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Science Fiction Theatre memories
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 10:00 pm    Post subject: Science Fiction Theatre memories Reply with quote

I remember a few of the episodes from this show with great fondness. The only DVDs currently available of it are very poor in quality.

This show was very much a "hard science" series, which is what endears me to it. Still, a great deal of imagination went into it. I wish the entire series was available on high quality DVDs (along with "One Step Beyond")

Thoughts, anyone?

Bud

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Apr 26, 2020 2:28 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Bongopete
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

About two or three years ago I watched all the episodes (many had been recorded off of the old SciFi channel) on dvd.

Most all the episode were enjoyable to watch (I really didn't remember any of them story wise from when I was a kid) and the openings of each episode were extremely nostalgic.

The closing (with your host Truman Bradley) still had me staying tuned after he would do his closing spiel and then say to come back after the break..only for him to say 'see you next week'.
lol
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a box set of all the episodes, but I haven't watched them all yet. The quality is so tragically flawed in most of the episodes that it's hard to enjoy them.

Eventually I will watch them.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bongopete
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Awww come on......mine is a boxed set too....maybe the same ones. But hey, it didn't stop me from enjoying them. Just remember them as a relic of the past....or perhaps think of yourself as an explorer from another world and you find this artifact and it is some sort of ancient media....
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember enjoying Science Fiction Theater as a child of 7 or 8, but it hasn't aged well. Many of the episodes are talky and static and filled with endless expository dialogue, giving the feeling of a filmed radio play. And the show looks cheaply made even by mid-1950s standards.

Still, it's worth watching as an example of a "hard science" or "nuts and bolts" science fiction anthology, a rarity in American television.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 11:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

YouTube used to have every episode of Science Fiction Theater -- an they all look better than the terrible box set discussed in the earlier posts

But naturally many of them have been removed, so good luck finding them.

If you do, beware of the ones that were recorded from SyFy. Three minutes were cut of all those episodes. If the running time of an episode is listed as a little over 22 minutes, it's been cut. But if it's over 25 minutes, it's complete.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Dec 29, 2022 5:09 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh happy day! I just received my Shout Factory box set of DVDs from Science Fiction Theater!

Just to demonstrate what a wonderful thing these people did, here's a screen grab comparison of two scenes from Y.O.R.D., episode 4 in season one. The difference in picture quality between these new DVDs and the best we've been able to get prior to this is remarkable.

Bear in mind that the picture quality for Y.O.R.D. is better than most of the other episodes from the old source, which was VHS tapes made from the old SciFi channel!

Behold!

Old Version



New Version!



Old Version



New Version!



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Vast improvement!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes! And the black & white episodes are greatly improved as well! I've watched several of them, and the picture is extremely clear.

Here's what the picture for "Brains Unlimited" looks like on the old gray market DVDs and the Youtube videos.



And here's the same scene from the new DVDs.



Here's an example from "Signals from the Heart", the episode I started a thread for. You can imagine how much I'm loving these new DVDs after watching the old versions and enjoying the great stories -- in spite of the horrible picture quality!





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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got my Shout! Factory box set yesterday and have watched the first disc.

I was particularly amused by a line from "Sound of Murder":

"I have a report here from the CIA. Do you know the function of that agency, Doctor?"

Life was so simple then. <Sigh...> Rolling Eyes

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 8:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Further reflections of the state of science in the "good old days"...

Two episodes (at least) from disc 1 alone refer to the legendary small percentage of the brain utilized. Only, the figure they cited was 5%. This came as somewhat of a surprise to me because the figure I had any recollection of hearing was 10%. I guess the lower figure didn't stay with my very young brain from those episodes. (I doubtless hadn't fully developed my full "10%" capacity at that point.) However, that was before the advent of CAT scans and MRI to study brain activity. Those percentages are now classed as urban legends.

Another concept used in at least a couple episodes on disc 1, now passe', was ESP as a "scientific possibility".

I was also surprised to hear the word MASER pop up in one episode ("The Frozen Sound"). MASERs were the precursors of LASERs, the former generating coherent electromagnetic waves in the microwave frequencies (as well as radio and infrared frequencies), and the latter generating them in the (largely) optical frequencies. I had no idea that the advent of MASERs had come so early.

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 6:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In War of the Worlds Gene Barry played the part of Clayton Forrester. In the episode "The World Below" of Science Fiction Theater he plays a character by the name of John Forester.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Gene enhanced this somewhat disappointing episode by giving his character the same boundless enthusiasm for science which he demonstrated in War of the Worlds. Ditto for his portrayal of a scientist in another Science Fiction Theatre called Spider, Inc.

But in that episode his name was Joe Ferguson. My goodness, that certainly doesn't sound as impressive as Dr. Clayton Forrester, does it? Rolling Eyes

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Dec 29, 2022 5:08 pm; edited 5 times in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 4:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

More "those were the days" material...

In the episode "The Human Equation" a team of researchers is working on developing "an extremely effective antibiotic, even more effective than penicillin". In the epilogue, Truman Bradley says, "... the discovery of a similar fungus derivative, that can produce experimental psychoses for study in the laboratory, is fact. The drug, known as 'LSD', has enabled science to relate mental illness to the chemistry of the body for the first time."

Then in the episode "Target Hurricane" a veteran meteorologist predicts, "Ten years from now we'll have weapons -- guided missiles with atomic warheads -- that will explode in the eyes of the hurricanes, dissipating the greatest of these winds."

In an earlier episode (I neglected to write down the name), Truman Bradley informs us, "Recently a chemist discovered certain medicinal powers in hemp." (I think it might have been the episode where a scientist has slowed his aging process by consuming a special honey produced by the bees he kept.)

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alltare
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PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2017 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
I was also surprised to hear the word MASER pop up in one episode ("The Frozen Sound"). MASERs were the precursors of LASERs, the former generating coherent electromagnetic waves in the microwave frequencies (as well as radio and infrared frequencies), and the latter generating them in the (largely) optical frequencies. I had no idea that the advent of MASERs had come so early.

Early in their development, LASERs were often referred to as "Optical MASERs".
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