Day: September 29, 2008

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 2

The Last Sontaran – Part 1

The Sarah Jane AdventuresMaria has momentous news that she’s afraid to share with Sarah, but it doesn’t concern an alien invasion: Maria’s dad has gotten a job that could send him – and her – to America. But before she has a chance to dwell on the news, there’s a UFO sighting to investigate at a radio telescope. When Sarah and her friends go to investigate, they find the daughter of the lead researcher, dazed and disoriented, and unsure of where her father is, having last seen him the night before in the nearby woods during the sighting of unknown lights in the sky. Clyde and Luke take a look in the woods, against Sarah’s wishes, and find something very solid, very large and very invisible. Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to uncloak it, discovering a Sontaran space pod – and its occupant, Commander Kaagh, the sole survivor of the Sontaran attempt to take over Earth with the ATMOS device. Kaagh plans to get revenge for the failed attack by using the radio telescope to order every satellite in the sky to deorbit and crash into populated areas of the Earth, and he’s not about to let Sarah and her “half-forms” stop him.

Season 2 Regular Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Yasmin Paige (Maria Jackson), Tommy Knight (Luke), Daniel Anthony (Clyde), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra)

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Phil Ford
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Joseph Millson (Alan Jackson), Juliet Cowan (Chrissie Jackson), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Ronan Vibert (Professor Nicholas Skinner), Clare Thomas (Lucy Skinner), Anthony O’Donnell (Kaagh)

The Last SontaranNotes: The failed Sontaran invasion via ATMOS was seen in the Doctor Who episodes The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky; Kaagh’s “flashbacks” are new scenes interspersed with scenes from those episodes, neither of which featured him. Sarah has known the Sontarans for as long as she’s known the Doctor: her first trip in the TARDIS put her in the clutches of Sontaran warrior Linx in 1974’s The Time Warrior (also notable for being the Sontarans’ first appearance in Doctor Who), while her disgust at the thought of Clyde being subjected to Kaagh’s experiments no doubt comes from her own horrifying experiences as a Sontaran’s guinea pig in 1975’s The Sontaran Experiment. Kaagh’s helmet “slices” open into retracting segments, something that no Sontaran’s helmet has ever been seen to do before (not even in their recent Doctor Who appearance); it’s possible that Kaagh’s suit of armor is a special survival suit with that capability, despite looking identical to any other suit of Sontaran armor.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 2

The Last Sontaran – Part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresWith Sarah stunned by Kaagh, and the radio telescope under the Sontaran’s control, Clyde has no choice but to run for his life or become the subject for Kaagh’s experiments. He bumps into Luke and Maria, who help him escape the Sontaran and begin hatching a plan to regain control of the radio telescope to foil Kaagh’s plan. But Maria knows that they’ll need more help, and calls her father to tell him how to activate Mr. Smith in Sarah’s attic. Maria’s dad learns how to disable a Sontaran…but when he finds that his ex-wife has trailed him into Sarah’s house, he has to find a way to explain the fact that their daughter is doing battle with aliens trying to take over the Earth. If he can’t help Maria and the others to free Sarah and defeat Kaagh, he may not live long enough to report to his new job.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Phil Ford
directed by Joss Agnew
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Joseph Millson (Alan Jackson), Juliet Cowan (Chrissie Jackson), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Ronan Vibert (Professor Nicholas Skinner), Clare Thomas (Lucy Skinner), Anthony O’Donnell (Kaagh)

Yasmin Paige and Elisabeth SladenNotes: The Last Sontaran marks Yasmin Paige’s final appearance as a regular in The Sarah Jane Adventures, due to her school schedule. Mr. Smith sports a new appearance in this episode, possibly resulting from his reboot in The Lost Boy, though this wasn’t apparent from his appearance in the Doctor Who episodes The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End, which takes place between the first and second seasons of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Mr. Smith also appears to have a new sound effect straight from the vaults of the now-defunct BBC Radiophonic Workshop: the sound of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy being activated!

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 07

The Angels Take Manhattan

Doctor WhoA visit to modern-day New York City takes an unexpected twist. While Rory goes for lunch, the Doctor and Amy realize that the mystery novel that the Doctor is reading was, in fact, written by River Song, and describes Rory’s sudden abduction through time into the 1920s. The Doctor and Amy follow, discovering that River has become embroiled in shady dealings with a sinister collector of statues who happen to be Weeping Angels. Even the Statue of Liberty stalks the streets of New York at night. After escaping their immediate predicament, they find Rory – in his 80s, dying in a hotel room – even though they’ve rescued the younger Rory. It seems that he is fated to die, the temporal energy from his time travels feeding the Angels of New York. Amy and Rory take drastic steps – and, the Doctor warns, very ill-advised ones – to end the Angels’ reign by creating a dangerous paradox in their personal history. But this time, even the Time Lord can’t help his friends escape their inevitable fate.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Mike McShane (Grayle), Rob David (Sam Garner), Bently Kalu (Hood), Doctor WhoOzzie Yue (Foreman), Burnell Tucker (Old Garner), Zac Fox (Photoshoot PA)

Notes: This episode, featuring the long-anticipated, heavily-hyped exit of Rory and Amy, is the end of “Series 7A” (a term coined by the production team; following the Christmas episode, the remainder of the season aired in 2013). Location filming was done in New York, the second time a Doctor Who film crew, complete with the show’s stars, has filmed on location in the United States.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 11

Samsara

Red DwarfAn escape pod bearing human remains alerts Lister and the others to the presence of an Earth ship, the S.S. Samsara, which crashed into the ocean of a nearby planet. Starbug is dispatched to investigate, finding that the Samsara was testing a new engine, the Karma Drive, deriving its energy from its crew’s treatment of one another. But two people who were aboard the Samsara, old flames who were each now married to other people, threw the Karma Drive out of balance by reigniting their relationship…and then tried to reprogram the Karma Drive so they could continue doing so. Even though they are long dead, their inept reprogramming is a very real danger to the crew of Red Dwarf.

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), Dan Tetsell (Green), Maggie Service (Barker), Eddie Bagayawa (Captain Tom Kadri)

Notes: The word “samsara” originates from the Sanskrit language, referring to a cycle of life, death, and reincarnation, and is related to the concept of karma, hence its connection to this episode’s Red DwarfKarma Drive. The Karma Drive uses technology derived from Justice World, a space station encountered in the fourth season episode Justice (1989). Red Dwarf once again features a former Hyperdrive cast member; Maggie Service was the unseen voice of the HMS Camden Lock’s ever-cheerful on-board intercom announcer in that series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Inhumans

Behold…The Inhumans

Marvel's InhumansA young woman is on the run in the forests of Oahu, Hawaii, when she encounters a man with green skin. His name is Triton, and he is obviously not human. But then, he explains, neither is she. She is one of the humans to have inhaled terrigen mists, and has gained new abilities as a result. But she’ll never be accepted by human society once she reveals her powers.

In the city of Atillan, hidden from human view on the surface of the moon, Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans, is under scrutiny for dispatching Triton to Earth for what now looks like it may have been a suicide mission. Black Bolt’s brother, Maximus, is especially angry with the decision, and tries to sow dissent among the ruling council, and even between the king and queen themselves. Gorgon, the head of the royal guard, is sent to Earth to find out what happened to Triton, but in his absence, Maximum sets a plan into motion: a coup to seize the throne for himself. Crystal, younger sister of Black Bolt’s wife, Medusa, orders her pet, Lockjaw, to use his teleportational powers to spirit the royal family and their closest allies and advisors to safety on Earth, but Crystal herself is captured by Maximum, as is Lockjaw, when he returns to save her.

Though Black Bolt and the others try to fit in on Earth, it’s hard to disguise their powers. This makes them far too easy to find, both for the authorities on Earth and Maximus’ new regime on the moon, especially when Maximus dispatches his personal guard, Auran, to round up Medusa, Gorgon, and Karnak…but her orders are to kill Black Bolt on sight.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Scott Buck
based on the comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
directed by Roel Reine
music by Sean Callery

InhumansCast: Cast: Anson Mount (Black Bolt), Serinda Swan (Medusa), Ken Leung (Karnak), Eme Ikwuakor (Gorgon), Isabelle Cornish (Crystal), Ellen Woglom (Louise), Iwan Rheon (Maximus), Mike Moh (Triton), Sonya Balmores (Auran), Nicola Peltz (New Inhuman), Marco Rodriguez (Kitang), Tom Wright (George Ashland), Michael Buie (King Agon), Tanya Clarke (Queen Rynda), Ari Dalbert (Bronaja), Aaron Hendry (Loyolis), Stephanie Anne Lewis (Paripan), Garret T. Sato (Lead Mercenary), Allen Clifford Cole (Outspoken Inhuman), Lofton Shaw (Young Black Bolt), V.I.P. (Young Medusa), Jason Lee Hoy (Royal Guard Sergeant), Steve Trzaska (Doudan), Jenna Bleu Forti (Lovely Inhuman Server), Jason Quinn (Pulsus)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Inhumans

Those Who Would Destroy Us

Marvel's InhumansThough Black Bolt and the others try to fit in on Earth, it’s hard to disguise their powers. Lockjaw has deposited them, somewhat haphazardly, in various locales near Oahu, Triton and Gorgon’s last known location. Lockjaw drops Black Bolt into the middle of a busy intersection in Oahu, where he immediately attracts the attention of the police after causing an accident. Even a change of wardrobe into something a little more earthly proves problematic, as the King of Atillan is unaccustomed to having to pay for anything, and even less accustomed to anyone trying to arrest him for having failed to pay for something. He is left with a choice – utter even a single sound with his voice, which could wreak untold destruction on the people and city around him, or submit to arrest and play by human rules.

Maximus dispatches his personal guard, Auran, to round up Medusa, Gorgon, and Karnak, but Auran’s attempt to apprehend Medusa ends with the spilling of her own blood. Karnak and Gorgon each begin making their way toward civilization, aware that their presence could disrupt the lives of those around them. Auran recovers from the fight with Medusa and calls for backup in bringing the royal fugitives back to the moon. Her orders are different, however, if she should see Black Bolt: he is to be killed on sight.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Scott Buck
based on the comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
directed by Roel Reine
music by Sean Callery

InhumansCast: Cast: Anson Mount (Black Bolt), Serinda Swan (Medusa), Ken Leung (Karnak), Eme Ikwuakor (Gorgon), Isabelle Cornish (Crystal), Ellen Woglom (Louise), Iwan Rheon (Maximus), Mike Moh (Triton), Sonya Balmores (Auran), Nicola Peltz (New Inhuman), Marco Rodriguez (Kitang), Ari Dalbert (Bronaja), Tom Wright (George Ashland), Aaron Hendry (Loyolis), Ty Quiamboa (Holo), Michael Buie (King Agon), Stephanie Anne Lewis (Paripan), Kala Alexander (Makani), Tanya Clarke (Queen Rynda), Albert Ueligitone (Pablo), Moses Goods (Eldrac), Dan Cooke (Cowboy), Nolan Hong (Tourist Husband), Brutus Lebenz (Cabbie), Tani Fujimoto-Kim (Clerk), Rick Agan (Police Officer), Lopaka Kapanui (Police Lietenant), Miriam Lucien (Serene Inhuman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green