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Classic Series Prisoner, The

Hammer Into Anvil

The PrisonerUnable to free himself from the Village, Number Six decides to begin tearing his prison apart from the inside out. He plays on Number Two’s paranoia with an elaborate scheme involving rumors that Number Six is actually a spy sent to the Village by Number Two’s superiors. Even Number Two’s most trusted aide is implicated by Number Six’s insinuations. Despite the fact that he is still stranded, Number Six scores a major victory when he brings his jailor to the brink of a total nervous breakdown.

written by Roger Woddis
directed by Pat Jackson
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Patrick Cargill (Number Two), Basil Hoskins (Number 14), Victor Maddern (Bandmaster), Norman Scace (Psychiatrist), Derek Aylward (New supervisor), Hilary Dwyer (Number 73), Arthur Gross (Control room operator), Peter Swanwick (Supervisor), Victor Woolf (Shop assistant), Michael Segal (Technician), Margo Andrew (Girl), Susan Sheers (Code expert), Jackie Cooper (Guardian), Fred Haggerty (Guardian), Eddie Powell (Guardian), George Leach (Guardian)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

Space Hookey

Space AcademyLoki, looking for any way to avoid what he considers to be boring classes, dares Peepo to rebel and play hookey. In response to the dare, Peepo imitates Commander Gampu’s voice and grants launch clearance for the Seeker, with the two truants aboard. They investigate a comet that seems to be following the Seeker, ignoring Gampu’s orders to return to Space Academy, where two non-corporeal entities get into Loki’s body and return with him. Just as Gampu prepares to dress down his youngest cadet, one of the entities occupies Gampu’s body, and the commander begins issuing irrational orders, namely changing Space Academy’s position and putting it in violation of a volatile territorial peace treaty…

Space Academyteleplay by Samuel A. Peeples
story by Howard Rayfiel and Samuel A. Peeples
directed by Jeffrey Hayden
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (Classic Series) Season 1

The Living Legend – Part 2

Battlestar Galactica (original)Commanders Adama and Cain have been butting heads since the moment the Pegasus reemerged. Cain favors a more aggressive stance toward the Cylons, feeling that Adama has become too accustomed to running. Cain leads a mission with both crews, scoring a victory against the Cylons but also accumulating a larger number of casualties than usual. When Adama tries to relieve Cain of his duties, the commander of the Pegasus goes renegade, risking the safety of both ships for one more victory.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodeteleplay by Glen A. Larson
story by Ken Pettus and Glen A. Larson
directed by Vince Edwards
music by Stu Phillips

Guest Cast: Lloyd Bridges (Commander Cain), Jack Stauffer (Lt. Bojay), Rod Haase (Tolan), Junero Jennings (Helmsman), Ted Hamaguchi (Helmsman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space: Above And Beyond

Stay With The Dead

Space: Above And BeyondNathan West is returned to the Saratoga, the rest of his squadron missing and presumed dead. Despite offers of therapy and repeated evidence to the contrary, West insists that the rest of the 58th is alive and well and needs his help. But the ship’s doctors have other ideas – namely, a radical therapy which will return him to duty at the cost of erasing every memory he has of his teammates. And if they are, as he insists, still out there, they certainly won’t be for long if their only hope of rescue has no memory of them.

Order the DVDwritten by Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer
directed by Thomas J. Wright
music by Shirley Walker

Guest Cast: Edmund L. Shaff (Chaplain)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Kir’Shara

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise races to Andorian space. Soval cryptically leads Trip to a location where Vulcan intelligence says Commander Shran’s task group is hiding; Trip hopes that Shran will listen to the warning about the impending Vulcan attack more readily than any other Andorians. Shran is naturally suspicious, and when Soval mentions that the Vulcan High Command is planning the attack based on intelligence that the Andorians are arming their ships with Xindi weapons of mass destruction, Shran denies it. The Andorian returns to his ship and then kidnaps Soval via transporter, torturing him to make sure that the tip about the Vulcan attack is accurate. On Vulcan, V’Las has directed his forces to stop trying to capture the Syrrannites – and to start trying to eradicate them completely. Reassured that Soval is telling the truth – at the cost of much pain to the ambassador – Shran convinces the High Command to head off the Vulcan assault force. Trip puts the Enterprise between the two fleets, trying to stop a war, but it quickly becomes apparent that, despite the fact that no illegal weapons are detected in use by the Andorian fleet, someone is all to ready to take plunge an entire quadrant of the galaxy into war, regardless of the evidence, the consequences, or the truth.

Order DVDswritten by Michael Sussman
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy & Kevin Kiner

Guest Cast: Robert Foxworth (V’Las), Jeffrey Combs (Shran), John Rubinstein (Kuvak), Gary Graham (Soval), Michael Reilly Burke (Koss), Kara Zediker (T’Pau), Todd Stashwick (Talok), Jack Donner (Vulcan Priest), Melodee M. Spevack (Andorian Com Voice)

Notes: T’Pau reveals that the “disease” T’Pol contracted from her mind meld in Fusion is an easily-corrected condition whose supposed “severity” has been exaggerated by the High Command in order to discourage the practice. This would appear to explain why Spock and Tuvok, among others, have never suffered from the same disorder. Soval mentions a chapter of Vulcan history involving the city of Gol; presumably that’s also the origin of the Stone of Gol, a Vulcan artifact of immense power which was the subject of an intense search in the Next Generation episode Gambit. Actor Robert Foxworth previously appeared as Admiral Layton in the Deep Space Nine episodes Homefront and Paradise Lost, a guest appearance which led to the demise of his recurring Babylon 5 character General Hague (he was double-booked by his agent for both SF series at the same time and chose to appear on Star Trek).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Torchwood

They Keep Killing Suzie

TorchwoodA grisly murder in a perfectly ordinary Welsh suburb is bad enough, but to make matters worse, two victims’ throats are slashed and “TORCHWOOD” is written on the wall of their home – in their blood. Police find traces of DNA left behind by the killer, including a compound that’s unknown to their crime lab – but it’s a substance that Owen recognizes immediately – the prime ingredient of Torchwood’s “amnesia pills,” including the one that Jack slipped to Gwen when they first met. But over 2,000 doses have been administered during Torchwood’s tenure in Cardiff, and even attempts to use the resurrection gauntlet – an alien artifact whose use had previously been banned by Jack – aren’t producing any results with the murder victims. Then Jack decides that it should be used on the one member of Torchwood who knew how to use it best – one who’s already dead herself. But once brought back to life, how far will Suzy Costello go to stay that way?

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Paul Tomalin & Daniel McCulloch
directed by James Strong
music by Murray Gold & Ben Foster

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Indira Varma (Suzie), Yasmin Bannerman (Swanson), Daniel Llewellyn-Williams (Alex Arwyn), Gary Pillai (Mark Brisco), Shend (Max), Badi Uzzaman (Suzie’s father)

Still killing SuzieNotes: In pre-broadcast publicity, this episode’s title was listed as They Keep Killing, in order to preserve the surprise elements of the plot (in much the same way as Cyberwoman was referred to by the working title The Trouble With Lisa). The title switcheroo is a bit of a Doctor Who tradition, with Invasion Of The Dinosaurs part 1 having been aired only as Invasion part 1 – which created problems during a 1970s purge of the BBC archives intended to destroy another story with the same name.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Big Finish Spinoffs Doctor Who I, Davros The Audio Dramas

Guilt

I, Davros: GuiltAs always, war rages on, ravaging the surface and the people of Skaro. The emphasis turns to espionage as a technological stalemate takes hold; so long as neither the Kaleds nor the Thals gain a decisive technological advantage, the war remains on a knife’s-edge detente that leaves the combatants with surgical strikes via conventional weapons. Davros is naturally working on new technology, but to the Kaled Supremo’s distaste, Davros is focusing solely on genetic engineering instead of devastating new weapons. Obsessed with the future of the Kaled race in the increasingly toxic and radioactive atmosphere, Davros – despite his debilitating injuries and being restricted to a mobile (but still very limited) life support base – is working toward providing a tank-like travel shell that will protect what he predicts the Kaleds will become, as well as allowing its occupant to defend itself. But the Thals are keenly aware that the best chance the Kaleds have of gaining an advantage in the war is Davros, and a commando unit raids the Kaled science dome to kidnap him. Separated from his life support chair, Davros is dying, but refuses to surrender any information, except the truth that he is not developing new weapons at this time. A Kaled strike team, led by the ambitious young Lt. Nyder, rescues Davros and brings him back to the Kaled capitol. Once recovered from his ordeal, Davros is finally ready to complete his rise to power…and all his people have to do is surrender their future to his great plans.

Order this CDwritten by Lance Parkin
directed by Gary Russell
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Terry Molloy (Davros), Carolyn Jones (Lady Calcula), Lizzie Hopley (Yarvell), John Stahl (The Supremo), Peter Miles (Lt. Nyder), David Bickerstaff (Scientist Ral), Richard Grieve (Major Brogan), Lisa Bowerman (Colonel Murash), Nicholas Briggs (Baran), Lucy Beresford (Renna), Scott Handcock (Saboteur), Andrew Wisher (Tech-Ops Reston), Jennifer Croxton (Tech-Ops Ludella)

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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Star Trek Star Trek Fan Films Starship Farragut

For Want Of A Nail

Starship Farragut

This is an episode of a fan-made series whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Stardate 4847.3: Farragut arrives in the Solon system, home to a society where scholarship and the study of history have attained a level of importance beyond anything in the Federation. The Solonai are now making diplomatic overtures toward the Federation, and Captain Carter and his crew have the honor of making first contact – despite Science Officer Tacket’s misgivings about unusual background radiation near the planet. When they go to beam down, though, Carter and his small landing party find themselves not on an alien world, but on Earth, specifically Pennsylvania, 1776, on the eve of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River. Their attempts to stay out of history’s way are thwarted when a member of the landing party is shot by a revolutionary’s musket; now, contrary to staying out of history’s way, Carter now has an audience with General Washington himself, and worries that anything he says could alter history. In orbit, Tacket and Chief Engineer Smithfield grow increasingly suspicious of the Solonai’s lack of concern about their missing landing party…and their lack of knowledge of how to get them back.

Watch Itstory by John Broughton
screenplay by John Broughton & Mark Hildebrand
directed by Mark Hildebrand
music by Hetoreyn

Cast: John Broughton (Captain John T. Carter), Michael Bednar (Commander Robert Tacket), Holly Bednar (Lt. Commander Michelle Smithfield), Paul R. Sieber (Lt. Prescott), Amy Sepan (Dr. Holley), Mark Hildebrand (General George Washington), Sean Mullin (Washington’s Aide), Jamie Hanna (Caleb), John Kirby (Alondar), Trey Thomas (Batarus), David Sepan (Baker), Bob McDonough (Galway), Jake Azachi (Akiva), Bruce Dennis (Hayes), Eric Lund (Michaels), Case Aiken (Anderson), Ron Gates (Gates), Dean Rogers (Morris), John Lenwell (Adams), Robin Madel (Solonai Tech 1), Richard Sprague (Fowler / Solonai Tech 2), Kevin Barber, Paula Barber, Adam Beal, Sue Gilmour, Christian Huet, Jim Rockwell, Anna Schlueter, Dan Schlueter, Julia Selwyn, Michael Steen, Helen Wheeler, Jeanette Wheeler, Nathan Yessler (Colonial Re-enactors)

Review: Another confident entry from the Starship Farragut team, it’s hard to look at For Want Of A Nail and spot anything major that screams “only the second episode produced”. There are minor issues, sure – it wouldn’t be a fan production without them – but the degree of polish here is impressive. The script demonstrates a sophisticated knowledge of the era of history being recreated, and the production makes a wise move by involving people who recreate that time period on their own time. Even if you’re not crazy about a “historical” adventure, you have to admire the shrewdness of that move – you instantly get performers, period costumes and props, a certain degree of authenticity, and a real feel of local color that you just don’t get in Hollywood.

Categories
4th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Hornets’ Nest Part 4: A Sting In The Tale

Doctor Who: A Sting In The TaleMike Yates listens on as the Doctor tells him about his next encounter with the swarm of alien hornets, at an abbey in the middle ages. The nuns of the abbey tell the Doctor that they welcomed a new Mother Superior only a few months ago, at roughly the same time that wild wolves began to besiege their abbey. Despite the nuns’ protectiveness of their new leader, the Doctor demands an audience with her, confident that she is the current host of the hornets. He’s stunned to find that she’s not even human, but a hornet-infested pig. The hornets leave their host and infest one of the wolves, which then pursues the Doctor and gains entry to the TARDIS. The hornets now have their prize: with the Time Lord under their control, that can set into motion the events that he has been trying to prevent since his first encounter with them. His story told in full, the Doctor prepares to fight the hornets one last time, and Mike Yates wonders if it’s a fight they can both survive.

Order this CDwritten by Paul Magrs
directed by Kate Thomas
music by Simon Power

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Richard Franklin (Mike Yates), Clare Corbett (Nun), Rula Lenska (The Swarm), Susan Jameson (Mrs. Wibbsey)

Notes: The Doctor reminisces about some of the enemies he has defeated in the past, from the Nestenes and Axons of the Jon Pertwee era to the Kraals, the Mandragora Helix and Sutekh from Baker’s era in the role on TV. But a curious addition to that list is Vogons – quite clearly pronounced differently from Revenge Of The Cybermen‘s Vogans. Has the Doctor hitchhiked through the galaxy with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect? The story also includes scenes set in Venice – a venue visited by writer Paul Magrs in a Big Finish Doctor Who adventure starring Paul McGann, The Stones Of Venice.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
4th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Hornets’ Nest Part 5: Hive Of Horror

Doctor Who and the Hive of HorrorWith a war-weary Mike Yates and nervous housemaid Mrs. Wibbsey in tow, the Doctor takes the fight to his nemesis, using the TARDIS’ dimensional stabilizer to reduce himself to the size of the hornets and confront them on their own turf. They quickly win an audience with the Queen of the alien hornets, and the Doctor resists her will, but she finds an more receptive ear in Yates, preying upon the same fears that led him astray at the end of his career with UNIT. The Doctor and Mrs. Wibbsey are locked up while the Queen continues trying to persuade Yates to join her, and the Doctor uses this time to hatch a scheme for thwarting the hornets’ invasion of Earth… assuming that Yates is still on his side.

Order this CDwritten by Paul Magrs
directed by Kate Thomas
music by Simon Power

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Richard Franklin (Mike Yates), Susan Jameson (Mrs. Wibbsey), Rula Lenska (The Queen)

Notes: Hive Of Horror follows up on the events of two Pertwee-era stories, Invasion Of The Dinosaurs (which depicted Yates turning against the Brigadier and UNIT) and Planet Of The Spiders (which showed Yates’ attempts to redeem himself through meditation after being discharged from the military). Again, there is a mention that Yates has met the fourth Doctor before, clearly taking place after Planet Of The Spiders, which concluded with the third Doctor regenerating into the fourth. Like The End Of Time and Death In Blackpool, the two-part TV story and the Big Finish audio, respectively, released at roughly the same time, Hive Of Horror takes place at Christmas. With all of this yuletide drama, one wonders why the Doctor doesn’t just skip straight to the new year…

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 3 Star Wars

An Inside Man

Star Wars: RebelsKanan, Ezra and Chopper return to Lothal after receiving a summons from Ryder Azadi, warning of a new Imperial weapon under development. Ezra’s home planet is now under total Imperial control, but there is a bright side: according to Ryder, the Empire’s best and brightest laborers have been reassigned to the new weapon, leaving the Empire no choice but to draft locals to build speeder bikes…and the people of Lothal have been deliberately turning out fatally flawed vehicles. But this has also drawn the attention of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who arrives to personally crack down on the sabotage. What started as a simple fact-finding mission is now something much more dangerous.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Nicole Dubuc
directed by Steward Lee
music by Kevin Kiner
additional music by David Russell, Sean Kiner, and Dean Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Vanessa Marshall (Hera Syndulla / Female Citizen), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus / Stormtrooper Guard), Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / AT-AT Pilot #2), David Oyelowo (Agent Kallus), Dave Filoni (AT-AT Pilot #1), Clancy Brown (Factory Worker / Ryder Azadi / Stormtrooper Commander), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Governor Pryce), Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn), Liam O’Brien (Lt. Lyste, Morad Sumar), Dee Bradley Baker (Old Jho / Stormtrooper #1 / Stormtrooper #2), Bonnie Wild (Imperial Female PA), David Acord (Imperial Male PA)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 2

Contagion

MarsAugust 2042: Hours after Marta is returned to Olympus Town by a Lukrum crew, workers at the Lukrum mining colony begin falling violently ill, and an emergency call is made to Olympus Town. Javier reports for his routine shift in Olympus’ xenobiology lab, only to find that the lab technician charged with examining Marta’s water samples is deathly ill; Javier is ordered to seal the lab’s airlock from the inside, as he too has now been exposed. At the Lukrum facility, the sickness has spread much more rapidly. Still recovering from frostbite, Marta suits up to go into the xenobiology lab to isolate the biological cause of the mystery illness, discovering that Martian microbes rendered inert by cold have been reactivated by the warm environs of the human habitats at Olympus and Lukrum. Penicillin would eradicate the disease, but having fallen out of use in western medicine, it’s not part of Olympus’ stockpile of medical supplies. Commander Seung could request a supply from the Chinese space station, but since that station broadcasts live to Chinese television 24 hours a day, the whole Earth would know of the epidemic taking shape on Mars in very short order – and that’s something Lukrum CEO Roland St. John does not want. Seung has to weigh the safety of every human being on Mars against the potential political fallout of revealing the outbreak to the public on Earth.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Julie Hebert
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Stephen Cragg
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Esai Morales (Roland St. John), Josh Cowdery (Chris Owens), Nicholas Goh (Gan Chen)

LogBook entry by Earl Green