Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 06:00:17 -0700 From: jquimby@utmmg.med.uth.tmc4tag.edu (Jeanette Quimby) Subject: Snow on Thule >David asked if anyone knew if about the formaldehyde on Thule? Well, in the making of S1999 there does lay mention of an "episode" where both Landau and Bain were extremely concerned about the set - due to chemical composition (if I remember correctly). Shooting was delayed and a British physician came in to verify the "safety" of the set. He stated it was okay to work there - but this is "according" to the book after he had a few drinks for breakfast/lunch - which left both Bain and Landau extremely nervous about working on the set. I can double check this evening when I get home, as senility has been creating havoc with my memory - but I do remember this being mentioned in the book. Jeanette P.S. Keep in mind though that safety standards in the 70s compared to the 90s were much different. We realize that Formaldehyde is a carcinogen now - but what about then. When I started working at the University 12 years ago, our histo techs were not always working under hoods with their formalin and formaldehyde containders - now they are. "The times they are a changin". Makes you wonder about possible lawsuits for unsafe working conditions - allright where's our attorney out there!
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 14:33:41 -0700 From: Bill Greer (bgreer@tri44con.net) In response to this formaldehyde question, I inquired of a friend who is a PhD in biochemistry research at Jewish Hospital in Denver, Colorado. I forwarded him a piece of the interview which stated that they used formaldehyde in making snow to which he replied: >Indeed you are quite correct. Yes, formaldehyde is a carcinogen and the fumes are >quite dangerous. The reason that they couldn't smell it any more, is because the >sensory receptors in their noses were dead. Also, their livers are not in great shape. >Interestingly, they make us wear finger badges to monitor formaldehyde levels if we >have to work with it. Take it for what it's worth, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to work in there! Bill
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 15:13:58 -0700 From: "Allen R. Barnella" (barnella@cris4tag.com) Subject: Re: Keith Wilson Interview from Fab24 On Wed, 10 Apr 1996 Sfcafeguy@aol.com wrote: > > [Keith Wilson Interview] > > They used formaldehyde to create the snow, but it did leave an > > odour. On Thu, 11 Apr 1996 David Weis wrote: > Yikes! Does anyone know if this is accurate? Formaldehyde is a > potent carcinogen. They used to use it to preserve biological > specimens, but it posed too much danger to the biologists. > > I have trouble believing it was formaldehyde. Can anyone shed some > more light on this? Is Keith Wilson just confused? David: Following is a passage from "Art Direction" chapter of "The Making of Space:1999" by Tim Heald, published by Ballantine Books in November 1976. Although nobody specifically says it was formaldehyde, formaldehyde is mentioned by Gerry Anderson. And if I recall correctly wasn't formaldehyde fumes also a problem with the blown in foam insulation that was used in house walls back in the '70s. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nor is this the only time that ordinary, everyday mid-twentieth-century substances and products have been turned to science-fiction use: "We used some detergent once for an ice-snow blizzard that looked terrific but took the skin off Martin Landau's face." Then there was the celebrated matter if the ice caves on the planet Ultina Thule in "Death's Other Dominion." The script called for a planet on which the temperature fell to 170 degrees below zero at night, where the inhabitants claimed to be "living people frozen in eternity." Wilson had been approached by someone who claimed he could produce blizzards from a spray gun, and indeed he could. On the strength of this ne was brought in to construct a special ice set on M stage, but unfortunately the material he used to simulate snow and ice, while visually effective, had certain other, less pleasant properties. "It looked beautiful," says Wilson, "but it did let off fumes." Not surprisingly, when the actors learned that the set was making people cough and splutter they became exceedingly nervous. Special vacuum pumps were brought in to suck out the nauseating fumes, but people who ventured into this land of synthetic snow and ice still ended up gasping and struggling for breath. A public health inspector was called for, and he pronounced the atmosphere uncongenial but safe. By this time Martin Landau and Barbara Bain had heard about the poisonous planet and they in turn became agitated. Cables were dispatched to America and for a time it seemed that the episode was doomed. Despairing, Gerry Anderson hired an eminent doctor from Harley Street--where by tradition London's most respected and expensive doctors have their consulting rooms. The great man duly arrived, sniffed his way round M stage without collapsing, and pronounced the air quite safe for work. Vastly relieved, Anderson offered him a prelunch drink while they waited in his office to give the Landaus the good news. One drink became two, and by the time the Landaus emerged from the meeting in which they had been engaged, the doctor's speech was less than precise and his manner less than convincing. Anderson says he was unable even to pronounce the word formaldehyde. The Landaus were not impressed by his expertise, particularly when their independent expert maintained that the level of gas considered safe by the London doctor was, in his opinion, not safe at all. In the end more gas was vacummed out, a great deal of persuasion was used, and the episode was filmed with nothing worse than some sore throats. Keith Wilson recalls one moment from the pageant: "All these important people--health inspectors and people from laboratories and so on--turned up and were going round doing their tests. And all the time they were doing them, there was a group of riggers sitting in the middle of the set eating prawn sandwiches. When someone told them what was going on all they said was 'What smell?'!" from The Making of Space: 1999 by Tim Heald Copyright 1976 by Gerry Anderson Marketing Limited ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fly Like An Eagle, Allen barnella@concentric.net
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 17:55:10 -0700 From: Ronald Dudley (dudleyrd@expert.cc.purdue4tag.edu) Thanks to the Sfcafeguy for the Fab #24 interview with Set Designer Keith Wilson. > YOU HAD A BIT OF A PROBLEM WITH THE ULTIMA THULE SET ON DEATH'S OTHER > DOMINION. > > Yes, well you probably know the story about that. I built the set out of > rubbish, literally. I went around the lot at Pinewood, collecting all sorts > of bits and pieces. We compiled these shapes, and then we covered them with > foam, to lose all the roughness and give it nice icy shapes. They used > formaldehyde to create the snow, but it did leave an odour. It was a "bleach" > smell or something like it, and it made your nostrils tingle. He doesn't say the snow was "made of formaldehyde", but he seems to say it was made using formaldehyde. Whatever residue remained may not have been so bad, not like working with it as morticians used to do. [....] Thanks to Allan Barnella for his contribution to this discussion: > Nor is this the only time that ordinary, everyday mid-twentieth-century > substances and products have been turned to science-fiction use: "We > used some detergent once for an ice-snow blizzard that looked terrific > but took the skin off Martin Landau's face." Can formaldehyde be called a "detergent"? Again, it sounds like that the snow was not formaldehyde, but possibly was made using it. I think formaldehyde and Martin Landau have crossed paths again since 1999. Movie historian/critic Michael Medved has said that Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi consumed the stuff to get high/stoned! Apparently, during prohibition, Lugosi got hooked on the stuff, and Wood picked it up from his friendship with Lugosi. Or maybe it's just Hollywood gossip?
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 14:53:07 -0700 From: DVEZINA@socrate.droit.usherb4tag.ca The pseudo attorney's here! Hi! Yeah... I can see that from here: Koenig and Russell v. The British Chemical Co. or whatever. Would make a fine fine 1999 satire, along with "Taybor the trader v. Moonbase Alpha" or "The Estate of Commissionner Simmonds v. John Koenig" (for putting him on the alien spaceship in the first place!), etc. Now the question: which court would have juridiction?!? ;-) ...Dunno about that one! Daphne
[EDITOR'S NOTE: From here, it veers into rather OT humor, but then return
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 21:25:14 -0700 From: jflmgcnp@capital44net.com (John J Fleming @ COLD NORTH Publishing) Subject: Court juridiction?!? Ok. Its season 2, Freiberger, in his finite wisdom, brings in the Judge... A Mutant Vegatarian Kangaroo!
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 08:04:01 -0700 From: jflmgcnp@capital44net.com (John J Fleming @ COLD NORTH Publishing) Subject: Re: Court jurisdiction?!? Try getting some sleep Robert!! Much too late for you to be up. You sent this to me, and only me. So, now I'm passing it on. >From: Sfcafeguy@aol4tag.com >Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 01:41:18 -0400 >To: jflmgcnp@capitalnet.com >Subject: Re: Court jurisdiction?!? > >John Fleming writes: > >>Ok. Its season 2, Freiberger, in his finite wisdom, >>brings in the Judge... >> >>A Mutant Vegatarian Kangaroo! > >Hi John: > >Love that line in his "finite" wisdom. > >Maybe Freiberger could have just resurrected the guy in the carrot suit from >what is universally considered to be -- especially by the cast of the show -- >the all-time worst episode of "Lost in Space" ever: "The Great Vegetable >Rebellion" by regular LIS writer Peter Packer. Who knows, this episode >probably inspired "The Rules of Luton." > >I think I've stumbled across another similar themes form for you, Ronald. > >Poor Freddie, I hope he's not one of the lurkers on this list! > >Robert
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 11:55:36 -0700 From: Sfcafeguy@aol4tag.com Subject: HAL (the computer in 2001): My Mind Is Going...I Can Feel It. Ronald Dudley writes: >Robert has been trying to answer too many emails lately! "Return of the >Archons" WAS A STAR TREK EPISODE! The 1999 episode was "The Mark of >Archanon." Oh, God, I was HOWLING when I read this! :) First I send e-mail to John Feming direct and now this. It's true that I'm losing it. I've gotten/responded to 861 e-mails since April 1 and my brain is a little fried at this point (an understatement). Not a good day to be sending out Earthfall to so many people but I'm going to attempt it anyway! FYI I had a high school teacher who actually made us watch and take a test on the Star Trek episode "Return of the Archons." I even got extra credit for knowing what the "NCC" in the Enterprise's NCC-1701 stood for (Naval Construction Contract). This teacher's either in jail now or on probation for a drug violation -- no lie. :) Robert
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 14:26:57 -0700 From: jflmgcnp@capital44net.com (John J Fleming @ COLD NORTH Publishing) So, are you saying that if you take too much of an interest in Star Trek, like sharing it with people, you will end up a jailed druggie??? Ouch!!
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 17:26:41 -0700 From: Sfcafeguy@aol4tag.com LOL. No way. Just saying he was so much fun that of course he was considered suspect by the old guard and eventually drummed out of the teaching establishment and into a life of "crime." Just one man's story. No big lessons to be learned here. Robert
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 23:35:41 -0700 From: Zarf Vreex (zarf@cml4tag.com) >This teacher's either in jail now or on probation >for a drug violation -- no lie. :) Mine was arrested for child molesting....again not a lie.
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 01:42:06 -0700 From: zarf@cml4tag.com (Zarf Vreex) Subject: Re: HAL (the computer in 2001): My Mind Is Going...I Can Feel It. >Maybe we should start a support group or something! :) > >Robert Why not, the world could always use another weirdo self-help group.
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 19:08:24 -0700 From: jflmgcnp@capital44net.com (John J Fleming @ COLD NORTH Publishing) WE HAVE! - The Space:1999 Mailing list. Patient Zero - Nick Sayer. Well, he did create this thing didn't he??
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 05:52:03 -0700 From: Ermes Ventisetti (monachus@xtreme4tag.it) Subject: Microsoft,HAL computer and the our computers Hello, HURRA for the MICROSOFT! In the CD-ROM Cinemania 95 we could to listen the voice of HAL,the computer of Odissea 2001.Here the brief comment: "HAL,the computer (the voice of Douglas Rain) discovers,with mounting alarm,that David Bowman (played by Keir Dullea) is "killing" him by disconnecting his circuitry". We thank Bill Gates that has had the courtesy of help the mailing list of S1999 in his discussions on HAL. We thank also for the "bugs" of Windows:if the computers of the Moonbase Alpha have all the problems of our computers, poor Alphans!!! Ciao Ermes
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 09:48:56 -0700 From: Chanathip Trivuth (chanatip@lox44info.co.th) Subject: RE: Microsoft,HAL computer and the our computers (off topic) A lot of speaking about HAL on the list!!!! So, I want to share some HAL information. May be some still don't know HAL. Who is HAL? His brother is very famous...... HAL IBM JCN Do you see the sequence letters ; ) Chanathip Trivuth System Engineer - Moonbase Alpha chanatip@loxinfo.co.th )):##====##:CB> + ~~~~ +
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 11:06:26 -0700 From: Ronald Dudley (dudleyrd@expert.cc.purdue4tag.edu) Arthur C. Clarke has always maintained that the letters preceeding I-B-M in the alphabet, which are H-A-L, is just a coincidence. He claims that HAL comes from (something like) Heuristic Algorithm.
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 13:16:47 -0700 From: agirton@accs4tag.net (Alan Girton) Subject: RE: Microsoft,HAL computer and the our computers (off topic) The venerable Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the 2001 novelization and = Stanley Kubrick both went on record as saying HAL had no correlation to = IBM. I do not remember the genesis of HAL, other than it stood for = something.
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 17:20:38 -0700 From: jflmgcnp@capital44net.com (John J Fleming @ COLD NORTH Publishing) Subject: HAL IBM JCN - Interesting..... Well, I never noticed that before. Planned?? Or accident?? Maybe when we find Bergman, he will know the answer!