Categories
Lost Season 2

Man of Science, Man of Faith

  • By Dave
  • September 21, 2005

LostFlashback: Jack saves the life of a woman injured in a car accident, but when she wakes up, he has to deliver the bad news: there is extensive damage to her spinal column, and a good chance she will be paralyzed for life. Jack’s father thinks that he should stress the possibility of hope; the woman’s fiance seems troubled by the prospects of a lifetime of intense care and physical assistance. The woman’s determination inspires Jack to promise that he will fix her; that promise leads to an late night of running up and down stadium steps to expiate his guilt when he can’t fulfill it. A fellow runner introduces himself as Desmond and raises a question: what if Jack did fix her? He dismisses the idea… until the next day, when she wakes up and wiggles her toes.

The Island: Within a bunker, a man types commands on a old computer terminal, injects himself with some kind of chemical, and works out while listening to one of a large library of vinyl records. His routine is interrupted by a sudden tremor – the result of the dynamite blowing open the hatch. Jack, Kate, and Locke peer down into the hatch and see nothing but a broken ladder; the shaft goes down into the darkness. Jack realizes that the hatch will not provide a sanctuary and wants to head back to the caves immediately. Locke is more eager to explore, but ultimately concedes to Jack. On the way back, Hurley tells Jack about his previous experiences with the numbers.

At the caves, panic is starting to set in. Shannon sets out to find Walt’s dog Vincent, and Sayid accompanies her. They are briefly separated, and for a moment she sees Walt, soaking wet and whispering something. Sayid finds her and Walt disappears. Shortly afterward, Jack and the others return, and Jack reassures everyone that they’ll be fine, that the sun will come up in a few hours and they’ll see it together. But Locke is determined to go back to the hatch. Kate follows him in case he needs help. And Jack decides that he’s not going to let the two of them face the inside of the hatch alone.

Locke lowers Kate into the shaft. Before she hits bottom, some force pulls her down despite Locke’s attempts to brace himself and keep hold of the rope. A bright light shines out of the hatch, and Kate is gone. When Jack reaches the hatch, neither are there. He finds his way into the bunker and the music starts playing again; the room is filled with decades-old equipment. Jack reaches for the terminal, but Locke encourages him not to touch it. And whoever it is holding a gun to Locke’s head thinks that’s a pretty good idea too.

Order the DVDswritten by Damon Lindelof
directed by Jack Bender
music by Michael Giacchino

Season 2 Regular Cast: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Maggie Grace (Shannon), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Malcolm David Kelley (Walt), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O’Quinn (Locke), Harold Perrineau (Michael), Michelle Rodriguez (Ana Lucia)

Guest Cast: John Terry (Shephard), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Julie Bowen (Sarah), Anson Mount (Kevin), Ivana Michele Smith (N.D. survivor), Katie Doyle (EMT), Julius Ledda (EMT no. 2), Masayo Ford (Nurse), David Ely (Intern), Larry Wiss (Anesthesiologist)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 2 Stargate Stargate Atlantis

Aurora

Stargate AtlantisRodney’s sensors detect the Aurora, an Ancient defense ship launched to protect the planet and the city. Though nobody expects the presumably lost ship to be manned, it contains nearly a full crew – kept alive in a state of near-total stasis. The aging of the Ancients’ bodies is slowed, but they’re still quite active mentally, and plugged into a network that allows them to control their ship. Rodney finds a way to plug Sheppard into the network without putting him in the same stasis, allowing him to communicate with the Ancients. But Sheppard finds that the Ancient crew doesn’t trust him – not even as a virtual reality construct. While Colonel Caldwell and his crew brace for a Wraith attack on the newly discovered ship, Sheppard discovers that the Wraith are already aboard the Aurora, both virtually and literally.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Carl Binder
story by Brad Wright & Carl Binder
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell), Bruce Dawson (Captain), Pascale Hutton (First Officer), James Lafaznos (Wraith), Kirby Morrow (Airman), Anne Openshaw (Pilot), Ryan W. Smith (Crewman), Graham Kosakoski (Guard)

Notes: Colonel Caldwell’s use of the term “military thrust” indicates that he wants the Daedalus’ pilot to push the ship’s engines past 100% throttle – or, as countless starship captains before him have put it less formally, get the hell out of there.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Season 2 Stargate Stargate Atlantis

The Lost Boys

Stargate AtlantisFollowing up on a lead to the possible location of a ZPM, Sheppard, Teyla, Rodney and Ronon are abducted by a group of humans and taken through a stargate – and Sheppard is stunned to see Ford is in charge of their captors. Still given superhuman strength and agility as long as he continues to find sources of the Wraith enzyme, Ford introduces his new colleagues to the enzyme as well. Over time, Ford and his friends have learned to refine the Wraith enzyme – and even to process it into food form, which he feeds to Sheppard’s team without warning them. After drugging them with their first dose of the enzyme, Ford and his men free the Atlantis team to let them explore their new abilities. Ford’s men are doing their own part to fight the Wraith, using means that might not meet the Atlantis team’s approval, and to Rodney’s horror, Sheppard finds himself considering joining Ford for at least one attack on a hive ship – as a cover for getting his own team home. But Ford’s plan, using a stolen Wraith dart, doesn’t quite go as planned – and neither does Sheppard’s plan to return to Atlantis.

Order the DVDswritten by Martin Gero
excerpt written by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Rainbow Sun Francks (Aiden Ford), Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), Aaron Abrams (Kanayo), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Paul Anthony (Jace), Woody Jeffreys (Bouncer / Guard #1), Aleks Holtz (Guard #2), James Lafaznos (Wraith Male), Andee Frizzell (Wraith Hive Queen)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Battlestar Galactica (New Series) Season 2

Pegasus

Battlestar GalacticaThough Galactica was widely believed to have been the only Battlestar to have escaped the carnage that scattered the Twelve Colonies, another of the mighty ships managed to flee, and it finally catches up with the Colonial fleet – the Battlestar Pegasus, under the control of Admiral Cain. The sleeker, more modern Pegasus was docked at a Colonial shipyard at the time of the Cylon attack, suffered heavy casualties in the ambush and then made a blind FTL jump into deep space. While both Adama and President Roslin see the addition of another Battlestar, with its own Viper squadrons and armaments, as a good sign for the Colonial fleet, it seems that Admiral Cain is less than enthused about having to protect a civilian population – or, for that matter, about having to accept the former Secretary of Education as the new President of the Colonies. Roslin acknowledges that Cain outranks Adama, but is skeptical of the change in command. And when Adama gets transfer orders moving Apollo and Starbuck to the Pegasus, he begins to share that skepticism. Baltar is asked to inspect a Cylon prisoner aboard the Pegasus, and learns that it’s the same model as Number Six, except that she’s been severely tortured. The Pegasus officer who was in charge of her interrogation apparently has the same savage treatment in mind for Sharon – and when Tyrol and Helo rush to her aid, they spark an incident that pits the two Battlestars against each other.

written by Anne Cofell Saunders
directed by Michael Rymer
music by Bear McCreary

Guest Cast: Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh), Aaron Douglas (CPO Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Paul Campbell (Billy Keikeya), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Michelle Forbes (Admiral Cain), Graham Beckel (Colonel Fisk), John Pyper-Ferguson (Captain Cole “Stinger” Taylor), Sebastian Spence (Pegasus Pilot), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Fulvio Cecere (Lt. Alastair Thorne), Mike Dopud (Gage), Derek Delost (Vireem), Vincent Gale (Chief Peter Laird), Michael Jonsson (Pegasus Guard #2)

Notes: Pegasus is based on the two-part episode Living Legend from the original Battlestar Galactica’s first season, in which Lloyd Bridges played the part of Commander Cain, whose wayward Battlestar Pegasus was also preparing for a strike on a sizable Cylon target. Michelle Forbes is best known to SF fans as the Bajoran Ensign Ro from the last three seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a character whose backstory inspired the spinoff series Deep Space Nine. Australian-born actor John Pyper-Ferguson is also a Star Trek: The Next Generation veteran, playing the “real” Eli Hollander in A Fistful Of Datas; he had a recurring role as Sims in the second season of Jeremiah, and was a regular on such shows as Brisco County Jr. and the TV series adaptation of The Crow.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Invasion

Lights Out

InvasionRussell goes to check out his ranger station, and finds a man, near death, in a diving suit. Russell takes him to Homestead Hospital, and when the man’s perfectly intact diving suit is cut off, doctors discover a series of nearly symmetrical puncture wounds from his neck to his waist – roughly corresponding to the placement of the tendrils along the body Dave recovered from the swamp. Russell goes back to his station and finds military dog tags, but can’t seem to find out – even from Sheriff Underlay – anything about a U.S. Air Force diver named Paxton. Dave, still hospitalized for his injuries, goes to visit Paxton, who can only dazedly moan “Don’t let them in” while Dave tries to take pictures of his wounds – moments before Underlay appears out of nowhere to confiscate the camera. Larkin tracks Paxton’s wife down and goes around the sheriff’s road blocks to reach her, but she thinks her husband is on a mission overseas and refuses to say anything more. Larkin returns to work with what she’s found out, but is informed by her news director – one of the many like Dr. Mariel Underlay who were found naked after the storm – that Paxton has died, and that the story isn’t worth chasing. Jesse and Rose, staying with the Underlays, come back to Russell’s house; Rose is upset that her mother and stepfather were both gone overnight. In addition that, though, Russell and Dave are worried about another disappearance – the intertwined human and alien remains hidden away in the trunk of Dave’s car have vanished. But Russell does still have one alien souvenir – a spore-like object that Mariel pulled out of Paxton’s head.

Order this DVDwritten by Shaun Cassidy
directed by Lawrence Trilling
music by Jon Ehrlich & Jason Derlatka

Guest Cast: Holmes Osborne (Mayor Littles), Nick Cokas (Paxton), Veronica Cartwright (Valerie), Kimleigh Smith (Admitting Nurse), Michael Mitchell (Derek), Jake Richardson (Gage), Nathan Baesel (Deputy Lewis Sirk), Cirroc Lofton (Reed), Anne Dudek (Katie Paxton), Ivar Brogger (Father Jeffrey Scanlon), Reggie Jordan (Reporter #1), Elisa Llamido (Reporter #2), Ruth Silviera (Nurse Adrianne), Jennifer Wilkerson (Nurse)

Notes: Cirroc Lofton was a member of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s ensemble cast for all seven seasons, starring as Jake Sisko; he played Larkin’s co-worker and seems to have taken after his DS9 co-star and mentor Avery Brooks in shaving his head.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Lost Season 2

Adrift

  • By Dave
  • September 28, 2005

LostFlashback: Once out of the hospital following his injuries, Michael retains a lawyer to fight to keep Walt from leaving the country with his mother, Susan. Her lawyers challenge his lack of involvement in his son’s life; Susan appeals to Michael to think of Walt’s best interests. Finally, he reluctantly allows them to go. Michael meets with Walt for a few moments to say goodbye, offering him a stuffed polar bear and telling him that his father will always love him.

The Island: Prior to Jack’s discovery of Locke in the bunker – Locke follows Kate down the shaft. He finds her shortly before Desmond finds them. He asks Locke, “Are you him?” Locke tries to play along, but Desmond quickly realizes that whomever he’s waiting for, it’s not Locke. He orders Locke to tie Kate up and lock her in a food pantry; Locke smuggles a pocketknife into her waistband in the process. She cuts herself free and climbs into a ventilation duct. Desmond quizzes Locke about the survivors of the plane crash and asks how many of them have gotten sick. He seems surprised when Locke says that none of them have. The conversation is interrupted by a beeping and a countdown clock; Desmond frantically orders Locke to input a code into the terminal – the six-number sequence. The beeping stops and the countdown resets. Jack’s arrival leads Desmond to turn the music back on, which prevents Jack from hearing Kate when she shouts for him. Jack enters the bunker and discovers Locke and Desmond.

At sea, Sawyer helps Michael onto the remains of the raft and then yanks the bullet out of his own arm. The two men bicker over whose fault it was that they were attacked; a more pressing problem is the shark in the water. They find one of the raft’s pontoons and make it through the night; the current brings them back to the island. When they reach shore, they see Jin, arms tied behind his back, frantically running toward them. The Others have found them.

Order the DVDswritten by Steven Maeda & Leonard Dick
directed by Stephen Williams
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Island Man), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Tamara Taylor (Susan Lloyd), Saul Rubinek (Michael’s Attorney)

Notes: The events leading up to Michael giving up his parental rights were first shown in the season 1 episode Special. As of this episode, Malcolm David Kelley (Walt) is no longer listed in the opening credits.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Night Stalker

Pilot (Broadcast Version)

Night StalkerInvestigative reporter Carl Kolchak signs up with a Los Angeles newspaper to cover crime, and when his paper’s senior crime reporter, Perri Reed, arrives at the scene of a grisly murder after he does, his dismissive attitude automatically gets things off to a bad start. But even when the paper’s editor hands the story over to Perri, Kolchak refuses to end his own investigation. Perri is intrigued and more than a little disturbed when Kolchak seems to have solid information on the murder that comes from sources he can’t identify. Another attack leaves a woman near death and her young daughter goes missing, and again, Kolchak seems to know more than he’s letting on and won’t let go of the story.

Curious about her new colleague/competitor, Perri launches an investigation of her own, trying to found out more about Kolchak. The trail leads to Kolchak’s previous job as a crime reporter for a Las Vegas paper – and the still-unsolved murder of his wife in which he himself is still a suspect. A call to FBI Agent Fain has unexpected results – Fain arrives in L.A. to arrest Kolchak in connection with the very same murders he’s investigating. Even after Kolchak is set free again, Perri remains suspicious, especially when she learns that pursuing the grisliest, most bizarre crimes is a mission that Kolchak takes on even outside of work. He’s still trying to figure out who killed his wife, and why a red mark was left on her hand. The same mark has turned up on some, but not all, of the victims whose deaths Kolchak has investigated. Perri is sympathetic, but ultimately spooked, and tries to put as much distance as she can between herself and Kolchak – and when she’s about to become the next potential victim, that’s a decision she may not live to regret.

Season 1 Regular Cast: Stuart Townsend (Carl Kolchak), Gabrielle Union (Perri Reed), Eric Jungmann (Jain McManus), Cotter Smith (Tony Vincenzo)

written by Frank Spotnitz
directed by Dan Sackheim
music by Michael Wandmacher
series theme music by Philip Glass

Guest Cast: David Denman (Henry Gale), Ele Keats (Emily Gale), J. Marvin Campbell (Deputy), Timothy McNeil (Coroner), Clay Wilcox (Ed Medlock), Sarah LaFleur (Trish Medlock), Madeline Carroll (Julie Madlock), John Pyper-Ferguson (Agent Bernard Fain), Susan Misner (Irene)

The two KolchaksNotes: Roughly 20 minutes into the pilot episode, as an in-joke, Darren McGavin appears as another reporter in Kolchak’s office; McGavin appeared as the original Kolchak in two 1973 TV movies and all 20 episodes of the subsequent cult classic TV series. His image, isolated from the original negatives and digitally inserted into the scene, was taken from the first of those movies, The Night Stalker. Producer Frank Spotnitz was one of the guiding lights of The X-Files, a show whose creator, Chris Carter, readily admitted that the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker had been a key inspiration for his series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Firefly The Movie

Serenity

  • By Dave
  • September 30, 2005

FireflyAn Alliance Operative reviews Simon and River Tam’s escape from the experimental facility where River was modified. He highlights a particular comment by the lead scientist – that several members of the Alliance Parliament had seen River to observe her progress. Given River’s psychic ability, that means that she could possess vital secrets without even realizing it. This is a grave threat, and must be dealt with. For starters, the Operative kills the scientist. Then, he turns his attention to finding River.

On Serenity, Mal, Zoe, and Jayne prepare to take River out for a payroll-robbery job over Simon’s objections. Mal is in no mood to hear them; he reminds Simon that their increased need to avoid the Alliance has resulted in the crew passing up jobs, and work is hard to come by. Serenity is barely holding together and the crew needs to be paid. Now they have a job, River might be useful, and so she’s going. Mal turns out to be more right than he knows when River detects the Reavers coming early enough that the crew can complete the job, get a few people to safety in a bank vault, and barely make their own escape. But the potential danger is the last straw for Simon; once they collect their share of the bounty for the job, he and River will leave Serenity, just as Inara did months before.

Things don’t go nearly that smoothly, however. At the meeting to hand over the stolen payroll, River watches a broadcast that suddenly triggers some of her programming; she begins attacking everyone in the bar and does a stunning amount of damage. Simon is able to knock her out thanks to a programmed safe word, and Mal takes both of them back aboard Serenity. They learn from Mr. Universe, one of their communications contacts, that the broadcast had subliminal transmissions encoded in it. The Alliance deliberately went to a lot of trouble to trigger that outburst from River in order to find out where she was. And thanks to the security video from the bar, they do.

The Operative visits Inara at her temple and forces her to contact Mal and invite him to visit. It’s clear to Mal that the situation is a trap, but he decides to go anyway in order to assess the situation. Before he does, he gets some advice from Shepherd Book, who’s now living in a community called Haven. Once again, Book’s counsel – and former experience, whatever it may be – prove useful. Mal is barely able to escape, along with Inara, from the Operative, and Serenity manages to get away from the Alliance pursuit ships. But when they return to Haven, they find the place has been leveled and Book is dying. In fact, the Alliance has destroyed every place that Serenity has sought refuge, in an effort to keep them from disappearing. The Operative once again asks Mal to turn over River.

Instead, the captain is determined to find answers. Their only clue is Miranda, a word that River spoke right before her attack in the bar. She uses the ship computers to identify it as a planet on the outer edge of the solar system, one thought to be uninhabitable. The only way to get there is through Reaver space, so Mal orders the crew to disguise Serenity as a Reaver vessel, no matter how distasteful that may be. The crew reluctantly complies. When they arrive, they find a stable environment and multiple cities with advanced technology – and nothing but corpses that appear to have died peacefully. A weak signal beacon leads them to a recording made by an Alliance officer. She explains that most everyone on the planet died as a result of exposure to an experimental substance designed to make human beings less aggressive, more passive. On most of the population, it worked too well – they became so passive they simply stopped doing anything, including eating and breathing. But a small minority had their aggression hyped up to the maximum and began preying on everyone else – the Reavers. They were not settlers made mad by the edge of space. They were driven there by the Alliance.

Mal is determined to release the recording to the public, to let people know what the Alliance has been up to and weaken their hold. He sets out for Mr. Universe, hoping to broadcast to everyone in one fell swoop. Anticipating another trap laid by the Operative, Mal lures the Reavers to follow him, initiating a massive conflict between the Reavers and the Alliance. Wash manages to bring a severely-damaged Serenity to rest on the planet right before a Reaver attack impales him. The survivors plan a last stand to buy enough time for Mal to reach Mr. Universe and make the broadcast. But the Operative has already killed the broadcaster and destroyed his main facility. Mal’s last hope is a hidden backup facility . . . but he’ll need to survive one more face to face confrontation with the Operative while his crew survives an onslaught of Reavers and Alliance soldiers.

Order the DVDsDownload this episodewritten by Joss Whedon
directed by Joss Whedon
music by David Newman

Cast: Nathon Fillion (Mal Reynolds), Gina Torres (Zoe), Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb), Alan Tudyk (Wash), Jewel Staite (Kaylee), Morena Baccarin (Inara), Summer Glau (River Tam), Sean Maher (Simon Tam), Ron Glass (Shepherd Book), David Krumholtz (Mr. Universe), Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Operative)

Notes: Mal mentions that River and Simon have been aboard Serenity for eight months.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Thicker Than Water

Doctor Who: Thicker Than WaterCurious about the Doctor’s frequent mentions of how traveling with Evelyn Smythe calmed him down, Melanie talks him into paying her a visit. Three years after the invasion of Vilag, Evelyn – who left the Doctor’s company some time ago – is now married to Rossiter, who heads up the new global government. But all is not well even in the wake of the invasion of which the Doctor and Evelyn tried to warn everyone on their earlier visit; the leftover alien technology has become a subject of intense controversy, with Evelyn heading up an effort to have it studied and exploited for the benefits it could bring. The most vocal opponent of this viewpoint is Rossiter’s daughter, Sophia, who leads a faction that wants the alien technology destroyed. But mere moments after the Doctor and Melanie appear at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the attack, it appears that some of Sophia’s opponents are more prepared to take action than others. When the first shots ring out, the Doctor and Evelyn both think it’s an attempt on Rossiter’s life, but when the Doctor rushes to help Rossiter, Evelyn and Melanie are kidnapped. The Doctor and Rossiter set out to track them down and rescue them, and find that the Doctor’s companions, past and present, aren’t the only ones who need help.

Order this CDwritten by Paul Sutton
directed by Edward Salt
music by ERS

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Evelyn), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Gabriel Woolf (Principal Triumvir Rossiter), Rachel Pickup (Dr. Sofia Rossiter), Patrick Romer (Dr. Andrew Szabo), Simon Watts (Dr. Sebastian Lawrence), Matt Dineen (Jenner), James Parsons (TV Interviewer), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)

Timeline: for the Doctor and Mel, after Catch-1782 and before Time And The Rani; for Evelyn, after Arrangements For War and before A Death In The Family

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
7th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Live 34

Doctor Who: Live 34A radio broadcast unfolds live on the disant Colony 34, recounting the day’s events, including another in a string of terrorist bombings. The incumbent leader, Premier Leo Jaeger, denounces the violence, promises further crackdowns in the name of security, and openly accuses his opponents, the Freedom & Democracy Party, of being behind the attacks. The FDP’s new leader, known only as the Doctor, has a different story to tell: he criticizes the bombings, but also claims that Jaeger is trying to divert attention away from the upcoming elections that the FDP has forced through legal channels – elections that have been delayed for five years. Other news broadcasts profile the “Rebel Queen,” a young woman calling herself Ace who says she’s leading the resistance, and a bewildered paramedic named Hex who stumbles onto a secret during a live broadcast – a secret which could get Live 34 shut down by the government.

Order this CDwritten by James Parsons & Andrew Stirling-Brown
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Andrew Collins (Drew Shahan), William Hoyland (Premier Jaeger), Zehra Naqvi (Charlotte Singh), Duncan Wiseby (Ryan Wareing), Ann Bryson (Gina Grewal), Joy Elias-Rilwan (Lula)

Timeline: between Dreamtime and Night Thoughts

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Lost Season 2

Orientation

  • By Dave
  • October 5, 2005

Lost Flashback: Locke attends a support group meeting after his father abandoned him. He finds little comfort there; instead he lashes out at those complaining about problems that seem insignificant compared to his. The outburst attracts the attention of Helen, a member of the group, and the two begin seeing each other. Their relationship is complicated by Locke’s continued haunting of his father, driving through his neighborhood and parking in front of his own. His father tells Locke in no uncertain terms that he is not wanted. Helen does want Locke, though – but only if he lets go of his pain. She sets an ultimatum: Locke will have to take a leap of faith to keep their relationship alive.

The Island: As Desmond and Jack confront each other, Kate gets the drop on Desmond. An errant shot hits the computer, which sends Desmond into a panic. Kate returns to the caves to get Sayid to fix the machine while Desmond explains that he washed up on the island about three years ago. Another man found him and brought him into the bunker and told him that they had to enter the six-digit code into the terminal every 108 minutes or disaster would ensue. He shows Jack and Locke an orientation film made in 1980 by the Dharma Institute, an experimental research collaboration devoted to the physical and social sciences. The film narrator explains that something at this installation – The Swan – has gone wrong, and now the essential thing for Dharma staffers to do is to keep inputting the code. Two men are supposed to be assigned to the task, and replacements are supposed to arrive every few months. But Desmond has been on his own since his rescuer died.

Locke is eager to fix the terminal and continue the work, but Jack wants nothing to do with it, convinced that the whole thing is just some sort of behavioral experiment. Desmond decides to leave the bunker; Jack follows him. Desmond tells Jack the code and then finally remembers their previous meeting. He asks if Jack was able to fix the girl. An anguished Jack screams that he married her, before letting Desmond go and returning to the group. Sayid has fixed the computer, but Locke can’t remember the code, and Hurley is quite deliberately silent on that score. If they’re going to carry on Desmond’s mission, Jack is going to have to be part of the effort.

Elsewhere on the island, Sawyer, Michael and Jin are captured by the Others and thrown into a pit cage. They are soon joined by another prisoner, a woman who claims to have been on the back of Flight 815 when it crashed. Sawyer is determined to use what bullets he has left to try and get out, but their new colleague has plenty of questions and loyalties of her own.

Order the DVDswritten by Javier Grillo-Marxuach & Craig Wright
directed by Jack Bender
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Island Man), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Kevin Tighe (Cooper), Curtis Jackson (Security Guard), Katey Sagal (Helen), Roxie Sarhangi (Francine), Jeanne Rogers (Moderator), Marvin Candle (himself), Michael Lanzo (Waiter)

Notes: Locke’s discovery of, and kidney donation to, his father were shown in season 1’s Deus Ex Machina.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Invasion

Watershed

InvasionJesse and his stepsister, Sheriff Underlay’s daughter Kira, are walking home with containers of gasoline when they see an overturned RV trailer in the floodwater. They swim out to it to make sure no one is trapped, but while inside, Jesse sees something glowing in the water, and when he investigates closer, it lashes out at him, injuring him severely. Kira runs to get her father, but finds Russell at her house instead, babysitting Rose. Russell rushes back to the scene, recovers Jesse and takes him to the hospital, where Mariel hovers between parental concern and total disinterest in her son’s fate. She donates her own blood to Jesse, but instead of stabilizing him, it nearly kills him. Elsewhere, despite the five-mile quarantine radius around Homestead imposed by Sheriff Underlay, Larkin and her cameraman catch what looks like a military convoy going through town. When she confronts Underlay about it, Larkin gets a canned explanation and then demands the truth, which Underlay then tries to tell her involves the recovery of Airman Paxton’s helicopter. But when Larkin points out the radiation-suited hazmat teams near the crash site, it appears that even Sheriff Underlay doesn’t know the whole story. Nor can Russell explain why Mariel’s blood now resembles the blood of a marine animal more than it does that of a human being…

Order this DVDwritten by Becky Hartman Edwards
directed by Michael Dinner
music by Jon Ehrlich & Jason Derlatka

Guest Cast: Kimleigh Smith (Admitting Nurse), Melody Butiu (Nurse Karlen), Armin Shimerman (Josh Breims), Joshua Gomez (Scott), Ivar Brogger (Father Scanlon), Leslie Carrera (Mrs. Hernandez), Jean Sincere (Mrs. Lowell), Ewan Chang (Doctor), Barry Wiggins (General Turner), Joshua Harto (Greg Ogilvy)

Notes: Once again, a member of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s ensemble features in the guest cast, this time Armin “Quark” Shimerman as a cautious jewelry store owner.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Night Stalker

The Five People You Meet In Hell

Night StalkerPerri is mildly annoyed when Kolchak again barges into a police press conference she’s already covering, involving the inexplicable and brutal murder of a woman by her husband – who happened to be a prosecuting attorney. Kolchak is there to ask a question about supernatural involvement in the case, but his query goes unanswered. When another murder occurs – this time at the hands of a judge with no prior record – Kolchak and Perri begin to see a connection. Both the judge and prosecutor were involved in the trial of would-be serial killer Damon Caylor, who persuaded others to commit murders in his name. There’s another connection as well – in some capacity, the phrase “you know what you have to do” was heard or seen by the killers. Kolchak now focuses his attention on a detective also involved in Caylor’s trial and conviction, and sure enough, the detective tries to kill his wife, and is stopped only by Kolchak’s quick action. Now Kolchak’s concern turns to one other person instrumental in taking Caylor down – the reporter who covered his crimes: Perri Reed.

Order the DVDswritten by Thomas Schnauz
directed by Rob Bowman
music by Michael Wandmacher

Guest Cast: Tony Curran (Damon Caylor), Alex Carter (Detective Granoff), Robert Curtis Brown (Doug Linman), Colby Paul (Jeffrey Linman), Jessica Whitney Gould (Jane Linman), Art La Fleur (Detective Mitchell), Wylie Small (Amanda Daniels), David Dunard (Doug’s Dad), Tara Ciabattoni (Mary Granoff), John Wesley (Warden Blume), Darin Rossi (Umpire), Stephen W. Alvarez (Reporter), Susan Misner (Irene), Heather Kafka (Katrina Ortega)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Firefly Season 1

Trash

  • By Dave
  • October 7, 2005

FireflyA naked Mal sits in the middle of the desert. Seventy-two hours earlier, he met up with an old friend named Monte to pick up some cargo, with Serenity coming by later to retrieve him and the load in order to avoid raising suspicions. When Monte enthusiastically introduces his new wife Bridget, Mal is a bit taken aback to see that Bridget is really Saffron. When her latest husband leaves her behind, Saffron tries to convince Mal that she has the inside scoop on a big heist. Mal isn’t interested, until Inara confronts him about their recent itinerary and points out that the crew hasn’t had a substantial job in a while. Mal decides to take Saffron up on her offer and go for the big score, which isn’t quite what Inara had in mind. The plan involves going to Bellerophon in the Core Systems, to the estate of a huge collector of artifacts from Earth-that-was. Saffron has all the security codes, so they can walk right in and take one of the earliest laser pistols ever made. Getting it out will be a problem – it’s rigged with sensors, so they can’t go out the door. Kaylee figures that if they dump it in a trash bin, they can hotwire the bot that picks up the trash and get it to drop the bin in the desert. Mal and Saffron head in to do the thieving while everyone else takes care of the rewiring. When Jayne gets knocked out, it gives Simon the chance to have a heart to heart with him about events on Ariel. At the estate, Mal is surpised – albeit not terribly so – to find that he is not the only one of Saffron’s spouses on the premises. They manage to grab the gun, toss it in the bin, and make their getaway, but Mal still loses his shirt. Everything seems to be going according to plan – but whose?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jose Molina and Ben Edlund
directed by Vern Gillum
music by Greg Edmonson

Guest Cast: Christina Hendricks (Saffron), Franc Ross (Monte), Dwier Brown (Durran Haymer)

Notes: Saffron married Mal under dubious circumstances in Our Mrs. Reynolds. This episode was not broadcast by Fox and first aired on Sci Fi in 2005.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Lost Season 2

Everybody Hates Hugo

  • By Dave
  • October 12, 2005

LostFlashback: After he hits the lottery, Hurley tries to keep it a secret and enjoy some time with his friends before life changes dramatically.

The Island: Hurley absolutely hates his current assignment: inventorying the food supply in the bunker. He especially hates it when he has to keep the secret from the others on the island, and eventually he brings Rose in to help him. Locke tells Charlie about the hatch, and the food . . . which sends Charlie right to Hurley in search of peanut butter for Claire. When Hurley refuses him, Charlie’s hurt feelings frustrate Hurley even more, so he resolves to take drastic measures to ensure that things don’t change for him again.

Sayid and Jack look for the source of the electromagnetic disturbance, but it’s isolated behind heavy concrete. Claire finds the message in the bottle that the raft passengers carried with them, and gives it to Sun. Michael, Sawyer, and Jin are freed by their captors and brought to another bunker where another group of survivors from the tail of the plane huddles for shelter . . . including one survivor they’ve heard plenty about.

Order the DVDswritten by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
directed by Alan Taylor
music by Michael Giacchino

Guest Cast: L. Scott Caldwell (Rose), Sam Anderson (Bernard), Kimberley Joseph (Flight Attendant), Lillian Hurst (Carmen), DJ Qualls (Johnny), Billy Ray Gallion (Randy), Marguerite Moreau (Starla), Raj K. Bose (Pakistani Shop Clerk)

Notes: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Island Man) and Cynthia Watros (Libby) were added to the regular cast as of this episode. Hurley’s lottery win was originally shown in season 1’s Numbers.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer