DigitalExplorations

1977 is a year that has gone down in science fiction history because of one movie: Star Wars. 'Nuff said there. 1977 is also the year that a rather remarkable made-for-TV sci-fi movie made its debut on the American NBC television network, one that saw the return of aquatic-oriented sci-fi fare to prime time after a decade-long absence (remember Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea?). I was a young lad when this movie aired, but like many other young lads at the time I was enthralled by the previews and special articles in TV Guide and I even got special permission from my parents to stay up past my normal bedtime so I could watch the whole thing. That was 47 years ago, believe it or not! This week I finally got the chance to watch that movie again, and I was just as spellbound as an old man watching it for only the second time in my life as I was 47 years ago as a child. That movie was Man From Atlantis, starring then-unknown actor Patrick Duffy in the role that would make him

Childhood impressions can be lasting ones. Such is the case for me with 1977's The Last Dinosaur, which I saw for the first time as did a lot of folks here in the United States when it made its debut not in the theaters for which it had been intended, but as an ABC-TV Movie of the Week. There's a long story behind that which I'll let you look up elsewhere. For my part, I remember seeing the advance ads and was eagerly looking forward to it, given that by then I was thoroughly hooked on anything having to do with sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and monsters. XD We had to make a trip to my uncle's home on the other side of the state the weekend it was supposed to air, but one of my older cousins kindly let me watch it on the TV in her room while the adults watched something else (I think it was a ball game). Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did a lot of my fellow young viewers back then, and even if the special effects were downright cheesy at times it had a good plot, good

Hi, folks. I'm going to jump tracks again as I update my collection of personal sci-fi and fantasy film faves, trading old VHS transfers for new digital versions (and in many cases restored prints), and this time bounce over into the realm of the paranormal with one of the first paranormal-oriented feature films I ever remember seeing from way back in my childhood. It was 1968's The Power, with an all-star cast featuring top name actors (George Hamilton [Love at First Bite], Suzanne Pleshette [The Bob Newhart Show], Michael Rennie [The Day the Earth Stood Still]) in the starring roles, and with a strong set of supporting actors such as Earl Holliman [Forbidden Planet], Arthur O'Connell [The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao], Nehemiah Persoff [Battlestar Galactica series] and many more, as well as supporting bits from three actor familiar to the Star Trek crowd: Yvonne de Carlo [Batman, TOS "Whom Gods Destroy"], Lawrence Montaigne [the original Escape to Witch Mountain, TOS "Balance of