OT: Sci-fi (was RE: Ultra-portable terminals)

[Fairlight]

At Fri, Jul 28, 2006 at 09:55:24AM -0700 or thereabouts, 
suspect Bill Campbell was observed uttering:
> 
> It was certainly better than the old Flash Gordon series where
> one could often see the string holding the space ship with sparks
> falling out of the back.

Better still...  Three letters and two words:

     BBC Special Effects

And as late as about 1989, no less.  "The Five Doctors" on DVD has
wonderful commentary by Terrance Dicks, describing himself why the effects
were always so poor.  My favourite was him referring to the IMPROVED,
digitally re-mastered CG version of the Time Scoop as, "Casper the Friendly
Time Scoop."  Cracked me up, hearing that!  The commentary on that import
DVD is worth the price of the disc for any fan.  (Peter Davison himself
comments with Dicks through the whole episode on that audio track.)

And after so many commentaries and documentaries, I'm convinced Wales is
really the Vancouver of British telly.  They use it for SO much cheap,
generic location work.

But yeah, BBC effects are usually the worst.  Now the Radiophonic Workshop
kicks major butt.  They've done some -really- innovative (if wacky and off
the wall, unorthodox) things over the years.

m->