Tag: Season Premiere

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Season 2 Xena: Warrior Princess

Orphan of War

Xena: Warrior PrincessAfter learning that one of her former soldiers, Dagnine, is searching for the Exion Stone, Xena and Gabrielle head for Centaur territory. They are met by Kalipus, who led the Centaurs against Xena when she herself hunted for the stone. Living with the Centaurs is Xena’s 10 year old son, Solon. She had given him up to Kalipus to protect him from her enemies and herself after his father died. She also told Kalipus that she was giving up her search for the Exion stone. Dagnine has people watching the Centaur village. He is thrilled to learn that Xena has a son. He has the boy kidnapped in order to keep Xena from stopping him in his search. But Xena travels to Dagnine’s camp to free Solon. The warlord has placed the boy in a cage. Xena uses her whip to pull the cage up to the platform she is on. As Xena is pulling him up, she is spotted by the warriors in the camp. She drops the key which she took from Dagnine to Solon, and ties the whip to the platform. While she is fighting the warriors, the whip loosens from the platform sending the cage and Solon to the ground. A large hole opens in the ground upon impact from the cage and boy. He calls for help from Xena, who reaches him in time to keep him from falling into the darkness. She grabs her whip from the ground nearby and snaps the end up to a tree branch over the hole. She pulls Solon up to her and the two dangle above the abyss as archers take aim.

Season 2 Regular Cast: Lucy Lawless (Xena), Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle)

Order the DVDswritten by Steven L. Sears
directed by Charles Siebert
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Mark Ferguson (Dagnine), Paul Gittins (Kaleipus), David Taylor (Solon), Alexander Campbell (Miklas), Stephen Papps (See’er), Peter Tait (Daylon), Richard Adams (Warrior)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 4

Hour of the Wolf

Babylon 5A week after Sheridan’s fateful voyage to Z’ha’Dum, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds is fragmenting as its member races plan to strengthen their homeworlds’ defenses in fear of Shadow retaliation. Delenn and Ivanova are taking the loss of Sheridan hard in their own ways, but no one seems to remember Garibaldi’s disappearance aside from G’Kar and Zack Allan; G’Kar vows to find Garibaldi. Delenn demands to know why Kosh has not backed her pleas to the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, but Kosh brushes her off, as well as her request for a Vorlon expedition to retreive Sheridan from Z’ha’Dum. Londo, recalled to Centauri Prime to serve as an advisor on planetary security, discovers that the insane young Emperor Cartagia has made a deal with the Shadows, offering their forces shelter on an uninhabited island on the Centauri homeworld. Londo is present as Shadow vessels streak overhead in the Centauri sky, fulfilling a terrifying dream-prophecy that has plagued him for years. The atrophied Morden is also on Centauri Prime, manipulating events. Lyta, Ivanova and Delenn undertake a last-ditch recovery mission to Z’ha’Dum, only to be thwarted and almost destroyed by a remnant of the Shadows, and only Lennier’s quick thinking saves them. Londo calls Vir to Centauri Prime to conspire to remove Cartagia from the throne by any means necessary. Sheridan – whom everyone assumes, from rumors and reports, is dead – finds that he may, in fact, be dead.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by David J. Eagle
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Ed Wasser (Morden), Wortham Krimmer (Emperor Cartagia), Wayne Alexander (Lorien), Damian London (Minister), Ardwight Chamberlain (Kosh), Mark Hendrickson (Drazi Ambassador), Rick Ryan (Brakiri Ambassador)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 07

Tikka To Ride

Red DwarfHaving survived a near-fatal encounter with their future selves, the crew of Starbug are faced with a far more serious scenario – the curry and lager stocks have been destroyed. Unable to come to terms with his grief, Lister is compelled to sabotage Kryten and reclaim the Time Drive. His plan? To pop back in time to an Indian take-away and order 500 curries. Unfortunately, the time device is a little bit rusty. Instead of depositing them within chomping distance of a chicken vindaloo, the wayward device places them in a certain book store depository in Dallas, on “the day that American King was shot.” After knocking Lee Harvey Oswald out the window, our intrepid curry-seekers inadvertently change history and prevent JFK’s assassination. To evade responsibility for Oswald’s demise, the Time Drive is once again activated and takes them to Dallas, 1966. The Starbug crew’s intervention in the natural flow of history has left America barren and deserted. With time enough to take stock of their situation, the foursome deduce that they must return back in time to intervene in their own intervention (obviously).

Season 7 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Chloe Annett (Kochanski), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten)

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

Guest Cast: Michael J. Shannon (John F. Kennedy), Toby Aspin (Lee Harvey Oswald), Peter Gaitens (FBI Agent), Peter Ashe (Cop)

LogBook entry by Mark Stevens

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Lexx Season 1

I Worship His Shadow

LexxThe forces of His Divine Shadow and the warrior race of the Brunnen G clash near one of the Brunnen G’s worlds. The fight ends badly for the Brunnen G and their planet is destroyed. Kai, leader of the Brunnen G attack group, orders a last-ditch kamikaze dive into the control deck of the Shadow starships, but he is the only one who even gets that far. He slams into the ship’s bridge and survives the impact, only to be personally killed by His Divine Shadow itself. The last of the Brunnen G is dead. Two thousand years pass.

In the Cluster, the seat of His Divine Shadow’s government ruling over the league of 20,000 worlds, the clerics of the divine order are trying to figure out how to extend the life of His Divine Shadow. It passes from host brain to host brain, but its sheer power overwhelms each successive host. The spent host’s brain is preserved and kept alive to join His Divine Predecessors. The clerics also worry about a vague prophecy that His Divine Shadow’s forces will cut down the Brunnen G to the last man, but that His Shadow will be slain by a Brunnen G in the end – clearly impossible, since that race is now extinct. The Shadow’s order maintains control over thousands of planets through merciless rule, military might, and forcing the populations of those worlds to worship His Shadow.

The arrival of a prison ship signals the end of the Divine Shadow’s order, though in the unlikeliest way. A heretic hero, Thodin, is among the ship’s prisoners, though he has allowed himself to be captured and brought to the Cluster so he can engineer the Shadow’s downfall. Also among the prisoners are a notorious female cannibal named Giggerota, and an overweight woman named Zev who faces a severe punishment for not fulfilling her “wifely duties.” Zev is sentenced to be reprogrammed into a senator’s love slave, her body altered accordingly to fit her future master’s desires.

Thodin’s plan misfires literally – a bomb goes off in the wrong place, releasing a pack of omnivorous Cluster Lizards into the general populace instead of the public arena where he faces a gladiatorial death sentence. One of the Cluster Lizards reaches the lab where Zev is being “reshaped,” and it falls into the body-shaping apparatus with her. When Zev emerges, she’s part human, part Cluster Lizard, with a fiercely independent spirit and now the strength and fighting instinct to match – as well as quite a healthy sexual appetite. She is spared the mental reprogramming part of the operation by grabbing the head of a robot destroyed by the Cluster Lizard and putting it into the apparatus. The robot, 790, instantly falls head over heels – well, perhaps just head over head – in love with her, and Zev only reluctantly brings it with her to open doors along the path of her escape.

Zev encounters low-ranking security guard Stanley Tweedle, who is on the run for questioning a high-ranking officer’s orders. Using 790, they manage to evade capture, and run into Thodin and his rebels as they try to board a new, insect-based organic warship developed by the Divine Order: the Lexx. Capable of obliterating a planet with a single shot, the Lexx is the most top-secret and heavily-guarded project in the entire Cluster, but His Shadow’s elite guards are conspicuous by their absence in the launch area.

The Lexx bonds to and takes orders from only one person, and when that person dies, the biometric key transfers itself to Stanley Tweedle – the only other human in the previous keyholder’s vicinity. Stanley, Zev, Giggerota and 790 board and launch the Lexx, but find it incapable of defending itself – it’s programmed not to fire on ships loyal to His Divine Shadow. Worse yet, they have company aboard – Kai, last of the Brunnen G, reanimated by His Divine Shadow and reprogrammed to serve as the Shadow’s personal assassin, boards the Lexx and disposes of Giggerota, holding the others at the mercy of his Brunnen G brace weapon. But when His Divine Shadow arrives to personally quash the rebellion and bring the Lexx home, Kai begins to regain the memory of his proud heritage – and his death – and becomes an instrument of prophecy.

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan with Jeffrey Hirschfield and Lex Gigeroff
directed by Paul Donovan
music by Marty Simon

Cast: Brian Downey (Stanley Tweedle), Eva Habermann (Zev), Michael McManus (Kai), Barry Bostwick (Thodin), Ellen Dubin (Giggerota), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Lisa Hines (Zev of B3K), Gil Brenton (Tem), David Renton (Senior Cleric), Anna Cameron (Prophet), Bill Carr (Correction Centre Guard), Lionel Doucette (Holo Judge), Liz Richardson (Holo Prosecutor), Chris Rowntree (Holo Official), John Dartt (Holo Defense Lawyer), David McClelland (Holo Cleric), Jocelyn Cunningham (Cluster Major), Richard Donat (Megashadow Admiral), Chas Lawther (Video Customs Officer), Andrei Mahankov (Robot 2), Clive Sweeney (Megashadow Adjutant), Jeremy Akerman (Transport Major), Joseph Rutten (Slab Prisoner), Alan MacGillivray (Argon Protopi), Josh McDonald (Sergeant), Lex Gigeroff (Bound Man), Walter Borden (His Dying Shadow), John Dunsworth (Video Asteroid Commander), Jack Carr (Video Boy Cleric), Horst Ulan (Cluster General), Glen Wadman (Officer), Stephen Turnbull (Fore Shadow Officer), Jamie Bradley (Cleric 2), Andrew Smith (Cleric), Michael Petersen (Robot & Lizard), Janice Evens (Computer Voice), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Walter Borden (His Shadow), Marty Simon (Brain No. 14)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 SG-1 Stargate

Children Of The Gods

Stargate SG-1At a top secret facility in Cheyenne Mountain, the stargate is kept in a storage facility, guarded by a handful of of soldiers. When it activates, Goa’uld warriors come out shooting. One of the soldiers is taken hostage and her comrades, despite putting up a valiant fight, are killed. The Goa’uld take their hostage and leave.

Colonel Jack O’Neill, a year after his first voyage through the stargate, is called out of retirement and questioned by General George Hammond about his original mission. When General Hammond reveals a plan to send another nuclear bomb through the gate to prevent it from ever opening again, O’Neill finally reveals that he didn’t necessarily carry out his orders and that the team members he reported killed in action are, in fact, still living on Abydos. O’Neill suggests sending a message of sorts through the stargate to see if archaeologist Daniel Jackson is alive and well; when a reply is received, O’Neill is recalled to active duty and assigned to take another trip through the gate to investigate the sudden revival of the Goa’uld’s interest in Earth. Major Samantha Carter, an expert on the workings of the stargate, is added to O’Neill’s reassembled original team for the mission.

An initially hostile reception on the other side of the gate is quickly prevented by Daniel Jackson, who reveals his theory that there are more than two stargates – and that it’s likely that there’s an entire network of gates spread throughout the galaxy. Daniel has begun to make some headway on translating several cartouches which may be a map of that network. But before he can explain much more, Goa’uld invade Abydos through the stargate, again slaughtering everyone they can and taking a hostage – in this case, the woman Daniel has taken as his lover. He agrees to return to Earth with the surviving members of O’Neill’s team, but upon his return he finds that General Hammond isn’t exactly pleased to see him again.

With what seems to be the return of Ra, despite O’Neill and Daniel’s insistence that they did succeed in killing him, Hammond forms nine teams to perform regular reconnaisance and security missions through the Stargate, and assigns O’Neill and Carter to the prime team, SG-1. But on their first mission, the odds are against them. Daniel discovers that his lover is now inhabited by the symbiont of a Goa’uld queen, and the entire SG-1 team is captured. Only the startling rebellion of a Goa’uld warrior named Teal’c turns the tide when he joins O’Neill.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (Colonel Jack O’Neill), Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson), Amanda Tapping (Major Samantha Carter), Christopher Judge (Teal’c), Don S. Davis (General Hammond)

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jonathan Glassner & Brad Wright
directed by Mario Azzopardi
music by Joel Goldsmith
main theme adapted from music by David Arnold

Guest Cast: Jay Acovone (Major Kawalsky), Vaitiare Bandera (Sha’re), Robert Wisden (Major Samuels), Peter Williams (Apophis), Brent Stait (Major Ferretti), Gary Jones (Technician), Alexis Cruz (Skaara), Rachael Hayward (Guard #3), Rick Ravanello (Guard #2), J.B. Bivens (Guard #1), Stephen Sumner (Goa’uld #1), Adam Harrington (Goa’uld #2), John Bear Curtis (Primitive), John Tierney (Monk), Colin Lawrence (Warren), Garvin Cross (Casey), Anthony Ashbee (Soldier), Eric Schneider (Doctor), Andrew McIlwaine (Medic), Santo Lombardo (Bolaa), Sean Amsing (Tobay), Monique Rusu (Dark Skinned Woman), Janette de Vries (Female Serpent Guard)

Stargate SG-1Notes: There are several differences between the world established in the movie Stargate and that of the series. The location of the mountain base housing the Stargate has changed to Cheyenne Mountain, an actual Air Force base. (O’Neill mentions that he has been there before, suggesting that the stargate was not moved between the film and the series.) The spellings of “Jack O’Neill” and “Sha’re” have been changed from the original “O’Neil” and “Sha’uri.” The characters of Kawalsky and Ferretti were lieutenants in the movie, but majors in the series. In the film, Abydos was in another galaxy. In the series, it is one of the closest planets with a stargate to Earth, which is why the Earth gate is able to connect to it without adjustments to the address. The alien that possessed the human body Ra was a humanoid in the movie, not a snake-like creature. Ra’s guards were not called by any name or title in the movie, but were referred to as Horus and Anubis in the credits. Their headpieces folded away completely and disappeared, unlike the serpent guard headpieces of the series. (The name Anubis was later given to a major villain in the series’ later seasons.) In the film, O’Neil and Jackson agreed that the major danger was the Earth gate, and that O’Neil would find some way to have that shut down when he returned home. No explanation is given for why the stargate remained unburied and connected to power. Alexis Cruz played Skaara in both the movie and the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green with notes by Dave Thomer

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Season 04 Star Trek Voyager

Scorpion – Part II

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Janeway strikes a deal with the Borg to exchange the modified nanotechnology for a safe trip through Borg territory, but almost immediately things go wrong. The Borg attempt to force Janeway into a direct neural link to the Collective, but she instead demands that the Borg choose a single drone to facilitate verbal communication, and a female human Borg called Seven of Nine is appointed. An ambush by Species 8472 destroys the Borg cube containing Janeway, but she, Tuvok and a number of Borg safely transport back to Voyager. The Borg quickly assimilate the cargo bay which they have taken over, and Janeway must recover from injuries she sustained in the attack on the Borg ship. When Seven of Nine demands a change in the ship’s course taking it into the heart of Borg space, Chakotay decides to abort the newly-forged alliance with the Borg. Now the crew faces the prospect of a Borg invasion from within, or a violent death at the hands of Species 8472, unless Janeway and Chakotay can overcome their differences of opinion regarding cooperation with the Borg.

Season 4 Regular Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim)

Order the DVDswritten by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Jennifer Lien (Kes), Majel Barrett (Narrator)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 06 Star Trek

A Time To Stand

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: It is three months after the beginning of the war, and things look bleak for the Federation. After a major defeat for Starfleet, Sisko and his crew are taken off the Defiant and given a new assignment. Bajorans return to Terok Nor under the Dominion treaty. Kira and Odo want the Bajoran security force restored as well, armed and with full authority as before. However, there will be a price. Meanwhile, Sisko’s new mission is to take the Jem’Hadar ship he captured last year and destroy what is believed to be the main Ketracel-white storage facility in the Alpha Quadrant, deep in Cardassian space. But will they even manage to make it there?

Season 6 Regular Cast: Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko), Michael Dorn (Lt. Commander Worf), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Terry Farrell (Lt. Commander Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir), Nana Visitor (Major Kira)

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Andrew J. Robinson (Garak), Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Casey Biggs (Damar), Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross), Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Earth: Final Conflict Season 1

Decision

Earth: Final ConflictEarly in the 21st century, a number of alien Taelons, calling themselves the Companions, have arrived on Earth, ridding the human race of disease, famine and other scourges of overpopulation, bringing Earth into a new era of prosperity. But not every human being trusts the Companions – what is the price of the Taelons’ boundless generosity?

Policeman William Boone tries to arrange for heightened security for the visit of Da’an, one of the Companions, to an urban area, only to have his efforts rebuffed. Boone’s worst nightmare comes to fruition when an attempt is made on Da’an’s life, and Boone’s partner takes the bullet meant for the alien. Worse yet, the sniper is revealed to be a fellow war veteran of Boone’s, now a member of an underground resistance movement whose mission is to undermine the Companions. While hunting down his fleeing former comrade, Boone is offered a high-ranking security position by the Taelons, but his immediate obsession is to solve the case at hand. But when Boone’s wife is killed in an act of terrorism, he is left with many questions – how widespread is the resistance movement against the Companions? And who killed Boone’s wife – the resistance, or perhaps the aliens themselves?

Season 1 Regular Cast: Kevin Kilner (Captain William Boone), Lisa Howard (Captain Lili Marquette), Von Flores (FBI Agent Ronald Sandoval), Leni Parker (Da’an), Richard Chevolleau (Augur), David Hemblen (Doors)

written by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Allan Eastman
music by Micky Erbe & Maribeth Solomon

Guest Cast: Miranda Kwok (Kwai-Ling), John Evans (Morovsky), Lisa Ryder (Kate Boone), Michael Filipowich (Corr), Monique Mojica (Mayor Ruiz), Paul Boretski (Jordan), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Dr. Belman)

Notes: Launched almost exactly six years after the death of its creator, Earth: Final Conflict is the result of a series concept originally titled “Battleground: Earth” which Roddenberry was developing for CBS in 1976 before he was lured away to work on the proposed new Star Trek series which later evolved into the first Trek theatrical film. Majel Barrett, Roddenberry’s widow (and a recurring guest star in Star Trek’s numerous incarnations as well as Earth: Final Conflict) discovered her husband’s pilot script in 1995 and began looking for a studio to develop it into a new series. The name of Gene Roddenberry was officially made part of the show’s title to cash in on the posthumous fame of the creator of Star Trek.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 5

No Compromises

Babylon 5Change is the order of the day aboard Babylon 5 as it accepts its new role as capitol of the Interstellar Alliance. Sheridan prepares for his inauguration as his handpicked replacement, Earthforce Captain Elizabeth Lochley, arrives. Sheridan pointedly ignores her role in Earth’s civil war – but others in the crew are not so quick to overlook the past. A group of telepaths approaches Lochley, seeking sanctuary from Psi Corps and a place to call home. Garibaldi, now a civilian, hovers over Zack and clashes with the new captain on matters of security. And G’Kar must create two of the first symbols of the new alliance – an oath of office and a declaration of principles. The preparations may be for nothing, however – a would-be assassin stalks B5, ready to make Sheridan pay for his actions during the war.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Janet Greek
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (President John Sheridan), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Tracy Scoggins (Captain Elizabeth Lochley), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Joshua Cox (Lt. Corwin), Anthony Crivello (John), Robin Atkin Downes (Byron), Timothy Eyster (Simon), Mauricio Mendoza (Ranger)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 07 Star Trek

Image In The Sand

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: On Earth, three months after the wormhole closed and the Orbs went dark, Sisko has a vision of uncovering a woman’s face in the sands of Tyree. He learns that the woman was his real mother, Sarah, and that she had left behind a locket with ancient Bajoran writing on the back, which reads “Orb of the Emissary.” Despite an attempt on his life by a member of the Cult of the Pah-Wraith, Sisko resolves to seek the Orb on Tyree, accompanied by his father and Jake. Meanwhile, on DS9, a Romulan military presence is established, but when they take over a Bajoran moon in order to build a hospital complex which also serves as a weapon storage facility, the Bajoran government wants them out; and Worf, Bashir, and O’Brien decide to undertake a dangerous mission in Jadzia’s name.

Season 7 Regular Cast: Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko), Nicole de Boer (Ezri Dax), Michael Dorn (Lt. Commander Worf), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir), Nana Visitor (Colonel Kira)

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Casey Biggs (Damar), Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Megan Cole (Cretak), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), James Darren (Vic Fontaine), Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko), Johnny Moran (Bajoran Man)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Season 05 Star Trek Voyager

Night

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 52081.2: The crew is facing a shipwide case of cabin fever as the ship plunges into a vast, empty, starless expanse, a shortcut that could take two years to complete. Captain Janeway has retreated into seclusion, and tempers are flaring. But the crew’s craving for excitement is more than quenched when a sudden total loss of power is followed by the arrival of seemingly hostile intruders in the darkened corridors of the ship. Another unfamiliar alien vessel arrives to fend off Voyager’s attackers, and it seems that the crew has a new ally…until Janeway is asked to help the Malon captain commit genocide in exchange for an quicker trip home.

Season 5 Regular Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim)

Order the DVDswritten by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
directed by David Livingston
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Ken Magee (Emek), Steven Dennis (Alien), Martin Rayner (Dr. Chaotica)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Lexx Season 2

Mantrid

LexxDespite the defeat of the Gigashadow, His Divine Shadow has one last trick up his sleeve – he has taken Kai as his host body. Kai reanimates himself and insists on returning to the Light Universe via an extremely risky maneuver to create a new fractal core bridging the two universes. Kai plans to retrieve one of the enormous insect larvae left over from the Gigashadow’s destruction to extract more protoblood from it – or so he says. Stan and 790 experience a rare moment of complete agreement when they both suggest blasting the larva that Kai retrieves back into space. Kai suddenly presents Stan and Zev with a new mission: to find Mantrid, His Divine Shadow’s imprisoned bio-vizier. Mantrid’s knowledge was critical to the Divine Order, but his knowledge and ambition were both dangerous enough that he was kept alive but imprisoned. When they reach the distant world where Mantrid has languished for centuries, Stan and Zev are horrified when Kai offers Mantrid passage on the Lexx. Using his independent floating self-replicating “arm” drones, Mantrid embarks on an experiment to transfer his consciousness to the more powerful insect body. But under the Divine Shadow’s influence, Kai attacks Mantrid and instead transfers the Shadow’s consciousness to the insect – and the prospect of a new insect race hunting down all human life is imminent, unless Zev can convince Stan to destroy the planetoid while she and Kai are still on it.

Season 2 Regular Cast: Brian Downey (Stanley Tweedle), Eva Habermann (Zev), Michael McManus (Kai), Xenia Seeberg (Xev)

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan
directed by Cristoph Schrewe
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Dieter Laser (Mantrid), Holger Kunkel (Mantrid’s Assistant), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Chris Duffy (Captain), Burgandy Code (Navigator), John Davie (Rockhound)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 08

Back In The Red Part I

Red DwarfStarbug has returned home to Red Dwarf, but somehow it’s just not the same Red Dwarf. Now, setting aside for the moment the fact that Red Dwarf is far too large and then begins shrinking, and setting aside a rather unpleasant incident involving mammoth rodentia, the real problem with the nanobot-reconstructed Red Dwarf is its crew. They’re perfectly alive and well, and really don’t seem to appreciate Lister and Kochanski – along with a couple of unknown stowaways – crashing a Starbug through their ship. The ship’s psychiatrist tries to psychoanalyze Kryten, only to be baffled by the revelation that Kryten is, technically, from his future.

Lister is imprisoned and quickly finds that Rimmer is still alive aboard this Red Dwarf too. Not the more seasoned Rimmer who recently left to become Ace, but the overzealous, trumped-up, incompetent vending machine repairman with a Napoleon complex…the Rimmer of old. (Granted, the above could serve as a description of Rimmer at any time, but let’s not dwell on that.) Lister’s only hope of proving his story – that Red Dwarf is, in fact, over three million years away from home, and that its crew has been mechanically recreated – is to trust Rimmer to bring the evidence to Captain Hollister. Unfortunately, that evidence includes the sexual magnetism virus, which Rimmer decides to try for himself.

So much for Lister’s defense…

Season 8 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Chloe Annett (Kochanski), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Norman Lovett (Holly)

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

Guest Cast: Paul Bradley (Chen), David Gillespie (Selby), Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Farscape Season 1

Premiere

  • By Dave
  • March 19, 1999

FarscapeCommander John Crichton is the first test pilot of Farscape One, a craft he designed in order to test a theory on gravitational acceleration. However, when the ship encounters a disturbance midflight, Crichton winds up sucked through a wormhole right into the middle of a prison ship’s escape from its military escort. Moya, the prison ship, brings Crichton on board, but not before one of the attacking Peacekeeper fighters collides with Farscape One and subsequently crashes. His first encounter with the escapees – the exiled priest Zhaan, the deposed ruler Rygel, and the warrior D’Argo – does not go well, and before long he and a captured Peacekeeper stage a prison break of their own . . . with the brother of the dead pilot on their trail and seeking revenge.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Ben Browder (Commander John Crichton), Claudia Black (Officer Aeryn Sun), Virginia Hey (Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan), Anthony Simcoe (Ka D’Argo)

Order the Season 1 DVDswritten by Rockne S. O’Bannon
directed by Andrew Prowse
music by Subvision

Guest Cast: Kent McCord (Jack Crichton), Lani John Tupu (Captain Bialar Crais)

Notes: Lani Tupu also provides the voice for Pilot, one of Farscape‘s recurring animatronic characters. Jonathan Hardy voices the former Hynerian Dominar, Rygel.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Season 06 Star Trek Voyager

Equinox – Part II

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: As the subspace life forms attack Voyager’s bridge, the Equinox warps away safely, protected by B’elanna’s shield generator, which was surreptitiously beamed out of Voyager. Also kidnapped from Voyager are Seven of Nine, who refuses to cooperate with Ransom’s murderous plan to return to Earth, and Voyager’s EMH, whose mobile emitted has been stolen by the Equinox’s identical doctor, acting as a spy aboard Voyager. When Ransom’s attempt to resume his course toward the Alpha Quadrant is thwarted by Seven’s sabotage of the Equinox’s warp drive, the captain deletes the Voyager doctor’s ethical subroutine, forcing him to operate on Seven to extract the necessary information to conduct repairs. On Voyager, Janeway becomes obsessed with bringing Ransom to justice, even to the point of stripping Chakotay of his rank and responsibilities when he protests her actions, and threatens to do the same to Tuvok. Contact is finally established with the aliens, who insist that the Equinox should be handed over to them – and Janeway startles her crew by acceeding to this demand. The crews of both ships are now at the mercy of commanding officers who have crossed the line.

Season 6 Regular Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’elanna Torres), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim)

Order the DVDsteleplay by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky
story by Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky
directed by David Livingston
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: John Savage (Captain John Ransom), Titus Welliver (Burke), Olivia Birkelund (Gilmore), Rick Worthy (Lessing), Eric Steinberg (Ankari), Steve Dennis (Thompson), Majel Barrett (Computer voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green