h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This entry just filled in a lot of blank spaces in my memories of childhood tv. I remembered a ship that released the red fighters, the fighters forming the mech, the fact that one of the characters was a porker always eating cookies and a catchy theme tune; but this brought it flooding back. Owning this series on DVD would be sweet.

By the way, anyone remember Terror Hawks?

You'll find details on Terrahawks on my Star Fleet site - and that series IS available on DVD!

If the DVD comes out I'll be in childhood heaven. I was excitable enough when I got hold of all the Willo-the-Wisp episodes on DVD.

I do have vague recolections of Terrahawks as well, that was the one with the little robot baddy things that looked like noughts and crosses wasn't it?

Congratulations, Excelsior!

Thanks Rocket Man! I can see a Terrahawks article may have to be conjured up sometime soon as well! The noughts and crosses in Terrahawks you're remembering are Zeroids and Cubes, the former being goodies and the latter baddies, who had an actual game of noughts and crosses at the end of each episode. Some the Zeroids won, others the Cubes won by cheating! As I say, more pictures and a review of the recently released Terrahawks DVD at my site, SFXB.co.uk... says he, not trying to plug it at all, ho no!

Terror Hawks...Thunderbirds...any compasrisons dawn on you?

Nylarthotep - it's Terrahawks ("Earth Hawks") rather than Terror Hawks - they's supposed to be fighting terror rather than creating it! If you ever watch Terrahawks, you'll find that pretty much all the names in it are intended to be funny/quirtky e.g. Stu Dapples (Stewed Apples!), Kate Kestrel, Hawkwing etc. Gerry Anderson was involved in both Thunderbirds and Terrahawks, certainly, but they're actually very different shows. The puppetry style of Terrahawks is very removed from that of Thunderbirds as strings aren't involved. Now, if Terrahawks had been called "LightningHawks" then I could see your point...!

It just struck me as similar. Actually I had no idea that Anderson was involved in the series at all. I don't know about anyone else, but the aliens in this series really scared me as a kid. I remember that they looked like Mary Whitehouse on crack and had a really archaic base on Mars (I think)...The leader was called Zelda, if I remember correctly.

That's right - and you're not wrong about the puppets, either, even as a twenty-something I find them quite disturbing! The thing that's typically Thunderbirds about the series is the use of high tech vehicles, all of which launch from a concealed base. And there's also a space station. Yes, no similarities there at all!

cracking article Excelsior-I recommended it to quite a few friends so I'm sure you'll be kept busy.

Captain Scarlet and Star Fleet in the one week

how about joe 90

Things I remember:
The fat ginger haired kid getting a cold and a big bubble of snot coming out of his nose.
Everyone's hair looked like straw.
Every week, Earths Council headquarters was blown up.
The giant f**k off robot fights.
And best of all, bearing in mind it's a kiddies tv show, at the end of the series, the Princess becomes One with the Universe and battles a living planet!!

I think?

Weeell, you're right about the snot incident! There is a ludicrously lengthy episode guide on my extended site (see the bottom of the article) which will tell you about what went on in more detail. It's always interesting to hear what people remember before they're reminded of the show; whether people have such vivid memories of it because it was a puppetry show rather than a cartoon, I don't know...?

As for Joe 90 - I'm not quite sure when Anderson did that series, whether it was pre or post Thunderbirds. The BBC brought him out of retirement to do an ad for the "I Love..." shows, I believe... I do have vague memories of it - the flying car, the spinning machine that gave him his new memories...

Joe90 is a Gerry Anderson show-and I'd love to see an article on it...I also have info on the series I could share, a la Captain Scarlet.

yeah but did you like the series

hi Dave-do you mean Joe90?
- yep, I love all Gerry Anderson's puppet shows.

and Star Fleet of course!

what do you think of the new scooby doo film

Urm, we seem to be straying a little off topic here!

Nice memories here - finding a full series of Star Fleet ranks alongside Battle of the Planets as a bit of a holy grail for me....

One (extremely minor and pedantic, sorry) complaint I would have though is all the spoilers in the article. I remembered who F-01 was but had forgotten about the deaths amongst the main characters. If the series does ever re-surface it would be a shame to spoil to much of the story for a new audience...

Hm. I take your point, although there are even more surprises in the series than are mentioned there! It's interesting, though, isn't it - Star Fleet actually had a plot where you would care if someone spoiled it because the arc is unusually strong for a kids show. That's the anime influence shining through.

I think the reality is that I wrote the article more for those who have already seen the show, rather than for those who have never seen it. The deaths are a poignant reminder of why the show is so well remembered. If it does get re-released, then the new fans will have the option to spoil themselves or not by looking for information on later episodes on the web - much as modern day fans of series that air earlier in the States than here in the UK do!