Year: 1999

Categories
Classic Series Specials Doctor Who

The Curse of Fatal Death

Doctor WhoThe Doctor lures the Master to the planet Terserus, the home of an extinct race infamous for its method of communicating via flatulence. Perhaps feeling his half-human oats, the Doctor announces his intention to wed his pretty assistant Emma, something which disgusts the Master to no end – so it’s fortunate that the evil Time Lord has prepared a series of nasty traps, to which he immediately and repeatedly falls victim himself. But the Master’s allies, the Daleks, are rather less clumsy and have plans to take over the universe. The Doctor makes a final bid, for the love of Emma and the entire cosmos, to halt the Daleks’ evil plans at the cost of not just one, but three of his precious lives…

written by Steven Moffat
directed by John Henderson

Cast: Rowan Atkinson (The Ninth Doctor), Jonathan Pryce (The Master), Julia Sawalha (Emma), Richard E. Grant (The Tenth Doctor), Jim Broadbent (The Eleventh Doctor), Hugh Grant (The Twelfth Doctor), Joanna Lumley (The Thirteenth Doctor), Roy Skelton (Dalek voice), Dave Chapman (Dalek voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 2

Patches In The Sky

LexxAboard his run-down satellite, Gubby gives paying customers the chance to live their fondest fantasies in his dream-enhancing narco-lounger chair. Sadly, no one drops by anymore except for a destitute “dream junkie” he calls Fruitcake, who brings vague warnings of “patches in the sky” on his latest visit. While Fruitcake enjoys an extended dream, Gubby scans the stars and discovers that large patches of it are missing – something is destroying stars, nebulae, entire galaxies, and at this rate it’ll be finished devouring the universe in a mere matter of days. Meanwhile, aboard Lexx, Stan decides to seek Gubby’s services to help him divine the meaning of a recent recurring nightmare involving the cannibalistic Giggerota. But when hooked up to Gubby’s dream-enhancing equipment, Stan discovers that Giggerota can now be as deadly in his dreams as she was in real life.

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan and Lex Gigeroff
directed by David MacLeod
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Ellen Dubin (Giggerota), Wayne Robson (Gubby), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx), David Lewis (Fruitcake), Lee-Anne Lowe (Dream Girl 1), Laura Nason (Dream Girl 2), Amy Lonergan (Dream Girl 3)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 4 Xena: Warrior Princess

The Play’s The Thing

Xena: Warrior PrincessGabrielle returns to a village to retrieve a scroll she accidentally left behind. She meets a woman, Zera, who wants to make the story into a play. The bard agrees and begins to make plans for the play, unaware that Zera is a con artist who is making deals with warlords to finance the play in the hopes of taking all of the money made.

Order the DVDswritten by Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden
directed by Christopher Graves
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Ted Raimi (Joxer), Jennifer Ward-Lealand (Zera), Allison Wall (Minya), Mark Hadlow (Milo), Peter Muller (Dustinus Hoofmanus), Polly Baigent (Palmina)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 08

Krytie TV

Red DwarfSince entertainment is hard to come by in the prison block, Lister is understandably overjoyed when Petersen mails his guitar to him – but due to prison regs involving suicides, the strings have been confiscated, somewhat limited Lister’s repertoire (but not by much). In lieu of that, it’s another night at the prison theater, whose usual diet of bad movies is interrupted by Kryten, initiating a live broadcast from the female prisoners’ shower room. Lister is at first appalled, and then rather fascinated, by this invasion of Kochanski’s privacy. But what he doesn’t know is that he is the next star of Kryten’s embarassing broadcast…

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor & Paul Alexander
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Jake Wood (Kill Crazy), Graham McTavish (Ackerman), Mark Caven (Man in film), Sarah Wateridge (Woman in film), Clifford Barry (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 2

Woz

Lexx790 reveals that Xev has an “expiration date” – and it’s only 79 hours away. As part of her love slave programming, Xev’s body was programmed to break down and die – all to keep the love slave trade in business. Though the Lusticon, the machine used to transform women into love slaves in the Cluster, was destroyed, 790 tracks down a prototype on the tornado-ravaged planet Woz. Stan and Kai land near a convent run by “The Wozard,” a man who claims he can revert former love slaves to their original form and release their inner beauty. But the Wozard doesn’t have the Lusticon – it’s in a well-guarded fortress, protected by a group of women who actually want to use its powers. Kai and Stan try to snatch the machine before the war between the Wozard and the women ends in its destruction – and Xev’s death.

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan and Lex Gigeroff
directed by David MacLeod
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Lenore Zann (Dark Lady), Walter Borden (The Wozard), Lisa Hines (Zev of B3K), Kerry MacPherson (Skye), Stacy Smith (Calico), Robin Johnson (Guard 1), Laura Nason (Guard 2), Adrienne Horton (Guard 3), Lori Heath (Hologram Guard), Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Farscape Season 1

Premiere

  • By Dave
  • March 19, 1999

FarscapeCommander John Crichton is the first test pilot of Farscape One, a craft he designed in order to test a theory on gravitational acceleration. However, when the ship encounters a disturbance midflight, Crichton winds up sucked through a wormhole right into the middle of a prison ship’s escape from its military escort. Moya, the prison ship, brings Crichton on board, but not before one of the attacking Peacekeeper fighters collides with Farscape One and subsequently crashes. His first encounter with the escapees – the exiled priest Zhaan, the deposed ruler Rygel, and the warrior D’Argo – does not go well, and before long he and a captured Peacekeeper stage a prison break of their own . . . with the brother of the dead pilot on their trail and seeking revenge.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Ben Browder (Commander John Crichton), Claudia Black (Officer Aeryn Sun), Virginia Hey (Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan), Anthony Simcoe (Ka D’Argo)

Order the Season 1 DVDswritten by Rockne S. O’Bannon
directed by Andrew Prowse
music by Subvision

Guest Cast: Kent McCord (Jack Crichton), Lani John Tupu (Captain Bialar Crais)

Notes: Lani Tupu also provides the voice for Pilot, one of Farscape‘s recurring animatronic characters. Jonathan Hardy voices the former Hynerian Dominar, Rygel.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 05 Star Trek Voyager

The Fight

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Voyager encounters a temporal-spatial anomaly called chaotic space, a phenomenon which threatens to tear the ship apart while it surrounds and traps Voyager. Chakotay experiences strange visions involving an alien boxer he has never actually encountered. The Doctor chalks these visions up to a latent gene in the first officer’s family, the same gene which once left Chakotay’s great grandfather “crazy.” When it is discovered that there is indeed an alien presence in chaotic space, Chakotay prepares to fight to save his ship and his sanity – and the gloves are coming off.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Joe Menosky
story by Michael Taylor
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Ray Walston (Boothby), Carlos Palomino (Alien Boxer), Ned Romero (Chakotay’s Great Grandfather)

Notes: Olympic boxer Carlos Palomino was not only Chakotay’s opponent in the ring, but actor Robert Beltran’s boxing coach for this episode; Palomino also once appeared as an alien athlete in an episode of Buck Rogers.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 08

Pete Part I

Red DwarfCaptain Hollister sentences Lister and Rimmer to play basketball against the prison guards to punish them for playing a practical joke on Ackerman. However, impishly improvising once again, Lister and his friends make a surprise comeback and win the game, landing them in trouble yet again. Meanwhile, on a mission with the Canaries, Kryten and Kochanski discover a time wand, capable of slowing down, speeding up, or suspending time in small pockets – and smuggle it back aboard Red Dwarf so they can speed up time for the rest of the ship and be released from their prison sentences. Lister and Rimmer escape from the grimmest part of the ship’s prison, along with a nut case who prizes his sole possession, a sparrow named Pete. But the shock of freedom kills Pete. Lister convinces Kryten to use the time wand to revert Pete to his youth, but a slight miscalculation sends Pete millions of year backward on the evolutionary scale, transforming him into a rather hungry dinosaur.

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

Guest Cast: Mac MacDonald (Captain Hollister), Graham McTavish (Ackerman), Andrew Alston (Max), Holly Earl (young Kochanski), Perri Nichael (young Cat), Ricky Glover (Baxter), Ian Masters (Birdman), Shend (Warden Knot)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Farscape Season 1

Back and Back and Back to the Future

  • By Dave
  • March 26, 1999

FarscapeThe crew rescues two Illanics, longtime allies of the Luxans. After returning from the scientists’ shuttle, Crichton finds himself even more disoriented than usual. At first his visions merely find him in compromising positions with Matala, the female Illanic. In and of itself this is enough to set off D’Argo’s jealousy. But soon Crichton sees his own death, and must figure out whether he’s lost his grip on reality or gained a chance to avert disaster.

Order the DVDswritten by Babs Greyhowski
directed by Rowan Woods
music by Subvision

Guest Cast: John Clayton (Verell), Lisa Hensley (Matala)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 05 Star Trek Voyager

Think Tank

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: When a fleet of Hazari bounty hunters converge on Voyager, Janeway is at a loss to explain why her ship is being hunted, or how to escape the Hazari. But at her moment of greatest need, Janeway is approaced by Kurros, the chief representative of a spaceborne “think tank” which solves problems as small as finding a lost pet or ending a war…for a price. While Voyager stops at Kurros’ mobile laboratory, the Hazari vessels catch up and launch an attack. Kurros’ price tag for saving Voyager’s crew? He wants Seven of Nine to join his crew.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Michael Taylor
story by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga
directed by Terrence O’Hara
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Jason Alexander (Kurros), Christopher Darga (Y’Sek), Christopher Shea (Saowin), Steve Dennis (Fennim)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 08

Pete Part II

Red DwarfKryten throws the time wand to Bob the Skutter, who is promptly swallowed by the enormous dinosaur that was once known as Pete. In a vain attempt to get the creature to cough up the time wand, Lister and the others cook up a dinosaur-sized vindaloo, complete with a live cow, to upset Pete’s enormous stomach. This it does too well, however, returning the time wand when it gets sick after eating half the food supply on Red Dwarf. Hollister now sentences Lister and Rimmer to turn Pete back into a sparrow at any cost.

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor and Paul Alexander
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Mac MacDonald (Captain Hollister), Jake Wood (Kill Crazy), Ricky Glover (Baxter), Ian Masters (Birdman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lexx Season 2

The Net

LexxA sentient being resembling a spider permanently attached to its own web lies in wait in deep space, rendering itself all but invisible to any potential prey. When Lexx approaches, its eyes spot the web creature and it asks Stan for permission to take evasive action. Stan, more concerned with trying to bed Xev in the two days that the universe supposedly has left, fails to give that permission, and the web surrounds Lexx. The creature’s tendrils pierce Lexx’s skin, taking over the ship’s brain and working their way inside from there. Tendrils worm their way into Stan and Kai’s heads, but the creature seems to have an adverse reaction to the dead Brunnen G. It finds an easily controlled host in Stan, however, giving it dual control over the Lexx. And nobody seems to suspect anything except for 790 – whose warnings are dismissed as part of the robot head’s usual disdain for Stan…

Order the DVDswritten by Paul Donovan and Jeffrey Hirschfield
directed by Chris Bould
music by Marty Simon

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Hirschfield (790), Tom Gallant (Lexx)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Farscape Season 1

Exodus from Genesis

  • By Dave
  • April 2, 1999

FarscapeA giant swarm of space insects shields Moya from detection by a scanning Peacekeeper Marauder ship – but it also infests the ship. The bugs gather genetic material from the crew and construct physical doppelgangers of them as they transform Moya into a hive. The process raises the ship’s temperature past the tolerance level for Sebaceans, which poses a threat to Aeryn but may be the crew’s best defense when the Peacekeepers arrive.

Order the DVDswritten by Ro Hume
directed by Brian Henson
music by Subvision

Guest Cast: Damian de Montemas (Melkor), Jodie Dry (Kyona), Geoff Barker (PK Commando #3), Chenoeh Miller (PK Commando #4), Tai Scrivener (PK Commando #5)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 08

Only The Good…

Red DwarfRed Dwarf rescues a life pod with a sole survivor and an unwelcome visitor – a shapeshifting, corrosive microscopic life form which begins eating away at the ship, though no one realizes this just yet. After Lister tricks him into embarassing Kochanski, Kryten vows revenge, planting a fellow prisoner’s secret stash of home-brewed booze in Lister and Rimmer’s cell. But that prisoner’s response – basically a death threat – requires a new escape attempt. En route to steal a ship, they see the corroded life pod, and Lister decides that Captain Hollister must be informed of the imminent danger. Hollister rewards the prisoners by thanking them for giving Red Dwarf’s officers and crew time to escape…and then announces that all prisoners will be left behind to die.

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

Guest Cast: Mac MacDonald (Captain Hollister), Graham McTavish (Ackerman), Heidi Monsen (Talia), Tony Slattery (Dispensing Machine), Ricky Glover (Baxter), David Verrey (Big Meat)

Original title: Every Dog…

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 07 Star Trek

Penumbra

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 52576.2: Worf is reported missing in action after the ship he was commanding was destroyed by Dominion forces. The Defiant is forced to break off the search; however, Ezri sets out alone in a runabout, determined to find him. Meanwhile, Sisko, who has bought the land for his dream house on Bajor, proposes to Kasidy Yates, but then learns that the Prophets do not approve; and Dukat is secretly altered to appear as a Bajoran.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Rene Echavarria
directed by Steven Posey
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Penny Johnson (Kasidy Yates), Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Casey Biggs (Damar), Deborah Lacey (Sarah), Salome Jens (Female Changeling), Michelle Horn (Saghi), Majel Barrett (Federation Computer Voice), Judi Durand (Cardassian Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover