Day: November 12, 2012

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Season 1 Wizards vs. Aliens

Rebel Magic – Part 1

Wizards vs. AliensVarg and Lexi accost a teenage wizard named Jackson Hawke and try to abduct him to drain his magic. He quickly shows that he has no intention of becoming their latest victim – and has the magic to back it up despite his modest age – by banishing them to the Egyptian desert with a single spell.

Tom is having problems at school – his grades are falling because he had been using magic to complete his homework, magic which he now feels he has to reserve for Nekross-related emergencies. Naturally, Tom’s dad has a thing or two to say about this revelation, and even at school, Tom is finding himself ostracized from his old crowd because of his recent tendency to spend his time with Benny. Tom narrowly escapes being mugged when Jackson Hawke steps in, and Tom is immediately fascinated by the older boy’s magical prowess, though he quickly learns that Jackson uses magic to avoid school, to avoid work, to avoid paying for anything – and he’s ready to teach Tom how to use his magic the same way.

Order the serieswritten by Joseph Lidster
directed by Griff Rowland
music by Sam Watts

Wizards vs. AliensCast: Scott Haran (Tom Clarke), Percelle Ascott (Benny Sherwood), Annette Badland (Ursula Crowe), Michael Higgs (Michael Clarke), Jefferson Hall (Varg), Gwendoline Christie (Lexi), Brian Blessed (voice of the Nekross King), Tim Rose (Nekross King puppeteer), Connor Scarlett (Quinn Christopher), Andy Rush (Jackson Hawke), Joshua Herdman (Steve), Claire Cage (Julia Hawke), Holli Dempsey (Meena)

Notes: The Nekross King devoured his own brother to ascend to the throne; it’s apparently not uncommon for sibling rivalries to be resolving in this manner on their planet.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Discovery Season 1 Star Trek

Into The Forest I Go

Star Trek: DiscoveryStardate not given: The crystalline transmitter on planet Pahvo is sending a homing signal identifying its location to both Starfleet and the Klingon fleet. Though ordered to withdraw to protect the Discovery‘s one-of-a-kind technology, Captain Lorca is ready to stay and fight. Saru and Burnham devise a means of gathering data on the Klingon cloaking device through a series of over a hundred spore drive jumps in rapid succession. In lieu of a suitable tardigrade creature, Lt. Stamets prepares to serve as the spore drive’s navigator yet again, over Dr. Culber’s objections. Burnham and Lt. Tyler beam over to the Klingon ship of the dead to plant the sensors that will gather the data, but discover that they’re not the only human life signs on board: Admiral Cornwell is still alive in Klingon captivity. So is L’Rell, imprisoned by Kol for her treachery. Burnham has to go it alone when the sight of L’Rell leaves Tyler in a state of post-traumatic shock, and to buy time, Burnham reveals herself and challenges Kol to a duel. Though Burnham is unable to overpower Kol, it will be his last fight as the Discovery gains the upper hand by finding the means to defeat the cloaking device. Burnham, Tyler and Cornwell are beamed safely back aboard Discovery, but L’Rell throws herself at Tyler in order to escape as well, and is promptly thrown in the brig. Though weakened, Stamets volunteers to navigate Discovery for one last jump home…though it would seem that Lorca still isn’t ready to return to Earth.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonwritten by Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt
directed by Chris Byrne
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), Kenneth Mitchell (Kol), Michael Ayres (Transporter Technician), Conrad Coates (Admiral Terral), Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer), Julianne Grossman (Disocvery Computer), Patrick Kwok-Choon (Rhys), Sara Mitich (Airiam), Oyin Oladejo (Joann Owosekun), David Benjamin Tomlinson (Klingon Bridge Officer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Mars Season 2

We Are Not Alone

Mars2042: Mars has been occupied by human scientists and engineers for nine years, working toward the dual goals of finding out more about past microbial life native to the planet and making Mars habitable for human colonists. The original Mars colony has blossomed into a city-like outpost called Olympus Town, another ship from the International Mars Science Foundation is en route, and China has put a crewed space station in orbit of the red planet. But company is coming: Lukrum, a mining corporation from Earth with enough money to go interplanetary, is sending the crew and equipment for its own colony on Mars, devoted not to scientific research but to strip-mining for profit. Their ship’s arrival is explosive, to say the least, with its jettisoned heat shield raining debris down on Olympus Town. Worse yet, Lukrum’s workers arrive on Mars with a demand to connect to Olympus Town’s water supply, citing international treaties requiring the IMSF outpost to assist astronauts in distress. But Hana Seung, still in command of Olympus Town, is skeptical since Lukrum’s “distress” is by design, not by accident. A pipeline is approved by the IMSF, but what isn’t approved is the breakneck pace of construction – putting Lukrum’s employees and the IMSF colonists at risk – or the shortcut that Lukrum Base commander Kurt Hurrelle decides to take through an area that the IMSF has set aside for research.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Dee Johnson
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Stephen Cragg
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Esai Morales (Roland St. John), Martin Angerbauer (Danny), Naomi Christie (Zhen Zhen Yow), Nicholas Goh (Gan Chen), Shea Hephner (Chelsea Hurelle), Timea Kasa (Clerk), David Miller (Assistant), Nicholas Wittman (Oliver Lee)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 1

Star Wars: The MandalorianYears after the Rebel victory at Endor leaves the Empire scattered and disorganized, a Mandalorian bounty hunter brings in his latest catch…but finds that he has a choice of being paid in full in near-useless Imperial credits, or being paid half in Mon Calamari currency. With the Empire’s fall and order returning slowly under the New Republic, there’s plenty of work for a bounty hunter, but most of it tends to be low-paying retrieval of bail jumpers. But the Mandalorian is offered one job of interest: the capture and return of an “asset” – preferably alive – of importance to a man working with a group of Imperial loyalists and holdovers. The pay is good, but the details of the “asset” – other than it being a fifty-year-old life form – are frustratingly sparse. The Mandalorian takes the job, only to fall afoul of the local fauna, and then discovers that a bounty droid, IG-11, has beaten him to the life form’s hiding place, artlessly doing away with any hope of using the element of surprise in the process. There’s little choice but to team up with the droid…until the true nature of the Mandalorian’s quarry is revealed.

The Mandalorianwritten by Jon Favreau
directed by Dave Filoni
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), Werner Herzog (The Client), Omid Abtahi (Dr. Pershing), Nick Nolte (voice of Kuiil), Taika Waititi (voice of IG-11), John Beasley (Bartender), Horatio Sanz (Mythrol), Tait Fletcher (Alpha Trawler), Ryan Watson (Beta Trawler), Dmitrious Bistrevsky (Quarren Trawler), Christopher Bartlett (Ferryman), Brian Posehn (Speeder Pilot), Emily Swallow (Armorer), Misty Rosas (Kuiil performance artist), Rio Hackford (IG-11 performance artist)

The MandalorianNotes: Set seven years after the fall of the Empire in Return Of The Jedi (and well before the rise of the First Order sometime prior to either The Force Awakens or Star Wars: Resistance), The Mandalorian is the first live-action Star Wars television series to make it into production, and the first live-action Star Wars television of any kind since 1985’s Ewoks: The Battle For Endor. There’s a dialogue nod to the first-ever Star Wars TV special with the Mythrol’s passing mention of Life Day (1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special); apparently his captor is unconvinced of his desire to celebrate a Wookiee holiday. Unlike previous bounty hunters we’ve met in the movies, the Mandalorian has his own carbon freezing facility on board his ship, so no side trips to Cloud City are necessary.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Daleks!

The Archive Of Islos

Daleks!The Dalek fleet descends upon the planet of Islos, wiping out most of its orbital defenses within minutes. Their target: the Archive of Islos, containing information the Dalek Emperor needs for the ongoing Dalek war effort. The people of Islos go to ground, leaving their automated Archivians – artificially intelligent librarians of the archive – to deal with the Daleks. The Chief Archivian finally, after the planet has been heavily bombarded, offers the Archives to the Emperor Dalek, who orders his ship to land there to claim his prize. But what he discovers is that the Archivians have merely been stalling to cover their masters’ escape…with the contents of the now-empty Archive.

written by James Goss
directed by Peter Caddock and Jon Doyle
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Ayesha Antoine (Chief Archivian), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks)

Notes: Daleks! is set within the “Time Lord Victorious” alternate timeline transmedia event, and as such is not bound to some elements of Doctor Who continuity. (Other elements of Time Lord Victorious included novels, audio dramas, and comics, Daleks!all of them in a timeline somewhat removed from what is usually considered Doctor Who continuity.) Visually, there is a very strong influence from the Century 21 Dalek comics of the 1960s, including Dalek hoverbouts and an Emperor Dalek with a spherical head, as well as something of a video game aesthetic. The episodes were distributed via the BBC’s Doctor Who YouTube channel, and this episode has a running time of 13 minutes, 47 seconds.

LogBook entry by Earl Green