I was now in the main foyer. Outside of those doors were the grounds first walked upon by McClure and McLawhorn (that kid who writes the letter to Superman), VW driven upon by Kidder and Hemmingway, and landed on by the great man himself, Christopher Reeve. After a phone call organising a rendezvous with my fellow adventurers, I met Martin El and walked outside......................Eyes open.......... Man- the place looked TINY!

"No, but THIS is DEFINITELY the UN entrance"-type conversations followed as we both made vain attempts to make the 'walk'. Passing young teenagers in their street gear were probably baffled beyond belief by the sight of two grown men walking an enthusiastic perimeter of what is a quite clearly no-frills station square. Depressingly, Martin El did point out the valid fact that most of these youngsters will be completely unaware of their towns heritage..............Which is even more shocking when you consider that Milton Keynes IS only 27 years old. (Looking back at it, I'm sure the MK bus station was really the UN entrance.... hmmm).

From a far off distance one could truly appreciate production designer John Graysmark's economically feasible, United Nations dream substitute (if we can imagine the Golan Globus initiated stress that must have been keeping him awake all night).

One can imagine him trekking home via Safeway in a delirious state of mind having to accept Cannon's discarding of a healthy $35M budget- the happy possibility of drinking himself stupid- could tranquillisers be the answer?---- And before you know it, the UN in Milton Keynes; you CAN conform to Menahem Golan's penny-pinching ideology!......... While I myself did indeed appreciate the incredible, imaginative and utterly inventive UN location brainchild (one I believe that a lesser production designer could never have engineered ), I couldn't help but feel that even in the most dosy state of mind this looked as much like the UN as, well, my local car wash. Further mental obstacles were made with the recent addition of the station's central engine statue and bicycle parking spaces- this maze of 'street furniture' looked less attractive than the collection of set decorations meticulously placed by dresser Peter Young and art director Les Tomkins back in November 1986. What stuck out more than anything was the British Rail emblem clearly burning away above the main building's entrance- it's amazing that a concealing large black drape single-handedly turned this unique BR station into the United Nation's plaza. I have always thought that had the original Derek Meddings/Roy Field visual effects unit of SIV stayed onboard, the artists could have easily enhanced these surroundings to give them scope and beauty- imagine a Derek Meddings painted glass shot of the UN building combined with the live action Milton Keynes station footage complete with a nodal pan (similar to the 'Selena's mountain' composite shot from Supergirl)-

It would look as good and even better than actually filming in New York! There would be more control over the aesthetic, the lighting and the extras. Imagine if the set was further enhanced with split screen miniature cars? These guys could have made it as good as the Metropolis set from Superman 2!

"Excuse me" Martin and I enquired to the station's resident sweet shop salesman, "How long have you been working here?"

"About 15 years on and off" he hastily replied as if we were consumer trade journalists about to potentially humiliate him for something he didn't do- Damn, maybe I was being a bit TOO demanding- the poor guy was seeing this as interrogation.............

After Martin El explained ourselves and our reason for asking, what followed was a most insightful account of the main units shooting. He told us of his appearance in the film as a milk float attendant (?), the crane and stunt work, the fact a stunt double was used for the flying scene, the podium set up for the outside speech, the Oasis set up outside to create atmosphere, the additional cameras for coverage from the roof and the trouble the unit encountered regarding the weather. When I mentioned the production company the sweetsman acknowledged the fact that he knew of Cannon's reputation but thoroughly enjoyed his SIV experience.

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