Tag: Emmy Award Winners

Categories
Enterprise Season 01 Star Trek

Two Days And Two Nights

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise finally arrives at Risa, and though Archer initially resists the idea of joining his senior officers for shore leave, T’Pol convinces him that he needs it just as much as they do. Malcolm and Trip try their hand at meeting indigenous specimens of the opposite sex, only to find themselves in a trip that, while it may not cost them their lives, will certainly cost them their pants. Hoshi has a little more luck in this regard, and her language lessons with a fellow visitor to Risa become an exercise in a more universal tongue. Dr. Phlox takes the opportunity to remain aboard the Enterprise and enter a Denobulan hibernation phase – one from which he will emerge most disoriented if awakened early, which becomes a major issue when Mayweather is injured while rock climbing. Captain Archer takes Porthos planetside for a couple of days of relaxation and encounters a beautiful woman named Keyla. In the course of discussion, she reveals that her husband and her entire family were slaughtered by Suliban, but when she tries to get Archer to divulge strategic information on his encounters with the Suliban, the captain suspects that her story doesn’t add up.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Chris Black
story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Michael Dorn
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer), Jolene Blalock (Subcommander T’Pol), John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcolm Reed), Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather), Linda Park (Ensign Hoshi Sato), Connor Trinneer (Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker III), Dey Young (Keyla), Kellie Waymire (Cutler), Rudolf Matin (Ravis), Joseph Will (Rostov), Dennis Cockrum (Freebus), Donna Marie Recco (Dee’Ahn), James Ingersol (Alien Man), Jennifer Williams (Alien Woman), Geoff Meed (Dee’Ahn), Stephen Wozniak (Latia) and Porthos

Notes: Actor Stephen Wozniak (born in 1971) is no relation to Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Firefly Season 1

Serenity (Pilot)

  • By Dave
  • December 20, 2002

FireflyIn 2511 AD, humans have long since left Earth to terraform and colonize other worlds. A group of central planets have formed an Alliance and demanded that all other planets join up. Some Independent worlds on the frontier choose to fight instead. At the Battle of Serenity Valley, the Alliance delivers a crushing blow to the Independents; soon after, the Alliance consolidates its control.

Six years later, former Independent Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds captains a transport ship he named Serenity. His fellow Independent vet Zoe is his first mate; her husband Wash pilots the Firefly-class vessel. An almost-but-not-quite-obnoxiously optimistic young engineer named Kaylee keeps Serenity running, while the self-interested mercenary Jayne provides some extra muscle. Inara, a licensed Companion, rents one of the ship’s shuttles; the presence of a highly-respected Companion opens doors for the crew that would otherwise be closed.

Mal and his crew perform an illegal salvage job on a wrecked Alliance ship and travel to Perspehone, expecting to drop off the goods and pick up some passengers to bring in extra cash. Shepherd Book, a clergyman who aims to see life outside his abbey for a while, comes aboard, as does Simon Tam, a young doctor with some very large cargo, and one more passenger named Dobson. The salvage dropoff goes sour, because the would-be buyer has learned that the Alliance has imprinted the goods and thus made them very traceable. Mal is forced to divert course and find an alternate buyer for the goods. When the third passenger turns out to be an Alliance agent who broadcasts their location, that’s bad news. When Simon turns out to be fugitive on the run with some very important cargo, it gets worse. And when Simon’s cargo turns out to be his sister River, the situation threatens to reach entirely new levels of badness. Kaylee is shot, and the doctor will only save her if Mal agrees to help him run. Savage humans called Reavers get Serenity in their sights. And Patience, the only possible buyer of the salvage, has had prior dealings with Mal. She shot him then, and he’s pretty sure she aims to repeat the favor this time around – if everyone else trying to kill or capture the Serenity crew gives her the chance.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Joss Whedon
directed by Joss Whedon
music by Greg Edmonson
main title theme by Joss Whedon

Regular Cast: Nathon Fillion (Mal Reynolds), Gina Torres (Zoe), Alan Tudyk (Wash), Jewel Staite (Kaylee), Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb), Morena Baccarin (Inara), Sean Maher (Simon Tam), Summer Glau (River Tam), Ron Glass (Shepherd Book)

Guest Cast: Carlos Jacott (Lawrence Dobson), Mark Sheppard (Badger), Andy Umberger (Dortmunder Captain), Philip Sternberg (unnamed), Eddie Adams (unnamed), Colin Patrick Lynch (Radio Operator), Bonnie Bartlett (Patience)

Notes: This two-hour episode was the original pilot for Firefly. When Fox expressed reservations about it, executive producers Joss Whedon and Tim Minear wrote The Train Job as a replacement introduction to the series. Serenity wound up being the last episode Fox aired. When broadcast on Fox and Sci Fi, episodes end with a diagram of Serenity; on the DVD, they end with an executive producer credit for Joss Whedon and Tim Minear.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Similitude

Star Trek: EnterpriseCritically injured by an explosion in engineering, Trip is left in a coma. The Enterprise becomes ensnared in a phenomenon that’s gradually covering the ship’s hull with energy-draining particles. Dr. Phlox is less than optimistic about the chief engineer’s chances of survival by conventional means, and offers the captain an unorthodox solution – growing a clone by using a mimetic creature that will grow to maturity in less than a week, and die in 15 days. Phlox hopes to replace a damaged portion of Trip’s brain with the identical tissue removed from his clone. But in the week it takes to raise and teach the clone, the crew becomes more attached to it than they expected – and when the critical moment arises, Trip’s clone would rather live out the few days left to him than serve as a source of donor organ tissue for Trip himself.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Manny Coto
directed by LeVar Burton
music by Velton Ray Bunch

Guest Cast: Shane Sweet (Sim-Trip, age 17), Adam Taylor Gordon (Sim-Trip, age 8 ), Maximillian Kesmodel (Sim-Trip, age 4)

Note: The music from this episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition For A Series in 2004.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Countdown

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Xindi-Reptilians and Xindi-Insectoids have commandeered the sphere-weapon and abducted Hoshi from the Enterprise by transporter. They can’t arm and launch the huge sphere until they’ve obtained a third launch code from another member of the Xindi Council, but none of the other races are willing to step forward in support of the frontal assault on Earth. In fact, Archer is negotiating with the Xindi-Aquatics, the most powerful of the Xindi species opposing the war, to help him launch an attack to destroy the weapon before it can be launched. Archer correctly assumes that during his meetings with the Council, Hoshi impressed the Reptilian commander with her linguistic abilities – and he hopes to harness her gifts to crack the remaining launch code for the weapon.

Major Hayes and his MACO commandos launch a desperate mission to recover Hoshi, with an all-out attack by the Enterprise and the other Xindi races as a cover. The Sphere Builders, furious that events are turning the timelines toward their own extinction at the hands of a combined human/Xindi force, intervene and give the Reptilians and Insectoids the means to launch the weapon. Hoshi is rescued and returned to the Enterprise, critically injured by repeated injections of neural parasites to wear down her resistance to the Xindi, but Major Hayes perishes in the rescue operation. The Weapon launches toward Earth at a speed greater than the damaged Enterprise can hope to reach. Archer enlists Reed and several of the remaining MACOs to take on a mission to intercept the sphere in Degra’s fast but vulnerable ship, hoping to stop the sphere by any means necessary, also bringing Hoshi with him over Dr. Phlox’s dire protests. Trip and T’Pol are left in command of the Enterprise, which will remain behind to destroy the network of other spheres that still controls the Expanse.

Time to the sphere’s arrival at Earth: 10 hours.

Order DVDswritten by Andrè Bormanis & Chris Black
directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Steven Culp (Major Hayes), Scott MacDonald (Reptilian Commander), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Randy Oglesby (Degra), Josette DiCarlo (Sphere-Builder Woman), Bruce Thomas (Reptilian Soldier), Andrew Borba (Reptilian Lieutenant), Mary Mara (Sphere-Builder Presage), Ruth Williamson (Sphere-Builder Primary), Paul Dean (Reptilian Technician)

Note: This episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series in 2004.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 3

Exodus – Part 2

Battlestar GalacticaThe insurrection against the Cylon occupation reaches its tipping point: with the grounded Colonial ships on New Caprica restored to flight-readiness, the battle to drive the Cylons off the planet or simply destroy their ground presence begins in earnest. Galactica jumps right into the planet’s atmosphere, launching her Vipers before jumping back into space, where Adama finds himself facing more Cylon basestars than he bargained for. Apollo wrestles with his orders – to take Pegasus and lead what’s left the civilian fleet to the safety of Earth – and ultimately decides not to follow them, knowing that one of the two Battlestars won’t return from the fight. When Gaeta pulls a gun to bring Baltar’s presidency to an end, Baltar begs him for death. And when Tigh learns that his wife sold the resistance out to the Cylons to save his life, it falls to him to deliver her sentence.

written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
directed by Felix Alcala
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Lucy Lawless (D’anna Biers), Michael Trucco (Anders), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Rick Worthy (The Doctor), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Matthew Bennett (Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Erica Cerra (Maya), Luciana Carro (Kat), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Madeline Parker (Kacey), Dominic Zamprogna (Jammer), Eileen Pedde (Mathias), Ty Olsson (Captain Kelly), Ryan Robbins (Connor), Emilie Ullerup (Julia)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

He That Believeth In Me

Battlestar GalacticaGalactica’s entire command crew is stunned into silence at the sound of Starbuck’s voice. Even though they’re still reeling from the realization that they are among the Cylons’ fabled final five, Tigh, Tyrol, Anders and Tory are shocked by the return of Starbuck. Starbuck helps Galactica in the fight against the Cylon base ships, but after a Cylon fighter scans Anders at close range, the fight is over and the Cylons inexplicably retreat. Aboard Galactica, Starbuck’s triumphant return is met with a very muted response. She claims that she’s only been gone for six hours, and can’t explain why two months have passed for the rest of the fleet. She also can’t explain, except in the vaguest of terms, how she got to Earth and then returned to the fleet. Roslin orders Starbuck locked up and kept under guard, certain that this isn’t the real Kara Thrace, but a Cylon trick. Below decks, in the aftermath of his trial, Baltar is whisked away to the safety of a commune of people who consider him to be their messiah, and he begins to falteringly pass on the Cylons’ monotheistic belief system to his new followers, urging them to turn their backs on the pantheon of gods worshipped by the Colonials. But even among friends (and at least a few fanatics), Baltar discovers that he isn’t completely safe. Starbuck tries to convince Adama that she does know the way to Earth, but can’t give him a concrete reason to trust her. She then sets out to convince Roslin instead – with a gun in her hand.

Season 4 Regular Cast: Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Katie Sackhoff (Lt. Starbuck), Jamie Bamber (Captain Apollo), James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Lt. Boomer)

written by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster)

LogBook entry by Earl Green