.
.
.
…in which the ancient civilisation of Murania is destroyed, and its technological secrets and scientific wonders lost forever.
Not to worry, though—Gene Autry makes it back to Radio Ranch in time for his two o’clock broadcast, and that’s all that really matters…
.
.
.
.
.
.
Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
#1 by supersonic man on July 11, 2015 - 5:41 pm
Quote
So Gene Autry was technically a zombie for the rest of his career? Wow, the 70 minute edit skipped an awful lot. Even some of the money shots such as the burning airplane wreck were left out.
#2 by lyzard on July 12, 2015 - 1:24 am
Quote
I think he was technically a zombie for all of it.
Were the episodes that were Gene-light the focus of the editing job? He lies around “unconscious” for quite a time after the plane crash, for instance.
#3 by supersonic man on July 12, 2015 - 1:58 am
Quote
I think he was unconscious for about four minutes. One thing that got lost was the whole period where the queen was out of power. They lost a lot of the underground running around, the torpedoes and sabotage ray, and all exposition about the disintegrator until the final scene where it goes wild.
#4 by lyzard on July 12, 2015 - 6:49 pm
Quote
It seems strange they would cut that much of Murania, but I guess they really were more interested in “Radio Ranch“.
#5 by supersonic man on July 12, 2015 - 11:55 pm
Quote
It was pretty balanced. They also cut out all the OCRing by Oscar and Pete.
#6 by lyzard on July 13, 2015 - 2:29 am
Quote
Not the robots, I hope!?
#7 by supersonic man on July 13, 2015 - 11:35 am
Quote
They still did the robot.
#8 by supersonic man on July 12, 2015 - 3:37 pm
Quote
I’m disappointed that Betsy King Ross didn’t do more acting. Coulda been an awesome role model.
#9 by lyzard on July 12, 2015 - 6:50 pm
Quote
If she grew up to be a scientist, she was an excellent role model. 🙂
#10 by Alaric on July 12, 2015 - 7:22 pm
Quote
Even so, after reading the full review, I kinda wish there had been an Autry-less sequel, starring Frankie Darro and Betsy King Ross. They could have called it “Thunder Riders”.
#11 by lyzard on July 13, 2015 - 2:30 am
Quote
Oh, yes, I’d be all over that.
#12 by Bill Culbertson on July 12, 2015 - 4:20 pm
Quote
The Phantom Empire was semi-remade for TV in 1979 as The Secret Empire. There was no singing, no Queen Tika (Mark Leonard played the ruler in this production), and it took place in the 19th Century West and the underground kingdom of Chimeria. The special effects used had not noticeably improved in 40 years.
#13 by lyzard on July 12, 2015 - 6:51 pm
Quote
Hi, Bill! Yes, I’m on the lookout for that now—particularly given your assessment of the special effects!
#14 by ronald on July 17, 2015 - 8:52 am
Quote
At least the name of the underground kingdom improved. IMHO Chimeria sounds noticably cooler than Murania, which is, after all, only a couple of vowel changes away from MORONia.
#15 by Luke Blanchard on July 19, 2015 - 4:06 pm
Quote
I’ve not seen it, but it was part of a show called CLIFFHANGERS.
#16 by Luke Blanchard on July 26, 2015 - 6:18 am
Quote
I see Ken mentioned it in the Part 1 thread. There’s an advertisement for the series at YouTube.
#17 by Jen S 1.0 on July 16, 2015 - 2:29 pm
Quote
Having, as she thought, recently overseen Gene’s execution, Tika is more than a little miffed by this: she orders Gene carried to the Radium-Revival Room, so that he can be healed and then tell her who saved him.
Okay, the queen is actively working against her own interests here. Due to inbred lunacy and sheer mind-melting boredom, I expect. But still.
Also, best throw-away line ever? “This one to the lion pit!” They have LIONS??? Are they like, transparent, eyeless CAVE lions??? ROBOT LIONS, FORSOOTH? I demand another serial focusing on the lions!
#18 by ronald on July 17, 2015 - 8:50 am
Quote
Lions? Probably got them through trade agreements with Opar. Lost cities aren’t necessarily lost to EACH OTHER, y’know…
#19 by supersonic man on July 19, 2015 - 11:59 am
Quote
SSW: “What’s so funny?”
SSM: “Transparent eyeless cave lions.”
#20 by lyzard on July 20, 2015 - 2:20 am
Quote
The really fabulous thing about this – apart from, you know, transparent eyeless cave lions – is that no division is made between rebels and loyalists, so apparently this is Murania’s standard way of disposing of its dead.
(It does occur to me that we may have stumbled over the real reason they need the rate of executions so high…)
#21 by Alaric on July 20, 2015 - 8:28 am
Quote
So, Murania only exists as a food source for transparent, eyeless cave lions? Does that mean that after the destruction of the city, the lions will eventually get hungry enough to burst out to the surface and attack Radio Ranch?
#22 by Jen S 1.0 on July 21, 2015 - 3:06 pm
Quote
I smell another serial of my dreams…
#23 by ronald on July 17, 2015 - 7:56 am
Quote
“why exactly would anyone want to destroy the universe?”
Because it’s there?
Besides, he didn’t say he wanted to destroy the universe, he just said his machine would be CAPABLE of destroying the universe…
“I wanted to be the first on my block to have one!” — The Great Gazoo
#24 by RogerBW on July 18, 2015 - 11:57 am
Quote
Thanks, Lyz, you’ve just given me a reason to mention this in my new book! (Can’t go into details, but I’ll let you know if it makes it to the final product.)
“In its current state the Atom-Smashing Machine will only destroy ten percent of matter, and so it is useless.”
As Peter Morwood once pointed out, “it is difficulty to get answers out of a corpse, even after prolonged interrogation”.
“Take him alive! Or dead! But do not tell me which!”
Now: mount an IR trip and laser emitter in the room. Then: have a robot with IR trip and beam emitters stationed in the room.
The beams were shut down before they could be fatal. Hope the kids weren’t planning on breeding later. (Yeah, I know, Radium Reviving Chamber.)
A robot’s got to know its… limitations.
“Vicious party of research scientists”. Love it!
#25 by lyzard on July 20, 2015 - 2:22 am
Quote
“Take him alive! Or dead! But do not tell me which!”
“…but rest assured, whichever you pick, you’ll be WRONG!!”
“Vicious party of research scientists”. Love it!
Do not get us riled up. Just – do – not.
you’ve just given me a reason to mention this in my new book!
ooooOOOOoooo!!!! 😀
#26 by RogerBW on July 20, 2015 - 4:08 am
Quote
“Put him, alive or dead, in this box, and do not open it…”