Tag: CBS

Categories
Ark II

The Rule

Ark IIEn route to investigate a small group of cave dwellers to see if their quality of life can be improved, Ark II is attacked by scavengers. The shields are activated and the attack is thwarted, but Jonah and Samuel worry about Ruth, who is doing her own scouting in the Roamer vehicle. The Roamer does indeed run into trouble in rocky terrain, and Ruth is knocked out cold. Adam runs for help, while Ruth is carried to safety by a young man from a community which is harshly ruled by his father. As leader of this community, Martin fiercely applies “the rule”: the infirm and disabled cannot contribute to society, and must be cast out before they drag the rest of the community down. When Martin’s own son is injured, the rule applies to him as well – until Ruth and her friends from Ark II help him prove his worth.

Ark IIwritten by Martin Roth
directed by Ted Post
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Philip Abbott (Martin), Davis Roberts (Mr. Jackson), Kenneth O’Brien (Rufus), David Abbott (Jeff), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Note: Philip Abbott and David Abbott, playing a father and son in this episode, were a real-life father and son who appeared in the same show on more than one occasion.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ark II

Robin Hood

Ark IIWhen Jonah hears of a war heating up between two communities – one of which is led by a man who has assumed the mantle of Robin Hood – he cuts short Adam’s driving lessons and positions Ark II between the battling factions and raises its shields, preventing them from fighting. But the vehicle can’t stay between the enemies for long. Jonah takes off to try to talk to “Robin Hood” to bring him to the table for peace talks, but while he’s gone the rest of his crew is captured. “Robin”‘s enemies have control of Ark II and intend to put its power to use as a weapon.

written by Chuck Menville & Len Janson
directed by Hollingsworth Morse
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Richard Angarola (Lord Leslie), Johnny Ark IIDoran (Alan), Victor Rogers (Robin Hood), Alfie Wise (Big John), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: This is one of the very few times in the series that any of the people visited by Ark II have motorized vehicles. The three-wheeled all-terrain vehicles used by Lord Leslie’s entourage, though very common now, weren’t a common sight in 1976. Also not common sights then, now or in the future: the Robin Hood costume and Lord Leslie’s very glittery, wizardly robes, both of which remained unnaturally clean in the desert-like dust of the post-apocalyptic future!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ark II

The Drought

Ark IIArk II investigates an area that hasn’t seen a drop of rain in over a month. A Morse code message flashed in a mirror warns Jonah and his crew to stay away; instead, Jonah and Ruth scouut ahead in the smaller, more agile Roamer. Samuel and Adam find Fagon and his gang of Flies nearby, and shares Ark II’s water supply with them before being lured outside by a cry for help. Once none of the Ark crew is aboard, Fagon hijacks the vehicle. Jonah straps on the jet pack to follow it. A nearby tribe is discovered to have a cloud-seeding device that could end the drought almost instantly, but instead they worship it – and plan to sacrifice Ruth and Samuel to it.

Ark IIwritten by Martin Roth
directed by Ted Post
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Jonathan Harris (Fagon), Tierre Turner (Tick), Richard Balin (Witch Doctor), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: Fagon and the “Flies” were last seen in the first eisode of the series. Jonah’s comment about the jet pack’s low fuel is an in-joke about the prop’s inability to keep its wearer airborne for more than 30 seconds.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ark II

The Lottery

Ark IIArk II explores a desert area bordering something that the local call “the forbidden zone,” where Jonah and Ruth watch as two men are prodded into the zone and vanish without a trace. When a third person is forced toward the zone, Jonah dons the jet pack and stops him from entering, demanding to know what’s going on. He learns that the leader of the young man’s village, Kane, has decreed a brutal form of population control: a lottery is held to determine which member of the community will be banished to the forbidden zone to ensure that there are enough resources left for rest of the village. The seemingly random bursts from a volcanic steam vent choose those who will be banished… except that Adam finds evidence that Kane has control over those burtsts, ensuring that those who oppose his laws are always the ones to be exiled. Ruth slips into the next party of exiles sent into the forbidden zone, and she finds herself in a strange dark voidi with the others who have been sent there against their will. But how can Ruth and the others be retrieved?

Ark IIwrittten by Phyllis & Robert White
directed by Ted Post
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Zitto Kazann (Kane), David Goldmund (Steven), Eric Boles (Borg), Jim Boles (Benjamin), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: Samuel’s laser gear uses advanced 25th century Nixie tubes to display numbers. Two weeks after he made it dangerously obvious that he couldn’t drive the Ark, Adam has mastered the controls of the Roamer.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ark II

The Mind Group

Ark IIActing on information that three children with unusual telepathic powers have gone missing from a nearby village, Ark II ventures into dangerous territory. Jonah brings the vehicle to a stop when all of the members of his crew hear one of the children talk in their minds. (Just to be sure, Adam looks under the table, but doesn’t find anyone there.) The children have been capture by Warlord Brack, someone who Jonah knows all too well from a previous encounter. One of the children escapes and Jonah takes him back to the Ark, where Ruth learns that the children have powers of telekinesis as well as telepathy. Brack lies to his remaining captives, convincing them that the Ark II crew are even worse than he is. After Samuel, Adam and Jonah take the Roamer to look for the other children, Ruth finds herself in trouble, and trusting in the children’s telekinetic abilities is her only hope.

The Flieswritten by Robert Specht
directed by Hollingsworth Morse
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Malachi Throne (War Lord Brack), Johnny Avery (Aaron), Dawn Lyn (Bina), Billy Simpson (Caleb), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: A valuable lesson from this episode – telepaths can always talk with their mouths full. For once, a science fiction series manages to not treat a force field as a miraculously selective porous surface: the whole complication of the plot is that there’s limited air in the space inside the force field. Brack was last encountered in the series pilot, The Flies, alongside the only other recurring characters in the series, Fagon and Tick (who reappeared in The Drought).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ark II

The Balloon

Ark IIAdam spots a balloon trapped in a tree, with a message attached, printed in Greek. Samuel begins working on a translation while Jonah and Ruth scout ahead in the Roamer, only to have the way back to Ark II blocked by an avalanche. Samuel finishes translating the message and warns his friends that they’re walking into an isolationist village whose population is falling to an infectious disease. The messages, sent by the father of the village’s leader, ask for help from the outside world, something forbidden by the leader’s laws. Even when Jonah promises that the Ark’s advanced medicines could save lives, his help is refused – and then he finds that even he isn’t immune.

teleplay by Peter L. Dixon & Robert Specht
story by Peter L. Dixon
directed by Hollingsworth Morse
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Ark IICast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Guy Stockwell (The Leader), John Beal (Grandfather), Christian Juttner (Ben), Del Monroe (Masked Man), Mel Novak (First Guard), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: Guy Stockwell (1934-2002) appeared in dozens of TV series and movies, among them Land Of The Giants, Voyagers!, Knight Rider and The Wild, Wild West. He appeared in an episode of Quantum Leap with his younger brother, Dean Stockwell.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ark II

Don Quixote

Ark IIArk II moves into an area where unexploded bombs from an ancient war have been detected. Jonah safely detonates one of them with a remote electromagnetic device, leaving a huge crater in the landscape but harming no one. But there’s a witness to this explosion: a man in homemade armor, on horseback, raises his jousting lance and charges toward the Ark. All he collides with is the vehicle’s force field, but that only slows him down: he thinks he’s Don Quixote, and his sidekick, reluctantly playing the part of Sancho Panza, apologizes profusely to Jonah. The Ark continues in its search for another unexploded bomb, finding it at the heart of a nearby village. The slightest jolt could set it off – such as a jolt from a self-styled knight errant who’s convinced that Jonah is the Black Knight.

Ark IIwritten by Robert Specht & Len Janson
directed by Ted Post
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Robert Ridgely (Don Quixote), Vito Scotti (Sancho Panza), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ark II

Orkus

Ark IIRuth and Adam look for signs of toxic waste, but are warned away from a bubbling pond by a group of old men – who claim that they were young men only a day ago before they inhaled a toxic gas. Ruth and Adam begin to show signs of rapid aging as well. As Jonah and Samuel try to find an antidote to reverse this unnatural aging, something probes Ark II with a form of energy that simply passes through the Ark’s outer skin, and then addresses Jonah. Introducing itself as Orkus, the disembodied voice offers an antidote to help Ruth and Adam, but insists that Jonah bring Ark II to a specific location. Not trusting Orkus, Jonah goes to the specified coordinates via jet pack instead, finding a shielded amphitheater where Orkus holds court. None of Orkus’ people age or die, and suffer no hardships, thanks to a series of machines called the Providers. But the Providers themselves need something: the energy stores that keep the Ark moving. Jonah must decide between the lives of his friends, or the end of Ark II’s mission.

written by Robert Specht & Chuck Menville
directed by Henry J. Lange, Jr.
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Geoffrey Lewis (Orkus), William Benedict (Malcolm), Monie Ellis (Alicia), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: Bearing more than a slight resemblance to a number of classic Star Trek episodes, Orkus wraps up the series. This Ark IIepisode reveals that Ark II has a self-destruct mechanism (an odd feature for “the last mobile storehouse of scientific knowledge”), and presumably it’d pack quite a wallop if allowed to explode. Depending on one’s interpretation, there’s a possibility that Orkus and his people played some role in the downfall of human civilization, which they claim to have witnessed in the early 21st century. Be on the lookout for a bunch of people in vaguely Greek-like robes, hanging around a simple gazebo fashioned out of ordinary garden lattice and glass globes, for they will be the death of us all.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Space Academy

The Survivors Of Zalon

Space AcademyThe young trainees on the man-made planetoid Space Academy go about their observations of the doomed planet Zalon, which may soon explode. Science cadet Adrian spots signs of life on Zalon, which previous surveys of that planet say is impossible. Commander Gampu deems this worthy of further investigation, and orders the Academy cadets to visit Zalon, with Adrian leading the expedition. Unusual crystals are found on the surface, watched over by a young alien child. In keeping with Space Academy procedure, Commander Gampu lifts off and stays in orbit while his students solve their own mysteries on the surface, but an alien entity is following the Seeker at close range, questioning Gampu’s motives and insisting it will protect the child and its own offspring on the planet below with any force it deems necessary.

Space Academywritten by Lynn Barker
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)

Notes: If the nose cone of the Seeker, Space Academy’s shuttle, looks vaguely familiar, you might be a Filmation fan: the expensive-to-build set piece (and other parts of the Seeker) was salvaged from the set of Ark II, the short-lived post-apocalyptic live-action series produced by the makers of Space Academy in 1976. The first episode of that series also featured a guest starring turn from Lost In Space alumnus Jonathan Harris.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Amazing Spider-Man Season 1

Spider-Man

Amazing Spider-Man (1970s series)College student Peter Parker, working his way through college as a photographer for New York City’s Daily Bugle newspaper, is bitten by a spider that has come into contact with radioactive material in his school’s nuclear lab. Gradually, this event imbues Peter with amazing abilities, such as shooting remarkably strong webs from his wrists, climbing completely vertical surfaces, and a sixth sense that alerts him to danger. As Peter begins exploring these new talents, the city is gripped with fear as banks are robbed by people who were previously lawyers, judges, doctors…in other words, the people who would least need to rob banks. Mind control is suspected, and then a ransom note is sent to the mayor of New York City: if a ransom isn’t paid by a deadline mere days away, the next round of mind control victims will be ordered to kill themselves. Peter discovers that his abilities – and his newly-fashioned “Spider-Man” costume – are best put to use to help others, and combined with his natural journalistic curiosity, he begins investigating the series of strange robberies, discovering a self-help guru named Byron is conditioning his new recruits to obey his every command. In the guise of Spider-Man, Peter finds it difficult to find out more, especially when he discovers that Byron has ninjas on his payroll, something rather unusual for a self-help expert. Peter realizes that his investigation depends on signing up for Byron’s next seminar as himself, not as a superhero – but doing so puts the powers of Spider-Man at the disposal of a madman.

written by Alvin Boretz
directed by E.W. Swackhamer
music by Johnnie Spence

Amazing Spider-ManCast: Nicholas Hammond (Peter Parker / Spider-Man), David White (J. Jonah Jameson), Michael Pataki (Captain Barbera), Hilly Hicks (Robbie Robertson), Lisa Eilbacher (Judy Tyler), Dick Balduzzi (Delivery Man), Jeff Donnell (Aunt May), Robert Hastings (Monahan), Barry Cutler (Purse Snatcher), Thayer David (Mr. Byron), Ivor Francis (Professor Tyler), Norman Rice (Henchman), Len Lesser (Henchman), Carmelita Pope (Group Member), George Cooper (Group Member), Larry Anderson (Dave), Ivan Bonar (News Anchor), Kathryn Reynolds (Group Member), Harry Caesar (Cab Driver), Robert Snively (Judge), James E. Brodhead (Policeman), Roy West (Group Member), Mary Ann Kasica (Group Member), Jim Storm (Group Member), Ron Gilbert (Policeman)

Amazing Spider-ManNotes: Stan Lee is credited as a script consultant, with no onscreen credit acknowledging his participation the creation of the character of Spider-Man. Rather than the comics’ (and later movies’) depiction of Peter Parker as an awkward teenager living a secret life, Peter is here seen as a reasonably un-awkward college student, played by Nicholas Hammond (who appeared as a child actor as Friedrich von Trapp in The Sound Of Music). Actress Jean Marie Donnell, who worked under the stage name “Jeff” due to her childhood fixation on Mutt & Jeff comics, appears to be perhaps 10-15 years’ Peter’s senior as Aunt May; Uncle Ben is nowhere in evidence. Also nowhere to be found is a certain almost obligatory quote about great power and great responsibility. This would turn out to be David White’s sole appearance as “J.J. Jameson”. Some recasting and a nervous network green-light later (with CBS balking at the potential expense of a full season of Spider-Man), a surprisingly short season (for the late 1970s on a major network) was given a go-ahead, to debut the following spring.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 2 Wonder Woman

The Return Of Wonder Woman

Wonder WomanAmerican intelligence agent Steve Trevor convenes an airborne meeting of top nuclear experts to discuss the threat of a reclusive madman gaining access to atomic technology. As it turns out, that madman is already aware of the meeting, and has placed one of his own men aboard to take over. An anesthetic gas is released aboard the plane, knocking nearly everyone out instantly; Trevor manages to pull the saboteur’s gas mask off, meaning that no one is left awake aboard the plane, which goes down near the Bermuda Triangle…on Paradise Island.

Having returned to Paradise Island after World War II, Diana hasn’t aged a day, despite the fact that more than thirty years have passed since the war. Diana is stunned to see Trevor – who bears a strong resemblance to his father, the late Major Steve Trevor – and the truth of what happened aboard the plane is quickly discovered. With the freedom and safety of the world once again at stake, Diana elects to leave her fellow Amazons and return to America, again assuming the identity of Diana Prince and setting herself up as Steve Trevor’s assistant. And almost as soon as Diana is back in the United States, she has to become her alter ego, Wonder Woman, to defeat agents of the mad genius who tried to wreck Trevor’s original mission. With spies everywhere, Dr. Solano is now aware of Wonder Woman, and decides to turn his nuclear and robotic expertise toward setting a trap with an adversary that can defeat her once and for all.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Stephen Kandel
directed by Alan Crosland
music by Artie Kane

Wonder WomanCast: Lynda Carter (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Lyle Waggoner (Steve Trevor), Normann Burton (Joe Atkinson), Fritz Weaver (Dr. Solano), Bettye Ackerman (Asclepia), Jessica Walter (Gloria), Beatrice Straight (The Queen), David Knapp (Major Gaines), Carlos Romero (Colonel Acevo), Dorrie Thomson (Evadne), Argentina Brunetti (Manageress), Edward Cross (Pilot), Johana DeWinter (Dr. Ross), George Ives (Samuels), Frank Killmond (Logan), Russ Marin (Kleist), William Tregoe (Kalten), Raye Sheffield (Dr. Andrea)

Notes: Effectively a re-piloting of Wonder Woman for its new network home on CBS, this episode does acknowledge the first season with a couple of Wonder Womanvery brief clips of the WWII-era Steve Trevor, but other than that could be watched cold by a new viewer. The title of the series is amended to “The New Adventures of Wonder Woman”, with the lyrics of the theme song changed to remove references specific to the first season, though the vocal version of that song was now on borrowed time and would be dropped by the end of 1977, along with the “comics panels” opening credits.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Logan's Run

Logan’s Run (Pilot)

Logan's RunIn the year 2319, two centuries after nuclear war rendered the Earth’s surface uninhabitable for a time, humanity lives in the City of Domes, with every need – and every desire – supplied by the City’s computers. But at the age of 30, every resident of the City is required to take part in Carousel, a ritual sacrifice that keeps the City’s population growth at zero. Everyone is taught that Carousel brings renewal, life in a new body, but not all believe it; an underground railroad of “runners” steadily helps those who want to live past 30 escape. And the City dispatches Sandmen to deal with those runners – fatally. But not even all Sandmen believe the lie of Carousel; during a pursuit, Sandman Logan corners a runner and a woman named Jessica, both of whom confirm what he has already suspected: there is life past 30, and freedom beyond the City of Domes. Logan’s fellow Sandman, Francis, arrives and shoots the runner, but Logan knocks Francis unconscious before he can kill Jessica. Now as much of a fugitive as any runner, Logan follows Jessica outside the City to look for Sanctuary.

Before Francis can pursue Logan and Jessica outside the City, he is summoned to White Quadrant 1, a high security area of the City that few ever see. There, he meets a group of men who are clearly past the age of 30; they introduce themselves as the Elders who keep the City running, and make the rules about how society works, including Carousel. They make a bargain with him: if Francis brings the refugees back for “reprogramming,” he will be guaranteed a seat on the Elders’ council – and life beyond 30. He agrees and sets out on his mission.

Logan and Jessica take shelter in an abandoned military planning post, where they also find a solar-powered hovercraft. The vehicle helps them find a fallout shelter Logan spots on a map, but before they can explore the shelter, they’re pursued by raiders on horseback. They manage to enter the shelter and lock the door, finding a society of pacifists that has lived there for years. When one of the shelter-dwellers’ children hears Jessica’s tales of the outside, she investigates for herself and is captured by the raiders. Jessica, feeling guilty for inspiring the little girl’s misadventure, goes outside to find her and is herself captured. Despite the pacifists’ insistence that blood must not be spilled, Logan mounts a rescue operation anyway, destroying many of the raiders’ weapons himself before the shelter-dwellers emerge from underground to help him. After freeing all of the raiders’ captives, Logan and Jessica move on; shortly after they leave, Francis finds the raiders’ camp and gets the pacifists to tell him where his prey was headed.

Logan and Jessica arrive at a the foot of a mountain with a magnificent city built into its side, but strange energy emitters bring their hovercraft to a halt. Immaculately clad people welcome them to the city and offer to serve them, fulfilling any desire – but the first time Jessica mentions leaving the city to continue the search for Sanctuary, she and Logan discover that they are not guests, but prisoners. Their captors turn out to be robots whose “masters” are the skeletal remains of people who died in the nuclear war. Logan and Jessica befriend Rem, the only other “guest” in the city, who toils away at keeping the robots working. He offers to help them leave the city if Logan and Jessica will take him with them, but during their escape, Francis and two other Sandmen catch up with them. Rem is shot in the leg and goes down, but before Francis can capture Logan, the city’s robots emerge and claim the Sandmen as their new guests.

Rem manages to repair his own injuries – it turns out he is an android, a much more advanced machine than the city’s robots – and professes a genuine curiosity about the human concepts of love, self-sacrifice and freedom that his new friends have taught him. The three fugitives board the hovercraft and continue the search for Sanctuary.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Gregory Harrison (Logan), Heather Menzies (Jessica), Donald Moffat (Rem), Randy Powell (Francis)

Download this episodewritten by William F. Nolan & Saul David and Leonard Katzman
directed by Robert Day
scenes from the movie Logan’s Run directed by Michael Anderson
music by Laurence Rosenthal
music from the movie Logan’s Run by Jerry Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Lina Raymond (Siri), Keene Curtis (Draco), Wright King (Jonathon), E.J. Andre (Martin), Morgan Woodward (Morgan), Ron Hajek (Riles), J. Gary Dontzig (Akers), Anthony De Longis (Ketcham), Cal Haynes (Rider #3), Mary Hamill (Marianne), Ted Markland (Karlin), Sandy McPeak (Rider #4), Kimberly la Page (Leanna), Patrick Gorman (David), Gilbert Girion (Man), Marvin Dean Stewart (Paine), Michael Biehn (Sandman), Mary Ball (Woman), Gary Charles Davis (Barry)

Logan's RunNotes: Considered by Starlog magazine to be the most promising SF TV series of 1977, Logan’s Run borrows some visual elements from the movie – namely costumes and props, to say nothing several minutes of the movie’s “Carousel” scenes (complete with excerpts of Jerry Goldsmith‘s music, a rarity for the series). The segment of the story dealing with the fallout shelter and the raiders was a late addition to the script; the pilot was originally scheduled to be an hour long, but new scenes were written to fill it out for a 90-minute time slot. The plotline of the City Elders was a relatively late addition as well; planning documents for the series seemed to indicate that this storyline wouldn’t occur until later in the series. (Then again, those same documents hinted at Logan and Jessica returning to the City to free other runners, a story which the series didn’t stay on the air long enough to tell.) The series concepts were actually gestated during very early pre-production for a sequel to the Logan’s Run movie, but MGM turned the movie project into a TV series a few months before the release of Star Wars; several big names in SF were recruited, including story editor D.C. Fontana, and writers such as Harlan Ellison, John Meredyth Lucas and David Gerrold.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Space Academy

Castaways In Time And Space

Space AcademyAs the Space Academy cadets get to know their newest team member, Paul Jerome, Commander Gampu and Laura are investigating a black hole. Chris and Laura try linking their minds, but the link is broken when Gampu’s ship is sucked into the black hole. The last message Laura is able to send to her brother is that Gampu is injured, and the ship is severely damaged. Space Academy launches a calm and orderly search for the missing ship, but Chris is in no mood to take it slow. He takes the Seeker into the black hole to search for Gampu and his sister, even if it means defying orders from Space Academy. But there are three problems: Gampu and Laura have crash-landed on a world guarded by a huge monster, Jerome is a loner who seems reluctant to be part of a team… and nobody’s ever escaped from a black hole before.

Space Academywritten by 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)

Notes: Strangely enough, although the team seems to know who Paul is in the previous episode, this episode is treated as an introduction. (On the other hand, Paul’s only contact with any of his fellow cadets in the first episode is via radio communications.) Paul defines a black hole as “a blank spot on the celestial charts that reflects no gravitic or magnetic stress lines” – a definition he gives when Adrian says she doesn’t know what a black hole is (some space cadet!) – although certainly a real black hole would have some effect on “gravitic stress lines” due to its immense gravity. Despite the technobabble and just plain bad science, the script is written by Samuel A. Peeples, whose Space Academyprevious genre credits include the second Star Trek pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, as well as the first episode of Filmation’s animated Star Trek series. The Tic-Tac-Toe game being played by Peepo and Loki was a real live state-of-the-art video game… at least by 1977 standards when this episode was filmed. The game shown was the Tic-Tac-Toe game for the Fairchild Channel F console, a device which first hit the market in 1976 with a price tag of $200; it was also the very first video game to feature a cartridge slot rather than limiting users to a handful of built-in games.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 2 Wonder Woman

Anschluss ’77

Wonder WomanWord reaches the Inter-Agency Defense Command that a surviving Nazi war criminal named Gerlich is hiding out in South America, planning a comeback for the Third Reich and an event he calls “Anschluss ’77”. Steve and Diana are dispatched to South America to follow up on these leads, but despite cooperation from the local authorities, it’s clear that their arrival is far from a secret. Diana is kidnapped shortly after discovering that Gerlich is conducting cloning experiments, but manages to transform into Wonder Woman and hitch a ride to Gerlich’s base of operations by hanging on to his personal helicopter. What they find is that not only is Gerlich assembling a new Nazi army to take over the world, but that he has created a clone of Hitler himself to lead them…

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Dallas L. Barnes
directed by Alan Crosland
music by Artie Kane

Wonder WomanCast: Lynda Carter (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Lyle Waggoner (Steve Trevor), Normann Burton (Joe Atkinson), Mel Ferrer (Gerlich), Leon Charles (Von Klemper), Barry Dennen (Hitler), Kurt Kreuger (Koenig), Julio Medina (Gaitan), Tom Ormeny (Rogel), Peter Nyberg (Strasser)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Logan's Run

The Collectors

Logan's RunWhen the hovercraft breaks down in the desert, Logan and Jessica go exploring on foot while Rem tries to conduct repairs. But what the two runners find isn’t desolation – it’s an oasis in the unlikeliest of places, and a populated one too. When they cautiously introduce themselves, Logan and Jessica find that they’re among friends: fellow runners tell them they’ve found Sanctuary. But after repairing the hovercraft, Rem goes looking in exactly the same place, and he doesn’t see Sanctuary at all, but more desert. Even though they’re separated from each other, Logan, Jessica and Rem quickly discovered that they aren’t guests in a safe haven, but captives in an interplanetary zoo whose “specimens” have been abducted by an alien crew. They also seem to have developed telekinetic powers, which could be their means of escape…or their undoing.

Download this episodewritten by James Schmerer
directed by Alexander Singer
music by Laurence Rosenthal

Guest Cast: Linden Chiles (John), Leslie Parrish (Joanna), Angela Cartwright (Karen), Lawrence Casey (Martin), Perry Bullington (Sandman #1), Ben Van Vacier (Sandman #2), Stan Stratton (Sandman #3)

LogBook entry by Earl Green