Day: May 6, 1974

Categories
Classic Season 2 Tomorrow People

The Doomsday Men – Part 4: The Shuttlecock

Tomorrow PeopleWhen he regains consciousness, Stephen reports Douglas’ kidnapping both to John and Elizabeth, and to the headmaster of the school…who seems strangely unconcerned, as if he doesn’t want to know the details. With fellow student Paul, Stephen tracks the headmaster to a cabin in the woods where Douglas is being “held”, though not against his will. If the world is to be spared nuclear annihilation, Stephen must help Douglas realize the error of his grandfather’s warlike ways.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Roger Price
directed by Roger Price
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Elizabeth Adare (Elizabeth), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughn Clarke (Stephen), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Christopher Chittell (Chris), Eric Young (Lee Wan), Arnold Peters (Dr. Laird), William Relton (Douglas), Simon Gipps Kent (Paul), Lindsay Campbell (Lieutenant General McLelland), Derek Murcott (Major Longford)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Invisible Man

The Invisible Man

The Invisible ManAfter eight months of working on a teleportation system for the mysterious Klae Corporation, scientist Dr. Daniel Westin has been concealing a second research project, investigating an unexpected side effect of his research: invisibility. Westin and his wife, Dr. Kate Westin, have succeeded in rendering inanimate objects and small animals invisible. When this fact is revealed to Carlson, the director of Klae Corporation, Carlson immediately suggests military uses for the Westins’ breakthrough. Daniel refuses to cooperate further, and the Westins are fired from the Klae Corporation; their home is surrounded by armed agents. Daniel decides to risk sneaking back into his Klae lab to destroy the machinery that makes invisibility possible, but makes himself invisible first so he can escape, fully believing that he will became visible again after a short while.

But the effect turns out to be permanent. Daniel goes into hiding and enlists the help of an old friend, a plastic surgeon, to create a lifelike mask and gloves to simulate Daniel’s real face and hands. Daniel is left with no choice but to return to Klae to offer apologies and to try to piece together his destroyed research so he can someday become visible again. He demands that Carlson call off the armed agents surrouding the Westin home…and then discovers that they have nothing to do with Klae Corporation at all, and that someone else is willing to go to any length, including threatening Kate’s life, to gain the secret of invisibility for themselves.

teleplay by Steven Bochco
television story by Harve Bennett & Steven Bochco
directed by Robert Michael Lewis
music by Richard Clements

The Invisible ManCast: David McCallum (Dr. Daniel Westin), Melinda Fee (Dr. Kate Westin), Jackie Cooper (Walter Carlson), Henry Darrow (Dr. Nick Maggio), Alex Henteloff (Rick Steiner), Arch Johnson (General Turner), John McLiam (Blind Man), Ted Gehring (Gate Guard), Paul Kent (Security Chief), Milt Kogan (Doctor), Jon Cedar (Lobby Guard), Tamar Cooper (Receptionist), Lew Palter (Motel Clerk), Richard Forbes (Motel Guest)

The Invisible ManNotes: A 90-minute pilot movie that led to a series in NBC’s fall 1975 TV season, The Invisible Man is only loosely based upon H.G. Wells’ novel. The special effects used in each episode to depict Daniel’s invisibility are done on video, much like a live TV weathercast. Film-based opticals couldn’t be done on a TV timetable, so The Invisible Man shot those scenes on videotape, and then transferred that video to film by syncing a high-resollution monitor to the scan rate of the film camera. Much like contemporary BBC productions that showed little concern about switching from studio video to location film, the change is noticeable, and the process was still costly.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
1980s Miniseries V

V: The Final Battle – Part I

VThe Visitor occupation of Earth continues, and so do the resistance’s struggles to stay unified. A hit-and-run raid on a Visitor food processing facility turns disastrous thanks to unforseen improvements in the aliens’ armor, and Donovan worries that without a victory, and soon, the resistance will lose what little quiet support it has from the general public. Robert Maxwell, in the meantime, has a dilemma of his own – his daughter Robin is pregnant, and despite his attempts to be supportive, she’s not breathing a word about who the father might be. A major press event at a hospital in Los Angeles provides what Donovan thinks might be the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the Visitors’ vulnerability to the public, but getting past the security at the event will be a challenge – especially when Donovan is still on his own mission to retrieve his son Sean from the Visitors’ food storage facility on the mothership. During one of Elias’ many secretive visits to the hospital to steal medical supplies, he captures a live Visitor prisoner – the seemingly harmless Willie and his human friend Harmony – and brings them back to the secret resistance headquarters. Julie takes the opportunity to run experiments on Willie to try to find a weakness in the Visitors, and only then does Robin Maxwell admit that her baby is a human-Visitor hybrid, and demands an abortion. But when Julie examines Robin, it quickly becomes apparent that aborting the fetus would kill the girl in the process. And on the night of the Visitor leader’s announcement at the hospital, the aliens are finally unmasked – on live worldwide TV – in the resistance’s boldest raid yet. But this victory comes at a high price as Julie is captured by Diana’s forces.

Order the DVDteleplay by Brian Taggert and Peggy Goldman
story by Lillian Weezer & Peggy Goldman & Faustus Buck & Diane Frolov and Harry & Renee Longstreet
directed by Richard T. Heffron
music by Barry de Vorzon & Joseph Conlan

Cast: Marc Singer (Mike Donovan), Faye Grant (Dr. Julie Parrish), Jane Badler (Diana), Michael Durrell (Robert Maxwell), Michael Wright (Elias Taylor), Blair Tefkin (Robin Maxwell), Neva Patterson (Eleanor Dupres), David Packer (Daniel Bernstein), Robert Englund (Willie), Richard Herd (John), Thomas Hill (Father Doyle), Michael Ironside (Ham Tyler), Peter Nelson (Brian), Andrew Prine (Steven), Sandy Simpson (Mark), Denise Galik (Maggie), Jason Bernard (Caleb Taylor), Rafael Campos (Sancho Gomez), Hansford Rowe (Arthur Dupres), Frank Ashmore (Martin), Diane Civita (Harmony Moore), Viveka Davis (Polly Maxwell), Marin May (Katie Maxwell), Jenny O’Hara (Jenny), Jenny Sullivan (Christine Walsh), Mark Taylor (Dr. Fred King), Camila Ashlend (Ruby Engels), Greta Blackburn (Lorraine), Eric Johnston (Sean Donovan), Dick Miller (Dan Pascal), Stack Pierce (Visitor Captain), Don Starr (Dr. Walker)

Notes: Pascal’s high-tech counterfeiting equipment is so high-tech that it makes the same sound effects as Spock’s science station on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. The music composed by Barry DeVorzon and Joseph Conlan for the second and third episodes of The Final Battle were replaced on one week’s notice by future Star Trek: The Next Generation maestro Dennis McCarthy. Though included in the credits of the first episode, Michael Ironside doesn’t appear until the opening scenes of the second episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Half A Life

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44805.3: Kalon scientist Dr. Timicin has beamed aboard the Enterprise to travel to a star much like his planet’s own sun to conduct tests of a modified photon torpedo that could reduce the level of solar activity – something that needs to be done within decades, or Kalon II’s sun will explode, eradicating his people. When the test fails, Timicin continues, but he is due back on Kalon II so he may carry out the Resolution – a traditional Kalon ceremony in which one ends one’s life by painless suicide at sixty. Lwaxana Troi, also visiting the Enterprise, tries to convince Timicin to continue living, although his request for asylum from his people could result in war.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Peter Allan Fields
story by Ted Roberts and Peter Allan Fields
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: David Odgen Stiers (Timicin), Majel Barrett (Lwaxana Troi), Michelle Forbes (Dara), Terrence E. McNally (Science Minister B’Tardat), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Carel Struycken (Mr. Homn)

Notes: Dennis McCarthy’s score was nominated for an Emmy in 1991.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 3

Interludes and Examinations

  • By Dave
  • May 6, 1996

Babylon 5Those aboard Babylon 5 react in different ways to the horrifying news that the Shadow War is about to engulf everyone. Londo joyfully awaits the return of his old flame Adira, while Sheridan worries that the League of Non-Aligned Worlds won’t commit their forces against the Shadows unless one of the major powers scores a decisive victory against the darkness. Franklin is forced to face the realization that his stim addiction could do more than destroy his medical career – one mistake could cost him a patient’s life. Morden arrives, trying to regain Londo’s trust, and is prepared to exact a hideous price if he can’t. Kosh is reluctant to agree to Sheridan’s request for a Vorlon strike against the Shadows, and when he does send a Vorlon fleet to intercept them, dark consequences ensue for everyone.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Jesus Trevino
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain John Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Susan Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Security Chief Michael Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Stephen Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Peter Jurasik (Londo Mollari), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Jennifer Balgobin (Dr. Lillian Hobbs), Rance Howard (David Sheridan), Jan Rabson (Vendor), Ed Wasser (Morden), Ardwight Chamberlain (Kosh), Jonathan Chapman (Brakiri), Maggie Ciglar (Tech), Glenn Martin (Ranger), Doug Tompos (Med Tech)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 04 Star Trek

For The Cause

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: Sisko is shocked and skeptical to learn that there is evidence suggesting that his lover, freighter captain Kasidy Yates, is smuggling supplies to the Maquis. However, the cloaked Defiant follows her ship, the Xhosa, on a run to the Badlands, where the crew witnesses Kasidy making a delivery to a Maquis ship…and soon Kasidy isn’t the only traitor Sisko has to worry about. Meanwhile, Garak and Ziyal come to an understanding.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Mark Gehred O’Connell
directed by James L. Conway
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Penny Johnson (Kasidy Yates), Kenneth Marshall (Eddington), Andrew Robinson (Garak), Tracy Middendorf (Ziyal), John Prosky (Brathaw), Steven Vincent Leigh (Lt. Reese)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

Categories
Season 02 Star Trek Voyager

Tuvix

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 49655.2: Tuvok and Neelix are sent on an away mission to collect samples of vegetation from a nearby planet. When they are beamed back up, a transporter glitch combines them into one being, a Vulcan-Talaxian fusion that eventually calls itself Tuvix. Tuvix has the knowledge, memories and personalities of both Tuvok and Neelix, from Tuvok’s expertise and logic to Neelix’s quirky emotions and his love for Kes. Despite the crew’s concerns about their two comrades, Tuvix is perfectly healthy and resumes both Tuvok’s tactical duties and even some of Neelix’s cooking. After several weeks, the doctor comes up with a means of splitting Tuvix back into his component parts, but Tuvix himself refuses to undergo the procedure. Janeway struggles with the implications of a decision that could amount to executing Tuvix to bring Tuvok and Neelix back, but Tuvix tries to convince the crew that the captain is about to commit murder.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Kenneth Biller
story by Andrew Shepard Price & Mark Gaberman
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), Tom Wright (Tuvix), Simon Billig (Hogan), Bahni Turpin (Swinn)

Original title: Symbiogenesis

LogBook entry by Paul Campbell

Categories
Season 1 Xena: Warrior Princess

The Greater Good

Xena: Warrior PrincessA young woman finds Xena in the forest and begs her to save Lord Seltzer from the warlord Talmadeus. As she arrives in the village, Xena hears a familiar voice call out to her. Lord Seltzer is actually Salmoneus. While Xena fights off Talmadeus’s men, she is hit in the neck by a dart. She checks the dart and finds that it has been dipped in Talmec poison. The stoic warrior keeps this information to herself. Salmoneus tells Xena that Talmadeus is after him because he sold the warlord weapons and armor made from Talgamite. Talagmite dissolves in water, and it rained on Talmadeus’s army during a big battle. Xena decides to go find Talmadeus, and Gabrielle goes with her. The warlord and his lieutenant are out with a patrol looking for her. Xena fights the men, while Gabrielle watches from a distance. But when the warrior reaches Talmadeus, the poison begins to affect her. The warlord presses his advantage and is about to kill Xena when Gabrielle throws her staff at him and knocks his sword away. Xena recovers enough to kick Talmadeus in the stomach and whistles for Argo. She and Gabrielle retreat back to the village.

Gabrielle is angry that Xena kept the fact that she had been poisoned hidden from her. Xena isn’t sure how much worse she will get, but she knows that she is in no shape to take on Talmadeus. It’s decided that Gabrielle will dress as Xena and act as a decoy. They hope it will be enough to fool Talmadeus into thinking that Xena is well. Talmadeus is confident that he’s sent Xena on the run. He sends his lieutenant out on another patrol to find her. They encounter “Xena” and chase her back to the village. But the real Xena has rallied the villagers. Armed with seltzer bottles that have spikes in the corks, the villagers chase the warriors away. Xena tells Gabrielle that she needs to attack Talmadeus’s camp. She has had the villagers prepare incendiary devices to use in the attack. But Gabrielle is concerned about her friend. Xena tells her she needs to do this for these villagers in spite of her ill health.

Talmadeus is readying his army for an attack on the village, when he hears a familiar war cry. A ball of flame flies through the air and lands on a tent. Several more land on other tents and around the camp. He looks up to see “Xena” charging into the camp on her horse. He quickly grabs a staff and blocks the horse’s path. When the horse jumps over the staff, “Xena” is thrown into a horse’s trough. The warlord is surprised to see that the rider wasn’t Xena after all. In the warehouse at the village, Xena has managed to get out of her bed and has headed for her weapons. Two of Talmadeus’s warriors try to sneak up on her, but she manages to take care of them before collapsing to the ground.

Order the DVDswritten by Steven L. Sears
directed by Gary Jones
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Robert Trebor (Salmoneus), Peter McCauley (Talmadeus), Timothy James Adam (Kalus), Jonathon Hendry (Ness), Natalya Humphrey (Photis), David Mitchell (Gorney), Kenneth Prebble (Old Man)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

Categories
Nowhere Man

Zero Minus Ten

Nowhere ManVeil awakens in a hospital, and is told that he is just recovering from a coma caused by injuries received in a near-fatal auto accident. Alyson and Larry are there, lending credence to the possibility that his entire ordeal of being hunted by the conspiracy was merely a nightmare – but Veil has come too far to believe it so quickly.

Order the DVDswritten by Jane Espenson
directed by James Whitmore, Jr.
music by Mark Snow

Cast: Bruce Greenwood (Thomas Veil), Megan Gallagher (Alyson Veil), Murray Rubenstein (Larry), Choppy Guillotte (Ben Dobbs), David Bodin (Doctor)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 04 Star Trek Voyager

Demon

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Depleted of resources, Voyager limps into the vicinity of a class Y planet, known informally as a “demon” class planet. Though standard Starfleet procedure calls for total avoidance of the hostile environment of these planets, Janeway and the crew are left with no choice but to try to improvise a way to adapt the planet’s natural resources to power Voyager. Tom and Harry are the first away team to visit the planet, and they fail to report back. But the rescue team commanded by Chakotay finds both of them in perfect health – and capable of breathing freely in the deadly atmosphere of the planet. However, transporting the two back to Voyager almost proves fatal, leading the Doctor to believe that anyone who has visited this class Y planet can never leave it again.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Kenneth Biller
story by Andrè Bormanis
directed by Anson Williams
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Alexander Enberg (Ensign Vorik), Susan Lewis (Transporter Technician), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Demons

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise returns to Earth to be on hand for four weeks of talks between Earth, Andorian and Tellarite officials to lay the groundwork for a peaceful interplanetary league of worlds. But during a reception after the first discussions, a wounded woman approaches T’Pol, gives her a hair sample and a warning that “they’re going to kill her” – and then dies. Dr. Phlox analyzes the hair sample and concludes that it comes from a six month old child who happens to be the offspring of T’Pol and Trip. Trip confronts T’Pol about this news, but she denies ever having been pregnant – and yet she cannot deny her instinct that the child is theirs. Reed investigates, even re-opening some of his severed contacts at Section 31, and discovers that the dead woman was a member of a human separatist movement called Terra Prime. Further investigation reveals that the woman had recently been to a mining colony on Earth’s moon, and also exposes a visiting reporter (and old flame of Mayweather’s) as a Terra Prime spy. Trip and T’Pol infiltrate the mining colony, but are quickly captured by Terra Prime loyalists who use the colony as a recruiting ground. They are taken to meet Paxton, the leader of the Terra Prime movement, and are helpless to watch as he commandeers a verteron array based on Mars, intended to deflect comets from the inner solar system, but now twisted into an interplanetary weapon. Paxton demands that all aliens vacate Earth space immediately, or he’ll train the array on a populated target.

Order DVDswritten by Manny Coto
directed by LeVar Burton
music by Paul Baillargeon

Guest Cast: Peter Weller (John Frederick Paxton), Harry Groener (Nathan Samuels), Eric Pierpoint (Harris), Peter Mensah (Greaves), Patrick Fischler (Mercer), Adam Clark (Josiah), Steven Rankin (Colonel Green), Johanna Watts (Gannet Brooks), Tom Bergeron (Coridan Ambassador), Christine Romeo (Khouri)

Notes: The character of Colonel Green was first glimpsed as a historical figure recreated by the Excalbians in the original Trek episode The Savage Curtain (also the third-from-last episode of its respective series, coincidentally), in which Phillip Pine played the character of a genocidal military leader whose reign of terror ended at least a generation before Archer’s Enterprise was launched. Harry Groener appeared in the Next Generation episode Tin Man, and in Voyager’s Sacred Ground installment. Peter Weller may be best known in SF circles for originating the role of the title character in the first two Robocop films, and as heroic guitar-slinging scientist Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, as well as starring in Manny Coto’s Showtime series Odyssey 5. In some respects, Terra Prime is very similar to the ethnocentric, anti-alien Home Guard organization which was a recurring threat in the first season of Babylon 5.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 02

The Girl In The Fireplace

Doctor WhoThe Doctor, Rose and Mickey explore a strange, unoccupied starship, sitting at a dead standstill in deep space – with its engines operating at full power to punch several holes through the fabric of time. Several chambers within the ship open into pockets of Earth’s past, specifically the history of France. The Doctor quickly discovers that the ship’s occupants, elegant but deadly clockwork robots, are interfering with the history of a young girl who, in exhibits chronicling her young adulthood, becomes known as Madame de Pompadour. The Doctor repeatedly interferes with the robots’ attempts to alter history, and unwittingly goes from being Madame du Pompadour’s imaginary friend to her savior at several points in his history. But to save her from the robots’ last attack, the Doctor may have to maroon himself thousands of years in Earth’s past, leaving Mickey and Rose stranded in the future.

Download this episodewritten by Steven Moffatt
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Sophia Myles (Reinette), Ben Turner (King Louis), Jessica Atkins (young Reinette), Angel Coulby (Katherine), Gareth Wyn Griffiths (Manservant), Paul Kasey (Clockwork Man), Ellen Thomas (Clockwork Woman), Jonathan Hart (Alien Voice), Emily Joyce (Alien Voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 10

Knock Knock

Doctor WhoIt’s moving day for Bill and several of her fellow college students; after a lengthy and mostly fruitless search, an eccentric property owner offers his castle-like home for rent. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to help Bill move, but is fascinated by the house itself – spacious bedrooms, wood interiors, no central heat, no pets allowed, and a mysterious tower that isn’t covered in the lease. What Bill’s landlord hasn’t revealed is that the lease is good for one night only, for that’s all the time it will take for the house to consume its tenants to preserve the secret in the tower. Bill is mortified when the Doctor – who the other students know as a professor, and who she says is her grandfather – insists on hanging around the house to satisfy his curiosity. But before Bill can chase him away for embarrassing her, he too is trapped in the house – a potential bonus feast not covered in the lease.

Order the DVDDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Mike Bartlett
directed by Bill Anderson
music by Murray Gold

Doctor WhoCast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill), Matt Lucas (Nardole), David Suchet (Landlord), Mariah Gale (Eliza), Mandeep Dhillon (Shireen), Colin Ryan (Harry), Ben Presley (Paul), Alice Hewkin (Felicity), Bart Sauvek (Pavel), Sam Benjamin (Estate Agent), Tate Pitchie-Cooper (Young Landlord)

LogBook entry by Earl Green