Year: 1966

Categories
Batman Season 2

The Greatest Mother Of Them All

BatmanGotham City’s annual Mother of the Year presentation ceremony descends into chaos as Ma Parker and her crime family rob everyone present at gunpoint, getting away with all of the attendees’ jewelry and purses. Commissioner Gordon is eager to put the Dynamic Duo on the case, but just as they’re being brief on Ma Parker’s lengthy rap sheet, the Gotham City Police corner Ma Parker and her gang in their backwoods hideout. Batman and Robin arrive to help, capturing one of Ma Parker’s sons as the rest of the gang escapes. Using Batman’s crime computer, they deduce where Ma Parker will strike next, again nabbing one of her sons. The pattern repeats until Ma Parker and her daughter, the last remaining members of the gang at large, are arrested, and all are taken to the Gotham City penitentiary. As Batman and Robin drive away in the Batmobile, they wonder…was ending Ma Parker’s criminal reign just a little too easy?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Henry Slesar
directed by Oscar Rudolph
music by Nelson Riddle / Batman theme by Neal Hefti

BatmanCast: Adam West (Batman), Burt Ward (Robin), Alan Napier (Alfred), Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon), Stafford Repp (Chief O’Hara), Madge Blake (Mrs. Cooper), Shelley Winters (Ma Parker), Tisha Sterling (Legs), David Lewis (Warden Crichton), Michael Vandever (Mad Dog), Peter Brooks (Machine Gun), Robert Biheller (Pretty Boy), James Griffith (Trusty), James O’Hara (Policeman), Kirby Brumfield (Truck Driver), Lyzanne La Due (Nurse), Fran Ryan (Chairlady)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Batman Season 2

Ma Parker

BatmanBy allowing her sons and other gang members to be captured one-by-one, Ma Parker has slowly infiltrated and taken over the Gotham City penitentiary: there are more of her men there than there are actual prison wardens. One of them has left a little surprise for the Caped Crusaders under the hood of the Batmobile, set to detonate when the speedometer hits 60 miles per hour, but they haven’t counted on Batman’s conscientious observation of the posted 55mph speed limit. When Batman discovers the dynamite under the hood, he returns to the prison, but still doesn’t discover Ma Parker’s plan. It takes a bomb blast and a bank robbery in downtown Gotham City for Batman to realize that the inmates are now controlling the prison…and when he and Robin arrive at the prison, Ma Parker’s expecting them.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Henry Slesar
directed by Oscar Rudolph
music by Nelson Riddle / Batman theme by Neal Hefti

BatmanCast: Adam West (Batman), Burt Ward (Robin), Alan Napier (Alfred), Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon), Stafford Repp (Chief O’Hara), Madge Blake (Mrs. Cooper), Shelley Winters (Ma Parker), Tisha Sterling (Legs), David Lewis (Warden Crichton), Michael Vandever (Mad Dog), Peter Brooks (Machine Gun), Robert Biheller (Pretty Boy), James Griffith (Trusty), Lee Meriwether (Catwoman)

BatmanNotes: Though the theatrical movie between seasons can lay claim to being the first all-star villain team-up against Batman and Robin, Catwoman’s (uncredited) appearance here marks the first hint of such a joining of forces in the TV series. The Joker and the Penguin are said to be in solitary, but Ma Parker opts to leave them there so they know she’s running the prison now…which also handily means that the show’s guest star budget isn’t blown wide open in the middle of the tenth episode of the season! The prisoner number on Legs’ uniform looks suspiciously more like her costume measurements than the numbers on any of the other prison uniforms.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

The Enemy Within

Star Trek ClassicStardate 1672.1: As a landing party surveys a planet, a transporter malfunction splits Kirk into an aggressive aspect and a timid one. The aggressive Kirk threatens the security of the ship and crew, while the passive one tries to maintain his sanity and ability to command. In the meantime, the cause of the transporter problems haven’t been determined, stranding Sulu and the team in the planet’s subfreezing night temperatures while the two sides of Kirk’s personality fight for control of the Enterprise.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Richard Matheson
directed by Leo Penin
music by Sol Kaplan

Cast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Star TrekKelley (Dr. McCoy), Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand), George Takei (Sulu), James Doohan (Scott), Edward Madden (Fisher), Garland Thompson (Wilson), Jim Goodwin (Farrell)

Notes: Writer Richard Matheson had already contributed over a dozen scripts to The Twilight Zone, and his novel “I Am Legend” – the source of most modern zombie mythology – had already seen its first screen adaptation as The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price; “I Am Legend” would later be remade as The Omega Man (starring Charlton Heston) and finally under its original title in 2007 with Will Smith. Matheson also wrote for the revivals of Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, and wrote the poorly-received miniseries adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles”.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

The Tenth Planet Part 1

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS arrives at a military base on the South Pole in 1986. The base is routinely tracking a spacecraft in orbit when odd things begin to occur. The base guards discover a trio of oddly-dressed people outside, emerging from a police box, and then observatories (and the orbiting capsule) spot the approach of a planet which is identical in mass and geography to Earth. The planet, previously hidden on the other side of the sun, is speculated to be Mondas, Earth’s identical twin, though the planet’s existence was previously only the stuff of legend; the Doctor confirms this, almost as if he has been expecting its arrival. Undetected by the base personnel, a spacecraft from Mondas lands at the polar base, and its occupants stun the guards outside before advancing on the base itself…

written by Kit Pedler (credited onscreen as “Kitt Pedler”)
and Pat Dunlap and Gerry Davis (not credited onscreen)
directed by Derek Martinus
music not credited

Doctor WhoCast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), Robert Beatty (General Cutler), Dudley Jones (Dyson), David Dodimead (Barclay), Alan White (Schultz), Earl Cameron (Williams), Shane Shelton (Tito), John Brandon (American Sergeant), Anneke Wills (Polly), Michael Craze (Ben), Steve Plytas (Wigner), Christopher Matthews (Radar technician)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

Mudd’s Women

Star Trek ClassicStardate 1329.1: After stealing a freighter and pushing its engines to their limits in an effort to escape the pursuing Enterprise, Harry Mudd and his cargo – three seemingly irresistable women – are recovered. Although Mudd can’t help but be suspicious, the women follow his instructions to cripple the Enterprise without any questions from the male members of the crew. The dilithium crystals powering the ship are sabotaged, and Mudd intends to force Kirk to bargain for his crew’s life when the Enterprise arrives at a dilithium mining outpost.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Stephen Kandel
story by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Harvey Hart
music by Fred Steiner

Star TrekCast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd), Karen Steele (Eve), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), Maggie Thrett (Ruth), Susan Denberg (Magda), James Doohan (Scott), George Takei (Sulu), Jim Goodwin (Farrell), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Gene Dynarski (Ben), Jon Kowal (Herm), Seamon Glass (Benton), Jerry Foxworth (Guard)

Notes: Guest star Gene Dynarski would rack up another Trek role (Krodak in The Mark Of Gideon) before the end of the original series, and later guest starred in Star Trek: The Next Generation as a Starbase commander overseeing repairs and upgrades to Picard’s Enterprise (11001001, 1988). He also had guest roles in the 1960s Batman series, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Land Of Giants, and The X-Files, as well as an appearance in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

The Tenth Planet Part 2

Doctor WhoCybernetically augmented humans – Cybermen – have emerged from the spacecraft to take control of Snowcap Base. Their world, Mondas, was thrown out of its orbit around the sun long ago, forcing its inhabitants to turn to cybernetics to preserve their species. Now, having succumbed entirely to the machinery that was only intended to extend their lives, the Cybermen face another kind of extinction. Mondas is a dying planet, and the Cybermen hope to colonize Earth for its resources – and its population – starting with initiating a transfer of Earth’s energy to Mondas.

written by Kit Pedler (credited onscreen as “Kitt Pedler”)
and Pat Dunlap and Gerry Davis (not credited onscreen)
directed by Derek Martinus
music not credited

Doctor WhoCast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), David Dodimead (Barclay), Dudley Jones (Dyson), Robert Beatty (General Cutler), Christopher Matthews (Radar technician), Reg Whitehead (Krail), Harry Brooks (Talon), Gregg Palmer (Shav), Michael Craze (Ben), Anneke Wills (Polly), Steve Plytas (Wigner), Ellen Cullen (Geneva Technician), Glenn Beck (TV Announcer), Earl Cameron (Williams), Alan White (Schultz), Roy Skelton (Cyberman voice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Star Trek ClassicStardate 2712.4: The Enterprise is en route to visit Dr. Korby, a brilliant scientist working in isolation who also happens to be Nurse Chapel’s fiance. Kirk and Chapel beam down and discover that Korby has used abandoned technology left behind by an extinct civilization to create android companions for himself – one of which, an attractive and very user-friendly “girl,” arouses Chapel’s suspicions. Korby, however, has become deranged in his isolation, and wants to take over the Enterprise so he can populate the “inferior” organic universe with androids…

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Robert Bloch
directed by James Goldstone
music by Fred Steiner

Star TrekCast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Michael Strong (Dr. Roger Korby), Sherry Jackson (Andrea), Ted Cassidy (Ruk), Majel Barrett (Christine Chapel), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Harry Basch (Brown), Vince Deadrick (Matthews), Budd Albright (Rayburn)

Notes: Appearing in a rare speaking role here, Vince Deadrick Sr. has been one of Hollywood’s busiest stuntmen, with credits as recent as the Pirates Of The Carribean movies. His son, Vince Deadrick Jr., is also an in-demand stuntman, and was the primary stunt double for Scott Bakula throughout the run of Star Trek: Enterprise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

The Tenth Planet Part 3

Doctor WhoWith his son trapped in the orbiting space capsule with limited oxygen, General Cutler of Snowcap base has grown weary of standing idly by as the Cybermen hatch their plan for a takeover of Earth. But Cutler’s plan – which he sets in motion against the protests of both the United Nations and the Doctor, who seems increasingly exhausted by the struggle against the Cybermen, doesn’t offer much better odds of survival: a series of atomic bombs in strategic locations around the Earth will render the planet unsuitable for the Cybermen, but probably for humanity as well. With the Doctor out of commission, Ben takes it upon himself to try to sever Cutler’s remote control connection to the bombs.

written by Kit Pedler (credited onscreen as “Kitt Pedler”)
and Pat Dunlap and Gerry Davis (not credited onscreen)
directed by Derek Martinus
music not credited

Cast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), Robert Beatty (General Cutler), Christopher Matthews (Radar technician), Christopher Dunham (R/T technician), Anneke Wills (Polly), Michael Craze (Ben), David Dodimead (Barclay), Dudley Jones (Dyson), Callen Angelo (Terry Cutler), Steve Plytas (Wigner), Ellen Cullen (Geneva Technician)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

Miri

Star Trek ClassicStardate 2713.5: A remarkably Earthlike planet is the home of a human-like civilization whose entire adult population was wiped out by a virulent disease. The children remain, although their growth has been slowed down to the point that Miri – a teenage girl found by Kirk and a landing party – could easily by 300 years old. Miri develops a crush on Kirk, but at the same time reports back to a gang of unruly children who plot to kidnap the landing party, beginning with Yeoman Rand. Kirk, Rand and even Miri begin to show signs of the disease, which gives Kirk a chance to prove that the disease will eventually kill all of the children – but they are unwilling to admit they need help or the “stuffy” advice of an adult.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Adrian Spies
directed by Vincent McEveety
music by Alexander Courage

Star TrekCast: William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Kim Darby (Miri), Michael J. Pollard (Jahn), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand), Keith Taylor (Jahn’s Friend), Ed McCready (Boy Creature), Kellie Flanagan (Blonde Girl), Steven McEveety (Redheaded Boy), David Ross (Security Guard #1), Jim Goodwin (Farrell), John Megna (Little Boy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

The Tenth Planet Part 4

Doctor WhoCutler blames everyone from the Doctor to Ben to his own personnel for the failure of his plan to render Earth toxic to the Cybermen, who have now invaded other parts of Earth and taken Polly as a hostage to ensure the Doctor’s cooperation. Time is running out for the Cybermen as Mondas continues to drain Earth’s energy, something which the Doctor warns will destroy their world as well as damaging Earth. The Doctor seems to know about the fate of Mondas and its people already…but he also seems to have a premonition of something else, a momentous change that could render him helpless in the ensuing battle with the emotionless Cybermen.

written by Kit Pedler (credited onscreen as “Kitt Pedler”)
and Pat Dunlap and Gerry Davis (not credited onscreen)
directed by Derek Martinus
music not credited

Doctor WhoCast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), Anneke Wills (Polly), Michael Craze (Ben), Robert Beatty (General Cutler), David Dodimead (Barclay), Christopher Dunham (R/T technician), Callen Angelo (Terry Cutler), Christopher Matthews (Radar technician), Dudley Jones (Dyson), Harry Brooks (Krang), Reg Whitehead (Jarl), Gregg Palmer (Gern), Steve Plytas (Wigner), Ellen Cullen (Geneva Technician), Peter Hawkins (Cyberman voice), Roy Skelton (Cyberman voice), Bruce Wells (Cyberman), John Haines (Cyberman), John Knott (Cyberman), Sheila Knight (Secretary), Patrick Troughton (The Doctor)

Notes: For the first Doctor, the entirety of the 2017 Christmas special Twice Upon A Time (a story in which he meets his fourteenth incarnation) happens in the interval between the Doctor rushing out into the Antarctic cold, and Ben and Polly catching up to him in the TARDIS.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

Dagger Of The Mind

Star Trek ClassicStardate 2715.1: Kirk and ship’s psychiatrist Dr. Noel visit a Federation mental hospital as the Enterprise delivers supplies. But one cargo container beamed aboard the ship contains an apparently insane stowaway from the facility on the planet who isn’t a patient, but the second in command of the hospital’s director, who has invented a device that can lock emotional impulses in or out of the brain permanently and is apparently used his invention without any discretion. Spock and the crew discover that Kirk and Dr. Noel are trapped on the planet, and are probably the next victims of the mind-altering machine.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by S. Bar-David
directed by Vincent McEveety
music by Alexander Courage

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), James Gregory (Dr. Tristan Adams), Morgan Woodward (Dr. Simon Van Gelder), Marianna Hill (Helen Noel), Susanne Wasson (Lethe), John Arndt (First Crewman), Larry Anthony (Transportation Man), Ed McCready (Inmate), Eli Behar (Therapist)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 04 Doctor Who

Power of the Daleks

Doctor WhoThe Doctor recovers from his first regeneration quickly, only to find himself trying to reassure Ben and Polly that the diminutive person who now shares the TARDIS with them is, in fact, their time-traveling companion. The TARDIS takes them from the South Pole to the planet Vulcan in the distant future, where an Earth expedition has made a disturbing discovery in the planet’s mercury pools – deactivated, but perfectly preserved, Daleks. The chief scientist of the human colony on Vulcan reactivates the Daleks, who promptly vow obedience and subservience…but even after a traumatic regeneration, the Doctor doesn’t believe this for a second. But someone in the colony may know the Daleks’ true colors – and may be using them to achieve a sinister objective anyway.

written by David Whitaker
directed by Christopher Barry
music by Tristram Cary

Guest Cast: Martin King (Examiner), Nicholas Hawtrey (Quinn), Bernard Archard (Bragen), Robert James (Lesterson), Pamela Ann Davy (Janley), Peter Bathurst (Hensell), Edward Kelsey (Resno), Richard Kane (Valmar), Peter Forbes-Robertson (Guard), Steven Scott (Kebble), Robert Russell (Guard), Robert Luckham (Guard), Gerald Taylor (Dalek), Kevin Manser (Dalek), Robert Jewell (Dalek), John Scott Martin (Dalek), Peter Hawkins (Dalek voice)

Note: The master tapes of this episode were destroyed by the BBC in the early 1970’s, and no video copies exist.

Broadcast from November 5 through December 10, 1966

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

The Corbomite Maneuver

Star Trek ClassicStardate 1512.2: The Enterprise encounters a glowing cube in space. When Kirk discovers that the cube will follow the ship or block its path, he orders the cube destroyed. At this point, an enormous vessel appears, and alien captain Balok declares that he will destroy the Enterprise in minutes. Kirk bluffs his way out by claiming that all Federation vessels have “corbomite” aboard, which he will detonate if Balok threatens the crew. Balok attempts to escape in an escape craft, but the Enterprise catches up and contacts the real Balok – a representative of an alien race whose members, in adulthood, look like human children. Lt. Bailey, whose emotional outbursts had been disrupting the already fatalistic attitude on the Enterprise, agrees to stay with Balok as an “exchange student” so he may learn more about the diversity of life in the galaxy.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jerry Sohl
directed by Joseph Sargent
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), Anthony Call (Lt. Dave Bailey), Clint Howard (Balok), Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

The Menagerie – Part I

Star Trek ClassicStardate 3012.4: The Enterprise is summoned to Starbase 6, apparently by Captain Pike, who commanded the ship before Kirk. Commodore Mendez shows Kirk, Spock and McCoy, however, that Pike was recently paralyzed in an accident and could not have signalled the Enterprise. Spock creates false messages from Kirk and sends them to the ship, instructing the crew that Spock and Pike will beam up immediately, the Enterprise will be piloted by computer to its next destination, and that Kirk will be staying behind. Kirk and Mendez follow the Enterprise in a shuttle, which runs out of fuel when Spock refuses to slow the Enterprise down so the shuttle can come aboard. Spock finally allows Kirk to catch up and then places himself under arrest. Kirk is unable to disconnect the computer from the helm, and Spock’s court-martial begins. Spock offers, as evidence, visual records of a voyage on the Enterprise on which Spock and Pike served 13 years earlier. The bridge then informs Kirk and Mendez that the recording is being sent to the Enterprise from Talos IV – a planet that, according to Starfleet regulations, is absolutely off-limits to all vessels, punishable by death.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Marc Daniels
footage from The Cage directed by Robert Butler
music by Alexander Courage

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), Sean Kenney (Captain Pike), Malachi Throne (Commodore Mendez), Hagan Beggs (Ensign Hansen), Julie Parrish (Miss Piper)

Appearing in footage from The Cage: Jeffrey Hunter (Capt. Christopher Pike), Susan Oliver (Vina), Majel Leigh Hudec (Number One), Peter Duryea (Lt. Tyler), John Hoyt (Dr. Boyce), Meg Wylie (The Keeper), Adam Roarke (CPO Garrison)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Original Series Season 01 Star Trek

The Menagerie – Part II

Star Trek ClassicStardate 3013.1: Spock reveals that the Keeper of Talos IV has control of the viewscreen and the evidence being presented. The screen shows the events that occurred during Pike’s visit to Talos IV in great detail, but Spock has difficulty convincing Kirk and Mendez of the validity of what they are seeing as well as the tremendous power of the Talosians. When the evidence suddenly stops, Mendez orders Kirk and Pike, the ranking officers forming Spock’s trial board, to make their verdict, and all find Spock guilty. The final part of the record of Pike’s adventure then continues, and then Commodore Mendez vanishes from the Enterprise. The Keeper himself tells Kirk that the Mendez that accompanied him in the shuttle and the trial was an illusion projected from Talos IV, and that Pike is welcome to return to the planet and be restored, as Vina was, to his former strength and health.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Marc Daniels
footage from The Cage directed by Robert Butler
music by Alexander Courage

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), Sean Kenney (Captain Pike), Malachi Throne (Commodore Mendez), Hagan Beggs (Ensign Hansen)

Appearing in footage from The Cage: Jeffrey Hunter (Capt. Christopher Pike), Susan Oliver (Vina), Majel Leigh Hudec (Number One), Peter Duryea (Lt. Tyler), John Hoyt (Dr. Boyce), Meg Wylie (The Keeper), Adam Roarke (CPO Garrison)

Notes: Both parts of The Menagerie used footage of the original series pilot The Cage as the visual evidence of Pike’s early mission; in truth, the framing story was hurriedly written by Gene Roddenberry and was designed to be shot quickly so the re-use of the already-produced (and already paid for) pilot episode could fill a critical gap in the schedule caused by production delays.

LogBook entry by Earl Green