Year: 1973

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

Carnival of Monsters

Doctor WhoInstead of arriving on the fabled blue planet, Metebelis 3, the Doctor and Jo materialize on board a ship in the Indian Ocean in what appears to be 1926. They soon discover, however, that they are in fact trapped in a “miniscope” – a transdimensional “ant farm” in which the humans are but one exhibit. The miniscope is the property of the rapscallion Vorg, a sort of cosmic carny from the planet Lurman who, with his assistant Shirna, is the first off-world visitor to the planet Inter Minor. He is not welcome there, as the local ruling class – officious, humorless bureaucrats – fail to find his portable zoo entertaining and fear that it may teem with germs and contagion. While Vorg awaits deportation and tries to rescue his “collection” (which include a few Ogrons and some nasty giant carnivorous worms called Drashigs), the Doctor finally emerges from the machine – inadvertently abetting the escape of the horrible Drashigs behind him.

Download this episodewritten by Robert Holmes
directed by Barry Letts
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Stuart Fell (Functionary), Michael Wisher (Kalik), Terence Lodge (Orum), Cheryl Hall (Shirna), Leslie Dwyer (Vorg), Tenniel Evans (Major Daly), Andrew Staines (Captain), Ian Marter (Andrews), Jenny McCracken (Claire Daly), Peter Halliday (Pletrac)

Broadcast from January 27 through February 17, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Robert Seulowitz

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

Frontier in Space

Doctor WhoAfter months of seething suspicion, Earth and Draconia are on the brink of all-out war, with small skirmishes and raids already taking place. As the TARDIS brings the Doctor and Jo into the fray, they discover that those raids are not all that they seem; the attacks are being carried out by neither Earth nor Draconia, but a third party trying to force the two worlds closer to the beginning of war. The Doctor is outraged to discover that this third party is the Master, working with a hired band of Ogron mercenaries, but the Doctor’s attempts to warn both the president of Earth and the royal house on Draconia go largely unheeded – until it is too late. The Doctor, Jo, and several skeptical humans and Draconians track the Master down, discovering that the war is only part of his plan. For the Master has enlisted the help of his deadliest allies yet: the Daleks.

written by Malcolm Hulke
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Roger Delgado (The Master), John Rees (Hardy), James Culliford (Stewart), Roy Pattison (Draconian Pilot), Peter Birrel (Draconian Prince), Vera Fusek (President), Michael Hawkins (Williams), Louis Mahoney (Newscaster), Karol Hagar (Secretary), Ray Lonn Ashton (Kemp), Lawrence Davidson (Draconian First Secretary), Timothy Craven (Guard), Luan Peters (Sheila), Caroline Hunt (Technician), Madhav Sharma (Patel), Richard Shaw (Cross), Dennis Bowen (Governor), Harold Goldblatt (Professor Dale), Laurence Harrington (Guard), Bill Wilde (Draconian Captain), Stephen Thorne, Michael Kilgarriff, Rick Lester (Ogrons), John Woodnutt (Emperor), Ian Frost (Draconian Messenger), Clifford Elkin (Earth Cruiser Captain), Bill Mitchell (Newscaster), Ramsay Williams (Brook), Stanley Price (Pilot), John Scott Martin, Cy Town, Murphy Grumbar (Daleks), Michael Wisher (Dalek voices)

Broadcast from February 24 through March 31, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Pilot Movies Six Million Dollar Man

The Six Million Dollar Man

The Six Million Dollar ManFormer lunar astronaut Steve Austin takes on the sometimes dangerous career of test piloting experimental aircraft after retiring from NASA. During one test flight, the experimental plane he’s flying crash-lands after a series of system failures. Austin loses both legs, his right arm, and his left eye in the resulting explosion. Dr. Rudy Wells, a former NASA doctor who followed Austin out of the space program, knows that bionic prosthetics could save Austin’s life and restore his mobility – and then some – but doesn’t have the budget for such an experimental procedure.

Enter Oliver Spencer, director of the secret Office of Special Operations, who has a six million dollar budget to create the perfect secret agent. He originally envisioned a robot that could pass for human, but the time and money to create such a machine exceeds what the OSO has available. He offers to finances Austin’s recovery and Dr. Well’s highly unusual prosthetic surgery, but at a price: Steve Austin will become a government agent with strength and abilities beyond those of most men. His first assignment is to free a kidnapped hostage being held in a remote area of Saudi Arabia. Austin has the ability to save the hostage, but what he doesn’t have is the knowledge that the entire operation is a trap.

teleplay by Henri Simoun
based on the novel “Cyborg” by Martin Caidin
directed by Richard Irving
music by Gil Melle

The Six Million Dollar ManCast: Lee Majors (Steve Austin), Barbara Anderson (Jean Manners), Martin Balsam (Dr. Rudy Wells), Darren McGavin (Oliver Spencer), Dorothy Green (Mrs. McKay), Anne Whitfield (Young Woman), George Wallace (General), Robert Cornthwaite (Dr. AShburn), Olan Soule (Saltillo), Norma Storch (Woman), John Mark Robinson (Aide), Charles Knox Robinson (Prisoner), Ivor Barry (Geraldton), Maurice Sherbanee (Nudaylah)

The Six Million Dollar ManNotes: In syndicated rerun packages, this movie was split into two one-hour episodes titled The Moon And The Desert Part 1 and Part 2. Unlike the remainder of The Six Million Dollar Man on TV (and unlike the original 1972 novel “Cyborg”), Steve Austin is portrayed here as a civilian astronaut/test pilot with a disdain for the military; the next Six Million Dollar Man TV movie retcons him into an Air Force colonel. This is the only appearance of Darren McGavin as Oliver Spencer; the character was replaced with Oscar Goldman in the next movie, while Dr. Wells would be recast.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Search

Moment Of Madness

SearchCameron is kidnapped from inside PROBE Control, and there are few clues as to where he’s gone. C.R. Grover leads the search for Cameron, but he finds that even Cameron’s own niece – the only family member anyone can find – has little knowledge of Cameron’s private life. Cameron finds himself trapped in a cage, with an interrogator repeatedly asking him where and how someone will arrive. Cameron eventually recognizes his captor as a soldier who he once conditioned during the Korean War to give the enemy false information, and expresses great remorse…but that doesn’t mean he won’t keep fighting to escape.

written by Richard Landau
directed by George McCowan
music by Dominic Frontiere

SearchCast: Doug McClure (C.R. Grover), Burgess Meredith (Cameron), Patrick O’Neal (Ralph Byron), Brooke Bundy (Virginia Carr), Keith Andes (Dr. Barnett), James B. Sikking (Callas), Jan Merlin (O’Toole), Frank Maxwell (General Hack), Lenore Kasdorf (Addie), Soon-Teck Oh (Interrogator), Robert Brubaker (Dr. Weld), Tom Hallick (Harris), Pamela Jones (Miss James), Bill McConnell (Corning)

Notes: Brooke Bundy, appearing as Cameron’s niece, would go on to be the first (but certainly not last) chief engineer audiences would meet aboard the new Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
1954-75: Showa Series Godzilla

Godzilla vs. Megalon

GodzillaAn underground nuclear test in the Aleutian Islands has widespread environmental effects, even as far away as Monster Island in the South Pacific. Godzilla and the other monsters are in distress and attempt to escape the earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and storms.

The effects are also felt in Japan, where inventor Goro Ibuki, his son Rokuro, and Goro’s friend Hiroshi Jinkawa are enjoy a day at the lake. An earthquake creates a crack in the lake bed, draining the water underground. The day ruined, they return to Ibuki’s home, where the door is unlocked and open. They are attacked by several mysterious men, who flee. Hiroshi gives chase, but they manage to escape. The attackers were apparently trying to find information about the robot Ibuki is building. The leave behind an unusual red sand, which is revealed to have come from deep undersea.

Now completed, the robot is activated and named “Jet Jaguar.” The mysterious agents snatch Rokuro and use him as ploy to get into the house, using a sleep gas to knock out the two men and the boy. Receiving orders from the Emperor of Seatopia, they program the robot to lead Megalon to “the target.”

At the undersea kingdom of Seatopia, Emperor Antonio informs his subjects they are going to war against the Earth because the nuclear testing has already destroyed a third of the country. He unleashes the giant monster Megalon. The giant winged beetle with a glowing antenna and sharp, serrated claws rises to the surface.

A Seatopian agent has tied up Ibuki and his son in the back of a truck and is heading toward the cracked lake, with plans to take them to the undersea kingdom. Back at the house, Hiroshi breaks free from his bonds, knocks out a Seatopian agent, and escapes to rescue the others.

Megalon arrives at the lake, meeting Jet Jaguar who leads him to Tokyo. The city is being evacuated, and army units are being sent in. The truck drivers throw the Seatopian out of the cab, and decide to dump the container with Ibuki and his son into the dam instead of going to the lake. Megalon interrupts their task and they run off. The monster smashes the dam, releasing the water into the valley below. The container slips off the truck, but Megalon bats it over the mountain. The doors crack open spilling out the pair.

The army is making a valiant attempt to stop Megalon before he gets to Tokyo, but the beast breaks through the line and uses a laser emitting from his antenna to destroy the defenders. In an army helicopter, Ibuki uses the transmitter to override the Seatopian programming and sends Jet Jaguar to get Godzilla. Realizing the King of the Monsters will arrive soon, the Seatopians request assistance from Space Hunter Nebula M, who send Gigan.

Megalon arrives in Tokyo and uses his antenna laser to destroy huge sections of the city. Jet Jaguar meets with Ibuki and reports that Godzilla is on the way. However, Ibuki no longer controls the robot – it has reprogrammed itself “for survival.” It flies to meet Megalon, and grows to match the monster’s size in order to do battle.

Jet Jaguar is barely able to hold his own against Megalon, when Gigan appears. Caught between the two monsters, the robot tries to fly off. But Megalon knocks him out of the sky with his antenna laser. On the ground, the beasts knock Jet Jaguar around. Just as it appears hopeless, Godzilla arrives and throws some kaiju karate moves on Megalon and Gigan while Jet Jaguar licks his wounds.

Both of the monsters are seriously injured and lying on the ground. Gigan manages to get back up, flies toward Godzilla, and slashes Godzilla in the shoulder with the buzz-saw blade in his abdomen, This enrages Godzilla, who blasts the space monster with his nuclear breath, knocking it out of the sky. Gigan threatens to decapitate Jet Jaguar, but Godilla blasts Gigan again, who retreats to Megalon. The creatures surround Godzilla and Jet Jaguar with a ring of fire, but the robot lifts Godzilla out of the inferno. The allies thrash Megalon and Gigan, causing Gigan to flee like a wounded bully back to Space Hunter Nebula M. Godzilla and Jet Jaguar continue to beat on Megalon, who falls into a crevice that leads back to Seatopia.

Defeated, the Emperor orders all exits to the surface closed. Godzilla returns to Monster Island. Jet Jaguar shrinks to human size and returns to his creator.

written by Shinichi Sekizawa
directed by Jun Fukuda
music by Riichiro Manabe

Human Cast: Katsuhiko Sasaki (Goro Ibuki), Hiroyuki Kawase (Rokuro Ibuki), Yutaka Hayashi (Hiroshi Jinkawa), Robert Dunham (Seatopia Emperor Antonio)

Monster Cast: Godzilla, Megalon, Jet Jaguar, Rodan, Angirus

Notes: Jet Jaguar was based on a design created by a school child as part of a Toho-sponsored contest. He was originally intended to be in his own movie, but studio execs didn’t think he could stand alone. The English language translation pronounces the robot’s name as “Jet Jag-you-are.” While there is no “official” DVD release of this movie in North America, it does show up on TV from time to time, and there is a Mystery Science Theater 3000 version on DVD.

LogBook entry by Robert Parson

Categories
TV Movies

Genesis II

Genesis IIIn 1979, NASA researcher Dylan Hunt volunteers to become the first human test subject of a process of suspended animation that he has helped to develop for long space journeys. Rather than freezing its subjects, Hunt’s process relies on a special combination of drugs and a chamber pressurized with a mixture of gases that shut down the body’s metabolic processes without killing the subject. During the pressurization of Hunt’s sleeping chamber, a major earthquake strikes the underground facility, forcing the scientists there to evacuate. Dylan Hunt is left behind, buried alive beneath Carlsbad Caverns.

Hunt is awakened by a team that obviously isn’t working for NASA, and is told that it is now 2133. The underground caverns are occupied by an organization called PAX, but Hunt’s caretaker, Lyra-A, isn’t a member of PAX. She’s a mutant – as can be seen by her second navel – and claims that PAX is a civilization of warmongers, masquerading as pacifists, lurking underground and waiting to strike at the more civilized people who live on Earth’s surface. Hunt accepts Lyra-A’s offer of an escape to her city, Tyrannia, only to find an oppressive mutant regime enslaving humans.

written by Gene Roddenberry
directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
music by Harry Sukman

Genesis IICast: Alex Cord (Dylan Hunt), Mariette Hartley (Lyra-a), Ted Cassidy (Isiah), Percy Rodrigues (Primus Kimbridge), Harvey Jason (Singh), Titos Vandis (Primus Yuloff), Bill Striglos (Kellum), Lynne Marta (Primus Harper-Smythe), Harry Raybold (Slan-n), Majel Barrett (Primus Dominic), Leon Askin (Overseer), Liam Dunn (Janos), Scott Graham (Tyranian Teacher), Ed Ashley (Wehr-r), Linda Grant (Astrid), Robert Swan (Lahyn-n), Beulah Quo (Primus Lu Chan), Dennis Robertson (General), Ray Young (Tyranian Teacher #2), Tom Pace (Brian), Teryl Willis (Cardiologist), David Westburg (Station Operator), Robert Hathaway (Shuttle Car Operator), Tammi Bula (Teenager)

Genesis IINotes: If Gene Roddenberry liked working with you that one time, Gene Roddenberry will hire you again. Cases in point: Ted Cassidy played Ruk in the Star Trek episode What Are Little Girls Made Of?, while Mariette Hartley guest starred in one of the final original Trek episodes, All Our Yesterdays. Percy Rodrigues put Captain Kirk on trial in Court-Martial, and appeared in other genre series such as The Starlost and the television incarnation of Planet Of The Apes before going on to become one of the 1970s’ most frequently employed movie trailer voice-over Genesis IIartists. Dylan Hunt would be recast in his next TV adventure (1974’s Planet Earth), and would be renamed (but not recast) for one last try-out in the 20th century, 1975’s Strange New World; Roddenberry’s Dylan Hunt/PAX concept wouldn’t be revisited further until a space-based revamp transformed it into the 21st century syndicated series Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, for which all of the earlier attempts nearly 30 years earlier can be regarded misfired pilots.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

Planet of the Daleks

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS continues toward the planet Spiridon, the location of the hidden Dalek army that could overrun the entire galaxy. The injured Doctor falls into a self-induced healing coma, leaving Jo few instructions. When the TARDIS lands, Jo ventures out into the poisonous jungle on Spiridon, eventually encountering a military expedition of Thals, the Daleks’ mortal enemies from Skaro. The Thals manage to get the Doctor to safety and join him on a mission to keep the Dalek army from launching its offensive. The invisible natives of Spiridon, enslaved by the Daleks, are another hazard, along with the lethal vegetation. When the Dalek Supreme arrives to lead its army into battle, it appears that the Doctor may be too late to stop his old rivals.

written by Terry Nation
directed by David Maloney and Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Bernard Horsfall (Taron), Prentis Hancock (Vaber), Tim Preece (Codal), Roy Skelton (Wester), Jane How (Rebec), Hilary Minster (Marat), Alan Tucker (Latep), Tony Starr (Dalek Supreme), John Scott Martin, Murphy Grumbar, Cy Town (Daleks), Michael Wisher, Roy Skelton (Dalek voices)

Broadcast from April 7 through May 12, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 1 Tomorrow People

Slaves Of Jedikiah – Part 1

Tomorrow PeopleYoung Stephen Jameson walks through London, unaware that two very different groups of people are monitoring him closely. He suffers some sort of attack, crumples to the ground, and is rushed to a hospital. When he wakes up, he meets a young woman named Carol, one of his observers, who tells him that he has experienced his “breaking out” – the moment when he evolved from homo sapiens to homo superior, one of the Tomorrow People, the next stage in human evolution. He has mental powers beyond those of most people, and must learn to control those powers to serve a higher good. Two men dressed as doctors appear, but they’re not doctors – they’re members of the other faction watching Stephen’s progress. He is taken to their master, Jedikiah, who intends to harness Stephen’s powers for less noble purposes.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Brian Finch and Roger Price
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Sammie Winmill (Carol), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen), Stephen Salmon (Kenny), Francis de Wolff (Jedikiah), Michael Standing (Ginge), Derek Crewe (Lefty), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Patricia Denys (Mrs. Jameson), Peter Weston (Policeman), Neville Barber (Dr. Stewart), Christine Shaw (Staff Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 1 Tomorrow People

Slaves Of Jedikiah – Part 2

Tomorrow PeopleJedikiah and his thugs interrogate Stephen, trying to gauge his emerging powers while learning more about their rivals, the Tomorrow People. Using the telekinetic ability of Jimmy, the youngest Tomorrow Person, Carol and John, the team’s leader, home in on where Stephen is being held, and rescue him from Jedikiah and an entity known only as Cyclops. The return to their top-secret base, built into an abandoned section of the London Underground, introducing Stephen to TIM, the sentient computer whose information helps to guide their efforts. There’s just one problem: Stephen isn’t entirely in control of his actions.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Brian Finch and Roger Price
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Sammie Winmill (Carol), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen), Stephen Salmon (Kenny), Francis de Wolff (Jedikiah), Michael Standing (Ginge), Derek Crewe (Lefty), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Robert Bridges (Cyclops), Patricia Denys (Mrs. Jameson), Peter Weston (Policeman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 1 Tomorrow People

Slaves Of Jedikiah – Part 3

Tomorrow PeopleCarol and John discover that something has happened to their base: TIM is offline, which means that their longer-distance ability to “jaunt”, or teleport, is not available. When they arrive at their base, they discover that Jedikiah and his minions lie in wait for them; an attempt to jaunt to safety leaves them trapped in hyperspace. Now only Kenny remains to fend off the invasion of the Tomorrow People’s base.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Brian Finch and Roger Price
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Sammie Winmill (Carol), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen), Stephen Salmon (Kenny), Francis de Wolff (Jedikiah), Michael Standing (Ginge), Derek Crewe (Lefty), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Robert Bridges (Cyclops)

Notes: It is revealed that the Tomorrow People have jaunted to other planets and met non-human forms of life, none of which are meant to visit Earth because it is a “closed” planet.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 10 Doctor Who

The Green Death

Doctor WhoProblems at a Welsh mining operation draw the attention of UNIT. The Brigadier is frustrated by the usual lack of cooperation from the mining company, Global Chemicals, but the Doctor is more interested in the rash of mysterious deaths among Global’s miners. He goes down into the mine himself to learn more about the glowing green ooze that has killed almost every miner who has touched it, and discovers a horrifying sight – giant maggots, mutated to a grotesque size by Global’s waste chemicals, are secreting the deadly substance and may even be growing hostile enough to attack humans. Despite this revelation (and the well-meaning interference of local environmental protesters), however, Global Chemicals’ chairman refuses to shut down the mines – and it soon becomes evident that someone else is in charge of the operation, someone or something whose sinister motives may include allowing the poisonous insect larvae to reach the surface and hatch into equally deadly giant insects.

Download this episodewritten by Robert Sloman
directed by Michael Briant
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Stewart Bevan (Professor Clifford Jones), Jerome Willis (Stevens), John Scott Martin (Hughes), Ben Howard (Hinks), Tony Adams (Elgin), Mostyn Evans (Dai Evans), Ray Handy (Milkman), Talfryn Thomas (Dave), Roy Evans (Bert), John Dearth (voice of BOSS), John Rolfe (Fell), Terry Walsh, Billy Horrigan, Brian Justice, Alan Chuntz (Guards), Mitzi McKenzie (Nancy), Jean Burgess (Cleaner), Roy Skelton (James), Richard Beale (Minister of Ecology)

Broadcast from May 19 through June 23, 1973

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 1 Tomorrow People

Slaves Of Jedikiah – Part 4

Tomorrow PeopleJohn and Carol have regained control of TIM and the base, and free Stephen from the silencing band that soaks up his telepathic ability, but Kenny has been abducted by Jedikiah. Jedikiah sheds his human disguise, revealing himself as a robot controlled by the alien Cyclops. Base at their base, John, Carol and Stephen discover that Cyclops is on a spacecraft, speeding toward Earth, where he expects to take control, somehow using their talents.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Brian Finch and Roger Price
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Sammie Winmill (Carol), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen), Stephen Salmon (Kenny), Francis de Wolff (Jedikiah), Michael Standing (Ginge), Derek Crewe (Lefty), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Robert Bridges (Cyclops)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 1 Tomorrow People

Slaves Of Jedikiah – Part 5

Tomorrow PeopleTIM refuses to go along with the plan to jaunt John, Carol and Stephen into the alien ship at the same time and in the same place, depositing Carol elsewhere on the ship. The damaged Jedikiah robot goes mad and begins blasting its way into other areas of the ship, causing severe damage. Cyclops begs the Tomorrow People for help…but can it be trusted?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Brian Finch and Roger Price
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Sammie Winmill (Carol), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen), Stephen Salmon (Kenny), Francis de Wolff (Jedikiah), Michael Standing (Ginge), Derek Crewe (Lefty), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Robert Bridges (Cyclops)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 1 Tomorrow People

The Medusa Strain – Part 1

Tomorrow PeopleIn deep space, Jedikiah floats through eternity for 500 years until rescued by the flamboyant captain of a passing spaceship, who supplies him with enough power to change his shape again. On the ship, a young boy is being held, a youth whose unique abilities are not unlike those of the Tomorrow People already encountered by Jedikiah, but he is kept from using those powers by the threat of a brain-sapping Medusa creature being unleashed upon him. Jedikiah, obsessed with revenge upon the Tomorrow People, harnesses the boy’s gift for time travel. On Earth, time stops.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Brian Finch and Roger Price
directed by Roger Price
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Sammie Winmill (Carol), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen), Stephen Salmon (Kenny), Roger Bizley (Jedikiah), Michael Standing (Ginge), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Roger Booth (Robowski), Richard Speight (Peter), Dave Prowse (Android), Norman McGlen (The Medusa)

Tomorrow PeopleNotes: Yes, that’s future Darth Vader David Prowse, as you’ve never seen him before, nearly in the buff and painted gold as Robowski’s android servant. Both before and after his work on Star Wars, Prowse was a mainstay of British sci-fi monster suits, with appearances in Doctor Who, Space: 1999, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Movies Planet Of The Apes

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes

Planet Of The ApesThe riots started by Caesar’s uprising were only the beginning; a bloody war followed in which humanity’s great cities were razed to the ground. Reduced to a primitive state, humans and apes try to co-exist peacefully according to Caesar’s wishes, and according to a simple set of laws: ape must never kill ape, and no human may ever say “no” to an ape again. But the truce is an uneasy one, and Caesar constantly has to keep the peace. With his human confidante MacDonald and an ape scientist named Virgil, Caesar decides to set out for the radioactive ruins of Los Angeles to retrieve archived video recordings of his parents, Cornelius and Zira, who are rumored to have spoken extensively of Earth’s history – effectively revealing the future. But L.A. isn’t unoccupied: Kolp, formerly Governor Breck’s security chief, has taken charge of a city of radiation-scarred human militants. When Caesar’s scouting party trips the alarms, Kolp’s men try to capture them, at first orders to capture them alive, but he then orders his men to shoot to kill. Caesar and his party escape, enraging Kolp. Kolp decides to form his own search party, to find Caesar’s people and wipe them out.

Returning home, though, Caesar is accosted by General Aldo, the gorilla leader of the apes’ security forces. Aldo demands to know where Caesar went and why, and is clearly not satisfied by Caesar’s cryptic explanation. That night, when his pet escapes, Caesar’s son tries to track it down and overhears Aldo rallying the gorillas for a takeover of the ape community; Aldo discovers this and critically injures the boy. While Caesar is distracted, the humans mount their first attack on the apes, and Aldo uses this as an excuse to imprison all of the humans living peacefully in the ape city and seize power by force. Kolp’s attack is routed, but Aldo’s thirst for revenge isn’t satisfied so easily: he wants even the peaceful humans in the city executed. When Caesar learns the truth about what happened to his son, he attacks Aldo, seeking vengeance…but in doing so, has Caesar merely sown the seeds of distrust that will eventually destroy the world?

Order the DVDsstory by Paul Dehn
screenplay by John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington
directed by J. Lee Thompson
music by Leonard Rosenman

Cast: Roddy McDowall (Caesar), Claude Akins (Aldo), Natalie Trundy (Lisa), Severn Darden (Kolp), Law Ayres (Mandemus), Paul Williams (Virgil), Austin Stoker (MacDonald), Noah Keen (Teacher), Richard Eastham (Mutant Captain), France Nuyen (Alma), Paul Stevens (Mendez), Heather Lowe (Doctor), Bobby Porter (Cornelius), Michael Stearns (Jake), Cal Wilson (Soldier), Pat Cardi (Young Chimp), John Landis (Jake’s Friend), Andy Knight (Mutant on motorcycle), John Huston (The Lawgiver)

LogBook entry by Earl Green