Day: December 4, 1959

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1960s Season 1 Twilight Zone

Judgment Night

The Twilight Zone1942: an Allied passenger ship, S.S. Queen of Glasgow, has become separated from her convoy in enemy waters during the height of the German U-Boat threat in World War II. One passenger, a Mr. Lanser, admits to being from Germany and seems very distracted. This arouses the suspicions of his fellow passengers, who begin trying to find out more about him. Lanser has little recollection of how he came to board the Queen of Glasgow, but his memory returns at the same time the others discover his true identity: he’s a German boat captain – the one responsible for sinking the S.S. Queen of Glasgow.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by John Brahm
music not credited

Cast: Nehemiah Persoff (Carl Lanser), Deirdre Owen (Barbara Stanley), Patrick Macnee (First Officer McLeod), Ben Wright (Captain Wilbur), Leslie Bradley (Major Devereaux), Kendrick Huxham (Bartender), Hugh Sanders (Potter), Richard Peel (1st Steward), Donald Journeaux (2nd Steward), Barry Bernard (Engineer), James Franciscus (Lt. Mueller)

The Twilight ZoneNotes: This is one of those Twilight Zone episodes that’s crawling with future genre stars, including Patrick Macnee (1922-2015), barely two years before taking on the role of Steed in ITV’s The Avengers, James Franciscus (1934-1991), future star of Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, and Nehemiah Persoff, who guest starred in Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, The Six Million Dollar Man, Logan’s Run, Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Space: 1999

Earthbound

Space: 1999As Commissioner Symonds, stranded on Moonbase Alpha since the moon was thrown free of Earth’s orbit, chides Commander Koenig for not trying to find a way to reverse the moon’s course, an small alien spacecraft is detected hurtling toward the moon. The ship crash-lands, and Koenig leads an expedition to see if there are any survivors. What his team finds is a number of humanoids in suspended animation, though the first attempt to revive one of them proves disastrous – and an automatic security system awakens the others, who naturally want to know why one of their crew is dead. Koenig manages to convince the aliens to move their vehicle to Moonbase Alpha for repairs, but is annoyed when Symonds tries to pull rank upon meeting the alien visitors. As it happens, Captain Zantor and his crew happened to be mounting a peaceful exploration of Earth, and Helena’s examination reveals Zantor’s people to be perfectly compatible with humanity. Forgiving the death of his crew member, Zantor even offers the vacant stasis chamber to one member of Koenig’s crew, and Symonds jumps at the chance to go back to Earth, even though it’s a 75-year trip. Helena insists on testing the aliens’ equipment to ensure suitability for a human passenger, but she is put into a deeper state of suspended animation by accident – and with the open seat to Earth now filled by accident, Symonds wants to take Zantor’s entire ship by force.

Order the DVDswritten by Anthony Terpiloff
directed by Charles Crichton
music by Barry Gray
additional music by Vic Elms

Guest Cast: Roy Dotrice (Commissioner Symonds), Christopher Lee (Captain Zantor), Prentis Hancock (Paul Morrow), Clifton Jones (David Kano), Zienia Merton (Sandra Benes), Anton Phillips (Dr. Mathias), Nick Tate (Alan Carter)

Notes: Some of the background atmosphere sounds heard as Koenig’s crew enters the alien spacecraft are well-known to viewers of other British SF staples – namely as part of the background sound loop of many a Dalek control center in Doctor Who.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Ark II

The Balloon

Ark IIAdam spots a balloon trapped in a tree, with a message attached, printed in Greek. Samuel begins working on a translation while Jonah and Ruth scout ahead in the Roamer, only to have the way back to Ark II blocked by an avalanche. Samuel finishes translating the message and warns his friends that they’re walking into an isolationist village whose population is falling to an infectious disease. The messages, sent by the father of the village’s leader, ask for help from the outside world, something forbidden by the leader’s laws. Even when Jonah promises that the Ark’s advanced medicines could save lives, his help is refused – and then he finds that even he isn’t immune.

teleplay by Peter L. Dixon & Robert Specht
story by Peter L. Dixon
directed by Hollingsworth Morse
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael and Horta-Mahana

Ark IICast: Terry Lester (Jonah), Jean Marie Hon (Ruth), Jose Flores (Samuel), Guy Stockwell (The Leader), John Beal (Grandfather), Christian Juttner (Ben), Del Monroe (Masked Man), Mel Novak (First Guard), Lou Scheimer (voice of Adam)

Notes: Guy Stockwell (1934-2002) appeared in dozens of TV series and movies, among them Land Of The Giants, Voyagers!, Knight Rider and The Wild, Wild West. He appeared in an episode of Quantum Leap with his younger brother, Dean Stockwell.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Electra Woman & Dyna Girl

The Spider Lady – Part 1

Electra Woman & Dyna GirlThe embassy of the foreign country Baklava invites the press to view the Golden Spider, a priceless artifact from Baklava that has never before been on public display, and Lori and Judy are in attendance with a third reporter. Frank’s Crime Scope alerts him to the fact that a notorious criminal, the Spider Lady, has arrived in town at the same time, almost certainly not a coincidence. The two heroines rush into danger, and Electra Woman is captured. Spider Lady uses her amazing abilities of disguise to assume Electra Woman’s form.

written by Gerry Day and Bethel Leslie
directed by Walter Miller
music not credited

Electra Woman & Dyna GirlCast: Deidre Hall (Lori / Electra Woman), Judy Strangis (Judy / Dyna Girl), Norman Alden (Frank Heflin), Tiffany Bolling (The Spider Lady), Bruce Fischer (Spinner), Robert Raymond Sutton (Leggs), Andrea Lovell (Electra Woman’s Clone), Andy Veneto (Monk), Marvin Miller (Narrator)

Notes: This is the only instance in the entire series that the Electra Car is seen on location outside of Electra Base. All of the vehicle’s other appearances were shot in front of bluescreen for special effects shots showing it driving or flying. Andrea Lovell is better known as Andrea Hall, Deidre Hall’s twin sister. Guest star Tiffany Bolling would go on to star in a big-screen spider-stravaganza, 1977’s Kindom Of The Spiders, opposite William Shatner.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
KTMA Season Mystery Science Theater 3000

Experiment K04: Gamera Vs. Barugon

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The KTMA SeasonMST3K Story: Joel is happy with the calls he’s gotten recently and has a number for people to use. Joel and the Bots spend a lot of time listening to their messages. Crow and Servo do an Abbot & Costello-like routine, but Joel thinks they’ve gone a bit nutty. Later, based on a caller’s request for “more Chapstick”, Joel applies loads of it to the Bots. Crow, thinking about Chapstick, goes on a long rant on lubricants, culminating in his famous advice to “never stick anything in your ear larger than a pirate”. At the end, the Bots are making crank calls and Crow goes on and on about dog behavior.

Gamera Vs. Barugon Story: Ichiro Hirata, a crippled war veteran, backs a group of men (Onodera, Kawajiri and Ichiro’s brother Keisuke) on a mission to find a giant opal Ichiro discovered during the war. When they find the opal over the objections of the natives, Onodera orchestrates the death of Kawajiri and seals Keisuke in a cave where he is eventually rescued. Repenting against his previous actions, Keisuke joins with a native girl, Karen, to retrieve the opal. They arrive in Japan too late, as Onodera has murdered Ichiro and the opal has turned out to be an egg that has hatched revealing the monster Barugon. It grows to enormous size and destroys the city with its powerful tongue and rainbow beam, even defeating Gamera in a brief battle. After numerous attempts to destroy Barugon fail, Gamera returns and defeats it.

MST3K segments written by Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Josh Weinstein, Jim Mallon & Kevin Murphy
MST3K segments directed by Vince Rodriguez
Gamera Vs. Barugon written by Nisan Takahashi (as Nizo Takahashi)
Gamera Vs. Barugon directed by Shigeo Tanaka
Gamera Vs. Barugon music by Chuji Kinoshita

MST3K Guest Cast: none

Gamera Vs. Barugon Cast: Kojiro Hongo (Keisuke Hirata), Kyôko Enami (Karen), Koji Fujiyama (Onodera), Yoshiro Kitahara (Professor Amano), Akira Natsuki (Ichiro Hirata), Ichirô Sugai (Dr. Matsushita), Yuzo Hayakawa (Kawajiri)

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

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Heroes Season 1

Fallout

HeroesIn the aftermath of the rescue of Claire Bennet, the FBI team tracking Sylar goes to Odessa, Texas to look for clues. Parkman meets Peter Petrelli, who is unable to explain his miraculous survival when he and Sylar fell from the top of the stadium bleachers – and for a moment, Peter can read Parkman’s mind just like Parkman can read his. Sylar, on the other hand, is now in custody – but not FBI custody. He awakens in a secure cell, captured by Mr. Bennet and his people, who intend to all but dissect him to learn how he can have more than one power. Bennet has his hands full in other areas too; he’s gone into full damage control mode with the homecoming incident, trying his best to conceal Claire’s part in it and, in fact, trying to eliminate any memory of what happened aside from a mysterious, grisly death at the school. Claire now has no way to hide her healing ability from him, but then she finds that he’s known all along. Bennet frees Isaac Mendez after keeping the artist locked up long enough to kick his heroin habit again, and Mendez promptly calls Hiro, who is depressed after learning that he can’t make major changes to history. Mendez goes to meet Hiro and Ando and, for the first time, creates one of his pieces of clairvoyant artwork without the influence of drugs – not that this can help him to explain why he’s drawn a picture of Hiro heroically wielding a sword…against a huge dinosaur.

Order the DVDswritten by Joe Pokaski
directed by John Badham
music by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman / vocals by Shenkar

Guest Cast: Clea Duvall (Audrey Hanson), Nora Zehetner (Eden McCain), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Thomas Dekker (Zach), Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Black Mirror Season 1

The National Anthem

Black MirrorA member of the Royal Family is kidnapped, and a YouTube video demands that the Prime Minister perform a degrading act on live television to secure her release…or the next video will likely be that of her death. With mere hours before the deadline, the Prime Minister and his staff try to explore numerous avenues of at least appearing to comply with the demand, including backup plans that backfire when word gets out from a bystander on social media. Time is running out, and throughout 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister Michael Callow and his aides concentrate on the issue most important to them during this crisis: the poll numbers.

Get the DVDswritten by Charlie Brooker
directed by Otto Bathurst
music by Martin Phipps

Black MirrorCast: Rory Kinnear (Michael Callow), Lindsay Duncan (Alex Cairns), Donald Sumpter (Julian Hereford), Tom Goodman-Hill (Tom Bilce), Anna Wilson-Jones (Jane Callow), Patrick Kennedy (Section Chief Walker), Alastair Mackenzie (Martin), Chetna Pandya (Malaika), Alex MacQueen (Special Agent Callett), Jay Simpson (Rod Senseless), Helen Fospero (Lucinda Towne), Lydia Wilson (Princess Susannah), Sophie Kennedy Clark (Lauren), Andrew Knott (Brian), Allen Leech (Pike), Johann Myers (Noel), Sophie Wu (Jamie), Rakie Ayola (Shelly), Amit Shah (Jack), Nick Hendrix (Andrew), Justin Edwards (Jon), Jeany Spark (Camilla), Aymen Hamdouchi (Kieran), Julian Rivett (Damon Brown), Jonathan Forbes Black Mirror(Browne), Madeliene Bowyer (Sonia), Jeffry Wickham (Sir Harold Mount), Shazad Latif (Mehdi Raboud), Eleanor Wyld (Young Actress), Wolf Wasserman (Spark), Mickell David (Son), Dominic Le Mougnan (Prince)

Note: Shazad Latif would, several years later, take on the role of Ash Tyler in Star Trek: Discovery. (The plot details of this episode have been significantly watered down in the above synopsis; suffice to say, Black Mirror isn’t for kids.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mandalorian, The Season 2

Chapter 14: The Tragedy

Star Wars: The MandalorianAs instructed by Ahsoka, the Mandalorian takes Grogu to the seeing stone remaining in the ruins of a Jedi temple, where his connection to the Force may attract other Jedi who can train him. As Grogu communes with the Force, however, a ship lands nearby. The Mandalorian investigates, meeting a man claiming to be Boba Fett, and demanding the armor recovered by the Mandalorian on Tatooine, which he says belonged to him and his father before him. Fett has also enlisted the help of bounty hunter Fennec Shand, whose life he saved on Tatooine, and pledges both of their help in protecting Grogu in exchange for the armor. But the arrival of squadrons of Imperial stormtroopers prevents any further negotiations. Fett and Shand make good on their promise to protect Grogu, but Moff Gideon, commanding an Imperial cruiser overhead, sends Darktroopers to retrieve Grogu, and destroys the Razor Crest with a single well-placed shot to prevent the Mandalorian from following him. Since Grogu is still not safe, Fett and Shand still plan to honor their pledge to help the Mandalorian retrieve him.

The Mandalorianwritten by Jon Favreau
directed by Robert Rodriguez
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett), Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand), Giancarlo Esposito (Moff Gideon), Gina Carano (Cara Dune), Gabriel Ebert (Gunnery Officer), Katy O’Brian (Comms Officer)

The MandalorianNotes: Boba Fett offers no explanation as to how he survived the Sarlacc on the planet Tatooine (Return Of The Jedi, 1983), so fans attached to the explanations in prior novels and comics can rest easy because nothing here explicitly contradicts those tellings of events. Another piece of legacy Star Wars media that remains intact is the LucasArts video game Star Wars: Dark Forces, which originated the Darktroopers in 1995 and inspired a series of audio dramas a few years later. Fennec Shand first appeared in season one’s The Gunslinger.

LogBook entry by Earl Green