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Season 06 Star Trek Voyager

Fury

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: A small shuttle signals Voyager, and the lone occupant turns out to be a terribly aged Kes, from whom the crew has not heard since her ascension to a higher form of life. But the reunion is anything but joyous – when given permission to dock, Kes rams her shuttle into Voyager’s hull, blasts her way into engineering, kills B’Elanna, and fuses with the warp core. Drawing energy from Voyager’s engines, Kes then proceeds to send herself into the past, a mere two months after Voyager became stranded in the Alpha Quadrant. Embittered by years of incredible power she can barely comprehend, let alone control, the Ocampa intends to rewrite the past to prevent herself from suffering the same fate…even if it means murdering all of the friends she once had aboard Voyager.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Bryan Fuller & Michael Taylor
story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by John Bruno
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Jennifer Lien (Kes), Nancy Hower (Ensign Wildman), Scarlett Pomers (Naomi Wildman), Vaughn Armstrong (Vidiian captain), Josh Clark (Lt. Carey), Kurt Wetherill (Azan), Cody Wetherill (Rebi), Tarik Ergin (Security guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 5 Xena: Warrior Princess

Eve

Xena: Warrior PrincessXena, Gabrielle, Joxer and Virgil follow Eve/Livia’s path with her loyal soldiers. They enter a village where most of the people have been killed, with some on crosses. There is at least one survivor, a woman who hears Xena’s name. When Xena goes to the survivor, the woman spits in her face and says that she asked Livia, the leader of the attack on her village. And Livia tells her, “Ask Xena. Ask my mother.”

Order the DVDswritten by George Strayton & Tom O’Neill
current revisions by Chris Manheim
directed by Mark Beesley
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Ted Raimi (Joxer), Kevin Smith (Ares), Adrienne Wilkinson (Livia), William Gregory Lee (Virgil), Brendan Young (Young Villager), Paul Glover (Senetus), Vicky Haughton (Woman), Steve Matthews (Villager)

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Season 06 Star Trek Voyager

Life Line

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Using a fortuitous stellar alignment, Starfleet is able to contact Voyager, sending a large packet of information to Janeway and the crew. The Doctor receives a message from Lt. Barclay, informing him that Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, the creator of the EMH, is dying from a degenerative illness. The Doctor immediately brainstorms possible treatments, drawing parallels between Zimmerman’s condition and the Vidiian phage, and devises a radical therapy involving Borg nanoprobes. But the Doctor is not merely content to make a prescription. He pleads with Captain Janeway to send his program to Jupiter Station in Earth’s solar system via the same data stream Starfleet used to contact Voyager. When he arrives, however, the Doctor is hardly welcomed as a medical mastermind. Despite his vast experience, he is regarded as an obsolete relic by his creator. Barclay pleads with Zimmerman to undergo the treatment, and even begs Counselor Troi to leave the Enterprise long enough to counsel the curmudgeonly genius. But Zimmerman would rather die than be treated by an “antique.”

Order the DVDsteleplay by Robert Doherty & Raf Green and Brannon Braga
story by John Bruno & Robert Picardo
directed by Terry Windell
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Dwight Schultz (Barclay), Tamara Craig Thomas (Haley), Jack Shearer (Admiral Hayes), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi)

Original title: I, Zimmerman

Note: Shatner and Nimoy’s contributions to classic-era movies aside, this episode marked the first time a member of a Star Trek TV series’ regular cast contributed a storyline.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 5 Xena: Warrior Princess

Motherhood

Xena: Warrior PrincessThe gods have gathered in the Great Hall on Olympus. They’re angry that Ares has kept the fact that Livia is Eve to himself for so long. Athena says that now Xena is a mother, she’ll be even harder to stop and calls on the Furies. Ares says he has already tried that with Xena. Athena knows that, but claims her plans are more subtle. Aprhodite begs her not to go after the bard. Athena tells her that if she’s got such a soft spot for Gabrielle, then she shouldn’t watch.

Meanwhile Xena and Gabrielle, after saving Eve from a mob seeking revenge against Livia, are with the followers of Eli. Xena says that Eli had a way of initiating people into his way. A woman says that there is someone who continues that tradition, the Baptist. They go to this man and he baptizes Eve. As he is doing this, Xena gets a message sent by the Archangel Michael. Suddenly Poseidon rises in the ocean as Discord, Demios, Hades, Hephestus and Artemis appear on the beach and attack Xena, Gabrielle and Eve.

Order the DVDsteleplay by R.J. Stewart
story by Robert Tapert
directed by Rick Jacobson
music by Joseph LoDuca

Guest Cast: Ted Raimi (Joxer), Kevin Smith (Ares), Alexandra Tydings (Aphrodite), Adrienne Wilkinson (Eve), William Gregory Lee (Virgil), Paris Jefferson (Athena), Meighan Desmond (Discord), Stephen Lovatt (Hades), Julian Garner (Hephaestus), Joel Tobeck (Demios), Josephine Davison (Artemis), Asa Lindh (Alecto), Diana Rowan (Shepherd), Jon Brazier (Baptist), Annmarie Dennis (Tisiphone), Siaosi Fonua (Cullar), Susan Brady (double for Gabrielle/Hope), Jonathan Costello (Horseman), and A Tall Waterspout (Poseidon)

Original title: Twilight Of The Gods

LogBook entry by Mary Terrell

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Season 06 Star Trek Voyager

The Haunting Of Deck Twelve

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: As Voyager enters a class J nebula, Captain Janeway orders a pre-planned power shutdown to prevent the ship’s energy output from attracting turbulent discharges from the nebula. Seven, worried that the Borg children’s imaginations will alarm them unnecessarily, has not warned them of the power shutdown. She asks Neelix to keep the children occupied, and the Talaxian decides to hone his storytelling skills by turning the ship’s silent running into a ghost story. But as he spins his terrifying tale, Neelix soon discovers that his captive audience is already a step ahead of him.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Mike Sussman and Kenneth Biller & Bryan Fuller
story by Mike Sussman
directed by David Livingston
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Manu Intiraymi (Icheb), Marley McClean (Mezoti), Zoe MacLellan (Tal Celes), Kurt Wetherill (Azan), Cody Wetherill (Rebi), Majel Barrett (Computer voice)

Note: As in her previous appearance in Good Shepherd, Bajoran non-com Tal Celes is referred to as “Crewman Celes” – which contradicts the years of Bajoran surname-followed-by-given-name convention established in Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 06 Star Trek Voyager

Unimatrix Zero

Star Trek: VoyagerStardate not given: Seven of Nine reports a startling experience during her regeneration cycle, which the Doctor explains away as a dream. Moments after Tom Paris is reinstated to the rank of lieutenant, Voyager receives a distress signal – which goes dead a second later. Tracking the signal to its source, the crew finds a colony built on an asteroid…and destroyed by the Borg.

Seven’s next regeneration cycle finds her in a verdant jungle again, greeted by a familiar man named Axum. He explains that Seven is not dreaming, but has been drawn to a virtual environment known as Unimatrix Zero. One in a million Borg drones has a recessive mutation which allows them to visit Unimatrix Zero while they regenerate. In this environment, the drones have individuality, their original appearance…and no memory of events there once they return to the Collective. But one drone no longer belongs to the Collective. Seven can retain her memory, and she promptly relays this information to Captain Janeway, who sees an opportunity to undermine the Borg once and for all.

Janeway mounts a bold offensive against the nearest Borg vessel, which is a heavily armored tactical ship. She reluctantly brings Tuvok and Torres with her on a mission to infiltrate the Borg ship – a mission which results in the destruction of the Delta Flyer just as its away team beams aboard the cube. But Janeway’s team is quickly overcome – the captain, Tuvok and B’Elanna are all assimilated. Was this part of her plan?

Order the DVDsteleplay by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
story by Mike Sussman
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Susanna Thompson (Borg Queen), Mark Deakins (Axum), Jerome Butler (Korok), Joanna Heimbold (Laura), Tony Sears (Borg Drone), Ryan Spears (Alien Child)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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5th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Red Dawn

Doctor Who: Red DawnThe TARDIS takes the Doctor and Peri to a cathedralesque structure on the surface of Mars early in the 21st century at a particularly historic moment – the day of the first American manned landing on the red planet. But NASA’s crew is a motley assortment. Two American astronauts are accompanied by a pair of British civilians, Tanya and Paul Webster, whose only claim to their seats on the mission is their relation to a rich uncle whose financial backing kept the Mars shot from being scrapped. But the Websters’ presence is more than just a favor to the mission’s benefactor. The Doctor, Peri, and the astronauts discover that the elaborate building is an Ice Warrior tomb, guarded by a contingent of Warriors in suspended animation. Paul Webster suddenly shows his true colors: as an ambitious and unscrupulous agent for his equally corrupt uncle, he is on the Mars mission to bring back as much alien technology as he can find. The honor-bound Ice Warriors have a hard time coming to any conclusion other than vengeance – which could kill both the innocent members of the expedition and the time travelers as well. The Doctor feels personally responsible for the entire incident, which might not have happened if not for his presence on Mars.

Order this CDwritten by Justin Richards
directed by Gary Russell
music by Russell Stone

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Matthew Brenher (Lord Zzaal), Robert Jezek (Commander Lee Forbes), Maureen Oakley (Pilot Susan Roberts), Stephen Fewell (Paul Webster), Georgia Moffatt (Tanya Webster), Hylton Collins (Subcommander Sstast), Alistair Lock (Zizmar), Jason Haigh-Ellery (Sskann), Gary Russell (Razzburr)

Notes: Georgia Moffatt is Peter Davison’s daughter, but she’s not the first offspring of the leading actor to appear in the series. Sylvester McCoy’s two sons played Haemovores in 1989’s The Curse Of Fenric, and the late Patrick Troughton’s son David made three appearances, a bit part in 1969’s The War Games and much more prominent roles in 1972’s The Curse Of Peladon and 2008’s Midnight. Moffatt would later appear in a 2008 episode of the revived Doctor Who TV series, ironically titled The Doctor’s Daughter, and married the tenth Doctor, David Tennant, in 2011.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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Farscape Season 2

Home On The Remains

FarscapeLow on supplies, the crew follows Chiana to a mining colony harvesting the remains of a Budong. Their situation is becoming extreme; a starving Zhaan has started to sprout as a defense mechanism, and the resulting pollen threatens to overwhelm everyone, including Moya. Although Chiana knows the colonists, she left on good terms with only a few – and one of those is quickly killed by a predator called a Keedva. The colony’s leader, B’Sogg, is not inclined to offer Chiana any favors. As Zhaan worsens, the crew pursue their own methods to mine enough crystals to buy some food, but the Keedva and its owner have very different plans.

Order the DVDswritten by Gabrielle Stanton & Harry Werksman, Jr.
directed by Rowan Woods
music by Guy Gross

Guest Cast: John Brumpton (B’Sogg), Justine Saunders (Altana), Rob Carlton (Vija), Hunter Perske (Temmon), Gavin Robins (Keedva)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Farscape Season 2

Dream a Little Dream

FarscapeZhaan tells Crichton about the time she, Chiana, and Rygel spent searching for him, D’Argo and Aeryn after their destruction of the Gammak Base. Desperate to find her friends, Zhaan found herself increasingly giving in to despair. Matters became even more dire when they searched on the planet Litigara, a society in which only ten percent of the population – a derided minority called Utilities – were not lawyers. Moya was becoming increasingly hard to control, as she sought to find her missing offspring. Zhaan, however, soon found herself imprisoned on a trumped-up jaywalking charge, then lured into an alley by the promise of escape, and ultimately framed for murder. Unable to find any Litigaran willing to defend her, Zhaan could only turn to Rygel and Chiana for help. And since the Litigaran legal code forbids lying, it was no surprise that the case started badly. Soon, Zhaan had withdrawn far into her own mind, overcome by hallucinations of her missing friends.

Order the DVDswritten by Steven Rae
directed by Ian Watson
music by Guy Gross

Guest Cast: Steve Jacobs (Ja Rhumann), Sandy Gore (Judge), Simone Kessell (Finzzi), Marin Mimica (Dersch), Peter Kowitz (Tarr)

Notes: Originally titled Re: Union, this story was intended as the second season premiere. When the producers chose not to delay revealing Crichton, D’Argo and Aeryn’s fate, new framing footage was filmed and the episode was moved down the schedule.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Spectre Of Lanyon Moor

Doctor Who: The Spectre Of Lanyon MoorThe Doctor and Evelyn arrive at a Cornish moor where an archaeological dig seems to be stirring up more trouble than it’s worth. Professor Morgan’s attempts to unearth an ancient landmark have begun to awaken an equally ancient evil which has been trapped on Earth for thousands of years. Nearby, the wealthy eccentric Sir Archibald Flint has barely guessed at the nature of this hidden power, hoping to tap into it for his own ends. To the Doctor’s delight, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is at the dig site, quietly monitoring the proceedings at UNIT’s behest – but even UNIT’s firepower and the Time Lord’s cunning may not be enough to save Earth from a creature hell-bent on revenge.

Order this CDwritten by Nicholas Pegg
directed by Nicholas Pegg
music by Alistair Lock

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Dr. Evelyn Smythe), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Toby Longworth (Professor Morgan), Barnaby Edwards (Philip Ludgate), James Bolam (Sir Archibald Flint), Susan Jameson (Mrs. Moynihan), Helen Goldwyn (Nikki Hunter), Nicholas Pegg (Captain Ashforde), Helen Goldwyn (Pelagia Stamatis), Helen Goldwyn (Corporal Croft)

Timeline: after The Marian Conspiracy and before The Apocalypse Element

Logbook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

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Season 04 SG-1 Stargate

Small Victories

Stargate SG-1Thor’s ship slams into the Pacific Ocean in pieces, but some of the replicators survive the ship’s re-entry. One replicator tries to single-handedly commandeer a Russian submarine, but the sub makes it back to harbor. SG-1, after two weeks missing in action, finally returns home from delivering Thor back to the Asgard. But despite O’Neill’s wish for a hot shower and a fishing trip, the team gets new assignments almost immediately. Thor asks for the team’s help in the Asgard’s ongoing war with the replicators, and Carter goes to offer her expertise. The rest of SG-1 boards the Russian sub, discovering that the replicator has made copies of itself, which are now making copies of themselves – but after their first firefight with the replicators, Daniel detects a defect: the new replicators, created from the raw material available in the submarine, are susceptible to Earth’s corrosive seawater. But the information may not be enough to save O’Neill and Teal’c’s lives.

Season 4 Regular Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (Colonel Jack O’Neill), Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson), Amanda Tapping (Major Samantha Carter), Christopher Judge (Teal’c), Don S. Davis (General Hammond)

Order the DVDswritten by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith
main theme adapted from music by David Arnold

Guest Cast: Colin Cunningham (Major Davis), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Teryl Rothery (Dr. Fraiser), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler), Yurij Kis (Yuri), Dmitry Chepovetsky (Boris)

Notes: This episode offers the first-ever glimpse of the Asgard homeworld, as well as their new command cruiser, the O’Neill, to say nothing of Teal’c’s new “soul patch” beard grown by Christopher Judge during the between-season break in filming. Some of Joel Goldsmith‘s music is reminiscent of the themes he and his father Jerry composed for another SF enemy that won’t consider you a threat unless you threaten it first: Star Trek: First Contact‘s Borg.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Farscape Season 2

Out of Their Minds

FarscapeThe crew’s usual sense of timing prevails when Moya’s defense screen goes down for repairs just as a Halosian ship attacks. The resulting energy surge bounces everyone but Zhaan’s consciousness out of their own bodies and into another. For Crichton, this presents an interesting opportunity to be much, much closer to Aeryn’s body than he could have expected, while Aeryn gets the shorter end of the stick inside Rygel’s body and Rygel takes up residence in Crichton’s. Less amusing is Pilot’s predicament; he’s not handling being inside Chiana’s body very well, and D’Argo’s mind struggles to keep up with the demands of Pilot’s body. Zhaan travels to the Halosian ship to try and settle the dispute, but Tak, the ship’s commander, is determined to destroy Moya, claiming that Talyn attacked his ship unprovoked. Zhaan arranges for the commander to inspect Moya to prove its peaceful status. The tour is less than successful, as Tak takes ill; worse, his vomit is corrosive, and begins to eat away at Moya. Perhaps worst of all, Tak’s second in command Yoz tells Zhaan that it was Tak who initiated hostilities with Talyn, and he’s determined to earn glory for himself by destroying Moya. Upon his return, Tak launches another attack, causing another round of body switching, leaving it up to Zhaan to find a way to vercome the Halosians and return her friends to their rightful bodies.

Order the DVDswritten by Michael Cassutt
directed by Ian Watson
music by Guy Gross

Guest Cast: Lani John Tupu (Capt. Crais), Dominique Sweeney (Tak), Thomas Holesgrove (Yoz)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Season 04 SG-1 Stargate

The Other Side

Stargate SG-1The SGC is on high alert after several unexpected offworld activations. Finally, a message is received from a colony of descendants of human slaves taken from Earth by the Goa’uld, which reveals that with each previous attempt to open the stargate, a volunteer stepped through and fatally slammed into the iris protecting the SGC’s gate. Their leader, Alar, pleads for assistance in his people’s war with an unknown enemy, and General Hammond dispatches SG-1 on a purely humanitarian mission. Alar’s people fight a war by remote control from a besieged underground headquarters, on a world whose surface has been left permanently uninhabitable by the ongoing war. After seeing their remote combat technology in action, and learning about their controlled fusion reactors, O’Neill pledges Earth’s assistance to ensure a technology exchange. What Alar wants from Earth is deuterium-infused heavy water to power both his defenses and offensive weapons. But this raises troubling questions about the war being fought – how did it start, who is the enemy, and is O’Neill getting in over his head?

Order the DVDswritten by Brad Wright
directed by Peter DeLuise
music by Kevin Kiner

Guest Cast: Rene Auberjonois (Alar), Anne Marie Loder (Farrell), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler), Stephen Park (Controller), Kyle Cassie (Eurondan Soldier), Kris Keeler (Zombie Pilot)

Notes: Guest star Rene Auberjonois is a familiar face to SF TV fans, having spent seven years on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the shapeshifting security officer Odo prior to this episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 04 SG-1 Stargate

Upgrades

Stargate SG-1Two representatives from the Tok’ra arrive, bearing gifts – relics of an extinct race that, according to the Tok’ra’s best minds, should give their wearers superhuman strength. However, due to the Tok’ra’s symbiotes, the irony is that they’re incapable of using the devices. O’Neill, Carter and Daniel are chosen to be the guinea pigs for this experiment, and as the Tok’ra promise, the alien armbands give all three of them superhuman strength and speed and mental agility – but there’s also a price, such as a superhuman appetite and what Dr. Fraiser warns is an unsafely high body temperature. On Fraiser’s advice, General Hammond orders the use of the alien gear discontinued, only to find that O’Neill and the other test subjects are physically unable to remove them. Dr. Fraiser suspects that the Tok’ra knew this would happen, and her suspicions are confirmed – and the Tok’ra now admit that they would like to “borrow” the new and improved SG-1 for a mission to take out Apophis’ powerful new warship, a feat that the Tok’ra have thus far failed to accomplish for themselves.

Order the DVDswritten by David Rich
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith, Richard Band and Kevin Kiner

Guest Cast: Vanessa Angel (Anise), Teryl Rothery (Dr. Fraiser), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler), Kristina Copeland (Waitress), Frank Topol (Big Guy), Bill Nikolai (Technician #1), Laara Sadiq (Technician #2), Daniel Melles (SF#1), Tracy Westerholm (SF#2), Fraser Aitcheson (Jaffa Commander), Shawn Reis (Jaffa)

Notes: Guest star Vanessa Angel is best known for starring as Lisa on the TV series based on the movie Weird Science; she was later cast as a warrior princess named Xena in a three-episode stretch of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, but fell ill before the filming dates and was replaced by a New Zealand actress named Lucy Lawless. Daniel deciphers the inscriptions on the alien devices to mean “with great power comes great responsibility” – apparently this alien culture once read The Amazing Spider-Man.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Farscape Season 2

My Three Crichtons

FarscapeAn energy penetrates Moya and envelops Crichton. When Aeryn fires on it, the sphere embeds itself into the ship and spits Crichton out. Then it spits out another Crichton, or at least a primitive Neanderthalesque version thereof . . . and then yet another, this time a cranially enhanced, “highly evolved” edition. While Chiana attends to the past Crichton, the present and future versions figure out the sphere’s purpose – it collects and tests specimens of life forms from this dimension, and it wants to collect data on humans. The only problem is that the trip back to the sphere’s home dimension is likely fatal – and if one of the Crichtons doesn’t volunteer, the sphere will just bring Moya and all its crew. To save everyone, one Crichton must sacrifice himself . . . but who’s willing to volunteer, and will the rest of the crew agree with his decision?

Order the DVDsstory by Gabrielle Stanton & Harry Werksman, Jr.
teleplay by Grant McAloon
directed by Catherine Millar
music by Guy Gross

Guest Cast: none

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer