Day: October 7, 1978

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Jason Of Star Command Season 1

Wiki To The Rescue

Jason Of Star CommandLaunched by Jason from the surface of the unstable planet on which he’s tapped, the tiny Wiki robot homes in on Nicole’s Starfire and alerts her to Jason’s plight. Dragos delivers an ultimatum to Space Academy: surrender, or he will allow the Academy to fall into the sun. Professor Parsifoot, left in command in the absence of anyone higher-ranking, refuses to give in to Dragos’ demands. Nicole rescues Jason and Allegra from the planet moments before it explodes, but her Starfire is intercepted by the Dragonship. Jason hatches an audacious plan to abandon ship, leaving Dragos to pick up an empty Starfire which will self-destruct shortly afterward.

Order this series on DVDwritten by Samuel A. Peeples
directed by Arthur H. Nadel
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Jason of Star CommandCast: Craig Littler (Jason), Sid Haig (Dragos), Susan O’Hanlon (Capt. Nicole Davidoff), Charlie Dell (Prof. E.J. Parsafoot), James Doohan (Commander Canarvin), Roseanne Katon (Allegra)

Notes: Jason and company’s “life support belts” are conceptually similar to a life support system introduced in Filmation’s animated Star Trek series of the early ’70s, even if the “bail out of the Starfire” scene features atypically underwhelming special effects in a show that, for its time, generally boasted excellent effects scenes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

Ensign Ro

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45076.3: Admiral Kennelly assigns the Enterprise to help resolve tensions with the Bajora, an isolated, once-advanced race whose territory was long ago taken by the Cardassians. Since then, the Bajora have carried out terrorist attacks on the Cardassians, and now, according to Kennelly, the Bajora have traveled outside their own system and attacked a Federation outpost. The Enterprise is to contact the Bajoran terrorist leader Orta and offer serious discussions after years of sympathetic talk and no action. Ensign Ro Laren, herself a Bajoran – recently court-martialed but pulled out of prison by Kennelly – is assigned to the Enterprise. Ro is an abrasive officer who does not want to be on the ship or the mission. She does, however, tell Picard to contact Keeve, leader of a Bajoran colony that has no technology and isn’t even able to adequately feed or clothe its own people. On another planet, Picard contacts Orta – after being abducted by Orta’s guards – and discovers that the Bajora do not have the resources to attack anything beyond their own system. Ro then reveals to Picard that Kennelly is aware of this, and that she and the Enterprise are being used by the Cardassians to quietly get rid of the Bajora “threat” by escorting them straight into the Cardassians’ line of fire.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Michael Piller
story by Rick Berman and Michael Piller
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro), Cliff Potts (Admiral Kennelly), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Scott Marlowe (Keeve Falor), Frank Collison (Gul Dolak), Jeffrey Hayenga (Orta), Harley Venton (Transporter Technician), Ken Thorley (Mr. Mot), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

Notes: Michelle Forbes was later offered the chance to bring Ensign Ro to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a regular, but she opted to pursue a film career instead, and the character of Major Kira Nerys was created to fill the gap.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 06

Psirens

Red DwarfLister awakens after 500 years of hibernation, finding himself aboard Starbug with Cat and Kryten. Rimmer is rebooted, and Kryten brings everyone up to speed on events. Red Dwarf has been hijacked by an unknown party while Lister and the others were on board Starbug. Since the larger ship is now circumnavigating a large asteroid belt, the more maneuverable Starbug has an opportunity to hazard a journey through the asteroids and head Red Dwarf off at the pass. Upon entering the belt, Starbug enters a graveyard of ships. A scouter survey of one of the dead ships reveals a black box recording of a surviving astronaut being killed by a horrifying insect creature known as a Psiren – similar to a GELF, but instead of changing its shape to please those nearby, Psirens change shape to seduce their prey and then suck their brains out with metal straws. Granted, this may please somebody, but you’d have to be really deranged, or an extremist in the field of accupuncture. The Psirens try every tactic to snare individual members of the crew, and one Psiren manages to stow away aboard Starbug, where the crew are trapped with it…

Season 6 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten)

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Andy De Emmony
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Jenny Agutter (Professor Mamet), Samantha Robson (Pete Tranter’s Sister), Anita Dobson (Captain Tau), Richard Ridings (Crazed Astro), C.P. Grogan (Kochanski), Zoe Hilson (Temptress), Elizabeth Anson (Temptress)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 3

Grey 17 Is Missing

  • By Dave
  • October 7, 1996

Babylon 5The disappearance of a maintenance worker on the station goes largely unnoticed as Sheridan initiates an open call for telepaths to assist in the offensive against the Shadows. On Minbar, Delenn becomes the natural successor to lead the Rangers after Sinclair’s one-way trip into the past, but Neroon of the warrior caste opposes Delenn’s ascension. He demands that the warrior caste should lead the Rangers, and vows to stop Delenn from assuming command at any cost. Delenn forbids Lennier to speak of the threat to any of the station’s command staff, so Lennier confides his fears to Marcus. Garibaldi investigates the missing maintenance worker, only to find an entire floor of the grey sector is unaccounted for. He forces his way into grey 17, but is trapped there with a handful of eccentrics led by the constantly pontificating Jeremiah. Also caged in grey 17 is an alien menace which has killed untold numbers of victims – and Jeremiah insists that Garibaldi’s only escape is to die a pure and noble death, an option that the security chief does not plan on examining.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by John C. Flinn III
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain John Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Susan Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Security Chief Michael Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Stephen Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Peter Jurasik (Londo Mollari), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Robert Englund (Jeremiah), Katherine Moffat (Supervisor), Eamonn Roche (First Man), John Vickery (Neroon), Time Winters (Rathenn), Thom Barry (Maintenance Worker)

Original UK airdate: September 10, 1996

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Deep Space Nine Season 05 Star Trek

The Ship

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 50049.3: Sisko is leading an away team conducting a mineral survey on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, when a Jem’Hadar warship crashes nearby. The team investigates and decides to take it home as a potentially invaluable aid to Starfleet intelligence. However, another Jem’Hadar ship arrives and destroys the away team’s runabout. It soon becomes plain that the Jem’Hadar and their Vorta supervisor desperately want something aboard the crashed ship. To stay alive, Sisko and the others must find out what it is.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Hans Beimler
story by Pam Wigginton & Rick Cason
directed by Kim Friedman
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Kaitlin Hopkins (Kelana), F.J. Rio (Muniz), Hilary Shepard (Hoya)

Notes: Apparently, Benzite medical science has either eliminated or minitaurized the breather apparatus worn by the Benzites seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Coming Of Age, A Matter Of Honor), since Hoya does not wear one.

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover with notes by Earl Green

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Season 2 Xena: Warrior Princess

Remember Nothing

Xena: Warrior PrincessDuring Xena’s yearly visit to the temple of the Three Fates to honor her brother Lyceus, raiders attack. She and Gabrielle fight the raiders. As Xena is dispatching one of the men, Gabrielle shouts a warning. The warrior turns and stabs this attacker. She is startled when his helmet falls away when he hits the ground, reavling a young man about 16 years old. Xena reenters the temple and is met by the three Fates. The trio of goddesses wish to reward her for saving their temple. The only thing Xena wants is for the boy to have his life back. She wishes that she had never taken up the sword. The goddesses agree to this and tell her all is restored until the first time she draws blood in anger. Slightly confused, Xena again leaves the temple looking for Gabrielle. But her friend is nowhere to be found. As Xena looks around outside the temple, the area changes. She suddenly finds herself in a clearing and she he can hear Lyceus calling for her. The warrior is thrilled to see her younger brother, who is slightly puzzled by her behavior. Realizing that she is back in Amphipolous, Xena returns to her home. As she is looking about the family home, she is surprised by Maphias, her fiance. She talks with him and learns that her mother died soon after Cortese’s army attacked. Later Xena stops a soldier from killing a merchant. He orders the other men with him to bring in the slaves to gather supplies. One of the slaves is Gabrielle. Xena tries to approach her friend, but the young woman has no idea who she is. Gabrielle accidentally bumps into the slave boss, who threatens to beat her. Xena intervenes. Maphias enters and says that since they are about to be married they are interested in buying a slave. Xena of course wants to save Gabrielle, but the slave boss says that she is Myzentius’s favorite and not for sale. But Xena is determined to rescue her friend and sets a plan in motion to do just that.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Chris Manheim
story by Steven L. Sears and Chris Manheim
directed by Anson Williams
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Aaron Devitt (Lyceus), Robert Harte (Maphias), Mark Ferguson (Krykus), Stephen Tozer (Mezentius), Micaela Daniel (Lachesis), Rebecca Kopacka (Clotho), Slade Leaf (Capucius), Elizabeth Pendergrast (Atropos), Chris Graham (Slave Boss), Geoff Barlow (Storekeeper), Daniel Chilton (Boy), David Geary (Guard #2), Andrew McMillan (Gate Guard), Allan Wilkins (Head Guard)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Firefly Season 1

Trash

  • By Dave
  • October 7, 2005

FireflyA naked Mal sits in the middle of the desert. Seventy-two hours earlier, he met up with an old friend named Monte to pick up some cargo, with Serenity coming by later to retrieve him and the load in order to avoid raising suspicions. When Monte enthusiastically introduces his new wife Bridget, Mal is a bit taken aback to see that Bridget is really Saffron. When her latest husband leaves her behind, Saffron tries to convince Mal that she has the inside scoop on a big heist. Mal isn’t interested, until Inara confronts him about their recent itinerary and points out that the crew hasn’t had a substantial job in a while. Mal decides to take Saffron up on her offer and go for the big score, which isn’t quite what Inara had in mind. The plan involves going to Bellerophon in the Core Systems, to the estate of a huge collector of artifacts from Earth-that-was. Saffron has all the security codes, so they can walk right in and take one of the earliest laser pistols ever made. Getting it out will be a problem – it’s rigged with sensors, so they can’t go out the door. Kaylee figures that if they dump it in a trash bin, they can hotwire the bot that picks up the trash and get it to drop the bin in the desert. Mal and Saffron head in to do the thieving while everyone else takes care of the rewiring. When Jayne gets knocked out, it gives Simon the chance to have a heart to heart with him about events on Ariel. At the estate, Mal is surpised – albeit not terribly so – to find that he is not the only one of Saffron’s spouses on the premises. They manage to grab the gun, toss it in the bin, and make their getaway, but Mal still loses his shirt. Everything seems to be going according to plan – but whose?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jose Molina and Ben Edlund
directed by Vern Gillum
music by Greg Edmonson

Guest Cast: Christina Hendricks (Saffron), Franc Ross (Monte), Dwier Brown (Durran Haymer)

Notes: Saffron married Mal under dubious circumstances in Our Mrs. Reynolds. This episode was not broadcast by Fox and first aired on Sci Fi in 2005.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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4th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Demon Quest Part 2: The Demon Of Paris

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Mrs. Wibbsey travel to 19th century Paris in search of the other missing pieces of the TARDIS’ spatial geometer. The time travelers quickly learn that they’ve arrived during a series of grisly murders, and the word on the street is that artist Toulouse-Latrec is the killer. Not believing that one of history’s greatest artists has blood on his hands, the Doctor tries to find the real killer, unaware that he is being deliberately led astray. Mrs. Wibbsey, on the other hand, becomes Toulouse-Latrec’s new model – a new career choice that puts her in mortal danger, for the being that she and the Doctor have been pursuing is nearby, and it plans to make her the latest in a long line of its victims as it paints the streets of Paris red with human blood.

Order this CDwritten by Paul Magrs
directed by Kate Thomas
music by Simon Power

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Susan Jameson (Mrs. Wibbsey), Finty Williams (La Charlotte), Rupert Holliday Evans (Artist), Mark Meadows (Henri de Toulouse-Latrec), Rowena Cooper (La Concierge), Richard Franklin (Mike Yates)

Timeline: after The Relics Of Time and before A Shard Of Ice, and probably still before The Ribos Operation

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Resistance Season 1 Star Wars

The Recruit

Star Wars: ResistanceKaz Xiono, a young pilot for the New Republic Navy (and the son of a senator), is trying to return valuable intelligence to the Republic when his X-Wing squadron is ambushed by a crimson TIE fighter. Kaz ensures that the rest of his group escape, but finds himself outgunned when trying to take on the First Order fighter alone until another X-Wing joins the battle. That fighter, piloted by Poe Dameron, not only saves Kaz’s life but escorts him aboard a cruiser belonging to the Resistance. Considered extremists by many members of the New Republic, the Resistance is recruiting for a fight against the First Order, a remnant of the Galactic Empire that many (including Kaz’s father) refuse to believe is a credible threat. Poe thinks Kaz has what it takes to join the Resistance, and brings him to the ocean planet Castilon to install him as a Resistance spy. Poe tells Kaz to lie low and blend in…and is horrified when, within a day, Kaz’s boast of being the best pilot in the galaxy is taken out of context. Now Kaz is expected to prove his claim in a life-or-death race…and neither Poe nor his local allies at the rough-and-tumble Colossus station can intervene without blowing their new recruit’s cover.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Brandon Auman
story by Dave Filoni
directed by Steward Lee and Saul Ruiz
music by Michael Tavera
based on original themes and music by John Williams

Star Wars: ResistanceCast: Christopher Sean (Kazuda Xiono), Josh Brener (Neeku Vozo), Scott Lawrence (Jarek Yeager), Suzie McGrath (Tam Ryvora), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Bobby Moynihan (Orka / Yani), Cherami Leigh (Mia Gabon), Dee Bradley Baker (First Order Comm Officer / Glem / Grevel), Fred Tatasciore (Bolza Grool / Hapless Pilot / Orthog), Greg Proops (Jak Sivrak), Jim Rash (Flix), Jonathan Lipow (Glitch), Lex Lang (Major Vonreg), Myrna Velasco (Torra Doza), Sam Witwer (Hugh Sion), Tovah Dekshuh (Aunt Z / Random Human), Tzi Ma (Hamato Xiono), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron)

Notes: Set prior to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Resistance is a marked departure in animation style from the Lucasfilm animated series that preceded it, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. Series creator Dave Filoni wanted the animation style to more closely resemble anime, and drew from his father’s World War II experiences in setting up a scenario in which an obviously imminent threat is ignored by the populace at large.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

The Woman Who Fell To Earth

Doctor WhoRyan Sinclair is nonplussed by the bicycle his grandmother, Grace, and her husband, Graham, have gotten for him; he suffers from a coordination disorder that makes riding it difficult, though he finds it easy – in a fit of anger – to throw it off a hill. As he’s retrieving it, Ryan sees a three-dimensional geometric shape form in the air; when he touches it, it disappears, replaced by a large blue pod. He calls the police, and is reunited with childhood friend Yasmin Khan, now a police officer in training, when she responds to his call.

Ryan, Grace and Graham are riding the train back into town when the train crashes into something, killing the driver. An undulating mass of electrical wires corners the passengers when a woman crashes through the ceiling of the train and immediately wards off the wires, as if that’s her first instinct. Unfortunately, while she immediately takes charge of the situation, she has no idea who she is, though she claims that she was a Scotsman mere minutes ago, confusing the already-terrified people in her vicinity. After this initial burst of activity, she collapses in Grace and Graham’s home, awakening to find that something has emerged from the pod seen by Ryan. A being called Tzim-Sha is hunting for a designated target on Earth, as part of a ritualistic hunt that determines the status of his race, the Stenza. What he doesn’t know is that he is now up against the Doctor – even if she’s not sure of who she is yet – who is pledged to protect Earth and its people.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Childs
music by Segun Akinola

Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sharon D. Clarke (Grace O’Brien), Samuel Oatley (Tim Shaw), Jonny Dixon (Karl), Amit Shah (Rahul), Asha Kingsley (Sonia), Janine Mellor (Janey), Asif Khan (Ramesh Sunder), James Thackeray (Andy), Philip Abiodun (Dean), Stephen MacKenna (Dennis), Everal A. Walsh (Gabriel)

Chris Noth as Robertson in Doctor WhoNotes: After 12 years of the Doctor’s adventures being scored by Murray Gold, this is the first change of music composer in the revived Doctor Who series; ironically, it’s also the first episode in Doctor Who’s 55-year history to completely omit an opening title sequence, so Segun Akinola’s new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme music wouldn’t debut until the following episode, The Ghost Monument. Bradley Walsh had previously appeared as Odd Bob in the Russell T. Davies-era Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures (Day Of The Clown parts 1 and 2), as well as the 2001 comedy Hotel!, where he shared screen time with once and future Doctors Paul McGann and Peter Capaldi. The episode’s title is a reference to the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell To Earth, starring David Bowie. The teeth are a dead giveaway that Tim Shaw is no relation to Liz Shaw.

LogBook entry by Earl Green