Category: Sci-Fi

Biggles for the Ages. Here’s Why.

I am so sick and tired of “Here’s Why” being tacked on to every frickin’ headline. I hope its use is fading.

The name “Biggles” was used for laughs numerous times by Monty Python. I’d always thought Biggles was just a silly Python name, but it was a long running series of stories and books in England. There was a Biggles TV series in 1960.

This 1986 movie adaptation, Biggles: Adventures in Time (the American title), was recommended to me. It’s Peter Cushing’s final screen appearance. I haven’t watched it yet.

P.S. Definitely worth a viewing! Lotsa silly fun, and some very impressive war scenes, both on the ground and especially in the air.

P.S. to TV ’74

tastewar pointed out this video, about DVD reissues of TV series that squeeze more than two hours of video onto single-layer discs.

The first disc in the 5-disc Kolchak: The Night Stalker DVD set I bought is about 7.5 GB. So, it’s a double-layer disc, and I’m assuming all of them are. The video quality really is quite good, considering the source material.

There is one tiny technical quirk that can show up, especially when credits are overlayed on the screen. You’ll never see it, unless your player supports 24 frames per second on DVDs. If it does, you can almost certainly disable it.

TV ’74

From Kolchak: The Night Stalker, S1:E1, September 13, 1974. Nobody at the network said, “Hey, put a top on that girl”?

The complete 20-episode series on DVD, minus the two earlier TV movies, is only $11.55 on Amazon. Video quality is very good, compared to the copies MeTV has shown.

https://www.amazon.com/Kolchak-Night-Stalker-Darren-McGavin/dp/B01IP2X718/