I doubt very much that there is a more enthusiastic fan of this quiet exception film than I, that film is...

"2001 : A Space Odyssey"

My father recommend it to me one Christmas in the late 1970's (I think it was?) when I believe it first premiered on British TV (what a FUN Christmas time this was because he also told me to watch "Where Eagles Dare" which is another film I adore & a big reason I became a CLINT EASTWOOD fan)

So you can imagine it was with great sorrow to hear of the passing of a pivotal cog in this remarkable film.
I speak of Canadian actor 'DOUGLAS RAIN' who gave us the ICONIC voice of the HAL-9000 computer.

For a film / movie to become a real classic EVERYTHING has to come together...STORY, SCRIPT, DIRECTION, CINEMATOGRAPHY, EDITING, PRODUCTION DESIGN, CASTING, COSTUMES, MUSIC & EFFECTS (if required & boy where they required here...THANKS Douglas Trumbull...strange that STANLEY KUBRICK took the Oscars Award for this just part of the amazing stories surrounding this AMAZING FILM)

Without DOUGLAS RAIN's incredible voice acting as HAL it simply would not have been the film we thankfully have now.

There are NO WEAK LINKS.

Sure some parts of the story were changed & SATURN was replaced by JUPITER & curiously the MONOLITH found at CLAVIUS was supposed to be & I will always find this highly amusing now due to the fact that APOLLO 17 is rumoured to have encountered / discovered such a thing whilst there & again there are rumours that this original design of a PYRAMID (actually a Tetrahedron I believe?) shaped object was too close to the TRUTH? so they changed it to the ICONIC Black Monolith, is this True? who knows? but it just adds to the mythology & curiosity concerning this EPIC film (it is even rumoured & once read somewhere on the net that ARTHUR C. CLARKE was actually told of such a structure they knew WAS ON THE MOON years before Armstrong & Buzz even set foot on the MOON)

So many scenes in this film I could praise but I must go with DOUGLAS's contribution...

It's an AMAZING voice performance (you can't imagine anyone else as HAL) & the scene when BOWMAN returns after retrieving POOLE'S dead body thanks to HAL is a tour de force & HAL has locked him out from DISCOVERY is truly chilling & even once BOWMAN gets the better of him & gets access back into the DISCOVERY he is faced with a sad & incredibly human like HAL...

"I'm AFRAID DAVE" leading to the "Daisy, Daisy" song.

There are only a few MAJOR CHARACTERS in this film...
Thankfully the 2 main lead roles (both even older than my father...sorry Dad) are still with us & it's these roles they will ALWAYS be remembered for (Keir Dullea & Gary Lockwood) sadly we lost Dr Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) who was terrific during the opening part of this film but now sadly we wave off DOUGLAS RAIN as he journeys his way through the STARGATE to hopefully SOMETHING WONDERFUL? (you 2010 fans will get that little to that unexpectedly good sequel)

A FILM in 3 parts which is probably the GREATEST Science FIction film of ALL-TIME (although I have to say "ARRIVAL" is closer now for me than I ever envisaged)

Douglas, i hope you'll get to see ALL the WONDERS of the UNIVERSE (on the other side) that some of us hope to see one day!
GOOD TRIP.