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Out Of The Unknown Season 1

No Place Like Earth

Out Of The UnknownEarth was destroyed 15 years ago, after the solar system had been colonized as far as the moons of Jupiter. Bert, one of the last people to leave Earth for Mars, became more or less stranded on Mars, traveling between Martian settlements and repairing things for the locals. When the call goes out for men to colonize Venus, Bert is torn between his peripatetic life on Mars, which affords him both a living and leisure time, and the urge to rebuild a new world in the image of Earth. But it is only when Bert arrives on Venus that he learns that all of human history will play out in the building of this new world – even the worst parts. And if he starts a revolution, he may not be long for this, or any other, world.

adapted by Stanley Miller
from a story by John Wyndham
directed by Peter Potter
music by Norman Kay

Out Of The UnknownCast: Terence Morgan (Bert), Jessica Dunning (Annika), Hannah Gordon (Zaylo), Joseph O’Conor (Freeman), Alan Tilvern (Blane), George Pastell (Major Khan), Jerry Stovin (Captain of Spaceship), Vernon Joyner (Carter), Bill Treacher (Harris), Geoffrey Palmer (Chief Officer), Roy Stewart (Security Guard)

Out Of The UnknownNotes: The works of writer John Wyndham would inspire many future genre productions, including the BBC’s adaptation of Day Of The Triffids and ITV’s Chocky series. Norman Kay also provided the incidental music for the first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child, in 1963.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Out Of The Unknown Season 1

The Counterfeit Man

Out Of The UnknownA long-haul space mission to and from Ganymede is taking a toll on its all-too-human crew. One of the ship’s navigators dies from what appears to be the stress of being away from an earthlike environment, while the ship’s doctor suspects that Wescott, one of the crew, is not human, but an alien being that has assumed his physical form. The doctor begins sowing the seeds of suspicion among his own crew, and soon Westcott is a pariah among his crewmates, and the suspicion spreads. How inhuman will the crew become in trying to prove a shipmate isn’t human?

adapted by Philip Broadley
from a story by Alan Nourse
directed by George Spenton-Foster
music by Norman Kay

Out Of The UnknownCast: Alan Davion (Dr. Crawford), David Hemmings (Wescott), Charles Tingwell (Captain Jaffe), Peter Fraser (Donnie), Anthony Wager (Jensen), Keith Buckley (Scotty), David Savile (Gerry), Geoffrey Kenion (Dave), Barry Ashton (Frank), David Munro (Ken), Hedger Wallace (Commander), Lew Luton (Officer), Derek Martin (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Out Of The Unknown Season 3

The Little Black Bag

Out Of The UnknownDisgraced and discredited, Dr. Full was once a medical doctor, but is now a shambling alcoholic in possession of an oddly shaped bag of medical instruments. After a chance meeting in a bar with a woman named Angie, he is surprised to find that she has borrowed enough money for him to open a practice again, strictly for cosmetic surgical procedures…and she will be minding the till and calling the shows. Full discovers that what he has is no ordinary medical bag: it’s from the year 2160, and its instruments seem to provide their own treatment, miraculously curing any ill, not just cosmetic surgeries. The rush of resuming his calling as a healer thrills Dr. Full…but Angie sees only dollar signs, even over Full’s dead body.

written by C.M. Kornbluth
dramatized by Julian Bond
directed by Eric Hills
music by Don Harper

Out Of The UnknownCast: Emrys Jones (Dr. Roger Full), Geraldine Moffatt (Angie), Elizabeth Weaver (Edna Flannery), John Woodnutt (Kelland), Ian Frost (Johnny), Alan Downer (Mallinson), John Dunbar (Mr. Collins), Catherine Kessey (Receptionist), Honora Burke (Mrs. Coleman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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TV Movies

The Stone Tape

The Stone TapeAn abandoned pre-war building is taken over by Ryan Electronics to serve as the skunkworks for a crash program to find and develop the electronic recording medium that will supplant magnetic tape. With its wartime history as a command post for visiting American soldiers, and an even longer history as a haunted house stretching back into the late 1800s, the building isn’t anyone’s favorite place. Some members of the electronics R&D team refuse to work there, and a visit to the pub reveals that the locals believe that any new secret project there is military (and hazardous) in nature. The sole female member of the Ryan Electronics team, Jill, experiences a vision in a supply room formerly used by the U.S. Army, catching a fleeting glimpse of a screaming woman, and project director Peter isn’t convinced until he hears the screaming for himself. Determined to debunk the hauntings so his team can get down to their real work, Peter decides to throw the team’s resources at the problem, using every kind of sensing and recording equipment at their disposal and regarding the sightings as merely misinterpreted data. Even though sightings continue, none of the group’s equipment manages to record any of it. After several further sightings, Peter becomes convinced that the sightings are a message recorded in the very stones of the building itself, a “stone tape” recorded by a massive output of psychic energy, though the haunting nature of the repeated sightings gives his team the uncomfortable feeling that the burst of energy was provided by the moment of the screaming woman’s death. Gradually becoming unhinged by an obsessive belief that the “stone tape” represents exactly the kind of breakthrough recording medium his team was sent to discover, Peter begins probing the room with UV light, lasers, and blasts of high-frequency sound, and eventually the sightings stop: his team believed he’s “wiped the tape.”

At least until Jill begins to pick up on something else, another presence somehow recorded in the stone. Something older – almost unimaginably older – and far more dangerous than a screaming woman. Could it be that Peter has simply erased the most recent recording from the stone tape and revealed the original recording?

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Peter Sasdy
special sound effects by Desmond Briscoe and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Cast: Michael Bryant (Peter), Jane Asher (Jill), Iain Cuthbertson (Collinson), Michael Bates (Eddie), Reginald Marsh (Crawshaw), The Stone TapeTom Chadbon (Hargrave), John Forgeham (Maudsley), Philip Trewinnard (Stewart), James Cosmo (Dow), Neil Wilson (Sergeant), Christopher Banks (Vicar), Michael Graham Cox (Alan), Hilda Fenemore (Bar Helper), Peggy Marshall (Bar Lady)

Notes: There is little music in The Stone Tape; instead of crediting a music composer, BBC Radiophonic Workshop co-founder Desmond Briscoe is billed as creating “special sound effects.” BBC graphics designer Bernard Lodge, responsible for many of the Doctor Who title sequences including the Tom Baker-era “time tunnel” graphics, created the title sequences for The Stone Tape. Louis Marks (Doctor Who: Day Of The Daleks) was the script editor, and the show was produced by late-Hartnell-era Doctor Who producer Innes Lloyd.

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

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Monkey Season 1

Monkey Goes Wild About Heaven

MonkeyAn elemental force of nature born from a stone egg, Monkey began life as a stone monkey, but now assumes human form in his ongoing battle of order against chaos against a legion of demons. But while he seeks to bring order to the world around him, Monkey’s love of this fight against the havoc demons means that he’s a chaotic whirl of action, often leaving collateral damage in his wake. To sate Monkey’s considerable ego when he tries to storm Heaven itself, the title of Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, is bestowed upon him, and he is put in charge of Heaven’s orchard of magical peach trees. Monkey promptly begins eating the peaches, whose magical properties make him immortal, and becomes infatuated with Lady Vega, consort of the Emperor of Heaven. He’s willing to start a war in Heaven to win her, and two fighters are sent to stop him – and they fail. The Emperor of Heaven banishes both of them to Earth, turning one of them into a pig and the other into a water spirit, and then summons the help of the Buddha. Assuming a female form, the Buddha assigns Monkey a task, which he thinks is easily accomplished…but in fact he fails and is also banished to Earth.

written by Mamoru Sasaki and Isoa Okishima
based on the story by Wu Ch’Eng-En
adapted by David Weir
directed by Yusuki Watanabe
English dub directed by Michael Bakewell
music by Micky Yoshino / theme performed by Godiego

MonkeyCast: Masaaki Sakai (Monkey), Masako Natsume (Tripitaka), Shirô Kishibe (Sandy), Toshiyuki Nishida (Pigsy), Takao Inoue (Emperor), Yatsuko Tanami (Buddha), Emi Shindo (Lady Vega), Maki Carcer (Demon), David Collings (Monkey’s voice – English dub), Maria Warburg (Tripitaka’s voice – English dub), Gareth Armstrong (Sandy’s voice – English dub), Peter Woodthorpe (Pigsy’s voice – English dub), Frank Duncan (Narrator – English dub), Cecile Chevreau (Buddha’s voice – English dub), Miriam Margolyes (Voices – English dub), Peter Marinker (Voices – English dub)

MonkeyNotes: The airdate shown here reflects the BBC2 premiere date rather than the Japanese premiere date on NTV. Monkey is a satirical Japanese take on the 16th-century Chinese novel Saiyuki (a.k.a. Journey To The West), a staple of Chinese literature that has been adapted dozens of times, both more faithfully told and more bizarrely told (it’s also the basis for the Dragonball franchise). Monkey initiates what is now apparently a tradition of casting a woman as the young male priest Tripitaka.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Monkey Season 1

Monkey Turns Nursemaid

MonkeyMonkey is trapped inside the base of a mountain for 500 years, thanks to a magical seal placed there by the Buddha, who wishes him to learn patience. Emissaries from the Buddha drop by to check on him over the years, but do not free him. They also free a dragon imprisoned in Heaven, sending it to Earth on a mission to help a young priest on a quest. Monkey also meets this young priest, Tripitaka, who is heading westward to retrieve lost Buddhist scriptures, and talks Tripitaka into removing the Buddha’s seal, freeing him. But even Tripitaka was expecting to meet Monkey: he puts a magical headband from the Buddha on Monkey’s head, and can tighten it at will to ensure Monkey’s obedience on their journey. Fortunately, Monkey still loves to fight demons, which comes in handy when they try to bring Tripitaka’s quest to a premature end. The dragon also comes in handy after it changes itself into a horse.

written by Mamoru Sasaki
based on the story by Wu Ch’Eng-En
adapted by David Weir
directed by Jun Fukuda
English dub directed by Michael Bakewell
music by Micky Yoshino / theme performed by Godiego

MonkeyCast: Masaaki Sakai (Monkey), Masako Natsume (Tripitaka), Shirô Kishibe (Sandy), Toshiyuki Nishida (Pigsy), Atsuo Nakamura (Warlord), Eishin Tono (Demon), Homare Suguro (Priest), Akihiko Hirata (Emissary), Yatsuko Tanami (Buddha), David Collings (Monkey’s voice – English dub), Maria Warburg (Tripitaka’s voice – English dub), Gareth Armstrong (Sandy’s voice – English dub), Peter Woodthorpe (Pigsy’s voice – English dub), Frank Duncan (Narrator – English dub), Cecile Chevreau (Buddha’s voice – English dub), Miriam Margolyes (Voices – English dub), Peter Marinker (Voices – English dub)

MonkeyNotes: The airdate shown here reflects the BBC2 premiere date rather than the Japanese premiere date on NTV. Atsuo Nakamura also appeared in the Japanese TV series The Water Margin, which had been adapted by David Weir prior to production of Monkey, as well as in the film 47 Ronin. Eishin Tono (1942-2000) appeared in Ultraman Taro. Akihiko Hirata (1927-1874) appeared in numerous entries in the Godzilla and Ultraman franchises (playing Professor Iwamoto in the latter), as well as films such as Sayonara Jupiter, Fugitive Alien, and Atragon.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Monkey Season 1

The Great Journey Begins

MonkeyNot long after Monkey and Tripitaka set out westward, they are accosted by a priest who is able to change into a raven at will, warning them of evil spirits who will interfere in their journey. During their first stop, they meet Pigsy, one of the guards exiled from Heaven, and after a brief fight ending in a stalement, Pigsy is asked to join Monkey in guarding Tripitaka on the journey. An encounter with Sandy, the other outcast from Heaven banished to Earth and turned into a water monster, adds another ally the group, and a chance meeting with a general who claims to embody the spirit of a thousand tigers adds a new danger. Can Monkey fight off an entire army of tigers after being blinded by their king?

written by Tetsuro Abe
based on the story by Wu Ch’Eng-En
adapted by David Weir
directed by Daisuke Yamazaki
English dub directed by Michael Bakewell
music by Micky Yoshino / theme performed by Godiego

MonkeyCast: Masaaki Sakai (Monkey), Masako Natsume (Tripitaka), Shirô Kishibe (Sandy), Toshiyuki Nishida (Pigsy), Hajime Hana (Tiger General), Toshiko Tsuyama (Priestess), Hiroshi Yanagiya (Priest), Sei Hiraizumi (Tiger King), David Collings (Monkey’s voice – English dub), Maria Warburg (Tripitaka’s voice – English dub), Gareth Armstrong (Sandy’s voice – English dub), Peter Woodthorpe (Pigsy’s voice – English dub), Frank Duncan (Narrator – English dub), Cecile Chevreau (Buddha’s voice – English dub), Miriam Margolyes (Voices – English dub), Peter Marinker (Voices – English dub)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Monkey Season 1

Monkey Swallows The Universe

MonkeyMonkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy and Sandy encounter a local on their journey, and he warns them of cannibalistic demons on the road ahead. Monkey tricks Pigsy – who wasn’t paying attention to this warning – into scouting ahead by himself. When Monkey goes to look for Pigsy, his friend is nowhere to be found…and a demon drop a mountain on his back, which will eventually crush him. Sandy and Tripitaka are surrounded by demons and taken prisoner. Tripitaka’s very flawed retinue begin bickering about one another’s weaknesses. Once he frees himself from the mountain, demons are sent with a magic bottle to absorb Monkey’s body and soul. Monkey takes it upon himself to infiltrate the demons’ ranks and defeat them, tricking them into thinking he has a bottle that will engulf the entire universe. Using all of the magic available to him, Monkey might just live long enough to free his friends…or be recaptured.

written by Hiroichi Fuse
based on the story by Wu Ch’Eng-En
adapted by David Weir
directed by Daisuke Yamazaki
English dub directed by Michael Bakewell
music by Micky Yoshino / theme performed by Godiego

MonkeyCast: Masaaki Sakai (Monkey), Masako Natsume (Tripitaka), Shirô Kishibe (Sandy), Toshiyuki Nishida (Pigsy), Kenji Tamiya (Silver Horn), Ryohei Uchida (Golden Horn), Yuzuru Yamaguchi (Cannibal #1), Hideya Niiyama (Cannibal #2), David Collings (Monkey’s voice – English dub), Maria Warburg (Tripitaka’s voice – English dub), Gareth Armstrong (Sandy’s voice – English dub), Peter Woodthorpe (Pigsy’s voice – English dub), Frank Duncan (Narrator – English dub), Cecile Chevreau (Buddha’s voice – English dub), Miriam Margolyes (Voices – English dub), Peter Marinker (Voices – English dub)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Monkey Season 1

The Power Of Youth

MonkeyTo the dismay of the elder gods living on a magical mountain, an adolescent ascends to godhood, declares himself the king of youth, and begins abusing his elders. Unaware that any of this is happening, Monkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy and Sandy wander into the new king’s realm; the arrival of a priest – Tripitaka to be precise – gets the king’s attention. He uses magic to send his warriors to bring Tripitaka to him, though Sandy cautions the others not to worry…until Tripitaka is abducted out from under their noses. When Monkey and Pigsy go to save Tripitaka, Monkey tries to maintain some civility, mentioning his friendship with the young king’s father. But since this means that Monkey is an older elemental force, their first rescue attempt becomes a chaotic battle. Monkey sends Pigsy to enlist the help of the other old gods before his next confrontation with the king of youth. When that battle goes badly, Pigsy is captured and Monkey goes into hiding…until he learns that the king of youth plans to torture Tripitaka to draw Monkey out for a final battle…and Monkey can only hope to maintain a stalemate long enough for the king of youth to enrage the elder gods enough to rise against him.

written by Motoo Nagai
based on the story by Wu Ch’Eng-En
adapted by David Weir
directed by Daisuke Yamazaki
English dub directed by Michael Bakewell
music by Micky Yoshino / theme performed by Godiego

MonkeyCast: Masaaki Sakai (Monkey), Masako Natsume (Tripitaka), Shirô Kishibe (Sandy), Toshiyuki Nishida (Pigsy), Masaaki Daimon (King of Youth), Taeko Hattori (King’s Servant), Shohei Yamomoto (King of Dragons), Takashi Toyama (King of Ox), David Collings (Monkey’s voice – English dub), Maria Warburg (Tripitaka’s voice – English dub), Gareth Armstrong (Sandy’s voice – English dub), Peter Woodthorpe (Pigsy’s voice – English dub), Frank Duncan (Narrator – English dub), Cecile Chevreau (Buddha’s voice – English dub), Miriam Margolyes (Voices – English dub), Peter Marinker (Voices – English dub)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 1

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyArthur Dent’s having a more troublesome Thursday than usual. For one thing, the local council has decided to demolish his house and several others with as little warning as possible, all to make way for a new bypass. To protest this, Arthur lies in the mud in front of a bulldozer which would, without his presence, destroy his home completely. And while that’s stressful enough, Arthur’s somewhat odd friend Ford Prefect chooses this very moment to come along and insist that Arhur must come to the pub with him and imbibe heavily, and somehow – according to Ford – the end of the world figures into the proceedings. Arthur reluctantly agrees, but regrets it soon afterward when he hears, from the cozy confines of the pub, the destruction of his house. But before Arthur can exact his revenge on the bureaucrats who made this all possible, he becomes one of the only witnesses to the destruction of the entire Earth – and the slightly bewildered recipient of a babel fish, courtesy of Ford. As it happens, Ford isn’t from Earth at all, and is a roving researcher for an encyclopedic electronic book known as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The spaceship which Ford has managed to use to escape from Earth, with Arthur in tow, has a crew which isn’t from Earth either…and they’re none too pleased to discover that they have hitchhikers aboard.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Joe Melia (Mr. Prosser), Martin Benson (Vogon Captain), Steve Conway (Barman), Cleo Rocos (Alien), Andrew Mussell (Alien)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 2

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyUnable to escape the Vogon guards, Ford and Arthur are similarly unable to escape a mind-wrenching reading of the Vogon captain’s poetry. Despite Arthur’s attempt to bluff his way past the Vogons by telling their captain that he liked their poetry, the two survivors are sentenced to be thrown out of an airlock. Again, Ford and Arthur and unable to escape the Vogon guard assigned to haul them down to the airlock, and their recurring inability to escape reaches its apex as the airlock is opened and they’re sucked out into the void. Within half a minute, they’re rescued by the Heart Of Gold, a prototype spacecraft powered by the infinite improbability drive. But Arthur and Ford aren’t quite safe yet: the Heart Of Gold has been stolen by none other than Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford’s two-headed, three-armed, former-galactic-president cousin, and another survivor from Earth, a woman named Trillian.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Martin Benson (Vogon Captain), Michael Cule (Vogon Guard), Rayner Bourton (Newscaster), Gil Morris (Gag Halfrunt), David Learner (Marvin), Stephen Moore (voice of Marvin), David Tate (voice of Eddie)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 3

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyConvinced that he’s found Magrathea, a well-hidden planet that once ruled the galaxy’s economy with its fantastically expensive custom-made planet-building services, Zaphod wants to explore (and plunder) the dormant world as soon as possible. A persistent auto-defense computer on Magrathea itself seems to have other ideas, however, and launches nuclear missiles at the descending Heart Of Gold. With death seemingly certain, and nothing left to lose, Arthur activates the Heart Of Gold’s improbability drive, which doesn’t do much of anything to the ship’s speed or direction, but does yield the unforseen benefit of turning the two nukes into, respectively, a bowl of petunias and a whale, both of which have very short life spans. Landing on Magrathea, Zaphod leads Ford and Trillian into the bowels of the planet, leaving Arthur and Marvin to mind the ship. A native of the planet soon appears to Arthur, beckoning the earthman to accompany him into the bowels of the planet – or, more precisely, to a hyperspace workshop where Magrathean custom planets are built. Arthur is alarmed to discover that a new planet is under construction due to the premature demise of its immediate predecessor: the Earth.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Richard Vernon (Slartibartfast), David Learner (Marvin), Stephen Moore (voice of Marvin), David Tate (voice of Eddie), John Austen-Gregg (Real Man), Zoe Hendry (Real Woman), Jim Francis (Real Small Furry Creature from Alpha Centauri), John Dair (Merchant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 4

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxySlartibartfast, the Magrathean planet-builder who has formed a curious rapport with Arthur, fills his human visitor in on the history of Earth that Arthur never knew. Commissioned by a race of pan-dimensional beings whose bodies portrude only slightly into our dimension in a form most humans recognize as mice, Earth was in fact an organic supercomputer hardwired to calculate the precise wording of the great question of life, the universe and everything. (Earth’s predecessor, a supercomputer known as Deep Thought, had already calculated the answer: 42.) Now, having lost the Earth mere minutes before the matrix of organic life on its surface generated the question, the mice wish to take a shortcut by buying Arthur’s brain. When he comes to the firm understanding that it won’t be returned to him, Arthur turns down the offer and runs for it, with Ford, Trillian and Zaphod right behind him. But before they can reach the Heart Of Gold, galactic police who are hot on Zaphod’s trail for stealing the ship corner the travelers under heavy laser fire.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Richard Vernon (Slartibartfast), Antony Carrick (Lunkwill), Timothy Davies (Fook), David Leland (Majikthise), Charles McKeown (Vroomfondel), Matt Zimmerman (Shooty), Marc Smith (Bang Bang), Valentine Dyall (voice of Deep Thought)

Notes: Valentine Dyall played the part of Gagravarr in the original radio series. For those wishing to sing the old Betelgeuse death anthem, the lyrics are as follows: Zaglabor astragard! Hootrimansion Bambriar!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 5

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyDue to the violence of the attack by interstellar police hell-bent on arresting Zaphod, a huge computer bank behind which Arthur and the others are hiding explodes with enough force to tear a hole in space-time and shove them through it. The travelers awaken in Milliway’s, the famed Restaurant at the End of the universe, built on the ruins of ancient Magrathea. Milliway’s travels forward in time, giving its patrons a glimpse of the death of the universe while they dine. In the meantime, Marvin – the depressed robot from the Heart of Gold – took the scenic route through time, waiting millions of years as Magrathea crumbled around him and was then turned into Milliway’s. He’s now parking spaceships in the garage at Milliway’s, and one of his latest charges catches the eyes of both Zaphod and Ford, and they decide to steal it. There’s only one problem…their newly-procured ship is locked onto an automated course taking it straight into the heart of a nearby sun.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Jack May (Garkbit, the Head Waiter), Colin Jeavons (Max Quordlepleen), Barry Frank Warren (Hotblack Desiato), Dave Prowse (Bodyguard), Colin Bennett (Zarquon), David Learner (Marvin), Stephen Moore (voice of Marvin) and Peter Davison (Dish of the Day)

Notes: Though already famous from his All Creatures Great And Small stint and his upcoming reign as the fifth Doctor Who, Peter Davison was persuaded to play a well-disguised cameo by his then-wife, Sandra Dickinson. Look for another cameo in this episode by an actor who was taking time off from his most famous acting gig as a certain Dark Lord of the Sith.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1981 TV Series Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Episode 6

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyTrapped aboard a stunt ship belonging to the rock group Disaster Area, locked into a collision course with a nearby sun, Zaphod and the others are ready to accept any escape route. And Arthur finds one – perhaps: a teleportation system with no automatic controls. Zaphod quickly sweet-talks Marvin into staying behind to help the others escape. Apparently, however, the teleport has no guidance control either – Ford and Arthur find themselves aboard another spacecraft a safe distance away, while Zaphod and Trillian are nowhere to be found. The two hitchhikers hide as they hear approaching footsteps, which turn out to belong to joggers who are just finishing up a few laps on their way back to a room honeycombed with cryogenic suspension capsules. Bewildered, Arthur and Ford make their way to the bridge of the ship, where the Captain – enjoying a bath – explains that they’ve arrived on the “B” Ark from Golgafrincham, currently evacuating one third of the planet’s population to escape a somewhat suspiciously unspecified disaster. As it happens, the “B” Ark is actually carrying the most useless third of the planet’s people – telephone sanitizers, marketing executives, middle management, hairdressers and the like – to their doom.

A time warp carries the “B” Ark into the prehistoric dawn of a small blue-green planet, where, to Arthur’s horror, he discovers that the Golgafrinchans are his ancestors…not the cavemen whose extinction from the face of the primitive Earth is assured by the arrival of a more advanced race.

Order now!written by Douglas Adams
directed by Alan J.W. Bell
music by Paddy Kingsland

Cast: Peter Jones (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Sandra Dickinson (Trillian), Rayner Bourton (Newscaster), Aubrey Morris (Captain), Matthew Scurfield (Number One), David Neville (Number Two), Geoffrey Beevers (Number Three), Beth Porter (Marketing Girl), David Rowlands (Hairdresser), Jon Glover (Management Consultant), David Learner (Marvin), Stephen Moore (voice of Marvin)

Notes: Though a second season of the Hitchhiker’s Guide TV series was planned, Douglas Adams’ insistance on finding another producer for the show led the BBC To cancel the series, despite the fact that more money was budgeted for a further six episodes and the regular actors were booked to appear. Plans for a U.S. version of the series, to be aired on ABC, were cut short by Adams himself when he became disenchanted with the network’s insistence on turning the Hitchhiker’s Guide into “Star Wars with jokes.”

LogBook entry by Earl Green