Year: 2008

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Condemned

Doctor Who: The CondemnedStranded after the crash of the Cybership she helped to sabotage, Charley is cut off from the Doctor, and sets about building a crude crystal radio set to signal S.O.S. into the ether. She’s relieved when the TARDIS appears, but when she steps through the doors, she’s left speechless when she meets its occupant – the sixth Doctor, not the eighth. She’s very evasive about her origins and how she got to the future, which immediately raises the Doctor’s suspicions. The TARDIS next lands in Ackley House, an apartment block in Manchester in 2008 – in the apartment of a man who appears to have been murdered. Charley goes to find help, but never makes it back to the Doctor; instead, he’s found by the police and charged with murder. Charley has been abducted by a woman who lives in one of the other flats, and is held captive there until she manages to break free. When the body of the murder victim vanishes, the Doctor is off the hook, but he’s found a receptive ear in D.I. Menzies and continues to enlist her help in an investigation that involves aliens, money, and – despite appearances to the contrary – murder. Along the way, however, the Doctor begins to suspect that the girl he rescued from the future isn’t who she claims to be.

Order this CDwritten by Eddie Robson
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by David Darlington

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charlotte Pollard), Anna Hope (D.I. Patricia Menzies), Will Ash (Sam), Sara De Freitas (Maxine), Lennox Greaves (Dr. Aldrich), James George (Slater), Diana Morrison (Antonia Bailey / Jane), Sephen Aintree (D.C.I. Turnbull / Goon / Police Officer / Guy in Gym), Steve Hansell (P.C. Blackstock / Police Officer / Guy in Gym)

Timeline: for the sixth Doctor, it is unknown if this takes place before or after his travels with Evelyn; for Charley, this story takes place immediately after The Girl Who Never Was

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Season 2 Torchwood

Something Borrowed

TorchwoodThe day before Gwen’s wedding is typical Torchwood – a desperate chase to track down a shapeshifting alien vampire from the rift, followed by a bachelorette party. But as the big day dawns, Gwen has more than jitters or the strange bite on her arm to deal with: she awakens to find that she’s not just pregnant, but very pregnant – almost to full term. Despite the reactions of everyone around her, from Rhys to his parents to her own parents, Gwen is determined to go ahead with the wedding. Owen discovers that the baby isn’t Rhys’s – nor is it that of any other human. The male of this vampire species reproduces by infesting a host body through a bite, and the egg grows in that body until the vampire female arrives to harvest it and give birth. Immediately the hunt is on for the female vampire among Gwen’s wedding guests, but even if she can be found and dealt with, the wedding might be derailed just a little bit – and then there’s the small matter of the rest of the wedding party witnessing a hunt for an alien creature.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Phil Ford
directed by Ashley Way
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Nerys Hughes (Brenda), Sharon Morgan (Mary), William Thomas (Geraint), Robin Griffith (Barry), Collette Brown (Carrie), Danielle Henry (Megan), Ceri Ann Gregory (Trina), Jonathan Lewis Owen (Banana Boat), Morgan Hopkins (Mervyn), Valerie Murray (Registrar), Pethrow Gooden (Shop Assistant)

Notes: Nerys Hughes guest starred as Todd in the 1982 Doctor Who story Kinda alongside Peter Davison.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 2 Torchwood

From Out Of The Rain

TorchwoodOne of Cardiff’s oldest movie houses reopens its doors and celebrates by showing reels of nostalgic silent film discovered in the basement. Gwen, Ianto and Owen visit the first showing, but when the projector won’t shut off – and they see Jack in the film, billed as “the man who can’t die” at a traveling carnival and shooting himself – the silent movie quickly becomes a Torchwood matter. Soon after the film is shown, people begin turning up in a catatonic state near the theater, no longer breathing but still alive. One of the film reels is confiscated and taken back to the Torchwood hub, where Ianto notices that there are people missing from scenes – namely the carnival barker and his main attraction, the mermaid woman. But when the team returns to the theater, they find that not only are these two people there in the flesh, but they’re helping the rest of their carnival emerge from film and into reality – to help them claim more victims.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by P.J. Hammond
directed by Jonathan Fox Bassett
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Julian Bleach (The Ghostmaker), Camilla Power (Pearl), Craig Gallivan (Jonathan), Gerard Carey (Greg), Steven Marzella (Dave Penn), Hazel Wyn Williams (Faith Penn), Lowri Sian Jones (Nettie), Eileen Essell (Christina), Anwen Carlisle (Restaurant Owner), Yasmin Wilde (Senior Nurse), Caroline Sheen (A&E Nurse), Alastair Sill (Young Dad), Catherine Olding (Young Mum)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
5th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Cuddlesome

Doctor Who: CuddlesomeThe Doctor’s TARDIS literally crashes through a suburban greenhouse, and upon stepping out of the TARDIS he immediately meets the greenhouse’s owner, though she’s more worried about her boyfriend being injured than she is about the damage. The Doctor finds her boyfriend in a delirious state, with alien toxins in his blood and a pair of bite marks in his neck, which the man apparently suffered while searching for a relic of his childhood in the attic. Concerned about the strange developments, the Doctor tracks down the toy – a pink vampire hamster called a Cuddlesome with a voice recognition device – which was apparently all the rage in the 1980s. Now he finds that others are suffering from similar injuries, and there have even been deaths, with Cuddlesomes as the common denominator, all of them leaving the scene after attacking their owners. The Doctor follows the Cuddlesomes an abandoned toy factory, where their creator, Turvey, has activated his own kind of product recall – he has attracted the Cuddlesomes to his current location. But Turvey is at the mercy of someone else who is creating a new line of Cuddlesomes…and if the Doctor thought the 1980s models were deadly, he hasn’t seen anything yet. This attempt to cash in on childhood nostalgia could endanger the entire human race.

written by Nigel Fairs
directed by Barnaby Edwards
music by Nigel Fairs

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Roberta Taylor (Angela Wisher), Timothy West (Ronald Turvey), David Troughton (The Tinghus), Matthew Noble (John Dixon / New Cuddlesomes), Kate Brown (Miranda Evenden / Cuddlesomes / Dr. Cooper / Vehicle), Nicholas Briggs (Newsreader)

Notes: This single-part story, which shared a CD with a “director’s cut” of part one of the early Big Finish fifth Doctor/Dalek story The Mutant Phase, was included free with issue #393 of Doctor Who Magazine. Ironically, both Cuddlesome and The Mutant Phase are reworked versions of audio stories produced by Nicholas Briggs, Gary Russell and Bill Baggs in their late 1980s range of Audio Visuals plays.

Timeline: the packaging of Cuddlesome offers no hints as to where it falls chronologically, though it may occur during the same interval as The Gathering.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Of Gods And Men Star Trek Star Trek Fan Films

Of Gods And Men – Part 2

Star Trek: Of Gods And Men

This is an episode of a fan-made series whose storyline may be invalidated by later official studio productions.

Stardate not given: The G.S.S. Conqueror captures a shuttle fleeing from the rubble that was the planet Vulcan, and its crew of two – Tuvok and Uhura – are thrown into a cell with the freedom fighters Kitrick and Ragnar. Though Uhura condemns Kitrick’s track record of death and mayhem, saying he’s no better than the Galactic Order itself, she finds herself remembering him as well, though the two have never met. Tuvok performs a mind-meld on Uhura, and stumbles across parallel memories – memories in which she has lived on Vulcan for so long, and memories in which she served aboard a starship with the man who appears to be Kitrick. She calls him Pavel, a name that Kitrick says he hasn’t used in years, and tries to convince him that they should work together – but she runs into trouble when she tries to convince him that they’ll also need Harriman, who she also remembers.

Watch Itstory by Sky Conway & Tim Russ and Jack Trevino & Ethan H. Calk
teleplay by Ethan H. Calk, Sky Conway & Jack Trevino
directed by Tim Russ
music by Justin R. Durban

Cast: Walter Koenig (Capt. Pavel Chekov), Nichelle Nichols (Capt. Nyota Uhura), Alan Ruck (Capt. John Harriman), Garrett Wang (Commander Garan), William Wellman Jr. (Charlie Evans), J.G. Hertzler (Koval), Gary Graham (Ragnar), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Chase Masterson (Xela), Crystal Allen (Conqueror Navigator Yara), Ethan Phillips (Data Clerk), Cirroc Lofton (Sevar), Lawrence Montaigne (Stonn), James Cawley (Commander Kirk), Jeff Quinn (Conqueror Helmsman), Seth Shostak (Enterprise Communications Officer), Shawn Shelton (voice of the Guardian of Forever), Crystal Conway (Grandchild), Madison Russ (Grandchild), Keith Batt (Navigator), Patrick Bell (Enterprise Helmsman), Giovanna Contini, David deFrane, Ronald Gates, Deborah Huth, Danielle Porter (Enterprise Bridge Crew), Sky Conway, Travis Sentell (Enterprise Security Officers), Jeanine Camargo, Heather C. Harris, Mindy Iden, Luke McRoberts, Moses Shepard (Vulcan Initiates), Elizabeth Cortez (T’Liel), Amy Ulen (Teacher), Rob Leslie, Joanna Mendoza, Linda Zaruches (Vulcan Citizens), Stewart Lucas, Scott Nakada (Conqueror Klingon Officers), Joel Bellucci, Tony Pavone (Conqueror Romulan Officers), Giovanna Contini (Conqueror Science Officer)

Review: Sometimes I shouldn’t open my big mouth. Remember how I was praising the first part of Of Gods And Men for not “doing a Guinan” and giving us someone who mystically remembers that history has been put out of joint and needs to be fixed? Not even ten minutes into the second segment, Gods did a Guinan.

Categories
Season 2 Torchwood

Adrift

TorchwoodOne of Gwen’s old friends in the Cardiff Police asks her to help with a missing persons case, and is disappointed by her apparent lack of interest – until she sees the surveillance video of the disappearance, which has two extraordinary features – a bright light, just out of the camera’s range, at the moment of the disappearance…and the presence of Jack Harkness in the very next frame. Gwen immediately confronts Jack about his whereabouts at the time, and finds his answer evasive. Despite a direct order from Jack to not waste Torchwood’s time with a missing persons case better suited to the police, Gwen pursues the investigation in her spare time, discovering that many more people have gone missing under similar circumstances – and she risks everything to confirm her gut feeling that Jack is involved.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Mark Everest
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Tom Price (PC Andy), Ruth Jones (Nikki), Robert Pugh (Jonah), Lorna Gayle (Helen), Oliver Ferriman (young Jonah)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 2 Torchwood

Fragments

TorchwoodThe late 1800s: After his death and miraculous resurrection are witnessed numerous times in Cardiff, Captain Jack Harkness – laying low in the city after his return from the 51st century, as he waits for the TARDIS to appear and refuel from the rift – is captured by Torchwood. They experiment on him, killing him numerous times, and decide that, like the Doctor, he is an unnatural threat that Torchwood must deal with – unless he pledges his allegiance to them and works for them. Distrustful at first, Jack decides to take Torchwood up on its offer, and begins working to evolve the alien-hunting agency beyond its original mandate.

2002: Toshiko Sato, an IT expert with high security clearances, uses her position to obtain classified plans for a top-secret weapon, which she builds and hands over to the people who are holding her mother hostage. But she hasn’t covered her tracks well enough, because UNIT troops mount a raid during the handover. Toshiko is arrested and held in close confinement with no contact with the outside world, until Captain Jack Harkness arrives, offering her a job with a top-secret agency…

2005: Dr. Owen Harper is baffled when his fiancee begins experiencing the earliest onset of Alzheimer’s Disease in recorded medical history. Owen insists on new MRI scans, which detect an unusual, fast-growing tumor. But Owen’s future bride dies in the operating room, and Owen witnesses the arrival of a man named Captain Jack, who claims that his fiancee has been the victim of an alien parasite. Jack later offers Owen a job with his top-secret agency, saying he needs a medical expert.

2006: While hunting a Weevil solo, Jack is cornered until a young man comes to his aid, clubbing the Weevil and allowing Jack to subdue him. When the stranger casually remarks that the creature looks like a Weevil, Jack rushes away. Jack finds this young man, one Ianto Jones, waiting for him outside of Torchwood’s Cardiff headquarters the next day. Ianto, jobless after the destruction of Torchwood One at Canary Wharf, is looking for a job – and he looks good in a suit. After he proves his worth, Jack may just have one for him.

2008: Minus Gwen, who has overslept, Jack and the rest of the Torchwood team investigate odd readings indicating alien activity. But instead they find bombs mere seconds away from detonating. An old enemy of Jack’s has returned, and the rest of Jack’s team may regret the day they signed up.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jonathan Fox Bassett
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Amy Manson (Alice Guppy), Heather Carney (Emily Holroyd), Paul Kasey (Blowfish / Weevil), Skye Bennett (Little Girl), Julian Lewis Jones (Alex), Simon Shackleton (Bob), Gareth Jones (Security Guard), Claire Clifford (Milton), Noriko Aida (Toshiko’s Mother), Andrea Lowe (Katie), Richard Lloyd-King (Doctor), Catherine Morris (Nurse), Selva Rasalingam (Psychiatrist), James Marsters (Captain John Hart), Lachlan Nieboer (Gray)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Brave New Town

Doctor Who: Brave NEw TownSeptember, 1991: the TARDIS brings the Doctor and Lucie to a town which seems to be frozen in time. With no electricity, nothing here has been cleaned for years, and the friendly locals have no problem with the idea that yesterday’s date was the same as today’s – just like tomorrow’s will be. Surrounding the town is a bleak desert, though everyone living there swears that the tide is out. One thing disrupts the calm here: armored vehicles routinely patrol the area, crossing the desert that shouldn’t be there, and all the locals have to do to avoid detection is stand still. Lucie is captured by one of the patrols, and discovers that their occupants seem fairly certain that it’s 2008. The Doctor, trying to track down a missing local girl, discovers that the town – and the desert – are actually deep inside the borders of Uzbekistan, and that the locals are anything but. They’re Autons who, without control from the Nestene Consciousness, have blended in to the point that they think they’re human. But somewhere in the desert, a Nestene control unit is trying to re-establish contact with its Auton army, and the innocuous townsfolk may justify the armed presence patrolling their home.

Order this CDwritten by Jonathan Clements
directed by Jason Haigh-Ellery
music by ERS

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Sheridan Smith (Lucie Miller), Derek Griffiths (Jason Taylor), Adrian Dunbar (McCarthy), Lorna Want (Sally Taylor), Nick Wilton (PC Sharp / Karimov), Katarina Olsson (Margaret / Vitas)

Notes: This marks the Autons’ first appearance in a Big Finish audio production; they had already appeared as both the first villain and the first classic villain in 2005’s Rose, the first episode of the new TV series. The Autons also inspired a trilogy of fan-made video productions in the 1990s, though the interpretation of them seen there is very different from either Rose or Brave New Town.

Timeline: after Max Warp and before The Skull Of Sobek

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
7th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Dark Husband

Doctor Who: The Dark HusbandAfter a particularly harrowing adventure, the Doctor promises to take Ace and Hex somewhere where they can all relax, and by virtue of having both a spa and a beer tent, the Festival of the Twin Moons of Tuin wins the toss. But of course, the Doctor hasn’t shared everything he knows about Tuin: the societies of its twin moons, despite being very closely related biologically, are locked in a seemingly endless war, from which the Festival is the only break in hostilities. Furthermore, the Doctor takes it upon himself to bring that war to an end, having read some local lore. He declares himself the suitor to an unknown bride, the marriage of whom will bring peace to Tuin at last. But instead of being one step ahead of the game, this time the Doctor’s information is woefully incomplete, as he has no idea who he’ll be marrying. And even when the bride is revealed, the Doctor discovers that the peace their wedding vows will bring will not be the peace of a war ended, but the peace of a dead world.

Order this CDwritten by David Quantick
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Steve Foxon

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Danny Webb (Ori), Andy B Newb (Irit), Benny Dawb (Tuin), Katarina Olsson (Bard), Sean Connolly (Bard)

Timeline: between Nocturne and Forty-Five

LogBook entry and TheatEar entry by Earl Green

Review: A bizarrely dark metaphysical comedy, The Dark Husband is a bit misleading at several points in the story, but it certainly keeps you on your toes. It’s not like anything that’s been done in Doctor Who before, audio or television, though some longtime fans might find some similarities to the logic trap posed in the classic series phrase “Who who loses shall win, and he who wins shall lose” – it’s that kind of crafty misdirection.

Categories
Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

He That Believeth In Me

Battlestar GalacticaGalactica’s entire command crew is stunned into silence at the sound of Starbuck’s voice. Even though they’re still reeling from the realization that they are among the Cylons’ fabled final five, Tigh, Tyrol, Anders and Tory are shocked by the return of Starbuck. Starbuck helps Galactica in the fight against the Cylon base ships, but after a Cylon fighter scans Anders at close range, the fight is over and the Cylons inexplicably retreat. Aboard Galactica, Starbuck’s triumphant return is met with a very muted response. She claims that she’s only been gone for six hours, and can’t explain why two months have passed for the rest of the fleet. She also can’t explain, except in the vaguest of terms, how she got to Earth and then returned to the fleet. Roslin orders Starbuck locked up and kept under guard, certain that this isn’t the real Kara Thrace, but a Cylon trick. Below decks, in the aftermath of his trial, Baltar is whisked away to the safety of a commune of people who consider him to be their messiah, and he begins to falteringly pass on the Cylons’ monotheistic belief system to his new followers, urging them to turn their backs on the pantheon of gods worshipped by the Colonials. But even among friends (and at least a few fanatics), Baltar discovers that he isn’t completely safe. Starbuck tries to convince Adama that she does know the way to Earth, but can’t give him a concrete reason to trust her. She then sets out to convince Roslin instead – with a gun in her hand.

Season 4 Regular Cast: Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Katie Sackhoff (Lt. Starbuck), Jamie Bamber (Captain Apollo), James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Lt. Boomer)

written by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 2 Torchwood

Exit Wounds

TorchwoodAfter escaping the bomb blast, Torchwood is helpless in the face of a promise of revenge from Captain John Hart. And Captain John has another ace up his sleeve: he’s found Jack’s brother Grey, alive and grown up. When Jack returns to the Torchwood hub, John kidnaps him and forces him to watch as he sets off a devastating series of huge explosions throughout Cardiff…and then John takes Jack back in time through the rift to Cardiff in 27 A.D., where Grey is waiting. Driven mad by the torment he endured after his older brother lost track of him, Grey is now seeking revenge, and buries Jack alive. Gwen mobilizes the rest of Torchwood and finds herself having to tell the city’s police what to do – as best she can. One of the explosions has cut off external power to the Turnmill nuclear power station, and Owen races to prevent a meltdown as the rest of the team returns to the hub. They find Captain John there, who explains that he was forced to do Grey’s bidding, and claims that he can locate Jack for them. But Grey isn’t finished with the rest of the team: he shoots Toshiko at point blank range and traps Gwen, Ianto and John in the underground cells normally reserved for Weevils. Without Toshiko’s technical advice, Owen finds himself trapped at the nuclear station with a radioactive disaster imminent. Whether or not Jack can be found and can save the day, his team will never be the same – nor will his relationship with his brother.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Ashley Way
music by Murray Gold and Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), James Marsters (Captain John Hart), Tom Price (PC Andy), Lachlan Nieboer (Gray), Paul Kasey (Weevil), Golda Rosheuvel (Dr. Angela Connolly), Syreeta Kumar (Nira Docherty), Cornelius Macarthy (Charles Gaskell), Amy Manson (Alice Guppy)

Notes: At last, Toshiko’s presence alongside the ninth Doctor in Aliens Of London is explained – apparently, Owen was to have been sent to investigate the “space pig,” but was hungover and didn’t answer his phone. Toshiko was sent to pose as a medic instead – not exactly her forte – which explains her jumpiness when the Doctor arrived on the scene.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 04

Partners In Crime

Doctor WhoOn Earth in 2008, the Doctor investigates a company called Adipose Industries, the makers of a diet pill that magically makes the fat “walk away,” suspecting that there’s something sinister to their miracle cure for obesity. Little does he know that his friend, former runaway bride Donna Noble, is also at Adipose, having just taken a job in health & safety. Also realizing that Adipose’s claims are too good to be true, Donna begins her own investigation. Donna’s family has criticized her for not sticking to any one job for any length of time since the mysterious circumstances around her not getting married, but what she can’t explain to them is that she regrets not taking the Doctor up on his offer of travel in the TARDIS – and hopes she’ll see him again someday. As she and the Doctor independently snoop around Adipose, they both learn of the more sinister agenda behind the miracle diet pill – and each other’s presence. Just as quickly, they’re both on the run, with Donna leaving no doubt that she expects to be off with the Doctor once the current crisis is over. There’s just one problem: she’s assuming that they’ll both survive the wrath of the mysterious Mrs. Foster once the secret of Adipose is out.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by James Strong
music by Murray Gold

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Sarah Lancashire (Miss Foster), Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Verona Joseph (Penny Carter), Jessica Gunning (Stacey Harris), Martin Ball (Roger Davey), Rachid Sabitri (Craig Staniland), Chandra Ruegg (Clare Pope), Sue Kelvin (Suzette Chambers), Jonathan Stratt (Taxi Driver)

Notes: The episode carries a dedication to Howard Attfield, the late actor who played the role of Donna’s father in The Runaway Bride. He originally shot some scenes for Partners In Crime, but upon his death, the bulk of his dialogue was rewritten for Donna’s grandfather, played by Bernard Cribbins. According to the show’s producers, Donna’s grandfather is indeed the spirited but perhaps slightly unhinged newsstand man encountered by the Doctor (and also played by Cribbins) in Voyage Of The Damned. The Doctor’s observation about how things can come and go through a catflap are nearly identical to a similar comment his seventh incarnation made in 1989’s Survival – a story whose working title was Catflap.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

Six Of One

Battlestar GalacticaStarbuck, after getting President Roslin’s attention by holding her at gunpoint, hands the president that gun and tells her to fire if she truly thinks that Starbuck is a Cylon. Roslin does indeed fire, but she misses; Starbuck is arrested and thrown in the brig, where Adama makes it clear that even his trust in her has now been broken. But Roslin can’t help but feel that Adama’s belief in her absolute certainty that she alone knows the way to Earth is eroding. Among the Cylons, concern is growing about the recent attack on the Colonial fleet, and the abrupt, unplanned end to it. Number Six theorizes that some of the final five Cylon models could be among the fleet, which would prompt the Cylon Raider vehicles to avoid firing on them. Dissention breaks out among the ranks of the Cylons, especially when one of the Boomer models votes against the rest of her type – a first in Cylon history. This proves to be too much for Six to bear, and she gives the signal to fire what may be the first shots in a Cylon civil war.

written by Michael Angeli
directed by Anthony Hemingway
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Rick Worthy (The Doctor), Matthew Bennett (Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Sebastian Spence (Narcho), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavel), Bodie Olmos (Hotdog)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who New Series Season 04

The Fires Of Pompeii

Doctor WhoThe Doctor brings Donna to ancient Pompeii, only to discover that they’ve arrived on the eve of the eruption of Vesuvius. A woman in red robes who immediately noticed the time travelers after their arrival reports to the rest of her order – the blue box foretold by prophecy has appeared. When the Doctor and Donna race back to get in the TARDIS and leave, the blue box is exactly what they don’t find: one of the street merchants sold it as a piece of art. The Doctor finds it soon enough, but now there’s a new problem: Donna doesn’t want to leave without saving some of the people of Pompeii from their fate, something which the Doctor assures her is impossible. Trying to outdo some of the local soothsayers, Donna warns everyone she can about the volcano, but the red-robed sisterhood marks her for death for the crime of false prophecy. The Doctor discovers that one of the locals is apparently in possession of advanced computer circuitry, but doesn’t know exactly what it is. Even if he saves Donna and tracks down the alien attempting to influence history, the Doctor still can’t save the people of Pompeii.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by James Moran
directed by Colin Teague
music by Murray Gold

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Phil Cornwell (Stallholder), Karen Gillan (Soothsayer), Sasha Behar (Spurrina), Lorraine Burroughs (Thalina), Peter Capaldi (Caecilius), Tracey Childs (Metella), Francesca Fowler (Evelina), Francois Pandolfo (Quintus), Victoria Wicks (High Priestess), Gerard Bell (Major Domo), Phil Davis (Lucius)

Notes: Depending on how official you consider the Big Finish audio plays to be, Pompeii in 79 A.D. was positively crawling with incarnations of the Doctor; somewhere across town, the seventh Doctor and Melanie were also trying to escape the eruption of Pompeii in the audio story The Fires Of Vulcan – though they weren’t trying to battle an alien influence. Guest star Karen Gillan later went on to play the part of the eleventh Doctor’s companion, Amy Pond.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 4

The Ties That Bind

Battlestar GalacticaHaving hung up his flight suit for a law career, Apollo finds himself appointed to one of Caprica’s seats on the Quorum by President Roslin. But at the press conference to announce his appointment, reporters are more interested in the sudden reassignment of the Colonial freighter Demetrius, and the rumors that Adama put Starbuck in charge of it to find the way to Earth. Aboard the Demetrius, Starbuck is struggling to remember the signposts that might lead her back to Earth, but she’s rapidly losing the patience and loyalty of her crew. Loyalty and patience also seem to be running out between Tyrol and Cally, who is convinced that Tyrol is having an affair – a theory that seems much more plausible when she spots him in a bar with Tory. Cally’s attempts to find out what’s going on only expose her to the truth: she’s married to a Cylon. That knowledge makes her a target, but even if Tyrol isn’t willing to take drastic measures to ensure that Cally can’t tell anyone else, the others are more than willing.

written by Michael Taylor
directed by Michael Nankin
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek), Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavel), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Matthew Bennett (Doral), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster), Jennifer Halley (Seelix), Christina Schild (Playa Palacios), Biski Gugushe (Sekou Hamilton), Finn R. Devitt (Baby Nicky), Donna Soares (Speaking Delegate #1), Andrew McIlroy (Jacob Cantrell), Judith Marie (Picon Delegate), Iris Paluly (Speaking Delegate #2), Marilyn Norry (Reza Chronides)

Notes: Given that Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore started his professional screenwriting career on Star Trek: The Next Generation, it’s surely just a coincidence that Tyrol, Tigh and Tory picked weapons locker 1701D for their latest clandestine meeting.

LogBook entry by Earl Green