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Earl Green is the creator, curator, and head writer of theLogBook.com.
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Classic Season 07 Doctor Who

The Ambassadors of Death

Doctor WhoA British manned Mars mission has fallen silent, its crew incommunicado for months. A second manned space vehicle is launched to recover the first, but it too loses contact with Earth. Strange, piercing signals are heard in Space Command on Earth, and the Doctor quickly realizes that they may be messages from whoever took the astronauts – only to hear a similar coded reply being sent from somewhere on Earth moments later. The Brigadier is able to trace the source of the reply and finds that the people who transmitted it are better organized and better armed than anyone suspected, and they even have allies within Space Command who try to sabotage the Doctor’s analysis of the original message. The recovery mission returns to Earth, but when the hatch is opened, the crew is nowhere to be found. Three astronauts did, in fact, arrive safely, but they aren’t from Earth. When Liz is kidnapped and forced to experiment on the alien visitors, and the military suddenly becomes reluctant to aid the Brigadier, the Doctor finds himself racing against time to avert an interplanetary war sparked by one paranoid man.

written by David Whitaker
directed by Michael Ferguson
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Robert Crawdon (Taltalian), Ric Felgate (Van Lyden), Ronald Allen (Ralph Cornish), Michael Wisher (John Wakefield), Cheryl Molineaux (Miss Rutherford), John Abineri (Carrington), Ray Armstrong (Grey), Robert Robertson (Collinson), Juan Moreno (Dobson), James Haswell (Champion), Bernard Martin (Control Room Assistant), Dallas Cavell (Quinlan), Steve Peters, Neville Simons (Astronauts), Gordon Sterne (Heldorf), William Dysart (Reegan), Cyril Shaps (Lennox), John Lord (Masters), Max Faulkner (Soldier), Joanna Ross (First Assistant), Carl Conway (Second Assistant), Ric Felgate (Astronaut), James Clayton (Parker), Peter Noel Cook (Alien), Peter Halliday (Alien voice), Neville Simons (Michaels), Steve Peters (Lefee), Geoffrey Beevers (Johnson), Roy Scammell (Peterson), Tony Harwood (Flynn)

Broadcast from March 21 through May 2, 1970

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 07 Doctor Who

Inferno

Doctor WhoJoining the Brigadier’s team at a hazardous research site where Dr. Stahlman plans to drill through the Earth’s crust to tap its core as a new source of energy, the Doctor is annoyed when Stahlman rejects most of his expert scientific advice. But this isn’t enough to prevent to Doctor from availing himself of power from Stahlman’s nuclear reactor for his own experiments – yet another attempt to restore the TARDIS to full function. But during one such experiment, the TARDIS console shoots the Doctor sideways in time, depositing him in another dimension where Britain is a fascist state. In this alternate Earth, the Doctor can only watch in horror as Stahlman’s experiment progresses to the point where it destroys the world. The Doctor barely escapes, only to find that he may be too late from saving the Earth he knows from the same fate.

written by Don Houghton
directed by Douglas Camfield & Barry Letts
music by Delia Derbyshire

Guest Cast: John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Olaf Pooley (Stahlman), Christopher Benjamin (Sir Gold), Ian Fairburn (Bromley), Walter Randall (Slocum), Sheila Dunn (Petra Williams), Derek Newark (Greg Sutton), David Simeon (Latimer), Derek Ware (Wyatt), Roy Scammell (Sentry), Keith James (Patterson), Dave Carter, Pat Gorman, Philip Ryan, Peter Thompson, Walter Henry (Primords)

Broadcast from May 9 through June 20, 1970

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Phoenix Five

Zone Of Danger

Phoenix FiveAfter a death defying re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere with a deliberately weakened heat shield, Captain Roke and Ensign Adam Hargraves emerge alive and victorious…with Roke not even upset that the heat shield was sabotaged as a test of his flying skill. The Controller on Earth not only welcomes Roker and Hargraves back, but introduces them to their new navigator, Cadet Tina Kulbrick and shows the three around their new ship, the Phoenix Five, Earth’s most advanced spacecraft. Its onboard sick bay and garden impress Captain Roke, while Hargraves and Kulbrick are simply excited to be flying the state-of-the-art ship…and learning to deal with the fourth member of the crew, a walking robotic “computeroid” named Karl.

Phoenix Five’s first assignment is the inhospitable planet Zebula 9, where would-be space dictator Zodian was finally brought to justice. Five previous missions to try to stabilize the planet’s atmosphere crashed. Zodian is imprisoned at Earth control, with a retinue of Martian guards keeping an eye on him. But a seemingly harmless arts & crafts project Zodian is undertaking in his cell has deadly uses, and he breaks out of prison to hijack the Phoenix Five – even if it means killing its new crew – to return to Zebula 9 and reactivate his headquarters, complete with its twin computers, Alpha and Zeta. Cadet Kulbrick shows her resourcefulness by programming Karl by remote to bring the Phoenix Five in for a survivable rough landing on Zebula 9 – rough enough that it becomes useless to Zodian’s plans. But it turns out that Alpha and Zeta aren’t going to help Zodian’s plans either.

Phoenix Fivewritten by John Warwick
directed by David Cahill
music not credited

Cast: Mike Dorsey (Captain Roke), Damien Parker (Ensign Hargraves), Patsy Trench (Cadet Kulbrick), Redmond Phillips (Zodian), Stuart Leslie (Karl), Peter Collingwood (Controller), Martin Bright (Martian Guard), Paul Bright (Martian Guard)

Notes: Filmed in 1968 and 1969 in Australia, but not broadcast until May 1970, Phoenix Five is part of a continuum with two previous shows, The Interpretaris (1966) and Vega 4 (1968), though each iteration of the show is more or less a rehash of Phoenix Fivethe series before it. The series was shot on film, and the Australian special effects industry didn’t exist yet, forcing the makers of Phoenix Five to devise some ingenious solutions to showing futuristic gadgetry. This was the beginning of a ten-episode run for producer Peter Summerton, who died unexpectedly after the tenth episode. As much as certain visual elements – chiefly the uniforms – resemble those of Star Trek, cancelled in the U.S. less than a year earlier, and as much as Phoenix Five was regarded as a children’s show, it was actually scheduled opposite the Australian run of Star Trek and Land Of The Giants on a competing broadcaster. Though produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the commercial Seven Network had rights to repeats of the show.

The Controller says that the usefulness of the Phoenix Five’s sickbay will be up to Captain Roke’s “specialized medical knowledge” – in other words, the show’s budget isn’t enough to hire an additional actor to portray a ship’s doctor. The voice artist performing Alpha and Zeta is not credited.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Movies Planet Of The Apes

Beneath The Planet Of The Apes

Planet Of The ApesTaylor and Nova explore further into the Forbidden Zone, beyond the ruins of the Statue of Liberty, where a gigantic wall of fire stretches across the horizon and sudden earthquakes rip through the ground at their feet. Taylor goes to explore onward, telling Nova to find Dr. Zira if he fails to return. Taylor is unaware that another expedition has been launched to find his missing ship and crew, and that disaster has befallen them as well: astronaut Brent and his crew are sucked into the same time anomaly and arrive on the future Earth. Brent survives the violent landing and discovers Nova roaming on her own, following her back into ape territory. There, he witnesses not only the evolutionary advancements of the apes, but an all-too-familiar sight: the apes are divided over whether to strike into the heart of the Forbidden Zone, or face a famine that threatens their food crops. General Ursus calls for war, and demands support from Dr. Zaius. The scientific elite – mainly evolved chimpanzees – are concerned about the rallying cry for war, while the gorilla military considers calls for peace to be a sign of weakness. Dr. Zaius is cautious: nobody even knows what’s in the Forbidden Zone, or indeed if there’s anything or anyone upon which to declare war. Despite his earlier mistrust of Dr. Zira and Cornelius, Zaius leaves them in charge and reluctantly joins the military advance into the Forbidden Zone.

Brent, still trying to fulfill his mission objective of finding Taylor’s expedition, flees from ape country into the Forbidden Zone. They find a subterranean complex there, filled with the sound of machinery: obviously the product of some kind of intelligent life. While Brent is relieved to finally meet (apparently) human beings underground, he’s horrified by what they tell him: they worship their god – an atomic bomb that survived the Earth-consuming holocaust intact – and they’re not afraid to unleash their god’s fury upon an invading force of apes, even if it leads to a chain reaction that could wipe out the entire world. The final revelation is even more disturbing: despite their outward appearance, these humans have been mutated almost beyond recognition. They throw Brent in a cell with Taylor, but the reunion is anything but a happy one: in order to take out both the apes and the mutants, Taylor is more than ready to detonate the holy bomb himself…

Order the DVDsscreenplay by Paul Dehn
story by Paul Dehn and Mort Abrahams
directed by Ted Post
music by Laurence Rosenthal

Cast: James Franciscus (Brent), Kim Hunter (Zira), Maurice Evans (Dr. Zaius), Linda Harrison (Nova), Paul Richards (Mendez), Victor Buono (Fat Man), James Gregory (General Ursus), Jeff Corey (Caspay), Natalie Trundy (Albina), Thomas Gomez (Minister), David Watson (Cornelius), Don Pedro Colley (Negro), Tod Andrews (Skipper), Gregory Sierra (Verger), Eldon Burke (Gorilla Sergeant), Lou Wagner (Lucius), Charlton Heston (Taylor)

Original title: Planet Of The Apes Revisited

Notes: Charlton Heston wanted the first Planet Of The Apes sequel to be the last – he agreed to appear in only as many scenes as could be shot in a two-week period, and only if the character of Taylor was killed off. If you noticed that new star James Franciscus bore more than a passing physical resemblance to Heston’s appearance in the majority of the first film, it’s no accident: 20th Century Fox hoped that, in trailers and other advertising for Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Franciscus’ strong resemblance would help them conveniently gloss over the fact that Heston was putting in little more than a cameo appearance. Also absent from the cast, due to being booked for other projects, was Roddy McDowall – the only Planet Of The Apes live-action project of the 20th century from which he was absent.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
UFO

Identified

UFOWhen evidence of UFO visits and alien abductions becomes real, a top-secret international agency, SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization), is formed, under the direction of Commander Ed Straker. Housed in the underground levels beneath a film studio that hides its activities, SHADO is on the verge of a new detection technology that could turn the tide against future UFO incursions. But the aliens – as yet unidentified – are also aware of this development, and are already taking steps to stop that technology from being deployed. From submarines capable of launching jet fighters, to a moonbase capable of launching space planes, Straker puts all of SHADO’s resources on the highest alert. The prize: SHADO’s first captured alien…and only then does Straker realize that this is but the first volley in a much longer battle for the planet Earth.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Gerry Anderson & Sylvia Anderson with Tony Barwick
directed by Gerry Anderson
music by Barry Gray

UFOCast: Edward Bishop (Cmdr. Straker), George Sewell (Col. Freeman), Peter Gordeno (Capt. Carlin), Gabrielle Drake (Lt. Ellis), Grant Taylor (General Henderson), Basil Dignam (Cabinet Minister), Shane Rimmer (Seagull X-Ray Co-Pilot), Antonia Ellis (Joan Harrington), Gary Myers (Lew Waterman), Michael Mundell (Ken Matthews), Harry Baird (Mark Bradley), Keith Alexander (SHADO Radio Operator), Jon Kelley (Skydiver Engineer), Georgina Moon (Skydiver Operative), Dolores Martinez (Nina Barry), Jeremy Wilkin (Skydiver Navigator), Paul Gillard (Kurt Mahler), Wanda Ventham (Virginia Lake), Gary Files (Phil Wades), Matthew Roberton (Dr. Harris), Maxwell Shaw (Dr. Shroeder), Annette Kerr (Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Phoenix Five

Dream On

Phoenix FiveA brief visit to a pastoral planet leaves Cadet Kulbrick wishing she could stay among nature for a bit, and Karl brings aboard some flowers, giving one of them to Kulbrick. The flower has psychoactive properties, however…and Platonus is in control of them, using them to lull the Phoenix Five crew, one by one, into a distracted dream state. Which would be only a minor problem without the asteroid field for which the ship is heading…

Phoenix Fivewritten by Peter Schreck
directed by David Cahill
music not credited

Cast: Mike Dorsey (Captain Roke), Damien Parker (Ensign Hargraves), Patsy Trench (Cadet Kulbrick), Owen Weingott (Platonus), Stuart Leslie (Karl), Peter Collingwood (Controller)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Timeslip

The Wrong End Of Time – Part 1

TimeslipYoungsters Liz Skinner and Simon Randall, bored with the dull surroundings near the Skinners’ vacation spot, go exploring the surrounding countryside, finding a place near an abandoned naval station where they hear an unusual sound all around them. Venturing onward, they pass through some sort of portal, stepping into the same place, but a different time – World War II, to be precise. Shortly after they see men who they’re certain are speaking German, the two children are captured and taken to be questioned about what business they had near the naval station. When Liz recognizes their interrogator – from having met him in the future, later in his life – it only raises further suspicions. And then they meet a young sailor named Frank Skinner – Liz’s father, long before she was born. The older Frank Skinner claims he had a mental breakdown during the war and can’t remember what his role in it was…but his daughter is about to find out by being there.

written by Bruce Stewart
directed by John Cooper
music not credited

TimeslipCast: Cheryl Burfield (Liz Skinner), Spencer Banks (Simon Randall), Denis Quilley (Commander Traynor), Iris Russell (Jean Skinner), Derek Benfield (Skinner), John Alkin (Frank), Sandor Eles (Gottfried), Paul Humpoletz (Graz), John Garrie (Arthur Griffiths), Royston Tickner (George Bradley), Peter Sproule (Ferris), John Abbott (Phipps), Kenneth Watson (Dr. Fordyce), Virginia Balfour (Alice Fortune), Sally Templer (Sarah), Hilary Minster (German Sailor)

TimeslipNotes: This episode is introduced by ITV’s then science reporter, Peter Fairley, introducing the series’ premise but cautioning that it is purely fiction. Eduard Salim Michael’s classical piece “Rite de la Terre” is used as the series’ theme song, but there is no incidental music during the story itself. Timeslip was originally recorded in full color, but only one episode remains in that format. The original color videotapes of the other episodes were wiped and reused (a common practice in the early 1970s), and we only have the remainder of the show to watch thanks to black & white film recordings created to sell the series overseas to broadcasters who were not yet transmitting in color.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

The Dead Man / The Housekeeper

Night GalleryThe Dead Man: Dr. Talmadge is summoned to the home of an old friend and colleague, Dr. Redford, who introduces him to a man named John Fearing. Fearing, just by thinking of a disease, can manifest the symptoms of that illness. Redford says that Fearing’s ability is hereditary, and he hopes to learn more about it and harness it to cure all disease. Over dinner, Talmadge notices that Redford’s wife can barely hide her attraction to Fearing, who appears as a perfect physical specimen when he concentrates on being well. In his next experiment with Fearing, Redford hypnotically conditions his human guinea pig to imagine himself dead. Is he taking his experiment to a new level…or eliminating a rival?

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Douglas Heyes
from a short story by Fritz Lieber
directed by Douglas Heyes
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Carl Betz (Dr. Max Redford), Jeff Corey (Dr. Miles Talmadge), Louise Sorel (Velia Redford), Michael Blodgett (John Fearing), Glenn Dixon (Minister)

The Housekeeper: Miss Wattle applies for a housekeeping job with the wealthy but eccentric scientist Cedric Acton. His plans for here go beyond tidying up the house, though – Cedric feels his wife has become too entitled to be tolerable. He wants to transplant another woman’s personality into his wife’s admittedly attractive body, and tells Miss Wattle of the riches she’ll be “inheriting” as the new inhabitant of that body. She reluctantly goes along with it, but finds she has no interest in remaining part of this experiment. When she tries to leave her “husband”, she comes face to face with the new housekeeper…her own replacement.

Night Gallerywritten by Matthew Howard
directed by John Meredyth Lucas
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Larry Hagman (Cedric Acton), Suzy Parker (Carlotta Acton), Jeanette Nolan (Miss Wattle), Cathleen Cordell (Miss Beamish), Howard Morton (Headwaiter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

Room With A View / Little Black Bag / Nature Of The Enemy

Night GalleryRoom With A View: Ailing eccentric Jacob Bauman is confined to his bed, waited on by a butler and a nurse. “Mr. B” pries into his nurse’s private life to a degree that makes her a little uncomfortable, but he tries to put her at ease by reminding her that he’s the perfect confidant since he rarely speaks to anyone. She admits to some jealousy when her boyfriend looks at other women, and Bauman starts planting the idea in her head the she should act on that jealousy.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Hal Dresner
directed by Jerrold Freedman
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Night GalleryCast: Joseph Wiseman (Jacob Bauman), Diane Keaton (Nurse Frances Nevins), Angel Tompkins (Lila Bauman), Morgan Farley (Charles), Larry Watson (Vic)

Little Black Bag: Disgraced and discredited, William Fall was once a medical doctor, but is now an alcoholic shambling from alleyway to alleyway. After an argument with a fellow homeless alcoholic, he discovers a medical bag in a trash can. A chance encounter with a Puerto Rican woman and her dying child gives Fall a chance to try out his lucky find. But he discovers it’s no ordinary medical bag: it’s from the year 2098, and its instruments seem to guide even Fall’s shaky hands to cure the child. The rush of resuming his calling as a healer thrills Dr. Fall…but his drinking buddy, who has followed him around as he heals people of everything from arthritis to cancer, sees only dollar signs, even over Fall’s dead body.

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based on a story by C.M. Kornbluth
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Burgess Meredith (Dr. William Fall), Chill Wills (Heppelwhite), George Furth (Gillings), E.J. Andre (Charlie Peterson), strongArthur Malet (Ennis), Eunice Suarez (Puerto Rican Mother), Marion Val (Puerto Rican Girl), Johnny Silver (Pawnbroker), C. Lindsay Workman (1st Doctor), Matt Pelto (2nd Doctor), Robert Terry (Dr. Nodella), Ralph Moody (1st Old Man), William Challee (2nd Old Man)

The Nature Of The Enemy: A tandem lunar landing mission involving two American spacecraft goes horribly wrong, as one of the vehicles crashes during descent. The press focuses on the crashed ship’s final transmission, during which its doomed pilot said his lander was under attack. In Houston, an impatient flight director named Simms tries to defuse the near-panic over that transmission while maintaining communication with the crew of the surviving lander. They report that the wreckage of their sister ship has been fashioned into something resembling a mouse trap…which only makes sense if the moon is made of cheese after all.

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Allen Reisner
music by Gil Melle

Cast: Joseph Campanella (Simms), Richard Van Vleet (Space Man), James B. Sikking (1st Reporter), Jason Wingreen (2nd Reporter), Albert Popwell (3rd Reporter), Jerry Strickler (Man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

The House / Certain Shadows On The Wall

Night GalleryThe House: A woman confesses to her psychologist that she has had the same dream for years – of driving toward a country house with an odd sense of anticipation – shortly before discovering that the house in question is not only real, but it up for sale. The realtor trying to close the deal gives her a somewhat skeptical warning that the previous owner thought the house was haunted. Not only will she buy the house, but she’ll find she knows its “ghost” very well.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Rod Serling
from the story by Andre Maurois
directed by John Astin
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Joanna Pettet (Elaine Latimer), Paul Richards (Peugeot), Steve Franken (Dr. Mitchell), Jan Burrell (Nurse), Almira Sessions (Old Woman)

Certain Shadows On The Wall: Emma Brigham dies after a lengthy illness, giving her three siblings – two sisters and a brother, Stephen, who left his medical practice behind to care for her full time – a sense of relief. But while Emma’s sisters are relieved that she is no longer in constant pain, Stephen is relieved that her death could result in a substantial inheritance. Emma’s shadow appears on a wall in her house, and nothing can block or outshine it. Stephen begins obsessing over getting rid of the shadow. But is it Emma’s spirit or his conscience?

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
from the story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
directed by Jeff Corey
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Louis Hayward (Dr. Stephen Brigham), Agnes Moorehead (Emma Brigham), Grayson Hall (Ann Brigham), Rachel Roberts (Rebecca Brigham)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 08 Doctor Who

Terror of the Autons

Doctor WhoAs the Doctor begins investigating the theft of the last remaining Nestene energy sphere (left behind in the previous Auton invasion) and the disappearance of a radio astronomer, a Time Lord appears and warns him that the Master – the Doctor’s arch rival Time Lord – has come to Earth. The Doctor deduces that the Master’s plan is to reawaken the Nestene Consciousness, giving it the opportunity to invade Earth once more. The Master has already set up production of the lethal plastic Autons at a nearby plastic factory – and knows exactly how he wants to rid the universe of the human race…and the Doctor.

Season 8 Regular Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Roger Delgado (The Master), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)

written by Robert Holmes
directed by Barry Letts
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), John Baskcomb (Rossini), Dave Carter (Museum Attendant), Christopher Burgess (Professor Phillips), Andrew Staine (Goodge), Frank Mills (Radiotelescope Director), David Garth (Time Lord), Michael Wisher (Rex Farrel), Harry Towb (McDermott), Barbara Leake (Mrs. Farrel), Stephen Jack (Rex Farrel Sr.), Roy Stewart (Strong Man), Terry Walsh, Pat Gorman (Autons), Haydn Jones (Auton voice), Dermot Tuohy (Brownrose), Norman Stanley (Telephone Man)

Broadcast from January 2 through January 23, 1971

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

Make Me Laugh / Clean Kills and Other Trophies

Night GalleryMake Me Laugh: Jackie Slater, a struggling comedian, is dying to make his audiences laugh…but he consistently bombs on stage. A mysterious man claiming to be a miracle-performing guru offers to work wonders for Jackie: anything Jackie says will bring his audiences to nearly uncontrollable laughter. While this boosts Jackie’s career to incredible heights, he finds it to be a hollow victory. He decides to leave comedy and take up dramatic acting, but his attempts at pathos only bring about more laughter. Can he ever again bring someone to tears?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Steven Spielberg
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Godfrey Cambridge (Jackie Slater), Tom Bosley (Jules Kettleman), Jackie Vernon (Chatterje), Al Lewis (Mishkin), Sidney Clute (David Garrick), John J. Fox (Heckler), Gene R. Kearney (2nd Bartender), Tony Russel (Director), Sonny Klein (1st Bartender), Michael Hart (Miss Wilson), Georgia Schmidt (Flower Lady), Sid Rushakoff (1st Laugher), Don Melvoin (2nd Laugher)

Night GalleryNotes: Steven Spielberg returns, racking up his third professional television directing credit (his second was a segment of the Night Gallery pilot movie in late 1969). By the end of 1971, he would go on to direct episodes of such series as The Name Of The Game, The Psychiatrist, Columbo, and Owen Marshall, Counselor At Law, ending the year with his first TV movie directing credit, Duel. Within three years, Spielberg was a movie director and no longer a TV director. Tom Bosley, of Happy Days fame, makes his second Night Gallery appearance here, having also appeared in Night Gallery’s pilot movie.

Clean Kills and Other Trophies: Obsessive big-game hunter Colonel Archie Dittman is unable to keep himself from expressing his disappointment that his son, now 21, does not share his preoccupation with hunting. He threatens to leave his son out of the will unless he can kill a deer. Dittman’s lawyer is aghast, immediately recommending that the junior Dittman take legal action against his father. The day of the hunt comes and goes without a kill…or at least without a death in the animal kingdom.

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Walter Doniger
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Raymond Massey (Colonel Archie Dittman), Tom Troupe (Jeffrey Pierce), Barry Brown (Archie Dittman Jr.), Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Tom Mboya)

Notes: Herbert Jefferson Jr. would go on to numerous guest starring roles in the 1970s before landing a regular role in Battlestar Galactica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

Pamela’s Voice / Lone Survivor / The Doll

Night GalleryPamela’s Voice: After five tumultuous years of marriage, Jonathan ends his marriage, not with a divorce, but by pushing his wife, Pamela, down a flight of stairs, killing her. Her ghost still taunts him, however. He can see her, and then he can hear her. And he can’t get away from her. As she rants at him seemingly endlessly, it’s as if she was still alive, and to Jonathan, death is looking like it might be a pretty good deal…or maybe that’s his problem.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Richard Benedict
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Phyllis Diller (Pamela), John Astin (Jonathan)

Lone Survivor: An oceangoing ship pulls alongside a lifeboat that seems to bear the name Titanic. One survivor is recovered from the boat, wearing women’s clothing and wondering if it’s 1912…only to be told that it’s 1915, and he’s aboard the Lusitania. He predicts the ship’s doom – it will be sunk by a German torpedo – but no one listens, especially when he claims to be a Flying Dutchman doomed to repeat an eternity of shipwrecks. The Lusitania’s crew steers the ship into the crosshairs of history. An oceangoing ship pulls alongside a lifeboat that seems to be the name Lusitania. One survivor is recovered from the boat, and learns that he’s aboard the Andrea Dorea…

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Gene Levitt
music by Robert Prince

Cast: John Colicos (Survivor), Torin Thatcher (Captain, Lusitania), Hedley Mattingly (Doctor, Lusitania), Charles Davis (Officer of the Watch, Lusitania), Brendan Dillon (Quartermaster, Lusitania), William Beckley (Richards, Lusitania), Terence Pushman (Helmsman, Lusitania), Edward Colmans (Captain, Andrea Dorea), Pierre Jalbert (Officer of the Watch, Andrea Dorea), Carl Milletaire (Quartermaster, Andrea Dorea)

Notes: Canadian actor John Colicos (1928-2000) is a genre favorite, probably best known for his appearances as Count Baltar in the original 1970s version of Battlestar Galactica and in episodes of both classic Star Trek and Deep Space Nine as Klingon warrior Kor. He also appeared in Mission: Impossible, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Starlost, Wonder Woman, and was the voice of Apocalypse in the early ’90s animated X-Men Series.

The Doll: A retired British colonel looks after his niece with the help of Miss Danton, and both are disturbed when the girl begins telling them that a doll found among the colonel’s personal effects by Miss Danton is not only talking, but is making threats toward other dolls. The colonel never intended for the doll to be given to her, and must now contend with an escalating series of disquieting events, including the dismemberment of another of his niece’s dolls. This doll is linked to a dark chapter in the colonel’s colonial past, and its awakening may leave them all with no future.

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based upon the short story by Algernon Blackwood
directed by Rudi Dorn
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Shani Wallis (Miss Danton), John Williams (Colonel Hymber Masters), Henry Silva (Pandit Chola), Than Wyenn (Indian), Jewel Blanch (Monica), John Barclay (Butler)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Gallery Season 1

They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar / The Last Laurel

Night GalleryThey’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar: Randy Lane, a former hotshot salesman, crowds his day planner with “outside” sales pitches…which are usually spent in one local bar or another, but his favorite has always been Tim Riley’s, which is now scheduled, along with other older buildings in its block, for demolition to make way for a new bank. When he passes the boarded-up bar, it seems like he steps into the past – old friends are there, and the old times are back…and then it fades. The police respond when Randy breaks into Tim Riley’s now-empty bar, adding a rap sheet to his already shaky record at work. Can he shake off the ghosts of his past and return to his present before it’s too late?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Don Taylor
music by Benny Carter / series theme by Gil Melle

Night GalleryCast: William Windom (Randy Lane), Diane Baker (Lynn Alcott), Bert Convy (Harvey Doane), John Randolph (H.E. Pritkin), Henry Beckman (The Policeman), David Astor (Blodgett), Robert Herrman (Tim Riley), Gene O’Donnell (Bartender), Frederic Downs (Father), John Ragin (1st Policeman), David M. Frank (Intern), Susannah Darrow (Kathy Lane), Mary Gail Hobbs (Miss Trevor), Margie Hall (Switchboard Operator), Don Melvoin (1st Workman), Matt Pelto (2nd Workman)

The Last Laurel: Marius Davis, coping with a recent crippling accident, obsesses over his paranoid belief that his wife has embarked on an affair with Davis’ doctor. By sheer force of will, Davis is able to conjure up an astral form that has touch and mobility, and he plans to eliminate his worst enemy in cold blood. But who is truly his worst enemy?

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based upon the short story “The Horsehair Trunk” by Davis Grubb
directed by Daryl Duke
music by Benny Carter

Cast: Jack Cassidy (Marius Davis), Martine Beswick (Susan Davis), Martin E. Brooks (Doctor Armstrong)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 08 Doctor Who

The Mind of Evil

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Jo pay a visit to Stangmoor Prison to witness a test of a revolutionary new device that promises to reform criminals permanently by entirely extracting the evil impulses from their brains. But in this case, the test subject – a hardened convict named Barnham – is not only relieved of the darkness in his mind, but most of his mind’s contents as well, rendering him mentally childlike. Not long afterward, Professor Kettering, checking the machine to find out why it overreacted so harshly, dies mysteriously. The Doctor becomes increasingly suspicious and decides to close off the room and check the Keller device himself…only to realize – too late – that it’s an alien life form that feeds on fear, that his arch enemy is behind its presence on Earth, and that the device is only a small part of a much larger plan to plunge the world into chaos.

written by Don Houghton
directed by Timothy Combe
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Eric Mason (Green), Roy Purcell (Powers), Raymond Westwell (Governor), Simon Lack (Professor Kettering), Michael Sheard (Dr. Summers), Bill Matthews, Barry Wade, Dave Carter, Martin Gordon, Leslie Weekes, Tony Jenkins, Les Conrad, Les Clark, Gordon Stothard, Richard Atherton (Officers), Neil McCarthy (Barnham), Clive Scott (Linwood), Fernanda Marlowe (Corporal Bell), Pik-Sen Lim (Chin Lee), Kristopher Kum (Fu Peng), Haydn Jones (Vosper), William Marlowe (Mailer), Tommy Duggan (Alcott), David Calderisi (Charlie), Patrick Godfrey (Cosworth), Johnny Barrs (Fuller), Matthew Walters (Prisoner), Paul Blomley (Police Superintendent), Maureen Race (Student), Nick Hobbs (American aide), Billy Horrigan (UNIT corporal), Peter Roy (Policeman), Michael Ely (UNIT chauffeur), Francise Williams (African delegate/Master’s chauffeur), Laurence Harrington (Voices), Paul Tann (Chinese aide), Jim Delaney (Passer-by), Charles Saynor (Commissionaire), Basil Tang (Chinese chauffeur), Richard Atherton (Police Inspector)

Broadcast from January 30 through March 6, 1971

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green