Tag: Series Premiere

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Powers Season 1

Pilot

PowersSuperpowers are real. Those who have them – known simply as Powers – operate on a different level of morality than “mere mortals”, though they themselves are perfectly mortal. Major metropolitan areas suffer serious damage from battles between real superheroes and supervillains, and subterranean prisons exist to house captured villains. Powers have celebrity status; young people with latern powers must choose how to use their abilities, often with little in the way of guidance.

Superpowers no longer exist for Detective Christian Walker. Now the head of the NYPD’s Powers Division, Walker was once a Power himself – a famous superhero known as Diamond. He lost his abilities in a battle with “Big Bad” Wolfe, who now languishes in a federal Powers containment facility. One of Walker’s superhero allies from his days as Diamond, Olympia, turns up dead, a victim of a designer drug that somehow modifies Power DNA. The drug was given to him by a girl named Calista, a “wannabe” who claims she has latent powers. Walker and his new partner, Deena Pilgrim, question the girl, but she vanishes from her interrogation room. Walker suspects one of his old enemies, Johnny Royale, is still on the move, though everyone else thinks Royale is dead. Walker tries to find Calista to learn more about the drug and to find out if Royale is involved, but he finds her on the brink of suicide, and in trying to stop her, he makes the fatal mistake of forgetting he himself is no longer a Power…

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Charlie Huston
based on the graphic novel by Michael Avon Oeming & Brian Michael Bendis
directed by David Slade
music by Jeff Rona

Cast: Sharlto Copley (Christian Walker), Susan Heyward (Detective Deena Pilgrim), Noah Taylor (Johnny Royale), Olesya Rulin (Calista), Adam Godley (Captain Cross), Max Fowler (Krispin Stockley), Michelle Forbes (Retro Girl), Eddie Izzard (Wolfe), Logan Browning (Zora), Claire Bronson (Candace Stockley), Aaron Farb (Simons), Justice Leak (Detective Kutter), David Ury (Dr. Death), Mario Lopez (himself), Phillip Devona (Zabriski), Daniel Thomas May (Bug), Adam Boyer (Olympia), Mickey Cole (Levitation Boy), Pete Burris (Adlard), Brian LaFontaine (Brian Stockley), Johnny Giacalone (Cancilarra), Brett Gentile (Argento), Leander Suleiman (Mack), Jeryl Prescott Sales (Golden), Linds Edwards (Zerotron X), Michael Beasley (Chaykin), Victor Turner (Supression Specialist), B.J. Winfrey (Shaft Guard), Dave Pileggi (Med Tech #1), Troy Brenna (Iron Impact), Sara Pagliocca (Porn Star)

PowersNotes: Based on a series of comics first published in 2000 whose film/TV rights were optioned within a year of the publication of the first collected graphic novel edition, Powers took a long road to the screen. In 2011, filming began on a pilot with an earlier edition of the script (written by Brian Michael Bendis, writer of the comics) and a completely different cast, only to be turned down by cable network FX. A new cast (led by District 9 star Sharlto Copley) began shooting new scripts in 2014, with Bendis and fellow creator Michael Avon Oeming serving as executive producers. Rather than a traditional broadcast or cable outlet, Powers found a home as the first original series on the Playstation Network. Despite mixed reviews, viewership numbers were promising enough for Sony to greenlight a second season, to debut in 2016. You can read reviews of the original Powers graphic novels in our Book Reviews section, and you can also check out a lengthy multi-part interview with Brian Michael Bendis at Dave Thomer’s This Is Not News (part 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9).

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Other Space

Into The Great Beyond…Beyond

Other SpaceIn the year 2105, the Universal Mapping Project cruiser – already considered something of an expensive failure – is assigned to a new commander, freshly promoted Captain Stewart Lipinski. Considered a promising candidate for his unusual solution to the UMP’s “no-win scenario” simulation, Stewart is joined by his older sister Karen, who is somewhat awkwardly assigned to be his second-in-command. Stewart’s former babysitter, Michael, is third-in-command, while veteran UMP engineer Zalian Fletcher keeps his existing post aboard the cruiser (along with his homemade robot, A.R.T.). Kent Woolworth, son of the President of the UMP, is the ship’s science officer, while Stewart has his academy crush, Tina Shukshin, assigned as navigator. The ship’s onboard AI, Natasha, oversees automatic systems for the cruiser’s small crew.

Almost immediately, Stewart’s first command goes awry; Zalian neglected to requisition replacements for the ship’s 35-year-old food packs, and while he offers to share his personal supply of fudge with the others, Stewart decides to turn the cruiser around. A chance collision with a tear in space and time deposits the UMP cruiser in another universe, with no clear way to return to the universe in which it started. Fortunately, things aren’t as they seem. And then Stewart realizes that even the things that aren’t as they seem…aren’t as they seem.

Watch this at the official sitewritten by Paul Feig
directed by Luke Matheny
music by Orr Rebhun & Erica Weis

Other SpaceCast: Trace Beaulieu (A.R.T.), Neil Casey (Kent Woolworth), Eugene Cordero (Michael Newman), Joel Hodgson (Zalian Fletcher), Conor Leslie (Natasha), Bess Rous (Karen Lipinski), Karan Soni (Stewart Lipinski), Milana Vayntrub (Tina Shukshin), Jessica Chaffin (General Hayson), Bjorn Gustaffson (Ted), Roni Akurati (young Stewart), Edgar Blackmon (Crew Member #3), Brian Carpenter (Dom), Mo Collins (Helen Woolworth), Kate Comer (Crew Member #1), Evan Gustao (Crew Member #2), Jerry O’Connor (A.R.T. Puppeteer #2), Ryan Petersen (young Michael)

Other SpaceNotes: Series creator Paul Feig is renowned in cult TV circles as the creator of the short-lived series Freaks & Geeks, and went on to direct a big-screen, gender-flipped reboot of Ghostbusters on the big screen. Joel Hodgson and Trace Beaulieu are veterans – and founding cast members – of legendary movie-riffing comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. As with his MST3K character, Beaulieu provides both the voice and some puppetry expertise for A.R.T. All eight episodes of Other Space’s first season were released simultaneously by Yahoo Screen, a video-on-demand service later cancelled by Yahoo.com.

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Season 1 Supergirl

Supergirl (pilot)

SupergirlIn the dying days of the planet Krypton, young Kara Zor-El is sent to Earth to protect her younger cousin, Kal-El. When debris from Krypton’s destruction knocks Kara’s escape pod off-course, a detour through the Phantom Zone means that she doesn’t reach Earth until after Kal-El has reached maturity (and become known to the world as Superman). Her upbringing is entrusted to the Danvers family, where she has a normal life, an older sister…and eventually grows up in a very human way, not using her powers at all, holding down a dead-end job at the National City Tribune, being ordinary.

This ends when she learns that a flight taking her sister to Geneva is about to crash. She brings the plane down safely, but in doing so exposes herself to the scrutiny of the public as well as secret organizations. One of them, a cabal of Kryptonian criminals banished to the Phantom Zone, followed her pod to Earth, a planet of weak beings they intend to subjugate. Kara is an obstacle to their plans and is marked for death.

But Kara is even more disturbed to find that another organization, tracking aliens and those with extraordinary powers, includes her older sister, Alex, among its ranks. This organization is aware of, and closely monitors, the Kryptonian criminals, but believes Kara will prove ineffective in stopping them. She is urged to go back into hiding, to retreat into ordinary human life.

But it’s too late for that. Cat Grant, publisher of the Tribune, has taken the few blurry photos of Kara from the airplane rescue and has attached a name to National City’s new hero: Supergirl. With some advice from James (formerly Jimmy) Olsen, an old friend of her cousin’s, Kara must now navigate the already-complicated life of a twenty-four year old woman…and a secret life as a superhero.

Get this season on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Ali Adler
story by Greg Berlanti & Ali Adler & Andrew Kreisberg
directed by Glen Winter
music by Blake Neely

SupergirlCast: Melissa Benoist (Kara / Supergirl), Mehcad Brooks (James Olsen), Chyler Leigh (Alex Danvers) Jeremy Jordan (Winn Schott), David Harewood (Hank Henshaw), Calista Flockhart (Cat Grant), Dean Cain (Jeremiah Danvers), Laura Benanti (Alura / Astra), Helen Slater (Eliza Danvers), Owain Yeoman (Vartox), Faran Tahir (Commander), Ben Begley (Tobey), Robert Gant (Zor-El), Derek Mio (Hayashi), Maline Weissman (young Kara Zor-El), Jordan Mazarati (young Alex Danvers), Briana Venskus (Agent Vasquez), Chriss Anglin (Pilot), Rick Garcia (Himself), Nick Jaine (Another Staffer), Kinna McInroe (Waitress), Leyna Nguyen (Herself), Paul Stuart (Yale), Julien Yuen (Terrified Teen)

SupergirlNotes: Kara’s parents are portrayed by actors with significantly super roles of their own. Helen Slater played Supergirl in the character’s sole big-screen adventure in 1984, while Dean Cain played Superman himself, almost as a side-note to the role of Clark Kent, in the 1990s TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman. Supergirl was developed for TV by the dynamic duo of Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, who brought Arrow and The Flash to CBS’ sister network, the CW; it was felt that Supergirl was enough of a high-profile character to add her to the CBS schedule rather than the CW. Supergirl proved popular on CBS, winning the series a full-season pickup, though she would eventually migrate to the CW for her second season.

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Audio Series Prisoner, The

Departure and Arrival

The PrisonerAn agent of the British Foreign Office unexpectedly submits his resignation, setting off a panic among his superiors, who discovered that he is planning to flee the country and go to the Bahamas. Armed agents break into his home and abduct him, and when he awakens, he is in the Village, a gaily-colored, self-contained community whose residents seem to know nothing beyond its boundaries. No one seems to know who he is, and no one knows his name. A man identifying himself as Number Two introduces himself, and welcomes the newly-christened “Number Six” to his surveillance and control center, the Green Dome. The tools at his disposal for watching every moment of every life within the Village unfold is mind-boggling, with cameras, mobile phones, ubiquitous and even portable screens, and a kind of interconnected network tying it all together at Number Two’s fingertips. Number Two makes it clear that no one leaves the Village – and Number Six suspects that the penalty for doing so would be fatal. A former intelligence colleague of Number Six, Cobb, is also on the island, and mounts a valiant escape attempt, but he is captured by a deadly security device called Rover and taken to the Village’s hospital; not long afterward, Cobb is reported to have committed suicide, though Number Six immediately suspects something far more sinister. A chance meeting with a woman named Number Nine leads to another escape plan, but is Nine truly an ally and a fellow victim of the Village…or is she a trap?

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Jamie Robertson

Cast: Mark Elstob (Number Six), John Standing (Number Two), Celia Imrie (Number Two), Sara Powell (Number Nine), Helen Goldwyn (Village Voice), Sarah Mowat (ZERO-SIX-TWO), Jim Barclay (Control/Old Captain/Cobb), Barnaby Edwards (Number 34/Danvers/Butler)

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Season 1 Stranger Things

The Vanishing Of Will Byers

Stranger ThingsNovember 6, 1983: An incident occurs at the Hawkins National Lab in Hawkins, Indiana. Something beyond the lab’s control escapes into the surrounding suburbs.

A marathon weekend session of Dungeons & Dragons breaks up, and Mike Wheeler has to give up being the Dungeon Master and return to school the following day. His friends Lucas, Dustin and Will all get on their bikes to head home, but the sight of a strange, towering humanoid figure sends Will off the road. He ditches his bike and races home on foot, only to find that both his older brother and his mother are still at work. Something beyond Will’s comprehension takes him.

Joyce Byers, Will’s mother, files a missing child report with the local police, though the initial response from Hawkins’ police chief is a bit underwhelming. Mike, Lucas and Dustin are all warned to stay home, rather than going to look for Will. Across town, a mysterious girl in a hospital gown is taken in by a restaurant owner, who pays for his kindness with his life when armed agents come looking for her. The girl manages to escape, and runs into Mike, Lucas and Dustin, who are doing precisely what they’ve been told not to do.

written by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
directed by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), Ross Partridge (Lonnie Byers), Shannon Purser (Barbara Holland), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Mark Steger (Monster), Chris Sullivan (Benny Hammond), Andrew Benator (Elevator Scientist), Stefanie Butler (Cynthia), David Dwyer (Earl), Catherine Dyer (Agent Connie Frazier), Salem Hadeed-Murphy (High School Principal), Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke), Hugh Holub (Scientist), Tobias Jelinek (Lead Agent), Cade Jones (James), Anniston Price (Holly Wheeler), Tinsley Price (Holly Wheeler), Anthony Reynolds (Agent), Susan Shalhoub Larkin (Florence), Tony Vaughn (Principal Coleman), Peyton Wich (Troy), Brenda Wood (Local Newswoman)

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2010s Series Tick, The

Pilot

The Tick1908: An alien artifact of unimaginable power plummets through Earth’s atmosphere and explodes over a forest in Tunguska, Russia. The emissions from this unearthly explosion imbue some humans with superpowers…and also serves as a beacon to others. Both superheroes and supervillains are now a part of life on Earth.

20 years ago: Young Arthur Everest witnesses the crash-landing of a spacecraft crewed by superheroes…pursued closely by a spacecraft full of supervillains. Incidentally, the crashing spaceship also crushes and kills Arthur’s father before his very eyes. A photographer captures a shot of Arthur being menaced by the supervillains’ leader, The Terror.

Now: Years of medication, treatment, and legal issues have left Arthur a barely-functional adult. Convinced that the Terror still lurks somewhere nearby, controlling the criminal underworld, Arthur has devoted his life to tracking the Terror down…despite the rest of the world insisting that the Terror was killed by a superhero known as Superian. Arthur follows one of his hunches to the city docks, spying on a criminal operation, when he is confronted by a superhero in an inadvisably tight blue suit – the Tick! The Tick seems certain that Arthur is destined to be his new sidekick. And Arthur may finally get the answer to the question that has consumed his life – is the Terror still alive? – unless befriending the Tick gets him killed first.

written by Ben Edlund
directed by Wally Pfister
music by Chris Bacon

The TickCast: Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick), Griffin Newman (Arthur Everest), Valorie Curry (Dot Everest), Brendan Hines (Superian), Jackie Earle Haley (The Terror), Yara Martinez (Ms. Lint), Kyle Catlett (young Arthur), Joanna P. Adler (Dr. Creek), Malachi Weir (Thug #2), Christian Navarro (Sidekick), Whoopi Goldberg (herself), Richie Moriarty (Mr. Everest), Andrew Dolan (Officer Dietz), Sonam Kunlingtse (Herder), Henry Yuk (Shaman), Berto Colon (Thug #1), Siraj Huga (Cab Driver)

The TickNotes: The half-hour pilot episode of The Tick restarts the story, completely separate from the previous live-action series starring Patrick Warburton (who is a producer of this series), the animated series that inspired it, or the comics that inspired all of the above. The Tick creator Ben Edlund returns to revamp his unlikely hero for a new decade, and a new distribution channel: this pilot was distributed free as part of Amazon’s Pilot Season event in 2016, winning a series pickup later that year.

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Season 1 Westworld

The Original

WestworldVacationgoers flock to a futuristic, robot-populated amusement park, where, for a hefty fee, they can experience the dangers and delights of bygone eras – indulgences that tend to focus on sex, violence, or both. The robotic “hosts” are constantly maintained by a team of technicians, programmers, and scenario writers, and after each scenario reset, the robots’ memories are wiped…or at least, that’s the plan. Some of the robots begin exhibiting signs of a crippling existential awareness, to the point of total breakdown. It doesn’t help matters that a black-clad visitor to the park has made it his mission to torture various robots to the brink of total failure, searching for a “deeper level of the game”. As Dr. Ford, the creator of Westworld’s robots, diagnoses a troubling case of this existential breakdown, the robot he is examining demonstrates a disturbing awareness of who, what, and where it is…and promises revenge upon its creators. Another robot, the oldest one in the entire park, returns to her existence as farmgirl Dolores Abernathy, but she too has experienced an awakening. Despite these and other failures, Westworld remains open to paying guests.

telepaly by Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy
story by Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy and Michael Crichton
directed by Jonathan Nolan
music by Ramin Djawadi

WestworldCast: Evan Rachel Wood (Dolores Abernathy), Thandie Newton (Maeve Millay), Jeffrey Wright (Bernard Lowe), James Marsden (Teddy Flood), Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Armistice), Luke Hemsworth (Stubbs), Sidse Babett Knudsen (Theresa Cullen), Simon Quarterman (Lee Sizemore), Rodrigo Santoro (Hector Escaton), Angela Sarafyan (Clementine Pennyfeather), Shannon Woodward (Elsie Hughes), Ed Harris (The Man in Black), Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Robert Ford), Louis Herthum (Peter Abernathy), Steven Ogg (Rebus), Michael Wincott (Old Bill), Eddie Rouse (Kissy), Brian Howe (Sheriff Pickett), Demetrius Grosse (Deputy Foss), Ptolemy Slocum (Sylvester), Leonardo Nam (Lutz), Kyle Bornheimer (Clarence), Bradford Tatum (Bartender / New Abernathy), Lena Georgas (Lori), Currie Graham (Craig), Timothy Lee DePriest (Walter), Jeff Daniel Phillips (Tenderloin), Bridgid Coulter (Mother of Young Boy), Regi Davis (Father of Young Boy), Mataeo Mingo (Boy of 8), Trevante Rhodes (Bachelor), Micky Shiloah (Bachelor), Keller Wortham (Bachelor), Olivia May (Hooker), Jackie Moore (Hooker), Alex Marshall-Brown (Hooker), Jeffrey Muller (Man on Train), Brook Kerr (Woman on Train), Bradley Snedeker (Passenger), Patrick Quinlan (Passenger), Bianca Lopez (Diagnostic Programmer), WestworldMolly Schreiber (Bachelorette), Stefanie Chin (Girlfriend), Joshua Sawtell (Controller), Nihan Gur (Female Laughing Host)

Notes: Actor Eddie Rouse (American Gangster, Pineapple Express), died of liver failure several weeks after filming his role in the Westworld pilot in 2014. The character of Kissy was meant to be a recurring role for him; the pilot episode is dedicated to his memory.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Class Season 1

For Tonight We Might Die

ClassShadows stalk the students of Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London. For some, it’s the shadow of loneliness, while for others, it’s the shadow of their parents’ expectations and lack of understanding. For Charlie, however, it’s a more literal threat, an alien race called the Shadow Kin who wiped out the entire species he ruled over as its prince. A soldier of a rival species, the Quill, is beholden to protect him for the rest of his life. Rescued from the last days of the Shadow Kin’s genocide against Charlie’s people by a time traveler called the Doctor, Charlie and “Mrs. Quill” are quietly dropped into Coal Hill School as enigmatic student and short-fused teacher. The Doctor believed both of them could learn much from each other, and from humanity. But when the Shadow Kin rip open a tear in the fabric of space and time, allowing them to run riot at Coal Hill on prom night, time may be up for Charlie, for Mrs. Quill, and for the entire human race unless the Doctor intervenes again.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Patrick Ness
directed by Ed Bazalgette
music by Blair Mowat
theme song “Up All Night” by Alex Clare

Cast: Katherine Kelly (Miss Quill), Greg Austin (Charlie), Fady Elsayed (Ram), Sophie Hopkins (April), Vivian Oparah (Tanya), Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jordan Renzo (Matteusz), Ben ClassPeel (Coach Dawson), Shannon Murray (Jackie), Aaron Neil (Varun), Natasha Gordon (Vivian), Anna Shaffer (Rachel), Paul Marc Davis (Corakinus), Nigel Betts (Mr. Armitage), Pooja Shah (Miss Shah), Alex Leak (Kevin), Laura Jane Hudson (Mrs. Linderhof), Satnam Bhogal (Counter Clerk), Ellie James (Student 1), Moses Adejimi (Student 2), Assay Hagos (Student 3), Shalisha James-Davis (Student 4)

ClassNotes: Long-suffering Coal Hill head teacher Mr. Armitage, played as always by Nigel Betts, previously appeared in the Doctor Who episodes Into The Dalek, The Caretaker, and Dark Water. Due to a year-long hiatus in the show as a result of the changeover from Steven Moffat’s production team to that of incoming Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall, this was – apart from a specially-made trailer to introduce new companion Bill – Peter Capaldi’s only in-character appearance as the Doctor between the 2015 and 2016 Doctor Who Christmas episodes; he is not expected to be a recurring fixture of Class.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 1

Novo Mundo

Mars2033: Daedalus, a multi-national, partially privately funded interplanetary vehicle, is about to land the first human expedition on the surface of Mars. After a year traveling from Earth to the red planet, a fault develops in one of the braking thrusters used to slow Daedaleus for a soft landing. Mission Commander Ben Sawyer personally takes on the task of replacing the circuit that will allow the thruster to fire, but this means he’s out of his seat when Daedalus enters the Martian atmosphere, subjecting him to a sudden return of gravitational G forces without the benefit of his seat in the crew cabin. Daedalus also lands off-course, away from a habitat/lab module already delivered to Mars via an unmanned rocket, but a closer workshop module may offer shelter in the meantime.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Karen Janszen
story by Karen Janszen and Paul Solet
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Ben Cotton (Ben Sawyer), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Laurent Winkler (Flight Director, Mission Control), Sara Martins (Louise Varda)

MarsNotes: Interspersing dramatic re-enactments of a potential Mars landing scenario with modern-day interviews with such figures as Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Andy Weir (author of The Martian), Mars is produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (producers, through Imagine Entertainment, of such past space exploration fare as Apollo 13 and From The Earth To The Moon).

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Orville, The Season 1

Old Wounds

The Orville2418: Slowly-rising Planetary Union officer Commander Ed Mercer arrives home to find his wife in bed with a blue-skinned alien. Not interested in talking the situation out, he leaves to seek refuge in his career in the stars.

2419: What a difference a year makes – Ed Mercer is still a commander, albeit one whose career has become even more aimless, punctuated by a few incidents of reporting for duty while hung over. (Not all differences are good ones.) Still, to his surprise, and despite his spotty career record, Mercer is offered a promotion to captain and command of the medium exploratory vessel U.S.S. Orville. He raises eyebrows at Planetary Union Central by hand-picking his somewhat uncouth old buddy Gordon Malloy to be the Orville‘s helmsman, but he has no say in the filling of the vacant first officer position, a candidate for which will be selected by the admiralty. But not in his worst nightmares does Mercer expect his new XO to also be his ex-wife.

There’s barely time for a reunion through clenched teeth before the Orville is dispatched to answer a call for aid from a scientific colony. The chief scientist there, Dr. Aronov, introduces them to a device capable of accelerating time; while he’s rattling off a litany of potentially beneficial uses, Mercer’s new security officer, Lt. Alara Kitan, wisely deduces ways it could be weaponized – and that’s why Aronov issued the vague call for help. He believes that if the warlike Krill learn of the time accelerator, they’ll descend upon the colony like a plague of locusts.

But the warlike Krill are already there, planting the seed for Mercer’s first true test as a commander.

Order season 1 on DVD and Blu-RayDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Jon Favreau
music by Bruce Broughton

The OrvilleCast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Halston Sage (Lt. Alara Kitan), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Victor Garber (Admiral Halsey), Brian George (Dr. Aronov), Joel Swetow (Krill Captain), Patrick Cox (Ogre), Norm MacDonald (voice of Yaphit), Christine Corpuz (Janice Lee), Sean Cook (Derek), Dylan Kenin (Krill Soldier), Dee Bradley Baker (Dr. Jorvik)

The OrvilleNotes: With a writing staff loaded down with veterans of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager (Brannon Braga, Andre Bormanis, David A. Goodman), and Star Trek veterans aplenty among the cast (Penny Johnson Jerald played Kasidy Yates, Captain Sisko’s love interest on Deep Space Nine, while Brian George guest starred as Dr. Bashir’s estranged father on the same series), a ship – with physical filming models no less! – designed by Andrew Probert, and diehard TNG fan Seth MacFarlane creating and starring, it can’t possibly be a secret to anyone at the end of the first hour that The Orville is both an homage and spoof of Star Trek: TNG. McFarlane, Braga and Goodman also collaborated on the 21st century relaunch of Cosmos, while Bormanis worked on National Geographic’s Mars series. Brian George and Dee Bradley Baker are also voice actors with many a role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Discovery Season 1 Star Trek

The Vulcan Hello

Star Trek: DiscoveryStardate 1207.2: An uncrewed communications relay at the edge of Federation space suddenly stops working, and the starship U.S.S. Shenzhou is sent to investigate. Captain Philippa Georgiou sends her first officer, Commander Michael Burnham, to investigate an object near a binary star that seems to be deliberately scattering the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including visible wavelengths. Burnham flies a thruster suit toward the unknown object, finding it to be an ancient vessel of some kind. When Burnham lands on the object, her presence triggers a sudden activation of the vessel, and an armed Klingon warrior appears behind her. When the Klingon attacks, Burnham attempts to escape, accidentally impaling the Klingon with his own weapon before slamming into part of the Klingon vessel and tumbling back toward the Shenzhou, unconscious.

Burnham awakens aboard the Shenzhou, rescued by suffering from acute effects of exposure to the radiation emanating from the binary star nearby. She leaves sick bay before her treatment is complete to warn Captain Georgiou of the Klingons’ presence. When Georgiou orders the Shenzhou‘s weapons brought to bear on the object just visited by Burnham, an enormous Klingon ship decloaks just ahead. As Georgiou consults with Starfleet, Burnham seeks the advice of her adoptive father, Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan. Georgiou is steadfast in her desire for a diplomatic solution, but Burnham advises her that the Klingons will only respect a show of strength: a battle worthy of their mettle. When she is unable to convince her Captain of this course of action, Burnham attempts a mutiny, but it’s too late: as the Shenzhou waits alone for reinforcements, an entire Klingon fleet warps into view.

The Klingons have been anticipating the humans’ spreading influence in the galaxy, and T’Kuvma, the leader of the Klingons aboard the ceremonial ship discovered by the Shenzhou, wants to unite all 24 of the Klingons’ disparate houses to attack the Federation before they themselves are attacked. T’Kuvma is annoyed when not all of the Klingons share his zeal…but the Federation ship before him has fallen so easily into the trap, he sees no reason to delay the war he sees as not only inevitable, but prophesied.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonteleplay by Bryan Fuller and Akiva Goldsman
story by Bryan Fuller and Akiva Goldsman
directed by David Semel
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: DiscoveryCast: Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Lt. Commander Saru), Shazad Latif (Lt. Ash Tyler), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Cadet Sylvia Tilly), Jason Isaacs (Captain Gabriel Lorca), Michelle Yeoh (Captain Philippa Georgiou), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), James Frain (Sarek), Chris Obi (T’Kuvma), Maulik Pancholy (Dr. Nambue), Terry Serpico (Admiral Anderson), Sam Vartholomeos (Ensign Danby Connor), Arista Arhin (young Michael Burnham), Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer), Justin Howell (Torchbearer / Rejac), Javid Iqbal (Voq), Ali Momen (Kamran Grant), Bonnie Morgan (Crepuscula), David Benjamin Tomlinson (Or’eq), Tasia Valenza (Computer Voice), Chris Violette (Britch Weeton), Romaine Waite (Troy Januzzi)

Star Trek: DiscoveryNotes: Stardate 1207.2 equates to May 11th, 2256 – ten years before the first season of the original Star Trek (and 2-3 years after the events depicted in The Cage and the Cage-derived flashback scenes from The Menagerie), and 95 years after These Are The Voyages…, the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise. As that finale takes place 5 years after the remainder of the fourth season of Enterprise, this may mean that Captain Archer’s last contact with the Klingons (in Affliction and Divergence) was one of the last contacts with the Klingons “a hundred years ago”.

Tasia Valenza, the new Federation computer voice (assuming the role left vacant by the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry), is the only cast member with ties to prior Star Trek: she was a Vulcan would-be Starfleet cadet vying against Wesley Crusher and others for a coveted slot at the Academy in 1988’s Coming Of Age. She also appeared in the 1990s series Space: Above And Beyond.

Star Trek: DiscoveryThe Klingons’ ritual scream at the heavens – a warning that a dead warrior is ascending – was first established in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Heart Of Glory, 1988); the concept of a multitude of Klingon “houses” originated in another TNG episode (Sins Of The Father, 1990). Ironically, Burnham’s adoptive brother, Spock, took a similar headlong plunge into danger in a Starfleet thruster suit in 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The original Klingon Torchbearer’s weapon is identified by Burnham’s heads-up display as a bat’leth, though very different in design to the one wielded by Worf in many an episode of TNG; it’s possible that, much like the Torchbearer’s title, this bat’leth is more ornately ceremonial than functional (though that doesn’t prevent it from being deadly).

Star Trek: DiscoveryCredited, but not appearing in, this episode are series regulars Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Jason Isaacs.

The Shenzhou is named for a real family of Chinese spacecraft that had only just started flying the last time there was a Star Trek series on the air.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Missions Season 1

Ulysse

Missions1967: The first Soyuz spacecraft, returning to Earth with cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov aboard, fails to deploy its parachute after re-entry – the last in a series of technical glitches that have plagued the mission. But history records that this is the fault that will doom Komarov to a fiery crash into the ground. The last thing he sees, however, is a blinding light streaming in through the capsule’s porthole…

2027: Just ten days away from launch, a multi-national mission to Mars is struck by tragedy, as the crew’s on-board psychologist dies in a helicopter crash en route to the launch site. Behavioral psychologist Jeanne Renoir is tapped to assume that position on the Argos mission. Ten months into the mission, as Argos approaches Mars, she has her doubts that the crew is capable of functioning as a team under the pressures of life on another planet. Matters aren’t helped by the fact that William Meyer, the financier of the mission, installed himself as a crewmember from the outset, and he’s not prepared to listen to Renoir’s recommendations. (The fact that Renoir herself has been having an affair with mission commander Martin Najac since leaving Earth – despite his wife’s presence as a fellow crewmember – may make her psychological assessments less than reliable.) Only 24 hours from landing, Meyer and Najac reveal to the rest of their crew that a nuclear-powered private American mission, Zillion-1, put a man on Mars ahead of Argos after only three weeks’ travel time from Earth – and that it sent only one message after landing, warning them that Mars is too dangerous to visit. When landing shuttle Ulysse fails to detach from Argos, Martin performs a spacewalk to manually release the latches, but the resulting movement when he does release them sends him tumbling into space, beyond his crew’s reach or their fuel capacity.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Julien Lacombe
directed by Julien Lacombe
music by Etienne Forget

MissionsCast: Hélène Viviès (Jeanne Renoir), Clément Aubert (Simon Gramat), Mathias Mlekuz (William Meyer), Jean-Toussaint Bernard (Yann Bellocq), Giorgia Sinicorni (Alessandra Najac), Côme Levin (Basile), Adrianna Gradziel (Eva Müller), Christophe Vandevelde (Martin Najac), Arben Bajraktaraj (Vladimir Komarov), Tiphaine Daviot (voice of Irene), Yasmin Bau (Jeanne’s assistant), David Clark (Astronaut 1), Menage Fleury (Sports Reporter), Nicolas Traino (News Reporter), Franka Koareau (voice of Russian Soyuz Operator)

MissionsNotes: Vladimir Komarov (1927-1967) was a real cosmonaut who not only flew solo aboard the real Soyuz 1 mission in 1967, but had previously commanded Voshkod 1, the first spaceflight with more than one crew member aboard, in 1964. In real life, the Soyuz 1 mission was rushed to launch in order to meet an artificial deadline, both to show up the American space program (which had suffered its own tragedy with the death of the Apollo 1 crew on the launch pad in January 1967) and to ensure the presence of a Soviet spaceflight in orbit during the celebrations of the anniversary of Vladimir Lenin’s birthday (April 22nd), despite many engineering problems persisting that should have kept the vehicle grounded until it was safer to fly. As depicted in this otherwise fictitious telling of events, Komarov did have significant problems orienting the MissionsSoyuz, exacerbated by the fact that its left solar “wing” never unfurled to provide the vehicle with sufficient power. (The opening scene of this episode shows the wing fully deployed, which never happened, an oddity since many of the major details of Komarov’s mission as used in this story are factually correct.)

Produced by and for French streaming service OCS (with “Martian” location filming in Morocco), Missions’ dialogue is entirely in French, with the exception of subtitled scenes involving Komarov (speaking Russian) and the distress call from the doomed American mission (speaking English). Series creators Henri Debeurme, Julien Lacombe and Ami Cohen were reportedly inspired by the ambiguous mystery storytelling and backstory-via-flashback structure of the American series Lost. The end credits show everyone who appears in the entire season; an attempt has been made with this guide to credit performers for their appearances in specific episodes. The Amazon streaming link included above is for the English-subtitled edition of the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Inhumans

Behold…The Inhumans

Marvel's InhumansA young woman is on the run in the forests of Oahu, Hawaii, when she encounters a man with green skin. His name is Triton, and he is obviously not human. But then, he explains, neither is she. She is one of the humans to have inhaled terrigen mists, and has gained new abilities as a result. But she’ll never be accepted by human society once she reveals her powers.

In the city of Atillan, hidden from human view on the surface of the moon, Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans, is under scrutiny for dispatching Triton to Earth for what now looks like it may have been a suicide mission. Black Bolt’s brother, Maximus, is especially angry with the decision, and tries to sow dissent among the ruling council, and even between the king and queen themselves. Gorgon, the head of the royal guard, is sent to Earth to find out what happened to Triton, but in his absence, Maximum sets a plan into motion: a coup to seize the throne for himself. Crystal, younger sister of Black Bolt’s wife, Medusa, orders her pet, Lockjaw, to use his teleportational powers to spirit the royal family and their closest allies and advisors to safety on Earth, but Crystal herself is captured by Maximum, as is Lockjaw, when he returns to save her.

Though Black Bolt and the others try to fit in on Earth, it’s hard to disguise their powers. This makes them far too easy to find, both for the authorities on Earth and Maximus’ new regime on the moon, especially when Maximus dispatches his personal guard, Auran, to round up Medusa, Gorgon, and Karnak…but her orders are to kill Black Bolt on sight.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Scott Buck
based on the comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
directed by Roel Reine
music by Sean Callery

InhumansCast: Cast: Anson Mount (Black Bolt), Serinda Swan (Medusa), Ken Leung (Karnak), Eme Ikwuakor (Gorgon), Isabelle Cornish (Crystal), Ellen Woglom (Louise), Iwan Rheon (Maximus), Mike Moh (Triton), Sonya Balmores (Auran), Nicola Peltz (New Inhuman), Marco Rodriguez (Kitang), Tom Wright (George Ashland), Michael Buie (King Agon), Tanya Clarke (Queen Rynda), Ari Dalbert (Bronaja), Aaron Hendry (Loyolis), Stephanie Anne Lewis (Paripan), Garret T. Sato (Lead Mercenary), Allen Clifford Cole (Outspoken Inhuman), Lofton Shaw (Young Black Bolt), V.I.P. (Young Medusa), Jason Lee Hoy (Royal Guard Sergeant), Steve Trzaska (Doudan), Jenna Bleu Forti (Lovely Inhuman Server), Jason Quinn (Pulsus)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Gifted, The Season 1

eXposed

The GiftedPolice squad cars pursue a young woman in Atlanta, only to lose track of her when she opens a glowing portal out of nowhere with her bare hands, leaping through it. She emerges through another portal in an abandoned building, and finds herself surrounded by others – others like herself. Police converge on the building, and after a fierce fight between police revolvers and powers almost beyond human comprehension, two of the suspects are taken into custody, while two of the cops are killed.

Teenager Lauren Strucker’s socially awkward younger brother Andy sneaks out of the house to accompany her to a school dance. When he’s picked on and tortured by the school bullies, Andy goes into a rage, unleashing an enormous amount of energy that almost brings the walls of the school down. Lauren, aware of his powers, drags Andy out of the school and races home. The incident has already made the news, attracting federal attention as America debates taking tougher measures to detect and contain mutants among the population. As Lauren explains to her mother that she and Andy have latent mutant powers, there’s a knock at the door. But it’s not the police, or indeed anyone with even the slightest respect for civil rights. Sentinel Services wages a secret war against the mutant populace. Andy again unleashes his powers to help his family escape. The Struckers are on the run.

This poses a serious dilemma for Reed Strucker, an attorney who has prosecuted cases involving mutants in the past…but he’s also in a very good position to know about the underground network that the mutants have built to protect themselves. Now he has to depend on the people he once helped to hunt down to save his children and his wife…and even if he can convince the mutants to help, it may not be enough to save Reed Strucker himself.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Matt Nix
based on the X-Men comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
directed by Bryan Singer
music by John Ottman

The GiftedCast: Stephen Moyer (Reed Strucker), Amy Acker (Caitlin Strucker), Sean Teale (Marcos Diaz / Eclipse), Natalie Alyn Lind (Lauren Strucker), Percy Hynes White (Andy Strucker), Coby Bell (Jace Turner), Jamie Ching (Clarice Fong / Blink), Blair Redford (John Proudstar / Thunderbird), Emma Dumont (Lorna Dane / Polaris), Toks Olagundove (Carla Jackson), Dale Godboldo (Ted Baird), Steffan Argus (Jack), Pierce Foster Bailey (Trevor), Giovanni DeVito (Dax), Billy Blair (Truck Driver), Dinarte de Freitas (Pedro), Dalton Gray (Jake), Josh Henry (Ben), Roscoe Johnson (Guard), Cynthia Jackson (Waitress), Jason Jamal Ligon (Side-Eye), Hayley Lovitt (Sage), Joe Nemmers (Agent Weeks), Jeff Daniel Phillips (Fade), Scott Parks (Passenger Cop), Jermaine Rivers (Shatter), Matthew Tompkins (Cal Jameson), Stan Lee (Stan Lee)

The GiftedObligatory Stan Lee cameo: Lee walks out of the bar, pausing in the doorway as he passes Marcos, who is en route to meet with Reed Strucker. Hi, Stan!

Notes: Though the X-Men are mentioned briefly, The Gifted presents a more small-scale look at the plight of mutants in America. The series is not based upon a particular comic, but was created by Matt Nix (creator and showrunner of the hit spy series Burn Notice) as a story taking place in the X-Men’s “universe”. Since the show is produced by 20th Century Fox (as opposed to Disney/ABC), The Gifted may share universes with that studio’s X-Men films, but is not part of the continuity of the bulk of Marvel’s Disney-produced film and TV output.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Stargate Stargate Origins

Part One

Stargate: Origins1928: A massive circular object, fashioned from stone and metal by advanced technology, is unearthed at an archaeological dig in Giza, Egypt, its purpose and origins unknown.

1938: Professor Paul Langford’s study of the unearthed artifact has run aground – he’s run out of funding, a German colleague has returned to Berlin without a word, and his daughter Catherine, who has been part of the study from its beginning, will soon return to the United States to take a job at a museum. Whatever the circular behemoth’s secrets are, there’s very little danger of them being found out with Langford’s project running out of steam. Just when it seems things can’t get any worse, agents of the German government arrive, claiming to know some of those secrets already.

Stargate Originswritten by Mark Ilvedson & Justin Michael Terry
directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan
music by Robert Allaire

Cast: Ellie Gall (Catherine Langford), Aylam Orian (Wilhelm Brucke), Philip Alexander (James Beal), Sarah Navratil (Eva Reinhardt), Derek Chariton (Heinrich), Justin Michael Terry (Gunter), Lincoln Hoppe (Stefan), Connor Trinneer (Professor Paul Langford)

Stargate OriginsNotes: The cornerstone of the Stargate Command stream-on-demand service, Stargate Origins is a new web series derived from events recounted in The Tormant Of Tantalus, a first season episode of Stargate SG-1. Though that episode (and thus the character of Catherine Langford) was written by Robert C. Cooper, the credits of Stargate Origins indicate only that the series is based upon the original movie by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. This is the first new Stargate project to go into production since the 2011 conclusion of Stargate Universe. Connor Trinneer is no stranger to the Stargate franchise, having played a recurring villain in the Stargate Atlantis spinoff series; he’s probably better known for his role as Chief Engineer Charles “Trip” Tucker on Star Trek: Enterprise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green