The Creeping Terror

The Creeping Terror is a 1964 horror/science fiction film, in which a slug-like monster terrorizes an American town after escaping from a crashed spaceship. The Creeping Terror is widely considered to be one of the worst films of all time, and in September 1994, the film was the subject of derisive riffing on the satirical television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Plot

A newlywed deputy, Martin Gordon (Vic Savage), encounters an alien spacecraft that has crash landed in fictional Angel County in California. A large, hairy, slug-like, omnivorous monster emerges from the side of an impacted spaceship. A second one, still tethered inside, kills a forest ranger and the sheriff (Byrd Holland) when they independently enter the craft to investigate.

Martin, now temporary sheriff, joins his wife Brett (Shannon O'Neil); Dr. Bradford (William Thourlby, the original Marlboro Man), a renowned scientist; and Col. James Caldwell, a military commander and his men to fight the creature. Meanwhile the monster stalks the countryside, devouring a girl in a bikini, picnickers at a "hootenanny", Grandpa Brown (Jack King) and his grandson while fishing, a housewife hanging the laundry, the patrons at a community dance hall, and couples in their cars at lovers' lane.

List of minor characters in Judge Dredd

This is a list of minor characters in the British comic strip Judge Dredd appearing in 2000 AD, Judge Dredd Megazine and related publications. They are listed alphabetically by surname, in categories.

Judges of Mega-City One

Agee

Psi-Judge Kit Agee was one of Justice Department's telepaths, and a friend of Judge Anderson. In 2112 she was abducted by Judge Kraken, who was being controlled by the Sisters of Death. The Sisters, who inhabited another dimension, used Agee to establish a psionic link to Earth, where they were able to seize control of Mega-City One, ultimately killing millions of people. On Anderson's advice, Judge Dredd killed Agee, severing the psychic link and banishing the Sisters back to their homeworld.

Alvarez

Judge Alvarez first appeared in 2000 AD prog 978, in the story "The Pit" – he is a corrupt judge who is killed by Dredd in prog 980.

He appears in the 2012 film Dredd, played by Edwin Perry.

Bennett

Judge Bennett was a recurring character in Al Ewing's Dredd strips. He first appeared as an adept and quick-thinking rookie, impressing Dredd during a crime swoop. He made 'full eagle' in 2130, and in early 2131 teamed up with Dredd to investigate murders caused by remote-controlled bullets. The pressure of the bizarre case caused him to suffer doubts but, after Dredd offered to take over and find him an "easier" job, Bennett refused, got past his doubts, and solved the case. Dredd was again impressed with him (but dumped all the paperwork on him anyway).

Adhesion railway

Adhesion railway or adhesion traction is the most common type of railway, where power is applied by driving some or all of the wheels of the locomotive. Rail adhesion relies on the friction between a steel wheel and a steel rail. The term is particularly used when discussing conventional railways to distinguish from other forms of traction such as funicular or cog railway.

Traction or friction can be reduced when the rails are greasy, because of rain, oil or decomposing leaves which compact into a hard slippery lignin coating. Measures against reduced adhesion due to leaves include application of "Sandite" (a gel-sand mix) by special sanding trains, scrubbers and water jets, and long-term management of railside vegetation. On an adhesion railway, most locomotives will have a sand containment vessel. Properly dried sand can be dropped onto the rail to improve traction under slippery conditions. The sand is most often applied using compressed air via tower, crane, silo or train. When an engine slips, particularly when starting a heavy train, sand applied at the front of the driving wheels greatly aids in tractive effort causing the train to "lift", or to commence the motion intended by the engine driver.

Thalamus Ltd

Thalamus Ltd (also known as Thalamus) was a British computer game developer that published titles for a number of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

History

Genesis

Thalamus Ltd was created in 1986 as an in-house software publishing label of British magazine publisher Newsfield Publications Ltd, to take advantage of their leading position publishing computer game magazines, such as Crash and Zzap!64, during the mid-1980s. Ex-Activision PR Manager Andrew Wright was assigned the position of Company Director and Newsfield staff writer Gary Liddon was appointed Technical Executive. The company was initially based in Canonbury, North London, in an office shared with staff of Newsfield's newly launched lifestyle magazine LM.

First Titles

Thalamus capitalised on the success of the Commodore 64 gaming scene by releasing their first batch of titles on this platform. Having established numerous contacts within the C64 development scene through the popularity of their Zzap!64 gaming magazine, Thalamus were able to sign up Finnish programmer Stavros Fasoulas to develop their first three titles, Sanxion, Delta and Quedex. Sanxion was the first release to bear the Thalamus name, and it garnered a Sizzler rating from Zzap!64 - this led to accusations of favouritism from rival publications, in particular Commodore User, despite the game deserving the award - it was technically competent, visually attractive, and ran at breakneck speed for its time. Legendary C64 musician Rob Hubbard came on board to provide the music for the first two titles, while Matt Gray provided the music for Quedex. "Thalamusik", the loading tune that accompanied the C64 version of Sanxion proved to be so popular amongst fans that Zzap!64 later included a full synthesised version of Rob Hubbard's classic tune on one of their cover cassettes.