F-ZeroOne Posted December 26, 2012 Posted December 26, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-20845407 We never got the future Gerrys shows promised, but that wasn't his fault - the world decided that it needed shinier phones more than Mach-7 atomic-pile powered transatlantic airliners. Farewell, and thank you for that future, and for making it explode on a regular basis.
Benson13 Posted December 26, 2012 Posted December 26, 2012 That sucks. I remember watching Thunderbirds when I moved to England and loving it. Plus it made watching Team America so much more awesome.
taksraven Posted December 26, 2012 Posted December 26, 2012 (edited) A truly great loss of a fantastic SF creator. Of course everybody is talking about the Thunderbirds and I'm not trying to say that the show wasn't great, but for me, the really classic Anderson stuff were his live-action efforts, UFO and Space:1999. Neither show was perfect, but I enjoy them immensely. UFO in particular was *very* dark. The UFO episode "A Question of Priorities" is a classic example, Straker is forced to sacrifice the life of his own young son to stop the alien invaders. Very, very dark...... Edited December 26, 2012 by taksraven
taksraven Posted December 26, 2012 Posted December 26, 2012 It wasn't all doom and gloom though. Thanks Gerry.......
MechTech Posted December 26, 2012 Posted December 26, 2012 Thanks F-ZeroOne for the update. That DOES totally suck! The icon of some TRUE British culture (and some US) has moved on. Thanks Gerry for some cool memories! I've never looked at people with purple hair and puppets the same since your works! - MT
Loop Posted December 26, 2012 Posted December 26, 2012 I used to love thunder birds as a child. RIP Gerry
GU-11 Posted December 27, 2012 Posted December 27, 2012 I enjoyed Terrahawks a lot as a kid. Those metal rolling-ball robots were awesome. RIP Gerry.
Old_Nash Posted December 27, 2012 Posted December 27, 2012 (edited) Many important peoples dies in this year.... R.I.P. Gerry Thx for memories. Edited December 27, 2012 by Old_Nash
PetarB Posted December 27, 2012 Posted December 27, 2012 UFO was a huge eye-opener for me as a child. And of course the Thunderbirds were de-rigeur for Saturday mornings for a few years. I still think Thunderbird 2 holds up as a wonderful design after all these years, even if some of the other have dated terribly. Vale Gerry. Amazing how his 'Super-Marrionation' was just a by product of wanting to make live action.
Dynaman Posted December 27, 2012 Posted December 27, 2012 Not a single mention for Captain Scarlet or Space 1999 yet? Captain Scarlett had me hooked as a kid, still a decent show today when I watched it on Netflix - certainly more intelligent then most kids shows. Space 1999, with all it's flaws, was still a masterpiece in some ways. I've said it before and I'll say it again the "Dagon's Dragon" episode is one of the scariest things I've ever seen.
taksraven Posted December 27, 2012 Posted December 27, 2012 Not a single mention for Captain Scarlet or Space 1999 yet? Captain Scarlett had me hooked as a kid, still a decent show today when I watched it on Netflix - certainly more intelligent then most kids shows. Space 1999, with all it's flaws, was still a masterpiece in some ways. I've said it before and I'll say it again the "Dagon's Dragon" episode is one of the scariest things I've ever seen. I mentioned Space:1999. It was a flawed masterpiece. When you read about the hoops that Anderson was made to jump through to produce pretty much *all* of his shows, it becomes clear that his creative vision was held back at times. Especially with the second season of 1999, which was truly awful. Here is the episode you mentioned, Dragon's Domain...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79dD5kQ1zLs
TehPW Posted December 27, 2012 Posted December 27, 2012 I remember playing with the HUGE toy Eagle when i was in the single digets... When the 1982 era GI Joes came out, the fun i had was the epic awesome... ah well, its not that we lose people, its more that someplace else gains some great insight...
F-ZeroOne Posted December 27, 2012 Author Posted December 27, 2012 (edited) Thanks F-ZeroOne for the update. - MT One of those posts I wish I hadn't had to make... Thanks everyone for reminding me about "UFO", which as has been said, was in some ways ahead of its time. Its trouble was the same as probably haunted Anderson all his career - he was the "puppetmaster", which is pretty much how the British media is reporting this (it was interesting to see io9, which as far as I'm aware is a US site, give more emphasis to "Space: 1999"). Regarding the second season of "Space: 1999", I recall a story about the second season - they bought over a US producer or script-writer, and he came up to Anderson and said "Heres what the new episode is called - 'The Rules of Luton!". And Anderson kind of looked at him funny and said "Luton? Where did you get that name?". The writer/producer replied "Why, I saw it on a road-sign as I was driving to the studio!". (Luton is a town in the UK...! Please note that I am not trying to bash US-based writers etc, just giving an example of the sort of things Anderson had to work with occasionally!). Edited December 27, 2012 by F-ZeroOne
big F Posted December 27, 2012 Posted December 27, 2012 So very sad, an Icon to SciFi in general and at the head of some of the most influential stuff from the 60's onwards. Always like reading up on the builds and nostalgic reviews of Anderson things in Scifi and Fantasy Modeler when it comes out, although not always my cup of tea they are always informative. RIP Gerry, you will be missed.
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