Inspirations - Scifi/fantasy Series Part 3

Well, I'd only intended one post on this, but we're up to three already! This, however, is the last, and I hope I've stirred up a little nostalgia with these. Or possibly just shown my age and poor taste. :-O

9. Sapphire and Steel. I loved these, even though only six episodes were ever made. The stories creeped me out. Sapphire and Steel are two human-looking agents who travel throughout time and space keeping humanity safe. These are more though-provoking than action stories, and the SFX and sets are very limited, but that intrigued me. As a child who suffered badly from nightmares, this particular episode had me so freaked out that I imagined I could see 'the darkness' moving around in my own room. This clip is the worst and probably the source of my Siah-dhu - the dark entity in Keir and the associated stories.




10. Stargate. I enjoyed the film and watched the first series, although I found some of the story-lines a little dubious. Their use of the 'stargates' annoyed me a bit since I already had a similar mode of transport in mind for my own travellers, but what can you do?! :-P A scientific/military team of humans travel across space through special gateways, encountering alien races and battling the tyrannical parasitic Goa'uld.




11. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I LOVED Douglas Adams! Not just this spoofy scifi series but the Dirk Gently books too (which, incidentally, got me into the poetry of Coleridge). The accidental travels of Arthur Dent and his alien companion Ford Prefect had me hooked from the first episode. Frankly I was a little disappointed by the film version. I liked the idea that alien space ships weren't all gleaming metal, that sticking a fish in your ear worked better than a translator, and that Vogon poetry is the third worst in the Universe. "Oh freddled gruntbuggly." Oh, and don't forget your towel. :D




12. Space 1999. This didn't even come up in the comments from the first Inspirations post, but I have to mention it. This was compulsive viewing for me on a Saturday morning. I'm not sure the idea was terribly feasible - the Moon is blasted out of Earth's orbit after a nuclear explosion (fair enough) but the number of aliens and other worlds they encounter on their journey deeper into space seemed beyond reasonable coincidence. My favourite character was the shape-changing Maya. Even though most of the aliens were awful rubber suits, some of the stories really stuck with me, and the opening credits with their dramatic theme got me every time. :)



So that's it - 12 scifi/fantasy series that have influenced me along the way. Did I miss any of yours out? :-P