Breakfast club with space heroes

Barbara Bain, right, as Dr Helena Russell in Space:1999. Ms Bain was
a celebrity guest at Autographica, in March 2014

As strange moments in life go it's one that is vivid and does not fade. And that is not by lucky coincidence. 

For there are day-to-day memories, and then there are vivid snapshots - moments in time etched forever in your mind, ready to be replayed whenever you choose.

An example of this "vivid snapshot" technique was the morning I enjoyed breakfast in the company of some of my childhood heroes from the world of science fiction.

Walking into the breakfast room at the conference hotel I saw Kenny Baker, the actor who played R2-D2 in the Star Wars movie. He was seated at a table with actress Valerie Gale, who accompanied him.

He waved and called out "Bermuda" as Heather and I chose a table and sat down. We'd spoken to him the previous day at the reception gathering at the beginning of the March 2014 Autographica event, and that is how he had found out that I'd travelled from Bermuda.

A few moments after I'd entered the breakfast room, Space:1999 actress Barbara Bain also walked in. Like Mr Baker and Ms Gale, she was a celebrity guest for the weekend. She'd attended the reception drinks event held in the atrium at the top level of the Radisson Heathrow hotel on the outskirts of London. Others there included moonwalking Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Alan Bean.

Star Wars and Space:1999 were touchstone entertainment favourites of mine as I grew up in the 1970s. Now, to be sitting down for breakfast in the same room as two of the well-known names from those sci-fi adventures felt unique and almost unreal.

Shortly afterwards, in the main hotel lobby I encountered Dave Prowse, the man who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy.  

Barbara Bain answers audience questions
during the Autograhica weekend, 2014

The conference was filled with other encounters and moments, including opportunities to speak briefly with Ms Bain, Mr Aldrin, Mr Baker, Mr Prowse and others. I wrote about the event in a contemporaneous blog post eight years ago.

That moment at breakfast has remained vivid in my mind, more so than if I'd taken a photograph, and far more than the most other recollections.

 

The reason for such clarity is a technique I deliberately used. It is akin to taking a detailed, mental snapshot. For I was acutely aware how impossible that moment would have seemed to my 11-year-old self; not only seeing a hero from Star Wars and a heroine from Space:1999, but simultaneously in the same hotel dining room for breakfast.

When extraordinary special moments come along in life, use this technique.  Recognise those moments for what they are - gifts in life - and intimately preserve the sights, sounds and feelings by consciously taking in as much as you can to create a snapshot memory.

Star Wars: farewell to Carrie and Kenny

Carrie Fisher's autograph, sent from Elstree Studios in 1979

Opening the garden gate on my way to work on Tuesday, my attention was drawn to something unusual. Two small party balloons were caught at the top of a power pole opposite. Fluttering in the thinnest of breeze, they were tethered by ribbon tails snagged on the wires.

As the two escaped balloons danced I inspected them from below and noticed they were decorated with Star Wars characters. When I returned home that evening the balloons had gone, and I was reflecting on the news that Carrie Fisher had died a few hours earlier.

During the past few days I've thought about Carrie, and also about Kenny Baker who passed away in August. They were the first movie stars to write their autograph for me when I was 12 years old, and many decades later were two of the three actors from Star Wars I was fortunate to encounter in person.

It was a long time ago - to be precise, 38 years ago - when I sent a letter to Elstree Studios, just outside London, and marked it for the attention of the film crew working on The Empire Strikes Back.  Enclosed within was my HMS Victory souvenir autograph book with its small coloured pages, a stamped self-addressed envelope, and a note requesting whoever dealt with the letter if they would be kind enough to ask any Star Wars actor if they would write an autograph. 

I waited in hope for the book to come back. One day it did. There was no note, just the book. Inside, two pages bore signatures, one was a boldly scrawled 'Kenny Baker, R2-D2 - Star Wars', the other was best wishes from Carrie Fisher.

Carrie's writing appeared understated, almost apologetic in its unflorished smallness, not even taking up half a page in the three-inch wide book. The hallmarks of her signature were there, the hooked 'c' and the quirky look of the double 'r', but it lacked the more flamboyant style she would adopt in later years. Beneath her name she sweetly added 'Princess Leia' in parenthesis, in case it might not be a given which character she played.

That unassuming approach was understandable. She was barely into her twenties, and lasting worldwide recognition was not assured for the Star Wars actors, despite the 1977 film smashing box office records. There was no guarantee the sequel then being filmed would live up to the success of its predecessor.

I was delighted with the autographs from two heroes of my favourite film. R2-D2, as operated by Kenny, was one of the movie's most iconic creations. While Carrie as Princess Leia was a strong, spirited heroine who led by example and fearlessly expressed herself when confronting arch-villans. But she also exhibited empathy and a deeply caring side, strikingly crystallised in Star Wars as Luke Skywalker reflected on the loss of Ben Kenobi - Leia was there comforting and reassuring. Faced with uncertainties or emotional jolts, she was the person you most wanted to have by your side.

Carrie became much more than the princess from Star Wars. In life, she displayed those same qualities of warmth, compassion and honesty, together with an admirable fearlessness and a sense of humour never dimmed even as she faced personal struggles, much of which is detailed in her autobiographical book Wishful Drinking.

Carrie Fisher and Richard Dreyfus in Bermuda, 2007

Many decades after receiving their autographs, I encountered Carrie and Kenny in person.

Carrie was first. She was on the jury panel of the Bermuda International Film Festival in 2007. In a contemporaneous account for Microdot News, a light-hearted newsletter I sent to friends and family at that time, I wrote:

Star Wars heroine Princess Leia, or more precisely actress Carrie Fisher, came to Bermuda for the film festival. She and Richard Dreyfus (Jaws, Close Encounters etc) were the star judges of the festival.

As a life-long fan of the original Star Wars trilogy this presented an opportunity I didn’t expect – to see a Star Wars legend. There was one small problem; I was scheduled to listen to a bunch of business-types froth at the mouth talking about internal audits at the same time that Fisher and Dreyfus were giving a free lunchtime chat 100 yards away. What to do? What to do? I know……Use the Force.

By bending the space-time continuum (I explained to my editor), I’d be able to duck into the film stars' lunchtime chit-chat for a few minutes before going to the 'not-to-be-missed' internal audit extravaganza over the road. It worked and I got to listen to a little of the talk, with Ms Fisher, now 50, bemoaning the fact that she doesn’t make a penny from all the Princess Leia action figures sold. I saw the two stars at the film festival wrap party and was amazed how small they both were (about 5ft 2in average) as they walked in front of me. Midway through the night as the party waned I left, only to bump into Dreyfus coming back down the corridor from his hotel room to the party having decided to give it another go.

Kenny Baker as R2-D2

Three years ago, while attending a film stars and astronauts event in London, Heather and I met Kenny and Dave Prowse (Darth Vader). We spoke with Kenny and his wife Valerie Gale a few times, and Kenny showed happy recognition whenever Bermuda was mentioned. I asked him if he had been approached to reprise his role in the-then upcoming Star Wars reboot The Force Awakens. He said he did not know about that, although as it transpired he was called up in a consultative capacity regarding R2-D2. It was his last film role.

During the past few days I have been contemplating Carrie's autograph from 38 years ago. To me it is less a piece of movie-related memorabilia, and more a representation of a moment in time. It symbolises kindness from a young actress leaving her teenage years behind, to a boy on the verge of becoming a teenager - a simple token of universal humanity shared between strangers along life's journey.

Farewell Carrie and Kenny, and thank you for the joy and happiness you gave to so many.

Carrie Fisher and Kenny Baker, as Princess Leia and R2-D2 in the first Star Wars film

A weekend with astronauts

The world's two most senior surviving moonwalkers, Buzz Aldrin and Alan Bean, the second and fourth men respectively to walk on the surface of the moon, were the big names from the Apollo lunar landings who came to London for the Autographica event in March.

Four crew members from various space shuttle missions were among other guests at the event a mile from Heathrow airport. It made for an interesting gathering in which stories about the Nasa space programme were recollected by those who had actually taken part in the missions.

At the Saturday evening formal dinner Aldrin was seated at the adjacent table. He got up to give a short talk on the future of space exploration, the start of his talk is featured in the video above.

Aldrin went on to speak about his vision for the colonisation of Mars, and he likened it to the pilgrim fathers aboard the Mayflower sailing ship in 1620 who left England and reached what is present day Plymouth, in Massachusetts, to establish the second English settlement in North America. Just as they had not waited to get a ship back to England, so the eventual first colonisers of Mars will not seek a return journey to Earth, Aldrin predicted.

Looking back over almost 50 years since the lunar landing programme it is important to remember that such great achievements were made with technology that would be labelled archaic in today's world, and how astronauts in that earlier era completed missions that would, in all likelihood have been aborted nowadays.

We were reminded of this during the course of the weekend as stories were told. Space Shuttle astronaut Bruce McCandless, who also speaks in the above video, was working at mission control during the Apollo programme and was one of the key contacts for Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their landmark first landing on the moon.

At Saturday evening's dinner McCandless recounted the launch of the follow-up Apollo XII mission, which included among the crew fellow guest Alan Bean. As the Saturn V rocket soared upwards through the Earth's atmosphere it was hit by either lightning or a self-induced electrical discharge. "They lost all power to the command module," said McCandless. "The computer in the Saturn V redundant for the very first time, so they switched over to the back-up computer and they kept on flying. It was Alan Bean who painstakingly restored power to the command module, brought the fuel cells back online and shortly thereafter they made it successfully into orbit, aligned the platform, got a go to proceed to the moon and had a very successful mission.

"And I think that in today's environment we have probably become so risk adverse that had we had a similar incident with the shuttle we would have insisted on immediately terminating the mission and coming home. It's a real tribute to Alan and Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon that they were able to salvage the mission even after a near catastrophe like this."

On the earlier Apollo XI mission that ultimately put Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon's surface there were a few touch-and-go moments. As Armstrong piloted the lunar module towards the moon's surface and its designated landing site it became increasingly clear that the chosen site was strewn with more rocks and boulders than had been anticipated.

Armstrong skillfully avoided the unfavourable terrain and headed for a smoother area in the Sea of Tranquility, however an alarm was activated inside the landing module indicating a critically low level of propellent to fly the craft. The two astronauts held their nerve and despite having an apparently depleted propellent tank continued to the favoured landing spot. The Eagle landed and Armstrong and Aldrin made their historic moonwalks on July 20, 1969.

It was later discovered the module had slightly more landing propellent than the indicator had registered, an estimated 30 to 45 seconds' worth. The 'sloshing' of the propellent inside the tank had resulted in the premature activation of the alarm. It was a fault that would be remedied after the follow-up Apollo XII mission a few months later.

At 84, Aldrin is remarkably active and sprightly. His popularity at the event was evident as he signed autographs and posed for pictures, never appearing overwhelmed or tired. He used a selection of felt-tipped pens to sign autographs, something that was instructive of another incident on that maiden moon landing.

After returning to the lunar module having walked on the moon's surface, Aldrin and Armstrong faced a potential hazard that placed a question mark over whether they would be able to lift off to rejoin Columbia, the lunar orbiter being piloted by Michael Collins, and head back to Earth. Aldrin noticed a broken circuit switch on the floor of the module. It was the switch that was needed to activate the ascent engine to lift off from the moon. Mission control was informed of the problem. After a short sleep, and with no solution forthcoming from mission control, Aldrin took a felt-tipped pen from a pocket on his spacesuit and placed it into the opening where the broken switch should have been. The pen fitted and worked as a makeshift circuit-breaker allowing the module to lift off.

Of all the lectures given by the guests during the weekend Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, was the best attended. Indeed, the organisers noted it was a bigger lecture audience than they had seen at any of the previous 19 Autographica events. Bean described how he had gone on to forge a career as an artist, painting space mission scenes and striving for accuracy, which brought him to a story about his painting of Neil Armstrong on the moon.

The painting was among those exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, in 2009 to mark the 40th anniversary of the moon landings. In attendance were many Apollo mission veterans, including Armstrong. One of the guests studied Bean's painting and spotted Armstrong was portrayed wearing a wristwatch. The guest wasn't convinced that Armstrong had worn his watch on the moon's surface and said so to Bean, who was caught off guard by the observation and wondered if he had got the detail wrong. Bean suggested the guest go and find Armstrong, who was elsewhere in the museum, and ask him if he had been wearing a watch.

It should be pointed out here that there are very few photographs of Armstrong on the moon because he was the one issued with the camera during the mission. As a result most of the iconic moon landing photos show colleague Aldrin on the surface. There is one full-body picture of Armstrong on the moon, however, he has his back to the camera and it is not clear if he is wearing his watch or not.

The inquiring guest tracked down Armstrong and asked him about Bean's painting and whether or not he had worn a wristwatch on the moon's surface. Armstrong said, "Has Alan painted me wearing one?" The reply was "Yes," to which Armstrong responded, "Well, that's how it was." It was a good answer, but it wasn't how it had been on the moon. In reality Armstrong had taken off his watch and left it inside the lunar module as a back-up because the onboard mission timer was not working. Many months later, having researched the facts himself, Bean painted out the watch from the portrait.

At the Saturday evening dinner five-times astronaut and space shuttle commander Robert 'Hoot' Gibson was at the same table as Heather and I. He happily talked about his experiences and answered questions. I asked what it was like to experience the fiery descent back through the atmosphere on the return to Earth. He described the glowing flames that filled the view outside the windows, and how the crew prepared for the increasing heat inside the shuttle by reducing the interior temperature considerably in the two hours immediately prior to re-entry.

Hurtling back to Earth at Mach 25 (that's 25 times the speed of sound) also meant a great deal of braking and slowing was required to execute a safe, unpowered landing. 'Hoot' explained how, as the shuttle decelerated from supersonic speeds to subsonic (going below Mach 1, or 760 miles per hour), the sonic shock wave trailing the craft caught up and, starting from the rear of the shuttle, moved through the fuselage and up to the front where the flight deck cabin would momentarily shake and vibrate.

'Hoot' is a talented photographer and took some stunning pictures of fellow shuttle astronaut Bruce McCandless during his historic, first untethered space walk in 1984. 'Hoot' and his wife Rhea Seddon, another shuttle astronaut, were both at the Autographica event and gave joint lectures about their space missions, which included a selection of family photos taken by 'Hoot' of their youngest child standing in the desert at the Edwards Air Force Base, California, watching as a space shuttle, with his mother a crew member onboard, came in to land.

All in all it was a far more interesting and enjoyable weekend than I had anticipated, from the excitement of seeing Buzz Aldrin for the first time as he stood on a light bridge in the hotel's atrium at a low-key pre-event drinks reception, where he spoke to a number of attendees, to the moment a few days later when an excited dad was speaking to his son overseas via a video link on a tablet device and asked Aldrin, who was walking past, if he would greet his son. Aldrin obliged with a salute into the tablet's webcam.

Shaking hands with Aldrin was a personal highlight, as was dinner in the company of 'Hoot' Gibson. But there were plenty of memorable offbeat moments, such as astronaut Bruce McCandless light-heartedly noting during the dinner event that if NASA had had someone with as much glamour as 'Space 1999' actress Barbara Bain as a real life astronaut (Ms Bain was one of the weekend guests) there probably would not have been any space programme funding cutbacks.

Ms Bain was one of a number of stars from film and TV among the event guests. As Buzz Aldrin spoke at the dinner, listening from tables a little further back in the room were 'Star Wars' actors Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) and Kenny Baker (R2D2).

Of the movie and TV guests I hope to write more. For now I end with a salute to the astronauts who attended the London gathering; Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Robert 'Hoot' Gibson, Bruce McCandless, Rhea Seddon and Greg H Johnson.