NEW -Survivors (1975) Episode Guide

[michaellevenson]

3. LAW OF THE JUNGLE
Charles and Hubert catch up with Jenny, who has been travelling for days. They trio meets up with Agnes, and they take shelter at a community run by a man named Brod. They discover that many community members are there against their will due to Brod's bullying tactics. Brod also forces Charles and the others to stay, promising protection against the wild dogs, which now outnumber people. Brod threatens Charles' life, and to ensure Charles and his group are able to leave safely, Hubert kills Brod, which also allows the other people to return to their farm.

 

[michaellevenson]

4. MAD DOG
Charles meets a man named Richard Fenton, who saves him from a pack of wild dogs. Charles spends the night at Richard's halfway house, but soon realises the man has rabies. After Fenton attacks Charles and the two neighbours from whom Charles has sought help, the neighbours shoot Fenton dead. The men believe Charles also has rabies and try to kill him, too. However, Charles escapes on foot. After being helped by a woman whose house he passes, and then escaping nearly being gunned down again by the men chasing him, Charles eventually escapes by hiding in an old steam train. The train is operational, and a group of people are running it on coal with an eye to setting up a nationwide train service.
The episode, MAD DOG, about rabies that persuaded Ian McCulloch to leave the series. The episode apparently written for him, but ultimately given to Dennis Lill's Charles by the producer.







This episode is a very hard watch.

 

[michaellevenson]

5. BRIDGEHEAD
Charles returns to the Walter's farm alone, and with no news of Tom. Working with the cow herd, Hubert discovers that the animals may be suffering from brucellosis. Charles and Jenny agree to try to locate local vet Bill Sheridan at his home along the river in the hope a cure. The Walter's boys Owen and Steve head off on a trip to retrieve the farm's bull, now running wild. At the Sheridan's, Bill agrees to accompany Charles on a trip to the Walter's farm; while Jenny stays behind to keep his partner Alice company. Charles concocts a plan to force the local community to come together at the local railway station to begin to trade and work together. He convinces Bill to pretend that he plans to leave the area, and will be at the station to share his expertise with his neighbours before departing. At the station, Charles reveals the reason for the deception, and facing the ire of the gun-toting Elphick who is suspicious that Charles may be the rabies fugitive Sanders warned him about. Suddenly the mood is changed by the arrival of Jenny and Bill in a methane-powered car, which Owen and Steve had helped the drivers' to fix once they had discovered it broken down. Moments later, a steam train pulls into the station, carrying Owen, Steve and the missing Tom Walter. Jenny reveals, sadly, that Greg (who had been working on both the car and rail network) has moved on northwards. Charles is pleased that his efforts at establishing a new 'bridgehead' appear, initially at least, to have proved successful.

Bridgehead- " steam for survival"
The start of reconnecting the railway with steam locos.

6. REUNION

Upon arriving at the house of one of Hubert's friends, Hubert, Jenny, and Charles discover the man has broken his leg. The man directs them to take him to the house of a nearby veterinarian, named Janet. Charles talks to her and her partner about their lives there, which are very comfortable, and decides that his community could move here, where there are more facilities and people nearby. To Jenny's surprise, she discovers that John, the boy she has been looking after, is Janet's son. The mother and son are reunited for the first time in two years.

 

[michaellevenson]

7. THE PEACEMAKER
Charles, Jenny and Hubert arrive at a religious settlement, where no violence or guns are allowed. They stay there for the night and discover the settlement has a fully functional windmill, which they allow local people to use in trade. One of the settlement's leaders, Frank, asks to go with Charles, Jenny and Hubert as he is fitted with a pacemaker, which is nearing the end of its life. They leave in search of an electronics engineer, who is reportedly nearby.

8. SPARKS
Charles, Jenny and Hubert arrive at an isolated community, living in an abandoned church, in search of a reputed electrical engineer.Charles is disappointed to discover that power station worker Alec Campbell is so sourly dismissive of their plans. If theyare to win Alec to their cause they must force him to undertake some dangerous shock therapy, compelling him to confront his guilt and grief about the loss of his wife and the fact that she died without him at her side. However, re-opening long suppressed feelings can lead to unexpected consequences; and the travellers discover that they have unwittingly pushed Alec to the edge. Alec ultimately finds the experience catharic, and agrees to join Charles' group in the efforts.

9. THE ENEMY
The travellers arrive at a large community, which has its own brewery and mine. They stay the night due to Frank's now weakened condition. Charles is unsure of Alec's willingness to work with them, and during a night of heavy drinking tries to persuade Jenny to sleep with Alec. She is furious, but Alec has decided to stay anyway and helps the men work on their generator. Another man, Sam, opposes turning the electricity back on and is determined to stop them. With Frank now dead, the others move on, accompanied by Sam.

 

[michaellevenson]

10. THE LAST LAUGH
In his travels, Greg meets a group of people who gain his confidence as he talks about his trip to Norway. They seize his map, notes, boots, clothes, and horse, however, and leave him for dead. On realising the notes and map notations are written in Norwegian, the men go to the community to capture Agnes, to translate for them. Greg makes it to a nearby settlement, where he meets a doctor who is dying of smallpox. Greg contracts the disease but summons the strength to rescue the community from the bandits by appearing to join the brigands. He says goodbye and informs the community he is dying, while moving off with the bandits - intentionally infecting them all.

Review by Anorak Zone.

A brilliantly brutal, fatalistic episode of Survivors. It's here that Greg learns that his plans to link up with Norway have resulted in the spreading of a new form of infection. Rather than help to restore a new society, all he's managed to do is not only possibly end one, but also, in a fantastically ironic twist, brought about his own death after he contracts the disease.
     McCulloch's decision to leave at the end of the second series and only return in two episodes that he'd written himself may seem something of a fit of pique, but he claimed to bear no personal ill-will towards Denis Lill (the main reason for his leaving) and admired his work in future projects. Interviewed for The Making of Terry Nation's Survivors, McCulloch stated: "From a purely selfish point of view I wasn't happy sharing the male lead with Denis Lill. It had nothing to do with Denis himself, it was just that I felt that I had built something which was then being taken away. For example, Don Shaw wrote the third series episode Mad Dog for Greg and Terry Dudley gave the episode to Charles. As it was one of the best episodes of the entire series I wasn't best pleased."
     McCulloch did propose a fourth series to Terence Dudley, an idea where Greg was still alive, and an African nation who weren't affected by the plague came to England to colonise it. Such satirical musings on the nature of enslavement didn't go down too well with the BBC, and, though intriguing, may have been best left alone, especially considering McCulloch's hit-and-miss rate as a writer. Sometimes it's easy to look at episodes A Friend in Need and A Little Learning and believe that McCulloch didn't really understand the true direction of Survivors... but then put on The Last Laugh, and realise that, given the chance, he knew exactly what he was doing.

Clifton Jones, Kano from Space 1999 here with smallpox as Dr Adams.

Possibly the best episode as Greg makes his final appearance.

 

[michaellevenson]

11. LONG LIVE THE KING
Charles gets an urgent message to meet Greg. Arriving at an old army camp, Charles discovers that credit notes bearing Greg's name are being issued in return for petrol. Agnes tells Charles that they have a million gallons stored there. Jenny arrives and inquires about Greg's whereabouts. Agnes reveals that he is dead and that they don't have the petrol they claim. The intention, however, is to set up a government enforcing proper law and order. Initially reluctant, Charles comes round to the idea after the camp is infiltrated by two bandits and the group locks up the bandits rather than shooting them.

rather than shooting them.



Well, this reviewer didn't like this episode, I quite like it as it shows what Greg has achieved during his off screen adventures. However Anorak Zone review is below.

Before getting into the various pros and cons of the third series of Survivors, let's simply take Long Live The King off the table as part of the discussion. It's not just that it's bad, it's more that it's like a puzzle piece that scarcely belongs to the same puzzle. Suddenly the Norwegian Agnes (played by Sally Osborn in the second series finale, but by Anna Pitt for series three) has become almost a military warlord, determined to set up a new government in Greg's name by any means possible.
      Tonally, it's less like an episode of Survivors, more like an outtake of the Two Ronnies serial The Worm That Turned. Anna Pitt does well throughout the third series, but gives an astonishingly poor performance here, yet such things are probably more due to Agnes changing characterisation and motivation from scene to scene - sometimes even between lines.
      It wasn't something that went unnoticed by Pitt herself, as she revealed in an interview with Kevin Marshall, for the book The Making of Terry Nation's Survivors: "Series three of Survivors was very disjointed and Agnes' part was one of the most disjointed of all. In this episode she suddenly becomes a different person without there ever having been any natural progression." It's a quote that sums up the problem perfectly, and series three of Survivors would still make sense without this one ever having existed.
      Pitt didn't regard the working environment as a happy one, so much so that it made her think twice about wanting to continue acting after the experience. But perhaps the worst part of this deeply misguided piece of nonsense is that not only does it waste the talents of the typically brilliant Roy Marsden, but it also adds a lengthy, unseen post-story to The Last Laugh which completely undermines it. Not only is the episode ludicrous nonsense in and of it itself, but it even retroactively tarnishes the brilliance of one of the finest instalments.

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[michaellevenson]

12. POWER
Travelling to a hydro-electric power station in Scotland, Charles, Jenny, and Hubert meet a local laird, who tells them that in the Highlands more than 150,000 people have survived the plague, making it the most densely populated part of Britain. Charles informs him that they are there to switch the electricity back on, which Alec and Sam are now working on. At the power station, Alec is making preparations, but Sam is sabotaging Alec's work. The others arrive there to find Alec unconscious, while Sam has disappeared, intent on wrecking the whole system. During a struggle, Sam is killed. Before the supply is restored, the Laird argues with Charles that the power belongs to Scotland, but Alec insists that he is the only one able to switch it back on. After they reach an agreement that Alec will control the supply, Alec switches it on.

And the electricity finally comes back on.

Note- severe weather conditions during the filming of Mad Dog in which the equipment even sometimes froze, meant a remount was necessary to complete the episode. Thus the episode Black Start was cancelled leaving series 3 with 12 episodes only.

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