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Classic Season 26 Doctor Who

Battlefield

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Ace arrive in Britain in the late 90s, near a stranded convoy carrying a nuclear missile. Strange weather and power outages seem to be taking place all of a sudden, and the Doctor himself is mystified at the coincidences – especially since all of this is happening on the shores of the lake where, according to legend, the dying King Arthur returned Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. The legend turns out to have a solid foundation in reality – but a different reality where one of the Doctor’s future selves was trapped for a time, assuming the identity of Merlin. Now that warriors on both sides of the ancient battle are entering Earth’s dimension, the Doctor must take on a role he doesn’t even know how to play.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Ben Aaronovitch
directed by Michael Kerrigan
music by Keff McCulloch

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred, Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Jean Marsh (Morgaine), Christopher Bowen (Mordred), Angela Bruce (Brigadier Winifred Bambera), Marcus Gilbert (Ancelyn), Ling Tai (Shou Yuing), Angela Douglas (Doris), June Bland (Elizabeth Rowlinson), Noel Collins (Pat Rowlinson), James Ellis (Peter Warmsly), Marek Anton (The Destroyer), Dorota Rae (Flight Lieutenant Lavel), Robert Jezek (Sergeant Zbrigniev), Paul Tomany (Major Husak), Stefan Schwartz (Knight Commander)

Broadcast from September 6 through 27, 1989

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Alien Nation Season 1

Pilot

Alien NationFive years after a ship full of Tenctonese slaves crashed on Earth, the “Newcomers” are gradually integrating into human society, holding jobs, holding public office, and struggling for acceptance. LAPD Detective Matt Sikes and his Tenctonese partner, Detective George Francisco, find themselves investigating a case involving the body of a dead homeless man, covered with sores of an unknown origin. They find most of the leads in the case to be dead-ends, but things get more complicated when the body vanishes from the coroner’s morgue. In the meantime, they have their hands full with other emergencies as well, including breaking up a rally of anti-Newcomer “Purists” at a local school which happens to be attended by George’s eight-year-old daughter Emily. The protest rally is quickly disbanded by Sikes, but when class resumes, Emily discovers that bigotry isn’t a phenomenon unique to adult humans. Emily’s older brother Buck actively resents his father’s insistence that he assimilate into human society, opting instead to skip school and fall in with a crowd of like-minded Tenctonese teens, though Buck’s attempts to live part of his life on the streets may have disastrous consequences. George’s wife Susan attends classes of her own, trying to discover a niche she can fill on Earth.

When Burns, a tabloid photographer who hangs around the precinct and continually annoys Sikes, captures a photo of a hulking insectoid creature, and Newcomer bodies begin to turn up horribly disfigured, rumors abound, ranging from an unknown virus brought to Earth by the aliens, or some sort of creature that occupied a Newcomer host body for its trip to Earth. Public sentiment turns against the Tenctonese and tensions rise. Sikes turns to his Newcomer neighbor, biologist Cathy Frankel, for help in deciphering the clues, but it seems that she knows something about the case that she doesn’t want to discuss. Sikes and George mount a stakeout at the site where Newcomer corpses have been found, only to discover that their threat may be more home-grown than they realized.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Kenneth Johnson
directed by Kenneth Johnson
music by Joe Harnell

Cast: Gary Graham (Matt Sikes), Eric Pierpoint (George Francisco), Michele Scarabelli (Susan Francisco), Lauren Woodland (Emily Francisco), Sean Six (Buck Francisco), Terri Treas (Cathy), Molly Morgan (Jill), Jeff Marcus (Albert Einstein), Jeff Doucette (Burns), Ron Fassler (Capt. Grazer), Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Sgt. Dobbs), L. Scott Caldwell (Lyddie), Diane Civita (Jill’s Mother), William Frankfather (Purist Leader), Ketty Lester (Teacher), Loyda Ramos (Puente), Tim Russ (Ketnes), Brian Smiar (Priest), Evan Kim (Dr. Lee), Tony Acierto (Marcus), Jeff Austin (Randall), Terry Beaver (Newcomer Cop), Lisa Donaldson Bowman (Miranda), Jade Calegory (Mark), George Cheung (Rowdy #2), Gus Corrado (Linen Manager), Robert Allan Curtis (Salvage Manager), Trevor Edmond (Blentu), John William Evans (Vagrant), Brooks Anne Hayes (Receptionist), Marco Hernandez (Tito), Kevin Hurley (Second Streetperson), John Kirby (Supporter), Aaron Lustig (Amos N. Andy), Melora Marshall (Woman Purist), Joe Mays (Informant), Richard Mehana (Dr. Hurwitz), Martha Melinda (First Streetperson), Catherine Paolone (Diane), John Patrick Reger (Ramna), Bert Rosario (Bernardo), Andrea Stein (Homeowner), Tiere Turner (Black Kid), Steve Vandeman (Rowdy #1), Ed Williams (Newcomer), Biff Yeager (The Man)

Notes: The two-hour pilot of Alien Nation is distinctly different in tone from the rest of the series, and makes many major changes from the story established in the film of the same name. Writer/director Kenneth Johnson enlisted the help of several people he had worked with on V, including composer Joe Harnell and actors Diane Civita and Evan Kim. Alien Nation has another connection with Johnson’s earlier work: the basic premise of Alien Nation, minus the characters, was intended to be the premise of the (never produced) season season of V, which would have seen the alien Visitors withdraw from Earth en masse, except for at least one ship which crashed on Earth, its complement of reptilian Visitors forced to become an underclass in a storyline that would’ve commented on Apartheid. This is the only episode in which Sikes is seen to smoke, though that may have been an attempt to stay “in character” as a street bum.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 03 Star Trek The Next Generation

Evolution

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 43125.8: While the crew of the Enterprise races against the clock to launch a space probe for a critical experiment, a culture of experimental microbe-machines accidentally released by Wesley threatens to render the Enterprise uninhabitable.

Season 3 Regular Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)

Order the DVDsteleplay by Michael Piller
story by Michael Piller and Michael Wagner
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Ken Jenkins (Dr. Paul Stubbs), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Mary McCusker (Nurse), Randal Patrick (Crewman #1)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blackadder Season 4

Captain Cook

BlackadderCaptain Edmund Blackadder, serving on the front lines of World War I, suspects that he and his men, Lieutenant George and Private Baldrick, are about to be sent on a suicide mission. When a call comes from General Melchett looking for an artist to inspire the troops for the big push, Edmund sees it as an opportunity to get out of the trenches. But once he gets the assignment, Edmund realizes there’s more to it than he was led to believe…

Season 4 Regular Cast: Rowan Atkinson (Captain Edmund Blackadder), Tony Robinson (Private S Baldrick), Stephen Fry (General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett), Hugh Laurie (Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh), Tim McInnerny (Captain Kevin Darling)

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
directed by Richard Boden
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: none

Notes: No explanation is given as to how the Blackadder line has fallen again despite the previous series ending with Edmund assuming the identity of the Prince Regent, and so presumably ruling England as King George IV. This Edmund may simply be descended from a different line than the lead character of Blackadder the Third.

This is the first series to feature absolutely no new additions to the cast. The entire regular cast had appeared as regulars in one or more previous series.

In keeping with the claustrophobic nature of life in the trenches, Blackadder Goes Forth features fewer guest appearances than any other Blackadder series.

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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Red Dwarf Season 03

Backwards

Red DwarfWhilst giving Kryten flight lessons in the Starbug vehicle, Rimmer and the hapless mechanoid wind up diving into some kind of time and dimension warp, arriving in a strangely different late 20th-century Earth. On this Earth, everything moves backwards – and Rimmer and Kryten are forced to use the novelty of being “forward” to land a job at a nightclub. Lister and Cat manage to track the others down, only to find by now that they’ve actually gotten to like the idea of watching ancient history unfold…or as the case may be, watching it fold.

Season 3 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Hattie Hayridge (Holly)

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

Guest Cast: Maria Friedman (Waitress), Tony Hawks (Compere), Anna Palmer (Customer in Cafe), Arthur Smith (Pub Manager)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 26 Doctor Who

Survival

Doctor WhoThe Doctor brings Ace to present-day Perivale to visit her friends, but she discovers that most of them have gone missing. Perivale is now a tense place where parents fear for their children’s lives and Sergeant Paterson teaches self-defense classes in hopes that the residents of Perivale can help themselves when the time comes. Unusually vicious black cats stalk the streets, marking their territory in the deadliest ways. When Ace joins the ranks of the other missing teenagers, the Doctor follows her, finding himself on the planet of the feral Cheetah People, a hostile world whose inherent violence infects all who go there. The Master has also somehow become trapped here, enslaved by the Cheetah People’s primitive bloodlust, and hoping to escape by using the new visitors from Perivale. The Doctor is left to face the dilemma: where is the Master more dangerous, on this alien world which will soon destroy itself, or running loose on Earth?

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Rona Munro
directed by Alan Wareing
music by Dominic Glynn

Doctor WhoCast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred, Anthony Ainley (The Master), Julian Holloway (Sergeant Paterson), Lisa Bowerman (Karra), Will Barton (Midge), Sakuntala Ramanee (Shreela), David John (Derek), Sean Oliver (Stuart), Gareth Hale (Harvey), Norman Pace (Len), Kate Eaton (Ange), Adele Silva (Squeak), Michelle Martin (Neighbor), Kathleen Bidmead (Woman)

Broadcast from November 22 through December 6, 1989

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Season 01

Experiment #101: The Crawling Eye

Season 1
MST3K Story: Dr. Forrester is preparing for the week’s experiment when Dr. Erhardt rushes in, worried that he may have been followed. This upsets Dr. Forrester, as their experiment on Joel is meant to be kept a secret. When they contact him, Joel shows off his invention of an electric bagpipe, complete with renditions of Amazing Grace and Whole Lotta Love. Dr. Forrester is impressed, as it has caused Dr. Erhardt’s corneas to bleed. To counter, Dr. Forrester shows off a serum derived from the pineal gland of a dog, which, when injected into Dr. Erhardt, causes him to stop sweating (and start panting). Joel notices that the Mads have moved and is shocked to learn they are in Deep 13, far beneath Gizmonic Institute in a sub-basement. Joel says it’s incredibly radioactive down there, but the Mads “like it”. Dr. Forrester starts to make a big speech, but it’s time for the movie, so it’s cut short. After watching some of the film, the Bots are confused as to why the humans are so upset at the prospect of having their heads ripped off. Joel tries to explain, but the Bots just use it as an opportunity to play word games. Joel finds that Gypsy has uncoiled herself and her tubing is spread all over the Satellite of Love. Joel removes Gypsy’s eye and waves it around to show her what a mess she made, but it doesn’t help and she’s got an itch. Joel and the Bots try to figure out which bit is Gypsy and which is just part of the solar collector cable. After the “eye creatures” are finally seen, the Bots decide that they find Forrest Tucker more frightening, but Joel tries to explain why gigantic, free-roaming body parts are much scarier (but to little success). At the end of the movie, Joel gives the Bots answer questions for RAM chips and even Gypsy gets one, despite the fact that the best answer she can come up with to any question is “Richard Basehart”. Joel and the Bots don’t really have anything good to say about the movie, and that makes the Mads very happy.

The Crawling Eye Story:The film opens in Trollenberg, following a trio of mountain climbers, one of whom is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant. An investigator, Alan Brooks, is called in and on the way meets two sisters, Anne and Sarah Pilgrim. They are entertainers (they have a psychic act) and are traveling for Anne’s health. But Anne has an uncontrollable urge to stay in Trollenberg and so they book a room in the local hotel. Brooks, meanwhile, meets up with Professor Crevett, an old friend who contacted him due to the similarities between the Trollenberg case and a previous one they had seen in the Andes; an unusual fog that has encompassed the mountain. Anne suffers a strange seemingly psychic attack while she and her sister are performing and it seems to have some effect on the fog. When communication to the resting cabin is lost, several locals and Brooks head up the mountain. This causes Anne to have visions in her sleep that convince her she must ascend the mountain, but she is stopped by Brooks. Brett, one of the missing men, returns from the mountain, but is distracted and acts strangely. Brooks immediately suspects something, and when Brett attacks Anne, Brooks knocks him to the ground. However, no blood comes out of a wound to the head Brett suffers and he easily shakes off a sedative, trying again to kill Anne later that night. Brooks is forced to shoot him and Brett’s body disintegrates. Brooks decides to move everyone to the Observatory which is higher on the mountain, but more easily fortified against attack. This move proves timely, as the creatures invade the lodge, going after a little girl who had gone back to get a lost ball. The creatures are gigantic, tentacled, amorphous beings, each with a single, gigantic eye at their center. Brooks rescues the girl and the last of the guests and villagers escape. But one becomes infected and Anne is once again under attack, but is once again rescued. Brooks and Co. finally try to go on the offensive, attempting to use fire against the creatures, which seem to be attracted to cold. Fire bombs seem to work and Brooks is finally able to get through to the authorities, who bomb the fog cloud, killing the creatures and bringing the crisis to an end.

MST3K segments written by Trace Beaulieu, Joel Hodgson, Jim Mallon, Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson & Josh Weinstein
MST3K segments director unknown

The Crawling Eye written by Jimmy Sangster from a story by Peter Key
The Crawling Eye directed by Quentin Lawrence
The Crawling Eye music by Stanley Black

Season 1 Regular Cast: Joel Hodgson (Joel Robinson), Trace Beaulieu (Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester), Josh Weinstein (Tom Servo / Dr. Laurence Erhardt), Jim Mallon (Gypsy)

MST3K Guest Cast: None

The Crawling Eye Cast: Forrest Tucker (Alan Brooks), Laurence Payne (Philip Truscott), Jennifer Jayne (Sarah Pilgrim), Janet Munro (Anne Pilgrim), Warren Mitchell (Professor Crevett), Andrew Faulds (Brett), Stuart Saunders (Dewhurst), Frederick Schiller (Mayor Klein), Colin Douglas (Hans)

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey.

Categories
Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Best Of Both Worlds Part II

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44001.4: The main deflector dish has no effect on the Borg because, having assimilated Picard and converted him into their spokesman, Locutus, the Borg know now every strategy and contingency that Picard had been informed of before his kidnapping. Riker is promoted to Captain by Admiral Hanson, who then leads a fleet of 40 starships to Wolf 359 to confront the Borg, but the fleet’s efforts are in vain – every starship is annihilated. Riker orders a cunning attack consisting of awkward strategies that Picard would never have carried out or expected, and an away team kidnaps Locutus and returns him to the Enterprise. Data then links up to Locutus to access the Borg communication network, and every approach he takes to disarm the Borg down fails until the Borg arrive at Earth to begin their domination of the Federation. Data triggers the Borg regeneration process, putting every Borg to “sleep,” but this also triggers the self-destruction of the Borg ship. Picard is freed from the Borg, Shelby returns to Starfleet to rebuild the fleet, and Riker remains on the Enterprise to continue serving as first officer. However, staring out the window of his ready room, Picard’s face indicates that all is not well…

Season 4 Regular Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Ensign Wesley Crusher)

Click here to watch a video previewOrder the DVDswritten by Michael Piller
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Elizabeth Dennehy (Lt. Commander Shelby), George Murdock (Admiral Hanson), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Todd Merrill (Gleason)

Notes: Of course, it was not even thought of at the time of this episode’s production, but one of the very few survivors of the Borg attack at Wolf 359 later turns up in his own series: Commander Sisko of Deep Space Nine, the premiere episode of which features scenes of the battle between the Borg and the Federation that was mentioned in this episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Quantum Leap Season 3

The Leap Home

Quantum LeapSam finds himself back home in Elk Ridge, Indiana – not living someone else’s life, but for once, reliving his own youth. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving and a major high school basketball game whose outcome would define some of his classmates’ lives, Sam has an opportunity – according to Al – to change the outcome of that game. But Sam sees other outcomes in much more urgent need of changing, such as trying to introduce his father to a healthier lifestyle so he won’t die in 1972, and trying to prevent his older brother, Tom, from shipping out to Vietnam. Uncharacteristically, Sam boldly announces that he has seen the future, and he knows what will happen…but far from convincing his family that he’s right, all this does is convince them that he’s crazy.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Donald P. Bellisario
directed by Joe Napolitano
music by Velton Ray Bunch

Quantum LeapCast: Scott Bakula (Dr. Sam Beckett / John Beckett), Dean Stockwell (Al), David Newsom (Tom Beckett), Olivia Burnette (Katie Beckett), Hannah Cutrona (Mary Lou), Mai-Lis Kuniholm (Lisa Parsons), Caroline Kava (Thelma Beckett), Mik Scriba (Coach Donnelly), Niles Brewster (Dr. Berger), Matthew John Graeser (Herky), Ethan Wilson (Sibby), John L. Tuell (No Nose Pruitt), Adam Affonso (young Sam)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 04

Camille

Red DwarfThe Old, Old Story: Lister tries once again to teach Kryten to rebel, with only momentary success, though it is promising. Kryten pilots Starbug as he and Rimmer go exploring. When a distress call arrives from someone on a doomed planet, Rimmer decides it’s too dangerous to investigate, but Kryten thinks better of it – and why not, he reflects, when Rimmer’s such a smee heee? Kryten finds a female mechanoid in a grounded spacecraft, and he’s instantly ass-over-nipple-nuts in love. Curiously, when Kryten brings Camille back to Starbug (which she warns him not to do), Rimmer sees a beautiful hologram who can actually stand to be stuck in the same ship with him. Naturally, when Camille is introduced to Lister on Red Dwarf, he sees Kochanski. Cat also sees Camille as a life form with the sexiest body he can imagine – his own. Camille is a pleasure GELF, a genetically engineered life-form who changes its form to please its users, and expects to earn the crew’s scorn. Kryten decides to still be Camille’s friend, despite her true amorphous appearance.

Season 4 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Hattie Hayridge (Holly)

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

Guest Cast: Judy Pascoe (Mechanoid Camille), Francesca Folan (Hologram Camille), Suzanne Rhatigan (Kochanski Camille), Rupert Bates (Hector Blob)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Remake Season 1

Tasha

Land Of The LostExploring while on vacation, the Porter family is deposited into another world after their truck plunges into a rift in the ground during a huge earthquake. The presence of three moons in the night sky is their first clue that they’re no longer on Earth, and yet the jungle world is populated by dinosaurs straight out of Earth’s prehistoric age.

The Porter family, safe in their newly built treehouse, is awakened by the sound of dinosaurs battling it out nearby. In the morning, Annie and Kevin go to collect water, finding a nest of destroyed dinosaur eggs, and a dead dinosaur – the mother who laid the eggs died trying to protect her young from a tyrannousaurus. Annie finds an intact egg in the nearby brush and they take it back to the treehouse. It hatches overnight, and Annie christens the baby dino Tasha: much to Kevin’s chagrin, Tasha is here to stay. When the same tyrannosaurus attacks the Porter family, they’ve got a defense plan inspired by Tasha… and no guarantee that it’ll work.

Land Of The Lostwritten by Len Janson & Chuck Menville
directed by Ernest Farino
music by Kevin Kiner

Cast: Timothy Bottoms (Tom Porter), Jennifer Drugan (Annie Porter), Robert Gavin (Kevin Porter), Ed Gale (Tasha), Danny Mann (voice of Tasha)

Notes: The baby dinosaur is named Natasha after the kids’ mother; it’s implied in dialogue that Natasha Porter is deceased. Composer Kevin Kiner would go on to co-compose the scores for several episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Star Trek: Enterprise with Dennis McCarthy, before moving on to the computer-animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

Redemption II

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45020.4: War erupts between the forces of Gowron and those of the family of Duras. The forces of Duras are winning even after Gowron’s fleets destroy all of their possible supply bases. Picard plans to take starships the Klingon/Romulan border to act as a blockade against Romulan aid to the Duras followers. Various Enterprise officers are assigned to other ships, most notably Data as captain of the starship Sutherland, whose first officer, Hobson, objects to serving under an android commander. Commander Sela, half-human, half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar, demands that the Federation leave the border. Guinan reveals that Sela is the product of the Tasha Yar who was sent to the Enterprise-C by Picard. Gowron launches a surprise attack on their enemies. Lursa and B’etor send a plea for aid. Sela tries to slip past the Sutherland, but Data foils the plan and the Romulans are revealed and forced to retreat, leaving Lursa and B’etor helpless. They escape and abandon Toral, leaving him to Gowron. Gowron offers Worf a chance to slay Toral, but Worf chooses not to judge Toral by his father’s actions and rejoins the crew of the Enterprise. As later noted when they unexpectedly arrived at Deep Space Nine, the Duras sisters are listed by the Klingon government as renegades, but still remain at large with at least one ship of their own, trying to raise capital for a second grab at the throne of the Klingon Empire.

Order the DVDswritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by David Carson
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Denise Crosby (Sela), Tony Todd (Kurn), Barbara March (Lursa), Gwynyth Walsh (B’etor), J.D. Cullum (Toral), Robert O’Reilly (Gowron), Michael G. Hagerty (Captain Larg), Fran Bennett (Admiral Shonti), Nicholas Kepros (Movar), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Timothy Carhart (Lt. Commander Hobson), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Jordan Lund (Kulge), Stephen James Carver (Helmsman), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 05

Holoship

Red DwarfOut and about in Starbug, the gang encounters a huge hologrammatic starship crewed by only the best and brightest holograms Space Corps has to offer. Needless to say, Rimmer’s in love. After a one-man boarding party from the holoship assesses that the rest of the Red Dwarf crew are useless, Rimmer is snatched away. Deciding that he too is among the best and brightest, Rimmer petitions for a berth aboard the holoship, an honor that will only be bestowed if he proves himself more useful than another member of the hologrammatic crew. Rimmer also meets a female member of that crew, whose members are accustomed to constant, commitment-free, meaningless, on-demand sex. Needless to say, Rimmer’s in love. Unfortunately, it is this very woman who he must challenge for a position – no pun intended – on the ship of his dreams. And she’s willing to give anything up so Rimmer can achieve his lifelong ambition to be a useful member of somebody’s crew. Needless to say, Rimmer’s in deep smegola when it comes time to make his decision.

Season 5 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Hattie Hayridge (Holly)

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Juliet May
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Jane Horrocks (Nirvanah Crane), Matthew Marsh (Captain Platini), Don Warrington (Commander Binks), Lucy Briers (Harrison), Simon Day (Number Two), Jane Montgomery (Number One)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 06 Star Trek The Next Generation

Time’s Arrow Part II

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46001.3: After Picard and the away team manage to find indigenous clothes and lodging, they begin a task which Data, separately, has pursued since arriving – attempting to track down the aliens. They find a couple, disguised as a doctor and nurse, who have been stealing neural energy and escaping unnoticed, and the deaths then are attributed to a cholera epidemic of the period. In the meantime, Data has enlisted the help of Guinan, but has run into some unwelcome curiosity from Samuel Clemens, who trails both Data and Guinan assuming that they’ve arrived from the future with evil intentions. Picard’s away team captures the key to the aliens’ neural energy-gathering trips but the aliens themselves escape. Picard’s party is rescued from arrest by Data, who then introduces Guinan to Picard for the first time in her life. They then travel to the cavern where Data’s head will be discovered in the 24th century, followed by Clemens. As Clemens pulls a gun on the travelers, the aliens return to retrieve their creature, but Data holds on to it, and one of the aliens escapes through a temporal rift. The energy surge causes Data to explode, and the alien nurse is left behind, dying. Riker, Crusher, Troi and Geordi return to the 24th century, taking Data’s decapitated body with them – and again, they are followed by Clemens. Picard remains to make sure Guinan is unharmed, while the crew, in the 24th century, tries to retrieve Picard, send Clemens back to his native time, and stop further alien intereference with Earth’s past.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Jeri Taylor
story by Joe Menosky
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Jerry Hardin (Samuel Clemens), Michael Aron (Jack the Bellboy), Alexander Enberg (Young Reporter), Van Epperson (Morgue Attendant), Pamela Kosh (Mrs. Carmichael), James Gleason (Dr. Appollinaire), Bill Cho Lee (Male Patient), William Boyett (Policeman), Mary Stein (Alien Nurse), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Highlander Season 1

The Gathering

HighlanderA common thief named Richie Ryan breaks into an antiques store and soon finds himself in more trouble than he bargained for: a man wielding a sword appears to protect the shop, introducing himself as Duncan MacLeod. Richie’s predicment gets even stranger as two more men appear, each brandishing their own swords – one says he has come for Duncan’s head, and the other claims to be Connor MacLeod, a relative of Duncan’s. Richie uses the confusion of what appears to be an impending swordfight to sneak away; Duncan’s girlfriend Tessa watches the proceedings with alarm as Connor and the other swordsman leave.

The following day, Connor returns, as does the other swordsman, Slan Quince – harrassing Tessa and Duncan. Where Richie was terrified by the crossing of swords, Tessa has reluctantly become accustomed to it – Duncan is an Immortal, a human being both cursed and blessed with the ability to survive any injury, even a fatal one, except for decapitation. When one Immortal beheads another, he gains the fallen Immortal’s experience and power in an explosive transfer called the Quickening. Both Duncan and Connor try to lay claim to Slan Quince, but Connor knocks Duncan out and takes the initiative. He meets Slan on a bridge elsewhere in the city, and though he wins the swordfight, Connor finds out the hard way that Slan has a secret weapon: a gun built into the hilt of his sword. As Richie watches, Connor plunges into the river beneath the bridge – and Duncan appears, ready to take up the fight. But even if he survives, Duncan has already pledged not to put Tessa any further through the ordeal of his Immortal struggle.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Dan Gordon
directed by Thomas J. Wright
music by Roger Bellon

HighlanderCast: Adrian Paul (Duncan McLeod), Alexandra Vandernoort (Tessa), Stan Kirsch (Richie), Christopher Lambert (Connor MacLeod), Richard Moll (Slan Quince), Wendell Wright (Sgt. Powell)

Notes: Until the fourth Highlander theatrical movie, which brought Duncan and other TV characters into the movie mythology, Connor’s appearance in the Highlander series pilot was the only definitive connecting tissue between the original movies and the series. This was the only episode in which a cast member from the movies appeared, though careful examination of the opening credits in the first season reveal at least one shot of Connor – not Duncan – experiencing a quickening from the original Highlander film.

LogBook entry by Earl Green