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Season 1 Star Blazers

The Galaxy’s Ordeal: The Year 2200 Advances

Star BlazersD minus 305 days: The Argo is seized by the immense gravitational and energy storm surrounding the Octopus Star Group. Held immobile by the intense forces surrounding the small star cluster, the crew begins to develop a bad case of cabin fever. Wildstar and Venture’s rivalry turns into violence, even to the point of interfering with their duties. The Argo hasn’t moved in three weeks, and is falling behind schedule on its mission. Teamwork is the key to escaping the Octopus Star Group…but the ship’s crew is falling apart.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Changes, The

The Noise

The ChangesYoung Nicky Gore is preparing for an upcoming English test when her father, complaining of a headache, flies into a rage and destroys the family television set. Not long afterward, a strange noise overcomes the entire family, and they set about destroying every machine in their home – kitchen appliances, radios, clocks, anything even remotely mechanized. And the Gores are not alone; their neighbors are destroying everything from cars to bicycles. Throughout England, the industrial age comes to a standstill. Nicky’s father and her pregnant mother are seized by a compulsion to escape to France, where rumor has it things are “normal”. The noise occurs again, and in the ensuing frenzy to destroy any remaining machinery, Nicky is separated from her family, who continue to France without her. She returns to the family home, but has to resort to foraging for food in abandoned shops. The alternative is starving to death.

written by Anna Home
based on the novels by Peter Dickinson
directed by John Prowse
music by Paddy Kingsland

The ChangesCast: Vicky Williams (Nicky), Sonia Graham (Mrs. Gore), Bernard Horsfall (Mr. Gore), Clyde Pollitt (Preacher), Bartlett Mullins (Old Man)

Notes: Originally filmed in 1973 but not broadcast until early 1975, The Changes is based on Peter Dickinson’s novels “The Weathermonger”, “Heartsease”, and “The Devil’s Children”, though significant changes are made to his stories to fit the entire trilogy into ten half-hour television episodes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

Mr. R.I.N.G.

Night StalkerKolchak is assigned to write the obituary of a scientist specializing in computers, but finds the death and details surrounding the government project the scientist was working on entirely covered up. Meanwhile, a mysterious marauder with superhuman strength is seen at an undertaker’s establishment and a library of talking books. The police are unable to stop the figure from stealing undertakers’ wax and books on philosophy. Kolchak finds the scientist’s co-worker, Leslie Dwyer, but she disappears shortly thereafter. The government brings pressure to bear on Kolchak’s boss Vincenzo, but he persists, tracing Dwyer to her isolated home. The marauder is R.I.N.G. (Robomatic Internalized Nerve Ganglia), an artificial intelligence housed in an android body that has achieved sentience. Rather then be dismantled, it killed its creator and sought refuge with Dwyer. The military show up to claim their project, and R.I.N.G. is destroyed. Kolchak is given drugs to forget the story.

Order the DVDswritten by L. Ford Neale & John Huff
directed by Gene Levitt
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Burt Freed (Captain Akins), Julie Adams (Mrs. Walker), Corrine Michaels (Dr. Leslie Dwyer), Craig Baxley (R.I.N.G.)

Notes: A somber tale of government cover-up, this story also parallels several X-Files episodes.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

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Season 1 Star Blazers

Desperate Escape: The Galaxy’s Different Dimension

Star BlazersD minus 280 days: The Argo is caught in the gravitational vortex of a collapsing star. As if this isn’t a bad enough position, an enormous Gamilon fleet commanded by General Lysis closes in from the rear. As the vortex sucks the Argo’s energy reserves dry, the survival prospects for the Star Force look bleak.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

Note: The introductory shot of Volgar is an rare example where the Japanese characters for his name have not been covered by an English subtitle. Also, General Lysis’ log entry gives the date as January 7 – though why the Gamilons would be using the Julian calendar is unknown!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Changes, The

The Bad Wires

The ChangesThough the stays at her parents’ home for over a week after they disappear, Nicky is ultimately left with no choice but to follow the advice of a forlorn old man: leave to find her parents, or die alone in the city. She meets a close-knit community of Sikhs who are on the move themselves, largely because they have found no friendly welcome in this changing world, and they agree to let her travel with them. She befriends two of the younger Sikhs, Gopal and Ajeet. Her pragmatism, however, troubles her new friends – raiding the pantries of abandoned homes does not sit well with their beliefs. And Nicky discovers one other fascinating thing: the madness that has consumed the minds of everyone she has met, the madness that causes them to rage against any and all machines, has not touched the minds of her new friends.

written by Anna Home
based on the novels by Peter Dickinson
directed by John Prowse
music by Paddy Kingsland

The ChangesCast: Vicky Williams (Nicky), Bartlett Mullins (Old Man), Marc Zuber (Kewal), Rafiq Anwar (Chacha), Sahab Qizilbash (Grandmother), Rugby Brar (Gopal), Rebecca Mascarenhas (Ajeet), Gopal Bhanot (Sikh Interpreter)

Notes: Rafiq Anwar is the grandfather of Burn Notice star Gabrielle Anwar; he died in 1977, just two years after The Changes was broadcast in England. Many of the scenes in this episode were filmed in an unfinished (and therefore conveniently empty) roadway in Bristol.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

Primal Scream

Night StalkerA research scientist with an oil conglomerate is killed, his arm literally ripped from his body. The scientist’s project is wreathed in secrecy. Investigating further, Kolchak discovers that a number of earth samples were brought back from the Arctic by a company research team. The samples contained cellular organisms which, when accidentally thawed out, begin to reproduce at a rapid rate, growing into primate “missing link” creatures. There are several at large, attacking Chicago residents. Despite the ongoing cover-up by both the police and the conglomerate as they attempt to recover the primates, Kolchak tracks the remaining humanoid to its lair in the tunnels beneath the football stadium where the first atomic tests were conducted.

Order the DVDswritten by Bill S. Ballinger & David Chase
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: John Marley (Captain Molnar), Pat Harrington (Thomas Kitzmiller), Jamie Farr (Jack Burton), Katharine Woodville (Dr. Helen Lynch), Gary Baxley (the Primate)

Notes: There are a number of in-jokes in this story. One of the victims is named William Pratt (Boris Karloff’s real name). Another is watching The Mummy, a Universal picture, when he is killed. Universal, of course, was the series’ co-producer.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

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Season 1 Star Blazers

Beemera: Underground Prison Of Condemned Criminals

Star BlazersD minus 277 days: The Star Force arrives at the planet Beeland, a world with ample vegetation – something needed on the Argo to replenish the ship’s dwindling food supplies. But Beeland is also home to an insectoid race which has been enslaved by the Gamilons, and a search detail consisting of Nova and IQ-9 is captured in the mistaken belief that they are Gamilons as well. A revolt against the insects’ queen, who keeps her people subservient to the Gamilons, is in progress – and the hostages are caught in the middle.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Changes, The

The Devil’s Children

The ChangesNicky and the traveling Sikhs happen upon an abandoned farm, a promising prospect for growing crops and forging new tools. Nicky offers to represent her friends to the residents of a nearby village, but rather than a warm welcome, she finds a xenophobic village leader who regards the Sikhs as foreigners at best, and “the devil’s children” at worst. Though she is able to establish very tentative trade relations, Nicky fears that trouble lies ahead.

written by Anna Home
based on the novels by Peter Dickinson
directed by John Prowse
music by Paddy Kingsland

The ChangesCast: Vicky Williams (Nicky), Rugby Brar (Gopal), Rebecca Mascarenhas (Ajeet), Marc Zuber (Kewal), Rafiq Anwar (Chacha), Sahab Qizilbash (Grandmother), Arthur Hewlett (Mr. Tom), James Ottoway (Maxie), David King (Mr. Barnard), Nancy Gabrielle (Mrs. Sallow), Gopal Bhanot (Sikh Interpreter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

The Trevi Collection

Night StalkerKolchak is present at Madame Trevi’s fashion show to meet with an industrial spy who has garment union receipts he needs to write a story. The spy falls to his death. Examination of the man’s camera film shows that the mannequins at the studio he was in were moving. Other bizarre occurrences follow. One model is disfigured by a cat, while another is scalded to death in her temperature-controlled shower. When a driverless car attempts to run him over, Kolchak comes to believe that black witchcraft is being employed by the secretive Madame Trevi. A coven of witches tell him how to strip her of her powers. He does so, only to free the true witch from Trevi’s control. Armed with a mojo bag, Carl must publicly accuse the witch to strip her of her powers.

Order the DVDswritten by Rudolph Borchert
directed by Don Weis
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Lara Parker (Madelaine), Nina Foch (Madame Trevi), Bernie Koppell (Doctor), Marvin Miller (Lecturer)

Notes: Lara Parker had played Angelique, a witch, on the Dark Shadows series.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

Categories
Classic Season 12 Doctor Who

The Ark In Space

Doctor WhoSeveral millennia in the future, heightened solar activity threatened to devastate the Earth, and mankind retreated into hibernation aboard an enormous space station, where the last surviving members of the human race are cryogenically preserved. The Doctor, Harry and Sarah arrive on the station, discovering that humanity has slept in by thousands of years thanks to unearthly saboteurs who intend to claim Earth in the absence of its original inhabitants…who are scheduled to become the main course.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Robert Holmes
directed by Rodney Bennett
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Wendy Williams (Vira), Kenton Moore (Noah), Christopher Masters (Libri), John Gregg (Lycett), Richardson Morgan (Rogin), Stuart Fell (Wirrn), Nick Hobbs (Wirrn), Gladys Spencer (voices), Peter Tuddenham (voices), Brian Jacobs (Dune)

Broadcast from January 25 through February 15, 1975

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Star Blazers

Charge! Ballonodon Special Attack Group!

Star BlazersD minus 267 days: The Argo approaches the planet Ballan, a volcanically active body which is the home to a large Gamilon encampment. Ballan is also the halfway point on the journey from Earth to Iscandar. As the Star Force moves into Gamilon space, the Gamilon generals, Lysis and Volgar, are fighting each other over strategic matters. But the Gamilon leaders are not the only commanders in disarray – Captain Avatar collapses on the bridge and Dr. Sane decides that he must undergo a high-risk surgery. General Volgar jumps the gun and launches a premature attack, and Wildstar is forced into his first uneasy command without his mentor nearby.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Changes, The

Hostages!

The ChangesThe uneasy relationship between the villagers and the Sikhs gradually begins to settle; the Sikhs are able to forge tools the villagers need, and the villagers leave them alone. The calm is disrupted by the arrival of another party of strangers on horseback. They want both the villagers and the Sikhs to work for them, and to ensure the village’s cooperation, they take a child hostage. The Sikhs, with some help from Nicky, prepare to send a clear message that they won’t be victimized in the same way…and perhaps they can earn the village’s respect in the process.

written by Anna Home
based on the novels by Peter Dickinson
directed by John Prowse
music by Paddy Kingsland

The ChangesCast: Vicky Williams (Nicky), Arthur Hewlett (Mr. Tom), David King (Mr. Barnard), Edward Brayshaw (Chief Robber), Derek Ware (Second Robber), Rafiq Anwar (Chacha), Marc Zuber (Kewal), Sahab Qizilbash (Grandmother), Rugby Brar (Gopal), Rebecca Mascarenhas (Ajeet), Gopal Bhanot (Sikh Interpreter), James Ottoway (Maxie)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

Chopper

Night StalkerThe murder of a taxi driver at a garage has several unusual aspects. His head was cut off, his killer used a sword, and a witness reports that the victim was decapitated by a headless motorcyclist. Kolchak investigates and determines that the victim was a member of a cycle gang in the 50’s. Other victims turn up decapitated, each a member of the same gang. Behind the killings lies a grisly tale: the victims played a prank on the leader of a rival gang, which resulted in his decapitation. The gang’s leader, Studs Spake, buried the body, but not the head. The leader had ridden in the 50’s seeking vengeance until Studs reunited the head and body. Now, the excavation of the cemetary has resulted in the head and body being separated once more, and the headless motorcyclist rides again. With Studs dead, Kolchak must restore the head to the body once more.

Order the DVDswritten by Steve Fisher, David Chase, Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis
directed by Bruce Kessler
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Larry Linville (Captain Jonas), Sharon Farrell (Lila Morton), Jim Backus (Herb Bresson), Art Metrano (Studs Spake), Jay Robinson (Professor Strig), Jesse White (Warehouse Security Guard), Steve Franken (Morgue Attendant), Steve Boyum (Headless Motorcyclist)

Notes: Yes, it’s that Robert Zemeckis, Oscar winning Best Director for Forrest Gump.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

Categories
Season 1 Star Blazers

Floating Fortress Island: Two Men Brave Death

Star BlazersD minus 263 days: A large spacecraft looms in the Argo’s path just eight days out from Ballan. Sandor flies ahead in a recon ship to investigate, but is forced to eject when his ship is destroyed by intense vibrations emitted by the Gamilon vessel. Sandor takes another chance on the mission, this time using a fighter of his own design with a seamless, one-piece hull. Using this vehicle, Sandor and Wildstar board the Gamilon ship, hoping to disable its vibration weapon before it destroys the Argo. Their journey through the heart of the immense ship takes long than expected, and Captain Avatar is forced to consider leaving without them. The artificial intelligence driving the Gamilon ship traps Sandor – but the science officer reveals that, due to a childhood accident, his limbs are all prosthetics and can be easily removed. But in order to detonate the explosive charges to destroy the Gamilon weapon, Sandor – now incapable of escaping the blast – must stay there.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Changes, The

Witchcraft!

The ChangesThe villagers and the Sikhs join forces to fend off the band of marauders from their village; there is even talk of the villagers being less opposed to machinery than they have been in the recent past. With the villagers and Sikhs having moved from uneasy coexistence to trust and cooperation, Nicky is surprised when it is gently suggested that she leave and continue her search for her family. She rides out with one of the villagers in a horse-drawn wagon, learning from him that he’ll be avoiding a village called Shipton, which has become backward and savage since the madness descended upon the world. When the wagon loses a wheel, Nicky is thrown clear and is knocked unconscious; her driver leaves her to go for help. She awakens and, with difficulty, walks to a nearby farm. When she is discovered there, she is accused of being a witch.

written by Anna Home
based on the novels by Peter Dickinson
directed by John Prowse
music by Paddy Kingsland

The ChangesCast: Vicky Williams (Nicky), James Ottoway (Maxie), Rafiq Anwar (Chacha), Marc Zuber (Kewal), Rugby Brar (Gopal), Rebecca Mascarenhas (Ajeet), Sahab Qizilbash (Grandmother), Gopal Bhanot (Sikh Interpreter), Roy Evans (Carter), Keith Ashton (Jonathon), Zuleika Robson (Margaret), Stella Tanner (Anne), Jack Watson (Peter), David Garfield (Mr. Gordon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green