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Message

Subject: Re: JMS: Space Patrol?
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 23:11:51 +0000 (UTC)
From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Jan wrote:
> So I'm wasting time at work today cruising around Ebay.  Haven't looked for any
> pre-B5 JMS items for a while so I do a seach for 'Straczynski'.  And what to my
> wondering eyes should appear but this
> http://cgi.ebay.com/SPACE-PATROL-Complete-Series-DVD-NEW_W0QQitemZ6478753009QQcategoryZ41589QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
> ad for a DVD set for a 1963 puppetry show called Space Patrol that says it has
> an interview with you on it.  Considering that in 1963 you were around 9, how
> did you end up doing an interview for the DVD set (and what did you say)?
>

I came across the show at around that time, nine or ten, and it had
just an amazing impact on me, as primitive as it may be.  I'd seen lots
of other kid's SF shows and serials where the aliens were just guys in
silver suits, and every planet had breathable air, and it was just a
goof...but in Planet Patrol, there were alien-aliens (granted, puppets,
but still...), they'd worked out the science of a revolving space
platform, other worlds had different kinds of atmospheres and
gravities...I would watch it with my jaw on the floor (which then
wasn't as long a fall).

For years afterward, I tried to find this show, and nobody had ever
heard of it, suggested perhaps I had a screw loose when I tried to
describe it.  I didn't know the name, just the show.  Then one day
online I came across this plan to re-release the episodes...and there
they were.  So I contacted the folks behind it and asked if I could
purchase a copy for US region play, and they said yes, if I'd do a
commentary (this was during B5), so I gladly did so.

> And if that weren't enough, there's this book
> http://cgi.ebay.com/SPACE-PATROL-Complete-Series-DVD-NEW_W0QQitemZ6478753009QQcategoryZ41589QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
> by William Lashner with "...a femme fatale (improbably but appropriately) named
> Alura Straczynski,..." and I've got to wonder who (if anyone) lost a bet?
>

That's news to me.

> The good news is that I've got a Pulphouse from 1992 with a JMS story in it on
> the way.
>
> I love Ebay...
> 

So do I.  My accountant definitely does not.

jms