PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Babylon 5 S2D3

The 3rd disc of the second season has 4 more episodes. JMS is ramping up the impact of the story arc, more and more dangerous things are happening. We've got a good variety of stories on this disc and all but one are written by JMS. Pretty soon it will be just him writing everything. He used to post on the internet about writing the episodes and answer questions people had about the series. I read some of the posts after 2000 had past. I don't know if they are still up in that format but some of the material got transfered to The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5. Each of the 110 episodes gets a whole web page and parts of Joe's posts are copied there.

The Coming Of Shadows  2/1/95

Written by J Michael Straczynski and directed by Janet Greek

The Centauri Emperor comes to Babylon 5. He's old, tired, sick and played by Turhan Bey. G'Kar plans to kill him but the Emperor collapses just after he arrives at the station. Kosh visits the Emperor in Medbay. When the Emperor ask Kosh how it will end the Vorlon tells him "in fire." The Emperor dies shortly after and that sends Lord Refa and his home world pals on a murder spree so they can put their guy in the Emperor's spot. Londo has Mr Mordon kill off a Narn colony. G'Kar nearly kills Londo but Sheridan stops him. This is another of my favorite episodes. I really like seeing Turhan Bey as the Emperor. I'd enjoyed him in 2 or 3 movies from the 1940's. His Hollywood career ended in 1953 when he returned to Vienna. He returned to Los Angeles to recieve an award and woundup appearing in several tv shows. He will return as a Minbari in a future season.

Gropos  2/8/95

Written by Lawrence G Ditillio and directed by Jom Johnston

A transport of Earth Allienace Marines, or ground pounders, comes to stay at the station forcing the Earth Force crew to host some of them in their quarters. We get to know a bunch of the gropos before they push off to their secret mission. We know they are going to a hell hole because the General is at B5 to see Sheridan. The General turns out to be Doctor Franklin's father and they don't get along too well. It's not one of my favorite episodes and I find myself fast forwarding through the sad parts. At the end all the gropos we've met are dead. I find that all sad.

All Alone In The Night  2/15/95

Written by JMS and directed by Mario DiLeo

Captain Sheridan is out space in a Star Fury. He's with a fighter group checking up on a ship being attacked by an unknown alien. His ship gets blasted by the aliens and he's brought aboard their ship. They torture him and make him fight other aliens with a control implant. He helps a Narn named Ta'Lon get uncontrolled and they escape in a life pod. Delenn gets kicked off the Grey Council and finds out they replaced her with Naroon. He's Warrior Caste and that gives them 4 members on the council. Valen set up the council as 3 each from the three castes. This imbalance will cause some issues for the Minbari in the future. Delenn is left as Ambassador and heads back to Babylon 5. She finds out that Sheridan has been captured and recognizes the ships as the Stribs. They know where they live and head there. Yay, the Captain is rescued.

Acts Of Sacrifice  2/22/95

Written by JMS and Mario LiLeo

G'Kar is seeking help from Earth in the Narn-Centauri war. Sheridan is told he can't get involved. Sheridan asks Delenn to help but now that she's not part of the Grey Council she's not got as many resources as she used to ahve. They offer what they can to G'Kar. He's really sad and kind of hopeless. It's the turning point for G'Kar. He'll manage to come out of this as a much better person but it will be a trail. Ivanova gets the task of getting the Lumati to sign an alliance with the Earth. Part of the Lumati tradition is to have sex to seal the deal. Poor Ivanova has to get out of that somehow. It's a nice balance with Ivanova's comedy and G'Kar's tragedy. JMS has talked about his sense of humor and how he likes to use it to blunt the tragedy. Tavelling with the Lumati is a second alien, played by Paul Williams, who acts as the voice of the person he's with. The Lumati don't like to talk to inferior races. The seem like dicks to me.

All in all another fine batch of episodes, I like them all, even Gropos, because they share a common trait. They're all well written. There's nearly no waste, every scene and bit of dialog is setting up the situation, pushing you along quickly, and filling out the  characters. I liked the gropos that we meet and I feel really sad when they don't come home. I find the sad scene with Mr Garibaldi and Dodger so real I don't want to see much. I like Mr Garibaldi, his pain is real to me. He's still the kind of guy I'd want on my side. Jerry Doyle does a great job bringing that guy to life.

The Twilight Zone S3D3

Another 8 episodes from the third season and I remembered a few of them, especially the last one on the disc. The rest might not be as iconic but several are rather entertaining.

One More Pallbearer  January 12 1962

Written by Rod and directed by Lamont Johnson. A creepy millionaire gets three people who wronged him to visit him in his big fancy bomb shelter. He tells them that the bombs will be falling and they can all join him in the safety of his bomb shelter. He's surprised that they would rather leave and get blowed up than stay with him. Some people sure are douche bags who just don't get it. I didn't remember this one, it was ok, it had a nice twist at the end. There's a Twilight Zone radio drama as an extra. I haven't listened to any of them but one. Maybe in the future.

Dead Man's Shoes  January 19 1962

Written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Montgomery Pittman. A homeless guy sees some gangsters toss a body into an alley. He steals the dead man's shoes and gets possessed. The dead man wants some revenge and he's willing to kill as many of the homeless as he needs to get it. Reminds me not to wear a dead man's shoes. I didn't remember this one but I liked it, even if it is a bit slight. Hard on those homeless guys, though. There's an isolated score and a clip from the 1985 remake.

The Hunt  January 26 1962

Written by Earl Hamner Jr and directed by Harold Schuster. Arthur Hunnicutt is an old man who lives in the backwoods somewhere. Jeanette Nolan is his wife and she doesn't care for Rip the dog coming into the house. Rip saved Arthur's life and he wants the dog with him. They go off coon hunting and both drown. On the road to heaven they're tempted by the devil's minion. Since the devil doesn't allow dogs in hell it pretty much means that Rip saved Arthur's life again. I remember this one fondly from seeing it as a youngster. I don't believe in a heaven but it would be nice if there were dogs there. Earl Hamner Jr is the guy responsible for The Waltons. I watched that show for a while but tired of the sameness. There's an interview with Earl and an isolated score by Robert Drasnin as extras.

Showdown With Rance McGrew  February 2 1962

Written by Rob and directed by Christian Nyby. Nyby had directed The Thing From Another World a few years earlier. Larry Blyden plays a flashy fake cowboy on tv. He's a big pain in the ass who comes across the real Jesse James in the TZ. Arch Johnson plays Jesse and he puts Larry in his place. Robert Cornthwaite plays the director of the tv show. Some of you would remember that he was the annoying scientist in The Thing From Another World. I remembered this one, it's pretty goofy. There's a nice audio commentary with Robert Cornthwaite and an isolated score.

Kick The Can  February 9 1962

Written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Lamont Johnson. Some old people live in a retirement home. One old guy discovers the secret of kick the can and turns a bunch of them young again. I remember this one from the earliest watching. It's ok. There's an isolated score.

A Piano In The House  February 16 1962

Written by Earl Hamner Jr and directed by David Greene. A horrid theater critic gets a piano that makes people tell the truth. I didn't remember this one and don't much like the cruel theater critic even if he gets his comeuppance. It seems kind of ordinary. There's an interview with producer Buck Houghton, another with Earl Hamner and an isolated score. 

The Last Rites Of Jeff Myrtlebank  February 23 1962

Written and directed by Montgomery Pittman. James Best plays the Jeff who's had his last rites. He wakes up in a coffin at his funeral. People are pretty freaked out. Jeff seems to have changed, he works more, he wants to marry his girlfriend, it's confusing to the hill folk. They conclude that he might have a demon in him and maybe they're right. I didn't remember this one, I did like it. There's an isolated score by Tommy Morgan.

To Serve Man  March 2 1962

Written by Rod, who adapted the story To Serve Man by Damon Knight, and it's directed by Richard L Bare. I do remember this episode and I've read the story by Damon Knight. Lloyd Bochner tells the story of a visit from an alien race. He was too late to get saved when they discovered that the aliens were harvesting humans for lunch. Poor sap, glad he isn't me. I liked the episode and liked that they give the alien a lie detector test. So silly but still fun. The late Richard Kiel plays the alien. There's an interview with Richard L Bare. The Wikipedia tells us where all the ships used in the episode came from:

The full-size lower portion of the Kanamits' transport spaceship is the adapted version, with retractable stairway, of the saucer-shaped United Planets Cruiser C-57D, seen in the MGM film Forbidden Planet (1956). The ship used for the episode is also seen on the episode "Third from the Sun", and shots of the ship or stairway also appear in the episodes "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby", "The Invaders", and "Death Ship".

Stock footage from the film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) was also used in the episode for the shots of the Kanamit spaceship arriving in New York City (although landmarks of Washington, DC, are seen).

The Kanamit ship seen taking off near the end of the episode is the distinctive Ray Harryhausen-animated ship from the film Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956).

Science Fiction Sunday 304

 

The 127th serial in the series is Terminus and it first aired January 15 to 23 1983. i know people were watching the show on PBS back then but somehow I never put it on my list of things to see. Mind you I wasn't watching much tv at that time. I look over the list of shows on the air that year and there aren't any that I watched regularily except for Johnny Carson and This Old House. 

Terminus is the 4th serial of the 20th season and Peter Davison is the Doctor. Sarah Sutton plays Nyssa for the last time. I was sad to see her go, she was the only companion I liked in a while. Janet Fielding remains as Tegan Jovanka and Mark Strickson plays the creepy and unlikeable Vislor Turlough. Eric Saward is the script editor and I feel he's let me down time after time. It's too bad, he seems like an agreeable chap from seeing him on the extras and commentaries. John Nathan-Turner is the producer and he's really the guy to blame. This serial is written by Stephen Gallager and directed by Mary Ridge.

Turlough is sabotaging the ship at the request of the Black Guardian. He creates a problem that causes the Tardis to latch on to the nearest space ship. The Tardis creates a way out of the dissolving Tardis to the other ship. Unfortunately the ship is carrying people infected with Lazars. It's a leprosy-like disease that kills the victim. They ship docks at Terminus which is a giant spaceship that has time travel capabilities. It's engines use a fuel that caused the big bang. Terminus is having some issues and it's explosion will cause the end of the universe. Damn, good thing the Doc showed up.

The Doctor gets some help of the Garm, a giant dog headed biped, to fix things up. In a disappointing story development Nyssa chooses to stay on Terminus to help turn things around. Now the Doctor is stuck with Teagan and Turlough and, more importantly, so am I. In one of the featurettes Sarah Sutton says it wasn't her idea to leave the series which only makes me dislike John Nathan-Turner that much more. Thankfully he's dead now and he can't ruin any more TV shows. It's those sort of choices that make Doctor Who, at least for me, a program that will never climb into my top ten program list. It was also John Nathan-Turner's idea to have the companions dress up in skimpy costumes. You know, for the dads. The comments about Turner on the commentaries and featurettes aren't filled with vitriol but they don't seem to sing his praises much, or at all, that I recall.

'

Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Stephen Gallager and Mark Strickson provide the commentary. It was ok. There's a short featurette on the making of the serial, a even shorter piece on the big bang theory, some storyboards, a few unused model shots, the ability to switch to more recent cgi shots, a photo gallery, an info track, a coming soon selection and PDFs of the Radio Times listing and CGI storyboards.

8 Out Of 10 Cats

I've been having a bit of a marathon of 8 Out Of 10 Cats episodes today. It's a British panel game show that started in 2005. It uses surveys and opinion polls to generate questions that the contentants try to answer.

Jimmy Carr, one of my current favorite comedians, is the host. Sean Lock and Dave Spikey are the heads of the two 3 person competing teams. Each episode there are 4 comedians, actors or personalities to fill the open seats. I knew a lot of them from watching Qi. There's plenty of comedy and swearing, so you know that I like it. You can see most of the 168 episodes on YouTube.

Friday Night Movies 495

Our first feature was the 2013 Frank Pavic documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. Alejandro Jodorowsky is a Chilean-French director who attempted to adapt Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune in the mid-1970s. He hadn't actually read the book before he told his producer that he wanted to make a movie of Dune. Unfortunately Jodorowsky's idea of making a movie wasn't anything that people with money to make movies could understand. Frank Herbert said of the script "It was the size of a phonebook." The money people couldn't figure a way to make some cash on a 14 hour science fiction art film. Not being a commercial film, it never got made.

The documentary takes a brief look at Jodorowsky's early career in theater and film. Before Dune he'd directed Fando Y Lis, El Topo and The Holy Mountain. El Topo is credited as the first midnight movie hit but none of his movies were big money spinners. Still, he got about $10 million to make Dune. His idea was to make a movie about a prophet in a story that would be important to the citizens of the world. He got some "warriors" to help him. Chris Foss for space ship design, Moebius and H R Girger to design the settings and costumes, and Dan O'Bannion for the special effects. Those same guys would work together again on Alien. The film credits the unmade Dune as influencing some films that came later. Mostly they mention the films that those same artists had worked on. Certainly the publicity from working on Dune would have made the artists better known to Ridley Scott who hired them to work on Alien in 1979. Moebius did 3000 black and white story board drawings and they were printed, bound with his color costume illustrations, and sent around to the studios to drum up interest. Greg had just seen a copy of the book in a book store somewhere.

It's an enjoyable documentary, there are plenty interviews with Jodorowsky and he's fairly entertaining. They interview Chris Foss, Michel Seydoux, H. R. Giger, Nicolas Winding Refn, Amanda Lear and Richard Stanley. Nicholas and Richard are directors who didn't have anything to do with the Jodorowsky film but they're pretty certain that the movie would have been ground breaking and mind blowing. I'm rather more doubtful, the film makers had a grand cinematic experience in mind but they didn't have the money or the ability to make it.

 

Our second film is the Japanese BluRay of Godzilla 2000: Millennium. It's a bit longer than the US version and the movie has different dialog. Here's a bit about it from the Wikipedia:

There were two English dubbed versions of this film. As is standard practice for Toho, the film was originally dubbed in Hong Kong for use in Toho's international version. A few lines from the international dub can be heard in the theatrical trailer for Sony's theatrical release, although the film was entirely re-dubbed by Asian-American voice actors (Schlesinger deliberately made this choice because he did not want the characters to sound like they were "from Wisconsin."). Only one line from the international version ("As long as the beer's cold, who cares?") was used in the re-dubbed North American version. Toho apparently prefers the North American version so much that the international version has never been officially released anywhere in the world.

Tristar Pictures licensed Godzilla 2000 for theatrical distribution in North America. It would be the first and only Japanese Godzilla movie since Godzilla 1985 to be released in North American theaters. Mike Schlesinger, who supervised the North American release and adapted the script, said, "It (Godzilla 2000) was such a spectacular success in Japan, we decided it was worth taking a shot, maybe the time was right for Godzilla to come back to theaters." Sony spent approximately $1,000,000 to re-edit and dub the movie in English, and an addition $10–12 million to market.

The English dubbed version of the film runs 99 minutes - eight minutes shorter in comparison to the 107-minute Japanese version. Most of these were minor edits done to improve the pacing, and the sound design of the movie was completely re-worked. J. Peter Robinson composed some new music meant to supplement Takayuki Hattori's music. The dubbing has a somewhat humorous, tongue-in-cheek tone to it, apparently in homage to Godzilla dubs of the 60s and 70s, with lines such as "Great Caesar's Ghost!", "Bite me!" and "these missiles will go through Godzilla like crap through a goose!". Some fans have criticized the English dubbed version of Godzilla 2000 for camping up what they perceive as a "serious" movie; however, Toho and Takao Okawara approved all the changes to the film in advance, and various amusing sequences throughout the story (such as people comically surviving Godzilla's rampage early in the film) establish a light-hearted tone and make it evident that it wasn't meant to be taken seriously. In an interview in Video Watchdog #71, Schlesinger noted that people in real life tend to speak humorously; he also felt that giving audiences some intentionally funny dialogue would make them less inclined to laugh at the monster scenes, which were supposed to be taken seriously. Originally, the film ended with the words "The End?" in cartoonish lettering, but Mike Schlesinger and Toho rejected that. "The End?" was removed from later home video and television releases. The ending was mistakenly retained for the out of print Spanish-subtitled VHS of the film.

Maybe more than you might need to know about Godzilla 2000: Millennium. I've seen it several times now and it still holds up fairly well.

Babylon 5 S2D2

 

The second disc has another 4 episodes and only the last one on the disc was written by J Michael Straczynski. Bruce Boxleitner is settling in as Captain Sheridan. He's got quite a story ahead of him though he doesn't figure as much in this batch of episodes. I think of the series as a big novel, like War and Peace, but readable. Not that I would want to read it. I did read all the Babyon 5 novels. Some were pretty good.

The Long Dark  11/30/94

Written by Scott Frost and directed by Mario DiLeo

An ancient Earth spaceship crosses paths with the station. Scanners say there's life aboard and they bring it into the station. Inside they find a frozen gal who's been on ice for over 100 years. Her husband died while she was asleep. That would be unsettling, huh. Dr Franklin takes care of her and there's a bit of something between them. Of course there are other things for the Doctor to get involved with and she returns to Earth. There's something else on that ancient spaceship. A near invisible space entity that causes some trouble for Mr Garibaldi and a decorated combat veteran of the Earth–Minbari War. I like this part of the story quite a bit. Leter G'Kar finds an illustration of the creature in his Book of G'Quan. The Book also has a drawing of one of the spider like Shadow ships.

A Spider In The Web  12/7/94

Written by Lawrence G Ditillio and directed by Kevin G Cremin

Michael Beck plays the past head of Free Mars. He'd died several years ago but sadly for him his body was used in an experimental cyborg program that animates the dead. Adrienne Barbeau plays a Mars government rep who is meeting with business man James Shigeta to try to help with the rebellion. There's plenty of problems on Mars and the planet is a powder keg. Poor James gets killed by Michael who's been programmed to kill by someone. Jessica Walter plays an Earth Alliance Senator and Jeff Conaway makes his first appearance as Security man Zack Allan. He would turn out to well received and turn into a regular for the seasons 3 to 5. Another good episode with plenty of stuff going on.

Soul Mates  12/14/94

Written by Peter David and directed by John C Flinn III

It's 30 years since Londo Mollari had his ascension and he's had a wish granted by the Emperor. He can divorce two of his wives. Lois Nettleton, whom I had just seen on an episode of The Twilight Zone, plays one of the wives. He'll keep one of the three he once described as Pestilence, Famine and Death which was also the episode's original title. Talia Winter's ex-husband shows up at the station. He was in the Psi Corps but somehow got out. Something that doesn't seem to happen much. He tells her that he was experimented on and lost his telepathy. He can do the same for her but she refuses. Talia and Ivanova start to become better friends. Someone tries to kill Londo but he survives and decides which wife to keep. Delenn has some trouble with her hair. I just like that picture of Vir.

A Race Through Dark Places  1/25/95

Written by JMS and directed by Jim Johnston

Walter Koenig returns as Psi Cop Bester. He's looking for the underground railway that is helping telepaths escape the clutches of the Psi Corps. Talia sides with the rogue telepaths, and rightfully so, the Corp really has some awful people in it. Talia helps the rogue telepaths trick Bester into thinking they were all killed in a shoot out. Her encounter with Jason Ironheart from the first season has left her a much stronger telepath. Sheidan and Delenn have a nice dinner. Talia visits Ivanova after her hard day.

I really like the mix of light and dark, comedy and tragedy. JMS plots well and is a deft hand with the dialog. Even after several viewings I still enjoy the episodes. 

Last Of The Summer Wine Series 6

Before the 6th Series started airing in January 1982 there was a Christmas Special in December 1981 and after it ended there was another in December 1982. In the US the Christmas Specials actually came on a separate DVD with 2 other Christmas Specials. I'm sure they packaged them like that so they wouldn't have to have a second disc for each series and they can sell it separately. In the US the 6th series comes packed with the 7th series on two discs. In Britain they package series 5 & 6 together, with the corresponding Christmas Specials, in a three disc set. I'm still enjoying the series so I'll continue to get them from the library. They have DVDs through 1999 but not the 2000 and 2001 releases.

Whoops 

The trio decide to look up some old school friends, to try and recapture the spirit of Christmas from the past.

In The Service of Humanity

Foggy decides to start up a rescue service, and Wally is a perfect customer.

Car & Garter

After meeting car enthusiast Wesley Pegden, Compo volunteers to test drive his car, in order to impress Nora Batty.

The Odd Dog Men

Foggy decides to open up a dog walking service.

A Bicycle Made For Three

After the trio ride, and crash, Clegg's bike, they decide that they need a bike each. A local shopkeeper lets them build their own from his spares. Meanwhile, Sid and Ivy have redecorated the Cafe.

One of the Last Few Places Unexplored By Man

Compo wants to have his photograph taken in Nora Batty's bedroom.

Serenade For Tight Jeans and Metal Detector

Foggy persuades Compo to buy a new pair of trousers, and Clegg to buy a Metal Detector.

From Wellies To Wet Suit

Compo buys Sid's wet suit and, after a go at snorkeling, he is persuaded to take up water-skiing.

All Mod Conned

Deciding to abandon the commercialised side of Christmas, Foggy books a caravan for the trio.

Blake's 7 Series 1

It took me a while but I managed to get through the first series of Blake's 7. It's a 1978 British science fiction tv series that was created by Terry Nation. He's the Doctor Who writer who created the Daleks. I'm not a fan of his work nor the Daleks. They aren't my favorite alien on that series. I'm not overly fond of the Doctor Who episodes he wrote and Blake's 7 makes me think even less of him as a writer. He's taken a sort of spin on the Robin Hood story and plunked it onto a space setting.

Blake is a guy who stood up to the Federation so they framed him and put him in jail. On the way to the prison planet he talks some other criminals in taking over the ship and escaping. It all goes wrong and lots of people die. Luckily for Blake the prison ship runs across an alien spaceship. They send Blake over to see what's up in the alien ship and he escapes in it. He goes to the prison planet and rescues some of the prisoners. Now he's got 5 pals on his journey. I guess they count the ship's AI computer as one of Blake's 7. Each episode the gang runs about, stealing things and fighting the Federation. There's some Federation higher ups, stereotypically cruel and ruthless, that send men after him. Luckily the alien spaceship is the fasting thing in space and they get away for the next episode.

The alien ship is pretty dumb looking and some of the other space vehicles are not very interesting. I know it's the BBC and there isn't any budget. Some of the sets and props are good and some are poor. It's really hit and miss. But it isn't what bothers me, I can ignore that, it's the poor stories and the way they are told. I find the basic plots ok but some of the details are pretty poor. The dialog is often dreary and not like anything people would say. The characters fight with each other, take stupid risks and make poor decisions. All the time. It never lets up. I don't find Blake a very likeable character and can't imagine him as a leader. Often Blake is a real asshole. Why they don't space him I don't know.

All that made the series a struggle. I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I still don't know. I've been watching Babylon 5 at the same time as Blake's 7 and that just isn't helping. The scripts on B5 are just so much better, in every possible way, there's just no comparison. I'm sure glad I didn't go through with ordering the whole set of British dvds for a fair packet of cash and found them on YouTube. I put a link in the title at the top of the post. Try it, maybe you'll like it better than I do. I'm still going to watch the second series and see if it gets better. Some of the episodes are written by other people so it might have a chance.

Twilight Zone S3D2

Another disc with 8 episodes. There's a nice variety of story types and interesting locations and settings. They did well in that regard. They put stuff on tv that you wouldn't normally see. When they were new they were quite different but stories were still about people trying to get along.

Death-Head Revisited  November 10 1961

Written by Rod Serling and directed by Don Medford. Oscar Beregi Jr was a Nazi. He ran away at the end of the war and hid in South America. He's homesick and he returns to the town of Dachau and the concentration camp he helped run. It's all run down but it's still inhabited with the dead. The men Oscar killed, they want justice, they try him and sentence him to insanity. It was ok but it won't be my favorite or anything. I didn't remember seeing it as a kid. There's an interview with Buzz Kulik and an episode of the TZ Radio Drama.

The Midnight Sun  November 17 1961

Written by Rob and directed by Anton Leader. The earth has moved in it's orbit and everyone is being roasted to death. Lois Nettleton and her landlady are pretty much alone in their building. It's the end times for them. Or is it? There's a bit of a switcheroo at the end. I didn't remember this one either. It's ok but like several others I find these to lack any impart. I suspect when I was younger and the stories were new they would have had something that would make me go woo. There's an audio commentary by Lois Nettleton that was entertaining. There's also an isolated score by Van Cleave.

Still Valley  November 24 1961

Written by Rod who adapted from the short story The Valley Was Still by Manly Wade Wellman and directed by James Sheldon. Some confederate soldiers are watching a town. Yanks are supposed to be massing there but it's too silent. One of the men goes into the town to see what's up. He finds all the Yanks frozen, posed in the middle of what they were doing when they stopped moving. He finds an old man who tells him he did it with witchcraft. He's dying so he passes along the book of spells. The scout takes the book back to the troups but they burn it rather than use it. I didn't remember this one either but it was interesting. I'm not a big Manly Wade Wellman fan so I hadn't read the story. There's an isolated score by Wilbur Hatch and TZ Radio Drama.

The Jungle  December 1 1961

Written by Charles Beaumont, adapted from his own short story, and directed by William Claxton. John Denher is an oil executive who had been in Africa supervising a big project. It will put some tribes out of their homes but he thinks it's just progress. They will adapt and eventually prosper. Wanting revenge, a tribe has their witchdoctor put a curse on John. It works really well. I'm batting a 1000 so far on not seeing any of these episodes and while I think they are ok stories they are kind of average for the series and not as memorable as other ones were.

Once Upon A Time  December 15 1961

Written by Richard Matheson and directed by Norman Z. McLeod with an uncredited sequence by Les Goodwins. Buster Keaton lives in 1890 and he's rather unhappy with his surroundings. It's too noisey and crowded. He's a janitor for an inventor. The inventor has created a new time travel hat and Buster thinks he can escape the hussle and bussle by popping it on his head. Turns out that 1960 isn't any better. It's a pretty silly episode and you'd think that I'd remember it but I don't. The 1890 parts are all filmed silent film style with title cards for the dialog. Stanley Adams plays a man who befriends Buster in the modern world and Jessie White plays a repairman in a little shop. There's an isolated score by William Lava.

Five Characters In Search Of An Exit  December 22 1961

Written by Rod Serling from the story The Depository by Marvin Petal and directed by Lamont Johnson. William Windom, in one of his first tv roles, plays a soldier who wakes up in a giant round tube. There are 4 others there with him. He organizes an escape and manages to get over the rim. I do remember this one and it's not a favorite. I'm not sure I understand the point of it. There's an interesting audio commentary by William Windom, an isolated score which was reused from A Hundred Yards Over the Rim, and an interview with Lamont Johnson.

A Quality Of Mercy  December 29 1961

Written by Rod from a story by Sam Rolfe and directed by Buzz Kulik. Albert Salmi and
Leonard Nimoy are soldiers on an island in the Pacific. I'd say I was more fond of Albert as an actor than I was of Leonard. The two of them are part of an American troup of soldiers observing some wounded Japanese hold up in a cave. Dean Stockwell is the new Second Lieutenant and he's green and stupid. He wants to assault the cave and kill, kill, kill. Kill everyone until the war is over. Of course, he's seen no combat and he has no idea what he wants. Because he's in the TZ he winds up as a Japanese guy in the same situation. It sure changes his mind. It was ok, I sort of remember this one but not who was in it. There's a real short audio commentary by Leonard Nimoy and an isolated score. The title is from Shakespear and Rod reads the same quote that G'Kar read in the Babylon 5 episode that has the same title. Here's the quote on Rod's show: 'The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.' Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, but applicable to any moment in time, to any group of soldiery, to any nation on the face of the Earth - or, as in this case, to the Twilight Zone.

Nothing In The Dark  January 5 1961

Written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Lamont Johnson. I do remember this one. An old lady is afraid to go out of her apartment. She figures death is out there and she doesn't want to meet him. A wounded cop shows up on her doorstep and she brings him inside to help him. Robert Redford plays the cop and Gladys Cooper plays the old lady. I thought it was a good story when I first saw it and I still think so. There's an interview with Lamont Johnson and another with George Clayton Johnson. There's an isolated score also.

I'm kind of sad I'm just not enjoying these as much as I thought I might when I ordered the dvd set. I guess my mind has made these shows bigger than they've turned out to be. I don't think The Twilight Zone will get into my top ten shows and that's kind of sad, some how.

Zatoichi 9 - Adventures Of Zatoichi

The 9th film in the series is Adventures Of Zatoichi and it first appeared in the theater on December 30 1964. That was only 2.5 months after the previous film. Shintaro Katsu is the blind swordsman Zatoichi. The screenplay is by Shozaburo Asai from a story by Kan Shimozawa and it's directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda.

The film is set at the end of the year and Zatoichi is heading to a village to pray in the first sun of the New Year. On the way Zatoichi meets a nervous man named Gorota who asks him where he's headed. When he finds out he asks Zatoichi to deliver a message to a maid at an inn in the same town. Zatoichi agrees and upon arrival he meets Osen. Message delivered Zatoichi asks for a room. They are full up with the New Years Festival going on but she asks Miss Saki if he can stay in her room. She's agreeable.

Miss Saki is in town looking for her father. He had come through the town on his way to complain to higher officials about the local magistrate raising the taxes on the farmers. He hadn't ever got to his destination and it looks like the local officials are as corrupt as you often see in a Zatoichi movie. It was the style of the time but no matter they are in for a rude awakening when Zatoichi comes to call. The magisrate and his henchmen send men after Zatoichi but that trick never works.

Zatoichi makes friends with a couple young brothers. They are acrobats who have come to preform at the festival. Zatoichi finds out that the magistrate set up Osen's brother Gorota. The magistrate hired Gorota to kill a rival and then had the local cops there to arrest him. He figured if the brother was locked up no one would believe he was set up. At least no one that would matter. He didn't figure on Gorota getting free and returning. Miss Saki has been asking about her father, that causes some tension, so they plan to kill her. The magistrate and his creeps are really dicks and I feel no sympathy for them when they get slaughtered.

Eventually Zatoichi settles things in the only way he knows. He finally gets his wish and leaves for another adventure. It was another entertaining film with a good script and nice locations and sets. You can see it at the link above. Hope you enjoy it.