RIP Dietmar Schönherr

Earlier today Dietmar Schönherr passed away, at the age of 88. He is probably widely unknown in the US, but for me he will always be remembered as the optimistic, fearless and morally correct starship commander in an over-militarized society in the German "Raumpatrouille Orion" TV series, back in 1966. There have been just seven episodes, which raised to cult status in the genre community many years later. I probably watched these first on TV in the age of 15 or so, and made audio tapes as there was no VCR at the time. I did go later in the late '80s to all-night seven hour back-to-back features in movie theaters. Dietmar was involved in more than 100 other movies and TV shows, but for me he remains Allister McLane. "Schlafende rein!", if you know what that means :-)