Generic Tie-In Dump

[dem]

Not quite Terror Tales From The Seaside material, but here's Daryl Hannah as Madison, the lovely half girl next door, half halibut of Cape Cod.

Ian Don - Splash! (Star, 1984)

Blurb:
She's the woman of Allen's dreams. She's crazy about him, and for the first time he's in love. She's got long blonde hair, big dark eyes, a beautiful smile. And a great pair of fins ....

Maybe, after Kojak: Requiem For A Cop ...

[andydecker]

the halibut with the strategically placed hair   

[andydecker]

Here a few more from the fathoms of my shelves. Sometime I could swear they breed in the dark.







Through the lowering clouds came the face of Zardoz, the god who gave Zed und the Exterminators the right to mate, the means to kill. What else in life was meaningful?
Then Zed entered the Godhead seeking ist mysteries, entering the world of the Vortex where Death was banished forever, stirring the Long-forgotten sexual desires of the Eternals, dividing them, reversing Time itself to find the true secret of the Tabernacle ...

Zed - an unlikely Champion against eternal evil ...





Odds against you? Got a Problem? Call the Equalizer.

A journalist's son murdered ... A crowded discotheque bombed ... An innocent young music teacher to become another victim ... There's a Terrorist loose in New York and he's paving the way for more brigades. Two men, once sworn enemies, must overcome their pasts to thwart this heartless killer before he unleashes a wave of Terror across America. One is a priest. The other is Robert McCall, THE EQUALIZER. On a collision course, each man must Close in on the Terrorist, but time is runing out ...


I really have to read Zardoz sometime. It had some good reviews. I liked the movie. It had more ideas then 5 of today's summer blockbuster combined.

[dem]

Many thanks to the H. P. Saucecraft video & book emporium for donating this pair to the cause. Don't remember either of these 'eighties TV shows, but I'm sure they were ... uh ...

Colin Bostock-Smith & Mary Danby - Metal Mickey's Boogie Book (Armada, 1981)

Blurb:
All kinds of fun from TV's most lovable robot and his friends Brainbox, Bootface, Stringbean, Stumblebum, and, of course, the little fruit-bat!


That "All kinds of fun" translates as stories, jokes, puzzles, quizzes & co, courtesy of the tin-ribbed star of the hit children's sci-fi sitcom.

Andrew Davies - Danger: Marmalade At Work (Thames Magnet, 1984)

'Marmalade Atkins, Social Worker
Private Marmalade
What The Butler Saw
Marmalade Bravo
Marmalade's Masquerade
Marmalade At The Working Men's Club
Airplane Atkins
Shame!

Blurb:
'He is a bit short and young.
You sure he's over sixteen?'
'You must be joking, cock!' said
Marmalade. 'And I'm not a boy either!'
Can the sternest disciplinary system in the world break the spirit of TV's naughtiest heroine ... ? Or will Marmalade be able to muck about in the army?
The book of Marmalade's hilarious new Thames TV adventures in which Marmalade takes on the Authorities — and makes mincemeat out of them!


Sampled a random chapter - you'll guess which by its title - and all I can say is that any men in soiled raincoats enticed into the world of Ms. Marmalade on the promise of some hot House Of Whipcord action - "the naughtiest heroine," "the sternest disciplinary system," etc - would have been sorely disappointed.

Thanks Dave

[ripper]

I remember the Metal Mickey series quite well. Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees fame was the show's producer and it starred the wonderful Irene Handl as the granny, or "fruit bat" as Metal Mickey called her affectionately.

I think there were several "Marmalade" series, but I didn't see that many episodes. I seem to remember that she spent some episodes being sent from school to school as she was so naughty, and inevitably by episode end would have been kicked out of another establishment.

[dem]

Agatha Christie's Poirot: Book Two (Fontana, 1990)

Blurb:
Monsieur Hercule Poirot pits his mind against fiendishly clever murderers, thieves and kidnappers.

Unmasking murderers ...
THE CORNISH MYSTERY
Mrs Pengelley believed she was being poisoned by her husband. When she died, he was convicted of her murder. But Poirot had someone else in mind.
Foiling kidnappers ...
THE KIDNAPPED PRIME MINISTER
The Prime Minister goes missing in France during the First World War and Poirot has twenty-four hours to find him.
Catching Thieves...
THE ADVENTURE OF `THE WESTERN STAR'
Two priceless diamonds are stolen: the owners were warned in advance and sought Poirot's help. Can he have failed?

Cover photograph : David Suchet stars as Inspector Hercule Poirot in LWT's AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT

Six from Poirot Investigates (but neither of the faux supernatural stories) plus The Cornish Mystery plus one apiece from The Underdog and Other Stories (1951), and The Double Sin and Other Stories (1961) suggests the editor was not overtaxed in compiling this one.

Max Franklin - Starsky & Hutch 6: The Psychic (Ballatine, June 1977)

Blurb:
HELP WANTED: A MENTALIST WITHOUT ANTS IN HIS TRANCE!
Two tough-as-nails jailbirds have snatched Joe Haymes' beautiful daughter, and asked the football team owner for major-league bucks to get her back.
He has signed up Starsky and Hutch to make an end run with the ransom — safely;
one fumble and it could mean her life — unless the boys can find her first.
Only a mind reader could solve this one, and the one they've got hasn't a thought in his head!

A Spelling-Goldberg Production starring David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser.
Created by William Blinn
Based on the script "The Psychic" by Michael Man

My lovely wife got me this as part of bumper Christmas bundle due to its mild occult-content potential, though back cover blurb suggests this is played for laughs. Never seen TV episode in question. Didn't they one take on a vampire?

Simon Green - Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (Fantail, 1991)

Blurb
IN A TIME OF COURAGE, TREACHERY, MAGIC AND ADVENTURE, "ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES" IS THE THRILLING TALE OF THE OUTLAW HERO WHO BATTLED FOR JUSTICE AGAINST THE FORCES OF GREED AND EVIL!

The legend lives on. Like a flaming arrow, Robin of Locksley emerges from the shadows of Sherwood Forest to blaze a path for the poor and downtrodden. With a mighty band of fighting men by his side — Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, the noble Saracen called Azeem and others — Robin wages a magnificent war against the vicious Sheriff of Nottingham ... and an equally passionate campaign for the heart of the beautiful Maid Marian. Wielding his bow and arrow with deadly accuracy, Robin of Locksley transforms himself into a new kind of hero with a new name:

ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES

A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING KEVIN COSTNER, MORGAN FREEMAN, CHRISTIAN SLATER, ALAN RICKMAN, AND MARY ELIZABETH MASTRANTONIO

Only one of the six I've yet read, and that part of a long-abandoned research project so no point asking what its like. Loved Alan Rickman's brilliantly demented, vaudevillian portrayal of the evil sheriff in the movie plus Ms Mastrantonio's nice hair. Could have done without that bloody song, though.

William Trevor - Marnie (Hodden & Stoughton, 1964: originally 1961)

Blurb:
MARNIE seemed such a nice girl - but she was a thief, a liar, a forger, an embezzler.
No one knew her real name, where she came from, or where she went .... which was exactly the way she wanted it.
But this time something had gone wrong. This time Marnie had walked into a trap. The game was over, or would have been .... if the man who trapped her hadn't caught himself as well.

Ashley McConnell - Quantum Leap: Carny Knowledge (Boxtree, 1993)

Blurb:
ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN...
ONE QUANTUM LEAP FOR MANKIND
Convinced by his theory that a man could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator - and vanished.
Somehow he was transported not only in time, but into someone else's life...
And the Quantum Leap project took on a whole new dimension.

Trapped in the body of a 1950s carnival worker, Sam Beckett learns the true meaning of thrills and chills. According to Al, Sam's holographic contact with the future, a roller coaster will derail in four days ...
The accident will result in seven deaths ...
And Sam's chances of stopping it are — one in a million.
QUANTUM LEAP: THE NOVEL

Ashley McConnell - Quantum Leap: The Wall (Boxtree, 1993)


Blurb:
WHEN YOU'RE UP AGAINST THE WALL, LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK...
Germany, 1961. A rigid world of dangerous. politics and strife. The Berlin Wall is under construction. And Dr. Sam Beckett has leaped into the life of a six-year-old-girl...
As Missy, he feels small and helpless. What can a child do to alter the fate of Germany and the world? Sam is about to find out when he leaps again — into the adult Missy...
On the day the Wall comes tumbling down.

Also published by Boxtree:
QUANTUM LEAP: TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
QUANTUM LEAP: CARNY KNOWLEDGE

There's also a Loch Ness Monster entry in the series which, must admit, I'd be more inclined to attempt.

[ripper]

Freewheelers: Sign of the Beaver by Alan Fennell (Piccolo 1972)

Blurb:


The audacious kidnapping of top diplomats the world over signals the start of another exciting adventure for the Freewheelers and their friends in MI6 . . . A dangerous trail leads the resourceful young teenagers from ambush in the Persian Gulf to a radio station in Norfolk, from a vanishing tank on Salisbury Plain to the snarling tigers of a travelling circus.

In a hair-raising finish Mike and Sue discover the secret of the Beaver only to come face to face with death in a fairground . . .

The cover photograph shows (from left to right) ADRIAN WRIGHT as Mike, WENDY PADBURY as Sue, RONALD LEIGH-HUNT as Colonel Buchan and LEONARD GREGORY as Steve stars of the Southern Television Series.



Picked this one up for £1.00 in a charity shop. This is the first of two Freewheelers tie-ins written in 1972 by Alan Fennell. Freewheelers was a children's adventure series running between 1968 and 1973 on ITV. It was very popular at the time and it spawned a Freewheelers comic strip in Look-In. Originally featuring a former nazi as villain, the nazi connection was dropped when the series was sold to West Germany. Being a Southern production and having the use of MV Southerner, the station's maritime outside broadcast unit, the series often featured extensive marine sequences. I remember the later series as being pretty exciting stuff, with plenty of action--just the thing to watch when gobbling down your tea after school. Wendy Padbury--Sue Craig in Freewheelers--was, of course, Zoe in the Patrick Troughton-era Dr. Who, and also was in cult horror film Blood on Satan's Claw.

[dem]

Couple more;

Cynthia Boris - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Pop Quiz (Pocket, Dec. 1999)

Blurb:
“Knowledge is the ultimate weapon."
- Xander Harris. "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date”
Think you're the Slayer when it comes to Buffy trivia? It's time to take our pop quiz and see if you're up to Buff snuff. Packed with photos and filled with tricky questions about characters, plots, soundtracks, and more, this book will seperate the wannabes from the would-be members of the Scooby Gang.

Which episode featured Oz's first glimpse of Willow?
What is Buffy's address?
What does Cordelia 's license plate say?
What did Giles want to be when he grew up”
In which episode did Jonathan first speak?

Test your Buffy IQ with these questions‘ Then, compare your results with friends to see if the breadth of your Buffy knowledge is enough to qualify you as the Chosen One.
Remember - in every generation, there is one ... are you ready to accept your destiny, and take this pop quiz?

Dave Stern - Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Pocket, 2001)

Blurb:

THE POWER
An ancient relic called the All Seeing Eye that grants the owner the ultimate power in the universe. A power so immense that those who possess it could rule the world.

THE ILLUMINATI

A secret brotherhood hell-bent on finding the All Seeing Eye and taking over the world. A sinister band of men who will stop at nothing to fulfil their diabolical plot.

THE HERO
Lara Croft. The greatest tomb-raiding, high-flying adventurer of all time, who just so happens to hold the key to finding the All Seeing

Through the living jungles of Cambodia to the foreign wasteland of Siberia, Lara Croft takes you on her greatest adventure.

The Clock is ticking and time is running out ...

[andydecker]

Buffy - this brings back memories. I really liked this, bought too much merchandise nonsense back then. This was a nice crew of actors with a lot of chemistry, some even had success later on. Most not.

Tomb Raider - I never was a fan of Angelina, but this should have been good. Instead it was a terrible waste of time.

[ropardoe]

Aug 29, 2017 8:19:16 GMT andydecker said:

Buffy - this brings back memories. I really liked this, bought too much merchandise nonsense back then. This was a nice crew of actors with a lot of chemistry, some even had success later on. Most not.

"Most not" is certainly the case, though some of the guest stars have gone on to greatness, such as Amy Adams. Passing quickly over seasons six and seven (like most long-lasting genre shows, it should have stopped with season five), there is still much to enjoy in Buffy. I must have watched all the seasons 1-5 episodes at least a dozen times (even "Beer Bad" - Buffy fans will know what I mean!), and the classic episodes still bear another viewing - "Hush" especially. Oh and in case anyone wonders, despite having watched it so often, I'd still need to double-check my answers to those questions above - not sure of any of them. When Buffy was a specialist subject on Mastermind I got about two questions right!

[andydecker]

Aug 29, 2017 8:40:12 GMT ropardoe said:

Aug 29, 2017 8:19:16 GMT andydecker said:

"Most not" is certainly the case, though some of the guest stars have gone on to greatness, such as Amy Adams. Passing quickly over seasons six and seven (like most long-lasting genre shows, it should have stopped with season five), there is still much to enjoy in Buffy. I must have watched all the seasons 1-5 episodes at least a dozen times (even "Beer Bad" - Buffy fans will know what I mean!), and the classic episodes still bear another viewing - "Hush" especially. Oh and in case anyone wonders, despite having watched it so often, I'd still need to double-check my answers to those questions above - not sure of any of them. When Buffy was a specialist subject on Mastermind I got about two questions right!

Yes, they really should have stopped with five   I also watched the series more than once, and while there were great episodes in the last two years - I don't like musicals, but "Once more with Feeling" still is fun, like the Xena musical -  on the whole it just didn't work. 

[ropardoe]

Aug 29, 2017 9:05:03 GMT andydecker said:

Aug 29, 2017 8:40:12 GMT ropardoe said:

"Most not" is certainly the case, though some of the guest stars have gone on to greatness, such as Amy Adams. Passing quickly over seasons six and seven (like most long-lasting genre shows, it should have stopped with season five), there is still much to enjoy in Buffy. I must have watched all the seasons 1-5 episodes at least a dozen times (even "Beer Bad" - Buffy fans will know what I mean!), and the classic episodes still bear another viewing - "Hush" especially. Oh and in case anyone wonders, despite having watched it so often, I'd still need to double-check my answers to those questions above - not sure of any of them. When Buffy was a specialist subject on Mastermind I got about two questions right!

Yes, they really should have stopped with five   I also watched the series more than once, and while there were great episodes in the last two years - I don't like musicals, but "Once more with Feeling" still is fun, like the Xena musical -  on the whole it just didn't work. 

Yes, I suppose season six of Buffy is worth it for the musical which is rather good (and for Andrew, who I always liked).  I agree about the Xena musical too - both of them in fact.  The first one, with the all-new music, was just delightfully fey and odd; the second one, with the heavily pregnant Lucy Lawless, really rocked at times - especially when that rather gorgeous, huge, Polynesian gentleman was singing.

[valdemar]

The tie-in novel of the 1979 movie 'The Black Hole', by Alan Dean Foster (writer of the Star Wars tie in, by the way, although credited to George Lucas), is a dark, bleak read. It follows the movie closely, but any thoughts that maybe, just maybe, the good guys had survived the transit through a singularity is dashed in the last few lines, which are something like: 'On a beach, was a grain of sand. Part of the quartz matrix that made up that grain of sand was something that had once been the consciousness of Charlie Pizer'. Cheers, Alan. Thanks a bunch. Mind you, his novelizations of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' and 'Alien' were pretty bleak as well. And yes, before you ask, 'The Black Hole' is one of my favourite guilty pleasures. So much wrong with it, but an awesome spectacle, nonetheless, especially when viewed on the big screen, with great sound.