Sci-Fi Storm

The British Royal Mail will issue a special Doctor Who stamp set which will feature all 11 Doctors, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the show. And contrary to some speculation, the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, IS represented (a BBC article only showed 10 of the 11 stamps, sans Colin.) The stamps will be available in Spring 2013.

There will also be a set of 4 second class stamps featuring four “foes” – the Daleks, the Ood, the Weeping Angels and the Cybermen, on a sheet with a first class TARDIS stamp.

Gerry Anderson, the British television writer/producer who loved to imagine the near future, died today at the age of 83, after suffering from multiple dementia for the past couple years. His death was announced by his son on his blog.

Anderson is perhaps best known for both his Supermarionation projects such as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, as well as his live action series UFO and perhaps his most well known series in the U.S., Space: 1999.

Fanderson, the Gerry Anderson fan group, has a nice obituary.

I remember seeing Thunderbirds as a kid…my mother was familiar with it and some of his previous efforts, having come from Ireland by way of England, and she always insisted one of the “rag tag” fleet ships in Battlestar Galactica came from Thunderbirds – I never quite saw that.

But Space: 1999 was one of the first SF series to garner my attention. The details of the base and the Eagles really drew me. It seemed that there was at least some attempt at realism in certain areas – the Eagles appeared relatively functional if not depicted in realistic flight – provided a level of detail that I love.
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