Day: November 10, 1966

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Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

The Corbomite Maneuver

Star Trek ClassicStardate 1512.2: The Enterprise encounters a glowing cube in space. When Kirk discovers that the cube will follow the ship or block its path, he orders the cube destroyed. At this point, an enormous vessel appears, and alien captain Balok declares that he will destroy the Enterprise in minutes. Kirk bluffs his way out by claiming that all Federation vessels have “corbomite” aboard, which he will detonate if Balok threatens the crew. Balok attempts to escape in an escape craft, but the Enterprise catches up and contacts the real Balok – a representative of an alien race whose members, in adulthood, look like human children. Lt. Bailey, whose emotional outbursts had been disrupting the already fatalistic attitude on the Enterprise, agrees to stay with Balok as an “exchange student” so he may learn more about the diversity of life in the galaxy.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jerry Sohl
directed by Joseph Sargent
music by Fred Steiner

Cast: 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), Anthony Call (Lt. Dave Bailey), Clint Howard (Balok), Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series Season 02 Star Trek

Metamorphosis

Star Trek ClassicStardate 3219.4: Taking Federation Commissioner Hedford back to the Enterprise’s sick bay so McCoy can treat her for a potentially dangerous but curable ailment, the shuttlecraft containing Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Hedford is diverted by a strange energy field to a barren planet, inhabited only by Cochrane, who invented the basis for current warp engine technology decades ago and should be dead by now. Cochrane reveals, however, that an energy creature called the Companion has halted his aging process. The Companion is also concerned about Cochrane’s psychological well-being, and Kirk and the others have been brought to keep Cochrane company – possibly for the rest of their lives.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Gene L. Coon
directed by Ralph Serensky
music by George Duning

Cast: 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), Glenn Corbett (Zefram Cochrane), Elinor Donahue (Nancy Hedford)

Notes: Zefram Cochrane’s origins are explored further in Star Trek: First Contact, where it is discovered that he also encountered the crew of a later starship Enterprise. Somewhat inexplicably, though perhaps it can be attributed to the Companion’s regenerative effects, that version of Cochrane is played by James Cromwell, who reprises the role in the premiere episode of the Star Trek prequel, Enterprise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series (Animated) Season 01 Star Trek

Mudd’s Passion

Star Trek ClassicStardate 4978.5: Upon receiving word that interplanetary con man Harry Mudd is up to his old tricks, swindling settlers in the Arcadian star system, the Enterprise crew tracks down Mudd, and Kirk and Spock beam down to arrest him (exposing Mudd’s deceptions to the easily-angered natives in the process). Once again, Mudd is peddling an illegal drug, this time a substance which can supposedly make one irresistible to the opposite sex. Picking up on Nurse Chapel’s affection for Spock, Mudd gives her a sample of his drug and suggests she use it to analyze its properties. Using this as a distraction, Mudd also manages to escape from the brig. When the drug initially fails to work, Chapel hunts Mudd down, inadvertently becoming his hostage when he grabs her and steals a shuttle to escape from the Enterprise. To ensure his escape, Mudd has also added his drug to the ship’s air circulation system, leaving the crew in far too friendly a mood to worry about one criminal.

Order the DVDswritten by Stephen Kandel
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), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel / Lt. M’ress / Mudd’s decoy), Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Starlost, The

Gallery Of Fear

The StarlostAs they continue to explore the Ark, Devon and his friends are driven to the safety of another biosphere by what appears to be a windstorm in one of the ship’s corridors. Once inside, they find themselves in a gallery of abstract art that reshapes itself depending on their moods. A woman called Daphne appears, telling the travelers that they are guests of Magnus – but evading any kind of question Devon asks about who Magnus is. After Rachel and Garth see illusions of their parents, they’re more than convinced of Magnus’ impressive powers, but Devon isn’t swayed so easily. He demands to meet Magnus personally, and has to fight to regain his friends’ loyalty. But when Daphne finally agrees to escort Devon to his audience with Magnus, it becomes clear that Magnus is a supercomputer, not a living being. Even the Ark’s usually-helpful sphere projectors can’t clear up the mystery of why Magnus is here, warning Devon that whoever built Magnus, they had the highest security clearance on the Ark, since it seems to supercede even the ship’s computer itself. It finally emerges that Magnus was a computer designed to help the bridge crew make life-or-death decisions – and that it was taken offline due to mechanical delusions of granduer even before the accident that left the Ark adrift. But why is it online again now?

Get this season on DVDwritten by Alfred Harris and George Ghent
from a story by Alfred Harris
directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
music by Score Productions Ltd.

Guest Cast: Angel Tompkins (Daphne), Allen Stewart-Coates (Magnus), Jim Barron (Garth’s Father), Aileen Seaton (Rachel’s Mother), William Clune (Admiral Austin), Danny Hodgkins (Monster), William Osler (Computer Voice)

Notes: Series star Keir Dullea is an old hand at dismantling supercomputers that have decided they’re superior to humans, having participated in arguably the best-known version of that basic plotline in 2001: a space odyssey. Aileen Seaton and Jim Barron reprise their roles here from the pilot episode, Voyage Of Discovery.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Star Blazers

Space Destroyer Yukikaze Sleeps In The Ice Field

Star BlazersD minus 360 days: Though the Argo has escaped Jupiter, the wave motion gun’s enormous power has actually damaged its own ship. The Argo’s energy transmission unit has burned out, and repairs will require Titanite, a substance found only on the largest moon of Saturn. But Wildstar’s scouting party finds something else on Titan too – Gamilons. IQ-9 prevents Wildstar and Nova from being captured and killed by the narrowest of margins, and in the moments after the battle, Derek makes another startling discovery…the broken hull of his late brother’s battleship, crashed on Titan after the battle of Pluto.

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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Deep Space Nine Season 06 Star Trek

You Are Cordially Invited…

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 51247.5: The war is still going on, but the celebratory mood on the station following the return of Starfleet has yet to wear off. Worf and Dax decide to get married on DS9 so that Alexander can attend before his transfer. While Worf undergoes a “Klingon bachelor party” (involving fasting and various torments) with his friends and son, Dax is evaluated by Martok’s wife Sirella, who must approve all marriages into the house. But Sirella finds Dax distinctly lacking. Will Dax prove her worthiness? Will Worf get to have his dream wedding? And will Bashir and O’Brien survive the bachelor party?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Marc Worden (Alexander), Shannon Cochran (Sirella), Chase Masterson (Leeta), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Sidney Liufau (Atoa)

Original title: Once Upon A Wedding…

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Earth: Final Conflict Season 1

Float Like A Butterfly

Earth: Final ConflictInvestigating a small Amish village where people have begun to commit suicide after beginning to doubt their religious worldview in the wake of the Companions’ arrival, Boone and Lili discover that the suicides may in fact be homicides – and that the killer may be of alien origin. Da’an denies any secret experiments in the area, a story which checks out until Boone stumbles across an alien probe which has sent out deadly remote probes in the form of butterflies, killing the townsfolk. But Da’an, in stating that no Taelon experiments were being conducted on the people of Paradise, may not have been dishonest.

written by Paul Gertz
directed by Jeff Woolnough
music by Micky Erbe & Maribeth Solomon

Guest Cast: Trevor Blumas (Jedediah), Andrew Dinner (Samuel), Haley Lochner (Rachel Good), Brett Porter (Elijah Good), Richard Denison (Amos), Ed Fielding (Lucas), Brenda Bazinet (Sarah), Steven Bush (Jacob), George Dawson (Abraham)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 3 Xena: Warrior Princess

The Debt – Part 2

Xena: Warrior PrincessHaving captured Xena, Ming Tien has her thrown into a dungeon. The other prisoners had heard that she had tried to kill the Emperor and show their appericiation by clothing her.

Feeling guilty for having betrayed Xena, Gabrielle pleads with Ming Tien to let Xena go if she promises never to return to Chin. But the warrior refuses to comply and the Emperor sets her execution for dawn of the next day.

Order the DVDswritten by R.J. Stewart
directed by Robert Tapert and R.J. Stewart
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Jacqueline Kim (Lao Ma), Marton Csokas (Borias), Grant McFarland (Ming Tzu). Daniel Sing (Ming Tien), Daniel Lim (Ming Tien – 12 years), Tai Hadfield (Chuang), Ric Chan (Hiu), Din Tran (Prison Guard)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Season 06 Star Trek Voyager

Dragon’s Teeth

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 53167.9: Trying to escape from an apparently hostile race guarding a series of time-saving wormholes, Voyager hides on a planet devastated by nuclear war. Seven locates a cryogenically frozen man and revives him. The survivor insists upon the revival of his fellow war victims, offering their help to Janeway as the guardians of the wormhole close in on Voyager. But all is not as it seems. The revived survivors, almost 900 years ago, were bombed into submission after centuries of using wormholes to attack and conquer other worlds. The freshly thawed-out Vodwar, though they try to conceal the fact at every opportunity, are the only surviving oppressors from that war. Their leader wishes to resume their reign of terror, beginning with a takeover of Voyager.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Michael Taylor, Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
story by Michael Taylor
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Jeff Allin (Gedrin), Robert Knepper (Gaul), Scarlett Pomers (Naomi Wildman), Ron Fassler (Morin), Mimi Craven (Jisa), Bob Stillman (Turei), Majel Barrett (Computer voice)

Original title: 5,000 Years

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Clone Wars Star Wars Tartakovsky Series, Vol. 1

Chapter 2

  • By Dave
  • November 10, 2003

Star Wars: Clone WarsThe assault on Muunilinst begins. General Kenobi assigns a group of elite ARC Troopers to infiltrate the separatist lines and cautions Anakin once more about the padawan’s judgement. Battle droids shoot down the ARC Troopers’ gunship, leaving them behind enemy lines and under heavy fire.

Order the DVDsstory by Bryan Andrew, Darrick Bachman, Paul Rudish and Genndy Tartakovsky
directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
original music by John Williams
new music by James L. Venable and Paul Dinletir

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets

Part Two

Space Odyssey: Voyage To The PlanetsThe Jovian system proves to be a nearly insurmountable challenge for the Pegasus crew, as they endure more gravitational pull from Jupiter than anticipated by the engineers who designed the trajectory. Furthermore, a manned landing on Io nearly proves disastrous, and all the surface samples collected must be abandoned to save lives. An unmanned lander is sent to Europa before Pegasus departs for Saturn.

The most eagerly anticipated part of the Saturn flyby is another unmanned probe, this time dispatched to Titan, but its electrical systems fail prior to landing, and no samples are returned. But the worst setback at Saturn is the death of astronaut John Pearson from cancer caused by solar radiation exposure. Despite this tragic loss, the crew opts to extend their tour by three years to become the first humans to walk on Pluto. Their visit to a comet on its way back toward the sun is less successful, nearly destroying both Pegasus and its crew. If the surviving crew can repair the damage to the ship, there’s one last planetary stop on the mission plan: Earth.

written by Joe Ahearne
directed by Joe Ahearne
music by Don Davis

Voyage To The PlanetsCast: Martin McDougall (Tom Kirby), Rad Lazar (Yvan Grigorev), Joanne McQuinn (Zoë Lassard), Mark Dexter (John Pearson), Michelle Joseph (Nina Sulman), Mark Tandy (Alex Lloyd), Helene Mahieu (Claire Grainer), Colin Stinton (Flight Director), John Schwab (CAPCOM), Lourdes Faberes (FIDO), David Suchet (Narrator)

Notes: “Technical sets” were provided by Brick Price’s WonderWorks, a Los Angeles-based model and prop house founded in Voyage To The Planetsthe 1970s, specializing in accurate sets and models of actual spacecraft (though one of Price’s first gigs in the industry was to design props and build the exterior of the Enterprise for the abandoned late ‘70s Star Trek: Phase II television series, which eventually morphed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture). Though they’re used as portions of a newly-built spacecraft, existing sets of the International Space Station “corridor” and the window-filled cupola module were rented to the BBC for this production. The premise of Voyage To The Planets was later optioned for a more fanciful take on the subject matter for American television, eventually emerging as the much more fictional series Defying Gravity.

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Night Stalker

The Source

Night StalkerPerri is mystified when Kolchak’s latest crime beat assignment takes him to the scene of a drug lord’s murder and the disappearance of a DEA agent – with no hints at all of anything unexplained or supernatural. But when Kolchak’s nemesis, FBI Agent Fain, arrives at the Beacon’s offices demanding that Kolchak reveal his sources on the story (and insisting that Vincenzo put pressure on Kolchak to do the same), she tries to find out why Fain is involved. Fain claims that Kolchak had inside information on the crime – and also reveals that the missing DEA man lost his wife in an incident very similar to the death of Kolchak’s wife. Kolchak is indeed receiving inside information, but he can’t reveal his source because he doesn’t know who it is apart from an unidentified voice on a cell phone. Kolchak tracks down a possible lead, but when Fain arrives at the paper’s offices to arrest him, it’s up to McManus to track this story down, and doing so puts him in the path of the same gang of murderous bikers who gunned down the drug lord.

Order the DVDswritten by Frank Spotnitz
directed by Steve Shill
music by Michael Wandmacher

Guest Cast: John Pyper-Ferguson (Agent Fain), Manny Perez (Caleca), Peter Mark Vasquez (Grim-Faced Man), Esther K. Chae (Dae), Charles Chun (Seung), Pat Skipper (Agent Richard Walton), Loreni Delgado (Edhead), Kevin Thomas (Biker #1), Brett Wagner (Biker #2), Tony Swift (Biker #3), Steven Saucedo (Biker #4)

Notes: This was the last episode aired on ABC, which pulled the plug on the show in mid-cliffhanger. The second part, and other unaired episodes, were released on DVD in 2006, and aired later on the Sci-Fi Channel with little fanfare.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 3

A Measure Of Salvation

Battlestar GalacticaAfter Baltar abandons the infected Cylon base ship – and deliberately neglecting to tell the Cylons about the unusual object he found aboard – a Raptor from Galactica finds the infected ship and calls for backup. Apollo leads a larger team into the heart of the ship, infiltrating the command center and finding the ship in shambles, with only a handful of survivors. Under interrogation, one of the Cylons says that they’ve been left to die with no resurrection ship nearby because the moment they die, the virus will download along with their personalities. Apollo suggests using this to wipe out the Cylons entirely – deliberately putting Galactica in the path of the Cylons, and executing the prisoners to force them to download the virus into the nearest resurrection ship. But Helo, who admits to being slightly biased because he’s married to Sharon, says that this would be genocide, making the Colonials no better than the Cylons themselves. Ironically, Sharon is immune to the virus because she had a half-human child, so she isn’t at risk. After much discussion, President Roslin orders Adama to go ahead with the plan, but when the time comes to kill the prisoners, Apollo finds that they’ve already been killed – long before the resurrection ship was in download range.

written by Michael Angeli
directed by Bill Eagles
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Lucy Lawless (D’anna Biers), Rick Worthy (The Doctor), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral), Bodie Olmos (Hotdog), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Eileen Pedde (Mathias), Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (Hybrid)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 2

The Mark Of The Berserker – part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresClyde’s father uses the pendant, and its mind control ability, to get a flashy new car, take his son on a shopping spree, and more – all by using his newfound power of persuasion to convince people to give them away. But Clyde is still troubled by what’s happening, and even when his father repeatedly tries to tell him to forget his mother and his friends, he’s still worried. Unable to reach Sarah, Luke and Rani call on Maria, whose dad is able to find out about the origins of the pendant from UNIT’s database. The pendant is indeed an alien artifact giving its wearer power over the minds of others…but with repeated use, it begins to mutate the wearer into something not unlike the alien race that made it, and eventually the change is irreversible. Can Clyde and his friends keep this from happening – or is he about to lose his father again for good?

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

Guest Cast: Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Yasmin Paige (Maria Jackson), Joseph Millson (Alan Jackson), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Jocelyn Jee Esien (Carla Langer), Gary Beadle (Paul Langer), Prasanna Puwanarajah (Car Salesman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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2000s Series Season 1 V

There Is No Normal Anymore

V (2000s series)Having just escaped the bloodbath of the V raid on the resistance meeting, Erica and Father Landry have a new problem: the Visitors have launched a killer airborne drone which homes in on them. The two barely escape with their lives, and Erica decides it’s best if they’re not in the same place at the same time. She is soon called in to account for her partner’s disappearance, but she doesn’t reveal that her partner turned out to be an alien lizard in a human disguise – or that she killed him. Father Landry goes to the police to report the massacre, but soon find his trust in the authorities flagging. With so many Visitors already living among the human race, who can be trusted?

written by Scott Peters & Sam Egan
directed by Yves Simoneau
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Alan Tudyk (Dale Maddox), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Scott Hylands (Father Travis), Roark Critchlow (Paul Kendrick), Rekha Sharma (Sarita Malik), Britt Irvin (Haley), Ingrid Kavelaars (Jocelyn Maddox)

Notes: Guest star Rekha Sharma brings a healthy SF TV pedigree to her appearance here, having played the major recurring role of Tory Foster on the remake of Battlestar Galactica; she has also guest starred on SyFy Channel’s series Sanctuary. Ingrid Kavelaars was a regular on the J. Michael Straczynski series Jeremiah, on which writer Sam Egan also worked.