Year: 1989

Riots in L.A. stretch police manpower to its limits – badly enough that Sikes and George are left desk-sitting at the precinct. Susan fights her way through traffic to bring George enough food to get through the night. But when a group of criminals – both humans and a newcomer woman – stage an all-out attack on the police station. They humans are after a cache of weapons and drugs that have been seized as evidence, while the Newcomer woman is seeking a tank of gas that was used by the Overseers to turn the Newcomers into slaves. Susan and Albert are unlucky enough to be found when the station is taken over, while Sikes is lucky enough to be handling an emergency call that conveniently involves an ex-girlfriend. Albert is shot while trying to help Susan escape, but she winds up being taken hostage. With no other backup available, George prepares to take on this hostage crisis entirely on his own.

written by Tom Chahak
directed by Steven Dubin
music by David Kurtz

Guest Cast: Gwynyth Walsh (Diane), Ji-Tu Cumbuka (Andy), Charley Lang (Kenny), Tracey Walter (Tom), Michael Fairman (Captain McKnight), Will Egan (Harry Dundee), Camila Griggs (Letitia)

Notes: We learn here that “Holy Gas,” an airborne substance rendered the Newcomers completely submissive to the Overseers, and completely susceptible to their commands. It apparently also works on humans.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

George and Susan wind up owing $2,400 to the most powerful force in their new world: the Internal Revenue Service. As the Franciscos try to figure out where they’re going to get the money, George can at least take solace in the newfound attention of Newcomer businesswoman Betsy Ross. After her tip helps George and Sikes take a human-Newcomer drug ring off the streets, she vows to keep tipping the department off to illegal activity – and she begins to send George unsolicited gifts, which makes Sikes uneasy. When the next tip from Betsy Ross keeps a substantial amount of drugs off the streets, the two cops begin to wonder where and how she’s getting her information. Meanwhile, Buck lands a job with New Tencton Village, a planned Newcomer-only community, and actually begins to make decent money selling homes there for a mere $100 down. But is this project – and his new job – too good to be true?

written by Andrew Schneider & Diane Frolov
directed by John McPherson
music by Steve Dorff & Larry Herbstritt

Guest Cast: Diana Bellamy (Betsy Ross), Doug McKeon (Sam Simian), Joon B. Kim (Korean drug dealer), Carolyn Mignini (Ruth Steelman), John Patrick Reger (Ramna), Steve Susskind (Vahan), Jennifer Banko (Nina), Mike DeLuna (Cliff), Trevor Edmond (Blentu), Carlos Lacamara (Alvarez), Faith Minton (Bouncer), James Nixon (Newcomer Junkie), Noon Orsatti (Svabo), Jeff Skier (Delivery Man), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Yamato), Salvator Xuereb (Newcomer Dealer)

Notes: Either a voice-activated English-Tenctonese translation unit has only just been invented, or Sikes has only just been able to afford one on a police salary. (In the following episode, he’s apparently already lost it.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A prominent Caltech astronomer, who was one of the first humans to meet the Newcomers when they first arrived, is murdered the night before he plans to announce an exciting discovery. The scientist’s employer refuses to speak with Sikes and George, and they follow him to a rather exclusive club – one which excludes Newcomers. As it turns out, the major discovery was an unmanned space probe, one which originated from the same part of the sky as the Tenctonese slave ship. George fears that this probe could have been sent by the Overseers to search for the missing slaves, and if contact is made with the probe, it could lead the Overseers to Earth – at the behest of a surviving Overseer from the slave ship who has promised his masters not only the wayward Newcomers, but four billion new slaves…the entire human race.

written by Joe Menosky
directed by John McPherson
music by Steve Dorff & Larry Herbstatt

Guest Cast: Jeff Doucette (Burns), Annabelle Gurwitch (Dr. Marissa Meyers), Jeffrey Josephson (Sergius), Joel Polis (Carl Peterson), Stuart Fratkin (Bob), Curt Lowens (Concierge), John Apicella (Jerry Bielack), Michael Paul Chan (Mr. Kim), Donald Hotton (Professor Tower), Alexis Arquette (John Barrymore), Vincent Leahr (Dr. Morales)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

When George and Sikes investigate the murder of a Newcomer couple, the dead male turns out to be a Binnaum, one of a very exclusive monastic order of Tenctonese who facilitate the reproduction of their species. George asks Albert, himself a Binnaum who has renounced his vows, to identify the body. Shaken by the death of one of his brethren, Albert quits his job and returns to the order, also agreeing after much persuasion to be the Binnaum for the conception of the Franciscos’ next child. The murder weapon leads the two detectives to a dangerous psychopath who has been engaging in the systematic extermination of Binnaums in an attempt to do his part to control the Tenctonese population. But even though Sikes and George arrest the killer, another Binnaum is killed while the suspect is in custody. And this second killer is planning to kill Albert next.

written by Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider
directed by Stan Lathan
music by David Kurtz

Guest Cast: Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Dobbs), Dana Anderson (May O’Naize), Alan Scarfe (The Drevni), Ivan G’Vera (Bjorn), Charles Hayward (Goran), Patrick Johnson (Issac Newton), Richard Esajian (James Polk), Fiama Fricand (Guest), Laura M. Herring (Female Newcomer), Charlie Skeen (Craig Keller)

LogBook entry by Earl Green