"Survivors" 40th Anniversary: Episode 34 ("Sparks")

This is the thirty-fourth in a series of blog posts dedicated to the 40th anniversary of BBC's "Survivors" television series. "Survivors" followed a core group of characters who managed to survived a devastating viral outbreak -- one which managed to kill off somewhere between 95-99% of humanity. Society has crumbled and now those who remain must relearn the old way if they have any hope of surviving much longer.

Charles, Jenny, and Hubert were joined on their journey last week by a corporate headhunter turned pacifistic guru named Frank. Well, Frank's not really a pacifistic guru, but he used his skills in psychology to help some others create a mini-utopia. Now his pacemaker is wearing out and he's looking for a good place to die.

In the meantime, Charles and Frank are searching for a former electrician named Alec Campbell. The hope is that they can recruit Alec to joint their group and bring back electricity to the world.


They end up finding Alec Campbell at a small church community, but discover that he's not terribly interested in bringing back the electrics. In fact, he's pretty much out of it with grief.


Frank, Charles, and Jenny spend the entire episode breaking Alec out of his grief-induced stupor. It's actually scary how far Frank will cure Alec. He poisons Alec with pethadine, which induces a therapeutic (if feverish) attack. Alec reveals that he is still grieving for his dead wife, who died alone while he was tending to his dying mother.

Alec Campbell

This extreme therapy session is just the thing Alec needs to jolt back to reality. He joins our group and suggests that they focus on Scotland's hydroelectric centers instead of rushing off to Norway again.

Jenny isn't happy, but I think she's pretty much given up on seeing Greg again!

We will be saying goodbye next week to one of our regulars. That episode is titled "The Enemy."