Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Captain's bLog: What I'm Watching

Thanks to a couple of recent - and generous - reader donations and a well-timed tax refund, I've been able to pick up a few more additions to my Space: 1970 DVD library this month. (I also - as I mentioned here previously - ordered and received a VHS copy of the 1980 telefilm, The Aliens Are Coming, which I transferred to DVD-R. Overall, I rather enjoyed it and think it would have made an okay series, but I really disliked the lead character, played by Tom Mason. Or maybe it was the actor I didn't like. The miniature spaceship effects were pretty cool, though.)

At the beginning of the month, I finally acquired the Universal Vault Series edition of Gene Roddenberry's 1974 pilot film, The Questor Tapes, which I had never seen all the way through before. I enjoyed it a lot - it may be my favorite of Roddenberry's non-Trek genre efforts - and will be writing up a full review here on the site in the coming weeks.

(Now if someone would release Roddenberry's occult pilot, Spectre, on disc, I'd be quite content.)

Then, I traded in my Buck Rogers In The 25th Century - The Complete Epic Series set for the re-issued Season 1 and Season 2 volumes. I was hesitant to do so, since they cost more combined than the original package, but what finally convinced me to double-dip - aside from the fact that the re-issues were on single-sided discs instead of the trouble-prone flippers in the Epic Series set - was Universal's late inclusion of the TV version (as opposed to Theatrical Cut) of the first episode, "Awakening," as an extra feature on the Season 2 discs. It clearly was a last-minute decision, too: its presence is not mentioned on the packaging (I think there may have been a sticker), and the episode itself is presented without chapter breaks or subtitles.

Last night I picked up Universal's The Six Million Dollar Man - The Complete Third Season. This is probably my favorite season of the show, as it brought back (and spun off) Lyndsay Wagner's Bionic Woman, and featured the first of Steve's encounters with the "bionic" Bigfoot (in the very impressive shape of hulking Andre The Giant).

The season also features the return of several other popular guest characters from previous years, including Monte Markham's "Seven Million Dollar Man," John Fujioka's "Last Kamikaze," Oscar Goldman's favorite secretary Jennifer Darling, and adorable ESPer Robbie Lee.

Finally, I've ordered the 1974 Wonder Woman pilot movie from Warner Archive. I haven't seen this one in years - decades, probably - and I'm looking forward to giving it a spin. This is the one with blonde Cathy Lee Crosby as the Amazon princess, battling the evil machinations of Ricardo Montalban while wearing a star-spangled track suit. Whatever else it may be, this incarnation of WW is definitely a product of the Seventies! Obviously, I'll be reviewing this one here at the site sometime soon, as well.

5 comments:

  1. Ah, Cathy Lee. Still for me though, it's Lynda Carter, all the way. Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Enjoy .
    I have never seen Spectre, The Aliens Are Coming, or the Cathy Lee Crosby version of WW. Of the others The Questor Tapes is my favorite. Let us know what you think of the ending.
    I like some of the story plots in Buck's 2'nd season better but was ticked off at Col. Dearing being busted to Space Lt. jg- although I did wish those Generals had been allowed to "Offthink" a few minutes longer.
    By the third season I had soured on Steve Austin- mainly because my last name is Majors and I got sick and tired of the ribbing I took in HS! So I didn't see these later ones until way later. I thought Bigfoot was the best of that season. I still think that ice tunnel is a cool special effect. They had that on the Universal Studios tour for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chris, have you been reading the new comic book The Bionic Man that's based on The Six Million Dollar Man?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No. I haven't read any of the modern/recent comics based on 70s TV shows - not The Bionic Man, Battlestar Galactica nor Space: 1999.

      I don't live anywhere near a comic shop these days, and even if I did, the cover prices are too high for me to buy comics like I used to. What little spendable income I get these days goes mostly toward DVDs & Blu-rays.

      Delete