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Star Wars TV Specials

Ewoks: Caravan of Courage (a.k.a. The Ewok Adventure)

Star WarsAn Ewok named Deej sets out on his primitive hang-glider to search for his two missing sons. He finds them stuck on a cliff and testily rescues them. On their way back to the Ewok village, Deej and his boys investigate a strange object Deej spotted from the air. It turns out to be a small space vehicle which appears to have no occupants. But when the inquisitive Ewoks look inside, they find a small human child. Moments after she is discovered, the young girl’s teenage brother bursts into the ship, trying to protect her, but the Ewoks overpower him and take both of them to their village. Cindel Towani, the girl, has fallen ill since her parents disappeared, and her brother Mace is powerless to help. The Ewoks nurse Cindel back to health, and now all the human children have to worry about is finding their missing parents, repairing their crashed ship, and going home. After the two children make a nearly-disastrous attempt to go it alone, Ewok medicine man Logray uses a little bit of Ewok magic to find where the human adults are…and the answer isn’t good. Mace and Cindel’s parents are being held by an enormous creature called the Gorax. Even though the Ewoks know how to reach the lair of the Gorax, none have ever returned from the monster’s clutches. Nevertheless, Logray decides that his tribe will help the marooned children rescue their parents. Mace, Cindel, Wicket, and the rest of the Ewoks set out on a treacherous journey across the third moon of Endor to challenge the Gorax…but when the time comes, Mace will have to defeat the Gorax alone.

Order the DVDsscreenplay by Bob Carrau
story by George Lucas
directed by John Korty
music by Peter Bernstein (Ewoks theme by John Williams)

Cast: Eric Walker (Mace Towani), Warwick Davis (Wicket), Fionnula Flanagan (Catarine Towani), Guy Boyd (Jeremitt Towani), Aubree Miller (Cindel Towani), Dan Frishman (Deej), Debbie Carrington (Weechee), Tony Cox (Widdle), Kevin Thompson (Chukla-Trok), Margarita Fernandez (Kalnk), Pam Grizz (Shodu), Bobby Bell (Logray), Burl Ives (Narrator)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Droids

The White Witch

DroidsDumped overboard with the cargo as their smuggler owner saves his own skin, Artoo and Threepio find themselves on a desert planet where two speeder racers happen to be practicing. The small-time racers, Jord Dusat and Thall Joban, pick up the droids. Dusat is particularly enthusiastic to have found an R2 unit, since they’ll need one to help pilot The White Witch, a speeder they’ve been customizing for the upcoming Boonta Race. But they’re not alone on this planet: a woman named Kea Moll is observing the racers and their new droids from a distance, and Tig Fromm, the heir to an interplanetary crime syndicate, intends to destroy Dusat and Joban before they can stumble across Fromm’s secret base of operations.

written by Peter Sauder
directed by Ken Stephenson
music by Patricia Cullen, David Greene and David W. Shaw
theme song by Stewart Copeland

DroidsVoice Cast: Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter MacNeill (Jord Dusat), Rob Cowan (Thall Joban), Lesleh Donaldson (Kea Moll), John Stocker (Vlix)

Notes: The Boonta Race is presumably related to the Boonta Eve pod race seen in Episode I (a movie which wouldn’t be made for another 14 years). With Tig Fromm’s mention of Jabba as a rival crime boss, it’s possible that the unidentified desert world is Tatooine (presumably Threepio wouldn’t recognize it as his memory was ordered wiped at the end of Episode III).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Droids Star Wars

Escape Into Terror

DroidsAt the secluded home of Kea Moll’s family, Thall and Jord continue to make much-needed repairs to their ship; Threepio and Artoo have to contend with the duties and responsibilities of Bantha farming. The droids stumble across a hidden chamber – the control room of a small, secret Rebel base. It’s only now that Kea reveals her sympathies to the rebellion, and the reason she’s been helping the two speeder racers. Sise Fromm’s criminal syndicate has built a powerful weapon called the Trigon One, and his son Tig Fromm’s blundering has given the Alliance a chance to obtain it.

written by Peter Sauder
directed by Ken Stephenson
music by Patricia Cullen, David Greene and David W. Shaw
theme song by Stewart Copeland

DroidsVoice Cast: Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter MacNeill (Jord Dusat), Rob Cowan (Thall Joban), Lesleh Donaldson (Kea Moll), John Stocker (Vlix)

Notes: The canon-bending unlikelihood of the droids starting out in Bail Organa’s possession at the end of Episode III, going through the animated series’ progression of owners, and returning to Organa’s service in time for the original trilogy becomes less unlikely if one considers the possibility that the droids were sent to Kea Moll’s family by fellow Rebel Organa in the first place…

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Droids Star Wars

The Trigon Unleashed

DroidsThall and Artoo set out to rendezvous with Jord and Kea’s mother, who have just hidden the Fromm gang’s Trigon battleship. But things don’t go as planned: the rendezvous never happens. Waiting at Kea Moll’s family compound, Threepio intercepts transmissions between Tig Fromm and Sise Fromm, revealing that the compound is surrounded by Fromm henchmen. Thall returns, having guessed that things have gone horribly wrong, to rescue Threepio and Kea, but their attempt to escape from the Fromm gang lands them in a trap. Sise Fromm has two hostages – Jord and Kea’s mother – and wants Thall to tell him where the Trigon is hidden. Even when this information is spilled, however, the droids are ahead of Fromm’s men.

Droidswritten by Richard Beban and Peter Sauder
directed by Ken Stephenson
music by Patricia Cullen, David Greene and David W. Shaw
theme song by Stewart Copeland

Voice Cast: Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter MacNeill (Jord Dusat), Rob Cowan (Thall Joban), Lesleh Donaldson (Kea Moll), John Stocker (Vlix)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Droids Star Wars

A Race To The Finish

DroidsThall and Jord, with Kea Moll and the droids in tow, are well on their way to the Boonta Speeder Race when their ship is attacked. The ship pursuing them, however, has limited speed and weapons – the best that Sise Fromm and the remnants of his crime gang can afford after the costly loss of the Trigon. Thall and Jord escape, so Sise Fromm calls in a favor from a bounty hunter: he wants the speeder racers and their friends captured and brought to him. The bounty hunter who owes him a favor is Boba Fett.

written by Richard Beban and Peter Sauder
directed by Ken Stephenson
music by Patricia Cullen, David Greene and David W. Shaw
theme song by Stewart Copeland

Voice Cast: Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Dan Hennessey (Jord Dusat), Rob DroidsCowan (Thall Joban), Lesleh Donaldson (Kea Moll), Don Francks (Boba Fett), Graeme Campbell (Proto One) John Stocker (Vlix), Winston Rekert (Sise Fromm)

Notes: Droids is divided up into three serialized stories showing Artoo and Threepio working for different masters, and this episode concludes what is essentially a four-part story detailing their service to Thall Joben and friends. Boba Fett is the first original series character other than the droids to appear in the series, and it’s a bit of a homecoming for the bounty hunter: his first appearance was in an animated segment of the Star Wars Holiday Special, and that segment – like the Droids series – was produced by Canadian animation studio Nelvana. Threepio claims that he and BL-17 “graduated from the same production facility,” though it may be a fabrication on the part of BL-17 (a droid taking orders from Boba Fett) to gain Threepio’s trust. If one is trying to work Droids into the continuity of the years between the prequel and original trilogies, Threepio has already had his mind wiped at Bail Organa’s instruction, and whatever “production facility” he might be remembering may be a fabrication planted during that memory wipe to prevent Threepio from remembering that he was constructed by Anakin Skywalker.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Droids Star Wars

The Lost Prince

DroidsThreepio and Artoo find work at a diner, though they’re not ideally suited to work as servers and find themselves unemployed again in record time, though not before they overhear word that bounty hunter IG-88 is on the trail of someone nearby. Threepio and Artoo are auctioned off, with another dilapidated droid, to a new master, Jann Tosh, to help with his Uncle Gundy’s mining operation. But the third droid isn’t a droid – it’s a living being incapable of speech, but, after eating a king-sized breakfast, is more than capable of working in the mines. But who is this new worker, and why are other parties dangerously interested in him?

Droidswritten by Richard Beban and Peter Sauder
directed by Ken Stephenson
music by Patricia Cullen, David Greene and David W. Shaw
theme song by Stewart Copeland

Voice Cast: Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Don Francks (Jann Tosh), Dan Hennessey (Uncle Gundy / Yorpa / Vinga / Jyn Obah), Taborah Johnson (Jessica Meade), Michel LeFebvre (Mon Julpa), John Stocker (Sollag)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Droids Star Wars

The New King

DroidsJann Tosh and the droids flee the mining planet, trying to return Mon Julpa to high rightful place on the throne of the planet Tamuzan; they discover that their pilot is none other than Jessica Meade, making this the second time she has saved their skins. But they’re being followed by a bounty hunter: IG-88 is in pursuit. On Tamuzan itself, they’re no safer – in Mon Julpa’s absence, a struggle for power has broken out, with rivals vying for the throne. Artoo and Threepio may have to stage a coup of their own to ensure that Mon Julpa is crowned as Tamuzan’s king.

Droidswritten by Richard Beban and Peter Sauder
directed by Ken Stephenson
music by Patricia Cullen, David Greene and David W. Shaw
theme song by Stewart Copeland

Voice Cast: Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Don Francks (Jann Tosh), Dan Hennessey (Uncle Gundy / Yorpa / Vinga / Jyn Obah), Taborah Johnson (Jessica Meade), Michel LeFebvre (Mon Julpa), John Stocker (Sollag)

Notes: Mon Julpa’s rival for the throne is given a voice performance that sounds uncannily like the voice of Saw Gererra.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Star Wars TV Specials

Ewoks: The Battle For Endor

Star WarsThe Towani family is preparing to leave the third moon of Endor. But as Jeremitt is making final repairs to the spacecraft, a band of armed marauders attacks the Ewok village. The Ewoks are either herded into primitive vehicles or killed. Mace puts up a valiant fight, but he and his mother are both killed in the attack. Cindel runs back to find her father being held prisoner by more marauders and a witch named Charal who appears to be human. Jeremitt buys enough time for Cindel to escape, but he too is killed. Cindel and Wicket are captured and thrown into a wagon with the surviving Ewoks. They both manage to escape, but they must outrun marauders and brave some indigenous predators as well. They finally befriend a strange, fast-moving creature called Teek, who leads them to an isolated house deep in the woods. The house belongs to an old man named Noa, whose two-man exploration ship crash-landed on the Ewoks’ moon back in the heyday of the Empire, stranding him ever since. Cindel and Wicket stay with Noa and Teek for a few days, but Cindel is kidnapped by Charal. Charal’s master, the marauder king Terak, has stolen a power cell from the Towanis’ ship. He can’t figure out how to use the object’s “magic,” and has instructed the witch to capture the one remaining person who knows anything about it. If Cindel can’t give Terak the answers he wants to hear, she, Charal and all of the captured Ewoks will die. Noa, Wicket and Teek set out to rescue her…but even once all of the Ewoks are set free, they’re hardly any match for Terak’s army. When it is revealed that Noa’s ship is still intact, and lacks only the power cell from the Towanis’ ship to escape, the already high stakes are raised even further.

Order the DVDsscreenplay by Ken Wheat and Jim Wheat
story by George Lucas
directed by Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat
music by Peter Bernstein

Cast: Wilford Brimley (Noa), Warwick Davis (Wicket), Aubree Miller (Cindel Towani), Sian Phillips (Charal), Carel Struycken (Terak), Niki Botelho (Teek), Paul Gleason (Jeremitt Towani), Eric Walker (Mace Towani), Marianne Horne (Young witch), Daniel Frishman (Deej), Tony Cox (Willy), Pam Grizz (Shodu), Roger Johnson (Lieutenant), Michael Pritchard (Card player #2), Johnny Weissmuller Jr. (Card player #2), Malumba Anderson Ewoks: Battle For Endor(Marauder), Tom Calabrese (Marauder), Scott Cooper (Marauder), Scott Cowan (Marauder), Dan Cunningham (Marauder), Charles Davis (Marauder), Mike Dito (Marauder), Scott Ferry (Marauder), Michael Franti (Marauder), Andre Keys (Marauder), Jerry Keys (Marauder), Jerry Martin (Marauder), Brendan Reitz (Marauder), Marques Strane (Marauder), Peter Thiebeaux (Marauder), Bill Tilman (Marauder), Dawn Abbey (Ewok), Anthony Bagnarol (Ewok), Mary Henning (Ewok), Bethany Jewett (Ewok), Michael Lipsky (Ewok), Steve Morgan (Ewok), Matthew Roloff (Ewok), Irving Scible Jr. (Ewok), Judi Weaver (Ewok), Darryl Henriques, Sydney Walker, Kevin Pollack, Ken Grantham, Mark Dodson, Rick Cimino (Ewok and Marauder voices)

Notes: Blurrgs, a beast of burden featured more prominently in The Mandalorian, are first seen here in stop-motion form.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Max Headroom Season 1 (US)

Blipverts

Max HeadroomNetwork 23 TV reporter Edison Carter investigates the unusual death of a man in a low-rent apartment. Police aren’t saying much, and they’re not cooperating with Edison’s investigations – in fact, they sedate the victim’s wife while Edison is interviewing her during a live newscast. Edison’s boss gets a call from Network 23’s board of directors, ordering him to pull the story immediately – and the moment Edison’s camera light goes out when his satellite feed is cut, the police turn on him, and he has to make a desperate escape to the relative safety of the Network 23 helicopter. When he returns to the newsroom, Edison promptly decks his controller, Gorrister, and demands to know why Murray allowd the network’s board to pull the story.

In fact, what neither Edison nor Murray knows is that Edison was dangerously close to exposing the hazardous nature of Network 23’s new method of advertising, blipverts. The high-speed, compressed blipverts, while effectively cramming a few minutes’ worth of advertising messages into the viewer’s brain in nanoseconds, can also cause more sedentary viewers to spontaneously combust. Network 23’s corrupt chairman, Ned Grossberg, could care less about the mounting death toll, and resists board member Ben Cheviot’s insistence that the blipverts should be pulled in the interest of public safety.

Murray assigns a new controller, Theora Jones, to work with Edison. Though the jaded reporter is skeptical, he’s struck by her beauty – and her prolific hacking skills when she finds Network 23’s well-hidden research and development department. The network’s R&D isn’t so much a think tank as it is a single mind, brilliant boy inventor Bryce Lynch. Edison breaks into Bryce’s concealed apartment and finds the only evidence in existence of the deadly nature of blipverts. Before he can transmit that evidence back to the newsroom, however, Edison finds his satellite camera jammed and his network’s own security forces hot on his tail. With Theora’s help, Edison gets to a motorcycle and nearly escapes with what he’s learned, but Bryce springs a trap by remote control, sending Edison’s bike airborne. The last thing Edison sees before he slams into it is a clearance sign reading “Max Headroom, 2.3 meters.”

Edison is taken back to Bryce’s apartment. Grossberg wants Edison questioned about what he knows of the blipverts, but doesn’t want to risk awakening the reporter and allowing him to learn more. Bryce comes up with an alternative: scanning Edison’s synapses, transferring his knowledge and memories into the computer, and asking the resulting computer-generated construct what it knows. What Bryce doesn’t anticipate, however, is that the artificial intelligence created from Edison Carter’s mind – a personality which assumes a name from Edison’s last memory, Max Headroom – is every bit as stubborn and smart as Edison himself. And even if Edison is killed and disposed of, Max has worked his way into Network 23’s electronic infrastructure, and Max remembers everything Edison has seen, including the vital evidence that could topple the network and its chairman.

Season One Regular Cast: Matt Frewer (Edison Carter / Max Headroom), Amanda Pays (Theora Jones), George Coe (Ben Cheviot), Chris Young (Bryce Lynch), Jeffrey Tambor (Murray)

written by Joe Gannon and Steve Roberts
based on the British screenplay by Steve Roberts
directed by Farhad Mann
music by Cory Lerios

Max HeadroomGuest Cast: Jere Burns (Breughel), Rick Ducommon (Mahler), Charles Rocket (Ned Grossberg), Hank Garrett (Ashful), Virginia Kiser (Julia Formby), Lee Wilkof (Pat Zein), Billie Bird (Florence Nightingale), Ken Swofford (Gorrister), Viola Kates Stimpson (?), Urene Olga Lopez (?), Pearl Shear (?), Ricardo Gutierrez (Martinez), Skip O’Brien (?), Matt Roe (?), John Davey (?), Taylor Presnell (?), Heath Jobes (?)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Max Headroom Season 1 (US)

Rakers

Max HeadroomAs Max grows paranoid thinking that a napalm-kerosene-and-testosterone soaked kids’ show called “Missile Mike” is an actual news report about a man who goes around shooting things and blowing them up, things blow up in Theora’s personal life. She receives a rushed phone call from her sister-in-law Winnie, who warns her that her brother Shawn has taken up the dangerous sport of raking. An illegal underground sport with a high body count, raking combines jet-powered skateboarding with no-holds-barred unarmed combat. Theora sets Edison onto the case, but to break into a raking arena – let alone stop a match in which an already-injured Shawn is scheduled to fight – Edison will be risking life and limb. And while Edison thinks raking should be outlawed altogether, Zik Zak is considering both legalizing and sponsoring it.

written by James Crocker and Steve Roberts
story by James Crocker
directed by Thomas J. Wright
music by Cory Lerios

Max HeadroomGuest Cast: Virginia Kiser (Formby), Hank Garrett (?), Lee Wilkof (Pat Zein), J.W. Smith (Rick), Howard Sherman (Simon Peller), Lee DeBroux (?), Joseph Ruskin (Promoter), Wortham Krimmer (Jack Friday), Wynn Irwin (?), Arsenio “Sonny” Trinidad (?), Ricardo Gutierrez (Martinez), B.L. Collins (?), Ron D. Ross (?), Kimberly Delfin (Winnie), Peter Cohl (Shawn Jones), Tain Bodkin (?), Brian Libby (?), Doug Hale (?), Bobby Brett (?), Kawena Charlot (Rick’s bodyguard), Kedren Zadikov (?), Jeffrey Weisman (?), Tabi Cooper (?), David Preston (?), Lorilyn Huckster (?), Heath Jones (?)

Notes: This is the first episode in which it’s hinted that televisions can no longer be turned off. The “Missile Mike” gag is a slight swipe at one of Max Headroom’s real-life TV contemporaries, The A-Team.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Max Headroom Season 1 (US)

Body Banks

Max HeadroomTwo people are stalked and captured by a pair of thugs. They beat the man into unconsciousness, and take the woman who was with him to a body bank, where she’s moved to the top of the line for an organ transplant surgery – whether she’s a willing donor or not. The man goes to Edison with the story of the attack and the kidnapping, and Edison takes on the story. But he has to go to the streets to find the “blanks,” or unregistered citizens, and he has to recruit the help of Blank Reg, a rough-and-tumble but good-hearted blank who runs a pirate TV station called Big Time TV. Reg leads Edison to the two thugs, who in turn put him within arm’s reach of the doctor to whom they’ve been taking their victims – all of them female. But before Edison can ask too many questions, the doctor is killed. Edison is fresh out of clues, and Max may be able to help him, but Cheviot and Network 23’s corporate sponsors at Zik Zak want Max’s attentions on sponsorship announcements, whether or not it means a woman’s life.

written by Steve Roberts
directed by Francis De Lia
music by Cory Lerios

Guest Cast: William Morgan Sheppard (Blank Reg), Concetta Tomei (Dominique), Jere Burns (Breughel), Rick Ducommon (Mahler), Virginia Kiser (Formby), Hank Garrett (Ashful), Lee Wilkof (Pat Zein), J.W. Smith (Rick), Scott Kraft (Mel), Claude Earl Jones (Dr. Mason), Robert Dowdell (Plantegenet’s doctor), James “Gypsy” Haake (Nurse), John Winston (Plantagenet), Jenny Gago (Nurse), Arsenio “Sonny” Trinidad (?), Peri Kaczmarek (Rayna), Fred Holliday (News anchor), Michael Paul Max HeadroomChan (Japanese doctor), Grace Simmons (Poncho), B.J. Collins (?), Jay Arlen Jones (?), Rick Deats (?), Juliette Cummins (?), and Fang

Notes: Blank Reg establishes here that books have become a rarity – and are valued only by a select few, including him (though we later learn, in Lost Tapes, that Reg can’t read). Reg is played by William Morgan Sheppard who, sometimes credited as W.M. Sheppard or W. Morgan Sheppard, has appeared in everything from Babylon 5 (Soul Hunter) to Star Trek: Voyager (Bliss), to Doctor Who (The Impossible Astronaut) with many other genre guest starring appearances along the way.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Max Headroom Season 1 (US)

Security Systems

Max HeadroomSecurity Systems Inc. is the world’s leading provider of personal and corporate security and surveillance, with access to more priveleged information than any single government in the world. And now a hostile takeover of SS is in the works, and while the company’s CEO says she’s terrified of the prospects, she outwardly seems calm – and Edison smells a rat. But when he persists in questioning her, he suddenly discovers that his credit and his ID won’t work anywhere. He can’t go home, can’t go to Network 23, and the Metro Cops are hot on his tail. Edison winds up getting help from Blank Reg and Dominique, but he’s going to need more help from Max and Bryce – and he can’t even hope to approach the Network 23 building without being arrested. Bryce is the only one with the hacking skills necessary to make Edison a citizen again and uncover the secret of who’s buying out SS…but even he may be outmatched by the SS central computer.

written by Michael Cassutt
directed by Tommy Lee Wallace
music by Cory Lerios

Guest Cast: William Morgan Sheppard (Blank Max HeadroomReg), Carol Mayo Jenkins (Valerie Towne), J.W. Smith (Rick), Concetta Tomei (Dominique), Ricardo Gutierrez (Martinez), David Allyn (SSI Tech #1), Peter Mins (SSI Tech #2), Julia Calderon (Mrs. Rebus), Santos Morales (Mr. Rebus), Sally Stevens (voice of A7), Mark Voland (SSI Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Max Headroom Season 1 (US)

War

Max HeadroomA news package broker contacts Network 23 and offers exclusive access to a terrorist group – for a premium, of course. Cheviot refuses to buy, and when the White Brigade blows up an entire city block, only rival network Breakthru TV has coverage of the event. Network 23’s board fumes over Breakthru’s sudden ratings surge – in the middle of a global rating sweep – but they jump at the chance of having Edison Carter expose the sinister link between Breakthru TV and the terrorists themselves. Edison eventually tracks the terrorists to their headquarters, and finds that their entire war is being fought on television, a war of publicity with as few casualties as possible to avoid negative reaction from the viewers. But when the bombers feel that their deal with Breakthru TV is no longer serving their cause, they change their policy regarding casualties…in a drastic way.

written by Martin Pasko, Rebecca Parr, Michael Cassutt, and Steve Roberts
directed by Thomas J. Wright
music by Cory Lerios

Guest Cast: Gary Swanson (Frank Braddock), Virginia Kiser (Formby), Hank Garrett (?), Lee Wilkof (Pat Zein), Richard Lineback (Hewett), Robert Max HeadroomO’Reilly (Croyd Hauser), Lisa Niemi (Janie Crane), J. Michael Flynn (Lucien), Arsenio “Sonny” Trinidad (?), Ricardo Gutierrez (Martinez), Tom Miller (Breakthru TV Reporter), Michael Colin Ward (Officer Wendt), Randall Caldwell (Phil), Yana Nirvana (Police Chief), Spencer Allan (Breakthru TV Anchor)

Notes: Guest star Robert O’Reilly may be best known to genre fans as Gowron, the leader of the Klingon Empire in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. This episode is also the source of the series-defining exchange: “Since when has news been entertainment?” “Since it was invented.”

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Max Headroom Season 1 (US)

Blanks

Max HeadroomJust as Simon Peller wins another term through the public telelection system, satellite signals go haywire, interrupting broadcasts on all the networks. And TV isn’t the only thing affected – even bank service has been disrupted. Then an ultimatum is issued: if Peller doesn’t reverse his policy of imprisoning all blanks – unregistered citizens with enough computer know-how to remove their identities from the central computer – the central computer will be crashed. Bryce and Theora hatch a plan to find the hackers by getting their attention with the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world – Max himself. But when the hackers take the bait and keep him, not allowing Max to return to Bryce’s computer, Edison has to resort to more extreme measures to keep a systems crash from laying the city to waste at sundown…and someone he considers a friend may be on the wrong side of the fight.

written by Steve Roberts
directed by Tommy Lee Wallace
music by Cory Lerios

Guest Cast: William Morgan Sheppard (Blank Reg), Peter Crook (Blank Bruno), Virginia Kiser (Formby), Hank Garrett (?), Max HeadroomLee Wilkof (Pat Zein), Howard Sherman (Simon Peller), Concetta Tomei (Dominique), Lisa Niemi (Janie Crane), Elizabeth Gorcey (Woman), Tom Everett (Tracher), Rob Narita (Ronald), Kenneth White (Police Officer), John Durbin (Police Officer), Lycia Naff (?), Cynthia Stevenson (?), Brian Brophy (?), Sandra Sexton (?), John Fleck (?), and Fang

Notes: This is the first episode where Bryce’s alma mater, the Academy of Computer Sciences, is mentioned; Blank Bruno was Bryce’s instructor before going underground.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Max Headroom Season 2 (US)

The Academy

Max HeadroomHackers are disrupting network transmissions by hacking into satellite transmissions with their own high-power signals. Cheviot assigns Bryce the task of tracking down the pirates, and Bryce finds the source of the rogue signal – and then hesistates, pointing the finger instead at Blank Reg’s Big Time TV van. Metrocops arrest Reg, and Dominique pleads with Edison to help clear her husband’s name. Theora discovers that the real source of the signal was the Academy of Computer Sciences – Bryce’s alma mater. Edison susepcts (and Max knows) that Bryce falsified the coordinates given to the authorities. But given the tight-knit nature of the ACS students, and Network 23’s sponsorship of the school, does Edison stand a chance of clearing Reg’s name?

written by David Brown
directed by Victor Lobl
music by Michael Hoenig

Guest Cast: William Morgan Sheppard (Blank Reg), James Greene (Judge Wade), Hank Garrett (?), Lee Wilkof (?), Sharon Barr (?), Concetta Tomei (Dominique), Max HeadroomDick Patterson (Headmaster), Mya Akerling (Partridge), Christopher Burton (Stratton), Barry Pearl (Judge), Melissa Steinberg (?), Maureen Teefy (Shelley Keeler), Bill Dearth (Prosecutor), Paul Martin (?), Joe Hart (?), Sue Marrow (?), Tom Fitzpatrick (?)

Notes: This episode features one of Max Headroom’s most spot-on prophetic moments, with a pretty accurate prediction of the kind of home shopping networks which are fairly common now. Before you dismiss it as an easy prediction, check the original airdate of the episode and think again.

LogBook entry by Earl Green