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Acknowledgements
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(1929– ). British tv and film producer.
Produced:
"Into Infinity" (1975), episode of NBC Special Treat; Invaders from
the Deep (animated film) (David Lane 1981); Space Precinct (tv
series) (1994-1995); Stingray: The Reunion Party (documentary) (John
Kelly and Allan Pattillo 2008).
Animated
tv series created and produced with Sylvia ANDERSON: Fireball XL-5
(1962-1963); Stingray (1964-1965); Thunderbirds (1965-1966); Captain
Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-1968); The Secret Service (1969).
Animated
tv series co-created with S. Anderson: Joe 90 (1968-1969); The
Secret Service (1969).
Live-action
tv series created and produced with S. Anderson: UFO (co-created with
Hill) (tv series) (1970-1973); Space 1999 (tv series) (1975-77); The
Day after Tomorrow (pilot only) (1976).
Animated
films produced with S. Anderson: Thunderbirds are Go (Lane 1966); Thunderbirds
Six (Lane 1968).
Wrote: "The
Mysterons" (1967), episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons; "Operation
McClaine" (with David Lane) (1968), episode of Joe 90; "Expect
the Unexpected" (two-part episode) (1983), episode of Terrahawks; Space
Police (co-written with Tony Barwick; also provided music with
Christopher Burr) (tv pilot) (1987); "The Lost Starfighter" (with Chris
Trengrove and Chris Bowden), "A Stitch in Time" (with Bowden), "Collision
Course" (with Trengrove), "Brightonia on Sea," "The Traitor" (with Rodney
Matthews), "Lost in Space (1999), "The Legend," "Diamonds Aren't Forever,"
"Galactic Park" (with Craig Hemmings), "Wearizy," "Supernova," "Interface"
(with Hemmings), "Birds of a Feather…" (with Matthews) (2000), episodes of Lavender Castle.
Wrote
with S. Anderson: "Flight of Fancy," "The Lost City,"
"Supercar Take One," "Crash Landing" (1961), "The
Runaway Train," "Precious Cargo," "Operation
Superstork," "Hi-Jack," "Calling Charlie Queen,"
"Space for Mitch," "Atomic Witch Hunt," "70-B-Low,"
"The Sky's the Limit," "Jail Break," "The Day That
Time Stood Still," "Transatlantic Cable," "King
Kool" (1962), episodes of Supercar; "Planet 46" (1962),
"Space Monster" (1963), episodes of Fireball XL-5;
"Stingray" (1964), "A Nut for Marineville," "Aquanaut
of the Year" (1965), episodes of Stingray; "Trapped in the
Sky" (1965), episode of Thunderbirds; Thunderbirds Are Go
(animated film) (Lane 1966); "The Most Special Agent" (1968),
episode of Joe 90; Thunderbird Six (animated film) (Brian
Burgess, Robert Lynn, and Ken Turner) 1968); Journey to the Far Side of
the Sun [Doppelganger] (co-written with Donald James and produced
with S. Anderson) (Robert Parrish 1969); "A Case for the Bishop"
(1969), episode of The Secret Service; "Identified" (with
Tony Barwick) (and directed) (1970), episode of UFO.
Wrote
with Pauline Fisk; "In the Beginning," "Flower Power," "The Twilight
Tower," "High Moon," "Double Cross" (1999), episodes of Lavender Castle.
Directed:
"The Twins Learn a Lesson," "King Dithers," "Torchy Returns to Earth," "The
Building of Frutown," "Torchy and Squish," "The Naughty Twins," "Pom-Pom and
the Toys," "Torchy and the Strange Animal," "King Dithers Goes Down to
Earth," "The Hungry Money Box," "Topsy Turvy Land," "Bossy Boots Forgets to
Be Good," "Torchy and the Broken Rocket," "King Dithers Loses His Crown,"
"Torchy Is Stolen," "The Moon Falls Asleep," "Torchy's Birthday," "Pilliwig
Gets a Present," "Bad Boy Bogey," "Bossy Boots Goes to Topsy Turvy Land," "A
Trick on Pom-Pom," ""Bossy Boots Is Taught a Lesson," "Torchy Is Saved at
Last," "Torchy and the Man on the Moon," "A Bell for a Penny Farthing,"
"Bogey and the Statues" (1960), episodes of Torchy the Battery Boy; "Planet
46" (1962), episode of Fireball XL-5.
Sound
editor (as Gerald Anderson): Devil Girl from Mars (David MacDonald
1954).
Provided
voice for: Fireball XL-5 (uncredited) (1962-1963): Captain Scarlet
and the Mysterons (1967-1968); "You Only Lick Twice" (2003), episode of Stripperella.
Appeared
in documentaries: Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the Tardis (Kevin Davies
1993); The Space:1999 Documentary (Tim Mallett and Glenn Pearce 1996);
Mr. Thunderbird: The Gerry Anderson Story (Christopher Skinner 2000);
"Sex Machines" 2001), episode of SF: UK; The 100 Greatest Kids TV
Shows (Sean Doherty and Mark George 2001); "TV Sci-Fi" (2000), episode of
Top Ten; I Love Christmas (David Quantick 2001); TV's
Greatest Cars (Nick Bray and Jon-Barrie Waddell 2004); "Zippy and
George's Puppet Legends" (2005), episode of Favourtism; Stand By
for Action (documentary miniseries) (Stephen La Riviére 2007); "Lenny
Henry's Perfect Night In" (2007), episode of Perfect Night In; All
About Thunderbirds (Jeff Simpson 2008).
If the nations of the world ever decide to
stage Nurenberg Trials to punish the makers of bad science fiction film, Gerry
Anderson will be the first defendant. Measured by the total length of terrible
footage produced, he is surely the worst offender, far outstripping unworthy
competitors like Irwin ALLEN,
Larry BUCHANAN, or Glen A. LARSON.
As the first exhibits for the prosecution,
there are his many science fiction puppet series—The Adventures of Twizzle,
Torchy the Battery Boy, Supercar, Fireball X-5, Stingray,
Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, Terrahawks,
and Lavender Castle—and at least two puppet features, Thunderbirds
Are Go and Thunderbird Six. These are noteworthy only as cautionary
examples of the need to properly match genre with subject matter. Stop-motion
animation is a valid and potentially lively art form, as demonstrated by many
examples ranging from George PAL's
Puppetoons to Tim BURTON's The Nightmare before Christmas (1993); but
using the technique to enact stories that could have been done just as well (if
not as cheaply) with live actors provides the worst of both worlds: the
animation must stay within the boundaries of pseudo-realism and hence quickly
becomes uninteresting, and the literally wooden performances of the puppets
deprive the story of any emotional impact. Why these programs have remained so
popular for so long, providing Anderson with a steady source of income to fall
back on after the inevitable failure of his ventures into live-action film,
must forever remain a mystery, at least to non-British audiences.
Next, the prosecution would present his work
with live actors: the film Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, which
expends considerable effort in order to take viewers to the more boring and
unimaginative alien world imaginable—an exact duplicate of our Earth. There is
also, unforgettably, the execrable Space: 1999, with the Moon
ludicrously drifting through space at non-relativistic speeds yet somehow
managing to reach a different star system every week—a concept so insulting to
the intelligence of viewers as to defy comment, and a flawed scenario
unredeemed by its consistently idiotic scripts and inadequate, uninvolving cast
led by the miscast Martin LANDAU
and Barbara BAIN and
various subordinates. And we cannot omit his most recent crime against
humanity, the aforementioned Space Precinct.
Now, how might Anderson undertake to defend
himself? Well, he might apologetically begin by noting that his first exposure
to science fiction came as the sound editor for Devil Girl from Mars,
indelibly imprinting upon him an inaccurate impression of the maturity and
intelligence expected in science fiction films; but with many better examples
available for viewing, this amounts to a claim of ignorance of the law, never a
proper defense. He might also claim that not all of his work was completely
execrable and screen a few early episodes of his other major series, UFO,
which admittedly seemed promising at first, with its better-than-average acting
and the intriguing mystery of space visitors periodically buzzing around Earth.
Still, the prosecution could immediately respond by showing the rest of the
episodes, when the aliens were revealed to be People Who Look and Act Just Like
Us and the show slowed down to stupefied inertia as it became apparent that the
aliens were not going to do anything other than engage in repetitive plots to
kill the show's hero, Stryker. Finally, one might focus solely on these series'
visual appeal, overlooking the fact that this was mostly the work of his
long-time collaborator Sylvia ANDERSON, but even this line of defense would not
be effective, since viewers can obviously derive all possible pleasure from the
costumes and sets from watching ten minutes of a single episode of a series,
yet Anderson insisted upon inflicting hour after hour of mindrot on his
victimized viewers. The verdict must be: guilty as charged.
In light of his many crimes, it is
dumbfounding to hear that Gerry Anderson was celebrated in the 1990s as the
guest of honor at a British science fiction convention, when the fans should
have been burning him in effigy, and that he has been the focus of laudatory
documentaries and several websites paying loving tribute to the man and his
work. One fears that the issue of Anderson's value has become mixed up with
feelings of patriotism and a natural pride in all things British. Well. Perhaps
Anderson has provided wholesome entertainment for young children, perhaps he
has given jobs to some fine workers, and perhaps he has, by exporting his
programs, helped to improve the balance of payments and all that. But rallying
around this odious man only does a grave disservice to the many science fiction
products that Britain can justly be proud of, including The Prisoner—still
the best science fiction series ever produced—the Quatermass serials, The
Avengers, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and several other
programs unseen in America that I am sure, based on critical descriptions, are
far better than anything Anderson ever produced. Let us face the unvarnished
truth: Gerry Anderson is a man who has no ideas, who is deathly afraid of
ideas, who has consistently employed futuristic settings and special effects
only as gaudy ornaments to the hoariest, most imbecilic, and most cliché-ridden
stories imaginable. Not really a producer of science fiction films, he is
actually a vicious enemy of science fiction, and he should be recognized and
condemned as such.
Note: from Supercar on through to Space:
1999, Gerry Anderson's then-wife Sylvia Anderson was regularly credited as a
co-producer, writer of episodes, fashion coordinator, and puppet voice, as
chronicled elsewhere; but since her contributions were as noted mostly in the
realm of visual effects, and since Anderson soldiered on with identical
ineptitude since their 1975, one can deduce that their collaborations were
largely the product of Gerry Anderson, so that Sylvia Anderson might escape
punishment at the trial by claiming in her defense, "But I was only
following orders."
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