The Return of 1984 Experiment

Five new episodes of Flash Gordon debut during December, 1954. Unfortunately (or not) I only have one of them. In England, a live broadcast on BBC of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. This is one of Peter Cushing's first major roles. It first aired on December 12th, but not recorded. The version I have is from the December 16th live broadcast that was recorded on 35mm. I love the fact that Britain is essential doing plays for TV. If you see it great, if not, we didn't really record it, so sorry. This is how early TV was. America was slowly moving away from it to shows they could syndicate, but England at the time was still doing stuff live. See my previous rant about losing The Quatermass Experiment. Finally, the Disney version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was released in theaters. Captain Nemo is fantastic, the Giant Squid battle was epic, and the song & dance number between Kirk Douglas and a seal was really uncomfortable. This movie is one of the great ideas of Science Fiction, a man at war with the world for being at war. Does it need mentioning he has a nuclear submarine to hunt the enemies of civilization? The success of the Disney version has never been replicated and I think is due for an update. The Black Hole is very close in mood and that was also made by Disney.

The Great Secret- I blame my Temporal DVR for missing this one: "Zarkov's experiments to return life to dead worlds are endangered."

Return of the Androids- I take some liberties with names in this episode, it's hard to hear what the characters are saying. 400 years before "present day", King Lazarene of Scipio locks away the power to use androids, because he feels it makes humans lazy. There are three secrets to the resurrection of androids, and each is held by a different member of the current Galaxy Bureau of Investigation, Commander Richards knows where the android vaults are (Earth, Saturn, Uranus, Livy, Scipio, Minos, Plius, Helio), Dr. Zarkov knows what the operation frequency to tune them to (Sign Omega Sign Omega Cosign Epsilon), and Flash knows where the power source is (under a mountain range on Scipio). Quenn Thubia of Scipio has made a pact with Trydorn, of the renegade planet Petura. The two will learn how to activate all the androids and take over the galaxy. Flash holds the key, and after torturing Dale Arden by spinning her around really fast on a table, he gives that key up. Androids are activated on all the vault planets, but Flash manages to get to the Cobalt Core power source and destroy, permanently destroying all the androids in the galaxy. An okay episode marred by the fact the "androids" were just actors in radiation gear. They even have a stiff walk which is horrendous.

Nineteen Eighty-Four- This is the most subversive and terrifying dystopian future story ever told. Acted out live from the BBC somehow makes it even scarier. You can see that V for Vendetta was drinking from this well. The long scenes lend a lot of authenticity to the TV movie as well.

A Man is slowly turning against a dominant and controlled society of Big Brother. Every moment of every day tries his resolve to hide his disdain for the world; a disdain brought on by being an censor of information. Knowing there are lies all about and the people who feed on them because there is nothing else, drives him to move against the system and fall in love. No one fights the system for long and he is taken to the Ministry of Love, to be tortured. He eventually converts to the party line and turns in his lover, who also turns him in when she is tortured. Both go back to fulfilling their roles in controlled, mind-slave society.

Nineteen Eighty-Four is the blueprint any clear-thinking individual should hold their government up to and hope nothing lines up. The ability to constantly monitor everyone without a clear idea who that might be, the constant push to watch your neighbors and countrymen in case their ideals start to change, a new form of language that limits the mind, the ability for truth to be edited in such a way that everyone accepts it with blind faith, a constant war with no end in sight but a clear desire to continue, propaganda aimed to insite hatred against people that may not exist, children brought up to hate the old and destroy what they fear, torture to realign ideology, etc. As a geek I joke about Sky Net and Hal 9000 destroying the human future, but this story is already happening in so many ways. Information can change on the internet with a blink of an eye. Mobile phones can do so much to track our movements and communications; it just takes flipping a switch for it to become threat. Texting has become a fascinating shorthand for thought that keeps our brains thinking in short phrases and useless acronyms. Read the book, watch the movies, educate yourself on this story because it is more powerful than you think, a certainly more relevant. It makes me wish for a alien invasion just to slow things down.

The Frightened King- My Temporal DVR missed this one, too: "Flash and his GBI colleagues protect the king of the planet Xerxes, who is being plagued by terrible phantoms."

The Deadly Deception- Temporal DVR failed again: "A robot loaded with atomic bombs is launched into space. Flash must retrieve it before it's too late." (I seem to recall this plot from Star Trek: Voyager)

Duel Against Darkness- My Temporal DVR is useless this month: "A planet whose culture resembles the Middle Ages is ruled by a despotic magician. Can Flash, Dale and Zarkov end his evil reign?"