SURVIVORS - LAW OF THE JUNGLE (1977)
After fleeing from wild dogs, Jenny & Charles encounter a strange woman that Jenny knows & she leads them to a colony run by their leader called Brod. Unfortunately, he is a bit of a tin pot dictator & psychopath to boot, & his colony are more prisoners than willing colonials. He jests at playing mind games with our protagonists. & their friend Hubert appears to be very chummy with him.
Now, why I chose this episode & why it's so fab. Brian Blessed tin pot dictator is an interestingly, complex villain. He puts our protagonists through some mind f@@k tests & is even decent enough to allow Charles to get his leg caught in a bear trap. The people in his colony are more prisoner colonials. Most were captured from other farm/colonies, that & escaping rats & wild dogs. He's a bit of the schoolyard bully, really.
Not only does Brod come across as the terrifying schoolyard bully we all feared & loathed, but he displays us with a history of his life before the apocalyptic plague. Like every robber baron (looking at you Irongon!) he was a butcher, (in a shop, a shop, really!). Every Saturday he would go to support, & fight on the terrace for his precious Sheffield United. Meanwhile, his wife & the cliche tax inspector would be getting to "know" each other better. Both the "bitch" & her lover bought it via the plague, something which appears to bother him & maybe partly the reason for his medieval-like behavior & occasional concubine in his private, former train carriage chamber. Brian Blessed truly gives his all here as does regular Denis Lil & Lucy Fleming, yes, THAT Fleming! She's shaken but not stirred by our villain as will be brilliantly explained later...
Jenny is allegedly supposed to be his next chosen one. Yet, when the arrangement happens, we are treated to a brilliant scene. Brod rejects her advances just as she pulls down the curtain & is taking her sweater off. He gives her his not-so stiff upper-lip life story, & a slap. She gives him her all, & puts him in his place! Meanwhile, Charles feels that he's a threat to Brod's authority that must be dealt with, while Hubert is his new best mate (?)
Cheryl Hall of 1972's Doctor Who - Carnival Of Monster fame, plays Brod's former girl interest, Mavis here, though I knew not of this of this fact until a minute ago whilst looking for another actor. She's well hidden under that hat & hair, & beautiful. Add that she also applied for the role of Third Doctor assistant Jo, which I had no idea about until a second ago, also. But, Hubert is played by "you're a total smeg-head, Rimmer" John Alberni. Yes, Rimmer's dad in Red Dwarf episode Better Than Life (1989). Also, the nasty xenophobic, General Carrington in Doctor Who-Ambassadors Of Death (1970), Commander Richard Railton of the Earth Space Marine Corp who also gets an arrow in his back courtesy of the Exxilons on Death To The Daleks (1974) & green-skinned, Swampie & religious fanatic, Ranquin on the Power Of kroll (1979) respectively.
Enough Brod-like boldness. I was scrolling through Wikipedia desperate for an apt episode to blog about until I stumbled, & remembered, watching this brilliant episode a few years back. Brian Blessed really lives the role of Brod! He's in his element like a klingon warrior, the kind of role he's been destined to be typecast to play, admittedly. Of course, get some ear plugs on standby! He feels threatened by confident Charles! He toys with our protagonists letting them "free" themselves via his train carriage door & downhill to the rabid dogs & does a "William Tell" on one of them. Unfortunately he allows an arrow into his back from one of the crossbows that he gave Hubert & came from a museum, nice sense of irony.
Of course rats! As most of us know this is another Baron Von Frankenstein creation of Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks ( you didn't think Davros?). His other creation Doom Watch is famous for the killer rats episode! Unfortunately, that, like some still missing 60's doctor who has vanished in time & space. Feel free to correct me, fellow Sci-Fi fans, please! After all we all want to see killer rats! We get compensation for this in a Survivors two-parter Lights Of London, maybe something for a future blog during these difficult times? Yes, this current state of affairs with a global "plague contagion" in progress is the influence for the latest Borgduck Classic Science-Fiction blog.
Borgduck,
Alias Stewart,