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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

New Ground

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45376.3: The Enterprise is participating in a test of a new method of propulsion that would render warp engines obsolete by generating a wave that a starship would “ride” like a surfboard. While preparing for the test, Worf receives a message from Helena that she and Worf’s son have come to visit. When they beam aboard, Alexander believes that he is staying on the Enterprise, and Helena tells Worf that Alexander has been disobedient and even untruthful, which is proven when, after enrolling in the ship’s school, he steals a model on a field trip. Picard orders part of the ship to be evacuated after a freak accident with the propulsion experiment, but he and Worf discover that Alexander, once again in defiance of Worf’s instructions, has gone to that section of the ship.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Grant Rosenberg
story by Sara Charno & Stuart Charno
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Georgia Brown (Helena Rozhenko), Brian Bonsall (Alexander), Richard McGonagle (Dr. Ja’Dar), Jennifer Edwards (Mrs. Kyle), Sheila Franklin (Ensign), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

Hero Worship

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45397.3: Investigating the disappearance of the USS Vico, the Enterprise crew finds that the missing vessel has been heavily damaged and is adrift inside a dark matter cluster. A single survivor, young Timothy, is rescued by Data, and is the only means of finding out what happened since the logs of the disaster were also damaged. Timothy tries to emulate Data’s lack of emotions in order to overcome his own confused feelings, but stops short of telling the truth about what happened – which is what Picard needs to know as the Enterprise follows the Vico’s fateful course.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Joe Menosky
story by Hilary J. Bader
directed by Patrick Stewart
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Joshua Harris (Timothy), Harley Venton (Transporter Chief), Sheila Franklin (Ensign), Steven Einspahr (Teacher)

Note: It was during the filming of this episode that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry died in October 1991.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

Violations

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45429.3: A party of telepathic Ullians is visiting the Enterprise, ready to share their unique gift of probing into the mind and recovering lost memories. During their visit, Troi reminisces about an earlier encounter with Riker, and then her memory is invaded by an image of one of the Ullians. Dr. Crusher finds Troi in a coma, and she and Riker are the next to have their memories invaded. Data and Geordi try to track down the mystery ailment that has rendered key officers comatose – and discover that there may be no disease involved and one of the Ullians could be behind the telepathic intrusions.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Pamela Gray & Jeri Taylor
story by Shari Goodhartz & T. Michael Gray and Pamela Gray
directed by Robert Weimer
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Rosalind Chao (Keiko), Ben Lemon (Jev), David Sage (Tarmin), Rick Fitts (Dr. Martin), Eve Brenner (Inad), Doug Wert (Jack Crusher), Craig Benton (Crewman Davis), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Masterpiece Society

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45470.1: Following a piece of star debris on its way through areas of unexplored space, the Enterprise crew discovers a colony of genetically engineered humans on Moab IV, a planet which will be devastated by the stellar fragment’s close pass. Although his advisor Martin is hostile to the idea of introducing strangers to the perfectly balanced society, Conor, the colony’s leader, allows an Enterprise awat team to visit Moab IV. Troi and Conor enter a relationship, while engineer Hannah Bates works alongside Geordi to strive for an impossible discovery – moving the massive chunk of star debris without evacuating – and thus imbalancing – the colony. Even after using an technological offshoot of Geordi’s VISOR to release Moab IV from its death sentence, the Enterprise crew discovers that it may have now endangered the colony even worse by revealing a different way of life to the inhabitants.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Adam Belanoff and Michael Piller
story by James Kahn and Adam Belanoff
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), John Snyder (Aaron Conor), Dey Young (Hannah Bates), Ron Canada (Martin Benbeck), Sheila Franklin (Ensign)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

Conundrum

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45494.2: Investigating a possible indication of intelligent life in a distant area, the Enterprise is scanned by an unknown spacecraft. The crew’s memories of who they are and everyone else around them, as well as specific computer files containing the crew records, are erased, although everyone still remembers their Starfleet skills, although others react differently without any knowledge of who they once were or what they did: Worf assumes command of the ship, while Riker and Ensign Ro are attracted to one another in a way neither would normally admit. Geordi eventually recovers the computer’s crew manifest containing names, ranks and duties, identifying Commander Kieran MacDuff – who mysteriously appeared as soon as the crew’s memories were damaged – as first officer. The computer finally divulges the basics of the Enterprise’s current mission: to seek out and destroy the main base of the Lysian Alliance, with whom, according to the records, the Federation has been at war for many years. Although some members of the crew begin to question their orders as well as the unusualy selective damage done to their memories and the computer, Commander MacDuff insists that the ship press on the attack.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Barry M. Schkolnick
story by Paul Schiffer
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Erich Anderson (Commander MacDuff), Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro), Liz Vassey (Kristin), Erick Weiss (Crewman), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 05

Holoship

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

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

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

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

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

Power Play

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45571.2: Investigating a 200-year-old Starfleet distress signal emanating from a planet which happens to be the last known location of the starship Essex, the Enterprise sends a shuttle through the planet’s stormy atmosphere. The shuttle, with Riker, Troi and Data on board, crash lands, resulting in Riker breaking an arm. Chief O’Brien beams down with a device to boost the transporter signal so the away team can be rescued, but all four are struck by a lightning-like discharge and all but Riker are knocked out. Riker operates the transporter booster and returns them to the Enterprise, where Troi, O’Brien and Data take over the ship under the influence of aliens from the planet. They enter Ten Forward and take hostages, announcing that they are actually the spirits of the Essex crew. Demanding that their physical remains be recovered from the planet and returned to Earth, Troi – apparently taken over by the dead captain of the Essex – threatens to kill the hostages (including Keiko and her baby), and Picard’s attempts to negotiate accomplish nothing, aside from convincing him that the terrorists are not who they claim to be.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Rene Balcer and Herbert J. Wright & Brannon Braga
story by Paul Ruben and Maurice Hurley
directed by David Livingston
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Rosalind Chao (Keiko), Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro), Ryan Reid (Transporter Technician), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 05

The Inquisitor

Red DwarfIn deep space, control of Starbug is wrested from the gang by the Inquisitor, a deranged simulant who has taken it upon itself to remove those it considers worthless from the universe and replace them with someone who could’ve made more of life. The Inquisitor confronts them aboard Red Dwarf, forcing each to justify his existence. Rimmer complains that he’s lucky to have achieved his esteemed status as a corpse-turned-hologram considering his background. Cat insists that his posterior is a work of art and that it’d be cruel to deny the universe of it. Kryten insists that he has behaved as he was programmed but wanted to be much more, and Lister tells the Inquisitor to spin on it. The latter two are selected to be removed from existence itself.

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

Guest Cast: John Docherty (Inquisitor), Jake Abraham (Second Lister), James Cormack (Thomas Allman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

Ethics

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate not given: Critically injured by falling containers in a cargo bay, Worf is paralyzed from the waist down, and Dr. Crusher can offer little in the way of hopes for complete recovery. The visiting Dr. Russell sees Worf’s injury as a perfect chance to test her new device, which can – in theory – replicate entire organs after scanning the DNA of the original. Crusher disagrees, however, citing Russell’s device as experimental at best, and refusing to allow Russell to operate. When Worf – claiming that life as an invalid would be a dishonorable burden to he and his family – begins to try to enlist Riker’s help in committing suicide, Crusher is forced to let Russell attempt to restore Worf’s spinal cord – an operation that could easily end the Klingon’s life, leaving many of the crew concerned for Worf as well as Alexander.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Sara Charno & Stuart Charno
directed by Chip Chalmers
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Caroline Kava (Dr. Russell), Brian Bonsall (Alexander), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 05

Terrorform

Red DwarfRimmer and Kryten, who have taken a Starbug out to do a bit of moon-hopping, have crash-landed on a psi-moon, a self-terraforming world which reconfigures itself to conform to its inhabitants’ psyches. Since Rimmer has become the only living being on the psi-moon, it has uprooted its surface and turned into the hopeless living hell that is Rimmer’s miserable personality. Kryten detaches one of his mechanoid hands and sends it to Red Dwarf to get help. Lister and Cat manage to repair Kryten and set out to find Rimmer. They discover that his persecution complex has manifested itself in an insulting, abusive creature which is about to torture Rimmer just when he is rescued. Returning to the Starbug, they discover that their escape is entirely dependent on how much of a boost they can give to Rimmer’s ego. The guys face their most horrific challenge ever – they must look Arnold J. Rimmer in the eye and tell him they care about him…

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

Guest Cast: Sara Stockenbridge (Handmaiden), Francine Walker-Lee (Handmaiden)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 05

Quarantine

Red DwarfThe guys take Starbug to search for Dr. Hildegarde Lanstrom, a brilliant doctor whose hologram may still be functioning aboard her old ship. Rimmer is dismayed at the prospect of recruiting Lanstrom since only one hologram can operate aboard Red Dwarf or Starbug at a time. As it turns out, his fears are complete unfounded since Lanstrom turns out to be infected with a program corruption called a “holo-virus,” and has not only gone murderously mad but has also developed telekinesis and various other deadly powers. Luckily for Lister, Cat and Kryten, the holo-virus runs its course and destroys Lanstrom, but she has already managed to transmit it to Rimmer. Rimmer confines the others to quarantine when they return to Red Dwarf, and begins to develop the same hideous abilities as Lanstrom. If Lister, Cat and Kryten can avoid strangling each other while facing the prospects of months of isolation, they might be able to save Rimmer…as if anyone would want to.

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

Guest Cast: Maggie Steed (Dr. Hildegarde Lanstrom), Mr. Flibble (himself)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Outcast

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 45614.6: Assisting the androgynous J’naii people in a search for a missing space shuttle, the Enterprise crew discovers a pocket of null space from which energy emissions cannot escape. Riker and J’naii pilot Soren take an Enterprise shuttlecraft into the null zone to investigate, a trip on which Soren makes Riker uneasy by her unusual curiosity about human sexuality, and says that such practices among J’naii would be considered repugnant. Preparing for another trip, Soren reveals to Riker that she is one of a group of outlaws among the J’naii who embrace the “ancient” genders of male and female. After rescuing the J’naii shuttle crew and returning them safely, the Enterprise crew is invited to a celebration on the J’naii planet, during which Riker and Soren take their relationship a good deal further. When the other J’naii discover this, Soren is taken into custody so her “deviance” can be “cured,” and Riker decides that he must disobey the prime directive to rescue Soren from her own society.

Order the DVDswritten by Jeri Taylor
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Melinda Culea (Soren), Callan White (Krite), Megan Cole (Noor)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 05

Demons & Angels

Red DwarfKryten and Lister are experimenting with the triplicator, a device Kryten has adapted from the Matter Paddle which can produce two copies of any object; in this case, they’re trying it out with strawberries, and the device works perfectly, though it somehow produces one divine and wholesome copy of the strawberry and another teeming with maggots and nastiness (which Lister discovers by biting into it). Kryten tries to reverse the process, and before anyone can sing “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the drive room is bursting with explosions and the gang has to beat a hasty retreat to Starbug just in case Red Dwarf explodes…which, rather less than surprisingly, it does soon after Starbug escapes. But, to make up for the predictability of that, the law of averages takes a snooze as Kryten spots two copies of Red Dwarf nearby – which, since he theorizes they were created by a freak field reversal in the triplicator, will be a divine, idealized Red Dwarf, and the other will be, as Lister puts it, “fish bait.” Seeking help from the idealized Red Dwarf, they find four individuals who spend their time in pursuit of higher truths and ideologies and spiritual fulfillment. When the “low” Red Dwarf sends out a mayday, our heroes and their “higher” counterparts set out to render assistance, only to find a trap set by four bloodthirsty, murderous individuals aboard a grungy garbage scow of a ship. If they can survive their “low” selves, the guys may be able to combine the two and recreate their own Red Dwarf.

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

Guest Cast: none

Original Title: High & Low

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 05 Star Trek The Next Generation

Cause and Effect

Star Trek: The Next Generation…and the engine core, after the warp engines take critical damage, is destablized. Picard orders all hands to evacuate, and the Enterprise blasts herself to bits.

Stardate 45652.1: Investigating a previously unexplored area of space, the Enterprise crew expects nothing but the normal routine of the unknown. After Dr. Crusher makes a mysterious complaint about hearing voices in her quarters, a time disturbance is detected close to the ship. After Picard orders Ro to distance the Enterprise from the phenomenon, all power is lost and a Federation starship emerges from the rift, colliding with the Enterprise, and the engine core, after the warp engines take critical damage, is destablized. Picard orders all hands to evacuate, and the Enterprise blasts herself to bits.

Stardate 45652.1: Investigating an unexplored area of space, the Enterprise crew expects nothing but the normal routine of the unknown. Shortly after Dr. Crusher and Riker begin to notice that events are repeating themselves, Dr. Crusher complains about hearing voices in her quarters. A time disturbance is detected close to the ship. After Picard orders Ro to distance the Enterprise from the phenomenon, all power is lost and a Federation starship emerges from the rift, colliding with the Enterprise, and the engine core, after the warp engines take critical damage, is destablized. Picard orders all hands to evacuate, and the Enterprise blasts herself to bits.

Stardate 45652.1: Investigating an unexplored area of space, the Enterprise crew expects nothing but the normal routine of the unknown. After Riker, Worf and Dr. Crusher notice that events are repeating, Crusher waits for and records the voices in her quarters at the same time Geordi’s sensors detect an anomaly. Data analyzes the voices and reports that they are the voices of the crew. The Enterprise has entered a time loop in which all events that occurred since the ship’s actual entry recur, and the “afterimages” of the events trapped in the loop allow the crew to know what is about to happen to them again. Data plans to leave himself a “message” that he will receive in a “subconscious” way, but before he can get far with his idea, a disturbance is detected near the ship. Picard orders Ro to distance the Enterprise from the phenomenon, and then all power is lost and the starship emerges from the rift, colliding with the Enterprise, and the engine core is destablized. Picard orders evacuation as Data transmits his message to the Data in the next time loop, and the Enterprise blasts herself to bits.

Stardate 45652.1: Dr. Crusher notices events repeating once more. Data receives his own message just as Crusher once again records the voices in her quarters. The time disturbance appears, and Picard hesitantly repeats his order to stand off from the rift. The power drain occurs again, as does the emergence of the other ship. Data suddenly changes the chain of events by taking a course of action the crew has rejected in every time loop up till now, and the collision is avoided. The Enterprise has been caught in the time loop for nearly 18 days, but upon contacting the captain of the other ship, Picard discovers that his counterparts may have been repeating their collision with the Enterprise for over 70 years.

Order the DVDswritten by Brannon Braga
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Kelsey Grammer (Captain Bateston), Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 05

Back To Reality

Red DwarfExamining the submerged wreckage of the seeding ship Esperanto, Lister, Kryten and Cat discover that every form of life they find has committed suicide for reasons unknown. Upon the discovery of a venom with hallucinogenic properties, they start high-tailing it back to Starbug, unaware that the enormous, New-Mexico-sized squid from which this rather disgusting substance emerged is heading for Starbug even faster than they are. Trying to run for it, they are caught in a huge blast of the venom and Starbug crashes into the ocean floor. When they come to, the guys find that they’ve been playing a virtual reality game called “Red Dwarf” for the past four years, and they aren’t who they thought they were. Kryten is a cybernetic traffic cop named Jake Bullet; the Cat is Duane Dibbley, a completely uncool individual with no style, grace or dress sense, and an overbite that could eclipse most stars; Rimmer turns out to be the non-hologrammatic bum Billy Doyle; and Lister is revealed to be small-time fascist dictator Sebastian Doyle – Billy’s half brother. Things in the real world aren’t what they expected, and before they know it, our heroes Jake, Duane, Billy and Sebastian wish they were back on Red Dwarf. Since that option seems to be out of the question at the moment, they decide that suicide is comparitively painless.

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

Guest Cast: Timothy Spall (Andy), Lenny Von Dohlen (Cop), Anastasia Hille (New Kochanski), Marie McCarthy (Nurse), John Sharian (New Lister)

LogBook entry by Earl Green