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Audio Series Prisoner, The

Departure and Arrival

The PrisonerAn agent of the British Foreign Office unexpectedly submits his resignation, setting off a panic among his superiors, who discovered that he is planning to flee the country and go to the Bahamas. Armed agents break into his home and abduct him, and when he awakens, he is in the Village, a gaily-colored, self-contained community whose residents seem to know nothing beyond its boundaries. No one seems to know who he is, and no one knows his name. A man identifying himself as Number Two introduces himself, and welcomes the newly-christened “Number Six” to his surveillance and control center, the Green Dome. The tools at his disposal for watching every moment of every life within the Village unfold is mind-boggling, with cameras, mobile phones, ubiquitous and even portable screens, and a kind of interconnected network tying it all together at Number Two’s fingertips. Number Two makes it clear that no one leaves the Village – and Number Six suspects that the penalty for doing so would be fatal. A former intelligence colleague of Number Six, Cobb, is also on the island, and mounts a valiant escape attempt, but he is captured by a deadly security device called Rover and taken to the Village’s hospital; not long afterward, Cobb is reported to have committed suicide, though Number Six immediately suspects something far more sinister. A chance meeting with a woman named Number Nine leads to another escape plan, but is Nine truly an ally and a fellow victim of the Village…or is she a trap?

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Jamie Robertson

Cast: Mark Elstob (Number Six), John Standing (Number Two), Celia Imrie (Number Two), Sara Powell (Number Nine), Helen Goldwyn (Village Voice), Sarah Mowat (ZERO-SIX-TWO), Jim Barclay (Control/Old Captain/Cobb), Barnaby Edwards (Number 34/Danvers/Butler)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Audio Series Prisoner, The

Your Beautiful Village

The PrisonerNumber Six awakens to find his quarters in the Village – and indeed the entire Village itself – plunged into darkness. Phones and loudspeakers also seem to be on the fritz, and his attempts to contact Number Nine to check on her well-being are beset by blasts of radio frequency interference, dropped calls, and occasionally an almost unfathomable silence. Occasionally Number Two breaks through and claims that the entire Village is experiencing these problems and they need Number Six’s help. Refusing to give up, Number Six leaves his quarters in pitch blackness and tries to reach Number Nine, but is unable to do so. In addition to the darkness, Number Six finds that his memory of the Village’s layout isn’t as accurate as he thought. Number Two naturally wants to help Number Six reach his goal…and to help Number Six appreciate the beauty of the Village.

written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Jamie Robertson

Cast: Mark Elstob (Number Six), Michael Cochrane (Number Two), Sara Powell (Number Nine), Helen Goldwyn (Village Voice), Sarah Mowat (ZERO-SIX-TWO)

Notes: Unlike the other three stories in the first Prisoner audio box set, Your Beautiful Village is a story original to Big Finish and not based on a previously filmed episode of the television series. The story deals with sensory deprivation torture, a subject that has been explored in such works as George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Big Finish Spinoffs Diary Of River Song Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Boundless Sea

Doctor WhoRiver is granted a temporary release from her stormcage prison cell to undertake a dangerous mission. The assignment seems simple enough: River, an archaeologist, is being asked to impersonate an archaeologist…on Earth, at a time when a gun-toting female archaeologist just isn’t the norm. But she’ll need those skills to investigate the disappearance of a young woman in an ancient tomb, especially when the young woman turns up again…as something a little bit less than human.

written by Jenny T. Colgan
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Howard Carter

Cast: Alex Kingston (River Song), Alexander Vlahos (Bertie Potts), Alexander Siddig (Marcus Gifford), Imogen Stubbs (Isabella Clerkwell), Gbemisola Ikumelo (Prim), Charlotte Christie (Daphne Garsington)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

A Princess On Lothal

Star Wars: RebelsAwaiting pickup by Hera aboard the Ghost, Kanan and Ezra catch up with Lothal’s former governor, Ryder Azadi, now a fugitive from the Empire, when a new wrinkle crops up in their escape plan: a Rebel convoy of three cruisers is being delivered to the Rebellion by way of Lothal, which is still patrolled by the Empire. Bringing the cruisers to Lothal is Princess Leia Organa, a member of Senator Bail Organa’s staff and a commanding presence, despite still being a teenager. But when the Empire locks down her three ships, Leia, Kanan and Ezra have to improvise fast.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Steven Melching
directed by Saul Ruiz
music by Bosco Ng
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus / AT-AT Driver #3), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / AT-AT Driver #2 / Stormtrooper Commander / Stormtrooper Deck Officer), Dave Filoni (AT-AT Driver / Stormtrooper / Stormtrooper Commander), Liam O’Brien (Lt. Lysle / Stormtrooper Squad Leader), Julie Dolan (Princess Leia Organa), Matthew Wood (Rebel Pilot), Clancy Brown (Ryder Azadi / Imperial Officer / Stormtrooper #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

Protectors Of Concord Dawn

Star Wars: RebelsAs the Empire’s hold on shipping and supply lanes grows tighter, the Rebellion is forced to try to make new pacts with allies. This brings Hera and Phoenix Squadron to the war-torn Mandalorian world of Concord Dawn, whose leader, the outlaw Fenn Rau, might be receptive to an alliance. But Hera discovers too late, and at the cost of half of Phoenix Squadron, that that Fenn Rau has declared his allegiance to the Empire. Sabine is the only pilot other than Hera to survive, and Hera herself barely survives. Kanan decides to go back to Condord Dawn to engage in more aggressive negotiations with Rau, but Sabine may have other ideas…such as declaring a Mandalorian blood feud.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Henry Gilroy & Kevin Hopps
directed by Brad Rau
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera / Phoenix Four / 2-1B Surgical Droid), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb / Phoenix Two / Wingman #1), Keone Young (commander Sato), Kevin McKidd (Fenn Rau), Dave Filoni (Phoenix Three), Dee Bradley Baker (Rex / Imperial Officer / Wingman #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

Legends Of The Lasat

Star Wars: RebelsEzra learns from Hondo, a somewhat unreliable source, that some of the last living Lasat refugees are about to be taken into the custody of the Empire. Zeb is relieved at first to see fellow Lasat, but then becomes frustrated when they seem intent on allowing ancient prophecies decide where they will settle. Worse yet, they insist that Zeb is part of those prophecies. How can he take part in them when he doesn’t believe them?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Matt Michnovetz
directed by Saul Ruiz
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Imperial Officer #1), Dee Bradley Baker (Admiral Konstantine), David Oyelowo (Agent Kallus), Grey Griffin (Chava), Gary Anthony Williams (Gron / Stormtrooper #2 / Stormtrooper Commander #1), Jim Cummings (Hondo Ohnaka), Dave Filoni (Stormtrooper #1 / Stormtrooper Commander #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

The Call

Star Wars: RebelsHera, Kanan and the others are running low on fuel as they prepare to raid a mining guild platform based in an asteroid field – a much-needed supply of fuel for both the Ghost and the Rebel fleet, and intercepting its latest fuel shipment would also prevent that fuel from being used by the Empire. But a swarm of whale-like space creatures gets in the way…until Ezra points out that they’re heading for the asteroid where the mining platform is. The creatures need the unrefined gas that is used to make starship fuel, so destroying the entire asteroid and igniting the gas is no longer part of the plan, much to Hera’s frustration. Can they really bet everything on Ezra’s Force connection to these creatures?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Bill Wolkoff
directed by Mel Zwyer
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios), Fred Tatasciore (Boss Yushyn / Mining Guild Guard), Dave Filoni (Mining Guild Guard #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

Homecoming

Star Wars: RebelsAfter Phoenix Squadron is reduced to half strength in a high-risk raid to move cargo to other ships in the Rebel fleet, Commander Sato tasks the Ghost crew with a challenging assignment: find a base of operations which can provide Phoenix Squadron with shelter. One promising target is a massive Imperial carrier ship which holds station over Hera’s home planet of Ryloth. Hera contacts her father, Clone War hero Cham Syndulla, and tries to mend fences with him. Tiring of Imperial control over Ryloth, Cham wants to destroy the ever-present carrier rather than commandeering it… and he’s willing to betray his own daughter to make sure his plan is the one that’s carried out.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Steven Melching
directed by Bosco Ng
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Imperial Officer / Stormtrooper Commander), Corey Burton (Carrier Captain / Phoenix Three / Imperial Officer #3 / Gobi Glie), Robin Atkin Downes (Cham Syndulla / Rebel Captain / Imperial Officer #2), Keone Young (Commander Sato), Catherine Taber (Numa / Phoenix Two), Dave Filoni (Phoenix One / Stormtrooper Deck Officer)

Notes: Cham Syndulla was indeed a hero of the Clone Wars, appearing in two episodes of that series, season one’s Liberty On Ryloth and season three’s Supply Lines. Robin Atkin Downes, who voiced the character in his Clone Wars appearances, played the part of rogue telepath Byron in the fifth season of Babylon 5.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

The Honorable Ones

Star Wars: RebelsCaptain Rex leads the Ghost crew to the planet Geonosis, whose Separatist insect inhabitants were lured into sparking the Clone Wars, which led directly to the Republic’s transformation into the Empire. Believing that there is still a significant stockpile of Imperial material there that would be put to better use by the Rebellion, Kanan and the other rebels find themselves fighting their way out of a trap. The destruction of an Imperial orbital platform forces Zeb and Agent Kallus, the tireless pursuer of the Ghost and its crew, to share an escape pod which crashes on an icy moon of Geonosis, breaking Kallus’ leg. The two bitter enemies must set aside their differences to survive even a single night there.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Kevin Hopps
directed by Brad Rau
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios), Dee Bradley Baker (Admiral Konstantine / Rex), David Oyelowo (Agent Kallus)

Notes: The episode’s title is a play on the title of its inspiration, the 1958 movie The Defiant Ones, whose plot of two bitter enemies forced to depend on each other to survive has all but become a movie and film trope of its own.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

Shroud Of Darkness

Star Wars: RebelsAs the Ghost crew continues searching for a base for the Rebellion, the Inquisitors keep pursuing Kanan and Ezra, to the point that Kanan believes their presence is endangering the rest of the Rebellion. They seek Ahsoka’s advice, but she has none – at time like these, she would always turn to Master Yoda. With Ahsoka in tow, Kanan and Ezra return to Lothal and reveal the hidden Jedi temple there, where Kanan hopes to seek Yoda’s counsel. Instead, Kanan receives a dire warning that he will fail to protect Ezra, and Ezra will turn to the dark side. Ezra sees Yoda, while Ahsoka sees a vision of Anakin, berating her for failing to be at his side when he needed her most. And during all of these Force visions, the Inquisitors are once again close by…

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Henry Gilroy
directed by Saul Ruiz
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano), Matt Lanier (Anakin Skywalker), James Earl Jones (Darth Vader), Philip Anthony Rodriguez (Fifth Brother), Jason Isaacs (Sentinel), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Seventh Sister), Frank Oz (Yoda)

RebelsNotes: The powerful Force user known only as the Grand Inquisitor was previously a Jedi Knight. This is Anakin’s first appearance since the Clone Wars series finale; the Lothal Jedi temple was previously visited by Kanan and Ezra in season one’s Path Of The Jedi.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

The Forgotten Droid

Star Wars: RebelsThe Rebel fleet prepares to jump to the Yost system, a system rumored to have little or no Imperial presence, a promising site for a future Rebel base. But the Rebels’ stolen Imperial carrier doesn’t have enough fuel for that kind of hyperspace trip, and more must be stolen from the Empire. The Ghost lands at a remote Imperial depot, but as Hera and Kanan fight their way into an Imperial complex, Chopper is more interested in getting a new left leg. The cranky old droid finds a suitable leg at a nearby dealer of droids and droid parts, but is so preoccupied with this leg that he fails to notice the Ghost leaving without him…

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Matt Michnovetz
directed by Mel Zwyer
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus / Stormtrooper #4), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Imperial Officer / Stormtrooper #5), Dee Bradley Baker (Admiral Konstantine / Rex / Ugnaught Shopkeeper), Stephen Stanton (AP-5 / Stormtrooper #1 / Stormtrooper #3), Dave Filoni (Cargo Deck Officer / Stormtrooper #2), Keone Young (Commander Sato), Gina Torres (Ketsu Onyo), James Adomian (Imperial Captain)

Notes: Ketsu had first appeared in Blood Sisters earlier in the season.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

Mystery Of Chopper Base

Star Wars: RebelsThe planet suggested by Chopper’s new friend, AP-5, as a possible Rebel hideout is indeed promising. The Empire’s influence is nowhere to be found, and a desert planet attracts little interest from anyone else. But the Rebels haven’t counted on hostile local life forms, and soon find themselves fighting to save their new base from creatures that already lived there. Meanwhile, Kanan and Ezra are training furiously for a showdown with the Inquisitors, a duel they know they cannot avoid – and a duel which Hera knows may cost her two of her most valuable crewmates.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Steven Melching
directed by Bosco Ng
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Phoenix Two), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano / Deiser), Stephen Stanton (AP-5), Keone Young (Commander Sato), Dee Bradley Baker (Rex)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

Twilight Of The Apprentice – Part 1

Star Wars: RebelsKanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka set out with Chopper to find out why the vision of Yoda directed Ezra to go to Malacore. The answer is obvious when they arrive: an ancient Sith temple lies waiting. And that’s not all that lies in wait: the Inquisitors are already there, though not all of them are expecting the Rebels. A third Inquisitor is hunting “the shadow”. A floor collapses in the temple, separating Ezra from the others, and he befriends an old man who simply calls himself the Old Master. The Old Master has been trapped alone in the Sith temple for years, but since all Sith technology and architecture requires two people – a master and an apprentice – to operate it, he enlists Ezra’s help to retrieve a Sith holocron. The Old Master is the shadow.

But he was once known as Darth Maul.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Dave Filoni
directed by Simon Kinberg & Steven Melching
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano), Robbie Daymond (Eighth Brother), Sam Witwer (Maul), Dee Bradley Baker (Rex), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Seventh Sister)

Notes: Introduced – and then dispatched (or so we thought) – in live action in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Maul returned to hound Obi-Wan and the Jedi in the fourth and fifth season of Clone Wars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

Twilight Of The Apprentice – Part 2

Star Wars: RebelsTo everyone’s surprise, Maul renounces his loyalty to the Sith and the title of Darth: he is at the Sith temple on Malacore to claim the Sith holocron for his own reasons. Maul joins the Jedi to fight off the Inquisitors, though Ezra and Ahsoka are very skeptical of him. Impressed by Ezra’s Force ability, Maul decides that the boy is now his apprentice, and Kanan attacks the ex-Sith, only to be blinded by his lightsaber. Ezra is busy trying to put the Sith holocron into place, unwittingly powering up a Sith superweapon which Maul intends to use against all who oppose him, Jedi or Sith. To make matters worse, Darth Vader arrives to claim that weapon for the Empire…and the only one left to stop him is his former padawan.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Dave Filoni
directed by Dave Filoni & Simon Kinberg
music by Kevin Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano), Matt Lanier (Anakin Skywalker), James Earl Jones (Darth Vader), Robbie Daymond (Eighth Brother), Philip Anthony Rodriguez (Fifth Brother), Sam Witwer (Maul), Nika Fullerman (Presence), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Seventh Sister)

RebelsNotes: This episode would appear to see the exit of Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister, the Inquisitors who pursued Kanan throughout the second season of Rebels. It would appear that, despite half of his helmet being destroyed in an earlier battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader has done nothing about strengthening his helmet, as the opposite side of it is destroyed by Ahsoka during their battle.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
10th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Technophobia

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Donna visit London’s Museum of Modern Technology in 2016, where they find not only the latest in cutting-edge tech, but the staff slowly losing their minds and cowering fearfully from anything electronic or electrical in nature. Aliens stalk the Museum, claiming the minds and lives of anyone who find them there. The time travelers flee into the Underground train system, stumbling across the aliens’ base of operations. These aliens, the Cognoscenti, invade by first devolving the minds of their invasion targets en masse, reducing them to a non-technological civilization incapable of mounting a resistance against a sophisticated enemy. But the Cognoscenti didn’t know the Doctor would be here – and after exposure to their mind-draining weapon, even the Doctor doesn’t know how to save the day.

written by Matt Fitton
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Howard Carter

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna), Niky Wardley (Bex), Rachael Stirling (Jill Meadows), Chook Sibtain (Brian), Rory Keenan (Kevin), Jot Davies (Lukas)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green