Month: February 1994

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 1

Soul Hunter

Babylon 5Shortly after the arrival of new doctor Stephen Franklin, an alien spacecraft of an unknown design tumbles through the hyperspace jump gate, on an uncontrolled collision course with the station. Sinclair manages to retrieve the ship just before it collides with the station, and its sole occupant is taken to the medlab. Ambassador Delenn reacts with horror at the new arrival, describing him as a Soul Hunter, a figure feared in Minbari lore. Though Sinclair and Dr. Franklin dismiss Delenn’s frantic warnings about the alien as superstition, it becomes clear when Franklin’s patient awakens that it does have some business with the Minbari on its agenda – especially Delenn, who turns out to be more than she appears.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Jim Johnston
music by Christopher Franke

Guest Cast: W. Morgan Sheppard (The Soul Hunter), John Snyder (Soul Hunter #2), Toni Attell (Med Tech #1), Jim Bentley (Man), Mark Conley (Tech #1), David D. Darling (Guard #1), Ted W. Henning (Guard #2), Marianne Robertson (Tech #2)

Notes: It is in this episode that we first learn Delenn is a member of the Minbari Grey Council, and also first hear of the Minbari compulsion to safeguard their souls. Later in Points of Departure it is learned that their own souls are not the only ones the Minbari are concerned with.

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Lower Decks

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47566.7: A promotion is nearing for one of a group of four friends who are junior officers aboard the Enterprise. Sito, a Bajoran ensign who was involved in the Nova Squadron accident cover-up at Starfleet Academy with Wesley Crusher, is neck-and-neck for a promotion to Ops with the ambitious Lavelle, who is attempting to make a favorable impression on Commander Riker. Vulcan Ensign Taurik is an engineering specialist whose duties of late have grown mysterious, as have those of Nurse Ogawa, who is also due for a promotion. The Enterprise is undertaking a top secret mission, the true purpose of which is unknown to the four friends – though each of them has a piece of the puzzle, and a part to play, in this critical event.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Renè Echavarria
story by Ronald Wilkerson and Jean Louise Matthias
directed by Gabrielle Beaumont
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Dan Gauthier (Ensign Lavelle), Shannon Fill (Ensign Sito), Alexander Enberg (Ensign Taurik), Bruce Beatty (Ben), Don Reilly (Joret), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Paradise

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47573.1: Surveying planets in the Gamma Quadrant for potential colonization by the Federation, Sisko and O’Brien discover a world which is already inhabited by humans – to be precise, survivors of a Starfleet shipwreck who have been living on the other side of the wormhole for over a decade. Led by the charismatic Alixus, the survivors have had to rely on basic skills to stay alive, since an energy field prevents any form of technology from functioning. Alixus presses Sisko and O’Brien to abandon any hope of rescue and stay with the colony, but when the two refuse to give up so easily, they discover that their hostess is not above relying on the darkest tactics to convince them…

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Jeff King and Richard Manning & Hans Beimler
story by Jim Trombetta & James Crocker
directed by Corey Allen
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Gail Strickland (Alixus), Julia Nickson (Cassandra), Steve Vinovich (Joseph), Michael Buchman Silver (Vinod), Erick Weiss (Stephan), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 1

Born To The Purple

Babylon 5Londo stalls negotiations with the Narn – and infuriates G’Kar – when he wishes simply to partake of a seedy bar whose agile young Centauri dancer intrigues Londo; when he winds up in bed with her, talks are delayed even further. But the girl is in the employ of an information trader who plans on using her to get to Londo’s Purple Files, detailing various dirt on many Centauri families – information the Narn Regime would pay handsomely for in order to gain blackmail material against their former masters. When Londo discovers that his secrets have been taken, he begins a desperate quest to track down the culprit and free an innocent pawn.

Order now!Download this episodewritten by Lawrence G. DiTillio
directed by Bruce Seth Green
music by Christopher Franke

Guest Cast: Fabiana Udenio (Adira Tyree), Clive Revill (Trakis), Mary Woronov (Ko D’Ath), Jimm Giannini (Ock), Robert Phalen (Andrei Ivanova), Robert DiTillio (Norg), Tom Lowe (Gunman #1), Katharine Mills (Dancer), Mike Norris (Butz), Laura Peterson (Gera Akshi), Marianne Robertson (Tech #1), Momo Yashima (Dr. Goyokin)

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Thine Own Self

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47611.2: Counselor Troi returns from her Academy class reunion to find Dr. Crusher in charge of the bridge, and begins wondering about the possibility of achieving her own position in the ship’s chain of command. Crusher, for her part, is on watch while Data is away in a shuttlecraft retrieving radioactive fragments of a destroyed space probe. Data’s shuttle crashes on a world inhabited by relatively primitive humanoids, and his radioactive cargo disrupts his ability to access his memory of who he is or where he is from. Data wanders into the nearest village carrying the case of hazardous materials, with which he unwittingly contaminates everyone. The only hope for the locals is for Data to restore his memory.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Christopher Hatton
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Ronnie Claire Edwards (Talur), Michael Rothar (Garvin), Kimberly Cullum (Gia), Michael G. Hagerty (Skoran)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Shadowplay

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47603.3: Detecting the emissions of a matter/antimatter reactor from an uncharted planet in the Gamma Quadrant, Dax and Odo beam down into a village whose simple inhabitants have been disappearing without a trace or any kind of explanation. At first the visitors from the Runabout are prime suspects, but once they prove that they have nothing to do with the series of disappearances, Dax and Odo are entrusted with the task of finding the guilty party. However, someone else in the village already knows the answer to the puzzle – the one person who is guaranteed not to vanish.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Robert Hewitt Wolfe
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Philip Anglim (Vedek Bareil), Kenneth Mars (Colyus), Kenneth Tobey (Rurigan), Noley Thornton (Taya), Trula M. Marcus (Female Villager), Martin Cassidy (Male Villager)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 1

Infection

Babylon 5Dr. Vance Hendricks, one of Dr. Franklin’s med school mentors, arrives on Babylon 5 in a cloud of mystery with a collection of pristine artifacts from the planet Icarra, which has been dead for over a thousand years. One of the artifacts takes control of Hendricks’ partner and transforms him into a killing machine designed to eliminate any life form which is not pure Icarran. Since the Icarran race has been dead for centuries thanks to creatures just like this, every living being aboard the station is in danger – a situation which Sinclair decides to take into his own hands despite Garibaldi’s protests.

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

Guest Cast: David McCallum (Dr. Vance Hendricks), Marshall Teague (Nelson Drake), Patricia Healy (Mary Ann Cramer), Sav Farrow (Tech #1), Daniel Hutchison (Security Guard), Sylva Kelegian (Tech #2), Tony Rizzoli (Guard), Marianne Robertson (Tech #3), Paul Teuell (Customs Guard)

Notes: We discover, later in the series, that Interplanetary Expeditions, Hendricks’ employer, is the same outfit that unburied Shadow vessels on Mars and Ganymede.

Infection was the first hour-long episode of Babylon 5 produced.

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Masks

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47615.2: Studying an ancient comet at close range, the crew of the Enterprise becomes aware of strange objects appearing on board. An unexplained surge of energy affects the ship’s computer systems and Data as well. The comet is revealed to be an archaic spaceborne artifact of a bygone alien civilization. The Enterprise’s computer is filled with symbols and hieroglyphics whose meanings are known only to Data, though he has never before encountered anything like them. Soon, Data himself is transformed, exhibiting a number of personalities from the alien archive. The ship’s computer and even parts of the ship itself transform themselves into objects whose function can only be deduced by studying the alien civilization. But by the time Picard and the others can gain an understanding of what has taken control of their ship, the Enterprise and Data will be transformed into an ancient alien temple – and its resident goddess.

Order the DVDswritten by Joe Menosky
directed by Robert Wiemer
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Rickey D’Shon Collins (Eric)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Playing God

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: A Trill candidate for joining with a symbiont arrives on DS9 for observation by Dax, who will report his psychological fitness to the Symbiosis Commission on the Trill homeworld. In the course of their bumpy relationship – based on the fact that the candidate prepared himself to be in the company of Curzon Dax and not Jadzia – they pick up something unusual from the wormhole and bring it back to the station for study, not realizing that it will begin expanding rapidly until it threatens to consume the station…and the space beyond.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Jim Trombetta and Michael Piller
story by Jim Trombetta
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Geoffrey Blake (Arjin), Ron Taylor (Klingon Chef), Richard Poe (Gul Evek), Chris Nelson Morris (Alien Man), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 1

The Parliament of Dreams

Babylon 5Amidst a week of cultural exchange in which various cultures’ religious and philosophical views are demonstrated, Garibaldi notices the arrival of Catherine Sakai, Sinclair’s old flame from the space academy on Earth. While Sinclair tries to come to grips with his past, Ambassador G’Kar’s past gets a grip on him as an old adversary from the Narn homeworld has diverted all his resources to killing G’Kar. The sudden arrival of a new aide makes the ambassador understandably nervous, and no matter what steps he takes to ensure his own security, someone seems to be one step ahead of G’Kar at every turn…

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Jim Johnston
music by Christopher Franke

Guest Cast: Julia Nickson (Catherine Sakai), Thomas Kopache (Tu’Pari), Joy Hardin (Narn #1), Mark Hendrickson (Du’Rog), Calvin Jung (Guard), Randall Kirby (Businessman #1), Michael McKenzie (Pilgrim), Marianne Robertson (Dome Tech), Glenn Robinson (Head Waiter), Erich Martin Von Hicks (Businessman #2)

Notes: The character of Na’Toth, making her first appearance here, was originally to have been played by Susan Kellerman according to Warner Bros.’ preliminary promo material. Also note that the Minbari religious ceremony, according to Catherine Sakai, does double duty as a marriage ceremony.

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Eye Of The Beholder

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47622.1: A young officer recently posted to the Enterprise commits suicide by leaping into an energy stream in one of the ship’s warp nacelles. Trying to find out why, Troi begins investigating the last days of the deceased by speaking to his friends and co-workers, and eventually winds up surveying the warp nacelle post, where she experiences an inexplicable emotional upheaval which may be an echo left by the partially empathic officer’s final burst of feelings and thoughts. She tries to probe this psionic artifact for its true meaning, and uncovers a betrayal which is older than anyone realizes.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Renè Echavarria
story by Brannon Braga
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Mark Rolston (Lt. Walter Pierce), Nancy Harewood (Lt. Nara), Tim Lounibos (Lt. Kwan), Johanna McCloy (Ensign Calloway)

LogBook entry by Earl Green