Day: September 17, 1966

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Classic Season 1 Mission Impossible

Pilot

Mission: ImpossibleWhen the United States government learns that an enemy superpower has given two nuclear warheads to a dictator in a small island country in the Caribbean for imminent use, Daniel Briggs and the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) are called into action. Briggs selects his team – electronics expert Barney Collier, master impersonator Rollin Hand, strongman Willy Armitage, the distractingly beautiful Cinnamon Carter, and Terry Targo, a safecracker with skills and a rap sheet to match – and hatches an elaborate plan: Hand will impersonate the dictator, derailing a public appearance, while Barney ensures that TV and radio coverage of that appearance never happen. Targo is smuggled into the same hotel vault as the warheads, and must assess the plan to steal them with limited oxygen, but his fingers are broken when the team rushes the dictator’s heavily guarded hotel room. Briggs, in the meantime, plans to interrogate the dictator for information on the warheads, which are contained in a safe of their own – and may explode if the safe is not opened properly. With Targo out of commission, it will now be Briggs who is smuggled back into the vault to steal the warheads. The dictator’s aide de camp, growing suspicious that a coup is imminent, begins tightening security, and Briggs must determine how to steal the nukes without also detonating them.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Bruce Geller
directed by Bernard L. Kowalski
music by Lalo Schifrin

Mission: ImpossibleCast: Steven Hill (Daniel Briggs), Barbara Bain (Cinnamon Carter), Greg Morris (Barney Collier), Peter Lupus (Willy Armitage), Martin Landau (Rollin Hand / Rio Dominguez), Wally Cox (Terry Targo), Harry Davis (Alisio), Paul Micale (Desk Clerk), Patrick Campbell (Day Vault Clerk), Fredric Villani (Night Vault Clerk), Joe Breen (Loft Manager)

Mission: ImpossibleNotes: When it sold successfully to CBS in 1966 at roughly the time that its Desilu Productions stablemate Star Trek sold to NBC, Mission: Impossible was part of a major turnaround for a studio that was otherwise known at the time for producing The Lucy Show. Peter Graves would not join the series until its second year on the air, and Martin Landau is credited as a guest star, a trend that would continue throughout the first season with a “special appearance by” credit, prior to his promotion to a series regular in season two.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Space Academy

Castaways In Time And Space

Space AcademyAs the Space Academy cadets get to know their newest team member, Paul Jerome, Commander Gampu and Laura are investigating a black hole. Chris and Laura try linking their minds, but the link is broken when Gampu’s ship is sucked into the black hole. The last message Laura is able to send to her brother is that Gampu is injured, and the ship is severely damaged. Space Academy launches a calm and orderly search for the missing ship, but Chris is in no mood to take it slow. He takes the Seeker into the black hole to search for Gampu and his sister, even if it means defying orders from Space Academy. But there are three problems: Gampu and Laura have crash-landed on a world guarded by a huge monster, Jerome is a loner who seems reluctant to be part of a team… and nobody’s ever escaped from a black hole before.

Space Academywritten by Samuel A. Peeples
directed by Jeffrey Hayden
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself)

Notes: Strangely enough, although the team seems to know who Paul is in the previous episode, this episode is treated as an introduction. (On the other hand, Paul’s only contact with any of his fellow cadets in the first episode is via radio communications.) Paul defines a black hole as “a blank spot on the celestial charts that reflects no gravitic or magnetic stress lines” – a definition he gives when Adrian says she doesn’t know what a black hole is (some space cadet!) – although certainly a real black hole would have some effect on “gravitic stress lines” due to its immense gravity. Despite the technobabble and just plain bad science, the script is written by Samuel A. Peeples, whose Space Academyprevious genre credits include the second Star Trek pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, as well as the first episode of Filmation’s animated Star Trek series. The Tic-Tac-Toe game being played by Peepo and Loki was a real live state-of-the-art video game… at least by 1977 standards when this episode was filmed. The game shown was the Tic-Tac-Toe game for the Fairchild Channel F console, a device which first hit the market in 1976 with a price tag of $200; it was also the very first video game to feature a cartridge slot rather than limiting users to a handful of built-in games.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (Classic Series) Season 1

Saga of a Starworld

Battlestar Galactica (original)The end of a millennium-long war between a distant race of humans and their cybernetic enemy, the Cylons, looms as a peace summit draws closer. But the humans’ aspirations for an end to the war are crushed when the peace meeting turns out to be a well-orchestrated trap, drawing the fleet of heavily armed Battlestars away from the humans’ homeworlds. Only Galactica, a Battlestar under the leadership of Commander Adama, survives the attack, but to no avail – the Twelve Colonies of Man have been besieged and all but destroyed by the Cylons. A massaive evacuation of the survivors, filling every habitable space aboard a fleet of 200 ships, takes place, with Galactica leading them. Adama announces an unprecedented contingency plan – he plans to lead the fleet to a legendary planet called Earth, believed to be the thirteenth Colony.

The Colonial fleet makes a stop at the mining world Carillon to pick up supplies for their voyage, but the cracks are already showing in the humans’ hastily-formed alliance; statesman Sire Uri begins trying to rally support against Adama’s incredible plan in the belief that humanity could surrender to the Cylons and survive. On Carillon, Apollo (Adama’s son) and Starbuck, ace Viper pilots from Galactica, discover that the insectoid Ovions who operate a resort on the planet are harvesting visiting humans for food – and even worse, they have formed an alliance with the Cylons and have leaked news of Galactica’s arrival to them.

Quick strategic thinking on Adama’s part saves the day, and Starbuck and Apollo’s lightning-fast flying is instrumental in destroying the huge Cylon base ship, but as the Colonial fleet prepares to set off on its perilous trip to Earth, Adama does not realize that a traitor within the humans’ own ranks is working with the Cylons to cut that journey short.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Glen A. Larson
directed by Richard A. Colla
music by Stu Phillips
series theme by Glen A. Larson & Stu Phillips

Cast: Lorne Greene (Commander Adama), Richard Hatch (Captain Apollo), Dirk Benedict (Lt. Starbuck), Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Lt. Boomer), Terry Carter (Colonel Tigh), Maren Jensen (Athena), Noah Hathaway (Boxey), Laurette Spang (Cassiopeia), Tony Swartz (Wing Sgt. Jolly), Anne Lockhart (Lt. Sheba), David Greenan (Omega), Sarah Rush (Rigel), George Murdock (Dr. Salik), John Dullaghan (Dr. Wilker), Ed Begley Jr. (Lt. Greenbean), John Colicos (Count Baltar), Patrick Macnee (Imperious Leader), Jonathan Harris (Lucifer), Jane Seymour (Serina), Ray Milland (Sire Uri), Lew Ayres (President Adar), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Sire Anton), John Fink (Dr. Paye), Rick Springfield (Lt. Zac), Randi Oakes (Blonde Taurus), Norman Stuart (Statesman), David Matthau (Operative), Chip Johnson (Warrior), Geoffrey Binney (Warrior), Paul Coufos (Pilot), Bruce Wright (Deck hand), Carol Baxter (Woman in elevator), Myrna Matthews (Tucana singer), Stephanie Spruill (Tucana singer), Patty Brooks (Tucana singer), Sandy Gimpel (Seetol), Dianne L. Burgdorf (Lotay), Ted White (Centurion), John Zenda (Dealer), Renè Assa (Gemon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Blackadder Season 3

Dish and Dishonesty

BlackadderIn the aftermath of a General Election, the Prince Regent is in danger of being struck from the Civil List, bankrupting him. Edmund Blackadder, the Prince’s butler, attempts to guarantee the bill’s failure, but the MP with the swing vote dies unexpectedly. Edmund’s dogsbody, Baldrick, wins the resulting election (thanks to some “interference”) but the vote is lost anyway. This pushes the bill to the House of Lords, where Edmund hopes to not only save the Prince’s finances, but also elevate his own status as well…

Season 3 Regular Cast: Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Edmund Blackadder), Tony Robinson (Baldrick), Hugh Laurie (Prince George, The Prince Regent), Helen Atkinson-Wood (Mrs. Miggins)

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
directed by Mandie Fletcher
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Vincent Hanna (Mr. Vincent Hanna, his own great great great grandfather), Denis Lill (Sir Talbot Buxomly), Simon Osborne (Pitt the Younger), Geoffrey McGivern (Ivor “Jest Ye Not Madam” Biggun), Dominic Martelli (Pitt the even Younger)

Notes: Helen Atkinson-Wood (no relation to Rowan) has made many appearances in British comedies such as The Young Ones and The Lenny Henry Show. She also starred in her own 1992 comedy series, Tales from the Poop Deck, as pirate Connie Blackheart.

Geoffrey McGivern is perhaps best known for his audio work in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, where he portrayed Ford Prefect on radio and on vinyl.

Vincent Hanna, a real-life news commentator, spoofs his own Election Day coverage in this episode.

Pitt the Younger was actually 24 when he became Prime Minister in 1783, the youngest to ever hold the post. In contrast to the portrayal here, Pitt was quite close to the Prince Regent, since they both had dealt with the mental deterioration of a father.

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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Season 04 Star Trek Voyager

Day Of Honor

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Voyager encounters a handful of ships carrying the only survivors of a Delta Quadrant race which was all but wiped out by the Borg, and Janeway agrees to the refugees’ requests for supplies. The reminder of the Borg’s destructive power doesn’t help the crew’s perception of Seven of Nine, who requests an assignment to engineering. B’Elanna, who is already suffering her way through the traditional Klingon Day of Honor, doesn’t welcome the former Borg, who has proposed using transwarp flight to speed Voyager’s journey. The transwarp experiment fails, forcing B’Elanna to dump the warp core into open space – and the Ketati refugees take possession of the core before she and Paris can salvage it via shuttle. And the Ketati would also like Janeway to hand Seven of Nine over to them so they can settle old scores.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeri Taylor
directed by Jesus Salvador Trevino
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Alexander Enberg (Ensign Vorik), Alan Altshuld (Ranen), Michael A. Krawic (Klingon), Kevin P. Stillwell (Ketati), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Farscape Season 1

A Bug’s Life

  • By Dave
  • September 17, 1999

FarscapeWhen a Peacekeeper special ops team experiences a fuel leak, its commander demands that Moya bring them aboard and take them to a secret Peacekeeper base nearby. The crew decides to bluff their way through the encounter, as Rygel, Zhaan and D’Argo return to their cells while Crichton and Aeryn don Peacekeeper uniforms. Fate – and the size of the captain’s uniform left aboard Moya – demand that Crichton pose as the ship’s commander, and the charade goes reasonably well at first. When Rygel and Chiana decide to find out what’s so precious about their guests’ cargo, however, they unleash a sentient virus capable of possessing its host. The virus leaps from host to host, trying to buy time until Moya arrives at the base and its spores are ready to release, at which point hundreds of worlds will fall victim to it. With their cover blown, the crew must work with the Peacekeepers to figure out who can be trusted and how to recapture the virus, before its latest host kills them all.

Order the DVDsstory by Doug Heyes, Jr.
teleplay by Steven Rae
directed by Tony Tilse
music by Subvision

Guest Cast: Gigi Edgley (Chiana), Paul Leyden (Larraq), Richard White (Thonn), Zoe Coyle (Hassan), Michael Tuahine (Rhed)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Anomaly

Star Trek: EnterpriseA spatial anomaly disrupts the structure of the Enterprise itself, just before a well-armed raiding party boards the ship, attacking the crew and robbing supplies from the Enterprise’s cargo bays. The raider vessel, apparently unaffected by the anomaly, slips into an even denser field of spatial disruption apparently unharmed. Archer orders a pursuit course, which damages the Enterprise even further. He intends not only to secure the secret of passing through the anomaly unharmed for the Enterprise, but to retrieve the stolen items and put the raiders out of business. But when a single prisoner is captured who could give him the means to do this, how far will Archer go to get the man to cooperate?

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Mike Sussman
directed by David Straiton
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Nathan Anderson (Sergeant Kemper), Robert Rusler (Orgoth), Julia Rose (McKenzie), Kenneth A. White (Engineering Crewman), Ken Lally (Security Guard #1), Ryan Honey (Security Guard #2)

Notes: Robert Rusler, though he’s barely recognizable here, is remembered by Babylon 5 fans as ill-fated hotshot pilot Warren Keffer from the second season.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stargate Stargate Atlantis

The Storm

Stargate AtlantisA routine survey in a jumper alerts Sheppard to the existence of a massive, hurricane-like storm over the planet’s ocean – and it’s tracking straight toward Atlantis and the Athosian mainland. Worse yet, Atlantis’ depleted shields won’t protect the city from a direct strike by a hurricane that covers 20% of the planet’s surface and is stronger than anything ever seen on Earth. As Sheppard begins visiting nearby worlds via the stargate to bargain for a place to evacuate temporarily, McKay tries to find a way to use the storm’s inevitable abundance of lightning to charge the city’s shields to full power. But the people Sheppard has arranged to take in evacuees sell Atlantis out to the Genii. Cowen assigns one of his most ruthless deputies, Commander Kolya, to devise a plan to take over the city and raid its supplies of weapons, medicines and other valuables, though once Kolya arrives, overpowers the skeleton crew left to defend Atlantis, and takes Weir and McKay hostage, he alters the plan. Now the Genii want to pick up where Atlantis’ crew left off in preparing to save the city from the storm…but Sheppard has different plans.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxstory by Jill Blotevogel
teleplay by Martin Gero
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Robert Davi (Kolya), Erin Chambers (Sora), Ryan Robbins (Ladon), Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett), Michael Puttonen (Smeadon), Colm Meaney (Cowen), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Don Ackerman (Doran), Steve Archer (Generator Room Guard), Colin Corrigan (Guard #2), Jason Diablo (Guard), Conan Graham (Genii Soldier), Jodie Graham (Genii Soldier), Cory Monteith (Genii Private)

Notes: McKay mentions Hurricane Hazel as Canada’s last significant hurricane strike, 50 years before this episode; Hazel did indeed devastate parts of Ontario in 1954, having already carved a path of destruction through Haiti and the eastern seaboard of the United States. You can get a good idea of the storm’s impact on Canada at this site.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Cyberman Doctor Who

Scorpius

Cyberman: ScorpiusGeneral Karen Brett is hailed as a hero on the return from her latest campaign in humanity’s war against its own android creations, but she only reluctantly accepts the accolades. She makes a public appearance with President Levinson, whose policies and war plan she disagrees with – she feels he isn’t taking an aggressive enough stance with the androids. During the meeting, a silver-clad figure teleports into the White House, assassinates the President, promises Brett that she will become the new President, and then vanishes again. She does indeed ascend to the Presidency, but she finds that once in office, even she can’t turn the tide of the war. She discovers a deeply buried secret project, code-named Scorpius, which Levinson made every attempt to erase from existence, even to conceal it from any successors to the presidency. She’s able to find out very little, but she finds out enough – Scorpius is somehow tied to the silver giant who gunned down Levinson in cold blood, and it could change humanity’s fortunes in the war. In fact, it could change humanity forever…

Order this CDwritten by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Nicholas Briggs

Cast: Sarah Mowat (President Karen Brett), Mark McDonnell (Nash / Liam), Toby Longworth (President Levinson / Pilot / P.A. voice / Captain), Nicholas Briggs (Cyberman / Cyberplanner / Control / Reporter / Guard), Ian Brooker (Helliton / Hendry / Glaust / Karen’s Father / Guard in Karen’s quarters / Protester), Hannah Smith (Samantha / Computer), Barnaby Edwards (Paul / Comms / Security), Samantha Sanns (SSC Control / Comp / Helm / Operations Officer)

Notes: All four of the Cyberman plays were recorded live in studio, with the small cast doubling, tripling or quadrupling up on characters and sound effects mixed in or performed live; Nicholas Briggs did minimal overdubs to add more sound effects and the musical score. Sarah Mowat and Mark McDonnell previously starred in the first cycle of Dalek Empire audio plays, also written, directed and scored by Briggs. Nicholas Briggs has also provided “official” Cybermen voices, giving the Cybermen in the new TV series episodes Rise Of The Cybermen and The Age Of Steel a vocal treatment not unlike what is heard here; this episode’s Cyber-voices are based on the Troughton-era Cybermen heard in such episodes as Tomb Of The Cybermen, though the Cyberman design seen on the cover of all four Cyberman audios is the one introduced in the later Troughton story The Invasion. The Sword Of Orion incident and the android wars are holdovers from Briggs’ eighth Doctor audio story of the same name, which actually started out as an amateur audio production he wrote and starred in during the late 1980s.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 06

The God Complex

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS brings the Doctor, Amy and Rory to a chintzy hotel, but their destination suddenly seems less relaxing when three people – two humans and one alien – burst into the hotel lounge with warnings about the hotel. No one who goes into a room alone comes out the same – those who survive chant “Praise him” and eventually meet a horrible fate. A monster stalks the halls, seeking its next victim and their worship. The surviving hotel guests warn that to go into a room alone invites one’s worst fears to appear all at once, but what nightmares await time travelers who have survived the worst horrors the universe has to offer… and who demands their praise?

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Toby Whithouse
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Sarah Quintrell (Lucy Hayward), Amara Karan (Rita), Dimitri Leonidas (Howie Spragg), Daniel Pirrie (Joe Buchanan), David Walliams (Gibbis), Dafydd Emyh (P.E. Teacher), Spencer Wilding (The Creature), Rashid Karapiet (Rita’s Father), Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia Pond), Roger Ennals (Gorilla)

Doctor WhoNotes: David Walliams is either making his first or second Doctor Who appearance, depending on how you look at it; he starred alongside writer/actor Mark Gatiss in The Web Of Caves, a spoof of Hartnell-era Who that Walliams co-wrote with Gatiss for BBC2’s Doctor Who Night in 1999. That same year, he and Gatiss also appeared in Gatiss’ first Doctor Who script for Big Finish Productions, Phantasmagoria (the second story produced in Big Finish’s long series of audio plays based on the Doctor’s previous incarnations). With comedy partner Matt Lucas, Walliams is best known as one of the creators and stars of Little Britain.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Orville, The Season 1

Command Performance

The OrvilleThe Orville answers a distress call from a fellow Planetary Union ship, but fears of a Krill attack pale in Captain Ed Mercer’s mind to the revelation that his parents are aboard the victimized vessel. Ed and Kelly take a shuttle over to the ship, leaving Alara in command. (Bortus is on leave, hatching an egg.) But the attacked ship suddenly fades away, replaced by a buoy capable of generating a holographic image of that ship. Ed and Kelly’s molecules have been transmitted into Calivon space, a civilization not exactly on friendly terms with the Union, where they’re horrified to find they’ve been trapped in a replica of their old apartment, and are even more horrified to learn that this replica is part of a vast zoo of imprisoned living creatures with little hope of escape. In over her head, Alara receives orders from a Union Admiral: give up the search for the Orville’s Captain and First Officer, and return to Earth. She has to weigh the damage to her career against the damage to her standing among the crew as she decides whether to obey or disobey those orders.

Order season 1 on DVD and Blu-RayDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
music by John Debney

The OrvilleCast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Halston Sage (Lt. Alara Kitan), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Chad L. Coleman (Klyden), Jeffrey Tambor (Ben Mercer), Holland Taylor (Jeannie Mercer), Larry Joe Campbell (Chief Newton), Ron Canada (Admiral Tucker), Brett Rickaby (Lurenek), J.D. Cullum (Calivon Zoo Administrator), Jerry O’Donnell (Bleriot Captain), Andrew Bering (Technician Jennings), Mike Gray (Ensign Parker), Alaina Fleming (Technician Reed), Jeremy Guskin (Furry Alien), Maxwell Hurlburt (Greenish Alien), George Tsai (Shuttle Bay Officer #1), Ryan Dietz (Calivon Official #1), Shannon McClung (Calivon Official #2), Sarah Buehler (Calivon Mother), Armen Nahapetian (Calivon Child)

The OrvilleNotes: Marvin V. Rush, former director of photography on the 1990s Star Trek spinoffs, joins The Orville in the same capacity with this episode, as does ’90s Trek camera operator Joe Chess. Guest stars Ron Canada and J.D. Cullum have both appeared on some of those Trek spinoffs: Canada guest starred on TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager (as well as a Babylon 5 guest shot), while Cullum appeared as Toral, bastard son of Duras, in TNG’s Redemption Part I and Part II in 1991. And of course, director Robert Duncan McNeill is an old hand at space travel, having played Lt. Tom Paris in all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager before moving on to a career of producing and directing.

LogBook entry by Earl Green