…is the name of the painting by Christiane Kubrick, artist and wife of Stanley.
I love the idea that Doctor Who was part of the Kubrick domestic routine in the 70s. I imagine he was more of a Tom Baker man, given his penchant for wild-eyed “large” leading performers. He was also an admirer of Gerry Anderson, or at least his technical team, given their ubiquity on 2001. A few years later his correspondence revealed a deep irritation at the exisence of Space:1999; so much so that he was considering legal action. I can see his point, the first act of the opening episode (“Breakaway”) is a virtual re-tread of the Heywood Floyd-goes-to-the-Moon sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey, complete with deeply derivative designs, music and all round..er, aesthetic. But if you re-hire SFX man Brian Johnson, who jumped ship after Thunderbirds to work on 2001, the visuals are bound to have a certain similarity. No excuse for the plot though. And don’t forget that colon-tastic title. I don’t think I’d ever seen a colon until 1975, but after Space:1999 they came hoving around like rats, all the sci-fi franchises tossed them around like beach balls in a Miami brothel. Its all over now, of course. JJ Abrahams isn’t having them in his Star Trek films and where he goes others have followed. Colons had became synonomous with bad suffixes like IV: The Quest for Peace, :Insurrection, :Nemesis and my favourite, that oft used sign a franchise was hoisting the white flag of creative surrender… :The Beginning
There are no colons in this painting. It simply is.
Shame they’re watching “The Mutants” (season 9, 1972) but there you go.
The Man in the Elegant Room 