Thanks for uploading this! I'm the creator of Synth Sample, and the one responsible for all the C64 geeks posting here 😀 The main reason the C64 version sounds quite different is that it was not based directly on the John Mills-Cockell version. Using my C64 program "Synth", Tim Donnelly played an improvised version of the melody on top of a sequenced bass line. I later transcribed and cleaned it up, and added it to Synth Sample. I only learned later what the source was, which is why it's called "Tim's Song" in the original Synth Sample. At some point I got in touch with John who told me he no longer had a copy of his performance, so it's possible that a few old video tapes like this one are all that's left of the original music. Jogeir Liljedahl did a very good tribute to the C64 version which is what you hear in some other videos on RU-vid.
I'm glad to see you're still active, George. Your version of this song absolutely haunted me and my best friend the first time we heard it (not in Synth Sample directly but via SWINTH with the visualizer added ontop of the Synth Sample music) and we wound end up spending hours hypnotized by all the music and images, but it was always the Stationary Ark theme that was the most memorable, as well as being the damned hardest song to track down when in the early 2000s I went to make a sort of 'modern swinth' by making a playlist of the real songs that were used in Synth Sample along with the MilkDrop2 visualizer in WinAmp. It turned out to be the only song I couldn't ever find. I ended up using one of the tribute versions instead. But I am glad to see this here, and want to thank you again for being such a memorable inspirational part of my early teen years!
@@exidy-yt Swinth Synth certainly is a part of many of our lives. Wonderful to think that this SID-preserved song brings people to watch the original series... if we can ever find it!
Thanks freshbagel, was looking for the original since decades. Just today I become aware you posted it 3 months ago. Awesome! Georgie F: Your version was the first C64 demo tune knocking off my socks! I love it and went this far to save it to cassette tape to take it with me on holiday when I had no access to my Commodore 64. And when I created my first web page 1997 I dedicated it to SID files, and added your tune. The page still exists today. Nice you share some insights how the song came to be.
You god. Fun fact: John’s version is now available online in its full. I bet you are the only reason anyone remembers this show: thank you for giving us history, and preserving it in the same stroke. o7 20 years old, here, and I’m doing my best to keep up with the Commodore!
@@saganandroid4175 Yeah I saw it on here. I was gonna try and get Georgie's attention but I figured he'd find it on his own if he wanted to. I wasn't around for the c64's heyday as I was born at the tail end of the 80s, unfortunately.
I really, really appreciate that you went through all the trouble it took to get this magical them and show opening to RU-vid! A very happy childhood memory, brought back to life here by another show fan. Thank ou!
Ark On the Move, is the theme tune I've been searching for, for about 40 years. Ark On the Move was the follow series to this one. I have a crappy copy of it on cassette tape. It might be the only recording in existence now!
Thank you for uploading it! I grew up with the C64 version (I was a teenager when the C64 came out), and as stated in the other comments, it is quite surprising how different the original is. You have widened my horizon, even though I do like the C64 version a bit better. Thank you again!
I was nuts for this show in rerun in the 80s. I had been trying to remember what it was for decades... all I could remember was set at the Jersey Zoo. He taught me all about lemurs and marmosets for the first time! I was sure I was going to become a vet. Thank you for this!
Hello everyone I too was thrilled and emotional to see and hear the original animated opening sequence. Thank you for posting, After years of searching, I've finally been able to purchase the entire 10 episodes of The Stationary Ark!! A private collector, with a major interest in Durrell's life work, had bought the series off the Houston Public Library in the 16mm film reel format. It's now my task to convert them to DVD then post them to RU-vid, Does anybody know the legalities of doing so, that is copyright/intellect property laws??
My advice is to quietly and anonymously take the "don't ask, just do it. If anyone notices, and then if anyone complains, you can apologize and pull it down." Seeking out permission just invites somebody somewhere to exert themselves and say no. That it's never been released shows it's pretty much an orphan. My experience however is that sometimes this is exactly what is needed to Kickstart interest in a academic or scientific topic again. For example, Google data shows that interest in Carl Sagan was steadily dropping year after year. Until Sept 21 2009. That happened to be the day when a young man sampled Carl Sagan and used him to create a song called "A Glorious Dawn". There was a firestorm of interest in Carl Sagan again after that. He did this without getting permission of the estate and a good thing too, because had he had to deal with the widow's lawyers, he probably never would have gotten anywhere. When Jack White wanted to release the song on vinyl that got lawyers involved and created problems. So clearly flying under the radar is the best bet. Interestingly the follow-up to Cosmos had languished for over 15 years. Then that song came along and sparked a new wave of interest which played a huge role in getting the green light for the new seasons of Cosmos. Create a new Google/RU-vid acct. Isolated. Name it StationaryArk if you like. Upload all episodes to Vimeo and Reddit first. Wait a few months before putting it on RU-vid. By then hopefully people will seed it independently seat it on the torrents. Also when you go ahead, remove this post.
What Sagan Android said. It's better to ask forgivness then ask permission in a case like this for such an arcane show that people want to see again but is almost completely unavailable. Besides, I don't think there is any active copyright on such an old and obscure program. It's likely public domain in all but name by now.
There may be many people with VHS copies but no way to play them and no experience at doing digital transfers. They then unfortunately get thrown away because people don't know what they have. The amount of lost Canadian TV is staggering.
It's a quicker piece because the composer had what? a 30 second time frame to introduce the program. He had to, in that time, instill an upbeat yet somewhat solemn message in his music to show that there 'is' a solution (yay!) but that there is also great adversity in what Mr. Durrell was trying to accomplish. It's meant to instill hope as you can see the caricature of Mr. Durrell as Noah, with the animals he is trying to save. Brilliant, simply brilliant piece. Even the lightening, thunder and rain in it's simplicity brought my imagination to life as a younger person. That is not to say that I do not enjoy the synth version(s) as well. Of course I do! They are very nice to relax to and listen to as a longer version. All in all, ty for composing the piece that we may all enjoy it in what way we feel, Mr. Cockell.
A lot of people dont realize what Gerald Durrell did for modern zoos. Its because of him modern zoos has become 'living Arks' to help prevent animals from going extinct. (before him zoos were only circuses for viewing animals)
Breeding of babies of non-threatened species as a lure to pull people is has become a problem because of the unregulated selling and trade of these "excess" animals (less appealing once grown to adulthood) sometimes ending up in horrific sideshows or "game" hunts. Sadly, zoos are far from having been ethically perfected -- even in more civilized parts of the world like the West.
This is a lot different than I had expected. Most recreations of the theme assume it would have been as slow and melancholic as the commodore 64 version, but it's actually much livelier, and dare I say cheesier, than that.
The composer (also performer) John Mills-Cockell was a synth pioneer and his progressive electronic albums are very much of that vibrant, melodic era of the moog synthesizer.
Hehe, many years ago I made a 'Swinth 2001' demo using WinAmp with the Milkdrop2 visualizer and the original versions of every song that was used by Swinth/Music-Graphics the C64 demo....EXCEPT Stationary Ark for which I could not find ANYWHERE and had to use a modern remake. Only in 2023 did the original finally come to light and I can finally complete this demo!
I remember seeing a claim years ago that someone had bought up 16mm prints of each episode of this series, presumably with the intent to scan and archive them. I have heard no news since.
Much like Pikgears, this was MUCH different then I expected it to sound. I had already been told that the original was much brassier then the Georg F. version that so many of us grew up loving on the C64 Synth Sample/Music Graphics program so I was prepared for the horns, but I didn't expect it to be so fast and bouncy at all. I can't say I like it, I much prefer the slower adaptations that have been made over the years. Still I am just happy as can be to FINALLY experience the real deal after all these years. Thank you for uploading it!
I think it depends on what you're used to! For me, this was the original, and the C64 version felt creative but weird to me - That was a big part of wanting to get a copy of the TV version. Another time, I was watching a cartoon in French, so that's what my brain got used to. Then much later I saw the same episodes in English, and just the difference in voice actors was throwing me off!
@@dronon-vids Very true, and very well said. Out of curiosity, was that French cartoon "Albator" known in English and Japanese as "Space Pirate Captain Harlock"? Cos I had the exact same experience with that particular cartoon, or anime as we now call it.
@@exidy-yt No, but it easily could have been! For me it was "Les animaux du bois de quat'sous" and "The Animals of Farthing Woods". Living in Ontario close enough to Quebec, there were a bunch of shows it was occasionally possible to encounter in both languages.
@@dronon-vids I keep coming back, I have to admit this original version has grown on me. ;-) And cool on the 'Animals of Farthing Woods'. I spent my first few years in Smooth Rock Falls, a mixed French and English speaking town but was too young then to remember anything that was shared language other then my family who I would talk to in either language depending on which side. I almost regret my father being transferred to Vancouver as I've forgotten every bit of French I ever knew.
Unfortunately the library only had the one tape, I didn't have a way to properly record the video while I was visiting, and I live in a completely different part of the country. Someone would have to track down other episodes, maybe from the Library and Archives Canada, who have a small number on VHS and film.
supposedly the full version of the original theme has actually been on youtube officially since 2019 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zVONJYw9gvU.html interesting.
That version sounds like it was recorded with completely different gear. I wonder if it was JMC's attempt at recreating the song, years or decades later, since the original masters from the TV show are lost.
I think it's a recreation because I remember seeing it mentioned that the composer lost the original tapes. I dig this version's 'Dr. Who' shuffle though!
