As a "post-70s", when we were young, our entire understanding of Mars came from Uncle Martin, a Martian visitor with an antenna on his head. When we grew up, we found that mars, where Uncle Martin was located, was very lively.
Lead Writer /Ma Rongrong
Stills from the movie "Alien Check-in"
<h1>Uncle Martin forever</h1>
Is there anyone on Mars?
At least until I'm 10, I'll tell you without hesitation, there is. I know a Martian named Uncle Martin.
However, I think that for the parents of China's "post-70s", if you want to list the "top 10 most hated people", Uncle Martin must be at the top. Because of the appearance of this person, the TV antenna at home always wears out very quickly. They always stayed in the TV booth obediently, but transferred to the children's heads.
Because, Uncle Martin," has a pair of antennas on his head!
The year I was born, "The Man from the Bottom of the Atlantic" had just been born. A year later, with the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, the TV series was introduced to China, becoming the first American drama seen Chinese. Throughout the '80s, Detective Hunter, Garrison's Death Squad, Uncle Martin of Mars, and Growing Pains together constructed the ordinary Chinese's perception of America. These perceptions include plaid shirts, instant noodle heads, exaggerated shoulder pads, family cars, spacious housing, advanced technology, especially space technology... Everyone is kind, optimistic and enthusiastic, and will tell a basket of jokes.
In fact, "Uncle Martin of Mars" was the first American sitcom that Chinese came into contact with.
My deepest impression of Uncle Martin of Mars, in addition to the antenna, is actually the sound: every time he goes invisible, there is a low sound similar to an electronic wave. For me as a child, that sound was very fantastic.
When "Uncle Martin of Mars" aired in China, it was very likely that I did not have a fixed memory. In 1978, a year before I was born, my parents bought their first family TV: a 14-inch Universal brand black-and-white TV. At that time, television sets were not yet popular in the lives of Chinese. Therefore, every day after dinner time, the neighbors would carry small benches to knock on my door, mainly to watch TV and tease me.
Before I was 5 years old, I was impressed by a small amount of crisp images and a lot of black-and-white noise. At that time, tv channels were particularly scarce, and only a few hours of programs were broadcast at night. My two-year-older brother and I learned early on to fiddle with the antenna to try to get it to receive more TV shows. Of course, this is futile, but we have figured out a skill at a very young age: touch the antenna with our hands, and the image will be a little sharper.
My few memories of Uncle Martin include that he knew what was going on in other people's minds without talking; that he controlled his own heartbeat and brain waves; that once a bad guy wanted to give him a lie detector, and he asked the lie detector to draw a girl. He and his handsome journalist uncle kept teasing poverty. I don't understand why adults have so much to say.
Uncle Martin has a magical helmet that in the TV series is black technology from Mars, but in my eyes, it is especially like a pot. Later, when the "qigong fever" was held in the 80s, many adults would put a pot on their heads to receive "cosmic signals", and they did not know whether they were inspired by Uncle Martin.
Until elementary school, the children in the class surnamed Ma were most fortunate that their name was not "Martin". Because if you call it by that name, it's hard not to be coaxed. Then the kid who was coaxed would touch the top of the kid's head and say, "Oh! Uncle buys you candy to eat. ”
Ray Walston, the actor who played Uncle Martin, is a famous Broadway actor in the United States who has won the Tony Award and two Emmy Awards for theatrical performance. He is the lecherous insurance salesman in Billy Wald's classic film The Apartment. In "Uncle Martin of Mars", his acting style is actually very serious. But I don't know why, this seriousness gave Uncle Martin an extraordinary sense of humor. In 1999, the Hollywood remake of the film version of "Uncle Martin of Mars", in which Ray Voston played a very meaningful supporting role: Neek, a Martian scientist who landed on Earth as early as 1963, and then lurked among Earthlings for a long time. At the end of the film, Negnek pilots the spaceship back to Mars, and Martian uncle Martin eventually returns to his home.
Ray Voston died on January 2, 2001, at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 86. I think he went back to Mars.
According to the film version of Uncle Martin, 1963 was the time when the first Martian, Eneek, landed on Earth. It was that year that the episodic version of "Uncle Martin of Mars" aired its first episode on CBS, and then until 1966, the ice cream-loving Uncle Martin, who always laughed but made countless jokes on the earth, spent unforgettable nights with countless North American audiences. More than a decade later, it has become an unforgettable childhood memory for Chinese children.
More importantly, as the first Martian to come to Earth, Uncle Martin solidified the impression of Martians on Earthlings. At least until the birth of Tim Burton's "Martians Playing the Earth", we all thought that martians were Uncle Martin with two antennas on their heads, serious and kind on the surface, and they had to say that the smartest people on Earth were low-energy on Mars, and the most beautiful women on Earth were ugly on Mars.
However, in private, unloading the cold baggage of extraterrestrial visitors, Uncle Martin will also admit that the earth is not useless. For example, ice cream; say, dogs; let's say, the sea! There is absolutely no sea on Mars. Uncle Martin said that on Mars, they can only get water from rocks.
Stills from the American drama "The Man from the Bottom of the Atlantic"
<h1>On Mars, it's not just Uncle Martin</h1>
The background of the production and broadcast of "Uncle Martin of Mars" is that in the context of the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 60s, the United States entered the so-called "space age": the advent of large jet airliners, the sweeping of the civil rights movement in North America, the astronaut landing on the moon... In such a context of the times, conflict, controversy, fantasy, ambition, pioneering... Space is the cowboys' latest dream.
The success of "Uncle Martin of Mars" has further stimulated Hollywood's favor for Martian themes. Since then, Uncle Martin's hometown has become more and more lively. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 100 Hollywood science fiction movies with Mars as the destination, in which Mars is desolate and lonely on the surface, but there are a large number of unknown creatures hidden under the ground, and it is very likely that it is the origin of life on Earth. Around 1997, an American drama "Alien Visitor", which looked like a tribute to "Uncle Martin of Mars", came out, and the protagonist became a police officer in Los Angeles after landing on Earth, and fell deeply in love with the life of Earthlings.
Well, here's the problem. Being able to answer the following questions correctly shows that you truly loved Uncle Martin.
1. In addition to Uncle Martin and Neghek, what other "people" are there on Mars?
This question is a bit complicated. According to the earliest Mars-related films, the 1918 black-and-white silent film Journey to Mars by Danish director Holger Mason describes the Appearance and Physiology of Martians as no different from Earthlings, a group of pure vegetarians and pacifists, with a religious self-sufficiency and piety. Favorite hobby is praying around a building that resembles a Greek temple. But according to the 1924 Soviet silent film "Elita the Queen of Mars", there is also a class divide on Mars, and there are a large number of slaves.
Tim Burton's Martians in "Martians Play with Earth" have large heads, small bodies, exposed brains, and must survive in a glass hood, with faces more like skeletons and limbs more like octopuses. It's a far cry from uncle Martin we remember. In Martian Treason, the Martian looks more like an alien evolved by some kind of insect, which is quite disgusting.
So, presumably, Mars, like Earth, has different "races" and "races."
2. Is there a beauty on Mars?
Yes! Yes! Yes!
There are princesses on Mars, and there are queens. The Queen of Mars's name is "Elita". She likes to wear a Greek-style kaftan with a ring of antennas on her head, and she is the protagonist of 1924's "Elita, Queen of Mars". Judging by the antenna on her head, she may be a distant relative of Uncle Martin. However, the Soviet engineer who landed on Mars led soldiers to preach the revolution on Mars, encouraged slave riots, and overthrew her... So, when science fiction writer Edgar Rice Burroughs described the Mars he saw, there were only princesses on Mars. In 2012, Disney adapted Burroughs's novel into "The Martian Princess of the Alien Battlefield", at this time, Mars, except for the princess and her family, maintained a human appearance, and the rest of it looked like the magical animals in Star Wars, such as "Chirp". So, when the princess saw the male protagonist John Carter from Earth, she immediately fell madly in love.
In fact, falling in love with Earthlings is the tradition of Martian princesses. As early as 1918' "Journey to Mars", Captain Evanter, who came to Mars, returned to Earth with the daughter of the Martian leader after experiencing the spiritual baptism of the Martians. So, don't complain that after Tim Burton, there are fewer and fewer beauties on Mars. That's because, you went too late.
3. Are spaceships the only means of transportation to Mars?
The answer is no. It is true that spacecraft are the most common and formal means of transportation to Mars. But in 2012's Alien Battlefield, John Carter was transported to Mars by "light transmission." The principle of use of this method is similar to that of director Bi Gan: say the mantra "Basum" and the light will send you to Mars.
In addition, according to the "Interstellar" of the god Nolan, in the future, humans will travel between various planets through wormholes, saving a lot of time and money wasted on space travel, which may be the mainstream way of interstellar transportation.
4. Is there a "little strong" on Mars?
Very unfortunately, there is. And it was brought by Japanese scientists. In 2016, a Japanese couple, Xiaomei and Ah Xing, accepted a special job: to fight cockroaches on Mars. It is said that in order to transform Mars into Earth, some scientists have tried to project the most vital plants and animals on Mars: algae and cockroaches. As a result, due to the superior environment of Mars, these cockroaches have mutated into cockroach people after arriving on Mars. So, when Xiaomei and Ah Xing arrive on Mars, she finds that they are surrounded by cockroach people, and in order to survive, they have to fight with cockroach people who are as muscular as the Predator for three hundred rounds, and in the end, this magnificent battle is filmed in the movie "Martian Xenomorph".
5. Can I grow vegetables on Mars?
OK. For specific technical details, please consult Matt Damon in The Martian.
6. What magazine do Martians like to read?
Playboy, of course. Not only does the Queen of Mars in "Martians Play with Earth" love to watch, but also the reference book transforms a Martian into a cold female killer full of cyberpunk flavor. Even Uncle Martin's clothes loved to look at. If you don't believe me, please watch the 1999 movie version of "Uncle Martin of Mars" again. In this version, Uncle Martin's clothes are comfortably soaked in a well-hydrated washing machine, softeners are poured into a Martini glass, and playboys leisurely...
Although many Mars-related movies end with Earthlings taking martian lovers back to Earth, the film version of Uncle Martin also treats Uncle Martin's fate differently: because he loves the sea and ice cream on Earth too much, and the beautiful female neighbors, Uncle Martin finally decides to stay on Earth with his talking clothes. However, human ambitions dictate that colonizing space is only a matter of time.
Perhaps, many years later, humans will actually fly to Mars in search of Uncle Martin and his descendants. When that day really came, there was only one last person left on earth. Our story goes back to the familiar beginning: the last man on earth was sitting at home, and there was a knock at the door...