Progressive Thoughts - Day 4

I love the title of today’s song but I must confess to not really understanding it. The song is by one of my most recent and favourite discoveries, a progressive rock band from Poland called Riverside, who have totally won me over in the past two years.

The song is called Lost (Why Should I Be Frightened by a Hat?).

To some people this sums up how strange progressive rock can be with weird song titles and bizarre concepts as subjects. Yet, despite the odd title, this is a beautiful song and typical of the band.

The meaning of the song is, thankfully, not weird at all. Basically, it is about somebody looking back at his younger self and picturing the innocent wonder as the boy contemplates his future life with no fear – only excitement.

I can relate to that.

I cannot remember the thoughts going through my mind as an innocent boy. Some of my friends may ask “Were you ever innocent, Dave?”, to which my answer would be “Of course!”

But as a young child, I cannot confess to ever being unafraid of the future. To be honest, I was captivated by it but also deeply scared because it was all about the unknown. My fascination with science fiction steered my imagination into a vision of the future that was as terrifying as it was amazing.

Back in 1970, most kids were looking at the year 2000 with awe. I used to love reading books and watching TV programmes about what life would be like in that amazing future. To be honest, some of it has come to pass, but equally, one or two ideas from that time are laughable.

For example, we all thought that there would be a Moonbase, like in the TV series Space 1999 and UFO, and that we would be travelling to the outer reaches of our solar system. Also, the vision of orbiting space stations crammed full of people seemed to be a distinct possibility.

Closer to home, we pictured ourselves sitting in futuristic houses, with robots as servants , We would travel around in flying cars and be able to travel to the other side of the world in aircraft that left Earth’s orbit and could, say, fly from London to Sydney in just two or three hours. Furthermore, seers predicted that we would barely have to lift a finger in our own homes, from asking the cooker to prepare dinner and switching things on and off with voice command.

Now these later items do seem possible. Certain people got it totally right, particularly with the prediction that we would be carrying or own computers with us (in the shape of a smartphone) to being able to summon our own entertainment by watching television on-demand from a vast library of movies, TV series and box sets.

I am fascinated by the future and I would love one of two things to happen. Either I somehow become immortal and can watch the development of future technology over the next few hundred years, or somebody invents a time machine that can whisk me away to the future where I can see for myself what happens.

That would be a dream if it were possible.

Of course, depending on your religion, there might be some hope that when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil, I may be born again and enjoy the future that way. Sadly I won’t be able to remember this life – unless technology permits it, of course.

Who knows?

I remain optimistic.

Top Ten Classic Science Fiction Series

Last year, I listed my top ten science fiction shows, including a couple of classic shows that in my opinion stood the test of time. While compiling that list, I discarded quite a few classic science fiction shows that I enjoyed as a kid in the late 1960’s and 1970’s.

The reason these shows were cast away was that they were actually almost embarrassing to watch as an adult all these years later. At the time, in my evolving mind, I thoroughly enjoyed them and I have to say that without them, none of the shows of today would exist.

I think they deserve praise because there were some episodes that I really enjoyed, even watching them again all of those years later.

Star Trek, Dr Who and Space 1999 made my original list, so these will not be mentioned again.

Let’s dive in shall we?

10. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was initially a film and it spawned the series of the same name. The series was set on board a nuclear submarine called Seaview and recounted the adventures of the intrepid crew who encountered all manner of evil sea monsters and even aliens. The stories started off with espionage but gradually introduced weirder elements.

The plots were relatively straightforward and the good guys usually won in the end. Nevertheless, along the way,  the submarine usually suffered, mostly due to monsters roaming around the vessel, somehow finding the control room and ripping out wires and cables, resulting the submarine hitting the bottom of the sea.

You would have thought that if the captain had stationed a couple of guards outside the control room, life would have been so much easier for the crew.

9. The Invisible Man

I loved the novel of the same name by H.G.Wells and the whole concept of invisibility fascinates me. The series of the same name from the 1970s was very entertaining, if a little simplified, and it starred David McCallum, famous from another cult 1960’s show The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

At the time, I loved the special effects. These days they look a little dated.

Sadly the series didn’t last very long, which is a shame. In my opinion, there was a lot of scope for storylines.

8. Blake’s 7

Blake’s 7 is the story of a group of galactic rebels battling against a totalitarian state, led by, as the name suggests, a man called Blake. And it was British, produced by the Terry Nation, the man who invented the Daleks.

Although the special effects are quite tacky, I liked the story and the struggle of this group of renegades against the mighty Terran Federation.

The group often cross swords with the evil Servalan, a ruthless power-hungry woman.

To be honest, I haven’t watched any repeats of the series since the late 1970’s. Perhaps I shouldn’t so that I don’t ruin my memories of it.

7. Land of the Giants

Land of the Giants was the story of the survivors of a crashed ship that was caught in a weird anomaly and whisked off to a planet inhabited by giants. The survivors were known as little people and had to deal with colossal insects, cats and, worst of all, terrible plotlines.

I thought the show was hilarious – even as a kid. Each episode had roughly the same plot, with a few minor variations;

One or more of the little people are captured by a giant with an ulterior motive. The remaining little people rescue them.

That’s basically it.

The show was perfect for a young child like I was at the time, but when I watched the show again in the 1990’s that initial innocent magic was lost. I did see one of the giant telephones when I visited Universal Studios in Los Angeles and it was very impressive. That’s why I’ve popped the show in at number 7.

And the funniest thing about the show?

It was set in 1983!!!

6. Planet of the Apes

I loved the original Planet of the Apes films. I even read the books as a small child (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was my favourite).  It’s no surprise that the TV series that followed the movies would be on the list of my favourite classic science fiction series.

The concept is wonderful. Based on the original film, two astronauts crash land on Earth 2000 years in the future, having encountered a time portal of some kind in space. In the meantime, a huge cataclysm has occurred on Earth, resulting in intelligent apes becoming the dominant species.

In the series, I loved the main bad guy, a gorilla called Urko wo pursued the astronauts and Galen, the chimp played by Roddy McDowell in their quest to find a solution to their predicament.

Sadly, the series was cancelled prematurely (do not rant, Dave!!!).

5. The Time Tunnel

Of all the science fiction concepts out there, time travel intrigues me most of all. Unfortunately, science fiction writers don’t always consider the potential paradoxes associated with travelling to the past, or indeed, the future.

The Time Tunnel, while very interesting and enjoyable, used to infuriate me because of the plot holes. Basically, the show was the story of two scientists trapped in time and unable to be returned to their own time period. Every week, they were dumped into a past period, for example in the city of Jericho before the walls came down. Miraculously, wherever they landed and in whichever country, the people always spoke English and refused to ask why they had weird clothes – the SAME clothes, I should add.

And they certainly interfered with past events with little regard for the consequences of their actions. It seemed okay though because their observers from the future, the team who were trying to retrieve them, didn’t suffer any after effects, like popping out of esixtence.

Plot holes aside, I actually thought it was a very good series, one that I would have liked to have written an episode for.

4. The Six Million Dollar Man

Whenever I ran in the local park I became the Steve Austin, the bionic man. The theme tune to the show would run through my head as I imagined chasing cars and using my bionic arm to punch holes in walls and beat up bad guys – just like the clip above where he encounters Bigfoot.

Yes – I was a huge fan of this show. It was perfect for a twelve year old geek with a huge and active imagination.

I loved the show so much that when Lee Majors turned up later as The Fall Guy I refused to watch it because I didn’t want to imagine Steve Austin as anybody else.

Looking back at the show now, it seems dated, particularly the slow motion portrayal of Steve’s super speed.

I can forgive that though. Lee Majors will always be Steve Austin – don’t believe anything else.

3. Lost in Space

Lost in Space was so bad it was brilliant. By far the best character was Dr Zachary Smith, a cowardly man who thought only about himself. To me he was the star of the show and his verbal duals with the Robot were highly amusing.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for these two characters, I wouldn’t have watched the show. They kept it fresh and interesting (the others were kind of boring really).

Again, with my imagination, I would have loved to have penned an episode or two of the show as some of the episodes weren’t that good. Nevertheless, the best episodes were brilliant and always had Dr Smith at the heart of them – hence this lofty position.

As an aside, the recent film based on the series was not very good, apart from the revamped theme by the band Apollo 440:

2. The Incredible Hulk

The Hulk is my favourite Marvel character and I am delighted that he is the star of the two recent Avengers movies. Of course, before that, he was portrayed by Lou Ferrigno in this wonderful TV series.

I have watched a few episodes recently and while a little dated, I still looked forward to the parts where David Banner, played brilliantly by Bill Bixby, would evolve into the violent green monster and smash things to pieces.

One of the best things about the show was David’s struggle to find a cure for his condition, something that was perfectly captured in the closing credits of each episode with the solitary and very sad piano music:

1. UFO

Of all the classic science fiction series, only three made it into my all-time Top 10. UFO very nearly did.

The reason it didn’t was that it was quite dated. Supposedly set in 1980, it seemed like a weird version of the 1960’s.

That’s my only criticism. UFO was an intelligent and slightly disturbing series about a secret organisation called SHADO, that protected the Earth from mysterious aliens. The function of SHADO was to keep the existence of these aliens secret while at the same time trying to work out what their hostile goals were.

The aliens were humanoid but quite scary. Their skin was green because they breathed a green liquid.

There was enough to appeal to both kids and adults. I loved the Interceptors and had a model of my own, which fired a missile and gave me hours of fun. I have seen the odd repeat as an adult and if you ignore the obvious 1960’s influence, the stories are genuinely good and menacing. Even the end credits were spooky:

This is a prime candidate for a modern reboot.

And finally …

Over to you, dear reader:

Have you seen any of these classic shows? 

Are there any shows that I missed that might be worth investigating?

Aliens In Manchester?

We have aliens in Manchester and I’m not talking about certain members of the cast of Coronation Street.

Our local newspaper, The South Manchester Reporter, reported that a couple living in Northenden, just a couple of miles from where I live, filmed a bunch of lights in the sky on Saturday 12th July at around 10:40. Apparently there were other witnesses to the event. You can see the footage of their video here.

Being a closet sci-fi buff myself, I would love it if tangible evidence for the existence of aliens existed. Sadly, the best we have is shaky video footage that shows the odd light here or there. I’m not suggesting for a second that the witnesses in Northenden didn’t see anything; the problem is that under the circumstances, it would be difficult to get a clear picture of what they actually saw. There have been many famous films showing UFOs from all over the world but experts and sceptics alike dismiss them simply because we simply cannot see what the witnesses themselves saw. Most of the time, the UFOs appear at night, which to me makes perfect sense. If aliens wanted to reconnoitre our planet, why would they do so during daylight hours when the sun is high in the sky and every intelligent life form below can actually see them?

Despite my wish for alien evidence, I am in reality a sceptic myself. Thinking about this logically, if there are aliens out there, do you not think that they would have made their presence known by now? If there are extraterrestrial creatures out there with the technology to construct huge flying saucers that can move at incredible and impossible velocities (as witnesses have testified) do you really think that there would be evidence somewhere on Earth that they have visited?

I’m with Enrico Fermi on this. Enrico Fermi is a physicist who came up with the “Fermi Paradox” which basically states “if there are aliens out there, where are they?”

As a race, we live here on our little world in perfect harmony with other life forms. We exist and dwell on one tiny planet out of billions in the universe. What are the chances that there is another world somewhere out there, inhabited by other intelligent beings who have developed technologically? The basis of the Fermi Paradox is that given the sheer magnitude and age of our universe, surely there must be many technologically advanced species out there. The only problem is that there is literally no evidence to support it. Nobody can prove that they have seen any evidence of intelligent aliens. We have received no radio transmissions that originate from intelligent life forms. Furthermore, despite the supposed plethora of alien sightings on Earth and the number of alien spaceships that have whizzed past stunned observers in the middle of the night, there is not one shred of evidence to support the existence of aliens on Earth. There are no artefacts. There are no alien footprints. Aliens haven’t disposed of their waste products in the countryside. We have never found a dead alien. I ask again, as did Enrico Fermi; where the hell are they?

I would love to be wrong. I watch science fiction shows and films and envelop myself in the mysticism of these alien worlds and beings created purely from the imagination of talented authors and film makers. If an alien space ship landed in Cheshire I would be in my car like a shot to get great photos.

As for the Northenden sighting; I wish I had seen it myself. I’m sure the UFOs must have flown over my house on their way home. I would have liked to have been able to judge with my own two eyes rather than seeing home videos.

Never mind. Maybe aliens do exist and have done a pretty good job of disguising themselves. There are one or two celebrities who sometimes make me wonder …

100 Rock Songs (11 to 20)

The next instalment – vaguely chronological …

(11) Nazareth – Freewheeler

From the album “Loud ’n’ Proud”, “Freewheeler” is a bouncy little rock track that gets me bouncing along with it. I love Nazareth, especially Dan McCafferty’s gravely voice. This song is typical of the band in the 1970’s and is highly infectious. Sadly, it is not widely available for you to enjoy but if you get the chance ever, listen to “Loud ‘n’ Proud” and I’m sure you will agree with me.

(12) Rainbow - Stargazer

When Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple he went on to form his own band called Rainbow. The band’s second album, “Rising”, is arguably the greatest rock album of the 1970’s – it is certainly my favourite album. The line up included Ronnie James Dio, one of the greatest rock vocalists ever and Cozy Powell, one of the greatest drummers. “Stargazer” is the band’s magnum opus, clocking in at an amazing eight and a half minutes. Epic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnyoy2w9atg

(13) Rainbow – A Light In The Black

Also from “Rising”, the song “A Light In The Black” is a kind of sequel to “Stargazer”. Also clocking in at eight minutes plus, the song is as good (if not better) than “Stargazer” and features great keyboard/guitar solos accompanied magnificently by the power of Cozy Powell pummelling the drums. Side two of “Rising” features “Stargazer” followed immediately by “A Light In The Black” giving the listener almost seventeen minutes of rock bliss. Titanic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay8Wty8UWr4

(14) Blue Öyster Cult – (Don’t Fear) The Reaper

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” is simply brilliant. I bought the album “Agents Of Fortune” on the strength of this song, and while the remainder of the album is fairly average, this song stands out like a skyscraper in a field. I particularly like the guitar solo that splits the song, giving it the menace that the title implies. Classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlUzY3TDhpg

(15) Pink Floyd – Sheep

“Animals” is a bizarre addition to the Pink Floyd catalogue but includes my favourite song by the band. “Sheep” has everything element I love about the band. The song is menacing and when I first heard it I thought to myself, how can a song about sheep be menacing? Listen to it – it is. I particularly like the final guitar piece with Dave Gilmour at his very best. Amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGurfyISnN8

(16) AC/DC – Whole Lotta Rosie

AC/DC are incredible, creating exciting rock songs that never cease to amaze. The band has faced major adversity; when their charismatic first vocalist Bon Scott died it seemed like the band wouldn’t survive. Yet it did. “Whole Lotta Rosie” is my favourite song of the Bon Scott years and shows just what a superb band they are. I rate Angus Young as one of the greatest guitarists. Brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPwxD94IBkE

(17) The Scorpions – We’ll Burn The Sky

The Scorpions have been around for years, despite the fact that the majority of people think that they were one hit wonders with the ballad “Wind Of Change” (which incidentally I can’t stand). In the 1970’s I bought “Tokyo Tapes”, a live recording in (you’ve guessed it) Japan. The album captures The Scorpions at their very best and the song “We’ll Burn The Sky” is the peak of that superb album. At over eight minutes it is part ballad and part rock blockbuster. Listen to the song and get your air guitar ready at the end. I promise you, you will love it. Mesmerizing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqsfup2faVg

(18) UFO – Lights Out

The first rock album I bought was “Strangers In The Night” by UFO, a live album recorded in Chicago. I played it to death, so much in fact that it is barely survived. The album shows UFO at their peak, in my view. “Lights Out” is a typical fist pounding song from the album. You’ll need that air guitar again …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2r1zIEairY

(19) UFO – Rock Bottom

… and don’t put it down. From the same album, the song “Rock Bottom” is the greatest song that UFO have ever penned. The version on “Stranger’s In The Night” is pure perfection. Clocking in at a jaw-breaking eleven and a half minutes it represents the band at their zenith.
Genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0SyKM6PDAM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfLPYKe1zOg

(20) Gillan - Roller

“Roller” from Ian Gillan’s “Mr Universe” album is a great little rock number. Sadly, again, it is not widely available but if you get the chance to listen to “Mr Universe”, crank up the volume and enjoy “Roller” in all its glory. Explosive.

21 to 30 to follow ...