Blake's 7 was one of those shows that PBS would show at night with Doctor Who, and so it was one of the few things my mom would let me stay up and watch. Great stuff.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, KQED in San Francisco would show Doctor Who late at night. KTEH in San Jose would show Red Dwarf, Blake's 7, UFO, The Prisoner, The Invaders, Saphire and Steel and many others as well as British comedy. Great memories.
@@Alfetta158 one of my greatest feats was getting my friends to all watch Red Dwarf when our PBS station started showing it in the early 90s. My one friend could do a spot on impression of The Cat. Great times.
The original Battlestar Galactic is hardly forgotten, it's still got a very strong fanbase, spawned a reboot that ran for six seasons, as well as rumors of more movies at some point in future and numerous novels and comics. For a one season 1970's show it's had incredible staying power.
Gravity defying hairstyles...Gravity defying hairstyles...Gravity defying hairstyles...Gravity defying hairstyles... in every scene, ok, almost every scene
Buck Rogers deserves honorary mention even if the final episode was filmed in 1981. I thought it was ahead of its time in the sense that the hero was both a larger than life combination of super hero and astronaut having all kinds of wild swashbuckling adventures but at the end of the day he was a very sad and very lonely man who never fully overcame his trauma. That duality was interesting.
@@kpowers Well its pretty iffy because the admittedly awful continuation of Battlestar Galactica called GALACTICA 1980 was filmed in 1980 ergo that show should possibly have been "disqualified".
I can see it both ways, it may have been 1980(81) BUT it definitely had that 70s feel and Star Wars influence so would comfortable fit right in. Like several mentioned I always felt that Buck Rogers could have been so much better if it had not been geared to an audience of 12-year-old boys, same as the original BSG. IF the writers had been willing to be a little more dark and adult with the plot lines.....Buck trying to find a reason to carry on when everything he knew and loved is gone, earth/humanity trying to find its place in the galaxy while still trying to recover from near extinction......yes this series could have been so much better with just a little different direction. IMHO.
@@twilightgamedesigns4887 Not sure if I agree with you about it being aimed for an audience of 12-year-old boys. Lost in Space was for sure aimed at young kids. My parents both big Star Trek fans love the show. There were some things not really aimed for children such as the sexual innuendos throughout the series. Darker??? Well that Space Vampire episode still scares me till today. The episode "The Dorian Secret" was pretty dark for the times. Yeah sure maybe if they showed more of the mutant humans they showed briefly in the movie/pilot when Buck went exploring in down town Chicago would have been interesting. Overall I think it was presented well for the times. For season 1 It was a Sci-Fi show with having Buck as an agent so at times it had that James Bond/Mission Impossible feel to it. Season 2 was was more of a Sci-Fi show with it's Star Trek exploring the Galaxy vibe to it. Some may not like season 2 but I did.
'Return to the Planet of the apes' and the astronauts you mentioned were the cartoon series. The clips you use are from the live action series 'Planet of the Apes' with the astronauts Verdon and Burke. Regarding 'The Tomorrow People' this was actually a British ITV children's program that went out about 5:00PM. Another children's ITV program which is actually better than TTP from the early 1970s is 'Timeslip'.
The Tomorrow People was my favourite tv show when I was a kid. Absolutely loved it! It's worth including for the opening credits alone. Particularly the fantastic music! :)
Land of the Lost should have been on this list. That show totally fascinated me as a child and for a low budget show meant for children filmed in the mid 1970s it was awesome.
@@joemachine4714 As a child I was totally fascinated by the "matrix tables" and the pylons were bigger on the inside than the outside which was also kind of trippy.
Get your shows straight. Number Six, the humanoid Cylon was in the reboot with Edward James Olmos, not the 70s original with Lorne Greene. You people don't ever get it right.
Blake's 7!!!! My favorite! Correction. Avon was NOT an assassin; he was a computer genius who had stolen millions of credits from the Federation bank. On Quark, Ficus was NOT an android. Fantastic Journey...Android? What android? Are you thinking about the TV series based on Logan's Run? Ummm...You mixed up Planet of the Apes series and the animated series.
yes while the story line were pretty good and great weird costumes it did suffer from pacing too many long closeups and long reaction shots with little reaction it was kind of spaced out
Well, there's no reason we couldn't have hoped for both shows. UFO definitely needed more budget for a greater variety than the canned space battles. In this era of remakes, someone could take up the torch and add to the UFO canon. (and I don't mean Abrams)
UFO, Space 1999, Battlestar Galactica, yup watch them often. Now I just ordered The Starlost and Blakes 7. These were truly imaginative shows. I've never seen Quark, so I'll have to get that. It looks campy like Lost in Space, which I watch every Saturday.
Not to get into any sort of argument over it, I think you're going to regret getting The Starlost. It's not so awful that it's good, it's just really awful.
There were several points in the summary that combined the original and the reboot, such as both the humans and the Cylons contemplating their place in the universe.
In a line of dialog, it was mentioned that Baltar’s assistant, Lucifer, was a 6000 series Cylon. Ron Moore said he incorporated as much as possible from the original into the reboot that he could in one way or another. If you binge watch and pay attention to the original series then the reboot you will notice what he incorporated and surprised at some that he twisted up a bit.
Good choices, good to see Blake's 7 in there. Saphire and Steel started in '79 and is an incredibly unique series, way beyond anything else in the 70s or 80s. If you haven't seen it I can't recommend it enough.
Sapphire and Steel freaked me out as a kid and gave me nightmares particurly the one where the building was made from living animals. The one about the ghosts in the train station is skin crawingly creepy, I saw it a couple of of years ago and it's still creepy!
That was horrible. You mixed up the live action "Planet of the Apes" series with the separate animated one. Added elements of the 2004 "Battlestar Galactica" to the 1978 series. The "Logan's Run" series barely touched on "ageism" (or any of the other points you mentioned). That was the original movie. The series was basically a random "chase and fix problems" series. It was interchangeable with "The Starlost". Speaking of "The Starlost", you mentioned it starred 2001's Keir Dullea, but not that it was co-created by 2001's legendary special effects wizard Doug Trumbull, who brought Dullea in with him. As far as saying it tells writers "what not to do", the series bible was written by Harlan Ellison, who won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for the pilot episode "Phoenix Without Ashes". Another episode was adapted from a story by Ursula K. Le Guin. There were episodes by legends like Norman Klenman, Arthur Heinemann, and Norman Klenman. If anything, it's a lesson in how not to produce a series. As was "Space: 1999".
Vila: "Kerr Avon. When it comes to computers, he's the number two man in all the Federated worlds." Bystander: "Who's number one?" Vila: "The guy who caught him."
Yeah, first noticed it when they were mixing up details between the original BSG series and the reboot (and it's been a long time since I'd seen the series before that)...
Did this script get written by an AI? It keeps making ALMOST right statements about these shows. (Avon was not an assasin, but a hacker, Number Six is not a character in the 1970's version of Battlestar, Return to the Planet of the Apes was not animated, etc).
Couldn't even use wiki for these shows. He got the characters wrong so many times. Quark didn't have a shape changing character. Ficus was a humanoid plant, gene/jene was transmute aka both male and female, Plus, Betty 1 and betty 2 didn't know who was the real person and who was the clone. On the fantastic journey, he called Scott a robot when he was the son of a scientist, and Fred was a doctor. Sorry but poor research on these shows.
I was going to comment when I saw your post. I just finished research to be sure since it's been over 40 years and confirmed my memory of no humanoid Cylon on galactica. I'm getting old
I am amazed that you did not know that Space 1999 was originally made as a sequel to U.F.O, many of the writers, directors and others are shared. Also the Tomorrow people was remade twice.
Well its dated now since 1999 was 25 years ago and we still cannot get back to the moon but if they ever film a remake how about calling it Space 2099?
@@Alfetta158 Yes, Space 1999 was originally conceived to be season 2 of UFO but UFO got cancelled and they needed a new Sci-Fi show they could sell in the US.
“Underappreciated and forgotten…” Many of these shows are iconic, and far from forgotten. Classic BSG in particular was never forgotten. Insanely well remembered for a one season show, in fact! Still gets new novels and comic books to this day.
@@Fred-gu6pk No, that's 100% an error. I stopped watching at that point, as it sounds like information copied and pasted together by someone who didn't understand the context.
I watched Blake's 7 in the 90's on PBS here in the US. I was an automatic fan of the show. I have seen it all the way through 2 times and would love to own it.
For the Starlost, a I commend a great retrospective by Harlan Ellison, who won a WGA award for the original screenplay, "Phoenix without Ashes." He goes into great detail about how it went sideways and crashed and burned.
A trip down memory lane. I watch all these shows as kid on first airing. Blake 7 like so many other British BBC shows the budget was no where near that of its American counterparts so had to rely on many corridor runs, quarry shots and wobbly sets. However at the time there was no CGI, Hi Def animations so we at the time were more engrossed in the story line. Also Avon Kerr was not an assasin rather a Computer "programmer" who embezzled lots of money from the federation.
Yep, back then the BBC had to rely on quality scriptwriting and well-crafted character development. Oh, and when they wanted to present some theme/topic, they understood that they needed to be carefully woven into an engaging story. These days they have shiny, flashy, hyper-realistic effects and their writing sucks (or is so weighted down with "the message" that there's no room for an actual plot).
I love all of these shows, especially Space: 1999 and Battlestar Galactica. But there's a little goof here. Return to the Planet of the Apes was the animated series. The live action series was just called Planet of the Apes. It's really cool though that the footage shown here from that show was from the episode that guest starred William Smith(a frequent sci-fi and horror actor) and Marc Singer(from V and Beastmaster). The 70's was a great decade for sci-fi.
Since you mentioned them in your first sentence Battlestar has a reputation for being the first TV show to use modern special effects but I personally think that designation is deserved by Space 1999.
He did say 'animated' a couple of times while discussing it, which made me wonder why he mentiond it, and not the Planet of the Apes TV show he was using footage from.
Yea, that threw me for a loop. I thought for sure I would have remembered a human cylon from 1978. Since Tricia Helfer did such a great job in that role in the reboot. I wanted to see who her character was based on in the original series. But my IMDB/wiki search came up empty. Now I know why. Darn.
I was always partial to _The Man From Atlantis_ with a young Patrick Duffy and _The Invisible Man_ with David McCallum. They're not space (not that all ten of these were), but they're still sci-fi (according to imdb).
I still keep hoping someone will remember Jack Webb's Project UFO, it only lasted two seasons, but i really enjoyed it and made me think of the later X-Files.
Wrong again. The shape shifting alien was Space:1999 not QUARK. Quark had the Betty Clone, the gender fluid officer and the plant based science officer.
Space 1999 = Trippy as hell with very cool concepts and ideas. Blake's 7 = Strong characters that will have you rooting for them by season 2. Battlestar Galactica = strong blend of FX and camp for maximum entertainment. Starlost = Cool concept hamstrung by being forced to shoot on tape instead of film (see Ben Bova's Exiles books). Quark = best sci-fi comedy of the 70s that punched above its weight class (likely inspired Space Quest). UFO = Hottest space girls ever. The Tomorrow People = Almost incomprehensible (with pacing issues). Logan's Run = Not even close to the level of the film and even deviates from in in a number of ways. Regardless, it's still reasonably entertaining.
brings back memories Thankyou :), I would have added a few more shows like Saphire & Steel, Doomwatch, and Survivors to mention but a few well worth a look f you can find them
Also, something nobody seemed to acknowledge about Space:1999. What happened to the Earth after the Moon left orbit and what happened to the other planets when such a large almost planet sized object entered their vicinity? There had to be major devastating effects.
Well as far as the Earths’ fate went I’m pretty sure there was an episode where Earth was now in the future and reached out to Alpha. They had some kind of teleport device I think. The Earth had been ravaged by the consequences of losing the moon and was now an earthquake-ridden desert. The remaining humans lived in futuristic towers elevated above the ground. Memory a bit sketchy but the humans were friendly and offered to use their version of a teleporter to bring over the Alphans. Who were like “nah, we’re good” 🤣 6:56
@timlemmon2332 Not really, in the 1st series episode, "another time, another place," the moon passed through an anomaly that duplicated everything with Alpha, and they ended back in earth's orbit. That episode showed us an earth completely devastated from the loss of the moon. It also showed a second moon ( believed to be the duplicate moon ) already in orbit as well. They find people that are their future self's with children on earth as the only living beings. In the second series, " Journey to Where?" The earth suffers badly, but the people survived. After contacting Alpha, they can transfer them back, but the moon will still be lost in space. This is just one problem with both seasons not matching up with each other. Both have different fates for earth losing its moon. For the different styles, some fans reject the 2nd series, while others will say it's the duplicate moon that passed through a portal in a new universe.
What about Salvage One, Future Cop,Holmes Yo-Yo,Time Express Gemini Man,Far Out Space Nuts,,Lost Saucer,Ark 2,Space Academy,Man From Atlantis,Six Million Dollar Man,Bionic Woman ,Buck Rodgers in the 25th. century all these above 1970,s tv shows from the 8track tape days era
Gerry Anderson belonged to a TV era in which viewers had a choice of 1, 2 or at best 3 channels to watch. He tried to make shows that appealed to a broad audience. So Thunderbirds: 5, 4, 3 ,2, 1 for the toddlers, rocketships for the boys, fashion for the girls etc. Thunderbirds was followed by Captain Scarlet - an almost prophetic show with nihilistic aliens creating suicide bombers and crashing planes into things. But, can you have such adult themes in a puppet show? Is it for kids, adults? When do you screen it (the UK pushed it as a kids show)? UFO had the same problem. Adult themes with amazing spaceship models and forward fashions. Total failure as SF with no comprehension of the issues of interstellar travel. No one knew who the show was for; even the UK had trouble deciding when to air it. Space 1999 was nuts. Essentially it was Star Trek with the Enterprise replaced by the Moon! No explanation of interstellar FTL travel needed, of course??!! The best thing about Anderson's shows was the music. The composer, Barry Gray, left generations of Brits with a series of iconic musical memories. The incidental music peaked on Thunderbirds, but so many of the theme tunes are etched on our collective memories; Stingray, Thunderbirds, Joe 90, UFO, and Space 1999.
Barry Gray's music was great. UFO was essentially a live action Captain Scarlet without the indestructability. UFO remains my favorite science fiction TV show. So much effort was put into it to make it look realistic and good. It wasn't cheesy and the writing was good. The characters were memorable. It wasn't really for kids, apart from the model work. I thought it was first rate.
@@Munenushi Just the underlying craziness of the moon traveling between the stars, presumably at FTL speeds. The episode stories though are thoughtful. There are several famous guest stars.
Notice that 70s scifi prophecies the 90s and 2000s so very well! I miss those shows and I'd give about anything to go back and raise my grandkids there.
When I was a young boy, I watched reruns from the 60s such as Star Trek (favorite sci fi show out of any in my youth), Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, and The Land Of The Giants. From the actual 70s, Battlestar Galactica (2nd favorite overall), Space 1999, Project UFO, Buck Rogers, The Six Million Dollar Man, Planet Of The Apes, The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, and Man from Atlantis.
As you described the ‘animated’ Return to the Planet of the Apes, did you actually bother looking at the live action series you were actually describing? And I loved The Tomorrow People as a kid but Nicolas Young was never “famous”!
The narrator says that the Planet of the Apes show was animated even as it shows live action clips behind it, and the description of the show is NOT about the live action version. There was an animated version so I guess they were just too lazy to bother trying to find clips from that. They also claimed Battlestar Galactica had a humanoid Cylon named Number 6. WTF!? There is no such character in the old BG series! Judging by other comments these were not the only "mistakes" made! Watch this for the old clips, but doubt everything you hear in it until you watch the shows for yourself!
Great Video, Lovely nostalgia. I remember about half of them but the most memorable protagonist, bad ass girl boss of them all , who gave many a teenager such as me much fantasy thoughts was not even shown! That being Jaqueline Pierce as Servalan the Supreme Commander in Blake 7. She had the best wardrobe by a mile or too!
This is what happens when you have ChatGPT write a script instead of researching the source material for yourself. As others have said Six aka Caprica was in the reboot. Space 1999 season two was Star Trek lite. At least Galactica 1980 amd Buck Rogers weren't listed.....
@@jackwells8107 I asked chatGPT "describe a Rickenbacker" It described the Rickenbacker bridge instead of a bass or guitar... That's why it was so bad doing this article.
Blake 7 and Quark are the only I have never heard of. 5:05 wait "Six" was in the original series? Who played them 9:34 Space: 1999 was originally suppose to be the second season of U.F.O. that was going to be more centered on the Moon base. Not sure how much was carried over.
I love how the stories, the imagination, and the personal human element was more important than whether it lined up with scientific reality....space was just fun and cool. The sky was not even the limit. It's 2024 and I still don't have my jaunting belt.
Despite the crudeness of the special effects and a few lapses in scientific accuracy, these films were much more interesting and mature than the current ones, which are nothing more than primary stories for children in adult bodies, sustained either by horror, the exploration of aberrant, absurd, incoherent and irrational behaviour by the members of a crew that should be expert and professional, in events that contribute to an anomaly turning into a disaster of epic proportions and whose probability borders on impossibility. These films and series, without claiming to be the model of science, at least made us dream of extraordinary tomorrows, of progress and human resilience, or simply made us have a good time in front of the telly
Starlost's best plot line was Oro (Walter Koenig/Chekov), the advanced alien trying to restart the ship and hijack it to his resources depleted home world, so he would become wealthy and powerful.
We we know who did not live in the 1970s. Battlestar Galactica was a major show though it went on for a while too long. You are mixing US and British shows. And the special effects were very good for the time.
My favorite among these is UFO. So well done with futuristic looking technology for that time. Second is Space 1999. Only problem with it is how many aliens they encounter. How many populated worlds can there be in the short distance they have traveled.
I know _Buck Rogers of the 25th Century_ was probably the height of 70's cheesy disco sci-fi...but it was still a lot of fun.
Buck rogers the 1st season came out about 1980
@@Jeffrey314159 BR came out in '79 and ran into '81. Semantics.
But it was all we had. And we liked it too!
Even so, cheesy worked sometimes, you had a giggle and you WERE entertained rather than offended.
Beedee, beedee, beedee.
Blake's 7 was one of those shows that PBS would show at night with Doctor Who, and so it was one of the few things my mom would let me stay up and watch. Great stuff.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, KQED in San Francisco would show Doctor Who late at night. KTEH in San Jose would show Red Dwarf, Blake's 7, UFO, The Prisoner, The Invaders, Saphire and Steel and many others as well as British comedy. Great memories.
@@Alfetta158 one of my greatest feats was getting my friends to all watch Red Dwarf when our PBS station started showing it in the early 90s. My one friend could do a spot on impression of The Cat. Great times.
I compare other sci-fi shows to Blake's 7. Avon's grinning face; screen goes to black; weapons fire. Need I say more.
@@thendisnye7188 do you really want to make me cry???
The original Battlestar Galactic is hardly forgotten, it's still got a very strong fanbase, spawned a reboot that ran for six seasons, as well as rumors of more movies at some point in future and numerous novels and comics. For a one season 1970's show it's had incredible staying power.
It had a direct spinoff "Galactica 1980" which had different actors and took place on current day Earth 🌎
@@joemachine4714 Which was crap
@@joemachine4714 Which was really just awful and an insult to the original show.
4 seasons.
@@joemachine4714To each his own. I enjoyed some of those episodes. Only saw them when they first came out. So, it's a pleasant memory.
The script seems to be ChatGpt generated
Absolutely. It used to be a decent channel with real people narration that seemed to know their stuff. Once the chick left, it went downhill
I was thinking much the same. So many plausible, but utterly wrong, details.
Gravity defying hairstyles...Gravity defying hairstyles...Gravity defying hairstyles...Gravity defying hairstyles... in every scene, ok, almost every scene
The producers didn't feel like delving into scriptwriting
No - it used "phenomenon" wrong at 1:21. Chat GPT would never do that....
Buck Rogers deserves honorary mention even if the final episode was filmed in 1981. I thought it was ahead of its time in the sense that the hero was both a larger than life combination of super hero and astronaut having all kinds of wild swashbuckling adventures but at the end of the day he was a very sad and very lonely man who never fully overcame his trauma. That duality was interesting.
Yeah Buck Rogers should have been included but maybe the criteria had to be only aired in the 70's
@@kpowers Well its pretty iffy because the admittedly awful continuation of Battlestar Galactica called GALACTICA 1980 was filmed in 1980 ergo that show should possibly have been "disqualified".
I can see it both ways, it may have been 1980(81) BUT it definitely had that 70s feel and Star Wars influence so would comfortable fit right in. Like several mentioned I always felt that Buck Rogers could have been so much better if it had not been geared to an audience of 12-year-old boys, same as the original BSG. IF the writers had been willing to be a little more dark and adult with the plot lines.....Buck trying to find a reason to carry on when everything he knew and loved is gone, earth/humanity trying to find its place in the galaxy while still trying to recover from near extinction......yes this series could have been so much better with just a little different direction. IMHO.
@@twilightgamedesigns4887 Battlestar Got a remake about 20 years ago. I wonder if Buck will ever get a remake?
@@twilightgamedesigns4887 Not sure if I agree with you about it being aimed for an audience of 12-year-old boys. Lost in Space was for sure aimed at young kids. My parents both big Star Trek fans love the show. There were some things not really aimed for children such as the sexual innuendos throughout the series. Darker??? Well that Space Vampire episode still scares me till today. The episode "The Dorian Secret" was pretty dark for the times. Yeah sure maybe if they showed more of the mutant humans they showed briefly in the movie/pilot when Buck went exploring in down town Chicago would have been interesting. Overall I think it was presented well for the times. For season 1 It was a Sci-Fi show with having Buck as an agent so at times it had that James Bond/Mission Impossible feel to it. Season 2 was was more of a Sci-Fi show with it's Star Trek exploring the Galaxy vibe to it. Some may not like season 2 but I did.
'Return to the Planet of the apes' and the astronauts you mentioned were the cartoon series. The clips you use are from the live action series 'Planet of the Apes' with the astronauts Verdon and Burke. Regarding 'The Tomorrow People' this was actually a British ITV children's program that went out about 5:00PM. Another children's ITV program which is actually better than TTP from the early 1970s is 'Timeslip'.
Yeah, Timeslip is great.
The Tomorrow People was my favourite tv show when I was a kid. Absolutely loved it! It's worth including for the opening credits alone. Particularly the fantastic music! :)
Land of the Lost should have been on this list. That show totally fascinated me as a child and for a low budget show meant for children filmed in the mid 1970s it was awesome.
It just occurred to me that the "Distant Origin" Star Trek Voyager episode (S3.E23) may have been a nod to the Sleestak.
@@gregoryt1139 Walter Koenig did write an episode of LOTL, so just might be. (yes, Enig was a nod to Roddenberry).
Sleestacks terrified me as a kid.
The crystals and pylons were so cool 😎
@@joemachine4714 As a child I was totally fascinated by the "matrix tables" and the pylons were bigger on the inside than the outside which was also kind of trippy.
Blake 7 massively influenced both Firefly and Farscape, in characters, setting and plot.
Fun fact - Farscape is an actual continuation of Blake’s 7 same universe just set decades later
Firefly ain't got nothin' on B7 or Farscape.
the bumbble bee bum space ship is a symbol of well written low budjet scifi
I tried watching Blake 7 and it was so traumatizing I ended up voting for Joe Biden.
@@trhansen3244 I guess your were hoping to ruled by Servilan. what teen wouldnt
Get your shows straight. Number Six, the humanoid Cylon was in the reboot with Edward James Olmos, not the 70s original with Lorne Greene. You people don't ever get it right.
es. Baltars' shiny Cylon was named Lucifer, right?
Kerr Avon is like Elim Garek. I trust them as far as I can throw a Hutt but I'd sure as hell want them on my side if SHTF
Avon is regularly misrepresented as an opportunistic psychopath. Throughout the series he demonstrated conisderable moral integrity and courage.
Avon could be trusted to make the exact appropriate response.
Avon was my favorite character.
Blake's 7!!!! My favorite! Correction. Avon was NOT an assassin; he was a computer genius who had stolen millions of credits from the Federation bank. On Quark, Ficus was NOT an android. Fantastic Journey...Android? What android? Are you thinking about the TV series based on Logan's Run? Ummm...You mixed up Planet of the Apes series and the animated series.
There was a lot of confusion between the 1970s Battlestar Galactica and the reboot. The humanoid Cylon #6? Really?
yeah he was describing the cartoon Planet of the Apes and not the live-action TV show
@@michaelmcchesney6645 OK I was wondering who Cylon 6 was. Saw 1 or 2 episodes of the horrible reboot BSG, just couldn't get into it.
@@kpowers Tricia Helfer was #6.
@@michaelmcchesney6645#6: I am not a number, I am a free man. I will not be pushed, shoved, briefed, debriefed, indexed, filed, or numbered!
UFO was excellent. I still can't believe they cancelled it so they could make space 1999!
UFO was the very best show. From what I have seen of 1999, it wasn't a patch on UFO.
yes while the story line were pretty good and great weird costumes it did suffer from pacing too many long closeups and long reaction shots with little reaction it was kind of spaced out
Total agreement.
Well, there's no reason we couldn't have hoped for both shows. UFO definitely needed more budget for a greater variety than the canned space battles. In this era of remakes, someone could take up the torch and add to the UFO canon. (and I don't mean Abrams)
@@jaapodac It WAS about 15 years ago, there was GOING to be a trilogy of UFO films, but it never materialised!
UFO, Space 1999, Battlestar Galactica, yup watch them often. Now I just ordered The Starlost and Blakes 7. These were truly imaginative shows. I've never seen Quark, so I'll have to get that. It looks campy like Lost in Space, which I watch every Saturday.
Not to get into any sort of argument over it, I think you're going to regret getting The Starlost. It's not so awful that it's good, it's just really awful.
When you noted that BSG humanoid cylon #6, I think you got the reboot and not the original. At least I don’t recall # 6 in the original…
Six was most definitely NOT in the original.
There were several points in the summary that combined the original and the reboot, such as both the humans and the Cylons contemplating their place in the universe.
In a line of dialog, it was mentioned that Baltar’s assistant, Lucifer, was a 6000 series Cylon. Ron Moore said he incorporated as much as possible from the original into the reboot that he could in one way or another. If you binge watch and pay attention to the original series then the reboot you will notice what he incorporated and surprised at some that he twisted up a bit.
I agree either that or he was mistaken the Cylon protocol Android looking Cylon that was helping the villain traitor to humanity
Good choices, good to see Blake's 7 in there. Saphire and Steel started in '79 and is an incredibly unique series, way beyond anything else in the 70s or 80s. If you haven't seen it I can't recommend it enough.
Very good. I wonder if they could do a reboot of it today?
Sapphire and Steel freaked me out as a kid and gave me nightmares particurly the one where the building was made from living animals. The one about the ghosts in the train station is skin crawingly creepy, I saw it a couple of of years ago and it's still creepy!
Saphire and Steel was on another level.
Story 2 was the apex of the whole series - my favourite.
My favorite was "The Photographer"💎
That was horrible. You mixed up the live action "Planet of the Apes" series with the separate animated one. Added elements of the 2004 "Battlestar Galactica" to the 1978 series. The "Logan's Run" series barely touched on "ageism" (or any of the other points you mentioned). That was the original movie. The series was basically a random "chase and fix problems" series. It was interchangeable with "The Starlost".
Speaking of "The Starlost", you mentioned it starred 2001's Keir Dullea, but not that it was co-created by 2001's legendary special effects wizard Doug Trumbull, who brought Dullea in with him. As far as saying it tells writers "what not to do", the series bible was written by Harlan Ellison, who won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for the pilot episode "Phoenix Without Ashes". Another episode was adapted from a story by Ursula K. Le Guin. There were episodes by legends like Norman Klenman, Arthur Heinemann, and Norman Klenman. If anything, it's a lesson in how not to produce a series. As was "Space: 1999".
Avon from Blake's 7 wasn't an assassin, he was a cybercriminal
Vila: "Kerr Avon. When it comes to computers, he's the number two man in all the Federated worlds."
Bystander: "Who's number one?"
Vila: "The guy who caught him."
My pal had a massive crush on the female villain with the cropped hairstyle.
Every teenage boy a a lot of dad's had a crush on servalan@@zulubeatz1
@@zulubeatz1 Servalan, I think her name was.
I loved the UFO series, I preferred it to space 1999
I believe the script for this video was generated and read by AI. There are simply too many errors for a 70's Sci-Fi fan.
love how they mixed in the Prisoner with battlestar galactica there in the script.
I disagree. Even AI cannot be this bad.
Yeah, first noticed it when they were mixing up details between the original BSG series and the reboot (and it's been a long time since I'd seen the series before that)...
That would explain not mentioning the character of Maya in Space 1999.
@@alfredmorency8296 Or Alan Carter.
Did this script get written by an AI? It keeps making ALMOST right statements about these shows. (Avon was not an assasin, but a hacker, Number Six is not a character in the 1970's version of Battlestar, Return to the Planet of the Apes was not animated, etc).
I lost count of all the mistakes in this video. Almost every show.
So what?
Couldn't even use wiki for these shows. He got the characters wrong so many times. Quark didn't have a shape changing character. Ficus was a humanoid plant, gene/jene was transmute aka both male and female, Plus, Betty 1 and betty 2 didn't know who was the real person and who was the clone.
On the fantastic journey, he called Scott a robot when he was the son of a scientist, and Fred was a doctor. Sorry but poor research on these shows.
Number 6 is in the Battlestar remake Not 1978
@@Fokkerc1"So what"? Are you saying you don't understand why knowing what you're talking about is important?
precisely
Yo, 6 wasn’t in the OG BSG. Don’t get baked while researching, you’ve made several mistakes and it’s embarrassing
He made several mistakes on other series as well.
I was going to comment when I saw your post. I just finished research to be sure since it's been over 40 years and confirmed my memory of no humanoid Cylon on galactica.
I'm getting old
AI can make errors.
@@dreamcore 🤣 just ask Google
@@bentonmarcum8924 On Galactica 1980, on the other hand....
I am amazed that you did not know that Space 1999 was originally made as a sequel to U.F.O, many of the writers, directors and others are shared.
Also the Tomorrow people was remade twice.
Well its dated now since 1999 was 25 years ago and we still cannot get back to the moon but if they ever film a remake how about calling it Space 2099?
Sequel? I don't agree. Where's the moonbase, interceptors, purple wigs? Unless, it was originally intended, but then just rewrote to be its own thing.
@@Alfetta158 Yes, Space 1999 was originally conceived to be season 2 of UFO but UFO got cancelled and they needed a new Sci-Fi show they could sell in the US.
@@ZurroundI like that idea! 👍
“Underappreciated and forgotten…”
Many of these shows are iconic, and far from forgotten. Classic BSG in particular was never forgotten. Insanely well remembered for a one season show, in fact! Still gets new novels and comic books to this day.
Would you say it’s remembered for its humanoid cylon number Six? I didn’t remember it for that.
@FriendlyNeighborhoodNitpicker
Unlikely as number 6 was invented for thr remake
@@Fred-gu6pk No, that's 100% an error. I stopped watching at that point, as it sounds like information copied and pasted together by someone who didn't understand the context.
@@FriendlyNeighborhoodNitpicker Yeah, no. Classic BSG had no "skin jobs". Battlestar 1980 actually did, but not the character of "Six".
@@Fred-gu6pk Blonde #6 was not even born in 1978
UFO had the best opening theme music.
Close run with Joe 90.
Blake 7 .... 1984 with spaceships and talking computers...
I watched Blake's 7 in the 90's on PBS here in the US. I was an automatic fan of the show. I have seen it all the way through 2 times and would love to own it.
It is here on YT. Started it when the first Lock Down hit.
Dude, Ficus in quark was a plant, not a shape-shifting android
aren't all Ficus plant's
@@shanehansen3705 🤣clue is in the name right
Half human, half plant.
For the Starlost, a I commend a great retrospective by Harlan Ellison, who won a WGA award for the original screenplay, "Phoenix without Ashes." He goes into great detail about how it went sideways and crashed and burned.
Oh god, stop with the constant "bad fashion choices" already.
Space,1999
The moon gets knocked out of it's orbit and leisure suits never go away.
After the third one switched off. Obvious no one had a clue what they were writing about
A trip down memory lane. I watch all these shows as kid on first airing. Blake 7 like so many other British BBC shows the budget was no where near that of its American counterparts so had to rely on many corridor runs, quarry shots and wobbly sets. However at the time there was no CGI, Hi Def animations so we at the time were more engrossed in the story line. Also Avon Kerr was not an assasin rather a Computer "programmer" who embezzled lots of money from the federation.
Yep, back then the BBC had to rely on quality scriptwriting and well-crafted character development. Oh, and when they wanted to present some theme/topic, they understood that they needed to be carefully woven into an engaging story. These days they have shiny, flashy, hyper-realistic effects and their writing sucks (or is so weighted down with "the message" that there's no room for an actual plot).
I love all of these shows, especially Space: 1999 and Battlestar Galactica. But there's a little goof here. Return to the Planet of the Apes was the animated series. The live action series was just called Planet of the Apes. It's really cool though that the footage shown here from that show was from the episode that guest starred William Smith(a frequent sci-fi and horror actor) and Marc Singer(from V and Beastmaster). The 70's was a great decade for sci-fi.
Since you mentioned them in your first sentence Battlestar has a reputation for being the first TV show to use modern special effects but I personally think that designation is deserved by Space 1999.
He did say 'animated' a couple of times while discussing it, which made me wonder why he mentiond it, and not the Planet of the Apes TV show he was using footage from.
Buck Rodgers will always be memorable to me.
Buck was and still is the only TV series that I watched from premier to the end.
if i may, on this timeline, Buck Rodgers and Kenny Rodgers both have lost their "d" in their names (Mandela Effect)
I seem to recall Col. Wilma Deering much better than Buck. Bidibidibidi
Space:1999...I still catch this on YT from time to time. Its awesome.
The Cylon "six" WAS NOT in The classic 1978 Battlestar Galactica!!!! Six was in the new BSG Reboot!
Yea, that threw me for a loop. I thought for sure I would have remembered a human cylon from 1978. Since Tricia Helfer did such a great job in that role in the reboot. I wanted to see who her character was based on in the original series. But my IMDB/wiki search came up empty. Now I know why. Darn.
I loved Blake's 7 and Battlestar Galactica.
Me too! They should have been higher up in my opinion. But they were not underrated!
@@Richard-qk3xm There's one 70s sci-fi series I've never watched. Star Maidens.
I was always partial to _The Man From Atlantis_ with a young Patrick Duffy and _The Invisible Man_ with David McCallum. They're not space (not that all ten of these were), but they're still sci-fi (according to imdb).
In UFO the mobiles weren't able to fly, they were more like APCs or tanks. I think you were referring to Sky1, the aircraft part of the submarine.
I still keep hoping someone will remember Jack Webb's Project UFO, it only lasted two seasons, but i really enjoyed it and made me think of the later X-Files.
Reminds me of Project Bluebook that the Airforce did.
@@55Quirll I5 was, seems that Webb used the public records as a reference for the episodes and the main characters were USAF.
@@HossBlacksilver Thanks for confirming that.👍
That was a really different series and I watched all I could.
Watched most of these show and laughed along, Blake 7 was the most Cult. Cheers
Wrong again. The shape shifting alien was Space:1999 not QUARK. Quark had the Betty Clone, the gender fluid officer and the plant based science officer.
Space 1999 = Trippy as hell with very cool concepts and ideas. Blake's 7 = Strong characters that will have you rooting for them by season 2. Battlestar Galactica = strong blend of FX and camp for maximum entertainment. Starlost = Cool concept hamstrung by being forced to shoot on tape instead of film (see Ben Bova's Exiles books). Quark = best sci-fi comedy of the 70s that punched above its weight class (likely inspired Space Quest). UFO = Hottest space girls ever. The Tomorrow People = Almost incomprehensible (with pacing issues). Logan's Run = Not even close to the level of the film and even deviates from in in a number of ways. Regardless, it's still reasonably entertaining.
Harlan Ellison's stories about developing The Starlost are fascinating.
This was cool, thanks! These shows influenced so much later material!
I saw Blake 7 in the UK first run, and thought so cool
FYI - Six was not in the original Battlestar Galactica - she, and the other human-looking Cylons were in the 2004 reboot
brings back memories Thankyou :), I would have added a few more shows like Saphire & Steel, Doomwatch, and Survivors to mention but a few well worth a look f you can find them
Also, something nobody seemed to acknowledge about Space:1999. What happened to the Earth after the Moon left orbit and what happened to the other planets when such a large almost planet sized object entered their vicinity? There had to be major devastating effects.
Well as far as the Earths’ fate went I’m pretty sure there was an episode where Earth was now in the future and reached out to Alpha. They had some kind of teleport device I think. The Earth had been ravaged by the consequences of losing the moon and was now an earthquake-ridden desert. The remaining humans lived in futuristic towers elevated above the ground. Memory a bit sketchy but the humans were friendly and offered to use their version of a teleporter to bring over the Alphans. Who were like “nah, we’re good” 🤣 6:56
The second season episode "journey to where" kinda answered the question of earth's fate after the moon left orbit.
@@bri55118weren't they worried about what would happen if the moon entered it's orbit again? So to save Earth, they had to keep the moon moving away.
@timlemmon2332 Not really, in the 1st series episode, "another time, another place," the moon passed through an anomaly that duplicated everything with Alpha, and they ended back in earth's orbit.
That episode showed us an earth completely devastated from the loss of the moon. It also showed a second moon ( believed to be the duplicate moon ) already in orbit as well. They find people that are their future self's with children on earth as the only living beings.
In the second series, " Journey to Where?" The earth suffers badly, but the people survived. After contacting Alpha, they can transfer them back, but the moon will still be lost in space.
This is just one problem with both seasons not matching up with each other. Both have different fates for earth losing its moon.
For the different styles, some fans reject the 2nd series, while others will say it's the duplicate moon that passed through a portal in a new universe.
@@bri55118I have the DVD's but haven't watched them yet. I was relying on memory from four decades ago.
What no Iwin Allen. Where was Lost in space, time tunnel, Land of the giants
The 60s.This is about the 70s
What about Salvage One, Future Cop,Holmes Yo-Yo,Time Express Gemini Man,Far Out Space Nuts,,Lost Saucer,Ark 2,Space Academy,Man From Atlantis,Six Million Dollar Man,Bionic Woman ,Buck Rodgers in the 25th. century
all these above 1970,s tv shows from the 8track tape days era
Thanks for the list. There are a few not so obvious ones I didn't know about so I'll look out for them.
Spinoff "Galactica 1980" just barely missed the 70s list 😊
Gerry Anderson belonged to a TV era in which viewers had a choice of 1, 2 or at best 3 channels to watch. He tried to make shows that appealed to a broad audience. So Thunderbirds: 5, 4, 3 ,2, 1 for the toddlers, rocketships for the boys, fashion for the girls etc. Thunderbirds was followed by Captain Scarlet - an almost prophetic show with nihilistic aliens creating suicide bombers and crashing planes into things. But, can you have such adult themes in a puppet show? Is it for kids, adults? When do you screen it (the UK pushed it as a kids show)? UFO had the same problem. Adult themes with amazing spaceship models and forward fashions. Total failure as SF with no comprehension of the issues of interstellar travel. No one knew who the show was for; even the UK had trouble deciding when to air it. Space 1999 was nuts. Essentially it was Star Trek with the Enterprise replaced by the Moon! No explanation of interstellar FTL travel needed, of course??!! The best thing about Anderson's shows was the music. The composer, Barry Gray, left generations of Brits with a series of iconic musical memories. The incidental music peaked on Thunderbirds, but so many of the theme tunes are etched on our collective memories; Stingray, Thunderbirds, Joe 90, UFO, and Space 1999.
Barry Gray's music was great. UFO was essentially a live action Captain Scarlet without the indestructability. UFO remains my favorite science fiction TV show. So much effort was put into it to make it look realistic and good. It wasn't cheesy and the writing was good. The characters were memorable. It wasn't really for kids, apart from the model work. I thought it was first rate.
haha great sum up... can you give some detail on how "1999 was nuts" ? I haven't seen it myself and plan on trying it someday
thank you ahead of time
@@Munenushi Just the underlying craziness of the moon traveling between the stars, presumably at FTL speeds. The episode stories though are thoughtful. There are several famous guest stars.
Narrator apparently didn't watch these shows. Sad really.
I REMEMBER about half of the shows. thanks
We used to play being the Tomorrow People, great memories 😄
Notice that 70s scifi prophecies the 90s and 2000s so very well! I miss those shows and I'd give about anything to go back and raise my grandkids there.
Very entertaining despite several mistakes. Many of the series were new to me. Will you do a similar video on the 1980s?
Ben Bova wrote The Starcrossed, based on his and Harlan Ellison's involvement with The Starlost.
I watched all of these shows when the Sci-Fi Channel first aired in the early '90s. All true gems in their own way.
When I was a young boy, I watched reruns from the 60s such as Star Trek (favorite sci fi show out of any in my youth), Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, and The Land Of The Giants.
From the actual 70s, Battlestar Galactica (2nd favorite overall), Space 1999, Project UFO, Buck Rogers, The Six Million Dollar Man, Planet Of The Apes, The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, and Man from Atlantis.
Buck Rogers Was Great 70's Sci-fi TV 👏👽👍
Was awesome but it was in the 80s.
I’ve seen a couple of these shows now and I’m currently watching Space 1999.
Started with one of my top favorite shows. I've actually been rewatching the entire series again. :) Currently on Dragon's Domain.
Loved the Tomorrow People! Could not wait to get home form school to watch it on Nickelodeon in the 80's! Also loved BSG and Blake 7.
As you described the ‘animated’ Return to the Planet of the Apes, did you actually bother looking at the live action series you were actually describing? And I loved The Tomorrow People as a kid but Nicolas Young was never “famous”!
god I loved The Starlost. It was seeing the game Metamorphosis Alpha live. And Quark was a laugh, and UFO was fantastic.
I was around for some these - I don't recall any TV shows with women in see through tops like the one shown in the clip art.
Anyhow, where's Buck Rogers In The 25th Century? 🚀
That was the 80s
Only 13 of the 37 episodes were in 1979.
It started in 1979. That still qualifies it as a 70s scifi show!
1st season of Buck Roger's is the better of the two seasons
No buck Roger's was end of 70s
End of the 70s is still the 70s in my book. Buck Roger's had four months of episodes in 79.
Never heard of Quark but I am definitely looking for that one.
It is on TH-cam
Blake Seven and Firefly seem to have a lot in common.
The narrator says that the Planet of the Apes show was animated even as it shows live action clips behind it, and the description of the show is NOT about the live action version. There was an animated version so I guess they were just too lazy to bother trying to find clips from that. They also claimed Battlestar Galactica had a humanoid Cylon named Number 6. WTF!? There is no such character in the old BG series! Judging by other comments these were not the only "mistakes" made! Watch this for the old clips, but doubt everything you hear in it until you watch the shows for yourself!
Great Video, Lovely nostalgia. I remember about half of them but the most memorable protagonist, bad ass girl boss of them all , who gave many a teenager such as me much fantasy thoughts was not even shown! That being Jaqueline Pierce as Servalan the Supreme Commander in Blake 7. She had the best wardrobe by a mile or too!
Planet of the apes was based on a book (1963), by Pierre Boule.
The third movie was closer to the book, but the characters were switched.
It is definitely worth reading.
@@timlemmon2332 You just wait. The next crossover Hollywood project will be _Planet of the Snapes_ .
Battlestar galactica is in noway underrated. It was great and shall always be.
This is what happens when you have ChatGPT write a script instead of researching the source material for yourself.
As others have said Six aka Caprica was in the reboot.
Space 1999 season two was Star Trek lite.
At least Galactica 1980 amd Buck Rogers weren't listed.....
Interesting theory about the script. Wouldn't surprise me if you were correct.
@@jackwells8107 I asked chatGPT "describe a Rickenbacker" It described the Rickenbacker bridge instead of a bass or guitar...
That's why it was so bad doing this article.
Ficus wasn't an android on Quark. He was a plant, hence his first name.
Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman!
not underrated, they were dominating ratings
Never even heard of half of these. I watched U.F.O. and Battlestar Gallactica. I think I saw Logans Run too.
These were a huge success at the time. I never missed an episode. And I haven’t forgotten them.
Even though they were Saturday morning TV shows I would include Land Of The Lost, Ark 2, Space Academy, and Jason of Star Command.
If Space 1999 was realistic, most of the crew would have already died of old age before the moon even left the solar system,
In the show the moon went through a Space warp twice, causing the moon to end up somewhere else in the universe
Martin Landau and Barbara Bain from "Space 1999" got married and had a daughter named Juliet Landau who played Drusilla on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".
Blake 7 and Quark are the only I have never heard of.
5:05 wait "Six" was in the original series? Who played them
9:34 Space: 1999 was originally suppose to be the second season of U.F.O. that was going to be more centered on the Moon base. Not sure how much was carried over.
I loved UFO when I was a kid! I watched it weekly.
You neglected to mention that the tv show Logan’s Run was based on the movie by the same name.
Retro - something new made to look old.
Vintage - something actually old.
Starlost: May I help you? - loved that show. It was sad how it went down.
I remember Logan's Run as a kid, never knew it was a series, thanks. I did have a USS-Enterprise model and an Eagle model in the 70's.
I enjoyed the nostalgia, even though there were several mistakes! You still got a like from me.
I counted many mistakes. But the omission of Buck Rogers is unforgivable.
@@trhansen3244 Buck Rogers was an 80s series.
@@jonstfrancis I think you should check your almanac my friend.
I love how the stories, the imagination, and the personal human element was more important than whether it lined up with scientific reality....space was just fun and cool. The sky was not even the limit. It's 2024 and I still don't have my jaunting belt.
Despite the crudeness of the special effects and a few lapses in scientific accuracy, these films were much more interesting and mature than the current ones, which are nothing more than primary stories for children in adult bodies, sustained either by horror, the exploration of aberrant, absurd, incoherent and irrational behaviour by the members of a crew that should be expert and professional, in events that contribute to an anomaly turning into a disaster of epic proportions and whose probability borders on impossibility.
These films and series, without claiming to be the model of science, at least made us dream of extraordinary tomorrows, of progress and human resilience, or simply made us have a good time in front of the telly
UFO, do you think they could have uniforms on the subs of today like they have on Sky-Diver?
Starlost's best plot line was Oro (Walter Koenig/Chekov), the advanced alien trying to restart the ship and hijack it to his resources depleted home world, so he would become wealthy and powerful.
The mini skirts and go-go boots were killer hot!
As a kid, I wanted a Logan's Run sweat shirt. I thought he looked pretty cool.
Thanks for another fantastic video!
We we know who did not live in the 1970s. Battlestar Galactica was a major show though it went on for a while too long. You are mixing US and British shows. And the special effects were very good for the time.
My favorite among these is UFO. So well done with futuristic looking technology for that time. Second is Space 1999. Only problem with it is how many aliens they encounter. How many populated worlds can there be in the short distance they have traveled.
BSG and Logan's run was my favorite