Tag: Series Premiere

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Deep Space Nine Season 01 Star Trek

Emissary

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 46379.1: Commander Ben Sisko and his son Jake, both survivors of the Wolf 359 Borg massacre, arrive at the planet Bajor as part of a Starfleet team taking over the abandoned Cardassian space station Deep Space 9. The station, which was intentionally damaged by the Cardassians before they left it behind, is being pieced together by newly-transferred Operations Chief O’Brien from the Enterprise. Sisko also meets Major Kira, his Bajoran first officer who doubts the ability of the provisional government of Bajor to avert a civil war and trusts the Federation even less; Odo, a mysterious shapeshifter in charge of station security; and Quark, the suspicious Ferengi kingpin who’s eager to get out of town before the regulatory hand of the Federation clamps down on his shady “business” affairs.

Sisko is summoned to the Enterprise for a briefing with Captain Picard, whom he still remembers as the man responsible for the death of thousands, including Sisko’s wife, in the Borg invasion attempt. Picard gives Sisko the Federation’s orders regarding management of Deep Space 9 – to do everything, short of violating the prime directive, to get the struggling Bajora back on their feet so they can join the Federation. Sisko, however, is considering resigning from Starfleet to raise his son in a better environment. Soon afterward, the Enterprise departs to undertake other duties as the station’s new doctor, the brilliant but inexperienced Julian Bashir, and science officer Jadzia Dax arrive. Dax, a Trill who has lived in a number of bodies, is an old friend of Sisko’s. Sisko, at the suggestion of Kira, travels to Bajor and visits Bajoran spiritual leader Kai Opaka, who tells Sisko that he is to be the emissary of the people to the temple of their gods. Opaka reveals an Orb, a mystic object of a type which has appeared throughout Bajoran history. The Orb envelops Sisko in a brief recollection of his first meeting with his wife, and then releases him. Opaka gives him the Orb, and the news that Sisko – whether he likes it or not, whether he even knows it or not – will find the temple. He returns to Deep Space 9 and hands the Orb over to Dax for further study.

The Cardassians return, ostensibly to make use of the station’s amenities. Dax discovers that reports of the Orbs’ appearances correspond to a certain area of space near Bajor. She and Sisko set out in a Federation Runabout to investigate, and stumble across a wormhole that shoots them 70,000 light years across the galaxy. Trying to return to the station, their ship is halted. Dax is taken back to the station by an Orb, while Sisko is kept and studied by noncorporeal beings who built the wormhole. These beings have no conception of linear time, existing simultaneously in the past, present and future, and they ask Sisko questions about the ephemeral nature of humans, which they do not comprehend. Dax, back on Deep Space 9, fills the crew in on details of the wormhole. Major Kira orders O’Brien to shift the station’s position so that it stands in front of the wormhole. A Cardassian ship, however, enters the wormhole, but is damaged by the wormhole life forms. When another Cardassian flotilla arrives and finds no sign of the missing ship, they threaten to open fire on Deep Space 9 unless Kira agrees to surrender the station. In the wormhole, the aliens’ study of Sisko reaches an end when they discover the human drive for knowledge, and they are puzzled by Sisko’s inability to get over the death of his wife.

At the station, Kira’s brinksmanship abilities and her feisty confrontations with the Cardassians result in a firefight, damaging the station heavily. The solution to the confrontation lies with Sisko, if he can overcome the wormhole beings’ manifestations of his inner barriers and escape from the wormhole.

Season 1 Regular 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)

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Michael Piller
story by Rick Berman & Michael Piller
directed by David Carson
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard/Locutus of Borg), Camille Saviola (Kai Opaka), Felecia M. Bell (Jennifer Sisko), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Joel Swetow (Gul Jasad), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Stephen Davies (Tactical Officer), Max Grodenchik (Ferengi Pit Boss), Steve Rankin (Cardassian Officer), Lily Mariye (Ops Officer), Cassandra Bryam (Conn Officer), John Noah Hertzler (Vulcan Captain), April Grace (Transporter Chief), Kevin McDermott (Alien Batter), Star Trek: Deep Space NineParker Whitman (Cardassian Officer), William Powell-Blair (Cardassian Officer), Frank Owen Smith (Curzon Dax), Lynnda Ferguson (Doran), Megan Butler (Lieutenant), Stephen Rowe (Chanting Monk), Thomas Hobson (young Jake), Donald Hotton (Monk #1), Gene Armor (Bajoran Bureaucrat), Diana Cignoni (Dabo Girl), Judi Durand (Computer Voice), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

Notes: John Noah Hertzler is also known as J.G. Hertzler, who would return later in the series in the role of General Martok.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Rangers

The Replacements

Space RangersBoon’s crew is assigned to track down a hijacked ore transport, but shortly after they catch up with the ship and board it, an armed man blasts Doc while someone else escapes in a lifepod. Boon brings Doc back to Fort Hope, where Mimmer starts trying to save his life while Boon interrogates his unhelpful prisoner. Boon complains bitterly about having to take on missions with an exhausted crew and equipment that’s fallen apart in the face of constant budget cuts, taking his anger out on Weiss, an Earth bureaucrat who’s been “exiled” to Fort Hope. Weiss responds to this outburst by assigning an android crewmember to Boon’s ship. After their sole prisoner is mysteriously murdered in his cell with no security record of how he died, the Space Rangers are left with a seized transport which appears to carry nothing but ordinary ore, and a lot of unanswered questions. Little do they know that the hijackers are working against them from inside Fort Hope.

Space Rangerswritten by Gregory Widen
directed by Ben Bolt
music by Hans Zimmer & Mark Mancina

Cast: Jeff Kaake (Captain John Boon), Marjorie Monaghan (Jojo), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Zylyn), Jack McGee (Doc), Clint Howard (Mimmer), Danny Quinn (Daniel), Gottfried John (Weiss), Linda Hunt (Chennault), Richard Grove (Isogul), Keith Berger (Ringer), Richard Marcus (Bashad), Tony Amendola (Smuggler), Mark Venturini (Lieutenant), Gregory Phelan (Technician No. 1), Wendy Way (Technician No. 2)

Space RangersNotes: Although aired first, this was not the series pilot, creating some inconsistencies in the flow of the storyline (i.e. Boon’s wife has already left him and gone to Earth, even later episodes contradict this). Tony Amendola would later become a fixture on Stargate SG-1 as Master Bra’tac. Writer Gregory Widen was the creator of the Highlander franchise, and wrote the screenplay to Backdraft, which was produced by Space Rangers creator Pen Densham.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Time Trax

A Stranger In Time

Time TraxIn the year 2193, gifted and fiercely devoted Darien Lambert is one of the best law enforcement officers on Earth…until a string of suspects seem to disappear completely from view with no explanation, many of them on Lambert’s watch. Due to his outstanding service record, it is simply assumed that Lambert needs more of the latest crime fighting tools, and he is issued a portable artificial intelligence called Selma, who can appear visually to Lambert but can also communicate with him via audio only.

The theft of the firearm used by John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Lincoln raises the alarm that something big is on the horizon, and Lambert feels certain that the weapon’s symbolic importance points to a high profile target: the president of the United Nations. Lambert’s hunch is correct, but his timing is off: he can’t prevent the assassination, but he does capture the assassin. However, that same assassin vanishes into thin air from the confines of a state-of-the-art maximum security prison cell. Lambert suspects matter transmission, either into an alternate universe or backward or forward in time.

His suspicions lead him to a lab run by a beautiful scientist, whose work on an experimental time travel device called Trax is slowly being taken over by an obsessive Nobel Prize winning scientist, Dr. Mordecai Sahmbi. The use of Trax involves the injection of a drug that allows the human body to endure the rigors of time travel, but only twice; a way has not been found to make the third trip non-fatal. Lambert methodically gathers his evidence until he’s ready to launch a sting operation on the Trax lab to arrest Sahmbi for sending heinous criminals back in time, unleashing them on the primitive, unsuspecting world of 1990s Earth. Sahmbi himself escapes, and Lambert, with Selma, must subject himself to time travel via Trax in an attempt to stop history from being rewritten by an insane criminal.

written by Harve Bennett
directed by Lewis Teague
music by Garry McDonald and Laurie Stone

Time TraxCast: Dale Midkiff (Darien Lambert), Elizabeth Alexander (Selma), Mia Sara (Elyssa / Annie), Michael Warren (Frank), Henry Darrow (The Chief), Peter Donat (Sahmbi), Henk Johannes (Dietrich), Martin Maddell (Sergeant), Monroe Reimers (Duke), Peter Whittle (Wahlgren), David Franklin (Fredric), Rob Steele (Wilson), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (C.L. Burke), Michael Edward-Stevens (Art), Stephen Bergin (Grille Bar Waiter), Billy Sandy (U.N. President), Jimmy White (Reporter), Pamela Norman (Archive Clerk), Dave Robinson (Businessman), Ben Lawson (12 year old Darien)

Time TraxNotes: Add a dash of Quantum Leap to The Fugitive, and you have Time Trax. Created by Harve Bennett with Jeffrey Hayes (T.J. Hooker) and Grant Rosenberg (Lois & Clark), Time Trax was teased as a sci-fi cop show, though after the pilot strands Lambert in the past, the show happens almost entirely in the present day (of the 1990s, when the show was made). Time Trax was part of the short-lived, ill-fated Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN), an attempt by Warner Bros. and Chris-Craft Television to launch a fifth network in the same mold as the then-recent launch of the Fox network; other PTEN shows included Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and Babylon 5, the latter being the only PTEN series which actually outlasted PTEN.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Babylon 5 / Crusade TV Movies

The Gathering

Babylon 5In the Tigris Sector in the year 2257, the gigantic space station Babylon 5 has entered service and is preparing for its first major official duty, hosting the ambassadors of the Minbari, Vorlon, Centauri and Narn governments who will, along with station Commander Sinclair, the Earth representative, begin down the uneasy path toward interstellar peace. The station’s first officer Takashima and security chief Garibaldi are both officers with career records that are, in places, less than exemplary, giving the impression that the Earth Alliance isn’t going to send the cream of its crop to Babylon 5 – especially not since Babylons 1, 2 and 3 were sabotaged and destroyed, and the fourth station in the line vanished without a trace within a day of becoming operational. There are also questions about the alien representatives: Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari spends a good deal of his time in the diplomatic pursuit of drinks and winnings in the station’s casino; Minbari Ambassador Delenn, whose people once waged a vicious war with Earth and suddenly stopped all attacks just moments before wiping out the human race, is secretive and speaks in riddles. Ambassador G’Kar of the Narn Regime is ill-tempered and makes no secret of the fact that he seeks power and prestige for his own people and himself, no matter what the cost to other individuals or governments. And last, but not least, Vorlon Ambassador Kosh Naranek, who, when he arrives, will be the first Vorlon ever encountered by any of the above species, travels incommunicado. This proves to be a problem when Kosh, in a life-sustaining encounter suit, is found unconscious moments after his ship docks at Babylon 5. The crew swings into action and discovers foul play, which infuriates the Vorlon Empire. Matters are made no less critical when it is discovered that the culprit is at large on Babylon 5, and Commander Sinclair is framed for the attack on Kosh. His crew must fight to uncover the truth to prevent the Vorlons from extraditing Sinclair – or to prevent them from simply declaring all-out war on the Earth Alliance…

Order now!Download this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Richard Compton
music by Stewart Copeland
(music in 1998 TNT special edition by Christopher Franke)

Cast: Michael O’ Hare (Commander Jeffrey Sinclair), Tamlyn Tomita (Lt. Commander Laurel Takashima), Jerry Doyle (Michael Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Ambassador Delenn), Blaire Baron (Carolyn Sykes), John Fleck (Del Varner), Paul Hampton (The Senator), Peter Jurasik (Ambassador Londo Mollari), Andreas Katsulas (Ambassador G’Kar), Johnny Sekka (Dr. Benjamin Kyle), Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander), Steven R. Barnett (Eric), William Hayes (Traveler), Linda Hoffman (Tech #2), Robert Jason Jackson (Tech #3), F. William Parker (Businessman #1), Marianne Robertson (Hostage), Dave Sage (Businessman #2), Ed Wasser (Guerra)

Babylon 5Notes: Three of the main characters – Takashima, Dr. Kyle and Lyta – were replaced by the time the weekly series began, as was Sinclair’s girlfriend Carolyn; the sets also changed between the film and series, primarily due to the production moving to its own custom-built facility, necessitating some redesigns, although the series sets are very much like the movie’s. Almost all of the alien makeups were also altered for the series, most notably Mira Furlan’s Delenn makeup, which originally was much more gaunt and had several “bumps” on the head, as well as light blue spots and blotches; the makeup for G’Kar also changed, notably with the addition of redder contact lenses and a more rounded-off chin than was seen in the movie.

Another curiosity: close examination of the station in the pilot film reveals that the cobra bay doors from which the fighters launch in the series are not present. You may also notice Ed Wasser, later much more recognizable as Shadow agent Morden, playing a technician on the station’s observation dome.

The “special edition” of The Gathering shown after the world premiere of TNT’s Babylon 5: In The Beginning restored several dropped scenes, including a brief hostage scare (taking place after Lyta’s arrival), and additional dialogue with Takashima and Kyle, Sinclair and Delenn, and others. Delenn also takes a much more active part in the climactic hunt for the saboteur.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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

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

M.A.N.T.I.S.A well-organized and planned heist of a bank in Ocean City is cut short by the appearance of a silhouetted figure wearing a high-tech helmet. By the time the police arrive, the helmeted man is gone, but the robbers are still there, frozen in place. In one of the robbers’ mouths, police find a metal figurine of a praying mantis.

In the run-up to the 1994 election, which will decide the next Mayor of Ocean City, the race is down to two men – Ocean City’s Chief of Police, Frank Stark, and an incumbent, elder-statesman Mayor. Stark has attracted controversy by mandating violent “anti-riot” tactical training as the answer to gang activity, while claiming that the sitting Mayor is soft on crime, but most of Stark’s crime-fighting activity is focused squarely on the city’s African-American populace. When amateur videotape of the helmeted man lands in the hands of TV reporter Yuri Barnes, he suspects that the mystery vigilante – known on the street only as “Mantis” – is part of some undisclosed secret plan being hatched by Stark. Barnes’ girlfriend, Dr. Amy Ellis, is an examiner at the city coroner’s office, and says she’s heard nothing about this being part of a police operation.

It’s not long, however, before Dr. Ellis sees the masked man in action for herself, as he arrives in a flying car to break up a crime that uses a deliberate traffic jam to cover for a spree of robberies. The perpetrators are shot with some kind of dart that leaves them paralyzed, like the bank robbers, and then the helmeted man flies away with police helicopters in pursuit. The impossibly high-tech flying car dives into a tunnel, where it shimmers, emerging from the tunnel as an ordinary (if vintage) car. The frozen perpetrators are examined at police headquarters by biophysicist Dr. Miles Hawkins, who is unable to offer any conclusions. After seeing Antoine Pike, head of the Mayor’s anti-gang task force, in action, Dr. Ellis suspects that he may be “Mantis”, though Barnes dismisses that theory. Dr. Ellis has another theory: Dr. Hawkins’ attempts to determine what paralyzed the criminals may lead to Chief Stark having a powerful new weapon which she fears will be used predominantly on Ocean City’s African-American population.

Word reaches Hawkins that Pike’s much-touted truce between the city’s gangs is broken, “Mantis” swings into action to prevent a gang war that will give Stark an excuse to declare a war of his own, whether he does so as the Chief of Police or as the Mayor. But what no one realizes is that M.A.N.T.I.S. stands for Mechanically Augmented Neuro-Transmitter Interception System, a powered suit devised by Hawkins to allow him to move without his wheelchair. But the suit also gives him powers beyond walking, and he’ll need every one of them to stop Stark’s scheme to influence the election…and start a massacre.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Sam Hamm
story by Sam Raimi & Sam Hamm
directed by Eric Laneuville
music by Joseph Lo Duca

M.A.N.T.I.S.Cast: Carl Lumbly (Dr. Miles Hawkins), Bobby Hosea (Yuri Barnes), Gina Torres (Dr. Amy Ellis), Steve James (Antoine Pike), Obba Babatunde (Cornell), Marcia Cross (Lila McEwan), Wendy Raquel Robinson (Hawkins’ Assistant), Christopher M. Brown (Hawkins’ Assistant), Phillip Baker Hall (Smitty), Yvonne Farrow (Magda), Francis X. McCarthy (Chief Stark), Alan Fudge (Captain), Grant Heslov (TV Crew), Louis Ramos (TV Cameraman), Billy Kane (DeCarlos), Jeremiah Birkett (Kid MG), Dex Elliot Sanders (L.T.), Theo Forsett (Jay), Jerry Black (Mayor Beane), Larron Tate (Day Day), Vicellous Reon Shannon (Ski), Tierre Turner (Rahsaan), Martin Davis (Todd), Kimble Jemison (Curtis), David Fresco (Motorist), Edwina Moore (Jay’s Mom), Charles Hoyes (Policeman Guard), Lucy Lin (Newswoman), Ossaun Elam (Gangbanger #1), Richard Jones (Gangbanger #2), Dane Winters (Interviewer), Nelson Parks (Office Worker), Martin Cassidy (Dispatcher), Steve Hom (Cop in Alley), Jermaine Shoulders (10K Member), Mark Phelan (Stark’s Handler), Gene Arrington (Reggie), Richard Zobel (Homeless Man), Mark Avery (Basketball Guard), Robair Sims (Thug), Craig Hosking (Pilot)

M.A.N.T.I.S.Notes: Created by future Hercules and Xena creators Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert with Batman and Batman Returns screenwriter Sam Hamm, M.A.N.T.I.S. was a made-for-TV superhero with an almost entirely African-American cast and no comic book antecedent. Fox made significant changes to the show’s casting and format before it returned in August as a weekly series; Carl Lumbly (as Hawkins/M.A.N.T.I.S.) was the only cast member or character to transition from the pilot to the series. Much was made of Hamm’s involvement at the time, as his scripts for the two Tim Burton Batman films were regarded as a revival for the character in film. The M.A.N.T.I.S. suit was designed by comics artist Denys Cowan and fabricated by KNB EFX Group (then known best for A Nightmare On Elm Street 5, Halloween 5, and Dances With Wolves).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Precinct

Protect And Survive

Space PrecinctIn the year 2040, interplanetary travel has become a reality. 20-year NYPD veteran Patrick Brogan is now working a new beat, patrolling space near the planet Altor, home to the nearest orbital precinct base for the interspecies Space Police.

But the transition isn’t as easy as Brogan and his hotshot young partner, Jack Haldane, sometimes make it look. They pursue a courier with insider knowledge of an interstellar crime syndicate, but the pursuit itself causes considerable damage and Brogan is forced to shoot to kill when the courier draws a gun on him. Later, the informant who tipped Brogan off to the presence of the courier is brutally murdered by crime boss Gershom… who has unwittingly left a witness to the incident. Brogan and Haldane are assigned to keep that witness alive long enough to testify against Gershom in court, a task that won’t be as easy as it sounds.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Ted Shackelford (Lt. Patrick Brogan), Rob Youngblood (Officer Jack Haldane), Simone Bendix (Officer Jane Castle), Nancy Paul (Sally Brogan)

written by Paul Mayhew-Archer
directed by John Glen
music by Crispin Merrell

Guest Cast: Bert Kwouk (Slik), Oliver Cotton (Gershom), David Shaw-Parker (Lawyer), Nic Klein (Matt Brogan), Megan Oliver (Liz Brogan), Richard James (Orrin), David Quilter (Fredo), Jerome Willis (Podly), Mary Woodvine (Took), Leigh Tinkler (Medic #1), Rob Thirtle (Loyster), Andy Dawson (Judge), Gary Martin (voice of Slomo)

Notes: Gerry Anderson’s first live-action series since Space: 1999, nearly 20 years earlier. In that time, Anderson had split with his wife and former producing partner, Sylvia Anderson, and sold off the rights to his earlier Supermarionation series as well as such projects as UFO and Space: 1999; his only other work since Space: 1999 had been the puppet series Terrahawks and Dick Spanner, P.I. in the 1980s. Unless one counts the Thunderbirds live action remake movie directed by Jonathan Frakes, Space Precinct remains Anderson’s last live-action project to date. The show shares some common ground with Space: 1999, including the “this episode!” montage in the opening credits, and sticking steadfastly to miniature models even at a time when CGI was rapidly coming into vogue with series such as Babylon 5 and seaQuest DSV on the air at the same time. Even before that, however, Anderson initiated Space Precinct in the late 1980s as a pilot film called Space Police, which starred Shane Rimmer as Chuck Brogan. Space Precinct launched in the lucrative syndicated market for science fiction in the U.S. that was created by the popularity of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but didn’t catch on in the U.S.; by the time Space Precinct premiered and gained an audience in Europe in 1995, its fate was already decided: there would be no second season without success in the American market.

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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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Nowhere Man

Absolute Zero

Nowhere ManPhotographer Tom Veil is a nervous wreck at a showing of his work in his Chicago studio. He convinces his wife to leave the show early to slip out for dinner, but when he goes to the rest room and returns, she is nowhere to be found. The maitre’d doesn’t remember her being there – or Tom himself, for that matter. Tom takes a cab home and finds that another man has taken his place in his home – and that his wife and even his dog apparently have to memory of him.

Tom takes refuge in his studio for the night, finding that the locks have been changed in just a few hours of his absence, and he also finds that one black and white photograph, titled “Hidden Agenda,” has been stolen, and all evidence of his existence has been erased. He tracks down his wife and she confesses that she has been forced to deny his existence by an unknown agency. But when she’s pulled over – a convenience store owner noticed Tom sneaking into her car and called the police – she tells a police officer that she’s never seen Tom before, and Tom is hauled off to a mental hospital. A Doctor Bellamy asks him for a list of people to contact to verify his identity, and a fellow patient who identifies himself only as Eddie seems to know exactly what is going on, but is afraid to tell Tom the truth – and later is subjected to a lobotomy so his knowledge dies with him. Tom kidnaps Bellamy and escapes to his studio, where he uses his photographic expertise to alter Bellamy’s driver’s license so he can avoid being tracked, if only for a little while.

Bellamy offers a handful of hints as to what is happening, but the conversation is cut short when armed mercenaries – working for whoever is out to erase Tom’s existence – storm the studio, and an explosion sparked by darkroom chemicals destroys the building. However, Tom has the master negatives of “Hidden Agenda,” and he escapes again. He finds that his best friend – whose name he gave to Bellamy – has been murdered, and fearing for his mother’s life (since he also gave Bellamy her address), Tom books a flight with Bellamy’s credit card and leaves for Iowa, but has duplicate prints of “Hidden Agenda” made before leaving Chicago. Tom’s worst fears are realized when he arrives at his mother’s home, finds her on life support, and is told by a live-in nurse that his mother suffered a stroke less than a week ago. The nurse’s boyfriend – who happens to be a policeman – arrives and demands that Tom produce identification. Mrs. Veil’s church pastor shows up, temporarily defusing the situation – but he’s not the man who was behind the pulpit the last time Tom was in town. Tom grabs the police officer’s gun and escapes again, holding the nurse at gunpoint, even though there isn’t necessarily any evidence that she, her boyfriend, or the priest are involved in whatever conspiracy seeks to destroy Tom.

Order the DVDswritten by Lawrence Hertzog
directed by Tobe Hooper
music by Mark Snow

Cast: Bruce Greenwood (Thomas Veil), Megan Gallagher (Alyson Veil), Ted Levine (David “Eddie” Powers), Bernie McInerney (Father Thomas), Michael Tucker (Dr. Bellamy), David Brisbin (Driver), Mary Gregory (Mrs. Veil), John Hillard (Cop), Murray Rubinstein (Larry Levy), Rebecca Hayes (Woman #1), Heather Paige Kent (Woman #2), Alexandra Kenworthy (Woman #3), Marian O’Brien (Nurse), Steve Restivo (Gina), Greg Wrangler (Husband), Jay Arlen Jones (Inmate), Lisa Rafel (Attractive Woman), Robert Kempf (Oscar)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
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

Categories
Space: Above And Beyond

Space: Above and Beyond (Pilot)

Space: Above And BeyondIn the year 2063, the newly established Vesta Colony stands as the furthest human settlement in deep space. But not long after Vesta Colony is inaugurated, a mysterious alien force – the first extraterrestrial life ever encountered by mankind – attacks and destroys it.

The attack – though Earth still doesn’t realize why their colony has dropped out of contact – comes on the eve of the launch of a new group of colonists to settle the planet Tellus. But a Senate directive forces the colony’s governor to drop ten colonists to make way for ten in vitros – artificially-gestated humans – forcing two of the colonists, an engaged couple, to separate. Nathan West tries to stow away aboard the Tellus colony ship, but is arrested and thrown off the ship prior to launch. His only hope to get anywhere near the Tellus Colony is the join the U.S. Marines’ Space Aviators wing in hope of landing colonial security duty. West’s explusion turns out to be his salvation, for unknown to him, the Tellus Colony ship is attacked before it can even land.

Upon enlisting, West meets some of his fellow cadets – the determined but angry Shane Vansen, the naive Paul Wang, erstwhile Mike Pagodin (who really just wants to get into a plane), and an in vitro named Cooper Hawkes who was sentenced to Marine boot camp after retaliating violently against a racially-motivated assault by naturally-born humans. This diverse and conflicting group of wet-behind-the-ears future pilots isn’t a promising combination. But when the news finally breaks that the Vesta and Tellus Colonies have fallen to alien attack, the shadow of an impending war draws the cadets closer…and convinces West that the love of his life has been lost forever.

With war on the horizon, the cadets are rushed into a training mission to Mars. The mission seems almost routine until they make a horrifying discovery – the enemy has already gained a foothold in Earth’s solar system. The Marine cadets defend themselves admirably in their first real combat situation, but Pagodin – who has become the only friend Hawkes has ever made in his life – is killed. And the first alien prisoner of war is taken. With no means of translation or any kind of significant communication, the cadets learn nothing from the alien, aside from the fact that water will kill it. But the technology and battle plans from the aliens’ ship proves to be a valuable find.

However, the human war effort is still falling behind. Every engagement has ended with the aliens victorious. Plans taken from the alien ship found on Mars indicate a major alien offensive being planned at the Groombridge star system, several light years away from Earth, but as the cadets, newly assigned to the 58th Squadron, arrive for their first space combat assignment, they discover that the plans were planted deliberately. A massive alien force already headed for Earth…while the majority of Earth’s firepower has been diverted to Groombridge. The future of mankind depends on the ability of West, Vansen and the others knowing when to follow orders …and when to break them.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Morgan Weisser (Lt. Nathan West), Kristen Cloke (Captain Shane Vansen), Rodney Rowland (Lt. Cooper Hawkes), Lanei Chapman (Lt. Vanessa Damphousse), Joel de la Fuente (Lt. Paul Wang), James Morrison (Lt. Colonel T.C. McQueen), Tucker Smallwood (Commodore Glen Ross)

Order the DVDwritten by Glen Morgan & James Wong
directed by David Nutter
music by Shirley Walker

Guest Cast: Bill Hunter (Secretary General Chartwell), Amanda Douge (Kylen), Michael Edwards-Stevens (Maxwell), Bartholomew John (Richard West), Colin Friels (Lt. Colonel Fouts), Gennie Nevinson (Anne West), Charles Anthony (Nelson), James Campbell (John West), Peter Kent (Mike “Pags” Pagodin), Angus Grant (Neil West), Theresa Wong (Michelle Low), Melissa Bullock (young Shane), Anja Coleby (Bartley), Colin Handley (Sgt. Vansen), Darrin Klimek (Carter), Rebecca Riggs (Mrs. Vansen), Ric Anderson (Slayton), Chris Kirby (Lt. Stone), Robert Coleby (Governor Overmeyer), Alan Dale (Governor Borman), F. Lee Ermey (Sgt. Bouguss)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 1

I Worship His Shadow

LexxThe forces of His Divine Shadow and the warrior race of the Brunnen G clash near one of the Brunnen G’s worlds. The fight ends badly for the Brunnen G and their planet is destroyed. Kai, leader of the Brunnen G attack group, orders a last-ditch kamikaze dive into the control deck of the Shadow starships, but he is the only one who even gets that far. He slams into the ship’s bridge and survives the impact, only to be personally killed by His Divine Shadow itself. The last of the Brunnen G is dead. Two thousand years pass.

In the Cluster, the seat of His Divine Shadow’s government ruling over the league of 20,000 worlds, the clerics of the divine order are trying to figure out how to extend the life of His Divine Shadow. It passes from host brain to host brain, but its sheer power overwhelms each successive host. The spent host’s brain is preserved and kept alive to join His Divine Predecessors. The clerics also worry about a vague prophecy that His Divine Shadow’s forces will cut down the Brunnen G to the last man, but that His Shadow will be slain by a Brunnen G in the end – clearly impossible, since that race is now extinct. The Shadow’s order maintains control over thousands of planets through merciless rule, military might, and forcing the populations of those worlds to worship His Shadow.

The arrival of a prison ship signals the end of the Divine Shadow’s order, though in the unlikeliest way. A heretic hero, Thodin, is among the ship’s prisoners, though he has allowed himself to be captured and brought to the Cluster so he can engineer the Shadow’s downfall. Also among the prisoners are a notorious female cannibal named Giggerota, and an overweight woman named Zev who faces a severe punishment for not fulfilling her “wifely duties.” Zev is sentenced to be reprogrammed into a senator’s love slave, her body altered accordingly to fit her future master’s desires.

Thodin’s plan misfires literally – a bomb goes off in the wrong place, releasing a pack of omnivorous Cluster Lizards into the general populace instead of the public arena where he faces a gladiatorial death sentence. One of the Cluster Lizards reaches the lab where Zev is being “reshaped,” and it falls into the body-shaping apparatus with her. When Zev emerges, she’s part human, part Cluster Lizard, with a fiercely independent spirit and now the strength and fighting instinct to match – as well as quite a healthy sexual appetite. She is spared the mental reprogramming part of the operation by grabbing the head of a robot destroyed by the Cluster Lizard and putting it into the apparatus. The robot, 790, instantly falls head over heels – well, perhaps just head over head – in love with her, and Zev only reluctantly brings it with her to open doors along the path of her escape.

Zev encounters low-ranking security guard Stanley Tweedle, who is on the run for questioning a high-ranking officer’s orders. Using 790, they manage to evade capture, and run into Thodin and his rebels as they try to board a new, insect-based organic warship developed by the Divine Order: the Lexx. Capable of obliterating a planet with a single shot, the Lexx is the most top-secret and heavily-guarded project in the entire Cluster, but His Shadow’s elite guards are conspicuous by their absence in the launch area.

The Lexx bonds to and takes orders from only one person, and when that person dies, the biometric key transfers itself to Stanley Tweedle – the only other human in the previous keyholder’s vicinity. Stanley, Zev, Giggerota and 790 board and launch the Lexx, but find it incapable of defending itself – it’s programmed not to fire on ships loyal to His Divine Shadow. Worse yet, they have company aboard – Kai, last of the Brunnen G, reanimated by His Divine Shadow and reprogrammed to serve as the Shadow’s personal assassin, boards the Lexx and disposes of Giggerota, holding the others at the mercy of his Brunnen G brace weapon. But when His Divine Shadow arrives to personally quash the rebellion and bring the Lexx home, Kai begins to regain the memory of his proud heritage – and his death – and becomes an instrument of prophecy.

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan with Jeffrey Hirschfield and Lex Gigeroff
directed by Paul Donovan
music by Marty Simon

Cast: Brian Downey (Stanley Tweedle), Eva Habermann (Zev), Michael McManus (Kai), Barry Bostwick (Thodin), Ellen Dubin (Giggerota), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Lisa Hines (Zev of B3K), Gil Brenton (Tem), David Renton (Senior Cleric), Anna Cameron (Prophet), Bill Carr (Correction Centre Guard), Lionel Doucette (Holo Judge), Liz Richardson (Holo Prosecutor), Chris Rowntree (Holo Official), John Dartt (Holo Defense Lawyer), David McClelland (Holo Cleric), Jocelyn Cunningham (Cluster Major), Richard Donat (Megashadow Admiral), Chas Lawther (Video Customs Officer), Andrei Mahankov (Robot 2), Clive Sweeney (Megashadow Adjutant), Jeremy Akerman (Transport Major), Joseph Rutten (Slab Prisoner), Alan MacGillivray (Argon Protopi), Josh McDonald (Sergeant), Lex Gigeroff (Bound Man), Walter Borden (His Dying Shadow), John Dunsworth (Video Asteroid Commander), Jack Carr (Video Boy Cleric), Horst Ulan (Cluster General), Glen Wadman (Officer), Stephen Turnbull (Fore Shadow Officer), Jamie Bradley (Cleric 2), Andrew Smith (Cleric), Michael Petersen (Robot & Lizard), Janice Evens (Computer Voice), Tom Gallant (Lexx), Walter Borden (His Shadow), Marty Simon (Brain No. 14)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deepwater Black Mission Genesis

Awakening

Deepwater Black / Mission GenesisA young woman named Yuna awakens from cryogenic sleep aboard a ship that’s lurching unpredictably through space. Other cryogenic containers open gradually, revealing the rest of her crewmates, though none of them – including Yuna – can remember their names or their shipboard functions at first.

Yuna and a young man named Reb regain enough of their memories to realize that their ship is being attacked, and manage to evade the attack by jumping into hyperspace – but whoever is firing on them continues the pursuit, and they can’t run forever. The others begin to recall their jobs: Zak is a cybernetics expert, and immediately sets about trying to repair the onboard computer and its holographic interface, Gen. Lise is medically trained, while the aggressive Bren comfortably steps back into his function as the ship’s security chief. Gret seems to be the crew’s communications expert. But all of them will have to remember how to do their jobs quickly in order to survive the next attack…

written by Bill Taub
based on the Deepwater novels by Ken Catran
directed by George Mendeluk
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: Gordon Michael Woolvett (Reb), Nicole de Boer (Yuna), Jason Cadieux (Bren), Julie Khan (Gen), Craig Kirkwood (Zak), Sara Sahr (Lise), Kelli Taylor (Gret)

Deepwater BlackNotes: Aired in the U.S. as Mission Genesis on Sci-Fi Channel, this series – based on a series of young adult SF novels by Canadian writer Ken Catran – was partially bankrolled by Sci-Fi Channel and was billed as the first Sci-Fi Channel original series. The cast is filled with faces familiar to viewers of Canadian-produced drama series (a category that also crosses over with many later Sci-Fi Channel original series). The television series diverges from the books in everything from minor story details to major elements such as the characters’ names. Composer Fred Mollin had previously scored such Canadian-produced TV series as Friday The 13th: The Series (and some of the later movies from that franchise), Forever Knight, TekWar and episodes of the new Outer Limits.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 SG-1 Stargate

Children Of The Gods

Stargate SG-1At a top secret facility in Cheyenne Mountain, the stargate is kept in a storage facility, guarded by a handful of of soldiers. When it activates, Goa’uld warriors come out shooting. One of the soldiers is taken hostage and her comrades, despite putting up a valiant fight, are killed. The Goa’uld take their hostage and leave.

Colonel Jack O’Neill, a year after his first voyage through the stargate, is called out of retirement and questioned by General George Hammond about his original mission. When General Hammond reveals a plan to send another nuclear bomb through the gate to prevent it from ever opening again, O’Neill finally reveals that he didn’t necessarily carry out his orders and that the team members he reported killed in action are, in fact, still living on Abydos. O’Neill suggests sending a message of sorts through the stargate to see if archaeologist Daniel Jackson is alive and well; when a reply is received, O’Neill is recalled to active duty and assigned to take another trip through the gate to investigate the sudden revival of the Goa’uld’s interest in Earth. Major Samantha Carter, an expert on the workings of the stargate, is added to O’Neill’s reassembled original team for the mission.

An initially hostile reception on the other side of the gate is quickly prevented by Daniel Jackson, who reveals his theory that there are more than two stargates – and that it’s likely that there’s an entire network of gates spread throughout the galaxy. Daniel has begun to make some headway on translating several cartouches which may be a map of that network. But before he can explain much more, Goa’uld invade Abydos through the stargate, again slaughtering everyone they can and taking a hostage – in this case, the woman Daniel has taken as his lover. He agrees to return to Earth with the surviving members of O’Neill’s team, but upon his return he finds that General Hammond isn’t exactly pleased to see him again.

With what seems to be the return of Ra, despite O’Neill and Daniel’s insistence that they did succeed in killing him, Hammond forms nine teams to perform regular reconnaisance and security missions through the Stargate, and assigns O’Neill and Carter to the prime team, SG-1. But on their first mission, the odds are against them. Daniel discovers that his lover is now inhabited by the symbiont of a Goa’uld queen, and the entire SG-1 team is captured. Only the startling rebellion of a Goa’uld warrior named Teal’c turns the tide when he joins O’Neill.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (Colonel Jack O’Neill), Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson), Amanda Tapping (Major Samantha Carter), Christopher Judge (Teal’c), Don S. Davis (General Hammond)

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jonathan Glassner & Brad Wright
directed by Mario Azzopardi
music by Joel Goldsmith
main theme adapted from music by David Arnold

Guest Cast: Jay Acovone (Major Kawalsky), Vaitiare Bandera (Sha’re), Robert Wisden (Major Samuels), Peter Williams (Apophis), Brent Stait (Major Ferretti), Gary Jones (Technician), Alexis Cruz (Skaara), Rachael Hayward (Guard #3), Rick Ravanello (Guard #2), J.B. Bivens (Guard #1), Stephen Sumner (Goa’uld #1), Adam Harrington (Goa’uld #2), John Bear Curtis (Primitive), John Tierney (Monk), Colin Lawrence (Warren), Garvin Cross (Casey), Anthony Ashbee (Soldier), Eric Schneider (Doctor), Andrew McIlwaine (Medic), Santo Lombardo (Bolaa), Sean Amsing (Tobay), Monique Rusu (Dark Skinned Woman), Janette de Vries (Female Serpent Guard)

Stargate SG-1Notes: There are several differences between the world established in the movie Stargate and that of the series. The location of the mountain base housing the Stargate has changed to Cheyenne Mountain, an actual Air Force base. (O’Neill mentions that he has been there before, suggesting that the stargate was not moved between the film and the series.) The spellings of “Jack O’Neill” and “Sha’re” have been changed from the original “O’Neil” and “Sha’uri.” The characters of Kawalsky and Ferretti were lieutenants in the movie, but majors in the series. In the film, Abydos was in another galaxy. In the series, it is one of the closest planets with a stargate to Earth, which is why the Earth gate is able to connect to it without adjustments to the address. The alien that possessed the human body Ra was a humanoid in the movie, not a snake-like creature. Ra’s guards were not called by any name or title in the movie, but were referred to as Horus and Anubis in the credits. Their headpieces folded away completely and disappeared, unlike the serpent guard headpieces of the series. (The name Anubis was later given to a major villain in the series’ later seasons.) In the film, O’Neil and Jackson agreed that the major danger was the Earth gate, and that O’Neil would find some way to have that shut down when he returned home. No explanation is given for why the stargate remained unburied and connected to power. Alexis Cruz played Skaara in both the movie and the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green with notes by Dave Thomer

Categories
Earth: Final Conflict Season 1

Decision

Earth: Final ConflictEarly in the 21st century, a number of alien Taelons, calling themselves the Companions, have arrived on Earth, ridding the human race of disease, famine and other scourges of overpopulation, bringing Earth into a new era of prosperity. But not every human being trusts the Companions – what is the price of the Taelons’ boundless generosity?

Policeman William Boone tries to arrange for heightened security for the visit of Da’an, one of the Companions, to an urban area, only to have his efforts rebuffed. Boone’s worst nightmare comes to fruition when an attempt is made on Da’an’s life, and Boone’s partner takes the bullet meant for the alien. Worse yet, the sniper is revealed to be a fellow war veteran of Boone’s, now a member of an underground resistance movement whose mission is to undermine the Companions. While hunting down his fleeing former comrade, Boone is offered a high-ranking security position by the Taelons, but his immediate obsession is to solve the case at hand. But when Boone’s wife is killed in an act of terrorism, he is left with many questions – how widespread is the resistance movement against the Companions? And who killed Boone’s wife – the resistance, or perhaps the aliens themselves?

Season 1 Regular Cast: Kevin Kilner (Captain William Boone), Lisa Howard (Captain Lili Marquette), Von Flores (FBI Agent Ronald Sandoval), Leni Parker (Da’an), Richard Chevolleau (Augur), David Hemblen (Doors)

written by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Allan Eastman
music by Micky Erbe & Maribeth Solomon

Guest Cast: Miranda Kwok (Kwai-Ling), John Evans (Morovsky), Lisa Ryder (Kate Boone), Michael Filipowich (Corr), Monique Mojica (Mayor Ruiz), Paul Boretski (Jordan), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Dr. Belman)

Notes: Launched almost exactly six years after the death of its creator, Earth: Final Conflict is the result of a series concept originally titled “Battleground: Earth” which Roddenberry was developing for CBS in 1976 before he was lured away to work on the proposed new Star Trek series which later evolved into the first Trek theatrical film. Majel Barrett, Roddenberry’s widow (and a recurring guest star in Star Trek’s numerous incarnations as well as Earth: Final Conflict) discovered her husband’s pilot script in 1995 and began looking for a studio to develop it into a new series. The name of Gene Roddenberry was officially made part of the show’s title to cash in on the posthumous fame of the creator of Star Trek.

LogBook entry by Earl Green