ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Consider the versatility of the word “strange”. Today’s three threads provide good examples.

~ The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the original title of the novel) is a polite way if saying “the HIDEOUS case!”

~ Strange New World teases us with the idea that the “New World” is new, different, and unexpected.

~ And finally, The Stranger takes the word “strange”, substitutes the version that means “more strange” (as in, "this is stranger than that"), and uses the noun which means “a person not known to somebody else”.

Truly, the word "strange" wears many faces.
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968)

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This videotaped two-part special is the only Jekyll/Hyde treatment to date which uses the complete title of Stevenson's original novel.

Jack Palance plays the infamous two-faced doctor. Palance's sharp and slightly demonic features presented a problem to the show's producers because Palance looks too much like Hyde, even when he's Jekyll.

Makeup man Dick Smith addressed the problem by emphasizing those aspects of Palance's face that gave it that devilish look. The result is a Mr. Hyde who looks downright satanic and Dr. Jekyll whose face gives more than a hint of the evil that lurks within.

Billie Whitlaw does quite well with the potentially thankless role of the shady lady who becomes the love-slave of the merciless Hyde.

Directed by Charles Jarrott from a script by Ian McClellan Hunter. The cast includes Torin Thatcher ("The 7th Voyage of Sinbad").
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Strange New World (1975 TV movie)

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Anybody who doubts the determination of Gene Rodenberry, take note that after making two pilots for his unsold series "Genesis II", Rodenberry went ahead and made two episodes, which he later spliced together to make this enjoyable TV movie, although he tinkered with his original premise concerning a scientist awaken from suspended animation in an underground research lab.

John Saxon ("Battle Beyond the Stars", "Planet of Blood") continued to play Dylan Hunt (the role first essayed by Alex Cord) in this double story. In story number one, astronauts Saxon, Kathleen Miller, and Keene Curtis return to Earth after 180 years in space (and suspended animation) to find Earth recovering from World War III. They become involved with one of the newly evolved subcultures, a clone-producing society.

In story number two, the heroes find a society comprised of "hunters", "zoo-keepers", and big game animals.

Directed by Robert Butler. The cast includes Martine Beswick ("One Million Years B.C.", "Prehistoric Women").

I started tinkering around with the double poster shown above, just to see if I could combine them in an interesting way. Here's what I got.



I'm not that happy with it, but I was at least able to widen the cramped look of the Strange New World poster by painting in John's arm on the right, extending the steps he's standing on, and filling in the area on the left with abstract elements.
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The Stranger (1973 TV movie)

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~ Good gosh, what a crudely done poster!

Producers Alan Armer and Gerald Sandford's American version of Britain's "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" (1969), about an astronaut that lands on Earth's twin planet, complete with English-speaking people and very few noticable cultural differences.

The most appealing aspect of the British original is the lunatic-but-likable idea that this other-Earth is a perfect mirror image of ours, a place where a duplicate of each person on our planet is doing the exact same thing his/her Earth twin is doing, second-by-second.

It makes no sense at all, but it has a nice "Twilight Zone" flavor.

"The Stranger" opts for the somewhat more logical idea that the two "Earth" cultures are similar but the activities on each planet are independent. On the other Earth, astronaut Glenn Corbett is pursued by agents of the dictatorial government, befriended by Sharon Acker, and plotted against by Cameron Mitchell and Steve Franken.

Directed by Lee H. Katzin from a screenplay by co-director Gerald Sanford. Also starring Lew Ayres ("Donovan's Brain"), Dean Jagger, and George Coulouris.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)