Galaxy of Terror (1981) prop screenshots

[Drewbie]

I was browsing through SciFi titles available on "Crackle", a Sony media outlet that you can install on Kodi, when I happened upon "Galaxy of Terror". Definitely B_Grade but with some recognisable actors (Joanie from Happy Days, Freddy Kruguer and the old dude from Lost in Space).

The spaceship control panels caught my eye - "they look more like microcomputer control panels than anything to do with a spaceship". I'm wondering if they were off a mass produced computer system or something purpose-built. Anyone recognise it?

James Cameron was involved with set production, I think.


Screencaptures:

Bonus circuit diagram displayed on ship monitor when the ship malfunctioned at the end...

[Drewbie]

More pics...

[Drewbie]

Circuit diagram:

[globoy]

Fun!  Definitely look like some sort of old mainframe control panel.  Notice that they're not even screwed in place (at least using all the screw holes). 

[Calambres]

...and the old dude from Lost in Space...

Nope! You mean Ray Walston, the guy from "My favorite Martian". The "old dude from Lost in Space" is (was) Jonathan Harris.

[Drewbie]

Ah. Yes. Well spotted.

Can't even remember if "My Favourite Martian" ever appeared on TV in NZ in those years.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Looks like a terrible movie, I love it! I wonder if there's a RLM review.

[xrunner]

The spaceship control panels caught my eye - "they look more like microcomputer control panels than anything to do with a spaceship". I'm wondering if they were off a mass produced computer system or something purpose-built. Anyone recognise it?

I tried google image search with some of your pics. Looks like the same panels were used in a Star Trek move - see blog link below. I am still using google image search to find what system they came from, it found a lot of close hits.

http://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/re-viewing-star-trek-ii-wrath-of-khan_15.html

[xrunner]

Aha found it - a GE 635 computer used in many movies and TV series!

https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=427

[Drewbie]

Boom! Excellent detective work!

Thanks for the links!

[coppercone2]

when it was in space for 200 years and it needs fixing with what you got in the trunk of your space van...

I never under stood the hate on micro computers in space. they are heavy sure but are you gonna be flying around with a 10nm fab in your trunk and deal with MCU problems when life support system is failing?

I think electronics will look different once its cheap to get things in space and things start getting far away and abandoned for long periods of time. right now its about weight

I already see things get crippled by a single SMD resistor if the soldering people are not there and someone needs something to work right now.

Like realistically your gonna be 'driving' in space for 3-6 months dealing with MRE constipation and get to some clapped out garbage built by people who died 50 years ago to a 12% oxygen environment stuck at 2 degrees celcius with flickering lights with a wire wrap gun and a few spools of wire...

[WillTurner]

i completely understand the nostalgic element of drooling over vintage electronics in old science fiction movies. Dave himself has reveled in the replica DeLorian time travel display from "Back to the Future". Personally, I drool over the relay clicking and simple light sequencing from "Logan's Run". More than once I've thought about putting that display on a PCB.
  If you delve further back into antiquity, may I suggest "Blake's 7" where it looks like they bought a container-load of scrap computer PCB's, and re-purposed them as cheap props. UK TV production of that era was really frugal. Going further back in Hollywood time it was war-surplus with the addition of some flashing lights.
  Finally, may I suggest "Forbidden Planet" which looks like a futuristic extension of a 1940's US naval war movie. It is available as a "free" 500MB download https://archive.org/download/ForbiddenPlanet1956_201707/Forbidden%20Planet%20%281956%29.mp4.
Edit: fix damn URL   

[Gyro]

Forbidden Planet probably gets the prize for prop technology re-use lifetime - Robbie the robot got re-used on Gremlins, The Big Bang Theory, and, I think, a many others.


Edit: 1956 - 2017, many appearances...  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robby_the_Robot

[Calambres]

Forbidden Planet was not a B-movie. It was indeed a full tilt super production of that era!

[TimFox]

An interview with one of the composers of the soundtrack for Forbidden Planet:
https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/the-first-electronic-filmscore-forbidden-planet-a-conversation-with-bebe-barron/

[EPAIII]

Brings back memories from the early 70s when I worked at a UHF TV station that had a RCA video switcher based on relay logic. This switcher had two main busses: Program and PV (PreView). The Program buss selected the video and audio source that was actually on the air. And the PV buss allowed the operator to pre-select the next source to air.

When a button labeled "Take" was pressed or a fader handle was moved from up to down or vice-versa, the source on the PV buss was instantly selected or faded to on the Program buss. And then there was a relay "dance". This relay "dance" took the source that was previously selected on the Program buss and transferred it to the PV buss. This allowed two alternate sources to be selected, one after the other, with no additional selections to be made by the operator. So two cameras could be alternated as often as desired by just repeatedly pressing the "Take" button or using the fader. When you added the selection of an audio source, additional busses of relays became involved. And the whole thing took around a second or less. And here's the cool thing: the sounds of the rather large relays could be clearly heard around the entire room where they were housed. Kind of a click - ka-click - ka-ticketee click - click sound. Relay logic at it's very best.

Just like the use of a GVG video switcher in Star Wars as the planet destroyer, if I had been asked to do something like that back in the day, that RCA video switcher, with it's great relay dance, would have been my first choice. And the viewers would now associate the sounds of that relay "dance" with planetary destruction.