TIMEWARP TELLY

One of those freeview channels - fTN, I think - has been screening old Space 1999 episodes recently. Now, I remember being a big fan back in the day. I watched the show, read the Look-In comic strip, played the board game, had a toy version of the laser gun that lit-up plus the action figures and a model of one of the Eagle craft, etc etc. Of course, that's all gone now. All I managed to find in my trash archive was a set of playing cards made by Whitman (see image). Worth a punt on e-bay, I wonder?

Anyway, I've been really disappointed with the shows. Or maybe disappointed with myself for finding them so fucking unwatchable. The acting is awful, the scripts are dire and the dialogue (especially the bits where Koenig an co. are having a 'light hearted moment') makes me wanna spit. Surely I should be appreciating all those things? Fuck, I'm losing the plot.

You wanna know which repeats I'm really enjoying?

The Crystal Maze.

Seriously.

You remember it, right? The show hosted by Richard O'Brien (of Rocky Horror fame) where the contestants have to win crystals to buy time in the Maze at the end, and hopefully win a crap camping holiday if they collect enough gold tokens. I watch it with the kids. We're all loving it. My eldest gets all tense, and I keep telling him, "son, don't worry, everything you see happened long before you were born". Dig those eighties haircuts. Actually, most of the ones I've watched were made around 1992. We forget that the early nineties still had a big hangover from the eighties. I think it was 'The Rachel' haircut from 'Friends' that finally killed eighties hairstyles.

So there you have it - I like the Crystal Maze more than Space 1999. How the hell did that happen?