Here be spoilers! Spoilers are included for the Star Trek episode 'The Man Trap'. You have been warned.

53 years ago today, Star Trek aired for the first time. The episode chosen was in fact the sixth to be filmed, 'The Man Trap' written by George Clayton Johnson, featuring the infamous shape-shifting salt vampire creature. The episode saw a number of firsts, including the first death of en Enterprise crew member (not, though, one of the poor red shirts) with McCoy pronouncing 'Dead, Jim' and later 'He's dead' ('He's dead, Jim' would have to wait until 'The Enemy Within'.) Spock also says for the first of many times, 'Fascinating.'

The episode always comes across as somewhat melancholy to me, what with McCoy's long lost love, the loneliness of life on planet M-113 and the ultimate fate of an entire intelligent species. The story also sees science fiction melded with horror, a common enough pairing and one that would be used again in Star Trek - for example, 'Wolf in the Fold' and 'Cat's Paw' - yet this episode comes across as unsettling and weird. A large part of this is due to Alexander Courage's score, with the use of an electric organ and a flute particularly sticking in my mind. It really underlined the creepiness of several scenes.

'The Man Trap' doesn't make many favourites lists, yet there's a lot to enjoy, including some elements which disappeared as the series found its feet. I can't be alone in enjoying the scene between Spock and Uhura and wondering if anything could, or should, have developed from it. I'm quite sure that J.J. Abrams took his cues from it when he worked on the first Kelvinverse Trek movie.

There's also the easy camaraderie between the crew, for example Kirk/Uhura, Rand/Sulu that was a little different here and helped convince me that here was a group of professionals who worked well together and liked and respected one another. The foundations of the Kirk/Spock/Bones troika are clearly in place, with Kirk relying on both for advice. There's other stuff which isn't so good - what immediately springs to mind is the crewmen leering at Rand in the corridor. Especially today, it's uncomfortable to see. It wasn't the only time that Rand was reduced to a mere sexual object which was a great pity; I always felt she showed bravery and a cool head under stress which I would have liked to see develop had she remained as a regular cast member. She didn't so it's a moot point.

The 'monster' was effective enough, though we only see its true form in the final moments. There is regret afterwards at its death but Kirk is quite unequivocal in his resolve to kill the creature and understandably so. It's butchering his crew like they were chicken wings on a buffet table. The creature is perfectly capable of communicating and simply asking for the salt it needs - and doesn't, choosing instead to keep on killing, even the one human who showed it compassion and understanding, the horribly compromised Crater. It's quite a contrast to the later Horta creature in 'The Devil in the Dark' which does choose to ask for help - 'no kill I'.

Yes, 'The Man Trap' isn't a perfect choice to have kicked off the series but there was very little choice open to the production staff, given the state of other episodes currently filing and in post production. Thank goodness, then, for director Marc Daniels who brought 'Man Trap' in on time, enabling Star Trek to meet its air date. Daniels was efficient, establishing procedures that were used even when he wasn't involved in an episode and he directed more episodes of TOS than anyone else. Over the following weeks the audience would be introduced to Charlie Evans, Balok, the Romulans and a slew of other characters and Trek staples. The show found its feet due to the talent assembled - I don't think it can ever be overstated how much of a group effort went into Trek - I say this not to downplay Gene Roddenberry and his massive contribution, but rather to point out that many others made valuable, important contributions of their own. For example, the other Gene, Gene L Coon, for example the ridiculously unsung Bob Justman. I could go on and probably will in other blog posts.

Happy fifty third, then, Star Trek. You've given me so much and helped keep keel even in the most trying of times. Star Trek is far more than a TV show; it's a philosophy, an optimism, a belief that somehow, somehow we will get through the hard times to see better, brighter horizons. Not a bad legacy to give to the world.

You might want to also read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Trap" , https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Man_Trap_(episode)

My Early Cinema Experiences

By the time I was little, Chorlton-cum-Hardy was down to one solitary cinema: the Classic. It was originally named the Rivoli,iopened in 1936, damaged in World War II and later restored and reopened. In 1955 it was renamed the Essoldo, then renamed again in 1972 to the name I knew it by - the Classic.

It was the first cinema I visited and the one of the first movies I saw there was 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' in 1974. I was a bit of a handful it seems; when the lights dimmed I yelled out 'Innit dark. Turn the lights on, daddy!' Later on, as the strains of 'heigh-ho!' rang out I shouted 'Look! Look!It's the Seven Warfs!' You can't take some people anywhere, can you? I saw quite a few Disney movies there; in common with many cinemas, the Classic used to show childrens' movies during school holidays. I remember a double bill one afternoon of 'The Jungle Book' and 'One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing' (it would be a few years before I wondered why Peter Ustinov was playing a Chinese man.)

Then there were saturdays, the children's matinees. It was a badge of honour to sneak in without paying (not that I ever did this heinous thing, of course . . honest . .). Once inside, we behaved appallingly, shouting, fighting, throwing popcorn . . occasionally there would be threats to stop the movie and we would pipe down for maybe five minutes before starting up again. How the staff must have hated us.

I first saw 'Star Wars' there. 'Star Wars' wasn't released in the UK until the end of December 1977, so I saw it in 1978. Very exciting; I couldn't wait. Walking home afterewards I was full of the images I'd seen and felt bursting with electricity. I said to my dad 'Dad? I feel the Force.' He looked at me, made a face and said 'Don't be so bloody stupid.' He had a way of bringing me back to Earth! (There were other times when he fired up my imagination no end, such as the infamous Flying Saucer Hoax he tricked me and my sister with, but more of that another time!) I also remember seeing 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'at the Classic. My mum and sister both were sobbing wrecks at the end and it's possible I had some dust in my eye myself.

So many movies, so many memories. I don't know how many films I watched there but I did notice that attendances weren't great. Ona (e screen was converted into a roller skate arena (a very small one) and the cinema was renamed again to Shalimar. It eventually closed and was bulldozed in 1991, a victim of the mass destruction of a generation of period art deco cinemas as attendances plummeted. Since then we've had a revival for cinemas with the advent of multiplexes, which are great in their own way - comfortable seats, excellent sound and picture quality - but a bit soulless.

Those cinemas we lost had character, bags of character and, belatedly, the remaining examples are being preserved and restored. Quite right, too. There is nothing like watching a movie in an old theatre; the red velvet seats, the decor, the gleaming brass, the smells, the generations of memories. These buildings are an integral part of movie history, the outlets in which our dreams took flight and we delighted in thrills, spills and buttered popcorn.

Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon is a favourite of mine. No, it's not a great movie by any means and the whole thing is hamstrung by a boring main character with as much personality as a soggy dish cloth. What makes it all work is the sheer fun of the thing, the style, the bonkers imagination. I could watch it again and again.

As a kid I remember the BBC broadcasting the old Flash Gordon serials starring Buster Crabbe. Crabbe epitomised the clean-cut, square-jawed hero ad he looked like he had walked straight out of the comic book pages. I also remember Zarkov wearing some sort of hot pants which was a disturbing image, for sure. Dale Arden was a drip, always in need of rescue. Far more interesting was Ming's vixen of a daughter, the beautiful and evil Princess Aura.

For me, then, the movie came only a few short years after my first memories of Flash and the original depiction was fresh in my mind – the rocket ships with their art deco, 'futuristic' styling and the noise of their motors, the sound resembling a bag of rusty nails being blasted with an electric current with a propeller noise grafted on. When I eventually saw the movie I saw a lot of similarities – the art and design department on Flash had clearly gone to some lengths to capture something of the spirit of the old serials. There were differences, too – a movie made in 1980 cannot and should not be shot like a piece of 1930s pulp cinematic fodder.

So what was the genesis of the movie? The idea of reviving Flash had been around for a long time. George Lucas attempted to buy the rights, failed and went on to make a little thing called 'Star Wars' (who ever heard of him or his B-movie sci fi flick again, eh?) . Eventually Dino De Laurentiis acquired the rights and it was under his auspices that the movie took shape. Mike Hodges was hired to direct. Flash was quite a departure form some of his prior work – for example, the gritty, noir-esque gangster flick set in Newcastle, 'Get Carter' , though come to think of it, Ming might well have appreciated some of the violence and sadism on display as Michael Caine bludgeoned his way through his problems.

Lorenzo Semple Jr. wrote the screenplay. By the sounds of it, Semple did not enjoy the experience – he has talked about thinking the character of Flash was 'not very good' , but not being allowed to improve it. He also has spoken about the pressure to make the script funny, which he believes was a mistake. The script was constantly tinkered with to inject humour and jokes and Semple felt it got out of control. When your screenwriter feels that way, that things were lurching from crisis to crisis before you'd even gotten to a studio lot, you have to wonder how the movie got made at all.

Yet it was shot, completed and released, despite Semple's misgivings and despite other problems, like Sam Jones, cast as Flash, constantly getting into fights off-set and eventually refusing to return for re-dubs and re-shoots. This was due to problems with De Laurentiis (allegedly) and some earlier dubbing where a voice actor had impersonated Jones (upsetting Jones when he found out). This was all damaging to the movie, in addition to the initial casting of Jones as Flash. True, he looked like a God, with his physique and flowing blonde locks, but he was a new and different take to the Flash of old and, in my opinion at least, was wrong for the part.

So why do I love a movie that is so flawed? As I said before, fun. FUN. There are delightful moments, such as Ming's gleeful sadism, Dale's switcheroo between herself and one of Ming's concubines, Zarkov's mad pursuit of his hapless assistant and, it has to be said, any Brian Blessed screen time. Many people associate Blessed closely with this movie and it's no wonder – he had the time of his life playing Vultan, King of the Hawkmen (his favourite character from Flash) and the role is tailor made for his bombastic, gusto-charged acting. He attacks the role with relish - anything less for a King wearing wings, a gold helmet and the bottom half of a Roman Legionnaire's outfit would have been completely inadequate.

Other performances stand out. Max von Sydow plays Ming perfectly, taking delight in cruelty and sadism, a ruler supreme who sees his subjects as nothing more than his playthings. Topol is always great fun whenever his Hans Zarkov is on screen, Peter Wyngarde is sinister as Klytus, an effect he manages to convey without really needing his mask to do so. Ornella Muti is gorgeous, seductive and capricious as Aura and I remember wondering, as a thirteen year old, why would Flash be interested in Dale when Aura was throwing herself at him? It's a question I still ask myself, though of course I can now appreciate the value of going to sleep without wondering if you'll get a knife in the back while you're mid-snore.

There are lots of good performances gong on, like Melody Anderson, Timothy Dalton, Richard O'Brien, Mariangela Melato and John Hallam. It was generally a very good cast and for me, that makes up for my problems with Sam Jones. (I've nothing against Sam Jones personally, who seems a nice enough guy as well as being 6' 3” and, apparently, handy in a scrap!) The movie looks gorgeous, with a rich, at times psychedelic palette of colours. Ming's throne room is red and black, emphasising his Imperial grandeur and authority, while in the background the sky is a swirl of pinks, purples and oranges. The Kingdoms, what we see of them, are well realised, Flash's attempted escape through the Arborian forest a memorable highlight – and who can forget Peter Duncan's cameo as a hapless Arborian who comes a cropper during his Manhood initiation?

There is plenty of action, too. The fight between Flash and Barin on the tilting, spiked platform (look closely at the actors and you'll see silver paint that's rubbed off on their clothes) is very well staged and the attack of the Hawkmen on War Rocket Ajax is terrific. It's true that Brian Blessed had to be told off as, when firing his gun, he kept adding his own sound effects. ('I felt such a tit!' Blessed revealed in his excellent commentary on the DVD release.) I even enjoy the silly American Football game where Flash takes on Ming's guards, with Dale's cheerleading (a Melody Anderson invention) and Vultan bopping guards on the head with the look of a guilty schoolboy.

It's a pity that planned sequels were never made. The follow-up was supposed to be 'Flash Gordon on Mars' but according to Mike Hodges in interviews, Sam Jones, thanks to his dispute with De Luarentiis, refused to do any promotional work in the U.S. This also led to posters for the film to feature Ming far more prominently than Flash and Hodges thought that these factors may have damaged the U.S. Box office. What really tore it for a sequel according to Hodges was that there was zero chance of Jones returning. We'll never know how a sequel might have turned out, but it would have been fun to see Flash's continuing adventures.

We still have Flash, with its supply of quotes (after three: one, two, three: 'Gordon's alive??' ) and the great soundtrack by Queen. They only did two soundtracks, this one and 'Highlander' (a movie I'll blog about in due course) and both were, in my view, stellar. In Flash, Queen's music often matched and accentuated the oddity and weirdness that was going on. As for the movie's theme, try playing it anywhere, any time and people will still shout 'FLASH!' along to the song.

As I've said, it's not a great movie. It's not making big statements, it doesn't try to be high art. What is does do is entertain us richly. The good guys win, everyone is happy and the evil guy dies. Or does he? We see Ming's ring (no jokes, please) picked up at the end of the movie, accompanied by Ming's chilling laugh . . would Ming return one day? If he ever did, you can bet that Flash, Zarkov, Dale, Barin and Vultan would be there to stop him. And have a rollicking good time while they did so!

'Forbidden Planet' is one of my very favourite movies. I've loved it since I was little, when the attack of the monster sent me scurrying for cover behind the sofa. I still love it now and watch it periodically, still engrossed in the story. I'll try to keep spoilers out of this article, in case you are lucky enough not to have seen this wonderful movie and have the pleasure of first-time viewing yet to come.

The plot (loosely based on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest') concerns the supposedly-lost Bellerophon mission to Altair IV, unheard from in twenty years. The space cruiser C57D, under the command of J.J. Adams, is despatched to investigate. After a year-long voyage the cruiser lands on Altair IV, finding Dr. Edward Morbius, his daughter Altaira and their robotic assistant, Robby. Morbius and his daughter are the sole survivors of the expedition – all the others, including his wife, killed by a mysterious force.

It transpires that Morbius has discovered artefacts and a city from a fantastically advanced, long-dead civilisation, the Krell. 200,000 years ago, the Krell disappeared overnight, for reasons not understood. Meanwhile, the C57D begins to experience attacks similar to those which killed the Bellerophon crew . .

The C57D lands

'Forbidden Planet' was released in 1956 and it was a trailblazer. The first movie to depict Humans travelling faster than light in a ship of their own building, the first movie to be set entirely in deep space on an alien world, the first movie to have an entirely electronic score. (Louis and Bebe Barron received a credit for 'electronic tonalities' as the Musicians' Union refused to allow a composer credit.) This was no low-budget picture with cardboard monsters and bad acting – the budget was $1.9 million dollars, the cast was excellent, the production values high and the visual effects spectacular for the day.

Let's look at the cast. Walter Pidgeon is a dark, brooding, imposing figure as Morbius. He plays the part as a man who is so focused on his beloved Krell that he is blind to the truth staring him in the face. Pidgeon makes him a sympathetic character as well as a deeply, deeply flawed one. Alongside him is Anne Francis, all youthful naiveté and leg (Anne famously wore extremely short skirts in this movie) – she is an effective contrast to her father and ultimately helps him to see his mistake.

A young Leslie Nielsen – yes, that Leslie Nielsen – plays Commander Adams as a grouchy, by-the-book leader who believes in his mission and his crew. Nielsen plays it absolutely straight and leaves the comic relief to other characters, such as the hapless ship's cook (Earl Holliman). Doc Ostrow is played by Warren Stevens, who would go on to appear in Star Trek, Chief Quinn is played by Richard Anderson, who appeared as Oscar Goldman in 'The Six Million Dollar Man' and 'Bionic Woman' and First Officer Jerry Farman is played by Jack Kelly, who would soon go on to play Bart Maverick in the 'Maverick' TV series.

That leaves one vital cast member – Robby the Robot. Robby was the work of many people under the direction of Robert Kinoshita. Kinoshita also designed the Robot from 'Lost in Space' , hence the passing resemblance between the two automatons. Robby had a stuntman, Frankie Darro, inside and was memorably voiced by Marvin Miller. Robby was a hugely popular character and the prop was reused many times - for example, in 'The Twilight Zone' (a show which also reused the C57D model) and as late as the 1970s Robby popped up in an episode of Mork and Mindy. I'd say that was good workmanship for a movie prop!

Robby

The cast help convey the core themes of the movie: pride, ego, our hidden, dark sides and loss of innocence. The Krell, all those centuries ago, were guilty of monstrous pride and Morbius falls into the same trap. In life, we are often our own worst enemies and this is absolutely the case in 'Forbidden Planet'. As Altaira loses her innocence, by falling in love with Adams, it leads to Morbius finally realising the terrible truth – of course, he's powerless to do anything to stop the events that have been set in motion.

I've mentioned high production values. The movie utilises matte paintings – for example, the gorgeous backdrops of the surface of Altair IV. However, the really impressive use of paintings and sets is in the gargantuan machinery of the Krell city, where Morbius, Adams and Ostrow appear as ants as they walk through the still-active power generation mechanisms. The implied sense of scale is impressive even now. Had this section been poorly-done and underwhelming, it would have weakened the movie considerably. However, the whole sequence is a triumph and remains one of the more memorable moments in Sci-fi cinematic history.

Inside the Krell machinery

The influence 'Forbidden Planet' has had not only on Sci-fi, but beyond, is difficult to measure. There's the obvious things – Star Trek was clearly influenced heavily by the C57D and its crew. Gene Roddenberry was contradictory in his statements on this subject, but the comparisons are there – a deep space, faster than light ship; the Enterprise's transporter pads strongly resembling the deceleration tubes on the C57D . . even the Captain from the first Trek pilot 'The Cage', Christopher Pike, bears many similarities to Commander Adams.

Ben Burtt, who worked on sound on Star Wars, named the Krell machines as an influence. As you compare the huge shafts on the Death Star to those in the Krell city, it's hard not to see the similarity. Burtt was inspired to create similar sounds for those scenes. We could go on with similar instances of direct and indirect influences – suffice to say that 'Forbidden Planet' casts a very, very long shadow.

I suppose the thing I most love about it is that it fired my imagination. It still does. When I was a child I lived in a world where spaceships landed on the fields behind my house, containing invaders from Mars or Venus ready to battle the human race for domination of the Earth. I used to sit at night, staring at the stars, wondering who was looking back at me. 'Forbidden Planet' fit easily into my world view and helped shape it.

There be monsters!

I was forming an idea of the Universe as teeming with life with Earth a part of that whole. Reading, watching and listening to Sci-fi helped reinforce that view. I became convinced that, one day, we would indeed venture into our Solar System and beyond. You have to remember that the Moon landings were very recent then – I was five years old at the time of the final Apollo mission. It was exciting, it was real. We'd seen astronauts on the Moon – the exploits of the crew of the C57D didn't seem so far removed from the reality we had just witnessed.

Of course, 'Forbidden Planet' wasn't the only movie of the genre that I loved – 'When Worlds Collide', 'This Island Earth' and the George Pal 'War of the Worlds' are just three examples of other gems I watched with eyes wide and mouth agape. It was, though, my favourite, the one I most fondly remember and rewatch the most. If you have, somehow, incredibly, sadly, never seen 'Forbidden Planet', I recommend you take a trip to Altair IV aboard the C57D and see the wonders there for yourself.

Thanks for reading!

Hello and thank you for visiting my blog. This is my first post, so I'll talk a little about why I decided to start it and what I'll be writing about.

I have a lifelong love of science fiction and related genres. Yup, I'm a geek and unashamed. I was a geek decades before all those t-shirts appeared saying 'Geek and Proud!' . I've wondered how many of those shirt wearers were actually geeks and how many were 'faux geeks' jumping on the Big Bang Theory-inspired fad. It's like when you see kids wearing Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath shirts. Are they really fans or do the shirts just look cool?

Anyway. Back to the subject. A lot of my early memories involve Doctor Who, or Star Trek, or movies and comic books. When I was little, but old enough to start acquiring reliable memories, Jon Pertwee was the incumbent on Doctor Who. I loved his arch-nemesis, the Master, played with delightful gusto by the wonderful Roger Delgado, almost as much as I loved the Doctor himself.

Star Trek also loomed large over my formative years. My mum and dad liked to watch it and so did I. It was very popular in the UK – it started airing in July 1969 and was pretty much on the BBC constantly for years after. I remember playing Star Trek in the playground and arguing over who was going to be Kirk.

Being the early 70s, there were very few TV channels (until 1982, we had three – BBC1, BBC2 and ITV) and the days of every house have a video player were some way in the future. This meant that you had to wait for good movies to be broadcast – you couldn't go on the internet (the internet? What the hell was that?) to Amazon (isn't that a river?) and order a DVD (uh . . wasn't that something from some Outer Limits episode?) Netflix? Not even a gleam of a gleam in an entrepreneur's eye.

On the occasion that something I'd like to watch was on TV, I'd grab the opportunity. For example, Hammer Horror movies on Saturdays, when dad would make a big saucepan full of popcorn and we'd settle down to watch Christopher Lee in terrifying form as Dracula, usually pursued by his long-time friend Peter Cushing. Hammer movies were great and so quintessentially British. I don't remember sci-fi movies being on that often but when they were, you bet I watched. My favourite was Forbidden Planet, that towering edifice of sci-fi movies casting such a long, long shadow. The first time I saw it I was enthralled, fascinated and, of course, terrified. The scene where the invisible monster crashes repeatedly against the force fields, roaring with hate-fuelled rage, had me literally hiding behind the sofa. Good times!

As I grew older – I won't say 'grew up' as I think that's yet to happen – I read widely, watched avidly and wrote a little. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror – these were my favourite genres and still are. This blog comes out of this love. I don't want to criticise and complain; I want to celebrate the things I love and attempt to get that across to anyone who happens to read my posts. The title of the blog? Altair IV was the name of the Forbidden Planet. It seemed appropriate.

Thanks for reading!