Past Tense - Hope At Times Is About Surrendering And Moving Forward, Here Or Far From Home Part II


Sam Parkhill (Darren McGavin) used his notoriety as one of the surviving Zeus III crew members, like car salesman, Cal Worthington. An Amerian cowboy who help stop a murderer.

Man, you can barely make out the restaurant sign, Sam riding a rocket.

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Before I forget to include. This is the original hardcover novel (first pressing) by Bradbury; published by Doubleday on May 4th, 1950, two hundred and twenty-two pages.

The book source that stirred so many imaginations.

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Back on topic.



Near the very end of Part III; the Wilder family making new roots away from the world they once knew.

You can see what I mean about the image quality. The MGM DVD has an interlace problem. It can and does look pixelated at times, especially when you pause the image.

This is completely absent on the ]Kino release - as it should be. But now as said, too dark and in a shade of blue.

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From Part III once more. Here is John's encounter with a Martian (Terence Longdon).

This is another example of how extreme ]Kino made their image. This was the last straw for me.

I decided not to get rid of that '04 DVD, it had image issues, but it had the better colors and you could make out what was going on.

And yeah, their eyes glow red. They really dropped the ball on this transfer. Isn't the point to be able to see what's going on? I don't understand why they thought that was good idea.

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I have the CD soundtrack too. This came out in 2002 as a limited edition; only 3,000 copies made from Airstrip One Company. This has the score by Stanley Myers, but is not complete.

Additional music was done by Richard Harvey - due to rights (like Mars), those cues were not included. All and all it has thirty-six tracks. The main theme still saddens me.

All these years, decades - I still want it. The mini-series presented a future van. Add to the pile of weird choices - the sound effect for the vehicle was a jet engine. Why?



This would be so sway in Lego. Have a minifigs of Wilder and Spender in the front seats.

Can see this on my desk. I would buy it.

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There is an oddity that isn't part of the Kino release; probably lost to time. In 1979, before the mini-series aired. The lengthy program was whittled down into a ninety minute feature.

It had a very limited theatrical release in France. What stories were omitted? We may never know now. Above is another promo image; not the French poster.

Had an extra image, decided to stick it here.



Yup. That's a ten year old; pre-famous Laurie Holden as Marie Wilder with her on screen mom, Ruth (Gayle Hunnicutt). Long before she gain fame as Andrea on "The Walking Dead".

There you go. Nothing too complicated and easy to complete.

Come back here on October 7th for the 7th Annual Limited Edition Horror! Spooky. Like breaking wind, unexpectedly...in crowed room. Indeed. See you then.