Tag: Series Premiere

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Ray Bradbury Theater Season 1

Marionettes, Inc.

Ray Bradbury TheaterJohn Braling, henpecked husband and unambitious computer salesman, is mystified when every computer he turns on suddenly shows him the name of a company – Marionettes, Inc. – and its slogan, “we shadow forth”, followed by a data dump of nearly every piece of Braling’s personal information. When even the computers he tries to sell begin showing this, costing him business, Braling pays Marionettes, Inc. a call. He is greeted by Mr. Fantoccini, who shows Braling a robot duplicate of himself, a perfect replica that can take Braling’s place while he goes off to live the life he really wants to live. The cost? Braling’s life savings – and yet he pays up in full. But when Braling becomes uncomfortable with how friendly his robot doppelganger is becoming with Mrs. Braling, can he simply put his duplicate back in the box and return it for a refund?

Get this season on DVDwritten by Ray Bradbury
directed by Paul Lynch
music by Bruce Ley

Ray Bradbury TheaterCast: James Coco (John Braling), Leslie Nielsen (Fantoccini), Jayne Eastwood (Mrs. Braling), Kenneth Welsh (Crane), Pixie Bigelow (Buyer), Rex Hagon (Buyer), Michael Fletcher (Buyer), Laura Henry (Secretary), Tom Christopher (The Other Braling)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Droids

The White Witch

DroidsDumped overboard with the cargo as their smuggler owner saves his own skin, Artoo and Threepio find themselves on a desert planet where two speeder racers happen to be practicing. The small-time racers, Jord Dusat and Thall Joban, pick up the droids. Dusat is particularly enthusiastic to have found an R2 unit, since they’ll need one to help pilot The White Witch, a speeder they’ve been customizing for the upcoming Boonta Race. But they’re not alone on this planet: a woman named Kea Moll is observing the racers and their new droids from a distance, and Tig Fromm, the heir to an interplanetary crime syndicate, intends to destroy Dusat and Joban before they can stumble across Fromm’s secret base of operations.

written by Peter Sauder
directed by Ken Stephenson
music by Patricia Cullen, David Greene and David W. Shaw
theme song by Stewart Copeland

DroidsVoice Cast: Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter MacNeill (Jord Dusat), Rob Cowan (Thall Joban), Lesleh Donaldson (Kea Moll), John Stocker (Vlix)

Notes: The Boonta Race is presumably related to the Boonta Eve pod race seen in Episode I (a movie which wouldn’t be made for another 14 years). With Tig Fromm’s mention of Jabba as a rival crime boss, it’s possible that the unidentified desert world is Tatooine (presumably Threepio wouldn’t recognize it as his memory was ordered wiped at the end of Episode III).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1980s Season 1 Twilight Zone

Shatterday / A Little Piece And Quiet

The Twilight ZoneShatterday: Peter Jay Novins, a businessman who is disgruntled with his lot in life, accidentally dials his own home phone number from a bar, and is stunned when he hears his own voice answering the phone. The man on the other end claims to be Peter Jay Novins – a man who is content with his lot in life. Stunned to his core, Peter leaves the bar, determined to take steps to starve his alter ego out of his life. But the harder Peter tries to force the “other” Peter away, the more he traps himself.

written by Alan Brennert
based on the short story by Harlan Ellison
directed by Wes Craven
music by Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir & Mickey Hart

Twilight ZoneCast: Bruce Willis (Peter), Dan Gilvezan (Bartender), Murukh (Woman at bank), John Carlyle (Clerk), Seth Isler (Alter Ego), Anthony Grumbach (Bellboy)

A Little Peace And Quiet: A harried suburban housewife working in her garden digs up a buried box containing a sundial-like pendant. Later, as her temper reaches a boiling point, she screams “Shut up!” – and time stops. The flow of time is resumed only when she says “start talking,” and only she can move or speak in the interim. Before long, she learns to use this talisman’s supernatural ability to her advantage, but when her world comes crashing down around her, she finds it necessary to stop the clock… and never start it again.

Twilight Zonewritten by James Crocker
directed by Wes Craven
music by Merl Saunders and The Grateful Dead

Cast: Melinda Dillon (Penny), Greg Mullavey (Russell), Virginia Keehne (Susan), Brittany Wilson (Janet), Joshua Harris (Russ Jr.), Judith Barsi (Bertie), Claire Nono (Newscaster), Elma Veronda Jackson (1st Shopper), Pamela Gordon (2nd Shopper), Laura Waterbury (3rd Shopper), Todd Allen (Preppy Man), Isabelle Walker (Preppy Woman)

Notes: Bruce Willis was already hot property at this point early in his career, with Moonlighting having premiered six months earlier; his breakout movie role in Die Hard was only three years away. Melinda Dillon’s other genre credits include the lead female role in 1977’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and the 1985 miniseries Space, a dramatized account of the American space program; she was also Ralphie’s mom in A Christmas Story (1983). Greg Mullavey had a regular role in the 1970s soap spoof Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The marquee above the movie theater at the end of A Little Peace And Quiet name-checks two Cold War classics, Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Alf Season 1

ALF (Pilot)

ALFAn alien spacecraft crash-lands in a suburban neighborhood, in the yard of one Willie Tanner, who pulls one furry alien creature out of the wreckage. The creature, who he names ALF (for “Alien Life Form”), survived the crash, and gets to know Willie, his wife Kate, and their two children. He’s eager to get to know the Tanners’ cat, Lucky, since the people of Melmac (ALF’s planet) eat cats. In fact, ALF is so friendly, he decides to make an impression on the Tanners’ nosy neighbor, who in turn calls the Army.

Download this episodewritten by Tom Patchett
directed by Tom Patchett
music by Alf Clausen

ALFCast: Max Wright (Willie Tanner), Anne Schedeen (Kate Tanner), Andrea Elson (Lynn Tanner), Benji Gregory (Brian Tanner), Liz Sheridan (Mrs. Ochmonek), John LaMotta (Mr. Ochmonek), Frank McCarthy (Army Officer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Max Headroom Season 1 (US)

Blipverts

Max HeadroomNetwork 23 TV reporter Edison Carter investigates the unusual death of a man in a low-rent apartment. Police aren’t saying much, and they’re not cooperating with Edison’s investigations – in fact, they sedate the victim’s wife while Edison is interviewing her during a live newscast. Edison’s boss gets a call from Network 23’s board of directors, ordering him to pull the story immediately – and the moment Edison’s camera light goes out when his satellite feed is cut, the police turn on him, and he has to make a desperate escape to the relative safety of the Network 23 helicopter. When he returns to the newsroom, Edison promptly decks his controller, Gorrister, and demands to know why Murray allowd the network’s board to pull the story.

In fact, what neither Edison nor Murray knows is that Edison was dangerously close to exposing the hazardous nature of Network 23’s new method of advertising, blipverts. The high-speed, compressed blipverts, while effectively cramming a few minutes’ worth of advertising messages into the viewer’s brain in nanoseconds, can also cause more sedentary viewers to spontaneously combust. Network 23’s corrupt chairman, Ned Grossberg, could care less about the mounting death toll, and resists board member Ben Cheviot’s insistence that the blipverts should be pulled in the interest of public safety.

Murray assigns a new controller, Theora Jones, to work with Edison. Though the jaded reporter is skeptical, he’s struck by her beauty – and her prolific hacking skills when she finds Network 23’s well-hidden research and development department. The network’s R&D isn’t so much a think tank as it is a single mind, brilliant boy inventor Bryce Lynch. Edison breaks into Bryce’s concealed apartment and finds the only evidence in existence of the deadly nature of blipverts. Before he can transmit that evidence back to the newsroom, however, Edison finds his satellite camera jammed and his network’s own security forces hot on his tail. With Theora’s help, Edison gets to a motorcycle and nearly escapes with what he’s learned, but Bryce springs a trap by remote control, sending Edison’s bike airborne. The last thing Edison sees before he slams into it is a clearance sign reading “Max Headroom, 2.3 meters.”

Edison is taken back to Bryce’s apartment. Grossberg wants Edison questioned about what he knows of the blipverts, but doesn’t want to risk awakening the reporter and allowing him to learn more. Bryce comes up with an alternative: scanning Edison’s synapses, transferring his knowledge and memories into the computer, and asking the resulting computer-generated construct what it knows. What Bryce doesn’t anticipate, however, is that the artificial intelligence created from Edison Carter’s mind – a personality which assumes a name from Edison’s last memory, Max Headroom – is every bit as stubborn and smart as Edison himself. And even if Edison is killed and disposed of, Max has worked his way into Network 23’s electronic infrastructure, and Max remembers everything Edison has seen, including the vital evidence that could topple the network and its chairman.

Season One Regular Cast: Matt Frewer (Edison Carter / Max Headroom), Amanda Pays (Theora Jones), George Coe (Ben Cheviot), Chris Young (Bryce Lynch), Jeffrey Tambor (Murray)

written by Joe Gannon and Steve Roberts
based on the British screenplay by Steve Roberts
directed by Farhad Mann
music by Cory Lerios

Max HeadroomGuest Cast: Jere Burns (Breughel), Rick Ducommon (Mahler), Charles Rocket (Ned Grossberg), Hank Garrett (Ashful), Virginia Kiser (Julia Formby), Lee Wilkof (Pat Zein), Billie Bird (Florence Nightingale), Ken Swofford (Gorrister), Viola Kates Stimpson (?), Urene Olga Lopez (?), Pearl Shear (?), Ricardo Gutierrez (Martinez), Skip O’Brien (?), Matt Roe (?), John Davey (?), Taylor Presnell (?), Heath Jobes (?)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Werewolf

Werewolf (Pilot)

WerewolfGrad student Eric Cord arrives at his apartment to find his roommate, Ted, in an agitated state – complete with a gun and silver bullets left on a table for Eric. Ted reveals that, while he was working on a fishing boat captained by one Janos Skorzeny, he discovered that Skorzeny was a werewolf and was attacked and bitten by him. Ted now turns into a werewolf, and knows he has been responsible for some recent gruesome attacks on innocent bystanders…and he wants Eric to shoot him with the silver bullets, ending his suffering. A disbelieving Eric doesn’t do it, however, and when Ted transforms, Eric himself is bitten. Only then does he grab the gun and shoot Ted, but the result is that Eric is arrested and charged with murder. Before dying, Ted mentioned that the one way for a werewolf to free himself from the curse is to kill the originator of his werewolf bloodline. Eric skips bail and goes looking for Janos Skorzeny, while a bounty hunter named Alamo Joe Rogan is hired to find Eric himself. Skorzeny escapes, and Eric is now a wanted man – one who is, perhaps, even more dangerous than the authorities pursuing him could possibly imagine.

Werewolfwritten by Frank Lupo
directed by David Hemmings
music by Sylvester LeVay

Cast: John J. York (Eric Cord), Lance LeGault (Alamo Joe), Chuck Connors (Janos Skorzeny), Raphael Sbarge (Ted Nichols), Michelle Johnson (Kelly Nichols), Ethan Phillips (Eddie Armondo), Robert Krantz (Rudy), Stanley Grover (Rudi Armandi), John Quade (Storage Shed Owner), Gail O’Grady (Volkswagen Victim), Linden Ashby (Volkswagen Victim), Toni Attell (Eddie’s Secretary), Andrew Magarian (Mr. Nichols), Lynn Danielson (Funeral Attendee), Harold Ayer (Mr. Manickindam), Geraldine O’Brien (Mrs. Manickindam), Robert Sutton (Motel Guest)

WerewolfNotes: This was the first genre series to be produced for the brand new Fox network. The series pilot episode is written by Werewolf creator Frank Lupo (also creator of The A-Team, Hunter, and Riptide); the werewolf characters were designed by Rick Baker. Though Werewolf was heavily promoted as featuring Chuck Connors as its main villain, Connors demanded more money for future appearances, and as a result only appeared in four further episodes before being written out. His character, Janos Skorzeny, was named after the vampire in the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker, which was the launching pad for a sequel, The Night Strangler (1973) and the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

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Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future

Shattered

Captain PowerIn the future, after a bloody, lengthy war between humans and artificial intelligences, the Earth is a ruined wasteland and the AIs still stalk the land, looking for humans to render harmless by digitizing them. Lord Dredd controls the AIs’ relentless march, while the human resistance is headed up by Captain Jonathan Power and his team.

“Scout” infiltrates one of Lord Dredd’s hideouts with orders to set explosive charges and destroy the base, but the base’s exterior doors close thanks to a preset timer – a security measure that almost results in disaster. Scout is able to escape by the skin of his teeth. Back at the group’s hidden headquarters, Power receives a message from Athena, a childhood friend dating back to before the war, originating from the ruins of San Francisco, and he goes to meet her there. The mission is trouble from the outset: Pilot is knocked out by some sort of sleeping gas while keeping watch on the ship, and Power is ambushed by his old friend, who is now doing Dredd’s bidding. Pilot awakens and summons the rest of the team for backup, but Dredd has dispatched backup of his own in the form of Soaron.

written by Larry DiTillio
directed by Mario Azzopardi
music by Gary Guttman

Captain PowerCast: Tim Dunigan (Captain Jonathan Power), Peter MacNeill (Maj. Matthew “Hawk” Masterson), Sven Thorsen (Lt. Michael “Tank” Ellis), Maurice Dean Wint (Sgt. Robert “Scout” Baker), Jessica Steen (Corporal Jennifer “Pilot” Chase), David Hemblen (Lord Dredd), Ann-Marie MacDonald (Athena), Bruce Gray (Mentor), Deryck Hazel (Soaron), Tedd Dillon (Overmind)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

The Inheritance

Friday The 13th: The SeriesLewis Vendredi, an antiques dealer, has a strange way of doing business: he insists nothing in his store is for sale, and yet the doors stay open and he’s able to pay his bills. He had made a pact with the devil, and when he tries to renege on the deal, the cursed items in his store turn on him and kill him.

Ryan Dallion and Michelle “Mickey” Foster, distant cousins who have never met, end up inheriting their uncle’s store upon his death. Both eager to return to their normal lives, they open the doors for one last sale, getting rid of everything they can. After spending only mere hours in the store, they’re already aware that the antiques there are out of the ordinary. They’re about to close up shop when an older man named Jack Marshak bursts in, claiming to be Uncle Lewis’ former partner. Jack is aware of Lewis’ deal with the devil, and reveals to Mickey and Ryan that every artifact in the store was cursed, imbued with evil powers – and every single item that they or Lewis ever sold must be recovered and put in a vault in the store’s basement.

The search starts with a porcelain doll sold to a family with a troubled little girl. By the time Ryan and Mickey track the family down, the doll has already started to claim the lives of everyone for whom the girl expresses a dislike. When Mickey tries to coax her into giving the doll up, she becomes the next target.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by William Taub
directed by William Fruet
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), R.G. Armstrong (Uncle Lewis Vendredi), Sarah Polley (Mary), Friday The 13th: The SeriesLynne Cormack (Mrs. Simms), Michael Fletcher (Mr. Simms), Esther Hockin (Babysitter), Sean Fagan (Boy #1), Gordon Woolvett (Boy #2), Robyn Sheppard (Nurse), Barclay Hope (Lloyd)

Notes: Mere minutes into the episode, see if you can spot future Deepwater Black and Andromeda cast member Gordon Michael Woolvett – credited here without his middle name – as the quieter of two street hoodlums harrassing Mary (he’s the one who doesn’t get attacked by the doll).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Encounter At Farpoint

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41153.7: The new USS Enterprise, en route to pick up its final crew members and investigate a mysterious space station, is confronted by a godlike entity known as Q who puts Captain Picard, Counselor Troi, Data and security chief Yar on trial for the crimes of all humanity in the past, a challenge Picard grudgingly agrees to meet.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Denise Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)

Order the DVDswritten by Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana
directed by Corey Allen
music by Dennis McCarthy

Star Trek: The Next GenerationGuest Cast: John de Lancie (Q), Michael Bell (Groppler Zorn), Colm Meaney (Battle Bridge Conn), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mandarin Baliff), Timothy Dang (Main Bridge Security), David Erskine (Bandi Shopkeeper), Evelyn Guererro (Young Female Ensign), Chuck Hicks (Military Officer), Jimmy Ortega (Torres), DeForest Kelley (Admiral McCoy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 01

The End

Red DwarfThe Beginning: It’s an abysmally average day about the Red Dwarf, a mining ship of the Jupiter Mining Corporation. The two lowest-ranking members of Red Dwarf’s crew, second technician Arnold J. Rimmer and third technician David Lister, are – as one gets the impression is common – unable to agree on anything. Lister’s laid-back lifestyle and his refusal to deal with or, for that matter, acknowledge the existence of any problem unless his life depends on it irritates Rimmer, who sees himself as prime officer material despite his chronic inability to pass the ship’s navigation exams. As Rimmer undertakes the nav exam one more time (only to realize that he once again knows nothing about the subject), Lister opens a ventilation duct in their quarters to let his pet cat Frankenstein out. The cat in question later becomes something of a point of contention between Lister and Captain Hollister, who calls Lister to his office and demands custody of the unauthorized and unquarantined animal. When Lister refuses, he is sentenced to make the rest of Red Dwarf’s journey in suspended animation without pay.

He is awakened from his time in stasis by the ship’s computer, Holly, who, moments after Lister rejoins the world of the living, breaks the news to him that the rest of that world has apparently vacated Red Dwarf – an improperly repaired drive plate (improperly repaired, naturally, by Rimmer) released deadly cadmium-2 radiation into the ship’s habitable areas, killing all aboard except Lister, who was sealed safely in stasis, and his cat, who was safely sealed in a cargo bay. Holly then comforts Lister by revealing that this tragedy happened a long time ago – three million years, to be exact. As if that’s not enough, Rimmer has been revived as a hologram, unable to touch anything, but fully capable of getting on Lister’s nerves. And the generations of kittens born to Lister’s cat have evolved into a humanoid form of cat, with the outward appearance of a human being but the vanity and attitude of a tomcat on the make; one such creature, who winds up with the highly original name of Cat, is “adopted” by Lister. Having had enough surprises for one day, Lister orders Holly to set a course to Fiji.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Norman Lovett (Holly)

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

Guest Cast: Robert Bathurst (Todhunter), Paul Bradley (Chen), David Gillespie (Selby), Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister), Robert McCulley (McIntyre), Mark Williams (Petersen), C.P. Grogan (Kochanski)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Probe

Computer Logic

ProbeEccentric, reclusive scientific genius Austin James is disturbed by the arrival of his new secretary, Michelle Castle, who has no idea what he’s working on. Austin’s name has come up in the investigation into the death of another self-styled inventor, a water department employee who was due for retirement and then died in a freak pedestrian traffic accident. He had discovered the first hint of something that eventually becomes a major mystery for Austin and Michelle: finding out whether CROSSOVER, an artificial intelligence created by Austin’s friend (and sometimes rival) John Blaine, is responsible for the death…and whether or not it’s now trying to kill Austin now that he suspects CROSSOVER has gone rogue.

Probewritten by Michael Wagner
directed by Sandor Stern
music by Sylvester LeVay

Cast: Parker Stevenson (Austin James), Ashley Crow (Michelle Castle), Jon Cypher (Mr. Millhouse), William Edward Phipps (Miles Smillanich), Andy Wood (John Blaine), Scott Feraco (William Stevens), Jan Sandwich (Maid), Ray Guth (Hotel Manager), Gene Johnson (Preacher), Judy Scovern (Personnel Manager), Diana Baynes (Secretary #1), Carol Weston (Secretary #2), Fred Schiwiller (Old Man), Sandy Elias (Customer), Bill Lane (Truck Driver), Gertrude Nicholls (Old Woman)

Notes: Probe was heavily promoted as being created by legendary SF author Isaac Asimov and Michael Wagner, though Wagner alone was responsible for writing the actual pilot script. The weekly episodes following this pilot movie were scheduled opposite The Cosby Show on NBC, which was a ratings behemoth at the time, ensuring that Probe died a fairly quick death.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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KTMA Season Mystery Science Theater 3000

Experiment K01: Invaders From The Deep

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The KTMA SeasonMST3K Story: Joel says the guys at the station sent a fax saying that Invaders From The Deep is up next. Crow has fired the retro rockets, but wants Servo to keep his involvement quiet. Joel apparently spends some time looking after some “vacuuflowers” which intoxicate with just a smell causing the Bots to attempt to avoid smelling them by putting clothespins on their noses.

Invaders From The Deep Story: WASP (the World Aquanaut Security Patrol) has been charged with the task of keeping the oceans safe. Captain Troy Tempest commands the submarine Stingray, the most impressive vessel in WASP’s fleet. He is accompanied by Lt. George Lee “Phones” Sheridan and Marina, a beautiful, but mute, princess of an underwater kingdom. Giving support at the home base, Marineville, are WASP’s leader, Commander Sam Shore and his daughter, Lt. Atlanta Shore. Their adventures are dramatized in the following stories:

  • “Hostages of the Deep” – Admiral Carson, a former member of WASP, and his wife are kidnapped by the evil Gadus. Gadus leaves a bomb behind to destroy the WASPs when they come to investigate. His plans are foiled by a coded radio signal sent by the Admiral to Troy and Phones. Gadus flees deep into the ocean, finding refuge in a crack in the ocean floor too narrow for Stingray to enter. Marina attempts to rescue the Admiral and his wife, but she is captured. Troy and Phones manage to survive the intense pressure, rescue the captives and defeat Gadus.
  • “Deep Heat” – In the middle of a rare night out, the Stingray team are called into action to discover the whereabouts of a missing probe. While investigating, the Stingray is sucked into the same crater where the probe was lost. At the bottom, Troy and Phones meet the last two survivors of an underwater race, the Centrallius. They explain that recent volcanic eruptions destroyed their world and that they tried to use the probe to escape, but failed. Since the WASPs have only two air masks, the Centrallius take the masks by force and attempt to board the Stingray. When Marina refuses to let them in, they return to their home, where they are overcome by the WASPs. By holding their breath, the WASPs are able to allow the Centrallius to use the air masks until all four reach the Stingray and escape to safety.
  • “The Big Gun” – Stingray is attacked by a pair of submarines with powerful guns. The WASPs destroy one of the submarines and give chase to the other, leading them to the underwater city of Solarstar. The water pressure begins to prove too much for Stingray and she begins to buckle. Marina, who is immune to the effects of the water pressure, is able to destroy the final submarine, enabling Stingray to return to safer waters.
  • “Emergency Marineville” – The WASPs’ home base Marineville finds itself under missile attack from an unknown location. Tracking the path of the missiles, Stingray and her crew come upon a volcano located on a tropical island. The inhabitants are able to capture the WASPs and torture Marina to get information that will allow their missiles to destroy Marineville. Troy and Phones manage to escape and disarm the missile before it is launched. They leave a message detailing their location inside the missile. When the missile lands in Marineville, the message is discovered, the WASPs are rescued and the aliens are defeated.

Season 0 Regular Cast: Joel Hodgson (Joel Robinson), Trace Beaulieu (Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester), Josh Weinstein (Tom Servo / Gypsy / Dr. Lawrence Erhardt), Kevin Murphy (Puppet Operation and Voices)

MST3K segments written by Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Josh Weinstein, Jim Mallon & Kevin Murphy
MST3K segments director unknown
Invaders From The Deep written by Allan Fennell
Invaders From The Deep directed by Desmond Saunders, David Elliott & John Kelly
Invaders From The Deep music by Barry Gray

MST3K Guest Cast: unknown

Invaders From The Deep Cast: Don Mason (Troy), Lois Maxwell (Atlanta), Robert Easton (Phones, X-20)

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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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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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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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