The Adventures of Captain Zeelig
Contents |
Host
Professor Dwek (Simon Slater)
Co-hosts
Captain Zeelig (Sarah Lee Jones)
Lieutenant Kado (Razaaq Adoti)
Colonel South (James Coombes)
Broadcast
HTV West in association with Two Sides for CITV, 1 May to 30 August 1996 (8 episodes in 1 series)
Synopsis
Two teams of three back at 'base' would 'do' a quiz in order to win fuel for Captain Zeelig and her sidekick who liked biscuits for some obscure reason. This, somehow, allowed the contestants to save the world from ecological disaster wrought by the evil Colonel South (boo!) and his evil Cyberrat and Cyberbugs (hiss!).
Sometimes they'd spy on the baddie, who had a rat as a sidekick and this was probably for comic effect. There was a narrative running through each show but, hurrah!, CZ would always win. At the end of the show the team with the most fuel pods (read: points) would win some CDs or a computer or something for their school.
Occasionally they branched out into different things from the main quiz. There was one bit where the players would play a Starfox-style computer game and fly through some rings avoiding asteroids or something. Then there was a sort of Laser Quest bit where members of the audience would dress up as evil alien bug things and try and infect a reactor with some rods but if the players shot them there was a flashy graphic and they just stood still.
The special rounds might seem good but the overall presentation of the show was awful, with a set that reminds us of Space Station Zero in Thorpe Park meets something quite terrible. And the acting? HAH!
It had some vaguely original ideas, but the show just makes one shudder just thinking about it. Thankfully, it only lasted a series.
Trivia
After failing in the ratings for five straight weeks in the month of May, it was pulled from the schedules and the remaining three episodes were burned in late August for three straight days.
