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10th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Death And The Queen

Doctor WhoIt’s Donna Noble’s luckiest day. A seemingly uneventful stop along the French Riviera puts Donna in the path of a foreign prince, and it seems – at least for a while – that she’s found true love. The sitting Queen is less than impressed with Donna, but grudgingly tolerates her. Neither the Queen nor the future Queen-to-be are overjoyed when the Doctor comes to call on Donna’s wedding day, but a wayward time traveler suddenly seems like less of a problem when a cloud appears outside the castle, declaring in a booming voice that death has come to the kingdom. Prince Rudolph sends his men into battle, and into the maw of certain death, and suddenly his future bride is uncertain about their future together…especially when she learns that becoming engaged to the Prince means being married to Death itself. Once again, Donna’s life depends on the Doctor ruining her wedding day…

written by James Goss
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Howard Carter

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna), Blake Ritson (Rudolph), Alice Krige (Queen Mum), Beth Chalmers (Hortense), Alan Cox (Death)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Season 1 Stranger Things

The Vanishing Of Will Byers

Stranger ThingsNovember 6, 1983: An incident occurs at the Hawkins National Lab in Hawkins, Indiana. Something beyond the lab’s control escapes into the surrounding suburbs.

A marathon weekend session of Dungeons & Dragons breaks up, and Mike Wheeler has to give up being the Dungeon Master and return to school the following day. His friends Lucas, Dustin and Will all get on their bikes to head home, but the sight of a strange, towering humanoid figure sends Will off the road. He ditches his bike and races home on foot, only to find that both his older brother and his mother are still at work. Something beyond Will’s comprehension takes him.

Joyce Byers, Will’s mother, files a missing child report with the local police, though the initial response from Hawkins’ police chief is a bit underwhelming. Mike, Lucas and Dustin are all warned to stay home, rather than going to look for Will. Across town, a mysterious girl in a hospital gown is taken in by a restaurant owner, who pays for his kindness with his life when armed agents come looking for her. The girl manages to escape, and runs into Mike, Lucas and Dustin, who are doing precisely what they’ve been told not to do.

written by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
directed by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), Ross Partridge (Lonnie Byers), Shannon Purser (Barbara Holland), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Mark Steger (Monster), Chris Sullivan (Benny Hammond), Andrew Benator (Elevator Scientist), Stefanie Butler (Cynthia), David Dwyer (Earl), Catherine Dyer (Agent Connie Frazier), Salem Hadeed-Murphy (High School Principal), Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke), Hugh Holub (Scientist), Tobias Jelinek (Lead Agent), Cade Jones (James), Anniston Price (Holly Wheeler), Tinsley Price (Holly Wheeler), Anthony Reynolds (Agent), Susan Shalhoub Larkin (Florence), Tony Vaughn (Principal Coleman), Peyton Wich (Troy), Brenda Wood (Local Newswoman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stranger Things

The Weirdo On Maple Street

Stranger ThingsMike, Lucas and Dustin gain the trust of the girl known only as Eleven, and Mike lets her stay at her house…even though he fails to mention this to his parents. He starts out sneaking food down to her, but then skips school to stay home and try to learn more about her. All he learns is that “bad men” took her – and when she points to Will Byers’ face in a school picture, Mike realizes that the same bad men may have taken Will.

Chief Hopper begins taking the search for Will more seriously, when he is called to the scene of another disturbing crime – the apparent suicide of the man who initially discovered Eleven. With the attention of the police shifted to that crime, the same agents who killed that man descend upon the Byers’ home, searching for signs of anything unusual – for example, what escaped from Franklin National Laboratory. They find the evidence they’re seeking.

No one can find any evidence of where Will Byers has gone. His older brother, Jonathan, pays his estranged father a visit, making sure that he hasn’t taken Will in (willingly or otherwise). And Joyce, Will’s mother, gets another garbled phone call, followed by an electrical event that convinces her Will is alive and trying to send her a call for help.

written by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
directed by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), Ross Partridge (Lonnie Byers), Shannon Purser (Barbara Holland), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Mark Steger (Monster), Chris Sullivan (Benny Hammond), Stefanie Butler (Cynthia), David Dwyer (Earl), Catherine Dyer (Agent Connie Frazier), Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke), Tobias Jelinek (Lead Agent), Charles Lawlor (Mr. Melvald), Bethany Anne Lind (Sandra), Anniston Price (Holly Wheeler), Tinsley Price (Holly Wheeler), Chester Rushing (Tommy H.), Susan Shalhoub Larkin (Florence), Chelsea Talmadge (Carol), Robert Walker-Branchaud (Agent Repairman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stranger Things

Holly, Jolly

Stranger ThingsJoyce Byers, convinced that her missing son can communicate with her by influencing electric lights, and gathers every lamp in the house in one room to await further contact. Hopper, running out of places to look for Will, tries to search the grounds of the high-security lab supposedly run by the Department of Energy, only to find that they don’t seem to want him searching there. Will’s friends, with Eleven insisting that Will is still alive, set out to find him, but they manage to be present when Will’s body is found in the water at a nearby quarry. And only Nancy seems to be aware that something has happened to her friend Barb.

written by Jessica Mecklenburg
directed by Shawn Levy
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), Shannon Purser (Barbara Holland), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Mark Steger (Monster), Glennellen Anderson (Nicole), Cynthia Barrett (Mrs. Holland), Pete Burris (Hawkins Head of Security), Hugh Holub (Scientist), Cade Jones (James), Charles Lawlor (Mr. Melvald), Aimee Mullins (Terry Ives), Miles Mussenden (M.P. Officer Patrick), Anniston Price (Holly Wheeler), Tinsley Price (Holly Wheeler), Ron Rogge (State Trooper O’Bannon), Chester Rushing (Tommy H.), Chelsea Talmadge (Carol), Sierra Vemeyer (Ally), Christie Waldon (Marissa), Peyton Wich (Troy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stranger Things

The Body

Stranger ThingsCertain that something tried to emerge from the wall of her home and attack her while she was communicating with her missing son, Joyce Byers is in disbelief when she is told that his body has been found. The town begins grieving for her, but Joyce refuses to believe that the body is Will’s, and is frustrated that no one believes her story about the attacker from the wall. Will’s friends also don’t believe that he’s dead, especially after Eleven demonstrates a way to hear him – but not respond to him – via radio. Nancy asks Jonathan Byers to develop new copies of the last photo he took of Nancy, only to see the faceless creature in the background: Joyce was right when she said she saw it come through her wall. Finally, Hopper’s suspicions lead him back to the morgue, to the body itself…only to find that Joyce was right about that too.

written by Justin Doble
directed by Shawn Levy
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), Ross Partridge (Lonnie Byers), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Noah Schanpp (Will Byers), Danny Boushebel (English Teacher), Jason Davis (Test Subject), Arthur Lee Dozier V (Greg McCorkle), Ron Fallica (State Trooper), Marianne Fraulo (Patty), Adam Gagan (Ground Controller), Salem Hadeed-Murphy (High School Principal), Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke), Cade Jones (James), Jon Kohler (Funeral Director), Shawn Levy (Morgue Worker), Christopher Cody Robinson (Test Pilot Shepard), Ron Rogge (State Trooper O’Bannon), Paul Ryden (Field Reporter), Tony Vaughn (Principal Coleman), Peyton Wich (Troy), Mark Withers (Gary)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stranger Things

The Flea And The Acrobat

Stranger ThingsHopper breaks into the Hawkins National Lab facility and unwittingly gets as far as a sealed biohazard lab before he is overcome by men in hazmat suits. He awakens at home, which he proceeds to tear apart until he finds a listening device. As they prepare for Will’s funeral, Mike and Will’s other friends learn of a place called the Upside Down from Eleven, and make plans to find it. Having both seen the creature, Jonathan and Nancy plan to go looking for it, unaware that this search will also take them to the Upside Down. Hopper tells Will’s mother, Joyce Byers, that she was right – the body found was not really Will’s body. Eleven goes missing. So does Nancy. And they’re not the only ones.

written by Alison Tatlock
directed by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), Ross Partridge (Lonnie Byers), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Noah Schanpp (Will Byers), Mark Steger (Monster), Andrew Benator (Elevator Scientist), Pete Burris (Hawkins Head of Security), Bill Eudaly (Pastor Charles), Kaylee Glover (Jennifer Hayes), Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke), Pete Holub (Scientist), Tobias Jelinek (Lead Agent), Charles Lawlor (Mr. Melvald), Andre Pushkin (Russian Man), Susan Shalhoub Larkin (Florence), Jerri Tubbs (Diane Hopper), Tony Vaughn (Principal Coleman), Robert Walker-Branchaud (Agent Repairman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stranger Things

The Monster

Stranger ThingsJonathan helps Nancy escape from the Upside Down with seconds to spare, and spends the night at her house watching over her. This doesn’t go unnoticed by her classmates, but when Jonathan tries to defend Nancy’s honor, he goes overboard, landing in juvenile detention after taking a swing at a police officer as the fight is broken up. Hopper and Joyce Byers visit a woman who Hopper believes may be Eleven’s mother, only to find that her mind is gone. As Lucas prepares to go it alone to find Will, Mike and Dustin argue over whether to salvage Mike’s friendship with Lucas. Someone instead comes looking for them, and they’re helpless without Eleven by their side.

written by Jessie Nickson-Lopez
directed by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), Aimee Mullins (Terry Ives), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Mark Steger (Monster), Amy Semetz (Becky Ives), Glennellen Anderson (Nicole), Andrew Benator (Elevator Scientist), Adam Boyer (Hunting Store Owner), Catherine Dyer (Agent Connie Frazier), Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke), Hugh Holub (Scientist), Tobias Jelinek (Lead Agent), Cade Jones (James), Linda Kang (Female Clerk), Kevin Patrick Murphy (Grocery Store Manager), Anniston Price (Holly Wheeler), Tinsley Price (Holly Wheeler), Chester Rushing (Tommy H.), Susan Shalhoub Larkin (Florence), Chase Stokes (Reeves), Chelsea Talmadge (Carol), Robert Walker-Branchaud (Agent Repairman), Peyton Wich (Troy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stranger Things

The Bathtub

Stranger ThingsLucas radios Mike, Dustin and Eleven to warn them: the bad men are coming to the Wheeler house. The kids make a hasty escape, pursued at dangerous speeds by “Hawkins Power & Light” vans. Eleven used her powers to cut off the pursuit, and Lucas is finally convinced she is on their side. The kids go into hiding, while Jonathan and Nancy tell Hopper and Joyce about their encounter with the creature. Using Will’s two-way radio, Hopper locates and rescues the kids, but Eleven is no longer able to reach Will in the Upside Down…but she then reveals that she might be able to find them if she tries again in an isolation tank. Barb cannot be recovered, but Eleven does find Will Byers, trapped and on the verge of death. Hopper and Joyce decide to take the fight to the lab on their own.

written by Justin Doble
directed by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Noah Schanpp (Will Byers), Shae Britt (Mary Mack Girl #2), Jackie Dallas (Jen), Catherine Dyer (Agent Connie Frazier), Charles Green (Movie Theater Manager), Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke), Tobias Jelinek (Lead Agent), Amy Parrish (Troy’s Mom), Anniston Price (Holly Wheeler), Tinsley Price (Holly Wheeler), Chester Rushing (Tommy H.), Susan Shalhoub Larkin (Florence), Chelsea Talmadge (Carol), Robert Walker-Branchaud (Agent Repairman), Abigail Whitlock (Mary Mack Girl #1), Peyton Wich (Troy)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 1 Stranger Things

The Upside Down

Stranger ThingsTaken into custody by armed guards as they try to gain entry to Hawkins National Laboratory, Joyce Byers and Hopper strike a questionable deal: they will be given the chance to enter the Upside Down and search for Will, if Hopper reveals Eleven’s whereabouts. Jonathan and Nancy, completely counter to Hopper’s instructions, retrieve their stash of munitions and set a trap for the monster. Hopper and Joyce find the Upside Down to be a slime-festooned mirror image of Hawkins, where Will, near death, is ensnared in a mass of tentacles. Dr. Brenner and a small army descend upon the school gym to take Eleven prisoner, only to find that her powers have grown beyond their ability to contain her. The ensuing battle weakens her, but the resulting bloodshed brings another monster out of the Upside Down, one that she may have to sacrifice herself to stop. Even if Will Byers can be retrieved from the Upside Down, can he truly recover from his ordeal?

telepaly by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
story by Paul Dichter
directed by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
music by Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

Stranger ThingsCast: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Martin Brenner), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), John Paul Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Noah Schanpp (Will Byers), Mark Steger (Monster), Lucius Baston (Technician), Pete Burris (Hawkins Head of Security), Catherine Dyer (Agent Connie Frazier), Elle Graham (Sarah Hopper), Tobias Jelinek (Lead Agent), Susan Shalhoub Larkin (Florence), Jerri Tubbs (Diane Hopper)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Reboot (Abrams) Movies Star Trek

Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek BeyondStardate 2263.2: Three years into the Enterprise‘s five-year mission, and shortly after barely escaping from a diplomatic mission gone terribly wrong, Captain Kirk is experiencing career ennui, to the point that he’s considering seeking a promotion to Vice Admiral, which would take him off the bridge and put him at a desk. Even a visit to the Federation’s most advanced starbase, Yorktown, doesn’t lift Kirk’s spirits, but the Yorktown’s recovery of an alien refugee in a life pod gets his interest. The Enterprise and her crew set off to help find the alien’s crew, stranded on a planet in an inpenetrable nebula, only to fly into a coordinated ambush. The Enterprise is severely damaged and boarded by legions of aliens, led by Krall, who wants an artifact left over from Kirk’s diplomatic mission gone awry. Kirk orders all hands to abandon ship, but Krall’s allies capture the Enterprise life pods and the crew is taken to a planet within the nebula and held hostage; the Enterprise herself is destroyed. Scott meets a woman named Jaylah, who is unafraid of Krall’s followers but has no wish to take him on personally. Jaylah lives in the wreckage of the U.S.S. Franklin, a missing NX-class ship which apparently crashed on this planet, and Scotty begins working to restore the ship to fighting condition. That suits Kirk just fine, as he intends to free his crew and defeat Krall before the alien can use the artifact to power up a devastating weapon. Krall’s first target: Yorktown.

Order DVDscreenplay by Simon Pegg & Doug Jung
directed by Justin Lin
music by Michael Giacchino

Cast: Chris Pine (Captain Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Idris Elba (Krall), Sofia Boutella (Jaylah), Joe Taslim (Manas), Lydia Wilson (Kalara), Deep Roy (Keenser), Melissa Roxburgh (Ensign Syl), Anita Brown (Tyvanna), Doug Jung (Ben), Danny Pudi (Fi’Ja), Kim Kold (Zavanko), Fraser Aitcheson (Hider), Matthew MacCaull (Blue Shirt), Emy Aneke (Blue Shirt), Star Trek BeyondShohreh Aghdashloo (Commodore Paris), Greg Grunberg (Commander Finnegan), Jennifer Cheon (Control Tower Technician), Jarod Joseph (Control Tower Technician), Jeremy Raymond (Control Tower Technician), Harry Han (Kissing Guy), Gina Brinkman (Kissing Girl), Adam DiMarco (Injured Red Shirt), Fiona Vroom (Orion Girl), Richard Laurence (Chancellor Ambassador), Doug Chapman (Sir Olden), Dan Payne (Wadjet), Anthony Shim (Jin), Andrea Yu (Jeanine), Shea Whigham (Teenaxi Leader), Christian Sloan (Jae), Jake Huang (Krall’s Henchman), Priya Rajaratnam (Night Watch Captain), Luka Hays (Enterprise Crew), Thomas Cadrot (Enterprise Crew), Jennifer W. Evans (Enterprise Crew), Roxanne Fernandes (Enterprise Crew), Jake Foy (Enterprise Crew), Jodi Haynes (Enterprise Crew), Nathan Jean (Enterprise Crew), Tarun Keram (Enterprise Crew), J.P. Mulcaster (Enterprise Crew), Edwin Rodriguez (Enterprise Crew), Alex Rose (Enterprise Crew), Polina Nikolai (Enterprise Crew), Lia Lam (Enterprise Crew), Ian Nsenga (Enterprise Crew), Ashley Edner (Natalia), Sara Maria Forsberg (Kalara Alien voice), Jeff Bezos (Starfleet Official)

Notes: As the extensive “in-universe” notes for this movie may constitute major spoilers, they appear below the review.

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Categories
2010s Series Tick, The

Pilot

The Tick1908: An alien artifact of unimaginable power plummets through Earth’s atmosphere and explodes over a forest in Tunguska, Russia. The emissions from this unearthly explosion imbue some humans with superpowers…and also serves as a beacon to others. Both superheroes and supervillains are now a part of life on Earth.

20 years ago: Young Arthur Everest witnesses the crash-landing of a spacecraft crewed by superheroes…pursued closely by a spacecraft full of supervillains. Incidentally, the crashing spaceship also crushes and kills Arthur’s father before his very eyes. A photographer captures a shot of Arthur being menaced by the supervillains’ leader, The Terror.

Now: Years of medication, treatment, and legal issues have left Arthur a barely-functional adult. Convinced that the Terror still lurks somewhere nearby, controlling the criminal underworld, Arthur has devoted his life to tracking the Terror down…despite the rest of the world insisting that the Terror was killed by a superhero known as Superian. Arthur follows one of his hunches to the city docks, spying on a criminal operation, when he is confronted by a superhero in an inadvisably tight blue suit – the Tick! The Tick seems certain that Arthur is destined to be his new sidekick. And Arthur may finally get the answer to the question that has consumed his life – is the Terror still alive? – unless befriending the Tick gets him killed first.

written by Ben Edlund
directed by Wally Pfister
music by Chris Bacon

The TickCast: Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick), Griffin Newman (Arthur Everest), Valorie Curry (Dot Everest), Brendan Hines (Superian), Jackie Earle Haley (The Terror), Yara Martinez (Ms. Lint), Kyle Catlett (young Arthur), Joanna P. Adler (Dr. Creek), Malachi Weir (Thug #2), Christian Navarro (Sidekick), Whoopi Goldberg (herself), Richie Moriarty (Mr. Everest), Andrew Dolan (Officer Dietz), Sonam Kunlingtse (Herder), Henry Yuk (Shaman), Berto Colon (Thug #1), Siraj Huga (Cab Driver)

The TickNotes: The half-hour pilot episode of The Tick restarts the story, completely separate from the previous live-action series starring Patrick Warburton (who is a producer of this series), the animated series that inspired it, or the comics that inspired all of the above. The Tick creator Ben Edlund returns to revamp his unlikely hero for a new decade, and a new distribution channel: this pilot was distributed free as part of Amazon’s Pilot Season event in 2016, winning a series pickup later that year.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 11

Twentica

Red DwarfA chance run-in with a particularly nasty breed of simulants called exponoids becomes a momentary hostage crisis. Lister has to trade a piece of arcane time travel technology – which has been propping up Starbug’s pool table – to get Rimmer back. But once armed with time travel, the exponoids go back in time to rewrite human history, outlawing any post-steam-powered technology and forbidding scientific research. Great scientific minds are either locked up, or simply never come into being. Kryten and Rimmer run the risk of being discovered. A dying man hands some kind of electronic component to Lister and tells him to take it to the hostess of a local speakeasy; there, Lister and the others find that science and technology still happen here, but in secret…and Lister has been given a piece of a weapon that could set history straight.

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Doug Naylor
music by Howard Goodall

Red DwarfCast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Kevin Eldon (4 of 27), Lucie Pohl (Harmony), David Sterne (Einstein Bob), Sam Douglas (Bouncer), Rebecca Blackstone (Big Bang Beryl), Kyle James (Nearly Dead Guy), Suanne Braun (Cpt. Dorothy McCutcheon), David Menkin (Lt. Clarence O’Neal), Alexis Dubus (3 of 63)

Notes: Kevin Eldon was one of the regular cast members of BBC2’s sci-fi comedy Hyperdrive, a show which many saw as the BBC’s attempt to recapture the Red Dwarf audience at a time when Red Dwarf had been out of production for several years. He also voiced a character in the Doctor Who radio project Death Comes To Time.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 3 Star Wars

Steps Into Shadow

Star Wars: RebelsEzra leads a daring raid on a fully staffed Imperial outpost on Naraka to rescue Hondo, who has been a useful informant for past Rebel operations. Hondo points the Alliance toward an Imperial salvage yard where captured Rebel Y-Wings are being dismantled for scrap; recovering them intact would boost Rebel firepower significantly, despite the fighters’ age. Ezra, Sabine, Chopper and Rex scout the salvage yard out in the Phantom, only to discover that only a few Y-Wings remain intact. Ezra, promoted to lieutenant commander in the Rebel Alliance, decides that the scouting mission has become a recovery mission on the fly. Missing all of the action is Kanan, still blinded after his duel with Darth Maul, and deeply disturbed to find that Ezra has been gaining knowledge from the Sith Holocron. Kanan hears a voice that leads him away from the safe confines of Chopper Base, where he discovers a creature that calls itself the Bendu – a being whose Force abilities lie between the light and dark sides. The Bendu begins trying to teach Kanan to use the Force and his own remaining senses to “see” what his eyes can no longer see…but what he sees now is his own fear. But at the Imperial salvage yard, Ezra’s lack of fear and his confidence and reliance on his new abilities may lead him to his own doom.

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

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Vanessa Marshall (Hera Syndulla), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus / Stormtrooper), Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Imperial Officer #2 / Rebel Soldier), Dee Bradley Baker (Admiral Konstantine / Melch / Rex / Stormtrooper Guard #1), David Owelyo (Agent Kallus), Tom Baker (Bendu), Derek Partridge (Commander Brom Titus), Keone Young (Commander Sato), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Governor Pryce), Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn), Stephen Stanton (Grand Moff Tarkin), Jim Cummings (Hondo Ohnaka / Imperial Officer #1 / Mining Guild Captain / Terba), Nika Futterman (Presence), Dave Filoni (Rebel Trooper / Stormtrooper Guard #2)

RebelsNotes: Grand Admiral Thrawn has a considerably complex history considering that this is his first appearance in any non-print Star Wars media. Created by author Timothy Zahn and introduced in the 1991 novel Heir To The Empire, Thrawn had become a casualty of the Lucasfilm Story Group’s massive realignment of Star Wars canon in the wake of Lucasfilm’s sale to Disney. However, Zahn wrote a new novel – simply titled Thrawn – to realign the calculating Imperial tactical master with the new continuity, and Thrawn was also introduced as an on-screen character for the first time in this episode. Thrawn lives once again in the larger Star Wars canon. Hera says that the Y-Wings are being sent to “General Dodonna’s unit”, meaning that these may well be the Y-Wings flown by Porkins and his wing during the attack on the Death Star in Star Wars. The name “Bendu” has an even longer history in Star Wars Rebelslore, back to early drafts of George Lucas’ The Star Wars, which featured the Jedi Bendu order rather than Jedi Knights. Bendu is voiced by Tom Baker, best known for his lengthy tenure as the fourth Doctor Who. Baker is the second Doctor to lend his voice to the Star Wars animated universe; one of his successors, David Tennant, voiced a droid character in an episode of The Clone Wars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 11

Samsara

Red DwarfAn escape pod bearing human remains alerts Lister and the others to the presence of an Earth ship, the S.S. Samsara, which crashed into the ocean of a nearby planet. Starbug is dispatched to investigate, finding that the Samsara was testing a new engine, the Karma Drive, deriving its energy from its crew’s treatment of one another. But two people who were aboard the Samsara, old flames who were each now married to other people, threw the Karma Drive out of balance by reigniting their relationship…and then tried to reprogram the Karma Drive so they could continue doing so. Even though they are long dead, their inept reprogramming is a very real danger to the crew of Red Dwarf.

Order the DVDswritten by Doug Naylor
directed by Doug Naylor
music by Howard Goodall

Red DwarfCast: Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (Cat), Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Dan Tetsell (Green), Maggie Service (Barker), Eddie Bagayawa (Captain Tom Kadri)

Notes: The word “samsara” originates from the Sanskrit language, referring to a cycle of life, death, and reincarnation, and is related to the concept of karma, hence its connection to this episode’s Red DwarfKarma Drive. The Karma Drive uses technology derived from Justice World, a space station encountered in the fourth season episode Justice (1989). Red Dwarf once again features a former Hyperdrive cast member; Maggie Service was the unseen voice of the HMS Camden Lock’s ever-cheerful on-board intercom announcer in that series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 3 Star Wars

Holocrons Of Fate

Star Wars: RebelsKanan and Ezra race to the scene of an attack on a Rebel cruiser, only to discover it’s a diversion: the twisted Sith Maul has taken Hera and the reset of the Phantom crew hostage, and demands both the Jedi and Sith holocrons. When retrieving the Sith artifact from Bendu, Kanan and Ezra are warned that the two holocrons together are a powerful threat. The holocrons are delivered to Maul by Ezra, while Kanan barely survives a trap set by Maul. Kanan is left for dead, making it easier for him to free the others, while Maul discovers something from the combined holocrons that leaves him repeating “He lives! He lives!” as he makes his escape. But what did Ezra see?

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

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Vanessa Marshall (Hera Syndulla), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Rebel Trooper), Tom Baker (Bendu), Sam Witwer (Maul), Dave Filoni (Rebel Crewman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green