Day: November 22, 1968

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Original Series Season 03 Star Trek

Plato’s Stepchildren

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5784.0: The Enterprise is summoned urgently to assist the seriously ill Parmen, head of the planet Platonius. After McCoy manages to give Parmen the necessary elixirs, Parmen and his fellow Platonians use immense telekinetic powers to force Kirk, McCoy and Spock to stay on the planet and behave as puppets to Parmen’s whim for their amusement. The only Platonian showing disgust at the others’ abuse of their power is Alexander, but he is also apparently the only Platonian incapable of telekinesis, and he cannot assist the landing party as they try to escape Parmen’s control.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Meyer Dolinsky
directed by David Alexander
music by Alexander Courage

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Michael Dunn (Alexander), Liam Sullivan (Parmen), Barbara Babcock (Philana), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Ted Scott (Eraclitus), Derek Partridge (Dionyo)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Planet Of The Apes Season 1

The Tyrant

Planet Of The ApesBurke, Virdon and Galen are helping out in a human village, but have to take shelter when an ape garrison rolls into town to shake down the residents for a “tax” payment: the village’s entire crop of grains for the year. The three travelers offer their help, but the older humans in the settlement are too accustomed to being beaten down for the frequent payments. Only one villager’s brash young son is willing to help mount a resistance against the apes: in a fierce attack, the grain is hijacked and brought back to the villagers. The retaliation is swift and vicious: the young man who helped Virdon and Burke is gunned down in cold blood, and his father is injured, but left alive. News of the commotion draws Urko’s attention, but the local garrison commander is an old rival of his. That rivalry may be their key to escaping with their skin intact.

Order the DVDswritten by Walter Black
directed by Ralph Senensky
music by Lalo Schifrin

Planet Of The ApesGuest Cast: Percy Rodrigues (Aboro), Michael Conrad (Janor), Joseph Ruskin (Daku), Klair Bybee (Sam), Arlen Stuart (Gola), James Daughton (Mikal)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 13 Doctor Who

The Android Invasion

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Sarah arrive near a village that Sarah recognizes as Devesham,but it’s immediately apparent that something is very wrong. Spacesuited robot guards patrol the countryside, firing guns built into their fingers at any intruders they see (including the time travelers), and they watch helplessly as a UNIT soldier bolts straight toward a cliff, and over the edge to his death. And yet he shows up later at the village pub, alive and well – and zombielike, until the clock strikes a certain hour. The Doctor has theories about the strange behavior, but nothing accounts for all of the variables until he realizes he’s not on Earth. Sarah is captured by androids disguised as UNIT troops, and taken to a ship manned by Kraal invaders, who have copied everyone from the villagers to Harry Sullivan as part of their plan to take over Earth.

Download this episodewritten by Terry Nation
directed by Barry Letts
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan), John Levene (RSM Benton), Martin Friend (Styggron), Roy Skelton (Chedaki), Max Faulkner (Adams), Peter Welch (Morgan), Milton Johns (Guy Crayford), Stuart Fell (Kraal), Patrick Newell (Faraday), Dave Carter (Grierson), Heather Emmanuel (Tessa), Hugh Lund (Matthews)

Broadcast from November 22 through December 13, 1975

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Buck Rogers Season 1

Cosmic Wiz Kid

Buck Rogers In The 25th CenturyOn the peaceful neutral planet of Genesia, a coup quickly removes President Hieronymous Fox from power, and the unscrupulous Roderick Zale assumes control and makes an exorbitant ransom demand. The President’s personal bodyguard, Dia Cyrton, escapes and goes to Earth to plead for the Defense Directorate’s help in rescuing him. Dr. Huer, however, is unwilling to commit any resources to the mission, so Cyrton waits until she can pull off a kidnapping of her own, drugging Buck and dragging him off with her to rescue the President. Her choice isn’t at random, either: what Huer doesn’t know is that Hieronymous Fox is, like Buck, a survivor from Earth’s 20th century – a child genius who survived the nuclear holocaust by testing his cryogenic suspension unit on himself. But in the years before the Earth Defense Directorate was established, Fox’s cryogenic pod was looted by the visiting Genesians, though his brilliant mind made him invaluable enough that he climbed the political ladder. Buck and Cyrton brave the odds, including a face-to-face confrontation with an assassin hired by Zale, to rescue Fox…only to find that the President is perfectly capable of making himself too much of a nuisance to be held prisoner for long.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Alan Brennert
story by Anne Collins
directed by Les Martinson
music by Johnny Harris / “Shambala” by Three Dog Night

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Gary Coleman (Hieronymous Fox), Ray Walston (Roderick Zale), Melody Rogers (Lt. Dia Cyrton), Albert Popwell (Koren), Earl Boen (Selmar), Lester Fletcher (M.D. Toman), Tobar Mayo (Guard), Tony Epper (Drunk)

Notes: Toman’s guards are obviously wearing Battlestar Galactica uniforms.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

State Of Decay

Doctor WhoStill trapped in E-Space, the Doctor, Romana, K-9 and – unbeknownst to them – stowaway Adric arrive on a planet whose nomadic people live in deference to a trio of well-dressed royals – but their rulers are, in fact, vampires who worship an even more powerful vampire known as the Great One. The Doctor knows of the Great One too, recalling passages of ancient Gallifreyan history involving a pitch battle between Rassilon and the vampire race. The Doctor also realizes that the pieces are in place here to defeat the Great One once and for all, but before he can put his desperate plan into action, he may have already lost Adric to the vampires.

Download this episodewritten by Terrance Dicks
directed by Peter Moffatt
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: William Lindsay (Zargo), Rachel Davies (Camilla), Emrys James (Aukon), Iain Rattray (Habris), Thane Bettany (Tarak), Arthur Hewlett (Kalmar), Stacy Davies (Veros), Clinton Greyn (Ivo), Rhoda Lewis (Marta), Dead Allen (Karl), Stuart Blake (Zoldaz), Stuart Fell (Roga), Alan Chuntz (Guard)

Original Title: The Wasting

Broadcast from November 22 through December 13, 1980

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 26 Doctor Who

Survival

Doctor WhoThe Doctor brings Ace to present-day Perivale to visit her friends, but she discovers that most of them have gone missing. Perivale is now a tense place where parents fear for their children’s lives and Sergeant Paterson teaches self-defense classes in hopes that the residents of Perivale can help themselves when the time comes. Unusually vicious black cats stalk the streets, marking their territory in the deadliest ways. When Ace joins the ranks of the other missing teenagers, the Doctor follows her, finding himself on the planet of the feral Cheetah People, a hostile world whose inherent violence infects all who go there. The Master has also somehow become trapped here, enslaved by the Cheetah People’s primitive bloodlust, and hoping to escape by using the new visitors from Perivale. The Doctor is left to face the dilemma: where is the Master more dangerous, on this alien world which will soon destroy itself, or running loose on Earth?

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Rona Munro
directed by Alan Wareing
music by Dominic Glynn

Doctor WhoCast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred, Anthony Ainley (The Master), Julian Holloway (Sergeant Paterson), Lisa Bowerman (Karra), Will Barton (Midge), Sakuntala Ramanee (Shreela), David John (Derek), Sean Oliver (Stuart), Gareth Hale (Harvey), Norman Pace (Len), Kate Eaton (Ange), Adele Silva (Squeak), Michelle Martin (Neighbor), Kathleen Bidmead (Woman)

Broadcast from November 22 through December 6, 1989

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Inheritance

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47410.2: On a mission to salvage an endangered planet, the Enterprise is visited by Dr. Tainer and her husband, two scientists whose plan may save the planet. The first chance she has to speak to Data privately, Tainer reveals herself to be the ex-wife of Dr. Soong and co-designer of Data and Lore. Though he is skeptical at first, Data finds evidence that she may be who she claims to be, and begins to spend time with her in an effort to find out about his creation and development.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Dan Koeppel & Renè Echavarria
story by Dan Koeppel
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Fionnula Flanagan (Juliana Tainer), William Lithgow (Pran)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Sanctuary

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47391.2: A damaged ship emerges from the wormhole carrying four members of an unknown race from the Gamma Quadrant. The station’s universal translator takes a good deal of time to decipher the aliens’ language, but when it does decode their incomprehensible speech, they are able to tell Sisko and Kira that there are three million others on the other side of the wormhole, referrred to in their native Skrreean mythology as the eye of the universe, looking for Kentaana, their destiny according to legend. As it turns out, Kentaana is known in the Alpha Quadrant as Bajor, and the Skrreeans intend to emigrate there.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Frederick Rappaport
story by Gabe Essoe and Kelley Miles
directed by Les Landau
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), William Schallert (Varani), Andrew Koenig (Tumak), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Michael Durrell (General Hazar), Betty McGuire (Vayna), Robert Curtis Brown (Vedek Sorad), Kitty Swink (Rozahn), Deborah May (Haneek), Leland Orser (Gai), Nicholas Shaffer (Cowl)

Notes: William Schallert also guest starred in the classic Trek episode The Trouble With Tribbles, and Andrew Koenig is the son of original series star Walter “Chekov” Koenig. This episode was the second mention of the Dominion in the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Star Trek The Movies The Next Generation

Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 50869.3: The Borg are invading. As Starfleet masses to fight one of the gigantic Borg ships, Captain Picard and the new Enterprise-E are ordered to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone. Picard, who believes this is because of his experience of being assimilated six years ago, disobeys orders and joins the battle. One of the other ships taking part is the Defiant, commanded by Worf, who is beamed off the badly damaged but salvageable ship. The Borg ship is destroyed, but not before launching a smaller spherical vessel which the Enterprise chases into a temporal distortion. A glance at a Borg-assimilated Earth tells the crew what the Borg plan – to sabotage the past. The Enterprise finds itself orbiting Earth in the year 2063, on the day before the flight of the first warp-driven ship, built by Zefram Cochrane. History records that Earth’s first contact with aliens (the Vulcans) occured when the Vulcans noticed the warp signature of Cochrane’s ship. The Enterprise crew must stop the Borg from disrupting history, and at the same time must fight against Borg who have boarded the Enterprise and begun assimilating the crew.

Meanwhile, Data is captured and faces the predatory Borg Queen, and Riker, Geordi and Troi must convince the alcoholic Cochrane to keep his date with history. Another random element is Cochrane’s assistant, Lily, who has been transported to the Enterprise’s sickbay and escaped. Picard finds her and is able to convince her of the situation, as the Borg Queen tempts Data with the promise of giving him flesh, in return for handing over control of the ship. Picard offers himself in exchange for Data, as the equal the Queen seeks. It appears as though Data has agreed to betray his crewmates – at the Queen’s orders, he fires on Cochrane’s ship during its test flight…but the shots miss, and Data floods Engineering with a deadly plasma backwash. Picard climbs free, and the Queen is killed, her cybernetic implants unable to function without an organic component. Earth and the Federation are safe once more.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxscreenplay by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
story by Rick Berman & Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jerry Goldsmith & Joel Goldsmith

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Brent Spiner (Data), LeVar Burton (Geordi), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Alfre Woodard (Lily Sloane), James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane), Alice Krige (Borg Queen), Michael Horton (Security Officer), Neal McDonough (Lt. Hawk), Marnie McPhail (Eiger), Robert Picardo (Holographic Doctor), Dwight Schultz (Lt. Barclay), Adam Scott (Defiant Conn Officer), Jack Shearer (Admiral Hayes), Eric Steinberg (Porter), Scott Strozier (Security Officer), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa), Victor Bevine (Guard), David Cowgill (Guard), Scott Haven (Guard), Annette Helde (Guard), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice), C.J. Bau (Bartender), Hillary Hayes (Ruby), Julie Morgan (Singer in Nightclub), Ronald R. Rondell (Henchman), Don Stark (Nicky the Nose), Ethan Phillips (Holodeck Maitre’D), Cully Frederickson (Vulcan), Tamara Lee Krinsky (Townsperson), Don Fischer (Borg), J.R. Horsting (Borg), Heinrich James (Borg), Andrew Palmer (Borg), Jon David Weigand (Borg), Dan Koren (Borg), Robert L. Zachar (Borg)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Season 5 Xena: Warrior Princess

Little Problems

Xena: Warrior PrincessAfter Xena and Gabrielle stop some theives from robbing her temple, Aphrodite shows them the hospice she has set up in another part of it. One of the patients is a girl named Daphne, who’s been unconcious since she was brought in. Xena says she’d trade places with the girl if that would get her to wake up, and Aphrodite does just that. But when Daphne wakes up, they discover that she was only half successful – now Xena is sharing the girl’s body. Daphne’s father arrives to take her home, and Xena tells Gabrielle to watch over her body and find a way to restore her. But they have restore her before sundown, or Xena will be sharing Daphne’s body forever.

Order the DVDswritten by Gregg Ostrin
directed by Allison Liddi
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Alexandra Tydings (Aphrodite), Rose McIver (Daphne), Colin Moy (Galantis), Peter Feeney (Tharon), Stephen Finch (Sandor), Wade Taylor (Castor), Scott Taylor (Pollux), Justin Curry (Doorman), Allen O’Halloran (Guard), David Telford (Announcer)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Season 07 Star Trek Voyager

Nightingale

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 54274.7: While Voyager undergoes some much-needed repairs planetside, Ensign Kim leads an expedition to find dilithium. But his seemnigly sleepy mission is interrupted by a conflict between two alien vessels. Harry is prepared to leave the area, citing Starfleet protocols about interfering with alien conflicts, when a distress signal from one of the ships forces him to become involved. Harry chases the attacking ships away, and he and Neelix board the remaining ship to aid the survivors, who claim to be on a humanitarian mission. The victims of the attack are in no shape to travel – their ship has been critically damaged, and their captain is dead. Harry takes charge and orders the ship back to Voyager’s position. The ensign enjoys his taste of command, and his new crew seems to be genuinely inspired by his leadership. Even after discovering that Captain Janeway is negotiating for supplies with the race who attack his new friends, Harry insists upon commanding their repaired ship – dubbed the Nightingale – to their next destination. Janeway reluctantly agrees, and “Captain” Harry Kim is about to discover what she already knows…that commanding a starship can be an unforgiving and potentially fatal job, especially if your crew is lying to you.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Andrè Bormanis
story by Robert Lederman & Dave Long
directed by LeVar Burton
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Ron Glass (Loken), Manu Intiraymi (Icheb), Beverly Leech (Dayla), Paul F. O’Brien (Geral), Scott Miles (Terek), Alan Brooks (Annari Commander), Bob Rudd (Brell)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Series Specials Doctor Who New Series Specials

An Adventure In Space And Time

An Adventure In Space And TimeIn 1963, newly arrived BBC Head of Drama Sydney Newman shakes the stolid BBC establishment with his rebellious attitudes and his desire to make the British broadcaster’s output less posh and more popular. With a 25-minute gap in the Saturday evening schedule to fill, Newman assembles a team to begin working on a new television series called Doctor Who, concerning an eccentric time traveler whose incredibly time-space machine, the TARDIS, is disguised as a 1950s police box. Wanting to appoint a producer to run this show, Newman looks for someone with “piss and vinegar” and settles on Verity Lambert, who had previously worked as his production assistant. But in her new position as the first female producer in the BBC, Verity makes waves… and a few enemies. She bucks conventional wisdom in hiring esteemed character actor William Hartnell to play the part of the Doctor, the show’s wizened and yet ageless time traveler. For his own part, Hartnell has been looking for a role to get him out of a rut of being typecast as tough authority figures and military characters. Verity also finds a willing collaborator in rookie director Waris Hussein, and after months of preparation and planning, Doctor Who is finally in a studio (one of the smallest and least sophisticated at the BBC’s disposal, naturally), though the show is fighting for its life up to the moment of broadcast and beyond.

Order this series on DVDwritten by Mark Gatiss
directed by Terry McDonough
music by Edmund Butt

Cast: David Bradley (William Hartnell), Ross Gurney-Randall (Reg), Roger May (Len), Sam Hoare (Douglas Camfield), Doctor WhoCharlie Kemp (Arthur), Brian Cox (Sydney Newman), William Russell (Harry – Security Guard), Jeff Rawle (Mervyn Pinfield), Andrew Woodall (Rex Tucker), Jessica Raine (Verity Lambert), Jemma Powell (Jacqueline Hill), Lesley Manville (Heather Hartnell), Cara Jenkins (Judith Carney), Sacha Dhawan (Waris Hussein), Toby Hadoke (Cyril), Sarah Winter (Delia Derbyshire), Jamie Glover (William Russell), Claudia Grant (Carole Ann Ford), David Annen (Peter Brachacki), Mark Eden (Donald Baverstock), Ian Hallard (Richard Martin), Nicholas Briggs (Peter Hawkins), Carole Ann Ford (Joyce), Reece Pockney (Alan), Reece Shearsmith (Patrick Troughton), Anneke Wills (Farewell party attendee), Jean Marsh (Farewell party attendee), Anna-Lisa Drew (Maureen O’Brien), Sophie Holt (Jackie Lane)

Notes: Numerous actors appear in this movie who have appeared in actual episodes of Doctor Who before, not least of which are surviving members of the original 1963 cast William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, who played Ian and Susan respectively. David Doctor WhoBradley appeared in the 2012 episode Dinosaurs In A Spaceship as the episode’s villain, while Jessica Raine guest starred in 2013’s Hide. Hartnell-era companions Jean Marsh and Anneke Wills – both of whom reprise their 1960s roles for Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas – appear as partygoers at Verity Lambert’s farewell party. Big Finish Doctor Who producer Nicholas Briggs, the voice of the Daleks in modern Doctor Who, appears (in a wig) as 1960s Dalek voice originator Peter Hawkins.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Home Again

For All Mankind1974: As women across America celebrate the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, a launch pad accident results in the explosion of the Saturn V rocket that would have carried the Apollo 23 astronauts to the moon, where they were scheduled to exchange places with the crew of three already occupying the Jamestown lunar habitat at the moon’s south pole. The Apollo 23 crew is lifted to safety by their capsule’s escape tower, but when the capsule comes down hard on land instead of at sea, the crew still suffers major injuries. In the months that follow, NASA launches a technical investigation, while the FBI conducts inquiries into whether Soviet agents might have sabotaged the Saturn rocket, a scenario that NASA’s own investigations have already debunked. An independent technical report is made available to NASA, but only if it is personally handed over to Margo Madison by its author – Wernher Von Braun, whom she has no interest in seeing again, and with whom NASA refuses to publicly associate itself. The gap between flights also gives the Soviets time to establish their own permanently crewed lunar habitat, Zvezda, only eight miles away from Jamestown at Shackleton Crater. It quickly becomes apparent that the FBI, while supposedly looking for treacherous communist sympathizers in NASA’s ranks, is also taking this opportunity to find and expose homosexuals there as well. Margo learns from Von Braun’s report that political trade-offs led to a change of contractors, ultimately leading to the Apollo 23 accident…and then learns that this information is to be classified.

For All Mankindwritten by Stephanie Shannon
directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Colm Feore (Wernher Von Braun), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Ben Begley (Charlie Duke), Leonora Pitts (Irene Hendricks), James Urbaniak (Gavin Donahue), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Ryan Kennedy (Michael Collins), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Megan Dodds (Andrea Walters), Martin Grey (Scott Kraus), Tait Blum (Shane Baldwin), Mason Thames (Daniel Stevens), Michael James Bell (Principal Mike Russell)

LogBook entry by Earl Green