The Ark

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS arrives in a verdant forest, which the Doctor, Dodo and Steven assume must be on Earth. They are soon proven wrong when alarms sound in the “forest,” which turns out to be part of a vast spaceship carrying the last remnants of the human race away from a doomed Earth, ten million years in the future when the sun is slowly edging toward its nova stage. The Doctor and his friends also meet the one-eyed alien Monoids, peaceful creatures which seem to languish in a benevolent servitude to the ship’s human crew. But the travelers’ arrival becomes a bad omen when Dodo, suffering from the common cold, accidentally transmits it to the commander of the ship – unaware that the human race ten million years hence lacks her immune system. Condemned for what is perceived to be biological warfare, the Doctor races to immunize the future humans against the cold. Having cleared his name, the Doctor and his friends depart in the TARDIS – but accidentally return to the same place seven centuries later, finding the Monoids in control and the last of the human race in the chains of slavery.

written by Paul Erickson & Lesley Scott
directed by Michael Imison
music by Tristram Cary

Guest Cast: Eric Elliott (Commander), Inigo Jackson (Zentos), Roy Spencer (Manyak), Kate Newman (Mellium), Michael Sheard (Rhos), Ian Frost (Baccu), Ralph Carrigan (Monoid Two), Terence Bayler (Yendom), Edmund Coulter (Monoid One), Frank George (Monoid Three), John Caesar (Monoid Four), John Halstead, Roy Skelton (Monoid voices), Stephanie Heesom, Paul Greenhalgh (Guardians), Terence Woodfield (Maharis), Brian Wright (Dassuk), Eileen Helsby (Venussa), Richard Beale (Refusian voice)

Broadcast from March 5 through 25, 1966

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Mind of Evil

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Jo pay a visit to Stangmoor Prison to witness a test of a revolutionary new device that promises to reform criminals permanently by entirely extracting the evil impulses from their brains. But in this case, the test subject – a hardened convict named Barnham – is not only relieved of the darkness in his mind, but most of his mind’s contents as well, rendering him mentally childlike. Not long afterward, Professor Kettering, checking the machine to find out why it overreacted so harshly, dies mysteriously. The Doctor becomes increasingly suspicious and decides to close off the room and check the Keller device himself…only to realize – too late – that it’s an alien life form that feeds on fear, that his arch enemy is behind its presence on Earth, and that the device is only a small part of a much larger plan to plunge the world into chaos.

written by Don Houghton
directed by Timothy Combe
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Eric Mason (Green), Roy Purcell (Powers), Raymond Westwell (Governor), Simon Lack (Professor Kettering), Michael Sheard (Dr. Summers), Bill Matthews, Barry Wade, Dave Carter, Martin Gordon, Leslie Weekes, Tony Jenkins, Les Conrad, Les Clark, Gordon Stothard, Richard Atherton (Officers), Neil McCarthy (Barnham), Clive Scott (Linwood), Fernanda Marlowe (Corporal Bell), Pik-Sen Lim (Chin Lee), Kristopher Kum (Fu Peng), Haydn Jones (Vosper), William Marlowe (Mailer), Tommy Duggan (Alcott), David Calderisi (Charlie), Patrick Godfrey (Cosworth), Johnny Barrs (Fuller), Matthew Walters (Prisoner), Paul Blomley (Police Superintendent), Maureen Race (Student), Nick Hobbs (American aide), Billy Horrigan (UNIT corporal), Peter Roy (Policeman), Michael Ely (UNIT chauffeur), Francise Williams (African delegate/Master’s chauffeur), Laurence Harrington (Voices), Paul Tann (Chinese aide), Jim Delaney (Passer-by), Charles Saynor (Commissionaire), Basil Tang (Chinese chauffeur), Richard Atherton (Police Inspector)

Broadcast from January 30 through March 6, 1971

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Dragon’s Domain

Space: 1999Tony Cellini, a member of the Moonbase Alpha crew, suffers from recurring visions that he is under attack. But on this occasion, he finds an axe imbedded in one of the walls of his quarters, convincing him that the attack was real. Cellini is soon detected breaking into one of the Eagle launch pads, and when Carter tries to stop him from stealing an Eagle, Cellini attacks him. Koenig has to stun Cellini to stop the hijack attempt, and Dr. Russell criticizes Cellini’s very presence on Moonbase Alpha. Prior to taking command of the moonbase, Koenig and Cellini were fellow astronauts competing for command of the Ultra Probe, which was the furthest-ranging manned mission of its day. Cellini won the captain’s seat on that mission, but returned over a year later having lost his crew to what he says was a hideous alien creature that boarded the probe – but the black box recorder never confirmed his story, and Cellini was cast aside, saved from discharge by Koenig’s insistence alone. But now Cellini says that the creature that attacked the Ultra Probe and killed his crew is still pursuing him – and when a graveyard of spacecraft is detected, including the jettisoned service module of the Ultra Probe (light years from where that module was actually left behind), it seems like Cellini’s discounted monster story may be terrifyingly real.

Order the DVDswritten by Christopher Penfold
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Gianni Garko (Tony Cellini), Douglas Wilmer (Commissioner Dixon), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Barbara Kellerman (Dr. Monique Bouchere), Michael Sheard (Dr. Darwin King), Susan Jameson (Professor Juliet Mackie)

Notes: This is the first instance of Helena Russell doing a log entry in the series; it would become a staple feature of the second season. As of this episode, the Moon left Earth’s orbit 877 days ago.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Pyramids of Mars

Doctor WhoIn 1910, Egyptologist Marcus Scarman makes his greatest find ever – a crypt said to be the tomb of the god Sutekh. It is also Scarman’s last find. His life as he has known it ends and his body becomes an obedient servant to the still very-much-alive Egyptian god Sutekh, in fact an alien consciousness trapped on Earth.

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Sarah to Britain that same year, after a close call in the time vortex and the appearance of Sutekh’s face in the console room – a psychic breach of the time machine’s most important defenses. The Doctor follows the source of the interference to Scarman’s mansion, where strange things are afoot – including the shadowy appearance of walking mummies. With Scarman’s brother Lawrence in tow, the Doctor and Sarah stumble upon the force behind the unusual happenings: Sutekh is planning a strike, from Earth, against a mechanism on the surface of Mars which hold him captive on Earth. Even the primitive state of rocketry isn’t holding Sutekh’s effort back: he’s lending Scarman and his robot mummies advanced technology. Sutekh hopes to dominate the Earth with his immense willpower and then take revenge upon his fellow Osirans on Mars – even if it means wiping out the human race to avenge his centuries of captivity.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Lewis Griefer (a.k.a. Robert Holmes)
directed by Paddy Russell
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Bernard Archard (Professor Macrus Scarman), Vik Tabian (Ahmed), Peter Mayock (Namin), Michael Bilton (Collins), Peter Copley (Dr. Warlock), Michael Sheard (Laurence Scarman), George Tovey (Ernie Clements), Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh / voice of Horus), Nick Burnell, Melvyn Bedford, Kevin Selway (Mummies)

Broadcast from October 25 through November 15, 1975

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Invisible Enemy

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS encounters a huge, fibrous mass in space, and as it attempts to pass through the obstruction, a violent discharge from the central console knocks the Doctor out. He manages to set a course for a medical outpost, the Bi-Al Foundation. Barely able to explain the Doctor’s predicament, Leela leaves the Time Lord in the capable hands of Dr. Marius, a brilliant but eccentric pathologist (he has fashioned his portable computer in the shape of a dog and christened it K-9). But whatever affected the Doctor soon spreads to others at Bi-Al, and the Doctor is now clearly the center of a hive mind directing the actions of the infected. The fight to save the doctors and nurses at Bi-Al is a losing battle; the Doctor and Leela must take the fight to the source of the problem: inside the Doctor’s own body!

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
directed by Derrick Goodwin
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Michael Sheard (Lowe), Frederick Jaeger (Professor Marius), Brian Grellis (Safran), Jay Neill (Silvey), Edmund Pegge (Meeker), Anthony Rowlands (Crewman), John Leeson (Nucleus voice), John Scott Martin (Nucleus operator), Neil Curran (Nurse), Jim McManus (Opthalmologist), Roderick Smith (Cruikshank), Kenneth Waller (Hedges), Elizabeth Norman (Marius’s Nurse), Roy Herrick (Parsons), Pat Gorman (Medic)

Broadcast from October 1 through 22, 1977

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Powerplay

Blake's 7Avon and Dayna are interrogated by the Federation officers, who are under the command of Del Tarrant. Avon, using the pseudonym Chevron, fakes an attempt to draw a concealed weapon and is knocked out by Tarrant. Dayna attacks with the same end result, and both are locked into a cabin. As soon as they manage to get out again, Avon contacts Zen and learns that the ship is en route to pick up Vila, who has been marooned on a jungle planet where a primitive faction and a race of advanced humans fight each other for any new arrivals on the planet. After that, Avon and Dayna discover that someone is killing off the Federation troops one by one. Avon sets out to learn who, while Dayna stays behind armed but is captured. Avon discovers that Tarrant is not a Federation Captain, but an outlaw who had been wanting to join Blake and his crew and had to disguise himself as a Federation officer. He and Tarrant overpower the other Federation troops and rescue Dayna, as Vila and Cally, who has also arrived on that planet, are about to be killed.

written by Terry Nation
directed by David Maloney
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Peter Tuddenham (Zen), Michael Sheard (Clegg), Doyne Byrd (Harmon), John Hollis (Lom), Michael Crane (Mall), Primi Townsend (Zee), Julia Vidler (Barr), Catherine Chase (Nurse), Helen Blatch (Receptionist)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Empire Strikes Back

Star WarsIn the wake of their destruction of the Death Star, the Rebels are forced even further into hiding by the Empire’s relentless pursuit, especially now that Darth Vader has learned the identity of the Rebel pilot who toppled the Empire’s mighty space station. Luke Skywalker, while investigating a meteorite which has just crashed near the new Rebel base on the ice planet of Hoth, is attacked by one of the indigenous predators. Luke uses his budding skill with the Force to escape from the creature, but is too badly injured to return to base on his own. The image of Obi-Wan Kenobi appears, urging Luke to go to Dagobah, where he will find the last of the Jedi Masters, Yoda. But before Luke can ask any questions, Han Solo rescues him just in the nick of time.

What Luke doesn’t realize until it is too late is that the “meteorite” he sighted was an Imperial probe droid landing on Hoth. Darth Vader and his task force follow the probe droid’s lead to Hoth and launch a devastating ground attack, killing many of the Rebels and forcing the rest to retreat even further – but Vader’s real quarry, Luke, evades him yet again. Luke and Artoo slip away to Dagobah, while Han, Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO escape aboard the Millennium Falcon. The Imperial forces pursue the Falcon through a treacherous asteroid field, while Luke crash-lands in the swamps of Dagobah and reluctantly befriends a small green creature who promises to take him to meet Yoda. During the pursuit of the Falcon, the Emperor contacts Vader with a new agenda – Luke Skywalker is to be turned to the dark side of the Force, not killed.

The creature who is helping Luke soon reveals that he is Yoda himself, and despite reservations about Luke’s lack of patience and his anger, both Skywalker pedigrees that led his father to a dark fate, the last living Jedi Master begins Luke’s training. Halfway across the galaxy, Han decides to find a safe haven for the Falcon and its beleaguered crew after too many close calls, ultimately choosing Bespin’s Cloud City, which is run by an old friend of his (and the original owner of the Falcon), Lando Calrissian. But shortly after arriving at Cloud City, C-3PO is blasted to bits, and Lando delivers Han and the others into the hands of Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett. Worse yet, as a test of a carbon-freezing process which he hopes to use to capture Luke as a gift for the Emperor, Darth Vader has Han frozen in carbonite before handing him over to Boba Fett. Lando, growing worried that the Imperial presence on Cloud City will become permanent, switches sides to join with Leia and Chewie, who are suspicious of his motives, but they trust him when he tells them where to find Fett’s ship.

In the meantime, Luke has experienced a vision of a future in which his friends are being killed by the Empire, and he hastily postpones his Jedi training to go to Bespin to help them, much to the dismay of Yoda and Obi-Wan. Luke arrives just in time to see Han’s frozen body being taken to Boba Fett’s ship, but he is unable to help his friends. Luke has just stepped into a trap carefully orchestrated by Darth Vader, who reveals, after a lightsaber duel with Luke, that he is actually Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father.

Boba Fett escapes Cloud City with Han in custody, taking him back to Jabba the Hutt. Leia and Lando are unable to stop the bounty hunter, and Luke now faces the prospect that his destiny, like that of his father, may lead him to become a servant to the dark side of the Force.

Order the DVDsstory by George Lucas
screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kadsan
directed by Irvin Kershner
music by John Williams

Cast: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), David Prowse (Darth Vader), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Frank Oz (Yoda), Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), John Hollis (Lando’s Aide), Peter Purvis (Chief Ugnaught), Des Web (Snow Creature), Clive Revill (Emperor Palpatine), Kenneth Colley (Admiral Piett), Julian Glover (General Veers), Michael Sheard (Admiral Ozzel), Michael Culver (Captain Needa), John Dicks (Imperial officer), Milton Johns (Imperial officer), Mark Jones (Imperial officer), Oliver Maguire (Imperial officer), Robin Scobey (Imperial officer), Bruce Boa (General Rieekan), Christopher Malcolm (Zev – Rogue 2), Denis Lawson (Wedge – Rogue 3), Richard Oldfield (Hobbie – Rogue 4), John Morton (Dak – Luke’s gunner), Ian Liston (Janson – Wedge’s gunner), John Ratzenberger (Major Derlin), Jack McKenzie (Deck lieutenant), Jerry Harte (Head controller), Norman Chancer (Rebel officer), Norwich Duff (Rebel officer), Ray Hassett (Rebel officer), Brigitte Kahn (Rebel officer), Burnell Tucker (Rebel officer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Castrovalva

Doctor WhoChaos ensues in the wake of the Doctor’s regeneration. Security guards at the Pharos Project arrest Tegan, Nyssa and Adric, who are just beginning to try to comprehend what has happened to the Doctor, let alone help him. They manage to divert the guards and get the Doctor back to the TARDIS, but at the last moment, the Master’s TARDIS appears, blocking Adric’s escape. The Master then disappears again, and Adric returns to help the Doctor, who is trying to find the recuperative Zero Room. Adric has also gotten the TARDIS underway to its next destination – which turns out to be the explosive event which created the Milky Way. The Doctor, still experiencing sudden changes of personality, is barely able to help Tegan and Nyssa evade disaster by jettisoning parts of the TARDIS, and Adric is nowhere to be found. But when the Zero Room is accidentally blasted away in the emergency, the Doctor’s friends must find a place where he can recover. And all too conveniently, the relaxing planet of Castrovalva is at the top of the list.

Season 19 Regular Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan)

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Christopher H. Bidmead
directed by Fiona Cumming
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (The Master), Derek Waring (Shardovan), Michael Sheard (Mergrave), Frank Wylie (Ruther), Dallas Cavell (Head of Security), Souska John (Child)

Broadcast from January 4 through 12, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Episode 4

Knights Of GodGervase is taken back to Prior Mordrin’s compound for indoctrination into the Knights of God. But Mordrin has special plans for Gervase: not only will he begin training in the Knights’ officer corps, but he will be drugged and subjected to deep hypnosis to ensure his loyalty. Mordrin also takes the opportunity to plant another layer of orders in Gervase’s subconscious: he is to seek out and destroy the greatest threat to Mordrin’s reign of power at all costs, even his own life. In the prison camp, Julia is detained in the hut she hoped to escape from before, but her jailbreak doesn’t go quite as planned.

written by Richard Cooper
directed by Andrew Morgan
music by Christopher Gunning

Knights Of GodCast: John Woodvine (Mordrin), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), George Winter (Gervase), Nigel Stock (Simon), Gareth Thomas (Owen), Claire Parker (Julia), Michael Sheard (Doctor), Tenniel Evans (Dafydd), Lynn Webb-Turner (Wardress), Will Tacey (Bathroom Knight), Roy Evans (Photographer), Michael Lees (Governor), Christopher Bowen (Helicopter Pilot), Tony Guilfoyle (Sergeant), Spencer Leigh (Wilson)

Notes: Michael Sheard (1938-2005) was a well-known face in British SF, appearing in Doctor Who several times throughout that show’s history (The Ark, The Mind Of Evil, Pyramids Of Mars, The Invisible Enemy, Castrovalva, Remembrance Of The Daleks), Space: 1999, The Tomorrow People and Blake’s 7, though he may be better known for his much shorter-lived roles in The Empire Strikes Back as the ill-fated Admiral Ozzel and in an uncredited cameo as Hitler in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. The electronic alarm siren heard in the prison break scenes in this and the previous episode has been used before in episodes of both Doctor Who and Blake’s 7.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Episode 13

Knights Of GodJulia is barely able to stop Gervase from committing suicide (per Mordrin’s conditioning), though what breaks that conditioning is Julia accidentally putting her own life at risk. Gervase saves her, and with the aid of the monks, they set out for Anglia to put Gervase on the throne. Somehow aware that Gervase’s conditioning has been broken, Mordrin finally goes insane, and prepares to install himself as King. Gervase and Julia arrive, now accompanied by Arthur, Owen, Julia’s father, and the combined force of resistance fighters and many former Knights of God who no longer follow either Hugo or Mordrin. As Gervase is declared King in a live radio broadcast, Hugo’s forces strike at the heart of Mordrin’s headquarters; the two remaining factions of Knights and the resistance fight a massive three-way battle on those grounds. Owen is mortally wounded by Hugo, but Mordrin kills Hugo and tries to escape, crown in hand, still planning his own ascension to the throne until he’s killed by the dying Owen. With both of their leaders fallen, the Knights scatter or surrender. Arthur crowns Gervase and tasks him with ruling more wisely than those who have perished.

Knights Of Godwritten by Richard Cooper
directed by Andrew Morgan
music by Christopher Gunning

Cast: George Winter (Gervase), Claire Parker (Julia), John Woodvine (Mordrin), Nigel Stock (Simon), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), Frank Middlemass (Father Gregory), Patrick Troughton (Arthur), Gareth Thomas (Owen), Shirley Stelfox (Beth), Barrie Cookson (Brigadier Clarke), Michael Sheard (Doctor), Peter Childs (Tyrell), Dean Harris (Brother Dean), Owen Teale (Dai)

Knights Of GodNotes: Brigadier Clarke broadcasts Gervase’s speech on “Radio 3 Britain” (though it’s almost certainly due to the series airing on ITV, there’s an easy story justification for this, as the BBC likely didn’t survive the civil war). The end credit music is different for this episode, as is the flowing flag in the background of the credits: for the previous 12 episodes, the Knights of God flag has flown during the credits, while the British Union Jack appears here, accompanied by more triumphant, less oppressive music.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Remembrance Of The Daleks

Doctor WhoDaleks have converged on a junkyard in 1963 London, hot on the trail of a renegade Time Lord who possesses an amazingly powerful weapon from ancient Gallifrey. The Daleks’ quarry has left Earth after being discovered by a pair of curious humans, but unknown to the aliens, that same Time Lord has returned to conclude his business, six lives hence. The Doctor and Ace quickly throw their lot in with Group Captain Gilmore and his team of soldiers and scientists, who have discovered the Daleks and are trying to flush them out of hiding. Gilmore begins accepting the Doctor’s strategic advice, which is devised largely to keep the human race out of trouble – but the Daleks have already found like-minded allies on Earth, in the form of a group of fascist sympathizers led by Mr. Ratcliffe. The Daleks themselves are divided along a line of loyalty or disloyalty to the Emperor Daleks – who, as the Doctor discovers, has changed a little bit over the years too. The Doctor is actually playing a dangerous game, trying to ensure that the Hand of Omega does fall into the wrong hands – but which faction of the Daleks is actually worthy of this kind of power?

Order the DVDwritten by Ben Aaronovitch
directed by Andrew Morgan
music by Keff McCulloch

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Simon Williams (Gilmore), George Sewell (Ratcliffe), Dursley McLinden (Mike), Pamela Salem (Rachel), Karen Gledhill (Allison), Michael Sheard (Headmaster), Harry Fowler (Harry), Joseph Marcell (John), William Thomas (Martin), Jasmine Breaks (The Girl), Peter Hamilton Dyer (Embery), Peter Halliday (Vicar), Derek Keller (Kaufman), Terry Molloy (Emperor Dalek/Davros), John Scott Martin, Cy Town, Tony Starr, Hugh Spright, David Harrison, Norman Bacon, Nigel Wild (Daleks), Royce Mills, Roy Skelton, Brian Miller, John Leeson (Dalek voices), Kathleen Bidmead (Mrs. Smith), John Evans (Undertaker), Richie Kennedy (Mailman), Ron Berry (Gravedigger)

Broadcast from October 5 through 26, 1988

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Stones Of Venice

Doctor Who: The Stones Of VeniceThe Doctor barely gets Charley out of yet another near-death scrape, and realizes that they both need a vacation. The Doctor decides to take his companion to the lovely city of Venice…but naturally, overshoots the time frame a little bit and winds up taking her to Venice in the 23rd century, on the day before the fabled city sinks under the water once and for all. But Charley is stunned to see that no evacuation is being carried out – quite the contrary, in fact. Mad Duke Orsino is planning one last revel, and the more inebriated, the better as far as he’s concerned. Other Venetians aren’t taking their last day on Earth quite so calmly. Orsino’s court curator, Churchwell, is all but in a panic about the fate of the Duke’s valuable art collection. Pietro, a member of an amphibious race of gondoliers, has his eye on Charley in hopes of using her in a plot to help his people take over the city. The High Priest of an order that worships the Duke’s late wife means to see an ancient prophecy fulfilled, no matter the cost in human lives. And in his madness, the Duke deputizes someone to the throne, someone who may destroy everyone even before the city crumbles at daybreak. This time, the Doctor and Charley won’t be able to escape by dawn.

Order this CD written by Paul Magrs
directed by Gary Russell
music by Russell Stone

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charley), Michael Sheard (Count Orsino), Nick Scovell (Churchwell), Barnaby Edwards (Pietro), Elaine Ives-Cameron (Ms. Lavish), Mark Gatiss (Vincenzo)

Timeline: after Sword Of Orion and before Minuet In Hell

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Disordered

StarHykeIn the year 3034, humanity has eliminated emotions and irrationality, and has set out to rid the universe of other species who refuse to similarly quash their emotions. The human fleet, led by Captain Belinda Blowhard of the Dreadnaught Nemesis, fights a pitched battle against the Reptids that doesn’t go well. A new tactic is devised: the Nemesis will warp back in time to eliminate the Reptid threat before it spreads. A Reptid saboteur breaks into the Nemesis during the time warp and unleashes a secret weapon, restoring the crew’s surgically-removed emotions and depositing the Nemesis in Earth orbit in the early 21st century.

As members of the Nemesis crew visit Earth’s surface, trying to remain incognito as they look for signs of Reptid interference in Earth’s past, the ship’s doctor finds that the Nemesis crew’s emotions are being restored and amplified by a viral weapon unleashed by the Reptid. Unless an antidote is found, the crew will revert to a primitive lack of any control over their own urges.

Order this series on DVDwritten by Andrew Dymond, Jonathan G. Brown and Ian Winter
directed by Andrew Dymond
music by Anthony Brisco and Alan Deacon

Cast: Claudia Christian (Captain Belinda Blowhard), Suanne Braun (Dotty), Brad Gorton (Commander Cropper), Rachel Grant (Wu Oof), Stephanie Jory (Sally Popyatopov), Wayne Pilbeam (Bull Ox), Gene Foad (SERCH), Sue Witheridge (Daphne), Simon Lewis (Reg), Fiona Reynard (Vilma), Jason Bailey (Christian), Simon Gilvear (Reptid), Rebecca Nichols (Nurse Beach), Jeremy Bulloch (Dr. Striker), Danny John-Jules (Admiral Lenovo), Anneli Bird (Human), Chris Howard (Human), Keiran McGreevy (Ensign Hole), Kate Naughton (Human)

StarhykeNotes: The episode is dedicated to the memory of actor Michael Sheard. All six episodes of Starhyke were released direct-to-DVD in 2009, but finally appeared on the UK satellite channel Showcase TV in 2011. The entire series was produced “on spec” without a specific broadcaster lined up to show it – an expensive gamble in television terms, especially for a show with the production requirements of a science fiction series. Claudia Christian starred as Commander Susan Ivanova in the first four seasons of Babylon 5, while Jeremy Bulloch is best known for his appearances as Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. Danny John-Jules, who starred as Cat in Red Dwarf, makes a one-off cameo here. Suanne Braun appeared in numerous episodes of Stargate SG-1 as Hathor.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Time-Flight

Doctor WhoThe authorities at Heathrow Airport are suspicious when a Police Box appears in their terminal within moments of the disappearance of a Concorde aircraft in mid-air. The Doctor drops the name of U.N.I.T. and is allowed to help in the search for the whereabouts – or, he suspects, the whenabouts – of the missing plane. The Doctor, with Nyssa, Tegan and the TARDIS in tow, takes the next Concorde flight on an identical vector, and soon finds himself on prehistoric Earth, along with the passengers and crew of the other plane. A strange being called Kalid has hijacked the two planes into Earth’s past to use their passengers and crew as slave labor for a sinister task – and Kalid is also very interested in the Doctor’s TARDIS.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Peter Grimwade
directed by Ron Jones
music by Roger Limb

Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (The Master/Kalid), Nigel Stock (Professor Hayter), Richard Easton (Captain Stapley), Keith Drinkel (Flight Engineer Scobie), Michael Cashman (First Officer Bilton), Peter Dahlsen (Horton), Brian McDermott (Sheard), John Flint (Captain Urquhart), Judith Blyfield (Angela Clifford/Tannoy voice), Peter Cellier (Andrews), Hugh Hayes (Anithon), Andre Winterton (Zarak), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric illusion), Graham Cole (Melkur illusion), Chris Bradshaw (Terileptil illusion), Tommy Winward (Security man), Barney Lawrence (Dave Culshaw)

Broadcast from March 22 through 30, 1982

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

No Exit

Battlestar GalacticaIn the wake of the Zarek/Gaeta mutiny, the first priority aboard Galactica is trying to patch up the scores of wounded – and preparing to bury the scores of the dead. Among the wounded is Sam Anders, shot in the back of the head during his own jailbreak; when he recovers from his surgery, he asks Starbuck to summon his fellow members of the final five: he has had a vision and remembers everything. President Roslin has pieces of her own to pick up, as she appoints Lee the new vice president, charging him with the formation of a new Quorum and advising him that he’ll have to do much of the work in keeping the government together now. Sam’s visions, as he relates them to the other Cylons, involve life on Earth (and the end of it), and even further back: ancient Cylon history, a power struggle between the Cylons’ creator (the woman that Tigh knew as his wife, Ellen) and a dissident who wanted to return the Cylons to their mechanical nature (Brother Cavel). When she resurrected aboard a Cylon ship after her execution on New Caprica, Ellen was virtually held prisoner by Cavel, until he needed her knowledge of resurrection after the Colonial destruction of the Cylons’ resurrection hub…at which point, Cavel decided to skip any kind of negotiation or interrogation, opting instead to kill Ellen and retrieve the knowledge from her brain. Before Sam can remember much more, though, Doc Cottle insists that the bullet should be removed from his brain, and over the objections of the other Cylons, Starbuck readily agrees. Sam is given until the moment the anesthesia takes hold in the operating room to continue relating his visions. And at the same time, Tyrol has bad news for Admiral Adama: after the years of fighting, rushed repair jobs, and corners that were cut back when the keel was first laid for the ship, Galactica is nearing the end of her time as a spaceworthy vessel.

written by Ryan Mottesheard
directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Dean Stockwell (Cavel), John Hodgman (Dr. Gerard), Kerry Norton (Nurse Layne Ishay), Darcy Laurie (Deklind)

LogBook entry by Earl Green