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Comment by drfuchs | Hacker News Reader

Let's keep this pertinent to Hacker News: The nicely intoned computer voice of SID on UFO was way more advanced than the clunky monotone of the Star Trek TOS ship's computer.

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It was also recorded the best part of a decade later than TOS too. People’s expectations of computers had grown.

The first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series where we hear the ship's computer speak is "Mudd's Women" filmed starting June 1966. UFO had SID talking from the very first pilot, filmed starting April 1969. So, less than three years apart, and not much time for the public's perceptions to change. On the other hand, HAL showed up on screen in the interim, so maybe that helped. And big shout out to Lost In Space's Robot B9, with more personality than all of them put together, and who showed up before for all of them, in 1965.

Oh wow, was UFO really that early on? I thought it was a mid 70s. Though admittedly I did watch the reruns rather than the original airing.

Space 1999 was another interesting show.

One Sci-fi I never got to see was Blake’s 7. I’ve heard a lot about it when I was a kid but never actually got to watch it.

There is a torrent. Objectively it’s uneven but the I’m biased toward it because I watched it on release. Space Bastard Travis is a terrible villain but Servalan is very attention getting. The simple fact that none of the characters felt safe made it compelling on first viewing and Avon’s cynicism vs Blake’s idealism makes for satisfying viewing despite the obvious budget constraints on the screen. Definitely seek it out but don’t expect Firefly production values.

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