Day: January 31, 1969

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Original Series Season 03 Star Trek

The Lights of Zetar

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5725.3: En route to Memory Alpha, the home of the Federation’s largest library/computer banks, the Enterprise is transferring Lt. Romaine to her next assignment, overseeing refits and new installations on Memory Alpha. A cloud of energy intercepts the ship and wreaks havoc with the Enterprise’s instruments and crew, affecting various crewmembers’ brains in different ways and causing Lt. Romaine to pass out. The cloud strikes Memory Alpha next, wiping out every living thing on the planetoid along with most of the library banks. Mira, who has been experiencing strange thoughts and visions since the cloud’s first sweep of the Enterprise, is suddenly able to predict the cloud is returning to the vicinity before the Enterprise’s sensors can. Kirk orders phasers fired to defend the ship, but every time the cloud is hit, it injures Lt. Romaine. McCoy determines that the energy beings in the cloud are now telepathically linked to her mind.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jeremy Tarcher and Shari Lewis
directed by Herb Kenwith
music by Alexander Courage

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Jan Shutan (Lt. Mira Romaine), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), John Winston (Lt. Kyle), Libby Erwin (Technician)

Notes: This episode was co-written by Shari Lewis, better known for her puppeteering work and the character of Lambchop.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 07 Doctor Who

Doctor Who and the Silurians

Doctor WhoUNIT and the Doctor are summoned to a nuclear power research center located near a complex of caves; something has been slowly driving members of the center’s staff mad, one by one, and at least one spelunker has been killed in the caves. The Doctor investigates the caves for himself, uninterested in what initially seem like personnel problems at the center, and finds a living dinosaur inside them; he also discovers evidence of a bipedal reptile species, both in the caves and outside. The center’s director doesn’t believe the story he’s being told, but the Brigadier prepares UNIT to defend against a possible invasion. The Doctor is convinced that the reptile humanoids are Silurians, the original inhabitants of the Earth before a mass extinction wiped out most of the large reptile species and allowed humans to evolve and thrive. The few survivors of the event went into underground shelters, and the energy released by the research center is slowly awakening them. The Doctor is determined to contact them and try to talk them into coexisting peacefully with humans on the surface, only to find that warlike factions exist among the Silurians as well – and some of them will be satisfied with nothing less than wiping out humanity.

written by Malcolm Hulke
directed by Timothy Combe
music by Carey Blyton

Guest Cast: John Newman (Spencer), Bill Matthews (Davis), Peter Miles (Dr. Lawrence), Norman Jones (Baker), Thomasine Heiner (Miss Dawson), Fulton Mackay (Dr. Quinn), Roy Branigan (Roberts), Ian Cunningham (Dr. Meredith), Paul Darrow (Hawkins), Pat Gorman (Silurian Scientist), Dave Carter (Old Silurian), Nigel Johns (Young Silurian), Paul Barton, Simon Cain, John Churchill (Silurians), Peter Halliday (Silurian voice), Nancie Jackson (Doris Squire), Gordon Richardson (Squire), Richard Steele (Hart), Ian Talbot (Travis), Geoffrey Palmer (Masters), Harry Swift (Robins), Brendan Barry (Doctor), Derek Pollitt (Wright), Alan Mason (Corporal Nutting)

Broadcast from January 31 through March 14, 1970

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

Chopper

Night StalkerThe murder of a taxi driver at a garage has several unusual aspects. His head was cut off, his killer used a sword, and a witness reports that the victim was decapitated by a headless motorcyclist. Kolchak investigates and determines that the victim was a member of a cycle gang in the 50’s. Other victims turn up decapitated, each a member of the same gang. Behind the killings lies a grisly tale: the victims played a prank on the leader of a rival gang, which resulted in his decapitation. The gang’s leader, Studs Spake, buried the body, but not the head. The leader had ridden in the 50’s seeking vengeance until Studs reunited the head and body. Now, the excavation of the cemetary has resulted in the head and body being separated once more, and the headless motorcyclist rides again. With Studs dead, Kolchak must restore the head to the body once more.

Order the DVDswritten by Steve Fisher, David Chase, Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis
directed by Bruce Kessler
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Larry Linville (Captain Jonas), Sharon Farrell (Lila Morton), Jim Backus (Herb Bresson), Art Metrano (Studs Spake), Jay Robinson (Professor Strig), Jesse White (Warehouse Security Guard), Steve Franken (Morgue Attendant), Steve Boyum (Headless Motorcyclist)

Notes: Yes, it’s that Robert Zemeckis, Oscar winning Best Director for Forrest Gump.

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

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Classic Season 13 Doctor Who

The Brain of Morbius

Doctor WhoOn the planet Karn, the Doctor and Sarah happen upon a castle, home to a driven scientist named Solon and his disfigured manservant Condo. Though the time travelers are welcomed at first, the visit quickly becomes less cordial when Solon poisons the Doctor and Sarah’s wine; he intends to use the Doctor’s head to house the brain of his latest experiment in life extension. The being Solon is trying to keep alive, however, is Morbius, one of the most feared renegades ever produced by Time Lord society. Even without the interference of Solon, Condo, and the enigmatic Sisterhood of Karn (quietly planning to put an end to Solon’s experiments), the Doctor may be no match for Morbius’ evil power.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Robin Bland (pseudonym for Terrance Dicks)
directed by Christopher Barry
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Philip Madoc (Solon), Colin Fay (Condo), Gilly Brown (Ohica), Cynthia Grenville (Maren), Michael Spice (voice of Morbius), Stuart Fell (Morbius monster), John Scott Martin (Kriz), Sue Bishop, Janie Kells, Gabrielle Mowbray, Veronica Ridge (Sisters)

Broadcast from January 3 through 24, 1976

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 13 Doctor Who

The Seeds of Doom

Doctor WhoThe Doctor is called in to help identify a vegetable pod found buried in the Antarctic tundra. But another party has already learned of the pod’s presence – the eccentric botanist Harrison Chase, who sends one of his hired guns and one of his scientists to procure the pod by any means necessary. At the south pole, the Doctor makes two dreadful discoveries: the pod is a Krynoid, an alien species of omnivore plant life which has been known to destroy all animal life on entire planets, and the overeager scientists at the Antarctic base have revived the Krynoid pod with ultraviolet light, causing it to open and take over the mind and body of one of them. Noting that Krynoid pods always arrive in pairs, the Doctor quickly finds another specimen of the deadly plant in the nearby ice just as Chase’s men arrive under false pretenses, taking the second pod and leaving the scientists, the Doctor and Sarah for dead. Help arrives, and the Doctor and Sarah track the pod down to Harrison Chase, who is delighted at the discovery of a breed of meat-devouring plant life – for he prefers plants to the company of humans. Under Chase’s obsessed care, the Krynoid soon grows to enormous proportions, ready to consume all animal life on Earth unless the Doctor can stop it.

Download this episodewritten by Robert Banks Stewart
directed by Douglas Camfield
music by Geoffrey Burgon

Guest Cast: Tony Beckley (Harrison Chase), John Challis (Scorby), John Gleeson (Charles Winlett/Krynoid humanoid), Michael McStay (Derek Moberly), Hubert Rees (John Stevenson), Kenneth Gilbert (Dunbar), Seymour Green (Hargreaves), Michael Barrington (Sir Colin Thackeray), Mark Jones (Arnold Keeler), Ian Fairbairn (Dr. Chester), Alan Chuntz (Chauffeur), Sylvia Coleridge (Amelia Ducat), David Masterman, Harry Fielder, Ian Elliott (Guards), John Achson (Major Beresford), Ray Barron (Sgt. Henderson), Mark Jones (Krynoid’s voice), Keith Ashley (Secretary)

Broadcast from January 31 through March 6, 1976

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Children Of The Stones

Narrowing Circle

Children Of The StonesWith more people falling into the strange, almost suspiciously carefree behavior of Millbury’s longtime residents, Brake and Margaret find a fellow skeptic in Dr. Lyle, who claims that no one in Millbury ever seems to get sick, which seems to eliminate the need for a town doctor. Putting together what they know, they determine that there are two others seemingly immune to Millbury’s perpetually happy mindset: Hendrick, the town mayor, and Dai, the homeless poacher Matthew Brake has befriended. Dr. Lyle has plans to leave town briefly, but he leaves his gloves at Brake’s house. Matthew touches the gloves and sees a strange event befalling Lyle at the edge of town: a psychic vision through the doctor’s eyes. When Dr. Lyle returns, however, he has changed – he’s now the same as everyone else in Millbury. And when the amulet he claims has been protecting him is broken, Dai suffers an even worse fate.

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

Children Of The StonesCast: Iain Cuthbertson (Hendrick), Gareth Thomas (Adam), Freddie Jones (Dai), Veronica Strong (Margaret), Peter Demin (Matthew), Katharine Levy (Sandra), Richard Matthews (Dr. Lyle), Ruth Dunning (Mrs. Crabtree), Peggy Ann Wood (Mrs. Warner), Darren Hatch (Kevin)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Buck Rogers Season 1

Twiki Is Missing

Buck Rogers In The 25th CenturyAn unusual asteroid composed of frozen oxygen is being escorted to Earth by a squadron of fighters under Wilma’s command. Though hardly a routine operation, the plan is to maneuver the asteroid through a precisely calculated window in Earth’s atmosphere shield to replenish the planet’s air. A slight miscalculation would cause it to miss the window – and the oxygen would heat up and ignite explosively, laying waste to Earth’s surface. On another asteroid, corrupt mining magnate Kurt Belzack is growing infuriated with his miners’ demands for adequate rest and humane treatment. When they send a union representative to negotiate, Belzack unleashes the powers of three lovely psychokinetic women to eliminate him. A spy on Earth relays information to Belzack about a robotic drone that could do the work of Belzack’s miners without pay, food, or rest. One possible drawback is that the drone has an unquestioning loyalty to one man – and neither Twiki nor his “owner” are likely to cooperate.

Order the DVDswritten by Jaron Summers
directed by Sigmund Neufeld, Jr.
music by Herbert Woods

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Eddie Benton (Stella), John P. Ryan (Kurt Belzack), David Darlow (Pinchas), Janet Bebe Louie (Clare), Eugenia Wright (Dawn), Ken Letner (Oto Anad)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

The Keeper Of Traken

Doctor WhoThe dying Keeper of the harmonious Union of Traken summons the Doctor to help his world as his reign comes to a close. Normally the Keeper would never summon outside help, but in this case an otherworldly evil is slowly preparing to take control of the Union, and otherworldly help will be needed to defeat it. But as betrayals and complacency allow a malignant alien to assume the Keepership – and with it enormous power – the Doctor is slow to realize that this particular adversary is known to him personally. Though he is able to preserve Traken’s people, the Doctor is unaware that his greatest adversary has gained a new lease on life.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Johnny Byrne
directed by John Black
music by Roger Limb

Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (Tremas), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Sheila Ruskin (Kassia), Denis Carey (The Keeper), John Woodnutt (Seron), Margot Van De Burgh (Katura), Robin Soans (Luvic), Roland Oliver (Neman), Geoffrey Beevers (Melkur)

Broadcast from January 31 through February 21, 1981

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Sub Rosa

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate not given: The Enterprise is visiting Caldos, a terraformed Earth colony modeled after 17th century Scotland, so Dr. Crusher may attend the funeral of her grandmother. Also attending the funeral is an unknown man whose appearance mystifies Crusher. While the Enterprise crew gives the colony’s seismic and meteorological control systems a routine check, strange things begin happening. In her grandmother’s journals, Beverly learns that her grandmother, despite being over a century old, had a young lover. When a strange voice appears to her first in dreams and then in waking, Beverly realizes that the mystery man from the funeral – and from her grandmother’s past – has come for her as well.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Brannon Braga
television story by Jeri Taylor
based upon material by Jeanna F. Gallo
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Michael Keenan (Governor Maturin), Shay Duffin (Ned Quint), Duncan Regehr (Ronin), Ellen Albertini Dow (Felisa Howard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Whispers

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47581.2: After returning from a briefing on security measures that will be needed aboard DS9 for a summit between leaders of warring factions of the Paradans, O’Brien feels that something strange is happening, though he can’t quite place a finger on what it could be. Gradually, he discovers that everything he says and does is being double-checked by Sisko and the crew. His own wife and daughter don’t seem comfortable around him, and even the most innocent questions he asks are evaded by everyone. As the time of the Paradan meeting draws near, O’Brien gets desperate for answers – but everyone else on the station seems intent on stopping him.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Paul Robert Coyle
directed by Les Landau
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), Rosalind Chao (Keiko), Todd Waring (DeCurtis), Susan Bay (Admiral), Philip LeStrange (Coutu), Hana Hatae (Molly), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 07

Ooroboros

Red DwarfCat spots something which may be either a wiggly thing or a swirly thing, but is actually an unstable interdimensional rift not unlike a swirly thing, and in engineering a linkway opens up to another dimension (rather like a wiggly thing). Lister, Cat and Kryten meet their counterparts from another dimension, a dimension in which things happened a little differently – Kristine Kochanski, not Lister, was put in stasis and revived three million years later; and Lister, not Rimmer, was revived as a hologram to keep her sane. But a ship full of angry GELFs (quite ugly things) attacks, leaving Kochanski marooned in an unfamilar universe with a familiar but unsavory crew, one of whom also happens to be the salvation of humanity.

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Gary Bleasdale (Frank), Juliet Griffiths (Barmaid), Adrienne Posta (Flight Announcer), Alexander John-Jules (baby Lister)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 5 Xena: Warrior Princess

God Fearing Child

Xena: Warrior PrincessZeus pays a visit to the Fates, who confirm his belief that the twilight of the gods is approaching. They tell him that the birth of Xena’s child will be the beginning. Though Hera tries to disuade him, Zeus decides that Xena must die before the baby is born. Hercules catches up with Xena and Gabrielle, bringing a gift for the baby. But as the three friends are talking, Proxitici appear. They fight them off and learn that about Zeus’s plan. While Hercules goes to talk to his father, Xena and Gabrielle head to the underworld to get Hades’ helmet of invisibility.

Order the DVDswritten by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
story by Chris Manheim
directed by Phil Sgriccia
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), Kevin Smith (Ares), Meg Foster (Hera), Charles Keating (Zeus), Nicko Vella (Solan), Stephen Lovatt (Hades), Chloe Jordan (Lachesis), Slade Leef (Xena’s Proxidicae), Samantha Adriaanse (Clotho), Elizabeth Pendergrast (Atropos)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Season 07 Star Trek Voyager

Repentance

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Voyager’s quick response to an alien distress call turns into a crisis – the distress call is part of a trap. Eight convicts and their three guards are all disarmed in the process of transport, but this makes them no less dangerous. Despite a brief hostage situation, the prisoners are contained and Janeway adheres to the Prime Directive by offering to transport all of their guests to their original destination – and an appointment with a death sentence. But with everything to lose, the prisoners prove that they’re not quite so conscious of the rules as Voyager’s captain – and they’re not ready to go quietly.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Robert Doherty
story by Mike Sussman & Robert Doherty
directed by Mike Vejar
music by Paul Baillargeon

Guest Cast: Jeff Kober (Iko), Tim deZarn (Yediq), F.J. Rio (Joleg), Gregg Poland (Voyager security officer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Hyperdrive Season 1

Asteroid

HyperdriveThe Camden Lock is sent to play host to representatives from two warring races who stand at the brink of war over the ownership of a mineral-rich asteroid. Henderson is advised to wait for a third ship – full of American mediators – to handle the delicate negotiations. Determined to show that his British ship and crew doesn’t need the Americans to handle the tough jobs, Henderson decides to try a little bit of brinksmanship, threatening to destroy the asteroid so neither party can have it. Then he forgets to countermand that order, and the asteroid is destroyed moments after an agreement is reached. But the alien races remain allies…and join forces against the inept Earth ship. So it’s a great day for interplanetary diplomacy, but a really, really quite spectacularly unlucky day for the crew of the Camden Lock…

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Kevin Cecil & Andy Riley
directed by John Henderson
music by Mark Thomas

HyperdriveCast: Nick Frost (Henderson), Kevin Eldon (York), Miranda Hart (Teal), Dan Antopolski (Jeffers), Stephen Evans (Vine), Petra Massey (Sandstrom), Paterson Joseph (Space Marshal), Colin McFarlane (Male Bulaahg), Martina McClements (Female Bulaahg), James Bachman (Lallakkiss 1), Neil Edmond (Lallakkiss 2), Wren Shepherd (Captain Helix), Morwenna Banks (Announcer), Maggie Service (Computer Voices)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Pier Pressure

Doctor Who: Pier PressureSuffering from a serious case of moping, the Doctor reluctantly gives in to Evelyn’s insistence that he needs a vacation…in somplace like Brighton. The TARDIS manages to take them there, in the year 1936, but things are already taking a dark turn when the Doctor overhears a young couple talking about strange noises from the water. The Doctor encounters Professor Talbot, a secretive man who, according to local legend, hasn’t been seen in 15 years. The Doctor instantly senses something horribly wrong with Talbot – he’s doing the bidding of some sort of alien consciousness, while also trying to swindle the being. But the Doctor discovers that he’s facing a power that has the ability to control nearly anyone’s mind – even Evelyn’s, and even his own.

Order this CDwritten by Robert Ross
directed by Gary Russell
music by ERS

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Evelyn Smythe), Roy Hudd (Max Miller), Doug Bradley (Professor Talbot), Chris Simmons (Albert Potter), Sally Ann Curran (Emily Bung), Martin Parsons (Billy)

Timeline: after Medicinal Purposes and before Thicker Than Water

Notes: Roy Hudd is a comic in his own right – and even has a place in British SF history, having played Max Quordlepleen, a comic working a packed house in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe in the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy radio series. In fact, Hudd attended the unveiling of a statue of Brighton comic legend Max Miller in 2005, the very statue that the Doctor told Miller would one day stand there.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green