We don't think Dusty's missed out many of TV's 1970s heroes, including those from British series such as Space: 1999.
"This thing has preoccupied so much of my free time I'm grateful to have finally finished it, although at the same time, it has been one of the funnest things I've ever done," says Los Angeles-based artist Dusty, who first posted the illustration earlier this year..
"It's all digital: the Eagle Transporter took the longest to draw and Richard Benjamin as Quark is probably the most obscure character."
Way way back we pointed you in the direction of some SF related Lego, specifically a Tardis and Blake's 7's Liberator, so we are overdue for some more.
MOCpages is a Lego fansite which allows Lego builders to put up photos of their own creations and some are remarkable. Ron Haller is a Gerry Anderson fan who is building his way through some of his favourite Anderson vehicles in Lego. Not the obvious Thunderbird 2 or Spectrum SPV for Ron, instead he has recreated some of the UFO, Space:1999 and new Captain Scarlet vehicles.
He is currently working on a Space:1999 Eagle and based on the section of Eagle pod that is previewed on the site it will be a truly impressive model. We wish him luck with it.
The Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank near the London Eye will host a concert of music composed by the late Barry Gray for the TV series and films of Gerry Anderson entitled Thunderbirds Are Go! The Barry Gray Centenary Concert in November.
The Thunderbirds March may be the most familiar and famous piece of Gray's music but he wrote the themes and incidental music for many Anderson TV series from The Adventures Of Twizzle right up to Space:1999, as well as the two Thunderbirds puppet movies, the barely known Gerry Anderson directed B movie Crossroads To Crime and the live action film Doppleganger, which is due to be released on DVD in the UK in September 2008 under its American title of Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun. While best known as a composer Gray also came up with the original idea for the Anderson puppet series Four Feather Falls.
Gerry Anderson will be the special guest for the evening of music performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Francois Evans, and the event will be compared by actor Brian Blessed, no stranger himself to Gerry Anderson productions having appeared in Space:1999 and Into Infinity.
A charity event in aid of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund, the concert will take place in London's Royal Festival Hall at 7:30pm on Saturday 8 November 2008 and tickets are now available via the Barry Gray website.
downthetubes is sad to report the death of writer and script editor Johnny Byrne.
Byrne, born in Dublin in 1935, worked on many British television shows including Heartbeat, Tales of the Unexpected and the two BBC One vets series All Creatures Great And Small and One By One.
For us, he will be best remembered as the script editor during the first season of Gerry Anderson's Space:1999 and as the writer of the Doctor Who stories Arc of Infinity, Warriors of the Deep and The Keeper of Traken.
In writing The Keeper of Traken for Doctor Who he reintroduced The Master, played by the late Anthony Ainley, to the series and created the Doctor's companion Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton. For Space:1999 he wrote eight of the first season episodes and another three in the second season including The Metamorph which introduced the regular alien character Maya, played by Catherine Schell.
Fanderson chairman Nick Williams said, "Although we didn't get the chance to have Johnny along to many events, everyone who got a chance to meet him quickly learned what a warm, intelligent and humourous man he was. He was always very supportive of Space:1999 and the club's activities and will be greatly missed."
Actor Barry Morse, best known for his role as Lt Philip Gerard in the classic drama The Fugitive but who also starred as knowledgeable Victor Bergman in the first season of Gerry Anderson’s live action series Space:1999, died earlier this week after a short illness. He was 89.
His much-praised career spanned more than seven decades, and his official web site estimates the actor played more than 3,000 roles on radio, television, stage and in film.
He was a five-time winner of Canada's Best Television Actor award and the former Artistic Director of the famed Shaw Festival of Canada.
"Up against Martin Landau and Barbara Bain’s comically straight-laced turns, Morse provided some much-needed sparkle," writes Mark Wright in a tribute to the actor in The Stage. "When asked to rattle off some piece of technobabble, there’d be a mischievous smile pulling at the corners of his mouth before he delivered undeliverable lines with gusto. More actors in science-fiction shows could learn from his fine example – take it seriously, but not too seriously…"
Barry's autobiography, Remember with Advantages, was published in 2006, in which Barry candidly related his childhood as a Cockney boy in the East End of London and his win, against all odds, of a full scholarship to the famed Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 15.
He describes how this unlikely beginning propelled him into an international career on stage and screen, including starring roles on Broadway, London's West End, and in television series such as The Fugitive, Space:1999, and The Winds of War.
He crossed paths with numerous notable figures along the way, including George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Peter Cushing, Alfred Hitchcock, David Janssen, Robert Mitchum, and many others.
Speaking to the BBC, Barry's son, Hayward Morse, said his father's proudest achievement was reviving the George Bernard Shaw theatre festival in Ontario, which he rescued from financial crisis after becoming its Artistic Director in 1966.
