:: theLogBook.com TheatEar ::

After barely surviving a night stranded on the surface of Hoth, Han and Luke are rescued by search teams in Rebel snowspeeders. But as Luke recovers, Han and Chewie are assigned a new mission - sensor readings indicate something suspicious on the surface, transmitting a signal. What they find is an Imperial probe droid, perfectly capable of defending itself, and yet it blows apart even with a glancing shot from a blaster. The Empire is now aware of the Hoth base, and even though the probe droid didn’t have time to specifically pinpoint a rebel presence, it’s enough to convince Darth Vader - now commanding the Imperial Starfleet after surviving the Death Star battle - that the Rebels are there. And the Dark Lord of the Sith now has a personal score to settle with Luke Skywalker.

written by Brian Daley
based on the screenplay Star Wars by George Lucas
directed by John Madden
music by John Williams

See the first episode for cast information.

Han Solo, still planning to go independent again as soon as possible, sets Chewie to the task of repairing the Millennium Falcon. But when he learns that Luke hasn’t returned to the Rebel base, Han sets out alone to find his friend. Luke, in the meantime, is barely alive - but hearing the voice of his fallen mentor, Ben Kenobi. The image of Ben tells luke to seek further Jedi training on the planet Dagobah, but can offer him no other help. Han finds Luke and sets up a shelter - but his own tauntaun, a beast of burden unique to Hoth and necessary for traversing its surface, dies from exposure to the cold…and now they are both stranded without a way to return to the base.

written by Brian Daley
based on the screenplay Star Wars by George Lucas
directed by John Madden
music by John Williams

See the first episode for cast information.

In the wake of their successful mission to destroy the Death Star, the Rebel Alliance has stirred up an Imperial hornets’ nest. Driven from the relative safety of the Yavin system, the Rebels set up shop on an ice planet called Hoth, which is inhospitable bordering on unsurvivable. This distant outpost requires constant resupply of equipment (and soldiers) capable of surviving sub-freezing temperatures, but the Empire has been tightening the noose by blasting supply convoys out of space. Han and Luke are surveying Hoth’s surface to pinpoint the cause of unusual sensor readings when Luke heads out on his own to investigate what looks like a meteor impact. But before he can reach it, Luke is savagely attacked by a wampa, a vicious carnivore native to Hoth. He’s able to summon the power of the Force to help him escape the wampa’s lair, but even the Force can’t stretch the limits of human endurance - without backup or a way to get back to the Rebel base, Luke is stranded in the frozen wasteland overnight.

written by Brian Daley
based on the screenplay Star Wars by George Lucas
directed by John Madden
music by John Williams

Cast: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Perry King (Han Solo), Ann Sachs (Princess Leia Organa), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Brock Peters (Lord Darth Vader), John Lithgow (Yoda), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Bernard Behrens (Obi-Wan Kenobi), James Eckhouse (Beta), Peter Friedman (Dak), Ron Frazier (Deck Officer), Merwin Goldsmith (General Rieekan), Peter Michael Goetz (Ozzel), Gordon Gould (Veers), Paul Hecht (The Emperor), Russell Horton (2-1B), James Hurdle (Controller), Nicholas Kepros (Needa), David Rasche (Piett), Alan Rosenburg (Boba Fett), Jay Sanders (Imperial Pilot), Don Scarino (Wedge), Ken Hiller (Narrator)

Supporting Cast: David Alan Grier, Sam McMurray, Steven Markle, Stephen D. Newman, John Pielmeier, Geoffrey Pierson, Gary Tacon, Jerry Zaks

The Doctor and Melanie arrive at a most inopportune time aboard space station Dark Space 8, and the Doctor is mistaken for the replacement for the station’s recently-deceased commander - a role into which the Time Lord steps eagerly, to Mel’s dismay. Dark Space 8 is playing host to an intergalactic pop song contest in a matter of days, and station security is stepped up accordingly - but apparently not enough, as one of the contestants turns up dead. As more murders occur, the station’s crew is helpless (and clueless), and when one of the suspects seems to have an unnatural hold over the Doctor, Mel worries that she is on her own in solving the mystery…

written by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman
directed by Nicholas Pegg
music by Andy Hardwick

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Sabina Franklyn (Doctor Eleanor Harcourt), Graeme Garden (Professor Ivor Fassbender), Jane Goddard (Geri Pakhar), Nickolas Grace (Mister Loozly), Vidar Magnussen (Lieutenant Strindberg), Patricia Quinn (Queen Angvia), Anthony Spargo (Nicky Newman), David Tughan (Commentator Logan), Barnaby Edwards (Waiter)

Timeline: between Paradise Towers and Delta And The Bannermen

Review: As regular readers of theLogBook.com may know, in the past year I’ve invested in a set of Space: 1999 DVDs and begun working on an episode guide. I’ll admit to a sneaking admiration for that series, though the haze of memory had obscured some of the show’s weaker points. And it is precisely those weaknesses upon which Bang-Bang-A-Boom! preys: the woefully wooden acting of Barbara Bain, a science officer who really doesn’t seem to have too many of the answers, and dead-on-arrival attempts at political allegories. (more…)