For the first time in just over two years, #SiFiPieFi returned to give me a break from all that red wine, Wotsits varietals and funny old 'Muricans prancing around dusty deserts in silly hats.
To show my commitment to SFP, so many of birthday presents had been chosen in readiness for the return date. Take this tee shirt from Sister SiFi for example, which she bought me along with 12 ales .....
A Western space kitten atop a cosmic Dinocorn if you wondered. Very me!
Mummy SiFi bought me a box of 40 Space Raiders, how had I failed to realise these were the perfect SFP crisp last time around? All four flavours, in one of the boxes you see behind the bar in proper pubs.
In the coming weeks, we'll focus on each of the four aliens one at a time as they all have a distinct 'personality'.
I dug out Uncle Matt's 'Space Mix' for a first play in two years. A cassette tape that sounds vaguely Haribo, but there was no way any other music would be remotely suitable.
'It's hard to believe' (thanks) that I'm only the 336th person to Shazam this classic. I'm always on a quest to find the most obscure Shazam track, and this must be up there.
A 25 minute walk on a sunny afternoon in York took me to the outskirts of boring Fulford, via the shiny Millennium bridge, to Iceland, to buy a pie.
A family of posh cyclists break down in my path. The daughter tells her Dad off for embarrassing her by stopping suddenly, and he replies "it is like I'm in an AI scenario" which made no sense by seemed SFP relevant.
I nearly went with Iceland's own brand pie , but Pukka proved too tempting.
... but the big breaking news. Look what else I saw buried in an obscure freezer?
Even the checkout lady says "what will they think of next?" and I'm like "I know, and I'm watching a Sci fi film and eating their crisps later anyway so this is perfect!" and she looks at me like I'm a bit simple.
Well, I must be honest. They were DISGUSTING. First I'm upset that they aren't Alien shaped heads like the crisps, just boring onion rings like on the packet. 'What's the point?' I'm thinking, but then I bite into one (not frozen obviously) and YUCK, proper keen like the Pickled Onion crisp. They can get away with it in crisp form, but I found the onion rings hard to stomach. Not a crispy ring either. I'll give them another chance this week but not looking forward to it!
In a show of galactic interactivity, I asked Twitter to vote on the ales and I thought you buggers would all make me drink the strong Raspberry thing, but it was actually Titanic Plum Porter which won the day, so that is where I started, once I'd found my space bucket hat and dodgy shades!
The oven finally pings, so I grabbed the next most popular beer, 'Way Out West' by Overtone whatever they are, and I'm all set for the film, after a last gasp realisation I'd best not forget the gravy .....
Film 26/100 on the list, and although it was remade with Keanu Reeves more recently (Sister SiFi's second ever crush, after Philip Schofield) , it was the 1951 original that I HAD to watch.
Basically, this spaceship lands on earth and although there's a big scary alien who just stands still, this proper stiff upper lipped 50's English gent called Michael Rennie is the other main alien, and he manages to blend in with this family on account of being the least alieny alien ever.
He makes friends with the kid, a fat American lad called Billy Grey (still alive, get him on your space deathlists now) and his Mum called Patricia Neal figures out he's the alien and tells her boyf who shops him to the filth.
But first, Rennie went to meet the 'best brains in America' which took a while, and basically says "you've got to get all the world leaders around the same table and unite, otherwise we'll destroy Planet Earth because it is becoming a real negative shit storm'.
But the U.S. politicians and scientists are like 'no way you'll get us, China and Russia, and the Brits, all around the same table you naïve alien loser' and he's like "well, I warned you" and I'm thinking how we've not really moved on at all in 70+ years which is kinda depressing isn't it? Time for my third ale .... Cloudwater Fuzzy!
Well, Michael Rennie gets run over by the traffic in Washington (busy at rush hour) and he sends Patricia Neal off to the big scary alien who didn't do a lot to pass on a message "Klaatu Barada Nikto" which she did amazingly to remember considering she didn't write it down, or even put it in the notes section of her Samsung Galaxy.
Big Alien (Gort) revives Rennie, who then tells the assembled scientists and world leaders "learn to live in harmony like our peaceful planet or we are gonna obliterate you all cos we hate you!" which sounded a bit contradictory but who am I to argue. We don't find out what Earth decides.
There you have it! Good film, but slightly depressing.
I'm back either tomorrow or Thursday for week 10. My highly AI random number generator tells me I'll be watching film ..... 'On the Silver Globe' but it looks Polish and obscure so if I can't get it in time, I'll re-generate (so to speak). I'm off into town to buy a pie and 3 dark ales to supplement my selection.
Si