Day: October 2, 1998

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Season 02 SG-1 Stargate

The Tok’Ra

Stargate SG-1After months of trying to remember something from her brief joining with the Tok’ra Jolinar, Carter has a vision of Tok’ra resistance fighters escaping from the Goa’uld through a stargate – a vision that’s clear enough that she can remember the gate coordinates used. Following those coordinates leads SG-1 to an arid desert planet, and they find the Tok’ra quickly enough, though it takes time before there is enough trust between the two parties to establish a dialogue. Even once the Tok’ra explain what makes them different from the System Lords – they do not force others to become hosts, and they do not use the Goa’uld sacrophagus technology to extend the lives of joined hosts – O’Neill can’t quite bring himself to trust them. Nor are the Tok’ra content to simple let SG-1 return home with what they know. And when Carter’s father – who only recently admitted to her that he was battling cancer – begins to lose his battle, SG-3 is sent through the gate to bring Carter back to Earth, but the Tok’ra interpret the new arrivals as an invasion force.

Order the DVDswritten by Jonathan Glassner
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Carmen Argenziano (General Jacob Carter), Sarah Douglas (Garshaw), J.R. Bourne (Martouf), Winston Rekert (Cordesh), Joy Coghill (Selmak), Laara Sadiq (Technician Davis), Steve Makaj (Col. Makepeace), Tosca Baggoo (Tok’ra Councilwoman), Roger Haskett (Doctor), Stephen Tibbetts (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 6 Xena: Warrior Princess

Coming Home

Xena: Warrior PrincessXena, Gabrielle and Eve are traveling through Amazon territory as they discuss the reason Ares has summoned them. When they reach the top of a hill, they see that some of the forest has been burned. Before they can determine what may have caused the damage, they hear yells in the near distance. The trio discover Amazons fighting a group of soldiers. Xena and Gabrielle join the fight, with Eve only fighting defensively. The soldiers soon retreat from the area. The Queen of the Amazons, Marga, introduces herself and her second in command, Varia. When Xena introduces herself, Marga says that she’s heard that Xena can kill gods. She hopes it’s true, because there is one more who needs to be stopped: Ares.

Season 6 Regular Cast: Lucy Lawless (Xena), Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle)

Order the DVDswritten by Melissa Good
directed by Mark Beesley
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Adrienne Wilkinson (Eve), Tsianina Joelson (Varia), Kevin Smith (Ares), Sela Apera (Marga), Smeta Chhoto (Megaera), Graham Lauder (Armorer), Asa Lindh (Alecto)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Enterprise Season 02 Star Trek

Minefield

Star Trek: EnterpriseMalcolm gets a breakfast invitation from Captain Archer, but the security chief finds himself nervous the whole time. A call from the bridge saves Malcolm from the awkward situation, and then plunges him into a deadly one – the Enterprise strikes a mine which has somehow been cloaked, remaining invisible until it’s too late, causing major damage to the ship. A second mine adheres to the hull, giving the crew an opportunity to study it and learn how to detect other cloaked mines, but this one is still live and could blow at any moment, destroying the Enterprise. Archer orders the ship brought to a halt and Malcolm insists on going out on the hull to defuse the mine. When he tries, however, it springs an additional attachment to fasten itself even more tightly to the Enterprise and lances through Malcolm’s leg in the process. Archer suits up to help him, but while the captain is outside the ship, T’Pol has to deal with a new problem – the minelayers have returned, identifying themselves as Romulans and insisting that the Enterprise withdraw from their territory immediately or be destroyed.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by John Shiban
directed by James Contner
music by David Bell

Guest Cast: Timothy Glenn (Med Tech), Elizabeth Magness (Injured crewmember)

MinefieldNotes: Minefield actually adheres quite closely to established Star Trek continuity. It was mentioned in Balance Of Terror (1966) that no one in Starfleet had seen the face of a Romulan prior to that incident involving Kirk’s Enterprise, but no one mentioned whether or not the Romulans’ ships had been seen before.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Heroes Season 1

Don’t Look Back

HeroesPeter Petrelli’s attempt to fly brings him in for a rough landing in the hospital. When Peter remembers that his brother Nathan flew, Nathan quickly “corrects” the story, fearing the impact on his Congressional campaign. Mohinder Suresh, who’s had an unnerving encounter with an American he spotted in his father’s home in India, is becoming paranoid; he’s convinced that his father not only proved the existence of humans who had evolved into beings with what most people would call “super powers,” but was actually tracking many such individuals. His fears that he is being followed, and that his father’s research is being sought by a shady organization with seemingly limitless resources, turn out to be entirely accurate. Elsewhere in New York, Hiro – having just teleported himself from Tokyo – finds a comic book depicting his arrival and decides to track down its artist, Isaac Mendez, only to find him dead with his head sliced open and his brain removed. A similar murder occurs across the country in Los Angeles, and LAPD officer Matt Parkman – assigned to direct traffic at the scene – hears a voice in his head that leads him to a missing little girl, but that raises suspicions among his fellow officers and leads to his arrest. One name links that crime scene, a threatening conversation recorded on Suresh’s father’s answering machine: Sylar. During Hiro’s questioning for Mendez’ murder, he witnesses something horrible and realizes that he has glimpsed the same future that Mendez saw: the destruction of New York City.

Order the DVDswritten by Tim Kring
directed by Allan Arkush
music by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman / vocals by Shenkar

Guest Cast: Clea Duvall (Audrey Hanson), Nora Zehetner (Eden McCain), Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli), Stacy Haiduk (FBI Agent), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Richard Steinmetz (Detective), Matt Lanter (Brody Mitchum), Danielle Savre (Jackie Wilcox), Thomas Dekker (Zach), Deirdre Quinn (Tina)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Eureka Season 2

A Night In Global Dynamics

  • By Dave
  • October 2, 2007

Eureka Henry, Beverly, Allison and Kevin are locked in the director’s office at Global Dynamics – which has now become a bunker miles below the rest of the labs. Henry and Beverly want to use an experimental matter reconstruction device to attempt to separate Kevin from the energy field he has been linked to since the accident. The rest of the building has been evacuated and the automatic security systems engaged because the biohazard systems have detected a mutated form of the bacteria that caused the metal decomposition. The military is quite insistent that if the biohazard is not contained, Eureka will be evacuated and Global Dynamics eradicated. Carter and Stark decide to return to the building to try to save Kevin and Allison, while Fargo tries to run interference from a computer station hidden within SARAH. When Carter and Stark find a group of employees hiding unharmed in the morgue, they realize that the biohazard was a hoax by Henry. Unfortunately, that won’t stop the building’s automatic systems from viewing them as invaders, nor will it stop the military from following its protocols. And if Stark can’t reach the bunker in time, Henry’s efforts to save Kevin may be all for naught.

Order the DVDswritten by
directed by
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast:

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Movies

The Martian

The MartianAres III, the third manned mission to Mars, is cut short by the approach of a severe Martian dust storm whose winds pose a serious risk of toppling their escape vehicle. The crew is ordered inside, but flying debris lowers visibility to zero, and strikes the crew’s botanist, astronaut Mark Watney. Believing Watney is dead, Commander Lewis and her crew blast off from Mars, leaving Watney behind. But Watney isn’t dead: impaled by debris, which also damaged his spacesuit, he makes it back to the crew’s abandoned habitat dome and performs an emergency surgery on himself. He then turns his attention to survival: the Ares IV mission isn’t scheduled to arrive for another four years, so he has to be able to eat, breathe, drink, and stay safe until then. His skills are uniquely suited to growing food, but no one has ever grown crops on Mars. In the meantime, it’s weeks before NASA realizes Watney is still alive, and months before they alert the returning Ares III crew to this news…but it will still be years before Watney can be rescued, if he can stay alive on Mars that long.

screenplay by Drew Goddard
based on the novel by Andy Weir
directed by Ridley Scott
music by Harry Gregson-Williams

The MartianCast: Matt Damon (Mark Watney), Jessica Chastain (Melissa Lewis), Kristen Wiig (Annie Montrose), Jeff Daniels (Teddy Sanders), Michael Pena (Rick Martinez), Sean Bean (Mitch Henderson), Kate Mara (Beth Johanssen), Sebastian Stan (Chris Beck), Aksel Hennie (Alex Vogel), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Vincent Kapoor), Benedict Wong (Bruce Ng), Mackenzie Davis (Mindy Park), Donald Glover (Rich Purnell), Nick Mohammed (Tim Grimes), Chen Shu (Zhu Tao), Eddy Ko (Guo Ming), Enzo Cilenti (Mike Watkins), Jonathan Aris (Brendan Hatch), Gruffudd Glyn (Jack), Naomi Scott (Ryoko), Geoffrey Thomas (U.S. President), Yang Haiwen (Chinese Flight Director), Narantsogt Tsogtsaikhan (Wen Jiang), Brian Caspe (Timer Controller), Matt Devere (Satcon), Mike Kelly (Launcher Interface), Szonja Oroszlan (Launch Control), Greg de Cuir Jr. (Capcom), Mark O’Neal (Guidance), Peter Linka (Telemetry), Declan Hannigan (Comms), Peter Schueller (NASA Break Room Worker), Waleska Latorre (Vincent’s Secretary), Frederik Pleitgen (CNN Reporter), Nikolett Barabas (Reporter 1), Karen Gagnon (Reporter 2), Lili Bordan (Reporter 3), Charlie Gardner (Robert Lewis), Nora Horich (Vogel’s Wife), Kamilla Fatyol (Marissa Martinez), Yang Liu (Chinese Translator), Xue Xuxing (Ming’s Secretary), Richard Rifkin (JPL Store Man), Nicholas Wittman (JPL White Room Worker), Balazs Medveczky (JPL White Room Worker), Ben O’Brien (JPL Pathfinder Team), Scott Alexander Young (JPL Pathfinder Team), Jason Ryan (JPL Pathfinder Team), James Dougherty (JPL Pathfinder Team)

Mars Pathfinder in The MartianNotes: The Mars Pathfinder mission and its Sojourner rover were launched in 1996, and landed in July 1997, arguably becoming the first space mission widely followed on the internet. Sojourner was the forerunner to the rovers that now explore the real Martian landscape.

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Westworld

The Original

WestworldVacationgoers flock to a futuristic, robot-populated amusement park, where, for a hefty fee, they can experience the dangers and delights of bygone eras – indulgences that tend to focus on sex, violence, or both. The robotic “hosts” are constantly maintained by a team of technicians, programmers, and scenario writers, and after each scenario reset, the robots’ memories are wiped…or at least, that’s the plan. Some of the robots begin exhibiting signs of a crippling existential awareness, to the point of total breakdown. It doesn’t help matters that a black-clad visitor to the park has made it his mission to torture various robots to the brink of total failure, searching for a “deeper level of the game”. As Dr. Ford, the creator of Westworld’s robots, diagnoses a troubling case of this existential breakdown, the robot he is examining demonstrates a disturbing awareness of who, what, and where it is…and promises revenge upon its creators. Another robot, the oldest one in the entire park, returns to her existence as farmgirl Dolores Abernathy, but she too has experienced an awakening. Despite these and other failures, Westworld remains open to paying guests.

telepaly by Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy
story by Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy and Michael Crichton
directed by Jonathan Nolan
music by Ramin Djawadi

WestworldCast: Evan Rachel Wood (Dolores Abernathy), Thandie Newton (Maeve Millay), Jeffrey Wright (Bernard Lowe), James Marsden (Teddy Flood), Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Armistice), Luke Hemsworth (Stubbs), Sidse Babett Knudsen (Theresa Cullen), Simon Quarterman (Lee Sizemore), Rodrigo Santoro (Hector Escaton), Angela Sarafyan (Clementine Pennyfeather), Shannon Woodward (Elsie Hughes), Ed Harris (The Man in Black), Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Robert Ford), Louis Herthum (Peter Abernathy), Steven Ogg (Rebus), Michael Wincott (Old Bill), Eddie Rouse (Kissy), Brian Howe (Sheriff Pickett), Demetrius Grosse (Deputy Foss), Ptolemy Slocum (Sylvester), Leonardo Nam (Lutz), Kyle Bornheimer (Clarence), Bradford Tatum (Bartender / New Abernathy), Lena Georgas (Lori), Currie Graham (Craig), Timothy Lee DePriest (Walter), Jeff Daniel Phillips (Tenderloin), Bridgid Coulter (Mother of Young Boy), Regi Davis (Father of Young Boy), Mataeo Mingo (Boy of 8), Trevante Rhodes (Bachelor), Micky Shiloah (Bachelor), Keller Wortham (Bachelor), Olivia May (Hooker), Jackie Moore (Hooker), Alex Marshall-Brown (Hooker), Jeffrey Muller (Man on Train), Brook Kerr (Woman on Train), Bradley Snedeker (Passenger), Patrick Quinlan (Passenger), Bianca Lopez (Diagnostic Programmer), WestworldMolly Schreiber (Bachelorette), Stefanie Chin (Girlfriend), Joshua Sawtell (Controller), Nihan Gur (Female Laughing Host)

Notes: Actor Eddie Rouse (American Gangster, Pineapple Express), died of liver failure several weeks after filming his role in the Westworld pilot in 2014. The character of Kissy was meant to be a recurring role for him; the pilot episode is dedicated to his memory.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Gifted, The Season 1

eXposed

The GiftedPolice squad cars pursue a young woman in Atlanta, only to lose track of her when she opens a glowing portal out of nowhere with her bare hands, leaping through it. She emerges through another portal in an abandoned building, and finds herself surrounded by others – others like herself. Police converge on the building, and after a fierce fight between police revolvers and powers almost beyond human comprehension, two of the suspects are taken into custody, while two of the cops are killed.

Teenager Lauren Strucker’s socially awkward younger brother Andy sneaks out of the house to accompany her to a school dance. When he’s picked on and tortured by the school bullies, Andy goes into a rage, unleashing an enormous amount of energy that almost brings the walls of the school down. Lauren, aware of his powers, drags Andy out of the school and races home. The incident has already made the news, attracting federal attention as America debates taking tougher measures to detect and contain mutants among the population. As Lauren explains to her mother that she and Andy have latent mutant powers, there’s a knock at the door. But it’s not the police, or indeed anyone with even the slightest respect for civil rights. Sentinel Services wages a secret war against the mutant populace. Andy again unleashes his powers to help his family escape. The Struckers are on the run.

This poses a serious dilemma for Reed Strucker, an attorney who has prosecuted cases involving mutants in the past…but he’s also in a very good position to know about the underground network that the mutants have built to protect themselves. Now he has to depend on the people he once helped to hunt down to save his children and his wife…and even if he can convince the mutants to help, it may not be enough to save Reed Strucker himself.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Matt Nix
based on the X-Men comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
directed by Bryan Singer
music by John Ottman

The GiftedCast: Stephen Moyer (Reed Strucker), Amy Acker (Caitlin Strucker), Sean Teale (Marcos Diaz / Eclipse), Natalie Alyn Lind (Lauren Strucker), Percy Hynes White (Andy Strucker), Coby Bell (Jace Turner), Jamie Ching (Clarice Fong / Blink), Blair Redford (John Proudstar / Thunderbird), Emma Dumont (Lorna Dane / Polaris), Toks Olagundove (Carla Jackson), Dale Godboldo (Ted Baird), Steffan Argus (Jack), Pierce Foster Bailey (Trevor), Giovanni DeVito (Dax), Billy Blair (Truck Driver), Dinarte de Freitas (Pedro), Dalton Gray (Jake), Josh Henry (Ben), Roscoe Johnson (Guard), Cynthia Jackson (Waitress), Jason Jamal Ligon (Side-Eye), Hayley Lovitt (Sage), Joe Nemmers (Agent Weeks), Jeff Daniel Phillips (Fade), Scott Parks (Passenger Cop), Jermaine Rivers (Shatter), Matthew Tompkins (Cal Jameson), Stan Lee (Stan Lee)

The GiftedObligatory Stan Lee cameo: Lee walks out of the bar, pausing in the doorway as he passes Marcos, who is en route to meet with Reed Strucker. Hi, Stan!

Notes: Though the X-Men are mentioned briefly, The Gifted presents a more small-scale look at the plight of mutants in America. The series is not based upon a particular comic, but was created by Matt Nix (creator and showrunner of the hit spy series Burn Notice) as a story taking place in the X-Men’s “universe”. Since the show is produced by 20th Century Fox (as opposed to Disney/ABC), The Gifted may share universes with that studio’s X-Men films, but is not part of the continuity of the bulk of Marvel’s Disney-produced film and TV output.

LogBook entry by Earl Green