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Land Of The Lost Original Season 1

Skylons

Land Of The LostWill and Holly embark on another unauthorized expedition into the jungle, following a trio of flying structures similar to the pylons they’ve spotted in Sleestak territory. Although the Marshall siblings agree to call the flying objects “skylons,” they can’t agree on what to do next. Will finds a pylon near where the skylons are hovering, and barges in and begins changing the positions of the crystals inside. The weather immediately turns against them, forcing them to take shelter in the pylon until Rick finds them. As his father lectures him about tampering with the forces of nature, Will has to backtrack, trying to remember how to set the crystals back into the positions where they were originally, as the weather outside grows more severe. What no one realizes is that the skylons themselves are trying to help.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Dick Morgan
directed by Bob Lally
music by Jimmie Haskell

Land Of The LostCast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Philip Paley (Cha-Ka)

Notes: Although Philip Paley is credited as Cha-Ka, the character does not appear in this episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blake's 7 Season 4

Animals

Blake's 7Dayna visits a friend of her father’s, who she discovers is conducting needlessly painful experiments on some intelligent animals on that planet. Meanwhile, Scorpio is attacked after Dayna teleports, and it barely gets back to Xenon Base. When Avon and the others return to get Dayna, they find Servalan in control of the animals and of Dayna’s mind.

written by Allan Prior
directed by Mary Ridge
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Michael Keating (Vila), Steven Pacey (Tarrant), Josette Simon (Dayna), Glynis Barber (Soolin), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Slave), Peter Byrne (Justin), William Lindsay (Captain), Max Harvey (Borr), Kevin Stoney (Ardus), David Boyce (Og)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Astronauts Season 1

Episode 1

AstronautsAn all-British crew prepares for a mission to an Earth-orbiting space station. Astronaut Mattocks is a stuff-upper-lip, salt-of-the-Earth family man for whom the flight will be his crowning achievement; Ackroyd is a bundle of nerves who’d really rather stay on Earth. Accompanying both men is a single female astronaut, Foster, a medical specialist who will monitor the crew’s health, both physical and mental; a dog named Bimbo will also travel to the station for further medical tests and experiments. Communications problems arise at critical times due to technical glitches and a gung-ho American mission controller. By the time the new crew of the space station arrives, they’re sure of only one thing: it’ll be hard for them to stand one another long enough for a record-setting space endurance mission.

written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie
directed by Dick Clement

AstronautsCast: Christopher Godwin (Mattocks), Carmen Du Sautoy (Foster), Barrie Rutter (Ackroyd), Bruce Boa (Beadle), Mary Healey (Valerie), Ben Aris (Reporter), Diana Berriman (Reporter), Barry Lower (Reporter), Hilton McRae (Reporter), Pamela Miles (Reporter), Hugh Walters (Reporter), Michael Delorzo (Mattocks’ Kid), Julian Delorzo (Mattocks’ Kid), and Bimbo (himself)

AstronautsNotes: This space-set sitcom seems to take place in an alternate universe in which Skylab survived 1979 (it didn’t) and British astronauts were still flying Apollo spacecraft (a vehicle which stopped flying in 1975). Created by The Goodies writer/performers Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, the show was popular enough to merit a second season in 1983. The first season has neither a theme tune or incidental music.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1980s Series V

Liberation Day

VMartin spots Diana’s escaping fighter and alerts Donovan, who jumps into another Visitor fighter and forces her down in a remote valley on Earth. She tries to escape on foot, but Donovan still captures her.

One year after what is eventually dubbed Liberation Day, the heroes of the resistance are still the focus of international attention, some of it unwanted. Robin can’t keep the media away from Elizabeth, whose powers and role in the liberation of Earth remain the source of much speculation. Mike Donovan has returned to his job as a TV news cameraman, and has even landed Martin, who remains on Earth, a job as his sound man. Julie, now working for a corporation called Science Frontiers, is still trying to crack the secrets of the captured Visitor mothership, while Nathan Bates, the CEO of the company, is trying to enlist Ham Tyler’s help to wring those secrets out of Diana, who remains imprisoned, awaiting trial. Elias Taylor has started a successful restaurant, where Willie works as a waiter. Every Visitor who has remained on Earth must take pills every 12 hours, or the red toxin, still in Earth’s ecosystem, will slowly kill them. And as she is escorted to her trial, Diana is shot at point-blank range. But as Donovan and Martin try to follow the ambulance carrying her away, they see something suspicious – the ambulance goes under an underpass and doesn’t come out, but an 18-wheeler pulls out instead.

Donovan and Martin trail the truck to a distant hideout where Bates and Tyler plan to force Diana to reveal the secrets of Visitor technology. Martin knocks Donovan out and tries to carry out Diana’s death sentence himself, but she manages to kill Martin, take his last antidote capsule, and escape. Donovan and Tyler independent follow her to a radio telescope array, which she has used to transmit a homing signal, and a Visitor fighter soon arrives, getting her away from Earth and taking her to a new Visitor fleet waiting behind Earth’s moon.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Marc Singer (Mike Donovan), Faye Grant (Dr. Julie Parrish), Michael Ironside (Ham Tyler), Jane Badler (Diana), Jennifer Cooke (Elizabeth), Robert Englund (Willie), Lane Smith (Nathan Bates), Blair Tefkin (Robin Maxwell), Michael Wright (Elias Taylor), June Chadwick (Lydia), Jeff Yagher (Kyle Bates)

Order the DVDwritten by Paul Monash
directed by Paul Krasny
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jenny Beck (young Elizabeth), Frank Ashmore (Martin), Michael Durrell (Robert Maxwell), Ed Call (?), Kirk Scott (?)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 3 (1986-1987) Tales From The Darkside

The Geezenstacks

Tales From The DarksideThe Hummels – Sam, his wife Edith, and their daughter Audrey – are visited by Edith’s brother, Richard. He’s brought a gift for Audrey: a large, elaborate dollhouse with four dolls. As Audrey begins playing with the dolls and concoting elaborate stories around their day-to-day lives, Sam is alarmed to notice that the scenarios Audrey imagines for her dolls are playing out in real life as well. Do the Hummels still have free will…or are their lives now at the whim of their daughter’s vivid and sometimes disturbing imagination?

teleplay by Nancy Doyne
based on a story by Frederic Brown
directed by Bill Travis
music by Charlie Morrow

Cast: Craig Wasson (Sam Hummel), Tandy Cronyn (Edith Hummel), Larry Pine (Uncle Richard), Lana Hirsch (Audrey Hummel), Paul Sparer (Narrator)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Where No One Has Gone Before

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41263.1: The Enterprise is ordered to participate in engine modification tests conducted by the arrogant Kosinski and his mysterious companion, the Traveler, but only when the ship is stranded in a dimension where thoughts become reality does the crew realize that Kosinski’s experiments were not actually under his control.

Order the DVDswritten by Diane Duane and Michael Reeves
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Stanley Kamel (Kosinski), Eric Menyuk (The Traveler), Herta Ware (Picard’s Mother), Biff Yeager (Chief Engineer Argyle), Charles Dayton (Crewmember), Victoria Dillard (Ballerina)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

Hellowe’en

Friday The 13th: The SeriesTo help dispel the somewhat shady reputation of Curious Goods, Ryan invites friends to the store for a Halloween party. Mickey worries that their visitors might enter the vault of cursed objects, which does indeed happen; a crystal ball is disturbed and begins growing with a green light. Ryan evacuates the partygoers, and Jack tries to help a wayward trick-or-treater get home. A thick fog climbs the stairs from the vault, eventually forming the image of Uncle Lewis, claiming he wants to atone for his sins and be free of his pact with the devil. But it’s another trick: Lewis wants to return from the dead, even if it costs Mickey and Ryan their lives.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by William Taub
directed by Timothy Bond
music by Fred Mollin

Cast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), R.G. Armstrong (Uncle Lewis), Adrian Pocock (Greta), Victoria Deslaurier (Evil Greta), David Matheson (Larry), Alan Watt (Howard), Maxwell Moffatt (Old Man), Braun McAsh (B.T.), Tom Melissis (Erik), Ron Vanhart (Hearse Driver)

Friday The 13thNotes: Make the second of a handful of guest appearances as Uncle Lewis, R.G. Armstrong (1917-2012) had a long history of genre roles, from the original Twilight Zone to The Time Tunnel, The Invaders, Beauty And The Beast, Quantum Leap, and Millennium. His movie appearances included Predator, Dick Tracy, The Car, and Children Of The Corn, among many, many others.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Blackadder Season 4

General Hospital

BlackadderThere is a spy at the Army field hospital sending information to the Germans. Captain Blackadder is sent in to investigate and finds himself romantically involved with a beautiful nurse. True, there is a patient named “Smith” with a German accent, but the evidence points towards someone quite close to Edmund…

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

Guest Cast: Miranda Richardson (Nurse Mary), Bill Wallis (Brigadier Smith)

Notes: Miranda Richardson swings full circle, giving a mostly dramatic reading as Nurse Mary, in stark contrast to her Queen Elizabeth from Blackadder II and following her schizoid performance in Blackadder the Third (Amy and Amiability). She also appears in Blackadder’s Christmas Carol and Blackadder: Back & Forth.

Bill Wallis returns, having previously appeared in The Black Adder (The Archbishop) and Blackadder II (Head).

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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Season 06 Star Trek The Next Generation

True Q

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 46192.3: Student intern Amanda Rogers is transferred to the Enterprise to get a sample of Starfleet duty. An accident occurs in engineering which almost forces Geordi to blow the warp core out of the ship, but Amanda astonishingly reverses the impending catastrophe. Shortly afterward, Q arrives and informs the crew that Amanda is a fledgling Q whose powers, just emerging, are beginning to concern the Q Continuum. The crew is left with no choice but to allow Q to tutor Amanda on matters of the responsibilities involved with possessing godlike powers, since, obviously, none of them have any knowledge on the subject. But it gradually becomes apparent that Q, and his fellow occupants of the Continuum, may not have a benevolent fate in store for the confused Amanda.

Order the DVDswritten by Renè Echavarria
based upon material by Matthew Corey
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Olivia D’Abo (Amanda Rogers), John de Lancie (Q), John P. Connolly (Orn Lote)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 1

Chrysalis

Babylon 5Negotiations between the Narn and Centauri over territorial claims to quadrant 37 are getting nowhere, and it looks like G’Kar has the upper hand on Londo. In the meantime, a strange discussion between Kosh and Delenn leads to a momentous decision, one which numbers Delenn’s days as she knows them. An informant for Garibaldi is found murdered, and Garibaldi sets out to discover who did it. Morden, an elusive being in human form who once asked Londo and G’Kar what they wanted, appears out of nowhere and offers Londo the opportunity to take credit for a solution to the quadrant 37 problem that will tip the scales in the Centauris’ favor, a solution which Morden and his unspecified associates will provide at no cost. Garibaldi follows a tenuous trail of clues to a man named Devereaux, who warns that the security chief is getting into something too big for him. As it turns out, this is true – Garibaldi discovers evidence that Devereaux may be an Earthforce special agent, and finally stumbles across a plot to assassinate the president of the Earth Alliance. He pays for this discovery dearly when one of the conspirators shoots him, almost fatally. The Shadows are cast upon quadrant 37, utterly annihilating every trace of the Narn presence there in mere seconds. Delenn goes to Sinclair to discuss at last the Battle of the Line and his capture, but his priority must be to find Garibaldi. Delenn is risking her life and Sinclair’s to reveal the mystery to him, and warns that she has little time left. Garibaldi, dying, warns of the plot to kill the president, but his warning is too late, and Earthforce One is destroyed and Vice President Clark is sworn in as president hours later. Londo is horrified at Morden’s solution to the quadrant 37 dispute. Delenn sets into motion a process which begins transforming her, and Sinclair misses his chance to learn the greatest mystery of his life. Garibaldi is given 50/50 odds on surviving his injuries. And all at once, nothing will ever be the same…

Order now!Download this episodewritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Janet Greek
music by Christopher Franke

Babylon 5Guest Cast: Julia Nickson (Catherine Sakai), Macaulay Bruton (Garibaldi’s Aide), Liz Burnette (Lurker #1), Edward Conery (Devereaux), Maggie Egan (News Anchor), Cheryl Francis Harrington (Senator), Mark Hendrickson (Narn Pilot), James Kiriyama-Lem (Med Tech), Wesley Leong (Paramedic), Gianin Loffler (Lurker #2), David Anthony Marshall (Stephen Petrov), Gary McGurk (Morgan Clark), John Riojas (Guard), Marianne Robertson (Tech), Fumi Shishino (Screaming Woman), Ed Wasser (Morden), Bergen Williams (Security Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 07 Star Trek

Chrysalis

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: Jack, Lauren, and Patrick – three of Dr. Bashir’s fellow genetically-enhanced “mutants” – bring their friend Sarina to DS9 in hopes that Bashir can operate on her and bring her out of her fifteen-year cataleptic state. The operation is a success, and Sarina blossoms, much to the delight of Bashir, who finds himself falling in love with her.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Rene Echevarria
directed by Jonathan West
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Tim Ransom (Jack), Faith C. Salie (Sarina), Hilary Shepard-Turner (Lauren), Michael Keenan (Patrick), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Randy James (Officer)

Notes: Sarina and the rest of the genetically-engineered savants were introduced in Statistical Probabilities in season 6.

LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover

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Season 4 Xena: Warrior Princess

A Good Day

Xena: Warrior PrincessXena and Gabrielle enlist help from some villagers in starting a war between Ceasar’s and Pompey’s forces, which have come to Greece, in the hopes that the resulting battle will send them back to Rome empty-handed.

Order the DVDswritten by Steven L. Sears
directed by Rick Jacobsen
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Karl Urban (Julius Ceasar), Jeremy Callaghan (Pompey), Stephen Lovatt (Phlanagus)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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7th Doctor

Colditz

Doctor Who: ColditzThe TARDIS has brought the Doctor and Ace to Colditz Castle, the legendary German prison camp, at the height of World War II. The time travelers are captured almost immediately, and the Doctor is shot in the shoulder. Ace instantly attracts the interest of Kurtz, the head of the guards – more interest than she would like. She also befriends English prisoners of war who are already planning their next escape attempt, but are reluctant to let her in on the plot unless she gives them more concrete information about where she’s from. In the meantime, the Doctor – and his TARDIS, which the guards witnessed materializing the courtyard – have gotten the interest of someone who appears to be very closely connected to the upper ranks of the German war effort. When the Doctor is given a choice – hand over the keys to the TARDIS or spare Ace’s life – he gives the Nazis his time machine, setting ripples in motion which will change history forever unless he can regain control of the situation.

Order this CDwritten by Steve Lyons
directed by Gary Russell
music by Toby Richards and Emily Baker

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Tracey Childs (Klein), Nicholas Young (Flying Officer Bill Gower), Toby Longworth (Hauptmann Julius Schafer), David Tennant (Feldwebel Kurtz), Peter Rae (Timothy Wilkins)

Note: This audio story marks David Tennant‘s first Doctor Who appearance, though obviously not in the role for which he would become most famous later…

Timeline: between Dust Breeding and The Rapture

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Radio Series

Episode 18 (Fit The Eighteenth)

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Tertiary PhaseTrillian confronts the Elders of Krikkit in a last-ditch attempt to dissuade them from annihilating the universe with the Supernova Bomb, and she and Arthur confront HACTAR, the computer intelligence that not only isolated the planet Krikkit but drove its people to the brink of a bloodthirsty paranoia. Thanks to Marvin’s connection to Krikkit’s central battle computer, the robot army has become not just ineffectual, but too depressed to wage war. Somehow, the unlikely assemblage of galactic hitchhikers may actually save the universe – and along the way, Arthur discovers an even more improbable opportunity to find out about the ultimate question to which “42” is the answer.

Order this CDwritten by Douglas Adams
adapted by Dirk Maggs from the novel “Life, The Universe And Everything”
directed by Dirk Maggs
music by Paul “Wix” Wickens

Cast: William Franklyn (The Voice of the Book), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Geoffrey McGivern (Ford Prefect), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod Beeblebrox), Susan Sheridan (Trillian), Stephen Moore (Marvin), Dominic Hawksley (Elder of Krikkit), Richard Griffiths (Slartibartfast), Roger Gregg (Eddie), Bob Golding (Krikkit Civilian), Toby Longworth (Wowbagger), Henry Blofeld (himself), Fred Trueman (himself), Chris Langham (Prak), Leslie Phillips (HACTAR)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Invasion

The Hunt

InvasionRussell and fellow park ranger Mona Gomez find an old Cuban man adrift in the Everglades, stammering about how he has lost his family to “the lights.” Larkin confesses to Dave that she thinks she’s been followed since she managed to sneak into a top secret hangar at the Air Force base, shortly before Dave and Jesse join Russell to go hunting for one of the glowing creatures in the swamp. Strangely changed after his own experience in the water, Kira Underlay’s boyfriend Derek is stopped by Sheriff Underlay and warned to stay away from the sheriff’s daughter. Derek suddenly decides that he’s more interested in Mariel – despite the fact that this will surely set an even more direct confrontation in motion with the sheriff. Russell tags one of the glowing creatures with a radio device that he can track, but when he follows the signal, he discovers that these creatures can apparently take over human bodies. And Larkin finds that she is indeed being followed, though her attempt to outfox her pursuers puts her in even more danger.

Order this DVDwritten by Becky Hartman Edwards & Shaun Cassidy
directed by Lawrence Trilling
music by Jon Ehrlich & Jason Derlatka

Guest Cast: Nathan Baesel (Sirk), Matt Ross (Vince Teracoma), Sylvia Kelegian (Lucy McKittrick), Ivar Brogger (Father Scanlon), Veronica Cartwright (Valerie Shenkman), Jake Richardson (Gage), Stephen Lee (Carl McKittrick), Michael Mitchell (Derek Culie), Robert Dickenson (Newscaster), Jake Eberle (Man), Alexis Ryan (Woman), Saida Rodriguez Pagan (Newscaster #1), Reggie Jordan (Newscaster #2), Matt Sigloch (MP)

LogBook entry by Earl Green