Quest For Firepower
Centuries before 2525 A.D., humanity was driven into vast networks of underground tunnels and chambers by flying mechanical aliens known as Bailies. Freedom fighters try to restore human control of Earth, but find themselves up against agents of the Bailies even underground. Hel and Sarge manage to reach the surface, a rarity for their generation of humans, only to find themselves in a firefight with a Bailey almost immediately. A third freedom fighter reveals himself to be a “traitor bot” – a mechanical assassin created by the Baileys to infiltrate and eliminate resistance cells. He injures Sarge, but fails to capture either Sarge or Hel.
Hel takes Sarge to an underground “body bank”, where they will have to barter for a new kidney to replace Sarge’s injured kidney. The shady characters operating the body bank have plenty of replacement organs to choose from, harvested from recently-recovered humans cryogenically frozen in the early 21st century, though they’re keeping one particularly attractive female intact for their own lascivious purposes. This woman awakens during Sarge’s operation and, having no knowledge of when or where she is, tries to escape, but when the traitor bot tracks Sarge down, all three women flee together. Sarge and Hel discover, much to their chagrin, that their new friend Cleopatra was what was known in the 21st century as an “exotic dancer”, and has no fighting experience whatsoever. But is there something she can contribute to the fight to save humanity?
teleplay by R.J. Stewart
story by Rob Tapert & R.J. Stewart
directed by Greg Yaitanes
music by Joseph Lo Duca
Cast: Gina Torres (Hel), Victoria Pratt (Sarge), Jennifer Sky (Cleopatra), Patrick Kake (Mauser), David Press (Horst), Mark Williams (Cat Man), Elizabeth Hawthorne (Voice)
Notes: Airing as a CGI-heavy, half-hour action series in its first season, Cleopatra 2525 was hastily conceived as one of two shows to fill in the slot formerly occupied in the Universal Action Pack syndication package by Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, a show which had come to an abrupt end with the defection of its star, Kevin Sorbo, to Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda. (It shared Hercules’ former one-hour
time slot with the Bruce Campbell series Jack Of All Trades, which also clocked in at half an hour) All three of Cleopatra 2525’s leads had previously played roles on Hercules and Xena. American-born actress Jennifer Sky played Amarice in several Xena episodes, and would go on to make appearances in Charmed, CSI: Miami, and Fastlane. Canadian actress Victoria Pratt appeared as Cyane in the Xena two-parter Adventures In The Sin Trade, and immediately after Cleopatra 2525 moved on to the syndicated series Mutant X as one of its regulars; she has since appeared in Day Break, NCIS, and
Heartland. Gina Torres appeared as Nebula in several episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and after this series went on to the recurring role of Jasmine in the Buffy spinoff Angel, before taking the role of Zoe Washburne in Joss Whedon’s Firefly. She has since appeared in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, 24, Alias, Standoff, Hannibal, and Suits, and has voiced characters in Justice League, Transformers Prime, and, most recently, Star Wars Rebels.
LogBook entry by Earl Green
The inquiry into the ambush at the Rialto Theater is not looking good for Pezzini – and her prospects of keeping her badge look even worse when the antagonistic Captain Dante is appointed as the head of the homicide department. Evidence involving a bladed weapon at the site of the massacre has turned up, and there are questions about a man who knocked Jake out cold just before the fight – a man who is at this very moment being hunted down by three heavily-armed combatants on motorcycles. After the inquiry session is over, Jake and Pez respond to this duel, only to find that two of the three combatants didn’t make it out of the fight. Pez gives chase to one of them, but loses him after narrowly missing one of his bullets. The trail of evidence eventually leads her to the door of Kenneth Irons, who is also being hunted by the sole surviving assailant of his bodyguard – but will protecting Irons neceessarily be the lesser of two evils for the wielder of the Witchblade?
Years after her travels in the TARDIS ended, Sarah Jane Smith has resumed her job as an investigative journalist, though her stint with TV network Planet 3 ended in disgrace after one of her exposes was proven to be based on false evidence. Fired by her network, Sarah’s troubles didn’t end there, as her identity, bank account and her employability were systematically erased. With the help of Natalie, her former Planet 3 producer, Sarah is still on the trail of a big story, but now she’s trying to find out who tainted her last big story – and her paranoia is growing. The trail leads to a bank where Sarah assumes a new identity and takes a job – but her cover is blown by the police when the bank is robbed. Sarah receives a message from her friend Ellie, an environmental activist, to meet her the next day at an isolated village, and Ellie’s friend Josh insists on accompanying Sarah, especially after she goes to meet with the bank manager again and finds him dead – with a note on his desk also referring to the village where Sarah is supposed to meet Ellie. Sarah and Josh go to retrieve her car, which she’s taken to keeping hidden in a garage away from her home for security reasons, only to see a man break into it and blow it up. They decide at this point that public transport might be a safer way to get there, and when they do arrive, they find Ellie’s environmentalist group preparing to protest a French biochemical company’s gradual plan to take over the entire village. Only some of Ellie’s environmentalist colleagues have gone missing, and the corpses have begun piling up near the village’s legendary healing well…
