TV Gold

Has anyone else noticed the "new season" trailers on the rapidly improving Sci-Fi Channel in the UK? It looks like the 1977 CBS series of Logans Run is finally going to be shown!

Amazing, since 15 years ago when the Sci-Fi Channel started broadcasting here I wrote to ask them would they screen this series. They admitted it was the one show which they had had the largest number of requests to see and that they would try their best to get it. So, here we are FIFTEEN years later and it's finally going to be screened.

It was only ever screened once in the UK back in early 1978.....some 28 years ago!!! ITV refused to repeat it when, in the early 1980's, anti-violence campaigners blasted its violence as being "more bloody than the Godfather films". (Those blaster weapons of the Sandmen were so cool!!)

For those younger (than 40) viewers who will only have ever seen the cinema version with Michael York and Jenny Agutter, you're in for a 70's kitsch treat.

The series has not been shown in America for nearly 2 decades either, and there has been a campaign running to get it released on DVD for some years now.

Talking of DVD's, has anyone else noticed that the cinema version has still seen no sign of a region 2 release, despite having been out on region 1 for over 4 years? Strange - or what??? Not really, as this happens to so many great tv shows and films, often ones which were originally made in Britain. (Sorry, another subject - which those who know me will recognise as a bug bear of mine!)

I certainly agree with you on this Marcus

This is indeed excellent news and certainly about time! I've got a vague memory of this TV series and it was indeed highly enjoyable.

The UK Sci-Fi channel now has a section on 'Logan's Run' (http://www.scifiuk.com/logansrun/ with it apparently
commencing on 6th October!

Regarding the new version of the movie, I believe I heard that its currently slated for production/release in 2007, here's hoping!!

Damn and blast!!! (pun intended)

Not only do the Sci-Fi Channel inflict spinning characters at the bottom of the screen advertising other series throughout the episodes, they are also making totally unnecessary cuts.

Episode 2 "The Collectors" had some of the worst snipping I have ever seen, right towards the end of the episode. As the two chief alien collectors fall dead in the prison chamber, the captured aliens breathing the chlorine gas look down on the shrivelling corpses - CUT!!!!

Then, as Logan and Jessica free the other alien prisoners from their cells, the camera should have panned along the corridor to where Jessica was laughing while listening to two of the joyful aliens as they emerge. That was CUT - also as it led into the next scene where we see the surviving collector alien making contact with their homeworld. Logan comes into the control room to stop her completing the message. What we saw was a crackle in the film sound, and suddenly Logan was telling the collector alien what to do before he blows the communications device to bits with his blaster weapon.

There was no need for this cut - as far as I can see, it was done purely at the last minute to trim 30 seconds out of the running time to make room for more adverts after the end of the episode.

And how did they make their cut for episode 3 "Capture"? They simply snipped out the teaser and opening credit sequence altogether. That opening theme music is one of the iconic sci-fi themes of the 1970s. To remove it is sacrilege!!! Would they do that to a classic Trek episode?? I think not!

When are these channels (ITV4 included in this!) going to acknowledge that it is the PROGRAMMES which people tune in to watch, NOT the adverts. People will only commit themselves to watching a series if it is something they like and want to see - IN ITS ENTIRETY. It is so frustrating to wait years to see a series (28 in Logan's case!) just to have some first year technician loose with the editing equipment so that he can see the episode complete and decide to snip out a piece that the rest of us can't.

There should be laws against it!!!!

Shame on you, Sci-Fi Channel (and ITV4, still at it with the ITC classics!!!)