The Boy from Space (1980) - Episode 10: In the Space-ship
Studio recording: Wednesday 16 January 1980, 8:30pm in studio TC1 First broadcast: Tuesday 25 March 1980, 10:16am on BBC1 Last broadcast: Friday 12 January 2007, 12:40pm on the CBBC Channel BBC Genome listing: f2ec5bb3e2... BBC programme number: ESBB610W
Story Part 1
Helen is marched towards the look-out platform at gunpoint.
Zooyixi: Where did you [?]?
V/O: The thin space-man made me go back through the woods to the lake.
Later:
Zooyixi: Back to the ship. Go on.
V/O: Dan looked for the switch to open the window. Which one was it? Then he saw that Peep-peep was pointing.
Zooyixi: [distorted]
Dan is inside the space-ship but cannot hear what Tom and Mr Bunting are saying behind the invisible window.
Peep-peep uses his writing ring to give Dan instructions on how to release the window. Peep-peep writes backwards on his side of the window, and Dan can read it the right way round from his side.
As the thin space-man enters the space-ship with Helen he is rushed by the freed grown-ups and Peep-peep's father forces the space-gun from his hands.
Father: Put your hands up!
Bunting: Watch the gun, Tom!
Father: Watch where you are!
Father: [indistinct]
Teaching Middle
Cosmo is pleased that the thin man has been captured, because it serves him right. He and Wordy talk about how Peep-peep was able to write a message back to front yet Dan was able to read it.
Cosmo visits the word-builder machine and uses it to make the plural form of words including 'switch,' 'compass' and 'lens' by adding -es. He looks in the book for more words meaning "more than one" and sees that they don't all need -es to be added.
Wordy wants to know the answer to the question in the song we hear every week, "is there a place where the Universe ends?" and Cosmo shows him a video cassette about distances in space including light years.
Wordy needs to pack as he is going back to Earth after the story. Cosmo must go "here and there" as well. Wordy gives a riddle about what can be seen and not heard in the word 'writing' and thinks-up a song about the mystery letter.
I write a mystery letter, it doesn't make a sound.
Can you write the mystery letter I have found?
Featuring Professor Grab
Cosmo asks for one more think-up and Wordy offers a goodbye song.
It's time for us to go, we're sorry that we're going
But it's time to end the show so we're going, going, gone.
Featuring the two stars, the space moles and the space monster, Professor Grab and Rip van Twinkle
There is just time to finish reading the last chapter of the story to find out why the space-people were on Earth and what has been happening, and Wordy and Cosmo say goodbye.
Story Part 2
The thin space-man is marched away by Peep-peep's father as Dan, Helen, Tom and Mr Bunting are reunited.
Dan: Thanks to Peep-peep
Father: (to Zooyixi) Sit!
Peep-Peep: We'll be in space together.
Father: (to Zooyixi) These aliens have upset your plans.
Zooyixi: Perhaps you will forgive me.
Tom and Mr Bunting have been able to find out the whole story of what has happened. A flashback shows that the space-men were journeying home from Mars when the thin man decided he wanted all of the meteorites they had collected for himself and attacked Peep-peep and his father. The controls were upset and the space-ship fell to Earth.
Peep-peep's father locks the thin space-man in the meteorite room.
Bunting: A long way away, in space.
Father: (to Zooyixi) Up!
V/O: Peep-peep's father made the thin space-man go into the meteorite room.
Bunting: (chuckles)
V/O: The big window shut him in. We were safe.
Father: (to Bunting) Come. I wish to show you something. He doesn't know the controls to start.
Mr Bunting is shown a clear plastic bag that the space-men had found on a previous trip to Earth. They learned to write from the bag - but it was inside out.
Peep-Peep: [indistinct]
The humans leave the space-ship and Peep-peep says goodbye to Dan and Helen from the look-out platform. Dan offers his compass as a parting gift.
Dan: Not much good to you but, well, I'd like you to have it.
Peep-Peep: It's lovely. Thank you.
Dan: Good-bye.
Dan, Helen, Tom and Mr Bunting all watch the space-ship climb back into the sky from the children's little hut.
Production notes
All of the songs in this unit were 'scripted' by the lyricist, with an indication of what the animation would show to tie in with the lyrics, though the animator Richard Taylor had his own vision which could vary quite a bit. Professor Grab's song in this episode was planned to conclude with a wrestler grabbing Grab by the wrist, where Grab reveals "wr" to be written. In the final animation Grab simply moves in front of his chalkboard and shows "w" written on his sleeve.
The Professor Grab song was originally titled the 'Song of the Lazy Letter W', but was changed to the 'Song of the Mystery Letter W,' as the title used in the studio script and the teacher's notes.
The recorded version of this episode follows the studio script very closely, apart from skipping over a planned repeat of the last verse of the Goodbye Song for viewers to sing along with, and a specific correction that the distance from the sun to Pluto (officially a planet at the time of recording) has been updated from 3,666,000 miles in the script to 3,674,000 miles on screen.
Wordy was always scripted to call Cosmo by his proper name. The affectation "Cossy" used on screen was clearly improvised by Charles Collingwood in Wordy's persona!
BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. (This disclaimer applies to written content on pages about Look and Read: The Boy from Space)