Saturday 1 February 2014

1.01 "The Fourth Horseman" (Survivors)

The theme tune's not so memorable, but the title sequence itself is.


So other than space Nazis, this is Terry Nation's other great preoccupation: plague!

Oh, la-di-da, look at Abbey on her own tennis court with automatic ball launcher.

This episode broadcast between Genesis of the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen.

The local school's sending the pupils home and there's a nasty bug going around.

She's well off, Abbey Grant. Better hope there isn't some sort of apocalypse that robs her of all her mod cons...

The local doctor wants to come round and give them flu shots tonight. Ah, that'll do the trick then.

The trains not running on time is a strange and uncommon thing. *weeps*

Lucy Fleming, who plays Jenny, is Ian "James Bond" Fleming's niece.

Abby Grant's husband is played by Peter Bowles! Brilliant. Would have made a great Master opposite Tom Baker, I reckon.

Jenny's made it to the hospital, which is insanely busy. Whatever this illness is, it's serious. It's not Flu.

"Are we going to eat!" i.e. "Where's my dinner, woman?" Good grief, really?

Of course, it's left to la-di-da Abby to cook because the housekeeper's gone to visit her sick relative.

"Now where's Radio 4 on this thing?" Wow, you can really tell civilisation's collapsing.

"The city's like a great big pampered baby, with people feeding and cleaning it, making sure it's alright."

Blimey, Jenny's friend's dead, and the doctor chap had been having an affair with her for 2 years. He's got the disease too.

"In a few days the dead will outnumber the living; the cities will be like open cesspits. Now get out!"

Posh Abby's got the lurgy now. Jenny's getting hassled by looters.

I like her furry blue coat. Looks a bit like a Spiridon.

They're dropping like flies now.

Posh Abby's come through it thanks to Chicken soup!

But her husband is lying dead on the couch. Wow, that's grim.

Jenny's made it to the countryside, and she's bumped into Talfryn Thomas!

"I got a rabbit last night!"

"It's a bit like the war, isn't it?" That shadow still looms large over Nation. No Daleks, but this is post-war Britain.

Abby goes to the church, 1945 engraved into the gate post...

"Please don't let me be the only one."

Jenny's just spotted Abby's car on the road, but she's got her foot down and speeds on to her son's school.

The silence is so creepy; so oppressive. It's the end of the world.

Her son's not there. None of the boys are. Doctor Warlock from Pyramids Of Mars is, though.

"What is important is learning again..."

"Could you make this? Something as simple as a candle?"

"We're of the generation that put a man on the moon but here we are talking about fashioning tools out of stone!"

When his battery runs out, he'll be deaf. "I won't make a very good survivor." Grim, chilling, stuff.

The guy Jenny found has a bag full of bank notes. Useless now, except as fuel for the fire.

Abby manages to have a shower (cold? Or do they have a generator?) then cuts her hair short...

Then burns her house down. No going back now.

It's fantastic, powerful yet grim stuff this, the beeb really botched the remake very badly.

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Genesis

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