This is great (as always) but I have to put in a kind word for designer Wah Chang, who made the unconvincing Gorn, sure, but also some of the creepier things that threatened to come out of the screen from the somewhat-earlier The Outer Limits anthology series (my favorite is probably the ghostly alien from the episode "Wolf 359" -- sure, once you know it's a pair of human hands in some kind of confining fabric you won't be able to un-see it, but until then it's mighty effective ... or so I thought).
Also, if I recall correctly the short story source for this, also called "Arena" and by a writer named (or nom-de-plumed, I dunno) Fredric Brown, who isn't exactly someone whose name leaps to mind when you think "Golden Age of science fiction," unless you're, well, me, is pretty good.
Yeah the story it was based on was written all the way back in 1949, weirdly. Didn't know about Chang—I'm generally packing my head with show trivia three or four days before I write these so I miss a lot of stuff and not everything sticks. But I probably should have afforded a word or two to how impactful the shiny eyes were to me when I was like 8 and watching this for the first time. There were certain things that came out of the art department that look impossibly cheap now but which were captivating to me as a yout. All the candy-colored lights and buttons and the tiny little knobs on the face of the communicators. I don't know why but I loved that shit.
Hey, you know, there's an endless glut of show trivia. I know about Chang mainly because I'm a bit of a fanatic for the old TOL show, since it somehow is responsible for a good % of the weird frieze of images that populates the lowest tiers of my memory banks.
Yeah my mind is heavily colonized by this show as well, except my fanaticism for all things tends to be dulled by a perverse desire to not have common interests with anyone.
This is great (as always) but I have to put in a kind word for designer Wah Chang, who made the unconvincing Gorn, sure, but also some of the creepier things that threatened to come out of the screen from the somewhat-earlier The Outer Limits anthology series (my favorite is probably the ghostly alien from the episode "Wolf 359" -- sure, once you know it's a pair of human hands in some kind of confining fabric you won't be able to un-see it, but until then it's mighty effective ... or so I thought).
Also, if I recall correctly the short story source for this, also called "Arena" and by a writer named (or nom-de-plumed, I dunno) Fredric Brown, who isn't exactly someone whose name leaps to mind when you think "Golden Age of science fiction," unless you're, well, me, is pretty good.
Yeah the story it was based on was written all the way back in 1949, weirdly. Didn't know about Chang—I'm generally packing my head with show trivia three or four days before I write these so I miss a lot of stuff and not everything sticks. But I probably should have afforded a word or two to how impactful the shiny eyes were to me when I was like 8 and watching this for the first time. There were certain things that came out of the art department that look impossibly cheap now but which were captivating to me as a yout. All the candy-colored lights and buttons and the tiny little knobs on the face of the communicators. I don't know why but I loved that shit.
Hey, you know, there's an endless glut of show trivia. I know about Chang mainly because I'm a bit of a fanatic for the old TOL show, since it somehow is responsible for a good % of the weird frieze of images that populates the lowest tiers of my memory banks.
Yeah my mind is heavily colonized by this show as well, except my fanaticism for all things tends to be dulled by a perverse desire to not have common interests with anyone.
Then I'd better *not* say "yeah, I'm the same way" even though I am. Shhh.
Fucking Gorn.😹