Spaceship Medic by Harry Harrison

What an absolute peach of a cover by Peter Jones for this Puffin edition from 1983

And here is the 1976 (?) version from the same publisher.  Artist Tony Roberts

 

1970 Faber Hardback cover design by Gask & Page

 

1970 Doubleday edition Artist unknown

Steve

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone is an 80's film about a bounty hunter called Wolff, who goes on a mission to rescue three beautiful women who have made an emergency landing on a planet plagued with disease and ruled over by the evil dictator; Overdog.  Along the way he meets Niki, the only Earthling left from a medical expedition and combining their talents, the two try to rescue the women.

Here are those three beautiful women in their very odd spacesuits.

 

This all looks a bit Barbarella, where as most of it is actually Mad Max via Star Wars.  It's pure pulp done to a T but there is so much to enjoy about this film that it became something of a reoccurring favourite from the video rental store back in the day.


Steve

Star Wars - Return of the Jedi (1983)

It's Bossk in a blink and you'll miss him appearance in the third of the original Star Wars films.

Lunnaya raduga aka Moon Rainbow - Gallery (1983)

 

An impressive number of suits in this film and at least two helmet types.

Steve

Lunnaya raduga aka Moon Rainbow (1983)

After a strange incident while on a mission to Uranus' moon; Oberon, four members of the eponymous vessel Lunnaya Radugaa begin to develop supernatural powers. But how did they acquire such abilities and what are their intentions? The Space Security Service and World Health Organization are called in to investigate.

 

Steve

Starflight One (1983)

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land (re-released on video and given a cinema release in the United Kingdom as Starflight One, also referenced as Airport 85) is a 1983 television movie starring Lee Majors and Hal Linden.

The first hypersonic transport is leaving for its inaugural flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, a two-hour flight through the stratosphere.  What could possibly go wrong?

 

Steve

Doctor Who - Enlightenment (1983)

Just when you think you've covered all the spacesuits in Doctor Who, you recollect another really obvious one that remains unblogged.

This 4 episode story from 1983 features immortals so very bored with existence that they've stolen sailing ships from Earth's history and made them space-ready in order to race between the stars.

I rather like this story.  It dares to be different  and offers a visual unlike any other episode of Doctor Who at that time.  Having since read Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time I can see it's inspirations and can only imagine how wilder it could have been had it been made in the previous decade and not the terribly serious 80's.  Still lots to enjoy should you ever stumble across it.

Doctor Who Terminus (1983) part 2

And lurking deep in the heart of Terminus is this dead spaceman but for reasons that I can't entirely remember now.

The costume and the helmet look like they've been loaned from the BBC's costume department having been featured somewhere else; Moonbase 3 or some such similar show.

Did I mention the scanty underwear and the spacedog yet?


Steve

Doctor Who Terminus (1983) part 1

It's a mad old tale is Terminus and one that probably only a hardened Doctor Who fan is going sit through.

The story set on the titular Terminus, a space station where they send all the victims of the incurable Lazars disease and ends with the big bang that created the universe.

Somewhere in amongst all of that there's a giant humanoid space dog called The Garm (which I like for all the wrong reasons), Nyssa, The Doctor's assistant strips down to her underwear (which I like for all the right reasons) and then there are these pair of space pirates.

That's right, the thigh slapping, "it's behind you" kind of pirates.  Dangerous like a disco is dangerous.


Steve