The continuing adventures of the crew of Supercar, based at the Black Rock laboratory in the Nevada Desert in 1962.
AP Films/ATV Associated TeleVision/ITC
Produced: 1961-62
First UK Broadcast: Sunday 4th February 1962 – 5.20pm
ATV London
13 episodes x 25 minutes
Producer: Gerry Anderson
Director of Photography: John Read
Art Supervisor: Reg Hill
Production Supervisor: David Elliott
Lighting Cameraman: Ian Struthers
Dialogue Direction: Sylvia Anderson
Art Director: Bob Bell
Special Effects: Derek Meddings
Music Composed, Arranged and Conducted by Barry Gray
| Episodes List | |
|---|---|
| 1 |
The Runaway Train In order to help the Army’s Colonel Harris develop a quick, safe method of removing tanks from a war zone, Beaker develops a pair of powerful electromagnetic grabs which he installs on Supercar. The team then join Beaker on a trip to England where the doctor has been invited to operate a prototype diesel train fitted with an atomic engine on its maiden journey from London to Brighton. Unfortunately, Masterspy has been hired by a foreign government to assassinate a VIP who has been causing trouble for them. The VIP will be travelling on the train, so Masterspy sabotages the atomic reactor so that once the train has started on its journey, no one will be able to stop it – the train will continue to accelerate until it crashes into the station at the end of the line! Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by David Elliott Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): Anglia
ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Scottish
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 2 |
Precious Cargo Popkiss and Jimmy visit the Professor’s sister Heidi at her home in Chicago. Heidi reveals that she cooks her chicken in wine purchased by mail order from France, so Popkiss makes a note of the vintner’s address and sends an order of his own. However, Monsieur Laval is a wicked tyrant who dresses his young ward Zizi in rags, forcing her to do his housework and beating her if she does not meet his unreasonable expectations. Zizi dreams of being rescued by Jimmy in Supercar, so she hides inside the crate of wine that Popkiss has ordered and is delivered to the Black Rock laboratory. She is discovered when die crate is opened but while Mike, Beaker and Popkiss discuss what is to be done with her, Zizi fears that she will be sent back to cruel Monsieur Laval… Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Alan Pattillo Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): Anglia
ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Tyne Tees
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 3 |
Operation Superstork Beaker is up all night working on his latest project and the constant hammering keeps Popkiss awake. The next morning, Beaker reveals to Mike and Jimmy that he has built a hot air balloon, although he has yet to fit a release valve for the gas which enables the balloon to descend. Unfortunately, Mitch unties the balloon’s guy rope while Mike, Beaker and Jimmy are aboard and the balloon floats away with no way for the trio to take it back down. As the balloon rises higher, the air thins and Beaker works out that they have only 90 minutes before the balloon bursts. Furthermore, there is only one parachute on board and the balloon is heading straight for a storm. Popkiss could rescue them in Supercar, but he has been asleep all morning and doesn’t know that they are in trouble! Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Desmond Saunders Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): Anglia
ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 4 |
Hi-Jack President Gourmet of Bantonga decides that he should have a new Presidential aircraft to replace his battered old bi-plane, so he sends Lieutenant Soir to America to acquire a Boeing 707 jet airliner. Bill Gibson has been hired by Interstate Airlines to train the crews of their new fleet of Boeing 707s, and Jimmy and Beaker join him on his first training flight, unaware that Bill’s pupil, Captain Ross, has been replaced by Soir. Soir forces Bill to change course and the Supercar team soon realise that the plane has been hi-jacked! Meanwhile, Masterspy and Zarin, who arranged the kidnapping of the real Captain Ross, gamble away their fee playing roulette aboard Gourmet’s private yacht, but when Masterspy realises that the roulette table was rigged, he vows to get even with Gourmet… Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Bill Harris Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Tyne Tees
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 5 |
Calling Charlie Queen The Supercar team return from a test flight to receive a mysterious distress call sent to one ‘Charlie Queen’. Explaining that Charlie Queen is a general call sign for help from any radio station that intercepts the transmission, Beaker pinpoints the general location of the signal at Petersville, 300 miles away. Mike, Beaker and Mitch fly there in Supercar and arrive at a creepy old house owned by the deranged Professor Karloff who drugs their coffee, When they recover consciousness, the Supercar trio discover that they have been miniaturised along with Karloff’s former assistant, Hopkins, who sent the radio message. Hopkins reveals Karloff’s plan to contaminate the water supplies of major American cities with a formula that will miniaturise the entire population! Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Alan Pattillo Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): Anglia
ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 6 |
Space For Mitch The Supercar team are assisting Dr Harvey with a revolutionary prototype space rocket which is half the size of a conventional rocket and capable of being launched by only a few people, cutting the cost of sending a man into space by half. After the first test with an unmanned capsule proves successful, a second test is planned with Bill Gibson aboard the capsule. However, Mitch has been looking at pictures of space monkey Ham and, during the night, he sneaks into the rocket wearing Bill’s spacesuit and activates the controls to launch himself into space. As the retro rockets are designed to be fired by the astronaut from inside the capsule, there is no way to bring the capsule down by remote control, so Mike launches into space in Supercar on a rescue mission. Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Desmond Saunders Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): Anglia
ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 7 |
The Sky's The Limit Masterspy and Zarin have become obscenely wealthy by printing counterfeit money and now own everything that money can buy – except Supercar. Writing as Joshua T Zarius III, Masterspy offers Popkiss a billion dollars for the car, but Popkiss writes back to say that it is not for sale. Meanwhile, Beaker has invented a new hard-wearing paint that will resist all attempts to damage it, although it proves to have a strange side-effect, making everything painted with it turn invisible. Then Masterspy hires a pair of gangsters, Jazz and Bud, to help him lay siege to the Black Rock laboratory, cutting the telephone cable and wrecking the radio transmitter before trapping the team inside under machine-gun fire. Mike decides to launch Supercar, but Masterspy has fixed a bomb to the roof doors… Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Bill Harris Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): Anglia
ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 8 |
70-B-Lo Popkiss is rushed to Batesville Hospital with appendicitis but after his appendix is removed, he requires a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, Popkiss has a very rare blood group and the only compatible donor is Professor Karzinsky, currently engaged on a top secret mission at Base 24, 20 miles from the North Pole and cut off from conventional transport by a blizzard. Mike sets off in Supercar with Dr Maslin to obtain the necessary plasma from Karzinsky, but at Base 24, Karzinsky learns that his unscrupulous assistant Jason intends to sell information about their discovery of rich uranium deposits to the highest bidding superpower. When he hears that Supercar is on its way, Jason sets in motion plans to steal the car and leave Mike, Maslin and Karzinsky stranded… Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Alan Pattillo Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): Anglia
ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 9 |
Atomic Witch Hunt A foreign power is planting miniature atomic bombs in locations across America and the State Department has been unable to determine how the bombs are being smuggled into the country. Checking through newspapers for the last six months, the Supercar team find reports that unidentified submarines have been sighted off the coast of Temport, so they fly there in Supercar to investigate. As they search the coastline, the team spot an unmarked submarine and follow it to a cave entrance. Leaving Popkiss and Jimmy to set up a radio station on the beach, Mike and Beaker enter the cave in Supercar, surfacing in a cavern where they find the miniature bombs arid a powerful transmitter to activate them by remote control. Unfortunately, they have walked into a trap triggered by stepping on a concealed panel in the floor – if they move, they will be cut down by machine gun fire! Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Desmond Saunders Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): Anglia
ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Tyne Tees
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 10 |
Jail Break Beaker has developed a new ejector seat for Supercar fitted with retro rockets instead of a parachute. Mike tests it successfully, but ends up landing on a big cactus in the desert. Meanwhile, Red James hires a helicopter from Sam Weston’s Helicopter Services Inc, purportedly to take aerial photographs, but when James pulls a gun on Weston and orders him to head for the State Penitentiary, the pilot realises that James intends to use the helicopter to break Joe Anna out of prison. James lowers a winch to pull the bars of Anna’s cell window out of the wall with Anna hanging on to them. Then, as the helicopter flies over Black Rock, James comes up with a new escape plan and decides to land near the laboratory. The crooks break into the workshop and threaten Jimmy with a gun unless Mike agrees to fly Anna to Mexico in Supercar, but once they are in the air, Mike opens the canopy and activates his new ejector seat… Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Bill Harris Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Tyne Tees
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 11 |
The Day That Time Stood Still On Mercurius, the planet of dreams, Planitimus sends Kalmus on a mission to Earth, where a sighting of his flying saucer by Senator Glanville is reported on the radio. Mike doesn’t believe a word of it as he listens to the radio before turning in. That night, he dreams that it is his birthday and he is sent in Supercar to collect Aunt Heidi and Zizi from Chicago while the rest of the team prepare a surprise birthday party. Mike is deliberately delayed by Aunt Heidi until the party is ready and the festivities commence as soon as they return to the laboratory. Beaker plays his revolutionary new Beakette organ and Zizi sings a song: , but then Kalmus appears and makes time stand still. All but Mike, Beaker and Mitch are frozen in place as Kalmus carries out his assignment… Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Alan Pattillo Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Tyne Tees
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 12 |
Transatlantic Cable Masterspy has hired a pair of divers, Foreman and Johnson, to tap the transatlantic telephone cable in order to intercept confidential business information which he can sell to his clients. When Mike is asked by Mr Bell of the Telecable Corporation to find out who is tampering with the cable, the Supercar team set out on an Atlantic crossing to see if they can find a ship that the culprits could be operating from. As they follow the cable along the sea bed, Jimmy spots a light in a porthole of a sunken merchant vessel, but his colleagues believe that he has imagined it. However, the shipwreck is indeed being used as a base by Foreman and Johnson, who prepare to make another telephone interception… Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Desmond Saunders Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| 13 |
King Kool Beaker makes a drum kit so that Jimmy can teach Mitch to play the drums like the famous giant ape jazz drummer King Kool. Then Jimmy reads that King Kool lives on Lincoln Drive in Batesville, so when Beaker goes there to visit his friend Professor Harlow, Mitch sneaks aboard Beaker’s truck for the trip into town. Mitch finds King Kool locked in a cage at the house of pianist Bud Hamburger, but when he opens the cage door, King Kool escapes, locks Mitch in the cage in his place and then hides in the back of Beaker’s truck. When Beaker returns to the laboratory later that night, King Kool finds Mitch’s bed and goes to sleep, but next morning, the Supercar team mistake King Kool for Mitch, drinking that the little chimp has somehow grown to gigantic size! Story by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Directed by Bill Harris Additional Voice Cast:
First UK Airdates:
Repeat Broadcasts (ITV): ATV London
ATV Midlands
Grampian
Granada
Rest Of The World Broadcasts: Australia
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| Cast List | |
|---|---|
| Mike Mercury | Graydon Gould |
| Professor Rudolph Popkiss | Cyril Shaps |
| Dr. Horatio Beaker | David Graham |
| Jimmy Gibson | Sylvia Anderson |
| Mitch | David Graham |
| Masterspy | Cyril Shaps |
| Zarin | David Graham |