Barry Gray Beyondophonic Contest Winner Announced

Thank you!

Wow, I am so delighted to have won, big thanks to Tothar, Carl Howard, Switched On Audrey, and JohnT! What a fabulous contest, I really enjoyed reading all those very imaginative entries. Feeling like some immersion in the Gerry Anderson archives now... I'm especially looking forward to a replay of the Beyondophonic Action Hour Undersea Special tomorrow...can't wait! Love from the Seabed, Aqua Marina x

Which Gerry Anderson TV show would I like to live in?

My choice would be the lesser-known but altogether wonderful Gerry Anderson series JOE 90! As the PapaJoeMambo most people know me as, I would be schlepping my 12 hour workaday from nine to nine. Deep in the bowels of the WORLD INTELLIGENCE NETWORK, thanks to the kaleidoscopic spinning wonder known as B.I.G. R.A.T., I would be much more than that. Who but WIN would suspect that someone so recognizably physically incapable was their secret weapon? When called upon, I, their 90th sleeper agent, would need only sit for the length of a happening Barry Gray theme song in a revolving metallic egg with two brass thimbles attached to my temples as my brain was flooded with the physical kinesthetics of a previously recorded library of hyper-talented experts. In a bath of liquid light and the sound of apparently reversing computer tapes, I would become someone new. I could be a computer savant, effortlessly typing my way into a previously hack-proof super system retrieving information of a deeply compromising nature to an enemy of humanity, pantsing them completely in a MISISON:IMPOSSIBLE styled manner in which the eyes of world media had never seen before. I could be the suavest of continental players romancing a drop-dead gorgeous yet deadly foreign assassin, subverting her love of her cause to her hastily awakened desire for my loins. I could be standing on a Riviera bank one day (bleeding in a Bombay alley next day), a high-tech, martial-arts kicking, acrobatically endowed Jason Bourne-styled techno-spy's brain patterns standing in for mine where my own couldn't perform the vital maneuvers to prevent the Eastern Bloc from allowing enemies of the Free World to further their nefarious plans and enable global domination. All of this would be possible, with the incredible brain-reprocessing abilities of BIG RAT. I could be all these people and still be myself just by wearing my brain-wave imbuing glasses. PapaJoe90! Reporting for duty!

Moonbase Alpha / Space:1999

For me, there's no question which Anderson world I'd like to live in - Moonbase Alpha! From the Eagles to the Travel Tubes, everything seems "just right" about the world created in Space:1999. Who wouldn't want to travel the Universe on that magnificent Moonbase? I could spend a day whizzing around the base on the Travel Tubes. Another day just marveling at the Eagles in their expansive hanger bay (and perhaps taking a ride on an Eagle Lift a few times). Gawking at Main Mission (and those fantastic doors to Koenig's office) certainly deserves a few hours of its own. Just typing this entry is giving me a Moonbase "high". Of course, I could do without the alien attacks, but hey you gotta take the bad with the good!

Raptures of the Deep...

Yes, it's obvious, but for me it would have to be Stingray! Where else could I live in a mysterious undersea realm, delighting in the raptures of the deep? There would be a 24 hour, continuous underwater-Exotica soundtrack: Jewels of the Sea, Ports of Pleasure, Blue Mirage, Caribbean Moonlight, The Enchanted Sea, A Deeper Sound. The Tornados would incarnate as amphibious deep ones and play their lovely version of 'Aqua Marina'. I'd have a water-resistant bouffant, telepathic powers and the ability to breathe underwater. I'd rarely speak but when I did, my voice would be unearthly. Plus I would have the fetching Troy Tempest for my boyfriend! I wouldn't mind sharing him with Atlanta Shore from time to time. Every Undine needs a little time alone to herself.

My Gerry Anderson series memory, or lack thereof

Being a child of the 1970s, I was a fan of Space: 1999 solely by virtue of the awesome, fat s-f typeface used to display the show's title. But I think I'd choose to live in a different Anderson series: Thunderbirds. I have a fragmentary memory of a scene in either a Thunderbirds episode or movie. It involved a Concorde-like "Superplane" with malfunctioning landing gear--Sabotage! The Superplane had to land atop 4 ultra-cool, flat topped all-terrain vehicles, driven in perfect sync, to landing speed on the runaway. I think I was 10 or 12. It was riveting. I spent the next few weeks re-enacting the scene in my parents' living room with my own hand-crafted, Lego versions of the Superplane and the rescue atvs. Okay, I just stopped the re-enactments last month, but that's beside the point... The point is, I got to say "Superplane."

Winning submission to the Gerry Anderson contest

…Moonbase Alpha on "Space: 1999." I have always been hypnotized by the alien character, Maya, and her ability to metamorphose into another life form, whether it was an eagle, an insect or an intimidating creature from another galaxy. I was especially impressed with the way her transmogrification was filmed: an extreme close-up of her face, camera pulled tight to her eye and she would ‘visualize’ the species she would change into. As a kid, I was far more captivated with Maya than the cartoon characters of the Wonder Twins from Hanna-Barbera’s "Super Friends" series. Somehow, Maya’s change was far more ‘real’ and thus more powerful as a live-action character than the animated characters. Watching the series as an adult, I’m still fascinated by the potential to become another, in self-defense as was Maya’s frequent strategy, or even as a means of fantasy escapism, to experience another life form’s perspective.