Tag: Season Premiere

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Battlestar Galactica (Classic Series) Season 2 (Galactica: 1980)

Galactica Discovers Earth

Battlestar Galactica (original)The beleaguered Battlestar arrives at Earth, a full generation after having received the planet’s location. But there are two problems: the Cylons are still in pursuit of Galactica, and somewhat to the crew’s surprise, Earth (in the year 1980 A.D., by its time scale) isn’t even remotely capable of withstanding a Cylon attack. Adama’s grandson Troy (who spent his childhood with the nickname “Boxey”) and Lt. Dillon remain on Earth as their ship departs Earth once more in an attempt to divert the Cylons from the defenseless human race. A plan emerges to give the human race a higher order of technology to defend Earth from the Cylon onslaught, but there is disagreement over how much technology should be given to a race which is just as likely to destroy itself. And one member of the Council of Twelve decides to take matters into his own hands, traveling back in time to arm the people of Earth with advanced weaponry…but he may be handing dangerously sophisticated technology to precisely the wrong players in Earth’s history.

Season 2 Regular Cast: Lorne Greene (Commander Adama), Kent McCord (Captain Troy), Barry Van Dyke (Lt. Dillon), Robyn Douglass (Jamie Hamilton), Patrick Stuart (Dr. Zee), Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Colonel Boomer), Fred Holliday (Brooks)

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Glen A. Larson
directed by Sidney Hayers

Guest Cast: Robbie Rist (Dr. Zee), Richard Lynch (Xavier), Robert Reed (Professor Mortinson), Christopher Stone (Major Stockwell), Sharon Acker (Secretary), Richard Eastham (General Cushing), Albert Paulsen (?), Louis Turenne (?), Michael Strong (?), Pamela Susan Shoop (Ms. Carlyle), Vernon Weddle (First cop), David Moses (Second cop), Brion James (Willy), Mickey Jones (Donzo), Duncan Mackenzie (First pilot), Bruce Douglas (Second pilot), Eddie Firestone (Derelict), Frank Downing (First guard), Don Maxwell (Second guard), Ted Gehring (Sheriff), Curt Lowens (German commander), James R. Parkes (Walt Griffin), Bruce Wright (Aide), Adam Starr (Willy Griffin), Missy Francis (Little girl), Todd Martin (Third German), John Zenda (Cop), Erik Holland (Second German officer), Eric Forst (First German officer), Hank Brandt (Colonel), Duncan Mackenzie (Third guard), Jonathan Williams (Second guard), Paul Brown (Fourth guard), Ray Duke (Newspaper boy), Doug Hale (Air Force Major), Billy Jacoby (Tucker)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

The Leisure Hive

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Romana, after an unsuccessful attempt at a Brighton vacation, pay a visit to the war-torn planet Argolis. Laid to waste by a war between the native Argolins and the reptilian Foamasi, Argolis is now not much more than a deadly environment whose sole artificial structure – the Leisure Hive – is a holiday resort with an anti-war theme. The Argolins themselves are sterile, and have been sponsoring tachyon experiments conducted by a human named Hardin. Hardin boasts that he can use tachyonics to reverse the aging process of the Argolins, but in truth he’s nowhere close to that goal. The arrival of two Time Lords seems to coincide with a wave of violence, including a man who appears to have been strangled with the Doctor’s scarf. But the presence of two seasoned time travelers also threatens to unravel a plan to sell the defective tachyon technology to the Argolins…and the Doctor and Romana soon become targets themselves. To make matters worse, the brash young son of the Argolins’ leader has plans to lift his people from a dying, pacifist race to conquerors of the galaxy.

Season 18 Regular Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), John Leeson (voice of K9)

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by David Fisher
directed by Lovett Bickford
music by Peter Howell

Guest Cast: Adrienne Corri (Mena), David Haig (Pangol), Laurence Payne (Morix), John Collin (Brock), Nigel Lambert (Hardin), Martin Fisk (Vargos), David Allister (Stimson), Ian Talbot (Klout), Andrew Lane (Chief Foamasi), Roy Montague (Argolin Guide), Harriet Reynolds (Tannoy voice), Clifford Norgate (Generator voice), David Bulbeck, David Korff, James Muir (Foamasi), Alys Dyer (Baby)

Original Title: The Argolins

Broadcast from August 30 through September 20, 1980

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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1980 Series Cosmos

The Shores Of The Cosmic Ocean

CosmosDr. Carl Sagan introduces the concept of the dandelion-like Ship of the Imagination, as well as the idea of Earth as an island in the sea of space. He then discusses the scientific work of the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes, who came very close to correctly calculating Earth’s circumference, axial tilt, and distance from the sun in approximately 100 B.C., and explores a recreation of the Library of Alexandria, over which Eratosthenes presided. The wealth of knowledge at Alexandria, the loss of the documents in the library, are described, along with Eratosthenes’ effect on the work of centuries of later astronomers, from Aristarchus to Copernicus to Kepler…but the short span of this era of astronomical knowledge is also contrasted with the vast scale of the age of the universe.

Get the complete series on DVDwritten by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan & Steven Soter
directed by Adrian Malone
music not credited

Cast: Carl Sagan (himself), Jaromír Hanzlík (Johannes Kepler)

CosmosNotes: Segments in different locations and in studio all had different directors, so it’s something of a misnomer to credit any one episode of Cosmos to a single director. Other directors credited, and the location shoots they directed, are Rob McCain (Spaceship), Richard J. Wells (Holland / Library of Alexandria / Cosmic Calendar), Tim Weidlinger and Geoffrey Haines-Stiles (Kepler / Egypt), and David F. Oyster (Monterey / Mt. Wilson Observatory).

Among the space artists whose work was used to visualize space travel was Rick Sternbach, who helped design control Cosmospanels and displays for 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and would serve in a wider design capacity in the 1980s and ’90s Star Trek spinoffs, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. (Sternbach’s work on the first Trek movie and Cosmos overlapped.) He had also participated in pioneering computer animation productions, including JPL’s CGI visualizations of the early Voyager planetary flybys and the movie The Last Starfighter. Sternbach’s sole Emmy Award was the result of his work on Cosmos, rather than any of the Star Trek series.

CosmosIn the strictest sense, none of the series’ music received an on-screen credit, but this episode alone contains excerpts of works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Hovhaness, Rimsky-Korsakov, and 20th century musicians such as Vangelis and Italian prog rock group Le Orme. In 2000, for Cosmos’ DVD release, additional segments written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter, and hosted by Druyan, amended each episode with a summary of scientific discoveries made since the 1980 broadcast of the original episodes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Buck Rogers Season 2

Time Of The Hawk

Buck Rogers In The 25th CenturyBuck, Wilma and Twiki have been reassigned to the deep-space exploration ship Searcher on a mission to search for any colonies that may have been established by humans who escaped Earth around the time of the holocaust. Their first evidence of human colonists, however, is a primitive ship found adrift, its hull shattered and all but one of its crew dead. The lone survivors warns Buck with his last breath that someone called “Hawk” is on a mission to exterminate every human, every human ship, and every human colony he can find. The survivor gives them one tip about where Hawk might be found, and the Searcher changes its course so Buck can follow up on the lead. A neutral planet turns out to be the current lair of Hawk, and Buck asks Wilma to meet him there; against her better judgement, Wilma brings a passenger along: Dr. Goodfellow, the Searcher’s elderly but brilliant chief scientist.

Buck doesn’t find Hawk, but he does find Hawk’s mate, Koori, half-human and half-bird, and bets that if he takes Koori with him, Hawk will follow. Hawk does indeed catch up with Buck, grappling the earthman’s starfighter with the harpoon-like claws of his own ship – but impaling Koori in the process. Both ships land, and Buck helps Hawk take Koori to a healer who lives in a distant cave on the planet, both men postponing their fight until she can be saved. Hawk tells Buck that he and Koori are the last of their kind, hunted to extinction by humans, and that his fight is just. Buck tries to tell Hawk that the actions of human colonists don’t necessarily reflect the current state of humanity on Earth, but Hawk is not swayed – when Koori is either restored to health or laid to rest, Hawk and Buck will fight to the death.

Order the DVDswritten by Norman Hudis
directed by Vincent McEveety
music by Bruce Broughton

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Colonel Wilma Deering), Thom Christopher (Hawk), Jay Garner (Admiral Asimov), Wilfred Hyde-White (Dr. Goodfellow), Felix Silla (Twiki), Jeff David (voice of Crichton), Barbara Luna (Koori), Lance Le Gault (Flagg), David Opatoshu (Llamajuna), Sid Haig (Pratt), Kenneth O’Brien (Captain), Dennis Haysbert (Communication-Probe Officer), Lavelle Roby (Thromis), Michael Fox (High Judge), Andre Harvey (Thordis), J. Christopher O’Connor (Young Lieutenant), Tim O’Keefe (Bailiff), Ken Chandler (Court Clerk), Susan McIver (Simmons)

Notes: Crichton admits, somewhat reluctantly, that he obeys Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, and even more begrudgingly admits that an ancestor of Admiral Asimov wrote those laws. The Crichton prop first appeared early in the first season, but as a large clock instead of a robot. Twiki’s voice was replaced for part of this season as part of the sweeping changes introduced by new executive producer John Mantley, but eventually Mel Blanc was brought back to provide Twiki’s voice.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Into The Labyrinth Season 1

Rothgo

Into The LabyrinthTerry and Helen, brother and sister, seek shelter in a cave when their day of playing outside is ruined by a sudden and violent thunderstorm. They’re not alone, either: an older boy named Phil has also sought refuge in the cave…but all of them hear another voice, somewhere deeper in the cave, asking for help. They find a man trapped under an enormous stone, a piece of rock that by all rights should have crushed him to death. With his instruction, they are amazed that they have the power to lift the stone and free him. He introduces himself as the wizard Rothgo, and he has been trapped in the cave by a sorceress named Belor. He seeks something called the Nidus, a magical item that will allow him to concentrate his power and escape his prison…but since he can’t leave the caves, he must trust his three new young friends to enter the labyrinth, and journey through various times in history to find it. They will find him there at various stages of his long, magically-extended life, and will have to seek his help against Belor. Their journey begins…

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Baker
based on an idea by Bob Baker & Peter Graham Scott
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Into The LabyrinthCast: Ron Moody (Rothgo), Pamela Salem (Belor), Lisa Turner (Helen), Simon Henderson (Terry), Simon Beal (Phil)

Notes: Executive producer Peter Dromgoole also worked with series co-creator Bob Baker on his previous series, Sky (1975), along with director (and series co-creator) Peter Graham Scott and composer Sidney Sager, was an integral part of a much-loved Into The Labyrinthprevious HTV children’s fantasy series, Children Of The Stones, in 1977. Like Children Of The Stones, Into The Labyrinth successfully jumped the Atlantic to become part of the “Third Eye” strand of children’s programming on nascent cable channel Nickelodeon, but only the first season was shown to American audiences.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Into The Labyrinth Season 2

The Calling

Into The LabyrinthA rotting skull emerges from a sea of mist in the caverns where Rothgo and his young companions once consulted before going on their adventures. The skull is replaced by the visage of Belor, who exclaims “I live!”

Terry and Helen receive a call for help from Rothgo, by way of the crystals he gave them at the end of their previous adventures. With Belor’s return, he needs his champions once more. Phil, Rothgo’s other champion, walks into a stone circle and vanishes, reappearing in Rothgo’s cavern. Rothgo warns Phil that Belor is assembling a force intended to be equal and opposite to the Nidus, called Albedo, and Phil must again wander through the labyrinth into the past, finding a splinter of Rothgo’s former self with whom to ally himself. Helen and Terry follow, finding Phil has been sent back to the time of the Vikings, where Rothgo is fighting a losing battle to keep Belor from harnessing the power of the Albedo.

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Baker
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Into The LabyrinthCast: Ron Moody (Rothgo), Pamela Salem (Belor), Lisa Turner (Helen), Simon Henderson (Terry), Simon Beal (Phil), Howard Goorney (Loke), David Trevena (Alberick), Stephen Lyons (1st Guard)

Notes: In strict scientific terms, “albedo” refers to a measurement of how much sunlight is reflected by a body such as a planet or moon without being absorbed by an atmosphere or some other phenomenon in the way. High-albedo objects are brighter, and low-albedo objects are dimmer. Stone circles figured prominently in a previous collaboration between director Peter Graham Scott, and HTV executive producer Patrick Dromgoolie, 1977’s Children Of The Stones.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Rescue

Blake's 7The survivors of the Liberator on Terminal begin to make horrible discoveries. First, Avon and Dayna discover that the escape craft Servalan left them was booby trapped as a native animal enters it and it explodes. That simultaneously detonates explosions in the control center underground on Terminal. Vila escapes after heroically rescuing Tarrant, but Cally is killed. The space vessel Scorpio arrives, with the enigmatic Dorian in charge. He takes the crew and Orac away from Terminal just as the planet begins to undergo a massive volcanic outbreak, but Avon takes him prisoner and hijacks the ship. Scorpio, however, is automatically set to take Dorian to his home base, where his gunhand and consort Soolin is waiting. It soon transpires that Dorian has been working on a teleportal and has also devised a near-perfect all-weather handgun. He also repairs Orac and reveals that he is over 200 years old. Dorian plans to sacrifice Avon and the others to a creature that renews Dorian when it is given fresh lives to feed on.

written by Chris Boucher
directed by Mary Ridge
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Geoffrey Burridge (Dorian), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Rob Middleton (The Creature), Jan Chappell (voice of Cally)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Astronauts Season 1

Episode 1

AstronautsAn all-British crew prepares for a mission to an Earth-orbiting space station. Astronaut Mattocks is a stuff-upper-lip, salt-of-the-Earth family man for whom the flight will be his crowning achievement; Ackroyd is a bundle of nerves who’d really rather stay on Earth. Accompanying both men is a single female astronaut, Foster, a medical specialist who will monitor the crew’s health, both physical and mental; a dog named Bimbo will also travel to the station for further medical tests and experiments. Communications problems arise at critical times due to technical glitches and a gung-ho American mission controller. By the time the new crew of the space station arrives, they’re sure of only one thing: it’ll be hard for them to stand one another long enough for a record-setting space endurance mission.

written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie
directed by Dick Clement

AstronautsCast: Christopher Godwin (Mattocks), Carmen Du Sautoy (Foster), Barrie Rutter (Ackroyd), Bruce Boa (Beadle), Mary Healey (Valerie), Ben Aris (Reporter), Diana Berriman (Reporter), Barry Lower (Reporter), Hilton McRae (Reporter), Pamela Miles (Reporter), Hugh Walters (Reporter), Michael Delorzo (Mattocks’ Kid), Julian Delorzo (Mattocks’ Kid), and Bimbo (himself)

AstronautsNotes: This space-set sitcom seems to take place in an alternate universe in which Skylab survived 1979 (it didn’t) and British astronauts were still flying Apollo spacecraft (a vehicle which stopped flying in 1975). Created by The Goodies writer/performers Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, the show was popular enough to merit a second season in 1983. The first season has neither a theme tune or incidental music.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 19 Doctor Who

Castrovalva

Doctor WhoChaos ensues in the wake of the Doctor’s regeneration. Security guards at the Pharos Project arrest Tegan, Nyssa and Adric, who are just beginning to try to comprehend what has happened to the Doctor, let alone help him. They manage to divert the guards and get the Doctor back to the TARDIS, but at the last moment, the Master’s TARDIS appears, blocking Adric’s escape. The Master then disappears again, and Adric returns to help the Doctor, who is trying to find the recuperative Zero Room. Adric has also gotten the TARDIS underway to its next destination – which turns out to be the explosive event which created the Milky Way. The Doctor, still experiencing sudden changes of personality, is barely able to help Tegan and Nyssa evade disaster by jettisoning parts of the TARDIS, and Adric is nowhere to be found. But when the Zero Room is accidentally blasted away in the emergency, the Doctor’s friends must find a place where he can recover. And all too conveniently, the relaxing planet of Castrovalva is at the top of the list.

Season 19 Regular Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan)

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Christopher H. Bidmead
directed by Fiona Cumming
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (The Master), Derek Waring (Shardovan), Michael Sheard (Mergrave), Frank Wylie (Ruther), Dallas Cavell (Head of Security), Souska John (Child)

Broadcast from January 4 through 12, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Knight Rider Season 1

Knight Of The Phoenix

Knight RiderPolice Lieutenant Michael Long is part of a sting operation intended to bring down an industrial espionage suspect. When his partner is gunned down during the operation, Michael’s thoughts turn to revenge, and he neglects to think twice about a woman who witnesses his partner’s murder – until she draws a gun on him. She’s part of the ring he’s supposed to be reeling in. She shoots Michael in the face at point-blank range and escapes with her cohorts; the sting is a failure.

But so is her attempt to kill Michael. Thanks to a fortuitously-placed metal plate in his skull, he is able to recover with the help of extensive reconstructive surgery that leaves him with a new face. His benefactors in his recovery are a man named Devon, and an older man, the wealthy Wilton Knight; they have arranged for the man known as Michael Long to be declared officially dead, leaving a man with a new face – “Michael Knight” – and no past. Wilton Knight, a tech tycoon, believes that someone has been stealing his secrets, and enlists Michael’s help. Devon introduces him to a nearly-indestructible custom car designed by Wilton Knight, the Knight Industries 2000 (or KITT for short), a Trans-Am whose outer body seems to be incapable of being scratched or dented. But it also has a built-in artificial intelligence programmed to aid Michael; it can assume complete control of the car in a pinch, and unflappably offers advice to its driver.

One trip to Silicon Valley and one death-and-dent-defying demolition derby later, Michael is investigating a company called Comptron, discovering that the people who stole Wilton Knight’s secrets were the same people Michael Long’s anti-espionage operation was meant to capture. These people are willing to kill; Michael, being an ex-cop, is trained to avoid killing unless necessary…which may be his undoing even with KITT and all of Knight Industries’ resources behind him.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Glen A. Larson
directed by Daniel Haller
music by Stu Phillips

Knight RiderCast: David Hasselhoff (Michael Knight), Edward Mulhare (Devon), Phyllis Davis (Tanya Walker), Pamela Susan Shoop (Maggie), Lance LeGault (Vernon Gray), Noel Conlon (William Benjamin), Michael D. Roberts (Jackson), Bert Rosario (Brown), Vince Edwards (Dr. Wesley), Richard Basehart (Wilton Knight), Edmund Gilbert (Charles Acton), Shawn Southwick (Lonnie), Brian Cutler (Bar Manager), Barret Oliver (Buddy), Robert Phillips (Symes), Alma L. Beltran (Luce), Ed Hooks (Guard), Tyler Murray (Sally), Victoria Harned (Doris), Larry Anderson (Michael Long), William Daniels (KITT), Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Muntzy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 20 Doctor Who

Arc of Infinity

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Nyssa’s visit to a tranquil region of space known as the Arc of Infinity is cut short by a strange phenomenon – some kind of entity penetrates the TARDIS and tries to merge with the Doctor’s body. The attempt is short-lived, and the Doctor escapes harm, but apparently the incident has been noticed – the Time Lords are recalling him to Gallifrey. With Nyssa in tow, the Doctor returns home only to discover that his biodata extract has been accessed by an unknown party – information that could be used to allow someone to take over his physical form. Fearing the ramifications of a Time Lord being taken over by an alien entity, the High Council – now led by the regenerated Borusa as Lord President – votes to have the Doctor executed. But a second attempt at a merge interrupts the execution, and the Time Lords find out that it’s no alien entity at work, but one of their own.

Season 20 Regular Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough)

Order the DVDwritten by Johnny Byrne
directed by Ron Jones
music by Roger Limb

Guest Cast: Leonard Sachs (President Borusa), Michael Gough (Hedin), Ian Collier (Omega), Colin Baker (Maxil), Paul Jerricho (Castellan), Neil Daglish (Damon), Elspet Gray (Thalia), Max Harvey (Zorac), Andrew Boxer (Robin Stuart), Alastair Cumming (Colin Frazer), John D. Collins (Talor), Maya Woolfe (Hostel receptionist), Malcolm Harvey (The Ergon), Guy Groen (Second receptionist)

Broadcast from January 3 through 11, 1983

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Blackadder Season 1

The Foretelling

Blackadder21st August, 1485. King Richard III’s victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field is ruined only by the unfortunate fact that his head was cut off by Edmund, second son of Prince Richard. Once his father is crowned King Richard IV, the newly ennobled Prince Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh, begins his life as “The Black Adder”. But Edmund is haunted by the ghost of the slain King and finds he’s been unknowingly harboring the King’s enemy, Henry Tudor…

Season 1 Regular Cast: Rowan Atkinson (Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh, The Black Adder), Brian Blessed (King Richard IV), Robert East (Harry, Prince of Wales), Tim McInnerny (Percy, Duke of Northumberland), Elspet Gray (The Queen), Tony Robinson (Baldrick), Patrick Allen (Narrator)

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson
with additional dialogue by William Shakespeare
directed by Martin Shardlow
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Peter Cook (Richard III), Peter Benson (Henry VII), Jay Bura (Prince Edward), Tan Bura (Prince Richard), Stephen Tate (Lord Chiswick), Kathleen St. John (Goneril), Barbara Miller (Regan), Gretchen Franklin (Cordelia), Philip Kendall (Painter)

Season 1 Notes: Rowan Atkinson became a household name (especially in England) on the strength of his portrayal of the various Blackadders. He also found success with the title role in the TV series Bean and its spin-offs (a movie and an animated series). Genre work includes the “unofficial” James Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983), Scooby-Doo (2002) and a comedic portrayal of legendary BBC character The Doctor in the 1999 charity special Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death.

Brian Blessed is a veteran of stage and screen, appearing in countless plays, films and television productions. His first standout television appearance was as Emperor Augustus in the BBC series I, Claudius. Genre work includes Space: 1999, Blake’s 7, Doctor Who, Flash Gordon (1980) and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999).

Robert East has made appearances on several British television shows, including Rumpole of the Bailey, Yes, Prime Minister, ‘Allo ‘Allo! and The Canterbury Tales.

Elspet Gray began her career in the late 1940s and worked regularly for the next 50 years. Key work includes appearances on such shows as Fawlty Towers, Inspector Morse, Poirot and the Richard Curtis-penned film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). Genre work has been minimal, but does include the role of Chancellor Thalia in the pivotal Doctor Who story Arc Of Infinity. Gray is one of only three cast members (along with Atkinson and Tim McInnerny) to survive The Black Adder’s transition from pilot to series.

Tim McInnerny was a regular cast member in all Blackadder series except Blackadder The Third (where he made a guest appearance). Other genre appearances include Erik The Viking (1989) and a guest appearance on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as Franz Kafka.

Tony Robinson has the distinction of being the only cast member besides Rowan Atkinson to appear in all full Blackadder productions (except the pilot). Other work includes the TV series Maid Marian And Her Merry Men, a comic look at the Robin Hood legend, and Blood and Honey, a narrative retelling of Biblical stories.

Notes: Although this episode clearly establishes the origin of the “Blackadder” name, later sources, notably Blackadder: Back & Forth and the script collection/historical overview “Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty”, indicate the name is much older.

The portrayal here of King Henry VII as a liar who re-wrote history is in line with modern thinking that King Richard III’s reign was unfairly portrayed as a means of justifying the Tudors’ questionable hold on the English throne.

The three old women at the end of The Foretelling are based on the witches from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, but are named after the daughters from “King Lear”.

Before his death in 1995, Peter Cook was acknowledged as one of the greats of British comedy, most notably for his longtime collaboration with Dudley Moore on such projects as the 1960s TV series Not Only… But Also… and the 1967 film Bedazzled. His genre work was minimal, but does include the dubious distinction of being a second-string bad guy in Supergirl (1984).

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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Astronauts Season 2

Episode 8

AstronautsThe Orbital Workshop crew has been in space for months, and cabin fever has set in. Mattocks has gotten into the habit of having long, meaningful conversations with Bimbo the dog. Ackroyd talks to himself in the mirror. Foster talks to a tape recorder, and then plays back the tape and has conversations with herself. Even Beadle, frustrated because no one seems to listen to him either on the ground or in orbit, mumbles to himself in ground control. But what happens when the isolation even begins affecting Bimbo?

written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie
directed by Dick Clement

AstronautsCast: Christopher Godwin (Mattocks), Carmen Du Sautoy (Foster), Barrie Rutter (Ackroyd), Bruce Boa (Beadle), and Bimbo (himself)

Notes: The second season of Astronauts was produced by Central Independent Television (inheritor of ATV’s broadcast franchise and facilities after a sell-off of some parts of the company and the loss of ATV’s Astronautsbroadcast license). ATV signed off for the last time on January 1st, 1982. Whereas the first season had neither a theme tune nor incidental music within the episodes, there was now a “spacey” theme tune over the open and end credits. Other than that, one can be forgiven for thinking that no time had passed at all. The second season was produced in 1982, before the ATV-to-Central handover.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 21 Doctor Who

Warriors Of The Deep

Doctor WhoIn the twenty-first century, the Doctor tries to show his companions Tegan and Turlough the shape of things to come on Earth. Unfortunately, their arrival coincides with a dangerous buildup of nuclear tensions between two unspecified superpowers, and the TARDIS brings them to an underground weapons platform manned by an edgy crew – particularly crewman Maddox, who has a computer interface implanted directly in his brain to allow him to fire the sea base’s nuclear missiles with a single concentrated thought. Maddox, shell-shocked after months of unannounced battle drills, collapses, leaving the base defenseless. But the base isn’t just prone to foreign attack – the repitile Silurians and Sea Devils, both ancient races which roamed the Earth freely before the evolution and rise of man, plan to launch the base’s missiles, plunging Earth into an all-out nuclear war and destroying mankind so reptiles can once again be the masters of their world.

Order the DVDwritten by Johnny Byrne
directed by Ron Jones
music by Jonathan Gibbs

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Tom Adams (Vorshak), Ingrid Pitt (Solow), Ian McCulloch (Nilson), Nigel Humphreys (Bulic), Martin Neil (Maddox), Tara Ward (Preston), Norman Comer (Icthar), Nitza Saul (Karina), Stuart Blake (Scibus), Vincent Brimble (Tarpok), Christopher Farries (Sauvix), James Coombes (Paroli), Steve Kelly, Chris Wolfe, Jules Walters, Mike Braben, Dave Ould (Sea Devils)

Broadcast from January 5 through 13, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Chocky Season 1

Episode One

ChockyThe Gore family enjoys a typical upper-middle-class life in London, but when their adopted son Matthew begins asking unusually existential questions about everyday life, and showing other signs of accelerated intelligence, it’s a minor cause for concern. When he suddenly falls ill, his parents, Mary and David, are much more concerned – and a bit annoyed that Matthew keeps asking them to send someone named Chocky away until he’s better.

written by Anthony Read
based on the novel by John Wyndham
directed by Vic Hughes
music not credited

ChockyCast: Carol Drinkwater (Mary), James Hazeldine (David), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), James Greene (Mr. Trimmble), Devin Stanfield (Colin), Kelita Groom (Jane), Jonathan Jackson (Mark), Peter John Bickford (Roger), Catherine Elcombe (Susan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green