Message-ID: <376@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 24-Jan-85 13:47:34 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.376
Posted: Thu Jan 24 13:47:34 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Jan-85 09:12:18 EST
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: fischer@ru-opal (Ron Fischer)

At long last!  The return of Gerry Anderson to children's future
oriented puppet shows.  Can another Captain Scarlet be far behind?

Does anyone on this digest know who Christopher Burr is, and what
he has done previously?  Does anyone know what Gerry Anderson has
been up to lately?

Pardon me if I got ahead of myself.  One of the New York local TV
stations (WPIX channel 11) has picked up "Terrahawks" for the 3pm
afternoon slot.  Its a bad one, I drive the 2 miles it takes to get
home to see the 30 minute show.

From a very few episodes I've picked up that Earth is under attack
by aliens who are using Mars as a base of operations.  The Terrahawk
organization is protecting us.  This sounds like standard fare for
Anderson!  Captain Scarlet had the organization "Spectrum" guarding
us from takeover by the somewhat more ethereal "Mysterons" (who
were native martians).

The effects work in the show is absolutely top notch.  Better resolution
in explosions and model work than Bonanzastar Gahacktica.  The usual
Andersonian flying craft, launch from underwater, at the edge of the
atmosphere the ship separates into a (high speed?) craft and the
slower carrier flies back to base.  Much fun.

The puppet technology, I suspect, is derived from something Burr was
doing.  They appear to be operated from underneath (no strings) and
are not the "perfect proportion" puppets used in Captain Scarlet.
Eyes and mouths move nicely though, reminded me of Dark Crystal.

The only drawback is that the show is only 30 minutes long, introducing
severe limitations into their storytelling, and that it is aimed at
a very young audience (the bad guys have interesting characters, but
are more at "fantasy" than "sf").

(ron)