Tag: Season Premiere

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Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

The Homecoming

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: A visitor to DS9 gives Quark the earring of a legendary Bajoran POW, and Quark hands it over to Kira. Kira recognizes it as the one belonging to Li Nalas, the greatest freedom fighter in Bajoran history and legend. Kira convinces Sisko to loan her a Runabout – and Chief O’Brien as pilot – to travel to Cardassia IV. Recovering Li Nalas and a handful of other Bajorans from a forced-labor camp, Kira and O’Brien rush back to DS9. Though the Bajoran provisional government officially condemns Kira’s cabalier rescue operation, the Bajorans on the station and everywhere rejoice in Li’s return. Sisko hopes Li can reunite the gradually dissolving Bajoran government, which is splitting into many factions, including the extremist reactionary Circle, isolationists who mean to evict all non-Bajorans from Bajor or DS9. The Circle is, in fact, beginning to make its presence known aboard the station, as is Li Nalas, when he winds up replacing Kira as the Bajoran liaison officer on DS9.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ira Steven Behr
story by Jeri Taylor and Ira Steven Behr
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Richard Beymer (Li Nalas), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Michael Bell (Borum), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Frank Langella (Minister Jaro), Leslie Bevis (Freighter Captain), Paul Nakauchi (Tygarian Officer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 06

Psirens

Red DwarfLister awakens after 500 years of hibernation, finding himself aboard Starbug with Cat and Kryten. Rimmer is rebooted, and Kryten brings everyone up to speed on events. Red Dwarf has been hijacked by an unknown party while Lister and the others were on board Starbug. Since the larger ship is now circumnavigating a large asteroid belt, the more maneuverable Starbug has an opportunity to hazard a journey through the asteroids and head Red Dwarf off at the pass. Upon entering the belt, Starbug enters a graveyard of ships. A scouter survey of one of the dead ships reveals a black box recording of a surviving astronaut being killed by a horrifying insect creature known as a Psiren – similar to a GELF, but instead of changing its shape to please those nearby, Psirens change shape to seduce their prey and then suck their brains out with metal straws. Granted, this may please somebody, but you’d have to be really deranged, or an extremist in the field of accupuncture. The Psirens try every tactic to snare individual members of the crew, and one Psiren manages to stow away aboard Starbug, where the crew are trapped with it…

Season 6 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten)

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Andy De Emmony
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Jenny Agutter (Professor Mamet), Samantha Robson (Pete Tranter’s Sister), Anita Dobson (Captain Tau), Richard Ridings (Crazed Astro), C.P. Grogan (Kochanski), Zoe Hilson (Temptress), Elizabeth Anson (Temptress)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 06

Out Of Time

Red DwarfAll trace of Red Dwarf has been lost. In the meantime, Starbug has wandered into a stellar fog concealing a reality minefield, which is itself defending something deep within the center of the fog. After stumbling through a number of unreality pockets, they reach the center of the minefield and find a derelict 28th century spaceship capable of time travel. They steal the time drive and install it in Starbug. Not long after, they are contacted by another spacecraft – another Starbug, this one from the distant future, occupied by the gang in their later years, when they have been using the time drive for decades to live the high life, but their time drive has broken down and they want the present Starbug’s time drive. And they’re willing to engage their past selves in mortal combat to get it.

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Andy De Emmony
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: none

Original Title: Present From The Future

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 1

Midnight On The Firing Line

Babylon 5A surprise attack results in the capture of a Centauri agricultural colony on Ragesh 3; when he receives the word, Londo Mollari is up in arms. When careful examination of a visual record of the attack reveals Narn heavy fighters are responsible for the invasion, Londo and G’Kar take every opportunity to go for each others’ throats and war seems inevitable. As if trying to prevent a Narn-Centauri war isn’t enough to occupy his time, Sinclair is also troubled by recent attacks by space raiders on unarmed transport ships – the pirates are taking more drastic and violent measures than ever before. The Centauri government decides to take no action regarding Ragesh 3. Enraged, Londo conceals this fact and tries to see if he can encourage sanctions against the Narn Regime in a meeting of the council. When G’Kar claims that the Ragesh 3 colonists have allied themselves with the Narn to escape factional fighting and produces Londo’s colonist nephew as a witness to this claim, Londo decides to take matters into his own hands in a most undiplomatic manner…

Season 1 Regular Cast: Michael O’ Hare (Commander Jeffrey Sinclair), Claudia Christian (Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Security Chief Michael Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Ambassador Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Stephen Franklin), Andrea Thompson (Talia Winters), Stephen Furst (Vir Koto), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Caitlin Brown (Na’Toth), Andreas Katsulas (Ambassador G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Ambassador Londo Mollari)

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Richard Compton
music by Christopher Franke

Guest Cast: Peter Trencher (Carn Mollari), Paul Hampton (The Senator), Jeff Austin (Centauri #1), Ardwight Chamberlain (Kosh), Maggie Egan (Newsperson), Mark Hendrickson (Narn Captain), Douglas E. McCoy (Delta 7), Marianne Robertson (Tech #1)

Babylon 5Notes: The dream of which Londo speaks in this episode is later seen in The Coming of Shadows, and is explained in full in part two of War Without End. It comes to fruition in Hour of the Wolf.

Although Ardwight Chamberlain is credited with the role of Kosh, he only provides the Vorlon ambassador’s enigmatic voice; production assistant Jeffrey Willerth was the actor underneath the bulky suit. Willerth later married series regular Patricia Tallman.

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M.A.N.T.I.S.

First Steps

M.A.N.T.I.S.Paralyzed after being shot while trying to rescue a child from an inner city riot, Dr. Miles Hawkins is roused from his recovery by a letter of resignation from John Stonebrake, a brilliant cyberneticist working at Hawkins Industries. Stonebrake has been working on a powered suit that could restore Hawkins’ mobility, and Hawkins demands to try it out, control helmet and all, with John following closely. During their test of the suit, Hawkins overhears a woman screaming, and races to intervene, discovering that he can hurl her attackers a great distance as a result of the suit’s superhuman strength. But after stopping the assault, a malfunction brings Hawkins to his knees and John rushes him back to the lab.

Hawkins is called in to offer his medical advice on what seems to be an outbreak of a fatal disease. Hawkins immediately recognizes the genetically engineered virus from its effects: it’s a biological weapon that he created. Despite the fact that he informs Lt. Leora Maxwell she is almost certainly infected from even a brief exposure, she breaks quarantine to try to find who’s responsible for spreading the virus. Hawkins also breaks quarantine to visit an old business partner of his, Solomon Box, who was ordered to destroy the virus. After his confrontation with Box, Hawkins survives an attempt on his life, and is then stunned when Taylor Savage, a witness to his foray in the suit has tracked him down and “wants in” on whatever Hawkins and John are up to. With his help, Hawkins discovers that Box plans to sell the virus to North Korean operatives, and the only solution may be to once again don the Mantis suit.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Bryce Zabel
directed by David Nutter
music by Christopher Franke

M.A.N.T.I.S.Cast: Carl Lumbly (Dr. Miles Hawkins), Roger Rees (John Stonebrake), Christopher Gartin (Taylor Savage), Galyn Gorg (Lt. Leora Maxwell), Kenneth Mars (Reese), Cordelia Gonzales (Dr. Rivera), Brion James (Solomon Box), Clabe Hartley (Tony), Lorena Gale (Lynette), Jerry Wasserman (Detective Paul Warren), Kevin McNulty (Fred Saxon), Ric Reid (Rex Hauck), Suki Kaiser (Ashley Williams), Martin Cummins (Dog Face), Cathy Weseluck (TV Interviewer), Robin Douglas (Manager), Madison Graie (Hassled Girl), Brock Johnson (Punk), Harvey Thomison (Dr. Zoom), Jason Lee (Korean Official)

Notes: M.A.N.T.I.S. has undergone a significant rethink to become a weekly series, walking back some elements of the pilot movie aired in January 1994. The fictional “Ocean City” setting is now “Port Columbia”, though it still has all the hallmarks of a major coastal California city. With the sole exception of M.A.N.T.I.S.Carl Lumbly as Dr. Miles Hawkins, the entire cast of the pilot, and their characters, have been jettisoned by the weekly series.

There’s strong evidence to suggest that the series and the pilot movie are not in the same “universe”. This episode seems to portray the first time Hawkins has tried on the M.A.N.T.I.S. suit, which he had already used prior to the pilot movie. Unlike the pilot’s plot point that Hawkins had worked with the city government of Ocean City, here he says that the investigation into the outbreak is the first time he’s consulted with the police since being paralyzed. In the pilot, M.A.N.T.I.S. is an acronym for the suit’s technology, whereas here it’s a term invented by Taylor Savage. It’s probably best to view the pilot movie and the series as two very different tellings of the same story.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 03 Star Trek

The Search – Part I

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 48212.4: Preparations are being made aboard DS9 for an inevitable visit from the Dominion, but no one can escape the fact that the station would wither under an attack from the Jem’Hadar. Commander Sisko, having gone to Earth for Starfleet briefings on the threat from the Gamma Quadrant, arrives in the experimental Federation vessel Defiant, a small ship originally created to do battle with the Borg. Carrying more firepower than any other Starfleet ship and a cloaking device loaned by the Romulans, the Defiant is to go to the Dominion before the Dominion arrives in the Alpha Quadrant; if need be, the ship is also to take the fight to the other side of the galaxy. Another innovation brought about by Starfleet Command is the transfer of a Starfleet security officer to the station, relieving Odo of all but station-bound security matters. The shapeshifter withdraws in anger while Sisko assembles a crew for the Defiant’s mission to seek out the Dominion for negotiations, but joins the Defiant crew at the last minute. A trade contact of Quark’s offers some information but little help in the search for the Founders of the Dominion, but does point the crew out to a planet through which most Dominion communications pass. When the Defiant arrives there, Dax and O’Brien beam down and find the possible coordinates of the Dominion command center – and are captured by the Jem’Hadar, who have also arrived in force in orbit. The Defiant manages to take out only one Jem’Hadar ship and barely survives the withering assault of the remaining attackers. The Defiant is boarded and Kira is blasted unconscious in the ensuing melee. Odo takes her and evacuates in an escape shuttle, heading not back to the station, but to a planet in the Omarian Nebula with which he has been preoccupied since arriving in the Gamma Quadrant. The planet turns out to be the home of a race of life forms very like Odo himself, one of which welcomes him home.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
directed by Kim Friedman
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Salome Jens (Female Shapeshifter), Martha Hackett (SubCommander T’rul), John Fleck (Karemma), Kenneth Star Trek: Deep Space NineMarshall (Lt. Commander Eddington)

Notes: Salome Jens had previously appeared in a very Odo-esque makeup in the sixth season Next Generation episode The Chase; no connection was intended between the two characters. Martha Hackett would later surface on Voyager in the recurring role of Seska. This episode introduces the Defiant to Deep Space Nine; the new ship was intended to convince disgruntled Next Generation fans that the series’ action wasn’t simply confined to the station.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 2

Points Of Departure

Babylon 5Within three days of the president’s assassination, Sinclair has been recalled to Earth. Captain John Sheridan of the starship Agamemnon is assigned to take command of B5, which is visited by Kalain, commander of the Minbari warship Trigati which has been missing since its crew defied the Grey Council’s sudden cease-fire order that ended the Earth-Minbari War over a decade before. The Minbari protest the choice of Sheridan to command the station due to his service in the war, and Grey Council envoy Hedronn warns Sheridan of Kalain’s presence and hostile intent. As it turns out, Kalain has made his way to Delenn’s quarters to kill the cocooned ambassador, but is apprehended before he can do any harm. Lennier reveals the reason for Sinclair’s recall and the end of the war: the Grey Council believes that the noblest souls of dead Minbari are now being reincarnated as the newest generations of humans, Sinclair included. The Trigati emerges through the jump gate, ready to attack if Kalain is not released from custody. Sheridan, who has been described by nearly every Minbari so far as a dark omen for the hope of peace, faces the prospect of renewed bloodshed on his hands.

Order now!Download this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Janet Greek
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain John Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Lt. Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Andrea Thompson (Talia Winters), Stephen Furst (Vir), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Robert Rusler (Warren Keffer), Mary Kay Adams (Na’Toth), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Richard Grove (Kalain), Robin Sachs (Hedronn), Robert Foxworth (General William Hague), Jennifer Anglin (Deeron), Jonathan Chapman (Ambassador #1), Joshua Cox (Tech #1), Kim Delgado (Dome Tech #3), Russ Fega (Merchant #1), Bennet Guillory (Merchant #2), Catherine Hader (Young Woman), Mark Hendrickson (Ambassador #2), Kristopher Logan (Ambassador #3), Michael McKenzie (Vastor), Debra Sharkey (Tech #2), Brian Starcher (Other Pilot), Kim Strauss (Ensign), Thomas Valinote (Security Guard #2), Greg Wrangler (Security Guard #1)

Original title: Chrysalis Part 2

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek Voyager

Caretaker

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 48315.6: A starship controlled by the Maquis mysteriously disappears in the Badlands, a charged energy field near the demilitarized zone, after being pursued by a Cardassian ship. U.S.S. Voyager, commanded by Captain Janeway, is dispatched from DS9 to the Badlands to find out where the Maquis ship went, especially since a Starfleet security operative, Vulcan Lt. Tuvok, was aboard. Arriving in the Badlands, the Voyager is scanned by an unknown presence and then ripped out of the Alpha Quadrant by a subspace phenomenon that causes heavy damage and kills many of the crew. Voyager ends up in an unexplored part of the galaxy where the first thing the crew sees is an enegry collection array. While repairs are being made, Janeway and her crew are kidnapped from the ship via transporter and deposited in a virtual reality, the inhabitants of which conduct experiments on the Alpha Quadrant visitors and then return them – minus helmsman Ensign Kim. Making contact with the Maquis crew commanded by Chakotay, Janeway discovers that the same tests were forced upon the renegades and that one of their number has also been abducted. A tenuous truce is arranged so that both crews can recover their missing comrades. Ensign Kim and Maquis engineer B’Elanna Torres, in the meantime, have been beamed to the planet Ocampa, a barren wasteland of a world whose short-lived inhabitants live underground. There they are attended to by the Ocampa, who have been instructed by the Caretaker to look after the two visitors since they have somehow become infected with a terminal illness. Voyager’s crew track their missing comrades to Ocampa and encounter the scavenger Neelix, who offers to be the crew’s guide through this part of space. His knowledge of the local area is invaluable, such as the revelation that water is a rarity and is valuable currency here. The crew is also introduced to the Kazons, who roam the surface of Ocampa foraging a meager existence. They hand over a captive Ocampa named Kes in exchange for some water from Voyager. Shortly after Kes leads the crew to Kim and Torres, the energy array shuts down after transmitting a final burst of power to Ocampa.

The Kazons make a gambit to claim the array for themselves, but Chakotay and Tom Paris, a dishonored former Maquis member aboard Voyager, battle the scavengers off with their respective starships as Janeway and Tuvok beam to the array and find the elderly and dying Caretaker, whose race accidentally destroyed the Ocampan ecosphere and then built the subterranean habitat and the power array so the Ocampa could survive. The Caretaker must be succeeded by another and has been trying to find a replacement for decades, but so far all of those tested for their suitability – such as Kim and Torres – have not proven adequate to the task. The Caretaker decides to set the array to self-destruct to avoid allowing the Ocampa to be enslaved by the Kazons. In the fierce battle with the Kazons, Chakotay’s Maquis ship is destroyed when he rams it into the lead Kazon ship, which then collides with the array, disabling the self-destruct sequence. Janeway beams back to the Voyager and destroys the array herself, though it could have sent her and her crew back to the Alpha Quadrant. The Kazons swear vengeance should they encounter Voyager again. With the surviving members of the Maquis and Starfleet crews both safely aboard Voyager – and with Kes and Neelix in tow – the ship sets a course back home, E.T.A.: 75 years…

Order the DVDsteleplay by Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor
story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Jay Chattaway
series theme by Jerry Goldsmith

Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), Basil Langton (The Caretaker), Gavin O’Herlihy (Jabin), Scott Jaeck (Commander Cavit), Angela Paton (Aunt Adah), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Alicia Coppola (Lieutenant Stadi), Bruce French (Ocampa Doctor), Jennifer Parsons (Ocampa Nurse), David Selburg (Toscat), Jeff McCarthy (Human Doctor), Stan Ivar (Mark), Scott MacDonald (Rollins), Josh Clark (Carey), Richard Poe (Gul Evek), Keely Sims (Farmer’s Daughter), Eric David Johnson (Daggin), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

Notes: This was easily the most troubled Star Trek series pilot since The Cage was rejected in 1965 by NBC. Internal problems in mounting Paramount’s new network made the show’s future uncertain as to whether it would be a network production or syndicated. (An earlier attempt to launch a Paramount network, with Star Trek: Phase II starring William Shatner and much of the original crew as the network’s cornerstone program, was aborted in the late 1970s.) Academy Award-winning French Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold then accepted the role of Janeway, only to resign from the show three days into filming due to the hectic pace of TV production and, according to some sources, a disagreement with director Winrich Kolbe. At this point, forces within Viacom tried to exert pressure to make Janeway a male character, having resisted the suggestion of a female lead all along. Other voices in the executive ranks suggested – since the other shows comprising Paramount’s new network were even further behind schedule than “Voyager” – that the ever more problematic gestation of the fifth network should be ended, lest the network take to the air and fail, taking dozens of new affiliate stations with it. In the space of a week, Kate Mulgrew was cast for the role as production continued with the cast and crew trying to maneuver around the lack of a captain in the meantime. The theme for the show’s opening titles was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, who had scored the first and fifth Trek movies, the theme from which was also adapted to serve as the score for Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Goldsmith’s latest entry into Trek’s otherwise drab musical canon later won the Emmy for main theme music in September 1995.) The show premiered on schedule on UPN.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Sliders

Sliders (Pilot Movie)

SlidersGenius college student Quinn Mallory is about to drive his physics instructor, Professor Maximillian Arturo, quite mad. Quinn is convinced he’s on the brink of breaking the barrier between dimensions, using a device that would let him “slide” between them and visit alternate histories. Professor Arturo is convinced that Quinn is on the verge of doing no such thing if he doesn’t start tending more carefully to his classwork. Quinn’s friend Wade – who isn’t his girlfriend, but wouldn’t mind if he ever did take notice of her – is concerned about him too, and when Wade and Arturo visit Quinn at home, they discover that he has indeed made a breakthrough. Quinn’s sliding device is still in the early stages of testing – and the first time he uses it, it has disastrous results, plunging Quinn, Arturo and Wade into an alternate reality and sucking up a hapless soul singer named Rembrandt “Crying Man” Brown along the way. The four of them find themselves in San Francisco, which is where they started – but they’re trapped in a world where Soviet Communism has overrun America. They quickly fall in with a resistance cell trying to restore democracy, a cell whose missing leader apparently had a striking resemblance to Wade – but they’re met with instant suspicion because the local Commandant bears an equally striking resemblance to Professor Arturo. Even if they survive this adventure, with or without striking a blow for freedom, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to return to their own universe.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Jerry O’Connell (Quinn Mallory), Sabrina Lloyd (Wade Welles), Cleavant Derricks (Rembrandt Brown), John Rhys-Davies (Professor Maximillian Arturo)

Order the DVDswritten by Tracy Tormè
directed by Andrew Tennant
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Linda Henning (Mrs. Mallory), Joseph A. Wapner (Commissar Wapner), Doug Llewelyn (Comrade Llewelyn), Garwin Sanford (Doc), Roger C. Cross (Wilkins), Yee Jee Tso (Wing), Jason Gaffney (Benish), Frank C. Turner (Crazy Kenny), Gary Jones (Hurley), John Novak (Ross J. Kelly), Don Mackay (Artie Field), Alex Bruhanski (Pavel), Jay Brazeau (KGB Colonel), Andrew Kavadas (Vendor), Sook Yin Lee (Pat), Wayne Cox (PBS Spokesman), Raoul Ganee (Sentry), Tom Butler (Michael Mallory)

Notes: Filmed in Vancouver, Sliders visits many of the same locations and even performers as featured a year later in Fox’s 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, including Yee Jee Tso and John Novak. Perhaps not coincidentally, Vancouver was doubling for San Francisco in that production too.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek Voyager

The 37s

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 48975.1: Voyager follows a trail of spaceborne rust, where the crew finds a centuries-old land vehicle from Earth drifting through space. When Paris manages to start the old truck, Harry’s curiosity about its AM radio uncovers an equally ancient S.O.S. coming from a nearby planet. Janeway, hoping that whatever brought the truck and the source of the distress call to the Delta Quadrant could be found and used to send Voyager home, orders a landing. A vintage airplane is found on the surface with an alien power supply keeping the S.O.S. on the air, and eight alien-abducted humans are found in stasis chambers also constructed by an alien intelligence. The 20th century humans are revived, and Janeway finds that among them is the long-lost pioneer female aviator Amelia Earhart. Also living on the planet are the descendants of other abducted humans, now masters of their world since they overthrew their forebears’ kidnappers. Once all parties are convinced that the Voyager crew are who they claim to be, the opportunity to settle down on this Earthlike world is offered to the wayward travelers.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeri Taylor & Brannon Braga
directed by James Conway
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), Sharon Lawrence (Amelia Earhart), David Graf (Noonan), James Saito (Japanese Soldier), Mel Winkler (Jack Hayes), John Rubinstein (John Evansville)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Xena: Warrior Princess

Sins of the Past

Xena: Warrior PrincessAfter ten years as a warlord, Xena decides to head for home. On the way she stops in a clearing to bury her weapons, armor, and leathers, reminders of her dark past. But before she can leave, soldiers chase a group of villagers into the clearing. She manages to go undetected while one of the soldiers orders the villagers to give up their women. A young woman named Gabrielle steps forward and offers herself if the soldiers will let the others go. They laugh at her, and when the leader of the soldiers reaches for her, she slaps him away. He pulls out a whip to beat her, but Xena stops him. Soon Xena, with some help from the villagers, defeats the soldiers.

Gabrielle’s family take Xena to their home to treat her injuries, and to put her armor and leathers back on. Gabrielle deluges Xena with questions about her fighting skills and where she is going. Realizing that Gabrielle intends to follow her, Xena threatens her to discourage the young woman. Xena then heads to Draco’s camp. The warlord who commands the soldiers who terrorized Gabrielle’s village, isn’t too surprised to see Xena. She asks him to leave the village alone. He says he will but only if she’ll join him or fight him. She refuses both and tells him she’s headed for home. He finally relents and promises to leave the villagers alone. Once Xena departs, Draco meets with his soldiers and makes plans to head to Xena’s village, Amphipolous. He sends his lieutenant and a few soldiers to follow the warrior princess.

Later that night, Gabrielle decides to sneak out of her home. She accidentally nocks over a stool, waking her sister. Gabrielle tells Lila of her plans and says goodbye. The next day, Xena encounters a cyclops that she blinded some years before. He tries, unsuccessfully, to smash the warrior princess. She throws her chakrum and cuts the rope he uses to hold up his pants. After he falls, she calls for her horse and then gives the fallen cyclops some advice before leaving. Draco’s men close in on Xena. Before they can reach her she disappears, leaving her horse tied to a tree. One by one she takes the men down. She asks Draco’s lieutenant about what he’s up to in a pinch interrogation. When he informs her that Draco plans on attacking her village, Xena releases him and heads for home.

Gabrielle is captured by the same cyclops that Xena had felled only hours before. She convinces him that she’s out to kill the warrior princess and if he lets her go, she will bring Xena, or at least parts of her, to him. He agrees and she goes on her way. Gabrielle encounters an old traveler in a wagon and begs him to give her a ride to Amphipolous. He tells her no, but she’s persistent and he finally agrees.

When Xena reaches her village, she heads for her mother’s tavern. Her mother isn’t happy to see her. She takes Xena’s sword and tells her she isn’t welcome there. Xena tries to warn them of what Draco is up to and wants to plan a defense. But the villagers remember another time when she asked for help to defend the village, and they refuse to help her. Later, Xena returns to the tavern to retrieve her sword, a group of villagers show up. They are angry because Draco’s men, pretending to be from Xena’s army, are burning their fields. They begin to throw stones at her. Gabrielle has finally arrived and darts in between the angry mob and Xena. She tries to convince them that the warrior has changed, but they won’t listen. So she tries another tactic. If Xena and Draco were friends or more than friends, they will only make him angrier by kiling her. Seeing her point, they ask her to take Xena away.

Xena decides to pay a visit to her younger brother’s tomb, and Gabrielle tags along. While they are away Draco arrives to talk with the villagers. They offer to supply the warlord and his troops whenever they are in the area, if he will leave them alone. He listens to this, and then demands to know where Xena is. When the village elder can’t tell Draco, he threatens to kill the old man. But Xena has returned and speaks up, stopping Draco. Draco again tries to talk Xena into joining him. She still refuses, but offers to fight him in a duel to the death.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Lucy Lawless (Xena), Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle)

Order the DVDsteleplay by R.J. Stewart
story by Robert Tapert
directed by Doug Leflar
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Jay Laga’aia (Draco), Darien Takle (Cyrene), Willa O’Neill (Lila), Anton Bentley (Perdicas), Huntly Eliott (First Citizen), Wally Green (Old Man), Linda Jones (Hecuba), Winston Harris (Boy), Roydon Muir (Kastor), David Perrett (Gar), Geoff Snell (Herodotus), Patrick Wilson (Cyclops)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Deep Space Nine Season 04 Star Trek

The Way Of The Warrior

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 49011.4: As the crew of Deep Space 9 try to prepare for a possible invasion by the Dominion, a fleet of Klingon ships decloak and take “shore leave” on the station. The Cardassians have sealed their borders after a rumored coup on their homeworld, and Klingon ships are stopping ships leaving Bajoran space to search them for Changelings. To get answers, Sisko calls on the aid of Lt. Commander Worf, who has been among the Klingon clerics on Boreth following the Enterprise’s destruction, and is considering resigning Starfleet. Worf learns that the Klingons plan to invade Cardassia on the suspicion that the new civilian government is run by the Founders. Sisko uses Garak to warn the Cardassians, and Gul Dukat manages to save the Detepa Council as the Klingon fleet advances. But the Defiant is needed to get them to safety – and its aid will have far-reaching consequences for the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

Season 4 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 & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
directed by James L. Conway
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Andrew Robinson (Garak), Penny Johnson (Kasidy Yates), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Deep Space NineRobert O’Reilly (Gowron), J.G. Hertzler (General Martok), Obi Ndefo (Drex), Christopher Darga (Kaybok), William Dennis Hunt (Huraga), Patricia Tallman (Weapons Officer), Judi Durand (Station Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 3

Matters of Honor

  • By Dave
  • November 6, 1995

Babylon 5As repairs to the station commence following the Centauri attack, an envoy from Earthgov’s special intelligence divison comes to Babylon 5 to ask the alien ambassadors if they’ve ever seen anything like the spidery black ship seen on Keffer’s flight recorder. Delenn has never seen a Shadow vessel before, G’Kar recites a description of the Shadows from the Book of G’Quan, and Londo remembers seeing similar ships flying over the palace on Centauri Prime . . . in a dream. A Ranger named Marcus comes to ask Sheridan’s help in evacuating a Ranger training camp, also presenting the captain with a powerful new ship called the White Star. Londo tries to sever ties with Morden, but the cost may haunt him in his nightmares.

Order now!Stream this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Kevin G. Cremin
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain John Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Commander Susan Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Security Chief Michael Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Stephen Franklin), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Peter Jurasik (Londo Mollari), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Tucker Smallwood (David Endawi), Ed Wasser (Morden), Nils Allen Stewart (Large Man), Ardwight Chamberlain (Kosh), Jonathan Chapman (Drazi Pilot), Kitty Swink (Senator), Andrew Walker (Psi Cop)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Season 03 Star Trek Voyager

Basics – Part II

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate 50032.7: Janeway and most of the crew, abandoned with none of their technology on the volcanic planet by the Kazon Nistrim, struggle to survive against both the elements and a group of primitive cave-dwellers. Aboard the captured Voyager, the Doctor and recovering sociopath Lon Suder form an alliance to try to wrest control back from Cullah’s boarding party while Tom Paris seeks help from a distant group of Talaxians. Suder makes the greatest sacrifice of all as he finds he must release the dark side of his psyche in order to save the ship. Chakotay establishes the rudiments of communication with the tribesmen on the planet. And Paris convinces a reluctant Commander Paxim to use his Talaxian fleet in an attack which depends on timing to avoid disaster.

Season 3 Regular Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim)

Order the DVDswritten by Michael Piller
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Brad Dourif (Crewman Lon Suder), Anthony DeLongis (Cullah), Martha Hackett (Seska), Nancy Hower (Ensign Samantha Wildman), Simon Billig (Hogan), Scott Haven (Tribal Leader), David Cowgill (Kazon Engineer), Michael Bailey Smith (Kazon Crewman), John Kenton Shull (Kazon Crewman), Russ Fega (Commander Paxim), Majel Barrett (Narrator/Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Paul Campbell

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Deep Space Nine Season 05 Star Trek

Apocalypse Rising

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: The Federation and the Klingon Empire are now at war, and the only way to stop it is to prove that Gowron, the leader of the Klingon High Council, is a changeling. To expose the spy, Sisko and three officers – Worf, O’Brien, and a now-human Odo – must infiltrate a Klingon ceremony in disguise, and activate devices which will cause the changeling to lose its shape. But getting there, and staying undetected long enough to accomplish their mission, is much easier said than done…

Season 5 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 & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
directed by James L. Conway
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Robert O’Reilly (Gowron), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Marc Alaimo (Dukat), Casey Biggs (Damar), Robert Budaska (Burly Klingon), Robert Zachar (Head Guard), John L. Bennett (Towering Klingon), Tony Epper (Drunken Klingon), Ivor Bartels (Young Klingon)

Notes: Kira blames her pregnancy on Bashir in this episode, a gag which puts a crack in the fourth wall as Alexander Siddig really was the father of the child Nana Visitor was expecting at the time.

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover with notes by Earl Green