4/2     (#30)     INVASION OF THE MOON CREATURES

PLOT

Tim and Bill return to the office after a busy day, but find that it has become a top secret area with entry permitted only after giving the correct password, which just happens to be "Let us in, ya great 'nana!" from a rather annoyed Bill.  Graeme has converted the office into a control room for the new British lunar project which involves sending rabbits to the moon, providing that they can withstand the cruel tests that Graeme subjects them to before the space flight!

The intrepid astrobunnies Flopsy and Spiro are placed in the rocket about to blast off from the Goodies' front lawn.  Graeme prepares the launch, as Bill offers to "peel the potartoes!", much to Graeme's disgust.  The lift-off is a success, although Graeme eventually despairs that he has lost contact with the rocket (six months ago!) and he decides that the Goodies must go on the next mission, as it is too dangerous for rabbits.  Initially Tim is to be left behind, but after he tries to hide his cowardice by pretending that he would like to go, he soon finds himself strapped in the rocket alongside a protesting Bill, as Graeme madly gives orders from the safety of mission control.

Bill and Tim soon want to get back down to Earth, especially when they find out that Graeme doesn't know how their ruddy rocket works.  Somehow they manage to land on the moon, albeit upside down, and sing, play golf and fool around just like the Americans did, before making a stunning discovery of primitive vegetable life - lettuces and carrots.  Flopsy and Spiro had made it after all and have spent their time doing what rabbits do best: breeding merrily.  Even more worryingly, the hundreds of bunnies soon overpower Bill and Tim and drag them away to the burrow.

There they are strapped to a couch with carrots stuffed in their ears, and an image of Flopsy appears on a screen.  Thanks to Graeme's nutty experiments, Flopsy has proclaimed himself as "Big Bunny" and plans to conquer space, boldly going where no rabbit has gone before!  He demands that Tim and Bill help him by returning to Earth as the rabbit's spokesmen, and gives them an electric charge when they refuse to speak the only bunny talk that humans will respect ... "Nyaaah. What's up Doc!"

Tim and Bill return to Earth in the landing capsule and squash Graeme on Clapham Common, despite him having several boffins manoeuvre a bathtub into position for a splash landing, then deeply shock him when they appear as rabbits after they remove their spacesuits.  The rabbit space virus starts to spread, as Patrick Moore and a cotton-tailed Prime Minister soon fall victim, and several hutches of rabbits drop out of the sky and breed up very quickly.

Tim and Bill head out armed with carrots for "a touch of way-hey-hey and a spot of bunny fun" and terrorise everyone in sight, especially a lady dragged into her rabbit's hutch who miraculously survives the onslaught from Bill and Tim … and the ABC censors!!  Graeme calls in the Queen's Highland Ferrets when the rabbits go to ground in burrows in the sand dunes, and eventually captures the badly-behaving bunnies when he plugs their burrows with carrot corks.  Afterwards, Graeme dishes up piles of carrots and lettuces, but suspects that the rabbit urge is wearing off when Tim craves for fish and chips instead.  He tempts Tim and Bill with a yummy pie, then reveals that it is a rabbit pie, making them cannibals.  Big Bunny appears at the door and urges them to stop, but Tim and Bill instead yell "DINNER!!" and chase him up the street with knives and forks at the ready.

CLASSIC QUOTES

* Tim (upon hearing that there is a Saturn V rocket at the front door for the rabbit's moon trek):

"Oh that's what it's for.  I've just posted two letters in that!"

* Graeme (about the rocket, talking in correct space protocol by finishing each communication with a beep): "Well I don't know how the ruddy thing works, do I ? ... beep"

Tim & Bill (inside the rocket; in unison): "WHAT!! ... beep!"

Graeme "Well, you can't expect me to know everything ... beep"

Bill (annoyed): "You little creep! ... beep!"

* Bill: "I used to have a pet rabbit once, you know, when I was a little kid, and at no stage did he ever strap me to the couch and stick carrots in my ears!"

* Big Bunny: "You will return to Earth as our spokesmen.  So now you must learn the only bunny talk that humans will respect"...."watch and copy.  Say it after me.  Nyaaah.  What's up Doc!"

CLASSIC SCENES

* Graeme produces a radio telescope to track down his lost space rabbits and it starts playing 'The Archers' theme.  Bill smashes it to bits and Graeme laments that "now we'll never know what happened to them".  Bill is most helpful in telling him that "Walter Gabriel's just having a bit on the side...!"

* Graeme being horrified at Tim's suggestion of sending more rabbits into space, saying that they were like children to him and that he couldn't send them on a trip like that - then hurling his boxful of rabbits over his shoulder to a heavy crash landing on the floor

* The epic space voyage, with Tim and Bill considering calling the fire brigade to rescue them from the phone box TARDIS drifting past, having 'beeping' conversations with Graeme, who is enjoying himself immensely from the safety of mission control, experiencing great difficulty with eating, drinking and moving around in magnetic boots and getting showered with meteorites after Bill unintelligently opens the window.

* Graeme filling out his captain's log after the spaceship crashes on the moon and suddenly stopping when he realises that it's 10:15.  He quickly turns on his TV monitor, which shows the theme of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and turns it off just as quickly in disgust, muttering "Blast. Missed Moira Anderson!"

* The various moon exploration scenes, including Bill climbing out of the upside-down lunar module and proclaiming "One small step for a man, but baaa ..." upon slipping and falling heavily to the ground below, the goldfish swimming in his helmet visor, the collection of moon dust with a vacuum cleaner, Bill floating away with a huge helmetful of oxygen and the rabbits overpowering Bill and Tim, then dragging them off to Big Bunny's space burrow where they are tortured to make them behave like rabbits.

* Graeme honestly describing to the authorities how Tim and Bill have travelled to the moon where hundreds of rabbits have attacked them and Big Bunny is forcing them to say "Nyaaah. What's up Doc", which leads to him having a 'Loony. Handle With Care' sign hung around his neck and a box marked 'To the funny farm.  This side up' placed over his head.  Also the moment when he shakes hands with one of the astronauts and recoils in horror when he removes their space glove to reveal a huge hairy paw.

GUEST STARS

Roland MacLeod, Patrick Moore

GOODIES SONGS

Do The Bunny

MY 2 CENTS WORTH

The first two-thirds of the episode is some of the Goodies finest material, with brilliantly funny verbal and visual outer space effects.  However the latter chase scenes are rather bland by comparison and drag on too long, which just takes the edge off an otherwise top quality episode.

RATING

IIII Officially amazing

THE BLACK PUDDING RATINGS SYSTEM

IIIII - Superstar.

IIII  - Officially amazing.

III   - Goody goody yum yum.

II    - Fair-y punkmother.

I     - Tripe on t' pikelets.

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GOODIES GALLERY

Graeme preparing his rabbits for space flight

Bill and Tim think about going out to the TARDIS for help

"By the light ... of the silvery Earth!"

Taken prisoner by Big Bunny and his troops

Poor Graeme, nobody believes him!

Graeme freaking out upon realising that

Tim and Bill have turned into rabbits

"Wabbit power!"

Out for a spot of bunny fun

"Dinner!" - upon rediscovering the delights of rabbit pie