October 1998

3rd-9th October

	Doctor Who
	The War Machines UK Gold, Saturday, 10.05
	The War Machines has had a turbulent life, but thanks to work by the ‘Restoration Team’, a good copy finally exists. The story is of a computer named WOTAN who wishes to take over the world. To succeed in this endeavour, it has created the War Machines, a bunch of Dalek wannabes who are tough on cardboard boxes, but not too confident when going up against anything harder. Now, only Doctor Who is required... William Hartnell is on good form here, and although it would have been nice to see Dodo actually leaving properly, Ben and Polly make fun (and more interesting) replacements. (PS) pic © BBC

10th-16th October

	Star Trek: Voyager
	Hope and Fear Sky One, Monday, 20.00
	The exciting season finale of Voyager! The crew meet an alien named Arturis who has the handy ability to pick up and translate languages, just as the crew want to know what Starfleet had to tell them. Soon, Voyager has a new ship at its disposal, but will they get home? Obviously not, but it’s fun getting there, with some nice character moments between a Janeway suspicious of Arturis’s motives and a Seven of Nine wary of returning to Earth, a planet her ex-kind very nearly assimilated. (PS) pic © Paramount

17th-23rd October

	Babylon 5
	Sic Transit Vir Sci-Fi Channel, Tuesday, 21.00
	When a Narn sets out to track Vir down and kill him as part of a blood oath, it becomes clear that he has done something very seriously wrong. And that something is killing hundreds of Narn. As if Vir doesn’t have enough to worry about, Londo then provides him with a wife... In Babylon 5, nothing is what it appears, and what is really going on is surprising, and presents Vir as a much cleverer man than he has previously appeared. Stephen Furst is excellent, finally getting the chance to show more range in the part of Vir. (PS) pic © Warner Bros

24th-30th October

	The Avengers
	Wish You Were Here Granada Plus, Wednesday 10.00, 15.00, 20.00
	‘I’m not your uncle, I’m your Mother!’ Having been heroic solo in All Done With Mirrors, Tara is funny here, nursemaiding Mother’s irritating nephew Basil while she investigates her uncle’s disappearance. The subversion of expectations is very Avengers, with a country hotel run by weaselly hotel manager Dudley Foster deploying imaginative methods to stop people leaving. Tara gets the chance for some choice looks and great slapstick fights, with a clever way to beat the villains. Steed and Mother have an amusing cameo, on a complicated double-agent hunt in a roomful of cutouts. An entertaining episode if no classic, it’s high time it was released on video. (AW)

Highlights by: John Ainsworth (JA), Paul Spragg (PS), Alex Wilcock (AW)

hIGHFor more highlights, and complete broadcast and merchandise listings for October, see Cult Times #37