Month: January 1978

Categories
Blake's 7 Season 1

The Way Back

Blake's 7Roj Blake is summoned by an old friend to an illegal meeting outside of a city dome on Earth. The meeting is held by a ragtag band of citizens plotting the downfall of the Administration, the arm of the Terran Federation that governs Earth. At that meeting, Blake is told that he has been brainwashed and has been unwittingly drugged ever since five years ago, when he had been the leader of the anti-Administration group and was captured, put up to trial, and forced to confess. Federation guards arrive at the meeting and massacre everyone there except for Blake and a man called Dev Tarrant. Blake slips out and returns to the city under cover of darkness, and, upon entry, is arrested by more guards. Corrupt members of the Administration’s “justice” department decide to use mental-implantation techniques to brainwash three children and put false memories in their mind. The next day, Blake meets his attorney for the first time and discovers that his charges deal not with leaving the city or attending the meeting, but with child molestation. At his trial, Blake is hopelessly defeated with no chance for appeal and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life on the Federation penal colony, Cygnus Alpha. In a holding cell, Blake meets Jenna Stannis and Vila Restal and awaits further word from his attorney. When Blake tells his attorney of the meeting and the Federation slaughter, Varon and his wife leave the city themselves to check on it. They are about to return to the city with enough evidence to topple the Administration, but as Blake’s ship to Cygnus Alpha departs with him on board, defense attorney Varon, along with his wife and his evidence of the massacre Blake witnesses, are destroyed by Federation troops under special agent Dev Tarrant.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael E. Briant
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Michael Keating (Vila), Robert Beatty (Bran Foster), Jeremy Wilkin (Tarrant), Michael Halsey (Varon), Pippa Steel (Maja), Gillian Bailey (Ravella), Alan Butler (Richie), Margaret John (Arbiter), Peter Williams (Dr. Havant), Susan Field (Alta Morag), Rodney Figaro (Court), Nigel Lambert (Computer Operator), Garry McDermott (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Logan's Run

Futurepast

Logan's RunAfter a narrow escape from the Sandmen, Logan and his friends happen upon a long-abandoned observatory which is apparently maintained by one woman. She proves to be a friendly enough hostess, inviting Jessica and Logan to stay the night and sleep in the first comfortable beds they’ve seen since the City of Domes, and she seems to have a strange effect on Rem. He quickly discovers that their hostess is also an android. What she hasn’t told anyone, however, is that the beds are “dream analysis stations” allowing their users to experience their most deeply repressed fears and desires. Both of them return in their dreams to the City of Domes, Jessica longing to meet her real parents and Logan torn between his need for order and his desire for freedom. Rem is warned not to disconnect his friends from the dream analysis machine for fear of permanent damage to their minds. As the Sandmen close in, all Rem can do is wait – and realize that he and his android hostess may be experiencing something unprecedented: the human emotion called “love.”

Download this episodewritten by Katharyn Michaelian Powers
directed by Michael O’Herlihy
music by Laurence Rosenthal
music from the movie Logan’s Run by Jerry Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Mariette Hartley (Ariana), Michael Sullivan (Clay), Ed Gouppee (2nd Sandman), Joey Fontana (1st Sandman), Janis Jamison (The Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 15 Doctor Who

Underworld

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Leela find themselves at the edge of a galaxy, near an enormous nebula that could wreak untold damage on the TARDIS. To avoid this, the Doctor forces his ship to materialize on a nearby spacecraft. When he announces himself to the ship’s crew, they regard Leela as a threat (and harmlessly quell her bloodlust with their pacification beam), but they regard the Doctor as a god. He has come aboard a starship crewed by the last of the Minyans, a race who the Time Lords aided and augmented – and who then destroyed themselves with the aid of their new technology, the incident that caused the Time Lords to withdraw into their non-intervention policy. Unlike Time Lords, the Minyans can regenerate thousands of times, with enough control over the process that they seem to simply become younger again when their bodies wear out, and they’ve been on this flight for thousands of years. Their quest is to find the P7E, a lost Minyan sister ship whose cargo of genetic material could revitalize the species. Their obstacle is that they can’t seem to find the P7E, until the Doctor discovers that the missing ship is now the core of a forming planetoid – and that the descendants of its crew have taken on a new form entirely, a society that the Minyan searchers can’t even recognize – a society that could kill them all before they reach their goal.

Download this episodewritten by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
directed by Norman Stewart
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: James Maxwell (Jackson), Alan Lake (Herrick), Imogen Bickford-Smith (Tala), Jonathan Newth (Orfe), Jimmy Gardner (Idmon), Norman Tipton (Idas), Godfrey James (Tarn), James Marcus (Rask), Jay Neill (Klimt), Frank Jarvis (Ankh), Richard Shaw (Lakh), Stacey Tendeter (Naia), Christine Pollon (voice of the Oracle)

Broadcast from January 7 through 28, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Blake's 7 Season 1

Space Fall

Blake's 7On the “civil administration ship” London en route to Cygnus Alpha, the prisoners are shown their small accomodations. Subcommander Raiker, the first officer, chastises Blake, propositions Jenna, and basically gives the other prisoners hell. Blake is introduced to some of the other prisoners, including the colossal giant Gan, young Nova – not very experienced, but willing to fight – and Avon, a computer hacker sentenced to Cygnus Alpha after an attempt to bleed the Federation banking cartel dry. Blake, using the others for cover, gets deep into the ship and locates the main computer. During his reconnaissance, the London is buffeted by energy waves from a nearby space battle. Blake sends Avon to sabotage the computer and to open every door on the ship so the prisoners can hijack her. After the ship is in the hands of the prisoners, things start to go wrong. Through a careless mistake on Vila’s part, many of the prisoners are recaptured, and Raiker starts executing them. Blake, Jenna and Avon, in the main computer area, surrender to the crew of the London and are put in restraints. The London’s sensors return to normal function after being knocked out by the energy waves and indicate a gigantic starship nearby. The London crew send three officers across to the ship to investigate, but they are all killed. Not ready to give up the prize money that would come from salvaging an alien ship, Raiker suggests sending Blake, Avon and Jenna across. They discover that the ship’s self-defense mechanism is responsible for the officers’ deaths and deactivate it before it kills them as well. Raiker tries to board the ship and manages to graze Blake with a laser gun, but the alien ship disengages from the London, and Raiker is swept out of the airlock into open space and dies. Blake returns to the flight deck and orders a heading for Cygnus Alpha to rescue the rest of the prisoners.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Pennant Roberts
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Glyn Owen (Leylan), Leslie Schofield (Raiker), Norman Tipton (Artix), David Hayward (Teague), Brett Forrest (Krell), Tom Kelly (Nova), Michael MacKenzie (Dainer), Bill Weston (Garton)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Logan's Run

Carousel

Logan's RunLogan, Jessica and Rem stop to explore on foot, but Logan is hit by a tranquilizer dart from a hidden attacker, and Rem and Jessica vanish before his eyes before he loses consciousness. Rem and Jessica find themselves in a place devoid of any features, with a man claiming he represents a “higher authority,” though he declines to say exactly which authority that is. He claims that he and his kind are exploring Logan’s memories, but at the result of temporarily erasing Logan’s memories. The amnesiac Logan is apprehended by Francis. Francis asks Logan of Jessica and Rem’s whereabouts, but Logan remembers neither of them, and he certainly doesn’t remember abandoning the principles of the City of Domes and going on the run himself. Logan is brought back to the City of Domes and stands before the Council of Elders, who promise to let him live past the age of 30 if he will make a public testimony at the next Carousel that there is no such place as Sanctuary. Rem and Jessica are allowed to return to the City to save Logan, but when Jessica brings his plight to the attention of the underground network of runners still inside the City, they have a different assignment for her: she must eliminate Logan before his subconscious knowledge of the runners and Sanctuary resurfaces for the benefit of the Sandmen.

Download this episodewritten by D.C. Fontana and Richard L. Breen Jr.
story by Richard L. Breen Jr.
directed by Irving J. Moore
music from stock music library

Guest Cast: Rosanne Katon (Diane), Ross Bickel (Michael), Wright King (Jonathon), Morgan Woodward (Morgan), Melody Anderson (Sheila), Regis J. Cordic (Darrel), Gary Swanson (Peter), Burton Cooper (First Man), William Molloy (Second Man)

Logan's RunNotes: This episode establishes that Logan has been running for nearly a year. This was the final episode of Logan’s Run broadcast by CBS. Following numerous time slot changes, an intermittent schedule of new episodes, and a fall 1977 schedule that had pitted the science fiction show – traditionally seen as the domain of male viewers – against Monday Night Football at a time when ABC’s weekly football game completely dominated television ratings. Three further episodes were produced, but not aired as part of CBS’ run; they premiered later in syndicated packages sold to such up-and-coming cable “superstations” as Ted Turner’s WTBS. The synopses of the remaining episodes, since their premiere dates are unknown (regardless of what the user-generated content on IMDb says), can be accessed by clicking on the show logo above.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Blake's 7 Season 1

Cygnus Alpha

Blake's 7On Cygnus Alpha, a religious cult under Vargas and Kara is preparing for a new batch of recruits: the incoming prisoners on the London. In the meantime, Blake, Jenna and Avon are investigating their new ship, and inadvertently activate the ship’s computer, Zen. With Zen online and responding to voice commands, they make their way to Cygnus Alpha. On arrival, they decide to try the teleport system, which puts Blake down in the middle of a group of cult members. Avon figures out how to pull Blake back to the newly-christened Liberator just before Blake becomes a sacrifice. Blake later goes down, armed, and discovers that Vargas has recruited Gan and the others and that the atmosphere of the planet supposedly is toxic and works its way into the bloodstream, and that a dose of a special drug is required once a day for the rest of the victim’s life to survive. Blake is captured by Vargas, and, before being tortured, is told that the drug is a placebo, and the disease is a myth – and Vargas wants to comandeer the Liberator. Blake refuses and gets a handful of supporters among the prisoners, including Gan, Vila and Arco, to revolt. Most of the cult is destroyed, along with a good deal of the prisoners. Gan and Vila manage to escape to the ship with Blake – and Vargas follows, armed with Blake’s gun. Blake teleports Vargas into open space, killing him, and the Liberator, now almost fully manned, leaves Cygnus Alpha.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Vere Lorrimer
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Brian Blessed (Vargas), Glyn Owen (Leylan), Norman Tipton (Artix), Pamela Salem (Kara), Robert Russell (Laran), Peter Childs (Arco), David Ryall (Selman), Peter Tuddenham (Zen)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Blake's 7 Season 1

Time Squad

Blake's 7Blake and the crew are en route to Saurian Major, where they plan to destroy a major Federation communications station. On the way, they find a derelict space capsule, which Blake and Jenna teleport into to investigate. Avon, in the meantime, pilots the Liberator to bring the capsule into a docking bay. The capsule appears to be unmanned but actually contains a couple of alien life forms in suspended animation. Blake, Avon and Vila teleport to Saurian Major and encounter Cally, a telepathic Auron and the sole survivor of the Federation’s attack on the last freedom fighters there. While Blake and company reach the communications station, Jenna and Gan are attacked by the aliens, who are thawing out. It is discovered that Gan is incapable of killing due to a limiter implant in his brain that prevents murderously violent impulses – leaving Jenna on her own to defend the ship and her huge colleague. Blake, Avon, Vila and Cally manage to set charges in the communications station and Gan, weakened by the contradictory impulses from his wish to help Jenna and his limiter implant, teleports them out just before the charges explode. Blake kills the last alien before it gets to Jenna and then invites Cally to join the crew.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Pennant Roberts
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Peter Tuddenham (Zen), Tony Smart (Alien), Mark McBride (Alien), Frank Henson (Alien)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Blake's 7 Season 1

The Web

Blake's 7Cally begins sabotaging the Liberator and attacks Vila. Blake and Avon rush to stop her as the sensors go inoperative and it rapidly becomes apparent that Cally is not in control of her actions. The Liberator enters a huge, spaceborne web that slows the ship down and brings it to a planet inside the web. Blake teleports down and is injured by a tiny creature’s spear. A couple of humanoid beings appear, kill the animal, and miraculously heal Blake’s wound. It transpires that the animals – ten-function, artificial slaves callled the Decimas – were created by Geela and Novara, who are under the control of Saymon – whose telepathic impulses had been controlling Cally – and the Decimas have now become independent and their creators are attempting to destroy them. They leave Blake no choice: they demand power cells in exchange for the release of the Liberator. But as Avon arrives with the cells, the Decimas attack the control building, killing their creators. Blake and Avon return to the Liberator as the web dissolves.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael E. Briant
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Peter Tuddenham (Zen), Richard Beale (Saymon), Ania Marson (Geela), Miles Fothergill (Novara), Deep Roy, Gilda Cohen, Ismet Hassam, Marcus Powell, Molly Tweedly, Willie Sheara (Decimas)

LogBook entry by Earl Green