Day: September 22, 2006

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Season 3 Stargate Stargate Atlantis

The Return – Part 1

Stargate AtlantisThe gate network connecting Atlantis to Earth via a series of stargates and the under-construction Midway Space Station is tested successfully, but an even bigger surprise arrives in the form of an Ancient warship, similar to the Aurora, which appears to be damaged and in need of help. When the Daedalus renders assistance and brings those Ancients back to Atlantis, the captain of the Ancient ship manages to lock out Weir’s crew by activating a single control that none of the Earth expedition has ever seen before. When General O’Neill tries to negotiate a treaty allowing the Earth team to stay there, he is told in no uncertain terms that the Atlanteans are back, and don’t intend to share their city with anyone. Dr. Weir and her team are sent home, while Wolsey from the IOC is assigned to Atlantis to serve as liaison, and General O’Neill remains with him while he’s there. On Earth, Sheppard is quickly assigned to head up his own SG team, though he never quite finds the kind of bond with them that he had with his Atlantis teammates. McKay is assigned to Area 51. Weir slides into a reclusive depression, and Teyla and Ronon stay in the Pegasus Galaxy with the Athosians (though the Genii try to recruit them as soldiers of fortune soon after learning of the Ancients’ return). But when a desperate message is received from Atlantis, indicating that Atlantis has fallen to the Replicators, trapping (and possibly killing) Wolsey and O’Neill, Weir and her team offer to spring into action – but the only help General Landry wants from them is a way to hit Atlantis with a nuke to prevent the Replicators from using the gate network to travel to Earth. With no orders, no backup, an nowhere they’d rather be, Weir, Sheppard, McKay and Beckett steal a jumper from the SGC and return to take Atlantis back.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Martin Gero
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O’Neill), Robert Picardo (Wolsey), Ryan Robbins (Ladon), Megan Leitch (Ancient Captain), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Harriman), David MacInus (Talus), Pinou (Cetus), Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Beau Bridges (General Landry), Kirby Morrow (Daedalus Tech), Chuck Campbell (Atlantis Tech), Andrew Monham (Wallace), Elias Toufexis (Replicator), James Chutter (Babbis)

Notes: Dr. Beckett has been offered the head surgeon position at the SGC, which, combined with the absence of Lexa Doig from the tenth season of Stargate SG-1, makes one wonder what’s happened to Dr. Lam. In other SGC news, apparently Dr. Lee is an avid player of World Of Warcraft. And wishes Dr. Weir really was too. Megan Leitch previous appeared in SG-1’s third season (Past And Present) as Ke’ra, and played the pivotal recurring character of Mulder’s missing sister Samantha on The X-Files; she also voiced Midori in the English dub of Ranma 1/2.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 07

The Power Of Three

Doctor WhoThe Doctor returns to Earth to discover that black cubes have appeared all over the planet, mystifying the entire world: is it an alien attack or some kind of viral marketing ploy? When the cubes show no sign of activity, the Doctor decides to move in with Amy and Rory to observe the cubes over time. The cubes’ inactivity – and his own – drives the Doctor to distraction. Even when Rory’s dad Brian pitches in to observe the cubes, the cubes do nothing. The Doctor is surprised when UNIT arrives to question him, led by Kate Stewart – Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart’s daughter. When they do awaken, the cubes’ behavior ranges from benign to deadly to baffling, and the attention of the entire human race is riveted – which is exactly what the mind behind the cubes wants. The slow invasion of Earth is about to speed up, and even the Doctor can’t stop it.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Douglas MacKinnon
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Mark Williams (Brian Williams), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Steven Berkoff (Shakri), Selva Rasalingam (Ranjit), Alice O’Connell (Laura), Peter Cartwright (Arnold Underwood), David Beck (Orderly 1), Daniel Beck (Orderly 2), David Hartley (UNIT Researcher), Professor Brian Cox (himself)

Doctor WhoNotes: The character of Kate Stewart was established in the 1995 direct-to-video spinoff Downtime, on which occasion she was played by Beverley Cressman. At that point, Kate showed no interest in UNIT, though obviously her priorities changed, perhaps as a result of UNIT’s intervention in the Yeti incursion at NeWorld University in that story. (It’s entirely possible that the two iterations of Kate Stewart weren’t meant to be the same person, but for those who like a wider Doctor Who universe, nothing in either this episode or Downtime directly contradicts the other story.) It is strongly implied that Kate has reformed UNIT somewhat (previous Doctor Who and Torchwood episodes had depicted UNIT becoming more ruthlessly militaristic).

Original title: Cubed

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 11

Twentica

Red DwarfA chance run-in with a particularly nasty breed of simulants called exponoids becomes a momentary hostage crisis. Lister has to trade a piece of arcane time travel technology – which has been propping up Starbug’s pool table – to get Rimmer back. But once armed with time travel, the exponoids go back in time to rewrite human history, outlawing any post-steam-powered technology and forbidding scientific research. Great scientific minds are either locked up, or simply never come into being. Kryten and Rimmer run the risk of being discovered. A dying man hands some kind of electronic component to Lister and tells him to take it to the hostess of a local speakeasy; there, Lister and the others find that science and technology still happen here, but in secret…and Lister has been given a piece of a weapon that could set history straight.

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

Red DwarfCast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Kevin Eldon (4 of 27), Lucie Pohl (Harmony), David Sterne (Einstein Bob), Sam Douglas (Bouncer), Rebecca Blackstone (Big Bang Beryl), Kyle James (Nearly Dead Guy), Suanne Braun (Cpt. Dorothy McCutcheon), David Menkin (Lt. Clarence O’Neal), Alexis Dubus (3 of 63)

Notes: Kevin Eldon was one of the regular cast members of BBC2’s sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive, a show which many saw as the BBC’s attempt to recapture the Red Dwarf audience at a time when Red Dwarf had been out of production for several years. He also voiced a character in the Doctor Who radio project Death Comes To Time.

LogBook entry by Earl Green