Day: October 27, 1966

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Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

Miri

Star Trek ClassicStardate 2713.5: A remarkably Earthlike planet is the home of a human-like civilization whose entire adult population was wiped out by a virulent disease. The children remain, although their growth has been slowed down to the point that Miri – a teenage girl found by Kirk and a landing party – could easily by 300 years old. Miri develops a crush on Kirk, but at the same time reports back to a gang of unruly children who plot to kidnap the landing party, beginning with Yeoman Rand. Kirk, Rand and even Miri begin to show signs of the disease, which gives Kirk a chance to prove that the disease will eventually kill all of the children – but they are unwilling to admit they need help or the “stuffy” advice of an adult.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Adrian Spies
directed by Vincent McEveety
music by Alexander Courage

Star TrekCast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Kim Darby (Miri), Michael J. Pollard (Jahn), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand), Keith Taylor (Jahn’s Friend), Ed McCready (Boy Creature), Kellie Flanagan (Blonde Girl), Steven McEveety (Redheaded Boy), David Ross (Security Guard #1), Jim Goodwin (Farrell), John Megna (Little Boy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series Season 02 Star Trek

Catspaw

Star Trek ClassicStardate 3018.2: When a crewman from a landing party investigating the latest planet visited by the Enterprise returns under some form of exterior control and then dies, Kirk decides to beam down and see for himself what caused the death. What Kirk, Spock and McCoy find on the surface is a house of horrors right out of ancient Earth mythology, right down to three hideous witches delivering a prophecy of doom for the crew. Two aliens are found to be at the heart of the evil activities, and they have no intention of letting Kirk or the Enterprise leave their world…

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Robert Bloch
directed by Joseph Pevney
music by Gerald Fried

Star TrekCast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Antoinette Bower (Sylvia), Theo Marcuse (Korob), Michael Barrier (DeSalle), John Winston (Transporter Chief Kyle), Rhodie Cogan (First Witch), Gail Bonney (Second Witch), MaryEsther Denver (Third Witch), Jimmy Jones (Crewman Jackson)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series (Animated) Season 01 Star Trek

The Magicks Of Megas-Tu

Star Trek ClassicStardate 1254.2: While exploring a nebular phenomenon in which matter is constantly created, the Enterprise is whisked into an alternate universe. A hoofed creature named Lucien boards the ship, and then beams down to the surface of a nearby planet with Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Lucien explains that he and the other people of Megas-Tu once visited Earth, but when they practiced their natural gift of magic, the Megans were hunted down and killed for practicing witchcraft. But when the other Megans discover that Lucien has brought humans to their world, Kirk and his crew and put on a witch trial of their own in a recreation of 17th-century Salem.

Order the DVDswritten by Larry Brody
directed by Hal Sutherland
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael

Cast: William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott / Lt. Arrex / Lucien / Azmodeus), George Takei (Lt. Sulu / Alien spirit voice), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura / Computer Voice), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel / Lt. M’ress)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Starlost, The

And Only Man Is Vile

The StarlostDevon, Garth and Rachel enter a biosphere that’s been left in prime condition – fresh food everywhere, clean quarters…and no people to be found, at least until Garth discovers a young woman named Lethe, who appears to be in shock after the rest of her people suddenly abandoned her – or so she says. She seems to make a remarkable recovery and begins to say things that cause the three travelers to doubt one another. Devon eventually finds the other former inhabitants of this dome, discovering that they’re paranoid to the point of being fully prepared to kill any strangers in their midst. Devon protests, but is sentenced to death – and Lethe has turned Garth against him, so he refuses to save him. But in a secret observation room, a cynical scientist is pulling Lethe’s strings – using all of these events to prove his belief that the descendants of the Ark’s original residents are too soft to survive.

Get this season on DVDwritten by Shimon Wincelberg
directed by Ed Richardson
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Simon Oakland (Dr. Asgard), Irena Mayeska (Dr. Diana Tabor), Trudy Young (Lethe), Tim Whelan (Village Elder), John Bethune (Villager “A”)

Notes: The “ancient poem” Devon remembers is the hymn “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains”, written by Reginald Heber in 1819. The section quoted on the obelisk at the beginning of the episode – which also gives this episode its title – is “Though every prospect pleases / And only man is vile / In vain with lavish kindness / The gifts of God are strown / The heathen in his blindness / Bows down to wood and stone.”

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Star Blazers

World Of Wonder: Yamato Leaped Past Light

Star BlazersD minus 362 days: In order the complete the mission to Iscandar with the year Earth has left, the Argo’s crew prepares for the space warp. Venture questions his ability to hold up under the mission’s all-or-nothing stress. And in the meantime, none of his crewmates are sure what the warp will be like…or whether they or the Argo will survive it. Gamilon Leader Desslock watches their every move, preparing to strike, but unaware that Iscandar has provided Earth with vital technology.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Star Maidens

What Have They Done To The Rain?

Star MaidensRudi, ignoring orders to keep working regardless of the risks, moves his fellow slave laborers out of the way of a giant mudslide. Octavia neither thanks nor congratulates Rudi; she simply has him thrown back outside to continue working. More incidents on the surface – and chemical analysis conducted inside by Liz – point toward an unavoidable fact: Medusa’s skies are pouring down acid rain that’s destabilizing the entire surface of the planet. After his work detail is rescued from another mudslide, Rudi is brought before the Medusan Grand Council and tries to offer his first-hand scientific analysis of what’s happening, but the women of Medusa are more concerned with maintaining their matriarchal social order than with the erosion of their planet and their artificial environment. Liz uses her influence – and her orders from the Grand Council to find out what’s destroying the environment on Medusa – to have Rudi appointed as her “assistant,” but the two of them together find out what’s causing the surface and everything on it to liquefy. The mere fact that a man is involved in the discovery, however, prevents the Medusans from taking it seriously.

Star Maidenswritten by Ian Stuart Black
directed by Freddie Francis
music by Berry Lipmann

Cast: Lisa Harrow (Liz), Christian Quadflieg (Rudi), Christiane Kruger (Octavia), Dawn Addams (Clara), Anna Carteret (Announcer), Kirstie Pooley (Guard), Annette Lynton (Clara’s Assistant), Ann Maj-Brit (Octavia’s Assistant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 17 Doctor Who

The Creature From The Pit

Doctor WhoThe Doctor, Romana and K9 follow an urgent distress call to the planet Chloris, whose ruler, Lady Adrasta, lords over the planet’s resources and meets any challenge with a threat of war. But the greatest threat to Adrasta’s empire is her own short-sightedness in imprisoning an ambassador from another world who only wishes to open a peaceful exchange between their two worlds. The Doctor could help to start the negotiations, but he has been consigned to the pit along with the ambassador.

Download this episodewritten by David Fisher
directed by Christopher Barry
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Myra Frances (Lady Adrasta), Eileen Way (Karela), Geoffrey Bayldon (Organon), David Telfer (Huntsman), John Bryans (Torvin), Edward Kelsey (Edu), Tim Munro (Ainu), Tommy Wright (Guard Master), Terry Walsh (Doran), Morris Barry (Tollund), Philip Denyer, Dave Redgrave (Guards)

Broadcast from October 27 through November 17, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 4

The Deconstruction of Falling Stars

Babylon 5In the distant future, an observer has a very limited amount of time to gather all available records of the beginnings and the founders of the Interstellar Alliance, and the records reveal more than a few surprises.

Order now!written by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Stephen Furst
music by Christopher Franke

Download this episodeCast: Bruce Boxleitner (John Sheridan), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Franklin), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Doug Hale (Derek Mitchell), Ken Taylor (Jim Bitterbane), Rob Elk (Henry Ellis), Bennet Guillory (Leif Tanner), Kathleen Lloyd (Elizabeth Metarie), Alastair Duncan (Latimere), Nick Toth (Exeter), Joanna Takahashi (Dr. Tashaki), Eric Pierpoint (Daniel), Roy Brocksmith (Brother Alwyn Macomber), Neil Roberts (Brother Michael)

Babylon 5Notes: Rushed into production as the first episode shot under a new contract with cable channel TNT, Deconstruction was designed to segue into the fifth and final season which would be airing on cable, though it was aired as the final episode of Babylon 5’s syndicated run under Warner Bros.’ collapsing PTEN network. If TNT hadn’t rescued the show, the already-produced Sleeping In Light would have aired here instead, wrapping up the series; as it was, that episode remained in the can until the end of Babylon 5’s TNT run. Only part of the regular cast appears in this episode, which was shot after the departure of Claudia Christian over contractual disagreements with the producers.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Earth: Final Conflict Season 1

Avatar

Earth: Final ConflictImprisoned serial killer James Pike escapes by faking his own death, and Da’an sets Boone on his trail. Pike was given an experimental CVI in an early Taelon attempt to rehabilitate violent human criminals, but his twisted mind has allowed him to access information programmed deep inside every CVI and learn more about the Taelons’ real purpose for living among humanity. In addition to more concrete information about the Taelons, Pike is also bringing to life a horrifying Taelon myth by instigating a new wave of killings unless Boone can stop him.

written by Malcolm MacRury
directed by Jeff Woolnough
music by Micky Erbe & Maribeth Solomon

Guest Cast: John Evans (Morovsky), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Dr. Belman), Marvin Kaye (Clifton Samuel), Richard McMillan (James Pike), Patrick Gallagher (Prison Guard), Peter MacNeill (Warden Cole), Grant Alianak (Dr. Kaplan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 06 Star Trek

Favor The Bold

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: Sisko’s plan to take back DS9 is approved by Starfleet, while on the station, Kira and Quark are anxious to free Rom, who has been scheduled for execution; but Rom urges Quark to destroy the antigraviton beam instead. Ziyal tries to talk to her father on Rom’s behalf, but he refuses, causing a renewed estrangement. With the minefield coming down within a week, Jake sends a message (via Morn) to his father, who hastens the assembling of the task force. Finally Sisko sets out, once more in command of the Defiant, to retake DS9 and prevent Dominion reinforcements from arriving through the wormhole – but Weyoun and Dukat are ready.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Andrew J. Robinson (Garak), Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Melanie Smith (Ziyal), Casey Biggs (Damar), Chase Masterson (Leeta), Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross), Salome Jens (Female Changeling), William Wellman Jr. (Bajoran Officer), Bart McCarthy (Admiral Coburn), Ericka Klein (Admiral Sitak), Andrew Palmer (Jem’Hadar Soldier)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Season 3 Xena: Warrior Princess

Gabrielle’s Hope

Xena: Warrior PrincessGabrielle struggles to come to terms with the fact that she killed Meridian as she and Xena travel to a village to find passage back to Greece. As they pass through a forest, three Banshees appear. The Banshees attack Xena, but leave Gabrielle alone. They back away from her saying they worship her. Since Gabrielle isn’t feeling well, she convinces Xena to give up the fight for now and they leave the forest.

In the village, Xena leaves Gabrielle at a tavern while she goes to speak to the captain of a ship that will be going close to Greece. The bard finds her appetite has returned and is soon eating everything that the tavern keeper will sit in front of her.

Outside the tavern, a crowd has gathered. They shout at Gabrielle and throw torches into the building, trying to burn it down with her in it. But the bard manages to use a pole to vault out of the structure and lands in the water nearby. She climbs onto the peir and the villagers chase her. Xena hears the commotion and follows.

Order the DVDswritten by R.J. Stewart
directed by Charles Siebert and Andrew Merrifield
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Catherine Boniface (Meridian), Alyssa Carr (Hope – 10 Months), Hannah Carr (Hope – 10 Months), Mark Clare (Eochaid), Peter Feeney (Caswallawn), Robert Harte (Goewin), Bert Keiller (Cadbury), Summer Proben (Hope – Todler), Ronald Fryer (Old Man), Michelle Huiramma (Banshee #1), David MItchell (Tavernkeeper)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

Categories
Night Stalker

Malum

Night StalkerAfter confiscating a knife from a shy, troubled new student, a school principal is threatened by the boy’s father, and later dies under mysterious circumstances, found impaled on the school’s flagpole. The police dismiss it as a freak accident caused by lightning, despite no record of a storm anywhere nearby. Kolchak takes a persistent interest in the case, and his suspicions continue to bring him back to the boy’s father, who is rumored to have a violent history. When more concrete examples of the boy’s abuse surfaces, the school counselor confronts the boy’s father about it – and she dies later that night, decapitated when a ceiling fan falls on her in her home. Kolchak is now convinced that the father is serving as the earthly vessel of a demonic power, and even shares his suspicions with a police detective whose son is the reclusive child’s best friend. But when Kolchak discovers that he was wrong – there is a demon, but it’s not inhabiting the child’s father – he’s too late to stop a chain of events that will leave the true evil free to cause more death and destruction.

Order the DVDswritten by Adam Armus & Kay Foster
directed by Deran Sarafian
music by Michael Wandmacher

Guest Cast: Tony Todd (Detective), Eugene Byrd (Alex Nyby), Zachary Winard (Justin), Cayden Boyd (Ryan), Peter Greene (Ezekiel), Frederic Lane (Mr. Carver), Ted Rooney (Jeffries), Drew Osborne (Jake), Paula Newsome (Dr. Lawrence), Mary-Pat Greene (Mrs. Sampson)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 3

Collaborators

Battlestar GalacticaThree days after the fleet’s escape from New Caprica, repairs are still being carried out on Galactica, but nothing can repair the strained relations between those who collaborated with the Cylons and those who fought against them. A secret council presided over by Tigh, and including Anders and Tyrol, is quietly trying known collaborators in absentia, and once a unanimous guilty verdict is reached, the targets are rounded up, brought to an airlock, and spaced. Viper pilot Jammer, who signed up with the New Caprica Police, is only the latest, though in his defense he reveals to Tyrol that he was responsible for saving Cally – but still, the airlock is opened and the culling continues. Even when he’s back in uniform and back on duty, Tigh can’t let it go, insisting that guards remove Gaeta from CIC, even though Adama specifically asked for his help with communication systems. But when Gaeta’s name comes up in Tigh’s council, Anders and Tyrol can’t bring themselves to vote for his execution.

Baltar finds himself on a Cylon ship, where he learns that his own fate is also in the balance, with most of the Cylon models arguing for his execution – and the clones of Number Six as the only holdouts. But when one Six tells him that her affection for him can’t be allowed to get in the way of her duty, Baltar finds himself pleading for his existence and his continued importance to the Cylons.

When the missing victims of Tigh’s secret jury begin to add up, Adama and Roslin discover that the executions were signed into law by the president – Tom Zarek, serving in the vacuum left by the missing Baltar. Zarek picks Roslin as his vice president, and then steps down just as quickly so she can be sworn back into her old office. But can the roundup and execution of collaborators be brought to an end with nothing more forceful than an executive order?

written by Mark Verheiden
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Lucy Lawless (D’anna Biers), Michael Trucco (Anders), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Dominic Zamprogna (Jammer), Jennifer Halley (Seelix), Ryan Robbins (Connor), Alisen Down (Barclay), Winston Rekert (Priest)

Notes: Apparently the Colonial fleet uses British measurements of weight, since Apollo says he’s dropped “half a stone.”

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 2

Secrets Of The Stars – Part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresMartin Trueman’s takeover of the human race has begun, and Sarah has to find a way to stop Clyde – who is under Trueman’s mind control – from killing her without doing him any harm. No one realizes it in the moment, but Luke seems to provide the solution, perhaps because his lack of a real birthdate under Earth’s star signs renders him immune to Trueman’s power. The alien force that Sarah has suspected all along finally appears, using Trueman as its bridge into our universe. As Trueman extends his mind control to each sign of the Zodiac, Rani and her mother fall under his power. Even shutting down his worldwide broadcast doesn’t seem to be slowing the invasion of Earth by an ancient power. Is Luke the key to saving Earth – and if he is, what will it cost him?

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: Recurring Whoniverse bit player Lachele Carl returns in the role of an American newscaster, but becomes a little more involved in the story than usual…

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 4

The Plan

Battlestar GalacticaAfter placing copies of their human models in strategic positions around the twelve colonies, the Cylons put their plan to overthrow their human creators into action. The colonies are wiped out almost completely, though a few of the human Cylon models who were expected to die and resurrect aboard the Cylons’ ships survive the holocaust. Those Cylons are trapped by humans, but also living as humans, some of them with no awareness of their true nature. Brother Cavil, who has taken control of the Cylon agenda in the absence of the Cylon known to the humans as Ellen Tigh, is furious that any of the colonials escaped and sets out to destroy them any way he can. From all-out frontal attacks, ambushes to guerilla warfare from within the colonial ranks, Cavil will settle for nothing less than the total, permanent extinction of humanity. He’s frustrated when he notices that some of his fellow Cylon operatives are faltering, failing to complete sabotage and assassination assignments that they are given, and failing to show the ferocity of Cavil’s absolute conviction that humanity must be wiped out. He doesn’t realize, until too late, that he has only succeeded in planting the seeds of his own people’s extinction.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Edward James Olmos
music by Bear McCreary
additional music by Aaron Roethe and Brandon Roberts

Cast: Edward James Olmos (Commander Adama), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavil), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Grace Park (Sharon “Boomer” Valerii), Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Rick Worthy (Simon), Lymari Nadal (Giana), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Alisen Down (Jean Barolay), Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (Hybrid), Alonso Oyarzun (Specialist Socinus), Colin Corrigan (Marine Alan Nowart), Diego Diablo Del Mar (Hilard), Bruce Dawson (Coach), Lawrence Hagert (Wheeler), Tommy Europe (Rally), Maya Washington (Sue-Shaun), Luvia Petersen (Kai), Richard Yearwood (Marine), Alex Ferris (Boy), Gina Vultaggio (Jemmy)

Battlestar GalacticaNotes: Many of the scenes which, technically, take place during earlier episodes (and even the pilot miniseries) were reshot at least in part for this movie; a good rule of thumb for spotting clips from earlier episodes is that the reused material features actors not specifically credited above, such as Jamie Bamber and Lucy Lawless. The Plan revisits, and expands upon, events from the miniseries, 33, Water, Litmus, Kobol’s Last Gleaming Part 2, Resistance, The Farm, and Lay Down Your Burdens Parts 1 and 2. The premiere date for this movie indicates the release date of the unrated DVD version; a shortened, edited broadcast edition would air in 2010.

LogBook entry by Earl Green