Tag: Series Premiere

Categories
Future Cop

Cleaver & Haven

Future CopVeteran Los Angeles beat cops Cleaver and Bundy have been partners for 23 years, so it amuses Bundy – and annoys Cleaver – to discover that the LAPD commissioner is assigning Cleaver to train a rookie named Haven. But Haven’s first day on the mean streets is almost more than he can handle, as he and Cleaver find themselves pursuing car thieves running a chop shop with international customers, including one known cop killer. When Haven falls in the line of duty, Cleaver discovers the truth: Haven is a biosynthetic android, programmed to look and act as human as possible, being beta-tested as a policeman for the future. The commissioner assigned Haven to Cleaver knowing that the rookie would never pass muster with the grizzled, curmudgeonly veteran. Cleaver takes exception to this and takes on the repaired Haven as a partner again. While Cleaver could learn to use some of Haven’s logic in his police work, Haven has just as much to learn about human instinct.

Order the complete series on DVDwritten by Anthony Wilson
directed by Jud Taylor
music by Billy Goldenberg

Future CopCast: Ernest Borgnine (Cleaver), Michael Shannon (Haven), John Amos (Bundy), John Larch (Forman), Herbert Nelson (Klausmeier), Ronnie Clark Edwards (Avery), James Luisi (Paterno), Stephen Pearlman (Dorfman), James Daughton (Young Rookie), Lorry Goldman (First Terrorist), Tony Burton (Second Terrorist), Nancy Belle Fuller (Cocktail Waitress), Ruth Manning (Della), Eddy C. Dyer (Hippie), Shirley O’Hara (Grandmother), Sandy Ward (Fowler), Sandy Sprung (Evans), Michael Francis Blake (Teenager), Bill Dearth (Fugitive), Michael Goodrow (First Kid), Eric Suter (Second Kid)

Future CopNotes: The mention that “1984 is only eight years away” places the story in the “present day” of its broadcast airate in 1976. Though aired under the title Future Cop, the DVD release indicates that the pilot episode was titled Cleaver & Haven.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Gemini Man

Gemini Man

Gemini ManSam Casey, a devil-may-care former military ordnance expert, is called into action when a Soviet satellite plummets through Earth’s atmosphere and hits the ocean more or less intact. With intelligence indicating that the satellite may be something more than a harmless weather satellite, Casey dons SCUBA gear to examine it up close, only to find a bomb attached to it. The satellite is destroyed, and Casey receives the full brunt of its nuclear power source, and his entire body is rendered invisible as a result.

Thanks to a portable stabilizer devised by the scientists at Intersect, Casey regains full visibility, but can go invisible for up to 15 minutes a day, giving him an edge in espionage. After discovering the limitations of his invisibility, Sam decides to listen in (invisibly) at the machinations behind the scenes of a military technology company whose crew was also present at the failed satellite retrieval mission. Someone planted the bomb that changed Sam’s life forever…and they may be planning to do something even more sinister for the future of the entire world.

written by Leslie Stevens
directed by Alan J. Levi
music by Billy Goldenberg

Gemini ManCast: Ben Murphy (Sam Casey), Katherine Crawford (Abby Lawrence), Richard A. Dysart (Leonard Driscoll), Dana Elcar (Schuyler), Paul Shenar (Charles Edward Royce), Quinn Redeker (Rogers), Gregory Walcott (Officer), Len Wayland (Captain Whelan), Cheryl Miller (Receptionist), Michael Lane (Guard), H.M. Wynant (Captain Ballard), Austin Stoker (Dive Officer), Dave Shelley (Mechanic), Robert Forward (Chief Controller), Jim Raymond (Dietz)

Gemini ManNotes: Devised by producer Harve Bennett as a replacement for NBC’s The Invisible Man, Gemini Man swaps out debonair David McCallum for the all-American aw-shucks of Ben Murphy, but more or less keeps the basic structure of the first series: an invisible man performing espionage tasks for a top-secret corporate entity with government connections, along with a female assistant and a male “boss” figure who gives the orders. Gemini Man replaces Dr. Kate Westin and Walter Carlson, and swaps out the Klae Corporation for Intersect. Much of the behind-the-scenes crew made the transition from The Invisible Man to Gemini Man as well. Bennett’s Invisible Man co-creator, Steven Bochco, sat out this round of invisible antics, moving on to the next stage of his own career in the wake of The Invisible Man’s cancellation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Star Maidens

Escape To Paradise

Star MaidensBlown out of orbit from its home star of Proxima Centauri, the planet Medusa hurtles through space, its female-dominated society surviving by moving underground. Eventually, Medusa is captured by the gravity of a small yellow star elsewhere in the galaxy, and this new star even has its own life-bearing planet. But upon learning that this other world, Earth, is male-dominated, the Chancellor of Medusa forbids travel to that planet.

This restriction means nothing to Adam, Chancellor Fulvia’s personal servant. Tired of having to serve every whim of Medusa’s ruler, he plans to make his escape to Earth. He enlists the services of his friend Shem, a sharp engineer but still far too accustomed to living under the boot of Medusa’s women. Shem has been working on a ship that Adam intends to steal for their flight to Earth. But the prediction computers on Medusa have spotted the trend toward a dangerous but futile revival of the “men’s liberation” movement – and Adam’s part in it. The two men race for the safety of Earth in their stolen ship, failing to work out a course that involves a safe landing. Chancellor Fulvia and her security chief, Octavia, can only watch helplessly as the runaway ship slams into Earth at what can only be described as a very unsafe speed.

Star Maidenswritten by Eric Paice
directed by James Gatward
music by Berry Lipmann

Cast: Judy Geeson (Fulvia), Lisa Harrow (Liz), Gareth Thomas (Shem), Pierre Brice (Adam), Christian Quadflieg (Rudi), Christiane Kruger (Octavia), Derek Farr (Evans), Ronald Hines (Stanley), Penelope Horner (Medusan Announcer)

Notes: If Adam and Shem’s ship was on a collision course with Earth at 5,000,000 miles per hour, that falls a bit short of the astronomers’ observation the ship is incoming at “half the speed of light” (also known as approximately 336,000,000 MPH). Gareth Thomas, as Shem, mentions pursuit ships – something he’d get to talk about plenty two years later as the leader of Blake’s 7.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ark II

The Flies

Ark IIIn the 25th century, centuries of human progress have taken their toll. Pollution and war have left the Earth a desolate wasteland. The scientific community, reduced to a small enclave hiding away from the scavengers and savages that roam the planet’s surface, puts all of its hopes into a mobile laboratory called Ark II, commanded by Jonah and crewed by young scientists Ruth and Samuel, and the sentient chimpanzee Adam.

Word reaches the Ark II crew of a marauding band of orphaned children pillaging weaker communities and preying on travelers. The only group in the area that wields more power is a group of well-armed warlords. Jonah ventures out on his own, discovering that an adult named Fagon is guiding the Flies, and he discovers something else even more disturbing: the Flies’ most recent looting “find” includes at least one canister of a poisonous gas. With the children willing to do whatever Fagon says, Jonah knows time is running out to keep the Flies from stepping up from petty crime to something far deadlier – to themselves and to the warlords.

The Flieswritten by Martin Roth
directed by Ted Post
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Jonathan Harris (Fagon),Tierre Turner (Tick), Malachi Throne (War Lord Brack), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: Filmation Associates, famous for its numerous early ’70s cartoons (including Star Trek: The Animated Series), took The Fliesa bold step into live-action SF with Ark II. The centerpiece and home base of the show was Ark II itself, a custom-built vehicle on an existing truck chassis; contrary to urban legend, Ark II was a new vehicle, and was not the same vehicle as the Landmaster from Damnation Alley. Another new vehicle making an appearance here was the very real jetpack, developed and then abandoned by Bell Helicopter, which wound up in the hands of a hi-tech Hollywood prop rental service. It could only fly for thirty seconds before its fuel ran out, sending its pilot (a costumed stuntman, not actor Terry Lester) plummeting to the ground on at least one occasion. The production rented the jetpack for only eight of these brief flights, each of which was filmed by four cameras at the same time, ensuring a variety of stock footage. Ark II’s smaller “convertible SUV” The Fliesvehicle was called the Roamer.

Actor Jonathan Harris – famous for his role as the villainous (but hardly competent) Dr. Smith on Lost In Space, is the episode’s main guest star, but Filmation would hire him as the adult star of their next live-action genre show, Space Academy (which later morphed into Jason Of Star Command). Malachi Throne (a veteran of ’60s and ’70s TV fondly remembered for his appearances in early episodes of Star Trek) also guest stars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Electra Woman & Dyna Girl

The Sorcerer’s Golden Trick – Part 1

Electra Woman & Dyna GirlReporters Lori and Judy are called away from their latest assignment, not for a bigger story, but to fight crime in their secret identities as Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Helping them is Frank Heflin, a genius with gadgets and gizmos who keeps a watchful eye out for evildoers.

A criminal known as the Sorcerer has escaped from prison, using magic and sleight of hand as usual. He announces that his next goal is to steal all the gold in Fort Knox…and he has enlisted some beastly help to keep the two superheroines away from him.

written by Dick Robbins and Duane Poole
directed by Walter Miller
music not credited

Electra Woman & Dyna GirlCast: Deidre Hall (Lori / Electra Woman), Judy Strangis (Judy / Dyna Girl), Norman Alden (Frank Heflin), Michael Constantine (The Sorcerer), Susan Lanier (Miss Dazzle), Marvin Miller (Narrator)

Notes: Electra Woman & Dyna Girl was part of the original fall 1976 lineup of the Krofft Supershow, a weekly Saturday morning buffet of the kind of shows that only Sid and Marty Krofft could dream up. Each show aired one segment, usually around 12 minutes long including titles, within the hour-long show, and two-part stories such as every Electra Woman & Dyna Girl adventure would stretch out over two weeks. Syndication packages and DVD releases have made a habit of editing the two-part stories together as single 20+ minute long episodes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Holmes & Yoyo

Pilot

Holmes & YoyoLAPD detective Alex Holmes has been on the force for years, with an impeccable record of service…and an absolutely terrible track record of getting his partners injured in the line of duty. As he awaits word on who his next partner will be, his boss, Chief Sedford, gets a visit from the Police Commissioner with an offer of a technological breakthrough: a 400+ pound robotic police officer virtually indistinguishable from a human being. Named after its creator, roboticist Gregory Yoyonovich, “Yoyo” is nearly indestructible…prompting the Chief to make him Holmes’ new partner.

Yoyo finds himself immediately thrust into the investigation into the theft of a valuable car, the same case that led to the injury of Holmes’ former partner. When the case begins to involve a greater understanding of the mechanics of disassembling the car, Yoyo turns out to be Holmes’ secret weapon in the investigation. But when one of the prime suspects turns up dead, Yoyo discovers he has less of a knack for figuring out why human beings would commit murder. His know-how, and Holmes’ intuition, may yet crack the case, but it’ll mean Holmes putting Yoyo’s “indestructible” status to the test.

written by Jack Sher & Lee Hewitt and Leonard B. Stern
directed by Jackie Cooper
music by Leonard Rosenman

Holmes & YoyoCast: Richard B. Shull (Detective Alex Holmes), John Schuck (Officer Gregory “Yoyo” Yoyonovich), Bruce Kirby (Captain Harry Sedford), Andrea Howard (Officer Maxine Moon), Allan Miller (Mr. Powers), Larry Hovis (Dr. Babcock), G. Wood (The Police Commissioner), Madison Arnold (Mr. Karl Kincaid), Sarah Jane Miller (Mrs. Powers), Doris Hess (Woman Driver), Bobby Herbeck (Driving Instructor)

Notes: The actor playing Tony, Holmes’ partner in the show’s opening scenes, is uncredited. Guest star Allan Miller has a significant genre TV track record, with appearances in Wonder Woman, Project UFO, Galactica: 1980, Airwolf, and the late ’90s syndicated superhero show, Nightman. His most visible genre role, however, may be as the Holmes & Yoyoalien pilot with whom McCoy tries to secretly book passage to the Genesis Planet in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (“how can you be deaf with ears like that!?”). Ironically, mere months before Holmes & Yoyo premiered on ABC’s prime time schedule, ABC had piloted Future Cop, a slightly more dramatic take on the “veteran cop discovers his new partner is a robot rookie” plotline at the heart of both shows; Holmes & Yoyo would be cancelled before Future Cop could return for its own short, troubled run as a weekly series, but unaired episodes would crop up in 1977 as Star Wars mania gripped American pop culture, prompting a perhaps misplaced hope that the popularity of the movie’s robots would reignite interest in robot characters on a TV budget.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Children Of The Stones

Into The Circle

Children Of The StonesAstrophysicist Adam Brake and his son Matthew move to the village of Milbury, home to an ancient megalithic stone circle whose magnetic properties Brake wants to study. Milbury seems pleasant enough, but also odd: Brake nearly runs over his new housekeeper in his car, but moments before, Matthew perceived the woman as a large stone standing in the road. The population seems joined in lockstep, making the new arrivals’ sense of discomfort even more acute. Brake meets a fellow academic who has just arrived in Milbury, and learns of her inexplicable feelings of foreboding. Matthew continues to have strange visions of free-standing stones who turn out to be nothing more than the local townsfolk, and has a hard time as an outsider in the local school. Though who don’t immediately assimilate into the Milbury mindset are branded “strange” by their neighbors.

When Adam Brake’s new acquaintance suggests he should touch one of the ancient stones, “strange” doesn’t even begin to describe what happens next.

written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Cast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Freddie Jones (Dai), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree), Peter Demin (Matthew), Katharine Levy (Sandra), Ian Donnolly (Bob), Darren Hatch (Kevin), Jimmy Lock (Jimmo), June Barrie (Mrs. Clegg), Peggy Ann Wood (Mrs. Warner)

Notes: A single-season supernatural children’s series produced by regional UK TV network HTV West and broadcast nationally on ITV, Children Of The Stones is remembered to this day for its unsettling storyline, imagery and music. In retrospect, it seems doubtful that such a series could be produced for children in this day and age.

Children Of The StonesGareth Thomas, a popular actor in Welsh television and theater, was already well on his way becoming a mainstream star on UK television when he took the lead protagonist role in children Of The Stones. The actor behind Adam Brake would later become interplanterary revolutionary Roj Blake in Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7, which premiered a year after this series. He faced off against Nation’s other famous creations, the Daleks, in a series of Big Finish audio plays, and returned to Wales for a guest role in the first season of Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood.

Respected British character actor Freddie Jones, perhaps best remembered in genre circles for portraying Thufir Haway in David Lynch’s film version of Dune, has appeared in countless genre TV roles (The Avengers, Out Of The Unknown, Space: 1999, Neverwhere, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) and many high-profile movies (Firefox, Krull, The Elephant Man, Firestarter, The Black Cauldron, Young Sherlock Holmes).

Series co-creator Trevor Ray was an uncredited “assistant script editor” for much of Patrick Troughton’s final season as Doctor Who and part of Jon Pertwee’s first year. Script editor Terrance Dicks faced such a heavy workload of rewriting scripts (or writing last-minute replacements for unsuitable scripts) that Ray was hired to help. He eventually vacated the post to become the script editor of the troubled spy series Paul Temple, whose producers were Troughton-era Who veterans Derrick Sherwin and Paul Bryant.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Fantastic Journey, The

Vortex

The Fantastic Journey1945: A Navy fighter group heading for a landing at Ft. Lauderdale vanishes into thin air over open ocean. Their disappearance is never solved – yet another mystery blamed on the Bermuda Triangle.

1976: Professor Paul Jordan and his son Scott are part of an oceanic expedition aboard a boat chartered from veteran sea captain Ben Wallace. Their expedition into the Caribbean takes on a sinister turn with the sighting of roiling green clouds on the horizon, even though no storms are expected. Ben tries to steer the boat clear of the raging, unearthly storm, but to no avail – the ship is lost. The survivors make it to shore, but they can’t tell where they are, or when. A loincloth-clad man named Varian appears without any explanation, healing Ben’s broken arm and trying to lead them to safety, but Professor Jordan is cautious about following him. Varian finally confides in Jordan’s son instead: Varian is from Earth in the 23rd century, just another traveler stranded in the Bermuda Triangle, which is an unpredictable gateway in time as well as space. Ben, Fred and one of the women from the expedition find themselves trapped by salty British sailors who became stranded in the Triangle in the 1500s, whose captain will do anything to escape the island. Professor Jordan makes plans to free his fellow survivors, and asks for Varian’s help, but the man from the future insists that he is a pacifist, acting only as a guide. Even if Jordan can recover all the members of his party, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to return to their own place or time.

The Fantastic Journeyteleplay by Michael Michaelian & Katharyn Michaelian Powers and Merwin Gerard
story by Merwin Gerard
directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Scott Thomas (Paul Jordan), Susan Howard (Eve), Jared Martin (Varian), Carl Franklin (Fred Walters), Karen Somerville (Jill), Ike Eisenmann (Scott Jordan), Leif Erickson (Ben Wallace), Scott Brady (Carl), Don Knight (Paget), Ian McShane (Sir James), Gary Collins (Dar-L), Mary Ann Mobley (Rhea), Jason Evers (Atar), Lynn Borden (Enid), Jack Stauffer (Andy), Byron Chung (George), Tom McCorry (Scar), Mike Road (voice of the Source)

The Fantastic JourneyNotes: The city of Atlantium scenes in this and the following episode were filmed at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, which had only just been built at the time of filming. Though the series premise was written with travelers from the future and the past in mind, and NBC found the show promising enough to merit a series order, the pilot sees the only instance of adversaries from the past, and over half of the cast was eliminated after the pilot episode. Extra scenes were added prior to broadcast to try to smooth the transition into the series proper, which would focus only on Varian, Scott and Fred, and Star Trek veteran D.C. Fontana and the show’s other writers had barely a month to get episodes written and into production in time for the series’ premiere in February 1977.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Man From Atlantis Movies

Man From Atlantis

Man From AtlantisAn adult, seemingly human, male washes up on the beach among seaweed and other flotsam after a storm, and is rushed to a nearby hospital, where his oddly mottled skin, webbed hands and feet, unusual eyes, and especially his apparent inability to breathe pure oxygen have emergency doctors stymied. Dr. Elizabeth Merrill of the Foundation for Oceanic Research notes the man’s unusual conditions are more akin to sea life than life on land, and suggests returning him to the ocean. Once in the water, his health is restored. A fascinated Dr. Merrill continues to study him, finding that while he tires quickly on land, he has enormous strength under the water, and can dive to depths of tens of thousands of feet. He can also, with intense concentration, exert his willpower onto human beings. She concludes, not entirely jokingly, that he may be the last citizen of the lost underwater civilization of Atlantis.

But when the Navy catches wind of Dr. Merrill’s research, a Navy Admiral begins hatching plans for the unusual man from the sea – given the nondescript human name Mark Harris – to take on hazardous undersea bomb and mine disposal tasks. Mark only reluctantly agrees, but during his first big mission, to locate the wreckage of the lost research submarine Seaquest, he swims to depths unsurvivable by human divers and sees a perfectly intact futuristic sub. Mark boards the sub and returns with it to an undersea mountain base, commanded by Mr. Schubert, a rich ocean salvage man who is using his wealth and various found pieces of secret equipment to plot the end of 20th century civilization…after which he will, naturally, emerge as the new ruler of mankind, promising peace and prosperity (but no free will) to his hand-picked community of scientists. Even an outsider to human society like Mark Harris realizes that Schubert must be stopped at any cost.

written by Lee H. Katzin
directed by Mayo Simon
music by Fred Karlin

Man From AtlantisCast: Patrick Duffy (Mark Harris), Belinda J. Montgomery (Dr. Elizabeth Merrill), Dean Santoro (Ernie Smith), Art Lund (Admiral Dewey Pierce), Victor Buono (Mr. Schubert), Lawrence Pressman (Commander Phil Roth), Mark Jenkins (Lt. Ainsley), Steve Franken (Doctor), Joshua Bryant (Dr. Doug Berkley), Allen Case (Lt. Commander Johnson), Virginia Gregg (Whale Scientist), Curt Lowens (Emil), Charles Davis (British Scientist), Lilyan Chauvin (French Scientist), Vincent Milana (American Scientist), Alex Rodine (Russian Scientist), Philip Baker Hall (George), Marguerite DeLain (First Receptionist), Trudy Marshall (Woman at party), Michael J. London (Popeye), Robert Dore (Diver), Michael Watson (Diver), Connie Izay (First Nurse), Judd Laurance (Intern), Jim Chandler (Man on beach), Patricia Anderson (Second Receptionist), Akemi Kikumura (Third Receptionist), Larry Holt (Ambulance Diver), Peter Weiss (Test Lab Assistant), Robert Phalen (Habitat Technician), Maralyn Thoma (Second Nurse), Phillip Roye (Intern), Cheryl Robinson (X-Ray Technician), Scott Stevenson (Boy on beach), Philip Tanzini (Boy at phone booth)

Man From AtlantisNotes: Scenes from the pilot movie were filmed aboard the U.S. Navy dive ship Elk River IX-501. Executive producers Herbert F. Solow and Robert Justman were veterans of the original Star Trek series, though Solow was now working under his own banner, Solow Productions, at this point, since Desilu had long since transformed into Paramount Pictures’ TV division. This was the first of four feature-length TV movies-of-the-week introducing the Man From Atlantis characters and concept; the ratings success of these movies would guarantee the concept an additional, but brief, single season of hour-long episodes in the 1977-78 prime time season.

Man From AtlantisAt roughly the same time as the initial movie aired, NBC (the network home of Man From Atlantis) was also airing the short-lived fantasy series The Fantastic Journey, which involved an island that may or may not have been Atlantis. This was more of a coincidence than anything: “unexplained paranormal phemomena” were all the rage in the 1970s, whether the lost city of Atlantis, ESP/telepathy, UFO sightings, or stories of crystals vibrating with energy. That the missing research vessel was named Seaquest – same as the advanced sub from the 1990s NBC series of the same name – is also a coincidence, though those wishing to connect some unlikely dots in fan fiction are welcome to do so.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Quark

Quark (Pilot)

QuarkA United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol vessel commanded by Adam Quark makes its garbage-collection rounds in deep space, seldom – if ever – encountering anything that remotely resembles adventure or danger. Quark’s crew includes Gene/Jean, who has a full set of male and female chromosomes and abruptly lurches between extremes of masculinity and femininity, the voluptuous clones Betty and Betty, a cowardly robot named Andy, and crankly science officer O.B. Mudd, who’s itching for a transfer off of Quark’s ship. On space station Perma One, the hub of the space fleet that protects the United Galaxy, a catastrophic space explosion is detected, hurling a gigantic cloud of living protein into space, consuming everything in its path… including any and all life. Perma One’s chief bureaucrat, Otto Palindrome, consults with the enigmatic Head of the United Galaxy, and reaches only one conclusion: Adam Quark and his crew are the perfect people to undertake a mission to stop the cloud before it can consume all life in the universe. The one drawback to which Quark might object is that it’s a suicide mission. But Palindrome and the Head have that angle covered too: they’ll just neglect to mention that minor detail to Quark.

written by Buck Henry
directed by Peter H. Hunt
music by Perry Botkin, Jr.

Cast: Richard Benjamin (Adam Quark), Timothy Thomerson (Gene/Jean), Douglas V. Fowley (O.B. Mudd), Tricia Barnett (Betty), Cibbie Barnett (Betty), Conrad Janis (Otto Palindrome), Alan Caillou (The Head), Misty Rowe (Interface), Bobby Porter (Andy)

QuarkNotes: Buck Henry, the creator and head writer of Get Smart, devised Quark as a satirical answer to Star Trek and other recent SF shows, and to drive the point home the series frequently used the well-known sound effects from the original Star Trek. Tim Thomerson, as Gene/Jean, would become a well-known fixture in movies and TV from the ’70s onward, racking up a mind-boggling list of mainstream credits; among his genre gigs were two episodes as has-been warrior Meleager on Xena: Warrior Princess, the short-lived Richard Dean Anderson/John de Lancie UPN steampunk series Legend, Sliders, Lois & Clark, and the first episode of Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade. The first episode of Quark ran to a half-hour with commercials, and aired as a one-off comedy on NBC; response was favorable enough for a series to be green-lighted, though it wouldn’t premiere until nine months later, by which time another science fiction saga that debuted mere days after Quark’s broadcast premiere would provide the show’s writers with a whole new target for satire.

Categories
Original Trilogy Star Wars

Star Wars

  • By Dave
  • May 25, 1977

Star WarsAs construction nears completion on the Empire’s awesome new battle station, the moon-sized Death Star, members of the Rebel Alliance procure its construction plans, entrusting them to Princess Leia Organa. But Darth Vader is quick to capture her ship, kill much of the crew, and take her prisoner. But she has already passed the plans on to the adventurous R2-D2, who abandons ship along with C-3PO, landing on nearby Tatooine. Scavenging Jawas salvage the two droids and auction them off to Owen Lars, who hands them over to his nephew, young Luke Skywalker, to get the droids into shape to serve around their farm. Luke accidentally activates a recorded message from Leia, a desperate plea for the assistance of Obi-Wan Kenobi. When Owen forbids Luke to track down Kenobi to ask him about the message, R2-D2 sets out on his own to find him. Luke and C-3PO catch up to the determined droid, but are attacked by desert-roving Tusken Raiders, and saved at the last minute by the cloaked hermit, Ben Kenobi. Upon seeing Leia’s message, Ben admits that he is actually Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the very last Jedi Knights, and tells of how he witnessed the murder of Luke’s father, Anakin.

Imperial forces trace the two droids to Tatooine, following their trail to Owen’s farm. When Luke discovers that his uncle and aunt have been killed by the Empire, he pledges to follow the elderly Jedi Knight to the planet Alderaan. They go to the seedy Mos Eisley spaceport, where they happen upon the renegade space freighter captain Han Solo and his Wookiee sidekick Chewbacca. Solo, desperately in need of money to pay off crime lord Jabba the Hutt, takes Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids on as passengers, but quickly realizes that his passengers have attracted the interest (and firepower) of the Empire. Solo’s ship, the Milennium Falcon, arrives at Alderaan to find the planet has been smashed into lifeless bits – the handiwork of Darth Vader and the Death Star. Solo accidentally runs into the Death Star not far away, which seizes the Falcon in a tractor beam. Han, Luke, Chewbacca and the droids try to evade the Imperial forces and rescue Leia, while Obi-Wan sets out to disable the Death Star’s tractor beam and face Darth Vader one final time. Obi-Wan is cut down in a lightsaber duel with Vader, but the others succeed in escaping, unaware that a homing device has been planted on the Falcon, allowing the Death Star to track the ship down to the Rebel base on the third moon of Yavin.

With only a short time to spare, the Rebels must prepare for a fight to save themselves from extinction – and Luke Skywalker, in becoming the hero of the ferocious battle against the Empire, brings himself to the attention of Darth Vader.

Order the DVDswritten by George Lucas
directed by George Lucas
music by John Williams

Cast: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia Organa), Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin), Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), David Prowse (Lord Darth Vader), Jack Purvis (Chief Jawa), Eddie Byrne (General Millard), Phil Brown (Uncle Owen), Sheelagh Fraser (Aunt Beru), Alex McCrindle (General Dodonna), Drewe Hemley (Red Leader), Denis Lawson (Red Two – Wedge), Garrick Hagon (Red Three – Biggs), Jack Klagg (Red Four – John “D”), William Hootkins (Red Six – Porkins), Angus McInnis (Gold Leader), Jeremy Sinden (Gold Two), Graham Ashley (Gold Five), Don Henderson (General Tagge), Richard Le Parmentier (General Motti), Leslie Schofield (Commander #1), James Earl Jones (voice of Lord Darth Vader)

Notes: The subtitle “Episode IV: A New Hope” was added to the opening crawl for the movie’s 1981 re-release, presumably to be consistent with the labeling of The Empire Strikes Back as Episode V.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Space Academy

The Survivors Of Zalon

Space AcademyThe young trainees on the man-made planetoid Space Academy go about their observations of the doomed planet Zalon, which may soon explode. Science cadet Adrian spots signs of life on Zalon, which previous surveys of that planet say is impossible. Commander Gampu deems this worthy of further investigation, and orders the Academy cadets to visit Zalon, with Adrian leading the expedition. Unusual crystals are found on the surface, watched over by a young alien child. In keeping with Space Academy procedure, Commander Gampu lifts off and stays in orbit while his students solve their own mysteries on the surface, but an alien entity is following the Seeker at close range, questioning Gampu’s motives and insisting it will protect the child and its own offspring on the planet below with any force it deems necessary.

Space Academywritten by Lynn Barker
directed by Jeffrey Hayden
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself)

Notes: If the nose cone of the Seeker, Space Academy’s shuttle, looks vaguely familiar, you might be a Filmation fan: the expensive-to-build set piece (and other parts of the Seeker) was salvaged from the set of Ark II, the short-lived post-apocalyptic live-action series produced by the makers of Space Academy in 1976. The first episode of that series also featured a guest starring turn from Lost In Space alumnus Jonathan Harris.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Amazing Spider-Man Season 1

Spider-Man

Amazing Spider-Man (1970s series)College student Peter Parker, working his way through college as a photographer for New York City’s Daily Bugle newspaper, is bitten by a spider that has come into contact with radioactive material in his school’s nuclear lab. Gradually, this event imbues Peter with amazing abilities, such as shooting remarkably strong webs from his wrists, climbing completely vertical surfaces, and a sixth sense that alerts him to danger. As Peter begins exploring these new talents, the city is gripped with fear as banks are robbed by people who were previously lawyers, judges, doctors…in other words, the people who would least need to rob banks. Mind control is suspected, and then a ransom note is sent to the mayor of New York City: if a ransom isn’t paid by a deadline mere days away, the next round of mind control victims will be ordered to kill themselves. Peter discovers that his abilities – and his newly-fashioned “Spider-Man” costume – are best put to use to help others, and combined with his natural journalistic curiosity, he begins investigating the series of strange robberies, discovering a self-help guru named Byron is conditioning his new recruits to obey his every command. In the guise of Spider-Man, Peter finds it difficult to find out more, especially when he discovers that Byron has ninjas on his payroll, something rather unusual for a self-help expert. Peter realizes that his investigation depends on signing up for Byron’s next seminar as himself, not as a superhero – but doing so puts the powers of Spider-Man at the disposal of a madman.

written by Alvin Boretz
directed by E.W. Swackhamer
music by Johnnie Spence

Amazing Spider-ManCast: Nicholas Hammond (Peter Parker / Spider-Man), David White (J. Jonah Jameson), Michael Pataki (Captain Barbera), Hilly Hicks (Robbie Robertson), Lisa Eilbacher (Judy Tyler), Dick Balduzzi (Delivery Man), Jeff Donnell (Aunt May), Robert Hastings (Monahan), Barry Cutler (Purse Snatcher), Thayer David (Mr. Byron), Ivor Francis (Professor Tyler), Norman Rice (Henchman), Len Lesser (Henchman), Carmelita Pope (Group Member), George Cooper (Group Member), Larry Anderson (Dave), Ivan Bonar (News Anchor), Kathryn Reynolds (Group Member), Harry Caesar (Cab Driver), Robert Snively (Judge), James E. Brodhead (Policeman), Roy West (Group Member), Mary Ann Kasica (Group Member), Jim Storm (Group Member), Ron Gilbert (Policeman)

Amazing Spider-ManNotes: Stan Lee is credited as a script consultant, with no onscreen credit acknowledging his participation the creation of the character of Spider-Man. Rather than the comics’ (and later movies’) depiction of Peter Parker as an awkward teenager living a secret life, Peter is here seen as a reasonably un-awkward college student, played by Nicholas Hammond (who appeared as a child actor as Friedrich von Trapp in The Sound Of Music). Actress Jean Marie Donnell, who worked under the stage name “Jeff” due to her childhood fixation on Mutt & Jeff comics, appears to be perhaps 10-15 years’ Peter’s senior as Aunt May; Uncle Ben is nowhere in evidence. Also nowhere to be found is a certain almost obligatory quote about great power and great responsibility. This would turn out to be David White’s sole appearance as “J.J. Jameson”. Some recasting and a nervous network green-light later (with CBS balking at the potential expense of a full season of Spider-Man), a surprisingly short season (for the late 1970s on a major network) was given a go-ahead, to debut the following spring.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Logan's Run

Logan’s Run (Pilot)

Logan's RunIn the year 2319, two centuries after nuclear war rendered the Earth’s surface uninhabitable for a time, humanity lives in the City of Domes, with every need – and every desire – supplied by the City’s computers. But at the age of 30, every resident of the City is required to take part in Carousel, a ritual sacrifice that keeps the City’s population growth at zero. Everyone is taught that Carousel brings renewal, life in a new body, but not all believe it; an underground railroad of “runners” steadily helps those who want to live past 30 escape. And the City dispatches Sandmen to deal with those runners – fatally. But not even all Sandmen believe the lie of Carousel; during a pursuit, Sandman Logan corners a runner and a woman named Jessica, both of whom confirm what he has already suspected: there is life past 30, and freedom beyond the City of Domes. Logan’s fellow Sandman, Francis, arrives and shoots the runner, but Logan knocks Francis unconscious before he can kill Jessica. Now as much of a fugitive as any runner, Logan follows Jessica outside the City to look for Sanctuary.

Before Francis can pursue Logan and Jessica outside the City, he is summoned to White Quadrant 1, a high security area of the City that few ever see. There, he meets a group of men who are clearly past the age of 30; they introduce themselves as the Elders who keep the City running, and make the rules about how society works, including Carousel. They make a bargain with him: if Francis brings the refugees back for “reprogramming,” he will be guaranteed a seat on the Elders’ council – and life beyond 30. He agrees and sets out on his mission.

Logan and Jessica take shelter in an abandoned military planning post, where they also find a solar-powered hovercraft. The vehicle helps them find a fallout shelter Logan spots on a map, but before they can explore the shelter, they’re pursued by raiders on horseback. They manage to enter the shelter and lock the door, finding a society of pacifists that has lived there for years. When one of the shelter-dwellers’ children hears Jessica’s tales of the outside, she investigates for herself and is captured by the raiders. Jessica, feeling guilty for inspiring the little girl’s misadventure, goes outside to find her and is herself captured. Despite the pacifists’ insistence that blood must not be spilled, Logan mounts a rescue operation anyway, destroying many of the raiders’ weapons himself before the shelter-dwellers emerge from underground to help him. After freeing all of the raiders’ captives, Logan and Jessica move on; shortly after they leave, Francis finds the raiders’ camp and gets the pacifists to tell him where his prey was headed.

Logan and Jessica arrive at a the foot of a mountain with a magnificent city built into its side, but strange energy emitters bring their hovercraft to a halt. Immaculately clad people welcome them to the city and offer to serve them, fulfilling any desire – but the first time Jessica mentions leaving the city to continue the search for Sanctuary, she and Logan discover that they are not guests, but prisoners. Their captors turn out to be robots whose “masters” are the skeletal remains of people who died in the nuclear war. Logan and Jessica befriend Rem, the only other “guest” in the city, who toils away at keeping the robots working. He offers to help them leave the city if Logan and Jessica will take him with them, but during their escape, Francis and two other Sandmen catch up with them. Rem is shot in the leg and goes down, but before Francis can capture Logan, the city’s robots emerge and claim the Sandmen as their new guests.

Rem manages to repair his own injuries – it turns out he is an android, a much more advanced machine than the city’s robots – and professes a genuine curiosity about the human concepts of love, self-sacrifice and freedom that his new friends have taught him. The three fugitives board the hovercraft and continue the search for Sanctuary.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Gregory Harrison (Logan), Heather Menzies (Jessica), Donald Moffat (Rem), Randy Powell (Francis)

Download this episodewritten by William F. Nolan & Saul David and Leonard Katzman
directed by Robert Day
scenes from the movie Logan’s Run directed by Michael Anderson
music by Laurence Rosenthal
music from the movie Logan’s Run by Jerry Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Lina Raymond (Siri), Keene Curtis (Draco), Wright King (Jonathon), E.J. Andre (Martin), Morgan Woodward (Morgan), Ron Hajek (Riles), J. Gary Dontzig (Akers), Anthony De Longis (Ketcham), Cal Haynes (Rider #3), Mary Hamill (Marianne), Ted Markland (Karlin), Sandy McPeak (Rider #4), Kimberly la Page (Leanna), Patrick Gorman (David), Gilbert Girion (Man), Marvin Dean Stewart (Paine), Michael Biehn (Sandman), Mary Ball (Woman), Gary Charles Davis (Barry)

Logan's RunNotes: Considered by Starlog magazine to be the most promising SF TV series of 1977, Logan’s Run borrows some visual elements from the movie – namely costumes and props, to say nothing several minutes of the movie’s “Carousel” scenes (complete with excerpts of Jerry Goldsmith‘s music, a rarity for the series). The segment of the story dealing with the fallout shelter and the raiders was a late addition to the script; the pilot was originally scheduled to be an hour long, but new scenes were written to fill it out for a 90-minute time slot. The plotline of the City Elders was a relatively late addition as well; planning documents for the series seemed to indicate that this storyline wouldn’t occur until later in the series. (Then again, those same documents hinted at Logan and Jessica returning to the City to free other runners, a story which the series didn’t stay on the air long enough to tell.) The series concepts were actually gestated during very early pre-production for a sequel to the Logan’s Run movie, but MGM turned the movie project into a TV series a few months before the release of Star Wars; several big names in SF were recruited, including story editor D.C. Fontana, and writers such as Harlan Ellison, John Meredyth Lucas and David Gerrold.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Raven

Episode One

RavenA juvenile delinquent named Raven is sent to an archaeological dig site as part of his reform. He will stay with Professor Young and his wife, who are running out of time to recover ancient artifacts from the underground dig before the government takes it over to dump nuclear waste there. Raven tags along with the government official overseeing the handoff, and is quite taken with Naomi, a newspaper reporter sent to cover the closure of the dig and its conversion to a waste dump. Spending time with the Youngs, Raven learns of the professor’s theory that Arthur may not have been the name of a specific king, but rather the title of a series of rulers of medieval England. And it’s roughly around this time that Raven’s strange visions begin…

Order the DVDswritten by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Michael Hart
music not credited

RavenCast: Michael Aldridge (Professor Young), Patsy Rowlands (Mrs. Young), Phil Daniels (Raven), Shirley Cheriton (Naomi Grant), James Kerry (Bill Telford), Roger Milner (Ticket Collector)

Notes: Raven is on release from a borstal, a kind of institutional school for juvenile offenders Ravenwhich was eliminated – at least by name – by the British government in 1982, after existing for most of the 20th century. Ireland similarly abolished borstals (by name, if not necessarily by practice) in the 1960s; the only remaining borstals in operation in the 21st century are in India.

LogBook entry by Earl Green