Day: April 6, 1966

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Batman Season 1

The Joker Trumps An Ace

BatmanThe Joker crashes a gathering of Gotham City’s high society, but rather than furs or jewels, he simply relieves one woman of a hairpin before escaping. The Joker’s usual trail of cryptic clues lead Batman to suspect that he’ll try to rob a foreign dignitary as he plays at an exclusive Gotham country club. But the Joker isn’t just after that visiting dignitary’s bejewelled golf clubs – his goons kidnap the man himself, and then the Joker lures Batman and Robin to an abandoned factory with his next clue. But the kidnap victim isn’t there…only a trap for the Dynamic Duo.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Francis and Marian Cockrell
directed by Richard C. Sarafian
music by Nelson Riddle / Batman theme by Neal Hefti

BatmanCast: Adam West (Batman), Burt Ward (Robin), Alan Napier (Alfred), Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon), Stafford Repp (Chief O’Hara), Madge Blake (Mrs. Cooper), Cesar Romero (The Joker), Dan Seymore (The Maharajah), Norm Alden (Henchman #1), Johnny Seven (Henchman #2), Tol Avery (Prescott Belmont), Angela Greene (Mrs. Belmont), Byron Keith (The Mayor), Jane Wald (Jill)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

The Faceless Ones

Doctor WhoThe moment they step out of the doors of the just-landed TARDIS, the Doctor and his friends must contend with one rather major problem – their time machine has parked itself on a runway at Gatwick Airport and, as Jamie puts it, there’s a “flying beastie” coming in for a landing right now. A foot patrolman spots the four time travelers and chases them. The Doctor and Jamie go one way, and Ben and Polly in another; eventually Polly is separated from Ben, but while she’s hiding in a hangar warehouse building, she witnesses a gruesome murder committed with a futuristic weapon that doesn’t belong on Earth in 1967. Worse yet, the killers have seen her face, and eventually trap her. At the airport terminal, the Doctor and Jamie own up to being responsible for the strangely out-of-place police box on the tarmac, but they also realize that something else is even more amiss. Reunited with Ben, and with the help of a young woman who is searching for her missing brother, the Doctor goes to investigate the hangar where Polly disappeared, belonging to Chameleon Tours. He finds more evidence of otherworldly equipment, and proof that wherever passengers are booking their flights to aboard Chameleon Tours’ planes, they aren’t arriving there. The airline is being run by a race of displaced aliens who have lost their identities due to a disaster on their home planet – and the solution they’re pursuing is a kind of identity theft that could eventually rob Earth of its entire population.

written by David Ellis & Malcolm Hulke
directed by Gerry Mill
music not credited

Guest Cast: James Appleby (Policeman), Colin Gordon (Commandant), George Selway (Meadows), Wanda Ventham (Jean Rock), Victor Winding (Spencer), Peter Whitaker (Gascoigne), Donald Pickering (Blade), Christopher Tranchell (Jenkins), Madalena Nicol (Pinto), Bernard Kay (Crossland), Pauline Collins (Samantha Briggs), Gilly Fraser (Ann Davidson), Brigit Paul (Announcer), Barry Wilsher (Heslington), Michael Ladkin (Pilot), Leonard Trolley (Reynolds), Robin Dawson, Barry du Pre, Pat Leclere, Roy Pearce (Chameleons)

Broadcast from April 6 through May 13, 1967

Note: Two actresses in this story appeared in (much) later Doctor Who adventures; Wanda Ventham appeared 20 years later in Sylvester McCoy’s debut story, Time And The Rani, while Pauline Collins’ next Doctor Who appearance would come nearly four decades later in the David Tennant episode Tooth And Claw, in which she guest starred as Queen Victoria. Her character in The Faceless Ones, Samantha Briggs, had been considered as a potential companion but the show’s producers decided against that, in favor of introducing Victoria Waterfield in the following serial. Episodes two, four, five and six of The Faceless Ones are missing from the BBC’s vaults; the first and third episodes appeared in the Lost In Time DVD set, and the complete story is available in audio form. Ironically, despite the story’s title, The Faceless Ones marked the introduction of a new title sequence which prominently featured the new Doctor’s face, an element that would remain a tradition through the end of Sylvester McCoy’s era. “Spangly” sounds were added to the theme music to go along with the visual changes.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

The City On The Edge Of Forever

Star Trek ClassicStardate 3134.0: McCoy accidentally receives an overdose of cordrazine as the Enterprise encounters turbulence. He beams down to an unexplored world where he enters a time-travel device known as the Guardian of Forever and changes history in the 1930s. Kirk and Spock also return to the 30s, where Kirk falls in love with peace activist Edith Keeler. When McCoy is finally located, Kirk must allow history to run its course, resulting in Edith’s death, or he will leave history altered irrevocably, with no chance of returning to the future or the Enterprise.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Harlan Ellison
directed by Joseph Pevney
music by Alexander Courage

Cast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Joan Collins (Sister Edith Keeler), John Harmon (Rodent), Hal Baylor (Policeman), David L. Ross (Galloway), John Winston (Transporter Chief Kyle), Bartell La Rue (Guardian voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Movies

2001: a space odyssey

2001: a space odysseyOn a young planet called Earth, an alien intelligence – in the form of a large black monolith – tests the intelligence of a primitive race of primates. It also influences their development into a more ambitious and potentially more dangerous species. The monolith vanishes, having completed its task.

Millennia later, a primitive race of primates living on the planet Earth has developed the technology necessary to make short range space travel commonplace, and has discovered another monolith buried under the surface of Earth’s moon. Faced with the first solid evidence of extraterrestrial life, humankind launches a mission to Jupiter, the planet toward which the newly discovered monolith transmitted a brief signal. Astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole pilot the spaceship Discovery, carrying a cargo of three trained scientists in cryogenically-induced hibernation, though Bowman and Poole – along with most of the rest of the human race – have not been told about the monolith on the moon, and their fellow travelers were frozen prior to the mission to avoid that information leaking out. The Discovery’s onboard computer, the artificially intelligent HAL 9000, begins to show signs of unreliable decision-making, and when Bowman and Poole take steps to shut HAL down, it kills Poole during a spacewalk and tries to shut Bowman out of the ship when he goes to retrieve his fallen comrade. HAL also deactivates the three frozen scientists’ life support units, killing them as well. Bowman manages to get back aboard Discovery and shuts down HAL’s higher logic centers. But when Discovery finally reaches Jupiter as planned – with only one surviving crewmember – no amount of astronaut training, nor even the sum total of human experience, has prepared David Bowman for what he will find there, for the monolith has returned.

Download this episodescreenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke
directed by Stanley Kubrick
music by

Cast: Keir Dullea (David Bowman), Gary Lockwood (Frank Poole), William Sylvester (Heywood Floyd), Douglas Rain (HAL 9000), Daniel Richter (Moon-Watcher), Leonard Rossiter (Dr. Andrei Smyslov), Margaret Tyzack (Elena), Robert Beatty (Dr. Ralph Halvorsen), Sean Sullivan (Dr. Bill Michaels), Frank Miller (Mission Controller), Bill Weston (Astronaut), Edward Bishop (Aries-1B Lunar Shuttle Captain), Glenn Beck (Astronaut), Alan Gifford (Poole’s Father), Ann Gillis (Poole’s Mother), Edwina Carroll (Aries-1B Stewardess), Penny Brahms (Aries-1B Stewardess), Heather Downham (Aries-1B Stewardess), Mike Lovell (Astronaut), John Ashley (Ape), Peter Delmar (Ape), David Hines (Ape), Darryl Faes (Ape), Timmy Bell (Ape), Terry Duggan (Ape), Tony Jackson (Ape), Joe Refalo (Ape), David Charkham (Ape), David Fleetwood (Ape), John Jordan (Ape), Andy Wallace (Ape), Simon Davis (Ape), Danny Grover (Ape), Scott Mackee (Ape), Bob Wilyman (Ape), Jonathan Daw (Ape), Brian Hawley (Ape), Laurence Marchant (Ape), Richard Wood (Ape), Kenneth Kendall (BBC Newsreader)

2001: a space odysseyNotes: Actor Ed Bishop lent his voice to many genre animated series, including Gerry Anderson’s Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and an episode of the animated Star Trek series. He later appeared in the flesh in Anderson’s cult classic ’70s live-action series UFO as Commander Ed Straker, and appeared in the Big Finish Doctor Who Unbound audio story Full Fathom Five. Kenneth Kendall was a BBC newsreader in real life – the first person to do so on camera in the BBC’s history, in 1955. He parlayed that unique historical footnote into appearances – more or less as himself in his familiar job – on The Morecambe & Wise Show, Adam Adamant Lives! and numerous British-made B-movies. The only actors to appear in both this movie and its 1984 sequel are Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain. Director Stanley Kubrick had the elaborate sets built for 2001 destroyed immediately after production to make sure that they wouldn’t be reused in later films (such reuse being a common practice that he felt would cheapen 2001).

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
Max Headroom Series 1 (UK)

Episode 1

The Max Headroom ShowMax Headroom introduces himself and states the purpose of his show, rails against corporate sponsorship and takes someone’s take-away Chinese food order before revealing that they’ve dialed the wrong number. Sting drops in to discuss his hatred of golf, shoe color, and his new solo album The Dream Of The Blue Turtles. When the subject of Sting’s politically-charged lyrics is brought up, Max wonders what happens when those lyrics are sung in countries that don’t speak the same language (such as, Max suggests, America). Max tries to steer the conversation back to golf and shoes; a spat over spats ensues.

The Max Headroom Showwritten by Paul Owen & David Hansen and Tim John
directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel

Cast: Matt Frewer (Max Headroom), Sting (himself)

Videos: “Zoolok” (Jean-Michel Jarre), “Destination Zululand” (King Kurt), “Visions Of China” (Japan), “Sensoria” (Cabaret Voltaire), “(If You Love Somebody) Set Them Free” (Sting)

Note: The lead singer of UK band King Kurt used the stage name of “Smeg“. The song “Kinky Boots” is bizarrely intercut with the shoe discussion, and was actually a 1964 single performed by – of all people – Honor Blackman and Patrick Macnee – as a tie-in to The Avengers (presumably because of Blackman’s jackbooted costumes on that series).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 06 Star Trek

Inquisition

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: Bashir is planning to leave for a medical conference, but instead is confined to quarters along with the other officers due to an inquiry led by Deputy Director Sloan of Starfleet Internal Affairs. Sloan centers his investigation around Bashir, whom he accuses of spying for the Dominion – reporting to them while suppressing the memories of doing so. Despite his insistence that he has no such memories, Bashir is arrested and subjected to mounting pressure as his past actions are cast in a sinister light by Sloan.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
directed by Michael Dorn
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: William Sadler (Sloan), Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Samantha Mudd (Chandler), Benjamin Brown (Kagan), Judi Durand (Station Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

Categories
Farscape Season 3

Self-Inflicted Wounds Part 2: Wait for the Wheel

  • By Dave
  • April 6, 2001

FarscapeBefore the crew leave Moya for the separation attempt, they discover that their ship’s deterioration is not a natural phenomenon at all – the occupants of the other ship have been using a device to render themselves invisible and sabotaging the Leviathan, in order to ensure the crew’s cooperation in keeping the other ship intact. The crew decides to try and save Moya, but they must act quickly – as they spend more time within the wormhole, the serpent becomes more tangible. The two crews battle each other for the upper hand, and eventually Moya and company prevail. The moment of separation is at hand – but one person must stay behind on the other ship to operate the critical controls. Crichton and Aeryn argue over who will stay behind, until Zhaan steps in and reminds them that she is the logical choice – her life is already near its end. As the rest of the crew watches, Zhaan withdraws the other ship from Moya; as Moya re-enters normal space, Zhaan and her ship are destroyed.

Order the DVDswritten by David Kemper
directed by Tony Tilse
music by Guy Gross

Guest Cast: Tammy MacIntosh (Jool), Victoria Longley (Neeyala), Nicholas Hope (Kreetago), Dwayne Fernandez (Cresto), Kerith Atkinson (Shreena), Brian Carbee (Lastren)

Notes: This was Virginia Hey’s final episode as a regular cast member; she left the show because of adverse reactions to the makeup and prosthetics required for the role.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Jeremiah Season 1

The Bag

JeremiahOn the trail of another of Simon’s contacts, a man named Holcombe who may know whether or not the Big Death will be making a return appearance, Jeremiah and Kurdy stop to assist a wanderer whose pregnant wife has fallen ill. In the town of Slag Harbor, they catch word of a traveling doctor who may be able to help. Jeremiah is dismayed to find that this “doctor” is actually no more than the son of a doctor who still has his dead father’s medicine bag, but he’s still the only hope of those who need medical attention. But as if the would-be doctor isn’t perpetuating enough of a myth about himself, his street-savvy older brother is milking that talent for whatever people are willing to trade. When thugs beat up both brothers and steal the medicine bag, Jeremiah has to convince a man who may be the last doctor in the world that what he needs to practice isn’t a bag full of 15-year-old pills, but his compassion…and all he needs to do is step out of his older brother’s shadow.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Sam Egan
directed by Michael Robison
music by Tim Truman

Guest Cast: Jake Busey (Jake), Christian Campbell (Reese), Ryan Robbins (William Steuber), Erin Karpluk (Sadie Holcomb), Shannon Jardine (Paula Steuber), Holly Ferguson (Mother), Bryce Hodgson (Tanner), Devin Douglas Drewitz (young Jeremiah), Casey Beddow (Farmer), Ryan Drescher (Michael), Mike Dopud (Harlow), Nelson Leis (Jimmy Holcomb)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Clone Wars Star Wars Tartakovsky Series, Vol. 1

Chapter 18

  • By Dave
  • April 6, 2004

Star Wars: Clone WarsAnakin and Asajj duel in the jungles of Yavin 4.

Order the DVDsstory by Bryan Andrew, Darrick Bachman, Paul Rudish and Genndy Tartakovsky
directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
original music by John Williams
new music by James L. Venable and Paul Dinletir

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 3

One of Us

  • By Dave
  • April 6, 2007

LostFlashback: Juliet takes the job with Mitelos, and even when Richard Alpert tells her she needs to be sedated for her trip, she doesn’t turn back. She wakes up in a submarine, steps onto the dock, and is welcomed to the island by Ben. She is unable to keep any of the pregnant Others from dying, and after six months she wants to return home to see her sister. Ben tells her that her sister Rachel’s cancer has returned – but if Juliet agrees to stay on the island and complete her work, Jacob will ensure that Rachel is cured. When Juliet discovers the cancer on Ben’s spine, she accuses him of lying. The next day, Oceanic Flight 815 crashes. After Ben assigns Ethan and Goodwin (Juliet’s lover) to infiltrate the groups, he takes Juliet to the Flame station, where Mikhail is compiling information about the crash survivors. Ben shows Juliet a transmission with a newspaper dated that day in 2004 – and with Rachel, healthy and the mother of a young boy named Julian.

The Island: Sayid demands answers from Juliet, but Jack tells him not to press her. When the group returns to camp, Sawyer and the others are quite distrustful of Juliet, but they are soon distracted by Claire, who has fallen ill. Juliet claims that the illness is a side effects of the treatments she and Ethan gave Claire in order to save her life, and says that she can treat her with a cache of supplies Ethan left behind. Sayid and Sawyer follow her, but she is able to deflect their insistence for answers by pointing out that they do not want more blood on their hands. The treatment is successful, and the camp agrees to let Juliet stay temporarily. Jack says that he trusts her because he saw how badly she wanted to leave the island when Locke destroyed the submarine. And while Juliet does want to leave the island, there may be other things she wants more – or other ways she intends to get them.

Order the DVDswritten by Carlton Cuse & Drew Goddard
directed by Jack Bender
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: Robin Weigert (Rachel), William Mapother (Ethan Rom), Brett Cullen (Goodwin), Andrew Divoff (Mikhail), Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Joah Buley (Other Dude), Tyrone Howard (Airport Guard)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

Pound Of Flesh

VShortly before destroying the R6 warehouse, Ryan sent a signal in the name of the fifth column resistance leader: “John May lives.” That message pushes Anna’s preoccupation with ensuring the loyalty of her followers into an obsession, and she instigates widespread loyalty tests among her own people. Anna also plans to announce a program called Live Aboard, which will invite selected humans to live aboard the visitors’ ships and experience their lifestyle. The program is to be announced with another worldwide broadcast, and the resistances sees this as an opportunity to disrupt Anna’s message and mobilize the fifth column and any other human resistance cells around the world. Ryan volunteers to go – any non-visitor would fail to make it far enough to sabotage the broadcast – and discovers that the rebellion is more widespread among the visitors than he thought. Georgie decides Ryan needs backup and takes a shuttle to the visitors’ ship as well, but his mission will prove to be altogether less successful.

written by Charles Murray & Natalie Chaidez
directed by Dean White
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Charles Mesure (Kyle Hobbes), Nicholas Lea (Joe Evans), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Mark Hildreth (Joshua), Samantha Ferris (Private Investigator), Lexa Doig (Dr. Leah Pearlman)

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Space Battleship Yamato 2199

Iscandar’s Envoy

Space Battleship Yamato 2199In the year 2199, war rages between Earth and an unknown invader from beyond the solar system, the Gamilas. It’s a war that the human race is losing; infusing asteroids with radiation and firing them at Earth from mass drivers, the Gamilas have driven the survivors of the human race underground. Earth tries to take the fight to space, but the United Nations spacecraft are overwhelmed by the Gamilas’ advanced technology, and can only get the luckiest of shots through the aliens’ defense. Captain Juzo Okita, leading a largely Japanese fleet into battle, finds himself outgunned, and soon his flagship, the Kirishima, is one of the only ships left. Heavily damaged, the flagship escapes only due to the sacrifice of one of Okita’s former students, Captain Mamoru Kodai, and the crew of Kodai’s ship.

At a listening post on Mars, two junior officers, Susumu Kodai and Daisuke Shima, detect an incoming ship. It’s already too heavily damaged to make a safe landing, and Kodai and Shima find its sole occupant – a female who appears to be human – dead on impact, clutching some sort of cannister. Once opened and decoded, the cannister is revealed to be a message. Back on Earth, Kodai learns that his older brother sacrificed himself to save Captain Okita’s flagship near Pluto, and goes to confront Okita personally. After a tense meeting with Okita, Kodai is admiring one of the new Cosmo Falcon fighters; the sound of an air raid siren provides him with an almost-legitimate excuse to try it out in the air. He and Shima climb aboard and take off to intercept a Gamila scout plane that’s made it all the way to Earth. The rushed takeoff, however, means that Kodai has forgotten to make sure that his own plane is armed.

written by Yutaka Izubuchi
directed by Akihiro Enomoto
music by Akira Miyagawa / original series themes by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Yamato 2199Cast: Daisuke Ono (Susumu Kodai), Houko Kuwashima (Yuki Mori), Kenichi Suzumura (Daisuke Shima), Takayuki Sugo (Captain Juzo Okita), Akio Ohtsuka (General Domel), Aya Hisakawa (Lt. Kaoru Niimi), Aya Uchida (Warant Officer Yuria Misaki), Cho (Analyzer / Sukeji Yabu / Ganz), Daisuke Hirakawa (Hiroki Shinohara), Fumihide Ise (Hajime Hirata), Hiroshi Tsuchida (Susumu Yamazaki), Houchu Ohtsuka (Shiro Sanada), Keiji Fujiwara (Master Chief Isami Enomoto), Kenji Akabane (Yasuo Nanbu), Kikuko Inoue (Starsha of Iscandar), Kouichi Yamadera (Desler), Masashi Hirose (Gremmdt Goer), Masato Kokubun (Yoshikazu Aihara), Mitsuru Miyamoto (Mamoru Kodai), Motoki Takagi (Toru Hoshina), Mugihito (Hikozaemon Tokugawa), Rie Tanaka (Ensign Akira Yamamoto), Rina Satou (Makoto Harada), Shigeru Chiba (Dr. Sakezo Sado), Shinji Ogawa (Heikuro Todo), Tessho Genda (Kotetsu Serizawa), Toshihiko Seki (Shinya Ito), Unshou Ishizuka (Ryu Hijikata), Yoshimasa Hosoya (Saburo Kato), Yousuke Akimoto (Redof Hiss), Yuuki Chiba (Kenjiro Ota), Akira Harada (Commander Ishizu), Ei Mochizuki (Kirishima Navigator A), Hiroyuki Takanaka (Yukikaze Communications), Masaaki Itatori (Kirishima Radar), Masayoshi Sugawara (Kirishima Gunner), Ryuichi Kijima (Kirishima Navigator B), Taira Kikumoto (Kirishima Communications), Takaomi Ashizawa (Yukikaze Navigator), Toshiharu Nakanishi (Yukikaze Helmsman)

Yamato 2199Notes: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 is a remake of the first season of the seminal 1974 anime series Space Battleship Yamato, drastically updating its visuals and design aesthetics while essentially telling the same story. Now in HD and featuring battle sequences that lean heavily on CGI, the look of the new episodes is overseen by Yutaka Izubuchi, who was a mechanical design artist on the original Yamato series. He also directed and/or designed episodes of Macross, Rahxephon, Escaflowne, and Record of Lodoss War. The series’ composer, Akira Miyagawa, is the son of original Yamato composer Hiroshi Miyagawa, and uses new arrangements of many of the original series musical themes. The Cosmo Falcon fighters’ equivalent in the original series were Cosmo Tigers. Voice actor Cho was also the voice of Neelix in episodes of Star Trek: Voyager dubbed for the Japanese market.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 07

The Rings Of Akhaten

Doctor WhoThe Doctor tries to impress upon Clara the mind-opening possibilities of travels in space and time by taking her to the festival held on an inhabited planetoid within the rings of the planet Akhaten. The ceremony, held once every thousand years, involves the selection of a “Queen of Years” to sing a song to appease the mythological Old God. But when the young Queen, befriended by Clara, is whisked away before the eyes of the assembled crowd to become a living sacrifice, the Doctor and Clara intervene, and discover that the Old God may not be as much of a myth as they thought. The planet Akhaten is alive, and demands a sacrifice of stories – and even the tales from the lives of a Time Lord aren’t enough to sate its appetite.

Order the DVDwritten by Neil Cross
directed by Farren Blackburn
music by Murray Gold
Crouch End Festival Chorus conducted by David Temple

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara), Michael Dixon (Dave), Nicola Sian (Ellie), Emilia Jones (Merry), Chris Anderson (The Chorister), Aidan Cook (The Mummy), Karl Greenwood (Dor’een)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green