ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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If you're a fan of "space babes" in tight metalic space suits, look below!

If Metalunan architecture is more you rstyle, we've got that, tpo.

And if you lean towards mad scientists in jungle laboratories who shrink people down to "action figure" size, you've come to the right place!



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Space Rangers

I discoverer that it's an independent film project by Douglas Monce -- and I'm experiencing some highly inappropriate thoughts right now.



I won't say this is serious science fiction, but my initial reaction wasn't to bust out laughing, no siree.

It's being made by Atomic Age Pictures, who does retro photos and videos. Here's four short YouTube videos of tests for Space Rangers and a teaser trailer that's worth watching.

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And if you want to contribute to this independent production, here's the official site where you can do so.



The opening of the video on that site does a clever tribune to 1950s sci-fi. It starts out just like The Mole People, using the music from the 1956 movie, as the scene fades in on Douglas Monce (the creator and director) sitting behind a desk in front of a bookshelf. He introduces himself and starts talking about the Space Ranger production.

I realized right away that it was a clever parody of Dr. Frank Baxter (host of the Bell Telephone science series from the 1950s), and the mini-lecture Dr. Baxter gave at the beginning of The Mole People.

Universal sci-fi music is used all throughout the video. These folks are our folks, folks! I'm looking forward to Space Rangers!
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This Island Earth (1955)
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I don't know if this hodgepodge will be the least bit helpful, but just for fun I've tried to illustrate the various levels of the platforms that are so popular in Metalunan architecture, and a vanishing point that helps us visualize their relative heights.

This will only be of interest to retired folks like me and Wayne, people who have way too much spare time and who labor under the delusion that they're intelligent.

If you fall into that category, dive right in.



Using the jpeg above, I drew a few dozen colored lines because I'm apparently obsessed with them.

Obviously the big platform below the saucer is the lowest level. I accented it and the distant platforms with green circles. The terminus of the transport tube at the monitor complex (high in the background) is at the highest platform.



Notice that the big platform below the saucer is on the same plane as the lowest platform circled in green on the Monitor building, so the parallel red lines (joined by orange perpendicular lines) are on that plane too.

The long orange line comes from the vanishing point and crosses the underside of the saucer. It also passes the left edge of the second platform circled in green -- which means the saucer and that platform are on the same plane.

The blue line goes from the vanishing point to the platform two-thirds of the way up the monitor's building and then goes over the saucer. Obviously it's higher. No surprise there.

And the highest red line intersects the top platform in the Monitor building and then passes high above the saucer.

Obviously the Monitor building's highest level is well above the saucer.

And yet from the angle with the Monitor building in the foreground and the saucer in the far distance, the saucer has been painted incorrectly. Even though it's shown at a lower elevation, we see the bottom instead of the top, and both the platform and the building that supports it are entirely missing!





But I fixed it with Paint.net and a paste-up from a shot of the model saucer from a space scene.



And there's the full scene with the new saucer.


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Dr. Cyclops (1940)

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From the director of "King Kong" (Ernest B. Schoedsack) comes this Technicolor classic, a strange but effective mixture of suspense and lighthearted adventure (mostly the latter).

A mad scientist living in the Amazon jungle sends for a famous professor to help him with his research. But when the professor arrives (in the company of a lazy hero, a feisty heroine, and a comic-relief Mexican guide), the mad scientist merely asks the professor a single technical question.

After receiving the answer he needed to overcome a stumbling block in his research, the mad scientist simply thanks the professor and orders him to leave. The outraged professor refuses, so the mad scientist uses his invention to shrink the professor and his companions to six-inch miniatures.






The miniaturized group must improvise clothing, weapons, and tools to help them survive against a host of dangers (most notably a hungry alligator). The over-sized sets and special effects are amazingly good, equaled only by "The Devil-Doll" (1936).

"Dr. Cyclops" has the added advantage of being in color. Humorous scenes and dialogue make the whole thing a thoroughly fun movie to watch.




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