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Classic Season 03

The Gunfighters

Doctor WhoHis tooth broken by a booby-trapped piece of candy leftover from his struggle with the Celestial Toymaker, the Doctor seeks dental help in the old west – from none other than Doc Holliday himself, in Tombstone Arizona. But when the Doctor, Steven and Dodo go to seek his help, the Doctor is mistaken for Holliday…and this may plunge the time travellers into the legendary, bloody shootout at the OK Corral, not as observers, but as participants.

written by Donald Cotton
directed by Rex Tucker
music by Tristram Cary / vocals by Lynda Baron

Doctor WhoGuest Cast: William Hurndell (Ike Clanton), Maurice Good (Phineas Clanton), David Cole (Billy Clanton), Sheena Marshe (Kae), Shane Rimmer (Seth Harper), David Graham (Charlie), John Alderson (Wyatt Earp), Anthony Jacobs (Doc Holliday), Richard Beale (Bat Masterson), Reed de Rouen (Pa Clanton), Laurence Payne (Johnny Ringo), Martyn Huntley (Warren Earp), Victor Carin (Virgil Earp)

Broadcast from April 30 through May 21, 1966

Notes: Actor Anthony Jacobs’ son Matthew, still a young boy, was in the studio watching his father film his scenes for this story. Almost exactly 30 years later, Matthew Jacobs would write the script for the one-off Doctor Who TV movie starring Paul McGann.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 1 Tomorrow People

Slaves Of Jedikiah – Part 1

Tomorrow PeopleYoung Stephen Jameson walks through London, unaware that two very different groups of people are monitoring him closely. He suffers some sort of attack, crumples to the ground, and is rushed to a hospital. When he wakes up, he meets a young woman named Carol, one of his observers, who tells him that he has experienced his “breaking out” – the moment when he evolved from homo sapiens to homo superior, one of the Tomorrow People, the next stage in human evolution. He has mental powers beyond those of most people, and must learn to control those powers to serve a higher good. Two men dressed as doctors appear, but they’re not doctors – they’re members of the other faction watching Stephen’s progress. He is taken to their master, Jedikiah, who intends to harness Stephen’s powers for less noble purposes.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Brian Finch and Roger Price
directed by Paul Bernard
music by Dudley Simpson

Tomorrow PeopleCast: Sammie Winmill (Carol), Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen), Stephen Salmon (Kenny), Francis de Wolff (Jedikiah), Michael Standing (Ginge), Derek Crewe (Lefty), Philip Gilbert (TIM), Patricia Denys (Mrs. Jameson), Peter Weston (Policeman), Neville Barber (Dr. Stewart), Christine Shaw (Staff Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series 1 Survivors

Gone Away

Survivors (1970s series)Vagrant Tom Price thought that the plague might actually improve his lot in life – with fewer people alive, he might actually find work. But the plague has drastically recalibrated the scale of what is and isn’t valuable. In this new world, scavenging through a vacant house, Tom finds a huge wad of cash which now has no value whatsoever. The only thing of value that he does find is a shotgun – and live chickens. He shoots one of the chickens, only to see it stolen by another survivor. Tom continues wandering until he happens upon the abandoned property that Abby has decided to use as a base of operations in her search for her son. Abby, however, isn’t there; she’s enlisted the help of Jenny and Greg to go scavenging for more food and supplies at the first store they can find. But while the store has ample supplies, it also has a hanged man on display as a warning to looters. Greg is eager to leave at once, but Abby and Jenny continue “shopping” until a gang of armed thugs appear. Abby recognizes them – Arthur Wormley’s self-appointed mob passing themselves off as the “new government.” Even at gunpoint, Abby refuses to accept their authority as law, and whether she wants to choose sides or not, she has made a new enemy.

written by Terry Nation
directed by Terence Williams
music by Anthony Isaac

Cast: Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant), Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston), Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards), Talfryn Thomas (Tom Price), Brian Peck (Dave Long), Barry Stanton (Reg Gunnel), Robert Gillespie (John Milner), Robert Fyfe (Phillipson), Graham Fletcher (Boy)

Notes: The dead farm animals seen by Tom may have starved to death, or it may be a subtle hint that the disease has jumped species. If anything is surprising about the survivors’ plight, it is the fact that, with limited space in their scavenging vehicles for food, they manage to keep acquiring an endless supply of cigarettes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Future Cop

The Kansas City Kid

Future CopCleaver and several other cops have invested money in a benevolent trust fund, and Cleaver is angered to the point of distraction when he discovers by accident that this money has been spent rather than invested…and the caretaker of the account, the son of one of Cleaver’s oldest friends, begs Cleaver to cover for him. Not long afterward, Cleaver is summoned to the site of a car accident that has left the caretaker of the benevolent fund in serious condition. With time running out, and now on his own, Cleaver decides to put Haven’s unique talents to use in winning back the money that should be in the account. But can an android ever hope to handle the intricacies of poker?

Order the complete series on DVDwritten by Harold Livingston
directed by Robert Douglas
music by Thomas Talbert

Future CopCast: Ernest Borgnine (Cleaver), Michael Shannon (Haven), John Amos (Bundy), Irene Tsu (Dr. Tingley), Herbert Nelson (Capt. Skaggs), Joan Collins (Eve DiFalco), Joshua Bryant (Andrew), Don Reid (Tom Geary), Bill Zuckert (Fisk), Angela May (Peggy), Zachary A. Charles (Monroe), Alvah Stanley (Doctor), Michael MacRae (Nolan), Victor Izay (Phillips), Regis J. Future CopCordic (Dugan), Sharon McGee (Bank Teller)

Notes: This was the last episode of Future Cop aired by ABC; no doubt aided by slapdash scheduling, the series had failed to stick its landing with the viewing public. In a very unusual move, Future Cop would be “re-piloted” on NBC a year later under the title Cops And Robin.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 03 Star Trek The Next Generation

Hollow Pursuits

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 43807.4: Engineering Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, a new member of Geordi’s staff, shirks his duties in favor of spending time on the holodeck, where he has constructed intricate programs simulating members of the bridge crew as he sees them: Picard, Data and Geordi as the Three Musketeers, Dr. Crusher as a sort of fair maiden with Wesley as an asinine blueberry pie-eating Blue Boy – and Counselor Troi as a seductive goddess. When the real crew learns of Barclay’s holo-addiction, all hell breaks loose.

Order the DVDswritten by Sally Caves (a.k.a. Sarah Higley)
directed by Cliff Bole
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Dwight Schultz (Lt. Barclay), Charley Lang (Lt. Duffy), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 03 Star Trek Voyager

Distant Origin

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: The Voyager crew are unwitting research subjects after scientists of the Voth, a reptilian race who believe they were the first intelligent beings to evolve in the Delta Quadrant, discover the human remains of Voyager crewman Hogan and find a genetic pattern similar to their own. When Gegen, the chief researcher, suggests that based on these findings, the true origin of the Voth is Earth, their leader, Minister Odala, deems him a heretic. To prove his theory, Gegen and his assistant Veer track down Voyager, infiltrate the ship and take their next research subject, Chakotay, hostage.

Order the DVDswritten by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
directed by David Livingston
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Henry Woronicz (Gegen), Christopher Liam Moore (Tova Veer), Marshall R. Teague (Hulak), Concetta Tomei (Minister Odala), Nina Manton (Frola), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

LogBook entry by Paul Campbell

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Season 6 Xena: Warrior Princess

The Last Of The Centaurs

Xena: Warrior PrincessXena and Gabrielle are in a marketplace when Ephiny appears to Gabrielle. She tells her that her son, Xenan, is in trouble. A man nearby holds up a wanted poster with Xenan’s picture on it. Lord Belach is looking for bounty hunters to capture or kill Xenan. Xena decides to go see him and offer her services. When they arrive at Lord Belach’s castle, Xena discovers that he is the son of Borias and he looks just like his father. Belach tells them that Xenan kidnapped his daughter. Without telling him who she is, Xena offers to join the search. Ephiny guides her friends to where her son is hiding. There they learn the real reason Nicha left with Xenan.

Order the DVDswritten by Joel Metzger
directed by Garth Maxwell
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Danielle Cormack (Ephiny), Marton Csokas (Boris / Lord Belach), Hamish Hector-Taylor (Xenan), Katrina Devine (Nicha), Margaret-Mary Hollins (Madra), Kim Michalis (Natassa)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Excelis Rising

Doctor Who:The TARDIS materializes on Artaris, exactly one millennium after the Doctor’s previous visit. But it has landed in the wrong place at the wrong time: a robbery is underway in the prestigious museum in the city of Excelis, and the sudden appearance of a blue police box and its colorfully-dressed occupant is just one more mystery for the investigators to solve. The Doctor learns that the Relic itself – which, in his fifth incarnation, he had helped to find – was the target of the robbery, and is astonished to see a familiar face arrive to take charge of the investigation. The man the Doctor knew as Lord Grayvorn is known to the citizens of Excelis as Reeve Maupassant, but he’s definitely the same man – he recognizes the TARDIS, and somehow even recognizes the Doctor, and he is apparently still suffering side-effects of coming into direct contact with the Relic. When the museum curator and one of the break-in suspects are killed in a grisly manner, Maupassant eagerly declares the Doctor to be the culprit. But can the Doctor prove his innocence, much less prove that a thousand-year-old warlord is trying to steal the Relic for himself?

Order this CDwritten by David A. McIntee
directed by Edward Salt
music by David Darlington

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Anthony Stewart Head (Reeve Maupassant), Charles Kay (The Curator), Rupert Laight (Solomon), Toby Walton (Thief), Nicky Goldie (Inquisitor Danby), James Lailey (Minister Pryce), Patricia Leventon (The Mother Superior)

Timeline: between The Trial Of A Time Lord and Time And The Rani

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Enterprise Season 02 Star Trek

Cogenitor

Star Trek: EnterpriseWhile coming closer to a giant star than any human starship has ever dared to go, the Enterprise is hailed by a Vissian ship which is venturing even closer. The Vissian captain is an amiable man open to technological and cultural exchanges between the two crews, and even offers Captain Archer the chance to accompany him on a close survey of the star’s surface aboard a Vissian “stratopod.” Meanwhile, Trip and Malcolm become friendly with some of the Vissians paying a visit to the Enterprise. Trip is fascinated to learn of the Vissians’ three-gender society, in which the third sex serves as a cogenitor during reproduction. But when he learns that the cogenitors are treated as second-class citizens, receiving few rights and no education, Trip tries to show the one cogenitor aboard the Vissian ship a new way of life. The cogenitor learns fast, picking up fluent English in only a day. When the cogenitor requests asylum, Trip’s well-intentioned interference could mean the end of friendly relations between the two crews.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Levar Burton
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Andreas Katsulas (Vissian Captain), F.J. Rio (Vissian Engineer), Larissa Laskin (Calla), Becky Wahlstrom (Cogenitor), Stacie Renna (Traistana), Laura Interval (Vissian Woman #2)

Notes: Andreas Katsulas played Narn Ambassador G’Kar in the pilot movie and all five subsequent seasons of Babylon 5, also appearing in the one-off spinoff The Legend Of The Rangers. Sharp-eyed Trek fans may also remember him as the devious Romulan Commander Tomalok in such Next Generation episodes as The Enemy, Future Imperfect and All Good Things; this was one of his last television performances before his death in 2006. Again, photon torpedoes are mentioned here as a technological advance that several other races – now adding the Visians to the Klingons – have made ahead of Earth.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who Gallifrey

The Inquiry

Gallifrey: The InquiryAn inquiry begins regarding the timeonic fusion weapon, President Romana’s unorthodox measures to locate and retrieve it, and her apparent inability to do so – or even, for that matter, to prove that it ever existed. But curiously, the Matrix, the repository of all Gallifreyan knowledge, seems to differ with the established record – a visual document exists of the weapon being created, and even test detonated, by the Time Lords themselves. Cardinal Braxiatel admits that research was carried out, in which he himself participated, but no test of the weapon ever occurred. When Romana digs deeper to find out why the Matrix records conflict with his account, a computer virus is unleashed which Romana’s K9 is barely able to contain – and if he fails, or his batteries run out, that virus will lay waste to Gallifrey’s computer-dependent society. And while she is trying to eavesdrop on Romana’s behalf, Leela discovers how her husband Andred died…and who killed him.

Order this CDwritten by Justin Richards
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Lalla Ward (President Romana), Louise Jameson (Leela), John Leeson (K9), Miles Richardson (Cardinal Braxiatel), Sean Carlsen (Coordinator Narvin), Andy Coleman (Commander Torvald), Lynda Bellingham (Inquisitor Darkel), Daniel Hogarth (Glower), Trevor Littledale (Archivist), Stephen Mansfield (Glower’s Technician)

Notes: This story establishes that the test-firing of the timeonic fusion device was responsible for the destruction of the planet Minyos. Minyos – and a vague backstory about its destruction being caused by the Time Lords – was established in the fourth Doctor story Underworld, which also showed that the Time Lords made reparations to the few surviving Minyans by giving them a variant of Time Lord regeneration ability that made them effectively immortal. That same story also featured Leela, though she seems not to recall the Doctor’s encounter with the survivors of Minyos here.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 01

Dalek

Doctor WhoIn a well-guarded underground complex in Utah, billionaire Henry Van Statten collects every type of alien artifact he can get his hands on, and money is no object: the head of a Cyberman from the 1968 invasion of London, the arm of a Slitheen, pieces of the alien ship crashed in Roswell, and more. Unknown to Van Statten, though, there’s a new alien arrival in his hidden museum: the TARDIS arrives, and the Doctor’s curiosity gets the best of him, setting off the security alarms. He and Rose are quickly rounded up and taken to Van Statten. Furious about the intrusion, Van Statten is at least impressed with the Doctor’s knowledge of alien artifacts, and decides to show the Doctor his most prized exhibit. As Rose gets to know Adam, Van Statten’s acquisition expert, the Doctor is locked into a dark room with the only living specimen of Van Statten’s menagerie: a live Dalek, possibly the last one in the universe. When the Doctor discovers that the Dalek’s weapon no longer works, he taunts his old enemy, reminding the Dalek that the Doctor destroyed the rest of its race even as the Daleks were laying waste to Gallifrey in the Time War. But the conversation quickly reveals that the Doctor is an alien as well, and Van Statten has the last Time Lord hauled off for examination. Rose visits the helpless Dalek, but when she touches its casing, it seems to draw strength from that contact, reactivating its weapon – and its murderous urges to exterminate every non-Dalek in sight. But even when the Doctor takes measures to stop the Dalek by any means necessary, Rose won’t let him.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Robert Shearman
directed by Joe Ahearne
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Steven Beckingham (Polkowski), Corey Johnson (Henry Van Statten), Anna-Louise Plowman (Goddard), Bruno Langley (Adam), Nigel Whitmey (Simmons), John Schwab (Bywater), Jana Carpenter (DeMaggio), Joe Montana (Commander), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek operator), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice)

Reviews by Philip R. Frey & Earl Green
LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Big Finish Spinoffs Doctor Who Gallifrey The Audio Dramas

Lies

Gallifrey: LiesPrior to her secret assignment to join the Doctor in his search for the Key to Time, inquisitive Time Lady Romanadvoratrelundar wanders into the long-abandoned vaults beneath the Capitol on Gallifrey. Before she is discovered there by a concerned Cardinal Braxiatel, Romana hears a voice speaking to her, offering a promise of future power and demanding that she keep this chance encounter a secret. And the voice says a word: Imperiatrix.

Many hundreds of years (and one regeneration) later, President Romana of the High Council of Time Lords is instituting sweeping changes to Gallifreyan society. For the first time ever, students from the various time-aware powers are being admitted to Gallifrey’s august Academy. Capital punishment and even most forms of imprisonment have been abolished. But one prisoner remains: Andred, the former head of the Chancellery Guard (and Leela’s husband), awaits trial for the crimes he committed in the persona of Free Time agent Torvald. He insists that he is no longer Torvald, but he also refuses to divulge Free Time’s secrets to anyone who asks.

Distraught over the revelation that Andred is alive, but now an enemy of the Time Lords, Leela and her K-9 unit wander into the vaults. The voice that once spoke to Romana speaks to Leela, and then she disappears without a trace. K-9 summons help from Romana’s K-9, and when Romana visits the vaults again for the first time in many years, she finds Leela alive and well, believing that the voice is that of a ghostly spirit. The voice remembers Romana as well, and even introduces her to her first incarnation. But in whatever form Romana takes, the voice knows her by another name: Imperiatrix, a dark legend of a female President of the Time Lords who, with the help of her alien bodyguard, sought to declare war on all of time and space from her home base on Gallifrey.

Order this CDwritten by Gary Russell
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Lalla Ward (President Romana), Louise Jameson (Leela), John Leeson (K9), Mary Tamm (Romana), Lynda Bellingham (Inquisitor Prime Darkel), Miles Richardson (Cardinal Braxiatel), Sean Carlsen (Coordinator Narvin), Andy Coleman (Commander Torvald), Ian Hallard (Castellan Wynter), Trevor Littledale (The Archivist), Barbara Longman (Pandora)

Notes: Apparently the office of Castellan is not the singular position that it seemed to be in TV Doctor Who; there are numerous references to there being more than one Castellan in office simultaneously (unless it is customary to refer to retired past Castellans by that title without adding “former,” as in the case of former American Presidents). Maxil is among the Castellans mentioned; though he is only mentioned and doesn’t appear, that character, last seen in the 1983 Doctor Who story Arc Of Infinity, was played by future Doctor Colin Baker.

Timeline: all of the Gallifrey audios take place sometime after the Doctor Who audio Zagreus.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
5th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Kingmaker

Doctor Who: The KingmakerA Shakespeare premiere goes awry when Peri and Erimem wind up drawing too much attention to themselves, but that’s not as incongruous as the Doctor attempting to drink the Bard himself under the table during a heated argument over historical accuracy, specifically with regards to the fate of the two princes in the Tower of London. The Doctor, after clearing his head, decides to investigate the matter for himself, but the TARDIS is in the hands of an impaired driver – a temporal “hiccup” strands Erimem and Peri in the right place, but two years before the Doctor’s arrival. The Doctor is brought before Richard III, and is disturbed to find himself in the presence of a King who is not only aware of time travel, but of the Doctor himself. Peri and Erimem set out to solve the mystery for themselves in the Doctor’s absence, but they find no princes in the Tower – instead, they become the Tower’s two captives, changing history with nearly everything they say or do…no matter how hard they try not to.

Order this CDwritten by Nev Fountain
directed by Gary Russell
music by ERS

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Caroline Morris (Erimem), Arthur Smith (Clarrie), Michael Fenton-Stevens (Mr. Seyton), Stephen Beckett (Richard, Duke of Gloucester), Marcus Hutton (Henry, Duke of Buckingham), John Culshaw (Earl Rivers / voice of the Fourth Doctor), Chris Neill (Sir James Tyrell), Katie Wimpenny (Susan), Linzi Matthews (Judith)

Timeline: between The Council Of Nicaea and The Gathering

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who Sarah Jane Smith

Dreamland

Sarah Jane Smith: DreamlandOnce again, Sarah’s life is saved by Josh, though this time, in addition to killing the Keeper, he’s also killed Will Sullivan. Sarah puts as much distance between herself and Josh as she can, but he still tries to stay in touch with her, even showing up at Will’s funeral. Just when Sarah’s had about enough, Sir Donald Wakefield shows up too, inviting her to join him on the first passenger flight into space – a flight that will coincide with Earth passing through the tail of a comet that last approached the planet 500 years ago, a comet whose return now was predicted in the writings of Count Giuliano. Sir Donald also reveals that Josh is his son – and an operative of the pacifist chapter that follows Giuliano’s writings as prophecy. Sarah and Nat take Sir Donald up on the offer and are flown to the launch site – a place the rest of the world knows as Area 51. But while Sarah is undergoing training for her first visit to space since her travels with the Doctor, there’s a change of crew: Sir Donald’s cancer returns with a vengeance, and on his deathbed, he asks Josh to replace him on the flight. But once the passenger spaceship launches, something goes wrong. The pilot exposes himself as one of the Keeper’s last operatives, carrying out his mission to deliver Sarah to death’s door. Josh and the pilot exchange gunfire, damaging the controls in the process and leaving Sarah as the only survivor as the ship pushes into a higher orbit than it was designed for – and straight into the path of the comet.

Order this CDwritten by David Bishop
directed by John Ainsworth
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Jeremy James (Josh), Sadie Miller (Nat), Shaun Ley (Newsreader), Jon Winberg (Kimmel), Toby Longworth (Mission Control), Patricia Leventon (Maude), Stephen Greif (Sir Donald Wakefield)

Notes: Again, this story ties into events in the televised Doctor Who story The Masque Of Mandragora. Recorded prior to the filming of the new series episode School Reunion, the second “season” of Sarah Jane Smith audio stories was also the last, since Elisabeth Sladen signed on to reprise the character on television in her own children’s TV spinoff series. Though Big Finish PR guru John Ainsworth has stated that School Reunion falls between the two seasons of Sarah audio stories, Sarah here tells Nat about the Doctor in the past tense, as though she hasn’t seen him again – making it easier to place School Reunion (and, of course, Sarah’s spinoff series) after both sets of audio stories. Of course, precisely how it fits anywhere would be much easier to determine if the character’s return to TV hadn’t interrupted the audio series in mid-cliffhanger…

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 10 SG-1 Stargate

The Road Not Taken

Stargate SG-1During an experiment to improve the phasing device, Carter finds herself transported to an alternate universe. That universe’s Carter – still a major – had also been engaging in a dimension-tapping experiment – but the experiment malfunctioned, killing that Carter and transferring Col. Carter in her place. In this universe, Anubis’s assault against Earth required America to reveal the Stargate program to the public. The resulting riots and diplomatic led President Hank Landry to declare martial law, which has continued in the face of the Ori threat. Gen. Hammond still leads Stargate Command, while Major Lorne leads SG-1. Teal’c has returned to the Jaffa, from whom Earth is now isolated. Mitchell, once paraded as a hero, was cut loose when he began to question Landry’s security measures and restrictions on civil liberties; he now lives in a squalid apartment, paralyzed. Col. Carter saves this Earth from an Ori invasion by taking the entire planet out of phase. But Landry is reluctant to let her leave – Carter is a media hero and a rallying point for his presidency. The only help she can turn to is Major Carter’s ex-husband: dot-com billionaire Rodney McKay.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Alan McCullough
directed by Andy Makita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Don S. Davis (Gen. Hammond), David Hewlett (Rodney McKay)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer