How it all began:
The first inkling of a desire to make films came at age 7, inspired by my dad using his 8mm movie camera. Usually family movies were of events - vacations, Christmas, etc. – preserved on short reels of Kodachrome. This meant people shots. Grated, it was great to look back on what we had done, but people shots were – and still are to some extent – people shots. Not very exciting for a kid growing up in the space age. But in my 7th year I was introduced to a steam locomotive pulling an excursion out of town. Dad tried to film it that day, but his aging 1950’s camera had developed intermittent problems, causing the film to slip out of its track past the lens…you guessed it, it happened on that day. Though the film was ruined, an idea was beginning to birth in me; films could be made of really cool events. Better still, stories could be filmed with a home movie camera. But it would be a few years.In those days we watched as heroes were catapulted from Florida to the stars on a quest to beat the USSR to the moon. It was amazing to watch, and very much a part of the culture of the day. The fact we lived less than 100 miles of the birthplace of the Saturn V helped boost our interest even more.
That interest in space exploration bled over into entertainment of the day. There were numerous sci-fi shows, but mostly we watched Star Trek, as it was rerun the most. In 1968 along came the movie 2001. Being as young as I was at the time I didn’t quite get just what a masterpiece about the future and space fight I was seeing. But slowly, like the sun rising on a large, black, rectangular object, it dawned on me. After that I made sure I saw it every chance I got.
Then, late one summer in the early 1970’s a commercial ran. What a commercial! Without a doubt, it was one of the best I’ve ever seen. It featured an array of cool vehicles, all futuristic in design. The show was set in the Future…1980. What I had seen was an abbreviated version of the UFO open. No other explanation was needed. But the original time slot was a nightmare to a Baptist kid…Sunday Nights at 6:00PM! Fortunately, when reruns began a few months later, the time slot was changed and we got a color TV. What a show!
The space program, Star Trek, 2001, and UFO together made me fall forever in love with science fiction. As time went on they would influence my other hobbies, from film making to model building to painting to writing scripts. I was and still am seriously hooked. It is wonderful to have such an interest that gives birth to wonders and dreams. I count it as a blessing in a grim world.
It was in 1976, in my freshman year in high school that the movie-making story really begins. In January of that year that I finally set out to do something I had long wanted to do, make a movie. I recruited some friends, wrote a script, borrowed an 8mm movie camera, and obtained free film that was two years beyond the expiration date. Then I was all set for my first award winning feature (Ok, so I’m still waiting on an award), A Modern Day Super Hero Silent Film. For the next couple of years my small but faithful company would set out and go to various localities and shoot more adventures of Captain Garbage. I had the opportunity to learn many aspects of production work, since I did all but act, and from time to time I would even do that. Once, I even edited together one of the tiny 8mm films without the aid of a working light in the film editor.
About a year later, my Captain Garbage friends introduced me to a friend named Sam. Sam, as it turned out, was banana-crackers about certain Space:1999. It was not on in our city, and most of the time all we had to watch was the 37,000th re-run of Star Trek. We had both in our past run across the phenomenal UFO, but unlike Star Trek, it was not in continuous reruns. Now here was the show that was its descendant. We’d both heard of Space:1999, and had seen snatches of evidence of the show, but Sam was really in love with it. He really got me wishing I could see more of it.
Sam, like me was into building model spacecraft and was into movie making. He shot his own special effects movies, including scenes from Breakaway. On the day we tried to shoot that we set up all the tiny figures in the Main Mission replica from the Moonbase Alpha model, for what seemed like an eternity. He said he’d count to three while filming, and on three I was to blow the figures down, as g-forces hurled the tiny Alphans to the floor. We would then a Moonbase shot with a movie light rising behind it. It sounded like a good idea. So on three I huffed, and I puffed, and sent the entire thing sailing to the floor. Sam, who had seen the whole thing through his viewfinder, laughed for about thirty minutes. Later he discovered there was no film in the camera. Several months later, Sam moved away. I seem to have that effect on people.
Five months later, a local station began to air the longed after show, although they hacked it to bits in the first run. They were infamous for cutting the tail end of the show-the lines that tied the story together-and airing an art school ad. If you look at our tape, you will see it stuck into one of the scenes. Eventually, when they chopped up The Metamorph, they got a letter from me detailing what they had cut out of every episode. After that, the problem was solved. I suppose they should have appeared in a “stupid human tricks” segment.
Eventually, I met Dale at a school club, who at the time was hoarding a Future magazine. I was looking for a new friend and he had a cool sci-fi magazine. Whether Dale wanted it or not, he made a new friend. Shortly thereafter, I was invited by another friend to his private high school’s showing of 2001. That night stands out in my mind for two reasons. One was that in these days of yore, before videotape was available to the masses, this masterpiece had been sent in it’s cinemascope format, but the wrong lens was shipped with the film. The first reel was blurry, so the lens was removed and the normal lens was put back into the projector. Then, the rest was shown in crystal clarity, and ever so stinking tall. It was hideous.
In between these movie reels, I was introduced to Kyle Clark. That was the second thing that I remember from that night. Together we cringed our way though the rest of the movie and talked about our common interests. Low and behold, this youngster made his own movies, too. He also had in his possession two Moonbase Alpha landing pads I needed badly to complete my Fundimensions model kit properly.
Not long after, I visited the original Kyle Clark pictures, where he was actively engaged it blowing up a Death Star looking surface with firecrackers. Then came the launch of a spacecraft made partly from the Mattel Eagle, complete with a spray can and matches. I stood as far away as possible.
Eventually I would show up to assist in Kyle’s films. I’m not sure whether or not he wanted it this way, but I’d usually wind up involved on some level. I did have a two long years under my belt, after all. So I found myself giving advice, building a model (Bespin or Bedpan as it came to be called), playing parts (a bell bottom wearing giant), supplying a pet turtle to carry Luke Skywalker in the absence of a Ton Ton, and winding up in less than safe positions clutching the small movie camera in one hand and hanging on for dear life with the other-and loving it.
Kyle’s early films were made with virtual sets (You had to imagine the sets were there when you watched the movies.). Later films became more and more sophisticated, such as in the case of his wonderful replica of the Seaview’s forward observation deck, complete with water on the windows. Kyle was -and still is-very innovative; a necessary trait when your budget is very small.
Meanwhile, I had taken a different path. I knew I could not make films as good looking and crisp as an actual feature, so rather than have serious films with obvious omissions and cheep sets (which was all I was able to afford), I went with comedy. I really enjoy a good parody, and I suppose I wasn’t quite as brave as Kyle. Both methods have their merits. Needless to say, though, much to Kyle’s dismay, I brought the comic element into his seriously made films. Nowhere was this more evident than at our film showings, where we supplied our own lines and sound effects. Since Kyle didn’t use subtitles, his story lines got messed with more than mine. For all my “help” he would graciously add “special thanks to Tim Smith” in the usually blurred credits, which in turn would then be the only thing that was readable.
In time, we all got hooked up with a mutual friend named Phil, who had a sound movie camera that he used mostly to film portions of his favorite TV shows. Since movie film was short and expensive, he had a “best of” collection of special effects and bits of story line from many sci-fi movies and shows. All three of us would get in on that action. How we could have used a VCR! In time, my faithful assistant Dale would be introduced to Kyle, and I only have myself to blame. I would go on to do several features with the sound movie camera. (Getting permission to use that camera was sometimes an absolute soap opera, and at times Kyle and I both wanted the silly thing on the same weekends.) But in time Kyle and Dale together would leave me in the dust in terms sheer volume. When video cameras became available, and Kyle gained access to professional editing equipment, the productions became even more complex. The two of them produced everything from Lost in Space Wars to Birmingham Vice. And I there I was proud of my single 16mm movie I made for a film class (No awards, but I got an A-, because my sci-fi feature with a message confused the professor).
Dale, in addition to working with Kyle and I in numerous positions on our movies, also produced his own features, when he could borrow Phil’s camera. His masterpiece was a Battlestar Galactica episode that featured the best sets and lighting that any of the three of us had made at that time. He truly did an outstanding job with limited resources and space. Dale was-and still is-a very talented artist, and was able to bring this talent to his productions.
Interestingly, all three of us would produce our own versions of Space:1999. In Dale’s version, we tried to keep straight faces in a basement so low we had to stand on our knees and deliver our lines. This proved to be a problem, but made for a great blooper reel. Dale’s movie, as I recall, was a straightforward Space:1999 episode. Mine would have only one acting scene, and one opening subtitle. The rest was all special effects, and explored a time beyond Year Two, entitled Space:2008. Unique to my movie was a model alien city that was filmed on a backyard set.
Kyle, though, had the idea we had all thought about….He called it UFO:1999. His was actually more of a UFO with Eagles. This would be a silent feature-probably due to the sound movie camera soap opera. Kyle was obsessed with duplicating the famous crash sequence from Space Brain, and crashed his Mattel Eagle onto a grassy hillside. He then rolled the Eagle’s command module across the grass to complete the sequence. The result was…unique. Kyle was thrilled with it. This film also broke the comedy barrier for Kyle, though he wasn’t at all pleased at my UFO sound effect when he first showed us the finished product. By the tenth time we saw it, everyone did my sound effect.
The one thing we had never done, though, was to collaborate together on a feature. I had always felt this would give us one heck of a good film. I suppose, though, that we were just a bit too creative at the time, and we all wanted to do our own projects. Sometime we were even competing with each other on some level, which is odd because we surely didn’t make any money off of our features. As the years went by, we all got involved with the business of life; school, work, marriage, and in my case, children. Kyle is the only one of us that continued to make his own features on a regular basis with Dale’s assistance, while I focused on photography of the steam locomotives that ran local excursions.
Then, a few years ago, Kyle called me to come over and play a part in an original production, Biff Mercury. By now Kyle really knew how to pull strings and bring in professional help. Instead of one guy handling it all, he now had a director and even a professional cameraman. Needless to say, I was impressed. I also realized how much I’d missed the movie-making scene.
Early in 1999, Kyle dreamed up a plan. The three of us would produce a tape with special editions of our films. This was in honor of our 20th anniversary of our movie making (22nd in my case, but who’s counting?). This project still may happen, but was put on hold when we decided to do an honest to goodness production of UFO:1999. To this day, we have lots of ideas, but few survive to the finished product. Life keeps getting in the way. “ Life, don’t talk to me about life.” It seemed like a good idea to me, but I wasn’t sure just how far this idea would go. We all felt we should do something to salute one of our all time favorite shows, especially when September 13, 1999 was bearing down on us. I was surprised when Kyle called me again a short time later, and suddenly realized this dream was going to take flight. Then we found out about this convention in California. The race was on. And here all I had planned to do to celebrate was to be content with my Space:1999 calendar and maybe build another probe ship. Who knew?
Knowing now that there was no way any one of us could afford to go to California on that famous week end, and knowing now that the Sci-Fi Channel and Starlog magazine would give Space:1999 fans the shaft, I have no regrets over making our parody/salute.
The first business was what we needed to get started. This is where years of experience in movie making and model building came together. Kyle whipped out a short script tying the origin episodes of UFO and Space:1999 together.
I got into modeling in 1973, and wanted to build space models. My sense of timing being what it is meant that I had gotten into modeling when space kits quit being produced. So long before I met Kyle, Dale, or even Sam, I had a lucrative model part-trading guild going on amongst my grade school friends. We even had our own Christmas party each year to allow us the chance to buy gobs of models for each other, and get away with it. I also grabbed up any discarded plastic items for parts. By 1999, my parts collection took up a substantial amount of shelf space.
Over the years I had built numerous ships, mostly scratch built, that were influenced at first most by 2001. With Space:1999 came a release of models that allowed me to build Alpha Moonbase, Hawks, and Eagles. Along the way I attained several extra Eagle kits. The UFO models were not available at the time here in town. (Much later, I was given an Interceptor, which I turned over to Kyle to finish when we decided to film in the interest of time.) Kyle, who kept up with where to buy them did collect many of the UFO kits plus some great garage kits, which were just waiting to be used. Consequently, my model for the films focused more on Space:1999 than UFO. My first task was to build a Meta probe looking craft, which Kyle named, “the Ultra Cool Probe”. The name itself was as much a joke as it was a salute to the marvelous model work and exceptional spacecraft designs that had so influenced us in our teenage years.
When Space:1999 actually made it to our hometown, the inspiration flowed freely, and many of my kit bashed and scratch built creations were based on Martian Bower and Brian Johnson’s designs. These included a homemade version of the Metamorph’s booster unit (It is way too heavy looking, something which Kyle and Dale both used to laugh about secretly. When I taped our Eagle lift-offs, I incorporated that joke into our movie.). Other models included my very heavy and detailed (original design) Astro 6 probe ship. I always thought that the beauty of Space:1999 ships is that they don’t have to all look exactly alike, allowing the average kit basher wide latitude in model design (unless you are gifted enough to do exact replicas.).
Astro 6 is way too heavy for our use at the time. I did not know the source of the tanks that appeared on so many of the Space:1999 spacecraft models for some 20 years. Of coarse, now I do, thanks to the late great Science Fiction and Fantasy Modeler, but I can’t afford it. When I built the Astro, I filed down solid plastic table legs (No, my Mom didn’t have missing furniture.) to make the tanks. Then a counter weight was added inside the main body to offset the heavy forward tanks. The result was gratifying, but the model was impossibly heavy for our purposes at the time.
A new ship was needed. Fortunately, I have a box marked “Space:1999 parts”. Into it I dove, and wound up only spending money on paint, one aluminum rod, and two ballpoint pens (my son’s suggestion). I also pirated several space program kits, and made sure to use genuine Airfix parts, just as Space:1999’s model builders had. The result was a sturdy and lightweight probe ship based loosely on the Meta probe. All I had to go by at the time was a blurry Breakaway tape. Also, I had enough leftover parts for a second probe ship, which has yet to be filmed. (This one is from Space:1999’s “third season”, an experimental advanced Queller drive ship.) (Model builders take note; I later located lightweight tank parts at Wal-Mart, of all places, and proceeded with yet another probe ship, built in September 1999. My daughter was quite pleased for all the beads and glitter she suddenly received as I emptied the containers.)
I also had the idea for a Taxi module, quick and easy to build and use. I suddenly hit on the idea of using Tony Cellini as the cab’s owner and operator. This would also fit into our story and let us how in a funny way how he returned to Alpha despite being labeled as a lunatic.
Yet another other model assignment was more personal. Years earlier I had drawn up plans for a Hawk Launcher. This was not in Kyle’s script, but Kyle was willing to give it the green light if I got it ready in time. The poor Hawk had been confined to only one episode, War Games, and clearly it should have been used more. This was a chance to make greater use of this fantastic ship. The lightweight Hawk has no visible landing gear. Years earlier, Starlog magazine had speculated that these were stationed on the large space station orbiting the moon, explaining why no landing gear was needed (they also stated these were the successors to the Interceptors, a really cool idea.). On our Alpha they needed a ride into orbit.
Then, the Eagle kits were reissued. I honestly think that Kyle and I bought the bulk of the kits in our city. Now that Eagle parts were no longer scarce, I could go ahead with the project. Using most of the same parts I had planned to use years earlier, I managed to get the thing finished in time for us to use (You will need two Eagle kits and a plastic towel rod to get started; good luck finding a Hawk). Boy, is that a heavy model!
Meanwhile, Kyle was at work in his garage/studio building set flats and Moonbase buildings. While I had worked over the years almost exclusively with plastic, Kyle was a master of large cardboard structures and ships. He had a way of building whatever he could envision. Lack of kits was not a problem. If he wanted it, he’d build it. This paid off in a big way back in the 1980’s when he worked with the state governor’s office to build a spacecraft and script a theatrical PSA. In UFO:1999 his work paid off in using a previously built SHADO Moonbase, in his building large scale Moonbase Alpha buildings, and comlocks. Digital magic would supply working screens on the comlocks.
On UFO:1999, we both spent hot days and stormy nights in Kyle’s garage, dodging the 936 cats his wife owns and uncooperative cardboard walls that fell when the humidity made them warp (One of these was incorporated into the tape.). In some cases, parts of the sets were added digitally at a later date. One scene was taped on both cardboard and virtual sets over several months. It required some ingenious editing to work.
The third part of our team was unfortunately sidelined for most of the production, sadly. Dale had worked with Kyle on the original script, and submitted both old jokes and new suggestions-like Alec “Danger” Freeman and the really rude SID-that were a big part of the story. Unfortunately, Dale and his family were dealing with financial difficulties and his Mother’s bout with cancer, a battle that she lost in October.
None of us had the resources to build sets and spacecraft identical to Space:1999, and so we were forced to be resourceful on our shoestring budget. Sometimes our limitations were evident, such as when we could not afford a real “Visible Man Kit”, and instead whipped up a fake kit package. We also to rely on some stock footage because of this, but we all wanted to produce our own “eye candy” as much as possible. Fortunately, Kyle had access to some very powerful and expensive video equipment, and used it to create some of our magic. He successfully blended together actual and virtual sets. We acted with actual photographs, altered set drawings, and models digitally added in behind us for many scenes. Some of our truly magical scenes were those requiring multiple astronauts, while we only had one space suit (gag, do I ever hate that space helmet.). The scene of Koenig (Do I look like Martian Landau or what?) talking to Straker while leaning against a communication post was another of these moments. Similar magic made possible our moon buggy joke, since we did not have one in scale with the Eagle pad. I still can’t believe he pulled those off! But it was the ingenuity that Kyle possesses that helped pull off the impossible on a shoestring budget.
Special effects were filmed in two locations, both in garage areas. Two cameras in my basement photographed the Eagle take off and landings, and I’ve left the lift off mechanism in place for future use. The Eagle bay scene was taped in Kyle’s garage, where rare kits are only a few feet away and ready to use. As much as we wanted to do a serious hanger bay, we couldn’t resist throwing in the Thunderbirds and a certain retired restaurant icon that had appeared in Austin Powers. Who knows where these will show up again?
Special effects, set creation, and production problems were but a drop in the bucket compared to recruiting actors. Recruiting people who deliver the lines is a royal pain. People who volunteer to play parts for free with excitement are usually the first to want to back out the day of shooting, mostly because they decide they “just don’t feel like it”. Never mind all the complicated preparatory work that has been done to set up the scene. (In addition, on UFO:1999 most of the people had acting never even seen either of the original shows!) Every amateur filmmaker we’ve talked to has had this nagging headache. This problem is as universal as lying politicians. Once when filming a location scene for a class assignment, I had someone key to the scene try to back out. The scene we were doing only required her to sit on a blanket at a picnic; no stress or line memorization was needed.
I’ve appeared in a couple of my films, but never as a lead character. I’m much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it. Kyle usually acts in his own films, as does Dale. Kyle played the part of Han Solo in his Star Wars films. I played the part of the Weekly World newspaper editor in Captain Garbage the Movie- Another One. (This by the way, was a prequel, filmed with sound film this time. Note that a headline we used on our newspaper in that film was added to Virginia Lake’s newspaper in UFO:1999. Thanks Kyle.)
More than wanting to appear in our own films, casting ourselves in front of the camera is a necessity, as we know we will be there on the day of shooting. This is why I of all people played Koenig. I think Kyle had decided since Space:1999 was one of my all time favorites, I should play Koenig. Kyle would cast himself as Straker. At least then two of our most important characters were covered. Kyle handled the rest of casting and shot a lot of stuff on the fly when people were available. Most of the cast was very good about showing up to play their parts. One in particular had a really rough schedule and some tough stuff she was dealing with, but she came through for us in a big way.
The Ed Straker alone in his office was a scene Kyle did on his own after a really bad day at the office. He said it really helped put him in the mood to be Straker. Kyle also arranged and added the hysterical announcements in the background. (It is hard to believe that the woman who played Nina also voiced our pleasant sounding announcements.)
An intact script of Breakified does not exist. (For the Web Site I had to do a transcript.) The story line actually evolved as time went on. I kept hounding Kyle with page after page of script revisions he wasn’t very happy to see…at first. We simply did not have the time for all the revisions. Some were used, others were altered, and others were scrapped, while others remain to be recycled. One late entry was the “Instrumatic” commercial, which I scripted, gave to Kyle, and he put together. That is still my favorite of the commercials. It is a pity that we couldn’t pull off our From Earth to the Moon style monologue, but time was our enemy in the end.
In the end we did manage to pull it off and send it to Los Angeles. It was hard work, but hard work of the good kind. It wouldn’t have been 1999 without it!
Essay: What I did on Breakaway Day.
September 13, 1999
< The real date >
At 2:00AM that morning, I awakened and looked at the clock. I knew Alphans were celebrating the arrival of the day as the clocks in Los Angeles struck midnight. How I wish we could have been there!
Much later, I was finally at home after being at work that day. I had ducked out for a while for lunch. After all, this was a day to celebrate. Although the interior of the popular hole-in-the-wall eatery is heavily adorned in sports memorabilia, I could think of nowhere more appropriate than Full Moon Barbecue to have lunch. After I got home that night, I commandeered the TV and got out the most complete tape of Breakaway that I owned. Then, there was a giant cookie I made consisting of three of those sausage shaped packages of different varieties of cookie dough. (If you stop halfway through baking in a round baking sheet-or pizza pan-and sort of stir the dough around, you will get a cool looking moon or alien planet confection. White chocolate chip cookie dough should be one of the types you use.) It was to say the least a very quiet celebration. And a long way from the festivities of LA.
Late that night, almost at midnight, I waited to record something I could never record again. This time there was no second chance if I missed it. Alas, football season was upon us, and it was Monday night. The daily schedule had been thrown off, and Nightline would not be on for another hour. I almost gave up, but I wanted to tape it…that opening. "September 13, 1999". There, I had it. What I would use it for, I did not yet know. But I had it. Oddly enough the rest of the show did not deal with earthquakes and such. Off to bed I went, satisfied that I had at least not let the day go by unnoticed. Best of all, I had also managed to finish my newest probe ship on time. Longer than my previous one, and this time light weight.
Kyle's day was insane, as project after project mounted up and nearly buried him alive. He stated later he had a really bad day.
Dale was out of pocket, by this time his mother was on her way down. By the next month she would be gone. It was a dark time in his life. At least UFO:1999 and other projects served to keep his mind off of things. He was not only working while dealing with his mother's illness, but also dealing with financial troubles, and helping his younger brothers. Too say the least, it was not the best of times for him.
All of us would like to have curled up with that wonderful September 1999 issue of Science Fantasy Modeler that day, but alas, we were months behind in getting that issue. From September to November I drove several employees at local bookstores mad by calling and asking if they had the thing. Finally, it arrived in November. It was worth the wait, but if only there could have been more. I would have killed for some of those photos back in the pre-VCR days when I sketched the ships I saw before they faded away on the TV screen.
We had barely finished our movie in time. Now we would wait to hear back from the convention. A day went by, then two. I tried to contact Kyle. He had heard nothing either. Had our tape been shown at all, we wondered? We figured the convention people were busy, but we should hear in a couple of days, right? Eventually we wondered if the tape had even arrived. The silence was loud, very loud. It was a depressing time. Had no one seen the tape? At last, about two weeks later, we heard. Yes, it had been shown! What a relief! It had been shown twice. Just who did see it (as far as stars) we still do not know.
The fans that did see it had a favorite scene. There were some scenes, which we had poured our heart and souls into, like the eagle takeoff from Earth (That's one I'm still not happy about). Then there were comedy moments like Alan Carter as the Crocodile Hunter. And then there were cool things such as the Hawk Launcher and the combining of Alpha and SHADO. What was the fan's favorite scene? The travel tube gag. In the final analysis, this slapstick bit ruled the day. Oh well, I nearly passed out from laughing the first time I saw it, too. Since it was one of the very first things we did, it wasn't as funny to me by the time everything was put together.
During September, Kyle vanished, except for occasional phone calls. I meanwhile answered my family's request to see the tape. Dad used to watch UFO and some of Space:1999 and UFO with me many moons ago. My older brother had seen them, too, also many moons ago. My Mom, on the other hand is not a science fiction fan at all. She saw the original Star Wars and didn’t like it. She used to even take pleasure in referring to 2001 as "a monkey movie". So here was a room of non-fans and one who didn't like science fiction (to be fair, Mom did keep up with the space program during the golden years of Apollo, as did most people I knew). The thing that worried me the most was Alec Danger Freeman's line about the monster, which for his character was true! She laughed at that, and then everyone was shocked to see one of our local weathermen at the end of the tape. All in all it went well. Everyone just wanted to see what their son/little brother had been up to all summer long.
My very first audience was at my house. Christopher, a science fiction lover like his dad, laughed at everything, at least the bits he had not seen on the daily reel. My wife passed out and missed a bunch of stuff until I showed it a second time. She wasn't getting away that easy! My daughter probably watched wondering why she had to have a loon for a Dad.
We have yet to see our first tape before a real audience of fans! We did have an opportunity to air it before a local group of filmmakers at the art museum down town. The other films being shown ran the full gamut of artsy (about bowling-go figure) to comedy to surreal to an obscenity-laced video some teenagers did (yicch!). Kyle was terrified. He had pared down "Breakified" to a shorter version to fit their time constraints. We had at long last completed the "now this is a laser" joke, two months after the Breakaway convention. Now we were going to play before a group of non-fan filmmakers right after the artsy bowling film (done as it turns out by the brother of our Tony Cellini). At first, before the open, everyone watched quietly. Then came the travel tube. After that, they were as hooked as they were going to get. Believe it or not, the artsy crowd liked it, or else were just paying their respects to fellow "film" makers.
Somewhere during the fall, though, I mentioned to Kyle, "Say, we did say 'coming next summer', didn’t we?". D'oh!!
"Yes we did." replied Kyle in a "what were we thinking" kind of voice. This time he said he had learned his lesson. He wanted me to write the thing. During "Breakified" he had presented me with a script he had written. It was short and disjointed. Don't get me wrong, but Kyle will tell you it's the making of the story he enjoys, not the writing. I enjoy the story telling, although I'd just as soon bypass the physical writing part - all that fussing about with tenses and such. Thank God for spell check!
So at once I went about with story ideas. We had so many. The trick was to combine UFO storylines into Space:1999. It was Dale who suggested the first new story. "SID's Return". It was a brilliant suggestion, one that would provide the backbone for a new SHADO. With so many ideas, my mind snapped. I would write four new episodes, two for release in 2000 and two more for 2001. So away I went, writing full-length episodes, each complete with at least two promos for other episodes. Doing this would allow us to cover 13 episodes of Space:1999, and bits of UFO episodes scattered throughout. The promos also were part of a continuing story line that would connect with the surrounding episodes. For example, the promo for "The Last Sunset" had Skydiver trapped in a mudslide when the atmosphere left the moon, leaving Carlin and crew presumed dead. They would reappear some ten minutes or so later, re-emerging as the newly rebuilt Spacediver via a Spaceship Yamamoto parody in "Games 'O War" to save the day. I had hoped to get Dale to hand animate this portion. This sequence and the promo were not to be though.
One story melded part of "Bringers of Wonder" with an original Third season story, involving Koenig and Straker trapped in a probe ship command module for months on end. Here we departed official story parodies, and had our own adventure. (In Year Three, if you recall, Alpha was dispatching probe ships ahead of the moon to better prepare for Operation Exodus. You did see year 3, right?) Pieces of this storyline would fall into the episodes we did tape.
The first script completed would be "Games 'o War" on September 14, 1999.
Your Flight Has Been Delayed.
As Kyle began to get the original scripts, plans began to change. We could not decide what we wanted to do. We wanted to do it all!! In a perfect world, we would have. But the scripts were just too long. So I began the process of cutting them down. Some classic bits were shortened-such as the "SID's Return" teakettle, while many others were cut altogether. Finally the decision was made, reduce the stories to their basic elements. Three were chosen, "SID's Return”, “Games O' War”, and “Lizard's Lathe". Later, when we began taping the things, we found that time, once again, was our enemy. Kyle, who is an expert on many aspects of television, said that the stories were running too long. On top of everything else, we were faced with unprecedented delays, both from without and from within. And so, the scripts were whittled down all the way to the final edit.
We would have been wise to complete just one story, but most of "Games O'War" had been taped, and "Lizard's Lathe" had some classic moments that would save it from extinction. One Script was eliminated altogether and may never be used at all. It was titled "Space Bender", which combined UFO's "Mind Bender" with 1999's "Space Warp".
We were plagued with delays off all sorts from the time we began taping in the late spring. We could not start any earlier due to the heavy sweeps months of February and March. We set out to do all three shortened episodes with the best of intentions. By late August it was me saying, "Just put together what we have and cut out anything that doesn't work.”
As usual there were people who did not show up when time came to shoot. Others ran late when we needed every spare minute to shoot. One even quit working at the studio in a grand way (nasty good by letter and all) with only half of his scenes taped. We lost Dr. Russell, and could not find a suitable replacement. We never found our Sandra, who was key to several scenes, including a scripted promo that was our answer to "Message from Moonbase Alpha", the Breakaway convention’s show stealer. Some actors were not ready to come back to their former employer's studio and instead had to play their scenes before second unit cameras. We almost never had more than two or three people on hand for the same scene.
Kyle usually has a two-week block in the summer to use for movie making. He did in 1999, and we got a good bit of the tape done at his house. The next summer, that block of time did not occur, and just when we needed much more time than the year before. This meant more time in the studio, taping on the fly. This took many late nights, and weekend afternoons. As time went on Kyle grabbed people to fill parts even more on the fly. To complicate things even further, there were frequent projects thrown at Kyle as we went along. One Sunday afternoon he asked me to come in and help him with a project for a city group based on Star Trek. This would eat up another of our precious weekend time slots.
Kyle said he had to shift gears in a big way. The only thing that saved us here that years earlier Kyle had done numerous episodes of "Star Track-The New Generation" as a part of his series of action figure features on a local cable station. He already had the props - miniature sets made from the action figure toys of rooms aboard the Enterprise, as well as additional rooms he had built from cardboard. This allowed the bulk of the project to be shot in one afternoon. I found myself being poured into a Halloween sized costume for someone much smaller to play a bit part. It wasn't pretty. At least Kyle pulled out a Babylon 5 flat for the background (Yeah!! Take that Star Trek!).
We also were repeatedly bumped out of the studio due to other projects and equipment failure. One day after taping only a short while, an intern came in and began to play with the switcher, resulting in the loss of a complex set up and almost all of that day's taping time. There was another day that we discovered that the chroma-key was being repaired. And then there was that last weekend intended to be the final, last ditch effort to have a marathon shooting session. On that day the general manager decided to show up unexpectedly. And did not leave for quite some time. Instead of making up for lost time, we lost even more time. Twice that day we had to duck both ourselves and our props into an equipment stowage room and had to wait for an all clear. Once we finally got underway, one of the guys that works there was pulled away in the middle of a scene.
To top things all off, we had some clean up to do from episode one, including a rewrite of Alan Carter's scene. This we should have worked on a bit sooner. But this also took away from our shooting schedule. Even though we began in the spring, by August we still were not through; we did not want to release this episode unfinished as we had the year before.
To say the least, the whole process became a huge, swollen head, headache. Last year we relied on second unit work as time ran out. This year, second unit shooting would again save our production. Home based shooting means limitations based on the lack of a sound stage, i.e., barking dogs, water running through overhead pipes, and kids who just had to ask if we were shooting while we were. But we were at least not at the mercy of the hazards of borrowed studio time. But before we could consider second unit photography as an option, there was just one little problem that kept this from being a reality…at least at first.
And So, It Begins.
In 1999, I had set up two cameras two record the effect I shot. One was a decade old Panasonic camcorder that recorded everything slightly blurred. It was a backup, and no shot from this camera were used. The other camera was an 8mm camcorder. These were the shots we used, although I had to work with auto everything. I had planned to re-use it, but alas, my father had taken it out on a deep-sea fishing trip. The waters in the Gulf were less than tranquil that day, and the lightweight camera flew from his hands at the top of a swell. He said a mermaid had gotten it. At the time it made me sick. But by the next year he had bought a replacement.
Kyle was using a better quality camcorder, though it also was also cursed with auto focus only. His camera had already experienced problems before we used it in “Breakified”. I do not remember the nature of them, but he sent it in to be repaired, the news was not good. It would have to be replaced. In the end, both seemingly grim situations would turn out to our advantage. New cameras would now be used, and both had manual features. In “Breakified” models would pop in and out of focus as the camera called the shots. Now we would control the focus. We would control the exposure.
I did a couple of tapes full of effects while Kyle was away on vacation. I had left the Eagle lift mechanism in place from the year before. With a little maintenance it was ready to go. There were a number of mishaps with the eagle pods falling off, some of which we couldn't resist using. This time my second unit included a session outdoors with one model. It took forever to find a spot without trees or power lines in the background. My son and I got hot doing those shots, but we got some pretty ones! And surprisingly we managed not to get any gawkers (“Hey, what are y'all doing?”).
But this time I got to go a step further, filming aliens in my basement. Kyle would later add them into their respective scenes. One would become a hologram and the other would go to a planet that Koenig and Freeman go to explore.
We would do a day of videography in Kyle's garage, and he would later continue to work on missing scenes on his own. Our scripts called for two spaceship graveyard scenes. On one level we wanted these shots to be pretty, but on another we wanted to have some fun. And after all, ours would never look as good as the real thing. I wanted Cellini's graveyard of ships to have two ships that were cut from the original show, the Enterprise and the TARDIS (but these would not appear in ours either). Kyle decided that my old probe ship (The one I call Astro 6) should dock with itself. This one was built after an earlier, flimsier version was damaged in Kyle's original UFO:1999! I thought about using the newer large-scale probe I built in September, 1999, as it could hang by strings. But I'm glad the original was used, as I had built it to film and never had. The next day I was at the studio when Kyle made it fly at long last. Wow!
Model Building Fools.
UFO and Space:1999, and for that matter just about any other of Gerry Anderson's programs are always blessed with a plethora of fabulous models. They were as much characters as were the actors (Well, ok, sort of…but you know what I mean!). So, even in doing a parody of these shows models are a necessity. In part one we were missing a key model, and had to rely on stock footage. We were missing the UFO! Of all things not to have! So, around Easter, as prices on Easter goodies dropped I found a large plastic egg that had a clear top. My daughter was not happy when she discovered what would happen to this egg. The kids got the goodies inside, but the top part, once I cut off the band off duckies and bunnies, was mine. I already had the bottom piece from an Apollo capsule model. Now all I needed was the middle! And so, at long last I discovered the marvels of cardboard. With aluminum tape covering the cardboard, and a discarded rubber cone from the Xerox 5090 at work (I knew I could use it for something!), we finally had a UFO.
Getting the thing together was not nearly as difficult as getting the fishing line to run through the entire middle of the model. In years past, as children then teenagers, our old home made UFOs wobbled terribly as the spun around by a single supporting thread. The actual studio model was ingeniously designed so that the middle part of the model was motorized, and the top and bottom of the craft remained stationary. But ours had no motor. The solution then was to support the model by a single wire that runs all the way through the body. The end result was a hand spun UFO that didn't jiggle like a dancing Alec Danger Freeman.
Almost immediately, at the end of a late night session of taping, I suspended it from a latter, anchoring the bottom as well as the top line. Then I spun it in front of the green screen. It was ready to go back into part 1 as well as for use in our newest installments. And so began a new round of things that would slow us down, but make part one look a lot better.
Then there was the matter of the alien city. I had always been enamored with Space:1999's alien cities, usually the "cities on a stick". They were as every bit as cool as the spacecraft on the show. The best was “War Games”. Now we were slated to do a parody of that classic episode. Fortunately, I had an alien city model. Unfortunately, for the last couple of years it had sat in the basement gathering dust, following a couple of mishaps during renovations. I had built the thing in 1978 the first time. It was sort of a combination of Texas City and other various Space:1999 cities. I had bought it at a yard sale from my sister-in-law. The now vintage 70's terrarium was sold to me at the end of the day for $5.00.
The actual shape of the thing was a curved hourglass base with a large bubble that sat inside the base. I did a little re-arranging. One of the two pieces of the base was put aside for later use (It was used for "The Dark Drain" commercial in one of my films, which was a parody of "The Black Hole".). The remaining piece became the base. The bubble was flipped upside down, so that the hole that was at the top of the terrarium was now sitting on the base. From here I built a central shaft and attached buildings to it. I was much more dependent at the time on building according to what I had on hand, and as a result the overall structure of the interior did not look very much like the 1999 buildings I so admired. But there were several touches that made it interesting. One was a former color wheel from an old toy, and then there were a couple of old Aurora airplane stands. To top off the dome, I did find in the basement a plastic dish that had once sat below a plant. It was already shaped like an alien landing pad! Once finished the interior, I put the top part of the dome in place, using only a few drops of glue to cement it together. Then aluminum tape covered the seam. It was a very smart move, for once.
It was only a few years before the model was damaged, and I needed to go inside. All I had to do was to remove the tape, pop the few spots of glue, and I was ready to repair things. This time, I added a tower to the pad on top, perhaps to get it raised out of reach of young nephews. The tower was sprayed with a chrome coat of paint, which did not match the dull gray of the inside buildings. But, since the brightly colored base didn't match either…maybe "they" built it in stages, like the Washington monument.
Before the first rebuild, the city played a major role in Space:2008, my all special effects film from the early 1980’s. I had filmed it on a table in my back yard, complete with forced-perspective landscaping. This would come in handy some 20 years later, since I already knew how to do the effect. All I had to do was a major rebuild. It was a task I wasn't quite sure how to do. Procrastination set in along with the frustration of a job I knew would be difficult. So I moved on, building instead the "bumble bee" ships from “SID's Return”, and sneaking out of the house supplies to work on a second project at work.
Tanks. Tiny tanks. Friends don't let friends build tanks. I drew on information about how to build a laser tank from Jim Small's article on the Internet. He wasn't kidding about how thoroughly confusing it could be. I totally misjudged the size of the things, and bought too large a scale tank at first. It was a pity I had to return it, it had some really nice parts. No wonder tanks have always been a favorite of film model builders for many years. I seem to recall that over 800 tank models were used in the construction of the Valley Forge in Silent Running. Unfortunately my budget required me to only get the tanks I needed. I had wanted to build laser tanks for a number of years, and now I would build two (No sense in not using both sides of the eagle command module.).
Too say the least, they were quite a pain to deal with. The larger tank had wonderful rubber treads, while the ones I worked with were simply plastic. There were gaping holes in parts of the early-assembled models. They looked horrible and flimsy before painting gave them a solid, unified look. These I assembled at work between jobs and on lunch breaks. One day I filled the break room with the brain cell-eating aroma of putty. Fortunately, no one keeled over. Although not vital to the story line of the tape, this was a part of my effort to give that little something else to our effects shots. We need all those little extras to make up for the times we so often have to skimp.
Eventually, as time to shoot my second unit effects grew near, it became apparent that I would have to quit putting off the bubble city. The breakthrough came when a friend from a local bookstore gave me a box of CDs that no one wanted. The cases became replacement parts for broken CD cases upstairs. The unwanted and unloved CDs in the basement though were consigned to my parts boxes, along with umpteen thousand unwanted AOL mail out disks. These became platforms for buildings and other structures inside the dome. Having multiple layers of buildings gave me the complex look I wanted. On top, I prepared the third incarnation of the landing pad area. It was definitely bigger than before, though I had to alter my plans here. Originally, the landing pad area was to look somewhat like the multiple landing pads building in War Games. Alas, time had changed those plant drip pans from hard plastic to a soft, flimsy plastic throwaway variety. Now instead of using the old tower as a separate structure, it would be dusted off and put back into service. The old color wheel became a side-mounted antenna inside the dome. All metallic paints used this time gave the city a glistening look that precluded its use in front of the green screen. I had planned my own indoor version of the “War Games” planet, but the city was taller than originally planned. So out doors it went when shooting time came.
Also along the way, I realized I needed the alien ships for SID's Return. Alas, these would be based on ships in the original show I didn't care for a great deal. Fortunately, I located a cheep source for the protrusions on the front of the ship a local discount store. The rest was all built with on hand supplies and with some kit-bashing and yellow paint (I tried an orange and it just did not look good. When the silly things were taped, though, they turned banana yellow. Live and learn.). I added stinger like protrusions in front and in back, to give the ships an overly humorous wasp look. I wanted to scrap the thing upon completion, and do with it what Space's model builders had done-let it be the front section of a new, longer alien ship (Return of the Archons), but Kyle seemed to frown on the idea. So, it stays as is.
Kyle meanwhile was hard at work building a large version of UFO's SID. This time SID had thrusters. Then there was the matter of the SHADO Moonbase. [Spoiler alert!!!] It had been blown up in the middle of Area 2 in “Breakified”. Now we needed it back. I drew up some plans that used 1999's round lunar building as the centerpiece for the new SHADO HQ. This building was actually built for the real version of UFO:1999 that became Space:1999. Whether or not it was to have been in the center of a revised UFO Moonbase of not I do not know. Kyle liked that idea, but was concerned that UFO fans might not like the other changes I had drawn up, as it changed the Moonbase too much. So, the round building was built to fit over the old model, and the former landing pad for the lunar module became the communication center, with three large dishes sitting atop the launch tower. The re-born SHADO Moonbase was ready to film.
Kyle also built new landing pads for both the eagles and interceptors. He discovered a unique source for landing pads from items that are usually discarded. Our first landing pad did not have the skirting as on Space:1999. Now our pads looked closer to the real thing. Overhead pad shots would now be featured without us praying that no one would notice. Kyle also built much larger Alpha buildings. Any larger and we might just move in next time! The new buildings allowed for greater detail, and they enhanced the look of the new tape a great deal. Also, they were large enough to add vehicles into the shots. Although this can be done digitally, the all-optical shots tend to be much crisper.
A Cast of Several.
We began with Maya. For reasons I do not fully understand, Kyle wanted us to do first season type stories, with Maya. Maybe that is something everyone would like to have seen. First season stories were almost always better, more thought provoking, more interesting, and loaded with cool effects. Unlike Star Trek's effects, nothing was explained away. If the characters talked about it, you saw it. That is definitely my kind of science fiction! Second season brought in more colorful sets, the neat Derek Wadsworth score (though Barry Gray's had greater variety), emotions, relationships between characters were developed, and more action. It also brought in silly monsters and watered down stories. Maybe a third year would have balanced things out.
Anyway, we had Maya. Although she did not have a major role in the scripts we decided to do (Though I wish I had thought about having her be Dr. Linder's assistant), if we had filmed Space Bender, it would have made up for it. In that episode she had Psycon hick-ups and….well use your imagination. But we needed Maya to at least show up. Kyle found Scarlet Thompson at work, and she played the part with gusto. She really enjoyed her hour-long stint, even though she had problems saying "Koenig" at first.
Dale also made his entrance into UFO:1999 as a sloppy looking version of Mentor. We had only one alien robe and parts of two cheesy wigs to work with, so Dale wound up looking like the punk version of Ming the Merciless. I kept on layering the wig parts until we had what we were looking for, something vaguely alien. This was the first time since the early 1980's we had all worked together. Dale had come a long way from when he nervously played a hunter in my Close Encounters of the Strange Kind.. He was really funny. Since we just had the one robe, He played his scenes separately from Maya. Later, he donned the black wig to become a hippie version of Paul from first season. These scenes would now appear in both episodes.
Several weeks later, Dale returned to play the part of Dr. Linder (or Queller). This was on the day we found the chroma-key was out of service. So down the hallway we went to a noisy technical area. We would have to re-dub almost all of this dialog, but it was great to finally walk around. Dale was absolutely hilarious, and we had to start over several times as I busted up while in the camera crew. It was great to have him a part of the team in a bigger way. But alas he hates this role to this day!
Later, while dubbing the sound, his experience paid off as he had some good ideas to add in, such as SID's "Was that my memory Core? Daisy, Daisy…". Dale is the harsher critic among us, and Kyle has threatened to do an "E true Hollywood Story" on Dale. I'm staying out of that one! But sometimes that voice of uncertainty can save a lack luster segment.
Nathan Sikes once again reprised his role as Alec Danger Freeman. As with several on the cast, he had worked with Kyle and left the studio under less than pleasant conditions. Kyle would have to do his stuff in his garage. The bulk of his lines though were for the "Games 'O War" episode, which at the time of this writing is not yet completed. I decided to write him in as before, but he is now truer to the image of a swinger that would have been in a 1960's film, versus the much raunchier Austin Powers. So he is still suggestive enough to get the idea across, but not crude. Even with this limitation, he performed brilliantly. In episode 3 he gets to command a major battle. I've seen most of this footage, and he is superb.
In recent months I've seen a previous short movie that was done for local broadcast. In it, Nathan played Elvis in a parody of Air Force One (Nixon was the president). Nathan played this part superbly as well. Among our group, he is one of the rare real actors. You may be seeing Nathan in the future…if we don't ruin his reputation by having him appear in our production!
Peter Carlin was played more as that most unlovable of smeg-heads, Arnold Rimmer. His parts were filmed at Kyle's place as well. Kyle had stated early on that he wanted this to be a recurring gag, with Carlin always trying to make a buck (Smart man!). The "Green Cheese" line is probably my favorite, but then I've always been partial to the Skydiver sequences. As to how Skydiver got to the moon…Oops…I mean, it's a secret!
Then there was Tony. We had to have Tony. All year long Kyle talked about getting a red vest, and having Tony look like Captain Scarlet. As time moved on the vests finally dropped to affordable prices. But the red ones disappeared. Back in 1999, we had discussed the idea of an extra that would have been a transfer from International Rescue. But he would still be trailing his wires behind him, and people would always be stepping on the wires, causing hilarious falls. That idea was sacrificed long ago, so it was terrific to have it put back in an even grander way than before to spotlight the many Gerry Anderson marionation series. Without the proper vest, Kyle made the costume. Now I see that the red vests are on sale again, and greatly reduced in price from last year. I think, though, that things worked out better for us this way instead.
Note: This is a part of our story I really wish I could omit. Because of the disappearance of our tape and accusations that followed on the internet, it is necessary to give some sort of response. Frankly I have quite a bit to say on this subject, but have edited out much of the details. Its soap opera stuff anyway, and I do loathe soap operas. I will try to tell it as briefly as possible.
We put up with an enormous amount of delays and problems in producing the second episode, the darkest hour was yet to come and it would be when we should have had a great triumph.
Our problems with seven months of delays would bite us hard and painfully. Kyle knew we would not have time to finish our new tape, so I suggested that he send the upgraded episode one tape, with previews to show that new stuff was being completed ahead of episode 2 to the New York Convention. This worked splendidly, and we were told this was perfectly fine. These folks had seen our work last year and would know what was coming. One reason for the early sending of any fan-produced tapes is so that material that doesn't add up can be weeded out. We felt our stuff was going to be better this year, so no problem…or so we thought.
But somewhere, something went very wrong.
To make a long soap opera of the worst kind short, the tape was completed at the last possible minute, sent overnight to New York by FedEx, and it absolutely, positively did not arrive. Or was lost by the hotel staff. Or never picked up by the convention staff. Questioning via the Internet as to whether or not the tape had been run eventually resulted in a nasty response being posted against us, accusing us of never having sent the tape.
When Kyle called the hotel on Friday morning, he got a run around. No one would give him a straight answer. After numerous transfers, he gave up. We once again would know nothing until after the convention was over. It was a long, awful weekend for me. We had poured so much time and energy into getting this project done. For what? To provide free entertainment of a bunch of fans that probably were seeing and doing so many cool things that we were but an after thought at a convention neither of us could even afford to go to. Bottom line is, somewhere, someone dropped the ball.
To this day we do not know whom. And yes, we mailed the tape! The package was sent. Kyle, my son, a security guard, and I all saw it awaiting pickup by FedEx. What happened after that we honestly do not know. We really wish Episode 2 could have been a part of MM2000 along with some of the other great sounding amateur tapes that were shown.
For us Main Mission 2000 should have been called Main Misery 2000. In the end, we got the shaft. Kyle said on numerous occasions he was through with the whole thing. And for a solid year nothing was done to the tapes. These convention organizers basically killed all progress on completing the additional material. Had I access to the material and equipment, I would have eventually gotten back to work on it.
The fact is that we both have jobs and families that keep us very busy. We both had to fight for every spare moment of taping time, both with competing obligations and duties to our loved ones. Making UFO:1999 as good as it is - with much room for improvement, had we time and money - was very hard work. But alas, there are those fans out there that take themselves and their fan activities way too seriously. UFO and Space:1999 hold very special places in my life, because they inspired so much creativity and are intertwined with events, places, and people who were also an integral part of those times. In other words, cool science fiction shows and movies were meant to provide entertainment, and should be viewed with pleasure. When people go to war over them, then the enjoyment is gone. That’s when they need to get a life.
I for one will not allow these wannabe warriors to take away the pure pleasure of some of the greatest science fiction series ever created.
The tape was going to be premiered instead at the Century 21 convention the next month. Fan counterparts in England were a pleasure to work with. Our tape arrived there in plenty of time, was viewed ahead of time, and almost made it. But that convention was over planned and our tape, along with several others, were bumped. However, we know that some folks from Fanderson still have the tape, and we hope one day it will be shown to English fans.
2000 was a bad year for UFO:1999 from beginning to end.
2001:the only good part of a nasty year
2001 came and things changed. Although no new footage was shot, and little editing was done as Kyle worked many 7-day weeks. We saw on Space1999.net that a convention was planned for Florida. A place that was a car trip away. It became clear though I wasn't going, thanks to a bad year financially. But what was also clear was that the officials from MM2000 were not involved. Thank goodness. Here was an opportunity for us. Communicating with the host of the convention site (Ellen, our future fan club president) was an absolute pleasure, and yes she was interested in showing our tape. I sent a second email explaining that we'd like to know if it arrived, and if anyone got to see it. After last year, who could blame us? She responded enthusiastically, and we knew immediately when the tape arrived. We were even told when it would be shown.
So over a year after “SID’s Return” was completed, it found an audience. Best of all, we know that Nick Tate definitely saw it. We understand he was looking for us. That could be good or bad! By comparison to our experience in 2000, I think this experience may give hope for the eventual completion of episode 3, which has some great performances by our cast. The Skydiver scene is a riot. It is amazing what a little courtesy and kindness can do! Spacecon 2001 would prove to be a bright beacon in what turned out to be a horrible, evil, vile year. (The movie was better.)
v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v
UFO:1999 was an experience I’m glad I
got to have, even if it is the last bit of amateur filmmaking I’m involved in.
It was an honor to pay tribute to Gerry Anderson’s wonderful works. His visions
of tomorrow are always the kind you can escape to after a long day. They still
inspire creativity in me. UFO and Space:1999 will always hold
a special place in my heart. As we said at the beginning of “Breakified”, thanks
to all the artists who have so inspired this former group of teenagers!