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Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

Balance Of Terror

Star Trek ClassicStardate 1709.1: Responding to distress calls from border outposts along the Neutral Zone between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire, Kirk and the crew receive a final message from a Federation station reporting an attack from an invisible ship. Before the station is destroyed, it sends the Enterprise a brief view of the attacking vessel – a streamlined fighter which appears for a second when it fires. Hurrying to the scene, the Enterprise engages in battle with a Romulan Bird of Prey, armed with a cloaking device and commanded by a battle-scarred and tired commander whose crew is more eager to go into combat than he is. The Romulans, to the Enterprise crew’s amazement, bear a stunning resemblance to Vulcans, which arouses suspicion in some, including Lt. Styles, whose father died in a battle with the Romulans years ago. But as long as the Romulan ship can remain invisible, the Enterprise is at a disadvantage.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Paul Schneider
directed by Vincent McEveety
music by Fred Steiner

Cast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Mark Lenard (Romulan Commander), Paul Comi (Styles), Lawrence Montaigne (Decius), Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand), Stephen Mines (Lt. Tomlinson), Barbara Baldavin (Angela), Garry Walberg (Hansen), John Warburton (The Centurion)

Note: The unusual similarities between Vulcans and Romulans are finally addressed in 1991 in the Next Generation Unification two-parter, in which Spock, in his 120s or older, traveled to Romulus to investigate resuming relations between the Vulcans and Romulans.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series Season 02 Star Trek

Obsession

Star Trek ClassicStardate 3619.2: While a landing party is conducting a routine survey of a planet, two crewman are killed and one badly injured by a cloudlike being Kirk suddenly believes he has encountered before. It turns out that the creature attacked a ship that Kirk had been stationed on years before and killed most of the crew, and Kirk feels that he should have been able to do more to save his former crewmates. He transfers that guilt to the surviving landing party member, who not only is considered responsible by Kirk, but is also the son of Kirk’s former captain on that previous assignment. Kirk orders the Enterprise to follow the creature through space, determined to kill it – at any cost – before it can take more lives.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Art Wallace
directed by Ralph Serensky
music by Sol Kaplan

Cast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Stephen Brooks (Ensign Garrovick), Jerry Ayres (Rizzo), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ghost Story / Circle Of Fear

Creatures Of The Canyon

Ghost StoryJust widowed, Carol Finney is having to learn to live life without her husband around, with quite a bit of help from her sister Georgia. Not making matters any easier is that fact that her neighbor, Mr. Mundy, seems unable to control his dog, Adam – a Doberman formerly owned by the Finneys. After Adam snarls at her from just outside her front door a couple of times, Carol feels compelled to ask Mundy to tie the dog down at night, which he refuses to do. Georgia, who is scared of large dogs, takes more decisive action to solve the Adam problem, but that action is not only inhumane, but triggers off a series of events with deadly consequences for both sisters.

Ghost StoryOrder the complete seriesteleplay by Del Reisman
directed by Walter Doniger
music by Billy Goldenberg and Robert Prince

Cast: Sebastian Cabot (Winston Essex), Angie Dickinson (Carol Finney), John Ireland (Arthur Mundy), Madlyn Rhue (Georgia Strauss), Mary Murphy (Maggie Mundy), Robert Donner (Ralph)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series (Animated) Season 01 Star Trek

The Slaver Weapon

Star Trek ClassicStardate 4187.3: Spock, Sulu and Uhura are en route to Starbase 25 via shuttlecraft, carrying a valuable cargo – a stasis box, an unimaginably rare artifact of a rase of slavers that ruled the galaxy a billion years prior to the rise of man. As the shuttle passes Beta Lyrae, the stasis box begins to glow – indicating another stasis box in close proximity. Spock orders Sulu to land the shuttle on an ice planet, but the landing party discovers that the sensor readings of a second stasis box are a trap, and all three are captured by the telepathic, carnivorous Kzinti, a felinoid species whose previous conflicts with mankind have proven unsuccessful. Hoping to even the score of centuries of wars, the Kzinti hope to discover a weapon to give them a deadly technological leap ahead of humanity…and the ancient contents of the stasis box may include that weapon.

Order the DVDswritten by Larry Niven
adapted from the story “The Soft Weapon” by Larry Niven
directed by Hal Sutherland
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff Michael

Cast: William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott / Lt. Arrex), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel / Lt. M’ress)

Notes: The Slaver Weapon is one of the more interesting experiments with Star Trek continuity, as it blends in Larry Niven’s Man-Kzin Wars books with Roddenberry’s universe. The episode also claims that the artificial gravity field commonly used aboard starships is derived from a flight belt recovered from a previous stasis box, which conflicts with virtually every later series’ assertion that artificial gravity was a human invention.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Starlost, The

The Return Of Oro

The StarlostDevon and his friends encounter a wounded wanderer named Williams, who has been exploring the Ark on his own since long before Devon’s party left Cypress Corners. A scavenger and thief by nature, Williams has been felled by some sort of automatic defense system of a kind that Devon has never seen; when he asks the nearest sphere projector why Williams was blasted, Devon learns that someone has assumed control of the Ark – and isn’t prepared to say if this is good or bad news until he knows who it is. When Devon discovers that the alien visitor named Oro is now in charge of the Ark, he decides it’s bad news; the news only gets worse when Oro reveals that the Ark is being flown to his home planet of Exar so he can claim a salvage prize. Devon, Garth and Rachel – with the shifty Williams in tow – start trying to regain control of the Ark, while Oro insists that their only options are the Ark’s eventual collision with a star or being forced down on Exar, which may not even support human life.

Get this season on DVDwritten by Norman Klenman
directed by Francis Chapman
music by Score Productions, Ltd.

Guest Cast: Walter Koenig (Oro), Henry Beckman (Williams), Philip Stevens (Tau Zeta), Patricia Moffatt (voice of Tau Zeta), Jim Barron (Computer Voice), William Osler (The Host)

Notes: Had the series lasted much longer, this might have served as a major turning point, as Devon formally gains control of the Ark’s systems in this episode (although episodes that aired after this one seem to ignore this rather significant development); despite this, Devon still doesn’t know what he needs to do to change the ship’s course. At the end of the story, Oro is left stranded on the Ark, presumably to serve as an ongoing villain, but the series didn’t last long enough to see a third appearance.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 11 Doctor Who

The Time Warrior

Doctor WhoA battle-scarred Sontaran spaceship crashes in medieval England near the castle of Irongron, a plundering pirate who intends to overrun the nearby castle belonging to Sir Edward of Wessex. Linx, the Sontaran warrior, strikes an agreement with Irongron – Linx can repair his ship in Irongron’s castle, in exchange for giving him advanced weapons which are centuries ahead of the times. But Linx finds it impossible to conduct his repairs with nothing more advanced than Irongron’s forge, so he used what’s left of his ship’s technology to abduct scientists and materials from the 20th century. U.N.I.T. is called in to investigate, and the Brigadier isolates all of the remaining scientists who are likely to vanish in one securely guarded premise. But when another scientist disappears under the Doctor’s nose, he follows the trail to Irongron’s castle, where he finds himself up against the much more powerful and warlike Linx.

written by Robert Holmes
directed by Alan Bromly
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Kevin Lindsay (Linx), David Daker (Irongron), John J. Carney (Bloodaxe), Sheila Fay (Meg), Donald Pelmear (Professor Rubeish), June Brown (Lady Eleanor), Alan Rowe (Edward of Wessex), Gordon Pitt (Eric), Jeremy Bulloch (Hal), Steve Brunswick (Sentry), Jacqueline Stanbury (Mary)

Broadcast from December 15, 1973 through January 5, 1974

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Star Blazers

Break Through The Gamilus Absolute Defense Line

Star BlazersD minus 315 days: The Argo encounters a space minefield, and Venture plots a course around the deadly obstacles, only to discover that they’re programmed to follow the ship. The mines slowly surround the ship until it’s impossible for the Argo to move any further. Sandor and IQ-9 undertake a grueling mission to defuse the control mine. As Desslok and his aides watch, the crew of the Argo salvages its ship by removing the mines by hand – a solution the enemy of the human race never would have anticipated.

Order the DVDswritten by Keisuke Fujikawa & Eiichi Yamamoto
directed by Leiji Matsumoto
music by Hiroshi Miyagawa

Season 1 Voice Cast: Kenneth Meseroll (Derek Wildstar), Tom Tweedy (Mark Venture), Amy Howard (Nova), Eddie Allen (Leader Desslok), Lydia Leeds (Starsha), other actors unknown

Note: This is the first episode in which Desslar/Desslok’s skin appears to be blue; in the first ten episodes, he seemed to have a rather normal caucasian human skin tone. No explanation is given for the change.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Automan

Pilot

AutomanPolice officer Walter Nebicher is a danger to himself and others on the beat, so the chief of police puts him in the job best suited to him: running the department’s computers. Walter, still determined to fight crime in his own way, creates an artificial intelligence that manifests itself as a solid hologram – Automan, “the world’s first fully automatic man.” As long as he has sufficient power to draw upon, Automan can fight crime, starting with the mysterious disappearance of Lt. Jack Curtis, Walter’s friend and fellow officer who was following on a lead regarding shady activity at a private security company. Walter’s computer also points to the same company and its executives as a potential suspect, and he and Automan (and Automan’s tiny assistant Cursor, which can create vehicles for Automan on demand) set out to solve the mystery…but Automan must disappear to recharge when his power runs low, leaving Walter to improvised his way through tricky situations.

written by Glen A. Larson
directed by Lee H. Katzin
music by Stu Phillips / Automan Theme by Billy Hinsche and Stu Phillips

AutomanCast: Desi Arnaz Jr. (Walter Nebicher), Chuck Wagner (Automan), Heather McNair (Roxanne Caldwell), Gerald S. O’Loughlin (Capt. Boyd), Robert Lansing (Lt. Jack Curtis), Patrick Macnee (Lydell Hamilton), Steven Keats (Collins), Robert J. Hogan (Peterson), James Antonio Jr. (Cramer), Robert Dunlap (Chuck Wilson), Don Galloway (Martin Wills), Doug McClure (Det. Ted Smithers), Camilla Sparv (Tanya), Sid Haig (1st Gang Member), Mickey Jones (2nd Gang Member), Gloria LeRoy (Landlady), Herman Poppe (Swiss Guard), Carol Vogel (Joanne Wills), Dennis Fimple (The Taxi Driver), Kristina Hayden (Stewardess), Ed Hooks (Parking Attendant), Angela Lee (Wills Girl #1), Tricia Tomicic (Wills Girl #2)

AutomanNotes: Created by Glen A. Larson and obviously inspired by Disney’s heavily-promoted 1982 movie Tron, Automan takes the concept of a man from inside the computer world…and drops it into a buddy cop show. Without the budget for the manually-animated intricate body armor of Tron, Automan instead used a technique called front-axial projection, illuminating Chuck Wagner’s special reflective costume (and similarly reflective detailing tape on Automan’s various vehicles) with a powerful but narrowly focused light mounted to the camera itself. If Glen Larson had any visions of an Automan empire, they were quickly dashed – the show lasted less than one full season on ABC.

AutomanGuest star Patrick Macnee (1922-2015) was a frequent flier guest star on American TV, having established himself as the debonair star of the long-running, light-hearted British spy show The Avengers, which originally started out darker and featured Macnee’s character of Mr. Steed as its second banana. Sid Haig is also a mainstay of American genre TV, known best to science fiction fans as Dragos, self-styled Master of the Cosmos, the chief bad guy in the 1970s Filmation live-action series Jason Of Star Command. Automan mentions that Walter has programmed him to take sharp 90-degree turns – inspired by Tron‘s light cycles, but here chalked up to the 90-degree turns taken by video game characters such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Jeremiah Season 2

The Question

JeremiahAt Thunder Mountain, Smith learns that he may never regain the use of the arm that took a bullet in his shootout with Libby, a shootout whose details he’s still keeping secret from everyone else. Not so secret is the fact that Thunder Mountain is going to have to raise an army of its own keep standing up against the forces of Daniel – and once enough recruits show up, Kurdy is expected to train them into an effective fighting force. Skeptical of his leadership abilities, Kurdy turns out to be better than anyone else expected of him. But even that may not be enough to keep his recruits alive when they find themselves thrust into a real firefight.

Order the DVDswritten by J. Michael Straczynski
directed by Mario Azzopardi
music by Tim Truman

Guest Cast: Peter Stebbings (Marcus), Nicholas Cleary (Kent), Enid-Raye Adams (Gina), Michael Adamthwaite (Ed), Lara Azzopardi (Brianna), Kerri Smith (Leader), Kevan Ohtsji (Leader), Adrian Holmes (Leader)

Appearing in footage from Man Of Iron, Woman Under Glass: Suzy Joachim (Megan)

Notes: Enid-Raye Adams also appeared in J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5: The Legend Of The Rangers, as the Minbari healer Firell.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 3

The Eye Of Jupiter

Battlestar GalacticaAs the Colonials gather food from the planet, Tyrol ventures into the nearby mountains and discovers a thousand-year-old temple. Roslin believes it may be a relic of the lost thirteenth tribe of humanity, and a means to find Earth. But before anything can be done about this discovery, four Cylon base ships jump into close proximity – and then startle everyone by not launching an all-out attack. Instead, the Cylons request a face-to-face meeting with Adama, and they bring Baltar with them. The Cylons demand access to the temple in exchange for letting the humans go free. When Adama doesn’t take them up on the offer, they sweeten the pot by offering to hand over Baltar as well – and in reality, both sides realize, the Cylons have no intention of letting the human race survive. Adama sets his own terms: if the Cylons attack either Galactica or the planet, which still has a large contingent of people gathering food, he’ll nuke the temple so nobody can have it. But how ready is he to make good on that threat?

written by Mark Verheiden
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Lucy Lawless (D’anna Biers), Michael Trucco (Anders), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavel), Brad Dryborough (Hoshi), Eileen Pedde (Sgt. Mathias), Alisen Down (Barclay), Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (Hybrid), Diego Diablo Del Mar (Dillard), Aleks Paunovic (Marine Sgt. Fischer), Tygh Runyan (Pvt. Byers)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Sequel Trilogy Star Wars

The Last Jedi

Star Wars: The Last JediThe Resistance, having enraged the leadership of the First Order by destroying Starkiller Base, is now on the run as the former Empire cuts off its supply lines and escape routes. A small flotilla of Resistance ships manages to escape, but General Hux and the First Order fleet are close behind them, pursuing at sublight speed to avoid overshooting their prey. Poe Dameron, still the most daring pilot in the Resistance, defies orders to take out the most heavily-armed dreadnought-class Star Destroyer, but his defiance – and the heavy losses incurred – cost him his rank. Kylo Ren is similarly facing the disdain of his Dark Side master, Supreme Chancellor Snoke, who chides him for not having the singular strength of will that his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, did. Ren leads a strike on the Resistance fleet that almost results in his mother’s death; Leia’s latent Force powers save her life, but she is in no shape to lead the fleet, leaving Vice Admiral Holdo to assume command of what’s left of the Resistance. Finn, losing his nerve during the First Order’s onslaught, considers abandoning ship in an escape pod until he’s dissuaded by a young technician named Rose Tico, whose sister was one of the Resistance pilots killed in Poe’s ill-advised, unauthorized strike on the dreadnought – or, more accurately, Finn is dissuaded by a laser tool Rose is carrying for the express purpose of preventing potential deserters. When the First Order demonstrates the ability to track the Resistance fleet through hyperspace, it suddenly seems that Rose’s expertise in hyperdrive and Finn’s knowledge of First Order ship layouts is a promising combination…if only they can get aboard. A hot tip from Maz points them, with BB-8 in tow, to the luxury planet Canto Bight, where a renowned codebreaker can be found gambling in the casino. But Finn and Rose and their rolling droid stand out like sore thumbs among the Canto Bight elite, and are unable to get close enough to talk to the codebreaker in question before they’re locked up. They meet a fellow prisoner who claims to have the same skills they need to breach the defense of Snoke’s command ship.

During all of this, Rey, Chewie and R2-D2 have traveled to the obscure ocean planet Ahch-To, where Luke Skywalker (and various local life forms) tend to the ruins of what’s said to be the first Jedi temple. Luke is not at all happy to be disturbed from his solitude, informing Rey rather bluntly that he has come to this planet to age and die in peace, and to keep the sacred and ancient Jedi texts with him. Rey also discovers that he has forsaken use of the Force: Luke feels that the hubris of the Jedi led to the decades of suffering that resulted from the Sith and the Empire dominating the galaxy. The days of the Jedi, Luke has decided for himself, must come to an end. But shaken by news of Han’s death, and given a reminder of his own youthful yearning to become something greater, Luke reluctantly agrees to teach Rey the ways of the Force. He discovers along the way that her ability to tap into the Force may rival that of Kylo Ren himself – Ben Solo, Luke’s former protege who turned to the Dark Side. Luke’s fears may be founded, too: Kylo Ren and Rey are able to see and speak to one another despite the vast distances between them. Rey believes Ren can be turned away from Snoke’s influence, and since her mentor refuses to return to the fight against the First Order, she sets off to recruit Ren as an ally. Enraged, Luke sets out to burn down the last remains of the Jedi temple and the texts contained within, only to discover that his own mentor has beaten him to it…and unaware that Rey has already taken the texts with her.

Chewie drops Rey off in an escape pod near the First Order flagship, where Kylo Ren awaits her arrival and introduces her to Snoke, who uses the Force to extract Luke’s whereabouts from Rey’s mind. When she continues to declare her intent to resist Snoke, he orders Ren to kill her, but Ren instead kills Snoke, and a vicious battle with Snoke’s personal retinue of bodyguards ensues, during which Rey and Ren have to fight together. But once that threat is dealt with, Ren reveals that he killed Snoke to ascend to his throne and assume his position of power, not to help the Resistance. Finn, Rose, BB-8 and their new codebreaking acquaintance also sneak aboard the flagship to disable the hyperspace tracker, only for the shifty codebreaker to sell them out to the First Order. Aboard the last surviving Resistance cruiser, Poe Dameron has grown tired of Admiral Holdo’s secretive style of command and tries to mount a mutiny, only to have that uprising personally quashed by Leia, fresh out of the medical bay, still frail, but still fiercely determined. Poe’s point of contention is that Holdo is preparing to order the entire remaining Resistance to abandon the nearly-out-of-fuel cruiser in unarmed sublight transports, which will then limp to a nearby planet and the relative safety of an abandoned Rebel base from the days of the Empire, while the First Order (hopefully) concentrates all of its attention on the cruiser. Admiral Holdo remains on the cruiser to act as a decoy, but the First Order targets the helpless transports and begins blasting them out of the sky, one by one, until Holdo suicidally jumps the cruiser to lightspeed, ramming through Snoke’s flagship. Rey, Finn, Rose and BB-8 escape and make their way to the Rebel base, where Leia has ordered a distress call to be transmitted to allies of the Resistance – a call that seems to be going unanswered as First Order forces surround the base…until Luke Skywalker, last of the Jedi, appears from nowhere, conferring briefly with Leia before going outside to personally face off against Kylo Ren. The fight does not go the way that anyone expects, and buys the Resistance time to escape…but at this point, the Resistance has been whittled down in size to the point that they all fit inside the Millennium Falcon.

Order the DVDswritten by Rian Johnson
directed by Rian Johnson
music by John Williams

The Last JediCast: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker / Dobbu Scay), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Andy Serkis (Snoke), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Domnhall Gleeson (General Hux), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico), Laura Dern (Vice Admiral Holdo), Benicio Del Toro (DJ), Frank Oz (Yoda), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Amanda Lawrence (Commander D’Arcy), Jimmy Vee (R2-D2), Brian Herring (BB-8), Dave Chapman (BB-8), Justin Theroux (Master Codebreaker), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), Tom Kane (Admiral Ackbar), Adrian Edmondson (Captain Peavey), Mark Lewis Jones (Captain Canady), Hermione Corfield (A-Wing Pilot Tallie), Veronica Ngo (Paige Tico), Noah Segan (X-Wing Pilot Starck), Jamie Christopher (X-Wing Pilot Tubbs), Paul Casey (C’al Threnalli), Michael Coel (Resistance Monitor), Jonathan Harden (Resistance Monitor), Dan Euston (Resistance Bombardier), Priyanga Burford (Resistance Medical Officer), Navin Chowdhry (Resistance Cargo Pilot), Andrew Jack (General Ematt),
Crystal Clarke (Resistance Transport Pilot), Aki Omoshaybi (Resistance Bridge Officer), Togo Igawa (Resistance Bridge Officer), Hugh Skinner (Holdo’s First Officer), Tim Steed (Holdo’s First Officer), Simon Lowe (Resistance Hangar Captain), Joe Van Moyland (Temporary Command Center Resistance Pilot), Shauna MacDonald (Temporary Command Center Resistance Pilot), Darren Morfitt (Transport Deck Officer), Gerard Monaco (First Order Commander), Kate Dickie (Hux’s First Order Monitor), Patrick O’Kane (Hux’s First Order Officer), Paul Bazely (Hux’s First Order Officer), Orion Lee (Canady’s First Order Monitor), Amira Ghazalla (Canady’s First Order Commander), Ralph Ineson (Senior First Order Officer), Akshay Kumar (Mega-Destroyer First Order Monitor), Michael Jibson (Kylo’s Shuttle Pilot), Luke Neal (Canto Cop), Andy Nyman (Jail Guard), Temirlan Blaev (Stable Boy), Josiah Oniha (Stable Kid), Sara Heller (Stable Kid), Matthew Sharp (Resistance Trench Sergeant “Salty”), Lily Cole (Party Girl Lovey), Warwick Davis (Wodibin), Kiran Shah (Neepers Panpick), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (voice of Slowen Lo), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb), Gareth Edwards (Resistance Trench Soldier), Jack Greenlees (Resistance Evacuation Officer), Danny Sapani (Medical Frigate Captain), Kevin Layne (Resistance Bomber Pilot #1), Ben Morris (Resistance Bomber Pilot Teene)

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green