Last week, we lost special effects maestro Brian Johnson, whose career spanned many of the classic Supermarionation and live-action worlds created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His later Hollywood career earned him global recognition for his ingenious approach to creating compellingly realistic and excitingly explosive special effects. His 

A Wonderland of Visual Effects

Brian Johnson (birthname Johncock) was born on the 29th of June, 1939. After some uninspiring career prospects involving cement and concrete research for motorways in the late 1950s after his time at school, Johnson crossed paths with Canadian-born special effects master and frequent Hammer Films/Ray Harryhausen collaborator Les Bowie. Johnson's work in mixing aggregates and curing concrete blocks would sometimes involve the specimens exploding from the pressure they would be subjected to, a handy technique which would prove to be useful in his eventual career away from motorways.

Bowie offered Johnson a role at Anglo-Scottish Studios as a floor sweeper, where he learned many basics of film production. It was also during this time that he crossed paths with another of Bowie's employees, Derek Meddings, who was acquiring his early experiences in matte paintings. One of Johnson's earliest film efforts was an uncredited role in 1957's Quatermass II. Johnson forged a respectable output making further Hammer Films before and after his initial time with the Andersons' puppets, including The Pirates of Blood River (1962), When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), and Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970).

After undertaking his National Service in the Royal Air Force, Johnson returned to work with Bowie. Around 1962, Johnson received an offer from Meddings to join A. P. Films to assist him in producing the company's increasingly sophisticated visual effects for their growing roster of space-age puppetry productions. 

Joining the company towards the end of Supercar, Johnson was responsible for developing explosions and building and operating models. While Meddings was chiefly responsible for designing the 'hero' vehicles (in Fireball XL5 and Stingray's case, building on Reg Hill's earlier designs), it fell to Johnson to produce the secondary vehicles which would often wind up having to be destroyed by explosive means. One of Johnson's most celebrated efforts was the iconic glass shot of Stingray emerging from the ocean door, something produced by himself and Meddings, and which he was particularly proud of.

Owing to the increased workload presented by Thunderbirds (1965-66), Johnson was given charge of his own special effects unit to manage the production of simultaneous episodes. Johnson's first on-screen credit was for his second unit work on Thunderbirds, a reflection of how he was ascending the ranks. Unfortunately, Thunderbirds marked a souring of his and Gerry's professional relationship. Johnson wasn't enthusiastic of the treatment of the alligators for the filming of Attack of the Alligators!, but more tellingly in advancing his own career, Johnson had received an offer from Stanley Kubrick to work on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), a change of employment which incurred Gerry's displeasure.

1999: A Space Odyssey

The techniques developed on the visually ground-breaking 2001: A Space Odyssey (enhanced depth of field, realistic models, enlarged photographs of the models filmed on sheets of glass) greatly influence Johnson's approach to producing the visual effects for Space: 1999 (1975-77). The series itself caught the attention of further Hollywood movie makers and guided Johnson on a continuing path of latching onto some of the most beloved science fiction works of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

After working on The Italian Job (1969) and Mosquito Squadron (1969), Brian and Gerry patched up their relationship when Gerry invited Brian to become the visual effects director on Space: 1999, having already provided some explosive work on The Protectors. For what would prove to be Gerry and Sylvia's final television series produced as husband and wife, Johnson assembled his own trustworthy crew to work under him. While the actors of the series filmed at Pinewood Studios, Space: 1999's visual effects were produced at the nearby Bray Studios, although Johnson employed a live-action sfx unit at Pinewood led by his old friend, Les Bowie. 

One of Johnson's most everlasting efforts on Space: 1999 was designing the Eagle Transporter, directly inspired by the Moonbus design from 2001: A Space Odyssey. After outlining initial sketches of what the Eagle Transporter could look like, Pinewood draftsman Mike Lamont extended Johnson's ideas further before he and Johnson collaborated to finesse the finalised Eagle filming model. Johnson's other duties involved creating fantastic alien worlds, lunar landscapes, cosmic pyrotechnics, the design of Moonbase Alpha filming model and colourful optical effects. Other design work of alien ships would be entrusted to a young Martin Bower, who'd begin his own long-standing association with Gerry Anderson's worlds beginning with Space: 1999.

Johnson's creative and practical efforts on Space: 1999 caught the attention of George Lucas, who was in the UK producing a forthcoming space fantasy film titled Star Wars (1977). Lucas himself ordered the Millennium Falcon to be overhauled owing to perceived similarities between it and the Eagle, resulting in the Falcon's own iconic rounded form. Johnson received an invitation to join the special effects team on Star Wars in 1976, which he had to turn down owing to his recent commitment to Space: 1999's hard-earned second series. Although the series struggled to achieve a network broadcast, its state-of-the-art special effects were well-received by critics and audiences.

Johnson's special effects across Space: 1999 commanded 3% of the budget for the first series, but with Space: 1999 proving to be one of the most astronomically expensive television series to date, Johnson's visual effects dazzle in their ambitious scope. Realistic alien worlds and heavy-duty spacecraft easily blend with compelling optical effects, all of which Johnson and his team aided in that tangibility by filming the special effects in a documentary style, instead of anything overly outlandish. Much of these effects were also deployed in The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity (1975), the one-off sci-fi special produced in-between Space: 1999's two seasons.

Johnson's Hollywood career blasted off after Space: 1999. Lucas and Gary Kurtz were so enamoured by Johnson's skillset that he was offered the role of special effects supervisor on The Empire Strikes Back (1980), which itself followed swiftly on from his other role supervising special effects on Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) and Alien (1979). Throughout the 1980s, Johnson's career continued with special effects supervisory roles on Dragonslayer (1981), The Pirates of Penzance (1983), The NeverEnding Story (1984), Aliens (1986), and many more. His Gerry Anderson work also received fresh exposure thanks to the popularity of the Super Space Theatre compilation films, which saw several of his Stingray, Thunderbirds and Space: 1999 efforts repackaged into films - and very heavily promoted with the fact that his Hollywood work was now earning him numerous awards and nominations.

Johnson's special effects work on Alien and The Empire Strikes Back earned him, and the rest of both film's special effects crew, a pair of Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects in quick succession. His and Richard Edlund (co-founder of Industrial Light & Magic) were the recipient of the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Visual Effects for The Empire Strikes Back. Johnson himself also earned the BAFTA Award for his work on Aliens.

Brian Johnson's eye-catchingly impressive approach to developing special effects on a cinematic scale and injecting a sense of realism into his effects and vehicle designs continues to uplift the likes of Thunderbirds and Space: 1999 in the popular consciousness. His sprawling career before and after his contributions to Gerry and Sylvia's worlds remain equally impressive, his visual effects work serving as a rewarding tapestry linking many defining works across science fiction television and film. He leaves behind a remarkable career that set astronomical standards of practical effects in film and television.

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