Day: November 1, 2000

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek Voyager

Critical Care

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: A few days after an alien pharmaceutical salesman makes a sales pitch aboard Voyager, it is discovered that the holographic Doctor’s program has been replaced by an early backup copy. As Voyager begins to trace the path of the untrustworthy salesman, the real Doctor is activated in an alien hospital whose patients receive treatment based upon an arbitrary computer evaluation of their worth to society. The Doctor is whisked from Level Red, where patients lie dying in an unsanitary area, to Level Blue – a top-of-the-line medical facility where patients who are considered more valuable to society receive cutting-edge treatment. The Doctor has been sold to the hospital’s administrators as a new piece of diagnostic technology, but instead of cooperating, he begins to steal medication from Level Blue to give to the impoverished patients in Level Red. But the Doctor’s attempts to change the hospital’s way of doing things may have tragic consequences.

Order the DVDsteleplay by James Kahn
story by Kenneth Biller & Robert Doherty
directed by Terry Windell
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: John Kassir (Gar), Dublin James (Tebbis), Larry Drake (Chellick), Gregory Itzin (Dysek), Paul Scherrer (Voje), Christinna Chauncey (Level Blue Nurse), Stephen O’Mahoney (Med Tech), John O’Heir (Husband), John Durbin (Alien Miner), Debi A. Monahan (Adultress), John Franklin (Kipp)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Firefly Season 1

Shindig

  • By Dave
  • November 1, 2002

FireflySerenity returns to Persephone in search of work. Simon tries to help River through one of her bouts of erratic behavior. Inara agrees to accompany Atherton Wing, a young noble, to a ball, while Badger approaches Mal with an offer. Sir Warwick Harrow wants some cargo shipped to his holdings offworld on Jiangyin, despite Alliance regulations to the contrary. Badger needs someone of a certain bearing to make contact with the noble – at the very same ball where Wing is asking Inara to remain with him permanently. Mal brings a very excited Kaylee to the party, but his negotiations are interrupted by an argument with Wing. When Wing insults Inara, Mal punches him and thus inadvertently challenges him to a duel with swords. The highly skilled fencer accepts, and Badger sends his men to Serenity to ensure that none of Mal’s crew interfere and somehow damage Badger’s reputation. With only an evening of lessons under his belt, no one gives Mal much of a chance. But Mal isn’t going to go down without a fight – and he doesn’t necessarily promise it’s going to be a fair one.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jane Espenson
directed by Vern Gillum
music by Greg Edmonson

Guest Cast: Mark A. Sheppard (Badger); Edward Atterton (Atherton Wing); Larry Drake (Sir Warwick Harrow)

Notes: Mal’s prior dealings with Badger, referenced in this episode, took place in the episode Serenity. A new introduction narrated by Mal appears at the beginning of this episode.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 3

The Cost of Living

  • By Dave
  • November 1, 2006

LostFlashback: Eko returns to Yemi’s church after his death, where he is soon confronted by militia members who want to take most of the vaccines supplied by the Red Cross. Eko has his own way of dealing with this threat, one that is not fully in keeping with the Scriptures.

The Island: Eko has a vision of his brother, telling him that he must confess his sins. Still somewhat delirious from his wounds, he nonetheless leaves camp to return to the plane by the Pearl Station. Locke is also organizing an expedition to the Pearl with Sayid and Desmond, looking for a way to contact the Others using the hatch’s equipment. He decides to offer an open invitation, so Charlie goes along, as do Nikki and Paulo, who have been feeling left out of much of the excitement. The catch up with Eko, who has another confrontation with the black cloud. Inside the Pearl, Nikki realizes that they should be checking to see if they can observe any other hatches – which they briefly manage to do.

In the Others’ camp, Jack deduces that Ben has the spinal tumor, which seems to unnerve Ben enough to admit that their plans to win Jack into their confidence have been derailed. And Juliet seems to have her own ideas about how the surgery should go. But as always, the question is whether any of the Others are to be trusted.

Order the DVDswritten by Alison Schapker & Monica Owusu-Breen
directed by Jack Bender
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: Kiele Sanchez (Nikki), Rodrigo Santoro (Paulo), Michael Bowen (Pickett), Adetokumboh MCormack (Yemi), Muna Otaru (Amina), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Emeka), Jermaine Scooter Smith (Daniel), Michael Robinson (Trader), Ariston Green (Guard), Lawrence Jones (Soldier), Alicia Young (Blind Woman)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Sarah Jane Adventures Season 4

The Empty Planet – Part 1

The Sarah Jane AdventuresClyde and Rani wake up one morning to find that they’re apparently the only human beings left anywhere in the world. Even Sarah has vanished without a trace – even leaving her sonic lipstick – and Mr. Smith is completely inert. The power is still on, but mobile phone networks are down. Clyde wonders why cars and planes haven’t crashed everywhere they go. After nearly a day of searching, they find one other human teenager, a boy named Gavin, and more trouble than they can handle, in the form of two huge robots roaming the streets.

Get the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Gareth Roberts
directed by Ashley Way
music by Sam Watts / title music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Jocelyn Jee Esien (Carla Langer), Joe Mason (Gavin), Paul Kasey (Red Robot), Ruari Mears (Yellow Robot)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 10

Dear Dave

Red DwarfLister finds himself missing the human race, despite Kryten’s attempts to remind him that the human race never did anything for him. Lister’s rampant depression soon affects even Rimmer, who faces a crisis of his own: having not reported to a single day of work in over three millennia (by virtue of being dead), Rimmer is in danger of having his rank reduced automatically per Jupiter Mining Corporation policy. Lister seeks solace wherever he can, even to the point of striking up a relationship with one of the ship’s vending machines, which leads to a bit of a misunderstanding with a piece of machinery whose job it is to dispense snacks…

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Doug Naylor
music by Howard Goodall

Red DwarfCast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Isla Ure (Dispenser 23 / Dispenser 34)

Notes: Once again, Lister’s pining for the human race seems to completely discount Red Dwarf VIII and its nanobot-replicated crew.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
For All Mankind Season 1

Red Moon

For All MankindJune 26, 1969: Around the world, people gather to watch live television coverage of the first moon landing carried out by human beings from Earth. The coverage is of particular interest to those at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, where Mission Control is packed with engineers and Apollo astronauts, watching as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to set foot on the surface of the moon.

Everyone from the American public to President Nixon demands answers – what happened to NASA’s commanding lead in the race for the moon? Chief astronaut Deke Slayton and Wernher von Braun, the architect of NASA’s Saturn V rocket, find themselves facing the questions of the press. Apollo 10 astronaut Ed Baldwin, like many of the rest of his fellow astronauts, spend the following weekend drowning their sorrows and frustrations at the bar…but Baldwin makes the mistake of opening up to a reporter about how timid and risk-averse he feels NASA has become. When his comments make headlines, Baldwin is pulled from the flight rotation, losing his seat aboard Apollo 15…assuming there is an Apollo 15 following both the Soviets’ surprise victory. NASA and the rest of America continue to pin their hopes on the upcoming Apollo 11 mission, though any talk of ramping up that mission’s schedule is squelched by the need for the crew to not land in total darkness. If, for any reason, Apollo 11 fails, the American space program will likely fail with it.

For All Mankindteleplay by Ronald D. Moore
story by Ronald D. Moore & Matt Wolpert & Ben Nedivi
directed by Seth Gordon
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Colm Feore (Wernher von Braun), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Ben Begley (Charlie Duke), Rebecca Wisocky (Marge Slayton), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Jeff Branson (Neil Armstrong), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Ryan Kennedy (Michael Collins), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Daniel Scott Robbins (Hank Poppen), Deniz Akdeniz (Paul Santoro), Brandon Bales (Winston Blake), Dave Power (Frank Sedgewick), Nick Wechsler (Fred), Steven Pritchard (Pete Conrad), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Tony Lewellen (Coop), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), William Lee Holler (young Jimmy Stevens), Graciana Rosales (Vanessa Lyon), Jeffrey Muller (Del), Max Barsness (Tommy), Christopher Wallinger (Harvey), Paolo Cesar (Guide), Christopher Kohls (Control Officer), Curtis Fortier (Reporter #1), Brian Houtz (Reporter #2), Laura Patalano (Teresa), Frank Gallegos (Angel), Margarita Reyes (Elena), Colton Castaneda (Jim)

For All MankindNotes: Best described as an alternate history of what would have unfolded following surprise Soviet steps on the lunar surface, For All Mankind is an exercise in total speculation and facts that have come to light since the real Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who had already made history as the first human spacewalker, was indeed the Soviets’ choice to command their first lunar mission, though repeated spectacular failures of the real N-1 rocket kept the Soviets from ever putting cosmonauts in lunar orbit, let alone landing there (launch attempts were made in February 1969, as noted in this episode’s dialogue, July 1969, June 1971, and November 1972). Additionally, Nixon’s speech – written for him in the event of the death of the Apollo 11 crew – was indeed real, written by White House speechwriter Bill Safire; the original document, repeated word-for-word in this episode, can be seen online in the National Archives.

Replaced by fictional alternates for dramatic purposes in this story were the actual crew of Apollo 10, astronauts Thomas Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young; of the three, only Stafford was still alive at the time this episode aired. Gene Kranz was indeed the lead flight controller on duty for the Apollo 11 landing, though he would become more famous for his relentless push to get the men of the doomed Apollo 13 mission home in 1970, which is the actual source of his quote, “Failure is not an option.” The Apollo Applications Program was a real program as well, and while it perhaps wasn’t as “sexy” as landing on the moon, it wasn’t viewed as “Siberia”, as it would beget such real missions as the Skylab space station program and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Apollo Applications was simply a typically dry name for a program that would have put the Apollo technology originally For All Mankinddeveloped for the moon landings to use for practical applications both closer to Earth, and further away, including long-duration lunar missions and even an audacious crewed orbital mission to Venus in an uprated Apollo command/service module, a mission which never left the drawing board; in real life, Apollo Applications would fall victim to President Nixon’s aggressive push for what was hoped would be a more cost-effective, reusable vehicle called the Space Shuttle.

Co-created by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Battlestar Galactica writer Ronald D. Moore, For All Mankind is staffed behind the scenes with a considerable number of alumni from both series, including writer/producers Naren Shankar, David Weddle, and Bradley Thompson, producer Steve Oster, technical consultant Michael Okuda, and casting director Junie Lowry-Johnson.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
For All Mankind Season 1

He Built The Saturn V

For All MankindSeptember 1969: Thanks to the lopsided but miraculously survivable landing, and later successful return, of Apollo 11, NASA is still in the business of going to the moon, but when the CIA obtains blueprints for a Soviet lunar military base, the stakes get higher. Wernher von Braun and the rest of NASA have new marching orders from President Nixon to do whatever is necessary to beat the Soviet Union to this goal, beginning with Apollo 12. von Braun ridicules the idea; Apollo is meant to be a civilian scientific endeavor in his eyes. This doesn’t sit well with Nixon, however, and in Washington the wheels begin turning to oust von Braun from his very secure seat at NASA. One person who becomes key to this plan is grounded astronaut Ed Baldwin, but when invited to offer public testimony before Congress, Baldwin takes responsibility for sticking to Apollo 10’s non-landing flight plan, and then resigns from NASA to rejoin the Navy. And when von Braun is invited to testify, he is ambushed with accusations that he had full knowledge that Jewish slave laborers were worked to death to build his V2 rockets during World War II. The launch of Apollo 12 is moved up from December to September 1969, but the Soviets launch another lunar mission of their own just before Apollo 12’s liftoff, again upstaging NASA – this time by putting the first woman on the moon.

For All Mankindwritten by Matt Wolpert & Ben Nedivi
directed by Seth Gordon
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Colm Feore (Wernher von Braun), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Saul Rubinek (Rep. Charles Sandman), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Arturo Del Puerto (Octavio Rosales), Olivia Trujillo (Aleida Rosales), Ben Begley (Charlie Duke), Meghan Leathers (Pam Horton), Jeff Branson (Neil Armstrong), Chris Agos (Buzz Aldrin), Ryan Kennedy (Michael Collins), Noah Harpster (Bill Strausser), Nick Toren (Tim “Bird Dog” McKiernan), Daniel Scott Robbins (Hank Poppen), David Andrews (Admiral Scott Uken), Nick Wechsler (Fred), Steven Pritchard (Pete Conrad), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Teya Patt (Emma), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), William Lee Holler (young Jimmy Stevens), Shaw Jones (Capcom), Jeffrey Muller (Del), Max Barsness (Tommy), Jason Denuszek (Magazine Photographer), Rita Khrabrovitsky (Anastasia Belikova), Rachel Rosenbloom (Doris), Jessica Amlee (Ginger), Krystal Torres (Cata), Janelle Froehlich (Pauline), Laura Long (Trish)

For All MankindNotes: Though it provides a very dramatic visual, the non-remote-controlled television camera attached to Eagle‘s descent stage could not have panned, tilted, or otherwise followed the ascent stage of the lunar module without someone still being on the ground to control it, nor could it have been detached to offer a wide-angle view of Eagle itself. Remote-controlled cameras capable of following the ascent stage up weren’t part of any Apollo mission’s standard equipment until the later missions equipped with lunar rovers (Apollo 15, 16, 17).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
For All Mankind Season 1

Nixon’s Women

For All MankindJanuary 1970: With the Soviets having put a woman on the moon with their second lunar landing, the White House orders NASA to make it a priority to do the same. 20 women are selected as astronaut candidates: some already experienced pilots, some already working for NASA, some of them previously considered during NASA’s brief period of testing women as potential Mercury astronauts. One of the more controversial choices is Tracy Stevens, wife of Apollo 15 astronaut Gordo Stevens and herself a pilot with light aircraft experience, though she hasn’t flown since getting married and starting a family. But for political and PR purposes, Tracy has “most favored nation” status among the candidates, something which earns the scorn of the other women selected when she keeps making the cut despite scoring the lowest. When one of NASA’s Lunar Orbiter satellites detects ice in a crater – an ingredient for long-term stays on the moon, including the lunar base Nixon is demanding.

For All Mankindwritten by Nichole Beattie
directed by Allen Coulter
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Joel Kinnaman (Edward Baldwin), Michael Dorman (Gordo Stevens), Sarah Jones (Tracy Stevens), Shantel VanSanten (Karen Baldwin), Jodi Balfour (Ellen Waverly), Wrenn Schmidt (Margo Madison), Chris Bauer (Deke Slayton), Sonya Walger (Molly Cobb), Eric Ladin (Gene Kranz), Michael J. Harney (Jack Broadstreet), Dan Donohue (Thomas Paine), Krys Marshall (Danielle Poole), Cass Buggé (Patty Doyle), Nate Corddry (Larry Wilson), Brian Stepanek (Shorty Powers), Spencer Garrett (Roger Scott), Teya Patt (Emma), Teddy Blum (young Shane Baldwin), Jason Scott David (young Daniel Stevens), Benjamin Seay (Ray Schumer), Dan Warner (General Arthur Weber), Devin McCarthy (Janice), Kate Rodman (Megan), Leia Hurst (Barbara), Benjamin Burton (Murph), Nick Echols (Chaddie)

For All MankindNotes: The incident in which Neil Armstrong had to punch out of the lunar landing research vehicle (nicknamed the “flying bedstead”) because it was about to crash was real and well-documented. Ironically, while water ice has been detected in shaded craters on the lunar surface, the first such detection took place when samples returned by the Soviet Luna 24 lander, launched in 1976, were analyzed on Earth. Confirmation of that find can be credited to NASA instruments which were carried to the moon on India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe in 2009. Given the fictitious hunt for a suitable spot for a lunar military base that is part of this series’ alternate-history plotline, it’s likely that in such a circumstance, the real Lunar Orbiter program – which scouted suitable Apollo landing sites in the span of just over a year between 1966 and ’67 – would have been extended beyond five orbiters.

LogBook entry by Earl Green