My problems with 'Bonanza' were problems of communication. What we discussed would be, never was. I thought it would be a sophisticated show. Instead it never went beyond the comic strip level.

I detest 'Jingle Bells,' 'White Christmas,' 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,' and the obscene spending bonanza that nowadays seems to occupy not just December, but November and much of October, too.

I felt that after 14 years we deserved more than just a day and a half's notice. There wasn't even a chance to wind up 'Bonanza' in a blaze of glory.

You do the work and you want people to see it but um while I'm doing the work the result doesn't matter at all to me. Ultimately I don't I don't care whether the film is - you know - some big giant box-office bonanza and I don't care if its a complete flop. To me when a film gets made and it's actually finished it's a success. They're all a success in their own way.

A permanent base on Mars would have a number of advantages beyond being a bonanza for planetary science and geology. If as some evidence suggests exotic micro-organisms have arisen independently of terrestrial life studying them could revolutionise biology medicine and biotechnology.