Day: October 15, 1966

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Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

The Tenth Planet Part 2

Doctor WhoCybernetically augmented humans – Cybermen – have emerged from the spacecraft to take control of Snowcap Base. Their world, Mondas, was thrown out of its orbit around the sun long ago, forcing its inhabitants to turn to cybernetics to preserve their species. Now, having succumbed entirely to the machinery that was only intended to extend their lives, the Cybermen face another kind of extinction. Mondas is a dying planet, and the Cybermen hope to colonize Earth for its resources – and its population – starting with initiating a transfer of Earth’s energy to Mondas.

written by Kit Pedler (credited onscreen as “Kitt Pedler”)
and Pat Dunlap and Gerry Davis (not credited onscreen)
directed by Derek Martinus
music not credited

Doctor WhoCast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), David Dodimead (Barclay), Dudley Jones (Dyson), Robert Beatty (General Cutler), Christopher Matthews (Radar technician), Reg Whitehead (Krail), Harry Brooks (Talon), Gregg Palmer (Shav), Michael Craze (Ben), Anneke Wills (Polly), Steve Plytas (Wigner), Ellen Cullen (Geneva Technician), Glenn Beck (TV Announcer), Earl Cameron (Williams), Alan White (Schultz), Roy Skelton (Cyberman voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Series Prisoner, The

A, B, and C

The PrisonerNumber Two and his interrogators embark on a new project to pry into Number Six’s dreams, hoping to find the events behind his resignation in his subconscious. Three individuals figure prominently in Number Six’s thoughts about his resignation, but before Number Two can discover their involvement, something unexpected will interrupt his attempt to eavesdrop on his prisoner’s dreams.

written by Anthony Skene
directed by Pat Jackson
music by Ron Grainer and Albert Elms

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Colin Gordon (Number Two), Katherine Kath (Engladine), Sheila Allen (Number 14), Peter Bowles (A), Georgina Cookson (Blonde), Annette Carrell (B), Lucille Soong (Flower Girl), Bettine Le Beau (Maid), Terry Yorke (Thug), Peter Brayham (Thug), Bill Cummings (Henchman)

Original title: Play In Three Acts

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Gatchaman Gatchaman I

The Giant Mummy That Summons Storms

Kagaku Ninjatai GatchamanA trans-Pacific jetliner returning to Japan encounters a strange cloud, blinding its instruments and buffeting the plane with severe turbulence. The pilot sends out an SOS and reports sighting something huge before the plane goes down. It’s not the only sighting, which means the Science Ninja Team is called into action. On this occasion, however, Ken takes it upon himself to investigate since he’s a skilled solo pilot with his own plane. Sure enough, Ken has his own sighting – a huge mummified hand that tries to swat his plane out of the sky. The sensors built into his plane (which also doubles as the G-1 jet fighter, part of the God Phoenix) detect a form of plutonium whose use is forbidden around the world – meaning that Galactor has acquired some of it. But when the downed plane’s pilot mysteriously reappears, Ken knows something is amiss – especially when he learns that the pilot’s brother helped Dr. Nambu develop the dangerous form of plutonium. When an enormous robotic mummy lands at the airport and begins wreaking havoc, there’s no question what Galactor wants the Gatchaman team to surrender.

written by Jinzo Toriumi
directed by Hisayuki Toriumi
music by Bob Sakuma

GatchamanVoice Cast: Katsuji Mori (Ken Washio), Isao Sasaki (Joe Asakura), Kazuko Sugiyama (Jun), Yoku Shioya (Jinpei), Shingo Kanemoto (Ryu), Toru Ohira (Kozaburo Nambu), Mikio Terashima (Berg Katse), Nobuo Tanaka (Sosai X), Teiji Omiya (Director Anderson)

Note: This synopsis is for the original Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman episode, and appears under its original Japanese premiere date. For the corresponding episode of Battle Of The Planets, click here. Makoto can sleep through anything.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space Academy

The Rocks Of Janus

Space AcademySpace Academy is put on full alert. Studying a comet with two nuclei, the Academy students must now find a way to keep the comet fragments from colliding with and destroying the Academy. Chris, Paul, Adrian and Laura are sent to land on one of the fragments to sample its surface and find a way to divert or destroy it. But the task becomes much more difficult once on the surface: Adrian’s attempt to cut off a rock sample makes an outcropping of rock “bleed,” and Peepo claims that the comet is communicating with him. Gampu teaches all of his students to respect life, and now they have to choose between the Academy and everyone living there, or the life of a unique, newly-discovered life form – a living planetoid.

written by Samuel A. Peeples
directed by George Tyne
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Space AcademyCast: 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: Space Academy is a very mobile asteroid: this episode shows, for the first time, that the asteroid upon with the Academy is built can be moved to different locations in space, though it may simply have an irregular orbit through the solar system containing the planet seen at the beginning of the episode (which would explain why, upon learning that the Academy is in imminent danger, our heroes don’t simply move it out of harm’s way.).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Battlestar Galactica (Classic Series) Season 1

The Long Patrol

Battlestar Galactica (original)At long last, Galactica leaves known human territory en route to Earth. With the stakes and the danger increasing as the ship ventures into uncharted space, one of the Vipers is modified, affording it super speed at the cost of all of its weapons. Starbuck is assigned to take the point in a long-range reconnaisance flight, accompanied only by a computer called CORA. As luck – or Starbuck’s total lack thereof – would have it, he fails to avoid trouble, falling victim to a prison escapee and losing his ship. While Commander Adama and Galactica’s other pilots try to figure out who has taken control of Starbuck’s high-speed fighter, Starbuck finds himself stuck in a forgotten human prison, where he finds a vital clue to Earth’s location.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Donald P. Bellisario
directed by Chris I. Nyby II
music by Stu Phillips

Guest Cast: James Whitmore, Jr. (Robber), Ted Gehring (Croad), Sean McClory (Assault), Arlene Martel (Adulteress), Ian Ambercrombie (Forger), Robert Hathaway (Enforcer), Nancy DeCarl (Slayer), Cathy Paine (CORA), John Holland (Waiter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blackadder Season 3

Amy and Amiability

BlackadderWhen both Edmund and the Prince find themselves in financial difficulties, the only solution is for the Prince to marry into some money. With no viable prospects amongst the aristocracy, Edmund chooses the beautiful daughter of an industrialist. But Amy Hardwood seems to be even thicker than George and also seems to be hiding something…

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
directed by Mandie Fletcher
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Roger Avon (The Duke of Cheapside), Warren Clarke (Josiah Hardwood), Barbara Horne (Sally Cheapside), Miranda Richardson (Amy Hardwood)

Notes: Miranda Richardson makes her first guest appearance here. The part of Amy Hardwood provided Richardson with the opportunity to both hearken back to her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in Blackadder II and also show off her comic range. She would return again for Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, Blackadder Goes Forth (General Hospital) and Blackadder: Back & Forth.

Roger Avon has had a long career in television including appearances on Benny Hill, Doctor Who, and Upstairs, Downstairs. His films include A Hard Day’s Night (1964), Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) and Quartermass and the Pit (1967).

Warren Clarke is best known as Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel in the long running Dalziel And Pascoe series of TV movies. He also appears in the Blackadder mini-episode The Cavalier Years as Oliver Cromwell.

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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Season 04 Star Trek The Next Generation

Suddenly Human

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 44143.7: Finding a Talarian training vessel in deep space, the Enterprise crew discover that one of the ship’s crew is actually a human teenager. Dr. Crusher’s examinations reveal that he has been injured in the past as well – and it’s likely that these came about on purpose. When the boy’s Talarian foster father appears to reclaim him, Picard is left with a choice – either return the boy to a society whose people may have abused him, or face the possibility of starting a war.

Order the DVDsteleplay by John Whelpley and Jeri Taylor
story by Ralph Phillips
directed by Gabrielle Beaumont
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Sherman Howard (Endar), Chad Allen (Jono), Barbara Townsend (Admiral Rossa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Space: Above And Beyond

Mutiny

Space: Above And BeyondThe 58th is forced to tag along on a non-military cargo ship to avoid being marooned on Groombridge 34. The freighter’s payload, however, alarms the young soldiers – hundreds of human beings trapped in stasis, and a shipment of unborn in vitros intended for a life of slave labor. Hawkes finds that one of the in vitros could grow into the closest things he’ll ever have to a brother. To make matters worse, a Chig ambush inflicts critical damage on the cargo ship, and the only way to redirect enough power to escape is to deactivate the stasis unit which keeps the in vitros intact …but will Hawkes allow a wholesale slaughter of his own kind to be the salvation of a ship full of natural born humans?

Order the DVDwritten by Stephen Zito
directed by Stephen Cragg
music by Shirley Walker

Guest Cast: Robert Louis Kempf (Sgt. Monk), Tony Amendola (Captain Lewelyn), Calvin Levels (First Mate Potter), William Forward (Mercer), Tom Everett (C.P.O. Keats), Ping Wu (Ashby), Christopher Michael Moore (Sorrel), Thom Barry (Chief Mechanic), Jeffrey Howard (Harris), Steven Hack (Harkin), Lisa Dinkins (Triage Nurse)

Notes: Tony Amendola is well-known in SF circles for his recurring Stargate SG-1 role of Master Bra’tac; William Forward made an equally memorable series of appearances on Babylon 5 as the scheming Refa.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 03 SG-1 Stargate

Past And Present

Stargate SG-1SG-1 arrives on a world where amnesia has swept the populace, leaving a human society in ruins. Some of the confused locals introduce O’Neill and his team to Ke’ra, a woman who has assumed a leadership position in the wake of the disaster. But while going over the written history of the planet in search of clues about that disaster, Daniel learns that the person responsible may have been Linea – an old enemy whose previous encounter with SG-1 left little doubt that she would use her enormous scientific talents for her own ends without regard to the consequences for others. Ke’ra and some of her people return to the SGC so Dr. Fraiser can try to find out what caused their memory loss and reverse it. But when she uncovers evidence that Ke’ra may be Linea herself – a victim of her own mass memory wipe – can they afford to restore her to her true personality?

Order the DVDswritten by Tor Alexander Valenza
directed by William Gereghty
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Megan Leitch (Ke’ra), Marya Delver (Layale), Jason Gray-Stanford (Omer), Teryl Rothery (Dr. Fraiser), Luisa Cianni (Woman)

Notes: Teal’c was named by his father; it translates to “strength.” SG-1 encounter Linea in the second season episode Prisoners.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Exile

Star Trek: EnterpriseAn unknown man, appearing to be human, is repeatedly seen aboard the Enterprise by Hoshi, but sensors never pick him up. Finally, the person she has repeatedly sighted contacts her more formally, offering to help track down information on where the Xindi are building the next superweapon to be deployed against Earth – in exchange for Hoshi’s company for a few days and an opportunity to study her unique communication and translation abilities. While she’s away, the Enterprise is nearly ripped apart by gravitational anomalies, and Archer and Trip venture onward in a shuttlepod to find the source of the problem. They find an artificially constructed sphere exterting the deadly gravitational influence – and then discover that there are dozens of such spheres throughout the Expanse. And when Hoshi tries to leave her host, she discovers that he has no intention of letting her return to the Enterprise.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Phyllis Strong
directed by Roxann Dawson
music by Velton Ray Bunch

Guest Cast: Maury Sterling (Tarquin)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Storm Front Part II

Star Trek: EnterpriseArcher escapes from the alien-assisted Nazis via transporter, but he is forced to bring Alicia, a member of the New York City resistance cell, with him. Trip and Mayweather, having pursued Silik to the surface in a shuttlepod, have been captured by the Nazis. But the alien assisting the Nazis, Vosk, isn’t an ally of Silik’s – even Silik considers Vosk a radical element responsible for heating up the temporal cold war. Archer returns to Earth, leading his crew and the resistance against the Nazis, and hoping to disable the equipment Vosk is using to change history. Vosk tries to make an ally out of Archer to bring the temporal war to an end…but would this alliance restore history to its proper course?

Order DVDswritten by Manny Coto
directed by David Straiton
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Golden Brooks (Alicia Silvers), Jack Gwaltney (Vosk), John Fleck (Silik), Matt Winston (Daniels), Christopher Neame (German General), Steven R. Schirripa (Carmine), Mark Elliot Silverberg (Kraul), David Pease (Alien Technician), Burr Middleton (Newsreel narrator)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 1

Warriors Of Kudlak – Part 1

The Sarah Jane AdventuresLuke wonders why so many forms of entertainment on Earth are somehow tied into war, so he tags along with Clyde to a new laser tag arena – an arena that happens to be at the heart of Sarah’s latest investigation. Several teenagers have gone missing during visits to this chain of laser tag centers, all of which are owned by a mysterious Mr. Kudlak. Mr. Grantham, operator of the arena visited by Luke and Clyde, is impressed by Luke’s seemingly superhuman skill at the game – and reports this to his boss, who suggests keeping a careful eye on the boys. But as they discover, there’s no prize for being good at this game – unless you count being teleported somewhere far away from home.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Phil Gladwin
directed by Charles Martin
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Chook Sibtain (Mr. Grantham), Sarah Haynes (Carrie Metcalf), Pamela Merrick (Wendy), Sonny Muslim (Lance), James Bellamy (Brandon Butler), Nadiyah Davis (Jen), Chrissie Furness (Cashier), Paul Kasey (Kudlak / Emperor / Mistress), Silas Carson (voice of Kudlak / Emperor), Tina Greatex (voice of Mistress)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 3

Prisoner Of The Judoon – Part 1

The Sarah Jane AdventuresAn object that’s been moving fast enough to cross the entire solar system in 45 minutes screams into Earth’s atmosphere and crashes not far from where Sarah lives. Mr. Smith warns that the crash site is already under the control of UNIT, but that UNIT isn’t aware of the ejection and subsequent crash of one of the ship’s life pods. Sarah, Luke, Clyde and Rani track the pod to a condemned building, finding a lone Judoon trooper there. The Judoon regards Sarah and the others as an annoyance, as it is tracking far more important quarry: Androvax the Annihilator, a war criminal responsible for the destruction of a dozen worlds, is now at large on Earth.

Season 3 Regular Cast: Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Tommy Knight (Luke), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra)

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

Guest Cast: Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Terence Maynard (Madison Yorke), Robert Curtis (Security Man), Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Paul Kasey (Captain Tybo), Nicholas Briggs (voice of Captain Tybo), Mark Goldthorp (Androvax), Scarlett Murphy (Julie)

Notes: The Judoon made their first TV appearance in the Doctor Who third season opener Smith And Jones, though Sarah Jane’s detailed knowledge of both the Judoon and the Shadow Proclamation (both of which were also seen in The Stolen Earth) would seem to indicate that she might have met the Judoon during her travels with the third or fourth Doctor. Nicholas Briggs once again provides the guttural voices of the Judoon in this episode, and in so doing completes his modern Doctor Who trifecta: he has voiced numerous aliens in both Doctor Who and now The Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as having appeared on screen in Torchwood: Children Of Earth: Day Four.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 3 Star Wars

Hera’s Heroes

Star Wars: RebelsHera and the crew of the Ghost race to rescue Hera’s father, Chaim Syndulla, and his inner circle of revolutionaries from an Imperial garrison on Hera’s home planet. Where previous Imperial attacks there have been hit-or-miss, Chaim Syndulla now says that there is a new focus and ferocity in their actions. Hera enlists the help of her friends to retrieve a personal item from the palace, only to discover that the Empire is more deeply entrenched there than previously believed. Grand Admiral Thrawn himself has taken personal command, and knows exactly who Hera and Ezra are. Now, if Hera’s father does not surrender himself to the Empire, Hera and Ezra will pay the price unless they can outwit Thrawn.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Nicole Dubuc
directed by Mel Zwyer
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Vanessa Marshall (Hera Syndulla), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus / Stormtrooper #2)), Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Imperial Officer), Andre Sogliuzzo (Captain Slavin), Robin Atkin Downes (Cham Syndulla / Stormtrooper #1), Corey Burton (Gobi Glie), Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn), Catherine Taber (Numa), Dave Filoni (Scout Trooper / Stormtrooper #3)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Discovery Season 1 Star Trek

Choose Your Pain

Star Trek: DiscoveryWith the secret of navigation with the spore drive finally unlocked – the enormous tardigrade-like creature must be harnessed to perform the navigation – the Discovery has been busy in the war with the Klingons. Starfleet Command even advises Captain Lorca to be less visible for fear that the Discovery‘s experimental drive system could be discovered by the Klingons, a fear that seems to be borne out when Lorca’s shuttle flight back to Discovery is cut short as a Klingon ship appears, and Klingon warriors board the shuttle in short order. Lorca is taken prisoner and, in captivity, meets a shifty human named Harry Mudd, also a Klingon prisoner, and a Starfleet officer named Ash Tyler, a prisoner of war since the battle at the binary stars. As Lorca endures Klingon torture and tries to plan an escape, Saru finds himself in command of Discovery by default with a crisis on his hands: the continual use of the spore drive is draining the tardigrade’s energy and sapping its will to live. Soon, it will be unable to help the Discovery crew find their missing captain.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazontelelplay by Kemp Powers
story by Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts & Kemp Powers
directed by Lee Rose
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: DiscoveryCast: Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Lt. Commander Saru), Shazad Latif (Lt. Ash Tyler), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Cadet Sylvia Tilly), Jason Isaacs (Captain Gabriel Lorca), Jayne Brook (Admiral Cornwell), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), Rainn Wilson (Harry Mudd), Conrad Coates (Terral), Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer), Julianne Grossman (Discovery Computer), Patrick Kwok-Choon (Rhys), Sara Mitich (Airiam), Simon Northwood (Shuttle Pilot), Oyin Oladejo (Joann Owosekun), Christopher Russell (Milton Richter), Kirk Salesman (Shuttle Klingon 1), Tyler Evan Webb (Shuttle Klingon 2)

Star Trek: DiscoveryNotes: Lorca’s previous command, the U.S.S. Buran, was named after the ultimately aborted Soviet-era Russian attempt to duplicate or improve upon the design of the American Space Shuttle. Faced with allowing his crew to fall into Klingon hands and endure torture or worse, Lorca blew up the Buran with all hands…as he escaped. Harry Mudd is seen here ten years before the events chronicled in the original Star Trek episode Mudd’s Women, and at this point is married to Stella (I, Mudd). The tactical plot seen very briefly on Discovery‘s bridge shows Rura Penthe (Star Trek VI, Enterprise: Judgment) and Khitomer (Star Trek VI, TNG: Sins Of The Father) in relation to the current outlines of Klingon and Federation space; Deep Space K-7 (TOS: The Trouble With Tribbles, Star Trek: DiscoveryTAS: More Tribbles, More Trouble, DS9: Trials And Tribble-ations) is perilously close to that boundary. Choose Your Pain has the dubious distinction of dropping Star Trek’s first F-bomb (thank you, Cadet Tilly), which drew a mixed reaction from some segments of the audience.

LogBook entry by Earl Green