Friday, July 07, 2006

Raumpatrouille Orion: German Star Trek from the 60s


Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Orion (a.k.a. Raumpatrouille Orion) was the Germans' own take on Star Trek, a black & white seven-episode sci-fi TV series, the first episode of which was aired in 17 September 1966.

Here you can see some video clips from these episodes on YouTube, with subtitles in English. Witness some hilarious dancing styles ("Dirty Dancing", indeed) and several cool 60s-type überbabes, among them a character called Commander Lydia Van Dyke... and of course some nifty futuristic set designs and spaceships. I can hardly wait to see this series myself.

The music was composed by Peter Thomas: there's a 2-CD called Warp Back to Earth 66/99 which includes Thomas' film and TV music, Raumpatrouille among them, plus remixes of his compositions by such people as Stereolab, Saint Etienne and John McEntire. Recommended if you can get this to your hands.

(Click here if you can't see these video clips.)



The series intro in colour.

And the infamous "Dirty Dancing" scenes -- these dancing styles have to be seen to be believed!





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