Day: July 13, 1983

Categories
Blackadder Season 1

Witchsmeller Pursuivant

BlackadderAutumn, 1495. The Black Plague is ravaging the land. The King himself is ill, leaving Harry and Edmund to deal with the crisis. It is decided to call on the Witchsmeller Pursuivant to root out the evil. Edmund’s vocal opposition is rewarded by being pegged as a witch, himself. Prince Harry agrees to put Edmund on trial, but with the Witchsmeller out to get him, Edmund’s survival is anything but certain…

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson
with additional dialogue by William Shakespeare
directed by Martin Shardlow
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Frank Finlay (The Witchsmeller Pursuivant), Richard Murdoch (Ross), Valentine Dyall (Angus), Peter Schofield (Fife), Stephen Frost (Soft), Mark Arden (Anon), Perry Benson (Daft Ned), Bert Parnaby (Dim Cain), Roy Evans (Dumb Abel), Forbes Collins (Dopey Jack), Patrick Duncan (Officer), Barbara Miller (Jane Kirkettle), Natasha King (Princess Leia), Howard Lew Lewis (Piers), Sarah Thomas (Mrs. Field), Louise Gold (Mrs. Tyler), Gareth Milne (Stuntman)

Notes: Frank Finlay is best known for his extensive theatrical career. He early work included multiple Shakespearean productions, including Othello (1965), Much Ado About Nothing (1967), Julius Caesar (1969) and The Merchant of Venice (1972). Genre work includes The Deadly Bees (1966), the role of van Helsing in Count Dracula (1977), The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (1999) and Ghosthunter (2000).

Cain and Abel (Bert Parnaby and Roy Evans) are back (following their appearance in The Archbishop) and re-appear in the final episode, The Black Seal.

Following her appearance in The Queen Of Spain’s Beard, Natasha King makes another brief appearance as Edmund’s wife, Princess Leia.

Stephen Frost makes a return appearance in the Blackadder Goes Forth episode Corporal Punishment. He is probably best known to American audiences for his many appearances on the British improv show Whose Line Is It, Anyway?

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

Categories
Star Cops TV Series

Conversations With The Dead

Star CopsAn accident aboard the Earth-to-Mars supply freighter Daedalus fires the ship’s engines long before they should, blasting the ship off-course. Its crew of two is doomed: while they’re in no danger of hitting anything, they’ll run out of air eventually. Even though the crew is still in contact, they’ve all but been declared dead already. The Star Cops begin an investigation, but Nathan has a distraction of his own: his girlfriend on Earth has been brutally murdered. When he arrives to personally assist in the investigation, he finds they he’s being treated as a suspect in the crime. This leaves David to spearhead the Daedalus investigation, during the course of which he makes a discovery that could save the crew’s lives: experimental cryogenic equipment is stored about the Daedalus that could be used to put the crew into hibernation, while there’s just enough fuel to put the Daedalus on a long course back home…if the airlocks are opened selectively. The problem is that it’ll take eight years for Daedalus to reach home, and until then nobody will know if the crew survived or not. And on Earth, Nathan receives a message stating that his girlfriend was but the first victim – and that he will be the next to die.

written by Chris Boucher
directed by Christopher Baker
music by Justin Hayward & Tony Visconti

Cast: David Calder (Nathan Spring), Erick Ray Evans (David Theroux), Trevor Cooper (Colin Devis), Gennie Nevinson (Lee Jones), Sian Webber (Corman), Alan Downer (Paton), Sean Scanlan (Fox), Carmen Gomez (Gina), Benny Young (John Smith), Deborah Manship (Traffic Controller), Richard Ireson (Mike), Rosie Kerslake (Lara)

Notes: The last-ditch maneuver to save the Daedalus is based on a real scientific principle called a “free return trajectory”, a save-our-skins option that involves using the available fuel and possibly gravity assists from celestial bodies to put a spacecraft on track to return home with a minimum expenditure of resources. A free return trajectory often assumes that available fuel is at a minimum, due to whatever has forced mission planners to consider a free return trajectory in the first place. Apollo 13’s crew was successfully returned to Earth in 1970 by use of a free return trajectory that involved swinging around the moon.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 1

Eyes

Babylon 5Two shady individuals arrives from Earth and begin asking questions about Sinclair and the station’s command staff. Though they start out under the pretense of being corporate investigators, Garibaldi discovers that they are an Earth Force Colonel and a Psi Corps telepath. Colonel Ben Zayn cuts to the chase very quickly – there is something wrong with B5’s command crew, and he wants all of them to submit to his companion’s mind scan so he can find out what. Ivanova objects strongly to the participation of a telepath, even to the point of submitting her resignation to Sinclair, who has found a legal loophole that prevents Ben Zayn from forcing anyone to do anything without a formal inquiry tantamount to court-martial. But when Sinclair calls this bluff, he finds out that Ben Zayn is willing to break all the rules when the colonel calls a formal inquiry on the entire command crew. His real mission – to put himself of command of B5, an assignment he was passed over for, and he has the help of a high-ranking memer of Psi Corps who Sinclair once defeated.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by Lawrence G. DiTillio
directed by Jim Johnston
music by Christopher Franke

Guest Cast: Gregory Martin (Colonel Ari Ben Zayn), Jeffrey Combs (Harriman Gray), Macaulay Bruton (Tragedy), Marie Chambers (Sofie Ivanova), David L. Crowley (Lou Welch), Frank Farmer (General Miller), Drew Letchworth (Comedy), Marianne Robertson (Tech #1), Curtis Laster (Jax), Max Daniels (Wallaby)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Farscape Season 3

Incubator

  • By Dave
  • July 13, 2001

FarscapeTensions rise aboard Moya as Crichton continues to pursue his wormhole research and the others get a serious case of cabin fever. Meanwhile, turnabout is fair play for Scorpius; when his wormhole scientists realize that some of the wormhole information left by the Ancients is encrypted, he has the neural chip implanted into his own brain. Now a neural clone of Crichton exists in his mind, and he attempts to convince the clone to unlock the equations for him. When the Crichton-clone asks why he should help, Scorpius tries to convince him that the Scarrans are an even greater threat not only to Sebaceans but to all races, using his own history as evidence. His formative years were spent under Scarran control, where the Scarrans tormented him in the name of making him strong enough to overcome his half-Sebacean heritage. Realizing that the Scarrans were lying to him about the circumstances of his birth, the young Scorpius managed to escape, and eventually learned the truth: he was born as a result of a Scarran scheme to rape Sebacean women to produce hybrids that would give the Scarrans a better understanding of their enemy. Determined for revenge, Scorpius joined the Peacekeepers and began his pursuit of wormhole technology. When one of his scientists defects shortly after claiming to have unlocked the secrets of safe wormhole travel, it adds another level of urgency to his discussions with the Crichton clone. When that scientist shows up on Moya offering Moya and Pilot a chance at a new life of exploration and Crichton her knowledge, everyone must decide if they’re really prepared to stay together.

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Manning
directed by Ian Watson
music by Guy Gross

Guest Cast: Tammy MacIntosh (Jool), David Franklin (Lt. Braca), Amy Salas (Tauza), Evan Sheaves (Child Scorpius), Stephanie Jacobsen (Nurse Froy), Paul Shedlowich (Plint), Jo Kerrigan (Linfer), Danny Adcock (Co-Kura Strappa), Thomas Holesgrove (Wolesh), Sam Healy (Rylani Jeema Dellos), Nicholas Bishop (Ghebb Dellos), William Zappa (Captain Molayne)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
7th Doctor Doctor Who Doctor Who Unbound

Death Comes To Time

Doctor Who: Death Comes To TimeThe planet Santiny is overrun by a massive invasion by a Canisian fleet. Even suicide runs don’t prevent the Canisians, as their leader, General Tannis, seems to be able to forsee every possible tactic. Almost as if in answer to the prayers of the survivors on Santiny, the TARDIS arrives, and the Doctor and his blue-skinned companion Antimony emerge to begin helping Santiny’s resistance movement. Meanwhile, Ace – planted in a strategic position by the Doctor – has been rescued by a Time Lord named Casmus, who begins training her for the next step in her own evolution. Elsewhere, a group of Time Lords called the Fraction, dedicated to interference in time on the side of good, begin falling one by one to a stealthy killer. Finally, the string of deaths draws the Doctor’s attention away from the Canisian problem, and also gets the attention of Casmus. On Gallifrey, Casmus accelerates Ace’s training, speeding her evolution into a new breed of Time Lord. Time is running out, as Tannis is also revealed to be a Time Lord who is using his conquests to disguise his identity. But will Ace learn to use her powers for good soon enough to confront Tannis, or will the Doctor – having witnessed Antimony’s death at the general’s hands – be forced to use his Time Lord powers to a degree that will not only kill Tannis but himself as well?

Order this CDwritten by Colin Meek
directed by Dan Freedman
music by Nick Romero

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Kevin Eldon (Antimony), John Sessions (General Tannis), Leonard Fenton (Casmus), Jon Culshaw (Golcrum / Senator Hawk / President), Jacqueline Pearce (Admiral Mettna), Stephen Fry (The Minister Of Chance), Britta Gartner (Senator Sala), Anthony Stewart Head (St. Valentine), Dave Hill (Nessican), Charlotte Palmer (Dr. Cain), Stephen Brody (Speedwell), Gareth Jones (Campion), Andrew McGibbon (Captain Carne), Michael Yale (Lieutenant Suneel), Peggy Batchelor (The Kingmaker), David Evans (Pilot), Robert Rietti (Premier Bedloe), Julienne Davis (Computer), Emma Ferguson (Megan), Huw Thomas (President of Santiny), Nick Romero (Major Bander / Prime Minister), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), David Soul (Bob)

Originally broadcast from July 13, 2001 to May 30, 2002

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green