Thread by @katewillaert

This image isn't from a Nintend-related cartoon. It's from Galactic Patrol, a Lensman animated series released two years before The Legend Of Zelda.

This is a continuation of an epic thread started last night. Link below if you missed part one.

https://twitter.com/katewillaert/status/1434325236237864963

Just to be clear, Nintendo's Zelda wasn't blonde until a few games into the series. And Miyamoto says her name was proposed by some PR person who was thinking of F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife Zelda.

Still, it makes you wonder about her later looks.

Galactic Patrol was a spin-off from the movie that used the same character designs but didn't take place in the same continuity. It was slightly more in-line with the books (the Green Lantern origin is gone), but also adds a little Star Trek (like a bridge w/ a Captain's chair).

The show was big about selling toys, so hey, why not throw a power loader into an episode (and in the intro, for good measure), and sell a toy?

This was several years before Aliens, tho. Given James Cameron's known love of anime, did he...?

Anyways, only the first four episodes of the show were ever officially translated into English, edited into a TV movie by Harmony Gold alongside their dub of the theatrical film. The comic by Malibu/Eternity was based on these two dubs, while taking a few liberties of their own.

The idea that the book rights to the movie mean you can only adapt the movie and not the original books is interesting, and shades of Wizard Of Oz. Did you know that, despite Oz being public domain, the ruby red slippers and green Wicked Witch are still under copyright?

The slippers were silver in the original, and the Wicked Witch was never described as green. Those elements first appeared in the MGM movie, which is covered under the expanded copyright law. So everything about that books is public domain except those specific things.

In 1993, Sean Barrett of Steve Jackson Games wanted to do a game book based on the Lensman novels. E.E. Smith's daughter Verna Smith Trestail was reportedly reluctant (though I've only seen second-hand accounts of this), but she eventually approved, and they included this line:

In an article in Pyramid #5 from 1994, Barrett went into a little more detail, which is where people learned that the books rights had been "revoked."

But if Verna saw the film in 1984, why was Berkley still publishing the books as late as 1987?

1987 was also the year Harmony Gold did their dubs of the movie and first episodes of the show. Maybe the Worldcon showing was actually in 1987, and this Usenet poster misremembered?

But Verna had a secret. The comics and game book didn't really need her permission at all.

U.S. copyright is weird. If your book was published before 1964, it was intially protected for 28 years after registration, and then you could file a renewal for 28 more years. If you didn't renew, it became public domain.

exhibits.stanford.edu/copyrightrenew…

According to Stanford's searchable database, it looks like Verna only renewed two of the six books. Which means the initial volumes have all been public domain since the '70s!

Anyone wanting to publish all six books would still need permission from the Estate, but if you were only adapting the first three into a movie or show? Even the Lensman movie technically never needed to purchase the movie rights. But no one seemed to know that at the time.

So if someone wanted to rerelease the Lensman anime in HD, the Estate wouldn't be a problem, if it ever was. When Verna passed away in 1994, the Streamline dub was still available on VHS and LD, and apparently continued to be until the company folded around 2000.

The real mystery is what happened to the Japanese film rights? Did MK Company's deal with Berkley expire, and they thought they had to go through the Estate now?

Whoever owns MK Company's rights to the film and show could bring it back no problem, but who owns those rights?

Until then, the movie exists online in Laserdisc quality, and the 25-episode TV series is considered lost meda.

Or it was!

In recent years, enthusiastic fan translators have dug up recordings of every ep and are slowly subbing them. They're up to 19 now!
skarohuntingsociety.wordpress.com/tag/lensman/pa…

Since no one has been uploading the newer episodes to Youtube, I went and did it myself. Here's a link to a playlist.

It's pretty hit or miss, but the Zelda arc is probably the most enjoyable.

youtube.com/playlist?list=…

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patreon.com/acriticalhit