Year: 1977

Categories
Classic Season 14 Doctor Who

The Face Of Evil

Doctor WhoThe Doctor arrives on a distant world populated by two tribes, the Sevateem and the Tesh. He quickly bumps into a Sevateem woman named Leela, who has been banished from her village for denying the existence of Xoanon – an entity whom the Sevateem worship as a god. The Doctor can only stand by helplessly as the Sevateem mount a suicidal attack upon the more advanced Tesh. The Doctor soon realizes that these primitives are the descendants of an interstellar exploration detail: the survey team and the technicians. Both tribes recognize and revere him as the Evil One…but despite the bloodshed, no one will allow him to go near Xoanon, a sentient computer whose tyrannical rule is a result of the Doctor’s past interference.

Download this episodewritten by Chris Boucher
directed by Pennant Roberts
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Leslie Schofield (Calib), Victor Lucas (Andor), Brendan Price (Tomas), Colin Thomas (Sole), David Garfield (Neeva), Lloyd McGuire (Lugo), Tom Kelly, Brett Forrest (Guards), Leon Eagles (Jabel), Mike Elles (Gentek), Peter Baldock (Acolyte), Tom Baker, Rob Edwards, Pamela Salem, Anthony Frieze, Roy Herrick (voices of Xoanon)

Original title: The Day God Went Mad

Broadcast from January 1 through 22, 1977

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Wonder Woman

Last Of The Two-Dollar Bills

Wonder WomanMajor Trevor is waiting to intercept Nazi spy Wotan, a dangerous master of disguise whose arrival on American soil has been tipped off by an informant. Diana ducks out of sight to become Wonder Woman, discovering that Wotan himself has an oddly hypnotic effect on her, and he manages to get away. While Major Trevor focuses his search for Wotan on obvious targets within Washington, Wotan is planning to plant doubles in strategic positions to undermine the American economy.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Paul Dubov & Gwen Bagni
directed by Stuart Margolin
music by Artie Kane

Wonder WomanCast: Lynda Carter (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Lyle Waggoner (Major Steve Trevor), Richard Eastham (General Blankenship), Beatrice Colen (Etta Candy), James Olson (Wotan), Barbara Anderson (Maggie Robbins), David Cryer (Hank Miller), John Howard (Dr. Diderich), Richard O’Brien (Frank Wilson), Dean Harens (Secret Service Man), Victor Argo (Jason), Don Eitner (Dentist), Michael Van Wagner (S.S. Colonel), Naomi Grumette (Customer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Children Of The Stones

Into The Circle

Children Of The StonesAstrophysicist Adam Brake and his son Matthew move to the village of Milbury, home to an ancient megalithic stone circle whose magnetic properties Brake wants to study. Milbury seems pleasant enough, but also odd: Brake nearly runs over his new housekeeper in his car, but moments before, Matthew perceived the woman as a large stone standing in the road. The population seems joined in lockstep, making the new arrivals’ sense of discomfort even more acute. Brake meets a fellow academic who has just arrived in Milbury, and learns of her inexplicable feelings of foreboding. Matthew continues to have strange visions of free-standing stones who turn out to be nothing more than the local townsfolk, and has a hard time as an outsider in the local school. Though who don’t immediately assimilate into the Milbury mindset are branded “strange” by their neighbors.

When Adam Brake’s new acquaintance suggests he should touch one of the ancient stones, “strange” doesn’t even begin to describe what happens next.

written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Cast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Freddie Jones (Dai), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree), Peter Demin (Matthew), Katharine Levy (Sandra), Ian Donnolly (Bob), Darren Hatch (Kevin), Jimmy Lock (Jimmo), June Barrie (Mrs. Clegg), Peggy Ann Wood (Mrs. Warner)

Notes: A single-season supernatural children’s series produced by regional UK TV network HTV West and broadcast nationally on ITV, Children Of The Stones is remembered to this day for its unsettling storyline, imagery and music. In retrospect, it seems doubtful that such a series could be produced for children in this day and age.

Children Of The StonesGareth Thomas, a popular actor in Welsh television and theater, was already well on his way becoming a mainstream star on UK television when he took the lead protagonist role in children Of The Stones. The actor behind Adam Brake would later become interplanterary revolutionary Roj Blake in Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7, which premiered a year after this series. He faced off against Nation’s other famous creations, the Daleks, in a series of Big Finish audio plays, and returned to Wales for a guest role in the first season of Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood.

Respected British character actor Freddie Jones, perhaps best remembered in genre circles for portraying Thufir Haway in David Lynch’s film version of Dune, has appeared in countless genre TV roles (The Avengers, Out Of The Unknown, Space: 1999, Neverwhere, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) and many high-profile movies (Firefox, Krull, The Elephant Man, Firestarter, The Black Cauldron, Young Sherlock Holmes).

Series co-creator Trevor Ray was an uncredited “assistant script editor” for much of Patrick Troughton’s final season as Doctor Who and part of Jon Pertwee’s first year. Script editor Terrance Dicks faced such a heavy workload of rewriting scripts (or writing last-minute replacements for unsuitable scripts) that Ray was hired to help. He eventually vacated the post to become the script editor of the troubled spy series Paul Temple, whose producers were Troughton-era Who veterans Derrick Sherwin and Paul Bryant.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Wonder Woman

Judgment From Outer Space – Part 1

Wonder WomanA UFO lands just outside of Washington, bearing Andros, a visitor from a peaceful league of alien worlds. As humans grows closer to the secret of splitting the atom and taking its first steps into space, these other worlds are becoming uneasy that the people of Earth will export war to the rest of space. Andros has been sent to survey Earth to see if the human race is worthy of survival, and he’s not impressed with the welcome he receives from Washington. A Nazi spy posing as a Swedish reporter alerts the Axis to Andros’ presence, and capturing him – and harnessing his power over such natural forces as weather – becomes a top priority. Andros has found a kindred spirit in Wonder Woman, who is also an outsider in human society, but when he is kidnapped by the Nazis, she may be powerless to convince Andros’ people not to destroy Earth.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Stephen Kandel
directed by Alan Crosland
music by Artie Kane

Wonder WomanCast: Lynda Carter (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Lyle Waggoner (Major Steve Trevor), Richard Eastham (General Blankenship), Beatrice Colen (Etta Candy), Tim O’Connor (Andros), Kurt Kaszner (General Von Dreiberg), Janet MacLachlan (Sakri), Scott Hylands (Paul Bjornsen), Archie Johnson (General Zachary Kane), Vic Perrin (Gorel), Patrick Skelton (Gormsby), Fil Formicola (Sergeant)

Wonder WomanNotes: Written by Stephen Kandel (who brought the character of Harry Mudd to classic Star Trek), this two-parter is top-heavy with science fiction royalty. Tim O’Connor had already appeared in The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, and Search, but was still two years away from his signature genre role as Dr. Huer in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. Vic Perrin could be heard in every episode of The Outer Limits as the control voice instructing viewers not to adjust their televisions. Janet MacLachlan guest starred in the original Star Trek and The Six Million Dollar Man. Scott Hylands appeared in Earth II and Project UFO, and would go on to guest star on The X-Files before landing a regular role in the 21st century reboot of V.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Wonder Woman

Judgment From Outer Space – Part 2

Wonder WomanAndros is in the hands of Nazi agents who take him across the Atlantic to Germany. Major Trevor is assigned to join up with an RAF unit in England to launch a rescue mission, while Wonder Woman speeds across the ocean in her invisible jet. She is the first to try to mount a rescue, but finds Andros uncooperative, apparently not convinced that the Nazis are in the wrong since he has been treated well. It’s only when the Nazis promise to unleash their cruelty upon Wonder Woman that Andros learns of their true nature. Major Trevor is captured before he can attempt a rescue, and Wonder Woman is already in captivity. Now the only help can come from Andros and his people…assuming they haven’t already decided to destroy this primitive, savage world.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Stephen Kandel
directed by Alan Crosland
music by Artie Kane

Wonder WomanCast: Lynda Carter (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Lyle Waggoner (Major Steve Trevor), Richard Eastham (General Blankenship), Beatrice Colen (Etta Candy), Tim O’Connor (Andros), Kurt Kaszner (General Von Dreiberg), Janet MacLachlan (Sakri), Scott Hylands (Paul Bjornsen), Vic Perrin (Gorel), Hank Brandt (Graebner), Christiane Schmidtner (Lisa Engel), George Cooper (Gen. Clewes), Erik Holland (Nazi Grau), Ted Roter (Berghoff)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Children Of The Stones

Circle Of Fear

Children Of The StonesKnocked out cold by his brief contact with one of the stones in Millbury’s stone circle, Brake is taken home by Margaret to recover. Margaret is sure that what happens on contact with one of the stones is psychic in nature, but Brake insists that the explanation is electromagnetism… and yet he can’t shake the impressions that are left in his mind. Matthew is shaken by an encounter with Dai, who would seem to be the village idiot, but he also quickly realizes that Dai seems to be more of an individual than the rest of the townsfolk. But Dai’s warning – that no one can ever leave the circle – is disturbing. Brake probes the circle with sonar and finds a bowl-shaped rock formation in the center of the circle, almost resembling a receiving dish, and Matthew discovers that the stones, rather than being aligned with respect to the positions of the sun or moon at any particular solstice, are all upright: pointed in the same direction as the buried dish formation, toward some unknown point in the constellation Ursa Major. Brake’s attempt to take Margaret out on a date that doesn’t involve psychic phenomena falls flat – because at night, almost everyone in Millbury simply vanishes. But Matthew knows where everyone has gone: they’re standing at the center of the stone circle, hands joined, wailing an eerie song…

written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Cast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Freddie Jones (Dai), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree), Peter Demin (Matthew)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Wonder Woman

Formula 407

Wonder WomanMajor Trevor and Diana are assigned to fly to Buenos Aires on a top secret mission to meet with Professor Moreno, inventor of a chemical formula that makes rubber nearly impervious to physical attack. Despite Argentina’s official neutrality in the war, Moreno has quietly promised to hand the formula over to the United States. But German spies have also learned of the formula, and an undercover team of Nazis arrives in Buenos Aires at the same time – with intelligence that’s so up-to-date that they know Trevor is there for the same reason. Some of the Nazis quickly make their presence known, and Wonder Woman appears to fight them off. But other Nazi agents are already in Professor Moreno’s home, without announcing their true identities or intentions…and they’re more than happy to add Trevor and Wonder Woman to the list of prizes they hope to take back to Germany.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Elroy Schwartz
directed by Herb Wallerstein
music by Artie Kane

Wonder WomanCast: Lynda Carter (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Lyle Waggoner (Major Steve Trevor), Richard Eastham (General Blankenship), Beatrice Colen (Etta Candy), Nehemiah Persoff (Professor Moreno), Maris Pavan (Maria), John Devlin (Major Keller), Peter MacLean (Schmidt), Charles Macaulay (Ambassador McCauley), Maria Grimm (Lydia Moreno), Armando Silvestre (Antonio Cruz), Curt Lowens (S.S. General), Gary Cashdollar (Otto Dietrich)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Children Of The Stones

Serpent In The Circle

Children Of The StonesAs Matthew recovers from receiving a mysterious shock suffered by touching one of the stones, Brake meets Dai for the first time and learns that Matthew and a few other recently-arrived children in the Millbury school look up to the scruffy poacher. Dai lets the children draw a copy of a design on an ancient stone he keeps with him, bearing the image of a snake. Brake’s inquiries with his colleagues at the Mount Palomar observatory reveal an interesting fact: the point in Ursa Major at which the Millbury stone circle is aimed was the site of a supernova spotted near the beginning of recorded history, a place in the sky where modern astronomers now know a black hole exists. Brake isn’t the only man in Millbury who knows this, either: his landlord, Hendrick, is a retired astronomer renowned for researching the early accounts of the supernova. And more and more of Millbury’s new arrivals are falling under the town’s strange spell before Brake’s eyes.

written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Children Of The StonesCast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Freddie Jones (Dai), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree), Peter Demin (Matthew), Katharine Levy (Sandra), Darren Hatch (Kevin), Jimmy Lock (Jimmo), Richard Matthews (Dr. Lyle), June Barrie (Mrs. Clegg), Hubert Tucker (Browning)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 14 Doctor Who

The Robots of Death

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Leela arrive in a mobile sand refinery on a distant planet at precisely the wrong time – a murder has just taken place. Since they’re the only newcomers among a bunch of paranoid miners who have been cooped up together for months, the Doctor and Leela are naturally the prime suspects, but even while they’re under guard, members of the crew continue to turn up dead. The Doctor is the first to propose an outrageous theory – that the ships large complement of robots have somehow been programmed to override their built-in inability to harm human beings. But by the time he is able to convince anyone of the merit of this idea, most of the crew have fallen victim to the robots’ onslaught – leaving the Doctor, Leela, and the surviving crew as the next victims.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Chris Boucher
directed by Michael E. Briant
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Russell Hunter (Commander Uvanov), Pamela Stern (Toos), David Bailie (Dask), Rob Edwards (Chub), Brian Croucher (Borg), Tariq Yunus (Cass), David Collings (Poul), Tania Rogers (Zilda), Miles Fothergill (SV7), Gregory de Polnay (D84)

Broadcast from January 29 through February 19, 1977

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Wonder Woman

The Bushwhackers

Wonder WomanTexas rancher J.P. Hadley, an old school friend of General Blankenship, calls the General for help when local law enforcement proves completely ineffective in rounding up cattle thieves who are having a serious impact on the Hadley ranch’s operations. The General sends Major Trevor to Texas, and Wonder Woman follows in her invisible jet. Before Trevor can even meet Hadley, the cattle rustlers are trying to keep him from offering any help, but they haven’t counted on Wonder Woman’s presence. Worse yet, someone inside Hadley’s ranch is giving them information on everything Trevor and Wonder Woman plan to do.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Skip Webster
directed by Stuart Margolin
music by Artie Kane

Wonder WomanCast: Lynda Carter (Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), Lyle Waggoner (Major Steve Trevor), Richard Eastham (General Blankenship), Beatrice Colen (Etta Candy), Roy Rogers (J.P. Hadley), Henry Darrow (Lampkin), Lance Kerwin (Jeff Hadley), Tony George (Emmett Dawson), David Clarke (Sheriff Bodie), Christoff St. John (Linc), Christelle Pierrette Gaspart (Babette), Justin Randi (Freddie), David Yanez (Charlie), Carey Wong (Sen), Rita Gomez (Maria), Murray MacLeod (The Man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Children Of The Stones

Narrowing Circle

Children Of The StonesWith more people falling into the strange, almost suspiciously carefree behavior of Millbury’s longtime residents, Brake and Margaret find a fellow skeptic in Dr. Lyle, who claims that no one in Millbury ever seems to get sick, which seems to eliminate the need for a town doctor. Putting together what they know, they determine that there are two others seemingly immune to Millbury’s perpetually happy mindset: Hendrick, the town mayor, and Dai, the homeless poacher Matthew Brake has befriended. Dr. Lyle has plans to leave town briefly, but he leaves his gloves at Brake’s house. Matthew touches the gloves and sees a strange event befalling Lyle at the edge of town: a psychic vision through the doctor’s eyes. When Dr. Lyle returns, however, he has changed – he’s now the same as everyone else in Millbury. And when the amulet he claims has been protecting him is broken, Dai suffers an even worse fate.

written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Children Of The StonesCast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Freddie Jones (Dai), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Peter Demin (Matthew), Katharine Levy (Sandra), Richard Matthews (Dr. Lyle), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree), Peggy Ann Wood (Mrs. Warner), Darren Hatch (Kevin)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Fantastic Journey, The

Vortex

The Fantastic Journey1945: A Navy fighter group heading for a landing at Ft. Lauderdale vanishes into thin air over open ocean. Their disappearance is never solved – yet another mystery blamed on the Bermuda Triangle.

1976: Professor Paul Jordan and his son Scott are part of an oceanic expedition aboard a boat chartered from veteran sea captain Ben Wallace. Their expedition into the Caribbean takes on a sinister turn with the sighting of roiling green clouds on the horizon, even though no storms are expected. Ben tries to steer the boat clear of the raging, unearthly storm, but to no avail – the ship is lost. The survivors make it to shore, but they can’t tell where they are, or when. A loincloth-clad man named Varian appears without any explanation, healing Ben’s broken arm and trying to lead them to safety, but Professor Jordan is cautious about following him. Varian finally confides in Jordan’s son instead: Varian is from Earth in the 23rd century, just another traveler stranded in the Bermuda Triangle, which is an unpredictable gateway in time as well as space. Ben, Fred and one of the women from the expedition find themselves trapped by salty British sailors who became stranded in the Triangle in the 1500s, whose captain will do anything to escape the island. Professor Jordan makes plans to free his fellow survivors, and asks for Varian’s help, but the man from the future insists that he is a pacifist, acting only as a guide. Even if Jordan can recover all the members of his party, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to return to their own place or time.

The Fantastic Journeyteleplay by Michael Michaelian & Katharyn Michaelian Powers and Merwin Gerard
story by Merwin Gerard
directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Scott Thomas (Paul Jordan), Susan Howard (Eve), Jared Martin (Varian), Carl Franklin (Fred Walters), Karen Somerville (Jill), Ike Eisenmann (Scott Jordan), Leif Erickson (Ben Wallace), Scott Brady (Carl), Don Knight (Paget), Ian McShane (Sir James), Gary Collins (Dar-L), Mary Ann Mobley (Rhea), Jason Evers (Atar), Lynn Borden (Enid), Jack Stauffer (Andy), Byron Chung (George), Tom McCorry (Scar), Mike Road (voice of the Source)

The Fantastic JourneyNotes: The city of Atlantium scenes in this and the following episode were filmed at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, which had only just been built at the time of filming. Though the series premise was written with travelers from the future and the past in mind, and NBC found the show promising enough to merit a series order, the pilot sees the only instance of adversaries from the past, and over half of the cast was eliminated after the pilot episode. Extra scenes were added prior to broadcast to try to smooth the transition into the series proper, which would focus only on Varian, Scott and Fred, and Star Trek veteran D.C. Fontana and the show’s other writers had barely a month to get episodes written and into production in time for the series’ premiere in February 1977.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Children Of The Stones

Charmed Circle

Children Of The StonesAdam Brake rushes to Hendrick’s home to report Dai’s death, and Hendrick calmly insists on seeing the poacher’s body for himself. When he and Brake return, there’s nothing but broken stone at the spot where Dai died. But Brake also collected the broken fragments of Dai’s amulet – fragments that now fit in perfect alignment with fragments of an identical amulet found decades ago near the body a man found crushed by one of the stones in Millbury’s stone circle. When placed together, the fragments complete the ancient amulet, and Matthew recevies another vision. Margaret and her daughter also received a dinner invitation from Hendrickson, an invitation which will change everything.

written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Children Of The StonesCast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Freddie Jones (Dai), Peter Demin (Matthew), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Katharine Levy (Sandra), John Woodnutt (Link), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree)

Notes: Though credited, Freddie Jones appears in this episode only in a clip recapping the previous episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Fantastic Journey, The

Atlantium

The Fantastic JourneyA woman named Rhea leads Scott, Varian and Fred to the city of Atlantium, where the three travelers are told that Professor Jordan and the female members of his expedition have returned to their own time, leaving Scott to fend for himself. Fred and Varian promise to look after Scott, but the Atlanteans have other plans for him: their disembodied leader, the Source, has chosen Scott as his new host body. Liana, a woman whose father was from Atlantis and whose mother was from another solar system, leads a resistance movement against the Source’s hunger for power; she warns Varian of the Source’s plans for Scott. Varian and Paul demand to see Scott after the Atlanteans take the boy under their wing, but there’s something wrong with Scott when he is returned. Varian eventually figures out that the Source has created a clone of Scott to keep the boy’s friends distracted while the real Scott is prepared for his new destiny. Liana helps Varian and Fred fight their way through Atlantium to rescue Scott, but the only guaranteed way home is through the use of the Source’s power; the man from the future and his 20th century friends are now stranded.

The Fantastic Journeyteleplay by Katharyn Michaelian Powers
story by Michael Michaelian and Katharyn Michaelian Powers
directed by Barry Crane
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Jared Martin (Varian), Carl Franklin (Fred Walters), Ike Eisenmann (Scott Jordan), Katie Saylor (Liana), Gary Collins (Dar-L), Albert Stratton (Il-Tar), Jason Evers (Atar), Mary Ann Mobley (Rhea), Ian Jon Tanza (Under), Lawrence Bame (Maron), Mike Road (voice of the Source), The Felix Team (Sil-L)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Children Of The Stones

Squaring The Circle

Children Of The StonesMargaret and Sandra return from their dinner at Hendrick’s home – in reality, a temple fashioned to serve as the center of the circle in Millbury – completely changed. Adam and Matthew no longer have any allies in Millbury. Matthew sees Hendrick near the local church – a church which has supposedly been unoccupied by either priest or parishioners for years – and sneaks inside, finding cutting-edge computers… and Hendrick waiting for him. Hendrick returns Matthew home, but now Adam is certain that he and his son need to leave Millbury.

If, indeed, it’s actually possible for anyone to leave.

written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Children Of The StonesCast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Peter Demin (Matthew), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Katharine Levy (Sandra), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree), John Woodnutt (Link)

Notes: The notion that time is passing at a different rate outside Millbury than it is within the village – and that there’s only one point at which there’s an interface between the two – beats the acclaimed series Lost to one of its central twists by 30 years.

LogBook entry by Earl Green