Year: 1987

Categories
Blackadder Season 3

Duel and Duality

BlackadderThe Prince Regent is in trouble for having had a sexual dalliance with the nieces of the Duke of Wellington. When the Duke challenges the Prince to a duel, Edmund agrees to take his place. As the time of the duel approaches, each of Edmund’s plans for survival fall short…

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
directed by Mandie Fletcher
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Stephen Fry (Duke of Wellington), Rowan Atkinson (McAdder), Gertan Klauber (King George III)

Notes: Fry returns to Blackadder after having been a regular in Blackadder II. He would return as a regular in Blackadder Goes Forth and for the specials. He again portrays the Duke of Wellington (among others) in Blackadder: Back & Forth.

Rowan Atkinson get a chance here to play opposite himself, in the dual roles of Edmund and his Scottish cousin, McAdder.

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

Categories
Doctor Who Fan Films

War Time

War Time

This is a fan-made production whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Assigned to safely transport a radioactive cargo, UNIT’s Sergeant Benton is plagued by nightmarish memories when he passes a rural site he remembers all too well – his younger brother Chris died there while the two were playing as children. Increasingly bothered by the memory, Benton finds himself literally working through the ghosts of his past, but is unaware when the other UNIT soldier is knocked out. By the time Benton recovers from his trip down memory lane, he’s alone against terrorist agents who are trying to steal the radioactive material for their own sinister ends.

written by Andy Lane & Helen Stirling
directed by Keith Barnfather
music by Mark Ayres

Cast: John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Michael Wisher (Mr. Benton), Mary Greenhalgh (Mrs. Benton), Paul Greenhalgh (Chris), Steven Stanley (Johnny), Peter Noad (Willis), Paul Flanagan (Man), Nicholas Briggs (Soldier)

Timeline: unknown, though it may fall before The Android Invasion, in which Benton has been promoted to Regiment Sergeant Major.

Review: Reissued not too long ago in a new VHS package with supplemental material, War Time is the granddaddy of them all: the first fan-made Doctor Who spinoff video to ascend beyond the realm, or budget, of home movies. As Doctor Who was still in production at the time, producer/director Keith Barnfather made the decision to focus on a fan-favorite secondary character instead. John Levene, who played recurring UNIT troop Benton in the 1960s and 70s, had actually retired from acting when he was approached to do War Time. As it so happens, he was impressed with the script, was eager to work with Michael Wisher, and couldn’t pass up a project that would be focused entirely on him. The rest, as they say, is history.

Though exceedingly short and somewhat simplistic, War Time still manages to parallel the era of Doctor Who during which it was made: the production values are decent, the acting is top-notch, and it’s a bit of a head trip. All in all, actually rather enjoyable, and if you’re not that fascinated by it, fear not – it clocks in at under 40 minutes. Still, when so much of modern-day Doctor Who is now in the fans’ hands – the novels, the audio plays, and an ongoing stream of video spinoffs – it’s hard to overstate the importance of War Time. This production really set the ball rolling in terms of the fans paying for permission to use characters from Doctor Who, and then turning around and making a bit of a profit from the results.

This is a point repeatedly hammered home in the Making Of War Time documentary, which actually far exceeds the running time of the program it documents (a recurring phenomenon with Doctor Who video spinoffs). Many of the show’s participants are interviewed at length, including Barnfather and Levene himself (who now resides in Los Angeles under the name of John Anthony Blake), and there’s also a lengthy before-and-after section discussing the amateur fan films that preceded War Time – and the much glossier efforts that came in its wake. Sometimes it gets a bit too self-back-patting for my taste, but considering that the people involved in the late 80s/early 90s cottage industry of Doctor Who spinoffs were keeping the entire property going at the time of the re-release, I suppose they’ve earned it.

Categories
Knights Of God

Episode 7

Knights Of GodBarely surviving the hit Brother Hugo has ordered on his life, Gervase abandons the Knights of God as quickly as he joined them. He finds Julia, but the woman who has been caring for her is mortally injured in the crossfire. All but one of the Knights trying to ensure Gervase’s assassination are killed, and Gervase wounds the last one and sends him back to base with a message: if Brother Hugo wants Gervase dead, he’ll have to come to the wasteland to see to it personally. The wounded man’s return to Mordrin’s HQ further confirms the prior’s suspicions that Hugo is actively working against him, rather than simply being a bumbling idiot. Gervase’s bittersweet reunion with Julia is cut short by more danger: one of the more recklessly violent resistance cells is pursuing Gervase, still believing him to be a Knight.

written by Richard Cooper
directed by Michael Kerrigan
music by Christopher Gunning

Knights Of GodCast: George Winter (Gervase), Claire Parker (Julia), John Vine (Williams), Anne Stallybrass (Nell), Patrick Troughton (Arthur), Harrie Cookson (Brigadier Clarke), Don Henderson (Colley), John Woodvine (Mordrin), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), Christopher Bowen (Pilot), Roy Boyd (Fen), Jackie Webb (Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Where No One Has Gone Before

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41263.1: The Enterprise is ordered to participate in engine modification tests conducted by the arrogant Kosinski and his mysterious companion, the Traveler, but only when the ship is stranded in a dimension where thoughts become reality does the crew realize that Kosinski’s experiments were not actually under his control.

Order the DVDswritten by Diane Duane and Michael Reeves
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Stanley Kamel (Kosinski), Eric Menyuk (The Traveler), Herta Ware (Picard’s Mother), Biff Yeager (Chief Engineer Argyle), Charles Dayton (Crewmember), Victoria Dillard (Ballerina)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

Hellowe’en

Friday The 13th: The SeriesTo help dispel the somewhat shady reputation of Curious Goods, Ryan invites friends to the store for a Halloween party. Mickey worries that their visitors might enter the vault of cursed objects, which does indeed happen; a crystal ball is disturbed and begins growing with a green light. Ryan evacuates the partygoers, and Jack tries to help a wayward trick-or-treater get home. A thick fog climbs the stairs from the vault, eventually forming the image of Uncle Lewis, claiming he wants to atone for his sins and be free of his pact with the devil. But it’s another trick: Lewis wants to return from the dead, even if it costs Mickey and Ryan their lives.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by William Taub
directed by Timothy Bond
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), R.G. Armstrong (Uncle Lewis), Adrian Pocock (Greta), Victoria Deslaurier (Evil Greta), David Matheson (Larry), Alan Watt (Howard), Maxwell Moffatt (Old Man), Braun McAsh (B.T.), Tom Melissis (Erik), Ron Vanhart (Hearse Driver)

Friday The 13thNotes: Make the second of a handful of guest appearances as Uncle Lewis, R.G. Armstrong (1917-2012) had a long history of genre roles, from the original Twilight Zone to The Time Tunnel, The Invaders, Beauty And The Beast, Quantum Leap, and Millennium. His movie appearances included Predator, Dick Tracy, The Car, and Children Of The Corn, among many, many others.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Knights Of God

Episode 8

Knights Of GodCaptured by the resistance, Gervase and Julia are shoved into a cell to await their fate. The fighters who found them – and lost one of their number to Gervase’s bullet – want Gervase executed as a traitor, but Arthur intervenes and talks to Gervase personally, discovering that Mordrin has mentally conditioned him. Arthur sends a message through his highest-ranking contact in Mordrin’s inner circle, demanding a meeting with Mordrin himself. Mordrin receives the message and sets out to meet Arthur on neutral ground, where Mordrin ends the agreed-upon truce almost instantly by drawing a knife and handing it to Gervase. Prior Mordrin’s instructions to the boy still stand: kill the Prior’s greatest enemy. Even if that enemy is Mordrin’s estranged father, Arthur.

written by Richard Cooper
directed by Andrew Morgan
music by Christopher Gunning

Knights Of GodCast: George Winter (Gervase), Claire Parker (Julia), Don Henderson (Colley), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), John Vine (Williams), John Woodvine (Mordrin), Harrie Cookson (Brigadier Clarke), Patrick Troughton (Arthur), Gareth Thomas (Owen), Shirley Stelfox (Beth), Nigel Stock (Simon), Peter Childs (Tyrell), Jacki Webb (Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 24 Doctor Who

Delta And The Bannermen

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Melanie land at a kind of toll booth in space, but instead of exact change, they wind up winning a trip to Earth in 1959 for being the ten billionth visitors to the station. Joining the chartered trip is Delta, queen of the Chimeron, and the last of her race who hasn’t been hunted down by genocidal Gavrok and his army of Bannermen. Gavrok’s forces trail the tourists to Wales, intent on killing Delta, who carries with her an egg that will soon hatch the first child in a new generation of Chimerons. Billy, a local boy with rock ‘n’ roll aspirations, falls in love with Delta, while the Doctor tries to prepare the Welsh locals for a mercenary attack from space.

Order the DVDwritten by Malcolm Kohll
directed by Chris Clough
music by Keff McCulloch

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Don Henderson (Gavrok), Belinda Mayne (Delta), David Kinder (Billy), Sara Griffiths (Ray), Richard Davies (Burton), Stubby Kaye (Weismuller), Morgan Deare (Hawk), Hugh Lloyd (Goronwy), Johnny Dennis (Murray), Anita Graham (Bollit), Ken Dodd (Tollmaster), Leslie Meadows (Adlon), Brian Hibbard (Keillor), Martyn Geraint (Vinny), Clive Condon (Callon), Richard Mitchley (Arrex), Robin Aspland, Keff McCulloch, Justin Myers, Ralph Salmins (The Lorells), Jessica McGough, Amy Osborn (Young Chimeron), Laura Collins, Carley Joseph (Chimeron Princess), Tracy Wilson, Jodie Wilson (Vocalists)

Broadcast from November 2 through 16, 1987

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

The Great Montarro

Friday The 13th: The SeriesA cursed cabinet called the Coffin of Blood had been handed from stage magician to stage magician, allowing them to perform a death-defying stunt safely at no risk to themselves…because a victim is selected, trapped in a second coffin, and is the unfortunate recipient of the cabinet’s deadly steel blades. Inevitably, the current owner of the Coffin of Doom – a cursed relic sold by Lewis Ventredi – meets with an unfortunate accident involving his own trick. But until then, lives are being claimed. Jack, Ryan and Mickey set out to recover the Coffin of Blood before it can kill again, only to find that it has fallen into the hands of yet another unscrupulous magician. When they draw attention to themselves by asking too many questions, the Great Montarro may give them a fatal role to play in the next act.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Durnford King
directed by Richard Friedman
music by Fred Mollin

Friday the 13thCast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), Graeme Campbell (Montarro), Lesleh Donaldson (Lyla), August Schellenberg (Fahteem), Sylvie Garant (Collette), Martin Neufeld (Robert), Murray Westgate (Monte), Jefferson Mappin (Tommy), Ric Sarabia (Tony)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Lonely Among Us

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41249.3: The crew of the Enterprise is faced with more threats than they realize while transporting two parties of rival alien races to a peace summit which they seem too busy trying to kill each other to prepare for, but the greater danger lies in a consciousness which, after being swept into the sensor arrays of the ship, is trying to escape the ship to return to its home. In its final attempt, it beams off the Enterprise, taking Picard with it.

Order the DVDsteleplay by D.C. Fontana
story by Michael Halperin
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Ron Jones

Star Trek: The Next GenerationGuest Cast: John Durbin (Antican Delegate), Colm Meaney (Security Guard), Kavi Raz (Singh)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Knights Of God

Episode 9

Knights Of GodDuring Mordrin’s mysterious absence from the headquarters of the Knights of God, Brother Hugo makes his first real grab for power, calling a meeting of the council and trying to build a majority to depose the Prior upon his return. Hugo’s arguments are persuasive: he insinuates that the rumored meeting with the leaders of the resistance could be a step toward surrender, and hints that Mordrin may be trying to install himself as England’s new King – a position that the Knights of God outlawed. Mordrin calls his own council meeting when he returns, setting out to make quick work of Brother Hugo’s insurrection, and finding an ally (and useful cannon fodder) within the ranks of Hugo’s followers. But before he sets Hugo up for his downfall, Prior Mordrin announces that he could ascend to the royal throne if he decides to. And among the ranks of the resistance, passions run high as Arthur insists on a trial for Gervase and Julia. They are sentenced to banishment in the wastelands – the most merciful fate that Arthur’s engraged resistance fighters will tolerate.

written by Richard Cooper
directed by Andrew Morgan
music by Christopher Gunning

Knights Of GodCast: John Woodvine (Mordrin), Patrick Troughton (Arthur), George Winter (Gervase), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), Nigel Stock (Simon), Harrie Cookson (Brigadier Clarke), Gareth Thomas (Owen), Shirley Stelfox (Beth), Claire Parker (Julia), John Vine (Williams), Don Henderson (Colley), Peter Childs (Tyrell)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Justice

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41255.6: While visiting the lush paradise world of the Edo civilization, Picard is faced with a temperamental being which is acting as a god to the Edo – which it claims are its “children” – and must tamper with paradise to rescue Wesley, who, after breaking a law the Away Team was not made aware of, is sentenced to be executed. If Picard breaks the prime directive to rescue Wesley, he may put the Enterprise at the mercy of the judgment of the Edo’s orbiting “god.”

Order the DVDsteleplay by Worley Thorne
story by John D.F. Black and Worley Thorne
directed by James L. Conway
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Brenda Bakke (Rivan), Jay Louden (Liator), Josh Clark (Conn), David Q. Combs (First Mediator), Richard Lavin (Second Mediator), Judith Jones (Girl), Eric Matthew (First Edo Boy), Brad Zerbst (Medical Technician), David Michael Graves (Second Edo Boy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

Doctor Jack

Friday The 13th: The SeriesA seemingly random killing puts Ryan, Mickey and Jack on the trail of a possible cursed object – a scalpel believed to have been used by Jack the Ripper himself. Able to cut through nearly anything, it could be an incredible surgical tool…or a deadly weapon. The track the scalpel down to a Dr. Howard, who is rapidly gaining a reputation as a somewhat aloof, eccentric medical miracle worker. But the artifact hunters aren’t the only ones on his trail: a woman who has been trying to stalk Dr. Howard aims a gun at him in the hospital, but Ryan and Jack’s quick intervention make her only a would-be murderer. She has many clues about Howard’s past victims, but her obsession makes her almost as dangerous as Howard himself. AFter a scuffle with Howard, Jack is critically injured…and the man from whom he was trying to take the scalpel may now be his only hope of survival.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Marc Scott Zicree
directed by Richard Friedman
music by Fred Mollin

Friday the 13thCast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), Cliff Gorman (Dr. Howard), Elva Mai Hoover (Jean Flappen), Doris Petrie (Dr. Price), Michael Copeman (Jim Bronson), Alan Rosenthal (Anaesthetist), Frank Perry (Flower Vendor), Vinetta Strombergs (Duty Nurse), Deborah Kimmett (Obs Room Nurse), Lynn Vogt (Psychiatric Nurse), Hal Eisen (Code Blue Doctor), Wendy Lum (Station Nurse), Peggy Francis (Surgical Nurse), Candace Jennings (Hooker), Susan Spencer (Emergency Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Knights Of God

Episode 10

Knights Of GodGervase and Julia haven’t wandered very far through the Wasteland before Arthur appears, offering them food and supplies (including a gun) and new instructions: the resistance leader needs Gervase to go to Canterbury, where a lone church has been left standing, the last enclave of Christianity not wiped out by Mordrin. There, Arthur tells him, Gervase will discover the identity of the one man who can reunite England and end the reign of Mordrin and his Knights. But Brother Hugo’s grab for power has split the Knights of God down the middle; Hugo’s loyalists help him escape from Mordrin’s compound and assemble his forces in what’s left of London. Both Mordrin and Hugo are aware of the significance of Gervase’s flight to Canterbury and order their respective forces into action; Mordrin wants Gervase captured alive, Hugo wants the boy dead. And following Gervase and Julia the entire time is Colley, determined to give Gervase the death sentence that Arthur refused to give him.

written by Richard Cooper
directed by Michael Kerrigan
music by Christopher Gunning

Knights Of GodCast: George Winter (Gervase), Claire Parker (Julia), Don Henderson (Colley), Patrick Troughton (Arthur), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), John Woodvine (Mordrin), Nigel Stock (Simon), Harrie Cookson (Brigadier Clarke), Peter Childs (Tyrell), Christopher Bowen (Pilot), Bunny Losh (Officer), Alan Mock (Communications Officer), Mark Burgess (Knight in Carrier), John Rapley (Crown Maker)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Battle

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41723.9: Captain Picard confronts his own past when the Ferengi present him with the USS Stargazer, which he and his crew had been forced to abandon under his command nine years ago after barely surviving a raid by a Ferengi vessel – but little does he realize that his old ship is only one piece of a puzzle that the Ferengi DaiMon is using as a tool of revenge…

Order the DVDsteleplay by Herbert Wright
story by Larry Forrester
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Frank Corsentino (DaiMon Bok), Doug Warhit (Kazago), Robert Towers (Rata)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

Shadow Boxer

Friday The 13th: The SeriesThe widow of a gym manager calls upon Curious Goods to catalog her late husband’s collection of vintage boxing memorabilia. The item that catches Jack’s attention is a pair of boxing gloves belonging to an infamous fighter who accidentally killed his last opponent with a knockout punch in the 1940s…a pair of gloves that had briefly been in the Ventredi collection of cursed artifacts. Jack, Mickey and Ryan, posing as reporters, begin hanging around the gym and talking to the up-and-coming boxers training there, trying to get a fix on whether the cursed gloves are still in use by anyone there. The gloves summon forth the featureless shadow of a fighter, and the wearer can direct the shadow to kill its victim.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Joshua Daniel Miller
directed by Timothy Bond
music by Fred Mollin

Friday the 13thCast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), David Ferry (Tommy Dunn), Jack Duffy (Manny King), Patricia Hamilton (Sadie King), Gerry Quigley (Doorman), Dennis Christensen (Pepper Boliski), Patsy Fern (Referee), Nicholas Pasco (Tony Terrific), Philip Akin (Kid Cornelius)

Notes: Guest star Philip Akin would go on to join Friday The 13th’s syndicated stablemate, War Of The Friday the 13thWorlds, in its second season as Norton Drake; he was also a regular in the second season of Highlander: The Series (which starred Akin’s fellow new recruit in the second and final season of War Of The Worlds, Adrian Paul). He went on to play guest roles in Psi Factor: Chronicles Of The Paranormal, Relic Hunter, Odyssey 5, Mutant X, Warehouse 13 and The Expanse, and has provided voices for many animated series, including the 1990s X-Men animated series and Tales From The Cryptkeeper.

LogBook entry by Earl Green