Thursday, July 06, 2023

UK! UK UK Gatchaman!

 The lyric is actually "Yuke!", meaning "Go!", but it sounds appropriately close to "UK" to use as a title for a blog post detailing exactly when Battle of the Planets was on TV in Britain.

When I went to Tokyo for that particularly wonderful TV show, we went to a karaoke bar where they had a phone-book size listing of anime theme tunes you could sing. The cameraman, at my request, gave us a wonderful performance of the Gatchaman song, and I resolved to learn the lyrics in case I ever get invited back to Japan for a similar experience. Or just learn to read hiragana more quickly than one letter a second, so I can do the whole karaoke thing properly. Or write the lyrics down in romaji in advance of going to the karaoke bar. There are all kinds of ways I could prepare to do this song at karaoke, and I still haven't done any of them! Remind me, please, if I ever get invited back to Tokyo.

But anyway, I was reading on Tom Brevoort's blog about him watching Battle of the Planets when it first aired on US TV in 1978, and it made me curious to see exactly when the cartoon made it to these shores - I used to watch it on the BBC when I was very young, at some point in the early eighties, but that's as far as my memory goes. So I took to the BBC Genome site to find out exactly when the show appeared on the BBC, and wow, it was a weird broadcast schedule!

Of course, appearing in the Radio Times and thus being immortalised on the Genome site doesn't necessarily mean something will be shown on TV. There could be last-minute changes, strikes, newsflashes, Mary Whitehouse protests, all kinds of things that disrupted the BBC, but let's assume that this relatively harmless adventure cartoon made it to the airwaves without any problems.

There were 105 episodes of Gatchaman, but only 85 were adapted into Battle of the Planets. Most of the ongoing Gatchaman continuity was stripped out, so that Battle of the Planets could be shown and watched in just about any order, but according to this excellent website, there was a recommended episode order created by Sandy Frank Entertainment, distributed to every country and station that bought the episodes, and invariably completely ignored by those buyers. But it does look like a good order to watch them in, and probably lines up with the production order!

The BBC, though, did their own thing entirely. Sometimes it looks like they were following some sort of logic in deciding which episodes to show and when, but mostly it seems entirely random. They certainly weren't adhering to Sandy Frank's suggested order, nor the actual US transmission order, nor the Gatchaman order (Gatchaman episode numbers were used as production numbers by Sandy Frank, so might have been available for the BBC schedulers to see).

Another entirely different British episode order was offered by Longman home video releases - they gave us eight tapes, with four episodes on each, in or around 1984. Bad timing on their part; it was just before the new regulations requiring all video tape releases to be submitted to the BBFC for certification, meaning all uncertified tapes had to be removed from the shelves (all the hysteria about "video nasties" meant a lot of innocent cartoons suffered too!). But luckily I (in my capacity of custodian of my brother's video collection) have several of them here anyway!

The listings below show the episodes in the order they were shown by the BBC. The numbers shown by the episode titles are:
BBC - order of BBC first broadcast
SF - Sandy Frank's recommended order
US - original US broadcast order
G - Gatchaman episode number
LON - Longman home video order

So, it's 1979, the BBC have acquired a pile of 85 episodes of this cartoon - what do they do with it? To be fair, this is a few years before the flood of twenty-minute American cartoons hit these shores with their accompanying toy lines in the shops, and the BBC might have been uncertain whether this kind of thing would be popular. So they aired a sample in the autumn season, in the 4:35 slot reserved for slightly more mature children's entertainment, after Playschool but before John Craven's Newsround. Described in the Radio Times as "A new cartoon series of 12 science fiction adventure stories," it consisted of:
BBCSFUSGLON
111511-1Attack of the Space TerrapinMonday 03 Sep 1979 16:45
2161623-3Rescue of the AstronautsMonday 10 Sep 1979 16:35
3171963-2Big Robot Gold GrabMonday 17 Sep 1979 16:35
4383897-1The Jupiter Moon MenaceMonday 24 Sep 1979 16:35
5232211Space Rocket EscortMonday 01 Oct 1979 16:40
6262616Microfilm MysteryMonday 08 Oct 1979 16:40
7182124The Musical MummyMonday 15 Oct 1979 16:40
813225The Fiery Lava GiantMonday 22 Oct 1979 16:40
9145274-4Race Against DisasterMonday 29 Oct 1979 16:40
1024367-3Siege of the SquidsMonday 05 Nov 1979 16:40
11363637Orion, the Wonder Dog of SpaceMonday 12 Nov 1979 16:40
1211641The Space Rock ConcertMonday 19 Nov 1979 16:40

Well, "Attack of the Space Terrapin" is clearly the first episode, introducing the characters and format. Everyone realises that, except whoever created the American schedule. But these twelve BBC episodes do run in ascending order of the Gatchaman / production number, meaning that possibly the BBC's pile of tapes was put in that sequence, and somebody went through it picking out favourite episodes to put on TV?

Next summer, the same batch of episodes got repeated on Tuesdays...
BBCSFUSGLON
111511-1Attack of the Space TerrapinTuesday 01 Jul 1980 16:45
2161623-3Rescue of the AstronautsTuesday 08 Jul 1980 16:40
3171963-2Big Robot Gold GrabTuesday 15 Jul 1980 16:40

(with a two-week break because of coverage of the Olympics)

BBCSFUSGLON
4383897-1The Jupiter Moon MenaceTuesday 05 Aug 1980 16:40
5232211Space Rocket EscortTuesday 12 Aug 1980 16:40
6262616Microfilm MysteryTuesday 19 Aug 1980 16:40
7182124The Musical MummyTuesday 26 Aug 1980 16:40
813225The Fiery Lava GiantTuesday 02 Sep 1980 16:40

But after eight episodes, we've reached the start of the new season. Strangely, this meant relocating the Battle of the Planets repeats to Saturday mornings...

BBCSFUSGLON
9145274-4Race Against DisasterSaturday 06 Sep 1980 09:15
1024367-3Siege of the SquidsSaturday 13 Sep 1980 09:15

In 1980, TV wasn't a round-the-clock thing. Even "Breakfast TV" hadn't been invented yet. 9:15 in the morning was when BBC1 started transmitting - Battle of the Planets fans would be excitedly watching the test card, waiting for the show to start. And the Saturday morning magazine show "Multi-Coloured Swap Shop" wasn't an all-year-round thing; it started in late September and ran until late March every year. These Battle of the Planets episodes were followed by a repeat of "The Flashing Blade", a Bugs Bunny cartoon and then something sports-related.

This slot only lasted two weeks - BBC scheduling for early Saturdays was strangely incoherent. The next week, BBC1 opened with "Buford Files and Dinky Dog", and the week after that it was "Athlete", which was usually shown some time after ten. But the following week, perhaps because "Better Badminton", the new show which took over the 9:15 slot for a month or so, wasn't ready yet, Battle of the Planets made a one-off return!

And it wasn't the episode you might expect - Orion the Wonder Dog and The Space Rock Concert seem to have never been repeated by the BBC. No, it was one we'd never seen before!

BBCSFUSGLON
136565518-3Peaks of Planet OdinSaturday 04 Oct 1980 09:05

An all-new, thirteenth episode, starting at an unusually early five past nine in order to fit in before Swap Shop. This one was never repeated either.

But shortly after that, the Friday afternoon slot got what the Radio Times describes as "a series of five cartoons" in the weeks leading up to the Christmas holidays.

BBCSFUSGLON
14343442Prisoners in SpaceFriday 21 Nov 1980 16:20
153939457-4Seals of SytronFriday 28 Nov 1980 16:20
16353547Capture of the Galaxy CodeFriday 05 Dec 1980 16:20
17211748Raid on a Nearby PlanetFriday 12 Dec 1980 16:20
184444492-3Keyop Does It AllFriday 19 Dec 1980 16:20

And immediately after that, there was a new feature at lunchtimes, every day except Saturday, Christmas Day and New Year's Day!

BBCSFUSGLON
195959328-1Curse of the Cuttlefish, Part 1Monday 22 Dec 1980 12:15
206060338-2Curse of the Cuttlefish, Part 2Tuesday 23 Dec 1980 12:15
212424746-2Museum of MysteryWednesday 24 Dec 1980 12:15
22272783Mission to Inner SpaceFriday 26 Dec 1980 12:30
23817939The Fierce Flowers, Part 1Sunday 28 Dec 1980 11:40
24828040The Fierce Flowers, Part 2Monday 29 Dec 1980 12:15
25424286Super Space SpiesTuesday 30 Dec 1980 12:15
26434396Vacation on VenusWednesday 31 Dec 1980 12:30
27202373The Space SafariFriday 02 Jan 1981 12:10

There's definitely some logical thinking on the part of the BBC schedule people. Showing the two-part episodes on consecutive days is a good idea.

And now we're into 1981, and significantly this is the point where TV Comic started to run a weekly Battle of the Planets series (starting in the issue dated 17 April). It ran until the end of 1983, and it's fair to say this means the show had become a genuine part of the nation's popular culture (among children, at least). This was an original British comic strip, two pages a week with continuing storylines, unrelated to the American comic which had come out over there in 1979.

I never got TV Comic myself, so missed out on this, but we did have the 1984 "Holiday Special", which reprinted two issues of the American comic in black and white.

And so the BBC naturally wanted to put the show back on the air, right? They still had 58 episodes which had never been shown...


Well, actually, they ran some repeats. The episodes that were shown on Friday afternoons must have been filed away somewhere, because they never saw the light of day again, but the nine that had been on at lunchtimes over Christmas were still to hand, and ready to be shown a second time. The order has got mixed up, though, and they seem to have pulled one out at random to put on the schedules on the May Bank Holiday.

BBCSFUSGLON
212424746-2Museum of MysteryMonday 25 May 1981 10:30

And then on two consecutive Saturdays a month later, it's the return of the Curse of the Cuttlefish.

BBCSFUSGLON
195959328-1Curse of the Cuttlefish, Part 1Saturday 27 Jun 1981 10:20
206060338-2Curse of the Cuttlefish, Part 2Saturday 04 Jul 1981 10:25

And THEN, if the Genome site is to be believed... and I'm sorry, but on this occasion I really don't believe it... an all-new episode was shown on a Friday morning in August:

BBCSFUSGLON
283737597-2Secret IslandFriday 07 Aug 1981 10:10

This comes from one of the rare weeks in history when the Radio Times wasn't published, due to a printing dispute. The Genome details for that week have been provided by "Additional Research". Did the one week there was no Radio Times really coincide with the one time the BBC showed an episode of Battle of the Planets on a Friday morning? It seems unlikely. But on the other hand, where did the Genome researcher get the detail from if it wasn't shown that day? There's no other showing of "Secret Island" listed on Genome, ever. It's all a tantalising mystery that I'd really love to unravel one day.

Later in August, though, we settle into a weekly schedule of Saturday mornings. It was on every week, immediately after a repeat of The Monkees, and that does ring a bell in my memory. I have a feeling I might have watched them both on Saturday mornings in 1981, though we're still a few weeks away from my fifth birthday at this point. My mother might well have had the Monkees on, though; it was her kind of thing.

BBCSFUSGLON
23817939The Fierce Flowers, Part 1Saturday 22 Aug 1981 10:10
24828040The Fierce Flowers, Part 2Saturday 29 Aug 1981 10:15
29252568Silent CitySaturday 05 Sep 1981 09:25
22272783Mission to Inner SpaceSaturday 12 Sep 1981 10:15
26434396Vacation on VenusSaturday 19 Sep 1981 10:15
25424286Super Space SpiesSaturday 26 Sep 1981 10:15

Hey, look! There's an all-new episode among the repeats! If, again, the Radio Times is right. "Silent City" is marked as a repeat, but it doesn't seem to have been shown before. The missing one from this batch of episodes is "The Space Safari", but we're going to be seeing that one again not once but twice in years to come, so that would suggest it really didn't get shown in this batch.

That's it for Battle of the Planets for quite a while, though. No daily showings over Christmas this year, which must have disappointed the TV Comic-reading kids who remembered the festive season in 1980. They just had to wait until a pair of new episodes showed up on Saturdays in the Easter holidays of 1982!

BBCSFUSGLON
30414171The Alien BigfootSaturday 03 Apr 1982 10:25
31292987Cupid Does It to KeyopSaturday 10 Apr 1982 10:25

Then another long wait, until the final edition of "Get Set" (the Saturday morning magazine show that filled the summer schedule before being replaced by "Saturday Superstore") found that it had used up every episode of "Undersea Kingdom" with a week to spare, and had a gap in the usual slot. This is where we get to see "The Space Safari" again!

BBCSFUSGLON
27202373The Space SafariSaturday 25 Sep 1982 10:25

1982, all in all, was a dull year for Battle of the Planets fans. But the show made a welcome return to daily episodes in the Christmas holidays!

BBCSFUSGLON
323762Decoys of DoomTuesday 21 Dec 1982 10:25
33616169Peril in the PyramidsWednesday 22 Dec 1982 10:25
345151100G-Force in the FutureThursday 23 Dec 1982 10:25
356968896-3Island of FearFriday 24 Dec 1982 10:25
3691080Panic of the PeacockMonday 27 Dec 1982 10:40
37626293Save the Space ColonyTuesday 28 Dec 1982 10:40
38676672Invasion of the LocustsWednesday 29 Dec 1982 10:30
3961581-4Giant From the Planet ZyrThursday 30 Dec 1982 10:30
30414171The Alien BigfootFriday 31 Dec 1982 10:30
31292987Cupid Does It to KeyopMonday 03 Jan 1983 10:25

Eight never-before-seen episodes, and repeats of the pair from Easter! We're now well into the fourth year of the BBC having access to this cartoon, and still less than half of the episodes have made it to our screens, but perhaps that made it even more exciting when a new batch appeared!


1983 was another quiet year, though. It seemed like things might get good when Battle of the Planets returned to the weekday afternoon slot in July...

BBCSFUSGLON
402828105-1A Swarm of Robot AntsTuesday 26 Jul 1983 16:45
41323212Beast with a Sweet ToothTuesday 02 Aug 1983 16:45
33616169Peril in the PyramidsTuesday 09 Aug 1983 16:45
27202373The Space SafariTuesday 16 Aug 1983 16:45
3691080Panic of the PeacockTuesday 23 Aug 1983 16:45
356968896-3Island of FearTuesday 30 Aug 1983 16:45
345151100G-Force in the FutureTuesday 06 Sep 1983 16:45

... but although we got two new episodes, they were followed by five repeats, taken from the ones shown the previous Christmas. Strangely, though, "Decoys of Doom" never gets a second showing, and "The Space Safari" becomes the one and only Battle of the Planets episode to get a third airing on the BBC!

The other three new ones from last Christmas get repeated this year...

BBCSFUSGLON
37626293Save the Space ColonyWednesday 21 Dec 1983 09:20
38676672Invasion of the LocustsThursday 22 Dec 1983 09:20
3961581-4Giant From the Planet ZyrFriday 23 Dec 1983 09:50

... but the BBC seems to have exhausted its supplies for the moment, and there's nothing to put on in the second week of the holidays this time around. The timeslot was filled with Wacky Races and Play Chess, with Bill Hartston. Bill Hartston is very cool, but it's a shame he had to replace Battle of the Planets.


The TV Comic series has ended now, and viewers must have assumed they'd seen the last of Battle of the Planets. But how wrong they were! 1984 turned out to be a great year for the fans! That year gave us twenty-nine never-before-seen episodes, and no repeats! And that was the year those Longman videos hit the shelves, too! And that Holiday Special comic which I really loved! It all starts with daily early-morning episodes in the Easter holidays:

BBCSFUSGLON
4248483The Space MummyMonday 16 Apr 1984 09:00
4346464The Space SerpentTuesday 17 Apr 1984 09:00
44404053-1Ghost Ship of the Planet MirWednesday 18 Apr 1984 09:00
4554547Ace From Outer SpaceThursday 19 Apr 1984 09:00
4674728Fearful Sea AnemoneFriday 20 Apr 1984 09:00
47505014Perilous Pleasure CruiseMonday 23 Apr 1984 09:00
4879152-2Thing with 1,000 EyesTuesday 24 Apr 1984 09:00
49757517The Alien BeetlesWednesday 25 Apr 1984 09:00
50646423Magnetic AttractionThursday 26 Apr 1984 09:00
517170316-4The Galaxy GirlsFriday 27 Apr 1984 09:00

And it was a very late Easter in 1984, so as soon as you're back at school we're into the May bank holidays, which each got a new episode too!

BBCSFUSGLON
526867438-4Victims of the HawkMonday 07 May 1984 09:00
53333344Raid on RigaMonday 28 May 1984 09:00

And then we're back on Children's BBC for the summer season, weekly at 4:45 or thereabouts:

BBCSFUSGLON
54414211-2Mad New Ruler of SpectraTuesday 24 Jul 1984 16:45
55494922The Sea DragonTuesday 31 Jul 1984 16:45
567778264-3The Bat Ray BombersTuesday 07 Aug 1984 16:45
57454535Demons of the DesertTuesday 14 Aug 1984 16:45
58813572-1Fastest Gun in the GalaxyTuesday 21 Aug 1984 16:45
59555560Giant Space BatTuesday 28 Aug 1984 16:40
606363636-1Zoltar Strikes OutWednesday 05 Sep 1984 16:30
617877704-1Rage of the RobotoidsWednesday 12 Sep 1984 16:30
62737476The Awesome Ray ForceWednesday 19 Sep 1984 16:30

And then... I'm not sure what's going on here. There wasn't a two-week half-term holiday in October 1984 - as usual, some schools had the first week and some had the second, most likely, but every schoolkid must have missed one week's worth of new episodes shown on weekday mornings for a fortnight!

BBCSFUSGLON
63575746Giant Gila MonsterMonday 22 Oct 1984 09:00
64798252The Sky is Falling!, Part 1Tuesday 23 Oct 1984 09:00
65808353The Sky is Falling!, Part 2Wednesday 24 Oct 1984 09:00
66303054Raid of the Red ScorpionFriday 26 Oct 1984 09:00
67121855Mammoth Shark MenaceMonday 29 Oct 1984 09:00
68198615-3Attack of the Alien WaspTuesday 30 Oct 1984 09:00
695656652-4The Great Brain RobberyWednesday 31 Oct 1984 09:00
7010367Raid of the Space OctopusFriday 02 Nov 1984 09:00

But what a great year for Battle of the Planets! No Christmas holiday episodes this year, which is a shame, but that six and a half months of new episodes was more than enough to keep the people happy. Could it continue into 1985? Well, no. The stack of unbroadcast episodes is running low, all these years after the BBC bought them. We're heading for a lot of repeats in what turned out to be the show's final year on British TV. 

BBCSFUSGLON
4248483
The Space MummySaturday 02 Mar 1985 08:35
4346464The Space SerpentSaturday 09 Mar 1985 08:35
44404053-1Ghost Ship of the Planet MirSaturday 16 Mar 1985 08:35
4554547Ace From Outer SpaceSaturday 23 Mar 1985 08:35
4674728Fearful Sea AnemoneSaturday 30 Mar 1985 08:35
47505014Perilous Pleasure CruiseSaturday 06 Apr 1985 08:35
4879152-2Thing with 1,000 EyesSaturday 13 Apr 1985 08:35

Saturday morning repeats, at the unprecedentedly early hour of 8:35, showing the episodes that previously appeared over Easter 1984. The department responsible for Saturdays were clearly different from the department responsible for Easter holiday weekdays, because the last few Saturday repeats there came in this year's Easter, which got something different on Monday to Friday!

BBCSFUSGLON
71512751-3Peril of the Praying MantisMonday 01 Apr 1985 09:20
72585877The Duplicate KingTuesday 02 Apr 1985 09:20
73535388Tentacles From SpaceWednesday 03 Apr 1985 09:20
74525290The Awesome ArmadilloThursday 04 Apr 1985 09:20
75474797Rockets Out of ControlFriday 05 Apr 1985 09:20
76666998G-Force DefectorMonday 08 Apr 1985 09:20
77848491Invasion of the Space Center, Part 1Tuesday 09 Apr 1985 09:20
78858592Invasion of the Space Center, Part 2Wednesday 10 Apr 1985 09:20
79707399Strike at SpectraThursday 11 Apr 1985 09:20
807271101The Conway Tape TapFriday 12 Apr 1985 09:20

Once again, ten brand-new adventures in the Easter holidays! And then we're back on Wednesday afternoons for the summer season, but with only two unshown episodes before we go back to repeats...

BBCSFUSGLON
817676794-2Defector to SpectraWednesday 05 Jun 1985 16:35
823131845-4Spectra Space SpiderWednesday 12 Jun 1985 16:35
402828105-1A Swarm of Robot AntsWednesday 19 Jun 1985 16:35
41323212Beast with a Sweet ToothWednesday 26 Jun 1985 16:40
54414211-2Mad New Ruler of SpectraWednesday 03 Jul 1985 16:40
55494922The Sea DragonWednesday 10 Jul 1985 16:40
567778264-3The Bat Ray BombersWednesday 17 Jul 1985 16:40
57454535Demons of the DesertWednesday 24 Jul 1985 16:40
58813572-1Fastest Gun in the GalaxyWednesday 31 Jul 1985 16:40
59555560Giant Space BatWednesday 07 Aug 1985 16:40
606363636-1Zoltar Strikes OutWednesday 14 Aug 1985 16:40
617877704-1Rage of the RobotoidsWednesday 21 Aug 1985 16:35
62737476The Awesome Ray ForceWednesday 28 Aug 1985 16:35
49757517The Alien BeetlesWednesday 04 Sep 1985 16:40
71512751-3Peril of the Praying MantisWednesday 11 Sep 1985 16:10
72585877The Duplicate KingWednesday 18 Sep 1985 16:10

Interestingly, the first two repeats had been shown for the first time in summer 1983. Then came the nine from summer 1984, then "The Alien Beetles" from Easter 1984, then the first two from Easter 1985.

What makes this more fascinating is that "Saturday Picture Show", the summer Saturday-morning magazine show of 1985 was also showing Battle of the Planets during this time, for at least ten weeks - but it infuriatingly didn't list the episode titles in the Radio Times! So all I can offer is...

?Saturday 29 Jun 1985 08:30
?Saturday 06 Jul 1985 08:30
?Saturday 13 Jul 1985 08:30
?Saturday 20 Jul 1985 08:30
?Saturday 27 Jul 1985 08:30
?Saturday 03 Aug 1985 08:30
?Saturday 10 Aug 1985 08:30
?Saturday 17 Aug 1985 08:30
?Saturday 24 Aug 1985 08:30
?Saturday 31 Aug 1985 08:30

The Radio Times for the 17th of August doesn't mention Battle of the Planets at all, but I assume it was still on. Which episodes would these have been? I would guess the two remaining unrepeated ones from Easter 1984, and the eight episodes from the October double-half-term, but guesswork is all I have to go on here.

And finally, there was one more repeat popped up on our screens at the end of September...

BBCSFUSGLON
73535388Tentacles From SpaceSaturday 28 Sep 1985 08:40

And that's that. No more Battle of the Planets on the BBC. It's taken them six years, but they've got through that pile of episodes at last. Except, of course, for the three that they must have lost somewhere...

BBCSFUSGLON
X1511183-4A Whale Joins G-Force
X2220305-2The Ghostly Grasshopper
X838195Charioteers of Changu

These three seem never to have made it to our screens over here. Unless you bought the Longman videos which included two of them, of course! But poor old Charioteers of Changu never saw the light of day.

All things considered, I doubt anybody in the whole of the UK watched every episode of Battle of the Planets. Catching them all, with such erratic scheduling, would have been an impossible task even for the most obsessive viewer! It's not like Thundercats, which came just a year and a bit after "Tentacles From Space" closed off the adventures of G-Force - that one came in two solid batches of episodes, shown weekly and repeated several times, in the days when home video recorders were a lot more common. The BBC had maybe learnt a lesson or two by then, just in time to provide me with my particular 1980s cartoon obsession - but Battle of the Planets is another one I love today even despite only catching a few stray episodes here and there over my younger years! It really must have been something special!

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