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To do away with Rose’s skepticism about the TARDIS’ ability to travel through time, the Doctor takes his new companion to the year 5,000,000,000 - on the very day that the Sun expands into a red giant and swallows its innermost planets, including Earth. The TARDIS lands aboard Platform One, a shielded space station placed in a temporary orbit around Earth so special guests may bear witness to the planet’s demise in complete safety. Rose isn’t prepared for the guests to be alien though - from the enormous Face of Boe, which has to be kept in a protective tank, to the hooded Adherence of the Repeated Meme, to the sentient tree people represented by the lovely Jabe, to a being claiming to be “the last pure human” - in reality a face and a brain connected to a flat membrance of skin after hundreds of plastic surgeries to remove the rest of her “imperfect” body. But as the moment of Earth’s death draws near, things begin to go wrong aboard Platform One - the Doctor discovers that a killer is slowly wiping out the guests and hospitality staff alike…and that someone else knows who he really is.

written by Russell T. Davies
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Simon Day (The Steward), Yasmin Bannerman (Jabe), Jimmy Vee (The Moxx of Balhoon), Zoe Wanamaker (Cassandra), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Beccy Armory (Raffalo), Sara Stewart (Computer Voice), Silas Carson (Alien Voices)

Notes: Red Dwarf fans may recognize Yasmin Bannerman (Jabe) as the air traffic controller who witnesses the Cat’s amazing dancing feats in the final season’s three-parter Back In The Red. Voice artist Silas Carson has been heard and seen in all three of the Star Wars prequels, portraying both Jedi Master Ki-Adi Mundi and the treacherous Nute Gunray. In Star Wars Episode I, he also portrayed Senator Lott Dodd.

Reviews by Philip R. Frey & Earl Green
LogBook entry by Earl Green (click here for review and more details…)

Having demonstrated the TARDIS’ ability to fast-forward through the pages of future history, the Doctor takes Rose into the past - Cardiff, Wales, on Christmas Eve, 1869 to be precise. Before the time travelers can immerse themselves in this time period, however, they encounter something very much out of place - a sign of alien interference in Earth’s history. A recital of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens himself is brought to a halt by a walking corpse who exhales some kind of gaseous being into the theater. While the Doctor tries to make contact with the gas creature, Rose follows a local undertaker who retrieves the corpse - and winds up being kidnapped in the process. The Doctor and Charles Dickens give chase, eventually finding the undertaker’s place of business and discovering that he is doing his best to contain the alien threat with the help of a psychic girl. The Doctor suggests establishing a more firm contact with these beings, but doing so could unravel Earth’s timeline.

written by Mark Gatiss
directed by Euros Lyn
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alan David (Gabriel Sneed), Huw Rhys (Redpath), Jennifer Hill (Mrs. Peace), Eve Myles (Gwyneth), Simon Callow (Charles Dickens), Wayne Cater (Stage Manager), Meic Povey (Driver), Zoe Thorne (The Gelth)

Notes: Writer Mark Gatiss was one of the driving forces behind the popular comedy series The League Of Gentlemen, but also wrote several Doctor Who novels, starting with the New Adventures book “Nightshade” in 1992. As an actor, Gatiss has also gotten in on the Time Lord’s travels (sort of) - he took the part of an old enemy with a new disguise in the Doctor Who Unbound audio play Sympathy For The Devil in 2003, acting under the anagrammatical pseudonym of “Sam Kisgart”. With his League of Gentlement cohorts, Gatiss also provided “additional Vogon voices” for the feature film version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

Reviews by Philip R. Frey & Earl Green
LogBook entry by Earl Green (click here for review and more details…)

Commander Adama calls for President Roslin’s resignation over the secret orders that sent Starbuck to Caprica, based on nothing more than ancient prophecies. When the President refuses to step down, Colonel Tigh and Apollo are assigned to lead a strike team to remove her from power. Starbuck arrives at Caprica, and lands safely near the museum where the artifact is kept, and finds herself fighting for her life against one of the copies of Number Six. Helo, with his captive copy of Boomer still in tow, finds Starbuck just as the battle ends. When Starbuck tries to kill Boomer, Helo stops her - this Boomer Cylon is apparently biologically compatible enough with humans to be pregnant with Helo’s child. Adama assigns the clone of Boomer aboard Galactica to pick up where Starbuck left off, commanding what could be a suicide mission take out the Cylon base ship orbiting Kobol and keeping a downed Raptor crew - including Baltar - trapped on the planet. Even if this Boomer is able to overcome her Cylon programming enough to carry out those orders, she may return to Galactica with a new, and equally destructive, mission to carry out.

teleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by David Eick
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Paul Campbell (Billy Keikeya), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Sam Witwer (Lt. Crashdown), Lorena Gale (Priest Elosha), Alonso Oyarzun (Socinus), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Jim Shield (Karma), Warren Christie (Ground Crew #1), Jen Halley (Ground Crew #2), Leah Cairns (Racetrack)

Original UK Airdate: January 24, 2005

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Enterprise encounters an Orion trading vessel whose captain, Harrad-Sar, claims to have an offer that Captain Archer can’t refuse. Harrad-Sar says he’s found a planet loaded with the ore needed to build new warp cores, but the Orion Syndicate doesn’t have the means to extract it; the Orions want to form a pact with Starfleet for the ore. As a token of his good will, the Orion captain also gives Archer something else: three tantalizing Orion dancers, whose female charms quickly overpower everything from common sense to the command structure aboard the Enterprise, even affecting Archer’s judgement. Phlox detects unusually powerful pheromones capable of swaying just about any male crewmember, but Trip alone isn’t affected at all - and T’Pol thinks she knows why.

written by Manny Coto
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: William Lucking (Harrad-Sar), Cyia Batten (Navaar), Derek Magyar (Kelby), Crystal Allen (D’Nesh), Menina Fortunato (Maras), Christopher Jewett (Crewman #1), Duncan K. Fraser (Crewman #2)

Notes: Cyia Batten, seen here in green skin and not much else, was the first of several actresses to play the role of Tora Ziyal, Gul Dukat’s half-Bajoran, half-Cardassian daughter on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. William Lucking also appeared on DS9 as Furel, a former resistance comrade of Major Kira’s, in Shakaar and The Darkness And The Light.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Doctor brings Rose back to Earth, promising that as far as anyone there is concerned, she’s only been gone for 12 hours. As it turns out, though, the Doctor’s control of the TARDIS is somewhat erratic - Rose has, in fact, been gone for 12 months, making her mother’s life a living hell and making her boyfriend Mickey a murder suspect. Just as things seem to calm down after her arrival, an alien spaceship plummets through the skies over London, crashing right through Big Ben and coming to rest in the Thames. The Doctor seems optimistic at first that perhaps this is humanity’s first contact with aliens, but his curiosity takes him to a hospital near the crash site, where the body of the ship’s pilot is being kept. He quickly discovers that all is not as it seems, and that aliens have, in fact, been on Earth for some time, but even the Doctor doesn’t suspect how deeply they’ve entrenched themselves into society until the Slitheen reveal themselves.

written by Russell T. Davies
directed by Keith Boak
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Corey Doabe (Spray Painter), Ceris Jones (Policeman), Jack Barlton (Reporter), Lachele Carl (Reporter), Fiesta Mei Ling (Ru), Basil Chung (Bau), Matt Baker (himself), Andrew Marr (himself), Rupert Vansittart (General Asquith), David Verrey (Joseph Green), Navin Chowdhry (Indra Ganesh), Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones), Annette Badland (Margaret Blaine), Naoko Mori (Doctor Sato), Eric Potts (Oliver Charles), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Jimmy Vee (Alien), Steve Spiers (Strickland), Elizabeth Fost (Slitheen), Paul Kasey (Slitheen), Alan Ruscoe (Slitheen)

Reviews by Philip R. Frey & Earl Green
LogBook entry by Earl Green (click here for review and more details…)

100 years after a Vulcan ship landed in Bozeman, Montana, where a hungry human mob killed its crew and stripped the ship of its technology, the Earth Empire is already carving a swath of fear across the galaxy. Humanity’s greed for technology and territory has made the Empire’s Starfleet a formidable force, especially its flagship, the Enterprise, commanded by Captain Forrest.
Forrest’s ambitious first officer, Jonathan Archer, is keen to follow up on leads regarding unusual activity in Tholian space. When Forrest dismisses Archer’s plans to see what the Tholians are up to, the Empire’s typical policy of attrition comes into play: Archer relieves Forrest of command by force, but leaves the captain alive and in the brig. Archer sets a course deep into Tholian space and locks the Enterprise’s helm controls.
En route, an incident in engineering cripples many of the ship’s systems and sensors, and marks the beginning of another uprising - this time, science officer T’Pol and the other Vulcan crewmembers, who have survived only by existing in near-slavery to the Empire, sabotage the ship and free Forrest.

But their efforts are far too late - the Enterprise is already in Tholian territory, where they’ve found a ship that seems to be based on Earth Empire technology, but is far more advanced than the Enterprise. Archer theorizes that it could be from an alternate timeline, but again finds little support for his idea. Despite misgivings about Archer’s loyalty, the reinstated Captain Forrest sends his first officer on a mission to salvage the massive ship - the U.S.S. Defiant - but also sends T’Pol along as well, with orders of her own: Archer isn’t to return from this salvage operation alive. But before Forrest can see his orders carried out, the Enterprise becomes the Tholians’ primary target.

written by Michael Sussman
directed by James L. Conway
footage from Star Trek: First Contact directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Dennis McCarthy & Kevin Kiner
music from Star Trek: First Contact by Jerry Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Vaughn Armstrong (Captain Forrest), Franc Ross (Grizzled Human)

Appearing in footage from Star Trek: First Contact: James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane), Cully Frederickson (Vulcan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Doctor escapes the Slitheen, but of all the experts on alien life forms called to 10 Downing Street, only he survives. Rose and Harriet Jones, an MP who was among the first to witness the aliens’ true nature and survive, also barely escape the Slitheen, while Rose’s connection to the Doctor even makes her mother and Mickey targets for Slitheen elimination. Unable to escape 10 Downing Street, the Doctor, Rose and Harriet manage to fight their way to the most secure room in the building and lock the Slitheen out - but that also means that help can’t reach them. And when Mickey and Rose’s mother manage to kill their own Slitheen pursuer with advice phoned in by the Doctor, humankind’s first contact situation may become its last.

written by Russell T. Davies
directed by Keith Boak
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: David Verrey (Joseph Green), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Rupert Vansittart (General Asquith), Morgan Hopkins (Sergeant Price), Andrew Marr (himself), Annette Badland (Margaret Blaine), Steve Spiers (Strickland), Jack Tarlton (Reporter), Lachele Carl (Reporter), Corey Doabe (Spray Painter), Elizabeth Fost (Slitheen), Paul Kasey (Slitheen), Alan Ruscoe (Slitheen)

Reviews by Philip R. Frey & Earl Green
LogBook entry by Earl Green (click here for review and more details…)

Archer’s gambit to salvage a ship from a hundred years in the future works as he watches the destruction of the Enterprise from the bridge of the U.S.S. Defiant. Liberating the Defiant from the clutches of the Tholians is no easy matter, however, and even once the ship is free from their asteroid salvage yard, Archer discovers an unwelcome passenger aboard. With the most advanced ship in the fleet, Archer experiences delusions of grandeur and power, but after hearing the service record of the Captain Archer who lived in the alternate universe from which the Defiant came, he begins to experience other delusions as well. The Empire’s top brass proves incapable of removing Archer or his mighty new ship, and an uprising among the enslaved Vulcans proves no more effective. But Hoshi, lusting for a power beyond what she can achieve as the “captain’s woman,” may just succeed where Archer’s other opponents have failed…

teleplay by Michael Sussman
story by Manny Coto
directed by Marvin V. Rush
music by Dennis McCarthy & Kevin Kiner

Guest Cast: Gary Graham (Soval), Gregory Itzin (Admiral Black), Derek Magyar (Kelby), John Mahon (Admiral Gardner), Pat Healy (Alien), Majel Barrett (Computer voice)

Notes: This episode marked the first appearance of the Gorn since the original Star Trek episode Arena; there were some notable physical differences, with some subtle touches lost in the rubber suit-to-CGI transition, but those can probably be chalked up to evolutionary differences between “our” Star Trek universe and the Mirror universe. The Defiant’s service records of the 22nd century Enterprise crew note that Archer was considered that century’s pioneering explorer and has even had planets named after him (possibly including Archer IV from Yesterday’s Enterprise), and also credits Hoshi Sato, in her late 30s, with the development of the Linguacode translation matrix first mentioned in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Guest star Gregory Itzin appeared with Scott Bakula once before in a 1993 episode of Quantum Leap; he has also appeared in Max Headroom, twice (as different characters) on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and in the Critical Care episode of Star Trek: Voyager. He also appeared alongside classic Trek alumnus George “Sulu” Takei in the TV movie DC 9/11: Time Of Crisis, in which Itzin portrayed Attorney General John Ashcroft to Takei’s Norman Mineta.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

In a well-guarded underground complex in Utah, billionaire Henry Van Statten collects every type of alien artifact he can get his hands on, and money is no object: the head of a Cyberman from the 1968 invasion of London, the arm of a Slitheen, pieces of the alien ship crashed in Roswell, and more. Unknown to Van Statten, though, there’s a new alien arrival in his hidden museum: the TARDIS arrives, and the Doctor’s curiosity gets the best of him, setting off the security alarms. He and Rose are quickly rounded up and taken to Van Statten. Furious about the intrusion, Van Statten is at least impressed with the Doctor’s knowledge of alien artifacts, and decides to show the Doctor his most prized exhibit. As Rose gets to know Adam, Van Statten’s acquisition expert, the Doctor is locked into a dark room with the only living specimen of Van Statten’s menagerie: a live Dalek, possibly the last one in the universe. When the Doctor discovers that the Dalek’s weapon no longer works, he taunts his old enemy, reminding the Dalek that the Doctor destroyed the rest of its race even as the Daleks were laying waste to Gallifrey in the Time War. But the conversation quickly reveals that the Doctor is an alien as well, and Van Statten has the last Time Lord hauled off for examination. Rose visits the helpless Dalek, but when she touches its casing, it seems to draw strength from that contact, reactivating its weapon - and its murderous urges to exterminate every non-Dalek in sight. But even when the Doctor takes measures to stop the Dalek by any means necessary, Rose won’t let him.

written by Robert Shearman
directed by Joe Ahearne
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Steven Beckingham (Polkowski), Corey Johnson (Henry Van Statten), Anna-Louise Plowman (Goddard), Bruno Langley (Adam), Nigel Whitmey (Simmons), John Schwab (Bywater), Jana Carpenter (DeMaggio), Joe Montana (Commander), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek operator), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice)

Reviews by Philip R. Frey & Earl Green
LogBook entry by Earl Green (click here for review and more details…)