Day: January 10, 1969

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Original Series Season 03 Star Trek

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5730.2: Two natives of the planet Cheron are brought aboard after one of them helps the Enterprise chase the other down after he had stolen a shuttlecraft from a Federation starbase. Bele and Lokai, however, have a dispute that goes far beyond a simple pursuit of a criminal. Their hatred – and, indeed, the entire shuttlecraft incident – is rooted in a deep racial prejudice which threatens to engulf not only them, but the Enterprise and Kirk’s crew.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Oliver Crawford
story by Lee Cronin
directed by Jud Taylor
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Frank Gorshin (Bele), Lou Antonia (Lokai), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

Mr. R.I.N.G.

Night StalkerKolchak is assigned to write the obituary of a scientist specializing in computers, but finds the death and details surrounding the government project the scientist was working on entirely covered up. Meanwhile, a mysterious marauder with superhuman strength is seen at an undertaker’s establishment and a library of talking books. The police are unable to stop the figure from stealing undertakers’ wax and books on philosophy. Kolchak finds the scientist’s co-worker, Leslie Dwyer, but she disappears shortly thereafter. The government brings pressure to bear on Kolchak’s boss Vincenzo, but he persists, tracing Dwyer to her isolated home. The marauder is R.I.N.G. (Robomatic Internalized Nerve Ganglia), an artificial intelligence housed in an android body that has achieved sentience. Rather then be dismantled, it killed its creator and sought refuge with Dwyer. The military show up to claim their project, and R.I.N.G. is destroyed. Kolchak is given drugs to forget the story.

Order the DVDswritten by L. Ford Neale & John Huff
directed by Gene Levitt
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Burt Freed (Captain Akins), Julie Adams (Mrs. Walker), Corrine Michaels (Dr. Leslie Dwyer), Craig Baxley (R.I.N.G.)

Notes: A somber tale of government cover-up, this story also parallels several X-Files episodes.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

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Children Of The Stones

Into The Circle

Children Of The StonesAstrophysicist Adam Brake and his son Matthew move to the village of Milbury, home to an ancient megalithic stone circle whose magnetic properties Brake wants to study. Milbury seems pleasant enough, but also odd: Brake nearly runs over his new housekeeper in his car, but moments before, Matthew perceived the woman as a large stone standing in the road. The population seems joined in lockstep, making the new arrivals’ sense of discomfort even more acute. Brake meets a fellow academic who has just arrived in Milbury, and learns of her inexplicable feelings of foreboding. Matthew continues to have strange visions of free-standing stones who turn out to be nothing more than the local townsfolk, and has a hard time as an outsider in the local school. Though who don’t immediately assimilate into the Milbury mindset are branded “strange” by their neighbors.

When Adam Brake’s new acquaintance suggests he should touch one of the ancient stones, “strange” doesn’t even begin to describe what happens next.

written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Peter Graham Scott
music by Sidney Sager

Cast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Freddie Jones (Dai), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree), Peter Demin (Matthew), Katharine Levy (Sandra), Ian Donnolly (Bob), Darren Hatch (Kevin), Jimmy Lock (Jimmo), June Barrie (Mrs. Clegg), Peggy Ann Wood (Mrs. Warner)

Notes: A single-season supernatural children’s series produced by regional UK TV network HTV West and broadcast nationally on ITV, Children Of The Stones is remembered to this day for its unsettling storyline, imagery and music. In retrospect, it seems doubtful that such a series could be produced for children in this day and age.

Children Of The StonesGareth Thomas, a popular actor in Welsh television and theater, was already well on his way becoming a mainstream star on UK television when he took the lead protagonist role in children Of The Stones. The actor behind Adam Brake would later become interplanterary revolutionary Roj Blake in Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7, which premiered a year after this series. He faced off against Nation’s other famous creations, the Daleks, in a series of Big Finish audio plays, and returned to Wales for a guest role in the first season of Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood.

Respected British character actor Freddie Jones, perhaps best remembered in genre circles for portraying Thufir Haway in David Lynch’s film version of Dune, has appeared in countless genre TV roles (The Avengers, Out Of The Unknown, Space: 1999, Neverwhere, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) and many high-profile movies (Firefox, Krull, The Elephant Man, Firestarter, The Black Cauldron, Young Sherlock Holmes).

Series co-creator Trevor Ray was an uncredited “assistant script editor” for much of Patrick Troughton’s final season as Doctor Who and part of Jon Pertwee’s first year. Script editor Terrance Dicks faced such a heavy workload of rewriting scripts (or writing last-minute replacements for unsuitable scripts) that Ray was hired to help. He eventually vacated the post to become the script editor of the troubled spy series Paul Temple, whose producers were Troughton-era Who veterans Derrick Sherwin and Paul Bryant.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Buck Rogers Season 1

Happy Birthday, Buck

Buck Rogers In The 25th CenturyCabin fever starts to set in as Buck tires of the sterile surroundings of the New Chicago base – and Dr. Huer and Wilma realize that Buck is nearing his birthday. As they begin to plan a surprise party for the oldest man on Earth, Lt. Garth from the New Detroit complex arrives with an urgent message: someone is hunting Huer, someone who can transform the cells in a living being’s body into lifeless silicone by touch. In order to get Buck out of the way so preparations can be made for his surprise party, Huer arranges for Buck to escort an intelligence agent to New Detroit – which puts Buck in a position to intercept Huer’s stalker…or die trying.

Order the DVDswritten by Martin Pasko
directed by Sigmund Neufeld, Jr.
music by J.J. Johnson

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Peter MacLean (Traeger), Tamara Dobson (Dr. Delora Bayliss), Morgan Brittany (Raylyn Derren), Chip Johnson (Carew), Bruce Wright (Rorvik), Tom Gagen (Niles), Clay Alexander (Marsden), Eric Mason (Lt. Garth), Abe Alvarez (Security agent), Harry Gold (Alien squadron leader), Victoria Woodbeck (Technician), Gina Gallego (Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Pegasus

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47457.1: The Enterprise is assigned to head for an asteroid belt in a sensitive area between Romulan and Federation space, with Admiral Pressman from Starfleet Security aboard. Along the way, it is clear that the Enterprise’s objective is top secret, and that Pressman and Commander Riker have some old business to discuss. On his first Starfleet mission as an ensign, Riker served aboard the USS Pegasus and witnessed a shipwide mutiny against that ship’s captain – Pressman. Riker defended Pressman at the time and they were among a handful of survivors who escaped before the ship was apparently destroyed by a mishap in engineering. Now, twelve years later, Pressman reveals to Riker that the Enterprise’s secret mission is to search for the Pegasus – Riker’s first starship still exists, and still harbors the treacherous secret that once sparked a vicious mutiny whose nature is still a dark, closely-guarded secret in the files of Starfleet Security.

Order the DVDswritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by LeVar Burton
music by John Debney

Guest Cast: Nancy Vawter (Admiral Blackwell), Terry O’Quinn (Admiral Pressman), Michael Mack (Sirol)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 5 Xena: Warrior Princess

Seeds Of Faith

Xena: Warrior PrincessAres appears after a brawl in a tavern and tells Xena that some of the people involved are part of a movement that has been inciting people to disobey the gods. Xena realizes that he’s afraid that the prophecy about the twilight of the gods may be comiing true. He says he’s just being thorough.

Xena and Gabrielle accompany the members the movement to protect them, and learn that they are followers of Eli’s teachings. They meet up with their friend in another village where he’s encouraging people to destroy their weapons, saying the only weapon they need against the gods is love. But Xena is concerned about what Ares may be up to…and her fears are confirmed when she finds some of his warriors preparing to attack the village.

Order the DVDswritten by George Strayton and Tom O’Neill
directed by Garth Maxwell
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Hudson Leick (Callisto), Kevin Smith (Ares), Timothy Omundson (Eli), Ann Baxter (Disciple), Tim Beveridge (Villager #2), James Gaylyn (Petracles), Albert Heimuli (Head Soldier), Peter Rowley (Milos), Greg Ward (Villager #3)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Orville, The Season 2

Home

The OrvilleThe Friday night arm wrestling match between Isaac and Alara has become part of the Orville‘s routine, but on this occasion Isaac overdoes it, breaking Alara’s arm. In sick bay, while mending the broken bone is a fairly easy procedure, medical scans reveal that Alara, accustomed to operating in the higher gravity of her home planet, is losing both bone and muscle mass in Earth-normal gravity. Before long, she will have lost the increased strength that Xelayans display in lower gravity, and the only prognosis is a return to her home planet to reacclimate – and Dr. Finn can’t be sure how long that will take. As Captain Mercer begins the dreaded process of looking for a temporary replacement for his security chief, Alara begins the even more dreaded process of spending time with a family whose disdain for her non-academic pursuits has alienated her. At the Kitan family’s beach home, a neighbor’s report of a possible break-in provides some relief for Alara: at least she’s in her element doing security work, even while confined to a zero-gravity wheelchair. But the crime that has been reported is not the crime that has been committed, and soon Alara and her entire family are hostages to a man who blames Alara’s father for the death of his son. Still weakened by her condition, Alara may have to resolve the hostage crisis at the cost of returning to the Orville.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong
directed by Jon Cassar
music by Joel McNeely

The OrvilleCast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Halston Sage (Lt. Alara Kitan), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Molly Hagan (Drenala Kitan), Candice King (Solana Kitan), Robert Picardo (Ildis Kitan), John Billingsley (Cambis Borrin), Kerry O’Malley (Floratta), Patrick Warburton (Lt. Tharl), Jason Alexander (Olix), Norm MacDonald (Yaphit), Chris Flanders (Serris)

The OrvilleNotes: It’s a battle of the network Star (Trek doctor)s! Returning guest star Robert Picardo (who was the holographic doctor in all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager) is pitted against a character played by John Billingsley, who played Dr. Phlox in all four seasons of the successor to Voyager’s UPN time slot, Star Trek: Enterprise. Patrick Warburton (The Tick, A Series Of Unfortunate Events) appears as Alara’s heir-apparent, though he and his external esophogeal trunk wouldn’t be permanent fixtures aboard The Orville.

LogBook entry by Earl Green