Episode of the Week : The Savage Curtain
- Thread starter Botany Bay
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I don't think so but it's possible! I've still got some of the Space 1999 ones I did from the seventies and maybe the odd Doctor Who here or there but I'll have a look over the weekend!
JB
I was lucky, we had a portable tv with a sound socket. That meant that once connected to the tape recorder it wasn't affected by outside noises and was virtually a perfect sound! Although if you wanted to listen to it while watching you had to plug in a pair of earphones into your tape recorder too! And oh yes, it was in black and white!
JB
You know, if you find them, you might help answer a few lingering questions on the sound mix. Especially if you have early first season episodes.
Ah, Space:1999, Star Trek and Dr. Who. That is a good encapsulation of my childhood. Toss in Lost in Space and The Incredible Hulk, and you've got a pretty clear picture of my obsessions growing up.
Ah, Space:1999, Star Trek and Dr. Who. That is a good encapsulation of my childhood. Toss in Lost in Space and The Incredible Hulk, and you've got a pretty clear picture of my obsessions growing up.
It was nice to see what appeared to be another silicon based life form on the show. The Excaliban was more credible than the Horta. The inclusion of Lincoln was rather lame, however. The fighting for the amusement of aliens storyline was also a bit played out from episodes like The Gamesters Of Triskelion and Arena.
Lincoln was a huge fixture on American TV of the day, it probably wasn't seen as quite so cheesy back then. That period of American history was a fertile time for TV. The Civil War and the American Revolution were both widely covered, in various stages of accuracy (or inaccuracy). And with the political and social assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X, using Lincoln as a stand in made it easier to comment on the futility of war, and the sacrifice of those who strove to spread the word of peace and acceptance. Lincoln was symbolic of that and much easier to get past the censors. I wonder if this was lost on non-American audiences, where the investment in US history is much less.
I liked this episode a lot, even though it was just another take on Arena with other Star Trek tropes thrown in. As others said, a LOT of future continuity was based on this one episode. As looked down upon this season was, even in the 70's, fans were apeshit of Surak. Col. Green is an excellent villain and Phillip Pine does a fantastic job fleshing out the role. The briefing room scene is chilling, thanks to the seriousness of the conversation and the very somber music. And our Rock Creature looks great to this day. It makes me chuck;e that Shatner couldn't make a single working Rock Man for Star Trek 5 on a much larger budget, but Trek (thanks to the great Janos Prohaska) cranked this out on a TV budget.
I give this one a 7. After a bit of a slump, I am happy to start enjoying these final episodes more fully.
I liked this episode a lot, even though it was just another take on Arena with other Star Trek tropes thrown in. As others said, a LOT of future continuity was based on this one episode. As looked down upon this season was, even in the 70's, fans were apeshit of Surak. Col. Green is an excellent villain and Phillip Pine does a fantastic job fleshing out the role. The briefing room scene is chilling, thanks to the seriousness of the conversation and the very somber music. And our Rock Creature looks great to this day. It makes me chuck;e that Shatner couldn't make a single working Rock Man for Star Trek 5 on a much larger budget, but Trek (thanks to the great Janos Prohaska) cranked this out on a TV budget.
I give this one a 7. After a bit of a slump, I am happy to start enjoying these final episodes more fully.
That's what I said earlier on! But hey I loved the premise in Arena and Gamesters of Triskellion and I love it here as well!
JB
Yeah same here my friend! I started with Dr.Who (Tom Baker shows) Space 1999 (a few series ones and mostly twos) Logan's Run TV series, Star Trek, The Incredible Hulk (but I missed the first ever episode and still haven't seen it to this day) The Outer Limits (taped 47 out of 49) I also had a few audio recordings of Hammer horror films like Dracula AD1972 and Curse of Frankenstein! I remember my father recorded a few episodes of Planet of The Apes back in 74 but I listened to them so often that I knew them off by heart!
JB
I wonder if Kirk's treatment of "Lincoln" weren't out of pity? He had faced "Apollo" before, and refused to yield even a smidgen - and then it turned out Apollo really was Apollo, a helpless old god dependent on an iron lung of sorts, not a threat but quite possibly an individual worth having a chat with, about the good old times.
Not that he'd have to start thinking that Lincoln "really" had been an alien god or anything. But a supernatural entity agreeing to interact with humans through a human avatar might either have something to offer - or then be in need of a shoulder and an ear.
Timo Saloniemi
Not that he'd have to start thinking that Lincoln "really" had been an alien god or anything. But a supernatural entity agreeing to interact with humans through a human avatar might either have something to offer - or then be in need of a shoulder and an ear.
Timo Saloniemi
A 5 is fair. I liked parts of it, and thought it was a good concept.
No, I think a full understanding of Ssosmcin would have to include Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
No, I think a full understanding of Ssosmcin would have to include Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Oh I agree, completely, but I didn't discover Voyage until I was in my 20's. Yeah, I put the series in the close #2 spot, just under Trek.
This episode actually is more perceptive than the usual black and white issue, good and bad. Yes, good and evil often uses the same methods to get the job done, that's how it works, and no doubt an alien might have a problem understanding this.
We have a slightly more articulated alien than the Horta here, figures out of history, all plusses. The TOS-R version gives us a fantastic new planet with atmospheric touches we didn't see in the old version. 8/10
We have a slightly more articulated alien than the Horta here, figures out of history, all plusses. The TOS-R version gives us a fantastic new planet with atmospheric touches we didn't see in the old version. 8/10
VTTBOTS wasn't shown here in the UK after about 75 I think so it would have been impossible back then for me to tape the soundtracks! I think Thames TV did show a few of the series back in the early 80s but I could be wrong!
JB
9
Given the dates ,I think for Americans in the 1960s a figure like Lincoln and The Civil War would have had similar resonance to WW1 for a modern European audience.
The conflict plot between good and evil for alien spectators was a better , more interesting premise than the other fights aliens have put on in episodes like Arena, Triskelion, Bread and Circuses. I often meet Quakers and find them model citizens though have qualms about their pacifist approach and this episode has Surak to put their case.
The end of the big fight at the end is very sudden and I hoped for a more interesting way for it to have been resolvedn. Overall though this is one of the episodes I strongly remember as a child from years ago while other episodes lost their hold on my memory.
Given the dates ,I think for Americans in the 1960s a figure like Lincoln and The Civil War would have had similar resonance to WW1 for a modern European audience.
The conflict plot between good and evil for alien spectators was a better , more interesting premise than the other fights aliens have put on in episodes like Arena, Triskelion, Bread and Circuses. I often meet Quakers and find them model citizens though have qualms about their pacifist approach and this episode has Surak to put their case.
The end of the big fight at the end is very sudden and I hoped for a more interesting way for it to have been resolvedn. Overall though this is one of the episodes I strongly remember as a child from years ago while other episodes lost their hold on my memory.
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Channel 4 ran the show in the very early 90's. They did The Time Tunnel as well, I think they alternated them . I have a few of them on converted video tape.
I've heard that, apart from Lost in Space, the DVD editions of Irwin Allen's other three sci-fi shows were super-high quality. Which is why LIS stood to benefit the most from a Blu-ray release. Did you find a technical reason to keep video tapes?
I only hung onto my Voyage tapes. The UK's for nostalgia and because I paid a LOT of money to get them. The rest are off 16mm film reels and broadcasts. About half of the 16mm prints had previews for the next week's episode (with Basehart and Hedison doing "stay tuned for scenes from our next episode" voiceover teasers), the In Color intro, network and sponsor billboards, and so on. Aside from a precious few 4th season episodes having the In Color intros, none of the episodes on DVD have these. The 3rd and 4th seaosn In Colors were totally different. Also, and this should come as no surprise, the sound mix has tinkered with on a few episodes. One episode has the wrong opening theme. Yadda yadda yadda.
I really like this one a lot - another favorite from the oft-maligned S3.
Yarnek was one of the coolest aliens in all of TOS for my money. I love the part where Kirk decides to punch him/it. There are many, many other cool bits, like the phasers and tricorder remaining on the transporter pad (I always marveled at the fact that neither Kirk nor Spock lost his communicator in those fights), everything about Colonel Green, Kahless changing his voice, and the marvelous guest acting. The voice effect for Yarnek is fantastic.
This is another example of a TOS episode that has markedly stellar dialogue, which elevates it above what it might otherwise have been. ("Wink of an Eye," possibly my second-favorite or third-favorite TOS episode overall, has the same trait).
Yarnek was one of the coolest aliens in all of TOS for my money. I love the part where Kirk decides to punch him/it. There are many, many other cool bits, like the phasers and tricorder remaining on the transporter pad (I always marveled at the fact that neither Kirk nor Spock lost his communicator in those fights), everything about Colonel Green, Kahless changing his voice, and the marvelous guest acting. The voice effect for Yarnek is fantastic.
This is another example of a TOS episode that has markedly stellar dialogue, which elevates it above what it might otherwise have been. ("Wink of an Eye," possibly my second-favorite or third-favorite TOS episode overall, has the same trait).
Any luck?
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