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The Complete UFO Megaset
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 59
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
UFO was Gerry Anderson's first live-action TV series after a decade of producing such children's animated classics as Stingray (1963) and Thunderbirds (1964). The premise of UFO, which ran for a single season of 26 episodes in 1970, was like a more serious version of Anderson's Captain Scarlet (1967): in the near future of 1980, a high-tech secret organization, SHADO, waged covert war against mysterious alien attackers. Ed Bishop played the American head of SHADO--he had been previously featured in Captain Scarlet and Anderson's Doppelganger (1969)--though in all other respects this was a thoroughly British production. As with all Anderson series, UFO evidenced remarkable technological inventiveness and groundbreaking production values, coupled with startling lapses in fundamental logic too numerous to list.Much more adult in story and content than earlier Anderson productions, and surprisingly dark with its pragmatic view of human nature and downbeat endings, the show now seems like a forerunner of The X-Files and the equally short-lived Dark Skies (1996). Barry Gray's memorable theme and atmospheric music greatly enhanced the overall impact. Stylishly made, though terribly sexist by current standards and featuring eye-catching costumes more fitted for a campy dress party than the front line of a futuristic war, this cult classic eventually evolved into Space: 1999 (1975).
The UFO DVDs have been beautifully designed and produced. The mono sound is exceptionally strong, and the restored and remastered picture is almost unbelievably good for a 1970 TV show. With barely a flaw anywhere, the episodes look so clear, colorful, and detailed that they could have been filmed last week. This eight-disc megaset features all 26 episodes. --Gary S. Dalkin
Thunderbirds 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition Megaset
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Love these puppets 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Everything is here, in slim DVD cases to boot. Easy to watch, classic series, fun for all ages.
just a repackaging of the old 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
The video quality isn't really any noticeably better than the original set. I'm not a fan of the slim cases either but if you're looking to save space it's a good option. I preferred the case art in the original set still. All that is here that's new is a new box and a new interview. 5 star show, 1 star for just repackaging Gerry Anderson's most famous supermarionation series again in the hopes of earning a few more bucks.
Editorial Review:
Packed with every moment from all 32 episodes of acclaimed producer Gerry Anderson s (Captain Scarlet Space: 1999) sci-fi supermarionation tour de force this exclusive collection also includes a special new bonus disc containing two rare pop-up episodes an exciting quiz and a never-before-seen interview with the series creator Anderson. Don t miss a minute of adventure--the THUNDERBIRDS 40TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR S EDITION is a masterpiece of marionettes and the ultimate collector s item. System Requirements:Run Time: 1664 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 733961773064 Manufacturer No: AAE-77306
Fireball XL5 - The Complete Series
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
Producer Gerry Anderson is something of a legend in his native England, based primarily on the popular TV series Thunderbirds, its various spinoffs, and this, its 1962-'63 predecessor. All were produced in "Supermarionation"; i.e., they're puppet shows--not especially sophisticated ones (to say the least), but ones that many viewers seemed to adore. This five-disc boxed set contains all 39 episodes of Fireball XL5, totaling nearly 17 hours (plus extras).The stories concern the efforts of captain-hero Steve Zodiac and his crew (including Steve's love interest and a talkative robot, voiced respectively by Anderson's then-wife Sylvia and Anderson himself; the pair were also cowriters) to protect "Sector 25" of the solar system from alien invasion. They battle killer rays and alien criminals, visit mysterious planets, and escape from all manner of perilous circumstances... they use ray guns and fly around with "thrust packs" and on "jetmobiles" (reducing the need for walking, which puppets don't do so well)... in other words, typical sci-fi fare. But while the animation is laughable (little attempt was made to disguise the strings that hold up puppets and props alike) and the effects primitive, there's no denying the show's campy charm (indeed, people who study such things consider it to be an important influence on the sci-fi genre in general). Is it a bit too much of a good thing? Probably not for anyone willing to make the investment. DVD extras include photos, a couple of featurettes, and audio commentary on two episodes (voice actor David Graham on "The Doomed Planet" and director Alan Pattillo on "Space City Special"). --Sam Graham
The Best of Thunderbirds - The Favorite Episodes
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Gerry Anderson's Marvels 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
When you watch the Thunderbirds, you must realize this show is forty years old and still holds up. These marriottes are real looking, special effects still hold up after 40 years...and the story lines are intriging
So forget that satire Team America and the live action version of the Thunderbirds, get this..maybe those kids who crave SF adventure can enjoy this complex story lines, rather than those show with 30 second sound bytes of action
The Thunbderbirds (which was orginally called The internation Rescue organization) is is filled with great sets, characters and vehicles (as I said this was 40 years ago).These episodes still hold up. When you sound like a naysayer about these shows, THINK Classic Star Trek! It , in my opinion, still holds up just like classic Trek.
If you like this, get some of Gerry Anderson's other TV shows on DVD... Supercar, Captain Scarlet,Stingray, Joe 90, Space 1999 (yes the Martin Landau/Barbara Bain space opera), The protectors (with Robert Vaughn) and a weaker effort Secret Service. for US audiences, remember buy region one.
For puppets , these shows had complex stories a and over the top characters..worth you time to get and enjoy
Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD
Thunderbirds Megaset (Complete 12 Volume Set)
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
"Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a master class in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in color and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, predating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armageddon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishizing gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here.As for the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (license plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.
The Thunderbirds Mega Set contains 32 complete, uncut, and digitally remastered episodes on 12 DVDs. Bonus features include production stills photo galleries, two original 1965 "The Making of Thunderbirds" featurettes, the History of Thunderbirds, character biographies, and a Gerry Anderson biography/filmography. --Mark Walker
Joe 90 - The Complete Series
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
Joe 90 was Gerry Anderson's penultimate puppet show of the 1960s, following Captain Scarlet (1967) and preceding the little-known The Secret Service (1969). In 2112, professor Ian McClaine has invented the BIG RAT (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope, Record and Transfer), a machine for copying knowledge and experiences from person to person. WIN (World Intelligence Organization) uses this to prime their top undercover agent before sending him into the field on missions that range from foiling international terrorists to recovering a nuclear weapon from beneath the polar ice. So far so good, but in perhaps the most mind-boggling concept ever to reach children's TV, that agent is McClaine's 9-year-old adopted son, Joe.Somehow even as it stays true to the Gerry Anderson techno-fantasy formula of secret organizations, gadgetry, and action-packed adventure full of spectacular explosions and violent death, Joe 90 remains blithely unconscious of its own implications. The missions are as globe-trotting as anything in Anderson's classic Thunderbirds series, and sometimes Joe does save lives, performing a risky brain operation or rescuing trapped astronauts. Yet even then his criminally irresponsible father brainwashes the lad each episode before placing him in a highly dangerous adult situation. Though the production values remain way ahead of anything else being done on British TV at the time, the question remains: how did this ever seem like a good idea?
Joe 90 comes complete in a four-disc boxed set of the entire 30-episode series. The 25-minute episodes are presented in superb picture quality and full, detailed mono sound. Extras include commentaries on two episodes, character biographies, a photo gallery, and varied extras such as location stills. --Gary S. Dalkin
Captain Scarlet - The Complete Series
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
First broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1967, Captain Scarlet was the most grownup of all Gerry Anderson's SuperMarionation adventures. Of course there are gadgets and toy-friendly machines galore--like the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, the Angel Aircraft, and Cloudbase itself--but, unlike the colorful fantasies of Stingray and Thunderbirds, this series' concern with an implacable, vengeful enemy, conspiracies, and double agents drew its inspiration from James Bond and the cold war spy dramas of the 1960s. Special effects whiz Derek Meddings instills the action sequences with a truly Bondian grandeur and, like the sinister SPECTRE of the Bond films, the Martian Mysterons seem all the more hostile for their unseen presence, their agents infiltrating every organization dedicated to their destruction, just as it seemed the Soviets were doing at the time. The indestructible Captain Scarlet is killed then resurrected every week (though not like South Park's Kenny), and more often than not the Mysterons emerge triumphant, and always undefeated. The varied cast of Spectrum agents and their voice characterizations also aim at verisimilitude (Captain Scarlet, voiced by Francis Matthews, sounds like a grim Cary Grant), while the puppetry is more realistic than ever. Now with newly remastered picture and Dolby 5.1 surround sound for the DVD release, Captain Scarlet still looks and sounds like the epitome of '60s cool. For Americans, this is the first time the show--consisting of 32 episodes--has been available. --Mark Walker
Space 1999, Set 1
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 59
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
When it was first broadcast in 1975, there had never been a more lavishly produced science fiction TV series than Space: 1999, a British production whose budget for the first of its two seasons ran an astounding 3.25 million pounds. What keeps us fans enthralled after all these years has only partly to due with the first-rate production values, the plausibly constructed spaceship models, and expert special effects. The tone of the show is one of scientific dispassion, setting it apart from its TV sci-fi predecessors such as Star Trek, whose mood was more convivial. Our heroes here are in dire circumstances that require cool heads as a survival trait. Those circumstances: the 311 crew members of Moonbase Alpha experience a cataclysm that causes the moon to break away from Earth's orbit and travel endlessly through space, turning our heroes into unintentional explorers. No TV series has created a more palpable feel of hard science fiction than this. Of course the show is not without its detractors; it has been soundly lambasted for its many scientific errors. No less august a figure than Isaac Asimov criticized the show for its premise in the opening episode, "Breakaway," which had nuclear explosions on the "dark side of the moon" somehow propelling it out of Earth's orbit and flying through space without regard to any physical laws. In "Earthbound" (included in this set), aliens traveling to Earth state it will take them 75 years to reach their destination, making one wonder why it didn't take the moon that long to encounter the aliens. While these are serious complaints, fans tend to remember the scientific seriousness of the series and the sense of awe created by the many strange creatures and phenomena that the crew members encounter on their journey through the galaxy. In addition to "Breakaway" and "Earthbound," this set includes "Matter of Life and Death," "Black Sun," "Ring Around the Moon," and "Another Time, Another Place." --Jim Gay
Space 1999, Set 2
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
When it was first broadcast in 1975, there had never been a more lavishly produced science fiction TV series than Space: 1999, a British production whose budget for the first of its two seasons ran an astounding 3.25 million pounds. What keeps us fans enthralled after all these years has only partly to due with the first-rate production values, the plausibly constructed spaceship models, and expert special effects. The tone of the show is one of scientific dispassion, setting it apart from its TV sci-fi predecessors such as Star Trek, whose mood was more convivial. Our heroes here are in dire circumstances that require cool heads as a survival trait. Those circumstances: the 311 crew members of Moonbase Alpha experience a cataclysm that causes the moon to break away from Earth's orbit and travel endlessly through space, turning our heroes into unintentional explorers. No TV series has created a more palpable feel of hard science fiction than this. This set includes the episodes "Missing Link," "Guardian of Piri," "Force of Life," "Alpha Child," "The Last Sunset," and "Voyager's Return." --Jim Gay
Space 1999 Megaset
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
When it was first broadcast in 1975, there had never been a more lavishly produced science fiction TV series than Space: 1999, a British production whose budget for the first of its two seasons ran an astounding £3.25 million. What keeps us fans enthralled after all these years has only partly to due with the first-rate production values, the plausibly constructed spaceship models, and expert special effects. The tone of the show is one of scientific dispassion, setting it apart from its TV sci-fi predecessors such as Star Trek, whose mood was more convivial. Our heroes here are in dire circumstances that require cool heads as a survival trait. Those circumstances: the 311 crew members of Moonbase Alpha experience a cataclysm that causes the moon to break away from Earth's orbit and travel endlessly through space, turning our heroes into unintentional explorers. No TV series has created a more palpable feel of hard science fiction than this.Of course the show is not without its detractors; it has been soundly lambasted for its many scientific errors. No less august a figure than Isaac Asimov criticized the show for its premise in the opening episode, "Breakaway," which had nuclear explosions on the "dark side of the moon" somehow propelling it out of Earth's orbit and flying through space without regard to any physical laws. In "Earthbound," aliens traveling to Earth state it will take them 75 years to reach their destination, making one wonder why it didn't take the moon that long to encounter the aliens. While these are serious complaints, fans tend to remember the scientific seriousness of the series and the sense of awe created by the many strange creatures and phenomena that the crew members encounter on their journey through the galaxy.
The Space: 1999 Mega Set collects all 48 episodes broadcast over the show's two seasons, contained on 17 DVDs that include vintage interviews, production stills, TV promotional spots, and interactive menus. All episodes have been digitally remastered, and some material that was not seen in the original U.S. broadcasts has been restored. --Jim Gay