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Planet Of The Apes Season 1

The Gladiators

Planet Of The ApesAs Virdon, Burke and Galen explore their world, stopping to sample the local fruit until the hear the sounds of fighting nearby. The two astronauts intervene when they find two men apparently intent on beating each other to a pulp. Burke intervenes, but instead of finding a victim grateful that his attacker has been beaten off, he finds himself targeted by both combatants. Virdon joins in until the sound of approaching ape soldiers drives the astronauts into hiding. Virdon realizes that his most prized possession – a disc from the spaceship’s flight recorder that might prove useful in reconstructing the events leading up to the time warp – was dropped during the fight, and is now in the hands of the local ape prefect. Virdon, Burke and Galen go to retrieve the disc, and Galen offers to take the point, as he’ll have less trouble blending into an ape community. Virdon and Burke, on the other hand, are arrested for trying to steal horses. Burke is singled out to participate in gladiatorial games against another human – Tolar, the older of the two men they spotted fighting before. Burke beats Tolar in hand-to-hand combat, but refuses to kill him when a sword is thrown into the arena. Rather than inspiring humans and apes alike with this act of mercy, Burke has merely made a new human enemy by violating a primitive code of honor – and they’re no closer to retrieving the disc.

Order the DVDswritten by Art Wallace
directed by Don McDougall
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: William Smith (Tolar), John Hoyt (Barlow), Marc Singer (Dalton), Mark Lenard (General Urko), Pat Renell (Jason), Andy Albin (Man), Eddie Fontaine (Gorilla Sergeant), Nick Dimitri (A Gorilla), Ron Stein (1st Gorilla), Jim Stader (2nd Gorilla)

Notes: A number of past and future SF TV veterans appear here, most notably Mark Lenard – best known for playing the part of Spock’s father Sarek in the original Star Trek – shows up again as the astronauts’ recurring arch-rival General Urko. John Hoyt also puts in an appearance; he had played the part of the Enterprise’s original chief medical officer, Dr. Boyce, in the Star Trek pilot The Cage. And future V veteran Marc Singer can be seen here as well, putting in an early-career guest appearance.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Shazam!

Thou Shalt Not Kill

Shazam!Lynn is upset that her favorite horse, Becket, is scheduled to be put down because he’s been deemed dangerous by a rancher who blames Becket for injuring him. Mentor and Billy arrive on the scene and introduce Lynn to the idea of a peaceful protest to delay Becket’s “execution”. When the local sheriff – who also happens to be Lynn’s father – points out that the protest is within the law and on public property, the rancher decides that a demonstration of how dangerous Becket is will change everyone’s minds. Captain Marvel has to save the horse’s life.

written by Marianne Mosner
directed by Arthur H. Nadel
music by Horta-Mahana

Shazam!Cast: Michael Gray (Billy Batson), Les Tremayne (Mentor), Jackson Bostwick (Captain Marvel), Pamelyn Ferdin (Lynn Colby), William Sargent (Sheriff Colby), John Karlen (Nick)

Notes:Another future Space Academy cast member puts in a guest appearance; Pamelyn Ferdin would become one of the later Filmation show’s leads.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Season 1

Dopey

Land Of The LostWill and Holly struggle to maneuver their newly-built cart through the forest, at least until they find a good reason to get it moving: giant berries, each bigger than their heads. But someone else wants to feast on those too, and soon they find themselves being followed by a clumsy brontosaurus hatchling. Holly names the baby dinosaur Dopey and thinks she can keep him as a pet and teach him to do tricks; it’s only when she also teaches Dopey to pull the heavy cart that her father is convinced that Dopey has a use. But this relatively small “pet” is also defenseless compared to the other dinosaurs, and he could be attracting the wrong kind of attention to the Marshalls’ cave hideout.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Margaret Armen
directed by Dennis Steinmetz
music by Jimmie Haskell

Land Of The LostCast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series (Animated) Season 02 Star Trek

The Practical Joker

Star Trek ClassicStardate 3183.3: Attacked without warning by a handful of Romulan warships, Kirk puts the Enterprise on a heading into an energy cloud of unknown origin and composition – and then things really start to go wrong. The cloud has a drastic effect on the Enterprise’s main computer, giving it a mischievious sense of humor. At first, the computer forces the crew to endure harmless pranks, but as its occupants shrug off these annoyances, the stakes are increased when the Enterprise sets itself on a not-so-funny course right back into the crossfire of the Romulan ships.

Order the DVDswritten by Chuck Menville
directed by Hal Sutherland
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael

Guest Voice Cast: Majel Barrett (Lt. M’ress), James Doohan (Romulan), James Doohan (Crewman), Majel Barrett (Computer voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be

Night StalkerUnusual animal deaths at the Lincoln Park Zoo are the first sign that Chicago has a new resident. The killings spread to humans, with each of the victims having been drained of bone marrow. Kolchak and the police are witness to a strange invisible force that escapes with 10 tons of lead ingots, and leaves piles of black goo in its wake. The goo is composed of bone marrow and digestive acids. Combining this information with the widespread theft of electronic appliances, Kolchak comes to believe that an alien electromagnetic creature is on the loose. Using a compass, he tracks the being to a planetarium, where it is consulting star maps in an attempt to locate its position. Kolchak manages to drive the creature off with the high-pitched noise of his camera flash-recharger, and follows it to its spacecraft for a final confrontation.

Order the DVDswritten by Rudolph Borchert
from a story by Dennis Clark
directed by Allen Baron
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Mary Wickes (Dr. Bess Winestock), James Gregory (Captain Quill), Dick Van Patten (Alfred Bindle)

Notes: X-Files creator Chris Carter has often credited The Night Stalker as his inspiration for his own series. This episode, with its presence of mysterious government agents and organized coverup, is very similar to several early X-Files/UFO episodes. The alien(s)’ invisible presence is effectively conveyed by first-person camera work, a blowing wind, and strange sound effects.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

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Planet Of The Apes Season 1

The Trap

Planet Of The ApesGeneral Urko intensifies his search for Virdon, Burke and Galen – he’s taken it on as his personal mission. He pursues them into a territory stricken by frequent earthquakes…and a village known for sheltering humans on the run from their ape masters. Virdon is less interested in the earthquakes than he is in artifacts which are unknown to the humans of this era…but he recognizes them as pieces of a computer. Over Burke’s protests, Virdon and company set out to the ruins of a city where the pieces were found – a place which also happens to be the epicenter of the earthquakes. Urko and his troops follow, and just as Urko captures Burke, a violent quake sends both of them tumbling into an underground chamber which is then sealed off by debris. When Burke comes to, he recognizes it as a subway station. Burke does his best to convince Urko to let him stay alive: the ape doesn’t know enough about the “ancient” subway to find his way back to freedom, so he needs Burke’s help. But with the already-stale air running out underground, Urko’s patience is also running out…and with it, Burke’s time.

Order the DVDswritten by Edward J. Lasko
directed by Arnold Laven
music by Richard LaSalle

Guest Cast: Mark Lenard (Urko), Norm Alden (Zako), John Milford (Miller), Cindy Eilbacher (Lisa Miller), Mickey LeClair (Jick Miller), Wallace Earl (Mary Miller), Gail Bonney (Old Woman)

Notes: The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) subway station pinpoints The Trap’s location as the ruins of San Francisco, but Burke is obviously from a more advanced future San Francisco: his talks about nuclear-powered subway trains, meals in a pill and replacement organs as commonplace items.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series (Animated) Season 02 Star Trek

Albatross

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5275.6: The Enterprise arrives at Dramia with a precious cargo of badly-needed medical supplies, but the locals want something else as well – the unconditional surrender of Dr. Leonard McCoy, renowned throughout their solar system as a mass-murderer. McCoy is stunned to learn that a previous visit to neighboring Dramia II, to innoculate its entire population against a plague nearly two decades before, resulted in most of that planet’s inhabitants dying of a subsequent plague. One of the few survivors of Dramia II steps forward in McCoy’s defense, but as the Enterprise carries him back to Dramia to testify for the doctor, the crew contracts the same plague – with the sole exception of Spock. Spock releases McCoy from his prison on Dramia with only one goal – to stop the plague once and for all.

Order the DVDswritten by Dario Finelli
directed by Hal Sutherland
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael

Guest Voice Cast: James Doohan (Kol Tai), James Doohan (Demos), James Doohan (Supreme Prefect)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Original Season 1

Downstream

Land Of The LostRick decides it’s time for the Marshall family to seek newer pastures by following the nearby swamp to a river, which he hopes will lead them to other signs of civilization. But when the river begins running a little too fast for them to navigate safely, Rick realizes that their raft is moments away from a waterfall. The Marshalls bail out before they go over with it, climbing into a cave next to the river. They find signs of another human being there, and then they see him: an old-time gold prospector who thought he was the only human here. It appears that he’s been here much longer than the Marshalls – possibly since the American Civil War – and the isolation has taken its toll on his mind. But this prospector has hit a motherlode of glowing crystals, in a cave where Holly finds the skeleton of a long-dead Sleestak. With that find, the Marshalls are ready to leave, but their new neighbor refuses to show them how to leave the caves – and he still keeps the escape route to himself even when more Sleestaks appear.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Larry Niven
directed by Dennis Steinmetz
music by Jimmie Haskell

Cast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Walker Edmiston (Jefferson Davis Collie), David Greenwood (Sleestak), William Laimbeer (Sleestak), John Lambert (Sleestak)

Land Of The LostNotes: This is Walker Edmiston‘s (1925-2007) first appearance in Land Of The Lost, but not in his more familiar recurring role of Enik. He had worked on several earlier projects for the Krofft brothers, providing voices in H.R. Pufnstuf, The Lost Saucer and Sigmund The Sea Monster. Other appearances include the final Buck Rogers episode (The Dorian Secret), the dubbed voice of Balok in the Star Trek episode The Corbomite Maneuver, numerous voices in the original Planet Of The Apes pentalogy, and Inferno in the original Transformers series. Writer Larry Niven is best known for his Known Space novels chronicling the Man-Kzin Wars, though he was no stranger to Saturday morning science fiction: he wrote an episode of the animated Star Trek series which integrated his warlike Kzinti into the Star Trek timeline (at least for one episode). Amusingly enough for a show aimed at a juvenile audience, the prospector offers Holly a drink that will “put hair on your chest” (presumably alcohol); she politely declines. It seems he’s been too busy drinking to notice that there are dinosaurs on ground level, as he doesn’t know what a tyrannosaurus rex looks like.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Planet Of The Apes Season 1

The Good Seeds

Planet Of The ApesUrko’s troops pursue the fugitives to the point of exhaustion – and that leads to clumsy missteps. Virdon and Burke have to carry Galen on a stretcher to the nearest settlement, where they’re met with the usual stares of distrust. There is one bit of good luck: they’ve stumbled into an ape farming settlement, and one that needs extra laborers, in exchange for which the apes – though still suspicious – are willing to hide them from Urko’s patrols. Virdon’s own experiences growing up on a farm lead him to start giving advice on how to make the farm run much more smoothly, from the use of simple machines to better methods of planting crops. But are Virdon’s improvements – completely unorthodox in this primitive era – going to buy Galen time to heal…or will they draw too much attention from the patrols?

Order the DVDswritten by Robert W. Lenski
directed by Don Weis
music by Lalo Schifrin

Guest Cast: Geoffrey Deuel (Anto), Lonny Chapman (Polar), Jacqueline Scott (Zantes), Mark Lenard (Urko), Bobby Porter (Remus), Eileen Dietz Elber (Jillia), John Garwood (Police Gorilla), Dennis Cross (Gorilla Officer), Michael Carr (Patrol Rider), Fred Lerner (Police Gorilla)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

The Vampire

Night StalkerIn the desert outside Las Vegas, a traveller inadvertently spills blood upon a forgotten grave and…something crawls out. In Chicago, Kolchak gets wind of a trail of murders involving blood draining, and manages to wrangle his way into a trip to Los Angeles, where the trail leads. He finds that Catherine Rowlins, a victim of Janos Skorzeny, the vampire he confronted in Las Vegas, has been resurrected. She now pursues her former career as a call girl while using her customers as a food supply. With the aid of a local real estate agent, Kolchak tracks Rowlins to her lair for a final fiery hillside confrontation.

Order the DVDswritten by David Chase
from a story by Bill Stratton
directed by Don Weis
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Suzanne Charny (Catherine Rowlins), Kathleen Nolan (Faye Kruger), William Daniels (Lt. Matteo), Larry Storch (Jim “The Swede” Brytowski), Jan Murray (Ichabod Grace)

Notes: A sequel of sorts to the original TV movie The Night Stalker. The presence of a female vampire adds a few new twists.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

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Original Series (Animated) Season 02 Star Trek

How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth

Star Trek ClassicStardate 6063.4: Kirk and his crew are trying to pinpoint the origin of a vessel which recently scanned Earth’s solar system and then transmitted its finds toward unknown coordinates with a very powerful signal. But before the crew even expects to find an answer to this puzzle, an unidentified ship approaches, trapping the Enterprise in an energy field and kidnapping four officers including Kirk. The being aboard the vessel claims to be Kulkukan, a godlike creature from ancient Aztec legend – and at the moment, a rather angry one, since no one on Earth has worshipped him in many centuries. The creature challenges Kirk and the others to a test of logic. The prize if the humans win is the gift of Kulkukan’s boundless knowledge – and if they lose, the punishment is death for the entire crew of the Enterprise.

Order the DVDswritten by Russell Bates and David Wise
directed by Hal Sutherland
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael

Guest Voice Cast: James Doohan (Kulkukan), James Doohan (Ensign Walking Bear), Nichelle Nichols (Female officer), James Doohan (Male officer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Original Season 1

Tag-Team

Land Of The LostA food-gathering expedition is brought to a crawl thanks to the use of Dopey as a beast of burden. Rick Marshall sets the baby dinosaur loose and gives Will and Penny news they don’t want to hear: they’ll have to roll the wagon back to their cave themselves. Worse yet, when they turn their backs to harvest giant turnips, someone has stolen food from the wagon – a trio of Pakuni, including Cha-Ka. Before a fight over the stolen food can take place, all of them are pursued by two tyrannosaurs. Will, Holly and Cha-Ka fall into a crevasse and are trapped. Now Rick has to try to communicate to Cha-Ka’s fellow Pakuni to get their help to free his kids – without ending up as the dinosaurs’ dinner himself.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Norman Spinrad
directed by Dennis Steinmetz
music by Jimmie Haskell

Land Of The LostCast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Philip Paley (Cha-Ka), Sharon Baird (Paku), Joe Giamalva (Paku)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Star Blazers

S.O.S. Earth: Revive Space Battleship Yamato

Star Blazers2199 A.D.: At the end of the 22nd century, planet Earth has been laid to waste by decades of radioactive planet bombs launched by the all-conquering Gamilons. The surviving human population has resorted to elaborate underground cities to survive, but the radiation will soon reach a point beyond which the surface of the Earth cannot protect them. All life on Earth is doomed.

Captain Avatar, one of the Earth Defense Force’s most seasoned leaders, commands a futile action against Gamilon forces which have now gained a solid foothold in Earth’s solar system on Pluto. The battle quickly turns against the human warriors, and with only two ships left of the fleet he led to Pluto, Avatar orders a retreat. The captain of the other ship, Alex Wildstar, disobeys direct orders and covers Avatar’s retreat – at the cost of his own life. Only Avatar and his surviving crew escape the slaughter, and the Gamilon presence in the solar system is left unchecked.

Meanwhile on Mars, Cadets Mark Venture and Derek Wildstar – Alex’s younger brother – discover the remains of a crashed spacecraft, neither of Earth or Gamilon origin. The sole occupant, a beautiful young woman, died in the ship’s violent landing, protecting a message capsule to the last. Wildstar and Venture are picked up by Avatar’s returning battleship, bringing the mysterious capsule with them.

Once decoded, the capsule turns out to be a message from Queen Starsha of the distant but peaceful planet Iscandar. Starsha offers a solution to Earth’s imminent doom in the form of Cosmo DNA, which can only be obtained on her world. The message also includes complete instructions for building a new propulsion system which will make the journey, spanning hundreds of thousands of light years, possible within one year.

Wildstar and Venture are summoned to a city constructed beneath what was once an ocean floor. Lodged in the surface above them lies the great World War II battleship Yamato, which is secretly being refitted into an advanced, one-of-a-kind starship using Starsha’s wave motion engine designs. To their surprise, the cadets have been hand-picked to join the command crew of the new vessel – which is to be commanded by Captain Avatar, whom Wildstar blames for Alex’s death.

But before the mighty Yamato can be rechristened Argo and launched on the last desperate mission to save the human race, the Gamilons launch an attack to destroy the ship on the ground – unless the ship’s new crew can pull together quickly and repel the assault.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Planet Of The Apes Season 1

The Legacy

Planet Of The ApesVirdon, Burke and Galen find the ruins of a city – once known to them as Oakland – and find it inhabited by humans, though the approach of an ape patrol on horseback is enough to scatter anyone who might welcome the travelers. They take refuge in a building that was once the Oakland Science Institute – a place that Virdon remembers as a government think tank – where they discover a piece of equipment locked away for centuries, intact and functional: a hologram promising the sum total of human knowledge at the time of the then-approaching apocalypse. It needs a new battery before it will divulge any of that knowledge, however, and Virdon becomes nearly obsessed with constructing a new battery; even just before his capture, he tells Burke that extracting the information is more important than the lives of any one of the group. Virdon is captured by Urko’s troops, but while Urko is eager to torture his prisoner, Dr. Zaius arrives to conduct the interrogation by far subtler means. Virdon may not even realize that he is betraying his fellow fugitives…or that he’s handing over the sum of human knowledge to the apes.

Order the DVDswritten by Robert Hamner
directed by Bernard McEveety
music by Earle Hagen

Guest Cast: Zina Bethune (Arn), Jackie Earle Haley (Kraik), Robert Phillips (Gorilla Captain), Mark Lenard (Urko), Booth Colman (Zaius), Jon Lormer (Scientist), Wayne Foster (Gorilla Sergeant), Victor Kilian (Human)

Notes: Director Bernard McEveety (1924-2004) was the brother of Star Trek director Victor McEveety, whose six turns in the director’s chair on that series included some of its more memorable episodes; both brothers also directed episodes of Buck Rogers. Bernard McEveety’s other genre credits include episodes of Airwolf, Blue Thunder, Voyagers!, The Incredible Hulk, and Knight Rider, but he may be best remembered as the director of the miniseries How The West Was Won. The city ruins seen in The Legacy look remarkably like those seen in The Trap, aired mere weeks earlier.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series (Animated) Season 02 Star Trek

The Counter-Clock Incident

Star Trek ClassicStardate 6770.3: The Enterprise is en route to Babel on a fairly routine mission, ferrying Commodore Robert April (the Enterprise’s first captain) and his wife (the ship’s original medical officer) to a retirement ceremony on Babel. When an immensely powerful ship of unknown origins blasts past the Enterprise on an apparent death dive into a nearby supernova, Kirk tries to stop it with the tractor beam – which only has the effect of dragging the Enterprise into the exploding star with the other ship. Somehow, both ships survive, but find themselves in a different universe where the laws of time and space no longer apply. The crew of the other ship originate from this dimension, where time runs backward and instead of gaining knowledge, their race is losing knowledge as each generation regresses rapidly into infancy. This temporal effect also renders the Enterprise crew too young and inexperienced to find their way back home – and Commodore April must take the Enterprise’s captain’s chair one more time to save Kirk and the current crew.

Order the DVDswritten by John Culver (a.k.a. Fred Bronson)
directed by Hal Sutherland
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael

Guest Voice Cast: James Doohan (Commodore April), Majel Barrett (Mrs. April), Majel Barrett (Karla 5), James Doohan (Karl 4)

LogBook entry by Earl Green