Tag: Main cast member leaves

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Season 1 Space: 1999

The Last Enemy

Space: 1999The moon approaches a star with two life-supporting planets in identical and opposing orbits, neither world ever seeing the other directly. Unexpectedly, a battleship from one of those planets approaches the moon, and Koenig puts Moonbase Alpha on red alert, assuming that the massive vessel’s intent is hostile. But it seems the aliens already have the upper hand – none of the battle-ready Eagles can lift off from the moon. The main computer also shows signs of being influenced from an outside force, and then Alpha’s defense screens and communications fail. Moonbase Alpha is powerless to prevent the battleship from landing and launching missiles – but the base isn’t the target. The aliens are using the moon to launch a vicious attack on the other planet, a target their missiles would normally never reach thanks to the star’s gravity. A counterstrike targets the moon – and before a signal can be sent to either of the warring planets, Moonbase Alpha is a target for both sides in a bitter, centuries-old war to the death.

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Kellett
directed by Bob Kellett
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Caroline Mortimer (Dione), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Maxine Audley (Theia), Kevin Stoney (Talos), Carolyn Courage (First girl)

Notes: It wasn’t originally intended to be last, but this episode wound up closing the first season on its first UK broadcast. It was the 18th episode produced.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 14 Doctor Who

The Hand of Fear

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS arrives in a desolate, rocky landscape – which the Doctor and Sarah realize, only too late, is actually a rock quarry. Sirens go off to signal imminent blasting, and the time travelers fail to get far enough away from the blast. The Doctor and Sarah survive, but Sarah finds something unusual and perhaps even alien: something which appears to be a petrified severed hand. Though she was only slightly injured by the blast at the quarry, Sarah soon begins to exhibit strange and dangerous behavior, even walking into the core of a nuclear reactor. As it turns out, she has been possessed by an entity known as Eldrad, whose quest for revenge upon her native world of Kastria is boundless – and who won’t hesitate to sacrifice the lives of everyone around her to achieve that aim.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
directed by Lennie Mayne
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Roy Pattison (Zazzka), Roy Skelton (Rokon), David Purcell (Abbott), Renu Setna (Intern), Rex Robinson (Dr. Carter), Robin Hargreave (Guard), Glyn Houston (Professor Watson), Frances Pidgeon (Miss Jackson), Roy Boyd (Driscoll), John Cannon (Elgin), Judith Paris (Eldrad), Stephen Thorne (Eldrad), Libby Ritchie (Hospital Nurse)

Broadcast from October 2 through 23, 1976

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 15 Doctor Who

The Invasion Of Time

Doctor WhoThe Doctor returns, unbidden, to Gallifrey, claiming the Presidency of the High Council. Leela knows something is wrong, as she has witnessed his meetings with a shadowy group of aliens prior to returning to his homeworld. The Time Lords are aghast at the Doctor’s breach of their power structure, to say nothing of him bringing an alien among them. But when the aliens Leela saw earlier materialize in Gallifrey’s Capitol, all hell breaks loose – the Doctor orders many Time Lords, including his old mentor Borusa, expelled to the harsh surface of Gallifrey beyond the city domes. Leela is also thrown out, though she finds herself quite at home with the primitive nomadic tribes of homeless non-Time Lords known as the Shobogans. Leela rallies both Shobogans and exiled Time Lords to mount a resistance against the Doctor and his shady Vardan allies, but when the invasion is put down, everyone discovers that it was a ruse to allow a far more powerful enemy to slip into the heart of Gallifrey.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Anthony Read and Graham Williams
directed by Gerald Blake
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Milton Johns (Kelner), John Arnatt (Borusa), Stan McGowan (Vardan Leader), Chris Tranchell (Andred), Dennis Edwards (Gomer), Tom Kelly (Vardan), Reginald Jessup (Savar), Charles Morgan (Gold Usher), Hilary Ryan (Rodan), Max Faulkner (Nesbin), Christopher Christou (Chancellery Guard), Michael Harley (Bodyguard), Ray Callaghan (Ablif), Gai Smith (Presta), Michael Mundell (Jasko), Eric Danot (Guard), Derek Deadman (Stor), Stuart Fell (Sontaran)

Broadcast from February 4 through March 11, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 16 Doctor Who

The Armageddon Factor

Doctor WhoIn one of the better stories of the late 1970s, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 stumble into the middle of a fierce interplanetary nuclear war. The Atrios war effort is faltering, its population demoralized, because unknown to them, the Zeon war machine lives up to its name in the most literal way. Zeos is controlled by a computer, and there are no Zeons, just remote controlled attack ships. Somewhere in the darkness between the two planets lurks a third party, pulling the strings of both sides in the war. The hand of the Black Guardian becomes visible in moving the pieces in this game, and the Doctor is horrified to discover that he will have to take a life to complete the Key to Time.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
directed by Michael Hayes
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Lalla Ward (Princess Astra), John Woodvine (Marshal), William Squire (The Shadow), Ian Saynor (Merak), Davyd Harries (Shapp), Valentine Dyall (Black Guardian), Barry Jackson (Drax), Ian Liston (Hero), Susan Skipper (Heroine), John Cannon, Harry Fielder (Guards), Iain Armstrong (Technician), Pat Gorman (Pilot), Stephen Calcutt (Super Mute)

Broadcast from January 20 through February 24, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 2

Pressure Point

Blake's 7Blake decides to mount a raid on Central Control, the heart of the Federation on Earth. He has contacted Kasabi, the rebel leader on Earth, and made arrangements for liasons with her troops, but before the Liberator arrives, Kasabi and her troops are captured and Travis forces her daughter to comply with his plan, which involves leading Blake and Gan into a trap and stealing their teleport bracelets. Avon and Vila soon arrive, and the crew is off again, working its way through a minefield of traps and finally reaching Central Control: an empty room where Travis and his guards wait. Jenna rescues them by holding Servalan hostage with the help of Kasabi’s daughter, and the crew flees. Travis lobs a percussion grenade at them while they are all still underground, and the explosion triggers a collapse of the roof which kills Gan.

written by Terry Nation
directed by George Spenton-Foster
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Peter Tuddenham (Zen, Orac), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Brian Croucher (Travis), Jane Sherwin (Kasabi), Yolande Palfrey (Veron), Alan Halley (Arle), Martin Connor (Berg), Sue Bishop (Mutoid)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 2

Star One

Blake's 7The Liberator leaves the Milky Way galaxy in search of Star One. The coordinates lead them to a cold planet orbiting a white dwarf star on the edge of the galaxy, and getting there, the crew realize that they are on the route that anyone desiring to reach the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, would take. Star One turns out to have an underground base manned by conditioned engineers from the Federation who maintain an antimatter satellite minefield designed to keep someone or something out of the Milky Way. Blake and Cally are captured on the surface, but Blake discovers that Travis is expected to arrive and assumes that identity. Cally, in the meantime, plants bombs. Avon watches on the planet as Travis arrives, but Travis escapes when Avon is distracted by a woman who claims that everyone else on Star One is out to kill her. Avon finds that this is indeed true, because everyone but Lurena is in fact an alien in the shape of the engineers they killed. Star One’s defense barrier is designed to keep out a possible invasion from the Andromeda Galaxy – and that invasion force arrives on the Liberator’s detectors. Jenna uses Orac to warn Servalan of the impending danger while Travis seriously wounds Blake. Avon kills Travis and the rest of the aliens on Star One, but the damage has been done and the zone will be deactivated on schedule, allowing the Andromedans to invade. The nearest Federation vessels are hours away from Star One, and the Liberator, with Avon in command, remains to fight off the invasion…

written by Chris Boucher
directed by David Maloney
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), Peter Tuddenham (Zen, Orac), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Brian Croucher (Travis), Jenny Twigge (Lurena), David Webb (Stot), Gareth Armstrong (Parton), John Bown (Durkim), Paul Toothill (Marcol), Michael Maynard (Leeth)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (Classic Series) Season 1

The Hand of God

Battlestar Galactica (original)A momentous opportunity arises for Galactica to slip through the perimeters of the Cylons’ defenses undetected, and Adama decides to risk it all to destroy the single Base Ship that stands in the way. Apollo and Starbuck board the Cylon vessel, using Baltar’s captured fighter, and sabotage the Cylons. But during their escape, Apollo and Starbuck lose a device which transmits the proper recognition signals from their Cylon ship. In the desperate firefight which follows, Adama’s forces gain the upper hand – but will anyone remember which captured Cylon fighter is being flown by Apollo and Starbuck?

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Donald P. Bellisario
directed by Donald P. Bellisario
music by Stu Phillips

Guest Cast: David Greenan (Omega)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

Warriors’ Gate

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS is boarded in mid-flight – a virtually unthinkable event – by Biroc, a lion-like Tharil who seems to be on the run from something. He brings the TARDIS to the zero point – an intersection between E-space and N-space that could finally get the Doctor back to his home universe. This is also of interest to Rorvik, the captain of a space freighter carrying a load of Tharil slaves. Rorvik’s ship has been stranded here for some time, and his plans for escaping are growing more desperate and impractical. A mysterious and seemingly ancient gateway appears as space at the zero point begins to fall in upon itself. Romana is determined to free the Tharils from slavery, even if it means missing the chance to escape from E-space… but the Doctor learns the oppressed were once the oppressors, and there may be no justice for either party this time.

Download this episodewritten by Stephen Gallagher
directed by Paul Joyce
music by Peter Howell

Guest Cast: Clifford Rose (Rorvik), Kenneth Cope (Packard), David Weston (Biroc), Jeremy Gittins (Lazlo), Freddie Earle (Aldo), Harry Waters (Royce), David Kincaid (Lane), Vincent Pickering (Sagan), Robert Vowles (Gundan)

Broadcast from January 3 through 24, 1981

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

Logopolis

Doctor WhoAfter he takes complete measurements of a British Police Box, the inspiration for the exterior appearance of the TARDIS, the Doctor plans to visit Logopolis to seek the help of the mathematical geniuses there, whose near-mystic incantations of intricate mathematical formulas actually keep the universe from dying a premature death. Thanks to the interference of the Master, the Doctor becomes trapped, and an Australian stewardess named Tegan wanders into the TARDIS, assuming it to be a real Police Box. The Doctor also receives a distress call from Nyssa, whose father has gone missing on Traken. A mysterious ghostly figure appears and disappears, but the Doctor remains silent as to its identity, and the Master finally emerges from the shadows on Logopolis, poised to destroy the universe by eliminating its guardians. All the while, the TARDIS cloister bell counts down last remaining hours of the Doctor’s fourth life.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Christopher H. Bidmead
directed by Peter Grimwade
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (The Master), John Fraser (Monitor), Dolores Whiteman (Aunt Vanessa), Tom Georgeson (Detective Inspector), Christopher Hurst (Security Guard), Ray Knight, Peter Roy, Derek Suthern (Policemen), Robin Squire (Pharos technician)

Broadcast from February 28 through March 21, 1981

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Rescue

Blake's 7The survivors of the Liberator on Terminal begin to make horrible discoveries. First, Avon and Dayna discover that the escape craft Servalan left them was booby trapped as a native animal enters it and it explodes. That simultaneously detonates explosions in the control center underground on Terminal. Vila escapes after heroically rescuing Tarrant, but Cally is killed. The space vessel Scorpio arrives, with the enigmatic Dorian in charge. He takes the crew and Orac away from Terminal just as the planet begins to undergo a massive volcanic outbreak, but Avon takes him prisoner and hijacks the ship. Scorpio, however, is automatically set to take Dorian to his home base, where his gunhand and consort Soolin is waiting. It soon transpires that Dorian has been working on a teleportal and has also devised a near-perfect all-weather handgun. He also repairs Orac and reveals that he is over 200 years old. Dorian plans to sacrifice Avon and the others to a creature that renews Dorian when it is given fresh lives to feed on.

written by Chris Boucher
directed by Mary Ridge
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Geoffrey Burridge (Dorian), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Rob Middleton (The Creature), Jan Chappell (voice of Cally)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 19 Doctor Who

Earthshock

Doctor WhoA 26th century geological expedition is ambushed underground, leaving only a single survivor. When she crawls her way back to the surface camp, she reports the massacre. A squadron of security troops arrives to investigate, but they also consider her a suspect. However, when the troops return to the subterranean caves to look for the evidence, they first find a pair of killer androids…and then they find four people claiming to be time travelers, who instantly become the prime suspects. But these travelers – the Doctor and his unharmonious trio of companions – are more of a threat to the plans of the Cybermen (once again wearing new suits of high-tech armor). It seems that, fearing an upcoming conference of interplanetary superpowers that could spell the end to the Cybermen’s war effort, the silver ones plan to slam a huge space freighter into the Earth, obliterating a large portion of the planet’s surface. But when Adric manages to thwart the Cybermen’s plans by accidentlly sending the freighter back in time (but still on the same trajectory), he’s either helping to prevent the human race from coming into existence…or ensuring that event.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Eric Saward
directed by Peter Grimwade
music by Malcolm Clarke

Guest Cast: Beryl Reid (Briggs), James Warwick (Scott), Clare Clifford (Kyle), June Bland (Berger), David Banks (CyberLeader), Mark Hardy (Cyber Lieutenant), Steve Morley (Walters), Suzi Arden (Snyder), Ann Holloway (Mitchell), Anne Clements (Trooper Bane), Mark Straker (Trooper Carter), Alec Sabin (Ringway), Mark Fletcher (Crewmember Vance), Christopher Whittingham (Crewmember Carson), Carolyn Mary Simmonds, Barney Lawrence (Androids), Jeff Wayne, Steve Ismay, Peter Gates-Fleming, David Bache, Graham Cole, Norman Bradley, Michael Gordon Brown (Cybermen)

Broadcast from March 8 through 16, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 20 Doctor Who

Terminus

Doctor WhoAt the Black Guardian’s bidding, Turlough interferes with the TARDIS internal systems enough to cause a critical failure: parts of the timeship’s interior are now surrounded by a deadly haze, and those sections could be open to the time vortex at any moment. Nyssa’s room is engulfed, and the Doctor performs an emergency merge with the nearest spacecraft in space-time to allow her to escape onto the other ship. When he stabilizes the TARDIS and then goes to retrieve Nyssa, however, the Doctor learns that he inadvertently sent his friend onto a plague-carriers’ ship – and Nyssa, now infected, can never leave, nor does that transport’s small crew seem even remotely inclined to help any of the people contaminated with Lazar’s Disease.

Order the DVDwritten by Stephen Gallagher
directed by Mary Ridge
music by Roger Limb

Guest Cast: Valentine Dyall (Black Guardian), Liza Goddard (Kari), Dominic Guard (Olvir), Rachel Weaver (Inga), Martin Muncaster (Tannoy voice), Martin Potter (Eirak), Andrew Burt (Valgard), Tim Munro (Sigurd), Peter Benson (Bor), R.J. Bell (The Garm)

Broadcast from February 15 through 23, 1983

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

Resurrection Of The Daleks

Doctor WhoWith the TARDIS caught in a time corridor at the end of the previous story, the Doctor is surprised to find that he is being taken to some rather unremarkable London docks. His investigation into the origins of the time corridor lead him to a meeting with a group of hapless 20th century soldiers who can’t even begin to imagine the traces of technology they’ve discovered in a nearby warehouse. The Doctor’s arrival has been expected – in fact, carefully orchestrated – by the Daleks, who are in the midst of a plot that involves clones, biological warfare, and the rescue and revival of their mad creator, Davros.

Order the DVDwritten by Eric Saward
directed by Matthew Robinson
music by Malcolm Clarke

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Terry Molloy (Davros), Maurice Colbourne (Lytton), Rodney Bewes (Stien), Rula Lenska (Styles), Del Henney (Colonel Archer), Chloe Ashcroft (Professor Laird), Philip McGough (Sergeant Calder), Jim Findley (Mercer), Leslie Grantham (Kiston), Sneh Gupta (Osborn), Roger Davenport (Trooper), John Adam Baker, Linsey Turner (Crew members), William Sleigh (Galloway), Brian Miller, Royce Mills (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin, Cy Town, Tony Starr, Toby Byrne (Daleks), Nicholas Curry (Chemist), Michael Jeffries, Mike Braben (Policemen), Mike Mungarven, Simon Crane (Soldiers), Pat Judge (Man with metal detector)

Broadcast from February 8 through 15, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

Planet of Fire

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS has been set for a new course by Kamelion, who is attempting to go to the source of a distress signal which is overriding his every function. The Doctor manages to wrest control of the ship from Kamelion and lands the TARDIS on Earth to investigate. While the Doctor finds little of importance, other than a freshly uncovered batch of artifacts from an archaeological expedition, Turlough discovers the signal’s source and immobilizes the TARDIS to avoid going there. Turlough also spots a drowning swimmer on the TARDIS scanner. He rescues the girl, discovering that she has stolen the oddest of the artifacts that the Doctor saw earlier. When the Doctor returns, the TARDIS again takes off without his control, and apparently with a new passenger on board. The mystery of the new passengers unravels quickly, as does the mystery of who has been controlling Kamelion. But why is Turlough so keen to avoid a colony from his own planet – a colony of outcasts of which he may be a member?

Order the DVDwritten by Peter Grimwade
directed by Fiona Cumming
music by Peter Howell

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Anthony Ainley (The Master), Peter Wyngarde (Timanov), Barbara Shelley (Sorasta), Gerald Flood (voice of Kamelion), James Bate (Amyand), Dallas Adams (Professor Foster), Edward Highmore (Malkon), Jonathan Caplan (Roskal), John Alkin (Lomand), Michael Bangerter (Curt), Simon Sutton (Lookout), Max Arthur (Zuko), Ray Knight (Trion)

Broadcast from February 23 through March 2, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

The Caves of Androzani

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Peri find themselves on Androzani Major, a world embroiled in a bloody war over the drug spectrox, which prolongs the human life span. While exploring some seemingly uninhabited caves, the Doctor and Peri fall into a foreign substance which has the immediate effect of causing an unpleasant rash, and are then captured by a platoon of soldiers who accuse them of smuggling weapons. While awaiting summary execution for this crime, the Doctor and Peri are then rescued – or perhaps kidnapped – by Sharaz Jek, a disfigured madman who hoards the planet’s supply of spectrox and oversees the real weapons smugglers. The soldiers, Jek, the gun-runners and a treacherous corporate mogul with an eye on the presidency are all battling for control of the spectrox supply, and none of them will let anything stand in their way – especially not two innocent bystanders who are dying anyway.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Robert Holmes
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Roger Limb

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Christopher Gable (Sharaz Jek), John Normington (Morgus), Robert Glenister (Salateen), Maurice Roeves (Stotz), Roy Holder (Krelper), Martin Cochrane (Chellak), Barbara Kinghorn (Timmin), David Neal (President), Ian Staples (Soldier), Colin Taylor (Magma creature), Keith Harvey, Andrew Smith, Stephen Smith (Androids), Anthony Ainley (The Master), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Gerald Flood (voice of Kamelion)

Broadcast from March 8 through 16, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green