Counterstrike (TV series)

Counterstrike (TV series)
Counterstrike
Genre Sci-Fi
Starring Jon Finch
Sarah Brackett
Katie Fitzroy
Country of origin  United Kingdom
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 10
Production
Running time 50 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel BBC
Original airing 8 September 1969

Counterstrike is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC in 1969.

The series starred Jon Finch as an alien living on Earth as a human named Simon King. He was assigned to live there to prevent an alien invasion of the planet.

The programme lasted for one series of ten episodes, but only nine episodes were actually transmitted. The screening of the sixth episode, "Out of Mind", was canceled on the day it was due to be shown (13th October 1969) due to a late schedule change, being replaced by a documentary on the Kray brothers who had been refused leave to appeal against their prison sentences on that same day. For reasons that will probably never be known, "Out of Mind" was never rescheduled; it was subsequently wiped from the BBC Archives and has never been screened – thus making it possibly one of the rarest pieces of British science fiction television.

The first four episodes – "King's Gambit", "Joker's One", "On Ice" and "Nocturne" – still exist in the BBC Archives as 16mm Black & White Film telerecordings, while the remaining five transmitted instalments – "Monolith", "The Lemming Syndrome", "Backlash", "All That Glisters" and "The Mutant" – are listed as missing by the Lost Shows website.

Episode list

  1. King's Gambit – 8th September 1969
  2. Joker's One – 15th September 1969
  3. On Ice – 22nd September 1969
  4. Nocturne – 29th September 1969
  5. Monolith – 6th October 1969
  6. Out of Mindnot transmitted (originally scheduled for 13th October 1969)
  7. The Lemming Syndrome – 20th October 1969
  8. Backlash – 27th October 1969
  9. All That Glisters – 3rd November 1969
  10. The Mutant – 10th November 1969

External links