-- Episode Guide --
Reg : "Remember when we said there was no future? Well, this is it."
Dates given are the dates for the first U.S. broadcast.
(1) Blipverts 3/31/87
Written by Joe Gannon and Steve Roberts
Directed by Farhad Mann
Network 23's new "Blipverts" - commercials shown at high speed to prevent channel switching, appear to have the undesirable side effect of causing viewers to explode. Ace reporter Edison Carter comes uncomfortably close to the truth, but is badly injured making his escape. Network executive Grossberg decides to let him die and replace him with a computer simulation created by his pet genius, Bryce Lynch, but both the real and simulated Carters prove to be tougher and smarter than he expected.
(2) Rakers 4/7/87
Written by James Crocker and Steve Roberts
Directed by Thomas J Wright
The latest fad is the illegal sport of "raking" or "rakeboarding" - gladiator-style combat on powered skateboards. The promoters want raking legalised so they can sell it to Network 23's sports channel; meanwhile, Theora's long-lost brother Shawn has got involved. Theora is looking for her brother, Edison is looking for Theora, Murray is looking for Edison, and Network 23 is looking for something to replace everyone's favourite children's show, "Missile Mike".
(3) Body Banks 4/14/87
Written by Steve Roberts
Directed by Francis De Lia
An old woman is dying, and young women are being kidnapped to provide body parts to keep her alive. But even 21st century medicine can't keep her going forever, and the alternative is to keep her mind alive - by stealing the technology that created Max. One of their victims has a boyfriend who persuades Edison Carter, with the reluctant help of organleggers Breughel and Mahler, to track them down.
(4) Security Systems 4/21/87
Written by Michael Cassutt
Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace
Security Systems, Inc., is the largest security firm in the world, with fingers in the government, police, and everywhere else you can think of. Somebody is trying to take it over, and Edison Carter wants to know who. But SSI have an artificial intelligence of their own and A-7 has one or two ideas about what to do with nosy reporters.
(5) War 4/28/87
Written by Martin Pasko, Rebecca Parr, Michael Cassutt, and Steve Roberts
Directed by Thomas J Wright
The White Brigade, a terrorist group fighting for neo-radicalistic anarcho-syndicalism, is going around the city blowing up buildings and Breakthru TV appears to have somehow acquired the exclusive rights to all news coverage of their activities. It occurs to Edison and Murray, though, to wonder how you sign a contract with terrorists, and why a tiny little outfit like Breakthru managed it when all of Network 23's resources seem to have gotten nowhere. But Edison isn't the only one on the job, and new reporter Janie Crane has managed to get a bit closer to the story than she really intended.
(6) Blanks 5/5/87
Written by Steve Roberts
Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace
The "Blanks" are the invisible people, the ones who don't appear on any computer records. Simon Peller, newly elected city official, is doing his best to put them all in prison and the Blanks, in return, are doing their best to wreck the entire computer network, which doesn't exactly endear them to the now-TV-less general public. It's up to Edison Carter and Blank Reg to save the city with a bit of help from Bryce Lynch and the Trojan Sheep.
(7) The Academy 9/18/87
Written by David Brown
Directed by Victor Lobl
Somebody is "zipping" - hacking into Network 23's satellites and hijacking their transmissions. Bryce claims to have tracked them down and fingers Bigtime TV as the culprits, but Blank Reg protests his innocence ("there's not enough power in that bus to zip up me trousers, never mind a network satellite"). Theora does some tracking of her own and finds something very suspicious about the Academy of Computer Sciences, Bryce's alma mater, so Edison tries to find the real perpetrators before Reg is sentenced to death by a game show.
(8) Deities 9/25/87
Written by Michael Cassutt
Directed by Tom Wright
The Video Church of the Vu Age promises its followers a secular resurrection, by recording their brain-scans until the technology is developed to give them new bodies provided they pay for it, of course. The church's founder, Vanna Smith, is an old friend of Edison Carter, who is torn between his old feelings for her and his suspicion of a church that seems to be raking in a lot of money but producing no visible results.
(9) Grossberg's Return 10/2/87
Written by Steve Roberts
Directed by Janet Greek
There's a telelection on and Network 66's Harriet Garth is beating 23's Simon Peller by a landslide. Votes are based on ratings, and 66's show is a total loser... so why are people staying tuned in droves? Bryce discovers that 66 has a scam called "View-Doze" that lets people tune in while they sleep and the executive who thought it up has a very familiar face! But Grossberg's scheme turns out to be a lot deeper than it looks.
(10) Dream Thieves 10/9/87
Written by Steve Roberts and Charles Grant Craig
Directed by Todd Holland
Edison runs into an old friend - Paddy Ashton, a former Network 23 reporter, now a street bum who claims to be making a living by selling his dreams. When Ashton mysteriously dies, Edison investigates Mind's Eye, the outfit that's buying dreams. Quite a few people have died of "nightmare trauma" and it's all in the name of television.
(11) Whacketts 10/16/87
Written by Arthur Sellers and Dennis Rolfe
Directed by Victor Lobl
Bigtime TV's "Whacketts" is the dumbest game show in the history of television (and that's no mean achievement). So what is it about the show that keeps everyone addicted to it, to the extent of risking their own lives to stay tuned? Edison wants to know why, partly because it's stealing his (and Max's) ratings and so does our old friend Grossberg, now head of Network 66. But when a cop investigating the same mystery commits suicide, the plot begins to seriously thicken.
(12) Neurostim 4/28/88
Written by Arthur Sellers and Michael Cassutt
Directed by Maurice Phillips
The Zik-Zak Corporation ("We make everything you need and you need everything we make") has come up with a new gimmick - the Neurostim bracelet. It makes all your dreams come true, it's free with every Zik-Zak product, and it could put network television out of business. Edison Carter's investigation is hampered by an argument with Max about just who pulls the ratings around here.
(13) Lost Tapes [originally unaired in U.S.]
Written by Adrian Hein, Steve Roberts, Colman Dekay, and Howard Brookner
Directed by Victor Lobl
A secret school, using pirated Network 23 educational programmes to taech the children of the Fringe, is raided by the Metrocops. Edison and Theora help one of the children to escape, and try to track down her mother and find out why Network 23's chief censor was involved in the raid. The censor appears to be getting ideas above his station, but he's underestimated Edison's stubbornness and Bryce's ingenuity ("Extremely difficult. Virtually impossible. However, it should take me only about ten seconds.").
(14) Baby Grobags [originally unaired in U.S.]
Written by Adrian Hein and Chris Ruppenthal
Directed by Janet Greek
Ovu-Vat offers the latest in high-tech pregnancy - you supply the genes and they'll grow the baby for you; no pain, no inconvenience, no risk, and no surprises. Theora isn't very impressed, especially when her friend Helen Zeno's baby disappears just before the "birth". Meanwhile, Network 66 has a new, high-rating show about child prodigies. Grossman is trying to lure Bryce away from Network 23, Edison is trying to find out what's going on, and Murray is trying to find an excuse to avoid visiting anything resembling a hospital ("Why are men so infantile about biology? I mean, mine is much more of a nuisance than yours and I never complain.").
― msp (mspa), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)