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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Quark

May The Source Be With You

QuarkThe approach of a gigantic Gorgon attack ship sends everyone aboard Perma One (give or take a small furry alien or two) swinging into action. The best United Galaxy captains are assigned to evacuate important heads of state and scientific minds from the station, and to relocate the most sensitive information to a safe location. Quark and his crew, on the other hand, are given the thankless (and, again, almost certainly suicidal) task of fending off the Gorgon advance, with nothing more than Quark’s garbage-collecting ship and a powerful sentient weapon known as the Source. The Source insists – in a voice that only Quark can hear – that belief in its power will shield him from all harm. Somewhere between watching his entire crew scatter or get captured, and being blinded by a laser blast to the face, Quark begins to realize that the Source is indeed with him – and that there’s a very good reason nobody has used it in over 200 years.

written by Stave Zacharias
directed by Hy Averback
music by Perry Botkin, Jr.

Cast: Richard Benjamin (Adam Quark), Timothy Thomerson (Gene/Jean), Richard Kelton (Ficus), Tricia Barnstable (Betty), Cyb Barnstable (Betty), Conrad Janis (Otto Palindrome), Alan Caillou (The Head), Henry Silva (High Gorgon), Hans Conreid (voice of the Source), Bobby Porter (Andy), Joe Burke (Gorgon Guard II), Chris Capen (Gorgon Guard I), Rick Goldman (Worker One), Vernon E. Rowe (Worker Two), Paul Schumacher (Gorgon Man), Melissa Prophet (Gorgon Woman), Larry French (Gorgon Assistant), Ann Prentiss (voice of Jean)

Notes: The series expands to a full-hour (the pilot was only a half-hour) with this, the first regular weekly episode of its extremely short run. A new title montage shows clips of the regular cast interspersed with very well-known NASA film animations of such subjects as the planet Saturn and the formation of the moon. The Barnstable sisters – more famous as the original Doublemint Twins than they were for this series – reverted to their real surname after using the stage name Barnett in the pilot episode. Where Tim Thomerson did both the masculine and feminine voices of his character in the pilot, here his feminine personality is dubbed over by actress Ann Prentiss. The sudden gender-switching of his character is toned down drastically here, leaning on dated sexist female stereotypes, whereas the pilot’s portrayal of his feminine personality was quite obviously based on gay male stereotypes, complete with a limp-wristed salute. (It’s entirely possible that NBC and/or its advertisers broke out in a cold sweat over that aspect of the pilot and insisted on the change.)

May The Source Be With YouAs if the title of this episode doesn’t make it clear, the influence of Star Wars – which premiered mere days after the Quark pilot episode in 1977 – is clearly on display here, from the Gorgons’ Vader-esque (but decidedly more velvety and less armor-y) helmets, to the spoof of Star Wars‘ seemingly endless corridor firefight (beating Spaceballs to the punch by almost a decade), to the music score’s obvious quotations of the movie’s Imperial March. Still, the classic Star Trek sound effects remain in use, and the new character of Ficus is clearly a spoof of Spock. Ficus is a member of the Vegeton species, and his skin is left temporarily discolored by brief exposure to extreme dry heat.

One other surprising Star Trek influence is the show’s more dramatic lighting, provided by cinematographer Gerald Perry Finnerman (1931-2011); frequently credited as Jerry Finnerman, he lit 60 of Star Trek’s 79 episodes, starting with The Corbomite Maneuver (the first regular episode filmed after Trek’s two pilots), creating that show’s signature ultra-colorful lighting scheme and its habit of soft-focusing close-ups on female guest stars; he had also been the lead cameraman for the series’ original pilot, The Cage. He was a frequent-flyer cinematographer on Kojak, the TV incarnation of Planet Of The Apes, Salvage One and Moonlighting, with numerous shorter stints on other high-profile series.

Andy the robot stays aboard Quark’s ship, while O.B. Mudd – May The Source Be With Youwho seemed to be his handler and perhaps creator in the pilot – has apparently gotten the transfer off-ship that he wanted. However, Andy also tells the Gorgons that Quark built him.

Guest star Henry Silva’s High Gorgon uniform is a humorous preview of his costume in the pilot movie of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, in which he originated the role of Draconian warrior “Killer” Kane; while Kane appeared in further episodes of the series, Silva did not, handing the part off to Michael Ansara.

Categories
Classic Season 15 Doctor Who

The Invasion Of Time

Doctor WhoThe Doctor returns, unbidden, to Gallifrey, claiming the Presidency of the High Council. Leela knows something is wrong, as she has witnessed his meetings with a shadowy group of aliens prior to returning to his homeworld. The Time Lords are aghast at the Doctor’s breach of their power structure, to say nothing of him bringing an alien among them. But when the aliens Leela saw earlier materialize in Gallifrey’s Capitol, all hell breaks loose – the Doctor orders many Time Lords, including his old mentor Borusa, expelled to the harsh surface of Gallifrey beyond the city domes. Leela is also thrown out, though she finds herself quite at home with the primitive nomadic tribes of homeless non-Time Lords known as the Shobogans. Leela rallies both Shobogans and exiled Time Lords to mount a resistance against the Doctor and his shady Vardan allies, but when the invasion is put down, everyone discovers that it was a ruse to allow a far more powerful enemy to slip into the heart of Gallifrey.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Anthony Read and Graham Williams
directed by Gerald Blake
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Milton Johns (Kelner), John Arnatt (Borusa), Stan McGowan (Vardan Leader), Chris Tranchell (Andred), Dennis Edwards (Gomer), Tom Kelly (Vardan), Reginald Jessup (Savar), Charles Morgan (Gold Usher), Hilary Ryan (Rodan), Max Faulkner (Nesbin), Christopher Christou (Chancellery Guard), Michael Harley (Bodyguard), Ray Callaghan (Ablif), Gai Smith (Presta), Michael Mundell (Jasko), Eric Danot (Guard), Derek Deadman (Stor), Stuart Fell (Sontaran)

Broadcast from February 4 through March 11, 1978

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Blake's 7 Season 1

Seek-Locate-Destroy

Blake's 7The Liberator crew mounts an attack on a Federation base on Centero, their main objective: to procure a decoder for the Federation’s top priority military communications channel. They manage to get the unit and set explosive charges, but Cally is attacked and loses her teleport bracelet. The others return to the ship and discover there that she must still be on Centero. They learn through the decoder that Supreme Commander Servalan of the Federation has assigned the notorious Space Commander Travis to the “Blake affair,” and that Travis is already on Centero in charge of the investigations. Blake returns to Centero to save Cally, realizing that Travis – his arch enemy from the earlier revolt against the Federation – will stop at nothing to see the Liberator crew dead. Blake uses one of Travis’s old strategies to slip into the base, free Cally, and escape.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Vere Lorrimer
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), Stephen Grief (Travis), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Peter Craze (Prell), Peter Miles (Rontane), John Bryans (Bercol), Ian Cullen (Escon), Ian Oliver (Rai), Astley Jones (Eldon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 1

Mission To Destiny

Blake's 7The Liberator stops to aid a damaged spacecraft whose crew is entirely asleep when Blake, Cally and Avon arrive. The ship’s guidance systems and life support system have been sabotaged. When Blake and Avon get the life support system back online, the crew has no idea what has happened. Kendall, the captain of the ship, reveals that he and his people are from the agricultural world Destiny, whose ecosphere has become unviable. The ship was dispatched to get the neutrotope, which would render Destiny fertile again, and with its damage, the ship has no hope of reaching Destiny in any time under five months, and that delay could set the planet’s harvest back by another year. Blake makes Kendall an offer: Avon and Cally will stay aboard to help repair the ship’s systems, and the neutrotope will reach Destiny in four days via the Liberator. Avon and Cally slowly unravel the mystery of numerous occurring murders on the ship and finally find that a message written by the dying pilot – 54124 – is actually the name of the murderer…

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), Barry Jackson (Kendall), Beth Morris (Sara), Stephen Tate (Mandrian), Nigel Humphreys (Sonheim), Kate Coleridge (Levett), Carl Forgione (Grovane), John Leeson (Pasco), Brian Caprion (Rafford), Stuart Fell (Dortmunn)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 1

Duel

Blake's 7The Liberator is nearing an uncharted planet and is under attack by three well-armed Federation pursuit ships. As the attack depletes Liberator’s energy supply, Blake decides to wait for the two ships he predicts aren’t Travis’s to run out of energy and then tries to ram Travis’s ship. But as the Liberator prepares to rip through the pursuit ship’s hull, time is frozen by the two guardians on the planet below, who pit Blake and Jenna in hand-to-hand combat to the death against Travis and a vampire-like mutoid from his crew. But as Jenna defeats the mutoid and Blake traps Travis, before the eyes of both ships’ crews, Blake relents and the Liberator is released, while Travis returns to his ship in shame.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Douglas Camfield
music not credited

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Peter Tuddenham (Zen), Stephen Grief (Travis), Isla Blair (Sinofar), Patsy Smart (Giroc), Carol Royle (Mutoid)

Notes: This is the only Blake’s 7 episode which was not scored by Australian composer Dudley Simpson; Simpson created the theme for the series and did the music for every episode except this one, which was tracked with stock electronic-sounding music. Director Douglas Camfield did not like the style of music that Simpson employed on Doctor Who, several episodes of which Camfield also directed (and of which Simpson provided incidental music for more episodes than any other comporser), a decided to use library music rather than have Simpson score this episode. The pieces heard in this episode are “Countdown” and “Space Panorama” (both composed by Alan Hawkshaw and licensed from the Bruton music library and appearing on the Bruton library album Terrestrial Journey), and “Genesis” by John Cameron.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 1

Project Avalon

Blake's 7The Liberator arrives at an icy Federation outpost so Blake can make contact with Avalon, the rebel leader on that planet. But Avalon has been captured by Travis and duplicated with an android who returns to the Liberator after a narrow escape by Blake and his crew, who rescue “Avalon” from a high-security cell block. The android is carrying a tiny sphere with just enough of a lethal virus to kill the entire crew of the Liberator and leave the ship unaffected and, after 24 hours, habitable again. Blake returns with the android and the sphere to get the real Avalon out of danger, leaving Travis with an android that drops the sphere inside the Federation base – and Travis catches the sphere. Servalan is infuriated with Travis’s performance and takes charge of the hunt for Blake personally.

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), Stephen Grief (Travis), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Julia Vidler (Avalon), David Bailie (Chevner), Glynis Barber (Mutoid), John Baker (Scientist), John Rolfe (Terloc), David Sterne (Guard), Mark Holmes (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Quark

The Old And The Beautiful

QuarkAssignments are handed out to the United Galaxy’s finest starship captains – a 30-year stint on the frontier here, a high-risk disarmament mission there – and Adam Quark is surprised when he fails to draw the short straw for once. His assignment: a diplomatic mission to a world that hasn’t decided it it’s going to ally itself with the United Galaxy or with the Gorgons. But this planet’s idea of diplomacy is what’s euphemistically described as an “extended romantic interlude” with its female ruler, and men on this planet seldom live past the ripe old age of 25 due to the voraciousness of its women. Quark already knows Princess Carna from a previous encounter (which he managed to survive), so he’s fairly sure he can succeed in the ensuing negotiations and win a promotion to command of a starship that isn’t tasked with garbage collection. But it’s garbage collection that sabotages Quark’s ambitions: exposure to an alien virus begins aging Quark at the rate of several years per hour. With the years piling on, and Ficus unable to nail down an antidote to the virus, Quark is in danger of losing more than just a promotion.

written by Bruce Kane
directed by Hy Averback
music by Perry Botkin, Jr.

Cast: Richard Benjamin (Adam Quark), Timothy Thomerson (Gene/Jean), Richard Kelton (Ficus), Tricia Barnstable (Betty), Cyb Barnstable (Betty), Conrad Janis (Otto Palindrome), Alan Caillou (The Head), Barbara Rhoades (Princess Carna), Bobby Porter (Andy), Dana House (The Handmaiden)

The Old and the BeautifulNotes: Quark has not only inherited Star Trek’s sound effects, but its transporter technology as well. This episode also anticipates future Star Trek spinoffs’ reliance on a quick, too-easy wrap-up at the end of the episode, thought at least here it’s meant in good fun. The actress who plays the disgruntled United Galaxies starship captain at the beginning of the episode is uncredited here – we’ve been unable to track down any information on who played that part.

LogBook entry by Earl Green