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1960s Season 1 Twilight Zone

Sixteen Millimeter Shrine

The Twilight Zone1930s starlet Barbara Jean Trenton hides away from the world in the mansion paid for by her film fame, the curtains drawn, constantly rewatching the movies she made in her heyday. Attempts to break back into Hollywood prove elusive in 1959; she balks at a comeback part in a minor role as another character’s mother. She becomes a recluse again, despite the best efforts of those around her to keep her surrendering her real life to the characters she portrayed a quarter of a century ago.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Mitchell Leisen
music by Franz Waxman

The Twilight ZoneCast: Ida Lupino (Barbara Jean Trenton), Martin Balsam (Danny Weiss), Jerome Cowan (Jerry Herndon), Ted de Corsia (Marty Sall), Alice Frost (Sally), Dean Stockwell (Daniel Wise)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Far-Out Space Nuts

Birds Of A Feather

Far-Out Space NutsA group of Motrons – chicken-like birdmen – abduct Barney and Junior. Their leader, Falco, intends to force Junior to sit on the sovereign egg of the Motrons’ aerie. The egg contains the Motrons’ next ruled, but unknown to the hapless humans, they’ve become pawns in a Motron power struggle. Falco’s underlings intend to take the egg out of circulation, removing Falco’s family from power, but to save their own skins, Barney and Junior hatch a plan of their own.

written by Earle Doud & Check McCann
directed by Al Schwartz
Far-Out Space Nutsmusic by Michael Lloyd / arranged by Reg Powell

Cast: Bob Denver (Junior), Chuck McCann (Barney), Patty Maloney (Honk), John Myhers (Falco), Paul Wexler (Motron #1), Robert Dunlap (Motron #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Space: 1999

Dragon’s Domain

Space: 1999Tony Cellini, a member of the Moonbase Alpha crew, suffers from recurring visions that he is under attack. But on this occasion, he finds an axe imbedded in one of the walls of his quarters, convincing him that the attack was real. Cellini is soon detected breaking into one of the Eagle launch pads, and when Carter tries to stop him from stealing an Eagle, Cellini attacks him. Koenig has to stun Cellini to stop the hijack attempt, and Dr. Russell criticizes Cellini’s very presence on Moonbase Alpha. Prior to taking command of the moonbase, Koenig and Cellini were fellow astronauts competing for command of the Ultra Probe, which was the furthest-ranging manned mission of its day. Cellini won the captain’s seat on that mission, but returned over a year later having lost his crew to what he says was a hideous alien creature that boarded the probe – but the black box recorder never confirmed his story, and Cellini was cast aside, saved from discharge by Koenig’s insistence alone. But now Cellini says that the creature that attacked the Ultra Probe and killed his crew is still pursuing him – and when a graveyard of spacecraft is detected, including the jettisoned service module of the Ultra Probe (light years from where that module was actually left behind), it seems like Cellini’s discounted monster story may be terrifyingly real.

Order the DVDswritten by Christopher Penfold
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Gianni Garko (Tony Cellini), Douglas Wilmer (Commissioner Dixon), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter), Barbara Kellerman (Dr. Monique Bouchere), Michael Sheard (Dr. Darwin King), Susan Jameson (Professor Juliet Mackie)

Notes: This is the first instance of Helena Russell doing a log entry in the series; it would become a staple feature of the second season. As of this episode, the Moon left Earth’s orbit 877 days ago.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Ark II

The Cryogenic Man

Ark IIThe Ark arrives in time for the unearthing of two cryogenic capsules buried in 1986; Jonah and his crew volunteer their technology to help revive the two men frozen inside. Despite their cryogenic capsules nearly failing during power-up and revival, the two businessmen from the 1980s survive and awaken. One of them wastes no time in trying to sell the locals on his miracle chemical which will supposedly grow healthy crops in the more dire of conditions. There’s a reason this chemical was phased out before 1986, but of course no one alive in the 25th century remembers that.

The Flieswritten by Martin Roth
directed by Ted Post
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Cast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Jim Backus (Arnie Pool), John Fiedler (Norman Funk), Chuck Comisky (Jeb), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: Jim Backus is easily the highest-profile guest star of Ark II’s entire run. TV audiences remember him best as Mr. Howell from Gilligan’s Island.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Electra Woman & Dyna Girl

Ali Baba – Part 1

Electra Woman & Dyna GirlAs Electra Woman and Dyna Girl are covering an international gathering of influential scientists in their plain-clothes journalist alter egos, the diabolical criminal mastermind Ali Baba and his genie accomplice pluck an airplane out of the sky. That plane was carrying Professor Nabokov to the scientists’ conference, but Ali Baba wants the professor to hand over a formula that can change a person’s personality completely. When the two superheroines arrive to free the professor, Ali Baba uses the formula to turn Dyna Girl from Electra Woman’s greatest ally to her adversary.

written by Dick Robbins and Duane Poole
directed by Walter Miller
music not credited

Cast: Deidre Hall (Lori / Electra Woman), Judy Strangis (Judy / Dyna Girl), Norman Alden (Frank Heflin), Malachi Throne (Ali Baba), Sid Haig (The Genie), Ian Martin (Nabokov)

Electra Woman & Dyna GirlNotes: When you want flamboyant, exotic villainy, you want to cast Sid Haig. Perhaps best known for his stint as Dragos, the primary enemy of Jason Of Star Command, Haig has also appeared on Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Batman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, Automan, and Sledge Hammer!, among countless others, with big screen roles in THX-1138, Diamonds Are Forever, Kill Bill Vol. 2, and more.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Alien Nation Season 1

The First Cigar

Alien NationGeorge and Susan wind up owing $2,400 to the most powerful force in their new world: the Internal Revenue Service. As the Franciscos try to figure out where they’re going to get the money, George can at least take solace in the newfound attention of Newcomer businesswoman Betsy Ross. After her tip helps George and Sikes take a human-Newcomer drug ring off the streets, she vows to keep tipping the department off to illegal activity – and she begins to send George unsolicited gifts, which makes Sikes uneasy. When the next tip from Betsy Ross keeps a substantial amount of drugs off the streets, the two cops begin to wonder where and how she’s getting her information. Meanwhile, Buck lands a job with New Tencton Village, a planned Newcomer-only community, and actually begins to make decent money selling homes there for a mere $100 down. But is this project – and his new job – too good to be true?

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episodewritten by Andrew Schneider & Diane Frolov
directed by John McPherson
music by Steve Dorff & Larry Herbstritt

Guest Cast: Diana Bellamy (Betsy Ross), Doug McKeon (Sam Simian), Joon B. Kim (Korean drug dealer), Carolyn Mignini (Ruth Steelman), John Patrick Reger (Ramna), Steve Susskind (Vahan), Jennifer Banko (Nina), Mike DeLuna (Cliff), Trevor Edmond (Blentu), Carlos Lacamara (Alvarez), Faith Minton (Bouncer), James Nixon (Newcomer Junkie), Noon Orsatti (Svabo), Jeff Skier (Delivery Man), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Yamato), Salvator Xuereb (Newcomer Dealer)

Notes: Either a voice-activated English-Tenctonese translation unit has only just been invented, or Sikes has only just been able to afford one on a police salary. (In the following episode, he’s apparently already lost it.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 03 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Bonding

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 43198.7: Worf’s conscience struggles with a fatality under his command as a deceased crew member’s young son confronts an alien life form that attempts to take on the physical and psychological characteristics of his mother.

Order the DVDswritten by Ronald D. Moore
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Susan Powell (Marla Aster), Gabriel Damon (Jeremy Aster), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 04 Star Trek

Indiscretion

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: A smuggler friend of Kira’s contacts her with news that some wreckage has been found which may be the remnants of a ship that was carrying Bajoran prisoners and a Cardassian crew – a ship that was lost during the occupation, and that was carrying another friend of Kira’s. Kira is about to go and investigate when the trip is postponed slightly so that someone can join her: Gul Dukat. On the mission, Dukat reveals that he too has someone he is concerned about on the ship, a Bajoran woman with whom he had an affair. Kira learns also that Dukat’s half-Bajoran daughter was also on the ship, and that Dukat’s personal mission is to find her and kill her. Meanwhile, Kasidy Yates is not pleased by Sisko’s reaction to her news that she may be taking a job that will let her stay on the station.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Nicholas Corea
story by Toni Marberry & Jack Trevino
directed by LeVar Burton
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Penny Johnson (Kasidy Yates), Roy Brocksmith (Razka), Cyia Batten (Ziyal), Thomas Prisco (Heler)

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Season 02 SG-1 Stargate

Spirits

Stargate SG-1During a briefing for a mission to find the missing SG-11 team, the stargate activates with that team’s code, but the only thing to emerge through the gate is an arrow, which pierces the briefing room’s bulletproof glass and O’Neill’s arm along with it. SG-11 had been attempting to mine a newly-discovered metal on another world, and the arrow proves to be made of the same metal. O’Neill is sidelined by the injury, and Carter takes command of SG-1 for the first time, with orders to diplomatically resolve whatever offense SG-11 may have caused the planet’s native populace. Carter and the others are captured by a tribe descended from Native Americans who were once abducted from Earth to serve as Goa’uld slave labor, but then rose up and freed themselves with the help of their “spirits.” Carter manages to establish enough of a friendly rapport that SG-11’s release is freed. But when she brings a representative of the tribe back to the SGC with her, she has unwittingly brought something else as well – and when General Hammond reveals a plan to mine the planet with or without the tribe’s permission, everyone in the SGC discovers just how powerful those spirits are.

Order the DVDswritten by Tor Alexander Valenza
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Rodney A. Grant (Tonanè), Alex Zahara (Xe’ls), Christina Cox (T’akaya), Kevin McNulty (Dr. Warner), Roger R. Cross (Capt. Conner), Chief Leonard George (Elder #1), Byron Chief Moon (Elder #2), Jason Calders (Alien #1), Laara Sadiq (Female Technician)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 6 Xena: Warrior Princess

Who’s Gurkhan?

Xena: Warrior PrincessGabrielle is happy to see that Poteidaia is a thriving village, but is a bit apprehensive about approaching her house. Eve says that as long as the people inside are okay, she has nothing to worry about. Xena encourages her to go ahead while she, Eve, and Virgil wait. Before Gabrielle can knock on the door, it’s opened by her sister, Lila. The reunion is bittersweet when Lila says that a raider named Gurkhan kidnapped her daughter, Sarah, eight years ago. And that when their parents learned where she was, they sold much of their farm and went with Lila’s husband to retrieve Sarah – but Gurkhan had them killed. Xena promises Gabrielle that they will go after her niece. Gabrielle says that this will be more than a rescue mission. She wants vengeance for her parents’ murders.

Order the DVDsteleplay by R.J. Stewart
story by Robert Tapert
directed by Michael Hurst
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Adrienne Wilkinson (Eve), William Gregory Lee (Virgil), Calvin Tuteao (Gurkhan), Tandi Wright (Sonata), Gina Varela (Milda), Michelle Langstone (Lana), Willa O’Neill (Lila), Jo Lo (Yo), Stephen Hall (Auctioneer)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Heroes Season 1

Hiros

HeroesAs Peter Petrelli and Mohinder Suresh ride a subway train through New York City after failing to meet with Isaac Mendez, time stops – for everyone but Peter. A Japanese man named Hiro, carrying a sword and speaking perfect English, approaches Peter, also apparently immune to the stoppage of time, warning Peter that he must save the cheerleader to save the world. Hiro then vanishes and time resumes its normal course. Even Suresh has a hard time believing it when Peter tries to tell him about the warning.

The cheerleader in question, whose grisly future is predicted in some of Mendez’ latest paintings, has survived another brush with death in an attempt to get revenge on the quarterback who tried to rape her. Her ability allows her to walk away from the deliberate car crash intact, while her passenger isn’t so lucky. In Las Vegas, Nathan Petrelli – after sleeping with Niki Sanders – is confronted by the same man who has been holding Matt Parkman in a laboratory, but escapes using his ability to fly. He lands near a diner on the outskirts of Vegas, and his landing awes Hiro, who has just parted ways with Ando after the two were roughed up. Hiro quickly nicknames Nathan “Flying Man” and tries to tell him about his own powers, including his visit to New York mere days into the future. Matt Parkman finds himself back at home and can’t remember his ordeal, and tries to put his thought-reading ability to good use at home. When Peter returns to Mendez’ loft, he discovers that he too can see the future – at least as long as Mendez is in his presence – and he can also see the cheerleader’s grisly death at the hands of Sylar. When Hiro calls Mendez again, Peter is convinced that these are the people who must help him save the world.

Order the DVDswritten by Michael Green
directed by Paul Shapiro
music by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman / vocals by Shenkar

Guest Cast: James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Lisa Lackey (Janice Parkman), Ashley Crow (Sandra Bennet), Matt Lanter (Brody Mitchum), Eugene Byrd (Petrelli’s campaign manager), Archie Kao (Doctor), Deirdre Quinn (Tina), Danielle Savre (Jackie Wilcox), Michael Reilly Burke (Detective), Nicole Bilderback (Ms. Sakamoto)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Sarah Jane Adventures Season 3

The Mad Woman In The Attic – part 2

The Sarah Jane AdventuresA face in the mirror – the artificial intelligence at the heart of Eve’s stranded spacecraft – peers into the minds of Sarah, Luke and Rani, picking out their past and predicting their futures. In Sarah’s future, she sees the return of the TARDIS, but for Rani’s future, she sees nothing except the life of a hermit in what was once Sarah’s attic – a future that seems inescapable. Sarah and Clyde find Rani and meet Eve, and Rani tries to convince her friends that Eve isn’t a force of evil, but simply needs their help. Even if she convinces everyone that this is true, is she right?

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Joseph Lidster
directed by Alice Troughton
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Alexander Armstrong (Mr. Smith), Souad Faress (Old Rani), Gregg Sulkin (Adam), Brian Miller (Harry), Toby Parkes (Sam), Eleanor Tomlinson (Eve), Kate Fleetwood (Ship), John Leeson (voice of K-9), Jai Rajani (Shuresh)

Appearing in footage from Planet Of The Spiders: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor)

Appearing in footage from The Hand Of Fear: Tom Baker (The Doctor)

Notes: For the first time in The Sarah Jane Adventures, footage from Sarah’s travels in the classic Doctor Who series is shown, namely her introduction to the third Doctor in The Time Warrior, the possessed Sarah attacking the third Doctor in Planet Of The Spiders (his final story), and Sarah’s farewell to the fourth Doctor in The Hand Of Fear. This is only the second time that classic Doctor Who footage has been incorporated into a modern episode from the Doctor Who universe (the first being a brief sequence in the Doctor Who Christmas special The Next Doctor).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Walking Dead, The

Bloodletting

The Walking DeadAccidentally shot by a hunter, Carl is carried by Rick to a nearby farm where a family is surviving. The owner of the farm, Herschel, a veterinarian, operates on Carl but needs antibiotics, other meds, and equipment to continue. The hunter, Otis, and Shane head to a school used as an aid station to retrieve the medical supplies as the rest of Rick’s group is brought to the farm. When the two men arrive at the school they discover it is overrun by the dead.

Order this seasonDownload this episodewritten by Glen Mazzara
based on the graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore
and Charlie Adlard
directed by Ernest Dickerson
music by Bear McCreary

The Walking DeadCast: Cast: Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Laurie Holden (Andrea), Steven Yeun (Glenn), Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes), Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale), Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon), IronE Singleton (T-Dog), Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier), Lauren Cohan (Maggie Greene), Pruitt Taylor Vince (Otis), Emily Kinney (Beth Greene), Scott Wilson (Hershel Greene)

LogBook entry by Robert Parson

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7th Doctor Big Finish Spinoffs Doctor Who The Audio Dramas UNIT

UNIT: Dominion

Doctor WhoOn Earth, a seashell-like organic mass appears in London, burrows its roots into the city’s power grid, and slowly begins growing in size as it feeds. UNIT has been called in to deal with it, though UNIT’s scientific advisor, Dr. Elizabeth Klein, is unable to discover much about it.

The Doctor’s TARDIS follows a telepathic trail into an alternate dimension, landing on the world of the Tolians. They, too, are dealing with a seashell-like organic mass draining their power, though this one has taken things to a more advanced stage: having brought Tolian civilization to its knees, it now drains the life force from the Tolians themselves for lack of a more potent power source. The Doctor recongizes it as an interdimensional node, but when another TARDIS materializes and a younger, more brash incarnation of the Doctor strides out, the “new” Doctor warns the seventh Doctor not to help the Tolians. The Doctor ignores the future Doctor’s warning and tries to help, only to find himself ensnared in a trap: the Tolians force the Doctor to use the interdimensional node to drain energy from other dimensions.

The Doctor and Raine escape with their lives, emerging through a dimensional gateway to Earth, where they discover that the future Doctor has been helping Klein and UNIT battle a series of alien incursions in rapid succession. Klein is less than thrilled when the “Umbrella Man” returns to her life, and UNIT’s Major Wyland is concerned that the two Doctors don’t appear to be getting along very well – the “new” Doctor seems concerned only with getting back to his TARDIS as soon as possible, and seems to have an unusual rapport with nearly every interdimensional invader to appear. The Doctor discovers, far too late, that the man claiming to be his future self is acting only in his own interests, and has already taken steps to turn Klein against him… and every living thing on Earth may pay the price.

Order this CDwritten by Nicholas Briggs and Jason Arnopp
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Martin Johnson

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Tracey Childs (Dr. Elizabeth Klein), Beth Chalmers (Raine Creevy) Alex Macqueen (The Other Doctor), Julian Dutton (Colonel Lafayette), Bradley Gardner (Sergeant Pete Wilson), Miranda Keeling (Sylvie/Liz Morrison), Ben Porter (Private Phillips/John Starr), Sam Clemens (Major Wyland-Jones), Alex Mallinson (Private Maynard/Arunzell), Sophie Aldred (Ace)

Notes: Alex McQueen played Julius in the British political comedy The Thick Of It; fellow cast member Peter Capaldi was cast as the Doctor just a few months after the release of UNIT Dominion.

Timeline: after Animal and before the 1996 TV Movie

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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3rd Doctor 4th Doctor 5th Doctor 6th Doctor 7th Doctor 8th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Light At The End

Doctor Who: The Light At The EndThe Doctor is startled when a flashing red light appears on the TARDIS console. The surprise isn’t that the light has never flashed before, but that it is there at all, where there was no light on the console before. And it’s not just one Doctor, but all of the Doctor’s incarnations.

The eighth Doctor and Charley, after witnessing a strangely disjointed collection of images from the Doctor’s past (and past Doctors), try to follow a trace through time to a London suburb at three minutes after five in the evening on the twenty-third day of November, 1963, but the TARDIS instead deposits them on an alien planet in the middle of a live demonstration of a weapons system capable of immense destruction. The two time travelers are separated, and Charley makes her way back to the TARDIS, just in time for a strange phenomenon to change the TARDIS around her. She finds herself in a different (and yet similar) console room, occupied by a savage woman named Leela and another man who claims to be the Doctor. The eighth Doctor follows, and he and his fourth incarnation try to combine their talents and knowledge to get the TARDIS safely away from this planet. The escape attempt doesn’t go as planned. Charley and Leela inexplicably vanish from the TARDIS.

The sixth and seventh Doctors also find each other on this planet, but are in a different region, where a conference is taking place: a showroom demonstration for other weapons created by the same alien race, the Vess. The seventh Doctor and Ace discover the Master is somehow involved, but then Ace vanishes. The sixth Doctor finds a delegation of Time Lords are an unofficial presence at this weapons sale – members of the Celestial Intervention Agency, led by Straxus, without the knowledge of the High Council of Gallifrey. Peri vanishes, and only then does the sixth Doctor discover the truth: the Master discovered the unauthorized Time Lord expedition and demanded a bribe for their silence. That bribe came in the form of a weapon of the Master’s choice from the Vess arsenal. Straxus knows nothing beyond this, but the Doctor knows enough to threaten to expose Straxus’ presence to the Time Lords; in exchange for the Doctor’s silence, Straxus helps reunite as many of the Doctors as he can.

The fifth Doctor and Nyssa follow the same time trace, but the Doctor is suspicious enough to change the time coordinates, arriving instead at 5:02pm in November 23rd, 1963. The TARDIS crashes through a shed belonging to a man named Bob Dovie, whose wife and children have gone missing. To the Doctor and Nyssa, it is obvious that Dovie has suffered some sort of trauma that has left him in an agitated, distracted state. Dovie’s family are closer to him than he thinks, murdered by the Master. Why has the Doctor’s old enemy chosen to victimize a perfectly average suburban family, how is it connected to the evil Time Lord’s endless quest for vengeance against the Doctor, and what is happening to the Doctor’s companions?

Order this CDwritten by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Jamie Robertson

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Peter Davison (The Doctor), Colin Baker (The Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Paul McGann (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Sophie Aldred (Ace), India Fisher (Charley), Geoffrey Beevers (The Master), John Dorney (Bob Dovie), William Russell (Ian Chesterton / The Doctor), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Maureen O’Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven), Jean Marsh (Sara Kingdom), Anneke Wills (Polly), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon / The Doctor). Wendy Padbury (Zoe), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Oliver Hume (Straxus), Nicholas Briggs (The Vess), Benedict Briggs (Kevin Dovie), Tim Treloar (The Doctor)

Notes: Straxus first appeared in part one of Blood Of The Daleks, the eighth Doctor audio adventure which introduced Lucie Miller, but the sixth Doctor would appear to have met Straxus first… at least in the timeline created by the Master, which the Doctors later eliminate. Since Straxus is played here by Oliver Hume, it’s safe to assume that this is an earlier incarnation of Straxus than the incarnations that have been encountered by the eighth Doctor.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green