental music, especially the fighting music and the Kirk's in LOOOOVE theme.

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  4. The Seaview was amazingly poorly designed from a pragmatic POV also. I have seen several instances of people trying to build operating models of it, and the lengths they have to go to in order to make it maneuverable are heroic. Those big fins in front make it nearly impossible to change direction, when they aren't driving it directly toward the bottom (although my memory is that the Seaview ended up there in every other episode anyway). And big glass panels in the front!

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  5. the Kirk's in LOOOOVE theme.

    otherwise known as the "Hello! I am Little Jimmy!" song.

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    1. I believe he called his EMPEROR Tiberius, but I can't quote the source.

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  6. (psst. Just between you and me, Prof, physical impossibility aside, I HAVE that kit....)

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Traveler! Have you news... FROM THE FUTURE?