Day: October 22, 1972

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Gatchaman Gatchaman I

Revenge Of The Mechadegon

Kagaku Ninjatai GatchamanThe world is plagued by earthquakes that accompany the sudden loss of precious resources from beneath the Earth, and Dr. Nambu is certain that Galactor is behind each incident. After another strike puts most of the world’s oil supplies in Galactor’s hands, Ken assembles the team, but seems determined to go this one alone after failing to save the life of one of the country’s leading seismologists. When the God Phoenix is finally called into action, Ken wants the seismologist’s orphaned daughter to have the honor of firing the bird missile that destroys Galactor’s “iron centipede”… but bringing her aboard compromises the secret identities of the Gatchaman team.

Gatchamanwritten by Jinzo Toriumi
directed by Hisayuki Toriumi
music by Bob Sakuma

Voice Cast: Katsuji Mori (Ken Washio), Isao Sasaki (Joe Asakura), Kazuko Sugiyama (Jun), Yoku Shioya (Jinpei), Shingo Kanemoto (Ryu), Toru Ohira (Kozaburo Nambu), Mikio Terashima (Berg Katse), Nobuo Tanaka (Sosai X), Teiji Omiya (Director Anderson)

Note: This synopsis is for the original Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman episode, and appears under its original Japanese premiere date. For the corresponding episode of Battle Of The Planets, click here.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blackadder Season 3

Duel and Duality

BlackadderThe Prince Regent is in trouble for having had a sexual dalliance with the nieces of the Duke of Wellington. When the Duke challenges the Prince to a duel, Edmund agrees to take his place. As the time of the duel approaches, each of Edmund’s plans for survival fall short…

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

Guest Cast: Stephen Fry (Duke of Wellington), Rowan Atkinson (McAdder), Gertan Klauber (King George III)

Notes: Fry returns to Blackadder after having been a regular in Blackadder II. He would return as a regular in Blackadder Goes Forth and for the specials. He again portrays the Duke of Wellington (among others) in Blackadder: Back & Forth.

Rowan Atkinson get a chance here to play opposite himself, in the dual roles of Edmund and his Scottish cousin, McAdder.

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Home

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise crew returns to Earth, given a welcome befitting a crew of heroes. Archer discovers that he and his senior officers have become legends in their own time, and as his debriefing begins he finds that the battle-hardened attitudes that kept him alive in the Delphic Expanse are out of place on peacetime Earth. Dr. Phlox also comes to feel out of place when he becomes a target of anti-alien sentiment that has arisen since the Xindi attack on Earth. And “out of place” barely begins to describe the level of Trip’s discomfort when he accompanies T’Pol back to Vulcan, meets her mother, and discovers that she’s betrothed to a Vulcan named Koss – an engagement T’Pol refuses to break when she discovers that her abrupt resignation from the Vulcan High Command has come with a high price that her family has had to bear.

Order DVDswritten by Michael Sussman
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Velton Ray Bunch

Guest Cast: Joanna Cassidy (T’Les), Michael Reilly Burke (Koss), Ada Maris (Captain Erika Hernandez), Gary Graham (Soval), Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), Joe Chrest (Bar Patron #1), Jim Fitzpatrick (Commander Williams), Jack Donner (Vulcan Priest)

Guest Cast: Guest star Michael Reilly Burke has had brief parts in previous Star Trek spinoffs, appearing as the Borg Goval in Descent Part II (Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1993) and a Cardassian named Hogue in Profit And Loss (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 1994). Jack Donner, who played a Vulcan priest, is no stranger to pointed ears himself, having played Tal, a Romulan, in the 1968 Star Trek episode The Enterprise Incident. Joanna Cassidy is a genre veteran on the big screen, with major roles in such films as Blade Runner and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Torchwood

Everything Changes

TorchwoodA perfectly normal night on the beat for Cardiff policewoman Gwen Cooper is shattered by the arrival of a black vehicle at a murder scene. Even the police back off in deference, as four people emerge and use a strange metallic gauntlet to momentarily bring the murder victim back to life. Gwen watches in horror as the man realizes he only has two minutes to tell these people what happened to him – but can’t, since he was stabbed from behind. She finds out who they are – a mysterious organization called Torchwood, led by an American man named Captain Jack Harkness. The next day, she spots Jack again at a hospital, moments before she sees a grotesque humanoid figure brutally murder a hospital porter. Again, Jack and his Torchwood team are at the ready, subduing and capturing the inhuman killer, and just as quickly vanishing under a well-planned cover story.

Only Gwen isn’t about to let it go – she trails Torchwood’s vehicle to the Millennium Centre at the heart of Cardiff, and then follows them on foot to the waterfall – where they abruptly disappear from sight. Refusing to drop the trail, Gwen pays Torchwood a visit under the guise of delivering a pizza, but once inside their headquarters, she realizes that this organization is dabbling in something stranger than ordinary police work…and that their base of operations is actually nestled away right beneath the waterfall, where no one would think to look for it. Captain Jack introduces himself and his team: his second-in-command, Suzie Costello, medical expert Owen Harper, computer expert Toshiko Sato, and Ianto Jones, who serves as the team’s driver and organizes most of their cover. As members of Torchwood, they round up alien technology (and alien threats) that fall to Earth – activity which is apparently alarmingly common in Wales, thanks to a transdimensional rift running through Cardiff. They even have the alien killer from the hospital in custody, which inspires Gwen to propose a liaison between Torchwood and the police, rather than Torchwood sweeping in and taking over crime scenes under total secrecy.

Instead, Jack slips her an amnesia-inducing drug so she’ll forget the entire visit. But the next day, Gwen learns that more murders have taken place in Cardiff, committed with the same savage bladed weapon that felled the victim she saw Torchwood revive, and she gradually remembers Jack’s secret group – and seeing the weapon in their base of operations. If the alien is in custody, then who is still doing the killing? And has Torchwood met its match in Gwen…or a future recruit?

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Brian Kelly
music by Murray Gold

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Indira Varma (Suzie Costello), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Guy Lewis (Young Cop), Tom Price (P.C. Andy), Jason May (Soco), Rhys Swinburn (Body), Olwen Medi (Yvonne), Dion Davies (Officer), Jāms Thomas (Hospital Porter), Paul Kasey (Weevil), Mark Heal (Security Guard), Gary Sheppeard (Pizza Lad), Gwilym Havard Davies (Man), Cathryn Davis (Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green
Notes are included below and contain major spoilers.

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Season 1 Torchwood

Day One

TorchwoodAs she celebrates the eve of her first day on the job with Torchwood, Gwen and her boyfriend Rhys witness an awesome sight – a meteorite streaks through the night skies over Cardiff and slams into the countryside outside the city. Suddenly it is Gwen’s first day on the job, but through a mishap on her part, a gas is released into the air from the meteorite. Now the team has to track down an alien presence that could have gone anywhere. The gaseous life form finds a host body – a young girl at a club – and Torchwood is called in to investigate her first victim, apparently killed after he had sex with her. Gwen is able to use her police training to track the girl down, but once she’s in Torchwood custody, nobody seems to know what to do with her – or if she can be saved.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Brian Kelly
music by Murray Gold

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Adrian Christopher (Private Moriarty), Ross O’Hennessy (Sgt. Johnson), Sara Lloyd Gregory (Carys), Ceri Mears (Banksy), Justin McDonald (Matt), Tom Price (P.C. Andy), Brendan Charleson (Ivan Fletcher), Rob Storr (Gavin), Lloyd Everitt (Mikey), Alex Parry (Eddie Gwynne), Felicity Rhys (Bethan), Naomi Martell (Receptionist), David Longden (Mr. Weston)

Notes: Though it’s not explicitly stated on screen in this episode, the musical cue heard for the scenes involving the severed hand in the jar would seem to hint that the hand is the one that the Doctor lost to the Sycorax leader’s sword in the Doctor Who episode The Christmas Invasion – which may also explain why Jack prizes it so highly.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 1

Warriors Of Kudlak – Part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresLuke and Clyde find themselves, along with other laser tag winners, as captives of General Kudlak, who is abducting the most capable laser tag players from Earth to serve as soldiers on behalf of his insectoid species, which is locked in a seemingly endless war. When Sarah discovers where Luke and Clyde have been sent, and why, she’s outraged and demands that Grantham teleport her to Kudlak’s warship in Earth orbit. She confronts the General about the abductions, but neither of them know that Luke and Clyde are already staging their own escape attempt.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Phil Gladwin
directed by Charles Martin
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Chook Sibtain (Mr. Grantham), Sarah Haynes (Carrie Metcalf), Pamela Merrick (Wendy), Sonny Muslim (Lance), James Bellamy (Brandon Butler), Nadiyah Davis (Jen), Chrissie Furness (Cashier), Paul Kasey (Kudlak / Emperor / Mistress), Silas Carson (voice of Kudlak / Emperor), Tina Greatex (voice of Mistress)

Notes: Sarah says that she never thought she’d see the Earth from space again – a statement which could apply equally to her travels with the Doctor, or to the unresolved cliffhanger of the Sarah Jane Smith audio series from Big Finish, which left her character in orbit with no apparent means of escape.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 3

The Mad Woman In The Attic – part 1

The Sarah Jane AdventuresA boy wanders into a vacant house on Bannerman Road in 2059, finding an old woman living a hermit-like existence. She says her name is Rani Chandra, and begins to tell the boy of the adventures she had 50 years ago with her friends Luke, Clyde and Sarah Jane Smith. She also recounts the tale of how she came to be the hermit she is now – the tale of a demon living in an abandoned amusement park, the one monster from whom her friends couldn’t save her.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Joseph Lidster
directed by Alice Troughton
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Souad Faress (Old Rani), Gregg Sulkin (Adam), Brian Miller (Harry), Toby Parkes (Sam), Eleanor Tomlinson (Eve), Kate Fleetwood (Ship)

Notes: Brian Miller, appearing as the somewhat suspicious amusement park proprietor, is the husband of Elisabeth Sladen; this is far from his first appearance in the Doctor Who universe, as he provided Dalek voices in Resurrection Of The Daleks (1984) and Remembrance Of The Daleks (1988), and appeared “in the flesh” in 1982’s Snakedance. Souad Faress previously appeared in the 1979 Blake’s 7 episode Horizon – in which Brian Miller also appeared.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Class Season 1

For Tonight We Might Die

ClassShadows stalk the students of Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London. For some, it’s the shadow of loneliness, while for others, it’s the shadow of their parents’ expectations and lack of understanding. For Charlie, however, it’s a more literal threat, an alien race called the Shadow Kin who wiped out the entire species he ruled over as its prince. A soldier of a rival species, the Quill, is beholden to protect him for the rest of his life. Rescued from the last days of the Shadow Kin’s genocide against Charlie’s people by a time traveler called the Doctor, Charlie and “Mrs. Quill” are quietly dropped into Coal Hill School as enigmatic student and short-fused teacher. The Doctor believed both of them could learn much from each other, and from humanity. But when the Shadow Kin rip open a tear in the fabric of space and time, allowing them to run riot at Coal Hill on prom night, time may be up for Charlie, for Mrs. Quill, and for the entire human race unless the Doctor intervenes again.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Patrick Ness
directed by Ed Bazalgette
music by Blair Mowat
theme song “Up All Night” by Alex Clare

Cast: Katherine Kelly (Miss Quill), Greg Austin (Charlie), Fady Elsayed (Ram), Sophie Hopkins (April), Vivian Oparah (Tanya), Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jordan Renzo (Matteusz), Ben ClassPeel (Coach Dawson), Shannon Murray (Jackie), Aaron Neil (Varun), Natasha Gordon (Vivian), Anna Shaffer (Rachel), Paul Marc Davis (Corakinus), Nigel Betts (Mr. Armitage), Pooja Shah (Miss Shah), Alex Leak (Kevin), Laura Jane Hudson (Mrs. Linderhof), Satnam Bhogal (Counter Clerk), Ellie James (Student 1), Moses Adejimi (Student 2), Assay Hagos (Student 3), Shalisha James-Davis (Student 4)

ClassNotes: Long-suffering Coal Hill head teacher Mr. Armitage, played as always by Nigel Betts, previously appeared in the Doctor Who episodes Into The Dalek, The Caretaker, and Dark Water. Due to a year-long hiatus in the show as a result of the changeover from Steven Moffat’s production team to that of incoming Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall, this was – apart from a specially-made trailer to introduce new companion Bill – Peter Capaldi’s only in-character appearance as the Doctor between the 2015 and 2016 Doctor Who Christmas episodes; he is not expected to be a recurring fixture of Class.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Class Season 1

The Coach With The Dragon Tattoo

ClassRam is having difficulty adjusting to the artificial leg given to him by the Doctor to replace the leg severed by the Shadow Kin. His once-promising soccer performance suffers as a result, but psychologically he’s still suffering from the trauma of seeing the Shadow Kin on a killing rampage. As he changes after soccer practice, he’s convinced he sees evidence of another horrifying death, but can’t do anything about it. Later, he witnesses an otherworldly being snatch a cleaning lady from the school grounds, but can’t prove it happened. Worried that Ram is becoming increasingly isolated from them, Charlie, April and Tanya take their case to Mr. Armitage, only to see him snatched away by the same being Ram saw earlier. They turn to Miss Quill for protection, but she is preoccupied – almost obsessed – with an “observer” sitting in on her classes.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Patrick Ness
directed by Ed Bazalgette
music by Blair Mowat

ClassCast: Katherine Kelly (Miss Quill), Greg Austin (Charlie), Fady Elsayed (Ram), Sophie Hopkins (April), Vivian Oparah (Tanya), Jordan Renzo (Matteusz), Ben Peel (Coach Dawson), David McGranaghan (Assistant Coach Carroll), Aaron Neil (Varun), Nigel Betts (Mr. Armitage), Jami Reid-Quarrell (The Inspector), Cally Lawrence (Cleaner)

LogBook entry by Earl Green