Day: October 25, 1968

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Original Series Season 03 Star Trek

Spectre of the Gun

Star Trek ClassicStardate 4385.3: A Melkotian warning buoy is unwittingly destroyed by Kirk and the Enterprise. When Kirk beams down with a landing party, the owners of the buoy, fearing that a pointlessly violent race has entered their space, trap the Enterprise officers in a replica of Tombstone, Arizona (drawn from Kirk’s mind) and force Kirk and company to play out the roles of the Clanton Gang – doomed to lose the gunfight at the O.K. Corral at sundown.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Lee Cronin
directed by Vincent McEveety
music by Jerry Fielding

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Ron Soble (Wyatt Earp), Bonnie Beecher (Sylvia), Charles Maxwell (Virgil Earp), Rex Holman (Morgan Earp), Sam Gilman (Doc Holloway), Charles Seel (Ed), Bill Zuckert (Johnny Behan), Ed McCready (Barber), Abraham Sofaer (Melkotian Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Search

Operation Iceman

SearchFor years, a mysterious figure known only as the Iceman has stalked the world of organized crime, carrying out “hits” only on major players in the underworld. But now the Iceman has killed a PROBE agent, and Cameron assigns multiple agents, including Nick Bianco and the soon-to-retire mentor who brought Bianco into the PROBE fold, to track the killer down once and for all. No matter where Bianco or any member of his team go, the Iceman is a step ahead of them, taking out key witnesses before they can talk. Even Bianco’s mentor becomes one of the Iceman’s victims, and Bianco suspects that the Iceman has an ally within PROBE control…

written by S.S. Schweitzer
directed by Robert L. Friend
music by Dominic Frontiere

SearchCast: Tony Franciosa (Nick Bianco), Burgess Meredith (Cameron),
Edward Mulhare (David Pelham), James Gregory (Gordon Essex), Mary Frann (Stephanie Burnside), Edward Bell (Andre Gerard), Poupee Bocar (Kalia Soulvan), Harve Selsby (Epstein), Patrick O’Hara (Mr. Johns), Russ Marin (Ginelli), J. Ben Hur (Secretary), Loren James (Guard), Abraham Sofaer (Lokarno), Ron Castro (Carlos), Byron Chung (Kuroda), Amy Farrell (Murdock), Ginny Golden (Keach), Albert Popwell (Griffin)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Planet Of The Apes Season 1

The Surgeon

Planet Of The ApesAn ape ambush catches the fugitives off-guard; Virdon takes a bullet. They go into hiding before they can be found, and Galen decides to return to the ape hospital in the outskirts of the central city. His ex-fiancee, an ape surgeon named Kira, should be able to help, and Galen believes he can come up with a cover story to get Virdon into the hospital without immediately being arrested by Urko’s security forces. But even once Virdon is in the hospital, Dr. Kira can’t help him: she knows nothing about human medicine. Galen knows where to find a text on that subject…but it means venturing into the heart of the city and breaking into Dr. Zaius’ secret stash of human artifacts – right under the nose of General Urko.

Order the DVDswritten by Barry Oringer
directed by Arnold Laven
music not credited

Guest Cast: Jacqueline Scott (Kira), Michael Strong (Travin), Martin Brooks (Leander), Mark Lenard (Urko), Booth Colman (Zaius), Jamie Smith Jackson (Girl), David Naughton (Dr. Stole), Raymond Mayo (Human), Diana Hale (Brigid), Phil Montgomery (Jordo)

Notes: There is no incidental music score credit for this episode, only a theme music credit for composer Lalo Schifrin. Library music pieces may have been used.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 13 Doctor Who

Pyramids of Mars

Doctor WhoIn 1910, Egyptologist Marcus Scarman makes his greatest find ever – a crypt said to be the tomb of the god Sutekh. It is also Scarman’s last find. His life as he has known it ends and his body becomes an obedient servant to the still very-much-alive Egyptian god Sutekh, in fact an alien consciousness trapped on Earth.

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Sarah to Britain that same year, after a close call in the time vortex and the appearance of Sutekh’s face in the console room – a psychic breach of the time machine’s most important defenses. The Doctor follows the source of the interference to Scarman’s mansion, where strange things are afoot – including the shadowy appearance of walking mummies. With Scarman’s brother Lawrence in tow, the Doctor and Sarah stumble upon the force behind the unusual happenings: Sutekh is planning a strike, from Earth, against a mechanism on the surface of Mars which hold him captive on Earth. Even the primitive state of rocketry isn’t holding Sutekh’s effort back: he’s lending Scarman and his robot mummies advanced technology. Sutekh hopes to dominate the Earth with his immense willpower and then take revenge upon his fellow Osirans on Mars – even if it means wiping out the human race to avenge his centuries of captivity.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Lewis Griefer (a.k.a. Robert Holmes)
directed by Paddy Russell
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Bernard Archard (Professor Macrus Scarman), Vik Tabian (Ahmed), Peter Mayock (Namin), Michael Bilton (Collins), Peter Copley (Dr. Warlock), Michael Sheard (Laurence Scarman), George Tovey (Ernie Clements), Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh / voice of Horus), Nick Burnell, Melvyn Bedford, Kevin Selway (Mummies)

Broadcast from October 25 through November 15, 1975

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Man From Atlantis Season 1

Giant

Man From AtlantisInvestigating an unusual underwater vortex with the Cetacean and its crew, Mark discovers a diver unconscious on the ocean floor. The injured man, treasure hunter (and swindler) Jack Muldoon, has been through the vortex, and says there’s dry land, with a wealth of gold, on the other side. Mark convinces Muldoon to guide him through the vortex, discovering an arid desert where water is present, but completely invisible. A giant named Thark uses the water to mine for gold, but the gold Muldoon has gathered has all been stolen from Thark. For both Mark and Muldoon, convincing Thark to close the flow of water is a high-stakes game: Muldoon has a fortune in gold to gain, and if Mark can’t get Thark to help, the world’s oceans may be drained into Thark’ strange realm.

written by Michael Wagner
directed by Richard Benedict
music by Fred Karlin

Man From AtlantisCast: Patrick Duffy (Mark Harris), Belinda J. Montgomery (Dr. Elizabeth Merrill), Alan Fudge (C.W. Crawford), Ted Neeley (Jack Muldoon), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Thark), Richard Laurance Williams (Jomo), J. Victor Lopez (Chuey), Jean Marie Hon (Jane), Anson Downes (Allen)

Notes: At the time of his appearance in Man From Atlantis, NBA all-star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was dividing his time between playing center for the Los Angeles Lakers and, in the off-season, his budding acting career. This was Man From Atlantisonly his third on-screen appearance; his next would be in the 1980 cult classic comedy Airplane!, with later appearances in Diff’rent Strokes, Fletch, Tales From The Darkside, and 21 Jump Street. And it wouldn’t be an American SF series of the ’60s or ’70s without a visit to Vasquez Rocks, “invisible water” and all.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Buck Rogers Season 1

Return of the Fighting 69th

Buck Rogers In The 25th CenturyTrying to intercept a freighter making an unauthorized flight into the Necrosis asteroid belt, Buck and Wilma stumble across a plot by Wilma’s old adversary Corliss to poison Earth’s atmosphere. Despite this terrifying development, there is nothing the Earth forces can do to penetrate the dense asteroid belt. Doctor Huer recommends reinstating the retired Noah Cooper and the rest of his 69th Earth Space Marine squadron – but Cooper, embittered ever since his young protege’ Wilma flunked his entire squad out of active duty due to their age, wants nothing to do with the potential suicide mission.

Order the DVDswritten by David Bennett Carson
directed by Phil Leacock
music by Stu Phillips

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Peter Graves (Noah Cooper), Elizabeth Allen (Roxanne Trent), Robert Quarry (Commander Corliss), Woody Strode (“Big Red” Murphy), K.T. Stevens (Harriet Twain), Eddie Firestone (M.K. Schultz), Dan Sturkle (Eli Twain), Katharine Wyberg (Alicia), Robert Hardy (Clayton), Duncan MacKenzie (Westlake), Clifford Torknett (War technician)

Notes: With this episode’s focus on deafness and sign language, Katharine Wyberg, a student from the California School for the Deaf, was cast as Alicia. However, the episode still came in for criticism due to its coda, which revealed that Alicia would be undergoing surgery to “cure” her deafness.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

Full Circle

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Romana are en route back to Gallifrey when something strange happens to the TARDIS. Though it takes time for them to realize it, the TARDIS has fallen through a kind of wormhole into the alternate universe of E-space. Instead of Gallifrey, the Doctor has arrived on Alzarius, a planet whose small humanoid population is threatened by the onset of a deadly mist. During the time of mistfall, legend has it that spiders emerge from the indigenous fruit and deadly creatures appear. A troubled kid named Adric is trapped outside during mistfall, but stumbles into the TARDIS and befriends the Doctor and Romana. The Doctor soon finds that the horrific creatures that roam Alzarius during mistfall are more closely related to the besieged humanoids than either party realizes.

Download this episodewritten by Andrew Smith
directed by Peter Grimwade
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Richard Willis (Varsh), Bernard Padden (Tylos), June Page (Keara), James Bree (Nefred), Alan Rowe (Garif), Leonard Maguire (Draith), George Baker (Login), Tony Calvin (Dexeter), Norman Bacon (Marsh child), Andrew Forbes (Omril), Adrian Gibbs (Rysik), Barney Lawrence, Steve Kelly, Stephen Calcutt, Keith Guest, Graham Cole, James Jackson, Steven Watson (Marshmen)

Broadcast from October 25 through November 15, 1980

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Knights Of God

Episode 7

Knights Of GodBarely surviving the hit Brother Hugo has ordered on his life, Gervase abandons the Knights of God as quickly as he joined them. He finds Julia, but the woman who has been caring for her is mortally injured in the crossfire. All but one of the Knights trying to ensure Gervase’s assassination are killed, and Gervase wounds the last one and sends him back to base with a message: if Brother Hugo wants Gervase dead, he’ll have to come to the wasteland to see to it personally. The wounded man’s return to Mordrin’s HQ further confirms the prior’s suspicions that Hugo is actively working against him, rather than simply being a bumbling idiot. Gervase’s bittersweet reunion with Julia is cut short by more danger: one of the more recklessly violent resistance cells is pursuing Gervase, still believing him to be a Knight.

written by Richard Cooper
directed by Michael Kerrigan
music by Christopher Gunning

Knights Of GodCast: George Winter (Gervase), Claire Parker (Julia), John Vine (Williams), Anne Stallybrass (Nell), Patrick Troughton (Arthur), Harrie Cookson (Brigadier Clarke), Don Henderson (Colley), John Woodvine (Mordrin), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), Christopher Bowen (Pilot), Roy Boyd (Fen), Jackie Webb (Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 26 Doctor Who

The Curse Of Fenric

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Ace arrive at a soggy British naval camp in 1943, into which the Time Lord confidently strides, not even attempting to conceal his presence. He mingles with the base’s disturbed commander and the brilliant but paranoid Dr. Judson, creator of the Ultima code-breaking device. The Doctor and Ace later encounter a small platoon of Russian commandos who plan to steal Ultima – a move which has been anticipated. In the background lurks a devious alien presence with whom the Doctor has an old score to settle – provided that the humans in the naval camp, merely pawns in a much more complex game, don’t destroy their own world first.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Ian Briggs
directed by Nicholas Mallett
music by Mark Ayres

Doctor WhoCast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred, Dinsdale Landen (Dr. Judson), Alfred Lynch (Commander Millington), Tomek Bork (Sorin), Joann Kenny (Jean), Joanne Bell (Phyllis), Peter Czajkowski (Sergeant Prozorov), Nicholas Parsons (Reverend Wainwright), Cory Pulman (Kathleen Dudman), Marek Anton (Vershinin), Stevan Rimkus (Captain Bates), Marcus Hutton (Sergeant Leigh), Janet Henfrey (Ms. Hardaker), Anne Reid (Nurse Crane), Mark Conrad (Petrossian), Christien Anholt (Perkins), Aaron Hanley (Baby), Raymond Trickett (Ancient Haemovore), Cy Town (Haemovore)

Broadcast from October 25 through November 15, 1989

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Phantasms

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47225.7: Having just received a new warp core from a starbase, the Enterprise departs with both Picard and Geordi ready to test the more efficient drive system en route to an admirals’ banquet which Picard is not looking forward to. The warp core fails to perform to expectations – in fact, it fails to perform at all. Simultaneously, Data experiences his first nightmare, and then his second, and his third, all full of disturbing imagery he feels he should not ignore. His friends don’t think it’s anything to worry about, until Data’s nightmare visions drive him to commit acts of violence.

Order the DVDswritten by Brannon Braga
directed by Patrick Stewart
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Gina Ravarra (Ensign Tyler), Bernard Kates (Sigmund Freud), Clyde Kusatsu (Admiral Nakamura), David L. Crowley (Workman), and Spot

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Melora

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47229.1: The first Elaysian officer in Starfleet, Ensign Melora Pazlar, is assigned to DS9. Bashir and O’Brien have had to modify various passageways to permit Melora – whose low-gravity home world leaves her body reliant on a wheelchair in normal gravity – access to as much of the station as possible. In the meantime, Quark’s former partner, who he once sold out to the Romulans in order to save his own skin, has finally been released by his captors and has come aboard the station to exact vengeance upon Quark. Bashir decides to make an effort to cut through Melora’s oversensitivity and defensiveness in order to help her, and even discovers that there may be a way to reverse her handicap.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Evan Carlos Somers and Steven Baum and Michael Piller & James Crocker
story by Evan Carlos Somers
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

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), Daphne Ashbrook (Melora), Peter Crombie (Fallit Kot), Don Stark (Ashrock), Ron Taylor (Klingon Chef)

Deep Space NineNotes: The concept of a regular character most at home in a low-gravity environment was part of the original series concept for Deep Space Nine, but was abandoned due to the cost and time involved in doing wire work on a routine basis; that character was replaced by Dax in the series bible. Guest star Daphne Ashbrook later boarded the TARDIS as a one-time companion of the Doctor in Fox’s 1996 Doctor Who TV movie.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 2

Comes The Inquisitor

Babylon 5Delenn is summoned by Kosh, who cryptically informs her that he has called for an inquisitor from the Vorlon homeworld, an interrogator who will determine Delenn’s true allegiances and motivations in her preparation for the coming war. Sheridan greets the visitor, who presumably will be another Vorlon – though the newcomer turns out to be human. And not just any human, but a human from the 19th century who claims to have been whisked away from Earth by the Vorlons. The interrogation of Delenn begins, and turns out to be a far more brutal affair than expected as Sebastian tortures her for what he deems “inadequate” answers to his very ambiguous, nearly metaphysical questions. While Delenn barely endures the test she does not understand, G’Kar is quietly struggling to maintain control of the Narn on the station, who are pooling all their resources to build an underground resistance on the conquered Narn homeworld. Finally, Sheridan interferes in Delenn’s inquisition – and his intervention has been anticipated.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Michael Vejar
music by Christopher Franke

Babylon 5Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain John Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Lt. Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Andrea Thompson (Talia Winters), Stephen Furst (Vir), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Robert Rusler (Warren Keffer), Mary Kay Adams (Na’Toth), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Wayne Alexander (Sebastian), Jack Kehler (Mr. Chase), Diane Adair (Narn Mother), Ardwight Chamberlain (Kosh), Jim Chiros (Centauri #1), Joshua Cox (Tech #1), Mark Hendrickson (Narn #1), Michael Francis Kelly (Guard), Kim Strauss (Narn #2), Craig Thomas (Human)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek Voyager

Repression

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 54010.1: Tom and B’Elanna try out Tom’s new holodeck program – a mid-20th century movie theater – only to find Bajoran crewman Tabor comatose in the front row. Though still alive, Tabor has suffered an attack that left his skull cobwebbed with microfractures. Two more crew members soon suffer the same fate, and all three are former Maquis. Chakotay decides that the attacker must be a member of Voyager’s original Starfleet contingent, and puts his fellow ex-Maquis on alert (as well as ordering them to arm themselves). Rumors and paranoia run rampant as Tuvok tries to investigate the increasing number of assaults, but when B’Elanna and Chakotay become the next victims, these worries seem well founded. Tuvok’s obsessive quest to solve the crime wave ultimately leads him to conclude that he himself is the prime suspect.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Mark Haskell Smith
story by Kenneth Biller
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Keith Szarabajka (Teero), Derek McGrath (Chell), Jad Mager (Tabor), Mark Rafael Truitt (Yossa), Ronald Robinson (Sek), Carol Krnic (Jor), Scott Alan Smith (Doyle), Majel Barrett (Computer voice)

Notes: The movie running in Tom’s Palace Theater holodeck program is Revenge Of The Creature, the real sequel to The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Revenge Of The Creature has also appeared in another popular SF series – it was the movie which opened Mystery Science Theater 3000’s eighth season, and boy, did it hurt. Guest star Keith Szarabajka played the sinister ex-husband of telepath Talia Winters in a second season episode of Babylon 5.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Firefly Season 1

Out of Gas

  • By Dave
  • October 25, 2002

FireflyA bleeding Mal collapses onto the deck of Serenity‘s cargo bay, one hand desperately clutching a catalyzer for the ship’s engine. As he struggles through the deserted ship to the engine room, he recalls the circumstances that got him into this predicament: Simon’s birthday party interrupted by an explosion that injured Zoe and damaged both the main and auxiliary life support systems; Kaylee unable to repair the systems because of the blown catalyzer; the ship adrift in empty space; the rest of the crew setting out in shuttles in a desperate effort to find help. He also thinks back to the moments that initially brought his crew together. Zoe, first to join up, initially didn’t take a liking to Wash, but that might have been the moustache. Mal’s first engineer brought about his own unemployment when he brought Kaylee aboard for a quick fling. Inara drives a hard bargain for use of her shuttle, but Mal display his own bargaining skills in getting Jayne to come on board. As Serenity‘s oxygen ticks away, a miracle appears – another ship, with the catalyzer Mal needs. But it’s no great surprise when the miracle comes with a catch.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Tim Minear
directed by David Solomon
music by Greg Edmonson

Guest Cast: Steven Flinn (Captain), Ilia Volok (Markov), Lyle Kanouse (Salesman)

Notes: According to the commentary on the series DVD, the flashbacks to Mal’s purchase of Serenity and initial gathering of the crew take place five years in the past, about one year after the end of the war. This episode features Mal’s opening narration.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who

The Sandman

Doctor Who: The SandmanThe TARDIS brings the Doctor and Evelyn to the Clutch, a ragtag fleet of ships flying in a constant close formation for mutual protection. The chief inhabitants of this interstellar gypsy caravan are a repitilian race known as the Galyari, who – according to their legends – are forbidden from ever settling a world of their own. They’re not safe on the Clutch either, as a number of them, both young and old, have turned up dead recently. The Galyari believe that the Sandman, the being who banished them from their planet, is also responsible for the murders. But they also believe he wears a coat of blindingly bright colors, travels in a blue box, and calls himself the Doctor. To Evelyn’s shock and horror, the Galyari are right about all but one of those things.

Order this CDwritten by Simon Forward
directed by Gary Ryssell
music by Russell Stone

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Evelyn), Anneke Wills (Director Nrosha), Mark Donovan (Orchestrator Shol), Mark Wharton (Commander Brel), Robin Bowerman (Mordecan), Stephanie Colburn (Nintaru), Ian Hogg (General Voshkar)

Timeline: between Project Twilight and Jubilee

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green