Year: 2017

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Doctor Who New Series Season 10

Knock Knock

Doctor WhoIt’s moving day for Bill and several of her fellow college students; after a lengthy and mostly fruitless search, an eccentric property owner offers his castle-like home for rent. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to help Bill move, but is fascinated by the house itself – spacious bedrooms, wood interiors, no central heat, no pets allowed, and a mysterious tower that isn’t covered in the lease. What Bill’s landlord hasn’t revealed is that the lease is good for one night only, for that’s all the time it will take for the house to consume its tenants to preserve the secret in the tower. Bill is mortified when the Doctor – who the other students know as a professor, and who she says is her grandfather – insists on hanging around the house to satisfy his curiosity. But before Bill can chase him away for embarrassing her, he too is trapped in the house – a potential bonus feast not covered in the lease.

Order the DVDDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Mike Bartlett
directed by Bill Anderson
music by Murray Gold

Doctor WhoCast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill), Matt Lucas (Nardole), David Suchet (Landlord), Mariah Gale (Eliza), Mandeep Dhillon (Shireen), Colin Ryan (Harry), Ben Presley (Paul), Alice Hewkin (Felicity), Bart Sauvek (Pavel), Sam Benjamin (Estate Agent), Tate Pitchie-Cooper (Young Landlord)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 10

Oxygen

Doctor WhoThe Doctor drags Bill and Nardole along to respond to a distress call which leads the TARDIS to a commercial space station. Devoid of oxygen, the station is only momentarily made safe by air from the TARDIS, and the time travelers encounter but the first of several dead bodies in space suits. The station was staffed by employees of Ganymede Systems, which pays its workers in limited amounts of oxygen; those who don’t put in a full day’s work won’t have full lungs. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole soon find themselves relying on the same pay-per-breath spacesuits as those worn by the corpses, and discover that there are living survivors aboard the station. Trapped with a handful of very suspicious people fighting for their survival, the Doctor and his friends walk a fine line between being seen as helpful and being the next targets. The dead are still moving, turning anyone they touch into the same space-suited zombies…and one of the time travelers may have to be sacrificed to them if the rest are to survive.

Doctor WhoOrder the DVDDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Jamie Mathieson
directed by Charles Palmer
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Kieran Bew (Ivan), Justin Salinger (Tasker), Peter Caulfield (Dahh-Ren), Mimi Ndiweni (Abby), Katie Brayben (Ellie)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 10

Extremis

Doctor WhoLeft blind by his attempt to save Bill from exposure to hard vacuum, the Doctor has returned to Earth at Nardole’s insistence; the vault in the basement of the Doctor’s college office has been left unguarded too often, despite the Doctor having sworn an oath to watch over it for a thousand years. What the vault contains is none other than Missy – kept locked up for her own good as well as that of the universe.

The Doctor is feeling rather less than useful when the Pope himself comes to ask for his help. A document called the Veritas has been removed from the Vatican’s library of heretical texts and has been circulated via e-mail; all who read it kill themselves after learning what it contains. The Doctor, without the ability to read it, is perfectly safe from the Veritas, and he relies on Nardole to be his eyes…and also relies on Nardole not to reveal his blindness to Bill. Alien monks swarm the catacombs of the Vatican, seeking to find and conceal the Veritas, for it reveals to all who read it that this is not really Earth…but the Earth is in grave danger.

Order the DVDDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Daniel Nettheim
music by Murray Gold

Doctor WhoCast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Michelle Gomez (Missy), Francesco Martino (Piero), Alana Maria (Pentagon Woman), Laurent Maurel (Nicolas), Jamie Hill (Monk), Tim Bentinck (voice of the Monk)

Notes: The Doctor can “steal” energy from future regenerations, possibly up to the point of robbing himself of those future lives, with a Gallifreyan device that seems to operate similarly to the machine used by Mawdryn in Mawdryn Undead (1983), except that of course, this being the age of the iPhone, the Doctor’s device is much, much smaller than Doctor WhoMawdryn’s room full of equipment. The Doctor’s life has been impacted by previous attempts to execute the Master, as seen with the end of his seventh incarnation in the 1996 TV movie after the Daleks attempted to carry out the Master’s execution. Though Star Trek‘s existence as a piece of entertainment in the world of Doctor Who has long been established (The Empty Child, 2005), Nardole’s mention of the holodeck may be the first reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 10

The Pyramid At The End Of The World

Doctor WhoThe Doctor is now fully aware of an impending invasion of Earth by the mysterious Monks, but it not aware that the invasion has already taken place: a 5,000-year-old pyramid has appeared in a hotly contested geopolitical area bordering on Russia and Chinese territory, and naturally, the American military and UN peacekeeping forces have involved themselves as well, leaving the world on the brink of war. The Secretary-General of the UN barges into Bill’s apartment looking for the Doctor, prepared to defer to the Time Lord during this unusual crisis. The Doctor, still relying on Nardole to help him conceal his blindness, enters the pyramid to deliver an ultimatum to the Monks, only to be told that the Monks will be waiting patiently for humanity to beg for their help. As the leaders of the world’s armies discuss surrender, the Doctor realizes that the pyramid itself is merely a distraction – the apocalypse that the Monks promise to stave off is already in motion elsewhere… if only he could see where.

Order the DVDDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Peter Harness & Steven Moffat
directed by Daniel Nettheim
music by Murray Gold

Doctor WhoCast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Togo Igawa (Secretary General), Nigel Hastings (The Commander), Eben Young (Colonel Don Brabbit), Rachel Denning (Erica), Tony Gardner (Douglas), Andrew Byron (Ilya), Daphne Cheung (Xiaolian), Jamie Hill (Monk), Tim Bentinck (voice of the Monk)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 10

The Lie Of The Land

Doctor WhoIt’s been six months since Bill Potts made a deal with the devil – or, at the very least, the Monks – to save the Doctor’s life, surrendering control of Earth to the Monks in the process. They’ve rewritten history in their favor: the entire population of the human race now believes that the Monks have been an integral part of their history since life first evolved, and Memory Crimes task forces round up anyone who can actually remember that the Monks have been on Earth for less than a year. Anyone except Bill, though she still lives in fear of being discovered, until Nardole knocks on the door. The Doctor has been seen only in propaganda broadcasts reinforcing the Monks’ narrative, but Nardole has tracked down the source of those broadcasts – a prison ship anchored near Scotland – and he’s found a sympathetic supply ship captain who will take them to that ship to free the Doctor. But freeing the Doctor alone isn’t all the needs to happen to rid Earth of the Monks. The Doctor needs another mind as powerful as his…and that means freeing Missy from the Vault. But her first piece of advice – to kill whoever surrendered Earth to the Monks – is a non-starter for everyone…except Bill.

Order the DVDDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Toby Whithouse
directed by Wayne Yip
music by Murray Gold

Doctor WhoCast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Michelle Gomez (Missy), Emma Handy (Bill), Beatrice Curnew (Group Commander), Stewart Wright (Alan), Solomon Israel (Richard), Jamie Hill (Monk), Rosie Jane (Bill’s Mum)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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2010s Series Tick, The

Where’s My Mind

The TickArthur is shot by Ms. Lint’s thugs, but finds that the suit given to him by the Tick shields him from injury – well, that kind of injury. The Tick throws Arthur out of a window to get him out of harm’s way, and that doesn’t really help, other than allowing the two heroes to escape. The Tick then asks Arthur about his plan to stop the Pyramid Gang, because he honestly believes Arthur has a plan to stop the Pyramid Gang. (Arthur does not have a plan to stop the Pyramid Gang.) Arthur does, however, have a suspicion that the Tick exists only in his mind.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten 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), Yara Martinez (Ms. Lint), Scott Speiser (Overkill), Jackie Earle Haley (The Terror), Michael Cerveris (Ramses IV), Michelle Buteau (Beck), Davin Ratray (Tinfoil Kevin), Kahlil Ashanti (Goat), Malachi Weir (Thug #2), Tyler Bunch (Stosh), Kameron Omidian (Thug #1), Michael McFadden (Thug #3), Keet Davis (Thug #4), Brian Edwards (Police Officer #1), Rich Pecci (Police Officer #2), Roxana Saberi (Newscaster), Moore Theobold (Kid #1), Eliazar Jimenez (Kid #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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2010s Series Tick, The

Secret, Identity

The TickArthur is cornered in an alley by Ms. Lint’s thugs, only to watch as a black-clad man with superpowers appear and murder all of them before disappearing. The police arrive, see only Arthur and several corpses, and put two and two together, bringing Arthur in for questioning. Fortunately for Arthur, security camera footage comes to light, showing the real killer: a super-anti-hero named Overkill. Overkill’s horrifying reputation is enough to put Arthur off the idea of further superheroics, and he returns to his day job. But danger follows him there in the form of Overkill…and even more danger follows in the form of the Tick. Arthur’s about to put in some overtime with Overkill.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten 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), Yara Martinez (Ms. Lint), Scott Speiser (Overkill), Jackie Earle Haley (The Terror), Michael Cerveris (Ramses IV), Michelle Buteau (Beck), Kahlil Ashanti (Goat), Richie Moriarty (Arthur’s Dad), Kyle Catlett (young Arthur), Joe Holt (Det. Green), Ken Marks (Supervisor), Tyler Bunch (Stosh), Meredith Forlenza (Det. Brown), Brian Dykstra (Det. White), Jonathan Tindle (Cat-Man-Dude), Arthur Wise (Jergen), Adam Harrington (1960s News Anchor), Nathaniel Beal (EOH Thig #1), Jonathan W. Lee (EOH Thug #2), Amy Holmes (News Anchor), Arthur Gerunda (Fishing Boat Captain), Teodorina Bello (Ouma)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Orville, The Season 1

Old Wounds

The Orville2418: Slowly-rising Planetary Union officer Commander Ed Mercer arrives home to find his wife in bed with a blue-skinned alien. Not interested in talking the situation out, he leaves to seek refuge in his career in the stars.

2419: What a difference a year makes – Ed Mercer is still a commander, albeit one whose career has become even more aimless, punctuated by a few incidents of reporting for duty while hung over. (Not all differences are good ones.) Still, to his surprise, and despite his spotty career record, Mercer is offered a promotion to captain and command of the medium exploratory vessel U.S.S. Orville. He raises eyebrows at Planetary Union Central by hand-picking his somewhat uncouth old buddy Gordon Malloy to be the Orville‘s helmsman, but he has no say in the filling of the vacant first officer position, a candidate for which will be selected by the admiralty. But not in his worst nightmares does Mercer expect his new XO to also be his ex-wife.

There’s barely time for a reunion through clenched teeth before the Orville is dispatched to answer a call for aid from a scientific colony. The chief scientist there, Dr. Aronov, introduces them to a device capable of accelerating time; while he’s rattling off a litany of potentially beneficial uses, Mercer’s new security officer, Lt. Alara Kitan, wisely deduces ways it could be weaponized – and that’s why Aronov issued the vague call for help. He believes that if the warlike Krill learn of the time accelerator, they’ll descend upon the colony like a plague of locusts.

But the warlike Krill are already there, planting the seed for Mercer’s first true test as a commander.

Order season 1 on DVD and Blu-RayDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Jon Favreau
music by Bruce Broughton

The OrvilleCast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Halston Sage (Lt. Alara Kitan), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Victor Garber (Admiral Halsey), Brian George (Dr. Aronov), Joel Swetow (Krill Captain), Patrick Cox (Ogre), Norm MacDonald (voice of Yaphit), Christine Corpuz (Janice Lee), Sean Cook (Derek), Dylan Kenin (Krill Soldier), Dee Bradley Baker (Dr. Jorvik)

The OrvilleNotes: With a writing staff loaded down with veterans of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager (Brannon Braga, Andre Bormanis, David A. Goodman), and Star Trek veterans aplenty among the cast (Penny Johnson Jerald played Kasidy Yates, Captain Sisko’s love interest on Deep Space Nine, while Brian George guest starred as Dr. Bashir’s estranged father on the same series), a ship – with physical filming models no less! – designed by Andrew Probert, and diehard TNG fan Seth MacFarlane creating and starring, it can’t possibly be a secret to anyone at the end of the first hour that The Orville is both an homage and spoof of Star Trek: TNG. McFarlane, Braga and Goodman also collaborated on the 21st century relaunch of Cosmos, while Bormanis worked on National Geographic’s Mars series. Brian George and Dee Bradley Baker are also voice actors with many a role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Orville, The Season 1

Command Performance

The OrvilleThe Orville answers a distress call from a fellow Planetary Union ship, but fears of a Krill attack pale in Captain Ed Mercer’s mind to the revelation that his parents are aboard the victimized vessel. Ed and Kelly take a shuttle over to the ship, leaving Alara in command. (Bortus is on leave, hatching an egg.) But the attacked ship suddenly fades away, replaced by a buoy capable of generating a holographic image of that ship. Ed and Kelly’s molecules have been transmitted into Calivon space, a civilization not exactly on friendly terms with the Union, where they’re horrified to find they’ve been trapped in a replica of their old apartment, and are even more horrified to learn that this replica is part of a vast zoo of imprisoned living creatures with little hope of escape. In over her head, Alara receives orders from a Union Admiral: give up the search for the Orville’s Captain and First Officer, and return to Earth. She has to weigh the damage to her career against the damage to her standing among the crew as she decides whether to obey or disobey those orders.

Order season 1 on DVD and Blu-RayDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
music by John Debney

The OrvilleCast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Halston Sage (Lt. Alara Kitan), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Chad L. Coleman (Klyden), Jeffrey Tambor (Ben Mercer), Holland Taylor (Jeannie Mercer), Larry Joe Campbell (Chief Newton), Ron Canada (Admiral Tucker), Brett Rickaby (Lurenek), J.D. Cullum (Calivon Zoo Administrator), Jerry O’Donnell (Bleriot Captain), Andrew Bering (Technician Jennings), Mike Gray (Ensign Parker), Alaina Fleming (Technician Reed), Jeremy Guskin (Furry Alien), Maxwell Hurlburt (Greenish Alien), George Tsai (Shuttle Bay Officer #1), Ryan Dietz (Calivon Official #1), Shannon McClung (Calivon Official #2), Sarah Buehler (Calivon Mother), Armen Nahapetian (Calivon Child)

The OrvilleNotes: Marvin V. Rush, former director of photography on the 1990s Star Trek spinoffs, joins The Orville in the same capacity with this episode, as does ’90s Trek camera operator Joe Chess. Guest stars Ron Canada and J.D. Cullum have both appeared on some of those Trek spinoffs: Canada guest starred on TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager (as well as a Babylon 5 guest shot), while Cullum appeared as Toral, bastard son of Duras, in TNG’s Redemption Part I and Part II in 1991. And of course, director Robert Duncan McNeill is an old hand at space travel, having played Lt. Tom Paris in all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager before moving on to a career of producing and directing.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Orville, The Season 1

About A Girl

The OrvilleBortus and his partner, Klyden, are dismayed when their egg hatches, revealing a true rarity: a female Moclan baby. The traditions of their world demand that the baby’s gender be surgically altered to male, but Dr. Finn refuses to perform the operation on ethical grounds. Bortus tries to convince Captain Mercer to override Dr. Finn’s decision, but he too refuses. With his shipmates continually trying to change his mind about the operation (which Bortus reads as them trying to force their cultures’ values on him), Bortus feels he has no choice but to contact the Moclan homeworld and ask for assistance. Shortly before that assistance arrives in the form of a large (and armed) Moclan ship, Malloy and LaMarr finally get through to Bortus by introducing him to the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. With his own people now present and ready to take charge of the situation, Bortus now agrees that the operation is unethical…and finds that his whole world (including Klyden) is now against him.

Order season 1 on DVD and Blu-RayDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Seth MacFarlane
directed by Brannon Braga
music by Joel McNeely

The OrvilleCast: Seth MacFarlane (Captain Ed Mercer), Adrianne Palicki (Commander Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Jerald (Dr. Claire Finn), Scott Grimes (Lt. Gordon Malloy), Peter Macon (Lt. Commander Bortus), Halston Sage (Lt. Alara Kitan), J Lee (Lt. John LaMarr), Mark Jackson (Isaac), Chad L. Coleman (Klyden), Deobia Oparei (Captain Vorak), David Barrera (Vasquez), Rena Owen (Heveena), Lamont Thompson (Kaybrak), Jonathan Adams (Moclan Arbitrator), Antonio D. Charity (Advocate Kagus), Norm MacDonald (voice of Yaphit), D. Elliot Woods (Moclan Council Foreman), Rico E. Anderson (Moclan Doctor), Julius Sharpe (Reptilian Alien)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Discovery Season 1 Star Trek

The Vulcan Hello

Star Trek: DiscoveryStardate 1207.2: An uncrewed communications relay at the edge of Federation space suddenly stops working, and the starship U.S.S. Shenzhou is sent to investigate. Captain Philippa Georgiou sends her first officer, Commander Michael Burnham, to investigate an object near a binary star that seems to be deliberately scattering the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including visible wavelengths. Burnham flies a thruster suit toward the unknown object, finding it to be an ancient vessel of some kind. When Burnham lands on the object, her presence triggers a sudden activation of the vessel, and an armed Klingon warrior appears behind her. When the Klingon attacks, Burnham attempts to escape, accidentally impaling the Klingon with his own weapon before slamming into part of the Klingon vessel and tumbling back toward the Shenzhou, unconscious.

Burnham awakens aboard the Shenzhou, rescued by suffering from acute effects of exposure to the radiation emanating from the binary star nearby. She leaves sick bay before her treatment is complete to warn Captain Georgiou of the Klingons’ presence. When Georgiou orders the Shenzhou‘s weapons brought to bear on the object just visited by Burnham, an enormous Klingon ship decloaks just ahead. As Georgiou consults with Starfleet, Burnham seeks the advice of her adoptive father, Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan. Georgiou is steadfast in her desire for a diplomatic solution, but Burnham advises her that the Klingons will only respect a show of strength: a battle worthy of their mettle. When she is unable to convince her Captain of this course of action, Burnham attempts a mutiny, but it’s too late: as the Shenzhou waits alone for reinforcements, an entire Klingon fleet warps into view.

The Klingons have been anticipating the humans’ spreading influence in the galaxy, and T’Kuvma, the leader of the Klingons aboard the ceremonial ship discovered by the Shenzhou, wants to unite all 24 of the Klingons’ disparate houses to attack the Federation before they themselves are attacked. T’Kuvma is annoyed when not all of the Klingons share his zeal…but the Federation ship before him has fallen so easily into the trap, he sees no reason to delay the war he sees as not only inevitable, but prophesied.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonteleplay by Bryan Fuller and Akiva Goldsman
story by Bryan Fuller and Akiva Goldsman
directed by David Semel
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: DiscoveryCast: Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Lt. Commander Saru), Shazad Latif (Lt. Ash Tyler), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Cadet Sylvia Tilly), Jason Isaacs (Captain Gabriel Lorca), Michelle Yeoh (Captain Philippa Georgiou), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), James Frain (Sarek), Chris Obi (T’Kuvma), Maulik Pancholy (Dr. Nambue), Terry Serpico (Admiral Anderson), Sam Vartholomeos (Ensign Danby Connor), Arista Arhin (young Michael Burnham), Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer), Justin Howell (Torchbearer / Rejac), Javid Iqbal (Voq), Ali Momen (Kamran Grant), Bonnie Morgan (Crepuscula), David Benjamin Tomlinson (Or’eq), Tasia Valenza (Computer Voice), Chris Violette (Britch Weeton), Romaine Waite (Troy Januzzi)

Star Trek: DiscoveryNotes: Stardate 1207.2 equates to May 11th, 2256 – ten years before the first season of the original Star Trek (and 2-3 years after the events depicted in The Cage and the Cage-derived flashback scenes from The Menagerie), and 95 years after These Are The Voyages…, the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise. As that finale takes place 5 years after the remainder of the fourth season of Enterprise, this may mean that Captain Archer’s last contact with the Klingons (in Affliction and Divergence) was one of the last contacts with the Klingons “a hundred years ago”.

Tasia Valenza, the new Federation computer voice (assuming the role left vacant by the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry), is the only cast member with ties to prior Star Trek: she was a Vulcan would-be Starfleet cadet vying against Wesley Crusher and others for a coveted slot at the Academy in 1988’s Coming Of Age. She also appeared in the 1990s series Space: Above And Beyond.

Star Trek: DiscoveryThe Klingons’ ritual scream at the heavens – a warning that a dead warrior is ascending – was first established in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Heart Of Glory, 1988); the concept of a multitude of Klingon “houses” originated in another TNG episode (Sins Of The Father, 1990). Ironically, Burnham’s adoptive brother, Spock, took a similar headlong plunge into danger in a Starfleet thruster suit in 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The original Klingon Torchbearer’s weapon is identified by Burnham’s heads-up display as a bat’leth, though very different in design to the one wielded by Worf in many an episode of TNG; it’s possible that, much like the Torchbearer’s title, this bat’leth is more ornately ceremonial than functional (though that doesn’t prevent it from being deadly).

Star Trek: DiscoveryCredited, but not appearing in, this episode are series regulars Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Jason Isaacs.

The Shenzhou is named for a real family of Chinese spacecraft that had only just started flying the last time there was a Star Trek series on the air.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Discovery Season 1 Star Trek

Battle At The Binary Stars

Star Trek: DiscoveryStardate not given: Starfleet reinforcements arrive to assist the Shenzhou, with further ships on the way. As Captain Georgiou orders Burnham escorted to the brig, the shooting begins, and heavy losses are incurred on both sides. Admiral Anderson arrives, commanding the Europa, and tries to broker a cease-fire with the Klingons, only to have his ship rammed head-on by a cloaked Klingon ship. The Shenzhou is in no shape to keep fighting, but when the Klingons begin retrieving their dead from the vacuum of space, Captain Georgiou decides to attach an armed photon torpedo warhead to one of the floating Klingon corpses, causing critical damage to T’Kuvma’s ship. Georgiou and Burnham beam aboard the ship to try to capture T’Kuvma, which would disgrace him in the eyes of his society, but their mission has a far higher price than they expect – and rather than making T’Kuvma a pariah, they make him a martyr…and the Federation and the Klingon Empire are now at war.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonteleplay by Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts
story by Bryan Fuller
directed by Adam Kane
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek: DiscoveryCast: Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Lt. Commander Saru), Shazad Latif (Lt. Ash Tyler), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Cadet Sylvia Tilly), Jason Isaacs (Captain Gabriel Lorca), Michelle Yeoh (Captain Philippa Georgiou), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), James Frain (Sarek), Kenneth Mitchell (Kol), Chris Obi (T’Kuvma), Terry Serpico (Admiral Anderson), Sam Vartholomeos (Ensign Danby Connor), Arista Arhin (young Michael Burnham), Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer), Javid Iqbal (Voq), Ali Momen (Kamran Grant), Clare McConnell (Dennas), Thamela Mpumlwana (young T’Kuvma), Damon Runyan (Ujilli), Tasia Valenza (Computer Voice), Chris Violette (Britch Weeton), Romaine Waite (Troy Januzzi)

Star Trek: DiscoveryNotes: This episode includes a mention of the last Klingon/Federation battle taking place at Donatu V, a planet first mentioned in The Trouble With Tribbles (1967), though Trouble established that battle as having taken place in the 2240s, not a century ago. Donatu V was a Klingon planet by the 24th century (DS9: Sons And Daughters). The unusual design of the Shenzhou‘s transporter room – an early reveal of which caused fan uproar – is cited as being an outmoded transporter design still in use aboard the Shenzhou due to the ship’s advanced age.

Star Trek: DiscoveryRepresentatives from House D’Ghor and House Mokai stick around to listen to T’Kuvma’s sales pitch; other known Klingon houses include Duras, Martok, Mogh, Korath, Kozak, and Antaak, though it is not known how fragmented this system of Klingon society might have become by the 24th century. (It is clearly stated that the Klingon Empire is currently comprised of 24 Houses.) Voq says that T’Kuvma devised the cloaking device; though in much official and unofficial backstory surrounding Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, the Klingons are said to have gotten cloaking technology from the Romulans. Both could be right: perhaps T’Kuvma is padding his resume just a bit. When T’Kuvma is shot by Burnham, his blood briefly vaporizes purple – the color of Klingon blood as it appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (in nearly every other instance in the franchise, it appears red).

Star Trek: DiscoveryChris Obi is the latest crossover actor to have appeared in both Star Trek and Doctor Who, having appeared in the 2011 Doctor Who episode Closing Time.

Credited, but not appearing in, their second episode in a row are series regulars Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Jason Isaacs. Not showing up is good work if you can find it.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Missions Season 1

Ulysse

Missions1967: The first Soyuz spacecraft, returning to Earth with cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov aboard, fails to deploy its parachute after re-entry – the last in a series of technical glitches that have plagued the mission. But history records that this is the fault that will doom Komarov to a fiery crash into the ground. The last thing he sees, however, is a blinding light streaming in through the capsule’s porthole…

2027: Just ten days away from launch, a multi-national mission to Mars is struck by tragedy, as the crew’s on-board psychologist dies in a helicopter crash en route to the launch site. Behavioral psychologist Jeanne Renoir is tapped to assume that position on the Argos mission. Ten months into the mission, as Argos approaches Mars, she has her doubts that the crew is capable of functioning as a team under the pressures of life on another planet. Matters aren’t helped by the fact that William Meyer, the financier of the mission, installed himself as a crewmember from the outset, and he’s not prepared to listen to Renoir’s recommendations. (The fact that Renoir herself has been having an affair with mission commander Martin Najac since leaving Earth – despite his wife’s presence as a fellow crewmember – may make her psychological assessments less than reliable.) Only 24 hours from landing, Meyer and Najac reveal to the rest of their crew that a nuclear-powered private American mission, Zillion-1, put a man on Mars ahead of Argos after only three weeks’ travel time from Earth – and that it sent only one message after landing, warning them that Mars is too dangerous to visit. When landing shuttle Ulysse fails to detach from Argos, Martin performs a spacewalk to manually release the latches, but the resulting movement when he does release them sends him tumbling into space, beyond his crew’s reach or their fuel capacity.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Julien Lacombe
directed by Julien Lacombe
music by Etienne Forget

MissionsCast: Hélène Viviès (Jeanne Renoir), Clément Aubert (Simon Gramat), Mathias Mlekuz (William Meyer), Jean-Toussaint Bernard (Yann Bellocq), Giorgia Sinicorni (Alessandra Najac), Côme Levin (Basile), Adrianna Gradziel (Eva Müller), Christophe Vandevelde (Martin Najac), Arben Bajraktaraj (Vladimir Komarov), Tiphaine Daviot (voice of Irene), Yasmin Bau (Jeanne’s assistant), David Clark (Astronaut 1), Menage Fleury (Sports Reporter), Nicolas Traino (News Reporter), Franka Koareau (voice of Russian Soyuz Operator)

MissionsNotes: Vladimir Komarov (1927-1967) was a real cosmonaut who not only flew solo aboard the real Soyuz 1 mission in 1967, but had previously commanded Voshkod 1, the first spaceflight with more than one crew member aboard, in 1964. In real life, the Soyuz 1 mission was rushed to launch in order to meet an artificial deadline, both to show up the American space program (which had suffered its own tragedy with the death of the Apollo 1 crew on the launch pad in January 1967) and to ensure the presence of a Soviet spaceflight in orbit during the celebrations of the anniversary of Vladimir Lenin’s birthday (April 22nd), despite many engineering problems persisting that should have kept the vehicle grounded until it was safer to fly. As depicted in this otherwise fictitious telling of events, Komarov did have significant problems orienting the MissionsSoyuz, exacerbated by the fact that its left solar “wing” never unfurled to provide the vehicle with sufficient power. (The opening scene of this episode shows the wing fully deployed, which never happened, an oddity since many of the major details of Komarov’s mission as used in this story are factually correct.)

Produced by and for French streaming service OCS (with “Martian” location filming in Morocco), Missions’ dialogue is entirely in French, with the exception of subtitled scenes involving Komarov (speaking Russian) and the distress call from the doomed American mission (speaking English). Series creators Henri Debeurme, Julien Lacombe and Ami Cohen were reportedly inspired by the ambiguous mystery storytelling and backstory-via-flashback structure of the American series Lost. The end credits show everyone who appears in the entire season; an attempt has been made with this guide to credit performers for their appearances in specific episodes. The Amazon streaming link included above is for the English-subtitled edition of the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Missions Season 1

Mars

MissionsUlysse has come down for a rough landing in the middle of a Martian dust storm, landing intact but instantly starved for power. The main battery is a casualty of the rough landing, and the the onboard computer, Irene, fails during descent. Emotionally stunted Basile, an awkward outsider among the crew whose only meaningful relationship during the trip to Mars has been Irene, is tasked with rebooting Irene in a power-saving safe mode; if he accidentally restarts her in a mode requiring full power, she’ll drain Ulysse’s power reserves almost instantly. Now in command of the mission, Simon Gramat assigns Renoir and geologist Eva Müller to accompany him to look for the wreckage of the doomed American mission, in the hope that batteries or solar panels can be salvaged and connected to Ulysse, but first, Meyer insists on documenting the first steps of humankind on Mars – his own. But during the search for the Z-1 wreckage, Gramat and his landing party discover that another man walked on Mars first…a man in a Soviet-era spacesuit that predates even the first robotic Mars missions. The man in the suit is still alive, and is rushed back to Ulysse. He identifies himself as 40-year-old Vladimir Komarov, cosmonaut, pilot of Soyuz 1, and when his photo is transmitted to Earth, his identity is confirmed…despite the fact that history recorded Komarov’s death in 1967…meaning he should be 90 years old.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Julien Lacombe
directed by Julien Lacombe
music by Etienne Forget

MissionsCast: Hélène Viviès (Jeanne Renoir), Clément Aubert (Simon Gramat), Mathias Mlekuz (William Meyer), Jean-Toussaint Bernard (Yann Bellocq), Giorgia Sinicorni (Alessandra Najac), Côme Levin (Basile), Adrianna Gradziel (Eva Müller), Arben Bajraktaraj (Vladimir Komarov), Vincent Londez (Ivan Goldstein), Tiphaine Daviot (voice of Irene), Avant Strangel (Scientist), Ian McCamy (Adjunct Scientist), Lan Hoang Xuan (Goldstein’s nurse)

Notes: As Missions debuted on a French streaming service, all ten episodes share the same “airdate” since they were dumped as a full season, Netflix-style. The Amazon streaming link included above is for the English-subtitled edition of the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Missions Season 1

Survivant

MissionsThe Ulysse crewmembers, their trust in each other stretched thin, debates over whether or not the spacesuited Russian they have found on the Martian surface can actually be cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, believed to have perished in the cataclysmic impact of Soyuz 1 in 1967. The numerous emergencies since landing on Mars have left them in need of sleep, but when they awaken, the man claiming to be Komarov and his spacesuit are gone. Gramat, Renoir, Meyer, and contentious astronaut Yann Bellocq venture out in Ulysse‘s rover to track Komarov down. As they close in on his position, they are contacted by Earth: a blood sample taken from Komarov after he was found on Mars reveals that his DNA has a triple helix…meaning he’s either not human, or something more than human.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Julien Lacombe
directed by Julien Lacombe
music by Etienne Forget

MissionsCast: Hélène Viviès (Jeanne Renoir), Clément Aubert (Simon Gramat), Mathias Mlekuz (William Meyer), Jean-Toussaint Bernard (Yann Bellocq), Giorgia Sinicorni (Alessandra Najac), Côme Levin (Basile), Adrianna Gradziel (Eva Müller), Arben Bajraktaraj (Vladimir Komarov), Tiphaine Daviot (voice of Irene), Avant Strangel (Scientist),
Ian McCamy (Adjunct Scientist), Manon Giraud-Balasuriya (young Jeanne)

Notes: The Amazon streaming link included above is for the English-subtitled edition of the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green