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Secret Formula

Synopsis:
While vacationing on Venus, Husky is nearly killed by a Spirigum spider when he becomes trapped in a web while visiting the Silver Forest. The web is apparently unbreakable and a cocooned Husky is taken back to Earth. There, Haggarty finds a means of freeing him but also finds that the crystalline structure of the web acts as a truth drug. This turns out to be very useful when Dart investigates the apparent kidnapping of Dr Mason by Martian industrialist Kolig over a new material called Kinotine...

Galasphere 347 approaches Asteroid
Cast
Captain Larry Dart
Husky
Slim
Colonel Raeburn
Marla
Professor Haggarty
Gabbler
Doctor Mason
Kolig
Kolig's Aide
The Venusian President
The Martian President
General Smith
Voice of Space Headquarters Cresta

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Dick Vosburgh
Ronnie Stevens
Ronnie Stevens
Murray Kash
Ysanne Churchman
Ronnie Stevens
Libby Morris
Ronnie Stevens
Dick Vosburgh
Ronnie Stevens
Dick Vosburgh
Dick Vosburgh
Dick Vosburgh
Ysanne Churchman

And The Moral Is:
Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave, When We First Start To Deceive.

Today I Will Be Mostly Learning... :
Ye canna change the law o' physics! Kinotine will supposedly retain any heat put into it but this will not keep anyone wearing it warm. Heat is radiation, and if Kinotine doesn't radiate the heat it will feel cold. It may have insulating properties though, as Raeburn suggests.
Salt and sugar are made of crystals.
Strings of molecules (polymers) are very strong, and were discovered by an Italian scientist.
Short wave radio impulses give out a lot of heat.

Huskyisms:
“I’ve never seen anything so fantasticacious.”
“Tied up by a cobweb - it’s ridicuble!”

Slimantics:
“I am joyous to be returning home.”

Gabblings:
“I am joyous to be returning home.”

A Venusian Has...:
No need for crushed web - “If women told the truth, men would hate it.”

Is This A Joke ?:
Raeburn “Husky can’t get out of a cobweb? This isn’t April Fool’s Day.”

Riding Along In My Monobile... ‘:
Raeburn goes to Haggerty’s laboratory

‘I’m An Alien!‘:
Gabbler apparently does know that he is actually very stupid, but is also very conceited.

Continuity:
Kinotine has similar properties to the Loomi skins.
Galasphere 347 is on another patrol of Venus.
The currency on Mars is the Martian Franc. It is implied that Larry Dart's wages are equal to 10,000 Martian Francs a year.
The Martian President's palace is on the Universal Television Circuit that broadcasts to all homes.

Plot Device:
The crushed Spirigum web.

Haven’t I Seen... ?:
Dr Mason is Dr Duncan.
Kolig is the Gamewarden (TF) with a rougher hairstyle and a goatee.
Kolig's throne room seems to be a redress of Miga's palace set.
The Martian President is still the same puppet but has grey hair and a moustache so we assume this is supposed to be a new incumbent.
The transformer from the previous episode appears as the short wave radio device in the hospital.’

Take A Break:
Still entangled in the web in the Space Hospital, Husky sees Professor Haggarty enter with a trolley of instruments. Haggarty tells him as they can't cut the web, he will have to examine it here.

"I don't like telling everyone how stupid I am,
when I know I'm clever."

Gabbler


Astro Viewer Working:
Probably filmed around Christmas 1963, as the Silver Forest is seemingly made out of tinsel and lametta.
Kolig signs his part of the agreement 'W.J. Kolig', indicating Martians have forenames like Earth people.

Hoorah!:
Kolig’s throne is backed by a mirror, giving the set an unusual and expansive feel.
The spirigum spider, while obviously mechanical, has a realistic crawl to it that is somewhat menacing.

Boo!:
For all the references to rare and endangered species in other episodes, Dart seems overly eager to kill the spider - but then it was about to eat Husky...

Computer Central:

First screened: April 2nd 1964 (Associated-Rediffusion London)
Running time: 24 minutes 38 seconds.
This is one of two episodes adapted into picture strip form, in issue 24 of a comic called ‘Super Mag’. The other is The Water Bomb.
BFCC Classified - 15th July 1999. The notes for violence state 'some very mild horror', referring to the sequence where Husky is trapped in the web by the spider.
VHS - Volume 7
DVD - Complete Series Box Set, Disk 5

Listings
London, April 2nd 1964:
Husky gets trapped in a Martian spider's web, and it looks as though he will be stuck for good, until Professor Haggarty and Gabbler come up with a solution.

Ready To Lift ?:
Another convenient plot device leads to the solution of a rather mediocre crime - again, well written but a little low on new ideas.






On to the next episode



Episode Guide Series One
Episode Guide Series One
Episode Guide Series Two
The Unknown Asteroid
The Evil Eye Of Venus
Secret Formula
The Telepathic Robot
Deadly Whirlwind
The Jitter Waves
Sands Of Death
The Hairy Men Of Mars
The Grass Of Saturn
Forcefield X
The Water Bomb
Destruction By Sound
The Shrinking Gas Of Jupiter
Episode Guide Series Two
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'
We close on the blazing sun in space before fading to a view of ringed planet Saturn. A gyroscope-like ship, enclosed in a flickering bubble of energy, speeds past us and beyond accompanied by almost musical radiophonic tones. We see it pass the Moon before spinning away to the twilight of the Earth's curved horizon... As we hear a grinding rhythmic electronic score, we see scenes of a futuristic city under a dramatic sky. Some buildings and antennae rotate, light pours from other structures as bullet-shaped and spherical vehicles move rapidly back and forth... 'This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace. This is the story of those men, whose courage and daring make the universe safe for us all.'