Day: October 4, 2002

Categories
Firefly Season 1

Our Mrs. Reynolds

  • By Dave
  • October 4, 2002

FireflyThe crew of Serenity helps a small town on Triumph fend off a group of bandits, and are rewarded with an evening of celebration. When they depart the next day, they discover that they have another passenger on board: a girl named Saffron who claims to be Mal’s wife. Book confirms that part of the party the night before was actually a wedding ceremony. At first the crew is amused by Mal’s plight. But as he tries to maintain his composure and reassure Saffron that she shouldn’t take his negative feelings toward marriage personally, tension starts mounting aboard the ship. Jayne seems desperate to trade for Mal’s “prize,” Zoe is none too pleased with Saffron’s matrimonial example, and Inara is considerably tenser than usual. When Saffron almost seals Mal’s fate with a kiss, the truth comes out. The innocent bride is playing them all, and leading them right into a trap.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Joss Whedon
directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall
music by Greg Edmonson

Guest Cast: Christina Hendricks (Saffron), Benito Martinez (Boss), Erik Passoja (Bree)

Notes: This episode features Book’s introductory narration.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 3

A Tale of Two Cities

  • By Dave
  • October 4, 2006

LostFlashback: As Jack’s divorce nears completion, he obsesses over the identity of Sarah’s new lover. He attempts to track her cell phone usage, and discovers that she had at some point called his father. He follows his father to an AA meeting and accuses him of sleeping with his wife. When he slugs his father, he is arrested. Sarah bails him out, calls him a cab, and emphatically says good-bye.

The Island: A book club meets in what appears to be a normal suburban home. The host, Juliet, defends her choice of book, even while acknowledging that someone named Ben wouldn’t be much of a fan. The meeting is interrupted by what appears to be an earthquake. Everyone runs outside to see a plane break in half and descend. This is the island, and these are the Others. Henry Gale orders Goodwin and Ethan to infiltrate the survivors.

In the present, Jack is in a cell. Juliet tries to get him to take food, but he resists. Sawyer is in a cage that resembles an animal behavior experiment. Kate is given a shower and a dress, and brought to Henry. He warns her that the next two weeks are going to be unpleasant. Jack and Sawyer each make escape attempts, but even though Jack briefly manages to take Juliet hostage, neither can stay free for long.

Season 3 Regular Cast: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Michael Emerson (Henry Gale), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O’Quinn (Locke)

Order the DVDsstory by Damon Lindelof
teleplay by J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof
directed by Jack Bender
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: John Terry (Christian Shephard), Julie Bowen (Sarah), M.C. Gainey (Mr. Friendly), William Mapother (Ethan), Brett Cullen (Goodwin), Blake Bashoff (Karl), Julie Adams (Amelia), Stephen Semel (Adam), Isabelle Cherwin (Little Girl), Alexandra Morgan (moderator), Sonya Seng (Receptionist), Sally Davis (Teacher), Julie Ow (Nurse)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 5

Sky – Part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresIn a burst of alien energy, Sky suddenly grows from an infant to a girl in the early stages of adolescence. Miss Meyers orders Sky to destroy the Metalkind and fulfill her destiny as a genetically-engineered weapon, but Sarah puts a stop to those instructions and makes a quick escape with her friends. Miss Meyers rigs up her Metalkind captive to send a distress signal to others of his kind, drawing them to Earth. At Sarah’s home, Mr. Smith finds that Sky’s destructive abilities can’t be deactivated: if she ever encounters sufficient numbers of Metalkind, she’ll become a powerful living bomb who can’t be defused. Sarah desperately tries to convince Sky that it’s still her choice whether or not to use that power… but when the Metalkind start arriving, what chance will anyone on Earth have?

Get the DVDwritten by Phil Ford
directed by Ashley Way
music by Sam Watts & Dan Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Tommy Knight (Luke Smith), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra), Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Christine Stephen-Daly (Miss Myers), Gavin Brocker (Caleb), Paul Kasey (The Metalkind), Chloe Savage (baby Sky), Ella Savage (baby Sky), Amber Donaldson (baby Sky), Scarlet SkyDonaldson (baby Sky), Sinead Michael (Sky), Will McLeod (voice of the Metalkind), Cyril Nri (The Shopkeeper)

Notes: The Shopkeeper (and his parrot, or is that the other way around?) made his previous appearance in season 4’s Lost In Time two-parter. Although credited, Tommy Knight does not appear in this episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 10

Trojan

Red DwarfRimmer’s hard drive runneth over with resentment upon the discovery of a derelict spaceship, where he receives a distress call from a Space Corps ship commanded by his more priveleged brother, Howard. Rimmer launches into an elaborate plan to gain a promotion before reuniting with Howard, who is already a command officer. As often happens with Rimmer’s elaborate plans, this is an utter failure, and Rimmer must now try to trick his brother into thinking that he is Red Dwarf’s captain, and ropes Lister, Kryten and Cat into maintaining this facade. But when the brothers are runited, it turns out that they’re more alike than expected – and Howard is absolutely counting on Rimmer’s wealth of command experience to salvage his ship. In the meantime, millions of years from home, having fought GELFs, simulants, polymorphs, and vindaloo monsters, David Lister has met his match: being put on hold.

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Doug Naylor
music by Howard Goodall

Red DwarfCast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Mark Dexter (Howard Rimmer), Susan Earl (Sim Crawford), Lucy Newman-Williams (Aii Droid Jayne / Phone Droid Voice), Bryan Bounds (Aii Droid Bob / Phone Droid Voice), Laurence Bouvard, (Phone Droid Voice), Rupert Degas (Phone Droid Voice)

Notes: The first episode of Red Dwarf’s first regular season since 1999, Trojan makes virtually no references to past episodes. The tenth season was produced and broadcast by UK cable/satellite comedy channel Dave, following on from the impressive ratings scored by 2009’s three-part Back To Earth special (which apparently now counts as the show’s ninth season). Also, for the first time since 1999, the series was filmed in front of a live audience and their laugh track is included in the show’s audio.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Short Treks Star Trek

Runaway

Star Trek: Short TreksStardate not given: Freshly promoted from Cadet to Ensign, Sylvia Tilly is still aboard the Discovery, and she still can’t convince her mother, via communicator, that she can handle the rigors of command training without washing out of Starfleet. When she retreats to the mess hall to drown her sorrows in a snack, Tilly makes a new friend. Tilly’s new friend is a stowaway aboard Discovery, and worse yet, she’s a stowaway who belongs to the royal family of a strategically important planet. Tilly has to keep her new friend from running and going into hiding, a test of her diplomatic skills that just isn’t part of the command training program.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonwritten by Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman
directed by Maja Vrvilo
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Mary Wiseman (Ensign Sylvia Tilly), Vadira Guevara-Prip (Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po), Mimi Kuzyk (Siobhan Tilly)

Short TreksNotes: Devised as a means of keeping Star Trek fans subscribed to the CBS All Access streaming service, rather than cancelling their subscriptions the moment Star Trek: Discovery’s first season ended, Short Treks was the tip of the iceberg of a new deluge of Star Trek spinoffs to go into development following the success of Discovery’s first season. Each Short Treks episode runs approximately fifteen minutes, and the first four typically involved a very small cast on existing sets from Discovery (with a promise that later installments would venture further afield in the franchise) – in a way, almost as if the producers had to abide by most of the rules and guidelines CBS had set down for Star Trek fan films as a direct result of the contentious lawsuit over the fan-made project Star Trek: Axanar, which came under legal scrutiny after it raised over half a million dollars in crowdfunding. The shorts also served as a proving ground for future talent to be associated with later spinoffs, including writers Michael Chabon and Mike McMahan.

LogBook entry by Earl Green