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Space Academy

There’s No Place Like Home

Space AcademySpace Academy is put on high alert when an alien presence is detected trying to get inside. Unknown to Commander Gampu and his students, the alien is capable of changing its shape, and ultimately assumes the guise of a man who claims to be from Loki’s home planet. He claims to know of Loki’s purpose and his destiny, but won’t divulge that information unless Loki obtains a container of a highly volatile chemical for him. Loki remembers his Space Academy training and refuses to steal, but then the stranger who promises to tell the boy where he comes from turns his demands into threats.

written by Martin Roth
directed by George Tyne
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Space AcademyCast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Larry Dobkin (Vicron), Peepo (himself)

Notes: Martin Roth created the previous Filmaction live-action SF-for-kids effort, Ark II, and wrote many of its episodes. Guest star Larry Dobkin (1919-2002) – whose character is named Kane in dialogue but Vicron on screen – appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation as a Klingon, and directed the much-loved Charlie X episode of the original series. He also had an uncredited part in the seminal SF film The Day The Earth Stood Still, and played numerous roles in one of TV’s first-ever science fiction series, Space Patrol.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Logan's Run

The Innocent

Logan's RunFrancis and the other Sandmen, now armed with their own vehicles, close in on Logan and his friends. Even though Logan is able to shake off his pursuers, his flight comes to a sudden stop when he finds that his hovercraft is in a minefield surrounding an underground bunker. Rem manages to neutralize the bunker’s various defense systems, and inside the bunker, they find rather antisocial robots watching over an adolescent girl who has apparently never seen another human being since her parents died. She develops a strong attachment to Logan, but doesn’t understand the feelings she’s experiencing. But she quickly picks up on Logan’s affection for Jessica, and her envy leads her to reveal a terrifying telekinetic power. After she uses her power to “remove” Rem and Jessica, Logan still rejects her advances…so she decides to betray him to the Sandmen.

Logan's RunDownload this episodeteleplay by Ray Brenner and D.C. Fontana
story by Ray Brenner
directed by Michael Preece
music by Jerrold Immel

Guest Cast: Lisa Eilbacher (Lisa), Lou Richards (Strong), Barney McFadden (Jeremy), Brian Kerwin (Patrick), Gene Tyburn (Friend)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

The Rocks Of Janus

Space AcademySpace Academy is put on full alert. Studying a comet with two nuclei, the Academy students must now find a way to keep the comet fragments from colliding with and destroying the Academy. Chris, Paul, Adrian and Laura are sent to land on one of the fragments to sample its surface and find a way to divert or destroy it. But the task becomes much more difficult once on the surface: Adrian’s attempt to cut off a rock sample makes an outcropping of rock “bleed,” and Peepo claims that the comet is communicating with him. Gampu teaches all of his students to respect life, and now they have to choose between the Academy and everyone living there, or the life of a unique, newly-discovered life form – a living planetoid.

written by Samuel A. Peeples
directed by George Tyne
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Space AcademyCast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself)

Notes: Space Academy is a very mobile asteroid: this episode shows, for the first time, that the asteroid upon with the Academy is built can be moved to different locations in space, though it may simply have an irregular orbit through the solar system containing the planet seen at the beginning of the episode (which would explain why, upon learning that the Academy is in imminent danger, our heroes don’t simply move it out of harm’s way.).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Logan's Run

Man Out of Time

Logan's RunLogan, Jessica and Rem investigate unusual energy readings near a junkyard, and they watch in amazement as a large cylinder appears in front of them, containing a live rabbit, which Logan removes. The cylinder then vanishes again, and returns a while later with a man inside, claiming that he too seeks Sanctuary and knows the way. But when the travelers’ new friend brings them to Sanctuary, it’s not what any of them expect. There are no wayward runners from the City of Domes, there are no computers, and there is no modern knowledge. Devastated, the man from the cylinder reveals who he is at last: he is from the past, on the eve of the nuclear war which almost killed all life on Earth, and he’s seeking hints from the future that will allow him to prevent that future – and he needs Logan’s help. But if Logan does assist him, history as Logan knows it – and even Logan himself – might never happen.

Download this episodewritten by Noah Ward (pseudonym for David Gerrold)
directed by Nicholas Colasanto
music by Laurence Rosenthal

Guest Cast: Paul Shenar (David Eakins), Mel Ferrer (Analog), Woodrow Chambliss (Lab Tech One), Gene Tyburn (Comp Logan's RunTech Four), Hank Brandt (Gold), Betty Bridges (Fontaine), Wallace Chadwell (White), Kenneth Martinez (Martinez), Jeff Reese (Handley), Jeff Cotler (Binary), Sherril Lynn Katzman (Katie)

Notes: This episode seems to peg the date of the holocaust that wiped out most human life as Christmas Day, 2112. Mark your calendars and get your shopping done early. Director Nicholas Colasanto later found greater prime-time fame as Coach, the original owner of Cheers.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

The Phantom Planet

Space AcademyOn Space Academy, Commander Gampu urges his cadets to monitor the asteroid Proteus IX-B. Instruments and scanners pointed in that direction have spotted a ghostly planet that appears and disappears at random. But Chris and the others have a more serious mission to the asteroid: to eliminate its hazard to the spacelanes, they’re ordered to demolish it with explosives. When the Seeker lands there, the shaking of the ground indicates that the asteroid may be too unstable to plant demolition charges safely. And then Laura and Adrian spot a ghost – one who wants them to follow it through a wall of solid rock.

written by Samuel A. Peeples
directed by Ezra Stone
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself)

Space AcademyNotes: Timed and themed for broadcast just before Halloween 1977, The Phantom Planet is a highly unusual episode of Space Academy, trading in shaky “science” for psychic phenomena (complete with a seance and the Gentry siblings taking a walk on the astral plane). The ghost of Proteus IX-B appears and disappears with a sound effect that would later become the familiar sound of another Saturday morning series: Pac-Man powering up with power pellets. The term “oraco” appears here, and from context it would seem to be analogous to “yes sir” or “I’m on it” (the actual script, included in the Space Academy DVD set, offers no definition). Also ill-defined is the nature of Chris and Laura’s astral walk: if they can do that, why bother to send the Seeker anywhere? And if their physical bodies aren’t at risk, why worry about what’s happened to their spirit forms on the asteroid?

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Incredible Hulk Season 1

The Incredible Hulk (pilot)

The Incredible HulkScientist David Bruce Banner is recovering from the traumatic loss of his wife in a car accident, while continuing his work into untapping the barely-used potential strength of the human body. As he interviews and runs tests on numerous ordinary individuals who have achieved amazing adrenaline-fueled feats in moments of crisis, Banner is disturbed by the fact that he was unable to save his own wife. When his research leads to what seems like a dead end, a desperate Banner intentionally irradiates himself with gamma radiation. The first noticeable effect is that it leaves Banner impatient and easily angered. But when his frustration peaks and he becomes furious, Banner mutates into an enormous, bemuscled green beast with superhuman strength. Despite this, his instincts to preserve life lead him to try to save a drowning girl, but when her father fires a rifle at Banner, he is powerless to do anything but attack the man. When Banner’s rage subsides, he reverts to normal, with only vague memories of what he did in his altered state.

Banner confides his experiences – as much as he can remember – to his lab associate, and they begin trying to replicate his transformation under controlled laboratory conditions. Reporter Jack McGee, who has been hounding Banner and his staff for a story on their research, is snooping around when Banner transforms into the Hulk yet again during a catastrophic lab accident. Banner, even in his transformed state, is unable to save the life of his lab associate, and goes into hiding; while McGee sees Banner’s mutated form, he believes Banner has also died in the inferno. McGee decides that he will pursue the enormous green creature, which he has dubbed “the incredible hulk” in the resulting front-page story, to chronicle its capture and execution for murder. Banner is forced to let the world think he is dead and goes on the run.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Kenneth Johnson
directed by Kenneth Johnson
music by Joe Harnell

The Incredible HulkCast: Bill Bixby (David Bruce Banner), Susan Sullivan (Elaina Marks), Jack Colvin (Jack McGee), Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk), Susan Batson (Mrs. Maier), Mario Ballo (Mr. Bram), Eric Server (Policeman), Charles Siebert (Ben), Terrance Lock (Young Man), June Whitley Taylor (Woman), George Brenlin (Man at Lake), Jake Mitchell (Jerry), William Larsen (Minister), Olivia Barash (Girl at Lake), Eric Deon (B.J.)

The Incredible HulkNotes: Using only the characters of Bruce Banner and the Hulk from Marvel’s Incredible Hulk comics, the TV incarnation of the character is the creation of Kenneth Johnson, who had created the Six Million Dollar Man spinoff The Bionic Woman, and would go on to create such genre classics as V and Alien Nation. Johnson was not a fan of the original comics, and as such didn’t fight CBS over such requested changes as altering Bruce Banner’s name to David Bruce Banner (on the grounds that network executives felt the name “Bruce” was “too gay-ish”). Johnson wanted a few other changes – such as Banner turning into a red Hulk rather than a green one – that were vetoed by Marvel. Unlike his unsatisfactory experiences with the TV adaptation of Spider-Man, however, Stan Lee was happy with the TV Hulk, feeling that the changes made were necessary to make the character work in a teleivision context. Arnold Schwarzenegger auditioned for the role of the Hulk, but was deemed too short for the role.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

Planet Of Fire

Space AcademyTee Gar shows off his new invention, the cryotron, which will reduce the temperature of hot, uninhabitable worlds to make them safe for colonization. A small-scale laboratory test yields encouraging results – encouraging enough for Tee Gar to take a break and go on vacation with Loki and Peepo in tow. But Tee Gar also takes the cryotron, intending to perform an unannounced test on a world where no life is known to exist. At the same time, Commander Gampu and the others discover that Tee Gar unwittingly used an unstable element in the cryotron: anything frozen with it will, given time, explode.

written by Susan Dworski and Peter Packer
directed by Arthur H. Nadel
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Space AcademyCast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself), Don Pedro Colley (Dramon)

Notes: Don Pedro Colley appeared in THX-1138, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and the 1993 direct-to-video feature (and future MST3K fodder) Quest Of The Delta Knights.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

Life Begins At 300

Space AcademyA mission to retrieve the precious mineral zolium goes dangerously wrong when the concentration of toxic zolium gas overwhelms Paul’s life support system, leaving him defenseless on the surface of a remote planetoid. Peepo retrieves Paul and returns him to the Seeker, but the effort almost destroys him as well. Back at Space Academy, an self-assured young cadet named Gina insists that she predicted this outcome, since her knowledge of zolium is more up-to-date than Commander Gampu’s. Convinced that he is at fault for putting Paul’s life in danger, Gampu decides to tender his resignation, shocking the students under his command.

written by Jack Paritz
directed by Arthur H. Nadel
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Space AcademyCooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself), Paula Wagner (Gina Corey)

Notes: Paula Wagner, this episode’s special guest star, only made two filmed appearances as an actress, and this is one of them. She’s better known now as a high-powered producer and one of the co-owners of United Artists, along with Tom Cruise. She’s produced numerous films that Cruise has starred in, including Mission: Impossible, War Of The Worlds, The Last Samurai, and Vanilla Sky.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Logan's Run

Fear Factor

Logan's RunLogan and his friends happen upon an intact 20th century mansion, home of a group of reclusive scientists who don’t seem to be willing to discuss what they’re studying. Jessica manages to get a little bit more information, though – and after she finds out what experiments are being conducted there, she says that it’s even worse than the City of Domes. Rem and Logan and trapped in an enclosed chamber and battered with fierce winds, and then fireballs are flung at them – but their ordeal is all part of an attempt to gauge how well Logan handles fear. It’s an emotion that the chief scientist wants to eliminate from his own followers – and instill in any potential enemies before they can do him harm. He sees Logan as the perfect fearless template for his new breed of human soldier.

Download this episodewritten by John Sherlock
directed by Gerald Mayer
music by Bruce Broughton

Guest Cast: Ed Nelson (Dr. Rowan), Jared Martin (Dr. Emory Paulson), William Wellman Jr. (Psychiatrist #1), Peter Brandon (Psychiatrist #2), Carl Byrd (Psychiatrist #3), Jay W. Macintosh (The Woman), Sean Fallon Walsh (Guard “A”), Tim Gillin (Guard #1), Thomas Brunelle (Guard #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

The Cheat

Space AcademyA rare professional argument arises between Chris Gentry and another command cadet, Matt Prentiss. Chris argues that Matt’s behavior on their previous assignment put lives at risk, while Matt claims Chris failed to follow his orders. The hearing presided over by Commander Gampu is cut short by an emergency: an unmanned remote power station on an asteroid has malfunctioned, which threatens all of nearby space with a deadly ion storm. Gampu sends the cadets on a high-risk mission to repair the station’s equipment, and puts Matt Prentiss in charge over Chris’ objections. But when Matt issues orders that puts the team’s lives in jeopardy, will Chris stand by and respect the chain of command, or try to take charge?

written by Robert Specht
directed by George Tyne
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself), John Berwick (Matt Prentiss)

Space AcademyNotes: The science in this episode is simply off-the-scale bad. The concept of a remote facility beaming power to a planetary body has actually been studied in some depth, but the notion that it could “cause an ion storm” is far-fetched to say the least. And then there’s that bit about crashing an asteroid into another asteroid, resulting in the creation of a new star – making The Cheat a likely contender for the most scientifically inaccurate episode in Space Academy’s brief run. This is also one of very few epiosdes to show Tee Gar performing a martial arts feat, a slightly stereotypical element which was written into the character in the series bible but seldom exploited by the show’s scriptwriters.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

My Favorite Marcia

Space AcademyThe Seeker sets out to observe a white dwarf star nearing its supernova stage, but the slightly risky mission becomes truly dangerouns when a distress signal is detected on a world perilously close to the soon-to-explode star. The Seeker goes to assist, finding an automated distress beacon from a ship Gampu knows all too well – his old rival (and old flame), prospector Marcia Giddings, has been looking for precious minerals here. Worse yet, Loki and Peepo defy orders to stay put on Space Academy, and have stowed away aboard the Seeker. They find Marcia before Gampu does, discovering that she’s been trapped in this precarious situation by a huge robot. Marcia proposes fighting robot with robot, using Peepo to free herself.

written by Ted Pedersen and Martha Humphreys
directed by Jeffrey Hayden
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Space AcademyCast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Dena Dietrich (Marcia Giddings), Peepo (himself)

Notes: The “galactic distress beacon” siren heard in Academy Control is the same sound effect Filmation used in the animated Star Trek series. The venerable Robbie The Robot prop/costume from Forbidden Planet makes an appearance (having appeared in an early episode of Filmation’s previous live-action SF series, Ark II, a year before), this time with a different head than is usually seen on the prop.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Incredible Hulk Season 1

The Return of The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible HulkHitchhiking his way across California, Banner sees a young woman on crutches collapse, and he carries her to her home. Her family informs Banner that she is ill, and offers him a job working on the grounds. But something is troubling: the family doctor is administering medication that, far from curing her illness, could actually be making her sick. Of course, without revealing his own identity or his background as a doctor, Banner can’t raise much of an alarm. It turns out the girl is the heiress of the family fortune, and it seems that nearly everyone, including her own mother, is patiently waiting for her to die. Banner tries to help her, but in a delusional haze, the girl attacks him, unwittingly unleashing the Hulk.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Kenneth Johnson
directed by Alan J. Levi
music by Joe Harnell

The Incredible HulkCast: Bill Bixby (David Bruce Banner), Jack Colvin (Jack McGee), Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk), Laurie Prange (Julie Griffith), Dorothy Tristan (Margaret Griffith), John McLiam (Michael), Mills Watson (Sheriff), William Daniels (Dr. Bonifant), Gerald McRaney (Denny Kayle), Victor Mohica (Rafe), Robert Phillips (Phil), Ann Weldon (1st Nurse), Linda Wiser (2nd Nurse), Roger Aaron Brown (Lab Technician), Janet Adams (3rd Nurse), Socorro Swan (Receptionist), Rita Gomez (Maid), Rick Garcia (The Cuban)

Notes: In syndicated reruns (in which it is divided into a two-parter) and on DVD, this movie is known by the title Death In The Family. The title as originally broadcast was The Return of The Incredible Hulk.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

Space Hookey

Space AcademyLoki, looking for any way to avoid what he considers to be boring classes, dares Peepo to rebel and play hookey. In response to the dare, Peepo imitates Commander Gampu’s voice and grants launch clearance for the Seeker, with the two truants aboard. They investigate a comet that seems to be following the Seeker, ignoring Gampu’s orders to return to Space Academy, where two non-corporeal entities get into Loki’s body and return with him. Just as Gampu prepares to dress down his youngest cadet, one of the entities occupies Gampu’s body, and the commander begins issuing irrational orders, namely changing Space Academy’s position and putting it in violation of a volatile territorial peace treaty…

Space Academyteleplay by Samuel A. Peeples
story by Howard Rayfiel and Samuel A. Peeples
directed by Jeffrey Hayden
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

Star Legend

Space AcademyA course correction to avoid a piece of fast-moving space junk takes the Seeker into a legendary area of space called the Triangle, where Chris and Paul lose contact with Space Academy. A threatening message is received, though the face on the screen is obviously a mask, and the Seeker is propelled back out of the Triangle. Commander Gampu says this sequence of events has played out before, but downplays the legend of the mysterious Captain Rampo, who supposedly saves ships that drift into the Triangle. Eager to debunk the myth, Gampu takes Space Academy itself into the Triangle. The find the vast starship which, as legend has it, is piloted by Captain Rampo, and they find the man himself inside, claiming to be over a thousand years old. But with such a powerful ship, what’s keeping Rampo in the Triangle?

written by Samuel A. Peeples
directed by Ezra Stone
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Space AcademyCast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Howard Morris (Captain Rampo), Peepo (himself)

Notes: Filmation digs into its own library of in-house music for this episode’s more-dramatic-than-usual soundtrack – music which will be familiar to anyone who watched Filmation’s animated version of Star Trek. Clever re-use of the Space Academy asteroid model (under green lighting) and its sets helped to keep this episode’s budget down. We learn here that a single Seeker could destroy a planetoid the size of Space Academy, provided the planetoid’s shields are down.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

Johnny Sunseed

Space AcademyAs the Space Academy cadets are growing accustomed to a new artificially grown vegetable in their meals, Commander Gampu tensely awaits an inspection from someone who he knows would love nothing more than to shut the Academy down: his brother, Johnny Sunseed. With a reputation as an anti-technology crusader, Sunseed is unimpressed with the Academy, and is annoyed that Gampu has assigned Peepo to serve as his tour guide. An outbreak of an unknown condition with intoxicating effects sweeps through the Academy, and Sunseed is quick to pounce on any sign that things aren’t running smoothly.

written by Don Heckman
directed by Ezra Stone
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Space AcademyCast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Dallas McKennon (Johnny Sunseed), Peepo (himself)

Notes: Although it seems as though Johnny Sunseed is being set up as a new regular at Space Academy, this is the show’s final episode; plans were already underway, in the wake of Star Wars‘ smash success earlier in the year, to use the Space Academy sets, props and models for a more action-adventure-oriented show.

LogBook entry by Earl Green