Forgotten Sci Fi’s
As our “forgotten” season continues we take a look at some Sci Fi programmes from down the years that just aren’t remembered anymore. These shows were never a successful as Doctor Who or Star Trek but in some cases that doesn’t mean they weren’t as good, although one or two of these just should never have happened. Take a trip down memory lane and see how many of these you can remember!
Jupiter Moon – 1990, Galaxy
Think Crossroads in space and you’d be close because essential that’s exactly what Jupiter Moon was! The team behind the final days of Crossroads in the 1980s created this Galaxy Channel soap set in Space. The soap was set in 2050 on a space station, the IIea, in Orbit above a city called Callisto. Obviously the soap had a small budget and the limitations of it were only too apparent when viewing it today. Sci Fi’s are a costly affair, all those space ships and special effects shots, and sadly Jupiter Moon really couldn’t hold its own against other Sci Fi’s out there. The effects may have been heralded at the time as being good but they’re not. Doubtless Blue Peter could have done better. In all 103 episodes of the soap/sci fi were made, impressive really, but 158 had been ordered. Jupiter Moon wasn’t killed off due to low ratings but a merger between Sky and BSB – who owned the Galaxy Channel. Amongst the cast of the series were Jason Durr, later of Heartbeat, and Lucy Benjamin, she who shot Phil Mitchell in EastEnders. DVD releases of the series can be found in HMV bargin buckets.
Moonbase 3 -1973, BBC One
Dreary, dull and thoroughly middle-class Sci Fi from Terrence Dicks and Barry Letts who were script editor and producer, respectively, of Doctor Who at the same time. Moonbase 3 was Space 1999 without the fun, drama, suspense, handsome people and action. The limitations of its BBC budget, and special effects of the time, are only too obvious while watching it today. If you can make it to the end of the first episode without falling asleep you’re doing better than me. Only six episodes of the series were made, we should be grateful for small mercies. If you did want to watch it for some reason it has been released on DVD and like Jupiter Moon doubtless it can be found in the bargin buckets.
Timeslip – 1970, ITV
ATV’s answer, perhaps, to Doctor Who with time travel a key element of Timeslip’s premise. The children’s series, don’t let that tag put you off, follows teenager Cheryl Skinner and Simon Banks as they travel forward and back in time. While on holiday to the countryside, with Cheryl’s parents, they find a “time-barrier” at a disused military base and they stumble through to the 1940s, the same location though, where a party of Germans have taken over the base looking for evidence of Radar development. The series also goes forward to two versions of 1990, one set in a research station at the South Pole, and the other in England where global warming has had devastating affects – quite a topical element now. The moral message of the series was that science wasn’t always the answer to our problems and that the use of science can have devastating consequences. An excellent produced series with a memorable theme-tune. Quite why ATV didn’t commission a second season is beyond me.
The Tripods 1984 – 1985, BBC One
Television adaptation of the novels by John Christopher, real name Samuel Youd, a post-apocalyptic story where the Earth has been conquered, and humans made slaves, by a race of aliens that use huge Tripods to control the human population. Society has reverted to Middle Ages form of industry with a very much reduced human population, kept in check by the Tripods. The television series was jointly produced by the BBC and Australia’s Seven Network and was a costly affair. Several huge Tripods were constructed for the series which lasted two seasons, a third was planned. The trouble with the series, according to critics, was the Tripods were rarely seen – just a handful of times in the first season – and the rest of the time the story were more “Survivors” like, tales of farming. The series was cancelled after two seasons by Michael Grade who had also swung his axe on Doctor Who in 1985, though forced to relent on that after a huge media campaign. Season one has been released on DVD.
The Omega Factor – 1979
BBC Supernatural series which starred Louise Jameson, fresh from Doctor Who, and James Hazeldine that fell afoul of Mary Whitehouse – so it’s probably quite good. The series shares similarities to shows that would follow in later decades such as Sea of Souls, Torchwood and more importantly The X-Files. Journalist Tom Crane [James Hazeldine] joins mysterious government agency Department 7 after it’s discovered he has psychic powers. Through the course of the following episodes he investigates cases of paranormal activity. Story arcs across the season include Crane’s hunt for rogue psychic Drexel, who was involved with the death of his wife, and the Omega conspiracy. Thanks to Mary Whitehouse’s’ various objections to the show, she was also objecting to Doctor Who on a weekly basis at the time, the series was not renewed for a second season. However, the first season has since been released on DVD and was well received by reviewers.
Invasion Earth – 1998. BBC One
Six-part BBC series co-produced with the Sci Fi Channel in America. The series was written by Jed Mercurio who had written Cardiac Arrest and would later create Bodies for the BBC. The series concerned a small group of scientists, and military, who are trying to prevent an invasion by aliens but the invasion started a long time ago – way back in the 1940s. The invasion is by an alien race called Nds, they live in the N-Dimension, but are able to cross the barriers between dimensions. They do this to use other races are as hybrids for their off-spring. The Nd’s were at war with another alien race, The Echoes, that came to Earth to warn them off the danger and later committed suicide to stop themselves losing the war and being used by the Nd’s. One of the team, Doctor Amanda Parker, has already been altered by the Nd’s to act as a “farmer” on their new crop – humanity. Every attempt to stop the aliens fail so a nuclear bomb is ordered against them – as this is where the series ends. Whether it worked or not is never known. The series starred Maggie O’Neil, Phyllis Logan, Anton Lesser, Fred Ward and Vincent Regan.
The Uninvited – 1997, ITV1
Four-part “invasion” drama made by Anglia Television. and shown on ITV and, believe it or not, was the idea of Leslie Grantham – better known as Dirty Den in EastEnders. As well as coming with the idea for the series Grantham also played a high-ranking Police Officer in the series and was also an executive producer. Also producer on the show was Ruth Boswell who had been a writer on Timeslip. The series saw journalist Steven Blake become suspicious of certain high-ranking individuals after a series of apparent fatal accidents – but they all survived the deadly accidents.
His investigation leads him to the village of Sweet Hope which had been destroyed in an explosion several years before and was now below the sea. Blake meets with one of the survivors, Melissa, who was the wife of Phillip Gates [Leslie Grantham] who believes her husband is in fact an alien. While Blake is sceptical at first further investigation reveals that Melissa may be right and Gates might not be the only alien. Earth might be under invasion and not even know it. Amongst Grantham in the cast was Douglas Hodge, Lia Williams, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Oliver Ford Davies, Michael Cochrane, Caroline Lee-Johnson and Jean Anderson. A DVD was released.
