Day: October 20, 1997

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Deep Space Nine Season 06 Star Trek

Behind The Lines

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 51145.3: On Terok Nor, Kira and Rom engineer a brawl between the Cardassians and the Jem’Hadar, a ploy which Odo had disapproved of. At this time comes the female Changeling, who has been trapped in the Alpha Quadrant by the minefield. Odo’s need for answers soon overcomes his distrust of her, and soon they are sharing the Link, to Kira’s dismay – which could spell disaster for the entire Alpha Quadrant. Meanwhile, Sisko is promoted to the position of adjutant to Admiral Ross, and must stay behind as the Defiant goes on a mission to destroy a vast Dominion sensor array.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Rene Echavarria
directed by LeVar Burton
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Casey Biggs (Damar), Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross), Salome Jens (Female Changeling)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Season 3 Xena: Warrior Princess

The Deliverer

Xena: Warrior PrincessXena and Gabrielle encounter prisoners under escort. When Xena hears one of the prisoners mention Caesar, she immediatly frees them. The one who spoke up, Khrafstar, tells them that he was sent by Boadieca to hire mercenaries to fight against Caesar in Britannia. Xena and Gabrielle decide to go with them. Ares learns of Xena’s trip and asks her to finish the job that he asked Caesar to do. The god of war wants her to destroy a temple belonging to a god that is percieved a threat by the gods on Olympus.

The group travels to Gaul and boards a ship for Britannia. During the voyage, Xena tells Gabrielle that she once befriended Boadieca and then turned on her. The warrior isn’t sure how her arrival will be received. When they near Britannia, a Centurion captain boards the ship and tells them they cannot land and that they should turn back to Gaul. But after he returns to shore, he learns that the ship continued on north. Realizing that the mercenaries may have already landed, he heads his troops in that direction. The Centurions are met by Xena, Boadieca and the mercenaries.

As Xena and the others fight, Gabrielle and Khrafstar are making their way to Boadieca’s camp. On the way, they are captured by Centurions.

Order the DVDswritten by Steven L. Sears
directed by Oley Sassone
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Kevin Smith (Ares), Karl Urban (Julius Caesar), Marton Csokas (Khrafstar), Jennifer Ward-Lealand (Boadicea), Cathrine Boniface (Meridian), Meighan Desmond (Discord), Brad Homan (Jiela), Anthony Ray Parker (Deliverer), Anton Bentley (Centurion), Andre Coppell (Squad Leader), David Holton (Lieutenant), Patrick Kuhtze (Brit Guard), John Manning (Captain), Daniel Martin (Soldier), and Argo

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Season 06 Star Trek Voyager

Alice

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Voyager happens upon a scrapyard in space operated by a gangly and gregarious alien called Abbadon. A trade agreement is quickly reached for several small items and technologies, until Tom Paris sets his eyes on a sleek (but very derelict) shuttle-sized vessel. Tom persuades Chakotay to offer Abbadon a few extra items in exchange for the ship – and the alien asks for suspiciously little in trade. Tom begins spending all of his off-duty time – and most of Harry’s, too – restoring the mysterious ship to full working order, dubbing it “Alice” in honor of a cadet he lusted after in Starfleet Academy. Slowly, thanks to the little craft’s direct neural interface with its pilot, Tom becomes more and more fixated on “Alice”…but what he does not realize until it far too late is that the ship is equally fixated on him.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Bryan Fuller & Michael Taylor
story by Juliann deLayne
directed by David Livingston
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Claire Rankin (Alice), John Fleck (Abbadon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Stalker

Burning Man

Night StalkerThe investigation of a bizarre death – a man who seemed to spontaneously combust at a gas station, causing a huge explosion – brings Kolchak and Perri into contact with Howard Gorn, a senior reporter at the Beacon’s national desk whose own investigation into a string of murders with similarly incendiary results formed the basis for a book. In fact, Gorn’s case files on the book are kept in a locked drawer, and not in the paper’s research library, which prevents Kolchak from comparing the evidence. In the string of “Terrormaker” murders, a wax figurine – rumored to be covered with a biological agent causing the spontaneous combustion effect – was sent to each of the Terrormaker’s targets, usually people involved with bioweapons research. Kolchak and Perri try to enlist the help of Doug Panero, the FBI agent who brought the Terrormaker down, and Panero reluctantly tells them later that this new victim did indeed fit the profile of the killer’s previous targets. But the Terrormaker was executed a year ago, and as more wax figurines are delivered to people who then die in a burst of flame, Panero wonders if he helped arrest the right man – and insists that Kolchak keep Gorn in the dark.

Order the DVDswritten by Noah Baylin
directed by Tony Wharmby
music by Michael Wandmacher

Guest Cast: William Lucking (Howard Gorn), Michael O’Keefe (Doug Panero), Clare Carey (Lisa Panero), Madison Mason (Houck), Price Carson (Mystery man), Brandon Fobbs (Delivery boy), Kevin Brief (Fogel), Eugene Collier (Customer), Shane Johnson (Susan Reynolds), Alex Fernandez (Gary Reynolds)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 3

Exodus – Part 2

Battlestar GalacticaThe insurrection against the Cylon occupation reaches its tipping point: with the grounded Colonial ships on New Caprica restored to flight-readiness, the battle to drive the Cylons off the planet or simply destroy their ground presence begins in earnest. Galactica jumps right into the planet’s atmosphere, launching her Vipers before jumping back into space, where Adama finds himself facing more Cylon basestars than he bargained for. Apollo wrestles with his orders – to take Pegasus and lead what’s left the civilian fleet to the safety of Earth – and ultimately decides not to follow them, knowing that one of the two Battlestars won’t return from the fight. When Gaeta pulls a gun to bring Baltar’s presidency to an end, Baltar begs him for death. And when Tigh learns that his wife sold the resistance out to the Cylons to save his life, it falls to him to deliver her sentence.

written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
directed by Felix Alcala
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Lucy Lawless (D’anna Biers), Michael Trucco (Anders), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Rick Worthy (The Doctor), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Matthew Bennett (Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Erica Cerra (Maya), Luciana Carro (Kat), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Madeline Parker (Kacey), Dominic Zamprogna (Jammer), Eileen Pedde (Mathias), Ty Olsson (Captain Kelly), Ryan Robbins (Connor), Emilie Ullerup (Julia)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 2

Secrets Of The Stars – Part 1

The Sarah Jane AdventuresA small-time London psychic is suddenly drawing national attention, and Sarah is curious about his sudden popularity. While his stage show contains the usual expected parlor tricks, Martin Trueman is able to pull off feats that both astound and alarm Sarah: he exhibits very real mind control over members of the audience, and he even puts Sarah in the spotlight and nails down the details of her travels with the Doctor. But despite these worrying powers, Sarah can detect nothing alien about the man. She decides to pay him an unexpected visit, only to find that her every move is being anticipated. Convinced that there’s an alien presence at work, Sarah continues to use every resource at her disposal to investigate Trueman – but it’s too late: he’s used his gradually increasing influence over others to gain global media exposure, and during his broadcast he begins to take over entire segments of the human race, one star sign at a time. He also uses that influence to send Clyde on a mission to prevent Sarah from interfering further by any means necessary.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Gareth Roberts
directed by Michael Kerrigan
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Russ Abbott (Martin Trueman), Carryl Thomas (Cheryl Farley), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ed Hughes (Stuart Farley), Nicky Ladanowski (Lisa Trotter), Alexander Armstrong (voice of Mr. Smith)

Notes: Draconia gets its first mention in either the revived Doctor Who or any of its spinoffs; apparently the practice of astrology is alive and well among those noble aliens whose only on-screen appearance in Doctor Who was in the 1973 story Frontier In Space. The Draconians have proven popular enough to appear in novels and fan films as well; however, they have yet to put in any face time in new Who. The opening teaser’s cliffhanging line, “You’re going on a journey – a very long journey,” is an in-joke on the very same line of dialogue as spoken by the Rani (no relation to this series’ character of the same name) in the much-maligned 1993 charity sketch Dimensions In Time.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Caprica

Things We Lock Away

CapricaZoe’s avatar carves a bloody path through the virtural world of New Cap City, searching for the girl who can’t die – the recreated consciousness of Joseph Adama’s daughter Tamara. What she isn’t expecting is the rage she encounters when she finally finds her: Tamara is fully aware that the real Zoe was responsible for the death of the real Tamara. Abducted after Clarice Willow’s assassination of Barnabus, Lacy Rand is locked up like an animal. Clarice doesn’t want Lacy’s loyalty, but rather a single piece of vital information, but even surrendering that won’t buy Lacy’s freedom. And after he stages what seems like a bloodless boardroom coup to regain control of Graystone Industries, Daniel Graystone tries to bury the hatchet with his ousted rival, Tomas Vergis. But Vergis’ Tauron code of honor leaves only one option – an option that will stain Graystone’s hands with his blood, whether he wants to kill or not.

written by Drew Z. Greenberg
directed by Tim Hunter
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Scott Porter (Nestor), John Pyper-Ferguson (Tomas Vergis), Hiro Kanagawa (Cyrus Xander), Genevieve Buechner (Tamara Adama), Anita Torrance (Mar-Beth), Panou (Olaf), Jim Thomson (voice of Serge), Thomas Saunders (Jon Parker), Jadyn Wong (Gamester), Luke Welland (Butcher Knife Player), Olivia Steele Falconer (young Zoe)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 1 Star Wars

Fighter Flight

Star Wars: RebelsAs punishment for scuffling in the cargo bay and leaving it a mess, Zeb and Ezra are sent on a supply procurement mission that’s a bit more like a scavenger hunt. One of the items, an imported fruit, can only be stolen from Imperial supplies, a caper which becomes bigger than either bargained for when Zeb steals a TIE Fighter. Under stritct orders from Kanan to ditch the TIE Fighter and return to the Ghost on foot, Zeb and Ezra make a detour to help some oppressed locals, a task easier said than done unless Ezra can continue to strengthen his prowess in the Force.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Kevin Hopps
directed by Steven G. Lee
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steven Blum (Zeb / Stormtrooper Commander), David Shaughnessy (Vendor 1 / Imperial Transport Driver), Liam O’Brien (Yogar Lyste / Morad Sumar / Stormtrooper 1), Greg Ellis (Baron Valen Rudor)

Notes: The episode’s title is a play on the phrase “fight or flight”, referring to the psychological response to imminent danger. The Imperial prisoner transports are modeled closely Rebelsupon Kenner’s Imperial Troop Transport toy from 1979, a vintage vehicle which was actually loosely based upon a transport seen in the Rebel base in Star Wars. The only thing missing is the strangely blocky “blinder” devices for the prisoners.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 11

Krysis

Red DwarfA bout of forgetfulness triggers a mid-life crisis for Kryten, who has been online for three million years and change. He tries to outfit himself with a newer, more aerodynamic casing that has everything but go-faster stripes, to no avail. Lister has a solution: seek out a mechanoid-equipped ship launched at roughly the same time as the ship on which Kryten was found, and go see how that mechanoid is doing. He hopes to show Kryten that he has evolved well beyond his original programming. But when they find a suitable derelict ship and meet its mechanoid, Butler, it’s clear that he, too, has evolved since the demise of the crew he once served, and his become a brilliant polymath (whereas Kryten is still serving Lister meals). This does little to ease Kryten’s crisis.

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), Dominic Coleman (Butler), Robert Nairne (Gelf Chief), Daniel Barker (The Universe)

Notes: The Nova 5 – and Kryten himself (then played by David Ross) – were encountered back in season two’s premiere, Kryten (1988).

LogBook entry by Earl Green