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Lost Season 3

Catch-22

  • By Dave
  • April 18, 2007

LostFlashback: Desmond joins the novitiate of a monastery – a mere week before his wedding date with a girl named Ruth. Her brother tracks him down to the monastery and makes his point directly to Desmond’s nose. When he tries to explain himself to Ruth, she calls him a coward. That night, he drowns his sorrows in the monastery’s wine, and the monks decide that Desmond’s path leads elsewhere. As he’s leaving the monastery, he meets a young woman who has come to purchase several cases of wine . . . Penelope Widmore.

The Island: Jack spends time with Juliet as he adjusts to being back at the camp. Seeing this drives Kate back into Sawyer’s bed (metaphorically speaking, anyway). A conversation with Jack over a ping-pong match the next day leads Sawyer to understand the cause and effect relationship of those events, but he seems relatively untroubled by it.

Desmond has a series of precognitive flashes that end in Charlie’s death from one of Rousseau’s booby traps. But those flashes also hint that Penny is coming to the island in search of Desmond. Determined to ensure that the flashes hold true, Desmond convinces Hurley to help him find the cable into the jungle. He asks Jin and Charlie to accompany them as well, but offers as little information as possible. Desmond tries to tell himself that Charlie is destined to die anyway. But as the moment of truth nears, will he really be able to make that sacrifice?

Order the DVDswritten by Jeff Pinkner & Brian K. Vaughan
directed by Stephen Williams
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: Sonia Walger (Penny Widmore), Jack Maxwell (Derek), Joanna Bool (Ruth), Andrew Connolly (Brother Campbell), Andrew Trask (Older Monk), Marsha Thomason (Parachutist)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 3

D.O.C.

  • By Dave
  • April 25, 2007

LostFlashback: Shortly after her wedding to Jin, a woman approaches Sun and blackmails her: if Sun does not give her one hundred thousand dollars, she will reveal that Jin’s father is a fisherman, and her mother a prostitute. When Sun asks Jin about hi father, she spots discrepancies in his story, and ultimately she tracks down Jin’s father. Mr. Kwon is very happy to meet her and talk about the wedding, but he understands why Jin pretends that he is dead. Mr. Kwon wants to share his son any shame. This is why he told Jin that his mother died soon after he was born. Sun decides to ask her father for the money. He gives it to her, but when he realizes that Sun wants it to prevent Jin from being shamed, he declares that Jin will have to work off the debt by working more directly for him.

The Island: As Desmond, Charlie, Jin and Hurley attempt to help the parachutist, they discover that she was impaled on a tree branch. They argue about how to get her medical assistance, and Hurley accidentally fires a flare gun. A decidedly not-dead Mikhail soon bounds into the clearing. Jin tackles him and manages to take him down, at which point he offers Desmond a bargain: he will use his medical skills to save the parachutist’s life if Desmond agrees to let Mikhail walk away afterward, no questions asked.

Jack’s inquiries about Sun’s baby cause her concern; when she confides in Kate, she discovers what Juliet said about women who conceive on the island. Sun confronts Juliet, and that night Juliet offers to take Sun to the abandoned medical station. There is still equipment hidden there, and Juliet wants to find out when Sun conceived. If it was before she crashed, there is still hope. If not, the prognosis is grim. For Sun, however, there is much to fear from either result. If the date of conception is before the crash, then there is no way that Jin is the father.

Order the DVDswritten by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
directed by Fred Toye
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: Byron Chung (Mr. Paik), Andrew Divoff (Mikhail), Marsha Thomason (Naomi), John Shin (Mr. Kwon), Alexis Rhee (Older Woman), Esmond Chung (Paik’s Associate), Jean Chung (Paik’s Secretary)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 3

The Brig

  • By Dave
  • May 2, 2007

LostFlashback: After seeing his father inside the Others’ compound, Locke relocates with the rest of them. Ben tells Locke of Juliet’s undercover work on the beach camp, and then demands that Locke kill his father in order to finally put his old life behind him. Ben calls it an act of free will and a sign of commitment – but it’s an act that Locke can not bring himself to perform. Ben claims that this means that Locke is not the person the group thought he was. The next day, Richard Alpert confides in Locke that Ben wanted to humiliate Locke, to reduce the threat to his authority. Alpert knows that the only way Locke will be able to do what he is meant to do is for his father to die. So he gives Locke a file that indicates that one of his fellow survivors might be the man for the job. The next day, Ben and the Others break camp, and tell Locke not to bother following them unless he has his father’s body in tow.

The Island: Naomi, the parachutist, tells her rescuers that Penn Widmore hired her company to do a detailed search around specific coordinates. Until Naomi happened to see the island, just before her copter failed, she thought it was a wild goose chase. She also tells them that Oceanic Flight 815 was found in a trench off the Pacific coast, and that robot surveyors found the bodies of all the passengers. Desmond, Charlie and Hurley do not trust Jack, so they confide in Sayid. Sayid gets Naomi’s satellite phone working, but can not find a clear channel. When Kate comes across him working, Sayid demands that she not tell Jack. Instead, she immediately confronts Jack and tells him about Naomi – and that no one trusts him because of Juliet’s presence. Juliet seems to think that this is a good time to tell Kate something, but Jack disagrees as he goes off to investigate Naomi’s condition further.

Locke approaches Sawyer overnight and tells him that he has infiltrated the Others and kidnapped Ben. He asks Sawyer to come with him in order to kill Ben. Sawyer agrees to follow him but has no intention of killing anyone – although Locke reminds him that he’s killed a man before. When they reach the Black Rock, Locke barricades Sawyer in the brig with his prisoner – who isn’t Ben, but rather the con man Locke knew as Anthony Cooper. Cooper believes himself to be dead, killed in a traffic accident, and now reunited with his dead son. As he talks to Sawyer about his exploits, Sawyer begins to suspect why Locke brought him here, and asks Cooper what names he’s used in the past. When the con man mentions Tom Sawyer, James Ford knows the moment he’s been waiting for has arrived – he’s face to face with the man he holds responsible for his parents’ death.

Order the DVDswritten by Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
directed by Eric Laneuville
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: M.C. Gainey (Mr. Friendly/Tom), Kevin Tighe (Anthony Cooper), Mira Furlan (Danielle Rousseau), Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Kimberly Joseph (Cindy), Marsha Thomason (Naomi)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 3

The Man Behind the Curtain

  • By Dave
  • May 9, 2007

LostFlashback: A woman gives birth in the woods as her partner looks on. When the baby is finally born, the mother continues to bleed. Her partner, Roger, carries her and the baby to the highway and flags down a car for help, but before they can do anything she dies. Her last request is that Roger name the boy Benjamin.

Years later, Roger and Benjamin travel to the island to join the Dharma Initiative. Roger gets a job as a work man, but he is not happy about his work or the hazardous conditions that accompany Dharma’s conflict with the Hostiles. At some level, he also blames Ben for his partner’s death. Ben, meanwhile, has befriended a girl his own age named Annie – and he sees visions of his mother, telling him the time is not right for him to leave yet. When he can take it no longer, he sneaks out of his camp and beyond the sonic security fence – where he meets Richard Alpert, one of the Hostiles. Ben tells Richard his story, and Richard seems to believe it. So Ben says he wants to join Richard’s group – and Richard says that one day, he will have the opportunity. And when that day comes, Ben settles the conflict between Dharma and the Hostiles once and for all.

The Island: Sawyer brings the tape that Locke gave him back to Sayid, who quickly organizes the rest of the camp – except for Jack and Juliet – into a council. They are stunned to learn about Naomi and the news about Flight 815, and concerned about Juliet’s intentions. When Jack and Juliet return, Juliet tells Sawyer to play the other side of the tape – the ones with Ben’s instructions to wait for a raid on the camp. She has already told Jack about it, and Jack has a plan.

Locke arrives at the Others’ camp and demands answers. When Ben tells him about Jacob, Locke thinks he’s lying. He demands that Ben take him to Jacob, a demand he backs up by beating a returning Mikhail unconscious. Ben agrees; before they leave, Alex gives Locke a gun. They ultimately arrive at an old cottage, but when Ben brings Locke inside, all Locke sees is Ben talking to an empty chair. Locke considers this a sign of Ben’s insanity or dishonesty, but as he turns to go he hears a voice saying “Help me.” When Locke shines a flashlight in response, things start to fly across the room, but Locke still thinks it’s one of Ben’s tricks. On the way back to camp, Ben shows Locke the ditch where the members of the Dharma Initiative are laid to rest – and then shows Locke how seriously he takes both Jacob’s existence and Ben’s special relationship with him.

Order the DVDswritten by Elizabeth Sarnoff & Drew Goddard
directed by Bobby Roth
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: M.C. Gainey (Mr. Friendly/Tom), Tania Raymonde (Alex), Andrew Divoff (Mikhail), Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Marsha Thomason (Naomi), Sterling Beaumon (young Ben), Jon Gries (Roger Linus), Carrie Preston (Emily), Doug Hutchison (Horace), Samantha Mathis (Olivia), Madeline Carroll (Annie)

Note: Hurley discovered Roger Linus’s van and body in this season’s Tricia Tanaka Is Dead.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 3

Greatest Hits

  • By Dave
  • May 16, 2007

LostFlashback: Charlie reflects on his favorite memories: the first time he heard Driveshaft’s song on the radio; his father teaching him to swim; his brother giving him a family heirloom ring; saving a woman from a mugger; and meeting Claire.

The Island: Jack reveals his plan to the rest of the castaways – with Rousseau’s help, he has been gathering dynamite from the Black Rock. When the Others come to take the pregnant women, Jack intends to blow them up. Juliet tells Sayid that another Dharma station, the Looking Glass, is blocking the signal of Naomi’s satellite phone – but the station is supposedly flooded. Sayid figures that the Looking Glass is connected to the island via the cable on the beach and wants to swim down to shut off the signal, but Jack overrules him in order to focus on the dynamite plan. But when Karl arrives on the beach and tells them that an agitated Ben has moved up the timetable, plans change. Sayid and Bernard will stay behind and shoot at the dynamite to detonate it when the time comes, while Jack leads everyone else to the radio tower. Charlie volunteers to go swim to the Looking Glass, because Desmond has had a flash that Claire and Aaron get rescued after he does so – and after Charlie drowns.

Order the DVDswritten by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
directed by Stephen Williams
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: Tania Raymonde (Alex), Blake Bashoff (Karl), Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Mira Furlan (Rousseau), Brian Goodman (Pryce), Marsha Thomason (Naomi), Neil Hopkins (Liam), Joshua Hancock (Roderick), John Henry Canavan (Simon Pace), Jeremy Shada (Young Charlie), Zack Shada (Young Liam), L. Scott Caldwell (Rose), Sam Anderson (Bernard), Andrea Gabriel (Nadia), Lana Parrilla (Greta), Tracy Middendorf (Bonnie)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 3

Through the Looking Glass

  • By Dave
  • May 23, 2007

LostThe Island: Jack and the rest of the castaways begin their trek to the radio tower. On the Looking Glass station, two Others capture Charlie and radio Ben for instructions; Ben sends Mikhail to the station to evaluate the situation. When the raiding party arrives at the beach, Sayid and Bernard hit their targets and kill seven of the Others, but Jin misses with his handgun and the surviving three capture them. Bernard explains the plan in order to save Jin’s life, and Ben sets out to intercept Jack before he reaches the tower. He brings Alex with him after he learns of Karl’s involvement in the castaways’ escape.

At the beach, Desmond wakes up just as Mikhail starts shooting at him. Desmond dives into the ocean and finds himself in the Looking Glass, where Charlie is able to signal him to hide. When Mikhail reaches the station, he contacts Ben. Ben tells him to kill Charlie and the two women at the station. Mikhail agrees, despite his irritation at having been lied to by Ben. After he shoots the women, Desmond shoots him with a harpoon, and one of the women gives Charlie the code to shut off the jammer.

When the castaways see only two explosions, they surmise something has gone wrong. Jack pushes on, as Sayid requested. But after Kate says she wants to go back, Sawyer says he will go alone. Juliet claims that she can take Sawyer to a hidden gun cache, but that’s only a lie to get Jack to let them go. Hurley wants to come along, but Sawyer won’t allow it. When the rest of the group meets Ben, he takes Jack aside for a private conversation, and tells him that if he does not bring back Naomi’s phone, Ben will have Sayid, Bernard, and Jin killed. Jack refuses, and when he hears three gunshots over the walkie talkie he beats Ben savagely. When Jack drags him back to the group, Ben introduces Alex to her mother, Rousseau.

On the beach, Sawyer and Juliet observe the situation. Their planning is interrupted by Hurley crashing onto the beach in the Dharma bus. The surprise enables Sayid and the rest to turn the tables, kill two of their captors and capture Tom – at which point Sawyer shoots him. On the Looking Glass, Charlie turns off the jamming and gets a signal – there’s an incoming transmission from Penny. She tells Charlie that she does not have a boat near the island, but before Charlie can get Desmond, Mikhail knocks at the window. He’s outside the station, holding a grenade. Destiny is coming due.

At the radio tower, Jack gets word from Hurley that everyone is OK. Rousseau turns off her distress signal, and Naomi finds a channel. Before she can complete the call, she gets a knife in the back – from Locke. A vision of Walt told him that he has work to do, and he begs Jack not to call for help. But Jack is through with Locke, through with Ben . . . and after a moment, he’s in touch with the outside world.

Flash-forward: Nearing the end of a flight to Los Angeles, Jack sees a newspaper item that shakes him up considerably. He drives to a bridge, calls someone to leave a stumbling message, and then steps out onto the bridge, ready to kill himself. Before he can, he hears the sound of a car crash and turns around to rescue the occupants. But even though he’s being hailed as a hero, Jack can’t pull himself together. He’s drinking heavily and taking oxycodone, stumbling through his days. He goes to a funeral home – the newspaper item was a death notice, but no one has attended the service for whomever has passed away. As he sits drinking in a room with books and maps strewn across the floor, he makes another phone call and asks someone to meet him near the airport. It’s Kate. They’re home. But Jack is convinced that this is a mistake – he wants to go back to the island. As Kate drives away, saying that someone is expecting her, Jack screams after her that they need to go back.

Order the DVDswritten by Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof
directed by Jack Bender
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: M.C. Gainey (Mr. Friendly/Tom), Tania Raymonde (Alex), Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Blake Bashoff (Karl), Andrew Divoff (Mikhail), Ariston Greene (Jason), Sonya Walger (Penny), Mira Furlan (Rousseau), Brian Goodman (Pryce), Marsha Thomason (Naomi), L. Scott Caldwell (Rose), Sam Anderson (Bernard), Lana Parilla (Greta), Tracy Middendorf (Bonnie), James Lesure (Dr. Hamill), Nigel Gibbs (Funeral Director), Loreni Delgado (Pharmacist), Larry Clarke (Customer), Kate Connor (Doctor)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

Pilot

V (2000s series)Life on Earth is brought to a standstill as enormous alien ships appear over most of the world’s major cities. Each ship reconfigures itself into a gigantic screen projecting an image of a seemingly human woman who introduces herself as Anna, the leader of these alien visitors. She promises peace and an exchange of technology with humanity – and all the visitors ask is access to Earth’s abundant water and a commonly occurring mineral. The visitors are welcomed with open arms, and they begin bringing the benefits of their advanced technology to Earth almost immediately, opening “healing centers” capable of repairing almost any damage or disease.

And yet there is suspicion about the motives of Anna’s people. A priest named Father Landry shocks his congregation by suggesting that the visitors need to earn humanity’s trust. Erica Evans, a counter-terrorism expert, is suspicious when the visitors take to the internet immediately with their own propaganda effort, though her son is less suspicious, finding the visitors’ women very attractive. Reporter Chad Peters earns Anna’s trust by asking the press corps to show her respect at a peace conference – enough trust that Anna personally selects him to conduct her first major prime time interview, though she makes it clear before the cameras roll that the interview will be conducted on her terms, with no questions permitted that would paint the visitors in a negative light.

A member of Father Landry’s congregation appears in the church, bleeding to death, and he hands Landry a package of photos and instructions to take them to a specific address at a specific time. Erica also winds up at that address, following a lead on an open terrorist investigation. Where they find themselves is at a meeting of an underground resistance, taking up arms to fight the visitors…and before Erica or Father Landry can ask why the visitors need to be fought, the visitors themselves appear and, to the few survivors of the resulting massacre, all becomes clear: the visitors have been among humanity for years already, and they do not come in peace.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Elizabeth Mitchell (Erica Evans), Morris Chestnut (Ryan Nichols), Joel Gretsch (Father Jack Landry), Logan Huffman (Tyler Evans), Lourdes Benedicto (Valerie Stevens), Laura Vandervoort (Lisa), Morena Baccarin (Anna), Scott Wolf (Chad Decker)

written by Scott Peters
story by Kenneth Johnson and Scott Peters, based on the miniseries by Kenneth Johnson
directed by Yves Simoneau
music by Normand Corbeil

Guest Cast: Christopher Shyer (Marcus), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), Britt Irvin (Haley Stark), Scott Hylands (Father Travis)

Notes: Originally created by Kenneth Johnson as a non-sci-fi modern-day (well, 1980s) retelling of the rise of the Nazi Party, the original V miniseries resulted from NBC’s request for a sci-fi epic, retaining its cautionary tone but now with more futuristic action. In some ways, ABC’s revival of V steers things slightly closer to Johnson’s original intent. But Johnson himself was almost stripped of anything more than a “based upon” credit for the new series; the Writers’ Guild of America decided, in arbitration, that despite a wholesame revamp of the show’s cast of characters, Johnson should still be credited for creating the series, and should receive a story credit for the pilot (which seems to cover much of the original five-hour miniseries’ ground in the space of a single hour). The writers of the new series do not have to seek any further approval from Johnson for any storyline developments, however Johnson does retain the feature film rights to V. The location of the ill-fated resistance meeting, 4400 Pier Avenue, is a nod the cancelled cult SF series The 4400, whose cast and crew included actor Joel Gretsch, writer/producer Scott Peters and director Yves Simoneau.

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

There Is No Normal Anymore

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

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

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

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

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

A Bright New Day

V (2000s series)As the first hundred American visas are issued to the Visitors, human suspicion and sentiment are turning against the aliens. Threats are made against the Visitor compound established in New York City, and Erica Evans is assigned to partner with a Visitor security officer to beef up security there. Members of the fifth column – a resistance movement within the Visitors’ own ranks – are making preparations from within the human population. Erica gives Father Landry access to her FBI records so he can try to determine the identity of the other human survivor of the resistance meeting massacre, and while the priest does find the name and face he’s looking for, merely looking could prove to be a deadly endeavour. In the meantime, Anna becomes concerned with one woman’s outspoken protests against the Visitors’ presence – more concerned than her advisors think she should be – and decides that the protests must be silenced.

written by Diego Gutierrez & Christine Roum
directed by Frederick E.O. Toye
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Alan Tudyk (Dale Maddox), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Michael Filipowich (Cyrus), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), Britt Irvin (Haley), Roark Critchlow (Paul Kendrick), Mark Hildreth (Joshua)

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

It’s Only The Beginning

Survivors (1970s series)Anna uses her clout with the media – and, in particular, reporter Chad Decker – to announce that V medical technology will soon be available to humans in clinics everywhere, capable of detecting and curing everything from cancer to heart conditions that haven’t claimed their victims yet. But Erica learns from Ryan Nichols, who has identified himself as a member of a resistance group within the aliens known as the Fifth Column, that the V’s medical knowledge of humans goes much further than that. He promises to lead Erica and Father Landry to a stockpile of an alien drug, R6, that the V plan to introduce to humans everywhere, unannounced, by mixing it with flu shots. But while Erica works with her allies to destroy the stockpile before it can be used, her own son is being lured further into collusion with the aliens by Lisa, and her mother – Anna. And a surprise awaits Ryan when he discovers that his unsuspecting human wife is pregnant with the first human/alien hybrid.

written by Cameron Litvack & Angela Russo Otstot
directed by Yves Simoneau
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Christopher Shyer (Marcus), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), Mark Hildreth (Joshua), Scott Hylands (Father Travis), Ryan Kennedy (David), Craig Fraser (Peter Combs)

Notes: This was the last of four episodes of V to air in 2009 as a special event, as well as the last to be overseen by the original creative team that had developed the show (in large part, the same creative minds behind the series The 4400). New episodes wouldn’t air until March 2010, at which point the series’ revised creative direction was being steered by new executive producer Scott Rosenbaum.

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

Welcome To The War

Survivors (1970s series)The destruction of the V’s warehouse full of the R6 drug has not come without a cost. One V security guard survives who saw Erica, Father Landry and Ryan, and he pays Landry a visit, stabbing him in the church and leaving him for dead. The guard’s next stop is Erica’s home, but she thwarts his attack and kills him in the process. Ryan suspects that the guard was not acting under orders, but was instead trying to round up and kill those involved in the warehouse bombing to save face before reporting back to Anna (who would almost certainly have executed him for failing to guard the R6). Erica’s son Kyle is nowhere to be found, having gone to the V mothership at the invitation of Anna and Lisa.

Knowledge of the warehouse bombing quickly goes public, and Erica is left in the uncomfortable position of taking part in the FBI’s side of the investigation. When V investigators claim to have found human fingerprints, Erica braces herself to be exposed as a member of the resistance, but is surprised when the trail of evidence leads to someone who had no connection to the explosion: wanted mercenary Kyle Hobbes. Erica has no idea why the aliens want to blame Hobbes for the crime, but she does have to admit that this man – who she has tried to hunt down many times during her law enforcement career – could become very useful if the resistance could recruit him.

written by Scott Rosenbaum
directed by Yves Simoneau
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Nicholas Lea (Joe Evans), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), Charles Mesure (Kyle Hobbes), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Roark Critchlow (Paul Kendrick), Mark Hildreth (Joshua), Scott Hylands (Father Travis), Rekha Sharma (Sarita Malik), Lexa Doig (Dr. Leah Pearlman)

Notes: It’s yet another Canadian Science Fiction All-Star Week on V; guest star Nicholas Lea (seen in Kyle’s “memory chamber” flashbacks) is best known to SF fans in the high-profile recurring role of FBI Agent Alex Krycek in The X-Files; Lea also worked on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, which starred Lexa Doig as the Andromeda’s human avatar. British-born actor Charles Mesure appeared numerous times as the Archangel Michael on sister series Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys; his V character, mercenary Kyle Hobbes, is roughly analogous to mercenary Ham Tyler (Michael Ironside) from the original V series.

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

Pound Of Flesh

VShortly before destroying the R6 warehouse, Ryan sent a signal in the name of the fifth column resistance leader: “John May lives.” That message pushes Anna’s preoccupation with ensuring the loyalty of her followers into an obsession, and she instigates widespread loyalty tests among her own people. Anna also plans to announce a program called Live Aboard, which will invite selected humans to live aboard the visitors’ ships and experience their lifestyle. The program is to be announced with another worldwide broadcast, and the resistances sees this as an opportunity to disrupt Anna’s message and mobilize the fifth column and any other human resistance cells around the world. Ryan volunteers to go – any non-visitor would fail to make it far enough to sabotage the broadcast – and discovers that the rebellion is more widespread among the visitors than he thought. Georgie decides Ryan needs backup and takes a shuttle to the visitors’ ship as well, but his mission will prove to be altogether less successful.

written by Charles Murray & Natalie Chaidez
directed by Dean White
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Charles Mesure (Kyle Hobbes), Nicholas Lea (Joe Evans), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Mark Hildreth (Joshua), Samantha Ferris (Private Investigator), Lexa Doig (Dr. Leah Pearlman)

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

John May

V (2000s series)Erica, Ryan and Jack start making plans to rescue Georgie from the V mothership, where he is being interrogated following his capture. Hobbes is the lone holdout, feeling that Georgie’s best contribution to the resistance was to be a sacrifice and a diversion. Ryan tries to track down the original fifth column leader, John May, who he encountered ten years ago, and has to reveal to May’s son that his father’s suicide was a cover story. Ryan is making it his mission to find May to lead the resistance anew – but the only problem is that Anna is trying to find May at the same time so she can quash the resistance.

written by Gregg Hurwitz
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Michael Trucco (John May), Nicholas Lea (Joe Evans), David Richmond-Peck (Georgie), Charles Mesure (Kyle Hobbes), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Mark Hildreth (Joshua), Jessica Parker Kennedy (Grace), Terry Chen (V Doctor), Brett Dier (James May), Oliver Gatske (young James), Erica Carroll (Lillie)

Notes: More SFTV alumni appear in front of and behind the cameras here, with Michael Trucco – late of Battlestar Galactica – appearing as John May, and Star Trek: The Next Generation actor/director Jonathan Frakes takes command of the action from behind the camera.

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

We Can’t Win

V (2000s series)The resistance movement is in chaos: drawn out into the open by the “John May lives” message, members of the Fifth Column within the Visitors’ own ranks are slaughtered. The human resistance leaders’ lives are in disarray: Erica’s son Tyler, having learned that the man he grew up with is not his real father, loses his faith in both of his parents and flees to the Visitors’ mothership with Lisa. Ryan’s pregnant wife is on the run after learning that the baby she’s expecting isn’t entirely human, but if the Visitors find her, there will be no safe place for her. And on the Visitors’ ship, Lisa – Anna’s own daughter – fails the loyalty test Anna has devised to weed out defectors among her own people. But as Erica discovers, there are also humans willing to sell out their own kind.

written by Christine Roum & Cameron Litvack
directed by David Barrett
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Charles Mesure (Kyle Hobbes), Ty Olsson (Jeffrey), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Mark Hildreth (Joshua), Lexa Doig (Dr. Pearlman), Roark Critchlow (Paul Kendrick), Rekha Sharma (Agent Sarita Malik), Lucas Wolf (Samuel), Ernesto Griffith (Secretary-General), Ken Camroux-Taylor (Victor Caruso), Nicholas Carella (Alex Caruso)

Categories
2000s Series Season 1 V

Heretic’s Fork

V (2000s series)Ryan has killed one of his own to help his pregnant human wife escape the Visitors’ clutches, alerting Anna to the presence of a hybrid child. Fearful of a Visitor with the “weakness” of human emotions, she wants Ryan, his wife and their child killed. Erica, Hobbes and Jack find their new prisoner extremely unhelpful; once she discovers that he’s got the names and addresses of Fifth Column members living in secret on Earth, Erica authorizes Hobbes to use whatever means are necessary to get more information. Anna’s willing to take extreme measures to accomplish her goal as well, even if it means unleashing her elite troops on a planet that stands no chance of repelling them.

written by John Wirth & Angela Russo Otstot
directed by Frederick E.O. Toye
music by Marco Beltrami

Guest Cast: Charles Mesure (Kyle Hobbes), Ty Olsson (Jeffrey), Christopher Shyer (Marcus), Mark Hildreth (Joshua), Lexa Doig (Dr. Pearlman), Roark Critchlow (Paul Kendrick), Phil Granger (Henry Thompson), Sarah-Jane Redmond (Sarah Thompson)

LogBook entry written by Earl Green