May 9, 2024
Pathfinders to Venus (ABC, 1961)
"What a paradise this place is. The way Earth must have been before man spoiled it with sprawling towns and filthy machines."
"If it hadn't been for man's filthy machines we wouldn't be here."
"That's true. And the pity of it is that after us will come rocket after rocket to ravage this planet. They'll gouge the minerals out of the earth, destroy the forests and eventually they'll go to war over it."
#pathfinders to venus#1961#children's television#classic tv#abc#malcolm hulke#eric paice#guy verney#reginald collin#gerald flood#george coulouris#graydon gould#pamela barney#hester cameron#stewart guidotti#brigid skemp#hugh evans#bob bryan#astor sklair#robert james#third and final sequel to the sadly missing Target Luna serial; this one picks up immediately after the previous story‚ Pathfinders to Mars#and sees our heroic group once again strongarmed into space exploration by the trickery of George Coulouris (bf's hatred for the character#reached new strengths during this series). this serial delves further into the sci fi fantasy vibe: where Space saw some remnants of#interstellar travel discovered and Mars had some plants and stuff‚ this one has full on alien contact with the native Venusians (handily#very much humanoid). this one also allows the real world to intrude more simultaneously tho; the Cold War‚ having hummed along happily very#much in the background so far‚ gets faced head on here as US and Soviet interests finally start to complicate the plans of our plucky (and#somehow‚ so far‚ entirely apolitical) British explorers. good old Mac Hulke gets a couple of very strong and very prescient environmental#messages in too‚ prefiguring his work on Doctor Who in the 70s (and right you were Mac‚ tho did you have to give those lines to the maniac#character who keeps almost getting everybody killed because of his blind insistence on seeking out some great Spacey Truth..)#these serials have been a lot of fun and I'd highly recommend them to any fan of old tv or old sci fi or DW or the like
