The Phoenix (1982 TV series)

For other uses of the word, see Phoenix (disambiguation)

The Phoenix is a 1982 television series starring Judson Scott which was on ABC for about one month in 1982.[1] The plot revolved around an ancient extraterrestrial named Bennu of the Golden Light, who is discovered in a sarcophagus in Peru and awakened in the 20th Century. Bennu displays superhuman abilities and behaves in a manner meant to represent an enlightened culture (kind, nonviolent, environmentally responsible, etc.).

Characters

• Bennu of the Golden Light (played by Judson Scott) is the hero, a good-looking blond man from outer space. His special abilities include physical levitation, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, astral projection and telekinesis. Some of his abilities are made possible or amplified by his Phoenix Amulet, which draws power from the Sun. Bennu was originally from the planet Aurica, though this was changed to Eldebran for broadcast.
• Yago is another super-powered being from the planet Eldebran. He is evil and Bennu's primary opponent. Yago is connected to the Moon as Bennu is to the Sun. The series bible explicitly compares Yago to Lucifer and Dracula. He wears a bracelet called "The Bells of Thon" around his right wrist, which has the power to deafen. He also carries a musical instrument called "The Black Moonball," which can alter his appearance or teleport him to another location. In the series bible Yago was named Aiwaz, presumably after the alleged being who dictacted The Book of the Law to Aleister Crowley.
• Mira is another being from the planet Eldebran. 40,000 years ago she was placed on Earth as Bennu's companion, and when the series begins he is searching for her.
• Justin Preminger is the human villain of the story. He is generally only one step behind Bennu.
• Dr. Ward Frazier is a scientist sympathetic to Bennu and his goals.

Sources and Influences

• The series bible[2] mentions Erich von Däniken's books Chariots of the Gods? (1968) and Gods from Outer Space (1970) as the source of the idea that aliens may have visited the Earth roughly 40,000 years ago.
• The series format - a man with superhuman abilities and a secret travelling to a new town each week, with his pursuer always just a step behind - is very similar to The Incredible Hulk (1978-1982).
• The idea of a handsome blond alien man attempting to blend in as an Earthling may be borrowed from the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), which starred David Bowie as the alien Thomas Jerome Newton. The premise also has similarities to Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein which tells the story of a culturally enlightened, super-powered human who visits the Earth after having been raised on Mars.
• Yago's ability to create illusions using the power of the Moon is explicitly based on the Lunancy Act of 1842.[3]
• Bennu is the Egyptian word for the mythological phoenix bird.

Episodes

Only a 90-minute pilot and four regular episodes were broadcast. Four additional episodes were scripted, but never filmed nor broadcast. The episodes were:

1. The Phoenix (Pilot)
2. In Search of Mira
3. One of Them
4. A Presence of Evil
5. The Fire Within
6. Trial by Fire
7. Deadly Cargo
8. Dark Hunter
9. The Star Needle

External links

• IMDB listing for The Phoenix.
• The Phoenix Page on Diane Mullen's Judson Scott fansite includes full scripts for several episodes, plus the Phoenix Series Bible, written by Anthony and Nancy Lawrence.
• Opening sequence from television series on YouTube.