The Kidnap

War has broken out between the kingdom of Camarand and Karteia. Prince Erik Greystone and his squire Marko visit King Baaldorf and offers his help in battle; the King sends him to the front lines. Upon hearing that Greystone will be joining the fight, the evil Prince Dirk Blackpool steals a magical monocle from his court wizard, Vector, and holds it hostage. Despite the wizards’ code of honor, which prevents practitioners of magic from killing, Vector is left with no choice but to dispatch a deadly demon at Blackpool’s request. Marko overcomes the demon and bests Blackpool’s younger brother in hand-to-hand combat. But Greystone forgets the cryptic warning given to him by Belldonna, a ghostly image of a beautiful woman that only he can see or hear, and is unable to prevent Blackpool from walking into Castle Baaldorf and kidnapping the Princess Ariel.

written by Don Reo
directed by Richard Colla
music by Lee Holdridge

Cast: Jeff Conaway (Prince Erik Greystone), Walter Olkewicz (Marko), Duncan Regehr (Prince Dirk Blackpool), Julia Duffy (Princess Ariel), Clive Revill (Vector), Ian Wolfe (Wizard Traquill), Julie Payne (Queen Lattinia), Randi Brooks (Bethel), Tim Dunigan (Geoffrey Blackpool), Jay Kerr (Justin Greystone), Thomas Hill (King Baaldorf), Christine de Lisle (Belldonna), George McDaniel (Hook), Robert Alan Browne (General), Phyllis Katz (Cassandra), David Ankrum (Robber), Michael Crabtree (Robber), Elyse Donalson (Woman), M.C. Gainey (Robber), Emerson Hall (Robber), Chuck Hicks, Fred Lerner,
George Marshall Ruge, Steven Strong, Steven Williams

Notes: The Kidnap and The Rescue – originally written as a single script titled The Rescue and then broken up into a two-episode cliffhanger at the request of CBS – were two halves of the pilot episode of Wizards & Warriors, which is the reason for the numerous elements that make little sense when The Unicorn Of Death aired the week before: The Kidnap depicts Prince Erik’s first visit to Castle Baaldorf and his first meeting with Princess Ariel. It also shows Blackpool confiscating Vector’s magical monocle, which he is missing in Unicorn. The Kidnap and The Rescue are also much darker than most of the rest of the series. Battle scenes seen at the beginning of The Kidnap were unused battle footage from the movie Excalibur, which was – handily enough – also produced by Warner Bros. Also be on the lookout for a young M.C. Gainey, who would later play the recurring role of “Mr. Friendly”, one of the Others ruling over the island in Lost.