Day: January 7, 1961

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Avengers, The Season 1

Hot Snow

The Avengers

This synopsis is based upon the Big Finish audio adaptation of the original television script. The original episode’s master tape is lost and presumed destroyed. This audio adaptation can be found in Volume 1 of Big Finish’s The Avengers: The Lost Episodes series.

Dr. David Keel, just days away from getting married, has his life thrown into chaos when his bride-to-be is the target of an organized crime hit. Feeling that Scotland Yard isn’t doing enough to solve the murder, Keel decides to take on some amateur sleuthing, but when he discovers that heroin is involved, he realizes this is bigger than him. A mysterious man in a bowler hat is waiting for Keel in his flat when he returns home, but not to kill him. Instead, the man offers to help Keel bring the killer to justice…but he needs Keel to act undercover and become part of the heroin trade. If Dr. Keel can’t bring himself to trust this stranger, he may never identify the murderer.

teleplay by Ray Rigby
story by Patrick Brawn
directed by Don Leaver
music by Johnny Dankworth
Big Finish audio adaptation written by John Dorney
Big Finish audio adaptation directed by Ken Bentley
Big Finish audio adaptation music by Toby Hrycek-Robinson

Original television cast: Ian Hendry (Dr. Keel), Patrick Macnee (John Steed), Philip Stone (Dr. Tredding), Katherine Woodville (Peggy), Alister Williamson (Superintendent Wilson), Godfrey Quigley (Spicer), Charles Wade (Johnson), The Avengers: The Lost EpisodesMurray Melvin (Charlie), Moira Redmond (Stella), June Monkhouse (Mrs. Simpson), Astor Sklair (Sergeant Rogers)

Big Finish audio cast: Anthony Howell (Dr. Keel), Julian Wadham (John Steed), Lucy Briggs-Owen (Carol Wilson), Colin Baker (Dr. Tredding), Camilla Power (Peggy), Tim Bentinck (Superintendent Wilson), Adrian Lukis (Spicer/Johnson), Phil Mulryne (Big Man), Blake Ritson (Charlie), Anjella Mackintosh (Stella/Mrs. Simpson), Kieran Bew (Sergeant Rogers)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Series Prisoner, The

The Girl Who Was Death

The PrisonerNumber Six desperately tries to defuse a mad scientist’s attempt to launch a missile into the heart of London. But Number Six is also being pursued by the scientist’s daughter, who hatches a number of elaborate schemes to destroy him. Even if Number Six manages to foil the diabolical plot, he will still end up in the Village when it’s all over.

written by Terence Feely
directed by David Tomblin
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Kenneth Griffith (Schnipps), Justine Lord (Sonia), Christopher Benjamin (Potter), Michael Brennan (Killer Karminski), Harold Berens (Boxing M.C.), Sheena Marsh (Barmaid), Max Faulkner (Scots Napoleon), John Rees (Welsh Napoleon), Joe Gladwin (Yorkshire Napoleon), John Drake (Bowler), Gaynor Steward (Little girl), Graham Steward (Little boy), Stephen How (Little boy)

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
Alien Worlds Season 1

The Sunstealers – Part 1

Alien WorldsAboard the Starlab space station orbiting Earth, research director Maura Cassidy finds herself in the midst of extraordinary events when all of the station’s instruments indicate that the sun is collapsing. The entire inner solar system fleet of the International Space Authority depends on solar energy, as does Earth itself, and preparations are made to send an expedition to take closer measuresments and perhaps find out the cause. Captain Graydon leads the mission, though Cassidy is less than thrilled to learn that his co-pilot will be Captain Griff, a man who she holds responsible for her father’s death on a past expedition. Though they are warned of the possibility by an excitable scientist named Tim, Graydon and Griff are still stunned to find a new planetoid inside the orbit of Venus, occupied by the insectoid Marcabs, who care nothing that their rapid “mining” of the sun will spell doom for humanity.

written by Mike Hodel and Lee Hansen
directed by Lee Hansen
music by Jim Kirk

Cast: Roger Dressler (Narrator), Linda Gary (Maura Cassidy), Bruce Phillip Miller (Captain Jon Graydon), Corey Burton (Jerry Lyden), Chuck Olsen (Captain Buddy Griff), Jeff Allen (Tim), Stu Jacobs (Zarr Khonar), Tom Rounds (Gargon)

Notes: Starlab’s formal name is the Arthur C. Clarke Astronomical Observatory. Alien Worlds was syndicated to radio stations across America (and elsewhere in the English-speaking world) by Watermark, a radio syndication company that had already made its fame as the originators of America’s Top 40 with Casey Kasem. (Kasem himself would guest star in a later episode of Alien Worlds.) Though not as universally popular as Kasem’s pop music countdown show, Alien Worlds was popular enough to merit two full seasons; production was brought to a halt and the series was cancelled after four installments of a third season had been produced. Corey Burton’s voice acting career continues to this day, and he can be heard in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and dozens of video games.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Blake's 7 Season 3

Aftermath

Blake's 7The Liberator is damaged heavily in the ensuing war and starts away from the main battles. The life support system begins to fail and the crew must abandon ship. Avon is knocked out when debris from a hit near the life capsule launch area collapses on him, and Cally and Vila get him into a capsule. Landing on the planet Serran, Avon is saved from vicious natives by a young woman called Dayna, who takes him to her father’s underwater home base. On the way there, they encounter Servalan, who has deposed the High Council, declared herself President, and has topped all this by getting herself marooned. Servalan attempts to seduce Avon, but he resists and uses Orac to signal the Liberator. In an attempt to steal Orac and slip away, Servalan is stopped by Dayna’s blind father, who is killed by Servalan. Dayna vows vengeance and she and Avon set out to find Servalan. After “rescuing” Servalan from the restless natives, Avon recovers Orac, and with Dayna he returns to the Liberator when it arrives, while Servalan hides away in the undersea installation. On returning to the ship, Avon and Dayna find a full squad of Federation shock troops in control…

written by Terry Nation
directed by Vere Lorrimer
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), Peter Tuddenham (Zen, Orac), Josette Simon (Dayna), Cy Grant (Mellanby), Alan Lake (Chel), Sally Harrison (Lauren), Richard Franklin (Trooper), Michael Melia (Trooper), Steven Pacey (Tarrant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Chocky Season 2: Chocky's Children

Episode 2.1

Chocky's ChildrenA year after his last encounter with Chocky, Matthew Gore is a budding artist whose work is on public display. When Max Landis, the psychologist who spoke at length to Matthew during Chocky’s visit, appears at one of Matthew’s exhibit, Matthew’s father displays extreme suspicion, believing Landis was involved in Matthew’s kidnapping. With an upcoming business trip taking David and Mary Gore to Hong Kong, Matthew is taken to stay with his aunt while his younger sister stays with neighbors…but his progress is still being monitored from afar.

written by Anthony Read
based on characters created by John Wyndham
directed by Peter Duguid
music not credited

ChockyCast: James Hazeldine (David), Carol Drinkwater (Mary), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), Ed Bishop (Deacon), Michael Crampton (Luke), Jeremy Bulloch (Landis), Angela Galbreath (Cissie)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Data’s Day

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44390.1: Data records his observations of an average day in the Enterprise to be relayed to Dr. Bruce Maddox, a Federaton cyberneticist who once expressed an interest in disassembling Data to learn about how the android works, but now is content to let Data reveal that for himself. But as the day progresses, from the nervous, soon-to-be-married couple of Chief O’Brien and Keiko to the transport of a secretive Vulcan ambassador to the Neutral Zone, Data finds out that this isn’t going to be an ordinary day…

Order the DVDsteleplay by Harold Apter and Ronald D. Moore
story by Harold Apter
directed by Robert Wiemer
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Rosalind Chao (Keiko Ishikawa), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Sierra Pecheur (Ambassador T’Pel/Subcommander Selok), Alan Scarfe (Admiral Mendak), Shelly Desai (V’Sal), April Grace (Transporter Technician), and Spot

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Space: Above And Beyond

Who Monitors The Birds?

Space: Above And BeyondHawkes takes on a dangerous undercover assignment without the permission of McQueen or Commodore Ross. He accompanies Major Colquitt to the planet Tigrus, occupied by the Chigs, on a mission to kill the Chig commander who ordered the destruction of the Vesta Colony. They succeed in this mission, but Colquitt is killed during the escape, leaving Hawkes alone and injured on a world crawling with the enemy. To make matters worse, Hawkes repeatedly hallucinates a beautiful woman – and he follows her as she leads him into more and more dangerous encounters with his pursuers.

Order the DVDwritten by Glen Morgan & James Wong
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Shirley Walker

Guest Cast: Dale Dye (Major Colquitt), Denyn Pysz (Invitro friend), Brian Cousins (?), Robert Thomas (Friendly alien), David Botrell (Monitor #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Space Island One

Message From Keeler

Space Island OnePaula Hernandez is a young scientist, and Space Station Unity’s most recent arrival. While the mysteries of the universe intrigue her, they don’t fascinate her as much as trying to find out what happened to her predecessor, a man named Keeler. Not only have all official records been expunged from the station’s database, but none of Paula’s crewmates seem to want to talk about it. When she digs deeper into the station’s computer mainframe, she finds an odd entry for Keeler, consisting of an incomplete verse of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” When Paula completes the verse, she sets into motion a deadly program buried deep in the station’s computer, carrying out Keeler’s final wishes regarding his former crewmates – and apparently, he wanted them all to die.

Space Island Onewritten by Andrew MacLear
directed by Dirk Campbell
music by Richard Blackford & Glenn Keiles

Cast: Judy Loe (Kathryn McTiernan), Indra Ove (Paula Hernandez), Angus MacInnes (Walter B. Shannon), Bruno Eyron (Dusan Kashkavian), Julia Brennerman (Harry Eschenbach), Kourosh Asad (Dr. Kaveh Homayuni), William Oliver (Lyle Campbell), Sally Grace (Control voice)

Notes: Space Island One was a short-lived attempt at a serious, not-too-far-into-the-future SF series set aboard an Earth-orbiting research station. Befitting a series set on a near-future space station, there were very few guest stars, with most of the show revolving around the main cast. Numerous bits of dialogue establish that Unity is a privately-owned corporate space station, since Keeler’s fate was apparently covered up to appease shareholders on Earth.

Space Island OneJudy Loe had been one of the stars of Russell T. Davies’ church-scandal soap opera Revelations, and had appeared in everything from Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life to hospital drama Casualty and its spinoff, Holby City. Angus MacInnes may be a familiar face to SF fans: he appeared briefly in Star Wars as Gold Leader, whose wingman insisted upon staying on target (leading to both Rebel pilots’ demise). Indra Ove had recently appeared in The Fifth Element and would also go on to appear on Holby City. Bruno Eyron, born Bruno Eirund, was a familiar face on German TV with starring roles in such series as Balko and Vienne Crime Squad; fellow German actor Julia Bremermann went on to star in the German series Coast Guard. (Since Space Island One was a British-German co-production, the German producers, Vox Film Und Fernseh-GMBH & Co., had casting input.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Farscape Season 1

Nerve

  • By Dave
  • January 7, 2000

FarscapeCrichton is surprised to learn that Aeryn has not fully recovered from her injuries at the hands of the Peacekeeper commandos. While the muscle damage has healed, her paraphoral nerve, which helps to eliminate toxins from her system, has been irreparably damaged. Without a graft from a compatible donor, she will soon die. Crichton decides to try to pose as a Peacekeeper one more time, and find a donor at the Gammak base. With help from Chiana and his old friend Gilina, he manages to get a synthetic graft. But just as he’s ready to make his departure, the base’s deformed commander Scorpius realizes his energy signature is distinctly not Sebacean. As he’s captured, Crichton manages to smuggle the graft to Chiana, who gets it back to Moya and Aeryn. Scorpius places Crichton in the Aurora Chair, a device that allows Scorpius to bypass a verbal interrogation and access the subject’s memories directly. Searching for Crichton’s true mission aboard the base, Scorpius learns of Moya and its escape from Crais, but encounters a neural block when he tries to access Crichton’s encounter with the wormhole aliens. Pushing past the block, Scorpius – and Crichton – learn that the aliens placed the equations for wormhole travel into Crichton’s subconscious, to help guide his research. This is quite a find for Scorpius, whose own research seeks to unleash wormholes’ potential as weapons. To help convince Crichton to give up what he knows, Scorpius summons Crais, but Crichton won’t budge. What Scorpius doesn’t realize is that it’s not wormhole information Crichton is trying to hide – it’s Gilina, who’s still hiding in the base as Scorpius places Crichton in the Aurora Chair for one more go-round . . .

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Manning
directed by Rowan Woods
music by Subvision

Guest Cast: Gigi Edgley (Chiana), Lani John Tupu (Captain Bialar Crais), Alyssa-Jane Cook (Gilina), Kent McCord (Jack Crichton), Wayne Pygram (Scorpius), Paul Goddard (Stark), Imogen Annesley (Niem), Stephen Leeder (Commander Javio), Anthony Kierann (Lt. Heskon), Christian Bischoff (Bixx), Pete Walters (Crais’ Guard)

Notes: Gilina encountered Crichton and Aeryn aboard the Zelbinion in PK Tech Girl. Crichton’s encounter with the wormhole aliens occurred in A Human Reaction. Paul Goddard makes his first appearance as Stark in this episode; he would later join the cast as a regular crew member. This episode was considered the first of two parts, with a “To Be Continued” slug at the end, although unlike future multi-part stories, the title does not reflect this.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
7th Doctor

Last Of The Titans

Last Of The TitansThe seventh Doctor, traveling alone, is looking forward to a holiday on the planet Armelia. The TARDIS doesn’t quite get him there, however, landing instead inside an enormous spacecraft. The Doctor becomes stranded there when, moments after stepping out of the TARDIS, he sees his timeship plummeting into the vessel’s gigantic furnace (thanks to a less-than-fortuitous landing on a deck hatch). In the course of trying to retrieve his only means of escape, the Doctor befriends Vilgreth, an enormous and slightly slow-witted being who claims to originate from – of all places – Devon. Vilgreth mentions that many have come to destroy him, and he’s glad that the Doctor isn’t one of them. Just such a creature arrives, and insists that the Doctor leave, since a bomb has just been planted on Vilgreth’s ship. The Doctor, infuriated, disarms the bomb, but also grows increasingly suspicious of why anyone would try to harm his seemingly innocuous host. The truth soon becomes apparent: Vigreth’s ship is, not unlike its captain, a dangerous relic. The ship’s fuel is entire planets. Its next stop is Armelia.

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Alistair Lock

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Nicholas Briggs (Vilgreth), Alistair Lock (Stelpor), Lennox Greaves (Professor Pat Trethui), Holly King (Mrs. Burden)

Timeline: after The Sirens Of Time and before Doctor Who

Notes: This was a thirty-minute, single-episode story distributed exclusively on a CD included with issue #300 of Doctor Who Magazine, a CD which also included a preview version of episode one of Storm Warning. Last Of The Titans has not been released on CD to date, but was released as a free downloadable podcast in 2011. The script was originally written by Nicholas Briggs for the Audio Visuals amateur audio drama cassettes.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Enterprise Season 02 Star Trek

Dawn

Star Trek: EnterpriseTrip’s solo shuttlepod mission is cut short by an attack, forcing him to set down on a nearby moon. As he tries to contact Enterprise for backup, two complications arise which could prove to be fatal. The moon’s distance from its sun means that sunrise will bring a fatal temperature rise… and furthermore, Trip’s attacker has also become stranded on this world – a creature who doesn’t care if Trip lives long enough for help to arrive.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by John Shiban
directed by Roxann Dawson
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Gregg Henry (Zho’Kaan), Brad Greenquist (Khata’n Zshaar)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Blood Of The Daleks, Part 2

Doctor Who: Blood Of The Daleks Part 2The Daleks begin to show their true colors while the mad scientist Martez (in the body of his assistant Asha) has revealed his own version of the Daleks, built from salvaged technology. The Doctor realizes that it is these “new” Daleks that are the reason the “true” Daleks have come to Red Rocket Rising. As an all-out war breaks out between the two factions, the Doctor finds himself with little choice but to choose sides in the battle, in the hopes that the lesser of the two evils wins out in the end.

Order this CDwritten by Steve Lyons
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by ERS

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Sheridan Smith (Lucie Miller), Anita Dobson (Eileen Klint), Hayley Atwell (Asha), Kenneth Cranham (Tom Cardwell), Katarina Olsson (Headhunter), Nicholas Briggs (Daleks)

Timeline: after Blood Of The Daleks Part 1 and before The Horror Of Glam Rock

LogBook entry & review by Philip R. Frey

Categories
Season 1 Torchwood

End Of Days

TorchwoodThough he and Toshiko have returned safely to the present, Jack is furious with Owen for opening the rift, especially when people from throughout Earth’s history begin appearing, resulting in, among other things, a revival of the bubonic plague in the heart of Cardiff. Jack and Gwen go to pay Bilis Manger another visit, but he proves to be full of cryptic, less-than-helpful advice – until he shows Gwen a vision of what he claims is the future, in which she sees Rhys murdered. Gwen brings Rhys to the Torchwood Hub for his own safety, but another appearance by Bilis proves that no one is safe even there – and it is Bilis himself who fulfills the prophecy and kills Rhys just before vanishing again. One by one, the other members of Torchwood experience visions of long-lost loved ones, each urging them to open the rift again to save the world. Jack is the only one who doesn’t have an unsettling vision, but it’s already too late: the rest of his team is convinced that opening the rift will set things right, and Owen is willing to kill Jack to keep him from interfering. But when all hell breaks loose through the rift, who will save Torchwood – and the world – now?

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Ashley Way
music by Murray Gold & Ben Foster

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Murray Melvin (Bilis), Tom Price (PC Andy), Caroline Chikezie (Lisa), Louise Delamere (Diane), Matthew Gravelle (Doctor), Noriko Aida (Toshiko’s Mother), Jamie Belton (Roman Soldier), Carrie Grace (Newsreader), Paul Kasey (Weevil), Rhian Wyn Jones (Religious Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Big Finish Spinoffs Diary Of River Song Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Boundless Sea

Doctor WhoRiver is granted a temporary release from her stormcage prison cell to undertake a dangerous mission. The assignment seems simple enough: River, an archaeologist, is being asked to impersonate an archaeologist…on Earth, at a time when a gun-toting female archaeologist just isn’t the norm. But she’ll need those skills to investigate the disappearance of a young woman in an ancient tomb, especially when the young woman turns up again…as something a little bit less than human.

written by Jenny T. Colgan
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Alex Kingston (River Song), Alexander Vlahos (Bertie Potts), Alexander Siddig (Marcus Gifford), Imogen Stubbs (Isabella Clerkwell), Gbemisola Ikumelo (Prim), Charlotte Christie (Daphne Garsington)

LogBook entry by Earl Green