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MESSAGES FROM BEYOND
We love Close Encounters with our readers so drop us a letter at 29 Cheyham Way, South Cheam, Surrey SM2 7HX or an e-mail at editor@thedarksidemagazine.com and you have a good chance of seeing your own name in print
Dear Allan,
Many thanks for the latest issue of Infinity. This is the only magazine that I now read from cover to cover. I came across the first issue of the original Infinity from 1996 while sorting things out during lockdown. You have certainly come a long way since then, with such a broad range of subjects.
Also during lockdown I have been re-watching the (original) Survivors TV series; Chinese scientist drops a flask and causes a global pandemic, as if that could ever happen, eh?
From the box set info booklet with the first series I note that you interviewed some of the cast for The Dark Side magazine in 2003. Any chance or reprinting these interviews in Infinity? I would also like to see articles on the TV series Timeslip, Ace of Wands, Space Patrol (the UK Roberta Leigh one), Adam Adamant, The Wicker Man and also James Bond and Hammer actress Martine Beswick if possible.
Keith Pugh, Wolverhampton.
I’d forgotten I interviewed the Survivors folk, Keith and yes, it might be a good idea to reprint that feature in Infinity. We’ve already covered Adam Adamant and Space Patrol in the mag but the others are on our radar for sure.
Dear Infinity,
In recent times, thanks to Talking Pictures TV, I have been able to re-evaluate all the episodes of Special Branch. From the very outset the most obvious thing was that the first season was in fact a series within a series, much like one of those Russian dolls firmly associated with Cold War espionage thriller book covers and film credits.
Clearly six episodes were principally standalone stories falling within the remit of the law enforcement procedural which had been broadened by the likes of Redcap, The Revenue Men and The Expert and presumably constituted what had started out as Not In the Public Interest. However three framing episodes had been added to spook things up in order to make more of distinctive characters Jordan (Derren Nesbitt) and Moxon (Morris Perry) and provide an ongoing storyline that would lead into a mid-season format change linked to a switch to colour for the first week of the new colour service on ITV, providing something quite memorable in much the same way BBC 1 was planning to metamorphose Softly Softly into Softly Softly Task Force in the same week for its own new colour service.