Day: November 1, 1968

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Original Series Season 03 Star Trek

Day of the Dove

Star Trek ClassicStardate not given: Having both received distress calls from a besieged planet, the Enterprise and a Klingon ship arrive simultaneously, and Kang, the Klingon captain, forces Kirk to beam a party of Klingons aboard the Enterprise. The ship then runs into an area of turbulence, and automatic emergency systems close bulkheads on most of the ship. The Klingons escape into the Enterprise to battle an equal number of the ship’s crew. Both Klingons and Federation officers blame the ship’s problems on each other, and some individuals even see the opportunity to settle scores with their arch-enemies, but nobody realizes the real catalyst behind the violence.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jerome Bixby
directed by Marvin Chomsky
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Michael Ansara (Kang), Susan Howard (Mara), David Ross (Lt. Johnson), Mark Tobin (Klingon)

Notes: Michael Ansara reprised the role of Kang in 1994’s Deep Space Nine episode Blood Oath, and in Flashback, the 1996 30th anniversary episode of Voyager.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Search

The Bullet

SearchAfter an attempt to extract an eastern European weapons designer from behind the Iron Curtain fails, it falls to PROBE to help him defect and get him out alive, along with his designs and formulas for a poison-coated bullet that can kill a target even if it only grazes them. Lockwood ventures into enemy territory, and finds that his arrival has been anticipated. The defector whose life Lockwood means to save is killed, and when he himself is grazed by a bullet, Lockwood finds that the poisonous ammo is already in use in the eastern bloc.

written by Judy Burns
directed by William Wiard
music by Dominic Frontiere

SearchCast: Hugh O’Brian (Hugh Lockwood), Burgess Meredith (Cameron), Ina Balin (Alexia Trepov), Malachi Throne (Colonel Nobokov), Alan Bergman (Rolf Wentzel), Peter Von Zerneck (Bremer), Robert Boon (Balzak), Byron Mabe (Eagan), Genadii Biegouloff (Lieutenant), Stafford Morgan (Martin), Ron Castro (Carlos), Byron Chung (Kuroda), Amy Farrell (Murdock), Ginny Golden (Keach), Albert Popwell (Griffin), Walter Beakel (Harrison)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Planet Of The Apes Season 1

The Deception

Planet Of The ApesAfter narrowly escaping an unusually savage attack on the home of a fellow human who is helping them hide, Virdon and Burke follow Galen along a stretch of shoreline until their meet another ape, Fauna, who is blind. But even here, they must be careful: Fauna’s father was recently killed, and her uncle, Sestus, insists that humans were the killers. Virdon and Burke carefully conceal their identities, but just from talking to him, Fauna finds herself falling in love with Burke. In the meantime, Galen goes undercover to infiltrate a group called the Dragoons, who devote themselves to ridding their area of humans – by any and all means. Sestus is one of them, and Galen learns that even the local branch of General Urko’s forces do not approve of the Dragoons’ extreme methods. Worse yet, as part of his initiation, Galen is expected kill humans himself.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Anthony Lawrence and Ken Spears & Joe Ruby
story by Anthony Lawrence
directed by Don McDougall
music by Earle Hagen

Guest Cast: Jane Actman (Fauna), Pat Renella (Zon), John Milford (Sestus), Hal Baylor (Jasko), Baynes Barron (Perdix)

Notes: The writing/producing team of Joe Ruby and Ken Spears – also story consultant for the Planet Of The Apes TV series as a whole – is the same Ruby & Spears team behind countless children’s series and specials. For Sid & Marty Krofft, the Ruby/Spears team wrote many episodes of Wonderbug and Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, and later they wrote and produced animated series such as Thundarr the Barbarian, Mr. T, Alvin & The Chipmunks, and even animated shows based on video games such as Dragon’s Lair and Donkey Kong. Joe Ruby had been a music editor on such genre series as Time Tunnel and Lost In Space. The Deception is actually a very-thinly-veiled allegorical condemnation of the methodology and philosophy of the Ku Klux Klan.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Kolchak The Night Stalker Season 1

The Werewolf

Night StalkerIn Montana, a family is apparently killed by wolves, the first-ever attack on humans by these creatures. In Chicago, the rest of the news services’ staff is stricken by the flu, so Kolchak is sent to cover the last cruise of the S.S. Hanover, the “Queen of the Seas,” and do a series of light articles. That proves to be difficult when passengers and crew are attacked, ripped savagely apart by a shadowy figure. The captain puts a news blackout on the murders. A brief glimpse of the heavily-furred killer and the presence of the full moon, convince the reporter that a werewolf is responsible. Kolchak must prepare several loads of blessed silver buckshot from the only available source of the precious metal – the buttons from the captain’s uniform. Who is responsible? A NATO soldier stationed in Montana whose platoon was wiped out by a “wolf” attack of which he was the only survivor.

Order the DVDswritten by David Chase & Paul Playdon
directed by Allen Baron
music by Gil Mille

Guest Cast: Eric Braeden (Bernhardt Stieglitz), Dick Gautier (Mel Tarter), Henry Jones (Captain Wells), Nita Talbot (Paula Griffin), Bob Hastings (Hallem)

Notes: A weak and rather rushed script. The werewolf costume is extremely cheap. Miss Emily Cowels (Ruth McDevitt) appears in this episode, her first screen appearance, and is identified in the credits as “Edith Cowels.”

LogBook entry by Steve Crowe

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Man From Atlantis Season 1

Man O’ War

Man From AtlantisMark and the Foundation become involved in an international swim meet that is drawing not only athletes from around the world, but diplomats and even the U.S. State Department, when some kind of sea life attacks swimmers. A ransom note is received from “King Neptune” promising to unleash his fury if he isn’t paid a million dollars. Mark investigates and discovers a huge, genetically-modified jellyfish is threatening the swimmers…but this monstrous creature is controlled not by “King Neptune”, but by Mr. Schubert.

written by Larry Alexander
directed by Michael O’Herlihy
music by Fred Karlin

Man From AtlantisCast: Patrick Duffy (Mark Harris), Belinda J. Montgomery (Dr. Elizabeth Merrill), Alan Fudge (C.W. Crawford), Victor Buono (Mr. Schubert), Robert Lussier (Brent), Harvey Jason (Dashki), Gary Owens (Blaise Mullen), Monte Landis (Maitre’d), Hanns Manship (Policeman), Pat Paris (Woman on beach)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Buck Rogers Season 1

Unchained Woman

Buck Rogers In The 25th CenturyA Zetan freighter is halted when it comes within Earth jurisdiction, and when Wilma and Buck board it, they find the captain of the freighter is an android. They rewrite parts of its memory and smuggle Buck aboard, part of a well-orchestrated plan to bust Jen Burton, the lover of an accused killer, out of prison and bring her to Earth to help find the killer. Buck manages to break Burton out of prison, but upon learning that this isn’t necessarily an escape to freedom, she’s less than cooperative with him. And worse yet, the prison’s relentless android guards are in hot pursuit – and unlike their quarry, they’re impervious to the desert heat.

Order the DVDswritten by Bill Taylor
directed by Dick Lowry
music by Stu Phillips

Cast: Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Erin Gray (Wilma Deering), Tim O’Connor (Doctor Huer), Jamie Lee Curtis (Jen Burton), Michael Delano (Pantera), Bert Rosario (Sanwiller), Tara Buckman (Majel), Walter Hunter (Hugo), Robert Cornthwaite (Warwick), Danny Ades (Gymon), Jim B. Smith (Shuttle Captain), Charles Walker (Lt. Zimmerman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Ewoks Star Wars

The Season Scepter

EwoksTeebo the Ewok, again practicing magic, seems to change the seasons from summer to winter in the blink of an eye. Racing to seek the advice of Ewok leader Logray, Wicket, Teebo and the other Ewoks find not their chief, but a message from the Leaf Queen relayed by the Sun Star: the Sun King needs Logray’s help urgently. Wicket and his friends answer that call instead – not really the help the Sun King was expecting – but on the way to the Sun King’s palace, they’re attacked by the minions of the Snow King, who has stolen the Season Scepter from his brother and turned summer to winter. Those minions capture Kneesaa, and now Wicket will have to rescue her and steal the Season Scepter back…or it may be winter on Endor forever.

Ewokswritten by Bob Carrau
directed by Dale Schott
music by Patrick Gleeson

Cast: Denny Delk (Wicket), James Cranna (Teebo), Sue Murphy (Latara), Jeanne Reynolds (Kneesaa / Malani), Rick Cimino (Chief Chirpa / Logray)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Real Ghostbusters, The Season 1

When Halloween Was Forever

The Real GhostbustersAs Halloween approaches, the Ghostbusters are overworked – something is rattling the spirit world’s cage, and Egon thinks a seventh-century Irish relic on display at a museum might be to blame. Goblin-like creatures activate the relic in a ritual, releasing the spirit of Samhain, who quickly claims all of the spirits and undead of New York City as his personal minions – including Slimer. Clocks and watches around the world begin to slow, and Egon deduces that Samhain intends to bring time to a stop so that Halloween night – his night – will never end. Worse yet, Egon has a plan that requires him to send Ray, Peter and Winston into harm’s way so that he can shed some light on Samhain’s scheme.

written by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Richard Raynis
music by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy

The Real GhostbustersCast: Arsenio Hall (Winston Zeddemore), Maurice LaMarche (Dr. Egon Spengler), Lorenzo Music (Peter Venkman), Laura Summer (Janine Melnitz), Frank Welker (Dr. Raymond Stantz / Slimer), Bill Martin (Samhain), Julie Bennett (Cynthia Crawford)

Notes: The episode prominently features the song “Midnight Action”, performed by Tahiti featuring Tyren Perry and Tonya Townsend; the featured songs in the first season all originated from the official soundtrack album for the series. Samhain returns in several later episodes.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Classic Season 23 Doctor Who

Terror of the Vervoids (Trial of a Time Lord, parts 9-12)

Doctor WhoThe Doctor finally gets his chance to present his defense in his trial. He presents an adventure from his own future, in which he and new companion Melanie are summoned to a posh space luxury liner by an anonymous distress call. While the ship’s captain – who has met the Doctor on a previous occasion – and the incompetent chief of security initially regard the Doctor and Mel as stowaways, they find themselves with other problems when murders begin to occur aboard the ship, and three scientists are being very secretive about their hydroponics experiment in the ship’s cargo deck. As more passengers die mysteriously, the ship’s captain asks the Doctor to help – but, according to the evidence, the Doctor isn’t really all that helpful…which isn’t how he remembers the story.

Order the DVDwritten by Pip Baker & Jane Baker
directed by Chris Clough
music by Malcolm Clarke

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Lynda Bellingham (Inquisitor), Honor Blackman (Professor Lasky), Michael Craig (Commodore Travers), Denys Hawthorne (Rudge), Yolande Palfrey (Janet), Tony Scoggo (Enzu/Grenville), Malcolm Tierney (Doland), David Allister (Bruchner), Arthur Hewlett (Kimber), Simon Slaters (Edwardes), Barbara Ward (Mutant), Sam Howard (Atza), Leon Davis (Ortezo), Hugh Beverton (Guard), Mike Mungarvan (Duty Officer), Peppi Borza (First Vervoid), Bob Appleby (Second Vervoid), Barbara Ward (Ruth Baxter)

Broadcast from November 1 through 22, 1986

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Knights Of God

Episode 8

Knights Of GodCaptured by the resistance, Gervase and Julia are shoved into a cell to await their fate. The fighters who found them – and lost one of their number to Gervase’s bullet – want Gervase executed as a traitor, but Arthur intervenes and talks to Gervase personally, discovering that Mordrin has mentally conditioned him. Arthur sends a message through his highest-ranking contact in Mordrin’s inner circle, demanding a meeting with Mordrin himself. Mordrin receives the message and sets out to meet Arthur on neutral ground, where Mordrin ends the agreed-upon truce almost instantly by drawing a knife and handing it to Gervase. Prior Mordrin’s instructions to the boy still stand: kill the Prior’s greatest enemy. Even if that enemy is Mordrin’s estranged father, Arthur.

written by Richard Cooper
directed by Andrew Morgan
music by Christopher Gunning

Knights Of GodCast: George Winter (Gervase), Claire Parker (Julia), Don Henderson (Colley), Julian Fellowes (Hugo), John Vine (Williams), John Woodvine (Mordrin), Harrie Cookson (Brigadier Clarke), Patrick Troughton (Arthur), Gareth Thomas (Owen), Shirley Stelfox (Beth), Nigel Stock (Simon), Peter Childs (Tyrell), Jacki Webb (Nurse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Dark Page

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47254.1: Lwaxana Troi visits the Enterprise again along with a small delegation of Icarans, who communicate in telepathic imagery with no verbal elements whatsoever. To prepare them for their first meeting with the Federation council, Mrs. Troi is trying to help the Icarans learn to translate their imagery into speech, a facility they were born without. Not long after Deanna notices her mother experiencing brief episodes of intense anguish, Lwaxana collapses into a coma, and the only clues to her condition and the reason for it are held by the Icarans, who are not able to fully communicate it.

Order the DVDswritten by Hilary J. Bader
directed by Les Landau
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Majel Barrett (Lwaxana Troi), Norman Large (Maques), Kirsten Dunst (Hedril), Amick Bryam (Ian Troi), Andreana Weiner (Kestra)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Rules of Acquisition

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: Grand Nagus Zek once again plans to use DS9 as the launch pad of Ferengi business opportunities in the Gamma Quadrant, and again he sees Quark as a valuable agent in securing the financial future of the Ferengi Alliance – or a scapegoat should his efforts to make commercial inroads through the other side of the wormhole fail. A newcomer to Quark’s is another Ferengi named Pel, who is especially savvy to Ferengi rules of commerce and materialism – but flies in the face of the rules of traditional Ferengi customs, since Pel is a female in disguise who, in Ferengi society, could be jailed for stepping out of her house with clothes on.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ira Steven Behr
story by Hilary J. Bader
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Helene Udy (Pel), Wallace Shawn (Zek), Tiny Ron (Maihar’du), Brian Thompson (Zyree), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Emilia Crow (Inglatu)

Notes: This episode marks the first mention of the Dominion in Deep Space Nine. Infamously, this episode was originally broadcast with an incorrect spelling (“Aquisition”) in the episode title.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Babylon 5 / Crusade Season 2

The Fall Of Night

Babylon 5The Centauri conquest explodes into open aggression against races other than the Narn. A Narn ship arrives and and requests safe haven at B5, to which Sheridan agrees. Representatives from the Earth government and the suspicious Ministry of Peace arrive, declaring that Earth has reached a peace accord with the Centauri. As part of the Ministry of Peace’s Night Watch program, various paid informers among the station crew are obliged to report unusual events to the Ministry, including the hush-hush communication with the surviving Narn vessel. Londo summons a Centauri warship to force Sheridan to release the Narns into Centauri custody. When Sheridan refuses, a battle is fought and B5 survives, but Sheridan is ordered to apologize to Londo for the destruction of the Centauri ship. En route to his reluctant and very public apology, Sheridan finds a bomb in the station’s central core transport. Leaping out into mid-air, Sheridan escapes the exploding transport car, but he cannot escape the station’s increasing gravity as he falls toward the outer wall. Only a miracle can save him, and at Delenn’s insistence, just such a miracle emerges as Kosh finally reveals himself to all. So long as the Shadows are not aware that knowledge of their activity has spread beyond the Vorlons, Delenn says, there is still time to prepare for the coming war. But Warren Keffer’s final mission – to track down a Shadow ship in hyperspace – may have just blown the galaxy’s cover.

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

Babylon 5Cast: Bruce Boxleitner (Captain John Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Lt. Commander Ivanova), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Andrea Thompson (Talia Winters), Stephen Furst (Vir), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Robert Rusler (Warren Keffer), Mary Kay Adams (Na’Toth), Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Roy Dotrice (Frederick Lantz), Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan), Juli Donald (Pilot #1), Rick Hamilton (Mitch), Robin Sachs (Na’Kal), John Vickery (Mr. Welles), Donovan Brown (Pak’Ma’Ra Ambassador), Joshua Cox (Tech #1), Elisa Beth Garver (Tech #2), Mark Hendrickson (Narn #1), Joshua Patton (Human/Minbari Kosh), Kim Strauss (Drazi Ambassador)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 5 Xena: Warrior Princess

Them Bones, Them Bones

Xena: Warrior PrincessXena and Gabrielle’s peaceful morning is ended when the warrior begins having sharp pains in her abdomen. They rush to a village healer. At the healer’s, Xena awakens from a horrible vision and tells Gabrielle and Amarice, who has joined them, that she must go see Yakut. The trio sets off for the northern Amazon village.

Yakut greets them. She has also seen the vision. The young shamaness has another vision and says that there’s a woman in it bearing the mark of the shamaness. Xena realizes that it is Alti. The warrior makes the decision to enter Alti’s realm to stop her from attacking her baby, but Gabrielle insists on taking her place for the baby’s and Xena’s sake. In the vision quest, Alti tells Gabrielle that she doesn’t want to harm the baby, but wants to return to the physical plane and that Xena should find a way to make this happen.

Order the DVDswritten by Steven L. Sears & R.J. Stewart
directed by John Fawcett
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Claire Stansfield (Alti), Jennifer Sky (Amarice), Kate Elliot (Yakut), Donogh Rees (Chi’Ah), Beryl Te Wiata (Midwife), Rachel Hayward (Amazon), and Argo

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Spock vs. Q Star Trek

Spock Vs. Q

Spock Vs. QUsing the Guardian of Forever, Spock travels back to the twilight of the 20th century to warn humanity of an impending asteroid collision – one which history doesn’t record. The unflappable Vulcan is annoyed when an omnipotent being named Q appears, frustrating Spock’s efforts to save Earth from disaster. Spock quickly learns, however, that he can manipulate Q almost as well as Q can manipulate time, space and matter, and sets about engaging Q in a battle of wits that, if Spock wins, will mean that Q must put his powers to use to set history right.

Order this CDwritten by Cecelia Fannon

Cast: Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), John de Lancie (Q)

Notes: Recorded before a live audience as part of Nimoy and de Lancie’s Alien Voices live radio project, Spock Vs. Q was a pet project for both actors; there are no other cast members at all. The dialogue is clearly rooted in the late 90s, with references to infomercials, Seinfeld, and “yadda, yadda, yadda” thrown into the mix. If one is going to actually try to fit this into the Star Trek timeline, it is hinted that Spock is already in his post-Starfleet, Next Generation-era diplomatic career, though if one is going to try to slot this into continuity somewhere, one might as well blame the mystery asteroid threat on the temporal cold war.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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