DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH! Appreciation AND Continuity Order

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421

Filmation could do great work but it was very simple in comparison to Thundercats and numerous other shows. Maybe a different animation company doing the cartoon would have changed the fate of the toy line.

Mind you Mattel got DIC to do The New Adventures of He-Man after the closure of Filmation and it might have had sleeker animation but the designs and the quality of the writing on that show was pretty poor.

I should have been working on the G.C.S.E. art course work more but I didn’t LOL. I remember one of my friends went on holiday to Ibiza so me and another friend from my art class hung about and said we were going to work hard that week on our art course work but instead we ended up watching a Scooby Doo marathon on Cartoon Network and music videos from festivals etc.

422

Ah, the best laid plans . . .

And yes, DIC - their animation was better than filmation, and they had some great theme songs in their back catalogue (Knights Of Justice, Pole Position, Jayce And The Wheeled Warriors) but most of their stuff passed under the average radar (but of course my radar are very far from average!). Probably their biggest hit is Ulysses 31, which was basically the Greek myths in outer space. They also gave us C.O.P.S., but there’s nothing in their back catalogue that really stands out as anything special.

423

DIC also made the second series of G.I. Joe. While they managed to get a lot of the original voice cast on board it was doomed to be not as successful from the start as the series they worked on was to promote the 87/88 onwards toys and they were…TERRIBLE.
Why they lot DIC do G.I. Joe is beyond me when they could have let them do another Transformers series which was a lot ore popular worldwide.

DIC definitely did do some good cartoons though.

424

Oh, they did some good stuff - but there was nothing that belongs in my absolute top echelon of childhood memories. Unless you count the Knights Of Justice theme song. Best theme song ever.

Looking back, the concept of Knights Of Justice is not dissimilar to the story of The Prisoner Of Zenda. Ever read it or seen a film version?

425

There is so many good theme songs. I must really try and create my favourite list. But then would it need lyrics or should it be instrumentals as well.

I have heard of TPOZ and I think I seen bits of both films during the day on TV but I didn’t really pay much attention to them.

BTW as we were also speaking of the summer of 2000. It was in September of 2000 when I discovered how good Queen were. I knew of Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions and We Will Rock You but that was about it. But I really liked the Highlander film. I had seen bits of it when I was younger but I watched a lot of the Highlander cartoon series and liked it and it was on one Friday night and I was in watching it and I instantly loved Princes of the Universe. Then of course A Kind Of Magic and Who Wants To Live Forever. I watched the credits to see who did the songs and was so surprised to see it was Queen.

426

Your list, your terms. I only made mine so specific to narrow down candidates.

A bit like a decade ago, when my CD writer was still a novelty, and I started making my own singer-songwriter compilations:

First of all I split The Beatles down the middle (1 disc full of John’s best, 1 disc full of Paul’s best), then their solo stuff (2.5 discs and counting for Paul, 1 for John), not forgetting George (Beatles, solo and Traveling Wilburys all on one disc).

Moving away from the Fab Four, I did Sting’s Police and solo high points on a disc each (although the solo stuff is running onto a second disc now), and on the Police disc, I hit trouble. There were 22 songs on the final list, and the disc was overrunning by about 5-6min. So I had to get rid of two songs. Now, as luck would have it, exactly two songs on the compilation were written by the other band members, one each by Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland respectively.

And so was born the singer-songwriter rule; any song on these compilations I make has to be written and sung by the artist named.

This rule has been a mixed blessing - it made the Sting Police compilation perfect, but has sometimes ruled a classic out of consideration for some of these compilations. For instance “Day Tripper” - written by John and sung by Paul (I know the official credit is to both of them, but, you know!). Not to mention all the Simon & Garfunkel songs where Art Garfunkel sings the lead part, the biggest casualty here being “The Sound Of Silence” (they sing in harmony, Paul provides the harmony, Art sings the melody). Or the Steve Perry compilation that had to omit two of my favourite Journey songs, “Faithfully” and my absolute fave of theirs, “Wheel In The Sky” (although even without these two gems, this is one of the best compilations I’ve ever put together). And don’t get me started on all the great Queen songs I couldn’t consider for the Freddie Mercury compilation . . .

I have heard of TPOZ and I think I seen bits of both films during the day on TV but I didn’t really pay much attention to them.

I’ve got the Stewart Granger one (1950s) recorded. Interestingly, Fritz von Tarlenheim is played by Robert Coote, who a few years previously was Aramis opposite Gene Kelly’s D’Artagnan. It also has James Mason as Rupert Hentzau; a lot of people say he was too old for the part, but damn it, he played it with panache.

BTW as we were also speaking of the summer of 2000. It was in September of 2000 when I discovered how good Queen were. I knew of Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions and We Will Rock You but that was about it. But I really liked the Highlander film. I had seen bits of it when I was younger but I watched a lot of the Highlander cartoon series and liked it and it was on one Friday night and I was in watching it and I instantly loved Princes of the Universe. Then of course A Kind Of Magic and Who Wants To Live Forever. I watched the credits to see who did the songs and was so surprised to see it was Queen.

Only a year behind me then! I got into Queen in 1999, after receiving an mp3 CD of most of their albums (I subsequently bought all their albums on regular CDs). I knew “These Are The Days Of Our Lives” and “Don’t Stop Me Now” because they had been used for montage sequences in the World Snooker Championship in 1992 and 1996 respectively (this is also how I fell in love with “Every Breath You Take” in 1994); and decided to give them a go. Anyhow, it turned out there were a few more songs of theirs that I recognised, but hadn’t previously known were them. Including We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions - I guess they’ve sort of passed into folk tradition already! Anyway, there was also:

Bicycle Race
Another One Bites The Dust
Flash’s Theme
Radio Ga Ga
I Want To Break Free
A Kind Of Magic
I Want It All

I was quite impressed. Like I say, impressed enough to go out and gradually buy all their albums over the next few months.

427

There is a lot of music I would like to get but I have to be careful what I spend my money on.
I have some blank discs so I will probably just burn some albums.

In fact I have an early memory of seeing Freddy singing Barcelona on TV when IO was very young.

428

You’d have been about 2-3 then the song first came out.

I just listened to Queen’s second album, the imaginatively-titled-I-don’t-think “Queen II” last night. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed it more. It really did sound better than ever. I’ll admit, it has been a decade since I last listened seriously to Queen, but some of the weird stuff on that album can take a bit of getting into.

Of course, the one big change in that time is that, thanks to the same software I use to record my own songs, I’ve been able to make my own separate edits of most of the tracks that are stuck to each other in medleys. The fact that some of these great songs couldn’t be listened to independently of the rest of the album always irked me. I have now rectified that, so I can appreciate them in the medleys secure in the knowledge that I can enjoy most of them individually as well now.

429

I remember hearing bits of that album and Ogre Battle really surprised me as it was so different to what I had heard them do before.

430

It’s quite a unique album within their catalogue, for two reasons:

  1. Almost all of the songs are locked together in medleys (there a few albums that have the odd pair of songs stuck together, but none to this extent).
  2. They make for an even more interesting comparison when you factor in that side one is all by Brian May (apart from the last track which is Roger Taylor), and side two is all by Freddie Mercury.

I listened to their first album the previous weekend; that too has never sounded better. Next up is “Sheer Heart Attack”, an album I’ve never much cared for. Interesting to see what happens with that after a decade of neglect.

431

I heard a Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) solo album and it was kind of locked together in medley in the sense that each track lead into each other but the album was a real mess and didn’t work. I remember there was only one song I thought was okay on it. I think it was mainly due to being produced by Timbaland.

I am listening to ‘A Kind Of Magic’ as I write this LOL. I must listen to ‘Hot Space’ sometime as I have heard mixed reviews of it.

432

None of those names mean anything to me . . .

I can go one better - or should that be worse?! After seeing them on Live 8 back in 2005, I got the best of Pink Floyd. Every single track there was linked to its neighbours. This was their greatest hits! I can understand if a band feel like doing that on an original album of new material, but when they’re assembling the best of the songs they’ve already released . . . WTF!

I am listening to ‘A Kind Of Magic’ as I write this LOL. I must listen to ‘Hot Space’ sometime as I have heard mixed reviews of it.

AKOM is a weird album. There’s a few good songs on it, but pretty much everything worth having from it can be found on compilations. A bit like The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” in that respect, but not as good.

Hot Space . . . erm, yes. Mixed is putting it mildly. There are two or three truly wonderful songs on it (Put Out The Fire, Life Is Real, Las Palabras De Amor, two by Brian, one by Freddie), but also a fair amount of utter dross (Body Language, Staying Power, Cool Cat - all of which were written, or in one case co-written with John, by Freddie, tellingly). The most famous song on the album is of course the duet with David Bowie, “Under Pressure” (whose non-album B-side “Soul Brother” I mentioned the other week), it’s a decent song, although the record could have been a little better (good enough though). As for the rest of the album, so-so. Nothing special, hints of what could be, but those hints quickly vanish again.

Elsewhere, I’ve decided to get back to that Visionaries story I started 3yrs ago and never finished, “A Moonlighting Romance”. Given what happened with my own lovelife earlier this year, I’m probably in more of a position to give it a bit of realism.

Of course I say that like it’s a good thing . . .

433

Well it’s good your writing again if nothing else.

I was looking at Peter Renaday’s filmography again. He has done quite a lot of work and I was really surprised to see he did the voice of Duncan in Dragon Age origins, one of my favourite games.
I also got around to watching the studio Ghibli movie Pom Poko in which Peter did some voice work (he was in three Ghibli movies) and I must say of all the Studio Ghibli movies it is probably the strangest and my least favourite of them all. It is really odd watching a shape shifting, transforming raccoon using its testicles as a weapon.
I also seen he was in Phantom 2040, but it did not say what character he played.

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I just had a look at what I’d already written, just to see where I’d got to. Hopefully, progress proper will resume soon.

I was looking at Peter Renaday’s filmography again. He has done quite a lot of work and I was really surprised to see he did the voice of Duncan in Dragon Age origins, one of my favourite games.
I also got around to watching the studio Ghibli movie Pom Poko in which Peter did some voice work (he was in three Ghibli movies) and I must say of all the Studio Ghibli movies it is probably the strangest and my least favourite of them all.

I might have mentioned this before, after looking up the detail to confirm it, a few years ago on the phone to a friend, I was talking about him as the voice of Mandrake, and said that the man had done another voice that he might recognise. He couldn’t think, so I said, “I’ll tell you the show he was in, you should get it from that. He was in Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.” After a split-second pause, assimilating this, “was he Splinter?” Yup!

Like I said, I also know him as Prince Valiant’s father; and when watching Pirates Of Dark Water last year, I recognised him in a small guest role in an early episode.

It is really odd watching a shape shifting, transforming raccoon using its testicles as a weapon.

Could give a whole new meaning to the term “firing blanks”.

I also seen he was in Phantom 2040, but it did not say what character he played.

I seem to remember hearing once that Mandrake put in an appearance in an episode of that show. Fingers crossed . . .

435

If must look up Phantom 2040 as all the episodes are on Youtube.

He was also in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. A great anime that is well worth a watch.

I haven’t seen Pirates of Dark Water since it was last on TV here. Something tells me it had a brief re-runs on Live and Kicking on Saturdays.

Did you ever get chance to check out Avatar?

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I remember watching it on sunday mornings on BBC2. And being a bit upset at the complete dissimilarity with DotE.

I haven’t seen Pirates of Dark Water since it was last on TV here. Something tells me it had a brief re-runs on Live and Kicking on Saturdays.

I don’t remember it being aired on saturdays, but I could be wrong. Certainly the second season, I only saw once originally, and that may have had its repeat airing on saturdays. Well, I say second season, according to IMDB etc, that was the third season, and what we know over here as the first season as two seasons; episodes 1-5 (the continuous storyline) are “season 1”, and the more individual episodes 6-13 (although the first and last of these are very much set in stone continuity-wise) are “season 2”.

Did you ever get chance to check out Avatar?

It had slipped my mind, thanks for reminding me. I didn’t mean to forget, but in the last few days, a combination of dodgy innards, curiosity about Exosquad and then the new Doctor Who on saturday, pushed it out. I did bookmark the link you gave me, so I can give it a go.

Conversely, have you checked out Spiral Zone at all?

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I haven’t had chance yet to watch Spiral Zone as I finally finished watching all the Studio Ghibli movies and a couple other great anime movie like Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Journey To Agartha and as of last night Wolf Children which I really loved.

I remember the original airings on CBBC of PODW when I was in p2/3, but I seem to recall seeing it again when I was a bit older around 95 one weekend.

I must say I am not a fan of Doctor Who, although Sylvester McCoy is the one I would most associate with the role. He is a great actor and acted in some of my favourite sitcoms. So much so I bought a Dr Who action figure of him a couple years back.
I heard some very mixed thoughts on the new Dr.

If you do watch Avatar try at least a few episodes to give it a chance. I did and I am so glad I did as it got even better as it went along. Also you wont have to worry about a continuity order like DOTE and Thundercats etc as each episode is already in the right order for the overarching storyline.:smiley:

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As 1995 was when I started my newspaper round, if it was late in the year then I would have missed it for that reason!

I must say I am not a fan of Doctor Who, although Sylvester McCoy is the one I would most associate with the role. He is a great actor and acted in some of my favourite sitcoms. So much so I bought a Dr Who action figure of him a couple years back.
I heard some very mixed thoughts on the new Dr.

I never watched it originally, I watched about three with Ecclestone, including the final two-parter - and when he regenerated into Tennant, I just knew how he would play the part, and that he would be fantastic. I still wish Tennant was in the part, but Smith got quite good by the end. I was never a fan of Peter Capaldi until I saw him as Richelieu in The Musketeers this year - he was perfect for that role. And I must admit, he had the best introductory episode of any Doctor I’ve seen. I nearly crapped myself watching it on saturday - but then that was more due to the fact that my innards had been playing havoc with me since thursday.

If you do watch Avatar try at least a few episodes to give it a chance. I did and I am so glad I did as it got even better as it went along. Also you wont have to worry about a continuity order like DOTE and Thundercats etc as each episode is already in the right order for the overarching storyline.:smiley:

Will do. I think the same is also true of Exosquad (I would actually be very surprised if it weren’t). Certainly the opening adventure is a 5-parter, concerning the fall of the Terran empire.

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Since you mention Exosuad (the toyline had repaints of Robotech toys) Robotech is also like that. It is all in continuity.

If I get chance I might try and watch an episode of Spiral Zone tonight.

440

Don’t forget, episode 4 is the pilot; 30, 31 and 34 are the ones that introduce the new characters; 6 and 33 are particularly noteworthy as being some of the most daring plans on either side; 45 and 55 are the Alistair MacLean ripoffs; while 21 is probably my favourite.