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matt pearsonParticipant
Great cover ! B)
matt pearsonParticipant[b]mateo wrote:[/b]
[quote]I just received the foreword for Android Planet, together with an author bio. I just need to put together a few more things and we’ll be ready to go to print! [/quote]Sounds great ! Can’t wait. π
matt pearsonParticipantI am very much enjoying watching Year One on Blu Ray at the moment so I look forward to reading this book in the new year. π
[SPOILER]I was reading Destination Moonbase Alpha by Robert E Wood and in his commentary for the episode Voyager’s Return (which I watched last night) he says that the Voyager memory banks which are a plot point in that episode are featured again in Android Planet. So I look forward to seeing how that turns out. π [/SPOILER]
matt pearsonParticipantMy copy arrived yesterday and the picture quality is simply [i]stunning [/i]! It’s like seeing the show for the first time.
I haven’t watched the show since the old Carlton DVDs came out and it’s surprising how much I’d forgotten. I’m really enjoying rediscovering it.
A generous selection of bonus features too. The Sylvia Anderson interview is very eye opening but may shatter a few illusions ! :ohmy:
matt pearsonParticipantFinally got round to listening to this.
Great vocal performance from Barry Morse (of course ! π )
Particularly good to hear him reading Victor Bergman’s dialogue.
matt pearsonParticipantI’ve never read Android Planet or Phoenix of Megaron so I look forward to adding them to my collection. π
Personally, I’m not much of a continuity junkie. I enjoyed reading the two EC Tubb novelisations that Fanderson put out even though they didn’t really fit in with series continuity.
As long as the stories are well told I’m not too bothered by how it all fits together. B)matt pearsonParticipantThanks for the suggestions.
(I[i] love [/i]my Ipod but I [i]hate[/i] Itunes ! ) B)
matt pearsonParticipantMy copy arrived today. I’ve never been able to get on with iTunes and I’m having a hell of a time at the moment trying to get it to sort the tracks in the correct order rather than in some apparently random order it seems to have settled on. π
matt pearsonParticipant[b]Procyonstar wrote:[/b]
[quote]My copy’s arrived…Wales UK :cheer:[/quote]Wow, that was quick. :ohmy:
I shall go and wait by the letterbox. :silly:
matt pearsonParticipantI haven’t got round to upgrading from the Region 2 Carlton set to the Network one. I saw an episode screened at a Fanderson convention a few years back though and the picture quality was terrific.
There have been rumours for a while of Network putting out a Blu Ray edition although nothing offiicial has been announced.
As an aside, I believe when the show was remastered they also produced a widescreen version which I guess might be used for future TV screenings ?
matt pearsonParticipant[b]PatS wrote:[/b]
[quote]Powys –You may have already addressed this, but can the audiobook be ripped to transfer to a “Portable Media Device”? Also, on the PayPal page, after having paid, the “Return to Powys” button sends us to the old cerebral massage webpage. Not sure if you want to contact PayPal about that or not. It doesn’t take much brainpower to navigate back here, but I just thought I’d mention it.
.–. .- -[/quote]
Yep, I got a 404 Not Found message after I checked out.
I got a Paypal receipt so I’m guessing the order itself went through OK.
matt pearsonParticipant[SPOILER][quote]
Born for Adversity was pretty much a stand-alone, although you did have to know about Dorzak. Now that these things gelled into place and a certain continuity established, I guess one could say the fun can begin. Do you consider maintaining continuity and building on their experiences as harkening back? (This is not meant to be a snarky question.) Though not directly depending on the Great Forty-eight, Iβd like to explore things like how they knew the ship in βDorzakβ was transmitting the universal plague signal, for example, as well as moving forward. -PTS [/quote]I [I]loved[/I] Born For Adversity. B)
No, the continuity didn’t bother me there. I always liked Maya so having a novel focus on her story was great. For me the continuity that was in that novel was only what needed to be there to tell the story. I guess what I was really objecting to in Omega / Alpha was that at least [I]some[/I] of the continuity in the book felt to me like it [I]didn’t[/I] need to be there but was included because it appealed to a fannish urge to tie all of this stuff together.
I kind of preferred the idea that Alpha’s missions had a randomness to them and you weren’t sure where the moon would end up next. At the moment I’m feeling like I can be pretty sure that it will, in part at least, be somewhere we’ve been before. For me this makes the 1999 “universe” feel smaller.With regards to addressing loose ends from the series, I think an anthology like Shepherd Moon is the way to go. The stories can be slotted in between episodes without the feeling that the moon is going backwards ! π
I agree with the comments in the other thread though that it would be helpful to have some text somewhere in the book (or maybe on this website ?) which tells you the chronological placement of the stories. I’m waiting on a Blu Ray release before I go back and watch the episodes again so my memories are getting rather hazy. π[quote]
I enjoyed reading your perspective. Discussion is good! π-Pat.[/quote]
Thanks π [/SPOILER]
matt pearsonParticipant[SPOILER]
OK, I finished reading Omega / Alpha.
Sad to say, this was my least favourite of Powys’s novels. By the time the second volume arrived I had done my homework and managed to get up to speed with the backstory but I still found this story too convoluted for my tastes.
I think it’s trying to be a Lord of the Rings (or Star Trek : Destiny π ) sized epic but for me, the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to continuity actually reduces the book to the level of “fan fiction” as it just feels like a fan trying to cram everything they ever liked about the show into one book.
There are some great ideas in there. For example the offspring of the Alphans coming into conflict with their parents would have made the basis for a terrific episode or novel. As just one sub-plot in a novel which has a ton of other things going on it just didn’t leave room do the idea justice. To have these “future” Alphans and the “alternate Earth” Alphans in the same novel felt like overkill.
I know Powys are looking to emulate the style of the Doctor Who New Adventures by presenting stories which could never have been done on TV. For me the difference in approach is that the New Adventures had ambitions to cross over into a more mainstream (non media tie in reading) sci fi audience. Here Powys seemed to be aiming soley at a small but highly dedicated bunch of Space : 1999 fans.
For future novels my preference would be for well written, standalone sci-fi novels which take the Alphan characters forward into new and fresh adventures rather than harking back to stories from the past.
To end on a more positive note, I thought Latham characterised Koenig, Carter and Bergman particularly well and it’s an unexpected delight to have Bergman back in the series again. π
[/SPOILER]
matt pearsonParticipantOmega
Here there be spoilers :
[Spoiler]
The cover proclaims a “spectacular science fiction epic” and it certainly is that.
The premise of the book is that Alpha’s journey has been predestined from the start and that their adventures are interlinked rather than being random. What this means in practice is that the book hinges on a bewildering number of continuity references to episodes and previous novels which the author makes no attempt to explain to any newcomers. Consequently you end up with a novel which only the hardest of hardcore 1999 fans can fully enjoy.The book ends on a cliffhanger with all the plot threads unresolved. It’s a bit frustrating to reach the end of a novel only to discover you are expected to buy another one to read the end of the story. Hopefully that novel will be a little less convoluted and a little more forgiving in bringing readers up to speed, rather than assuming that we all watched the TV show a fortnight ago and read the other Powys novels last week.
On the plus side, I like the way that Year Three now seems to be cherry picking the best elements of the two seasons on TV. For example Bergman and Kano are back and the Alphans have returned to Main Mission. I hadn’t liked where Latham left Bergman at the end of Shepherd Moon. It seemed such a downer. I should have guessed that it was all part of Powys’s masterplan π [/spoiler]
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