Excerpt from our exclusive interview with the director of The Space Movie:

David Porter: There is a marvellous slow motion take off sequence.

Tony Palmer: Yes, that's my favourite bit. When we were reviewing it we did think of, some of the stuff of the early space walks is kind of jerky and now we could slow that down, make that look more real as it were, but then I thought this is what we would have originally seen and in a strange kind of way it's even more extraordinary when you see this little puppet. So I decided to leave it.

D.P.: Were you aware that Mike did the music soundtrack for an Arts Council Film between Ommadawn and Incantations?

T.P.: Yes I was. (D.P. Have you seen it at all?) No.

D.P.: Well, by some quirk, you both use Portsmouth for the end credits.

T.P.: So he did it before. The way we used it was ironic because you have pictures of Nixon who comes out and waves at them (the astronauts). There is a lot of waving going on and grinning and I thought that was for Portsmouth. One bit that is not on the VHS, but I remember so clearly doing and we're able to put back on the DVD. Early on there's a wonderful old plane sequence and the development of very early space flight, then suddenly it cuts to a rocket taking off. So you have some idea of the development. We used the Blue Peter theme for that. I was devastated when I saw this VHS and realised it wasn't there.

D.P.: So for people who bought the VHS there is something more to see.

T.P.: Well the pictures are a bloody sight better, the sound is good, you can hear everything - I'm talking about quality.



The Space Movie DVD can be ordered from http://mikeoldfieldspacemoviedvd.com.

The rest of the interview will appear in the next issue of Dark Star magazine.

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