Year: 1988

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

The Big Goodbye

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41997.7: During a holodeck holiday in the fictitious world of Dixon Hill, Captain Picard, Data, Doctor Crusher and ship’s historian Whalen become trapped in a murder mystery where their chances of being murdered are very real, while impatient aliens threaten the ship when its captain is unavailable for scheduled diplomatic negotiations…

Order the DVDswritten by Tracy Torme’
directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Lawrence Tierney (Cyrus Redblock), Harvey Jason (Leech), William Boyett (Bell), David Selburg (Whalen), Gary Armagnal (McNary), Mike Genovese (Desk Sergeant), Dick Miller (Vendor), Carolyn Allport (Jessica Bradley), Rhonda Aldrich (Madeline), Erik Cord (Thug)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Datalore

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41242.2: Data visits his home planet and discovers that his creator also constructed – and, for some unknown reason, disassembled – a “twin brother” of the android: Lore. The crew welcomes Lore with open arms, but they soon discover that the greed Data lacks as a human emotion is indeed possessed by Lore.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Robert Lewin and Gene Roddenberry
story by Robert Lewin and Maurice Hurley
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Brent Spiner (Lore), Biff Yeager (Chief Engineer Argyle)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Angel One

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41636.9: The Enterprise arrives at Angel One, a planet which ceded from the Federation which is now controlled by a council composed entirely of women. Troi must act as an ambassador while the crew searches for shipwreck survivors who are determined to remain on Angel One – despite the wishes of some of the planet’s leaders, but with the approval of others.

Order the DVDswritten by Patrick Barry
directed by Michael Rhodes
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Karen Montgomery (Beata), Sam Hennings (Ramsey), Patricia McPherson (Ariel), Leonard John Crofoot (Trent)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Friday the 13th: The Series Season 1

Tales Of The Undead

Friday The 13th: The SeriesRyan drops by his favorite comic store to pick up his pull list, and is shown a real treasure by the owner of the shop – a one-of-a-kind March 1947 issue of Jay Star’s Tales Of The Undead, signed by Star himself and acquired from an estate sale. It’s expected to go for five figures at auction…except that it’s attracted the attention of a petty thief. But the thief, once he breaks open the glass case set up to display the comic, assumes the guise of Ferrus, the robot-like armored villain of the comic, assaults the owner, and knocks Ryan aside. Mickey finds the comic in Uncle Lewis’ ledger…and discovers that Lewis bought it from Jay Star himself. Ryan visits Star’s address in the ledger and comes face to face with one of his idols…and Star soon sees through Ryan’s “starstruck fan” facade. When Ryan asks who would steal an issue of Star’s comic, Star reveals that his original characters and works were stolen by unscrupulous publishers. But when Ryan describes Ferrus’ attack, Star sets out to track down the thief and reclaim the stolen comic…not to stop the boy from killing again, but to use the powers of Ferrus for himself, avenging injustices that he felt ruined his life, and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Once Ryan discovers who now holds the power of Ferrus, he has to turn to the original comics to learn how to defeat him…which may mean killing his idol.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Bill Taub and Marc Scott Zicree
story by Alfred Sole & Paul Monette
directed by Lyndon Chubbuck
music by Fred Mollin

Friday the 13thCast: John D. LeMay (Ryan Dallion), Wendy Robey (Mickey Foster), Chris Wiggins (Jack Marshak), Ray Walston (Jay Star), David Hewlett (Cal), Bob Aarrons (Charlie), Michelle George (Mrs. Forbes), Jennifer Griffin (Linda), David Clement (Carmine), Anthony Bekenn (Mrs. Briggs)

Notes: Ray Walston is, of course, best known for his starring role in the sitcom My Favorite Martian, though more recent sci-fi fans may know him primarily as Starfleet Academy groundskeeper Boothby, from episodes of both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. His much younger co-star, David Hewlett, appears here in only his fourth screen credit at Friday the 13ththe age of 20; Hewlett would later become much better known as laconic Stargate project scientist Dr. Rodney McKay, a recurring guest so popular on Stargate SG-1 that he became a regular for the entire run of the spinoff series Stargate Atlantis. The character of Jay Star is based loosely on any number of comic creators – take your pick: Siegel & Schuster, Jack Kirby, and far too many others – whose creations were taken over by corporate interests with little interest in compensating them fairly for their creations.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

11001001

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41365.9: The Enterprise, while docked at a Starbase for minor refits, is hijacked by the Bynars, whose home star has gone nova, rendering their computerized planet inoperative. They have stored the contents of their race memory in the ship’s computer in the hopes that Riker and Picard – being stalled in the holodeck by the beautiful woman of Riker’s dreams – can reactivate their home.

Order the DVDswritten by Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin
directed by Paul Lynch
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Carolyn McCormick (Minuet), Gene Dynarski (Commander Quinteros), Katy Boyer (Zero One), Alexandra Johnson (One Zero), Iva Lane (Zero Zero), Kelli Ann McNally (One One), Jack Sheldon (Piano Player), Abdul Salaam El Razzac (Bass Player), Ron Brown (Drummer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Blackadder Specials

Blackadder: The Cavalier Years

BlackadderNovember 1648. King Charles I is on the run from Oliver Cromwell and the Roundheads. He seeks shelter with his last supporter, Sir Edmund Blackadder and Edmund’s servant, Baldrick. When Baldrick reveals the King’s whereabouts to Cromwell himself, Edmund must find a way to save his Sovereign from the chopping block…

Order the DVDswritten by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
director not credited
music by Howard Goodall

Cast: Rowan Atkinson (Sir Edmund Blackadder), Tony Robinson (Baldrick), Warren Clarke (Oliver Cromwell), Stephen Fry (King Charles I)

Notes: This approximately fifteen-minute mini-episode was created for the BBC’s Comic Relief telethon and was unavailable commercially until the release of the US Blackadder VHS box set. It is now available as bonus material on the US Blackadder the Third DVD and the UK Blackadder: Back & Forth DVD.

The young Prince Charles (portrayed here as a baby) was, in fact, 19 years old at the time his father was executed (and already safely in exile).

Stephen Fry is clearly impersonating Prince Charles (Windsor) in his portrayal of King Charles I.

Warren Clarke previously appeared in the Blackadder the Third episode Amy and Amiability.

LogBook entry by Philip R. Frey

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Too Short A Season

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41309.5: Admiral Mark Jameson, requested by Governor Karnas of the “beseiged” planet Mordan IV, is being transported to a planet he started a war on forty years ago. Picard finds that the elderly Admiral has overdosed on an illicit alien youth drug, anticipating that he will need to be youthful and vigorous to combat terrorists. But he doesn’t expect the side effects of the substances, which only appear once Jameson has already gotten Picard and his away team into deep trouble.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Michael Michaelian and D.C. Fontana
story by Michael Michaelian
directed by Rob Bowman
music by George Romanis

Guest Cast: Clayton Rohner (Admiral Jameson), Marsha Hunt (Anne Jameson), Michael Pataki (Karnas)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

When The Bough Breaks

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41509.1: Wesley and the most intelligent children of the Enterprise are kidnapped by the powerful Aldeans, aliens of lore who have the power to cloak their planet from view but do not realize that the energy powering their miraculous world is responsible for the sterility of their race. At the insistence of Dr. Crusher and other parents of the other kidnapped children, Picard tries to negotiate with the Aldeans, which only angers them.

Order the DVDswritten by Hannah Louise Shearer
directed by Kim Manners
music by Ron Jones

Guest Cast: Jerry Hardin (Radue), Brenda Strong (Rashella), Jandi Swanson (Duana), Paul Lambert (Rellien), Ivy Bethune (Katie), Dierk Torsek (Dr. Bernard), Michele Marsh (Leda), Dan Mason (Accolan), Philip N. Waller (Harry Bernard), Connie Danese (Toya), Jessica Bova (Alexandra), Vanessa Bova (Alexandra)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 01

The End

Red DwarfThe Beginning: It’s an abysmally average day about the Red Dwarf, a mining ship of the Jupiter Mining Corporation. The two lowest-ranking members of Red Dwarf’s crew, second technician Arnold J. Rimmer and third technician David Lister, are – as one gets the impression is common – unable to agree on anything. Lister’s laid-back lifestyle and his refusal to deal with or, for that matter, acknowledge the existence of any problem unless his life depends on it irritates Rimmer, who sees himself as prime officer material despite his chronic inability to pass the ship’s navigation exams. As Rimmer undertakes the nav exam one more time (only to realize that he once again knows nothing about the subject), Lister opens a ventilation duct in their quarters to let his pet cat Frankenstein out. The cat in question later becomes something of a point of contention between Lister and Captain Hollister, who calls Lister to his office and demands custody of the unauthorized and unquarantined animal. When Lister refuses, he is sentenced to make the rest of Red Dwarf’s journey in suspended animation without pay.

He is awakened from his time in stasis by the ship’s computer, Holly, who, moments after Lister rejoins the world of the living, breaks the news to him that the rest of that world has apparently vacated Red Dwarf – an improperly repaired drive plate (improperly repaired, naturally, by Rimmer) released deadly cadmium-2 radiation into the ship’s habitable areas, killing all aboard except Lister, who was sealed safely in stasis, and his cat, who was safely sealed in a cargo bay. Holly then comforts Lister by revealing that this tragedy happened a long time ago – three million years, to be exact. As if that’s not enough, Rimmer has been revived as a hologram, unable to touch anything, but fully capable of getting on Lister’s nerves. And the generations of kittens born to Lister’s cat have evolved into a humanoid form of cat, with the outward appearance of a human being but the vanity and attitude of a tomcat on the make; one such creature, who winds up with the highly original name of Cat, is “adopted” by Lister. Having had enough surprises for one day, Lister orders Holly to set a course to Fiji.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Norman Lovett (Holly)

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Robert Bathurst (Todhunter), Paul Bradley (Chen), David Gillespie (Selby), Mac McDonald (Captain Hollister), Robert McCulley (McIntyre), Mark Williams (Petersen), C.P. Grogan (Kochanski)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 01 Star Trek The Next Generation

Home Soil

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 41463.9: The Enterprise arrives to check up on a terraforming station, where the researchers and the visiting Away Team are unaware that the unseen killer in their midst is an intelligence whose existence is threatened by the changes to be effected on the planet.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Robert Sabaroff
story by Karl Guers, Ralph Sanchez and Robert Sabaroff
directed by Corey Allen
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Walter Gotell (Mandl), Elizabeth Lindsey (Louisa Kim), Gerard Pendergrast (Bjorn Bensen), Mario Roccuzzo (Arthur Malencon), Carolyne Barry (Female Engineer)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 01

Future Echoes

Red DwarfThings That Will Have Been Happening: Lister is preparing to go back into stasis, hoping to be alive and well after a few million years more when Red Dwarf should arrive back at Earth. Lister is also trying unsuccessfully to get Cat to join him in suspended animation, but is having a hard time convincing Cat to leave most of his wardrobe behind. In the meantime, Rimmer – by insulting Holly when asking for a holographic crew cut – sports a dashing and rakish beehive ‘do from Earth’s 1950s, and is outraged at the others’ plan to leave him behind while they sleep through the aeon or so it will take the ship to return home. Shortly after Lister argues with his artificially intelligent Toaster over which of them is a better singer, the ship lurches wildly as it breaks the light barrier once more to make its way home. Lister continues shaving when he notices that the Lister in the mirror isn’t doing the same things at the same time he himself is. (Confused yet?) Holly claims that, since Red Dwarf is traveling faster than light, events that are about to happen are catching up with the crew before they actually do happen. The Toaster backs this theory up, so it must be true, and everyone goes on about their merry way, though the echoes of future events get stranger and stranger, from Cat breaking his tooth to Lister finding a Polaroid (though luckily not a double Polaroid) of himself holding two babies. Then Rimmer witnesses a future event which casts a bit of gloom on the proceedings – Lister’s death while making emergency repairs in the drive room.

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: John Lenahan (Talkie Toaster), Tony Hawks (Dispensing Machine)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 01

Balance Of Power

Red DwarfCurrent Pecking Order: Lister tires of Rimmer’s plan to catalog all the irradiated haggises aboard Red Dwarf and decides instead to take the day off. Lister complains to Holly that instead of Rimmer, the hologram of Kristine Kochanski, a navigator who Lister had a crush on, should have been brought back. Lister goes to Rimmer with the very attractive proposition that Rimmer could be shut down for a while so Lister can spend time with Kochanski. (It’s attractive for Lister, anyway.) Rimmer naturally refuses, so Lister resorts to desperate measures to take a computer course and become the ship’s chef, therefore outranking Rimmer. Holly tries once more to dissuade Rimmer from insulting him by replacing one of Rimmer’s holographic arms with that of Olaf Petersen, a dimwitted Dane and old friend of Lister’s. Rimmer is also getting a little desperate, and so he tries to get Lister to give up the chef’s exam by walking in the guise of Kochanski’s hologram. Even that backfires when Lister sees through Rimmer – well, more so than usual, anyway!

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Ed Bye
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Rupert Bates (Trout a la Creme/Chef), Paul Bradley (Chen), David Gillespie (Selby), Mark Williams (Petersen), C.P. Grogan (Kochanski)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future

New Order – Part 1: The Sky Shall Swallow Them

Captain PowerA data broker sells stolen information to Captain Power, revealing the extent of Lord Dread’s Project New Order – a satellite-based system that could mass-digitize the world’s population. A plan is set into motion to attack first the control center for the satellite, and then Lord Dread’s own hideout at Volcania. As Pilot trains to do the most dangerous flying of her life, Hawk, Tank and Scout consider the possibility that they’re being sent on a suicide mission.

written by Larry DiTillio
directed by Otta Hanus
Captain Powermusic by Gary Guttman

Cast: Tim Dunigan (Captain Jonathan Power), Peter MacNeill (Maj. Matthew “Hawk” Masterson), Sven Thorsen (Lt. Michael “Tank” Ellis), Maurice Dean Wint (Sgt. Robert “Scout” Baker), Jessica Steen (Corporal Jennifer “Pilot” Chase), David Hemblen (Lord Dredd), Todd Waite (Overunit Gerber), Todd Waite (Locke), Bruce Gray (Mentor), Tedd Dillon (Overmind), John Davies (Blastarr), Deryck Hazel (Soaron), Don Francks (Laacki)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Probe

Computer Logic

ProbeEccentric, reclusive scientific genius Austin James is disturbed by the arrival of his new secretary, Michelle Castle, who has no idea what he’s working on. Austin’s name has come up in the investigation into the death of another self-styled inventor, a water department employee who was due for retirement and then died in a freak pedestrian traffic accident. He had discovered the first hint of something that eventually becomes a major mystery for Austin and Michelle: finding out whether CROSSOVER, an artificial intelligence created by Austin’s friend (and sometimes rival) John Blaine, is responsible for the death…and whether or not it’s now trying to kill Austin now that he suspects CROSSOVER has gone rogue.

Probewritten by Michael Wagner
directed by Sandor Stern
music by Sylvester LeVay

Cast: Parker Stevenson (Austin James), Ashley Crow (Michelle Castle), Jon Cypher (Mr. Millhouse), William Edward Phipps (Miles Smillanich), Andy Wood (John Blaine), Scott Feraco (William Stevens), Jan Sandwich (Maid), Ray Guth (Hotel Manager), Gene Johnson (Preacher), Judy Scovern (Personnel Manager), Diana Baynes (Secretary #1), Carol Weston (Secretary #2), Fred Schiwiller (Old Man), Sandy Elias (Customer), Bill Lane (Truck Driver), Gertrude Nicholls (Old Woman)

Notes: Probe was heavily promoted as being created by legendary SF author Isaac Asimov and Michael Wagner, though Wagner alone was responsible for writing the actual pilot script. The weekly episodes following this pilot movie were scheduled opposite The Cosby Show on NBC, which was a ratings behemoth at the time, ensuring that Probe died a fairly quick death.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Alf Season 2

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

ALFBrian is repeatedly beaten down by the school bully, prompting Alf to try (unsuccessfully) to show him a few self-defense moves, and leaving Willie at a loss for words in trying to console his son. Alf makes things worse by placing a belligerent phone call to the father of the bully…while identifying himself as Willie. Now Willie’s expecting to be on the receiving end of a less-than-pleasant conversation, though if he can just stand up for himself – non-violently, of course – he feels he can resolve things calmly. But with Alf involved, that’s not what’s going to happen.

ALFDownload this episodewritten by Kevin Abbott
directed by Gary Shimokawa
music by Alf Clausen

Cast: Max Wright (Willie Tanner), Anne Schedeen (Kate Tanner), Andrea Elson (Lynn Tanner), Benji Gregory (Brian Tanner), Martin Doyle (Mr. Duncan), John La Motta (Trevor Ochmonek), Liz Sheridan (Raquel Ochmonek)

LogBook entry by Earl Green