Day: September 26, 1977

Categories
Raven

Episode Two

RavenRaven’s time with the Youngs grows stranger as he learns that the bird he has seen repeatedly is called a merlin. Professor Young fills Raven in on the background of the archaeological site, and the possible effects of converting it into a dumping ground for nuclear waste. Raven tries to sway the editor of the local newspaper to acknowledging the danger, but gets nowhere with him. Raven is given an errand to run at the dig site, and experiences a series of powerful visions – this time including himself, wearing a crown and robes. But this time, he has something to show for his vision: a mark left on his forehead.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Michael Hart
music not credited

RavenCast: Michael Aldridge (Professor Young), Patsy Rowlands (Mrs. Young), Phil Daniels (Raven), Shirley Cheriton (Naomi Grant), James Kerry (Bill Telford), Tenniel Evans (Editor)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Knight Rider Season 1

Knight Of The Phoenix

Knight RiderPolice Lieutenant Michael Long is part of a sting operation intended to bring down an industrial espionage suspect. When his partner is gunned down during the operation, Michael’s thoughts turn to revenge, and he neglects to think twice about a woman who witnesses his partner’s murder – until she draws a gun on him. She’s part of the ring he’s supposed to be reeling in. She shoots Michael in the face at point-blank range and escapes with her cohorts; the sting is a failure.

But so is her attempt to kill Michael. Thanks to a fortuitously-placed metal plate in his skull, he is able to recover with the help of extensive reconstructive surgery that leaves him with a new face. His benefactors in his recovery are a man named Devon, and an older man, the wealthy Wilton Knight; they have arranged for the man known as Michael Long to be declared officially dead, leaving a man with a new face – “Michael Knight” – and no past. Wilton Knight, a tech tycoon, believes that someone has been stealing his secrets, and enlists Michael’s help. Devon introduces him to a nearly-indestructible custom car designed by Wilton Knight, the Knight Industries 2000 (or KITT for short), a Trans-Am whose outer body seems to be incapable of being scratched or dented. But it also has a built-in artificial intelligence programmed to aid Michael; it can assume complete control of the car in a pinch, and unflappably offers advice to its driver.

One trip to Silicon Valley and one death-and-dent-defying demolition derby later, Michael is investigating a company called Comptron, discovering that the people who stole Wilton Knight’s secrets were the same people Michael Long’s anti-espionage operation was meant to capture. These people are willing to kill; Michael, being an ex-cop, is trained to avoid killing unless necessary…which may be his undoing even with KITT and all of Knight Industries’ resources behind him.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Glen A. Larson
directed by Daniel Haller
music by Stu Phillips

Knight RiderCast: David Hasselhoff (Michael Knight), Edward Mulhare (Devon), Phyllis Davis (Tanya Walker), Pamela Susan Shoop (Maggie), Lance LeGault (Vernon Gray), Noel Conlon (William Benjamin), Michael D. Roberts (Jackson), Bert Rosario (Brown), Vince Edwards (Dr. Wesley), Richard Basehart (Wilton Knight), Edmund Gilbert (Charles Acton), Shawn Southwick (Lonnie), Brian Cutler (Bar Manager), Barret Oliver (Buddy), Robert Phillips (Symes), Alma L. Beltran (Luce), Ed Hooks (Guard), Tyler Murray (Sally), Victoria Harned (Doris), Larry Anderson (Michael Long), William Daniels (KITT), Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Muntzy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 03 Star Trek

The Search – Part I

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 48212.4: Preparations are being made aboard DS9 for an inevitable visit from the Dominion, but no one can escape the fact that the station would wither under an attack from the Jem’Hadar. Commander Sisko, having gone to Earth for Starfleet briefings on the threat from the Gamma Quadrant, arrives in the experimental Federation vessel Defiant, a small ship originally created to do battle with the Borg. Carrying more firepower than any other Starfleet ship and a cloaking device loaned by the Romulans, the Defiant is to go to the Dominion before the Dominion arrives in the Alpha Quadrant; if need be, the ship is also to take the fight to the other side of the galaxy. Another innovation brought about by Starfleet Command is the transfer of a Starfleet security officer to the station, relieving Odo of all but station-bound security matters. The shapeshifter withdraws in anger while Sisko assembles a crew for the Defiant’s mission to seek out the Dominion for negotiations, but joins the Defiant crew at the last minute. A trade contact of Quark’s offers some information but little help in the search for the Founders of the Dominion, but does point the crew out to a planet through which most Dominion communications pass. When the Defiant arrives there, Dax and O’Brien beam down and find the possible coordinates of the Dominion command center – and are captured by the Jem’Hadar, who have also arrived in force in orbit. The Defiant manages to take out only one Jem’Hadar ship and barely survives the withering assault of the remaining attackers. The Defiant is boarded and Kira is blasted unconscious in the ensuing melee. Odo takes her and evacuates in an escape shuttle, heading not back to the station, but to a planet in the Omarian Nebula with which he has been preoccupied since arriving in the Gamma Quadrant. The planet turns out to be the home of a race of life forms very like Odo himself, one of which welcomes him home.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
directed by Kim Friedman
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Salome Jens (Female Shapeshifter), Martha Hackett (SubCommander T’rul), John Fleck (Karemma), Kenneth Star Trek: Deep Space NineMarshall (Lt. Commander Eddington)

Notes: Salome Jens had previously appeared in a very Odo-esque makeup in the sixth season Next Generation episode The Chase; no connection was intended between the two characters. Martha Hackett would later surface on Voyager in the recurring role of Seska. This episode introduces the Defiant to Deep Space Nine; the new ship was intended to convince disgruntled Next Generation fans that the series’ action wasn’t simply confined to the station.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 SG-1 Stargate

Thor’s Hammer

Stargate SG-1On a hunch that the Goa’uld may have enemies more advanced than humans, SG-1 goes to a planet whose coordinates are taught to every Goa’uld – as a place to avoid at all costs, according to Teal’c. When the team emerges from the stargate, an obelisk near the gate activates and probes all four of them, finally settling on Teal’c. O’Neill leaps toward Teal’c to push him out of the beam, but both of them vanish in a flash of light. The primitive human locals tell Daniel and Carter that the obelisk – Thor’s hammer – only singles out Goa’uld hosts. This is also what a hologram, claiming to be Thor of the Asgard tells O’Neill and Teal’c, who find themselves in a sprawling underground maze. The image also warns that only the host of a Goa’uld can escape alive, but the symbiont will try. The only way Carter and Daniel can find the maze themselves is to follow a woman who claims to be a liberated Goa’uld host, a concept which intrigues Daniel, who hopes that his wife can be found and freed in the same way. When Teal’c encounters the device, it quickly becomes apparent that it will kill him in the process of eliminating the symbiont – and he must depend on Daniel to destroy it.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Katharyn Powers
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Galyn Gorg (Kendra), Vincent Hammond (Unas), Tasmin Kelsey (Gairwyn), James Earl Jones (voice of Unas), Mark Gibbon (Thor)

Notes: James Earl Jones is known to SF fans everywhere as the voice of CNN – oh, and Darth Vader, too.

LogBook entry by Earl Green with notes by Dave Thomer

Categories
Enterprise Season 01 Star Trek

Broken Bow

Star Trek: EnterpriseAn unidentified alien craft slams into a cornfield in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, and its sole surviving pilot immediately abandons the wreckage, running from two other aliens in close pursuit. A fierce battle is waged on the adjacent farmland, but just when it seems that the crash survivor has prevailed, the farmer who owns the field fires a plasma rifle at him, stunning him.

Starfleet’s flagship, Enterprise, is still in spacedock orbiting Earth. Capable of reaching warp 5, Enterprise is the fastest ship in the fledgling Earth space fleet. Her captain, Jonathan Archer, is giving her the once-over from a shuttlecraft piloted by chief engineer “Trip” Tucker. His tour is cut short by an urgent summons from Starfleet, whose medical division has taken custody of the pilot of the ship which crashed in Oklahoma. Soval, the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, informs Starfleet that their patient is a member of a barbaric warrior race known as the Klingons. The Vulcans, who have been guiding Earth’s first steps into the interstellar community since making first contact with warp pioneer Zefram Cochrane a century earlier, insist that the Klingon’s corpse must be returned to his homeworld.

Captain Archer, who has been growing tired of Vulcan’s influence over Earth, resists this idea, pointing out that it’s within the realm of Earth medicine to nurse the Klingon pilot back to health and return him alive. Despite Soval’s warnings about Klingon customs, Archer insists upon launching Enterprise early to take the pilot back to his home. Soval protests, warning of offending the entire Klingon race, but Starfleet gives Archer his marching orders. He assembles his other crew members – linguist Hoshi Sato, tactical officer Malcolm Reed, and helmsman Travis Mayweather – and is joined aboard Enterprise by Vulcan science attache’ T’Pol and Phlox, an alien doctor who has been practicing at Starfleet Medical. As opposed as he is to any interference from the Vulcans, Archer isn’t especially concerned with making T’Pol’s time aboard his ship comfortable.

But the mission to return the Klingon to his planet isn’t that simple – more aliens, like the ones who pursued him to Earth, knock out Enterprise’s power systems, board the ship in a hit-and-run attack and kidnap him. Just before the Klingon is taken from the ship’s sick bay, he identifies his abductors as Suliban. Over T’Pol’s protests, Archer insists that the mission should now be one to find and recover their lost patient, not to return to Earth to accept failure. However, Dr. Phlox is more concerned when he investigates the body of a Suliban who was killed during the raid. Genetic alterations which go beyond the Suliban’s technology in the 22nd century – let alone Earth’s – indicate that someone is assisting them, or perhaps using them. When it is later revealed that the Suliban are being augmented by someone centuries in the future, Archer begins to wonder if he and his crew are in over their heads if they track down the Suliban…and before long, he’ll have to worry about who will take command of Enterprise should he be injured. Can T’Pol be trusted to carry out his standing orders?

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by James L. Conway
music by Dennis McCarthy
series theme “Where My Heart Will Take Me” written by Diane Warren, performed by Russell Watson

Cast: Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer), Jolene Blalock (Subcommander T’Pol), John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcolm Reed), Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather), Linda Park (Ensign Hoshi Sato), Connor Trinneer (Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker III), John Fleck (Silik), Melinda Clarke (Sarin), Tommy “‘Tiny” Lister, Jr. (Klaang), Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), Jim Beaver (Admiral Leonard), Mark Moses (Henry Archer), Gary Graham (Soval), Thomas Kopache (Tos), Jim Fitzpatrick (Commander Williams), James Horan (Humanoid figure), Joseph Ruskin (Suliban Doctor), James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane), Marty Davis (young Archer), Van Epperson (Alien man), Ron King (Farmer), Peter Henry Schroeder (Klingon Chancellor), Matt Williamson (Klingon Council member), Byron Thames (Crewman), Ricky Luna (Carlos), Jason Grant Smith (Crewman Fletcher), Chelsea Bond (Alien mother), Ethan Dampf (Alien child), Diane Klimaszewski (Dancer), Elaine Klimaszewski (Dancer), and Porthos

Notes: Broken Bow, Oklahoma, the site of humanity’s first encounter with the Klingons according to the new Star Trek series, is actually a real place. Situated in southeast Oklahoma, about 30 miles from the Arkansas border and 45 miles from the Texas border, Broken Bow was originally an Indian village called Con Chito. When settlers moved in, it underwent a variety of name changes, ultimately being named Broken Bow in the early 20th century in honor of Broken Bow, Nebraska (confused yet?). As of 2001, the population of Broken Bow was about 4,000 people. Its original industry was lumber, but these days Broken Bow serves as one of southeast Oklahoma’s nicer tourist traps. It’s about two hours away from theLogBook.com’s home base in Arkansas.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
5th Doctor

Eye Of The Scorpion

Doctor Who: Eye Of The ScorpionAs the Doctor is trying to show Peri how to find her way around the TARDIS, something yanks the timeship violently off-course. By the time they reach the console room, however, the TARDIS has landed, depositing them in the sands of Egypt around 1400 B.C. Worse yet, as soon as they step outside the doors, they spot a young woman in a chariot being chased by the driver of another chariot. At Peri’s urging, the Doctor lends his assistance, saving the girl’s life – and earning both of the time travelers the favor of Erimem, the Pharaoh-in-waiting. But the Doctor is concerned – he can’t remember a female Pharaoh from this time period, and the other chariot’s driver was trying to kill her. Erimem asks the Doctor and Peri to accompany her to Thebes, where she plans to honor their heroics with a banquet, but only more court intrigue awaits them, including an assassination attempt thwarted by the Doctor, and the presence of an alien mind who can take humans – willing or unwilling – as hosts.

Order this CDwritten by Iain McLaughlin
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Caroline Morris (Erimem), Jonathan Owen (Antranak), Stephen Perring (Horemshep), Harry Myers (Yanis), Jack Galagher (Fayum), Daniel Brennan (Kishik), Mark Wright (Slave)

Timeline: after Red Dawn and before No Place Like Home

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who

Davros

Doctor Who: DavrosThe Doctor stumbles upon a plot to revive Davros, thought to be long dead, but this time the Daleks aren’t behind it. This attempt to tap into Davros’ evil genius is a purely commercial concern, funded by a shady Earth corporation whose CEO wants Davros to work for him. Horrified by the implications of this, the Doctor counters with an offer to provide his own services in exchange for keeping Davros under lock and key. The company’s chief executive, realizing that he has two geniuses on his hands, instead strikes a bargain that both parties find even more terrifying – he will hire the Doctor and Davros, and they will share lab and office space. But what the corporation wants is someone who’s not afraid to set ethics aside for the sake of profit – and the Doctor soon becomes ripe for termination. Or, if Davros has his way, extermination.

Order this CDwritten by Lance Parkin
directed by Gary Russell
music by Jane Elphinstone

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Terry Molloy (Davros), Bernard Horsfall (Arnold Baynes), Wendy Padbury (Lorraine Baynes), David Bickerstaff (Scientist Ral), Eddie De Oliviera (Willis), Louise Falkner (Kaled Medic), Karl Hansen (Kaled Medic), Katarina Olsson (Shan), Ruth Sillers (Kimberly Todd), Andrew Westfield (Pilot)

Timeline: between The Two Doctors and Timelash

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 3 The Resistance Webisodes

The Resistance – Webisode 7

Battlestar Galactica (New Series)Jammer is rounded up by the Cylons and taken in for questioning about the attack on the temple. Tigh and Tyrol nervously wonder if the colonel has alienated Jammer and made him more likely to collaborate, or if their crewmate can hold out under interrogation.

written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
directed by Wayne Rose
music by Bear McCreary

Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Matthew Bennett (Doral), Dominic Zamprogna (Jammer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green