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Short Treks Star Trek

Ask Not

Star Trek: Short TreksStardate not given: Cadet Thira Sidhu is serving at Starbase 28 when it is attacked. Security officers escort a uniformed (but masked) Starfleet officer into the room, hand Sidhu a phaser, and order her to keep the officer prisoner without letting him leave. That officer is Captain Christopher Pike of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and he immediately asks Sidhu to let him contact his ship, to leave and help defend the Starbase – in short, asks her to violate the orders she’s just been given as well as key parts of her oath as a future officer. Whose orders Sidhu decides to follow will be a very real test of her Starfleet loyalty.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonwritten by Kalinda Vasquez
directed by Sanji Senaka
music by Andrea Datzman

Cast: Anson Mount (Captain Pike), Ethan Peck (Spock), Rebecca Romijn (Number One), Amrit Kaur (Cadet Thira Sidhu), Steve Boyle (Security Officer #1), Colette Whitaker (Station 28 Computer)

Short TreksNotes: Reserve activation clauses remain seldom-used in Starfleet, though they seem to be enacted more often upon Enterprise officers who have retired from (or been relieved of) duty (Star Trek: The Motion Picture). The Enterprise may have tangled with the Tholians long before The Tholian Web (1968), though the events recounted by Captain Pike are part of a Starfleet Academy training simulation, very similar to the “psych test” endured by Wesley Crusher in Coming Of Age (1988), and may have no bearing on reality.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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For All Mankind Season 1

Into The Abyss

For All Mankind1971: A flyover of Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole reveals a much higher concentration of water ice than exists at Apollo 15’s planned landing site at Mare Frigoris. With pressure from both mission commander Ed Baldwin and from the White House itself, concerned that finding water ice on the lunar surface could jumpstart plans for a permanently occupied lunar military base ahead of the Soviets, Apollo 15’s flight plan is changed late in the game, but Baldwin and Cobb still manage to bring their lunar module in for a safe landing…but on the rim of the crater, rather than inside it, where so little sunlight hits the crater floor that it’s impossible to see. But the ice isn’t on the rim in the sunlight, and another major change to the mission plan is made: one of the astronauts must rappel into the crater with a makeshift harness made of items that were never intended to serve that purpose. Molly Cobb, pointing out that she’s lighter, is the ideal candidate…but the search for the all-important ice could become a life-or-death mission.

For All Mankindwritten by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
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), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Lenny Jacobson (Wayne Cobb), Edwin Hodge (Clayton Poole), Dave Power (Frank Sedgewick), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Daniel Scott Robbins (Hank Poppen), Nick Wechsler (Fred), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), William Lee Holler (young Jimmy Stevens), Tracy Mulholland (Gloria Sedgewick), For All MankindBenjamin Seay (Ray Schumer), Korey Simeone (Doctor Chase), Nick Heyman (Sentry)

Notes: In the alternate timeline of For All Mankind, the Apollo missions upgrade to something a bit more modern than the DSKY computers that powered the real Apollo missions. In reality, ice wasn’t discovered to be likely in Shackleton Crater until 2012, when NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter detected signs that nearly a quarter of the surface material in the crater was probably water ice.

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

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For All Mankind Season 1

Hi Bob

For All Mankind1974: The weeks have turned into months since the Apollo 23 accident, and the crew of NASA’s Jamestown lunar habitat has yet to be relieved. Continued delays and incidents on the ground have kept the three astronauts on the moon for much of 1974 with no relief in sight, while the Soviets’ Zvezda base, mere miles away, continues to function normally. Ed Baldwin, the mission commander, is growing paranoid about what the Soviet crew might be doing, while Gordo Stevens is gradually becoming more unhinged as his frequent video calls with Tracy on Earth make it seem like a divorce is inevitable, and he begins taking unscheduled, unauthorized walks on the lunar surface. Danielle Poole, the first African-American woman on the moon, is stuck between the two extremes, trying to make sense of both of their behavior. On Earth, the growing FBI scrutiny of everyone at NASA is poised to claim not one victim, but two, unless Larry Wilson and astronaut Ellen Waverly take very public steps to debunk the FBI’s claims about them – though those steps will have an immense personal cost for Ellen. When Baldwin finds evidence that the Zvezda cosmonauts have indeed been “visiting” the vicinity of Jamestown, his paranoia seems justified.

For All Mankindwritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by Meera Menon
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), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Edwin Hodge (Charlie Duke), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), James Urbaniak (Agent Gavin Donahue), Andrea Walters (Megan Dodds), Tait Blum (Shane Baldwin), Michael James Bell (Principal Mike Russell), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Benton Jennings (Judge), Matthew Downs (Police Officer)

For All MankindNotes: Writer and series co-creator Ronald D. Moore, who got his start writing for television after submitting a spec script to Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1989, peppers this episode with 1960s Star Trek references aplenty, including Poole’s TV trivia knowledge that actor John Fiedler had played Mr. Hengist in an episode of Star Trek (1967’s A Wolf In The Fold, to be precise), and Baldwin and Stevens remarking that nearly everywhere they go on the moon is “where no man has gone before”. Baldwin’s delivery of Poole and Stevens to a waiting (unoccupied) service module in lunar orbit via a LEM would imply that, in For All Mankind’s alternate timeline, LEMs are reusable, and the problem of relighting long-dormant, cold rocket engines – a problem that has plagued spacecraft engineers in real life through the present day – has been solved.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
For All Mankind Season 1

Rupture

For All Mankind1974: Ed Baldwin’s son, Shane, has been left brain-dead after being hit by a car while trying to ride his bicycle to a school basketball game. Ed’s wife, Karen, makes the decision to take the burden of decision-making about Shane onto herself and also insists that Ed – now the lone American on the moon – not be told about his son’s condition. Ed does have a full plate on the lunar surface, gathering increasing evidence that the Soviet crew of the Zvezda lunar station is encroaching on the vicinity of the Jamestown station, of which Ed is now the sole occupant. As the preparation for Apollo 24 continues to run into delays, Karen Baldwin must begin facing the possibility that her son will never recover…and that she will have to tell Ed that not only is all not wall at home, but that things are in fact catastrophically bad.

For All Mankindwritten by Nichole Beattie
directed by Meera Menon
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), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Rebecca Wisocky (Marge Slayton), Leonora Pitts (Irene Hendricks), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Stephen Oyoung (Harrison Liu), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), John Rubenstein (Doctor Marsten), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Megan Dodds (Andrea Walters), David Gautreaux (Barry Newsome), Scott Alan Smith (Dr. David Josephson), Tait Blum (Shane Baldwin), Germain Arroyo (Anthony), Tracy Mulholland (Gloria Sedgewick), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Brian D. Johnson (Grush), Jeff Denton (Pendle), Krystal Torres (Cata), Kevin Glikmann (Jerry Biddle), Jan Munroe (Dr. Weddle)

Notes: Deke Slayton requalifying himself for flight status isn’t science fiction; he did, in fact, do this, but in preparation for the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight, a joint rendezvous and docking mission with a Soviet Soyuz vehicle. As is also the case in For All Mankind’s fictional narrative, his requalification came after long-standing concerns about Slayton’s cardiovascular health (which had left him grounded since the Mercury program) were re-evaluated by NASA flight surgeons.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Short Treks Star Trek

The Girl Who Made The Stars

Star Trek: Short TreksYoung Michael Burnham is scared of the dark, but her father reminds her of a time when the first people to walk upright and farm the land on Earth also faced that fear – until a little girl from their tribe worked up the courage to venture forth to satisfy her curiosity, and filled the sky with stars.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonwritten by Brandon Schultz
directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi
music by Kris Bowers

Voice Cast: Kenric Green (Mike Burnham), Kyrie McAlpin (Michael Burnham)

Short TreksNotes: Actor Kenric Green also portrayed Mike Burnham, father of Commander Michael Burnham, in live-action flashbacks in the Star Trek: Discovery episode Perpetual Infinity. (He’s also married to Sonnequa Martin-Green, the actress who plays the grown-up Michael Burnham on Star Trek: Discovery.) This short is the first Star Trek episode of any length, in 53 years, to feature an entirely African-American cast, writer, director, and composer.

Along with another animated Short Trek, Ephraim And DOT, released on the same day, The Girl Who Made The Stars is the first animated Star Trek adventure produced by either CBS or Paramount since the early 1970s animated series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Short Treks Star Trek

Ephraim And DOT

Star Trek: Short TreksA member of the tardigrade species that travels the mycelial network is looking for a place to lay her eggs when a chance collision suddenly turns the starship Enterprise into her next nest. This doesn’t sit well with one of the ship’s DOT7 maintenance robots, more concerned with keeping the ship free of any infestations than with providing a safe nesting ground. After the tardigrade lays her eggs in engineering, she is forced out of the ship by the DOT7, and then uses her own means to try to catch up with the ship at various points in its future. But little does she know that the Enterprise, still carrying her slow-incubating eggs, has a date with destiny at a nameless world in the Mutara Sector…

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonwritten by Chris Silvestri & Anthony Maranville
directed by Michael Giacchino
music by Michael Giacchino

Voice Cast: Kirk Thatcher (Narrator), Jenette Goldstein (Enterprise Computer)

Voice Cast appearing in footage from classic Star Trek episodes: William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Ricardo Montalban (Khan), George Takei (Sulu)

Short TreksNotes: Ephraim spent several years trying to catch up with the Enterprise, ranging from her arrival (apparently during the events of 1967’s Space Seed) through a rapid-fire succession of the original series’ greatest hits, including The Trouble With Tribbles, The Naked Time, Who Mourns For Adonis?, The Doomsday Machine, The Tholian Web, The Savage Curtain, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. These events sometimes appear in a different order from their original broadcast, but as stardates were seldom consecutive (or, indeed, really meaningful) in the original series, there’s some wiggle room for interpretation there. (How Scotty’s engineering crew missed a nest of large tardigrade eggs for years – including throughout the Enterprise‘s refit between the end of the original series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture – is left for the viewer to imagine. There’s also an error in shots of the movie-era Enterprise with the registry Short Treksnumber NCC-1701-A – a ship that didn’t exist until Star Trek IV.) This is the second directorial credit for Michael Giacchino, better known as a composer with dozens of high-profile credits, including Rogue One and the trio of Chris Pine-led Star Trek movies between 2009 and 2016. The DOT7 repair robots were established in the Star Trek: Discovery episode Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2. Kirk Thatcher, one of the producers of Star Trek IV, also appeared in that movie as the boom-box punk on the bus; Jenette Goldstein has also made an on-screen appearance before as a member of the Enterprise-B crew in Star Trek: Generations.

Along with another animated Short Trek, The Girl Who Made The Stars, released on the same day, Ephraim And DOT is the first animated Star Trek adventure produced by either CBS or Paramount since the early 1970s animated series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
For All Mankind Season 1

Bent Bird

For All MankindChristmas 1974: Apollo 24 finally lifts off, but a faulty circuit board in its Saturn V rocket prevents it from executing an engine burn to put it on course for the moon. Apollo 25, whose crew was already preparing for a satellite repair mission in low Earth orbit, is given a new mission: repair Apollo 24’s booster in orbit. While it may sound simple on paper, the repair procedure involves extensive spacewalks and previously untried procedures. Worse yet, the moment that the new component of Apollo 24’s booster is installed, the rocket fires, dragging the Apollo 25 command/service module along with it; Apollo 24 astronaut Harrison Liu is killed. Molly Cobb, still tethered to the Apollo 24 booster, untethers the Apollo 25 command module and then herself, necessitating an unplanned rescue mission with razor-thin fuel margins. Apollo 24 is out of contact with Houston, and according the best estimates of its trajectory, will miss the moon completely, continuing on into deep space and dooming its crew. On the moon, now more than seven months into his stay, Ed Baldwin comes face-to-face with a Soviet cosmonaut who has been making unauthorized use of Jamestown Station’s ice extraction equipment. When that cosmonaut knocks at Jamestown’s base, short on oxygen and in need of refuge, Baldwin could make the obvious choice to help his fellow man…but doesn’t.

For All Mankindwritten by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
directed by John Dahl
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), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Mark Ivanir (Mikhail Mikailovic), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Rebecca Wisocky (Marge Slayton), Lenny Jacobson (Wayne Cobb), Stephen Oyoung (Harrison Liu), Charlie Hofheimer (Dennis Lambert), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), James Urbaniak (Agent Gavin Donahue), Megan Dodds (Andrea Walters), Mason Thames (Daniel Stevens), Tracy Mulholland (Gloria Sedgewick), Aria Song (Cecelia Liu), Carin Chea (Penny Chen), Theo Iyer (Carl Reid), Brian McGrath (Sam), Ben Solenberger (LMSYS)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Sequel Trilogy Star Wars

The Rise Of Skywalker

Star Wars: The Rise Of SkywalkerJust when it seems the Rebellion’s fortunes are at their lowest ebb, things get worse: a message from Emperor Palpatine, threatening the coming of the “Final Order”, is sent across the galaxy, and an incredibly risky intelligence-gathering mission carried out by Poe, Finn, and Chewie reveals that the message is genuine. Somehow, the Emperor is back from the dead, and has the resources to amass a huge fleet. Also looking for the source of the message is Kylo Ren, though he’s significantly closer to tracking down the message’s origins, thanks to the discovery of a Sith wayfinder. The device leads him to the hidden planet Exegol and a face-to-face meeting with the Emperor, being kept alive by technology and an army of adherents and acolytes who worship the last remaining Sith Lord. If Ren can fulfill one mission for Palpatine, the new fleet and the vast army it contains will be his – and the mission is to kill Rey.

Rey also learns of the Sith wayfinders from the ancient Jedi texts she purloined from Luke’s hideout on Ahch-To. With or without Leia’s blessing, Rey is determined to find the way to Exegol. The quest leads her to a desert planet where retired Rebel General Lando Calrissian hides among the locals; years ago, he and Luke came here in search of clues to the whereabouts of Exegol, and the secrets may still lie in an abandoned ship in the desert. Kylo Ren knows that Rey will be looking for a wayfinder and lays a trap, not only capturing Chewie but demonstrating to Rey that dark Force energy comes to her naturally. With hours remaining until the Emperor’s new fleet is deployed, further clues are investigated at great risk. A mission to rescue Chewie leads to Poe and Finn being captured, and Kylo Ren reveals to Rey her true lineage and the reason that Force powers associated with the dark side seem to be at her fingertips. Escaping with Poe, Finn, and Chewie, Rey’s next stop is the third moon of Endor, where wreckage from the second Death Star still fills one of the planet’s oceans. She finds a Sith wayfinder there – which Kylo Ren then arrives to destroy. In a furious lightsaber battle, Rey deals him a mortal blow, but then heals him with the Force before leaving in his own TIE Fighter. She returns to Ahch-To, determined to exile herself as Luke did, before Luke appears – now one with the Force – to remind her that facing Palpatine is her final trial in becoming a Jedi. She discovers the other Sith wayfinder in the wreckage of Kylo Ren’s fighter, and with that – and Luke’s X-Wing, recovered from the seafloor – she is finally on her way to Exegol.

Rey meets the Emperor, only to discover that her arrival has been anticipated, and is a calculated part of a Sith ritual to grant him immortality, whether she gives in to the dark side or not. But what neither Rey nor the Emperor anticipate is that Ben Solo – not Kylo Ren – lives again to throw the Emperor’s master plan into disarray.

Order the DVDsscreenplay by Chris Terrio & J.J. Abrams
story by Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow and J.J. Abrams & Chris Terrio
directed by J.J. Abrams
music by John Williams

The Rise Of SkywalkerCast: Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Naomi Ackie (Jannah), Domnhall Gleeson (General Hux), Richard E. Grant (General Pryde), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Keri Russell (Zorii Bliss), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico), Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Greg Grunberg (Snap Wesley), Shirley Henderson (Babu Frik), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Dominic Monaghan (Beaumont), Hassan Taj (R2-D2), Lee Towersey (R2-D2), Brian Herring (BB-8), Dave Chapman (BB-8), Robin Guiver (D-O), Lynn Robertson Bruce (D-O), J.J. Abrams (voice of D-O), Claire Roi Harvey (Maz Kanata performance artist), Richard Coombs (Maz Kanata performance artist), Matt Denton (Maz Kanata performance artist), Nick Kellington (Klaud), Mandeep Dhillon (Lieutenant Garon), Alison Rose (Lieutenant Draper), Amanda Lawrence (Commander D’Arcy), Tanya Moodie (General Parnadee), Simon Paisley Day (General Quinn), Geff Francis (Admiral Griss), Amanda Hale (Officer Kandia), Amir El-Mary (Commander Trach), Aidan Cook (Boolio), Patrick Williams (voice of Boolio), Martin Wilde (Knight of Ren), Anton Simpson-Tidy (Knight of Ren), Lukaz Leong (Knight of Ren), Tom Rodgers (Knight of Ren), Joe Kennard (Knight of Ren), Ashley Beck (Knight of Ren), Bryony Miller (First Order Officer), Cyril Nri (First Order Officer), Angela Christian (First Order Officer), Indra Ove (First Order Officer), Richard Bremmer (First Order Officer), Mark Richard Durden-Smith (First Order Officer), Andrew Havill (First Order Officer), Nasser Memarzia (First Order Officer), Patrick Kennedy (First Order Officer), Aaron Neil (Resistance Officer), Joe Hewetson (Resistance Officer), Raghad Chaar (Resistance Officer), Mimi Ndiweni (Resistance Officer), Tom Wilton (Colonel Aftab Ackbar), Chris Terrio (voice of Colonel Aftab Ackbar), Kiran Shah (Nambi Ghima), Debra Wilson (voice of Nambi Ghima), Josef Altin (Pilot Vanik), Vinette Robinson (Pilot Tyce), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb), Kipsang Rotich (voice of Nien Nunb), Annie Firbank (Tatooine Elder), Diana Kent General Engell), Warwick Davis (Wicket W. Warrick), Harrison Davis (Pommet Warrick), Elliot Hawkes (Spice Runner), John Williams (Oma Tres), Philicia Saunders (Tabala Zo), Nigel Godrich (FN-2802), Dhani Harrison (FN-0878), J.D. Dillard (FN-1226), Dave Hearn (FN-0606), Rochenda Sandall (Sith Fleet Officer), Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (Sith Fleet Officer), Andreea Diac (Lander Pilot), Liam Cook (Ochi of Bestoon), Denis Lawson (Wedge Antilles), Carolyn Hennesy (Domine Lithe), Lynn Robertson Bruce (Sith Alchemist), Paul Kasey (Cai Threnalli), Matthew Wood (voice of Cai Thernalli), James Earl Jones (voice of Darth Vader), Andy Serkis (voice of Snoke), Josefine Irrera Jackson (young Rey), Cailey Fleming (young Rey), Jodie Comer (Rey’s mother), Billy Howle (Rey’s father), Hayden Christensen (voice of Anakin Skywalker), Olivia D’Abo (voice of Luminara Unduli), Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ahsoka Tano), Jennifer Hale (voice of Aayla Secura), Samuel L. Jackson (voice of Mace Windu), Ewan McGregor (voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi), Alec Guinness (voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi), Frank Oz (voice of Yoda), Angelique Perrin (voice of Adi Gallia), Freddie Prinze Jr. (voice of Kanan Jarrus), Liam Neeson (voice of Qui-Gon Jinn)

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
For All Mankind Season 1

A City Upon A Hill

For All MankindChristmas 1974: Astronaut Ellen Waverly, command module pilot of Apollo 24, regains consciousness. One of her crew members has been lost; the other, Slayton, is injured and has to be hauled back into the command module by his tether. The booster finally runs out of fuel, but Apollo 24 is so far off course that Waverly has to burn every drop of fuel left in the command/service module to bring its speed down enough to capture by the moon’s gravity…and even then, she comes up short. A plan is devised to have Ed Baldwin launch from the moon to rendezvous with – and refuel – Apollo 24, but he has his hands full with a cosmonaut found lurking outside Jamestown Station, and Baldwin has maintained radio silence with Houston since learning of the death of his son. Slayton’s condition continues to worsen, and NASA resorts to desperate means to get Baldwin’s attention. With time running out to save Apollo 24, Baldwin must contemplate the unthinkable – trusting his Soviet counterpart to cooperate with him in the rescue effort.

For All Mankindwritten by Matt Wolpert & Ben Nedivi
directed by John Dahl
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), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Wallace Langham (Harold Weisner), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Mark Ivanir (Mikhail Mikailovic), Pam Horton (Meghan Leathers), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Rebecca Wisocky (Marge Slayton), Lenny Jacobson (Wayne Cobb), Charlie Hofheimer (Dennis Lambert), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Megan Dodds (Andrea Walters), Mason Thames (Daniel Stevens), Zakary Risinger (Jimmy Stevens), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Krystal Torres (Cata), Penny Chen (Carin Chea), Theo Iyer (Carl Reid), Brian McGrath (Sam), Ben Solenberger (LMSYS), Alex Skinner (Telex Guy), Mel Fair (Reporter 1), Stephen Jared (Reporter 2), Chi-Lan Lieu (Reporter 3), James Thomas Gilbert (Protest Man), Clint Culp (Guy at Bar)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 12

Spyfall Part 1

Doctor WhoWhen spies around the world begin disappearing, MI6 begins rounding up the Doctor’s companions on Earth so they can find out what the Doctor is. But as the Doctor and friends are being driven to MI6, the in-dash GPS of the car taking them there suddenly lashes out with lasers – admittedly not a standard feature – and vaporizes the driver before the car itself tries to drive the time travelers to their deaths. The Doctor turns the GPS’ weapon against itself and gains control of the car, driving it to MI6 anyway. The Doctor’s attention is drawn to the missing spies – and the fate of the missing spies who have been found, now no longer fully human, their DNA forcibly rewritten. Another attack, this one within MI6 headquarters itself, reveals the face of the inhuman power that the Doctor is up against: creatures who can appear to be made of light one moment, and can pass through solid matter (with considerable effort) the next. The only MI6 agent who seemed to have any idea about this invasion is sequestered in the Australian outback, and is most enthusiastic to meet the Doctor and to join in the investigation…until he reveals himself as one of the Doctor’s oldest enemies, before delivering the Doctor into the hands of the new enemies with whom he has allied himself.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Magnus Stone
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor Who: SpyfallCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sacha Dhawan (O), Lenny Henry (Daniel Barton), Stephen Fry (C), Shobna Gulati (Najia Khan), Ravin J. Ganatra (Hakim Khan), Bhavnisha Parmar (Sonya Khan), Melissa de Vries (Sniper), Sacharissa Claxton (Passenger), William Ely (Older Passenger), Brian Law (U.S. Operative), Buom Tigngang (Tibo), Asif Khan (Sergeant Ramesh Sunder), Andrew Bone (Mr. Collins), Ronan Summers (Rendition Man), Christopher McArthur (Ethan), Darron Meyer (Seesay), Dominique Maher (Browning), Struan Rodger (voice of Kasaavin)

Doctor Who: SpyfallNotes: Sacha Dhawan has plenty of Doctor Who history, most notably starring as Waris Hussein in the 50th anniveresary docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time (2013); he has also appeared in several Big Finish audio stories (The Reviled, 2014; Fallen Angels, 2016; Ghost Walk, 2018, and the 2017 Torchwood audio story Zero Hour). Here he plays a previously unseen incarnation of the Master. Struan Rodger previously provided the voice of the Face of Boe during the David Tennant era (New Earth, 2006; Gridlock, 2007).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 12

Spyfall Part 2

Doctor WhoJust when Ryan, Graham, and Yaz are in extreme danger, the Doctor is whisked away to the realm of the Kasaavin, the “beings of light” who have been killing human spies (and collaborating with the Master). The Doctor finds a young woman named Ada sharing this strange space, and when a Kasaavin arrives to return Ada to her own time and place, the Doctor tags along, discovering that Ada is future computer pioneer Ada Lovelace. The Master also follows, but just when it seems the Doctor is finally at his mercy, Ada proves to be a formidable ally. Ryan, Graham and Yaz come in for a safe landing, thanks to the Doctor being a step ahead of the Master and the Kasaavin, but are quickly singled out by tech billionaire Daniel Barton, whose part in the Kasaavin’s plan is still a mystery. It turns out that Barton wants to hand humanity over to the Kasaavin for a compulsory upgrade, to be delivered to every human on the planet via Barton’s ubiquitous mobile technology. And the Master lets the Doctor know that Gallifrey lies in ruins as a payback for a lie that has been perpetuated since Rassilon and Omega founded Time Lord society.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Lee Haven Jones
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor Who: SpyfallCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sacha Dhawan (The Master), Lenny Henry (Daniel Barton), Sylvie Briggs (Ada Lovelace), Aurora Marion (Noor Inayat Khan), Mark Dexter (Charles Babbage), Shobna Gulati (Najia Khan), Ravin J. Ganatra (Hakim Khan), Bhavnisha Parmar (Sonya Khan), Andrew Pipe (Inventor), Tom Ashley (Airport Worker), Kenneth Jay (Perkins), Blanche Williams (Barton’s Mother)

Doctor Who: SpyfallNotes: The Master has resumed use of his signature weapon, the Tissue Compression Eliminator, which made its debut alongside the Master himself (Terror Of The Autons, 1971); it was last seen when another incarnation of the Master was trying to “improve” it (Planet Of Fire, 1984). The “knock four times” rhythm that drove a previous incarnation of the Master insane resurfaces here (featured heavily in 2007’s The Sound Of Drums and both parts of 2009’s The End Of Time). Gallifrey was forced into a pocket universe in 2013’s Day Of The Doctor for its own protection at the end of the last great Time War, though a later incarnation of the Doctor visited it in Hell Bent (2015); as it turns out, Gallifrey didn’t stand very long. The real Ada Lovelace went on to develop a correspondence with the real Charles Dickens (a fictionalized version of Dickens met the ninth Doctor in 2005’s The Unquiet Dead; it’s probably safe to assume that they never compared notes about their strange friend with the time-traveling blue box, since the Doctor wipes Ada’s memory of their shared adventure here).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Short Treks Star Trek

Children Of Mars

Star Trek: Short TreksKima and Lil have little in common; they’re schoolgirls on Earth, one human, one alien, who both have parents working on or near Mars. A series of chance encounters become accidental collisions and, with a little bit of time and resentment, leads to a real rivalry between the two. Before their school’s Vulcan headmaster can take action, however, word reaches Earth of a surprise attack on Federation civilians and Starfleet facilities on and near the planet Mars.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonwritten by Kirsten Beyer and Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman
directed by Mark Pellington
music by Jeff Russo

Voice Cast: Joy Castro (Mom), Andrea Davis (Teacher), Jason Deline (Dad), Ilamaria Ebrahim (Kima), Alix Kell (Secretary), Sadie Munroe (Lil), Robert Verlaque (Principal)

Short TreksNotes: Intended to be a prologue to set the stage for the series Star Trek: Picard, this Short Trek has an unusually large number of writers for an eight-minute story (of which only six and a half minutes is story as opposed to credits). The music for much of that running time, while credited to Jeff Russo, is actually a Peter Gabriel cover of David Bowie’s Heroes (from Gabriel’s 2010 album of covers accompanied by orchestra, Scratch My Back); the end credits, however, are the first appearance of Russo’s theme music for the Picard series, here played on solo piano as opposed to the orchestral version seen in that series’ opening credits.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Avenue 5 Season 1

I Was Flying

Star Trek: The Next GenerationIn the late 21st century, high-end passenger travel has extended into the stars, thanks to Judd Galaxy’s space luxury liners. The newest member of that fleet, the Avenue 5, has embarked on its maiden voyage, which will loop out toward Saturn, grab a gravitational assist from its large moon Titan, and return to Earth in the space of eight weeks. The eccentric (and very rich) founder of Judd Galaxy, Herman Judd himself, is aboard for this first voyage, though he leaves the running of the ship to Captain Ryan Clark, and the running of his business to his right-hand woman, Iris Kamura. When a gravity glitch throws everyone in the ship up against one of the walls, Avenue 5‘s course shifts unexpectedly, turning its eight-week cruise into a loping three-year tour of the solar system – a longer journey for which there aren’t enough consumables aboard. The passengers learn of this development and begin to protest, and Captain Ryan Clark has to privately admit to Judd that he’s not actually a captain – he was hired by the ship’s actual, socially-deficient captain to present an acceptable point of contact for the passengers, but has no knowledge of how to run the ship…and the actual captain who hired him was one of the handful of fatalities of the gravity incident.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Armando Iannucci & Simon Blackwell & Tony Roche
story by Armando Iannucci
directed by Armando Iannucci
music by Adem Ilhan

Avenue 5Cast: Hugh Laurie (Captain Ryan Clark), Josh Gad (Herman Judd), Zach Woods (Matt Spencer), Rebecca Front (Karen Kelly), Suzy Nakamura (Iris Kimura), Lenora Crichlow (Billie McEvoy), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Rav Mulcair), Ethan Phillips (Spike Martin), Andy Buckley (Frank Kelly), Matthew Beard (Alan), Jessica St. Clair (Mia), Kyle Bornheimer (Doug), Joplin Sibtain (Joe), Julie Dray (Nadia), Adam Pålsson (Bridge Crew), Andrea Pizza (Anthea), Ankur Bahl (Passenger), Vaughn Joseph (John), Simon Connolly (Max), Anne Witman (Lauren), Andrew Boyer (Passenger), Wanda Opalinska (Baily), Eugenia Caruso (Verity), Ako Mitchell (Passenger), Yasmine Akram (Passenger), Sonia Dorado (Yoga Teacher), Oseloka Obi (Dan), Priyanga Burford (Lori Hernandez), Sandra Gayer (Passenger), Daisy May Cooper (Sarah – bridge crew), Sophie Salako (Passenger)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Picard Season 1 Star Trek

Remembrance

Star Trek: PicardStardate not given: A rising AI specialist, Dahj, is celebrating her acceptance as a research fellow at the Daystrom Institute on Earth, when a group of armed and armored men beam into her apartment. Her boyfriend is murdered, and somehow she survives the encounter, calling on self-defense skills in which she has never trained, overcoming all of her opponents. She has a momentary vision of a man’s face before she flees, and sets out to find him.

The man whose face she sees is hardly an unknown: retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard is being interviewed on the anniversary of his attempt to evacuate the population of Romulus before its sun went supernova. When a surprise attack on Mars by rogue synthetic life forms caused Starfleet to abandon the massive rescue attempt, Picard felt that the Federation was no longer living up to its ideals and resigned his Starfleet commission in protest. In the years since, he has retreated to his family’s vineyards in France, a quiet existence that is disturbed a little by an intrusive interviewer, and disturbed more when Dahj shows up unannounced. She has never met Picard, but somehow knows he will be able to help her. When hints begin to point toward Dahj being a sentient synthetic life form, and possibly even a true descendant of Data, Picard grows more protective of her. But a second attempt on Dahj’s life proves to be deadlier than the first – she is destroyed before Picard’s eyes, but not before her assassins are unmasked as Romulans.

Picard goes to visit Dr. Agnes Jurati, one of the Federation’s foremost experts on synthetic life forms and a protege of cyberneticist Bruce Maddox, even though her research is now entirely theoretical since actual development of synthetics has been banned in the wake of the Mars attack. Jurati has B4 – the last known Soong-type android – in storage, disassembled – and theorizes that someone like Dahj would have to have been created by, or from, Data…and she also reveals that synthetics were previously produced in twinned pairs. Picard decides he must find Dajh’s twin before she suffers the same fate.

Order DVDsteleplay by Akiva Goldsman and James Duff
story by Akiva Goldsman & Michael Chabon
and Kirsten Beyer & Alex Kurtzman and James Duff
directed by Hanelle L. Culpepper
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Isa Briones (Dahj / Dr. Soji Asha), Harry Treadaway (Narek), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Orla Brady (Laris), David Carzell (Dahj’s Boyfriend), Merrin Dungey (Interviewer), Jamie McShane (Zhaban), Sumalee Montano (Dahj’s Mother), Maya Eshet (Index), Douglas Tait (Tellarite)

Star Trek: PicardNotes: Picking up plot threads from both Star Trek: Nemesis (the death of Data) and the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie (the supernova destruction of Romulus, which drove Nero to go back in time to change events), the first episode of Star Trek: Picard also references episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including The Measure Of A Man (the only prior appearance of Bruce Maddox) and The Offspring (Data’s first attempt to create a daughter). In Picard’s imagined encounters with Data, the android wears both an original Next Generation uniform and the somewhat less colorful uniforms worn in Nemesis. The synthetics’ attack on Mars was shown in the Short Treks episode Children Of Mars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green