Day: February 7, 1975

Categories
Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

Demon In Lace

Night StalkerA college is plagued by a series of mysterious deaths. In each case a man and a woman are discovered together. Each male victim is a healthy young man who has apparently died of fright. The women have apparently been dead for some considerable time, of a variety of causes and apparently at a different original location. No one can explain why the men have died, or the reason for the women’s bodies vanishing and reappearing. Kolchak investigates further and discovers that each of the male students know Professor Spate, who has brought back a rare tablet from a Mesapotomian dig site. The tablet’s background contains legend of similar deaths, and Carl soon deduces that an ancient demon, a succubus, is responsible for the deaths. She possesses the bodies of recently deceased young women, lures men into sex with her, and then reveals her true nature, scaring them to death and feeding on their energies. Her existence is tied to the priceless tablet, which Kolchak must destroy before she claims another victim.

Order the DVDswritten by Stephen Lord & Michael Kozoll
directed by Don Weis
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Andrew Prine (Professor E. Evan Spate), Kristina Holland (Rosalind Winters), Carolyn Jones (Registar), Keenan Wynn (Captain Joe Siska), Jackie Vernon (Coach Toomey), Teddie Blue (The Succubus)

Notes: Keenan Wynn returns as Captain Siska. This episode, with Legacy Of Terror, exists primarily as a compiled TV movie called Demon And The Mummy.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

Categories
Supertrain

Supertrain (pilot)

SupertrainWinfield Root, chairman of the board and founder of Trans-Allied Corporation, announces a bold plan to reinvigorate American passenger rail service with a new breed of train, Supertrain. Running from New York City to Los Angeles in a matter of hours, Supertrain is an atomic-powered steam locomotive with the amenities normally associated with luxury cruises. Root finds little support among his executive board, but the plan will proceed anyway.

Supertrain pulls out of Grand Central Station on its inaugural voyage with a full complement of passengers aboard, among them Michael Post, a man up to his eyeballs in debt to all the wrong people; Cindy Chappell, married to a man who spends the entire trip complaining about her presence (and yet doesn’t want her to leave his sight); Hollywood movie director David Belnik, heading to L.A. with his entourage to begin his next project; and at least one man who is on the train solely for the purpose of killing Michael Post. Winfield Root is aboard too, along with his granddaughter, who is almost disturbingly attracted to a member of Supertrain’s on-board crew.

The dazzling luxuries aboard Supertrain, from its sauna room to its discotheque, become the sites of attempts on Post’s life. When one of those attempts goes awry, resulting in a seemingly random murder of which Post is suspected of being the killer instead of the intended victim, the train is brought to a stop so an FBI agent can be brought aboard. Post pleads innocent to the murder, but confides in the circumstances that have him worried about his continued survival. But he soon discovers that he is no safer on Supertrain with an FBI agent on his tail than he is anywhere else…

teleplay by Earl W. Wallace
story by Donald E. Westlake & Earl W. Wallace
directed by Dan Curtis
music by Bob Cobert

SupertrainCast: Steve Lawrence (Mike Post), Char Fontane (Cindy Chappell), Don Stroud (Jack Fisk), Keenan Wynn (Winfield Root), Deborah Benson (Barbara Root), Ron Masak (Fred), Don Meredith (Rick Prince), Vicki Lawrence (Karen Prince), George Hamilton (David Belnik), Stella Stevens (Lucy), Fred Williamson (Al Roberts), Edward Andrews (Harry Flood), Patrick Collins (David Noonan), Harrison Page (George Boone), Robert Alda (Dr. Lewis), Nita Talbot (Rose Casey), Aarika Wells (Gilda), William Nuckols (Wally), Michael DeLano (Lou Atkins), Charlie Brill (Robert), John Karlen (Quinn), Frank R. Christi (Tony Packoe), H.M. Wynant (Fairmont), Anthony Palmer (T.C. Baker), Howard Honig (Sam Howard), Allen Williams (Riley), Parley Baer (Heaton), Sid Conrad (Whittington), Robert Karnes (Martin), Cameron Young (Fenner), Sylvester Words (Porter), Orin Cannon (Stationmaster), Chuck Mitchell (Big Ed), Bert Conway (Workman)

SupertrainNotes: Intended to be a sort of futuristic version of The Love Boat, Supertrain was a dazzlingly expensive disaster for NBC. It was initially produced, and its pilot directed, by Dan Curtis, producer and director of such TV cult classics as Dark Shadows and the pair of TV movies that led to Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Supertrain’s impressive-for-the-time miniature model work and its matching full-size “futuristic train” standing sets made it the most expensive television series in history to date, but its plunging post-pilot-movie ratings saw NBC pulling the plug after multiple attempts to retool and reschedule. This by itself would’ve simply been expensive, but when paired with the extravagant money that NBC put on the table for the U.S. broadcast rights to the 1980 Summer Olympics (a cost it then had to eat when the United States boycotted the Olympics, held that year in Moscow), it nearly bankrupted the network. SupertrainHad Supertrain run to a full season, the expense involved in the sets and miniatures would have been amortized over the budgets of 20-odd episodes. As it is, the show lasted ten hours, meaning that fully half a million dollars of each episode’s budget was spent on those sets and effects. The custom model footage shows Supertrain running on wider-gauge tracks than a standard railroad, though many of the railroad POV shots were obviously filmed on a normal-gauge railroad. Additionally, though the “running firefight atop the cars of a moving train” is a staple of American TV and cinema, the tornado-speed movement of Supertrain should make such a scenario physically impossible (unless, of course, the script calls for it). Supertrain!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Buck Rogers Season 1

Olympiad

Buck Rogers In The 25th CenturyBuck is invited to fly an authentic 20th century Olympic flag at the 2492 Olympics on behalf of the Earth Defense Directorate, and takes Twiki and Dr. Theopolis along with him to the games. Buck finds that the Olympics have changed in 500 years, however – simple events have become mind-boggling, gravity-defying feats, and some of the off-world contestants have unusual customs, including one young man who refuses to speak to Buck and then appears to experience severe pain. A young woman competing in the astrosledding event gives Buck a taste of high-speed orbital racing, but also uses the isolation of her sled pod to plead for Buck’s help in freeing her and her boyfriend, the young man who demanded that Buck leave him alone, from the stranglehold their manager has on them. She officially requests asylum, and Buck gets approval from Dr. Huer before proceeding. But in doing so, he’s put himself in the crosshairs of a manager who intends to keep his athletes – or kill them before they can defect.

Order the DVDswritten by Craig Buck
directed by Larry Stewart
music by J.J. Johnson

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Nicolas Coster (Allerick), Judith Chapman (Lara Teasian), Barney McFadden (Jorex Leet), Paul Mantee (Karl), Elgin Baylor (Athlete), Anthony Davis (Athlete), Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson (Athlete), Carlos Palomino (Athlete), Jerry Quarry (Quarod), Bob Seagren (Rand Sorgon), Paul Coufos (Zogan), John Zee (Satrap)

Notes: This episode’s guest stars have years of professional football, basketball and boxing experience, including real-life Olympian Thomas Henderson, who was on the U.S. basketball team in the 1972 Olympics. Former boxing champ Carlos Palomino had a later brush with science fiction as well – he helped to train actor Robert Beltran for the Star Trek: Voyager episode The Fight, which involved Chakotay boxing with an alien.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Lower Decks

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47566.7: A promotion is nearing for one of a group of four friends who are junior officers aboard the Enterprise. Sito, a Bajoran ensign who was involved in the Nova Squadron accident cover-up at Starfleet Academy with Wesley Crusher, is neck-and-neck for a promotion to Ops with the ambitious Lavelle, who is attempting to make a favorable impression on Commander Riker. Vulcan Ensign Taurik is an engineering specialist whose duties of late have grown mysterious, as have those of Nurse Ogawa, who is also due for a promotion. The Enterprise is undertaking a top secret mission, the true purpose of which is unknown to the four friends – though each of them has a piece of the puzzle, and a part to play, in this critical event.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Renè Echavarria
story by Ronald Wilkerson and Jean Louise Matthias
directed by Gabrielle Beaumont
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Dan Gauthier (Ensign Lavelle), Shannon Fill (Ensign Sito), Alexander Enberg (Ensign Taurik), Bruce Beatty (Ben), Don Reilly (Joret), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Paradise

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47573.1: Surveying planets in the Gamma Quadrant for potential colonization by the Federation, Sisko and O’Brien discover a world which is already inhabited by humans – to be precise, survivors of a Starfleet shipwreck who have been living on the other side of the wormhole for over a decade. Led by the charismatic Alixus, the survivors have had to rely on basic skills to stay alive, since an energy field prevents any form of technology from functioning. Alixus presses Sisko and O’Brien to abandon any hope of rescue and stay with the colony, but when the two refuse to give up so easily, they discover that their hostess is not above relying on the darkest tactics to convince them…

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Jeff King and Richard Manning & Hans Beimler
story by Jim Trombetta & James Crocker
directed by Corey Allen
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Gail Strickland (Alixus), Julia Nickson (Cassandra), Steve Vinovich (Joseph), Michael Buchman Silver (Vinod), Erick Weiss (Stephan), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 07

Duct Soup

Red DwarfA sleepless night on Starbug is made even worse when a generator failure leaves the ship dead in space (with just enough momentum to carry it on an uncontrolled dive toward a rather large star). The only way to get to the backup systems is an arduous trek through the ship’s duct system, facing such hazards as drying cycles and the backwash from urine recyc. Lister suffers from claustrophobia in the tiny crawlways – well, actually, to be honest, they’re not all that tiny. And worse yet, the crew discover that this calamity has been engineered by a force which isn’t so much sinister as it is simply paranoid…

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: two uncredited GELFs

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 5 Xena: Warrior Princess

Eternal Bonds

Xena: Warrior PrincessXena and Gabrielle escape a storm, unleashed by the gods in an effort to kill Eve, in a cave. Joxer is waiting for them with three people who say they are Magi, with gifts for Xena’s baby. But the warrior recognizes one of the gifts as being sacred to the goddess Artemis. She and Gabrielle fight the “Magi.” During the fight, Joxer is cut on his arm. Xena recognizes that one of the swords belonged to a warrior from the temple of Apollo, which means there was poison on the blade. Xena sends Joxer and Gabrielle to find a certain tree to make an antidote.

Order the DVDswritten by Chris Manheim
directed by Mark Beesley
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Ted Raimi (Joxer), Kevin Smith (Ares), Natalie Duggan (Tira), Peter Sa’ena-Brown (Tazor), Matthew Dwyer (Orcas), Patrick Iwobi (Magi #1), Grant Boucher (Magi #2), Barbara Cartwright (Magi #3)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

Categories
Hyperdrive Season 1

Clare

HyperdriveDuring a joint British/Danish drug blockade, an unidentified ship wanders into the Camden Lock’s search area. But it’s no drug runner – it’s legendary experimental solar sail pilot Clare Winchester, who has been out of contact with the rest of the human race for quite some time. Henderson wants to be the first human to greet her in years, but upon boarding her ship, he finds that Clare has become a little bit eccentric – actually, very, very eccentric. His attempts to help her result in a less than helpful result: namely, he becomes her hostage. Worse yet, York wants to lead a strike team – consisting of the rest of the bridge crew – to save Henderson with the maximum possible amount of violence.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Kevin Cecil & Andy Riley
directed by John Henderson
music by Mark Thomas

HyperdriveCast: Nick Frost (Henderson), Kevin Eldon (York), Miranda Hart (Teal), Dan Antopolski (Jeffers), Stephen Evans (Vine), Petra Massey (Sandstrom), Sally Phillips (Clare Winchester), William Brand (Danish Commander), Remi Wilson (Piretti) Morwenna Banks (Announcer), Maggie Service (Computer Voices)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lost Season 3

Not in Portland

  • By Dave
  • February 7, 2007

LostFlashback: Juliet uses her ailing sister as a test subject for a fertility project, and her ex-husband Edmund – who also happens to be her boss – finds out. He warns her that there are ethical concerns that could jeopardize her research, but if she shares credit with him, he can make sure that they are both seen as pioneers. A private research company from Portland approaches Juliet to offer her a position, but she declines, citing Edmund’s opposition as one reason. When the recruiter asks her if there’s any way that they could change Edmund’s mind, she jokes that he could die in a traffic accident. Soon after the interview, Juliet’s sister tells her that she’s pregnant. And as Juliet shares the news with Edmund the next day, a bus promptly runs over him.

The Island: Kate and Sawyer lock up their captives and begin running, but Juliet quickly sends men out to retrieve them. She tells Tom that there is no way that Jack will simply let a patient die. Alex helps Kate and Sawyer hide, and tells that she has a boat. But before they can escape, they have to rescue Alex’s boyfriend Carl. Ben regains consciousness during the surgery and asks to speak alone with Juliet for a few minutes. Jack watches the conversation, and when it’s over, Juliet tells Jack to finish the surgery – she’s going to go help his friends escape. Kate, Sawyer and Alex rescue Carl and reach the boat just as their pursuers catch up with them just as Jack reaches a critical point in the surgery – and just as Juliet arrives on the beach.

Order the DVDswritten by Carlton Cuse & Jeff Pinkner
directed by Stephen Williams
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: Robin Weigert (Rachel), M.C. Gainey (Mr. Friendly/Tom), William Mapother (Ethan), Blake Bashoff (Karl), Tania Raymonde (Alex), Michael Bowen (Pickett), Ariston Green (Jason), Teddy Wells (Ivan), Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Steve Labrash (Morgue Employee), Kimberly Estrada (Sherry), Rob McElhenney (Aldo), Zeljko Ivanek (Edmund)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Discovery Season 2 Star Trek

An Obol For Charon

Star Trek: DiscoveryStardate not given: Captain Pike is visited by his first officer from the Enterprise, who has managed to bring him data on the trajectory of Spock’s shuttlecraft. But moments after Discovery sets off on that heading, it’s yanked out of warp by a dense sphere of pulsing energy. Attempts to hail the sphere are fruitless, and moments later Discovery‘s systems begin failing, beginning with the universal translator and engineering systems. The fungal life form that Stamets extracted from Tilly is no longer contained, and reasserts its hold over Tilly. Saru, who seemed unwell at a briefing prior to the sphere’s appearance, is now seriously weakened, and reveals that he has entered the Vaharai, the stage of the Kelpien life span at which an individual is ready to be harvested by the alien predators that cull the Kelpiens. Since he is no longer on Kaminar, Saru will not be harvested, but can look forward to slowly going mad as the Vaharai advances; still, he insists on aiding Burnham in trying to stabilize the ship’s systems and determine the sphere’s intentions (which Pike is assuming are hostile). Speaking through Tilly, “May” tells Stamets that Discovery‘s travels through the mycelial network are harmful to the network and the life it supports. Saru deduces that the sphere is also a life form – a dying one trying to pass on all of its knowledge and experience before it expires – and urges Pike to drop Discovery‘s shields to allow the ship’s computers to absorb all of that information. But Saru feels that his time has come too, and asks Burnham to end his suffering.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonteleplay by Alan McElroy & Andrew Colville
story by Jordon Nardino & Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts
directed by Lee Rose
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Lt. Commander Saru), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Cadet Sylvia Tilly), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), Anson Mount (Captain Christopher Pike), Tig Notaro (Commander Jett Reno), Rebecca Romjin (Number One), Rachael Ancheril (Commander Nhan), Bahia Watson (May Ahearn), Hannah Chessman (Lt. Commander Airiam), Emily Coutts (Lt. Keyla Detmer), Patrick Kwok-Choon (Lt. Gen Rhys), Oyin Oladejo (Lt. Joann Owosekun), Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Lt. R.A. Bryce), Julianne Grossman (Discovery Computer), Raven Dauda (Dr. Tracy Pollard), David Benjamin Tomlinson (Linus)

Star Trek DiscoveryNotes: Gum and duct tape, and burgers and fries, all still exist in the 23rd century. (Especially fries, as both Number One and Jett Reno mention them.) Also, David Bowie and Prince still have fans in the 23rd century, as they likely will long afterward. Many of the elements of Kelpien society mentioned by Saru were previously seen in the Short Treks episode The Brightest Star (2018).

LogBook entry by Earl Green