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Post by Shonokin on May 31, 2005 9:19:18 GMT -8
So I remember in the 80s seeing a Pete Townsend (maybe it was Brian May since he did some soundtrack stuff for the UK version of the show?) music video based off of this show Star Fleet and that's all I had ever heard of it until I stumbled on a website dedicated to the show. It looks like it was of Japanese origin but I've no idea of what the original Nihongo title is. Anyone ever see it? Looks kinda fun if you're into puppet theater type action movies like Legend of the Sacred Stone. |
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Post by Xenorama ™ on May 31, 2005 10:00:36 GMT -8
i think it was Brian May, but it seems like he had done a solo album around that time as well, which had Eddie Van Halen guesting on it. at least that's in the video i remember.
i never saw the show back then, but it seems to have made an impression on the people that did. looks cool enough. i know there is someone here who will know more about the show than me, though.
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Post by el-brazo on Jun 1, 2005 19:56:47 GMT -8
Shonokin: > Anyone ever see it? I bought the series from one of those British guys on DVD. It's made from the official American tapes and the quality is okay. I love it, it's fun and the English dub is great. Xenorama: Got my new PC some days ago, but I am currently very busy and I still have to figure out a lot about the whole DVD stuff. At the moment nothing seems to work like it should ... but if you're interested I can make you a copy of those DVDs as soon as I have some time. Wow, that thing's one fast machine ... eh ... compared to my old 600 Mhz Pentium ... 
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Post by celamowari on Jun 21, 2005 18:53:46 GMT -8
Yes, it was Brian May. I seem to recall that his son was a big fan.
I have, or at least had some episodes of it. It's a dubbed version of a Japanese show called X BOMBER. It was created by Go Nagai, famed for Mazinger Z, Devilman, Cutey Honey, etc.
As a point of trivia, one of the voice actors in STAR FLEET is Garrick Hagon ("Biggs Darklighter" from STAR WARS).
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jun 21, 2005 19:32:51 GMT -8
that was his last name? bet he was glad he lived through ten seconds of those first three SW movies. |
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Post by August on Sept 1, 2005 8:39:34 GMT -8
X-BOMBER is a quest series. Alien invaders raid our solar system with their sites on Earth, and a Princess goes aboard a spaceship with a rag-tag crew, to find a legendary jewel that will save us all. BTW, the spaceship transforms into a giant robot! The series was created in the style of the Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series, but with rod puppetts, not marionettes.
Every scene is a special effect, so it's interesting to look at -- especially the villains -- and a hard-rock sound track by Bow Wow (who later broke internationally as Vow Wow). The producers of the English version, dumped the Bow Wow track and hired Brian May. Pretty cool little show, that winded up being edited into a series of movies, and aired on Showtime back in the day... briefly released on VHS, too (under the "Starfleet" moniker). There was a well-researched, heavily illustrated featured article on the show, in "Fantastic Films" magazine (a well edited, slick magazine, that unfortunately got lost in the shuffle in the early 1980s) -- they also did a great article on the Godzilla series, with rare behind-the-scenes photographs, which I still haven't seen reprinted in any other magazine or book since.
If you've ever liked a Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series, you'll love X-BOMBER/STARFLEET. Anyhow, there are some really great UK STARFLEET worship pages out there -- check 'em out...
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Nov 1, 2007 15:40:45 GMT -8
i have that issue, with Godzilla. some great photos i had never seen, and lacked the usual condescending nature a lot of reviews/articles in other zines had.
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Post by Shonokin on Nov 2, 2007 7:31:36 GMT -8
I have a bunch of Fantastic Films in box in the basement of my Moms house somewhere (along with a ton of Famous Monsters, Monster Times and other genre mags). Probably haven't seen the light of day in 25 years!
I wound up getting STARFLEET on VHS to DVD rip shortly after I started this thread. I actually found it a little hard to sit through several eps at once. Definitely not for marathon viewing.
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Post by Shonokin on Nov 3, 2007 16:37:24 GMT -8
Speaking of puppets and magazines, the lastest FILMFAX has a nice article on Mike Trim, the illustrator/designer of the mecha from a lot of the Gerry Anderson productions. EDIT: Actually this is a serialization of the book THE FUTURE WAS FAB: THE ART OF MIKE TRIM. It will run over the course of the next 3 to 5 issues. |
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Post by Shonokin on Sept 21, 2011 12:17:31 GMT -8
So Star Fleet got a legit DVD release last year. It even has some special features and the big boxed set listed below has two booklets, a poster, etc. I just bought the slimline version (1/2 the price of the box set) which I'm guessing is the DVDs without all the paper extras. |
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