Top tens
Just been watching the Top Ten Sci Fi on Channel 4 - I don't remember seeing it whenever it was first on (2001?) so it was quite interesting just to see what they included and it was a strange mix of the obvious and obscure. The final rankings were, shoudl you be interested:
10) Space: 1999
9) Buck Rogers In The 25th Century
8) The Tomorrow People
7) Sapphire and Steel
6) Blake's 7
5) Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy
4) Thunderbirds
3) Red Dwarf
2) Doctor Who
1) Star Trek
Part of me wonders if it was just compiled by sending someone down to the TV section of the nearest Virgin Megastore and getting them to note down the names of the first ten SF TV series they saw, then someone in the office ranking them based on that. I can understand Farscape not making the list as it was probably still quite new when the programme was made (and C4 probably wouldn't want to plug a series that was on BBC) but you'd have thought someone at Channel 4 might have remembered Babylon 5. Or maybe that's the secret - Top Ten TV is actually produced by the C4 scheduling department and thus it was being constantly moved around the Top 10 until it was finally placed where no one could find it.
Anyway, just for a bit of linkage I went looking for Sapphire and Steel websites, and discovered that even though the web is full of strange people asserting crazier and crazier things, there doesn't appear to be a website where someone proclaims that they can understand and explain it. It seems that people can believe that we're all being manipulated by giant lizards, but they can't believe there's a logical explanation for Sapphire and Steel or how it came to be broadcast on ITV at primetime in the early 80s. It's quite saddening to think that a channel could go from broadcasting one of the most cerebral and downright unsettlingly scary - hearing songs from the First World War still reminds me of Adventure Two, and don't get me started on photographs - TV shows ever to being the home of TV's Craziest Holiday Airport Mother In Law Showdowns With Baddiel and Skinner From Hell, hosted by Steve Penk.
But, for S&S stuff, try here which has some interesting articles on PJ Hammond, its writer. Or if you like your strangeness in the form of crossovers, then here's Sapphire and Steel meeting The Man From UNCLE.
And one final thought from watching the programme tonight - Avon's 'Have you betrayed...me?' from the final episode of Blake's 7 is straight from the Shatner School Of The Not Really That Dramatic, But It'll Do In Place Of Any Actual Acting, School Of Drama, isn't it?
10) Space: 1999
9) Buck Rogers In The 25th Century
8) The Tomorrow People
7) Sapphire and Steel
6) Blake's 7
5) Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy
4) Thunderbirds
3) Red Dwarf
2) Doctor Who
1) Star Trek
Part of me wonders if it was just compiled by sending someone down to the TV section of the nearest Virgin Megastore and getting them to note down the names of the first ten SF TV series they saw, then someone in the office ranking them based on that. I can understand Farscape not making the list as it was probably still quite new when the programme was made (and C4 probably wouldn't want to plug a series that was on BBC) but you'd have thought someone at Channel 4 might have remembered Babylon 5. Or maybe that's the secret - Top Ten TV is actually produced by the C4 scheduling department and thus it was being constantly moved around the Top 10 until it was finally placed where no one could find it.
Anyway, just for a bit of linkage I went looking for Sapphire and Steel websites, and discovered that even though the web is full of strange people asserting crazier and crazier things, there doesn't appear to be a website where someone proclaims that they can understand and explain it. It seems that people can believe that we're all being manipulated by giant lizards, but they can't believe there's a logical explanation for Sapphire and Steel or how it came to be broadcast on ITV at primetime in the early 80s. It's quite saddening to think that a channel could go from broadcasting one of the most cerebral and downright unsettlingly scary - hearing songs from the First World War still reminds me of Adventure Two, and don't get me started on photographs - TV shows ever to being the home of TV's Craziest Holiday Airport Mother In Law Showdowns With Baddiel and Skinner From Hell, hosted by Steve Penk.
But, for S&S stuff, try here which has some interesting articles on PJ Hammond, its writer. Or if you like your strangeness in the form of crossovers, then here's Sapphire and Steel meeting The Man From UNCLE.
And one final thought from watching the programme tonight - Avon's 'Have you betrayed...me?' from the final episode of Blake's 7 is straight from the Shatner School Of The Not Really That Dramatic, But It'll Do In Place Of Any Actual Acting, School Of Drama, isn't it?
Nick got away with this at 2:25 AM
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