Tonight's Saturday Night Special is a German/British space opera from 1976 called "Star Maidens!"
"Star Maidens" ran for one season that included 13 episodes, and it's about as close as you're ever going to get to a real space opera, or a soap opera in space!
We're going to start with the 13th episode, because I have no idea if I will ever watch any of the other episodes, but this one I found for free on the Internet Archive!
These two shots look like they're right off the cover of some ACE or Ballantine paperbacks of the 60's! Sweet!!
I don't know if this is part of it, but it probably is, a lot of the filming of "Star Maidens" was shot at the Meterorological Office in Bracknell, Berkshire, England!!
Got to keep that stuff guarded!
These shots of equipment are a generally a lot more interesting than the story line!
On the left is Dawn (The Two Faces Of Dr. Jekyll) Addams as Clara, the President of the Grand Council of Medusa returning from a "Terror In The Year 5000" costume party, and on the right is Octavia as played by Christiane (The Man With The Glass Eye, Double Face) Krüger!
The leader of the Earth team is Judy (Doomwatch, Inseminoids) Geeson as Fulvia, and she is joined by these two sperm donors from outer space, Pierre (Winnetou) Brice as Adam and Gareth (Five Million Miles To Earth) Thomas as Shem! You can tell they are from space because of the bleached spots in their hair!
Shem ( and I wish his name was Shemp) has a bad reaction to something, and is no help the rest of the show.
This looks like a doctor or dentist's waiting room in the future!
The version of the space craft in space looks a lot better than......
..................The same ship on the ground which looks an awful lot like a mylar balloon!
The Enemy is SO bad, and this is just about how much you['ll ever see of him! If he has to push three buttons, he's going to get real flustered!
There's this sorta big final confrontation in space between the girls and the bad guy, but the "Star Maidens" don't believe in violence and have no weapons!
Adam saves the day by turning on their defense shield, and ramming the evil ship, because you know, you can't beat a good defense, and the bad guys run away off into space like the little computerized wimps that they are!
Fulvia smiles for the first time and is relieved that is it all over in more ways than one!!
Here's just a small taste of the music from the end of 1976 in space by Berry (Sexworld) Lipman to help you get the right feel!
Those first two exterior shots kick my ass, awesome!! The two pics above Dawn and Octavia strangely remind me of candy!
ReplyDeleteSo why does BBC America show non-stop marathons of the various Star Trek series while the shelves are lined with THESE British productions ?
ReplyDeleteI have learned more about the history of sci fi on television from you than anywhere else.
Thank you.
Can you post a link to the chapter in the Internet Archive?
ReplyDeleteThanx too much Lacey, that is, without a doubt, the best comment I've ever got! (The truth is, I'm also learning right along with you!)
ReplyDeleteWell, I didn't think I could Jean, because I had a recent computer breakdown and lost all my bookmarks, that coupled with stuff comes and goes so rapidly on the Internet Archive some times, but, I did a quick search for the misspelled title I knew it had, and I found it! Enjoy!
ReplyDeletehttps://archive.org/details/StarMeidensOldScifi