Categories
Blake's 7 Season 4

Headhunter

Blake's 7Tarrant and Vila are sent to pick up a scientist whose cybernetic genius could help the crew of Scorpio fight the Federation, but they slowly begin to uncover the truth – the cybernetic progeny of Muller, a student of Orac’s creator, has assumed its creator’s identity and is on a murderous rampage to find the only other computer worthy of its attention and join with it: Orac.

written by Roger Parkes
directed by Mary Ridge
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), John Westbrook (Muller), Lynda Bellingham (Vena), Douglas Fielding (Technician), Nick Joseph (Android), Lesley Nunnerley (Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Assassin

Blake's 7Avon and the others discover that they are being hunted by a top notch killer whose services have been paid for by Servalan. Avon and Tarrant fight the odds and sometimes each other to survive, but in the end, it turns out that Avon, underestimating the opposite sex, has been fooled by Servalan and a brilliant female killer – and it is Soolin who saves him.

written by Rod Beacham
directed by David Sullivan Proudfoot
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Caroline Holdaway (Piri), John Wyman (Cancer), Richard Hurndall (Nebrox), Peter Attad (Benos), Betty Marsden (Verlis), Adam Blackwood (Tok), Mark Barratt (Servalan’s Captain)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Games

Blake's 7The crew of Scorpio set out to plunder an infinite energy source, only to find that Servalan has her mind set on the same prize and a series of games designed to stop any potential thieves from every gaining the energy source requires the skills of Soolin, Tarrant and Vila to pass – and on Avon’s turn, it is learned that the entire thing is a hoax.

written by Bill Lyons
directed by Vivienne Cozens
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Stratford Johns (Belkov), Rosalind Bailey (Gambit), David Neal (Gerren), Michael Gaunt (Computer), James Harvey (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Sand

Blake's 7Avon decides to investigate something Servalan is investigating – a mysterious new source of energy on a distant planet. The sand-covered world is not what Tarrant and Dayna expect, nor is it expected that the sand itself is a vampire that feeds on all the unnecessary human males that arrive there, leaving any females and the strongest male as human breeding stock for future nourishment. And Tarrant becomes trapped there with Servalan.

written by Tanith Lee
directed by Vivienne Cozens
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Stephen Yardley (Reeve), Daniel Hill (Chasgow), Jonathan David (Keller), Peter Craze (Servalan’s Assistant), Michael Gaunt (Computer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Gold

Blake's 7An old acquaintance of Avon joins forces with the Scorpio crew to pull off an interstellar heist from a luxury ship whose undercover cargo is transmuted gold. They then go to have the gold re-transmuted for a bargain with Keiller’s employer – who turns out to be Servalan…and she has already made sure of her own wealth in the end.

written by Colin Davis
directed by Brian Lighthill
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Roy Kinnear (Keiller), Anthony Brown (Doctor), Dinah May (Woman Passenger), Norman Hartley (Pilot)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Orbit

Blake's 7Avon and Vila visit the planet Malodar to strike a deal with the megalomaniac scientist Egrorian for a new weapon he has devised that could ensure total power over the Federation. But only a slip of the tongue by Egrorian’s grotesque lab assistant warns Avon of impending danger: Servalan is behind Egrorian in an attempt to kill Avon. And he’s ready to sacrifice Vila to save himself.

written by Robert Holmes
directed by Brian Lighthill
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Blake's 7Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), John Savident (Egrorian), Larry Noble (Pinder)

Notes: Michael Keating, as Vila, shed tears as Avon was searching for him to kill him, but higher powers at the BBC prevented the scenes from making it to the final episode, making it appear is if Vila is sweating in hiding – apparently the tears were far more disturbing than the idea that Avon was ready to throw Vila off the ship!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Blake's 7 Season 4

Warlord

Blake's 7Avon calls a summit meeting of the most powerful non-Federation-aligned worlds’ leaders to devise a plan to combat the Pylene-50 pacification drug, but his most powerful ally, Zukan, turns out to be an underground informant for Servalan and plants explosives in Xenon Base. The base explodes while Avon and Soolin are en route to rendezvous with a source of vital raw material. Zukan later discovers that his own daughter has stayed behind on Xenon to remain with Tarrant, and Avon manages to save his crew just in time, but Zukan’s daughter dies while reactivating the Xenon Base life support systems.

written by Simon Masters
directed by Viktors Ritelis
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Roy Boyd (Zukan), Bobbie Brown (Zeeona), Dean Harris (Finn), Simon Merrick (Boorva), Rick James (Chalsa), Charles Augins (Lod), Brian Spink (Mida)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Blake

Blake's 7Scorpio takes off as timers detonate bombs that destroy Xenon Base or any evidence that the crew had been there – the crew is on the run again. But Avon reveals that he has found the man they need to lead the rest of the rebel forces in the galaxy in a final triumphant battle with the Federation; he has found the real Roj Blake. The ship travels to Gauda Prime, where Scorpio is attacked and loses control. Tarrant crash lands the ship while the others begin trudging toward what they hope is the home of a new revolution, and Tarrant is “salvaged” by a bounty hunter – Blake. After bluffing through a conversation to find out if Tarrant is Federation or not, Blake draws a gun on him and Tarrant lashes back and escapes. Avon and the others arrive just as personnel on the base attack Tarrant, and Blake emerges. Believing Tarrant’s report that Blake has joined the Federation instead of Blake’s protests to the contrary and offers of an alliance, Avon kills Blake and one of Blake’s new recruits reveals herself to be a true Federation officer and shoots Dayna down. Vila knocks the officer out and is seen to fall as a squad of Federation troops enter the base. Soolin and Tarrant are the next to fall, leaving Avon to stand over the dead body of Blake, alone to face a Federation squad…

written by Chris Boucher
directed by Mary Ridge
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Gareth Thomas (Blake), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Sasha Mitchell (Arlen), David Collings (Deva), Janet Lees Price (Klyn)

Notes: Janet Lees Price, who portrays a member of Blake’s team who is killed by Avon, is in fact Paul Darrow’s wife!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
K-9 Sarah Jane Adventures

K-9 & Company: A Girl’s Best Friend

K-9 & CompanyAfter her Aunt Lavinia leaves for a lecture tour in America much earlier than expected, her niece, Sarah Jane Smith, takes up temporary residence in her house in the quaint village of Moreton Harwood. Sarah finds the locals to be a little bit backward, and one of Lavinia’s recent letters to the editor in the local paper decrying the belief that black magic will help the crops grow – a belief that some of the villagers apparently take quite seriously. Lavinia’s ward, Brendan, also arrives to stay at the house, and Sarah finds a note from Lavinia herself, pointing her in the direction of a large box that has been in Lavinia’s possession for years. The box, which has never been opened, contains a present for Sarah from the Doctor – her very own K-9. Brendan, who’s delighted with computers and technology, makes fast friends with the robotic dog, but that night when Sarah visits one of the neighbors, Brendan finds himself in need of one of K-9’s more unusual abilities when two men break into the house. K-9 stuns one of the men and then pursues the other, but doesn’t catch him. Sarah finds the local police oddly uninterested in the incident, and begins to wonder if there’s something to Lavinia’s witchcraft worries. When Brendan is kidnapped and the police still aren’t interested, her suspicions are even more aroused, and she’ll need K-9’s help to find out how far this small-town conspiracy goes.

Order the DVDwritten by Terence Dudley
directed by John Black
music by Peter Howell / title music by Fiachra Trench & Ian Levine

Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Bill Fraser (Commander Pollock), Ian Sears (Brendan Richards), Colin Jeavons (George Tracey), Sean Chapman (Peter Tracey), Mary Wimbush (Aunt Lavinia), Linda Polan (Juno Baker), Gillian Martell (Lilly Gregson), Neville Barber (Howard Baker), John Quarmby (Henry Tobias), Nigel Gregory (Sergeant Wilson), Stephen Oxley (PC Carter)

Notes: Though not strictly speaking an actual part of the Sarah Jane Adventures series, K-9 & Company establishes numerous important parts of the series backstory, and perhaps more importantly established plot points which later Doctor Who episodes (The Five Doctors, School Reunion) regarded as official. It was also the first (and, until Torchwood was greenlit, only) official Doctor Who TV spinoff. As is the case with the current slate of Doctor Who spinoffs being produced by the same team responsible for the parent series, K-9 & Company would have been produced by Doctor Who’s then-producer John Nathan-Turner, who admitted that he wasn’t fond of the dog’s deus ex machina antics in Doctor Who, but realized that the massive outcry over K-9’s departure meant that there was an audience. Nathan-Turner later admitted that the biggest failure of K-9 & Company was its opening episode’s theme of black magic and the occult; like The Sarah Jane Adventures, K-9 & Company was envisioned for the younger segment of Doctor Who’s audience, and so the pilot episode’s human sacrifice and pagan ceremonies failed to play well against the Christmas/New Year holidays. (A widespread power outage at the time of broadcast didn’t help ratings either.) Ironically, Sarah did get her own spinoff, with K-9 in the opening episode, premiering 26 years and 4 days after K-9 & Company. (For those wondering: K-9 & Company was to have been the series title, while A Girl’s Best Friend was the name of this particular episode; it’s worth noting that in their book “Doctor Who: The Eighties,” authors David J. Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker reveal that only Nathan-Turner was envisaging a full series, something which his superiors at the BBC had not seriously discussed at the time.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 19 Doctor Who

Castrovalva

Doctor WhoChaos ensues in the wake of the Doctor’s regeneration. Security guards at the Pharos Project arrest Tegan, Nyssa and Adric, who are just beginning to try to comprehend what has happened to the Doctor, let alone help him. They manage to divert the guards and get the Doctor back to the TARDIS, but at the last moment, the Master’s TARDIS appears, blocking Adric’s escape. The Master then disappears again, and Adric returns to help the Doctor, who is trying to find the recuperative Zero Room. Adric has also gotten the TARDIS underway to its next destination – which turns out to be the explosive event which created the Milky Way. The Doctor, still experiencing sudden changes of personality, is barely able to help Tegan and Nyssa evade disaster by jettisoning parts of the TARDIS, and Adric is nowhere to be found. But when the Zero Room is accidentally blasted away in the emergency, the Doctor’s friends must find a place where he can recover. And all too conveniently, the relaxing planet of Castrovalva is at the top of the list.

Season 19 Regular Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan)

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Christopher H. Bidmead
directed by Fiona Cumming
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (The Master), Derek Waring (Shardovan), Michael Sheard (Mergrave), Frank Wylie (Ruther), Dallas Cavell (Head of Security), Souska John (Child)

Broadcast from January 4 through 12, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 19 Doctor Who

Four To Doomsday

Doctor WhoThe Doctor, trying to return Tegan to Heathrow Airport, manages to get the TARDIS to the correct time and date – but in the wrong place, landing aboard a vast spaceship which is slowly making its way toward Earth. The Doctor and his friends eventually meet Monarch, ruler of the alien Urbankans, who are preparing to visit Earth on what Monarch claims is a mission of peace. But it seems that the Urbankans have already paid Earth a visit – representatives of various periods and cultures in the planet’s past. But none of it is real – the “abductees” aren’t really human, and Monarch’s mission is one of conquest, not peace.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Terence Dudley
directed by John Black
music by Roger Limb

Guest Cast: Stratford Johns (Monarch), Philip Locke (Bigon), Paul Shelley (Persuasion), Annie Lambert (Enlightenment), Burt Kwouk (Lin Futu), Illario Bisi Pedro (Kurkutji), Nadia Hammam (Villagra)

Broadcast from January 18 through 26, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 19 Doctor Who

Kinda

Doctor WhoOn the planet Deva Loka, an investigation team studies the primitive native Kinda people, and are rather alarmed when the Doctor and Adric are rounded up by an automatic security device. The Doctor has brought the TARDIS to Deva Loka so Nyssa can rest and recover from her expeiences aboard Monarch’s ship. Tegan, in a nearby forest, drifts off to sleep and is visited by the Kinda, and her body is inhabited by an evil spirit from their lore, the Mara. The Doctor learns that, pending the final report from the increasingly unstable investigators, the Kinda could be displaced by human colonization of their world…unless all of them are destroyed by the Mara first.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Christopher Bailey
directed by Peter Grimwade
music by Peter Howell

Guest Cast: Richard Todd (Sanders), Nerys Hughes (Todd), Mary Morris (Panna), Simon Rouse (Hindle), Adrian Mills (Aris), Lee Cornes (Trickster), Sarah Prince (Karuna), Anna Wing (Annatta), Roger Milner (Anicca), Jeffrey Stuart (Dukkha)

Broadcast from February 1 through 9, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 19 Doctor Who

The Visitation

Doctor WhoThe Doctor finally lands the TARDIS at Heathrow – in the 1600s, long before air travel – and immediately becomes the object of hostility from the locals, who fear for their lives since a falling star heralded the coming of a new and virulent plague. They befriend a rogue named Richard Mace, who is helpful as a guide, but is almost useless as a protector when they find an android lurking in an abandoned house. Tegan is stunned and Adric is taken prisoner, while the Doctor, Nyssa and Mace escape. Tegan and Adric are interrogated by a hideously wounded Terrileptil creature, the master of the android, and self-declared destroyer of mankind.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Eric Saward
directed by Peter Moffatt
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Michael Robbins (Richard Mace), Michael Melia, David Summer, Michael Leader (Terileptils), Peter Van Dissel (Android), James Charlton (Miller), John Savident (Squire John), Anthony Calf (Charles), John Baker (Ralph), Valerie Fyfer (Elizabeth), Richard Hampton (Villager), Neil West (Poacher), Eric Dodson (Headman), Jeff Wayne (Scytheman)

Broadcast from February 15 through 23, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 19 Doctor Who

Black Orchid

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS brings the Doctor and his friends to a railway station in 1925, where a car is waiting for them – and the Doctor seems to be expected by name. He and his companions are taken to Lord Cranleigh’s estate, where the Doctor turns the tide in a game of cricket. But as all the guests prepare for a fancy dress party, the Doctor’s costume is stolen and his curiosity leads him down a hidden passage in the house. By the time the Doctor emerges, he is the prime suspect in at least two murders – and due to his own disappearance into the house’s secret passageways, he has no alibi. Someone in the house does know who the real killer is, but if she tips her hand, other dreadful secrets could destroy the Cranleigh family.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Terence Dudley
directed by Ron Jones
music by Roger Limb

Guest Cast: Vanessa Paine (Ann Talbot), Barbara Murray (Lady Cranleigh), Michael Cochrane (Lord Cranleigh), Gareth Milne (George Cranleigh), Moray Watson (Sir Robert Muir), Ivor Salter (Sergeant Markham), Ahmed Khalil (Latoni), Brian Hawksley (Brewster), Andrew Tourell (Constable Cummings), Timothy Block (Tanner), James Muir (Police driver), Caron Heggie (Ann’s maid), Derek Hunt (Footman), David Wilde (Digby)

Broadcast from March 1 through 2, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 19 Doctor Who

Earthshock

Doctor WhoA 26th century geological expedition is ambushed underground, leaving only a single survivor. When she crawls her way back to the surface camp, she reports the massacre. A squadron of security troops arrives to investigate, but they also consider her a suspect. However, when the troops return to the subterranean caves to look for the evidence, they first find a pair of killer androids…and then they find four people claiming to be time travelers, who instantly become the prime suspects. But these travelers – the Doctor and his unharmonious trio of companions – are more of a threat to the plans of the Cybermen (once again wearing new suits of high-tech armor). It seems that, fearing an upcoming conference of interplanetary superpowers that could spell the end to the Cybermen’s war effort, the silver ones plan to slam a huge space freighter into the Earth, obliterating a large portion of the planet’s surface. But when Adric manages to thwart the Cybermen’s plans by accidentlly sending the freighter back in time (but still on the same trajectory), he’s either helping to prevent the human race from coming into existence…or ensuring that event.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Eric Saward
directed by Peter Grimwade
music by Malcolm Clarke

Guest Cast: Beryl Reid (Briggs), James Warwick (Scott), Clare Clifford (Kyle), June Bland (Berger), David Banks (CyberLeader), Mark Hardy (Cyber Lieutenant), Steve Morley (Walters), Suzi Arden (Snyder), Ann Holloway (Mitchell), Anne Clements (Trooper Bane), Mark Straker (Trooper Carter), Alec Sabin (Ringway), Mark Fletcher (Crewmember Vance), Christopher Whittingham (Crewmember Carson), Carolyn Mary Simmonds, Barney Lawrence (Androids), Jeff Wayne, Steve Ismay, Peter Gates-Fleming, David Bache, Graham Cole, Norman Bradley, Michael Gordon Brown (Cybermen)

Broadcast from March 8 through 16, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green