The Sci-Fi Worlds of...CHRISTINE BELFORD!

Christine Belford as Leda
- Battlestar Galactica ("The Gun on Ice Planet Zero")

Christine Belford is one of the truly great character actresses of the sci-fi genre.  This beautiful and talented actress was born on January 14, 1949 in Amityville, New York.  Some incredible but true trivia - for about 5 years (1960 - 65) - from age 11 to 16 - Ms. Belford and her family lived in the infamous Amityville Horror House on 112 Ocean Avenue.  About a decade after her family sold the house, it became infamous as the most well known "haunted house" in the world!  For full details, read her biography on IMDB.

Ms. Belford's many genre credits include a leading role as Sheriff's Deputy Maggie Randall on the time-travel / western TV series Outlaws (opposite Rod Taylor) and she played the mother in the classic Stephen King horror movie Christine.  She has guest-starred on many of the classic genre TV shows of all time including Battlestar Galactica (as Leda in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero"), The Six Million Dollar Man, two episodes of The Greatest American Hero (don't miss her incredible performance as a vengeful spirit in classic episode "The Beast in the Black"), Freddy's Nightmares, Fantasy Island, Quinn Martin's 'Tales of the Unexpected', The Incredible Hulk, Beyond Westworld, Wonder Woman and The Sixth Sense (TV series).  In the 1990's, Ms. Belford played Ian Ziering's mom, Samantha Sanders (an actress!) on the long-running prime-time soap opera Beverly Hills, 90210.

The "horror house" in Amityville, New York
- the childhood home of actress Christine Belford

Classic "Doctor Who" - 149 Stories on DVD! :-)

My complete collection of Doctor Who (the Classic Original Series) on Region 1 DVD.  All 149 existing stories were released on DVD from September 11, 2001 with "The Five Doctors" (Is it reasonable to assume that sales were fairly slow on that fateful day...?) through May 20, 2014, concluding with "Enemy of the World" via Warner Bros. and BBC Home Video.  I rate the 26 Seasons of Classic Doctor Who a solid "10".

I admit that I can't muster much enthusiasm for the reboot series or any of the various spin-offs (although I absolutely loved Christopher Eccleston's portrayal of The Doctor - but not enough to purchase the DVD set...).  I'll stick with "old school" Doctor Who.

Classic Doctor Who on DVD!

Kirk Out! :-)

General Heywood Kirk (Whit Bissell)
in The Time Tunnel (1966 - 67)

Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner)
in Star Trek (1966 - 69)

General Kirk meets Captain Kirk!  :-)
  Whit Bissell guest stars on
  Star Trek ("The Trouble with Tribbles");
aired on Dec. 29, 1967

Time...the Final Frontier - The Best Episode of THE TIME TUNNEL...was the classic STAR TREK episode "The City on the Edge of Forever"!

Every few years, I'll pull out the two volume DVD sets and watch all 30 episodes of The Time Tunnel.  It's a good show - no doubt about it.  The production values (extensive use of stock footage aside) are superb....even nearly 50 years later, The Time Tunnel is an impressive production.  However, every time I watch an episode - any episode - I'm left with the nagging feeling that the series could have - and should have been so much better than it was.  As I said, it's a good show - but not a great one and that's a shame.  None of the episodes seem to have that magical, vital "sparkle" to make them something truly special.  Creator Irwin Allen had little use for characterization or stories with an "emotional" angle to them.  This may or may not be a direct quote, but from all accounts Allen saw The Time Tunnel as a "running and jumping" show - high on action, low on emotion or characterization.  The Time Tunnel premiered on ABC-TV on September 9, 1966 - only 24 hours after the premiere of Star Trek on NBC-TV on September 8, 1966!  Nearly fifty years later, Star Trek is widely considered to be **the** Greatest sci-fi TV series of all time...while The Time Tunnel is merely a footnote.

The last episode of The Time Tunnel aired on April 7, 1967 - an over-the-top "alien" episode called "Town of Terror".  A mere 24 hours earlier on April 6, 1967, Star Trek aired the single best time-travel episode of ANY television series, the undeniable classic "The City on the Edge of Forever"; written by Harlan Ellison [I won't go into the well-known controversy that Gene Roddenberry - and other members of the Star Trek creative team - extensively re-wrote this episode over Harlan Ellison's objections] and directed by Joseph Pevney.  Watch this amazing episode of Star Trek....and any episode of The Time Tunnel will appear hopelessly outclassed!

How is it possible that the best episode of The Time Tunnel (which aired concurrently with Star Trek's first season) was produced as an episode of Star Trek instead?  It's weird to think that when Star Trek steps into Time Tunnel territory with a time travel story - the result is "The City on the Edge of Forever"...a Masterpiece for the Ages!  Conversely, when Time Tunnel steps into Star Trek territory with several infamous "alien" episodes ("Visitors from Beyond the Stars", "Chase Through Time", "Raiders from Outer Space", "Town of Terror")...the results are...far less than "stellar".  Most Time Tunnel fans absolutely cringe when the topic of the "alien" episodes comes up...!  These episodes - although certainly entertaining - are a challenge to take with any degree of seriousness.

Harlan Ellison worked for Irwin Allen in 1964, writing an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea called "The Price of Doom" which aired on ABC-TV on October 12, 1964.  Ellison's unhappy experience (to put it mildly!) with Irwin Allen regarding this episode has been well documented elsewhere, so I won't go into in here.  This may be a stretch, but maybe in some alternate reality somewhere, "The City on the Edge of Forever" **might** have been pitched to Irwin Allen...as an episode of The Time Tunnel!  It's interesting to speculate for a moment, how a Time Tunnel version of "The City on the Edge of Forever" might have played.  Perhaps General Heywood Kirk could have been accidentally injected with an experimental drug and then jumped through the Time Tunnel in a madness induced frenzy that alters history.  Dr. Ann MacGregor could have shifted Tony and Doug in their time travels in order to follow the General....and all three might have ended up in 1930's Depression Era New York.  Tony or Doug (but probably Tony) might have met and fallen in love with Edith Keeler....and so on.  Could this classic scenario have worked in the stiff, rigid (let's face it - emotionally vacant) Time Tunnel format?  Who knows?  Quite frankly - I doubt it!  It's interesting to speculate though...!

The Guardian of Forever
 shows the Enterprise crew the distant past  
- Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever

  

The time tunnel control room
- The Time Tunnel

Spock and Kirk travel through
the time portal to Earth's past
- Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever
 (NBC-TV, April 6, 1967)

Tony and Doug travel through the time tunnel
- The Time Tunnel (ABC-TV, 1966 - 67)

The Time Tunnel is copyright (c) 20th Century Fox and Irwin Allen Productions; created by Irwin Allen.
Star Trek is copyright (c) CBS / Paramount; created by Gene Roddenberry.

"Galactica: 1980": Was Colonel Sydell named after Eddie Seidel, Jr. - the "Battlestar Galactica" fan who committed suicide in 1979?

...a thought that crept into my mind the other day.  Was the Galactica: 1980 character Colonel Sydell (Allan Miller) named after Eddie Seidel, Jr.?  Eddie Seidel, Jr. was a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica who tragically committed suicide in August of 1979 when he learned that ABC had cancelled the series.  Sadly, only a few weeks later ABC announced that Battlestar Galactica was coming back for a second season - as Galactica: 1980. And of course, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century  premiered only a month after his death.  I won't comment on the absurdity of anyone committing suicide over a TV show (clearly there were other factors at work), but I bet that Eddie would have enjoyed both Galactica: 1980 and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
     Was Colonel Sydell named after Eddie Seidel, Jr.?  I doubt if anyone knows.  In the newspaper clipping below, Mrs. Seidel (Eddie's stepmother) expressed her hope that Battlestar Galactica would never be seen on TV again.  It seems to this reviewer that having a character on Galactica: 1980 named Sydell (different spelling, but presumbaly the same pronunciation) is in very poor taste.
     Read the tragic story of Eddie Seidel, Jr. in the newspaper article below (click to enlarge).

Newspaper article about
the tragic suicide of Eddie Seidel, Jr.

Allan Miller as Colonel Sydell -
Galactica: 1980

Galactica: 1980

FASHION DEJA VU: Marshall ("Square Pegs") vs. Jeffrey ("Voyagers!")!

Marshall and Muffy
- Square Pegs (1982 - 83)

Bogg and Jeffrey
- Voyagers! (1982 - 83)

DOUBLE VISION: Steve Austin ("The Six Million Dollar Man") vs. Rick Marshall ("Land of the Lost")!

Bigfoot vs. Steve Austin
- The Six Million Dollar Man (1973 - 78)

Cha-ka and Rick Marshall
- Land of the Lost (1974 - 77)