And on the subject
of classic title sequences for SF TV (like we were) here's a kind of annotated mixtape. For those who
got here late, the original hypothesis was that they tend to chip
from two quite distinct blocks - 'Doctor Who' and
'Star Trek'. Like all such hypotheses, this is
likely to be less an eternal truth and more a way of framing things
which might take us somewhere.
But let's start at
the beginning. Which of course means the legendary, pioneering
’Outer Limits’ intro. And it's classic line
I've so shamelessly co-opted for the header. Though based on the
conceit that alien forces have somehow taken over your TV, of course
it's based on the early Sixties idea that TV is itself
something strange and alien.
’The
Twilight Zone’ is perhaps a little less classic, but it's
Magritte-like floating door unlocked by “the key of imagination”
is even more surreal. With the unlocking door reference, it should be
remembered in those days people often stored their box-like TVs in
cabinets, closing the doors on them when not in use.
'The
Quatermass Experiment' is perhaps the other great pioneer.
The idea that the show was merely a prototype for 'Who'
is an absurd simplification. However, with it's smoke and dissolving
titles, it has some of the chaotic dissolving forms of 'Who.'
It heralds a world in a permanent incohate state, one which makes the
above two clips suddenly look ordered. Here you
can be pretty sure no-one is controlling the
horizontal or the vertical. But it's the martial classical theme tune
which is the main difference, vaguely celestial but more
cultured. The theme tune for a self-styled
“thriller” for the viewing pleasure of proper grown-ups, not some
sci-fi show!
...then by way of
a contrast, 'Wagon Train In Space.'
I kid! Even if
you're Oxford, you can still admit it when Cambridge have a good
team. It is a classic in it's on right. Even if it
took things in a direction I was less interested in. Partly it's the
font they use, modernist and slanty yet elegantly solid, and so
easily recognisable. (Those who think I may be a bit damning with
faint praise over 'Star Trek' may be interested in
an
exchange between myself and Prankster in the comments section of
Andrew Hickey's blog.)
'Time
Tunnel' might initially seem the most 'Who'-like
of all. Don't be fooled! It's tunnel is more disco lighting than
shamanic experience, it's theme tune and graphics more spy movie than
SF. (Surrealist spy shows, such as 'The Avengers'
or 'The Prisoner' are probably another genre, if
inevitably an overlapping one.) While both 'Who'
and 'Star Trek' used bold, classic fonts to
identify themselves, this screams “Sixties!” at you. It's
fun, I wouldn't deny, and it was probably
effective enough to plant bums on sofas. But it's not
classic...
...or adventures
closer to home. Whatever else you could say about him, Gerry Anderson
knew how to put together a dramatic credit sequence. With it's
pumping jazzy score and classic line “anything can happen in the
next half hour”'Stingray' could grab any child's
attention. Growing up in a black-and-white household, I never knew
about the clever 'Oz'-like shift into colour until
many years later.
Meanwhile in
Australia... As John Lydon once said “is imitation the sincerest
form of flattery? It ain't!” I even knew as a child 'Phoenix
5' was terrible, but felt compelled to watch it anyway.
(Though I was then too young to know the term 'kitsch value', I could
still apply it.) It seems keen to mash 'Star Trek'
up with 'Lost In Space', with the crew doubling as
an honorary family unit.
It's hard to hear
that Brit narrator and not imagine it read out by Paul Hogan. Their
adversary would seem to be Bela Lugosi, only cheaper. I suppose it
gets dark in space a lot, handy if you're a vampire. And I love the
line about “their computeroid, Carl”! No relation to Robbie the
Robot, nothing for lawyers here...
Could you even
parody that stuff? Some were brave enough to try...
’Blake’s
7’ is a rare attempt at a composite, with the patented
iconic faces and objects which fill the screen then recede, with some
post ’1984’ dystopianism. (Yep, masked cops
and CCTV cameras, the future’s going to be that
horrific!). All topped off with a borrowed Death Star. But the
military music ultimately makes it more a successor to ’Star
Trek.’
'Tomorrow
People' came faster-paced and with a funkier theme to
signify you were tuned into ITV, but the comparisons stand. One of
the great credit sequences of the era, for a show which had
everything going for apart from (alas) it's actual content. Perhaps
the main difference is that ’Who’ feels quite
music-led, as if the sometimes abstract images are visualising the
sound. It seems to signify a universe in primal chaos.
This is not only
more visually oriented but quite self-consciously references Dadaist
collage, especially the
John Heartfield hand. The music is more musical,
which isn't really a compliment. You could play it at a disco,
whereas to hear the 'Who' theme you'd need to
leave behind life as we know it. It's like one came from alchemic
electronics boffs, and the other from Art School grads eager to stick
something modernist on the screen.
With
it’s gravitas-exuding omnipotent narrator and geometric shapes,
’Sapphire and Steel’ perhaps stems more
directly from 'Outer Limits' and ’Twilight
Zone’ rather than first going through ’Doctor
Who’. (Recall the way that both started with a simple
geometric line in space.)
Unlike
the Doctor, the very definition of the gentleman amateur, they were
kind of cosmic police agents. But they were mysterious and
non-human... in Steel's case, significantly non-human. So, as with
'Blake's 7', we get a sort of hybrid. Weird
floating faces cohabit with star fields, against a theme tune that
goes from eerie to martial. I always used to try and spy out that
hooded head in the background on our family's cheap black-and-white
TV, without significant success. Presumably some kind of cosmic Fat
Controller, sending them out on their missions...
'Sky'
is clearly 'Who' derived but uses some clever
effects to unsettle, some quite simple such as jumping between
musical progression and stasis. It simply never occurred to me before
watching this, but we're so used to credit sequences with on-screen
actor/character introductions (“starring... as...”) that
with-holding that information creates a great sense of mystery in
itself. The last shot, a psychedelically filtered image of trees
against the sky, probably sums up the show's visual identity the
best.
The next batch
weren't even science fiction shows, but they are about the uncanny so
I like to think they expand my point rather than undermine it.
'Raven' had a mystic Arthurian storyline, with
one of the spaciest theme tunes of them all (could you even call it a
tune?), a credit sequence that's more like being in a trance - and it
still manages a futuristic font.
'Escape
Into Night' has a double credit. (You have to watch a bit
of intro before the second one.) The first, with it's dramatic
classical theme (from Vaughn Williams) is quite
post-'Quatermass' while the second is almost the
exact opposite – much more simple, much more sinister. (Never
actually seen this show, it looks like an influence on the 'New
Who' episode 'Fear Her', but much
better. Though perhaps that isn't hard...)
It's so
nostalgic to see the ATV ident again. Announcing colour but being in
black and white – just the way I remember it!
'Into the
Labyrinth' uses a fairly crummy 'horror comics' font, but
it's neat the way it uses the uneven-ness of a cave to convey it's
own version of the cosmic tunnel. Note how the theme music opens with
a fanfare to pull the audience in, then moves onto the spooky voices.
Not that every
entrant was a medallist. If 'Star Trek' was the
anti-'Who'<, 'Ace of Wands'
is the anti Sky. Faces- check! Hands – check!
But what happened to that all-important uncanniness? A risibly limp
pop-folk theme is no real replacement for the BBC Radiophonic
Workshop. And as for the faux jollity of that font, the Comic Sans of
the Seventies...
The
Fool/Knave/Trickster figure was prevalent in this era. (Think for
example of the Beatles' 'Fool on the Hill'.) With
'Who', at least the Second and Fourth Doctors were
examples. But this looks like the scrag-end of it all. Reminds me of
crusties juggling in Brighton's North Laines. Move on...
But with ’Box
of Delights’ the sinister, uncanny title sequence is back
– and counter-intuitively but quite fabulously set to a Christmas
carol...
What were we
saying about hands? 'Who' even managed to cast a
shadow over adult TV. 'Survivors' was admittedly
linked to 'Who' by writer Terry Nation. But t's
the same faces and objects veering in and out of focus. But what
chiefly strikes home is the spilled beaker and the spreading stain.
It both carries forward and inverts the cosmic tunnel. Both are as if
random to us, beyond our control or comprehension. But here the stain
spreads the plague. It's not a call to adventure but a warning, a
reminder to us of how limited we are.
...and again with
the... well pretty much all of it. 'Day of the Triffids'
focuses almost entirely on human faces, but the unearthly light and
the unsettling music transform them into something spooky. Like the
stain, it's kind of inverted in effect. Rather than their appearing
mysterious, we wonder what they can be looking at to get them so
afeared. Notably, the Triffids appear only fleetingly and as
shapeless heaving blobs, cousins to the stain above. (Alas they
weren't so fleeting in the actual show, but that's another story.)
'The
Omega Factor', another adult show, combined espionage and
horror elements more than SF. But it still contains’Who’
elements aplenty, such as heads and titles filling the screen only to
break up. Perhaps the most signifying thing is the initial electronic
pulses giving way to a more standard spy theme.
...which
is more than enough to be going on with. The terminally deranged may
want to try out myYouTube playlist of TV credit sequences. Not merely
confined to 'Who' derived or even SF.
Coming
soon! Okay, next time moving on from
this stuff...
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