Slideshow at the link. My favorite is the white gorilla with the single big horn on top of his head.
Star Trek's 10 Cheesiest Classic Creatures: "Having conquered television, movies, videogames, comic books, paperbacks and lunch boxes, the original Star Trek crew moves into high definition this week. The first season of Star Trek: The Original Series beams onto store shelves Tuesday in an HD DVD/DVD combo pack that looks better than ever.
To celebrate, we're reliving the glory of 10 of the best monsters and creatures to stomp, ooze or float across the screen in the groundbreaking TV series. Thanks to the magic of high def, and a painstaking digital remastering effort, you can now see these monsters in more detail than ever before -- although, to be fair, that doesn't make them look any more convincing."
13 comments:
I'd have to go with the mobile pizza of _Devil in the Dark_ (which, I understand, had 3 people underneath it).
Ya know, just because those Wired writers can disable a Cruise missle in flight with a few keystrokes from deep inside their Sunland-Tujunga hobo jungles, that doesn't mean they necessarily have any artistic discernment. The Star Trek scripts more than made up for the crappy budget allowance granted to the effects department.
Yeah, and back then there wasn't much they could do in the way of special effects. No Industrial Light and Magic to cgi everything in.
Well, actually, Wah Chang and the crew over at the first-series OUTER LIMITS did some wonderful things, and I liked the model work, at least, on the first ST. Have to agree with Elizabeth about the carpet sample, but it was a better than average episode, one of the few aliens who wasn't an actor in bad makeup.
Then again, the ridiculous version of Fredric Brown's "Arena" was among the worst of the episodes, and the hissing sound effects of the world's stiffest lizard man didn't help.
For cheesiest I'd say the papier mache dragon witht the Mr. T jewelry takes the prize.
That's the one, Bob. Definitely read the story instead.
BTW, Elizabeth, I wonder if you're thinking of THE CREEPING TERROR (iirc), another sinister carpet, which had multiple people under it. I dunno that ST's scrap-pile was large enough to allow for more than one, or needed more.
The Creeping Terror is right up (or down) there with Mesa of Lost Women.
I recently tried to watch some episodes of a show I so loved 40 years ago. Other than the occasional interesting idea, there's so little to recommend it. Cheesy acting, effects, fight scenes. The sequels hold up better. I think they didn't find it necessary to demand much from the actors and that's what they got. Other shows of the time (and even earlier times) are so much better.
Patti, as a fan that was there when the Salt Vampire first premiered, You are so right. I was a callow youth of fifteen at the time. The fondness is still there, though. I mean, compared to the other SF(and I use the term loosely) show of the time, Lost In Space, it was so much better. Maybe that says more about network television than anything else.
STAR TREK strikes me as dumbed down 1960s ANALOG, often hackneyed and lecturing, but somewhat reminiscent of ASTOUNDING's better days in previous decades. THE PRISONER, which was running in the UK at the time and got to the US for the first time in 1968, strikes me as dumbed down 1960s NEW WORLDS. LOST IN SPACE and the other Irwin Allen monstrosities (VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, THE TIME TUNNEL, LAND OF THE GIANTS) were just dumbed down, as was THE IMMORTAL and THE INVADERS. Even when too cute, THE AVENGERS was certainly a more satisfying fix of sf-lite. The ST sequel series didn't actually manage to do anything good, I'm afraid, till after Roddeberry's death...till then, THE NEXT GENERATION was a bad regurgitation of ST with less excuse for the goofiness. But you have to love the endlessly repeated fight-music of the first series, and the glycerin lens for every woman who was supposed to catch your eye and/or Kirk's. Or not.
Sorry but the worst of Trek was nothing compared with some of the worst of Doctor Who. The Zarbi and Menoptra from "The Web Planet" still make me shake my head in stunned amazement. The Ice Warriors were sophisticated by comparison, even if you could see the zippers on their costumes.
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