Accession

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: A battered old-style Bajoran lightship emerges from the wormhole with one passenger: Akorem Laan, a famous poet who left Bajor 200 years ago. Since he was the first person to meet the Prophets, and since they healed him, Akorem believes himself to be the Emissary, a role that Sisko is all too happy to relinquish to him. Akorem begins trying to lead Bajor back to the old days, when their caste system, the d’jarras, determined the careers people followed. Confusion results, and Sisko can only conclude that his mission to bring Bajor into the Federation has failed. Meanwhile, O’Brien tries to readjust his life when Keiko returns, pregnant with their second child.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Jane Espenson
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Rosalind Chao (Keiko), Robert Symonds (Vedek Porta), Camille Saviola (Kai Opaka), Hana Hatae (Molly), Richard Libertini (Akorem), David Carpenter (Onara), Grace Zandarski (Latara), Laura Jane Salvato (Gia)

Original title: The Other Emissary

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

Zero Minus Ten

Nowhere ManVeil awakens in a hospital, and is told that he is just recovering from a coma caused by injuries received in a near-fatal auto accident. Alyson and Larry are there, lending credence to the possibility that his entire ordeal of being hunted by the conspiracy was merely a nightmare – but Veil has come too far to believe it so quickly.

Order the DVDswritten by Jane Espenson
directed by James Whitmore, Jr.
music by Mark Snow

Cast: Bruce Greenwood (Thomas Veil), Megan Gallagher (Alyson Veil), Murray Rubenstein (Larry), Choppy Guillotte (Ben Dobbs), David Bodin (Doctor)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Shindig

FireflySerenity returns to Persephone in search of work. Simon tries to help River through one of her bouts of erratic behavior. Inara agrees to accompany Atherton Wing, a young noble, to a ball, while Badger approaches Mal with an offer. Sir Warwick Harrow wants some cargo shipped to his holdings offworld on Jiangyin, despite Alliance regulations to the contrary. Badger needs someone of a certain bearing to make contact with the noble – at the very same ball where Wing is asking Inara to remain with him permanently. Mal brings a very excited Kaylee to the party, but his negotiations are interrupted by an argument with Wing. When Wing insults Inara, Mal punches him and thus inadvertently challenges him to a duel with swords. The highly skilled fencer accepts, and Badger sends his men to Serenity to ensure that none of Mal’s crew interfere and somehow damage Badger’s reputation. With only an evening of lessons under his belt, no one gives Mal much of a chance. But Mal isn’t going to go down without a fight – and he doesn’t necessarily promise it’s going to be a fair one.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jane Espenson
directed by Vern Gillum
music by Greg Edmonson

Guest Cast: Mark A. Sheppard (Badger); Edward Atterton (Atherton Wing); Larry Drake (Sir Warwick Harrow)

Notes: Mal’s prior dealings with Badger, referenced in this episode, took place in the episode Serenity. A new introduction narrated by Mal appears at the beginning of this episode.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

The Passage

Battlestar GalacticaThe discovery that the Colonial food supply is tainted sets the clock ticking: everyone in the fleet will starve in about ten days. Sharon braves a highly radioactive nebula, finding a viable planet with plenty of food on the other side…but trying to take the Colonial fleet through would cost the lives of 80% of the civilian population, and their ships’ navigation systems couldn’t handle the radiation any better than their crews could. Worse yet, when she returns, she’s not as immune to the effects of radiation as everyone assumed a Cylon would be. Admiral Adama’s only solution is to pair each civilian ship with a Raptor from Galactica, whose systems are hardened against radiation; Galactica’s pilots will each have to make several trips through the nebula, leading the civilians through wave after wave, and exposing themselves to more radiation than anyone else. When Starbuck makes a disturbing discovery, it could sideline one of her best pilots during this mission – and calls their future loyalty into question as well.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Michael Nankin
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Luciana Carro (Kat), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Patrick Currie (Enzo), Bodie Olmos (Hotdog), Brad Dryborough (Hoshi), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Sebastian Spence (Narcho), Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (Hybrid), Sean Roche (Hungry boy), Ian Rozylo (Convulsing pilot)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Dirty Hands

Battlestar GalacticaWhen a fuel impurity forces a raptor crew to ditch their ship – seconds before it slams into Colonial One – President Roslin and Admiral Adama launch an investigation, because it’s far from the only recent incident involving problems with the fleet’s fuel supply. That supply comes entirely from the fleet’s one mining ship, whose captain is tired of the working conditions and advocates an uprising against the fleet’s “ruling class” – according to the dictates of a book by Baltar, smuggled out of prison and into publication throughout the fleet. Roslin orders that captain’s arrest and Adama sends Tyrol to take over the mining ship and restore the flow of fuel. Once there, though, Tyrol finds himself more in agreement with the ship’s imprisoned captain than with Adama, and proposes a lottery system to bring fresh workers to the mining ship from elsewhere in the fleet. When that solution brings a teenage worker to the ship who is premanently maimed in the course of making an emergency repair, Tyrol brings the ship to a halt and declares a strike. There’s only one problem: what he calls a strike, Adama calls a mutiny.

written by Anne Cofell Saunders & Jane Espenson
directed by Wayne Rose
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Jennifer Halley (Seelix), Don Thompson (Figurski), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Colin Lawrence (Skulls), Samantha Ferris (Pollux), David Patrick Green (Xeno Fenner), Wesley Salter (Redford), Jerry Wasserman (Cabott)

Original Title: Our Enemies, Ourselves

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Family Reunion

Eureka When Carter discovers that Jo is supplying Zoe with double espressos (against Carter’s wishes) in exchange for beauty magazines, he takes great pleasure in teasing them both. His fun is interrupted by a call from Allison, and even though he’s still giving her a bit of a cold shoulder because of the dream device, he agrees to investigate the latest problem at General Dynamics. Workers have discovered that a cryogenics chamber from the 1950s originally thought to be empty is decidedly occupied – and its inhabitant is waking up. The first person ever to be revived from cryo-stasis turns out to be Pierre Fargo, Douglas Fargo’s grandfather. Pierre insists that he was put in the cryo chamber against his will, and that even though the police have a signed resignation letter on file, he had no intention of leaving Eureka. Indeed, he was planning to propose to his girlfriend Belle, Douglas’s grandmother. Pierre also claims that many of the discoveries credited to Andre Sandrov – a leading figure in Eureka – are actually based on his work. Nathan is initially skeptical, but Carter pursues the investigation – while Zoe starts an investigation of her own into her father’s past. Pierre’s major concern is initially restoring his good name, but when a side effect of the stasis accelerates his aging, it looks like he may not have much time left to do anything.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Anne Cofell Saunders
story by Jane Espenson
directed by Michael Lange
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Tygh Runyan (Pierre Fargo), Scott Hylands (Andre Sandrov), Christopher Jacot (Larry), Terence Kelly (Charlie)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Escape Velocity

Battlestar GalacticaThe crew mourns the death of Cally, even as the investigation is ongoing. But Tyrol’s grief is subdued, and he even argues with Admiral Adama when he comes to express his condolences – picking a fight to the point that Adama is left with no choice but to relieve him of duty and bust him down in rank. Tigh and Tory both urge Tyrol not to draw any more attention to himself, but he wants nothing to do with them or with being Cylon. Tory has been exploring her options more openly, shedding any pretenses of human morality along the way. But Tigh understands grief all too well – because he’s never gotten over his wife’s death at his own hands – and his own quest to understand the nature of being a Cylon leads to a fateful and violent encounter with the Six held in captivity. Meanwhile, Baltar attracts the wrong kind of attention from President Roslin when he declares that his religious sect is being oppressed with the tacit approval of the Colonial government – and he finds an unlikely champion for his cause in Apollo.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Edward James Olmos
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Leela Savasta (Tracey Anne), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Colin Lawrence (Skulls), Don Thompson (Figurski), Heather Doerksen (Surveillance Marine), Lara Gilchrist (Paula Schaffer), Lee Jefferies (Redwing), Hector Johnson (Marine Lieutenant), Steve Lawlor (Marine), Judith Maxie (Picon Delegate), Andrew McIlroy (Jacob Cantrell), Marilyn Norry (Reza Chronides), Iris Paluly (Speaking Delegate #2), Laara Sadiq (Priestess), Donna Soares (Speaking Delegate #1), Finn R. Devitt (Baby Nicky)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Hub

Battlestar GalacticaPresident Roslin, Baltar, Starbuck, Helo and the majority of Galactica’s fighter pilots and their craft are aboard the damaged rebel Cylon ship when it jumps, apparently in response to the reconnected Hybrid sensing danger. The ship makes its way toward the Resurrection Hub, but en route, President Roslin issues new orders to Helo: she is altering the agreement with the Cylons, and wants D’anna Biers brought to her immediately rather than allowing her to be debriefed by her fellow Cylons. Aboard the Hub ship, D’anna is revived by Brother Cavel, who hopes that a few token words from her will bring a swift end to the civil war among the Cylons. She refuses to cooperate, and is surprised when a joint Cylon-human attack leaves her in the hands of the rebels and the Colonial fleet. The Resurrection Hub is destroyed, putting an end to the Cylons’ ability to download into a new body and leveling the playing field by making the human model Cylons helplessly mortal. Mortality is also on Roslin’s mind after she hears an injured Baltar’s confession that he helped bring an end to civilization as she once knew it – and feels little remorse for that act.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Paul Edwards
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Lucy Lawless (D’anna Biers), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Lorena Gale (Priestess Elosha), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavel)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Deadlock

Battlestar GalacticaRepairs begin on Galactica, using the Cylon material to shore up the weakening superstructure. When Baltar returns to his followers, he finds that his position among his own cult has weakened; a woman named Paula has seized control in his absence and is advocating using more violent means to ensure their survival. The chaos that followed in the wake of the discovery of Earth and the subsequent mutiny has left Baltar’s faction in a delicate position, and while he advocates using their food supplies to help others, he finds that the use of force may not be such a bad idea.

Boomer returns to Galactica after a long absence, bringing the resurrected Ellen Tigh with her; for her trouble, Boomer is thrown into the brig, while Ellen is reunited with her husband…only to be enraged when she discovers that he’s expecting a child by one of the Sixes, the first biological child born to Cylon parents. Ellen begins to sow dissent among the final five and the other Cylons: with Six’s child, Hera is no longer the only remaining hope for the Cylons’ future without resurrection. Ellen believes that the Cylons should leave the fleet – despite Sam’s prophetic warning not to – to move Six’s child to a safe environment. The lone holdout is Tigh himself; Ellen uses the moment of dissent to convince Six that Tigh’s love for serving alongside Adama is greater than his love for any woman, and Six collapses. Doc Cottle confirms that Six will miscarry…leaving Ellen and the rest of the Cylons no choice but to remain with the humans, counting on Hera for their very survival.

No one realizes it yet, but the other faction of Cylons is counting on the very same thing.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Robert Young
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Roark Crichtlow (Pianist)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Plan

Battlestar GalacticaAfter placing copies of their human models in strategic positions around the twelve colonies, the Cylons put their plan to overthrow their human creators into action. The colonies are wiped out almost completely, though a few of the human Cylon models who were expected to die and resurrect aboard the Cylons’ ships survive the holocaust. Those Cylons are trapped by humans, but also living as humans, some of them with no awareness of their true nature. Brother Cavil, who has taken control of the Cylon agenda in the absence of the Cylon known to the humans as Ellen Tigh, is furious that any of the colonials escaped and sets out to destroy them any way he can. From all-out frontal attacks, ambushes to guerilla warfare from within the colonial ranks, Cavil will settle for nothing less than the total, permanent extinction of humanity. He’s frustrated when he notices that some of his fellow Cylon operatives are faltering, failing to complete sabotage and assassination assignments that they are given, and failing to show the ferocity of Cavil’s absolute conviction that humanity must be wiped out. He doesn’t realize, until too late, that he has only succeeded in planting the seeds of his own people’s extinction.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Edward James Olmos
music by Bear McCreary
additional music by Aaron Roethe and Brandon Roberts

Cast: Edward James Olmos (Commander Adama), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavil), Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Grace Park (Sharon “Boomer” Valerii), Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Rick Worthy (Simon), Lymari Nadal (Giana), Matthew Bennett (Aaron Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Alisen Down (Jean Barolay), Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (Hybrid), Alonso Oyarzun (Specialist Socinus), Colin Corrigan (Marine Alan Nowart), Diego Diablo Del Mar (Hilard), Bruce Dawson (Coach), Lawrence Hagert (Wheeler), Tommy Europe (Rally), Maya Washington (Sue-Shaun), Luvia Petersen (Kai), Richard Yearwood (Marine), Alex Ferris (Boy), Gina Vultaggio (Jemmy)

Battlestar GalacticaNotes: Many of the scenes which, technically, take place during earlier episodes (and even the pilot miniseries) were reshot at least in part for this movie; a good rule of thumb for spotting clips from earlier episodes is that the reused material features actors not specifically credited above, such as Jamie Bamber and Lucy Lawless. The Plan revisits, and expands upon, events from the miniseries, 33, Water, Litmus, Kobol’s Last Gleaming Part 2, Resistance, The Farm, and Lay Down Your Burdens Parts 1 and 2. The premiere date for this movie indicates the release date of the unrated DVD version; a shortened, edited broadcast edition would air in 2010.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Gravedancing

CapricaHaving booked an appearance on a late-night talk show whose host isn’t exactly well-disposed toward Graystone Industries, Daniel Graystone is sickened by the public relations spin his advisers are telling him to put on Zoe’s death (and life). Agent Durham is searching everywhere that Zoe lived that short life in his hunt for the Soldiers of the One, including a surprise raid at her school (but not a total surprise for the other members of Zoe’s STO cell). Still stuck somewhere between grief and rage, Joseph Adama has ordered his brother Sam to make things even with Graystone: since Adama lost his daughter and his wife, Graystone should also lose his wife before the day is out, just to even the score. Sam doubts his brother’s certainty, but prepares for the hit anyway. As Daniel Graystone takes the stage in a TV studio to try to spin away the damage caused by his wife’s admission that Zoe may have been the suicide bomber, he’s unaware that his wife is waiting in the wings to make another surprise appearance – and he’s not sure if he can spin his family name or his company’s reputation out of harm’s way this time.

teleplay by Jane Espenson
story by Michael Angeli & Jane Espenson
directed by Michael Watkins
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Scott Porter (Nestor), Patton Oswalt (Baxter Sarno), Peter Wingfield (Director Gara Singh), Luciana Carro (Pyrah)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Dead Of Night

TorchwoodAs the reality of the new condition of humanity sinks in with the public, different people deal with their sudden immortality in different ways. Some indulge in every vice imaginable, safe in the knowledge that it won’t kill them, but Dr. Vera Juarez and others in her field are becoming increasingly aware that while death has been eradicated overnight, disease hasn’t: anyone infected with a disease will simply manifest its symptoms forever. Others form a strange cult, the masked Soulless, whose message seems to be that humanity’s sudden immortality is not a blessing. They get no argument from Jack, who finds new ways to revel in his sudden mortality.

With the bewildered Rex and Esther in tow – now on the run from the CIA themselves thanks to their contact with Torchwood – Jack and Gwen fall into familiar old patterns, investigating how the “miracle” happened and at whose behest. But if they think that the CIA fugitives are Torchwood’s latest recruits, Rex’s lone-wolf behavior and Esther’s nervousness make them uneasy allies at best. And for CIA agents, they seem almost too ready to blow their cover. Gwen strong-arms Dr. Juarez into helping her infiltrate Phi-Corp, an international pharmaceutical company which seems poised to profit from the inevitable spread of disease by seeking Congressional approval for the free and easy distribution of its drugs. What’s more, Phi-Corp is so well-stocked that they likely knew of the “miracle” well in advance.

Phicorp has also picked up an unusual spokesman in convicted killer Oswald Danes. Having survived his own execution and obtained the services of a Phi-Corp public relations agent, Danes is a fast-rising celebrity and the subject of cultish adulation from the Soulless. He’s also the subject of Jack’s intense curiosity, but again, Jack’s every move has been anticipated.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Jane Espenson
directed by Billy Gierhart
music by Murray Goldr and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Arlene Tur (Dr. Vera Juarez), Wayne Knight (Brian Friedkin), Dillon Casey (Brad), Richard Gilliland (Congressman Morganthall), Tasha Ames (Carla), Thea Andrews (Local Reporter), Richard Augustine (George Sayer), Daryl Crittenden (Young Man), Mitchell Edmonds (Senior TV Anchor), Matt Eyde (Atlanta Cop), Mary Garripoli (Woman Tourist), Ted Mattison (Phi-Corp Rep), Jason Medwin (Sunroof Screamer), George Murdock (Preacher), Brian Treitler (Dr. Murphy), Randa Walker (Candice Perlmutter), Maurice Webster (Cop), Michelle Wong (Nurse), David Youse (Dr. Rosenbloom)

Notes: While its original BBC broadcasts were always intended to be adults-only viewing, Torchwood took a brief detour into material that was too strong for UK viewing standards: the montage of sex scenes (both heterosexual and homosexual) were omitted entirely from the UK broadcast, seen only in America on Starz. As little vital story information is imparted in those scenes, however, it simply means that, while the episode is shorter, the story still tracks. Guest actor George Murdock’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo as a televangelist could be indicative of diminished career expectations, as Murdock played God Himself (or an alien facsimile thereof) in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989); he returned to the Star Trek franchise as Admiral Hansen, giving Captain Picard his fateful marching orders against the Borg in the Next Generation two-parter The Best Of Both Worlds (1990). Writer Jane Espenson – one of the stable of writers who worked with Joss Whedon on Buffy, Angel and Firefly – joined the Torchwood writing staff fresh from a short stint as the showrunner of Battlestar Galactica spinoff Caprica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Categories Of Life

TorchwoodGwen returns to Cardiff after Rhys informs her that her father has been taken to one of Phi-Corp’s suddenly ubiquitous overflow camps. Dr. Vera Juarez, upon hearing that the U.N. has issued new legal definitions of “categories of life” (with Phi-Corp’s input), leaves Washington for the west coast to join Rex and Torchwood. In Los Angeles, Phi-Corp prepares for a “Miracle Rally” with Oswald Danes as the keynote speaker, though Danes – already suspicious of how elaborately Phi-Corp has covered its own tracks on the internet – is growing irritated with the many drafts of the speech being written for him. Rex decides to exploit his injury to get admitted to an overflow camp, while Esther goes undercover in the camp’s office. Dr. Juarez uses her credentials to give the camp a surprise inspection, and is horrified at what she finds. The camp in Wales is no better, prompting Gwen to try to break her father out of Phi-Corp’s care, with disastrous results. In America, while Jack tries to exploit Danes’ sense that something is wrong at the heart of Phi-Corp, one of the new members of Torchwood will become the first human being to die in many days. But at whose hands?

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Jane Espenson
directed by Guy Ferland
music by Murray Gold and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Lauren Ambrose (Jilly Kitzinger), Arlene Tur (Dr. Vera Juarez), William Thomas (Geraint Cooper), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper), Tom Price (Sgt. Andy Davidson), Fred Koehler (Ralph), Teddy Sears (Blue Eyed Man), Marc Vann (Colin Rex and the ModuleMaloney), Daniel Adegboyega (Guard), Brad Bell (Nurse Chris), Charles Carpenter (News Reporter), Jim Conway (Man), Jonathan Dane (Handsome Man), Teresa Garza (Spanish Newscaster), Brendan Hughes (Pidgeon), Joelle Elizabeth Jacoby (Excited Teenager), Liz Jenkins (Rachel), Ria Jones (Pushy Woman), Masami Kosaka (Japanese Newscaster), Eve Mauro (Maria Candido), Francince Morgan (Stressed Woman), Stuart Nurse (Thomason), Tracy Pfau (Pale Woman), Caroline Whitney Smith (Paramedic), Vito Viscuso (Angry Man), Randa Walker (Candice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Immortal Sins

TorchwoodEllis Island, 1927: Jack Harkness befriends an Italian immigrant and falls in love. Even when it becomes clear that Jack leads a dangerous life and deals with forces beyond human experience, his lover stays by his side – at least until he sees Jack die. A seemingly happy reunion years later turns out to be anything but: Jack is betrayed and tortured, killed repeatedly for nothing more than sport and spectacle. His repeated resurrections, however, draw the attention of someone more powerful.

Los Angeles, 2011: With the forces behind the “miracle” communicating to her via her Torchwood-issued contact lenses, Gwen learns that Rhys, her mother and her child are being held hostage. The price for freeing her family is delivering Jack into the hands of whoever is calling the shots. Thanks to her Torchwood training, it’s a task she’s able to complete with ruthless efficiency – but sensing something wrong, Rex and Esther decide to intervene.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Jane Espenson
directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
music by Murray Gold and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper), Nana Visitor (Olivia Colasanto), Tom Price (Sgt. Andy Davidson), Daniele Favilli (Angelo Colasanto), Pat Asanti (Inspector), Michael Chomiak (SWAT Member), Cris D’Annunzio (Salvatore Maranzano), Will Green (Young Priest), Paul Hayes (Costerdane), Immortal SinsEverton Lawrence (Ablemarch), Griffin Matthews (Young Man), Frank Medrano (Mr. Giardano), Angelica Montesano (Girl in crowd), Shawn Parsons (Frines), Vanna Salviati (Elderly Woman), Jayne Taini (Mrs. Giardano), Darren Dupree Washington (SWAT Leader)

Notes: This episode contains the first explicit Torchwood mention of the Doctor since Children Of Death: Day Five, and the first mention of the Trickster’s Brigade (Doctor Who: Turn Left, Sarah Jane Adventures: The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith) in Torchwood. Though it’s not made clear where the fateful visit to New York City falls in Jack’s personal Immortal Sinstimeline, he does mention Torchwood (and the Doctor restored the time-travel capability of Jack’s vortex manipulator), so it may well take place after Jack’s departure in Children Of Earth: Day Five.

Nana Visitor is famous to SF TV fans as Major (and later Colonel) Kira Nerys, the Bajoran first officer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She guest starred in several episodes of James Cameron’s Dark Angel series as Madame X (where she also pulled the strings behind evil plots).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

End Of The Road

TorchwoodJack is taken to be reunited with his lover from pre-Depression New York, Angelo Colasanto, who left instructions for his family to find Jack. Colasanto’s granddaughter reveals that after Angelo betrayed Jack to the locals, who repeatedly killed him just to watch him resurrect, samples of his blood were collected and sold to a coalition of three powerful families. Colasanto wasn’t a member of any of those families, but the elderly man does have one last trick up his sleeve: after keeping himself in top condition through old age, and then on artificial life support once his health fails, Angelo Colasanto dies. Rex’s CIA supervisor – already on the payroll of the three families – shows up to take charge of the situation, but Rex turns the tables. A top CIA operative named Shapiro arrives and saves Rex, but he’s still not sympathetic to Torchwood, and orders Gwen deported back to Wales. Alien technology is discovered in Colasanto’s house, and Jack believes it helped to shield Colasanto from the effects of the “miracle,” allowing him to remain mortal. Jack also firmly believes that this technology shouldn’t fall into human hands – and especially not into the hands of a covert ops organization. But stealing it from under the CIA’s nose may prove very costly to Torchwood’s leader.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodeteleplay by Ryan Scott and Jane Espenson
story by Ryan Scott
directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
music by Murray Gold and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Lauren Ambrose (Jilly Kitzinger), Candace Brown (Sarah Drummond), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper), Marina Benedict (Charlotte Willis), John de Lancie (Shapiro), Wayne Knight (Brian Friedkin), Paul James (Noah Vickers), Teddy Sears (Blue Eyed Man), Nana Visitor (Olivia Colasanto), Megan Duffy (Claire), Constance Wu (Shawnie), David DeSantos (Agent Baylor), Nayo K. Wallace (Wilson)

End Of The RoadNotes: Guest star John de Lancie is another Star Trek veteran, known to fans as the omnipotent, all-powerful Q, whose appearances covered three Star Trek series from the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) to an early Deep Space Nine episode (1993) and the final season of Voyager (2001). He co-starred with future Stargate SG-1 star Richard Dean Anderson in Legend, a short-lived UPN steampunk series, and made appearances in Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda and numerous other shows both science fiction and otherwise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green