Year: 1993

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 06

Gunmen of the Apocalypse

Red DwarfStarbug has wandered into a rogue simulant hunting zone, where a gigantic warship confronts the crew and demands assurances that there are no human vermin aboard. Despite Lister’s attempt to bluff his way past the simulants by passing himself off as an ambassador of the Vindaloo Empire, the simulants board Starbug. Knocking the crew out for three weeks, they also install more advanced weaponry so the Starbug crew can put up a fight for the simulants’ amusement. But to the killer mechanoids’ surprise, the Starbug crew decide to attack the simulant warship. The simulants, their ship heavily damaged, fire the Armageddon Virus at Starbug which locks the ship’s course on collision with a nearby planet and then renders all systems inoperative. Kryten links into Starbug’s computers to absorb the virus but winds up incapacitated. With minutes to spare before crashing into the planet ahead, the others try to help Kryten by linking into his mind with a virtual reality of the wild west.

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Andy De Emmony
music by Howard Goodall

Red DwarfGuest Cast: Jennifer Calvert (Loretta), Denis Lill (Simulant Captain/Death), Liz Hickling (Simulant Lieutenant), Imogen Bain (Lola), Steve Devereaux (Jimmy), Robert Inch (War), Jeremy Peters (Pestilence), Dinny Powell (Famine), Stephen Marcus (Bear Strangler McGee)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Phantasms

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47225.7: Having just received a new warp core from a starbase, the Enterprise departs with both Picard and Geordi ready to test the more efficient drive system en route to an admirals’ banquet which Picard is not looking forward to. The warp core fails to perform to expectations – in fact, it fails to perform at all. Simultaneously, Data experiences his first nightmare, and then his second, and his third, all full of disturbing imagery he feels he should not ignore. His friends don’t think it’s anything to worry about, until Data’s nightmare visions drive him to commit acts of violence.

Order the DVDswritten by Brannon Braga
directed by Patrick Stewart
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Gina Ravarra (Ensign Tyler), Bernard Kates (Sigmund Freud), Clyde Kusatsu (Admiral Nakamura), David L. Crowley (Workman), and Spot

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Melora

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47229.1: The first Elaysian officer in Starfleet, Ensign Melora Pazlar, is assigned to DS9. Bashir and O’Brien have had to modify various passageways to permit Melora – whose low-gravity home world leaves her body reliant on a wheelchair in normal gravity – access to as much of the station as possible. In the meantime, Quark’s former partner, who he once sold out to the Romulans in order to save his own skin, has finally been released by his captors and has come aboard the station to exact vengeance upon Quark. Bashir decides to make an effort to cut through Melora’s oversensitivity and defensiveness in order to help her, and even discovers that there may be a way to reverse her handicap.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Evan Carlos Somers and Steven Baum and Michael Piller & James Crocker
story by Evan Carlos Somers
directed by Winrich Kolbe
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Daphne Ashbrook (Melora), Peter Crombie (Fallit Kot), Don Stark (Ashrock), Ron Taylor (Klingon Chef)

Deep Space NineNotes: The concept of a regular character most at home in a low-gravity environment was part of the original series concept for Deep Space Nine, but was abandoned due to the cost and time involved in doing wire work on a routine basis; that character was replaced by Dax in the series bible. Guest star Daphne Ashbrook later boarded the TARDIS as a one-time companion of the Doctor in Fox’s 1996 Doctor Who TV movie.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 06

Emohawk: Polymorph II

Red DwarfStarbug is hunted by a Space Corps robot law enforcement vessel, and after taking several shots from the drone, Starbug is forced to land in the ocean in an attempt to put out uncontrollable fires. Unfortunately, Starbug has landed on a planet populated by hideous GELFs, and the ship’s oxy-generation unit is damaged beyond repair. As luck would have it, though, the leader of the local GELF tribe happens to have such a unit handy, and is willing to trade with the Starbug crew. But what he wants in exchange for the OG unit is a husband for the loveliest of his three horrifically hairy daughters, an honor he decides Lister is worthy of. Lister is persuaded to agree to marry the flea-ridden beauty, and the OG unit is given to Kryten. But when Lister runs for his life to escape his honeymoon, the tribal leader sends his pet polymorph after the Starbug crew – and only the combined talents of Duane Dibbley and “Ace” Rimmer can set things right!

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Andy De Emmony
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Hugh Quarshie (Computer), Martin Sims (GELF), Ainsley Harriot (GELF Chief), Steven Wickham (GELF Bride)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Dark Page

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47254.1: Lwaxana Troi visits the Enterprise again along with a small delegation of Icarans, who communicate in telepathic imagery with no verbal elements whatsoever. To prepare them for their first meeting with the Federation council, Mrs. Troi is trying to help the Icarans learn to translate their imagery into speech, a facility they were born without. Not long after Deanna notices her mother experiencing brief episodes of intense anguish, Lwaxana collapses into a coma, and the only clues to her condition and the reason for it are held by the Icarans, who are not able to fully communicate it.

Order the DVDswritten by Hilary J. Bader
directed by Les Landau
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Majel Barrett (Lwaxana Troi), Norman Large (Maques), Kirsten Dunst (Hedril), Amick Bryam (Ian Troi), Andreana Weiner (Kestra)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Rules of Acquisition

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate not given: Grand Nagus Zek once again plans to use DS9 as the launch pad of Ferengi business opportunities in the Gamma Quadrant, and again he sees Quark as a valuable agent in securing the financial future of the Ferengi Alliance – or a scapegoat should his efforts to make commercial inroads through the other side of the wormhole fail. A newcomer to Quark’s is another Ferengi named Pel, who is especially savvy to Ferengi rules of commerce and materialism – but flies in the face of the rules of traditional Ferengi customs, since Pel is a female in disguise who, in Ferengi society, could be jailed for stepping out of her house with clothes on.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Ira Steven Behr
story by Hilary J. Bader
directed by David Livingston
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Helene Udy (Pel), Wallace Shawn (Zek), Tiny Ron (Maihar’du), Brian Thompson (Zyree), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Emilia Crow (Inglatu)

Notes: This episode marks the first mention of the Dominion in Deep Space Nine. Infamously, this episode was originally broadcast with an incorrect spelling (“Aquisition”) in the episode title.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 06

Rimmerworld

Red DwarfStarbug returns to the rogue simulant warship it fought before, from which Lister plans to raid the cargo bays for food. One of the simulants turns out to have survived the previous encounter with Starbug, and it isn’t happy. Any exchange of fire on the simulant ship will bring the interior crashing down on anyone inside. For a moment, it looks as though Rimmer might actually attempt a daring attack on the simulant from behind, but in reality he’s just sneaking over to an escape pod, whose launch destabilizes the ship. The others scramble back to Starbug and escape, but they’re unable to catch up with Rimmer’s escape pod as it tumbles into a wormhole. Due to relativistic time dilation, by the time Starbug catches up with Rimmer, 600 years will have passed for him. In that time, he will found a new society all his own…

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Andy De Emmony
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: Liz Hickling (Rogue Simulant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Attached

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47340.2: The world inhabited by the Kes and the Prit is divided; the Prit are xenophobic to the point of hostility, but the Kes have applied for membership in the Federation, which is surprising since they are paranoid to the point of operating like a police state. Beaming down to meet with Kes representatives, Picard and Beverly are kidnapped by the Prit, who believe the potential Kes affiliation with the Federation to be a military pact. Fitted with neural implants to allow their captors to retrieve information without an interrogation, Picard and Beverly manage to escape with the aid of an undercover Kes agent onto the surface, where they are to head to the Kes border. An unusual side-effect of their implants allows them to hear each other’s thoughts en route. In the meantime, Riker is trying to glean information about his captain’s whereabouts from a Kes representative who is deliberately being less than helpful.

Order the DVDswritten by Nicholas Sagan
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Robin Gammell (Mauric), Lenore Kasdorf (Lorin), J.C. Stevens (Kes Aide)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Necessary Evil

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47282.5: Quark is hired to retrieve a list of names hidden on DS9 by a Bajoran five years ago, but when he gets curious about the list’s contents, a Bajoran man enters his bar and shoots him. As Quark fights for his life in the infirmary under guard, Odo realizes that this incident is somehow linked to the murder of a Bajoran five years ago, when Odo was assigned to investigate his first crime on DS9 by Gul Dukat. The Bajoran whose murder Odo never solved turns out to be the husband of the woman who paid Quark to get the list. Five years ago, she accused Kira of the crime, claiming that the then-resistance fighter was having an affair with the woman’s husband. Though the woman is currently involved in some suspicious activities, she was correct in one of those assumptions.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Peter Allan Fields
directed by James L. Conway
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Katherine Moffat (Pallra), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat), Robert Mackenzie (Trazko)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Red Dwarf Season 06

Out Of Time

Red DwarfAll trace of Red Dwarf has been lost. In the meantime, Starbug has wandered into a stellar fog concealing a reality minefield, which is itself defending something deep within the center of the fog. After stumbling through a number of unreality pockets, they reach the center of the minefield and find a derelict 28th century spaceship capable of time travel. They steal the time drive and install it in Starbug. Not long after, they are contacted by another spacecraft – another Starbug, this one from the distant future, occupied by the gang in their later years, when they have been using the time drive for decades to live the high life, but their time drive has broken down and they want the present Starbug’s time drive. And they’re willing to engage their past selves in mortal combat to get it.

Order the DVDswritten by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor
directed by Andy De Emmony
music by Howard Goodall

Guest Cast: none

Original Title: Present From The Future

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Force of Nature

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47310.2: Investigating the mystery of missing starships, the Enterprise finds that a brother and sister have been misleading and damaging all warp-capable vessels that enter the region of space near their home world, claiming that warp engines are agitating a sensitive subspace rift which threatens to destroy everything nearby if it becomes active. Reluctant to accept this theory, Picard and the crew plan to rescue the damaged ships and move along, but when one of the protesters opens the subspace rift with a burst of warp energy, the Enterprise may be unable to escape.

Order the DVDswritten by Naren Shankar
directed by Robert Lederman
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Michael Corbett (Rabal), Margaret Reed (Serova), Lee Arenberg (Prak), and Spot

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Second Sight

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47329.4: On the fourth anniversary of the Wolf 359 attack and the death of his wife, Commander Sisko tries to evade the painful reminder by walking around the station. On the Promenade, he meets a woman who identifies herself as Fenna, and though a spark of fascination ignites between them, she disappears without a trace moments later. The next day, despite Fenna’s vanishing act, Sisko carries out his duties, including the preparation of the USS Prometheus to carry out a hazardous stellar ignition experiment under the auspices of Dr. Seyetik – whose wife, as it so happens, turns out to be Fenna…or a duplicate of her. En route to the potentially deadly site of a dead star via the Prometheus, Sisko struggles to decipher Fenna’s secret.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Mark Gehred O’Connell and Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
story by Mark Gehred O’Connell
directed by Alexander Singer
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Sally Elise Richardson (Fenna/Nidell), Richard Kiley (Seyetik), Mark Erickson (Piersall)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 07 Star Trek The Next Generation

Inheritance

Star Trek: The Next GenerationStardate 47410.2: On a mission to salvage an endangered planet, the Enterprise is visited by Dr. Tainer and her husband, two scientists whose plan may save the planet. The first chance she has to speak to Data privately, Tainer reveals herself to be the ex-wife of Dr. Soong and co-designer of Data and Lore. Though he is skeptical at first, Data finds evidence that she may be who she claims to be, and begins to spend time with her in an effort to find out about his creation and development.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Dan Koeppel & Renè Echavarria
story by Dan Koeppel
directed by Robert Scheerer
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Fionnula Flanagan (Juliana Tainer), William Lithgow (Pran)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Deep Space Nine Season 02 Star Trek

Sanctuary

Star Trek: Deep Space NineStardate 47391.2: A damaged ship emerges from the wormhole carrying four members of an unknown race from the Gamma Quadrant. The station’s universal translator takes a good deal of time to decipher the aliens’ language, but when it does decode their incomprehensible speech, they are able to tell Sisko and Kira that there are three million others on the other side of the wormhole, referrred to in their native Skrreean mythology as the eye of the universe, looking for Kentaana, their destiny according to legend. As it turns out, Kentaana is known in the Alpha Quadrant as Bajor, and the Skrreeans intend to emigrate there.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonteleplay by Frederick Rappaport
story by Gabe Essoe and Kelley Miles
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Benjamin Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Julian Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lt. Jadzia Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), William Schallert (Varani), Andrew Koenig (Tumak), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Michael Durrell (General Hazar), Betty McGuire (Vayna), Robert Curtis Brown (Vedek Sorad), Kitty Swink (Rozahn), Deborah May (Haneek), Leland Orser (Gai), Nicholas Shaffer (Cowl)

Notes: William Schallert also guest starred in the classic Trek episode The Trouble With Tribbles, and Andrew Koenig is the son of original series star Walter “Chekov” Koenig. This episode was the second mention of the Dominion in the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Series Specials Doctor Who

Dimensions In Time

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Ace find themselves in London’s East End (instead of their intended destination, the Great Wall of China). Soon they find themselves switching identities, as the Doctor flits from one incarnation to another and his companions constantly change. Behind it all is The Rani, who hopes to trap the Doctor so he can never interfere in her plans again…

written by John Nathan-Turner & David Roden
directed by Stuart McDonald
music by Keff McCulloch

Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Tom Baker (The Doctor), Peter Davison (The Doctor), Colin Baker (The Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Kate O’Mara (The Rani), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Louise Jameson (Leela), Caroline John (Liz Shaw), Ross Kemp (Grant Mitchell), Bonnie Langford (Mel), John Leeson (K-9), Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell), Philip Newman (Kiv), Mike Reid (Frank), Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Pam St. Clement (Pat Butcher), Nicola Stapleton (Mandy), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Gillian Taylforth (Kathy Beale), Deepak Verma (Sanjay), Lalla Ward (Romana II), Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield), Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale)

Broadcast November 26 & 27, 1993

LogBook entry & review by Philip R. Frey