Tag: Series Premiere

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Supertrain

Supertrain (pilot)

SupertrainWinfield Root, chairman of the board and founder of Trans-Allied Corporation, announces a bold plan to reinvigorate American passenger rail service with a new breed of train, Supertrain. Running from New York City to Los Angeles in a matter of hours, Supertrain is an atomic-powered steam locomotive with the amenities normally associated with luxury cruises. Root finds little support among his executive board, but the plan will proceed anyway.

Supertrain pulls out of Grand Central Station on its inaugural voyage with a full complement of passengers aboard, among them Michael Post, a man up to his eyeballs in debt to all the wrong people; Cindy Chappell, married to a man who spends the entire trip complaining about her presence (and yet doesn’t want her to leave his sight); Hollywood movie director David Belnik, heading to L.A. with his entourage to begin his next project; and at least one man who is on the train solely for the purpose of killing Michael Post. Winfield Root is aboard too, along with his granddaughter, who is almost disturbingly attracted to a member of Supertrain’s on-board crew.

The dazzling luxuries aboard Supertrain, from its sauna room to its discotheque, become the sites of attempts on Post’s life. When one of those attempts goes awry, resulting in a seemingly random murder of which Post is suspected of being the killer instead of the intended victim, the train is brought to a stop so an FBI agent can be brought aboard. Post pleads innocent to the murder, but confides in the circumstances that have him worried about his continued survival. But he soon discovers that he is no safer on Supertrain with an FBI agent on his tail than he is anywhere else…

teleplay by Earl W. Wallace
story by Donald E. Westlake & Earl W. Wallace
directed by Dan Curtis
music by Bob Cobert

SupertrainCast: Steve Lawrence (Mike Post), Char Fontane (Cindy Chappell), Don Stroud (Jack Fisk), Keenan Wynn (Winfield Root), Deborah Benson (Barbara Root), Ron Masak (Fred), Don Meredith (Rick Prince), Vicki Lawrence (Karen Prince), George Hamilton (David Belnik), Stella Stevens (Lucy), Fred Williamson (Al Roberts), Edward Andrews (Harry Flood), Patrick Collins (David Noonan), Harrison Page (George Boone), Robert Alda (Dr. Lewis), Nita Talbot (Rose Casey), Aarika Wells (Gilda), William Nuckols (Wally), Michael DeLano (Lou Atkins), Charlie Brill (Robert), John Karlen (Quinn), Frank R. Christi (Tony Packoe), H.M. Wynant (Fairmont), Anthony Palmer (T.C. Baker), Howard Honig (Sam Howard), Allen Williams (Riley), Parley Baer (Heaton), Sid Conrad (Whittington), Robert Karnes (Martin), Cameron Young (Fenner), Sylvester Words (Porter), Orin Cannon (Stationmaster), Chuck Mitchell (Big Ed), Bert Conway (Workman)

SupertrainNotes: Intended to be a sort of futuristic version of The Love Boat, Supertrain was a dazzlingly expensive disaster for NBC. It was initially produced, and its pilot directed, by Dan Curtis, producer and director of such TV cult classics as Dark Shadows and the pair of TV movies that led to Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Supertrain’s impressive-for-the-time miniature model work and its matching full-size “futuristic train” standing sets made it the most expensive television series in history to date, but its plunging post-pilot-movie ratings saw NBC pulling the plug after multiple attempts to retool and reschedule. This by itself would’ve simply been expensive, but when paired with the extravagant money that NBC put on the table for the U.S. broadcast rights to the 1980 Summer Olympics (a cost it then had to eat when the United States boycotted the Olympics, held that year in Moscow), it nearly bankrupted the network. SupertrainHad Supertrain run to a full season, the expense involved in the sets and miniatures would have been amortized over the budgets of 20-odd episodes. As it is, the show lasted ten hours, meaning that fully half a million dollars of each episode’s budget was spent on those sets and effects. The custom model footage shows Supertrain running on wider-gauge tracks than a standard railroad, though many of the railroad POV shots were obviously filmed on a normal-gauge railroad. Additionally, though the “running firefight atop the cars of a moving train” is a staple of American TV and cinema, the tornado-speed movement of Supertrain should make such a scenario physically impossible (unless, of course, the script calls for it). Supertrain!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Omega Factor

The Undiscovered Country

The Omega FactorParanormal researcher Tom Crane has first-hand knowledge of his subject matter: he’s been experiencing very disturbing dreams and disjointed images. One of his investigations leads him to a man named Edward Drexel, said to have considerable powers of his own; when Tom offhandedly suggests that Drexel use his powers to help solve the case of a missing woman, Drexel says he has no wish to search for a body. Tom calls Drexel’s bluff, asking how he knows the missing woman is dead, and the interview comes to a swift and chilly end. Immediately afterward, Tom begins experiencing inexplicable visions with little or no context. Trying to track down the clues to his visions has tragic consequences, and a surprising outcome: an invitation (if a somewhat forcefully-worded one) to join Department 7, a government bureau devoted to tracking those with supernatural powers.

The Omega FactorOrder the Serieswritten by Jack Gerson
directed by Paddy Russell
music by Anthony Isaac

Cast: James Hazeldine (Tom Crane), Louise Jameson (Anne Reynolds), John Carlisle (Roy Martindale), Brown Derby (Andrew Scott-Erskine), Cyril Luckham (Edward Drexel), Joanna Tope (Julia Crane), Colin Douglas (Alfred Oliphant), Denis Agnew (Alistair), Nicholas Coppin (Michael Crane), Raymond Cross (Harry Gilchrist), Natasha Gerson (Morag)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Buck Rogers Season 1

Buck Rogers In The 25th Century / Arrival

Buck Rogers In The 25th CenturyRanger 3, a manned deep space probe launched by NASA in 1987, plunges off-course after a meteor collision. A malfunction of the life support system preserves the ship’s sole occupant, pilot William “Buck” Rogers, in suspended animation. NASA never hears from Ranger 3 again, and the human race all but destroys itself in Rogers’ absence.

Ranger 3 is recovered by the flagship of the Draconian race in the Earth year 2491. When revived by Princess Ardala and her henchman Kane, Buck is interrogated. The Draconians claim to be on a mission of peace, but Buck wasn’t born yesterday – he was born five centuries ago, and he can tell when something’s afoot. Buck is turned loose – with a homing device planted aboard his ship, unknown to him – and makes his way back to Earth, where he is stunned to learn how long it has been since he last set foot on his home world. But even there, Buck is suspected of being a spy by everyone except Dr. Theopolis, a computerized brain who serves on the Computer Council that governs Earth. Buck also earns the trust of Twiki, a chatty, servile robot. When Colonel Deering and Dr. Huer discover the Draconian homing device, Buck is put on trial. Despite the valiant defense offered by Dr. Theopolis, Buck is found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.

Colonel Deering offers Buck one last chance to prove his word by taking him along on a mission to escort the Draconian flagship to Earth in peace. The peace is cut short by what appears to be a pirate attack – and with the marauders’ unpredictable flying, only Buck’s headstrong, old-fashioned air combat training saves the Earth pilots – and, so it seems, the Draconian flagship. Princess Ardala is welcomed to Earth in an elaborate celebration. Dazzled by her beauty, and knowing that it is now well within the power of the Draconians to conquer Earth, Buck must make a choice – run away with the winning side (and the beautiful princess), or fight a hopeless battle to save a world he no longer knows?

Order the DVDswritten by Glen A. Larson & Leslie Stevens
directed by Daniel Haller
music by Stu Phillips

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Pamela Hensley (Princess Ardala), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Henry Silva (Kane), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Joseph Wiseman (Draco), Dick Butler (Tigerman), Felix Silla (Twiki), Caroline Smith (Young woman), John Dewey-Carter (Supervisor), Kevin Coates (Pilot), David Cadiente (Comtel officer), Gil Serna (Technician), Larry Duran (Guard #1), Kenny Endoso (Guard #2), Eric Lawrence (Officer), H.B. Haggerty (Tigerman #2), Colleen Kelly (Wrather), Steve Jones (Pilot #2), David Buchanan (Pilot #3), Burt Marshall (Wingman), Eric Server (voice of Dr. Theopolis), Mel Blanc (voice of Twiki), William Conrad (Narrator/Draconian computer voice)

Notes: This pilot movie is frequently referred to as Arrival, though that title never appears on screen.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Martian Chronicles, The

The Expeditions

The Martian ChroniclesJuly 1976: Viking 1, an unmanned space probe, lands on Mars and transmits the first pictures of its surface back to Earth. No life is found, confounding centuries of speculation about canals and the aliens who might have constructed them.

January 1999: The first manned mission to Mars lifts off from Cape Canaveral, carrying a team of three astronauts to Mars. Unknown to them, their arrival has been anticipated by an advanced race of Martians whose presence went undetected by the Viking probes. When the astronauts from Earth land, a xenophobic Martian kills them before they even have a chance to walk on Martian soil.

April 2000: A second manned mission is launched to Mars, and its three-man crew is stunned when the Martian dust clears to reveal a very Earthlike environment. But it’s not the true Martian civilization exposed at last; instead, it’s an illusion tailor-made to emulate memories plucked out of the Earthmen’s minds. At first the astronauts are taken in by the illusion, but when they begin to question it and try to escape it, the Martians show their true form and intent, allowing the astronauts to die without getting a message off to Earth about life on Mars.

June 2001: Despite the tragedy, a more extensive follow-up mission is launched, with a larger crew commanded by Colonel John Wilder, who has overseen the previous missions from Earth. Almost immediately upon landing, evidence of a Martian civilization, seemingly abandoned, is found. There’s no longer any denying the presence of life there, though the monuments seem to be abandoned, perhaps evidence of an extinct civilization. Major Jeff Spender, Wilder’s right-hand man on Earth and hand-picked to join him on this mission, ventures off into the Martian ruins himself and comes back a changed man. But changed into what?

teleplay by Richard Matheson
based on the novel by Ray Bradbury
directed by Michael Anderson
music by Stanley Myers / electronic music by Richard Harvey

Cast: Rock Hudson (Colonel John Wilder), Gayle Hunnicutt (Ruth Wilder), Bernie Casey (Maj. Jeff Spender), Christopher Connelly (Ben Driscoll), Nicholas Hammond (Arthur Black), Roddy McDowall (Father Stone), Darren McGavin (Sam Parkhill), Bernadette Peters (Genevieve Seltzer), Maria Schell (Anna Lustig), Joyce Van Patten (Elma Parkhill), Fritz Weaver (Father Peregrine), Linda Lou Allen (Marilyn Becker), Michael Anderson Jr. (David Lustig), Robert Beatty (General Halstead), James Faulkner (Mr. K), John Finch (Christ), Terence Longdon (Wise Martian), Barry Morse (Peter Hathaway), Nyree Dawn Porter (Alice Hathaway), Wolfgang Reichmann (Lafe Lustig), Maggie Wright (Ylla), John Cassady (Briggs), Alison Elliott (Lavinia Spaulding), Vadim Glowna (Sam Hinston), Richard Heffer (Capt. Conover), Derek Lamden (Sandship Martian), Peter Marinker (McClure), Richard Oldfield (Capt. York), Anthony Pullen-Shaw (Edward Black), Burnell Tucker (Bill Wilder)

The Martian ChroniclesNotes: A lavish co-production between NBC and the BBC, shot on “otherworldly” Lanzarote (a volcanic island where the BBC would also later shoot the 1984 Doctor Who story Planet Of Fire), The Martian Chronicles was intended to be the major draw to NBC’s fall 1979 season. But Ray Bradbury himself, the author of the original stories the miniseries was based on, torpedoed that launch by calling the TV adaptation out as “boring” in a publicity appearance. With the creator of its major premiere alerting the public to a stinker, NBC rescheduled the miniseries to run during the winter doldrums of January 1980, before the ratings sweeps month of February (for which NBC already had a dire forecast, since the 1980 Winter Olympics would be airing during February on rival network ABC, likely trouncing anything scheduled against the games by NBC or CBS). The BBC didn’t air The Martian Chronicles until August 1980.

The show’s decks are stacked with genre veterans, including Roddy McDowall (Planet Of The Apes), Maria Schell and Barry Morse (Space: 1999), and Darren McGavin (Kolchak: The Night Stalker). Robert Beatty had appeared in pivotal episodes of Doctor Who (The Tenth Planet) and Blake’s 7 (The Way Back). Bernie Casey would appear in both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 during the 1990s. (Tangentially, Rock Hudson had starred in 1971’s creepy non-genre movie Pretty Maids All In A Row, written and produced by one Gene Roddenberry.) Director Michael Anderson also had a well-known genre credit under his belt, the 1976 SF cult classic Logan’s Run, while one of composer Stanley Myers’ earliest TV music credits was for the 1964 Doctor Who story Marco Polo.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1980 Series Cosmos

The Shores Of The Cosmic Ocean

CosmosDr. Carl Sagan introduces the concept of the dandelion-like Ship of the Imagination, as well as the idea of Earth as an island in the sea of space. He then discusses the scientific work of the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes, who came very close to correctly calculating Earth’s circumference, axial tilt, and distance from the sun in approximately 100 B.C., and explores a recreation of the Library of Alexandria, over which Eratosthenes presided. The wealth of knowledge at Alexandria, the loss of the documents in the library, are described, along with Eratosthenes’ effect on the work of centuries of later astronomers, from Aristarchus to Copernicus to Kepler…but the short span of this era of astronomical knowledge is also contrasted with the vast scale of the age of the universe.

Get the complete series on DVDwritten by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan & Steven Soter
directed by Adrian Malone
music not credited

Cast: Carl Sagan (himself), Jaromír Hanzlík (Johannes Kepler)

CosmosNotes: Segments in different locations and in studio all had different directors, so it’s something of a misnomer to credit any one episode of Cosmos to a single director. Other directors credited, and the location shoots they directed, are Rob McCain (Spaceship), Richard J. Wells (Holland / Library of Alexandria / Cosmic Calendar), Tim Weidlinger and Geoffrey Haines-Stiles (Kepler / Egypt), and David F. Oyster (Monterey / Mt. Wilson Observatory).

Among the space artists whose work was used to visualize space travel was Rick Sternbach, who helped design control Cosmospanels and displays for 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and would serve in a wider design capacity in the 1980s and ’90s Star Trek spinoffs, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. (Sternbach’s work on the first Trek movie and Cosmos overlapped.) He had also participated in pioneering computer animation productions, including JPL’s CGI visualizations of the early Voyager planetary flybys and the movie The Last Starfighter. Sternbach’s sole Emmy Award was the result of his work on Cosmos, rather than any of the Star Trek series.

CosmosIn the strictest sense, none of the series’ music received an on-screen credit, but this episode alone contains excerpts of works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Hovhaness, Rimsky-Korsakov, and 20th century musicians such as Vangelis and Italian prog rock group Le Orme. In 2000, for Cosmos’ DVD release, additional segments written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter, and hosted by Druyan, amended each episode with a summary of scientific discoveries made since the 1980 broadcast of the original episodes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 1

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyArthur Dent’s having a more troublesome Thursday than usual. For one thing, the local council has decided to demolish his house and several others with as little warning as possible, all to make way for a new bypass. To protest this, Arthur lies in the mud in front of a bulldozer which would, without his presence, destroy his home completely. And while that’s stressful enough, Arthur’s somewhat odd friend Ford Prefect chooses this very moment to come along and insist that Arhur must come to the pub with him and imbibe heavily, and somehow – according to Ford – the end of the world figures into the proceedings. Arthur reluctantly agrees, but regrets it soon afterward when he hears, from the cozy confines of the pub, the destruction of his house. But before Arthur can exact his revenge on the bureaucrats who made this all possible, he becomes one of the only witnesses to the destruction of the entire Earth – and the slightly bewildered recipient of a babel fish, courtesy of Ford. As it happens, Ford isn’t from Earth at all, and is a roving researcher for an encyclopedic electronic book known as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The spaceship which Ford has managed to use to escape from Earth, with Arthur in tow, has a crew which isn’t from Earth either…and they’re none too pleased to discover that they have hitchhikers aboard.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Joe Melia (Mr. Prosser), Martin Benson (Vogon Captain), Steve Conway (Barman), Cleo Rocos (Alien), Andrew Mussell (Alien)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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National Public Radio Radio & Audio Dramas Star Wars

A Wind To Shake The Stars

Star WarsOn the distant desert planet of Tatooine, far from either the Galactic Empire or the Rebellion, Luke Skywalker lives the simple existence of a moisture farmer, toiling away on his Uncle Owen’s farm and trying to fit in with his friends at Anchorhead. Ever since his friend Biggs left to join the Imperial Academy, Luke’s been a bit of an outcast, and he doesn’t win many friends by beating the local bully in a high-speed canyon race. While working on the farm, Luke spots a fierce firefight in orbit of Tatooine, and tries to tell his friends about it, but as usual they blow him off. Biggs returns for a visit, and once they’re away from the others, Biggs tells Luke of a momentous decision – despite having graduated from the Imperial Academy, Biggs plans to jump ship on his first assignment and join the Rebellion.

Order this CDwritten by Brian Daley
based on the screenplay Star Wars by George Lucas
directed by John Madden
music by John Williams

Cast: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Ann Sachs (Princess Leia Organa), Perry King (Han Solo), Bernard “Bunny” Behrens (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Brock Peters (Lord Darth Vader), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Keene Curtis (Grand Moff Tarkin), John Considine (Lord Tion), Stephen Elliott (Prestor), David Ackroyd (Captain Antilles), Adam Arkin (Fixer), Kale Brown (Biggs), David Clennon (Motti), Anne Gerety (Aunt Beru), Thomas Hill (Uncle Owen), David Paymer (Deak), Joel Brooks (Heater), John Dukakis (Rebel), Stephanie Steele (Cammie), Phillip Kellard (Customer #2)

Supporting Cast: James Blendick, Clyde Burton, Bruce French, David Alan Grier, Jerry Hardin, John Harkins, Meschach Taylor, Marc Vahanian, John Welsh, Kent Williams

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Phoenix, The

The Phoenix

The PhoenixAncient ruins in Peru have been hiding a secret that could challenge everyone’s understanding of world history: a hermetically sealed casket, of a design far more advanced than the Incas were capable of building, is found. Inside is a perfectlly intact, but inert, man, bearing a medallion with an inscription mentioning the Egyptian god Osiris. Though this seems to be just a well-preserved corpse, the man returns to life and escapes the facility where his body is being studied. He hitches a ride with a photographer named Noelle, asking her to take him to the sea or he will die. Once there, he seems to be revitalized, as much by exposure to the sun as proximity to the ocean. The doctor who oversaw his unearthing, Ward Frazier, finds the man – who identifies himself as Bennu of the Golden Light – and discovers that he may be an alien in a human guise, the last remnant of an otherworldly civilization trying to pass its secrets on to Earth so its people can avoid the same self-destructive fate. Bennu is searching for a fellow traveler, who he believes has also come to Earth, but first he will have to survive the paranoia of 20th century Earth.

The Phoenixwritten by Anthony Lawrence & Nancy Lawrence
directed by Douglas Hickox
music by Arthur B. Rubinstein

Cast: Judson Scott (Bennu), Shelley Smith (Noelle Marshall), E.G. Marshall (Dr. Ward Frazier), Fernando Allende (Diego DeVarga), Daryl Anderson (Dr. Clifford Davis), Carmen Argenziano (Kingston), Patricia Conklin (Nurse), Angus Duncan (Surgeon), Terry Jastrow (Hood), Stanley Kamel (Murray), Richard Lynch (Justin Preminger), Jimmy Mair (Tim), James Malinda (Croupier), Paul Marin (Anesthesiologist), Hersha Parady (Lynn), Wayne Storm (Patrolman), Lyman Ward (Howard), Brett Williams (Technician)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Nightmare Man

Part One

The Nightmare ManA quiet village on a Scottish island becomes the site of a disturbingly savage murder. A young woman’s remains – what’s left of them – are found near a golf course. Inspector Inskip, heading up the investigation, is alarmed to find that the wounds are not the work of any kind of bladed weapon: the woman was simply torn from limb to limb and left there. The man who found her, dentist Michael Gaffikin, is deeply disturbed when his expertise is called upon in the post-mortem to test a theory that the victim’s wounds were caused by teeth.

written by Robert Holmes
based on the novel “Child Of Vodyanoi” by David Wiltshire
directed by Douglas Camfield
music by Robert Stewart

The Nightmare ManCast: James Warwick (Michael Gaffikin), Celia Imrie (Fiona Patterson), Maurice Roeves (Inspector Inskip), Tom Watson (Dr. Goudry), Jonathan Newth (Colonel Howard), James Cosmo (Sergeant Carch), Fraser Wilson (PC Malcolmson), Tony Sibbald (Symonds), Elaine Wells (Mrs. MacKay)

Notes: Future Doctor Who director Graeme Harper (The Caves Of Androzani, Revelation Of The Daleks, Rise Of The Cybermen, Time Crash) was one of two production managers on this serial; he later cast Maurice Roeves in a hard-hitting major guest role in Caves Of Androzani. Harper and director Douglas Camfield had worked together numerous times since the 1960s.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Into The Labyrinth Season 1

Rothgo

Into The LabyrinthTerry and Helen, brother and sister, seek shelter in a cave when their day of playing outside is ruined by a sudden and violent thunderstorm. They’re not alone, either: an older boy named Phil has also sought refuge in the cave…but all of them hear another voice, somewhere deeper in the cave, asking for help. They find a man trapped under an enormous stone, a piece of rock that by all rights should have crushed him to death. With his instruction, they are amazed that they have the power to lift the stone and free him. He introduces himself as the wizard Rothgo, and he has been trapped in the cave by a sorceress named Belor. He seeks something called the Nidus, a magical item that will allow him to concentrate his power and escape his prison…but since he can’t leave the caves, he must trust his three new young friends to enter the labyrinth, and journey through various times in history to find it. They will find him there at various stages of his long, magically-extended life, and will have to seek his help against Belor. Their journey begins…

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Baker
based on an idea by Bob Baker & Peter Graham Scott
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Into The LabyrinthCast: Ron Moody (Rothgo), Pamela Salem (Belor), Lisa Turner (Helen), Simon Henderson (Terry), Simon Beal (Phil)

Notes: Executive producer Peter Dromgoole also worked with series co-creator Bob Baker on his previous series, Sky (1975), along with director (and series co-creator) Peter Graham Scott and composer Sidney Sager, was an integral part of a much-loved Into The Labyrinthprevious HTV children’s fantasy series, Children Of The Stones, in 1977. Like Children Of The Stones, Into The Labyrinth successfully jumped the Atlantic to become part of the “Third Eye” strand of children’s programming on nascent cable channel Nickelodeon, but only the first season was shown to American audiences.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Under The Mountain

Maar

Under The Mountain1973: The Matheson twins, age three, go missing from their home, triggering a massive search and rescue operation near their rural New Zealand home. An enigmatic man, Mr. Jones, discovers them bathed in a golden glow; they’re found shortly afterward by police, but Mr. Jones is nowhere to be found.

1981: Rachel and Theo Matheson visit their aunt and uncle’s home in the shadow of the Rangitoto volcano. Now approaching adolescence, the twins have grown not just up but apart. During a swim, Theo thinks he spots a shark or some other creature in the water, causing a panic, and later he’s spooked when a neighbor’s car slows down suspiciously, as if observing Theo and his sister. But while it may seem like Theo’s imagination is running away with him, he didn’t imagine the sea creature. When it comes to pay the twins a visit, Mr. Jones is waiting to protect them yet again.

screenplay by Ken Catran
based on the novel by Maurice Gee
directed by Chris Bailey
music by Bernie Allen

Under The MountainCast: Kirsty Wilkinson (Rachel), Lance Warren (Theo), Roy Leywood (Mr. Jones), Bill Johnson (Mr. Wilberforce), Bill Ewens (Ricky), Glynis McNicoll (Aunt Noeline), Noel Trevarthen (Uncle Clarry), Laurie Dee (Mr. Matheson), Annie Whittle (Mrs. Matheson), Jonathon Hardy (Country Policeman), Paula Jones (Waitress), Rachel Constantine (young Rachel), Phillip Constantine (young Theo), Gay Dean (Jones’ neighbor), Norman Forsey (Searcher), Sean Duffy (Searcher), Fred James (Searcher)

Notes: Rangitoto is one of the many volcanoes of the Auckland Volcanic Field, a still-active area of volcanic growth whose future activity may yet threaten New Zealand’s most populous area. Rangitoto, last active roughly half a millennium ago, is the site (and the result) of the largest eruption in that field in recorded history. It is now considered dormant, and its empty lava tubes may be explored by tourists. The episode title, Maar, refers to a volcanic crater at ground level, Under The Mountainthe result of an explosion when groundwater comes into contact with magma, which usually becomes a natural lake after the eruption. In this case, it refers to Lake Pupuke, a dormant maar near Rangitoto.

Under The Mountain was the first production designer gig for Robert Gillies, formerly the full-time sax/trumpet player of New Zealand art-rock band Split Enz. His later work as production designer included Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Cleopatra 2525, the short-lived Bruce Campbell series Jack Of All Trades, and Legend Of The Seeker. He also designed props for the 21st century big-screen versions of Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. Prior to this series, Gillies had assisted in the set design for Split Enz’ near-legendary theatrical extravaganzas and music videos.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Astronauts Season 1

Episode 1

AstronautsAn all-British crew prepares for a mission to an Earth-orbiting space station. Astronaut Mattocks is a stuff-upper-lip, salt-of-the-Earth family man for whom the flight will be his crowning achievement; Ackroyd is a bundle of nerves who’d really rather stay on Earth. Accompanying both men is a single female astronaut, Foster, a medical specialist who will monitor the crew’s health, both physical and mental; a dog named Bimbo will also travel to the station for further medical tests and experiments. Communications problems arise at critical times due to technical glitches and a gung-ho American mission controller. By the time the new crew of the space station arrives, they’re sure of only one thing: it’ll be hard for them to stand one another long enough for a record-setting space endurance mission.

written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie
directed by Dick Clement

AstronautsCast: Christopher Godwin (Mattocks), Carmen Du Sautoy (Foster), Barrie Rutter (Ackroyd), Bruce Boa (Beadle), Mary Healey (Valerie), Ben Aris (Reporter), Diana Berriman (Reporter), Barry Lower (Reporter), Hilton McRae (Reporter), Pamela Miles (Reporter), Hugh Walters (Reporter), Michael Delorzo (Mattocks’ Kid), Julian Delorzo (Mattocks’ Kid), and Bimbo (himself)

AstronautsNotes: This space-set sitcom seems to take place in an alternate universe in which Skylab survived 1979 (it didn’t) and British astronauts were still flying Apollo spacecraft (a vehicle which stopped flying in 1975). Created by The Goodies writer/performers Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, the show was popular enough to merit a second season in 1983. The first season has neither a theme tune or incidental music.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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K-9 Sarah Jane Adventures

K-9 & Company: A Girl’s Best Friend

K-9 & CompanyAfter her Aunt Lavinia leaves for a lecture tour in America much earlier than expected, her niece, Sarah Jane Smith, takes up temporary residence in her house in the quaint village of Moreton Harwood. Sarah finds the locals to be a little bit backward, and one of Lavinia’s recent letters to the editor in the local paper decrying the belief that black magic will help the crops grow – a belief that some of the villagers apparently take quite seriously. Lavinia’s ward, Brendan, also arrives to stay at the house, and Sarah finds a note from Lavinia herself, pointing her in the direction of a large box that has been in Lavinia’s possession for years. The box, which has never been opened, contains a present for Sarah from the Doctor – her very own K-9. Brendan, who’s delighted with computers and technology, makes fast friends with the robotic dog, but that night when Sarah visits one of the neighbors, Brendan finds himself in need of one of K-9’s more unusual abilities when two men break into the house. K-9 stuns one of the men and then pursues the other, but doesn’t catch him. Sarah finds the local police oddly uninterested in the incident, and begins to wonder if there’s something to Lavinia’s witchcraft worries. When Brendan is kidnapped and the police still aren’t interested, her suspicions are even more aroused, and she’ll need K-9’s help to find out how far this small-town conspiracy goes.

Order the DVDwritten by Terence Dudley
directed by John Black
music by Peter Howell / title music by Fiachra Trench & Ian Levine

Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Bill Fraser (Commander Pollock), Ian Sears (Brendan Richards), Colin Jeavons (George Tracey), Sean Chapman (Peter Tracey), Mary Wimbush (Aunt Lavinia), Linda Polan (Juno Baker), Gillian Martell (Lilly Gregson), Neville Barber (Howard Baker), John Quarmby (Henry Tobias), Nigel Gregory (Sergeant Wilson), Stephen Oxley (PC Carter)

Notes: Though not strictly speaking an actual part of the Sarah Jane Adventures series, K-9 & Company establishes numerous important parts of the series backstory, and perhaps more importantly established plot points which later Doctor Who episodes (The Five Doctors, School Reunion) regarded as official. It was also the first (and, until Torchwood was greenlit, only) official Doctor Who TV spinoff. As is the case with the current slate of Doctor Who spinoffs being produced by the same team responsible for the parent series, K-9 & Company would have been produced by Doctor Who’s then-producer John Nathan-Turner, who admitted that he wasn’t fond of the dog’s deus ex machina antics in Doctor Who, but realized that the massive outcry over K-9’s departure meant that there was an audience. Nathan-Turner later admitted that the biggest failure of K-9 & Company was its opening episode’s theme of black magic and the occult; like The Sarah Jane Adventures, K-9 & Company was envisioned for the younger segment of Doctor Who’s audience, and so the pilot episode’s human sacrifice and pagan ceremonies failed to play well against the Christmas/New Year holidays. (A widespread power outage at the time of broadcast didn’t help ratings either.) Ironically, Sarah did get her own spinoff, with K-9 in the opening episode, premiering 26 years and 4 days after K-9 & Company. (For those wondering: K-9 & Company was to have been the series title, while A Girl’s Best Friend was the name of this particular episode; it’s worth noting that in their book “Doctor Who: The Eighties,” authors David J. Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker reveal that only Nathan-Turner was envisaging a full series, something which his superiors at the BBC had not seriously discussed at the time.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Police Squad Season 1

A Substantial Gift

Police SquadA bank teller who’s deep in debt stages a holdup of her own bank, and leaves evidence pointing to a rather nondescript man who just happened to be there, and Frank Drebin is there. Police Squad, a special division of the police department, swings into action and discovers that one person’s story doesn’t add up. Now it’s up to Frank to figure out who that person is…

Season 1 Regular Cast: Leslie Nielsen (Frank Drebin), Alan North (Ed Hawkins), Rex Hamilton (Abraham Lincoln)

written by Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker
directed by Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker
music by Ira Newborn

Special Guest Star: Lorne Greene (as himself)

Guest Cast: Ed Williams (Mr. Olson), William Duell (Johnny), Barbara Tarbuck (Mr. Twice), Terry Wills (Jim), Terrence Beasor (Dr. Zubatsky), Russell Shannon (Ralph Twice), Jimmy Briscoe (Cop), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Sally)

Alternate Title: The Broken Promise

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Knight Rider Season 1

Knight Of The Phoenix

Knight RiderPolice Lieutenant Michael Long is part of a sting operation intended to bring down an industrial espionage suspect. When his partner is gunned down during the operation, Michael’s thoughts turn to revenge, and he neglects to think twice about a woman who witnesses his partner’s murder – until she draws a gun on him. She’s part of the ring he’s supposed to be reeling in. She shoots Michael in the face at point-blank range and escapes with her cohorts; the sting is a failure.

But so is her attempt to kill Michael. Thanks to a fortuitously-placed metal plate in his skull, he is able to recover with the help of extensive reconstructive surgery that leaves him with a new face. His benefactors in his recovery are a man named Devon, and an older man, the wealthy Wilton Knight; they have arranged for the man known as Michael Long to be declared officially dead, leaving a man with a new face – “Michael Knight” – and no past. Wilton Knight, a tech tycoon, believes that someone has been stealing his secrets, and enlists Michael’s help. Devon introduces him to a nearly-indestructible custom car designed by Wilton Knight, the Knight Industries 2000 (or KITT for short), a Trans-Am whose outer body seems to be incapable of being scratched or dented. But it also has a built-in artificial intelligence programmed to aid Michael; it can assume complete control of the car in a pinch, and unflappably offers advice to its driver.

One trip to Silicon Valley and one death-and-dent-defying demolition derby later, Michael is investigating a company called Comptron, discovering that the people who stole Wilton Knight’s secrets were the same people Michael Long’s anti-espionage operation was meant to capture. These people are willing to kill; Michael, being an ex-cop, is trained to avoid killing unless necessary…which may be his undoing even with KITT and all of Knight Industries’ resources behind him.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Glen A. Larson
directed by Daniel Haller
music by Stu Phillips

Knight RiderCast: David Hasselhoff (Michael Knight), Edward Mulhare (Devon), Phyllis Davis (Tanya Walker), Pamela Susan Shoop (Maggie), Lance LeGault (Vernon Gray), Noel Conlon (William Benjamin), Michael D. Roberts (Jackson), Bert Rosario (Brown), Vince Edwards (Dr. Wesley), Richard Basehart (Wilton Knight), Edmund Gilbert (Charles Acton), Shawn Southwick (Lonnie), Brian Cutler (Bar Manager), Barret Oliver (Buddy), Robert Phillips (Symes), Alma L. Beltran (Luce), Ed Hooks (Guard), Tyler Murray (Sally), Victoria Harned (Doris), Larry Anderson (Michael Long), William Daniels (KITT), Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Muntzy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green