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Classic Season 08 Doctor Who

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

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Blake's 7 Season 1

The Web

Blake's 7Cally begins sabotaging the Liberator and attacks Vila. Blake and Avon rush to stop her as the sensors go inoperative and it rapidly becomes apparent that Cally is not in control of her actions. The Liberator enters a huge, spaceborne web that slows the ship down and brings it to a planet inside the web. Blake teleports down and is injured by a tiny creature’s spear. A couple of humanoid beings appear, kill the animal, and miraculously heal Blake’s wound. It transpires that the animals – ten-function, artificial slaves callled the Decimas – were created by Geela and Novara, who are under the control of Saymon – whose telepathic impulses had been controlling Cally – and the Decimas have now become independent and their creators are attempting to destroy them. They leave Blake no choice: they demand power cells in exchange for the release of the Liberator. But as Avon arrives with the cells, the Decimas attack the control building, killing their creators. Blake and Avon return to the Liberator as the web dissolves.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Michael E. Briant
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Peter Tuddenham (Zen), Richard Beale (Saymon), Ania Marson (Geela), Miles Fothergill (Novara), Deep Roy, Gilda Cohen, Ismet Hassam, Marcus Powell, Molly Tweedly, Willie Sheara (Decimas)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 2

Horizon

Blake's 7The Liberator crew is growing tired and must stop off for some form of natural relaxation soon. As they try to find somewhere to meet those specifications, the Liberator passes through a force barrier around the planet Horizon, which is very soon to be annexed by the Federation. On Horizon, a simple native is being manipulated as a puppet governor by a Federation Kommissar into enslaving his people – and Blake and the crew unwittingly walk right into every trap on Horizon and become part of the slave labor force while Avon is tempted to leave on his own in the Liberator.

written by Allan Prior
directed by Jonathan Wright Miller
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Peter Tuddenham (Zen, Orac), William Squire (Kommissar), Darien Angadi (Ro), Souad Faress (Selma), Brian Miller (Assistant Kommissar), Paul Haley (Chief Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Chocky Season 1

Episode Four

ChockyMatthew’s parents quiz him about a series of drawings they find in his room, some of them surprisingly realistic and some very impressionistic, and after some prodding he admits that he drew them under Chocky’s influence. Chocky now appears to Matthew as an ethereal blue floating mass of energy, and speaks aloud to him. With a family vacation just around the corner, Matthew asks Chocky to stay away from him…but he doesn’t expect to be taken quite so literally. The family vacation proceeds with no sign of anything unusual…until a boat with no one in it barrels toward the wooden dock where Matthew and his younger sister are fishing.

written by Anthony Read
based on the novel by John Wyndham
directed by Vic Hughes
music not credited

ChockyCast: James Hazeldine (David), Carol Drinkwater (Mary), Andrew Ellams (Matthew), Zoe Hart (Polly), Colin McCormack (Alan), Penny Brownjohn (Phyl), Devin Stanfield (Colin), Kathleen Cotty (Emma), Glynis Brooks (Chocky’s voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

Tales Of The Undead

Friday The 13th: The SeriesRyan drops by his favorite comic store to pick up his pull list, and is shown a real treasure by the owner of the shop – a one-of-a-kind March 1947 issue of Jay Star’s Tales Of The Undead, signed by Star himself and acquired from an estate sale. It’s expected to go for five figures at auction…except that it’s attracted the attention of a petty thief. But the thief, once he breaks open the glass case set up to display the comic, assumes the guise of Ferrus, the robot-like armored villain of the comic, assaults the owner, and knocks Ryan aside. Mickey finds the comic in Uncle Lewis’ ledger…and discovers that Lewis bought it from Jay Star himself. Ryan visits Star’s address in the ledger and comes face to face with one of his idols…and Star soon sees through Ryan’s “starstruck fan” facade. When Ryan asks who would steal an issue of Star’s comic, Star reveals that his original characters and works were stolen by unscrupulous publishers. But when Ryan describes Ferrus’ attack, Star sets out to track down the thief and reclaim the stolen comic…not to stop the boy from killing again, but to use the powers of Ferrus for himself, avenging injustices that he felt ruined his life, and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Once Ryan discovers who now holds the power of Ferrus, he has to turn to the original comics to learn how to defeat him…which may mean killing his idol.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Bill Taub and Marc Scott Zicree
story by Alfred Sole & Paul Monette
directed by Lyndon Chubbuck
music by Fred Mollin

Friday the 13thCast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), Ray Walston (Jay Star), David Hewlett (Cal), Bob Aarrons (Charlie), Michelle George (Mrs. Forbes), Jennifer Griffin (Linda), David Clement (Carmine), Anthony Bekenn (Mrs. Briggs)

Notes: Ray Walston is, of course, best known for his starring role in the sitcom My Favorite Martian, though more recent sci-fi fans may know him primarily as Starfleet Academy groundskeeper Boothby, from episodes of both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. His much younger co-star, David Hewlett, appears here in only his fourth screen credit at Friday the 13ththe age of 20; Hewlett would later become much better known as laconic Stargate project scientist Dr. Rodney McKay, a recurring guest so popular on Stargate SG-1 that he became a regular for the entire run of the spinoff series Stargate Atlantis. The character of Jay Star is based loosely on any number of comic creators – take your pick: Siegel & Schuster, Jack Kirby, and far too many others – whose creations were taken over by corporate interests with little interest in compensating them fairly for their creations.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 02 Star Trek The Next Generation

Unnatural Selection

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 42494.8: The Enterprise crew discover the disabled USS Lantree adrift in deep space – adrift because the crew has been inflicted with a disease which induces rapid aging and death! Doctor Pulaski personally involves herself in the search for a cure at a doomed genetic research base and becomes the most recent victim of the disease.

Order the DVDswritten by John Mason and Mike Gray
directed by Paul Lynch
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Diana Muldaur (Dr. Pulaski), Patricia Smith (Dr. Sara Kingsley), Colm Meaney (Transporter Chief O’Brien), J. Patrick McNamara (Captain Taggert), Scott Trost (Ensign)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 03 Star Trek

Life Support

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 48498.4: Vedek Bareil is severely injured in an accident aboard a Bajoran transport ferrying him and Kai Winn to groundbreaking peace negotiations with the Cardassians. Bareil dies, but Bashir is able to jump- start the Vedek’s brain again, reviving him with some very unconventional surgical techniques. Winn needs Bareil’s advice, as only he is fully conversant with the treaty being discussed, but the prospects of keeping Bareil alive without putting him in stasis are not hopeful, and despite Bashir’s strictest protests Bareil will not rest or allow himself to be put into stasis. As the peace talks reach a critical stage, the only option left to keep Bareil’s knowledge of the treaty available will rob him of his humanity and eventually his life.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Christian Ford & Roger Soffer
directed by Reza Badiyi
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Philip Anglim (Vedek Bareil), Louise Fletcher (Kai Winn), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Lark Voorhies (Leanne), Ann Gillespie (Nurse Jabara), Andrew Prine (Legate Turrel), Eva Loseth (Riska), Kevin Carr (Bajoran)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek Voyager

Time And Again

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Exploring a planet which has very recently been rendered uninhabitable by a global disaster, Janeway and Paris are separated from the rest of their away team and somehow find themselves in the same place, but hours before the cataclysm that consumed the planet’s entire civilization. Their attempts to remain anonymous while trying to find a way back to their own present land them in the middle of a protest against a polaric energy plant, which may be the cause of the world’s destruction. At first, Janeway is adamant that the Prime Directive be adhered to, but when she discovers the possibility that her presence may have caused the disaster in the first place, the captain decides to set aside Starfleet’s first rule.

Order the DVDsteleplay by David Kemper & Michael Piller
story by David Kemper
directed by Les Landau
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), Nicolas Surovy (Makul), Jeff Polis (Nitot), Brady Bluhm (Atika), Ryan MacDonald (Shopkeeper), Steve Vaught (Officer), Jerry Spicer (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Movies

Zero Effect

Zero EffectGregory Stark has problems. The Portland executive has lost his keys – and someone’s blackmailing him out of millions of dollars. To solve both cases, which he believes are connected, he hires the world’s foremost private investigator, Darryl Zero. Zero is a reclusive enigma, seldom (if ever) venturing outside of his heavily-protected home, and interacting with his clients through his confidant, Steve Arlo. But in this case, Zero has to interact with the real world, leaving L.A. to travel up the Pacific coast looking for clues. As it turns out, Stark doesn’t just have troubles – he is trouble. And Darryl Zero faces the worst possible obstacle to his legendary detachment from the rest of the human race: he’s falling in love with the chief suspect.

screenplay by Jake Kasdan
directed by Jake Kasdan
music by The Greyboy Allstars

Cast: Bill Pullman (Darryl Zero), Ben Stiller (Steve Arlo), Ryan O’Neal (Gregory Stark), Kim Dickens (Gloria Sullivan), Angela Featherstone (Jess), Hugh Ross (Bill), Sarah DeVincentis (Daisy), Matt O’Toole (Kragan Vincent), Michele Mariana (Maid), Robert Katims (Gerald Auerbach), Tyrone Henry (Staffer #1), Aleta Barthell (Staffer #2), Tapp Watkins (Firefighter), Wendy Westerwelle (Motel Clerk), Lauren Hasson (Little Kid), Daniel Pershing (Rahim), David Doty (Officer Hagans), J.W. Crawford (Convention Employee), Fred Parnes (Chuck), Luisa Sermol (Waitress), Marvin L. Sanders (Astronomer #1), Doug Baldwin (Astronomer #2), Robert Blanche (Paramedic #1), Margot Demeter (Clarissa Devereau)

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 SG-1 Stargate

Enigma

Stargate SG-1SG-1 visits the planet Tollan, where volcanic activity has buried that world’s entire civilization beneath ash. Only ten survivors are found in the immediate vicinity of the stargate, and they’re hurriedly brought back to the SGC. When one of the refugees, Omac, recovers from his ordeal, he seems less than grateful to the SG-1 team, referring to them as primitives who shouldn’t even be able to use the Stargate. The Tollan refugees are an advanced human species who are paranoid that the people of Earth only want to enslave them and exploit their advanced scientific knowledge and technology. When Colonel Maybourne from the NID arrives with orders from the President to take the Tollan into custody, however, it seems to confirm all of Omac’s fears – and even when O’Neill tries to contact some of the worlds SG-1 has helped before to ask them to provide a safe refuge, it seems the Tollan are even less interested in seeking asylum from other “primitives” than they are in serving the darker side of U.S. intelligence.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Katharyn Powers
directed by William Gereghty
music by Joel Goldsmith, Richard Band, Kevin Kiner and Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Tobin Bell (Omac), Garwin Sanford (Narim), Tom McBeath (Colonel Maybourne), Gerard Plunkett (Tuplo), Gary Jones (Technician), Frida Betrani (Lya), Tracy Westerholm (Airwoman), Woody Jeffreys (Guard)

Notes: Tuplo and his people first appeared in the episode The Broca Divide.

LogBook entry by Earl Green with notes by Dave Thomer

Categories
Enterprise Season 01 Star Trek

Sleeping Dogs

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise encounters a derelict vessel trapped in the dense atmosphere of a giant gas planet. Reed and T’Pol are assigned to pay the ship a visit, and Hoshi also volunteers. The ship turns out to be an unknown class of Klingon starship, manned by an unknown number of hostile Klingons. Using their familiarity with the ship to their advantage, the Klingons trap the Enterprise boarding party in their wrecked ship and steal their shuttle. The shuttle blasts out of the planet’s atmosphere at top speed, but doesn’t get past the Enterprise’s grappler. With the shuttle back on board, Archer and Trip wait for the Klingons to show themselves and stun them into submission. When she awakens, a female Klingon who appears to be in charge tells Archer that more Klingon ships will be arriving – and that the Enterprise will be no match. But due to the hazardous nature of the environment in which his crew members are trapped, Archer will need the Klingon woman’s help to retrieve them alive before the ship’s hull gives way – and that cooperation will not come easily.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Fred Dekker
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer), Jolene Blalock (Subcommander T’Pol), John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcolm Reed), Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather), Linda Park (Ensign Hoshi Sato), Connor Trinneer (Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker III), Michelle C. Bonilla (Bu’Kah), Stephen Lee (Klingon Captain)

Notes: This episode establishes that the Klingons had photon torpedoes before Starfleet did; this being a prequel, it’s technically the first appearance of that term in the Star Trek chronology. The Klingon ship, a new invention not seen in any of the other Trek series (probably meaning it has been retired by Kirk’s era), is a Raptor-class scout.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Companion Chronicles Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Blue Tooth

Doctor Who: The Blue ToothLiz Shaw looks back on her days with UNIT and the Doctor, recalling an adventure that began with the disappearance of several prominent scientists. The Doctor and the Brigadier are on the case, and Liz goes undercover to see if a suspicious dentist’s office has any connection to the disappearances. The Doctor figures out that the Cybermen are once again trying to stage a quiet takeover of the human race…and Liz herself may be the next victim of their new conversion process.

Order this CD written by Nigel Fairs
directed by Mark J. Thompson
music by Lawrence Oakley

Cast: Caroline John (Liz Shaw), Nicholas Briggs (Cyberman voices)

Timeline: after Inferno and before Terror Of The Autons

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
5th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Circular Time

Doctor Who: Circular TimeSpring: The Doctor and Nyssa, at the behest of the Time Lords, visit a world where bipedal birds are the dominant life form – and a rogue Time Lord has installed himself as their ruler, accelerating their technological progress dramatically. The Doctor knows that causing his fellow Time Lord to regenerate would confuse the locals and break his hold, but it seems that his actions have been anticipated…

Summer: The Doctor and Nyssa are brought before Isaac Newton for heresy, and the time travelers are horrified when Newton guesses their origins with alarming accuracy. The Doctor tries to bluff his way around it, but Newton insists on a look at the Doctor’s time machine. But will the truth set the time travelers free…or alter the course of history for one of Earth’s greatest scientific minds?

Autumn: The Doctor brings the TARDIS to Earth for quite a long stay as he settles in to play a season of cricket with some old friends. For the first time, Nyssa meets someone who makes her think that staying on Earth might not be all bad…if not for the Doctor’s tendency to slip away quietly.

Winter: Long after leaving the Doctor, Nyssa is a wife and a mother, but a disturbed one. She’s recently experienced vivid dreams of her time traveling friend, and asks her husband, the inventor of a machine that facilitates interactive lucid dreaming, for help. But only when she’s able to make the dream more coherent does she realize that somewhere, in time and space, the Doctor is reaching out to his old companions from the brink of death…

Order this CDwritten by Paul Cornell & Mike Maddox
directed by John Ainsworth
music by David Darlington

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)

  • Spring: Jamie Sandford (Hoodeye), Toby Longworth (Redklaw), Lois Baxter (Carrion), Teresa Gallagher (Snowfire), Hugh Fraser (Zero)
  • Summer: Jeremy James (Guard), Sunny Ormonde (Molly), Trevor Littledale (Jailer), David Warner (Sir Isaac Newton)
  • Autumn: Jamie Sandford (Andrew), Toby Longworth (Jack), Jeremy James (Anton), John Benfield (Don)
  • Winter: Jeremy James (Lasarti), Sunny Ormonde (Anima)

Notes: In a rare major continuity blooper for Big Finish, in the “Spring” segment, the Doctor’s fellow Time Lord calls him a “rebel president” – even though this episode’s events precede The Five Doctors, in which the fifth Doctor was drafted into that office, by almost an entire season. Given that the TV series has quietly established that the Doctor’s lives, the lives of other Time Lords and events on Gallifrey seem to exist in their own continuum in which it’s impossible for a Time Lord to visist Gallifrey’s past or future, it seems unlikely that Zero would have had foreknowledge of the Doctor’s Presidency. In the “Summer” segment, the Doctor protests that the TARDIS is not a jade pagoda, a reference to the New Adventures novels, in which a portion of the TARDIS can indeed be split off into a jade pagoda with roughly the same dimensions as a Police Box. The Doctor also quotes the song “I Am The Doctor”, originally recorded by Jon Pertwee and Rupert Hine in the early ’70s.

Timeline: between The Game and Renaissance Of The Daleks (first three segments) and during episode 4 of Caves Of Androzani (last segment)

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 2 Torchwood

To The Last Man

Torchwood1918: A young soldier, trying to recover from shellshock experienced on the front in the war, is brought to a hospital in Cardiff – a hospital where the nurses claim to be seeing ghosts. Two people approach him, identifying themselves as members of Torchwood, and secure his immediate release, insisting that he come back to their base of operations with them.

2008: The soldier from 1918 is unfrozen and revived from suspended animation, as Torchwood’s modern-day counterparts try to figure out what connection he has to a series of disturbances in time, centered around the hospital from which he was taken. Toshiko is particularly taken with him, and is appalled to learn that the solution that will stitch the timelines back together in their natural order will require him to return to 1918 permanently. But worse, he won’t return only to be patched up and sent to the frontlines again – he’ll resume his shellshocked state and be executed by firing squad for “cowardice”. Knowing that this fate awaits him, can he muster the courage to return – or will Toshiko let him return – to his own time?

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Helen Raynor
directed by Andy Goddard
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Anthony Lewis (Thomas), Roderic Culver (Gerald), Siobahn Hewlett (Harriet), Lizzie Rogan (Nurse), Ricky Fearon (Foreman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Clone Wars Season 1 Star Wars

Trespass

The Clone WarsWhen the Republic loses contact with their troops on Orto Plutonia, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are sent with their troops to learn what has become of them. They find mass destruction of not only the clones, but also a Seperatist droid base, leading the Jedi to conclude that they are dealing with something other than Seperatist activity. Chairman Cho, leader of nearby Pantora is more concerned about maintaining Pantora’s sovereignty over the planet. The Jedi must determine the nature of the hostile force on Orto Plutonia and whether they have a claim to the planet stronger than Pantora’s.

written by Steven Melching
directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
music by Kevin Kiner / original Star Wars themes by John Williams

Cast: James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi / Pantoran Assembly Representative), Matt Lanter (Anakin Skywalker), Dee Bradley Baker (Captain Rex/Thi-Sen), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Brian George (Chariman Cho), Jennifer Hale (Senator Chuchi), Matthew Wood (Battle Droids), Robin Atkin Downes (Pantoran Guard), Tom Kane (Narrator)

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey