Categories
7th Doctor Doctor Who

The Magic Mousetrap

Doctor Who: The Magic MousetrapA strange gathering takes place in a sanitorium in the Swiss Alps in 1926. Among the strangest patients there is a man known only as the Doctor, who seems not to have the slightest idea who he is – and anytime he seems to stray anywhere near finding out the truth, there always seems to be something handy to prevent him from remembering too much: chloroform here, a powerful electric shock there. Other patients go through the motions of playing an endless series of games, and being subjected to similar memory-erasing tactics by the shadowy couple calling the shots from the sanitorium’s attic. These two mysterious people are named Ace and Hex, and they’re keeping the patients – and their Doctor – imprisoned for a reason: to rid the universe of a malevolent presence. But it turns out that the Doctor, even without his memory, doesn’t take kindly to being imprisoned.

Order this CDwritten by Matthew Sweet
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Richard Fox & Lauren Yason

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Paul Anthony-Barber (Ludovic Comfort), Joan Walker (Lola Luna), Nadim Sawalha (Swapnil Khan), Nadine Lewington (Queenie Glasscock), Andrew Fettes (Harry Randall), Andrew Dickens (Herbert Randall)

Timeline: between Forty-Five and Enemy Of The Daleks

Notes: Spoiler-heavy notes are placed below the review.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Picard Season 2 Star Trek

Mercy

Star Trek: PicardIn FBI custody, Picard and Guinan begin to suspect that Agent Wells, their captor, may be acting without authorization. But whether he’s unhinged or not, Wells is also aware that Picard and a group of other uninvited guests were present at the Europa mission gala. Wells has Guinan taken to another room while he interrogates Picard. Guinan gets a visitor as well – Q finally appears, annoyed to find her on Earth in this time period. Raffi and Seven find Jurati, but everything points toward the Borg Queen being in complete control, until Jurati passes up an opportunity to kill Raffi. Having exposed Dr. Ramirez and her son to the truth, Rios finds that he can’t control anything on his ship, thanks to Borg encryption forced into his system by Jurati before she left. A message left for her by Q tells Kore everything about her past and her father’s history of genetic experimentation – and Q offers her the ability to step into the outside world. Picard turns the tables on Wells, asking why it’s so important for him to prove the existence of aliens in 2024, and the results dredged up from Wells’ childhood memories prove fascinating. Jurati, needing advanced electronic components to give her the ability to assimilate, finds an appropriately unethical ally in Adam Soong.

Order DVDswritten by Cindy Appel & Kirsten Beyer
directed by Joe Menendez
music by Jeff Russo
additional music by Sam Lucas

Star Trek: PicardCast: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Alison Pill (Dr. Agnes Jurati), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Commander Raffi Musiker), Evan Evagora (Elnor), Orla Brady (Tallinn), Isa Briones (Kore Soong), Santiago Cabrera (Captain Cristobal Rios), Brent Spiner (Adam Soong), John de Lancie (Q), Sol Rodriguez (Dr. Teresa Ramirez), Ito Aghayere (Guinan), Jay Karnes (Agent Wells), Kay Bess (La Sirena Computer), Jackson Garner (Young Wells), Steve Gutierrez (Ricardo), Nanrisa Lee (FBI Agent), Charles Maceo (Merc One), Eduardo Roman (Vulcan #1), Chuti Tiu (Vulcan #2), Oscar Torre (Bartender), Cyrus Zoghi (Red Bearded Guy)

Star Trek: PicardNotes: Seven’s memories of being assimilated at a young age were explored in more detail in numerous episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (The Raven, 1997; Dark Frontier Part I and Part II, 1999). Voyager fans who had spent the week since Monsters speculating that Jay Karnes’ Picard and Voyager characters were related were in for a letdown, but Agent Wells’ flashbacks to meeting Vulcans at a young age may (or, just as easily since they apparently had a ship with working transporters, may not) have had some connection to the Vulcans left behind on Earth to live in Carbon Creek (2002).

LogBook entry by Earl Green