#KungFuTheLegendContinues 57 (1995) - 10/10
My favourite episode.

1️⃣ I love these syndicated adventure shows of the 1990s. Telling stories that could never fly on network TV.

2️⃣ This, in particular, is a series with a unique blend of fantasy, mysticism and action. The script here, by #DamianKindler (#StargateSG1), is about an ancient chalice (with mystical powers) hidden in a church in France.

3️⃣ #AlexCord (#Airwolf) and #GuylaineStOnge (#EarthFinalConflict) are the guest stars.

As a result of a Classic Movies Today (@classicmovies) post, I watched Chosen Survivors (1974) last night on #YouTube (720p; most old films there are 480p). It had the feel of a TV movie to me, but it apparently wasn’t.

Eleven people are kidnapped, taken to the desert, and pushed into an elevator that takes them deep underground. When they walk into a lounge, huge screens start playing a recorded message that a nuclear war has begun, and they – and a dozen groups like them in other shelters – were chosen to survive underground for up to five years, then to emerge to repopulate the country/world.

This has problems in the setup. Under 200 people to repopulate is not a deep enough gene pool. Even if the computer tells them where the other bases are, there’s no guarantee the survivors will be able to reach each other. And for people chosen to repopulate, these folk were old. Jackie Cooper, the actor playing the businessman, was 52. All the men were over 40, all but one of the women over 30.

But fine: do a mental rewrite and assume they’re all college age. You could have had a tense psychological drama about a bunch of strangers locked up together for years, under life-or-death pressure. But the very first night, vampire bats enter the installation, swarming like piranhas do in cartoons, and the deaths start happening. (Real bats were captured and used in some scenes; many of them died.) Turns out the survival station was built in a cavern where bats live; despite having been no problem in the months or years of construction, they now were.

Oh, and a nuclear war breaking out so quickly that no one had any notion one was about to start, and thus had no reason to gather the chosen survivors? That seems odd. Unless…

Then you get the surprise twist, which was likely obvious even in 1974, and I can’t imagine any adult not guessing it today. And the cliche scene resulting from it. But hey, you get to see #TNG’s Dr. Pulaski in bed with #Airwolf boss Archangel. I’d give the film a 4/10, mostly for the decent idea underlying the thrice-goofed execution, and also some okay dialog.

#AmWatching #ChosenSurvivors #film #cinema #movies #JackieCooper #AlexCord #RichardJaeckel #DianaMuldaur #Horror #SciFi #ScienceFiction #sff

[Next day edit. Fixed some grammar, clarified some sentences. Also, two time errors: the recording didn’t play immediately upon entry. It played early the next morning, hence people wearing robes in the picture. Which means the vampires didn’t attack the first night but the second. A problem, since then you have to explain why they didn’t attack that night, but did subsequent nights. They knew their place in the script, like the doors in Star Trek that don’t open when two characters are having a conversation in front of them?]

#TheSixMillionDollarMan s4e11 (1976) - 9/10
#JenniferDarling returns as Miss Callahan!

1️⃣ Despite being a straightforward undercover mission this episode is way, way better than it ought to be. Mostly because we get to see (the utterly adorable❤️ ) Callahan on a mission with Steve (acting as his backup).

2️⃣ Also, the main villain (played by #AlexCord, from #Airwolf) vaguely remembers meeting Steve someplace. And the script plays this out really well, creating/sustaining tension.