THE CHAMPIONS (1968-1969) – This British series from ITC featured three secret agents whose plane crash-landed near Shangri-La, the secret civilization in the Himalayas. They were granted enhanced physical strength and superior senses as well as ESP. They used their new abilities in their role as secret agents for an international organization called Nemesis.
Stuart Damon, later to star on General Hospital for 30 years, played pilot Craig Stirling, with Alexandra Bastedo as physician and scientist Sharron Macready and William Gaunt as code-breaker Richard Barrett. Naturally, their enhanced abilities now made them much more useful to the Geneva-based Nemesis.
Anthony Nicholls co-starred as our trio’s boss W.L. Tremayne, who did not know how his prize agents gained their paranormal abilities.
The Champions ran for 30 hour-long installments.
THE EPISODES:
THE BEGINNING – Pilot Craig Stirling is flying himself and his colleagues Dr. Sharron Macready and William Gaunt out of Communist China after completing their latest mission. The Chinese Air Force damages their plane to such a degree that they crash-land in the Himalayas and learn Shangri-La really exists. The three are granted paranormal abilities and return to the world at large. Burt Kwouk guest stars.
THE INVISIBLE MAN – Peter Wyngarde, better known as Jason King from Department S and his own eponymous series, plays the villainous Dr. Hallam. He has invented ear-buds which let him control the minds of people in whose ears he places them. He and his thralls try robbing a fortune in gold from British banks. Maggie Wright guest stars and David “Darth Vader’s body” Prowse also appears. Continue reading
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMES JOYCE! His works got me hooked in my teens when I really related to his character Stephen Dedalus as he rejected his religion and indulged what I call his “young and pretentious side” in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). I wore out my copy of Joyce’s novel Ulysses (1922) and continue to mark Bloom’s Day to this very day.
This weekend’s belated superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at this Iron Fist adventure serialized in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. It was penned by Chris Claremont and though it features his X-Men foes the Demons of the N’Garai and a woman called the Firebird whose schtick resembles his later retcons to the Phoenix Force, the story ultimately sucks and is an incoherent mess. 
DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU Vol 1 #19 (Dec 1975)
Iron Fist attacks the pair, joined by Colleen, who is swiftly defeated. Our hero continues fighting the Messengers and when he uses the power of the Iron Fist to finish them off, that somehow causes him and Jade to be transported from Earth to Feng-Tu. They are in the throne room of Dhasha Khan (right), who affirms that he is the ruler of this afterlife and states that he plans to strip Jade of her soul and have it damned forever.
SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER (1979) – The British Film Institute has released a terrific video edition of this 69-minute Gothic Horror telefilm which originally aired on December 23rd, 1979 as part of the Omnibus program. 
Jeremy Clyde of Chad & Jeremy fame stars as the Dutch artist Schalcken with Maurice Denham as his already famous teacher Garrett Dou and Cheryl Kennedy as Rose, Dou’s niece and Schalcken’s desire.
A JOURNEY IN THE TWENTY-NINTH CENTURY (1824) – Written by Faddei Bulgarin, who had served in the Polish Legion of Napoleon’s Grand Army in his youth before going on to work for the Czars of Russia. In this fascinating tale an unnamed narrator gets swept overboard in the Gulf of Finland in 1824. The cold water and another element somehow put him in suspended animation and when he comes to he is all the way over in Siberia, where his body was recovered in the waters of Cape Shelagski centuries after he was lost at sea.
THE EAGLE (1925) – Valentino dabbled in 
GREAT GHOST TALES (1961) – This half-hour series featured dramatizations of horror stories from Algernon Blackwood, Saki, Edgar Allan Poe and others. It was also the very last regularly scheduled fiction program to be broadcast live in the U.S. 
A. Ngai, the creator god, divider of the universe, divider of the land from the sea and owner of the dazzling light, descended to the Earth shortly after making it. Mists covered the entire world because of how freshly made it was. 
FUNGUS ISLE (1923) – Written by Philip M Fisher. Fungus Isle has the same proto-Creature Feature feel to it that The True Inheritors (qv) had. In the case of the previously reviewed story, it was a forerunner of various giant spider flicks. 
DOWN GOES NUMBER ONE – In this game the WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY CARDINALS welcomed the top ranked team in the nation – the TRINITY (CT) BANTAMS. The Cardinals put Trinity on Upset Alert with their 38-31 lead at the Half. After the break the Bantams rallied but fell short as Wesleyan U. triumphed 64-62 led by 22 points from Sam Pohlman. 
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER FOUR – The OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY POLAR BEARS played host to the nation’s number 4 team – the UNIVERSITY OF MT. UNION PURPLE RAIDERS. This was a defensive epic, with the Polar Bears up 26-19 come Halftime before winning the game 64-50 from there. Aiden Harris led Ohio Northern University with 18 points. 
CENTURY CLUB – Teams scoring at least 100 points in Regulation: The CAIRN UNIVERSITY HIGHLANDERS won 104-83 at the PSU-ABINGTON LIONS ### Meanwhile, the GREENVILLE UNIVERSITY PANTHERS defeated their guests the BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY BEAVERS 124-110 ### And the TRINITY (TX) TIGERS downed the SEWANEE UNIVERSITY TIGERS 103-84. 
