Todd’s Serial Blog

It is a wonder how anything gets on the air these days.  If you have been over at the Bijou blog site these days then you saw their recent progress report on getting the new Matinee at the Bijou on the air.  Like the old Springsteen,  One Step Up, where for every step forward they make, they’re pushed back two.  They can’t get a corporate sponsership because corporations don’t accept unsolicited proposals.  They can’t get an agency to present the proposal because PBS shows are automatically rejected due to lower ratings.  PBS affiliates could help but only if Bijou could appear at the same time on all of the stations but the preferred slot of Fridays at 10 has too much competition to be accepted. And so on and so on.

Man alive, you would think that having been one of PBS’ most popular shows, people would have been all over this to bring it back on the air, but it’s almost like a conspiracy to keep it from ever getting up and running.  I am intrigued by their new plan of getting the Bijou on one of the new emerging  cable channels, like The Smithsonian Channel or Retirement Living TV.  Here’s hoping.

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Feeling a little down about the state of serials today, or lack there of? Well Sci-Fi Channel has a temporary cure.  The Adventures of Sarah Jane Smith, an import from England, is a half hour show featuring one of the most popular companions in Doctor Who history solving mysteries and saving the world from invasion with the help of her scientifically created adopted son and the spunky daughter of her clueless next door neighbor.  Best of all each two part story ends at the halfway point with a cliffhanger ending so you have to tune in again next week to see how they survived.  If you want to check it out it’s on Fridays at 8 and 8:30 PM, but you better hurry, the season ends at the end of this month.

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DOC SAVAGE: A COLUMBIA SERIAL IN 15 CHAPTERS

Producer: Larry Darmour
Director: James W. Horne
Photography: James S. Brown, Jr.
Script: Basil Dickey
George H. Plympton
Wyndham Gittens
Music: Lee Zahler

Cast:

Doc Savage: Larry “Buster” Crabbe
Pat Savage: Iris Meredith
Tarnack: James Craven
Natalia: Veda Ann Borg
Renny: Roy Barcroft
Ham: Tristram Coffin
Monk: Charles King
Long Tom: Guy Wilkerson
Johnny: William Bakewell
Brown: Ray Teal
Taylor: Al Ferguson
Butch: Jack Ingram
Karl: George Magrill
Wheeler: Dick Botiller
Meeks: Kit Guard
Lyle: Lester Dorr
DA Warwick: Forbes Murray
Inspector Nolan: Robert Fiske
Judge Watkins: Selmer Jackson
Tuka: Al Kikume
Narrator: Knox Manning

Recap: “Ruthless Criminal Mastermind Tarnack has Pat Savage held captive in an attempt to force Doc to reveal the location of his hidden Fortress of Solitude. Pat manages to get a message to Doc, who goes to rescue her.”

CHAPTER 3: ARCTIC AVALANCHE

Doc goes to the warehouse and sneaks in through a window. He finds the room where Pat is being held and frees her. Suddenly Karnack and his men appear with guns drawn. Tarnack taunts Doc by calling him stupid to not know it was a trap. Doc counters that he knew it was a trap all along. Just then Monk, Ham, Rennie, Johnny and Long Tom burst through the front door, jump the henchmen from behind, causing them to drop their guns and a fight erupts.

During the fracas a lamp gets over turned and sets the warehouse on fire. Tarnack manages to get hold of a gun and holds Doc and his men at bay. Once his men are out of the building, Tarnack leaves, locking the door behind him, trapping them in the burning building. Doc says he has something that can open that door and heads for it just as a burning timber falls from the ceiling and lands on him, trapping Doc under it as the fire gets closer and closer to the heroes.

Rennie runs to the door, rears back, and punches his right fist through the door. Reaching through the hole he unlocks the door. Monk, Ham, Long Tom, and Johnny heave the timbers off Doc and carry him outside, where he quickly recovers. Pat spots the just disappearing car of Tarnack and his men. Everyone piles into Doc’s super speedster and give chase.

Butch spots the car coming after them and the henchmen start firing at it, only to quickly discover that it is bullet proof. Doc runs them off the road and another fight erupts. Things are going well for the heroes, until Tarnack tosses a smoke grenade into the fracas, allowing him and his men to escape.

Once the smoke clears, Doc examines the area around the fight and discovers a torn pocket from one of the men with a handkerchief in it. Taking it back to the lab Doc examines it under a microscope and discovers traces of a specific kind of coal soot on it. Tracing it to abandoned factory, Doc and his men head there only to discover it is empty. Johnny finds a note on a table in the office addressed to Doc. It is from Tarnack, saying he knew Doc would trace them there and he just wanted him to know that he has discovered the location of the Fortress of Solitude.

Long Tom thinks it’s a trick, but Doc says they can’t take that chance. He tells Pat to go home while he prepares for the trip. Pat quickly agrees, too quickly for Doc’s liking. Later at the airport Doc’s gleaming plane takes off and is immediately followed by a smaller plane. Back on the ground Doc and the Fab Five watch this with obvious amusement, commenting on how Doc’s robot controlled plane will lead Pat far away from any danger.

Doc travels to the South Pole where he enters a large cavernous cave. While feeling around the wall for a hidden button, Tarnack and his henchmen sneak up on him. Tarnack congratulates the startled Doc on leading them to his Fortress. Doc laughs and says he knew it was a trick all along, and that this isn’t the Fortress. The Fab Five come up behind the men and another fight breaks out. Tarnack tosses a gas bomb into the midst of the fighting, which overcomes the heroes.

Tarnack and his men escape. He spots a precariously perched snow cap on the mountain above them. Firing a flare gun into it causes a massive avalanche that buries Doc and the Fab Five in the cave. Surveying the piled up ice and rock, Tarnack smirks and says, “Let’s see his fancy gadgets get him out of that!”

“Is Pat left to carry on the fight alone? What new deviltry is Tarnack plotting on these arctic natives? For the startling answers see RACE FOR THE NORTH POLE! The Fourth exciting episode of DOC SAVAGE at this theater next week!

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