The Image Moves (continued)

Thunderbirds was nearly all futuristic design, as everything on screen was scratch built.  Having to make everything, they didn't have to use any conventional props. With  no reliance on a contemporary props department Thunderbirds was visually  very rich. It was heavily influenced by Eagle and Dan Dare which  like the original Flash Gordon comics were very operatic and camp. The  series is famous for the ingenious sequence where the pilots are carried to  their ships through an elaborate mechanical process. This was because the  puppets looked extremely stupid when they walked.

On  American television Irwin Allen produces his first SF series Lost in  Space. It was aimed at children and developed a cult following inspire  of (or because of it?) being completely banal. The design work was suitably  cheesy, you always got the feeling that much of it had been borrowed from the  studios prop archives. The following year saw the start of the most popular  science fiction series ever made. Star Trek was created by TV  script writer Gene Roddenberry who had spent the first four years of the 60's  developing its background.

He  conceived the series as 'Wagon train to the stars', that is expounding  the pioneering spirit of the old west. Despite its large cult following it only  lasted while 1968. Though only lasting a relatively short time, its designs were  hugely influential.

The  year that saw the cancellation of Star Trek also saw the cinematic  release of 2001: a space odessey. Not since Metropolis had an SF  film attracted such critical attention at the time of its release. Like Metropolis it wasn't just hailed as a major work of science fiction, but  as a major work of cinema. The films success marked the coming of age for the  genre in the cinema.

The  film was a collaboration between director Stanley Kubrick and science fiction  guru Arthur C. Clarke. Both Kubrick and Clarke were technophiles, perfectionists  and insatiably curious. Their film was not only a watershed in science fiction  but also in special effects and futuristic design.

Many  of its contemporaries were verbal experiences, relying on people talking about  futuristic concepts. 2001 was very much a non verbal experience, out of a  two and a quarter hour film, only thirty six minutes involved dialogue. Its  visualisation is faultless, it is not surprising that it went a year over  schedule and cost double its allotted budget of $5 million dollars.

The  film was highly realistic in its designs, reflecting the real developments in  space rather than those of earlier films. It was the first science fiction film  to contain modern commercial logos (such as the Pan Am shuttle) which added  greatly to the films realism. After 2001, the benchmark for science  fiction visualisation had undergone a quantum leap. Most of the films that  immediately followed 2001 were all a bit of an anticlimax, immediately  rendered obsolete by the newly raised  standards. The following year saw the  Apollo 11 Moon landing. Science fiction abandoned for a while the themes of  conventional space exploration.

The  prevailing theme of 70's SF was very much the nature of future society rather  than its technologies effects. Films like THX 1138 were the norm.  It dealt with a man (called THX 1138) and his escape from a grim totalitarian  society. It was visually unsettling, but there was little design put into the  depiction of the society. Its robotic police were chrome mannequins dressed in  motorcycle cop uniforms!

The  1972 film Silent Running was the first to return to space. The  film was a relatively low budget production, directed by Douglas Trumball, one  of 2001's special effects supervisors. The plot is extremely implausible  but more accessible than 2001. It is set on a huge space freighter called  the Valley Forge, the name of the decommissioned aircraft carrier in which much  of the film was shot. This gave the film sets a substance and realism than could  not have been easily or cheaply mimicked. The films cast included three amputees  who played Huey, Luey and Dewey, the ships resident drones. They were the most  effective element of the film, Trumbull generated genuine sentiment for three  walking, none talking plastic boxes.

The  next film to venture into space was John Carpenters Dark Star. It  was cheap in the extreme. Carpenter had originally made it with fellow students  at Film School, for a mere $6000 dollars. Later getting the money to extend its  45 minute running time and transfer it onto 35mm movie stock.

Clearly  derivative of 2001, the cheapness of its visualisation was a triumph of  ingenuity over budget restrictions. For example, a space suite that featured in  the film is as effective and realistic as those manufactured for 2001. It  was actually a second hand asbestos fire suit, vacuum cleaner hosing, a biscuit  tin and on the back a piece of polystyrene packaging.

IT  was the first Science fiction film that designer Ron Cobb worked on, though it  as immediately clear that it would not be his last.

The  theme of future society continued till 1977. Few of their future worlds look  very different from our own.

Logans  Run was released in 1976, adapted from a popular novel by William F. Nolan and  George Layton Jones. It was a big disappointment. Though its interpretation of a  furure city was very ambitious, it looked just like the futuristic city in  Things to Come, all white with glass tubes and sculptured greenery. This lack of  imagination was mirrored in all the films design work. The producer gave a rare  insight into its futuristic (mis)conception.

"I  don't know any more about the future than anyone else does. I have the same  share in it that everyone else does but that's it. When you make this kind of  film depending on your wit or temperament, you extrapolate from what you've got  in the present to what you think may happen in the future. In other words you  take all the tendencies you see around you now- juvenille delinquency, sexual  license, you name it- and you project those things to the future simply by  exaggerating them."

In  the year following Logans Run's release came Star  Wars. Its success and its influence eclipsed even that of 2001.  In terms of futuristic design and special effects Star Wars was  unparalled in scope or quality. Yet it cost barely more than the uninspiring  Logan's Run. Star Wars was the realisation of a five year 'quest' by its  creator George Lucas. After directing THX 1138 and American  Graffiti (the inspiration for American Sit Com 'Happy  Days') Lucas wanted his next film to return him to the Saturday morning  matinees of his childhood.

He  initially attempted to option the film rights to Flash Gordon but was  unsuccessful. This prompted him to spend 1973-75 sketching out his own mythos.  The resulting film echoes strongly both visually and in text the Saturday  morning serials and the Pulp novels of Edgar Rice Boroughs. It must be said that  the film echoes elements from so many literary and filmic sources that it would  be easier to list the ones Lucas did not 'rip off', Star Wars is more a  fantasy the a piece of science fiction. It is set 'a long time ago, in a galaxy  far far away'. Its text has more akin to Tolkiens Lord of the Rings than 2001. It does however use all the props of conventional science  fiction, e.g. spaceships robots and rayguns.

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