Year: 1984

Categories
Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

Warriors Of The Deep

Doctor WhoIn the twenty-first century, the Doctor tries to show his companions Tegan and Turlough the shape of things to come on Earth. Unfortunately, their arrival coincides with a dangerous buildup of nuclear tensions between two unspecified superpowers, and the TARDIS brings them to an underground weapons platform manned by an edgy crew – particularly crewman Maddox, who has a computer interface implanted directly in his brain to allow him to fire the sea base’s nuclear missiles with a single concentrated thought. Maddox, shell-shocked after months of unannounced battle drills, collapses, leaving the base defenseless. But the base isn’t just prone to foreign attack – the repitile Silurians and Sea Devils, both ancient races which roamed the Earth freely before the evolution and rise of man, plan to launch the base’s missiles, plunging Earth into an all-out nuclear war and destroying mankind so reptiles can once again be the masters of their world.

Order the DVDwritten by Johnny Byrne
directed by Ron Jones
music by Jonathan Gibbs

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Tom Adams (Vorshak), Ingrid Pitt (Solow), Ian McCulloch (Nilson), Nigel Humphreys (Bulic), Martin Neil (Maddox), Tara Ward (Preston), Norman Comer (Icthar), Nitza Saul (Karina), Stuart Blake (Scibus), Vincent Brimble (Tarpok), Christopher Farries (Sauvix), James Coombes (Paroli), Steve Kelly, Chris Wolfe, Jules Walters, Mike Braben, Dave Ould (Sea Devils)

Broadcast from January 5 through 13, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Automan

Ships In The Night

AutomanThe mysterious disappearance of a local businessman during a trip to the tropical island of San Cristobal becomes Jack Curtis’ latest investigation, sending him to San Cristobal for leads. Walter and Automan discover clues that indicate the disappearance is part of a larger and deadlier pattern of crimes, and travel to San Cristobal to provide this information to Curtis, who is already working with local authorities. But not even Walter suspects that those authorities are not only corrupt, but deeply involved with the crimes…and Automan is too busy discovering the limbo to be of much help.

written by Parke Perine
directed by Bob Claver
music by Stu Phillips / Automan Theme by Billy Hinsche and Stu Phillips

AutomanCast: Desi Arnaz Jr. (Walter Nebicher), Chuck Wagner (Automan), Heather McNair (Roxanne Caldwell), Gerald S. O’Loughlin (Capt. Boyd), Robert Lansing (Lt. Jack Curtis), Scott Marlowe (Sawyer), France Nuyen (Liang Lu), Steve Hanks (Woody), Frank Aletter (James Dowling), Abraham Alvarez (Police Sergeant), Cesare Danova (Captain Romano), Javier Grajeda (The Desk Clerk), Branscombe Richmond (Johnson), Melanie Vincz (The Beautiful Girl), Bridget Sienna (The Croupier), Rick Garcia (The Bank Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Chocky Season 1

Episode One

ChockyThe Gore family enjoys a typical upper-middle-class life in London, but when their adopted son Matthew begins asking unusually existential questions about everyday life, and showing other signs of accelerated intelligence, it’s a minor cause for concern. When he suddenly falls ill, his parents, Mary and David, are much more concerned – and a bit annoyed that Matthew keeps asking them to send someone named Chocky away until he’s better.

written by Anthony Read
based on the novel by John Wyndham
directed by Vic Hughes
music not credited

ChockyCast: Carol Drinkwater (Mary), James Hazeldine (David), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), James Greene (Mr. Trimmble), Devin Stanfield (Colin), Kelita Groom (Jane), Jonathan Jackson (Mark), Peter John Bickford (Roger), Catherine Elcombe (Susan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Chocky Season 1

Episode Two

ChockyRecovering from his high fever, Matthew is still having conversations with Chocky, a voice that he claims only he can hear. Matthew flies into hysterics when he claims Chocky is calling the new fuel-efficient family car “stupid”, and his math teacher contacts the Gores to ask if Matthew has been receiving outside tutoring, as his schoolwork has improved dramatically. The common thread between both good news and bad is Chocky.

written by Anthony Read
based on the novel by John Wyndham
directed by Christopher Hodson
music not credited

ChockyCast: James Hazeldine (David), Carol Drinkwater (Mary), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), James Greene (Mr. Trimmble), Devin Stanfield (Colin), Lynne Pearson (Miss Blayde), Jonathan Jackson (Mark), Kelita Groom (Jane), Peter John Bickford (Roger), Catherine Elcombe (Susan)

Notes: Fear not, the makers of Chocky didn’t blow up a perfectly good Atari 800 home computer – Chockythe panel that bursts open is a hinged cover that must normally be opened to access the dual cartridge slots within. The smoke pouring out of the computer, however, is not standard issue. The game being played with remarkable reflexes by Matthew in this story is the Atari computer port of Space Invaders.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

The Awakening

Doctor WhoThe Doctor tries to steer the TARDIS to the present-day village of Little Hodcombe, where Tegan plans to visit her grandfather, Andrew Varney. But he has disappeared and something is amiss in the village – the annual medieval reconstructionists’ wargames have taken a decidedly more hostile and sinister tone this year. In the nearby church, something terrible has taken hold of many of the villagers’ minds, and it’s manipulating them to create more fear and hatred – something the creature craves as psychic sustenance.

Order the DVDwritten by Eric Pringle
directed by Michael Owen Morris
music by Peter Howell

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Polly James (Jane Hampden), Denis Lill (Sir George Hutchinson), Glyn Houston (Colonel Wolsey), Jack Galloway (Joseph Willow), Frederick Hall (Andrew Verney), Keith Jayne (Will Chandler), Christopher Saul (Trooper)

Broadcast from January 19 through 20, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Chocky Season 1

Episode Three

ChockyThe Gores’ concern for Matthew’s mental well-being grows as he continues reporting what strange things he’s heard from Chocky. David contacts a friend who happens to be a forward-thinking psychologist, asking him to talk with Matthew to conduct an initial assessment. It does little to help the Gores’ nerves when they hear his conclusion: Matthew may well be in contact with the extraterrestrial intelligence that he has claimed existed all along.

written by Anthony Read
based on the novel by John Wyndham
directed by Vic Hughes
music not credited

ChockyCast: Carol Drinkwater (Mary), James Hazeldine (David), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), Jeremy Bulloch (Landis), James Greene (Mr. Trimmble), Devin Stanfield (Colin), Patrick Blackwell (Boatman), Gary Raynsford (Policeman), Glynis Brooks (Chocky’s voice)

ChockyNotes: Boba Fett, child psychologist! Less than a year after Return Of The Jedi hit theaters, Jeremy Bulloch was, like most working actors, pursuing roles other than the one which had briefly made him famous even without showing his face. Odds are that he still gets asked about Star Wars more often than he does about Chocky.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

Frontios

Doctor WhoQuite by accident, the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough to Frontios, the home of the last surviving colony of the human race. A meteor storm brings the TARDIS tumbling out of orbit and right into the middle of the colony. The paranoid colonists, who have been enduring killer meteor showers for many years, believe the Doctor and his friends are responsible. The Doctor tries to lend a hand and is met only with suspicion, but soon he is as trapped as the colonists when another meteor shower appears to destroy the TARDIS. Tegan stumbles across evidence that there are more menaces to the population of Frontios than just rocks from the sky, and Turlough discovers that he has a terrifyingly intimate knowledge of that menace.

Order the DVDwritten by Christopher H. Bidmead
directed by Ron Jones
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), John Gillett (Gravis), Peter Gilmore (Brazen), Lesley Dunlop (Norna), William Lucas (Range), Jeff Rawle (Plantagenet), Maurice O’Connell (Cockerill), Richard Ashley (Orderly), Alison Skilbeck (Deputy), Raymond Murtagh (Retrograde), George Campbell, Michael Malcolm, Stephen Speed, William Bowen, Hedi Khursandi (Tractators), Jim Dowdall (Warnsman), John Beardmore (Captain Revere)

Broadcast from January 26 through February 3, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Chocky Season 1

Episode Four

ChockyMatthew’s parents quiz him about a series of drawings they find in his room, some of them surprisingly realistic and some very impressionistic, and after some prodding he admits that he drew them under Chocky’s influence. Chocky now appears to Matthew as an ethereal blue floating mass of energy, and speaks aloud to him. With a family vacation just around the corner, Matthew asks Chocky to stay away from him…but he doesn’t expect to be taken quite so literally. The family vacation proceeds with no sign of anything unusual…until a boat with no one in it barrels toward the wooden dock where Matthew and his younger sister are fishing.

written by Anthony Read
based on the novel by John Wyndham
directed by Vic Hughes
music not credited

ChockyCast: James Hazeldine (David), Carol Drinkwater (Mary), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), Colin McCormack (Alan), Penny Brownjohn (Phyl), Devin Stanfield (Colin), Kathleen Cotty (Emma), Glynis Brooks (Chocky’s voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Chocky Season 1

Episode Five

ChockyMatthew manages to save his younger sister and gets her to dry land, to the astonishment of his father, who points out that Matthew has never learned how to swim. It quickly becomes apparent that Chocky has returned, and is responsible for Matthew suddenly being able to swim proficiently. BBC Radio interviews Matthew, who opens up – to his parents’ alarm – about hearing a voice that told him how to swim; the story also makes the papers. More reporters, and self-proclaimed psychics and witches, descend upon the Gore household, to his mother’s alarm. Dr. Landis arranges for Matthew to spend time with a hypnotist; after this session, Chocky abruptly leaves Matthew, instructing him to forget her.

written by Anthony Read
based on the novel by John Wyndham
directed by Vic Hughes and Christopher Hodson
music not credited

ChockyCast: Carol Drinkwater (Mary), James Hazeldine (David), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), John Grillo (Sir William Thorbe), Devin Stanfield (Colin), Colin McCormack (Alan), Penny Brownjohn (Phyl), Leo Dolan (Postman), Deborah Fairfax (Girl Reporter), Janet Henfrey (Cranky Woman), Brian Redhead (Interviewer), Gary Watson (Radio Reporter), Glynis Brooks (Chocky’s voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

Resurrection Of The Daleks

Doctor WhoWith the TARDIS caught in a time corridor at the end of the previous story, the Doctor is surprised to find that he is being taken to some rather unremarkable London docks. His investigation into the origins of the time corridor lead him to a meeting with a group of hapless 20th century soldiers who can’t even begin to imagine the traces of technology they’ve discovered in a nearby warehouse. The Doctor’s arrival has been expected – in fact, carefully orchestrated – by the Daleks, who are in the midst of a plot that involves clones, biological warfare, and the rescue and revival of their mad creator, Davros.

Order the DVDwritten by Eric Saward
directed by Matthew Robinson
music by Malcolm Clarke

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Terry Molloy (Davros), Maurice Colbourne (Lytton), Rodney Bewes (Stien), Rula Lenska (Styles), Del Henney (Colonel Archer), Chloe Ashcroft (Professor Laird), Philip McGough (Sergeant Calder), Jim Findley (Mercer), Leslie Grantham (Kiston), Sneh Gupta (Osborn), Roger Davenport (Trooper), John Adam Baker, Linsey Turner (Crew members), William Sleigh (Galloway), Brian Miller, Royce Mills (Dalek voices), John Scott Martin, Cy Town, Tony Starr, Toby Byrne (Daleks), Nicholas Curry (Chemist), Michael Jeffries, Mike Braben (Policemen), Mike Mungarven, Simon Crane (Soldiers), Pat Judge (Man with metal detector)

Broadcast from February 8 through 15, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Chocky Season 1

Episode Six

ChockyMatthew goes missing from school, and is gone for five days, during which reports surface that he got into a stranger’s car; he abruptly turns up mostly unharmed, aside from having received several injections and claiming to have been in a violent car wreck. Matthew remembers having been in a hospital, but not much else. As Matthew sleeps, Chocky emerges and finally speaks to another human being – Matthew’s father – to explain why Matthew was chosen…and what must happen to him now.

written by Anthony Read
based on the novel by John Wyndham
directed by Vic Hughes and Christopher Hodson
music not credited

ChockyCast: James Hazeldine (David), Carol Drinkwater (Mary), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), Penny Brownjohn (Phyl), John Pennington (Inspector Maggs), Derek Broome (Police Constable), Martyn Lewis (Newsreader), Glynis Brooks (Chocky’s voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

Planet of Fire

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS has been set for a new course by Kamelion, who is attempting to go to the source of a distress signal which is overriding his every function. The Doctor manages to wrest control of the ship from Kamelion and lands the TARDIS on Earth to investigate. While the Doctor finds little of importance, other than a freshly uncovered batch of artifacts from an archaeological expedition, Turlough discovers the signal’s source and immobilizes the TARDIS to avoid going there. Turlough also spots a drowning swimmer on the TARDIS scanner. He rescues the girl, discovering that she has stolen the oddest of the artifacts that the Doctor saw earlier. When the Doctor returns, the TARDIS again takes off without his control, and apparently with a new passenger on board. The mystery of the new passengers unravels quickly, as does the mystery of who has been controlling Kamelion. But why is Turlough so keen to avoid a colony from his own planet – a colony of outcasts of which he may be a member?

Order the DVDwritten by Peter Grimwade
directed by Fiona Cumming
music by Peter Howell

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Anthony Ainley (The Master), Peter Wyngarde (Timanov), Barbara Shelley (Sorasta), Gerald Flood (voice of Kamelion), James Bate (Amyand), Dallas Adams (Professor Foster), Edward Highmore (Malkon), Jonathan Caplan (Roskal), John Alkin (Lomand), Michael Bangerter (Curt), Simon Sutton (Lookout), Max Arthur (Zuko), Ray Knight (Trion)

Broadcast from February 23 through March 2, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

The Caves of Androzani

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Peri find themselves on Androzani Major, a world embroiled in a bloody war over the drug spectrox, which prolongs the human life span. While exploring some seemingly uninhabited caves, the Doctor and Peri fall into a foreign substance which has the immediate effect of causing an unpleasant rash, and are then captured by a platoon of soldiers who accuse them of smuggling weapons. While awaiting summary execution for this crime, the Doctor and Peri are then rescued – or perhaps kidnapped – by Sharaz Jek, a disfigured madman who hoards the planet’s supply of spectrox and oversees the real weapons smugglers. The soldiers, Jek, the gun-runners and a treacherous corporate mogul with an eye on the presidency are all battling for control of the spectrox supply, and none of them will let anything stand in their way – especially not two innocent bystanders who are dying anyway.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Robert Holmes
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Roger Limb

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Christopher Gable (Sharaz Jek), John Normington (Morgus), Robert Glenister (Salateen), Maurice Roeves (Stotz), Roy Holder (Krelper), Martin Cochrane (Chellak), Barbara Kinghorn (Timmin), David Neal (President), Ian Staples (Soldier), Colin Taylor (Magma creature), Keith Harvey, Andrew Smith, Stephen Smith (Androids), Anthony Ainley (The Master), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Gerald Flood (voice of Kamelion)

Broadcast from March 8 through 16, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

The Twin Dilemma

Doctor WhoThe seemingly harmless Professor Edgeworth abducts Romulus and Remus Sylvest, twin boys whose immense mathematical prowess is closely guarded for fear that it could become a powerful weapon in the wrong hands. Edgeworth’s paymaster is Mestor, the giant gastropod, who plans to have the boys calculate a way to plunge the Jacondan solar system into chaos – all for the sake of hatching thousands of giant larvae containing a future swarm of gastropods. Edgeworth is the alias of Azmael, an outcast Time Lord who is reluctantly working for Mestor, but unknown to him, a fellow Time Lord is about to come crashing into Mestor’s plan for universal domination – a Time Lord who is suffering from a severely traumatic regeneration, and whose actions and moods cannot be predicted.

Order the DVDwritten by Anthony Steven
directed by Peter Moffatt
music by Malcolm Clarke

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Maurice Denham (Edgeworth/Azmael), Kevin McNally (Hugo Lang), Edwin Richfield (Mestor), Barry Stanton (Noma), Oliver Smith (Drak), Seymour Green (Chamberlain), Paul Conrad (Romulus), Andrew Conrad (Remus), Dennis Chinnery (Sylvest), Helen Blatch (Fabian), Dione Inman (Elena), Roger Nott (Prisoner), John Wilson (Guard)

Broadcast from March 22 through 30, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
1980s Miniseries V

V: The Final Battle – Part I

VThe Visitor occupation of Earth continues, and so do the resistance’s struggles to stay unified. A hit-and-run raid on a Visitor food processing facility turns disastrous thanks to unforseen improvements in the aliens’ armor, and Donovan worries that without a victory, and soon, the resistance will lose what little quiet support it has from the general public. Robert Maxwell, in the meantime, has a dilemma of his own – his daughter Robin is pregnant, and despite his attempts to be supportive, she’s not breathing a word about who the father might be. A major press event at a hospital in Los Angeles provides what Donovan thinks might be the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the Visitors’ vulnerability to the public, but getting past the security at the event will be a challenge – especially when Donovan is still on his own mission to retrieve his son Sean from the Visitors’ food storage facility on the mothership. During one of Elias’ many secretive visits to the hospital to steal medical supplies, he captures a live Visitor prisoner – the seemingly harmless Willie and his human friend Harmony – and brings them back to the secret resistance headquarters. Julie takes the opportunity to run experiments on Willie to try to find a weakness in the Visitors, and only then does Robin Maxwell admit that her baby is a human-Visitor hybrid, and demands an abortion. But when Julie examines Robin, it quickly becomes apparent that aborting the fetus would kill the girl in the process. And on the night of the Visitor leader’s announcement at the hospital, the aliens are finally unmasked – on live worldwide TV – in the resistance’s boldest raid yet. But this victory comes at a high price as Julie is captured by Diana’s forces.

Order the DVDteleplay by Brian Taggert and Peggy Goldman
story by Lillian Weezer & Peggy Goldman & Faustus Buck & Diane Frolov and Harry & Renee Longstreet
directed by Richard T. Heffron
music by Barry de Vorzon & Joseph Conlan

Cast: Marc Singer (Mike Donovan), Faye Grant (Dr. Julie Parrish), Jane Badler (Diana), Michael Durrell (Robert Maxwell), Michael Wright (Elias Taylor), Blair Tefkin (Robin Maxwell), Neva Patterson (Eleanor Dupres), David Packer (Daniel Bernstein), Robert Englund (Willie), Richard Herd (John), Thomas Hill (Father Doyle), Michael Ironside (Ham Tyler), Peter Nelson (Brian), Andrew Prine (Steven), Sandy Simpson (Mark), Denise Galik (Maggie), Jason Bernard (Caleb Taylor), Rafael Campos (Sancho Gomez), Hansford Rowe (Arthur Dupres), Frank Ashmore (Martin), Diane Civita (Harmony Moore), Viveka Davis (Polly Maxwell), Marin May (Katie Maxwell), Jenny O’Hara (Jenny), Jenny Sullivan (Christine Walsh), Mark Taylor (Dr. Fred King), Camila Ashlend (Ruby Engels), Greta Blackburn (Lorraine), Eric Johnston (Sean Donovan), Dick Miller (Dan Pascal), Stack Pierce (Visitor Captain), Don Starr (Dr. Walker)

Notes: Pascal’s high-tech counterfeiting equipment is so high-tech that it makes the same sound effects as Spock’s science station on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. The music composed by Barry DeVorzon and Joseph Conlan for the second and third episodes of The Final Battle were replaced on one week’s notice by future Star Trek: The Next Generation maestro Dennis McCarthy. Though included in the credits of the first episode, Michael Ironside doesn’t appear until the opening scenes of the second episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green