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Along with the Klingon Bird of Prey, I brought home this bit of nostalgia. When I was 12 or 13, I used to love "My Favourite Martian," starring Ray Walston as the Martian, marooned on Earth. His flying saucer was more of a flying Jaguawr XKE, and it was lovely. It was also supposed to have the perfect aerodynamic shape. On one occasion it was shrunk down to about 8 inches long, and mistaken for a toy. Because of its "perfect" shape, though, give it a gentle push and it would sail through the air in a leisurely straight line for 20 or 30 feet, almost as though it were weightless. (Or suspended on nearly invisible lines, which was the more likely.) But Uncle Martin's saucer was also strangely crude. The cockpit opened by dividing in two like a clamshell. There was no forward vision at all, just the two darkened panels to either side. The instrument panel was less complicated than the controls for most stereo amplifiers -- a large oscilloscope/radar screen completed the instrumentation, the rest was just some big or small knobs. The model shown here was marked down to the point that I decided, what the hell, I'll get it. Originally it was mounted on a spring, like a bobble-head. I tore the sprint out and replaced it with a solid mounting that allows me to remove the saucer from the base whenever I want. The model is even cruder than the original, unfortunately. Not only does the cockpit not open, the sprue where the epoxy entered the mould is very obvious. The finish is imperfect in the extreme. There are much better kits available, but at five to six times what I paid for this ... and I'd have to build it and paint it myself. This will do.
PS -- I have a theory that Uncle Martin didn't actually come from Mars. It was just a tale he told Tim because he thought the Human too dim to understand the truth. My guess is that Mars was only a waystation. A warp gate or something was established on Mars to break up long range transits between stars into shorter, more practical stages. That would explain why umpteen orbiters and several landers have never spotted anything n Mars that reveals there are lifeforms present. There is only the one gateway and it could just as easily be underground as on the surface.
PS -- I have a theory that Uncle Martin didn't actually come from Mars. It was just a tale he told Tim because he thought the Human too dim to understand the truth. My guess is that Mars was only a waystation. A warp gate or something was established on Mars to break up long range transits between stars into shorter, more practical stages. That would explain why umpteen orbiters and several landers have never spotted anything n Mars that reveals there are lifeforms present. There is only the one gateway and it could just as easily be underground as on the surface.
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1000 x 719px
File Size 323.4 kB
I don't think I've seen any since the 1960s! I'd love to have the first two seasons on DVD. The third season was in colour, and they introduced a bratty Martian kid named Andromeda. He was a boy ... maybe having a girl's name is what made him bratty. I dunno ... but I didn't much like it and the public didn't seem to either. My Favourite Martian was cancelled.
I remember seeing the original once at the Cars Of The Stars museum in Buena Park. The sign next to it said it was originally a surplus NASA pressure test chamber. Could be the Mercury astronauts flew in it before Uncle Martin.
The museum closed in the late 70's or early 80's and the collection was sold off so I have no idea where it is now.
The museum closed in the late 70's or early 80's and the collection was sold off so I have no idea where it is now.
Is that what it was? I could easily believe it was a flight test simulator, similar to the Link Trainer. Another guess I had is that it might have been a drop tank. During the late 40s and early 50s there were a number of hot rodders who used drop tanks to build into land-speed racers.
I've seen the remake. It has its good points, though Chritopher Lloyd as the Martian is too whacked out, hardly the "rational" being that Ray Walston played. The worst things about it included "Zoot." Also the scene where Tim's girl friend takes the forbidden gum ball and eats one of the armed guards. Didn't it occur to any of the writers that she killed a man? Also, when she reverted to her original body, where did 200 pounds of Marine Corps meat go? It would have been so simple to have her regurgitate him off camera, but nobody seemed to think of it. The good points, though, were incorporating Ray Walston into the story as the original marooned Martian. That suggests there was an orignal Tim, though... Did he go off to be the Hulk? Maybe it was something Uncle Martin fed him, and not really gamma rays.
I have a theory that "Martin" was giving Tim only the moron's version of the truth about Mars. We know now that it's uninhabitable and that no Martian civilization is present. If there was one, it would have to be paranoid in the extreme, since it had gone to great lengths to hide itself from our orbital satillites and surface rovers long before we even got there.
So what is the truth? I figure that Mars is only a trans-spatial gateway. Obviously, a little one-man craft like Martin's is unsuitable for long distances, so the "Martians" rely instead of creating worm-holes or dimensional gates that cover enormous distances in the blink of an eye. But the apparatus is a bit unwieldy, so they station them on otherwise useless planets that happen to be conveniently placed. Mars happens to be so placed on the run from the real "Martian" homeworld to wherever "Martin" was going. Earth being nearby may have also been an attraction ... sort of like an emergency turn-off. But "Martin" got careless and nearly collided with an unexpected (human) space vehicle exiting the stop.
So what is the truth? I figure that Mars is only a trans-spatial gateway. Obviously, a little one-man craft like Martin's is unsuitable for long distances, so the "Martians" rely instead of creating worm-holes or dimensional gates that cover enormous distances in the blink of an eye. But the apparatus is a bit unwieldy, so they station them on otherwise useless planets that happen to be conveniently placed. Mars happens to be so placed on the run from the real "Martian" homeworld to wherever "Martin" was going. Earth being nearby may have also been an attraction ... sort of like an emergency turn-off. But "Martin" got careless and nearly collided with an unexpected (human) space vehicle exiting the stop.
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