YOU'RE IN FOR ITIE NOW

Apologies For Shouting There

The pun wouldn't work otherwise.  And of course "ITIE" isn't a typo, though it is cheating a bit, since it should be more correctly spelled "IT.I.E." because Lo! we are back on "This Island Earth", and we do eventually get to the meat of the matter, or perhaps that should be meat of the matte, since that was what drew me to the film in the first place.  Art!

"In the future, searchlights will be different"

     In fact this is the sight that greets our intrepid heroes as they attempt to escape in a light aircraft; they are trapped in the mysterious green beam and gradually drawn within the spacecraft. Art!

     At last a matte shot!  The film insert is that circular area around the airplane, and if you look really hard at the port struts, you can see Cal Meacham stepping out.  The rest of this shot is all matte painting, which is obviously far cheaper and quicker than building an enormous spacecraft set that's only used for seconds.  

     Now let us cut to the exterior of the Metalunan spacecraft, as it travels through what we are told is "the flame barrier".  Conrad is unsure what they mean by this, as deep space is only just above absolute zero and is not known for being toasty warm.  Art!

Ignore fat biffer's reflection, please

     I don't care what they say, HAVING YOUR SPACESHIP ON FIRE IS NOT A GOOD THING.  

     You will be glad to know that the spaceship and crew all make it to Metaluna safely, even if they have to dodge Zagon meteorite-missiles.  The Zagons are the villains of the piece, only ever seen as sinister dagger-like spaceships, which we'll get to later.  Art!

     Another matte, showing the underground civilisation of the Metalunans, where the spaceship has arrived after braving an above-ground meteorite bombardment.  Again, doing this is cheaper than having to create a large miniature set using forced perspective.  The spaceship docks with the large slanted tubular structure to starboard.  Art!

     Here we see a matte of the docked spaceship and that green infill shows Exeter, Cal and Ruth descending to 'ground' level in a futuristic lift*.  You can also see one of the superimposed explosions that the film positively revels in, which are pretty well done.  Next!

     Here we see the trio emerging from a travel tube and heading towards The Monitor; if you look carefully at upper starboard (and ignore a fat biffer taking photographs) then you can see the docked spaceship.  The insert here is that very small portion between the travel tube exit and the nearest buildings, because this allows to depict an enormous landscape for pennies.  Or cents.  Relatively cheaply, is the point.

     I think we'll call a halt to this for tonight, as I've got more photos to upload and don't want to outstay my welcome.  After that we have a serious analytical breakdown of the plot, which I promise won't get to the length of my "Forbidden Planet" monograph**.

"Thanksssss - for pantsssss."

     Motley, we're going to practice ju-jitsu.  Break out the mattes.

Here's One To Conjure With

Your Humble Scribe did take a photograph of the original, which is not that hot, so - let's have the original!  Art?

     From port to starboard we have: John De Lancie (a.k.a. "Q"); Brent Spiner (a.k.a. Dr. Brakish Okun sorry "Data"); and Armin Shimmerman (a.k.a. "Quark"), and a suit called Rick Berman we don't need to bother with.  It just struck me that none of them are recognisable as their "Starry Trex" counterparts, and that anyone can make themselves look large and imposing by standing next to the diminutive Mr. Shimmerman.  They are posing as part of a promotion for "TNG"'s thirtieth anniversary, so the photo above is four years old.  Art!

Dr. B. Okun, PhD, MSc, Bart***.

     
     Conrad is pretty certain Mr. Spiner took the role above because it was a complete character contrast to that of Data.  Fair enough.

Am I Still Angry?  You Betcha!

Still seething, yet quietly, so I don't scare the neighbours, who have a small child.  Yes, Conrad's apparently unceasing battle with the positively Machiavellian Codeword compilers continues, round #258.  Shall I show you what they resorted to in Monday's M.E.N.?

"SIBYLS": No!  Nothing to do with whatever properties Sibyl possesses.  If that were the case there'd be an apostrophe after the "L".  No, this refers to women in ancient Rome who were believed to have the gift of prophecy, which had to be more impressive than "O the sun will rise tomorrow" or "I foresee water remaining wet".  WHAT ARE WE EXPERTS ON ANCIENT ROMAN CULTURE NOW?  There's probably a painting -

Sibyl Danning

"TIMBRE": which is NOT the French for 'wood'.  It's something to do with sound and/or music.  Allow me a peek at my trusty Collins Concise.  Ah.  "Tone colour or quality of sound", or the tonal distinction between vowels and sonants.  Glad we got that cleared up.  

Close enough

"DISJUNCT": Of course I knew that this was one of the prepositions in a disjunction, which itself is an operator that forms a compound sentence from two sentences and which corresponds to the English.  Again, glad we got that one sorted out, hmmm?

Dis Junction

     I've got at least five other Codewords a-waiting, so I shall chase the motley round the yard with a concrete club to work off some of my angst in advance.  Don't worry, motleys are robustly constructed.  And also cheap.

Finally -

We only need a little more to hit the Compositional Ton, so Conrad would like to briefly look at all the fuss about the ballfoot game's proposed "European Super League".  I did so enjoy reading all the comments by people on the BBC's "Have Your Say" on this subject, which was predictably FURIOUSLY ENRAGED.  In fact I don't think I've ever seen rival ballfoot fans so unanimously united in complete agreement that the ESL was an aberration created only by 'Ballfoot Club Owners' (forgive the complicated technical jargon here) in order to squeeze even more money out of the game.  There were even ballfoot players protesting about the issue.  Faced with this outcry, the six English clubs whose owners had put them forward have all pulled out.  This establishes a dangerous precedent; the fans have had a taste of power and influence.  What might they next unite about?

Adored by some.
(Leaves Conrad cold)

     I think that, with that, we are so well and truly done!

* "Elevator" to our South Canadian cousins.

**  Probably.  I can waffle pretty well.

***  Bay Area Rapid Transit.  It's how he gets to work.