Author Archives: Jack Knoll

UFO ‘Shadow Play’ and Space: 1999 ‘The Armageddon Engine’ by James Swallow

James Swallow’s new novellas, UFO: Shadow Play and Space: 1999: The Armageddon Engine, are an absolute treat for anyone who loves the detailed, high-stakes drama of the live-action Anderson canon. Swallow demonstrates how to immerse the reader in these worlds, capturing every inch of SHADO HQ and Moonbase Alpha with such vividness that they feel more real than ever before. You can practically hear the hum of the technology and feel the weight of the pressure building as both stories unfold.

David Graham (1925-2024)

David Graham, the actor who brought us the voices of Parker, Brains, and countless other Supermarionation characters, has died at the age of 99. Grandpa Twink, Fernando, Red Scalp, Big Ben, Dr. Beaker, Mitch the Monkey, Zarin, Bill Gibson, Professor Matic, Zoonie, Lt. Ninety, Boris Spacespy, Oink, Aloysius Parker, Brains, Kyrano, and Gordon Tracy… ThoseContinue reading “David Graham (1925-2024)”

Filmed In Malta: Rare 1970s Interview with Gerry Anderson

Thanks to the team at Filmed In Malta, I am delighted to share and analyse two archive newspaper reports from The Times of Malta dated 1971 and 1973, which shed some light on Gerry Anderson’s visits to Malta during the filming of both The Protectors and The Investigator. They are revealing glimpses into the shift in Gerry Anderson’s career, as well as the British film industry as a whole during the early 1970’s.

VIDEO: The Complete Map of Four Feather Falls Explained

In 1959, musical maestro Barry Gray approached Gerry Anderson and the AP Films team with a concept for a television series set in the Wild West. AP Films had recently started developing the technique that would later become known as Supermarionation to produce puppets with automatic electronic lip sync. Having worked for several years under the control of children’s author Roberta Leigh on The Adventures of Twizzle and the first series of Torchy The Battery Boy, Barry Gray’s Western series was the stepping stone for AP Films to become television producers in their own right. 

The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity REVIEW

Appreciating the timeline surrounding The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity and its inherent ties with Space: 1999 make for some interesting food for thought. The first season of Space: 1999 was shot between November 1973 and February 1975. It was a long and expensive shoot, the fruits of which would not be screened until September 1975. ITC more desperately than ever wanted to make its money back from a US network sale. The fate of the series, and seemingly Gerry’s future prospects would be measured on its American reception. Always looking forward and keen to improve, Anderson already knew that some changes to Space: 1999’s format were needed for the second season even before the first had been transmitted. He requested that script writer Johnny Byrne conduct an analysis of the first season to find its strengths and weaknesses.

LIVE STREAM: Battle of the Thunderbirds Craft

There’s something major going down on Tracy Island. On Friday, February 16, 2024 at 7:00 PM GMT, I’ll be hosting and participating in a debate over on the official Gerry Anderson channels across YouTube, Facebook, X (Twitter), and beyond. We’re settling an age-old argument between Thunderbirds fans – which is truly the greatest of the International Rescue craft?

Cor. A look back at 2023.

Want a taste of everything you might have missed on Security Hazard this year? Yes, even the chunky bits that smell a bit off but are still within their sell-by date. Come on, there’s loads to get through because I’ve actually been quite busy for the past 12 months…

The Secret Service – 13. More Haste Less Speed

This is the big one. Not just the finale of The Secret Service but the end of an amazing decade for the crew of Century 21 Films in Slough perfecting the techniques of Supermarionation filmmaking. Once this episode was in the can, the puppet stages on Stirling Road closed for good on January 24th 1969 … until Thunderbirds returned to the trading estate in 2015 for the production of three episodes to celebrate its 50th anniversary, but that’s another story.