Day: August 10, 1968

Categories
Classic Season 06 Doctor Who

The Dominators

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS brings the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie to the planet Dulkis, which the Doctor knows as a peaceful world that has abandoned war. But the travelers find themselves on an island strewn with the remnants of an ancient war and contaminated with radiation – the legacy of nuclear weapons tests, according to a small number of researchers encountered by the Doctor. What the Time Lord doesn’t realize is that the native Dulcians are not the only people visiting the island. Another Dulcian expedition meets with disaster, its only survivor claiming that his shipmates were killed by well-armed robots. The Doctor and Jamie go to investigate these claims, and find themselves taken prisoner by a group of aggressive aliens who call themselves the Dominators. These would-be invaders, backed up by their powerful Quark robots, intend to mine the radioactive minerals on Dulkis to make their own nuclear weapons…and they also wish to use the pacifist Dulcians as their slaves. The Doctor scrambles to find a way to undermine the Dominators when it becomes obvious that the Dulcians are unwilling to rediscover the aggression necessary to protect themselves.

Season 6 Regular Cast: Patrick Troughton (The Doctor), Frazer Hines (Jamie), Wendy Padbury (Zoe)

written by Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln
directed by Morris Barry
music not credited

Guest Cast: Ronald Allen (Rago), Kenneth Ives (Toba), Arthur Cox (Cully), Philip Voss (Wahed), Malcolm Terris (Etnin), Nicolette Pendrell (Tolata), Feliticy Gibson (Kando), Giles Block (Teel), Johnson Bayly (Balan), Walter Fitzgerald (Senex), Ronald Mansell, John Cross, Malcolm Watson, Aubrey Danvers Walker (Council Members), Alan Gerrard (Bovem), Brian Cant (Tensa), John Hicks, Gary Smith, Freddie Wilson (Quarks), Sheila Grant (Quark voices)

Broadcast from August 10 through September 7, 1968

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Star Cops TV Series

In Warm Blood

Star CopsA ship called the Pluto 5 drifts toward the moon and draws the attention of the Star Cops. Theroux visits the ship up close and personal and discovers that its crew died quite some time ago. At the same time, Spring has to deal with the arrival of a new Japanese medic assigned to the Star Cops, but Krivenko abruptly pulls Spring off of the Pluto 5 investigation and asks him to check on a small orbiting station inhabited by one of Krivenko’s friends, who has cut off all contact abruptly. Spring is annoyed with being assigned this mundane task until he arrives at the station, discovering that Krivenko’s friend is dead. With the very green Dr. Shoun in tow, Kenzy and Theroux return to the Pluto 5 and discover that one member of the crew is unaccounted for. Spring discovers that Krivenko’s dead scientist friend and the crew of the Pluto 5 have a common denominator – research for the giant medical corporation Hanimed. Dr. Shoun also happens to be employed by Hanimed, making Spring immediately suspicious that she’s not there to lend her expertise to the Star Cops…but to hinder their investigation and cover up a fatal bio-engineering design error in a medication being used by millions of people.

written by John Collee
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Justin Hayward & Tony Visconti

Cast: David Calder (Nathan Spring), Erick Ray Evans (David Theroux), Trevor Cooper (Colin Devis), Linda Newton (Pal Kenzy), Jonathan Adams (Alexander Krivenko), Sayo Inaba (Dr. Anna Shoun), Richard Rees (Richard Ho), Dawn Keeler (Christina Janssen), Susan Tan (Receptionist)

Original title: Trial By Murder

Notes: Star Cops creator Chris Boucher has said that the character of Dr. Shoun was not his own invention, but was instead inserted into the series’ final few episodes at the insistence of producer Evgeny Gridneff.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 1

Babylon Squared

Babylon 5Tachyon disturbances in the area of space which was once occupied by Babylon 4 concern Sinclair, especially when a fighter pilot who investigates returns to the station dead. Then a message arrives from the long-gone station – a distress call from B4. A convoy of fighters and transports departs B5 to see if the ghostly station can be evacuated. It turns out that B4 and its crew have been lost in time for years, and the station, according to an unusual and evasive alien named Zathras, has been brought back to 2258 so its occupants can escape. Zathras also mentions The One, a space-suited figure who appears ghostlike in the corridors of B4, and tells of how the station has been lifted from its present to serve as a staging base in a great war of the future. Sinclair offers his help, but Zathras refuses his help. As time runs out and Babylon 4 is due to return to its future soon, Sinclair and Garibaldi are confronted with the impossible task of evacuating the station’s inhabitants.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Jim Johnston
music by Christopher Franke

Guest Cast: Kent Broadhurst (Major Krantz), Tim Choate (Zathras), Denise Gentile (Lise Hampton), Frank Costa (B4 Guard), Mark Hendrickson (Grey Council #2), Doug E. McCoy (Alpha Seven), Tommy Rosales (Panicked Man), Marianne Robertson (Tech #1)

Babylon SquaredNotes: The “kidnapper” of B4 is revealed in season 3. Additionally, though it is unknown how or why, some manner of life form from the sector 14 region where B4 disappeared made its way to B5 at some point – intriguingly enough, possibly well before the events in Babylon Squared. This is revealed in Knives. And if you have seen this episode and just don’t get it, watch it back to back with both episodes of the third season’s War Without End.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Farscape Season 3

Revenging Angel

  • By Dave
  • August 10, 2001

FarscapeD’Argo demonstrates the progress he’s made with his vessel to Crichton, when something goes wrong. Blaming Crichton for interfering, he pushes Crichton against a stack of containers; the containers come crashing down on him, knocking him out and causing a dangerous level of internal bleeding. The crew can’t entirely focus on his problems, however – whatever happened to D’Argo’s ship, it’s getting ready to self-destruct, and Moya’s circuits are so fried she can’t eject the ship safely. An enraged D’Argo tosses his blade into the ship’s depths. Pilot and Moya suggest that the crew hide in one of the farther chambers, where they might be able to survive for a few days, but the crew want to try and find a way to save the ship. Harvey, meanwhile, wants Crichton to save himself – and the clone – by focusing on his need to take revenge against D’Argo. Crichton doesn’t want to go that route, but he needs to find some solution to his problem, something that will help him muster the will to fight his way back to consciousness. He begins an animated internal dialogue with D’Argo, trying just about every trick he can think of. Jool confesses to D’Argo that she may actually be responsible for the ship’s problems; she decided to investigate it in hopes they’d have something to talk about. That actually helps D’Argo’s mood somewhat, but he’s still a bit snappish when Chiana gets under his skin – fortunately so, because his cursing in his mother tongue sets off the ship’s voice recognition systems. It’s an ancient Luxan ship, and the self destruct can be stopped by one of three ancient Luxan items – including a blade.

Order the DVDswritten by David Kemper
directed by Andrew Prowse
music by Guy Gross

Guest Cast: Tammy MacIntosh (Jool)

Notes: The internal dialogue between Crichton and D’Argo is often literally animated, as a cartoon D’Argo chases a ‘toon Crichton in a send-up of Road Runner cartoons while a pen-and-ink Aeryn makes a brief homage to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The soundtrack to this episode, complete with merry melodies from series composer Guy Gross, is available in a limited edition CD.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 2 Star Trek Strange New Worlds

Hegemony

Star Trek: Strange New WorldsStardate 2344.2: As the U.S.S. Cayuga checks in on Parnassus Beta, a human colony outside of Federation space, Captain Batel continues her long-distance relationship with Captain Pike via subspace communication, which is suddenly cut off with the arrival of a crash-landing Starfleet shuttlecraft, followed closely by an enormous Gorn ship. By the time Enterprise responds to the Cayuga‘s distress signal, the Cayuga has been reduced to a field of debris orbiting Parnassus Beta. Worse still, the Gorn claim that the colony is in their territory, and any attempt to rescue either colonists or any survivors from the Cayuga will be seen as an act of war. Even with Admiral April’s explicit orders to avoid initiating hostilities, Pike and a small, hand-picked team go to the surface, hiding their shuttlecraft from detection by drifting through the Cayuga‘s debris. They find the Gorn present in great numbers, but also a contingent of surviving colonists and Cayuga crew members, including Captain Batel. Among the survivors is Lt. Montgomery Scott, the sole survivor of the last Starfleet ship attacked by the Gorn before attacking Parnassus Beta. His ingenuity provides what could be some tactical advantages, assuming he and the others survive long enough to eliminate the Gorn’s transporter scattering field and return to the Enterprise alive. Aboard the Enterprise, Pelia and Uhura devise a plan to dismantle the Gorn’s scattering field and rescue the humans on the surface, but when it happens, it will leave no doubt that Starfleet has taken a more aggressive posture and possibly start a war. The plan is a success, though the Gorn beam the colonists – including several of the Enterprise landing party – to their ship instead, attacking the Enterprise immediately afterward. As the crew awaits Pike’s orders, Captain Batel is put into stasis in sick bay, having been implanted with fast-hatching Gorn eggs in the Gorn’s attack on the planet.

Order DVDswritten by Henry Alonso Myers
directed by Maja Vrvilo
music by Nami Melumad
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds main theme by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: Strange New WorldsCast: Anson Mount (Captain Christopher Pike), Ethan Peck (Lt. Spock), Jess Bush (Nurse Christine Chapel), Christina Chong (Lt. La’an Noonien Singh), Celia Rose Gooding (Ensign Uhura), Melissa Navia (Lt. Erica Ortegas), Babs Olusanmokun (Dr. M’Benga), Rebecca Romijn (Commander Una Chin-Riley), Martin Quinn (Lt. Scott), Adrian Holmes (Admiral Robert April), Melanie Scrofano (Captain Batel), Dan Jeannotte (Lt. Sam Kirk), Carol Kane (Commander Pelia), Rong Fu (Jenna Mitchell), Matt Jensen (Ensign Appel), Alex Kapp (USS Enterprise/Cayuga Computer), strongNoah Lamanna (Chief Jay), Emeka Menakaya (Tiko), Simon Northwood (Rak)

Star Trek: Strange New WorldsNotes: Still a mere lieutenant in a room full of lieutenants, this is Scotty’s first appearance, chronologically speaking, in the prime Star Trek timeline; he’s also a former student of Pelia’s (though maybe it’s a good idea to look past his transcript). This is the first time an actual Scottish actor has played the role of Scotty. Since this season-ending cliffhanger premiered in the midst of a combined strike of the Writers’ Guild of America and the Screen Actors’ Guild, the ensuing wait for part two of the story would prove to be lengthy.

LogBook entry by Earl Green