Day: May 20, 1967

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Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

The Evil Of The Daleks

Doctor WhoAfter leaving Ben and Polly at the airport, the Doctor and Jamie find that the TARDIS has gone missing. When they trace it to a Victorian antique store, they find themselves caught up in a scheme by the Doctor’s deadliest enemy to isolate the essence of what makes humans human.

written by David Whitaker
directed by Derek Martinus & Timothy Combe
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: John Bailey (Edward Waterfield), Marius Goring (Theodore Maxtible), Brigit Forsyth (Ruth Maxtible), Alec Ross (Bob Hall), Griffith Davies (Kennedy), Geoffrey Colville (Perry), Jo Rowbottom (Mollie Dawson), Windsor Davies (Toby), Gary Watson (Arthur Terrall), Sonny Caldinez (Kemel), Robert Jewell (Dalek), Gerald Taylor (Dalek), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Murphy Grumbar (Dalek), Ken Tyllsen (Dalek), Roy Skelton (Dalek Voice), Peter Hawkins (Dalek Voice)

Note: The master tapes of this story were destroyed by the BBC in the early
1970s. Only episode 2 has been recovered so far.

The Evil Of The Daleks has seen two audio releases. The first, in 1992 featured narration by Tom Baker. A new version was released on CD in 2003 featuring narration by Frazer Hines.

Broadcast from May 20 through July 1, 1967

LogBook entry & review by Philip R. Frey

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Classic Season 09 Doctor Who

The Time Monster

Doctor WhoThe Doctor is disturbed by a recent series of dreams whose imagery has included the destruction of the world and the laughing face of the Master. But with no concrete basis for these visions, he ignores them and accompanies Jo as UNIT’s observers to the demonstration of the new TOM-TIT device – standing for Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time. But things go wrong from the start, especially when the Doctor sees that the TOM-TIT research program is actually being run by the Master. The Master demonstrates a mere fraction of TOM-TIT’s potential by snatching soldiers and artillery from World Wars I & II and launching them at UNIT troops. But the Doctor realizes that TOM-TIT’s true power is still largely untapped. The Master plans to capture a Chronovore – a creature which lives outside of the dimension of time and feeds upon temporal energy – harness its power for his continual conquests. The Doctor pursues the Master through time and the lost continent of Atlantis to prevent the Chronovore’s incredible powers from falling into the Master’s hands…but the only way to stop that from happening may be mutual destruction for both Time Lords.

written by Robert Sloman
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Roger Delgado (The Master), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Wanda Moore (Dr. Ingram), Ian Collier (Stuart Hyde), John Wyse (Dr. Percival), Terry Walsh (Window cleaner), Neville Barber (Dr. Cook), Barry Ashton (Proctor), Donald Eccles (Krasis), Keith Dalton (Neophite), Aidan Murphy (Hippias), Marc Boyle (Kronos), George Cormack (Dalios), Gregory Powell (Knight), Simon Legree (Sergeant), Dave Carter (Officer), George Lee (Farmworker), Ingrid Pitt (Galleia), Susan Penhaligon (Lakis), Michael Walker (Miseus), Derek Murcott (Crito), Dave Prowse, Terry Walsh (Minotaur), Melville Jones (Guard), Ingrid Bower (face of Kronos)

Broadcast from May 20 through June 24, 1972

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Into The Labyrinth Season 1

The Circle

Into The LabyrinthTerry, Phil and Helen arrive at a point in the past that they can only identify as “druidic times”, where a bearded old man in tattered robes singles Phil out as his new champion and hands him a gleaming sword. Phil is to challenge an arrogant ruler named Cynon, who himself seems to have magical powers rivaling Rothgo’s. Phil also thinks he’s spotted the Nidus in the form of a shield, but when he and the others summon Rothgo for help, they may be fatally distracting the wizard from a battle he’s fighting with Belor on the astral plane.

Order the DVDswritten by Bob Baker
based on an idea by Bob Baker & Peter Graham Scott
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Into The LabyrinthCast: Ron Moody (Rothgo), Pamela Salem (Belor), Lisa Turner (Helen), Simon Henderson (Terry), Simon Beal (Phil), Paul Lavers (Cynon), Edwina Ford (Bradwen), Peewee Hunt (Caw)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 3

War Without End – Part 2

  • By Dave
  • May 20, 1996

Babylon 5In the court of Emperor Londo Mollari, Sheridan is condemned to die. In his cell, he briefly shifts forward in time, but returns to the future where he encounters an aged Delenn, who is also due to be executed. Londo, drunk, reveals that he is under the constant watch of a creature which will alert the surviving minions of the Shadows if he does not act according to their wishes. His watchdog can be subdued by drink, and while free of its influence, Londo allows Delenn and Sheridan to escape. But before they can leave, Sheridan is yanked back through time as Delenn warns him never to go to Z’ha’Dum. He arrives at B4 and helps Sinclair secure the station for its upcoming time journey, but with his time stabilizer still inactive, he disappears again. To make matters worse, Sinclair has aged abruptly, a side effect of his exposure to the tachyon fields surrounding B4 when he visited there before. Attempts to prepare B4 to leap a thousand years into the past run into further problems when Zathras, who is captured and interrogated by both the original Babylon 4 crew, and Sinclair and Garibaldi in 2258. When preparations are finally made, Sheridan is safely retrieved so he can return to his present, but Sinclair must stay aboard Babylon 4 as it vanishes into the past – and both it and its occupant will become the stuff of legends.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Michael Vejar
footage from Babylon Squared directed by Jim Johnston
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), Michael O’Hare (Jeffrey Sinclair), Tim Choate (Zathras), Kent Broadhurst (Major Krantz), Bruce Morrow (B4 First Officer), Kevin Fry (Centauri Guard), Eddie Mui (B4 Tech)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Deep Space Nine Season 04 Star Trek

The Quickening

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: Bashir, Dax, and Kira are on a routine biosurvey mission in the Gamma Quadrant when they receive a 200-year-old distress signal. They follow it to a planet where the population, once a spacegoing culture, is suffering from an incurable fatal disease inflicted on them by the Jem’Hadar for defying the Dominion. Bashir becomes obsessed with finding a cure for the Blight, despite the opposition from natives who feel he is giving them nothing but false hope.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Naren Shankar
directed by Rene Auberjonois
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Michael Sarrazin (Trevean), Ellen Wheeler (Ekoria), Dylan Haggerty (Epran), Heide Margolis (Norva), Loren Lester (Attendant), Alan Echeverria (Patient), Lisa Moncure (Latia)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Season 02 Star Trek Voyager

Basics – Part I

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Voyager receives a message from an automated buoy sent by Seska, begging Chakotay to rescue her, and the child she conceived with his DNA, from the Kazons. The crew come up with a variety of tactical options in the likely event of a Kazon trap including holographic decoy ships and help from a nearby Talaxian colony, and Janeway decides to assume that Seska and the child are in actual danger. A Kazon life pod is discovered, carrying Tiernah, one of Cullah’s aides who has apparently fallen out of favor with the Maje. He volunteers information on a safe path through Kazon space which results in a number of minor hit-and-run Kazon attacks. Janeway becomes suspicious when all the attacks focus on one seemingly unimportant part of Voyager and orders the ship to double back on its course, only to find a well-organized Kazon ambush. Tiernah detonates a kamikaze bomb implanted in his own body, and the attacks render the ship completely helpless, unable even to self-destruct. Suder, the Betazoid crewman who has been confined for murder, goes into hiding in the ship’s ductwork. Tom Paris takes a shuttle to go back and retrieve help from the Talaxians, but contact with him is lost in the ensuing battle. Cullah and the Kazons board Voyager with Seska in tow and take command of the ship. The entire crew is left on a primitive planet without any technology, and Janeway can only watch helplessly as the crew’s only hope to reach home rises into the sky and off into space under the control of the Kazons.

Order the DVDswritten by Michael Piller
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

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), Brad Dourif (Suder), Anthony de Longis (Jal Cullah), John Gegenhuber (Tiernah), Martha Hackett (Seska), Henry Darrow (Kolopak), Scott Haven (Kazon #1), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Paul Campbell

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Nowhere Man

Gemini

Nowhere ManVeil finally has something to show for his quest, files which include a secret report written by an agent identified only as Gemini, as well as the unaltered original print of “Hidden Agenda” – showing the faces of the hanged men to be members of a Senate intelligence committee on domestic terrorism. Veil tracks down a surviving member of that committee, Senator Wallace, and reveals this information to him. He also learns that this committee strenuously opposed a bill that would have given the United States government’s intelligence agencies free reign in conducting surveillance of individual citizens. But before Veil can act further, his secret supporter is mysteriously transferred, and he discovers that he himself is not one man, but two – and one of those men is nowhere to be found.

Order the DVDswritten by Lawrence Hertzog and Art Monterastelli
directed by Stephen Stafford
music by Mark Snow

Cast: Bruce Greenwood (Thomas Veil), Hal Linden (Sentator William Wallace), Francis X. McCarthy (Robert Barton), Edward Edwards (Iverson)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 Star Trek Voyager

Hope and Fear

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 51978.2: On a routine supply stop, Paris and Neelix meet Arturis, an alien with a gift for translation. As Arturis hitches a brief ride aboard Voyager, Janeway decides to let Arturis try to decipher the encrypted message Starfleet sent through the Hirogen communications array several months earlier. Arturis makes quick work of the message, revealing a set of coordinates and a slightly garbled message from Admiral Hayes of Starfleet, detailing a new hope for Voyager’s crew to return home. But it is only when a wary Janeway tries deciphering the message on her own, while trying to convince Seven of Nine to return to the Alpha Quadrant with the crew, that the origins of the mysterious Starfleet experimental ship Dauntless are uncovered. This new ship, left unmanned for Voyager’s crew to use, is not on a mission of mercy, but a mission of vengeance.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Ray Wise (Arturis), Jack Shearer (Admiral Hayes), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 02

The Age Of Steel

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and his friends are trapped by Lumic’s new breed of Cybermen. Using the last remaining power source from the TARDIS, the Doctor immobilizes the Cybermen with an energy beam, and the survivors of the Cyberman attack on the Tyler mansion are now on the run. Ricky, the alternate universe’s battle-hardened version of Mickey, is killed by Cybermen while trying to escape. Pete and Rose try to infiltrate the Cyber-factory, using fake EarPods as a disguise, to find this universe’s Jackie, only to discover that she has already been converted into a Cyberman. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore, a resistance fighter from Ricky’s operation, discover an army of dormant Cybermen hidden beneath London. Mickey forms an uneasy alliance with Ricky’s friend Jake to storm Lumic’s zeppelin and try to find the controls Lumic uses to guide the Cybermen. Lumic, however, is no long in control – his enfeebled body is scheduled for an “upgrade” by the Cybermen, whether he wishes to remain human or not – and when he is in control, he is no longer Lumic. The Doctor still sees an opportunity to thwart the Cyberman invasion and return the TARDIS to its own universe, but not everyone who came with him will be making the return trip.

Download this episodewritten by Tom MacRae
with thanks to Marc Platt
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Roger Lloyd Pack (John Lumic), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Helen Griffin (Mrs. Moore), Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Tron Tron Uprising

Beck’s Beginning

Tron UprisingFollowing the fall of Tron and Flynn, Clu begins to take over the entire Grid. A mechanic program, Beck, watches as one of his friends is derezzed for merely questioning the legality of Clu’s coup, and takes action: altering his appearance to look like Tron, he destroys a huge statue of Clu, drawing the attention of one of Clu’s generals, Tesler. As striking any blow for freedom is considered an act of terrorism under Clu’s regime, Beck’s career choices rapidly narrow. He’s capture by Tesler’s lieutenant, Paige, but manages to escape, landing in the middle of nowhere – but not alone. Beck is interrogated by another program who wants to know why he has chosen to impersonate Tron. And Beck’s interrogator has reason to ask, since he is Tron.

written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
directed by Charlie Bean
music by Joseph Trapanese

Tron UprisingCast: Elijah Wood (Beck), Bruce Boxleitner (Tron), Emmanuelle Chriqui (Paige), Mandy Moore (Mara), Nate Corddry (Zed), Lance Henriksen (Tesler), Reginald VelJohnson (Able), Paul Reubens (Pavel), Tricia Helfer (voice of the Grid), Charlie Bean (additional voices), Elizabeth Ho (additional voices), Meeghan Holloway (additional voices), Sam Riegel (additional voices), Keith Silverstein (additional voices), Fred Tatascione (additional voices), Keone Young (additional voices)

Notes: Originally broadcast in 10 mini-episodes, Beck’s Beginning garnered enough interest to be edited together to serve as a “prelude” to the series proper. Tron is shown to be in an extremely damaged state here, a condition that will presumably worsen until he becomes Rinzler (this animated series takes place Tron Uprisingbefore Tron Legacy). Bruce Boxleitner is the only cast member to have appeared in the live-action Tron franchise, starring as Tron (and his real-world alter ego Alan Bradley) in 1982’s Tron and 2010’s Tron Legacy. Elijah Wood is best known as Frodo Baggins from the 21st century big-screen Lord Of The Rings trilogy as well as the two Hobbit movies. Mandy Moore was the voice of Rapunzel in Disney’s all-CG movie Tangled, and has had recurring roles in Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, and Entourage, all while maintaining her career as a recording artist. Wood and Moore co-starred in 2002’s All I Want. Lance Henriksen’s genre resume could almost fill a book, with big-screen appearances in Aliens and several of its sequels, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, The Terminator, and The Right Stuff, and countless TV roles (including a three-year stint as star of the X-Files spinoff Millennium). Reginald VelJohnson will forever be known as Urkel’s dad from Family Matters, just as Paul Reubens will forever be associated with the character Tron Uprisingof Pee-Wee Herman. Tricia Helfer probably needs no introduction to genre audiences after starring as Number Six in the 21st century reboot of Battlestar Galactica. Director Charlie Bean worked on Batman: The Animated Series, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Hercules & Xena: The Animated Movie and early episodes of Ren & Stimpy. Joseph Trapanese assisted Daft Punk on their soundtrack for Tron Legacy and takes over music duties here.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 10

Extremis

Doctor WhoLeft blind by his attempt to save Bill from exposure to hard vacuum, the Doctor has returned to Earth at Nardole’s insistence; the vault in the basement of the Doctor’s college office has been left unguarded too often, despite the Doctor having sworn an oath to watch over it for a thousand years. What the vault contains is none other than Missy – kept locked up for her own good as well as that of the universe.

The Doctor is feeling rather less than useful when the Pope himself comes to ask for his help. A document called the Veritas has been removed from the Vatican’s library of heretical texts and has been circulated via e-mail; all who read it kill themselves after learning what it contains. The Doctor, without the ability to read it, is perfectly safe from the Veritas, and he relies on Nardole to be his eyes…and also relies on Nardole not to reveal his blindness to Bill. Alien monks swarm the catacombs of the Vatican, seeking to find and conceal the Veritas, for it reveals to all who read it that this is not really Earth…but the Earth is in grave danger.

Order the DVDDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Daniel Nettheim
music by Murray Gold

Doctor WhoCast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Michelle Gomez (Missy), Francesco Martino (Piero), Alana Maria (Pentagon Woman), Laurent Maurel (Nicolas), Jamie Hill (Monk), Tim Bentinck (voice of the Monk)

Notes: The Doctor can “steal” energy from future regenerations, possibly up to the point of robbing himself of those future lives, with a Gallifreyan device that seems to operate similarly to the machine used by Mawdryn in Mawdryn Undead (1983), except that of course, this being the age of the iPhone, the Doctor’s device is much, much smaller than Doctor WhoMawdryn’s room full of equipment. The Doctor’s life has been impacted by previous attempts to execute the Master, as seen with the end of his seventh incarnation in the 1996 TV movie after the Daleks attempted to carry out the Master’s execution. Though Star Trek‘s existence as a piece of entertainment in the world of Doctor Who has long been established (The Empty Child, 2005), Nardole’s mention of the holodeck may be the first reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green