A Beginning

Survivors (1970s series)A trade with another settlement – some of the gasoline from Donny’s tanker for seed – turns disastrous when the seed proves to be useless. Open dissent breaks out among the survivors, and Abby has had her fill of having to make all the decisions. Another group of plague survivors appears, though they have one seriously ill woman with them, and bear a warning about a more aggressive group of survivors beginning to chase smaller groups off of their own land. The woman’s illness forces Greg to consider the safety of the rest of his group and deny them access to the Grange. When the new group leaves, however, they leave the sick woman near the Grange to die on her own; Greg advocates letting her do precisely that, while Abby decides to take her in instead. A serious disagreement erupts, and this time Abby opts to leave the Grange; after several hours of walking, she encounters survivalist Jimmy Garland, still thriving in the post-plague world, and he takes her in for the night. Greg, Arthur and Paul decide to reach out to other nearby settlements and groups, even the Waterhouse, to form a mutual defense pact. As she recovers, the sick woman reveals that she has met a boy named Peter Grant.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Pennant Roberts
music by Anthony Isaac

Cast: Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant), Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston), Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards), Hana-Maria Pravda (Mrs. Cohen), Michael Gover (Arthur Russell), Hugh Walters (Vic Thatcher), Chris Tranchell (Paul Pitman), Eileen Helsby (Charmian Wentworth), Richard Heffer (Jimmy Garland), Harry Markham (Burton), Annie Irving (Ruth), Stephen Dudley (John), Tanya Ronder (Lizzie)

SurvivorsNotes: This is Carolyn Seymour’s last appearance in Survivors; in a Survivors-focused episode of the BBC’s retrospective series The Cult Of…, Seymour reveals that she was struggling with alcoholism during the making of the first series. She went on to appear in Space: 1999, a few guest shots on Quantum Leap as Zoey, the hologram advisor of the “Evil Leaper” from the show’s later seasons, three episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Contagion, First Contact, Face Of The Enemy), Babylon 5, and a brief stint in what was intended to be a recurring role in Star Trek: Voyager (Cathexis, Persistence Of Vision), among many, many other appearances and video game voice-over roles. Jimmy Garland and the Waterhouse were last seen in Garland’s War.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

You May Also Like