ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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A riddle: What has to minds and one moon?

Answer: Today's Featured Threads!

~ he Mind of Mr. Soames (1970 England) is a strange story about a man who'd been in a coma since birth (ummm . . . what?), but wakes up after an operation, thirty years later. I wonder who paid to have a comatose baby kept on life support for three decades.

~ The Mind Snatchers (1970) concerns experiments to condition young men to become perfect soldiers. (So much for the "all volunteer military".)

~ Moonraker (1979) is the overtly sci-fi Bond film, with a space station, laser battles, and high-orbit chase to destroy deadly weapon.



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he Mind of Mr. Soames (1970 England)

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Thoughtful psychological drama about a man (Terence Stamp) who, after being in a coma since birth, is awakened as a 30-year-old "child" by an operation.

Robert Vaughn is the kindly surgeon who stimulates the faulty sleep-center of the comatose Stamp. Nigel Davenport is the cold, self-serving doctor in charge of a project designed to give Stamp a whirl-wind education. He exploits Stamp by arranging with the news media to have Stamp's education conducted in a studio-like facility at the hospital so that Stamp's progress can be recorded and viewed by the public.

Hostility develops between Davenport and the child-like Stamp during the inflexible educational routine which Stamp is forced to endure. But Robert Vaughn wins Stamp's trust by demonstrating genuine concern.

Eventually Stamp escapes from the hospital and experiences his first terrifying taste of the real world, but the media continues to hound him, with tragic results. Well directed by Allan Cooke.
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The Mind Snatchers (1970)

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[Also released as: "The Happiness Cage"]

Christopher Walken ("Brainstorm"), Ronny Cox, and Ralph Meeker star in a story about mind control experiments being conducted by the U.S. military in a secret lab in Germany, where a mind-probe process is used to condition young men in an effort to produce perfect soldiers.

Directed by Bernard Girard from a screenplay by James Whyte.
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Moonraker (1979)



Roger Moore hits his stride in this hi-tech, sci-fi rich story about a megalomaniac named Drax who wants to use a nerve gas to wipe out the world's population so he can re-populate the globe with his hand-picked group of Arian super-people.

The Big Bond Climax Scene takes place aboard a beautifully designed space station (great special effects). Sets and props are extremely well designed, and they give the production a slick look that ages well.

The big battle scene is followed by a high-orbit chase in which Bond and heroine Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) have to catch several satellites containing the nerve gas and destroy them with a laser beam.

The Bond girls are especially lovely in this one, and John Barry's music has never been better.

Good direction by Lewis Gilbert gives the action sequences the energy we expect from a Bond film. Michael Longsdale does a fine job as the totally conscience-free villain who plots to wipe out the "inferior" races of mankind.

Richard Kiel returns as "Jaws", the villain's henchman with stainless steel teeth, which he uses to break the necks of his victims. And yet, in the end the film deals kindly with this humorous villain.

An enjoyable Bond film which is not well liked by many Bond fans, for reasons which are hard to understand.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)