Chewbacca speaks English in this footage from "The Empire Strikes Back"

I'm not a huge STAR WARS guy - enough to see THE FORCE AWAKENS in the theater within the first week, but not enough to see it on the first night.  (My geekdom is genetic, so I was bound to see it eventually.)  That said, I'm still kind of astonished that there hasn't been a lot of mention about this footage that was clearly not used in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK that shows Chewbacca speaking English in a severe accent.



Unlike some of the behind-the-scenes footage in which Peter Mayhew is just speaking his lines as filler, this seems more like the character speaking his dialogue "in character."  I'm reasonably sure this was never meant to be part of the film itself, but it's still a curiously finished segment that shows Mayhew was committed to the character, even when his lines were going to get replaced completely by the yowling noises we know today.

Evening Entertainment: Michael Moorcock on 1979's "Time Out of Mind"

"Time Out of Mind" was a 1979 BBC TV series focusing on science fiction and fantasy that I can't find a heck of a lot of info about, but it sure looks nifty from what I've seen.  This episode serves as a great documentary/interview on Michael Moorcock, the science fiction/fantasy writer, artist and Hawkwind collaborator, who turns 75 today.  Happy birthday, sir!

It's intermission time! Enjoy some STAR SNACKS!

Popcorn?  Soda?  Candy?  It's all available in the lobby... IN SPAAAAAAACE!

Evening Entertainment: The 1999 Sci-Fi Channel pilot (?) "Warped in Space"

Here's an oddity -- a pilot (or perhaps just a special) made for the Sci-Fi Channel (back when it WAS "Sci-Fi") starring Jim Jackman as the captain of a ship that's been all-but-destroyed due to an asteroid field.  He finds himself trapped with a trio of space losers (including an alien with the body of a woman and the voice of a man) in a hyper-frenetic situation with loads of ridiculous effects and plenty of quick-fire cultural references.  "Red Dwarf" looks like an obvious inspiration, but co-director/producer Chuck Cirino was also a director of mid-'90s oddity "Weird TV" and the Shadoe Stevens special "Shadoevision," both of which share similarities to this one.  Cirino is better known as a composer for a vast amount of the films of Jim Wynorski and Fred Olen Ray, and star Jackman played "Major Asshole" in SPACEBALLS.  Writer Eric Truehart later wrote episodes of "Invader Zim," including the great "Dibship Rising."

Wink Martindale stars in a vision of the future of 1999 in 1967's "1999 A.D."

Oh, sure, we all know and love Wink Martindale, who turns 81 today, from his work as the host of more game shows than you can name, but did you know he was also a FATHER OF THE FUTURE? In this 1967 film, produced by the Philco-Ford Company for their 75th anniversary, a family lives in the far-away time of 1999, filled with future cars, Martian botony and computers.  Hey, at least it gets idea behind the computer stuff pretty correct.  (Interestingly, Martindale's character is supposed to be 45 years old, which must have rankled the man who was then in his mid-30s.) 

Evening Entertainment - 1979 Canadian animated special "Intergalactic Thanksgiving, or Please Don't Eat the Planet" from the director of ROCK & RULE

Made by Nelvana productions and featuring the voices of Sid Caesar, Catherine O'Hara and Al Waxman, INTERGALACTIC THANKSGIVING presents a musical, cosmic retelling of the United States holiday, as a family of puritan farmers (they forbid singing for some reason) comes to a new planet only to discover that they're not the only ones there.  Their new home is ruled by a king determined to be the funniest creature in the land, and he's not happy that the rest of his kingdom finds the new country folk so amusing.  It's an odd special, and I'm a little unclear as to what lessons are supposed to be learned by this other than something vague and environmental, but it's certainly interesting.  Director Clive A. Smith later directed 1983's ROCK AND RULE.

Morning Music Video - .357 Lover's "Event Horizon"

Who the heck would have thought Paul W.S. Anderson's 1997 flick that serves as a "greatest hits" package of ALIEN rip-offs could serve for such musical inspiration?  John Cunningham's band turns the movie into a work of anthem rock that the devil himself would be proud of.

German 8mm version of Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, the beautifully-lensed science fiction film from Italian genre specialist Mario Bava, has recently been issued on a Blu-Ray that does an amazing job with its eye-popping color.  But the film, often mentioned as a forerunner to ALIEN, has taken on many forms over the years, including this 16-minute edit released to 8mm film collectors in Germany.  The color isn't as nice, the film is (obviously) severely truncated, and it's in German, but it's still an interesting look at how die-hard genre fans would have to watch movies at home before the VCR era.  (Also, see PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES.)

Evening Entertainment: Unsold pilot for "Galaxy Beat," a 1994 sci-fi comedy from "Sledge Hammer" writer with Gregory Harrison, Roddy McDowall and Tracy Scoggins

Broad science fiction comedy is a tough sell on television -- just look at the short run of "Quark."  "Galaxy Beat" is a perfectly entertaining pilot that probably could have been developed into a highly entertaining show if they'd allowed to develop it.  The pilot, written by "Sledge Hammer!"'s Alan Spancer, is filled with sight gags, many of which work quite well.  (There are also a lot of cultural references that date it quite a bit.)  But Harrison seems to be enjoying himself as the amazingly-named Dax Steelbrow, and the supporting cast (which also includes "The Flash"'s Alex Désert and the voice of Michael Dorn) is just as solid.  Much of it works at least as well as SPACEBALLS.

Evening Entertainment: Jonathan Heap's "12:01 PM" starring Kurtwood Smith

The concept of a person repeating the same time period over and over until they get it right is probably most associated with GROUNDHOG DAY, but Heap's Oscar-nominated short (based on a 1973 short story by Richard Lupoff) considers the idea in the guise of a character drama, with ROBOCOP's Kurtwood Smith as a mild-mannered man who finds himself stuck in a loop. It was remade as a made-for-TV thriller by FOX a few years later, but this is the sort of high-concept, low-budget science fiction short films are made for.