Year: 1975

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Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

The Youth Killer

Night StalkerA series of unidentified elderly bodies are turning up around Chicago, dying of natural causes. Only Kolchak believes that they may be connected to the disappearances of a series of young swingers. He finds out that the disappearances had one thing in common – each was a member of an exclusive dating service run by a mysterious Helen. A taxi driver and former Greek professor identifies Helen from a photo as Helen of Troy, whose face launched a thousand ships. She is able to maintain her youthfulness by sacrificing to the gods the youth of physically perfect victims. Each of the victims is given a special ring as part of their membership, which marks them as a sacrifice to the gods. Carl accidentally dons one of the rings, and must confront Helen in her modern-day Greek shrine before she ages him to death as well.

Order the DVDswritten by Rudolph Borchert
directed by Don McDougall
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Kathy Lee Crosby (Helen), Kaz Kazantarkis (Demosthenes), Dwayne Hickman (Sgt. Orkin), Kathleen Freeman (Bella Sarkof)

Notes: Primarily a comedy episode, there is very little overt horror and even more scenes played for laughs than usual.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

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Season 1 Star Blazers

Death Struggle: God, Weep For The Gamilas

Star BlazersD minus 164 days: Trapped between an acid sea and acid rain, with Gamilon missiles closing in, Wildstar consults with Captain Avatar one last time. Avatar recommends submerging the Argo long enough to find an undersea volcano – and trigger an eruption with the wave motion gun. IQ-9 locates something that will turn the tide of the whole battle: a volcanic system which, if triggered properly, could turn the already inhospitable Gamilon homeworld into an uninhabitable hell. What Wildstar can’t even imagine is that Desslok’s obsession with destroying the Argo will lead the Gamilon commander to lay his own world to waste.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Star Blazers

Iscandar: A Dying Planet of Love

Star BlazersD minus 161 days: The Argo lands on Iscandar and is met by Queen Starsha herself, who initially mistakes Nova for her sister, who died delivering Starsha’s message to Earth. As the components of the Cosmo DNA device are loaded aboard the Argo, Starsha leads Wildstar and Nova to her home, where she has been nursing an Earth officer back to health after the Gamilon ship that captured him landed on Iscandar: Alex Wildstar, Derek’s older brother who was presumed dead in the battle of Pluto. In the meantime, assistant engineer Sparks leads a dozen members of the Argo’s crew in an attempt to mutiny and remain on Iscandar. But two things make this situation especially dangerous: Sparks’ mutineers have chosen one of the most dangerous spots on Iscandar to hide, and they have kidnapped Nova.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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TV Movies

Strange New World

Strange New WorldCaptain Anthony Vico is the leader of a team of researchers aboard a space station operated by the scientific agency PAX, conducting experiments in subjecting human beings to suspended animation. The station is moved into a different orbit when a swarm of asteroids is detected nearing Earth, and the computer is set to awaken Vico and his crew in a few days is given new orders: don’t revive them for another 180 years, and then give them instructions to return to Earth to reunite with any PAX remnants that may still exist. Upon
returning to Earth, Vico and his team follow an intermittent PAX homing signal until they’re all but sitting on top of its source, at which point another signal renders them unconscious.

When Vico and his team awaken, they find themselves in an idyllic city populated entirely by young, fit people, whose leader seems intent that the PAX team should stay there. Vico loses his patients and attempts to escape, discovering that the seemingly young population consists of humans kept alive by cloning; as their organs age or fail, they are replaced by organs harvested from the clones. The PAX team is imprisoned to serve as a supply of fresh blood, with a strong immune resistance, for the clones, until Vico leads them in an escape.

The PAX survivors then run across a desert oasis filled with fresh fruit and spring water, but this find is naturally too good to be true: two primitive tribes battle over the resources of this small area of land, and one of the groups takes PAX navigator Allison Crowley hostage, leaving Vico and PAX’s Dr. Scott little time to negotiate her release – or start a local war by trying to free her before she comes to harm.

written by Ronald F. Graham, Alvin Ramrus and Walon Green
directed by Robert Butler
music by Richard Clements and Elliot Kaplan

Strange New WorldCast: John Saxon (Captain Anthony Vico), Catherine Bach (Guide), Norland Benson (Hide), Martine Beswick (Tana), Reb Brown (Sprang), Keene Curtis (Doctor Scott), Dick Farnsworth (Elder), Gerrit Graham (Daniel), Bill McKinney (Badger), Kathleen Miller (Allison Crowley), James Olson (Surgeon), Ford Rainey (Cyrus), Cynthia Wood (Arana)

Strange New WorldNotes: Produced without any participation from Gene Roddenberry, Strange New World is Warner Bros.’ third and final attempt to launch the PAX saga as a series, since the studio owned the rights to the format Roddenberry developed. To avoid legal entanglements, the character of Dylan Hunt was renamed Anthony Vico, though John Saxon was again cast in the role. The only other common element is the name of the PAX organization (used as a proxy for NASA here), and the basic premise of Hunt/Vico being frozen in suspended animation, only to be revived in a destroyed world which he vows to rebuild to its former glory. This was the last attempt to bring Dylan Hunt to TV in the 1970s; the next attempt, the 2000 premiere of the Strange New Worldposthumously-produced Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, restored Hunt’s name and retained the “man frozen in time awakens to rebuild his world” log line, but shed the PAX concept and the not-so-distant-future-of-Earth setting. The writing talent brought to bear on this final attempt to salvage the Genesis II concept was considerable: Walon Green co-wrote the classic western The Wild Bunch (1969), while Ronald F. Graham (1941-2010) wrote many episodes of UK TV series like The Professionals, The Sweeney, and Dempsey & Makepeace. Al Ramrus wrote episodes of Rat Patrol, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and The Avengers.

8LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

The Sentry

Night StalkerA scientist’s discovery of a node containing strange blue nodules triggers a series of grisly deaths at an underground archival facility. Each victim is badly mauled, and the autopsy report indicates that they were bitten by some large animal. Sneaking into the facility, Kolchak discovers that the staff are leery of strange occurrences, and the military has taken in security. He himself witnesses a strange two-legged lizard creature and narrowly escapes. He is evicted from the facility, but does some research to discover that the lizards are phototropic (afraid of light). Realizing that the nodules are in fact eggs, Carl sneaks back in to the facility. The “sentry” has killed more people in its search, and Kolchak must return the eggs by risking his own life.

Order the DVDswritten by L. Ford Neale & John Huff
directed by Seymour Robbie
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Tom Bosley (Jack Flaherty), Albert Paulsen (Dr. James Verhyden), Kathy Brown (Lt. Irene Lamont), John Hoyt (Dr. Lamar Beckwith), Frank Campanella (Ted Chapman), Frank Marth (Colonel Brody)

Notes: This episode bears a very strong resemblance to the Star Trek episode Devil In The Dark. Kathy Brown is Darren McGavin’s wife. Other than Simon Oakland as Vincenzo, no other regular cast member is present in this episode.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

Categories
Season 1 Star Blazers

Earth: Yamato Returns

Star BlazersD minus 131 days: After a one-month layover on Iscandar, the Argo heads back to Earth – but Desslok has escaped with one last Gamilon destroyer and plans to exact his final vengeance on the Star Force. But even Desslok’s sneak attack goes wrong when the Argo goes into warp – and rematerializes around the Gamilon vessel. Desslok takes advantage of the collision and the chaos, leading his men into the belly of the Argo and pumping a radioactive sleeping gas into the ship to render the crew unconscious. Nova makes a last-ditch attempt to save the crew by prematurely activating the radiation-cleansing Cosmo DNA machine, but nearly pays for it with her life – she inhales enough of Desslok’s gas to fall into a coma. The Star Force returns to Earth at last, but the first day of the human race’s salvation will be Captain Avatar’s last day alive.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sky

Burning Bright

SearchBored with their parents’ duck hunt, three teenagers drive a land rover into a wooded area; one of them, Arby, discovers a young man, alone and nearly naked, in the forest. Assuming that the stranger is either injured or dead, Arby tries to help, only to discover that the boy – Sky – is very much alive, and unlike anyone he has ever met. Displaying powers of teleportation and telekinesis, Sky fears something called the Juganet, and says he needs Arby’s help.

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
directed by Patrick Dromgoole
music by Eric Wetherell

SkyCast: Marc Harrison (Sky), Stuart Lock (Arby Vennor), Cherrald Butterfield (Jane Vennor), Richard Speight (Roy Briggs), Jack Watson (Major Briggs)

Notes: Bob Baker and Dave Martin (1935-2007) had been writing as a team (known informally as “the Bristol Boys”) for some time, including numerous Doctor Who scripts dating back to 1971; later in that show’s lifetime they would create the character of K-9 (and would continue to reap the rewards from having created that character into the 21st century). Baker and Martin also created the 1980s children’s fantasy series Into The Labyrinth.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sky

Juganet

SearchHearing Sky’s psychic cry for help, Arby rushes to find the otherworldly youth suspended in mid-air, seemingly being attacked by leaves and branches. Sky explains to Arby and his sister Jane that he comes from another dimension, and his very existence is being rejected by nature, like an infection being fought off by antibodies. When a robed bearded man appears in the forest after another such “attack of nature”, it seems that Sky has an enemy.

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
directed by Patrick Dromgoole
music by Eric Wetherell

SkyCast: Marc Harrison (Sky), Stuart Lock (Arby Vennor), Cherrald Butterfield (Jane Vennor), Richard Speight (Roy Briggs), Jack Watson (Major Briggs), Frances Cuka (Mrs. Vennor), Thomas Heathcote (Mr. Vennor), Robert Eddison (Goodchild)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 3 Tomorrow People

A Man For Emily – Part 1: The Fastest Gun

Tomorrow PeopleA spacecraft with only three human occupants drops out of lightspeed and goes into a parking orbit around Earth to recharge. On the ship, naive, servile Elmer does practically all the labor, freeing his older sister Emily and their mother up to watch transmissions from the primitive world below. As most of those transmissions seem to be cowboy movies, they assume that this is an accurate representation of life on Earth, sending Elmer down to the planet via matter transporter to restock food – and dressing him in full cowboy regalia, which is a little out of place in 1970s England. Having been told how to behave (in accordance with the westerns seen by his sister and mother), Elmer shoots a man rather than paying for food. Already aware of the ship’s presence in orbit, John and Elizabeth jaunt into space, where the ship grabs Elizabeth but leaves John adrift. He returns to Earth to follow TIM’s reports of Elmer’s dangerous behavior. Knowing that Elmer is an alien who likely doesn’t know how to act among humans, John and Stephen try to get Elmer out of harm’s way…but must jaunt out of sight before the police arrive.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Roger Price
directed by Stan Woodward
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Elizabeth Adare (Elizabeth), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughn Clarke (Stephen), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Margaret Burton (The Momma), Sandra Dickinson (Emily), Peter Davison (Elmer), Dean Lawrence (Tyso), Robin Parkinson (Publican), Bill Dean (Mr. Greenhead)

Tomorrow PeopleNotes: This episode of The Tomorrow People marks the series television debut of young actor Peter Davison, age 23 – six years before he became the youngest actor ever to be cast as the Doctor in Doctor Who up to that point. (That record was later broken by Matt Smith.) Between The Tomorrow People and Doctor Who, of course, Davison made a name for himself as a reliable and likeable actor in such series as All Creatures Great And Small, Love For Lydia, and Holding The Fort. This was also Davison’s first professional collaboration with his future wife, Sandra Dickinson, who would go on to play Trillian in the BBC’s TV adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series 1 Survivors

The Fourth Horseman

Survivors (1970s series)A routine day in Abby Grant’s cozy world starts to unravel slowly. Her son’s school is locked down due to a flu outbreak – only the latest such outbreak in recent weeks – and her husband’s train is delayed by hours due to power outages and rail backups all the way to inner London. In London itself, Jenny Richards tries to get a doctor to make a house call for her ailing roommate, but by the time help arrives, the woman has died. The doctor admits that the fast-spreading disease is not the flu – and that even modern medicine in a major city like London cannot find a cure. He urges Jenny to head for the safety of the country: before long, the inner city will be piled up with the dead, unleashing more diseases that, despite being fairly common, will wipe out those who remain without medical services. Jenny packs her bags and starts making her way out of London. People make their way to churches and other refuges, and fear leads to isolation. Those seeking shelter are turned away; every man, woman and child must fend for themselves. As the disease wipes out much of the world’s population, the facade of civilization melts away.

Abby herself has fallen ill with the disease, and her husband leaves to find a doctor. But while Abby survives her infection, her husband dies. She sets out alone and finds no survivors in her relatively isolated village; the dead pile up in church pews, living rooms, and cars. Abby finally leaves to go retrieve her son from his boarding school, and is almost relieved to find that her son is missing – at least he’s not among the dead. She finds only one man alive on the entire campus, a teacher who reveals that Abby’s son was among a small group of students who were evacuated just before the disease spread through the student body like wildfire. Armed with this information, Abby returns home one last time to prepare for the quest to find her son – and to say goodbye to the life she once knew.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Pennant Roberts
title music by Anthony Isaac

Cast: Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant), Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards), Talfryn Thomas (Tom Price), Peter Bowles (David Grant), Peter Copley (Doctor Bronson), Christopher Reich (Andrew Tyler), Margaret Anderson (Mrs. Transon), Callum Mill (Doctor Gordon), Blake Butler (Mr. Pollard), Elizabeth Sinclair (Patricia), Giles Melville (Kevin Lloyd), Len Jones (First Youth)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 12 Doctor Who

Revenge Of The Cybermen

Doctor WhoThe Cybermen are out to pulverize the planetoid Voga, a small body rich in gold. As we learn here for the first time, gold is one of the only substances capable of shutting down the Cybermen, and Voga’s wealth of the precious metal was key to the defeat of the Cybermen in the “Cyber Wars” (evidently, the Cybermen are acquainted with Usenet flame-fests too). The Cybermen’s plan to destroy Voga hinges on the elimination of a manned satellite that stands sentinel near the planetoid – a satellite that will later become the Nerva space station that will preserve the human race. But the Cybermen don’t count on the arrival of the Doctor, Sarah and Harry – or on the willpower and ability of the Vogans to defend their homeworld.

Download this episodewritten by Gerry Davis
directed by Michael E. Briant
music by Carey Blyton

Guest Cast: Alec Wallis (Warner), Ronald Leigh-Hunt (Stevenson), Jeremy Wilkin (Kellman), William Marlowe (Lester), David Collings (Vorus/Wilkins), Michael Wisher (Magrik/Colville/Vogan voice), Christopher Robbie (Cyberleader), Melville Jones (Cyberman), Kevin Stoney (Tyrum), Brian Grellis (Sheprah)

Broadcast from April 19 through May 10, 1975

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Sky

Goodchild

SearchArby stops Sky from engaging in battle with the newly arrived figure in the forest, but they are picked up by the police, who press breaking/entering and assault charges against Sky because of his encounter with Roy’s father. Sky uses his ability to influence the mind of others to convince the police sergeant to release him. There is another brief encounter with the shadowy figure from the forest, convincing Sky that not only is he in danger, but Arby, Jane and Roy are in danger due to their contact with him.

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
directed by Terry Harding
music by Eric Wetherell

SkyCast: Marc Harrison (Sky), Stuart Lock (Arby Vennor), Cherrald Butterfield (Jane Vennor), Richard Speight (Roy Briggs), Jack Watson (Major Briggs), Frances Cuka (Mrs. Vennor), Thomas Heathcote (Mr. Vennor), Robert Eddison (Goodchild)

Notes: The 2″ master videotape of this episode suffered critical damage in the 1990s, and is Skyrepresented on DVD by a VHS backup copy of noticeably lower quality. David Jackson (1934–2005) would go on to play freedom fighter Gan, a member of the Liberator crew during the first two seasons of the BBC’s space opera Blake’s 7.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series 1 Survivors

Genesis

Survivors (1970s series)Awakened by the incongruous sound of a helicopter flying overhead, Abby tries to get the pilot’s attention, to no avail. The pilot, Greg Preston, stole the helicopter to rush home from Holland, only to find his wife dead of the plague. He sets out by car and happens upon a woman named Anne Tranter, who’s trying to flag down someone who can help her husband, trapped under a flipped tractor. Once Greg has helped to rescue Anne’s husband, however, he is stunned by her attitude – she’s more concerned with regaining some semblence of material wealth than with trying to rebuild society. Abby’s travels take her to a large country house where Arthur Wormley, a well-known union boss, has set up shop. At first, Wormley’s ideas are attractive: rebuilding society and restoring normalcy. But slowly, Abby realizes that Wormley’s rhetoric is merely a smokescreen to cover for his real motive – a grab for power, forming a new government with himself at the top. When he admits that the spacious house is something that he and his supporters “took over,” and decides that he has the authority to order the execution of anyone who tries to oppose his idea of law and order, Abby leaves quickly. Jenny Richards – still wandering – meets Preston, who is raiding a pharmacy for medicine for Anne Tranter’s husband. But as he races back to help, he finds Anne has already left her husband, claiming he is dead.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Gerald Blake
title music by Anthony Isaac

Cast: Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant), Ian McCullouch (Greg Preston), Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards), Talfryn Thomas (Tom Price), George Baker (Arthur Wormley), Myra Frances (Anne Tranter), Terry Scully (Vic Thatcher), Brian Peck (Dave Long), Edward Brooks (Colonel), Peter Jolley (First Man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Sky

What Dread Hand

SearchThe shadowy man known only as Goodchild has attacked Sky again, rendering the boy feeble and weak; Roy, Arby and Jane take him to the nearest hospital, unsure of what else they can do to help him. In the hospital, Sky continues muttering something about the Juganet, and tries to reach out telepathically to his new friends for help, but otherwise remains in a trancelike state. Goodchild adopts a less medieval outfit to blend in and finish the battle, and Sky’s friends may not be able to save him in time.

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
directed by Derek Clark
music by Eric Wetherell

SkyCast: Marc Harrison (Sky), Stuart Lock (Arby Vennor), Cherrald Butterfield (Jane Vennor), Richard Speight (Roy Briggs), Jack Watson (Major Briggs), Frances Cuka (Mrs. Vennor), Thomas Heathcote (Mr. Vennor), Meredith Edwards (Tom), Gerald Hel (Dr. Saul), Ursula Barclay (First Nurse), Monica Lavers (Second Nurse), Barbara Baber (Receptionist), Geoff Serle (Orderly), Robert Eddison (Goodchild)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series 1 Survivors

Gone Away

Survivors (1970s series)Vagrant Tom Price thought that the plague might actually improve his lot in life – with fewer people alive, he might actually find work. But the plague has drastically recalibrated the scale of what is and isn’t valuable. In this new world, scavenging through a vacant house, Tom finds a huge wad of cash which now has no value whatsoever. The only thing of value that he does find is a shotgun – and live chickens. He shoots one of the chickens, only to see it stolen by another survivor. Tom continues wandering until he happens upon the abandoned property that Abby has decided to use as a base of operations in her search for her son. Abby, however, isn’t there; she’s enlisted the help of Jenny and Greg to go scavenging for more food and supplies at the first store they can find. But while the store has ample supplies, it also has a hanged man on display as a warning to looters. Greg is eager to leave at once, but Abby and Jenny continue “shopping” until a gang of armed thugs appear. Abby recognizes them – Arthur Wormley’s self-appointed mob passing themselves off as the “new government.” Even at gunpoint, Abby refuses to accept their authority as law, and whether she wants to choose sides or not, she has made a new enemy.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Terence Williams
music by Anthony Isaac

Cast: Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant), Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston), Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards), Talfryn Thomas (Tom Price), Brian Peck (Dave Long), Barry Stanton (Reg Gunnel), Robert Gillespie (John Milner), Robert Fyfe (Phillipson), Graham Fletcher (Boy)

Notes: The dead farm animals seen by Tom may have starved to death, or it may be a subtle hint that the disease has jumped species. If anything is surprising about the survivors’ plight, it is the fact that, with limited space in their scavenging vehicles for food, they manage to keep acquiring an endless supply of cigarettes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green