Day: September 10, 1966

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Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

The Smugglers

Doctor WhoThe Doctor is infuriated when Ben and Polly burst into his TARDIS just before he takes off; they were merely trying to return Dodo’s TARDIS key to the Doctor, but now find themselves on the coast in Cornwall in the 1600s. While the two were instrumental in helping the Doctor defeat the War Machines in 1966, they’re utterly lost in their first time trip – which is not a good thing when they find themselves in the midst of some pirates’ search for a lost treasure, and the pirates’ feud with contraband smugglers. The local church warden seems to know something about the whereabouts of the treasure, but he’s killed not long after divulging this secret to the Doctor, who now becomes the pirates’ target. It seems that everyone in this seemingly quiet seaside town is on the take somehow – but the time travelers simply want to get home.

Season 4 Regular Cast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), Patrick Troughton (The Doctor), Michael Craze (Ben), Anneke Wills (Polly), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon), Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield)

Order this story on audio CDwritten by Brian Hayles
directed by Julia Smith
music not credited

Guest Cast: Terence de Marney (Churchwarden), George A. Cooper (Cherub), David Blake Kelly (Jacob Kewper), Mike Lucas (Tom), Paul Whitsun-Jones (Squire), Derek Ware (Spaniard), Michael Godfrey (Pike), Elroy Josephs (Jamaica), John Ringham (Blake), Jack Bingh (Gaptooth)

Notes: The master tapes of this episode were destroyed by the BBC in the early 1970’s, and no video copies exist.

Broadcast from September 10 through October 1, 1966

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Space Academy

The Survivors Of Zalon

Space AcademyThe young trainees on the man-made planetoid Space Academy go about their observations of the doomed planet Zalon, which may soon explode. Science cadet Adrian spots signs of life on Zalon, which previous surveys of that planet say is impossible. Commander Gampu deems this worthy of further investigation, and orders the Academy cadets to visit Zalon, with Adrian leading the expedition. Unusual crystals are found on the surface, watched over by a young alien child. In keeping with Space Academy procedure, Commander Gampu lifts off and stays in orbit while his students solve their own mysteries on the surface, but an alien entity is following the Seeker at close range, questioning Gampu’s motives and insisting it will protect the child and its own offspring on the planet below with any force it deems necessary.

Space Academywritten by Lynn Barker
directed by Jeffrey Hayden
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Jonathan Harris (Commander Gampu), Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura), Ric Carrott (Chris), Ty Henderson (Paul), Maggie Cooper (Adrian), Brian Tochi (Tee Gar), Eric Greene (Loki), Peepo (himself)

Notes: If the nose cone of the Seeker, Space Academy’s shuttle, looks vaguely familiar, you might be a Filmation fan: the expensive-to-build set piece (and other parts of the Seeker) was salvaged from the set of Ark II, the short-lived post-apocalyptic live-action series produced by the makers of Space Academy in 1976. The first episode of that series also featured a guest starring turn from Lost In Space alumnus Jonathan Harris.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Day Of The Triffids

Episode 1

The Day Of The TriffidsBill is the only man he knows who didn’t see the shooting stars.

The triffids, tall, fleshy plants, first appeared around the world decades ago, when Bill was a boy. The oil harvested from the plants promised to ease the world’s energy concerns, but that advantage is offset by the plants’ ability to sense and sting human beings, usually blinding them in the process. Triffids are confined to triffid farms, and tended carefully by workers in protective clothing.

Now an adult, Bill has suffered another triffid sting, landing him in the hospital with his eyes bandaged over. He awakens to discover that the nurses and hospital staff haven’t been to his room yet, on the day his bandages are to be removed. He remembers his doctor and the nurses mentioning an awe-inspiring display of shooting stars the night before, but of course he couldn’t see it – nor, indeed, can he see anything until he risks removing his own bandages.

Then Bill discovers that he is the only man he knows who can see anything. The triffids have taken over the outside world and blinded the human race.

Download this episode via Amazonadapted by Douglas Livingstone
based on the book by John Wyndham
directed by Ken Hannam
music by Christopher Gunning

The Day Of The TriffidsCast: John Duttine (Bill), Jonathan Newth (Dr. Soames), Cleo Sylvestre (Nurse), Robert Robinson (Palanguez), Ian Halliburton (Grant), Morgan Sheppard (Bill’s Father), Steven Jonas (Young Bill), Edmund Pegge (Walter), Keith Alexander (Newsreel Voice)

Notes: Producer David Maloney (1933-2006) was previously the director of a string of well-regarded Doctor Who serials, and came to this project The Day Of The Triffidsfresh from having produced the first three seasons of another BBC science fiction series, Blake’s 7. Morgan Sheppard may be better known to Stateside viewers as W. Morgan Sheppard, and has appeared in numerous Star Trek series and movies, Quantum Leap, Babylon 5, seaQuest DSV, modern Doctor Who, Legend Of The Seeker, Charmed, and countless other shows, but he’ll always be Blank Reg from Max Headroom. Director Ken Hannam helmed several episodes of the early ’70s BBC sci-fi drama Moonbase 3, while Christopher Gunning would later score the ’80s alternate-history drama Knights Of God.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 04 Star Trek Voyager

The Gift

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Seven of Nine, isolated from the Borg Collective and left behind on Voyager, begins a turbulent process of recovery in sick bay. The Doctor believes that she can regain her human biology and identity, but her assimilation during early childhood will make the process difficult. Seven of Nine begins to experience seizures – the Borg’s last line of defense is to kill a drone before another species can try to gain an understanding of its Borg technology. Kes miraculously destroys the offending Borg implant through telekinesis, an ability with which she has not experimented for two years. Seven of Nine reviles the crew’s attempt to restore her humanity, even making the accusation that Janeway’s forced removal of her Borg enhancements are no better than Borg assimilation. Tuvok resumes his meditative exercises with Kes to focus her new abilities, but she begins to exhibit a terrifying command over the structure of matter itself. Between Seven of Nine attempting to regain communications with the Borg, and Kes’ increasing lack of control over her enhanced abilities, the crew may lose friends both old and new.

Order the DVDswritten by Joe Menosky
directed by Anson Williams
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jennifer Lien (Kes)

Note: This is the final episode to feature Jennifer Lien as Kes as a regular; she later reappeared in season 6 in Fury.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Farscape Season 1

Through the Looking Glass

  • By Dave
  • September 10, 1999

FarscapeWith Moya’s behavior becoming more unstable due to her pregnancy, the crew begins to wonder if it’s not time for them to find another home. Overhearing these remarks, Moya tries to prove herself and StarBursts before her systems are fully prepared. When the ship returns to normal, Rygel is missing, even though Pilot’s scans show him to be still onboard. Soon D’Argo and Aeryn disappear as well. Eventually, Crichton discovers that Moya has somehow gotten stuck in the border between dimensions, creating four Moyas all existing within the same space. The missing crew have each found their way onto one of the other Moyas, almost overwhelmed by the sensory distortions they encounter and being chased by some sort of clawed energy creature from beyond the barrier. Crichton develops a plan to try and reintegrate the Moyas, but time is of the essence. Not only is the creature still after them, but the Moyas themselves have begun to disintegrate.

Order the DVDswritten by David Kemper
directed by Ian Watson
music by Subvision

Guest Cast: Gigi Edgley (Chiana)

Notes: This episode’s original title was The Fifth Reality.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

The Xindi

Star Trek: EnterpriseSix weeks into their mission into the Delphic Expanse, the Enterprise crew is on edge – thus far, they’ve managed to follow only a single lead. The crew is also growing accustomed to the presence of Military Assault Command Operations (MACO) troops aboard the Enterprise. Captain Archer and Trip work a questionable deal with an alien who claims to have a Xindi prisoner, and when the two Enterprise officers finally meet their first living Xindi, they become prisoners too – and now they have to rely on their enemy to help them escape. They’ll also need some help from the MACOs…if Lt. Reed can be convinced that the rescue mission would be best handled by commandos rather than Enterprise’s own security forces.

Season 3 Regular 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)

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

Guest Cast: Steven Culp (Major Hayes), Chris Freeman (Alien Head Guard), Adam Taylor Gordon (Young Trip), Daniel Dae Kim (Corporal Chang), Richard Lineback (Kessick), Scott MacDonald (Xindi Reptilian), Stephen McHattie (Alien Foreman), Randy Oglesby (Degra), Marco Sanchez (Corporal Romero), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi Humanoid), Rick Worthy (Xindi Sloth)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stargate Stargate Atlantis

Home

Stargate AtlantisA stargate on a mist-shrouded world provides the Atlantis team with a unique opportunity. When McKay discovers that this gate draws its power from that planet’s atmosphere, it seems like the gate could have enough power to reach Earth. By dismantling the Atlantis gate’s dial-home device, McKay is able to establish a link to the SGC. Despite the risk that it might be a one-way trip back to Earth, Dr. Weir, McKay, Major Sheppard, Ford and Teyla step through the gate. General Hammond gives them a warm welcome home, but informs them that the Pentagon may order a complete withdrawal from Atlantis. Soon afterward, Ford gets transfer orders, McKay has a hard time convincing Hammond to let him search for new ways back to Atlantis, and Weir and Sheppard begin to suspect that perhaps they haven’t traveled far from Atlantis at all.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
directed by Holly Dale
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Don S. Davis (General Hammond), Garwin Sanford (Simon), Noah Beggs (Dex), Stephen Spender (Mitch), Edmond Kato Wong (Atlantis Technician), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Nicole Rudell (Doctor), Lynda Riley (Brunette), Robert Weiss (Scientist)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Audio Dramas Torchwood

Lost Souls

Torchwood: Lost SoulsTorchwood leaves Cardiff behind for a flight to Switzerland after a call from Martha Jones. Serving as part of the UNIT contingent at the soon-to-be-activated Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, Martha says that strange occurrences and even unexplained disappearances among personnel are taking place – followed by a cover-up which UNIT doesn’t seem to be able to penetrate. Torchwood gains access to the collider by passing Ianto off as the Welsh ambassador, and Martha gives them a first-hand look at what’s been happening to some of the people who enter the colliider tunnel. But when Gwen and Ianto enter the tunnel for themselves, Ianto’s certain he can hear the voices of the dead – even voices claiming to be Owen, Toshiko and Lisa – while Gwen tries to fight off the same sensation. Unknown to them, however, someone else on site has already been hearing those same “voices of the dead” – and is doing their bidding, regardless of the consequences to the collider experiment or its personnel.

Order the CDwritten by Joseph Lidster
directed by Kate McAll
music by Ben Foster and Murray Gold

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), Lucy Montgomery (Professor Johnson), Stephen Crichlow (Dr. Oliver Harrington), Mark Meadows (Leon Foiret)

Notes: This first made-for-audio Torchwood adventure was produced by BBC Radio 4 for broadcast on September 10th, 2008, to mark the occasion of the real-life CERN Large Hadron Collider being fully switched on for the first time. Writer Joseph Lidster, who also penned the Torchwood TV episode A Day In The Death, got his started writing audio dramas based on the series from which Torchwood spun off, Doctor Who. In a way, Lost Souls brings Doctor Who-related audio drama back to its very beginnings – the first Doctor Who audio story, Exploration Earth: The Time Machine, was an educational program starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen during their TV heyday.

Timeline: As the funerals of Owen and Toshiko (both of whom died in the second season finale Exit Wounds) are mentioned as a recent event, and they’re also the last time that the surviving Torchwood members saw Martha, presumably Lost Souls takes place between Exit Wounds and the Doctor Who fourth season finale The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End, which saw Torchwood and Martha working together again.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Review: Devised as a semi-educational part of BBC Radio 4’s “Big Bang Day,” celebrating the inauguration of the Large Hadron Collider operating beneath the border of France and Switzerland, Lost Souls actually falls just a little bit short in both its educational remit and as a Torchwood adventure.

Though the story, via dialogue, gets across the basic news soundbite explanation of the LHC, oversimplifying things a bit, but it gets what information is needed for the purposes of the plot across – that’s okay. What I’m not too crazy about is that we then get, by way of Captain Jack, a more mystified version of that information, with Jack claiming at one point that the Higgs Boson particle is “life” itself. (In fact, the theoretical Higgs Boson particle is related to mass, i.e. why everything in the universe has mass.) To characterize the Higgs Boson as “life” is misleading at best, and normally I wouldn’t begrudge anyone in the Doctor Who universe for taking a little bit of dramatic license, except that Lost Souls was commissioned specially for the occasion of a day of talk radio programming aimed at demystifying the LHC.

As far as the Torchwood end of things goes, perhaps due to its afternoon timeslot, the characterizations and script are perhaps a bit watered down from what we’d normally expect from Torchwood – there are a couple of “what the hell”s uttered, and Jack makes one reference to someone’s good looks. Otherwise, it might as well be audio Doctor Who. But then again, I’m not sure that the middle of the afternoon is a reasonable time to expect the usual saucy Torchwood fare. I did, however, find the frequent mentions of Owen and Toshiko’s deaths as a recent event to be interesting. This is an aftermath that we didn’t get to see played out on TV, and it’s interesting – and not completely incidental to the plot either.

It’s not bad – it at least feels like TV Torchwood – but when the thing was conceived as a part of a day meant to enlighten the public about the LHC, I’m not sure it helps to slot real explanations in alongside something that really straddled the fence between science fiction and science fantasy.

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 06

The Girl Who Waited

Doctor WhoPromising Amy and Rory a glimpse of the second most popular vacation destination in the universe, the Doctor miscalculates slightly, landing the TARDIS in the right place at the worst possible time: the planet is in the thrall of a global plague, and robotic medics have been mobilized to contain and treat those with the illness. A system of vast temporal engines has been set up to keep the victims alive by altering the speed of their timestreams. Amy is separated from the Doctor and Rory, and worse yet, when they go to rescue her, the Doctor can’t step outside the TARDIS due to the brute-force temporal engineering taking place. Rory has to find Amy himself, and indeed he does: she has aged 36 years since she last saw her fellow TARDIS travelers, and she’s not happy about it. The Doctor devises a plan to go back and undo this timeline, but the older Amy objects strenuously: if Amy Pond is going to resume her travels in the TARDIS, it’ll be Amy in her fifties, not Amy in her twenties. The Doctor leaves it up to Rory to make the agonizing decision.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Tom MacRae
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Josie Taylor (Check-In Girl), Imelda Staunton (voice of Interface)

Notes: This episode summons memories of numerous iconic Doctor Who adventures past: the Doctor and his The Girl Who Waitedcompanions were accosted in a blank, all-white space by all-white robots in 1968’s The Mind Robber, while the TARDIS toolbox (a fixture dating back to Tom Baker’s era) was last seen in the 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann. That movie was also the last time that the TARDIS was seen to have an alarm-clock-style split-flap display was seen roaring backward or forward in time at full speed. The free-standing gateways to other dimensions are slightly reminiscent of the Iconian gateways in Star Trek lore (TNG: Contagion, DS9: To The Death), though anyone who’s ever been to Narnia can attest that Star Trek was hardly the first SF or fantasy epic to use the device.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Orville, The Season 1

Old Wounds

The Orville2418: Slowly-rising Planetary Union officer Commander Ed Mercer arrives home to find his wife in bed with a blue-skinned alien. Not interested in talking the situation out, he leaves to seek refuge in his career in the stars.

2419: What a difference a year makes – Ed Mercer is still a commander, albeit one whose career has become even more aimless, punctuated by a few incidents of reporting for duty while hung over. (Not all differences are good ones.) Still, to his surprise, and despite his spotty career record, Mercer is offered a promotion to captain and command of the medium exploratory vessel U.S.S. Orville. He raises eyebrows at Planetary Union Central by hand-picking his somewhat uncouth old buddy Gordon Malloy to be the Orville‘s helmsman, but he has no say in the filling of the vacant first officer position, a candidate for which will be selected by the admiralty. But not in his worst nightmares does Mercer expect his new XO to also be his ex-wife.

There’s barely time for a reunion through clenched teeth before the Orville is dispatched to answer a call for aid from a scientific colony. The chief scientist there, Dr. Aronov, introduces them to a device capable of accelerating time; while he’s rattling off a litany of potentially beneficial uses, Mercer’s new security officer, Lt. Alara Kitan, wisely deduces ways it could be weaponized – and that’s why Aronov issued the vague call for help. He believes that if the warlike Krill learn of the time accelerator, they’ll descend upon the colony like a plague of locusts.

But the warlike Krill are already there, planting the seed for Mercer’s first true test as a commander.

Order season 1 on DVD and Blu-RayDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Jon Favreau
music by Bruce Broughton

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), Victor Garber (Admiral Halsey), Brian George (Dr. Aronov), Joel Swetow (Krill Captain), Patrick Cox (Ogre), Norm MacDonald (voice of Yaphit), Christine Corpuz (Janice Lee), Sean Cook (Derek), Dylan Kenin (Krill Soldier), Dee Bradley Baker (Dr. Jorvik)

The OrvilleNotes: With a writing staff loaded down with veterans of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager (Brannon Braga, Andre Bormanis, David A. Goodman), and Star Trek veterans aplenty among the cast (Penny Johnson Jerald played Kasidy Yates, Captain Sisko’s love interest on Deep Space Nine, while Brian George guest starred as Dr. Bashir’s estranged father on the same series), a ship – with physical filming models no less! – designed by Andrew Probert, and diehard TNG fan Seth MacFarlane creating and starring, it can’t possibly be a secret to anyone at the end of the first hour that The Orville is both an homage and spoof of Star Trek: TNG. McFarlane, Braga and Goodman also collaborated on the 21st century relaunch of Cosmos, while Bormanis worked on National Geographic’s Mars series. Brian George and Dee Bradley Baker are also voice actors with many a role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lower Decks Season 01 Star Trek

Terminal Provocations

Star Trek: Short TreksStardate 57663.9: As the Cerritos engages in aggressive negotiations with Drookmani scavengers over the wreckage of lost century-old Starfleet ship, Ensign Fletcher is endearing himself to Boimler and Mariner. Tendi admits to Rutherford that she never completed spacewalk training at the Academy, and he offers her the use of a holodeck training program he’s been working on, which uses an animated interface called Badgey. When the program sticks and Rutherford gives Badgey a swift kick, Badgey’s attitude becomes less “chirpy” and “helpful” and leans a lot more toward “homicidal”. Fletcher offers to take on a major task solo so Boimler and Mariner can attend a social event, but when they come back to check on him, the task isn’t finished, and Fletcher’s explanations for this seem to be constantly in flux. Worse yet, the work he didn’t complete endangers the Cerritos and the entire crew when the Drookmani become even more aggressive in their negotiating tactics, while Captain Freeman tries valiantly not to start a shooting war.

Order DVDswritten by John Cochran
directed by Bob Suarez
music by Chris Westlake

Star Trek: Lower DecksCast: Tawny Newsome (Ensign Beckett Mariner), Jack Quaid (Ensign Brad Boimler), Noel Wells (Ensign D’Vana Tendi), Eugene Cordero (Ensign Rutherford), Dawnn Lewis (Captain Freeman), Jerry O’Connell (Commander Ransom), Fred Tatasciore (Lt. Shaxs), Gillian Vigman (Dr. T’Ana), Tim Robinson (Ensign Fletcher), Jack McBrayer (Badgey), Asif Ali (Asif), Artemis Pebdani (Karavitus), J.G. Hertzler (Drookmani), Jessica McKenna (Barnes / Cerritos Computer), Paul Scheer (Billups)

LogBook entry by Earl Green