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Logan's Run

The Judas Goat

Logan's RunLogan and Jessica are stunned to see a runner from the City of Domes on the road, and after he initially bolts upon seeing Logan’s Sandman uniform, they pick him up and bring him along. The runner insists that a movement is taking hold within the City – a movement that counts Logan and Jessica as its heroes – and they should return to lead the uprising against Carousel. Before there’s much time to think about it, a force field immobilizes Logan’s hovercraft, and armed men swiftly surround it – including a man who insists that the Sandman inside the vehicle should throw out his “weapon that blasts.” Logan, Jessica, Rem and their new runner friend are taken to a modern compound, where a community is presided over by a man named Matthew – the first man to run from the City of Domes. After a while, he recognizes Jessica, but doesn’t trust Logan, again because of his Sandman uniform. But Matthew has apparently changed since he became the first runner to sprint for freedom – he tells Logan and the others that, for the sake of Matthew’s personal Sanctuary, they can never be allowed to leave.

Download this episodewritten by John Meredyth Lucas
directed by Paul Krasny
music from stock music library

Guest Cast: Nicholas Hammond (Hal 14), Lance Le Gault (Matthew), Spencer Milligan (Garth), Wright King (Jonathon), Morgan Woodward (Morgan), Gary Tomlin (Joseph 8 ), Andrew Massett (Carlos), Diane Lander (Elna), Patrick Skelton (Mark), James Poyner (Theo)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 03

The Last Day

Red DwarfA letter arrives from DivaDroid announcing that the latest model of mechanoid will be on its way to replace Kryten, who is expected to shut down and dismantle himself. Lister tries in vain to get Kryten to rebel against this instruction, but Kryten seems perfectly happy and assured of his place in Silicon Heaven. In honor of Kryten’s last day online, Lister and the guys throw him the wildest party they can manage on short notice and all parties get thoroughly pissed. The only problem is that, if Kryten hasn’t been shut down before his replacement arrives, his replacement will shut him down in any manner it chooses. The fact that the new mechanoid has gone completely insane over the millennia doesn’t help out much either.

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Robert Llewellyn (Jim Reaper), Julie Higginson (Girl Android), Gordon Kennedy (Hudzen)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Dark Season

Episode 6

Dark SeasonThe Behemoth battle computer, with Miss Pendragon in its clutches, bursts through the floor of the school and locks the outside doors. Mr. Eldritch arrives to give Behemoth its instructions to destroy the entire world and the human race with it, but Marcie challenges that order, forcing Eldritch into a bizarre debate about the merits and foibles of humanity, leaving Behemoth’s own artificial intelligence to decide the fate of the world.

Dark Seasonwritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Colin Cant
music by David Ferguson

Cast: Martina Berne (Inga), Ben Chandler (Thomas), Marsha Fitzalan (voice of Behemoth), Brigit Forsyth (Miss Maitland), Victoria Lambert (Marcie), Grant Parsons (Mr. Eldritch), Jacqueline Pearce (Miss Pendragon), Kate Winslet (Reet)

Notes: Russell T. Davies would later reuse the exchange “Stay where you are!” “Where am I gonna go, Ipswich?” in the 2005 Doctor Who episode The End Of The World. Jacqueline Pearce is, of course, best known as the recurring arch-nemesis of Blake’s 7, Supreme Commander Servalan. Davies later wrote a novelization of Dark Season which hinted at a third storyline, involving a video arcade, but that story never materialized, either on television or the printed page.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Star Trek Star Trek Fan Films Starship Exeter

The Savage Empire

Starship Exeter

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

Stardate 4943.5: When the starship Lexington’s crew is infected with the Canopus Plague, Starfleet dispatches the U.S.S. Exeter, under the command of Captain John Quincy Garrovick, to join the Lexington in orbit of Andoria and find out why the Andorian government hasn’t allowed her crew to acquire the Andorian-formulated antidote. Garrovick, communications officer B’Fuselek (who is himself an Andorian), and several other crew members beam down, finding that control of the Andorian government has been seized by a renegade faction backed by the Klingons. With the Klingons jamming communications between the surface and the Federation ships, it’s up to Garrovick and his handful of crewmates to restore the rightful government of Andoria – or watch it split from the Federation completely.

Watch Itwritten by Jimm & Josh Johnson
directed by Jimm & Josh Johnson

Cast: James Culhane (Captain Garrovick), Joshua Caleb (Lt. B’Fuselek), Michael Buford (Cutty), Holly Guess (Jo Harris), Patrick Scullin (D’Agosta), Keith St. Louis (Gov. Kinthmus), Nathan Wolf (Chang), Brian Peter (Andorian Spy), Ben Hazen (Ensign Halley), Mark Svara (Junior Communications Officer), Ian McLean (Andorian Senator Therin), Mr. Lamanchikafka (Commodore Jennings), Kegan Bader (Klingon Lieutenant), Jeff Lynk (Klingon Spy), Jesse Johnson (Klingon Guard), Clark Jones (Junior Science Officer), Rolf Anderson (Engineer), Charles Hackett (Crewman), Chris Cahoon (Crewman), Andy Heimstead (Crewman)

Review: This is the first full-length Trek fan film from Austin-based Exeter Studios, and while not without its flaws, it shows a great deal of enthusiasm and inventiveness. Particularly interesting is the producers’ decision to at least attempt to produce the entire show with strictly old-school effects – models instead of CGI being the most striking and visible example. Whether or not this concept works on screen may wind up being the determining factor in the viewer’s ability to really get into the story, especially viewers whose first Trek fan film exposure comes from the relatively luxurious New Voyages.

Categories
Cyberman Doctor Who

Conversion

Cyberman: ConversionSubjected to the first stage of Cyber conversion – a deadening of the human nervous system – Commander Barnaby is on the verge of finding out for himself what the Scorpius plan entails, and what President Brett’s new allies would turn humanity into. Also captured, the android agent Samantha isn’t succumbing to the process, but she realizes she has very little time to act. Needing Barnaby’s knowledge of the Cyberman-commandeered Earth ship they’re on, Samantha has for force the human’s animal instincts to the surface as best she can, enabling him to resist the conversion process. On Earth, President Brett goes public with the latest stage of Scorpius, but sugar-coats the facts, claiming that the Cybermen now patrolling the streets of Earth’s cities are volunteers who underwent rigorous training to serve as a new breed of advanced troops. Barnaby and Samantha manage to change their ship’s course, sending it into android space and then launching themselves to safety in an escape pod. But even after Barnaby helps android troops try to retake the Earth ship (and hopefully capture a Cyberman prisoner), the head of the androids’ war effort comes to a chilling conclusion: to win the war, the androids must deprive the Cybermen of the raw material for their conversion process – and to do that, humanity must be destroyed.

Order this CDwritten by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Nicholas Briggs

Cast: Sarah Mowat (President Karen Brett), Mark McDonnell (Commander Liam Barnaby), Nicholas Briggs (Cyberman / Cyberplanner / Reporter), Hannah Smith (Samantha), Barnaby Edwards (Paul Hunt)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Mars Season 1

Crossroads

Mars2037: Paul Richardson’s suicidal step out onto the Martian surface has resulted in the decompression of other nearby parts of the base, and the instant deaths of six others in the sections adjacent to the greenhouse. His wife is wracked with guilt for not having seen the signs of his mental state earlier, while Hana Seung bears the burden for the entire mission, which is now likely to be cancelled by the IMSF. Hana and Foucalt visit the Daedalus, the vehicle that brought them to Mars, and begin reactiviating it in anticipation of being recalled to Earth. Attempting to salvage usable hardware to continue powering the base, Javier and Marta visit the abandoned workshop module that was their crew’s makeshift first shelter on Mars, where Marta makes an unusual discovery that could forever change science…and change humankind’s destiny on Mars.

Download this episode via Amazontelelplay by Andre Bormanis and Paul Solet
story by Andre Bormanis
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Jake Jackson, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Ben Cotton (Ben Sawyer), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), John Light (Dr. Paul Richardson), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Eva Magyar (IMSF Member Russia), Mirjam Novak (IMSF Member USA), Mate Haumann (IMSF Member USA)

Notes: Early in 2017, it was announced that National Geographic Channel would produce a second season of Mars, but that season would be produced under the auspices of a new showrunner, Dee Johnson (formerly of Nashville, Rizzoli & Isles, Army Wives, Commander In Chief, and ER).

LogBook entry by Earl Green