Tag: Season Finale

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Doctor Who New Series Season 06

The Wedding Of River Song

Doctor WhoRather than marching quietly to his date with death, the Doctor goes on a series of missions to find out why the Silence wants him dead. Every piece of information simply leads to another question, until finally he arrives in Utah with Rory, Amy and River – and then his death fails to happen, thwarted by river. But history records the Doctor’s death at that moment, and when it fails to happen, history unravels, overlapping alternate histories with history as the Doctor and his friends know it. Amy, River and Rory now command a fighting force with orders to defend the Doctor from the Silence, and the mysterious Madame Kovarian has been captured – or has she really been pulling the strings all along? The Doctor’s fate is inescapable – but this time, that’s just how he wants it.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Jeremy Webb
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Frances Barber (Madame Kovarian), Simon Fisher-Becker (Dorium Maldovar), Ian McNeice (Emperor Winston Churchill), Richard Hope (Dr. Malokeh), Marnix van den Broeke (The Silent), Nicholas Briggs (voice of the Dalek), Simon Callow (Charles Dickens), Sian Williams (herself), Bill Turnbull (himself), Meredith Viera (Newsreader), Niall Grieg Fulton (Gideon Vandaleur), Sean Buckley (Barman), Rondo Haxton (Gantok), Emma Campbell-Jones (Dr. Kent), Katharine Burford (Nurse), Richard Dillane (Carter), William Morgan Sheppard (Canton Delaware)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Black Mirror Season 1

The Entire History Of You

Black MirrorGrain is a neural implant that records everything a person sees, even details they don’t notice at first, and stores it for later recall. During a replay, called a “redo”, different details can be enhanced and brought into focus, obsessed over, even litigated. A scan of recent memories has become the new background check: airport security, insurance, and job offers are all contingent upon memory scans with no unusual incidents – and no major deletions from the record hinting at a cover-up of such incidents. Liam, unsettled by news that the law firm for which he works will begin using recorded Grain memories to allow people to sue their parents for negligence during childhood, is in no mood for a party with old friends, but he still shows up, annoyed that his wife Fiona is being very attentive toward a male guest Liam regards as a blowhard. Upon learning that his wife had more than a mere passing acquaintance with the man in her single life, Liam is fixated on proving that they’re still having an affair. But the memory of what he does to resolve the situation may yet haunt him.

Get the DVDswritten by Jesse Alexander
directed by Brian Welsh
music by Stuart Earl

Black MirrorCast: Toby Kebbell (Liam), Jodie Whittaker (Fiona), Tom Cullen (Jonas), Amy Beth Hayes (Lucy), Rebekah Staton (Colleen), Rhashan Stone (Jeff), Phoebe Fox (Hallam), Jimi Mistry (Paul), Daniel Lapaine (Max), Karl Collins (Robbie), Elizabeth Chan (Leah), Mona Goodwin (Gina), Kemal Sylvester (Airport Security)

Note: Jodie Whittaker would go on to become Doctor Who‘s thirteenth face, making her debut in the closing moments of Twice Upon A Time (2017).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 07

The Name Of The Doctor

Doctor WhoThen: The Doctor, in his first incarnation, prepares to steal a TARDIS and escape Gallifrey with his grandddaughter, Susan. In the TARDIS repair docks of Gallifrey, he is greeted not by security, but by a young woman whose face and name he will not know until his eleventh incarnation. She advises him to steal a different TARDIS than the one he was planning to take.

Now: The Doctor’s friends hold a cross between a teleconference and a seance, discussing an item of immediate concern: a man who claims to know the Doctor’s true name, his greatest secret. But the gathering itself is a trap: one by one, Jenny, Strax, and Madame Vastra are abducted and taken to Trenzalore, a planet where the Doctor has been predicted to fall. Clara relays this to the Doctor, and after a moment of hesitation, he leads the charge to free his allies. On Trenzalore, he is greeted by the unlikely sight of a giant TARDIS – his TARDIS, abandoned since his future death, its exterior dimensions catching up with its interior dimensions. As soon as the Doctor and Clara enter this future iteration of the TARDIS, it’s quite obvious that it’s a trap. At the heart of the TARDIS, the former console room, the Great Intelligence lurks with a small army of whisper men. The Intelligence wants to undo the Doctor’s history once and for all, by stepping into the Time Lord’s already-paradoxical time stream and thwarting every victory in the Doctor’s history. Against the Doctor’s wishes and his express warning about the danger involved, Clara leaps into the Doctor’s time stream in her own bid to defeat the Great Intelligence at every turn. In doing this, she is splintered into many incarnations of her own, meeting all of the Doctor’s faces and assisting all of them at some point in their adventures: this is why the Doctor has met more than one Clara, and why she has always seemed to go out of her way – even sacrificing her life – to save him. The Doctor jumps into his own time stream to retrieve her once the damage to his history is reversed, finding her alone with someone she doesn’t recognize as one of the Doctor’s many faces.

But the Doctor recognizes this face. It is the face which does not call itself the Doctor. It is the face of the man who fought the final battle of the Last Great Time War.

Order the DVDwritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Saul Metzstein
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Matt Smith (The Doctor), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara), Alex Kingston (River Song), Richard E. Grant (Dr. Simeon), Neve McIntosh (Vastra), Catrin Stewart (Jenny), Dan Starkey (Strax), Eve de Leon Allen (Angie), Kassius Carey Johnson (Artie), Nasi Voutsas (Andro), David Avery (Fabian), Michael Jenn (Clarence), Rab Affleck (Archie), Samuel Irvine (Messenger Boy), Sophie Downham (young Clara), Paul Kasey (Whisper Man), John Hurt (The Doctor), William Hartnell (The Doctor)

Notes: Via colorized B&W footage from the original series Doctor Who(and stand-ins), William Hartnell has a speaking part in an episode of Doctor Who for the first time since the prologue of 1983’s The Five Doctors. The Five Doctors is also the source of film clips of Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee. Tom Baker appears in a clip from 1977’s The Invasion Of Time, while Peter Davison appears in footage from 1983’s Arc Of Infinity. A brief clip of Sylvester McCoy from Dragonfire (1987) is also seen; Colin Baker, Paul McGann and Christopher Eccleston are represented by stand-ins wearing their costumes rather than by film or video clips.

Doctor WhoThe Great Intelligence mentions some of the Doctor’s “other names”, including “the Oncoming Storm” (the Daleks’ name for the Doctor, first revealed in the novelization of 1988’s Remembrance Of The Daleks in its original Dalek translation, Ka Faraq Gatri) and the Valeyard from The Trial Of A Time Lord, an enigmatic “future aspect” of the Doctor which was, in his only appearance in 1986, said to fall somewhere “between the Doctor’s 12th and final regeneration”.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 1 Star Wars

Fire Across The Galaxy

Star Wars: RebelsTarkin is transporting Kanan to the planet Mustafar in a fleet of Star Destroyers, with the Inquisitor continuing to torture the Jedi along the way. With a stolen Imperial transport (and a TIE Fighter that Zeb and Ezra didn’t crash after all), the crew of the Ghost sets out on their riskiest mission yet, one which hinges entirely on Ezra’s ability to sense Kanan with the Force. The Rebels fight their way aboard Tarkin’s Star Destroyer, but Ezra must set out alone to find Ezra – and fight the Inquisitor alongside his fellow Jedi. Against two Jedi, even with limited training, the Inquisitor is outmatched, but promises that something even more powerful will follow in his footsteps. An entire Rebel fleet blasts out of hyperspace to rescue Kanan and his crew from Mustafar, and once back aboard the Ghost, he and the others meet Fulcrum in person: a Jedi survivor of the Clone Wars named Ahsoka Tano. But unknown to Ahsoka, the man she once knew as her Jedi mentor has been summoned to quash the rising rebellion on Lothal…

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

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Steven Blum (Zeb / Stormtrooper #1 / Stormtrooper #3 / Imperial Crewman)), David Oyelowo (Agent Kallus), Phil LaMarr (Bail Organa / Bridge Official / Official), Dee Bradley Baker (Ephraim Bridger), Ashley Eckstein (Fulcrum / Ahsoka Tano), Stephen Stanton (Grand Moff Tarkin / Stormtrooper #2), Kath Soucie (Mira Bridger), Peter MacNicol (Tseebo), Jason Isaacs (The Inquisitor)

RebelsNotes: Where previous episodes made vague references to the Clone Wars, this story reveals that Rebels is part of the same timeline as the much-loved (but recently concluded) Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. (The then-recent acquisition of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars properties by Disney had left some doubt about whether the pre-Disney Clone Wars series was still “official”.) Ashley Eckstein returns to the role of Ahsoka, who would become a regular fixture of Rebels in its second season.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Other Space

Finale

Other SpaceThe alien with which the crew has just made contact isn’t bringing alien technology to usher in a new era of cooperation. The tear in the fabric of space and time that looms ahead won’t bring the Cruiser and its crew home to Earth. Natasha can’t have a physical body, so she can’t interact with Kent. Stewart can’t stand to let an opportunity to learn about an alien species go by, and resigns as the Cruiser’s captain, learning Karen in command. And that giant alien spaceship coming through the rift, hundreds of times bigger than the alien spaceship the crew has already seen? That just can’t be good.

Watch this at the official sitewritten by Owen Ellickson
directed by Matt Sohn
music by Orr Rebhun & Erica Weis

Other SpaceCast: Trace Beaulieu (A.R.T.), Neil Casey (Kent Woolworth), Eugene Cordero (Michael Newman), Joel Hodgson (Zalian Fletcher), Conor Leslie (Natasha), Bess Rous (Karen Lipinski), Karan Soni (Stewart Lipinski), Milana Vayntrub (Tina Shukshin), Sarah Baker (Alien), Sherry O’Connor (A.R.T. Puppeteer #2)

Notes: Intended to be a cliffhanger leading into a second season, Finale instead marked the end of Other Space’s run on the short-lived Yahoo! Screen service, a video-on-demand platform with original programming intended to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Paul Feig has hinted that there are still possibilities for a second season, though no outlets – either broadcast or streaming – have shown any open interest in picking up Other Space.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 2 Star Wars

Twilight Of The Apprentice – Part 2

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

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

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

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

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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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

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Red Dwarf Season 11

Can Of Worms

Red DwarfAboard Starbug, Lister and the others find a promising derelict ship on the edge of a black hole. But when Rimmer warns that it could be a trap set by Gelf Vampires who feast on the blood of virgins, Cat is suddenly less enthusiastic about the salvage operation. Lister decides to board the ship, with Cat and Kryten in tow, and they disable a mercenary mechanoid and free his sole surviving prisoner, who seems to be a female Cat. Once she is brought back aboard Red Dwarf, and expresses more than a passing interest in Cat, Kryten discovers only too late that their new crewmate is not what she appears to be, and Cat could pay the price.

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), Bentley Klau (Mercenoid), Dominique Moore (Ankita), Daniel Barker (Alien Natural History Presenter), Maria Yarjah (Cat Lady 1), Shanice Stewart-Jones (Cat Lady 2)

Red DwarfNotes: Much like the last episode of season two (Parallel Universe, 1988), Can Of Worms concerns a pregnant male member of the Red Dwarf crew. Polymorphs were previously encountered in Polymorph (1989) and Emohawk: Polymorph II (1993).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 1

Crossroads

Mars2037: Paul Richardson’s suicidal step out onto the Martian surface has resulted in the decompression of other nearby parts of the base, and the instant deaths of six others in the sections adjacent to the greenhouse. His wife is wracked with guilt for not having seen the signs of his mental state earlier, while Hana Seung bears the burden for the entire mission, which is now likely to be cancelled by the IMSF. Hana and Foucalt visit the Daedalus, the vehicle that brought them to Mars, and begin reactiviating it in anticipation of being recalled to Earth. Attempting to salvage usable hardware to continue powering the base, Javier and Marta visit the abandoned workshop module that was their crew’s makeshift first shelter on Mars, where Marta makes an unusual discovery that could forever change science…and change humankind’s destiny on Mars.

Download this episode via Amazontelelplay by Andre Bormanis and Paul Solet
story by Andre Bormanis
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by Jake Jackson, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Ben Cotton (Ben Sawyer), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), John Light (Dr. Paul Richardson), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Eva Magyar (IMSF Member Russia), Mirjam Novak (IMSF Member USA), Mate Haumann (IMSF Member USA)

Notes: Early in 2017, it was announced that National Geographic Channel would produce a second season of Mars, but that season would be produced under the auspices of a new showrunner, Dee Johnson (formerly of Nashville, Rizzoli & Isles, Army Wives, Commander In Chief, and ER).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 3 Star Wars

Zero Hour – Part 2

Star Wars: RebelsUnable to raise Rebel reinforcements, Ezra and Chopper go to Mandalore to ask Sabine for help. The Mandalorians have their own problems, namely a civil war in which the Empire is backing Sabine’s enemies, but Sabine still commits a small Mandalorian force to return with Ezra to help the Rebel fleet. Kanan’s attempts to persuade the Bendu to help have fallen on deaf ears, and Thrawn’s fleet begins bombarding the Rebel base from orbit, with a ground assault to follow. The Mandalorians take out the Imperial Interdictor Destroyer, but it will take something even more unexpected for the Rebels to escape Thrawn to fight another day.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Henry Gilroy & Matt Michnovetz
directed by Justin Ridge
music by Kevin Kiner
additional music by David Russell, Sean Kiner, and Dean 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 / Commander Woldar), David Oyelowo (Agent Kallus), Stephen Stanton (AP-5 / Mandalorian Pilot), Tom Baker (Bendu), Matthew Wood (Death Troopers / Stormtroopers), Kevin McKidd (Fenn Rau), Michael Bell (General Dodonna), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Governor Pryce), Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn), Dee Bradley Baker (Imperial Technician / Rex), Ritesh Rajan (Tristan Wren), Sharmila Devar (Ursa Wren), Nathan Kress (Wedge Antilles)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Orville, The Season 1

Mad Idolatry

The OrvilleThe crew of the Orville is stunned when a planet appears out of nowhere, flashing into existence in an orbit around a star that previously had no planets. Commander Grayson leads a shuttle survey team to the planet, but the turbulence of the planet’s atmosphere leads to a rough landing. While attempts are made to contact the Orville, signs of early civilization are spotted, and Grayson goes to investigate for herself, accidentally encountering the human-like locals. She helps an injured child by introducing herself by name and then healing the child’s wound, an act witnessed by others. Grayson knows she’s violated nearly every rule of first contact, and races back to the safety of the shuttle to return to the Orville.

The planet continues its cycle of appearing and disappearing, each time showing signs of rapid technological advance: every time the planet reaches the point in its orbit that it vanishes, 700 years pass on the planet’s surface before it re-emerges, but mere hours pass for anyone not on the planet. Civilization has reached a point roughly equal to the pre-Renaissance period of Earth’s history, and Grayson is horrified to discover that an entire religion has sprung up around her initial sighting. She goes directly to the leaders of that religion to reveal her identity and demonstrate that she’s a mere mortal, just like them, before returning to the Orville. Each return visit with each orbit reveals a society more fanatically fixated on the near-mythological figure of Kelly. Can she say or do anything to bring her worshippers to their senses?

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), Kelly Hu (Admiral Ozawa), Lenny Von Dohlen (Valondis), Nick Toren (Man in Red Robe), Erica Tazel (Baleth), Philip Anthony-Rodriguez (Fadolin), Jasper McPherson (Little Girl), Chloe Russell (Woman), Grahame Wood (Man in Wagon), Jo Galloway (Mother), Kyra Santoro (Ensign Turco), Ethan Jones (Dalen), Neil Dickson (Man in Clerical Garb), Gordy De St. Jeor (Teenage Boy), Cyrus Deboo (Pundit #1), Stephen Jared (Pundit #2), Betsy Baker (Pundit #3), The OrvilleKurt Sinclair (Televangelist), Jay Jackson (Reporter), Alexander Catalano (Peasant #1), Ryan Fitzsimmons (Peasant #2), Mikey Roe (Peasant #3)

Notes: Not only has he appeared in Twin Peaks, Tales From The Darkside, and the early ’90s TV iteration of The Flash, guest star Lenny Von Dohlen is the first actor to have appeared in both The Orville and Red Dwarf.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Discovery Season 1 Star Trek

Will You Take My Hand?

Star Trek: DiscoveryStardate not given: “Captain” Georgiou is introduced by Admiral Cornwell, under the cover story that reports of her death were exaggerated and she was recently rescued from Klingon territory. The mission proceeds as suggested by Georgiou before, but rather than jumping Discovery into an underground chasm to map the surface for military targets, Georgiou decides she’d rather destroy the planet, destroying the Klingon civilization altogether. Burnham returns to Discovery to confront Admiral Cornwell about the mission, learning that Starfleet Command was privy to the changes in the mission plan. After making an impassioned plea for Starfleet to stand by its code of ethics, Burnham rewrites the mission plan, letting Georgiou go free and placing the detonator of her doomsday weapon into the hands of L’Rell, who uses the threat of annihilating the Klingon homeworld to unite the great houses and end the war. Tyler elects to remain with L’Rell as a peace liaison between the Federation and the Klingons, and Discovery at last returns to Earth, where a full pardon and reinstatement to the rank of commander awaits Burnham. Saru commands Discovery on a course for Vulcan, where the ship’s new captain will come aboard…but this mission is delayed by a distorted distress signal from the U.S.S. Enterprise, commanded by Captain Christopher Pike.

Order DVDsStream this episode via Amazonteleplay by Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts
story by Akiva Goldsman & Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts
directed by Akiva Goldsman
music by Jeff Russo

Star Trek DiscoveryCast: Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Lt. Commander Saru), Shazad Latif (Lt. Ash Tyler / Voq), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Cadet Sylvia Tilly), Jason Isaacs (Captain Gabriel Lorca), Michelle Yeoh (Emperor Georgiou), Mia Kershner (Amanda), Jayne Brook (Admiral Cornwell), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), James Frain (Sarek), Clint Howard (Creepy Orion), Michael Ayres (Transport Officer), Matthew Binkley (Shavo), Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer), Riley Gilchrist (Admiral Shukar), Anthony Grant (Er’Toom), Julianne Grossman (Discovery Computer), Harry Judge (Admiral Gorch), Morgan Kohan (Weapons Trader), Patrick Kwok-Choon (Rhys), Crystal Leger (Klingon Player #2), Clare McConnel (Dennas), Damon Runyan (Ujilli). Sara Mitich (Airiam), Oyin Oladejo (Joann Owosekun), Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Bryce), David Benjamin Tomlinson (Klingon Player #1), Bree Wasylenko (Shava)

Star Trek DiscoveryNotes: Welcome Clint Howard back to the Star Trek fold as the sleazy Orion trader dealing in “smoke”. As a young child actor, Clint appeared as Balok in the first weekly episode filmed, The Corbomite Maneuver, and later appeared in Deep Space Nine (Past Tense Part II) as a homeless man and in Enterprise as a Ferengi (Acquisition). He has also appeared in Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, From The Earth To The Moon, was a regular on the short-lived early ’90s CBS series Space Rangers, and has appeared in many of his older brother Ron Howard’s films, Star Trek Discoveryincluding Apollo 13. If you look closely in the opening shot of Earth, you can see the familiar shape of the Starfleet starbase first seen in Star Trek III, though possibly still under construction. Deanna Troi’s home planet, Betazed, is known to the Terran Empire (if not the Federation) in this time frame, as is Mintaka III (TNG: Who Watches The Watchers?). Emperor Georgiou dismisses the distractions on Qo’noS as “bread and circuses”, name-checking an unrelated original series episode of the same name. While Kahless was first mentioned in the original series (The Savage Curtain), the legend of Kahless’ battles against his treacherous brother Molor is fleshed out in such TNG episodes as Rightful Heir and Star Trek DiscoveryFirst Born. Burnham’s description of the real phenomenon known as a phreatic eruption is accurate, but it would have to take place on a massive, worldwide scale to have the planet-destroying effect described. Rather than the customary theme from Star Trek: Discovery, the end credits feature a new recording of Alexander Courage’s theme from the original series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 4 Star Wars

Family Reunion – And Farewell

Star Wars: RebelsWith Governor Pryce captured by the Rebels, Ezra’s plan to rid Lothal of any Imperial presence permanently is now in motion: the Rebels will, using the captured Imperial transports, infiltrate the Empire’s base on Lothal, where Pryce will – at the point of a blaster – recall all Imperial forces to the base for an evacuation. When Grand Admiral Thrawn returns to Lothal ahead of schedule and begins bombarding the planet’s civilian population from orbit in response, Ezra relents and hands himself over to Thrawn, over the protests of Hera and the others. Thrawn has orders to deliver Ezra to the Emperor, but even before then, Palpatine communicates with Ezra via hologram, offering to return his parents to him, alive and well, in exchange for revealing the secret of the gateway into time and space that was accessible from the ruins of Lothal’s Jedi temple. Ezra refuses, aware that his friends have already set his backup plan into motion, buying time for some old allies to attack the Imperial fleet hovering over Lothal. But will the price of thwarting the Emperor’s plans be the loss of another of the last few remaining Jedi?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Dave Filoni, Henry Gilroy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg & Steven Melching
directed by Dave Filoni, Bosco Ng and Sergio Paez
music by Kevin Kiner
additional music by David Russell, Sean Kiner, and Dean 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 / Imperial Officer / Imperial Tech / Stormtrooper #1), Dave Filoni (Chopper / Imperial Pilot / Stormtrooper #2), Keith Szarabajka (Cikatro Vizago / Imperial Officer), Dee Bradley Baker (Captain Rex / Clone Troopers / Ephraim Bridger / Melch), Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Governor Pryce), Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn), Jim Cummings (Hondo Ohnaka / Pellaeon / Imperial Commander / Stormtrooper #3), Matthew Wood (Imperial Technician #1), David Acord (Imperial Technician #2), David Oyelowo (Kallus), Gina Torres (Ketsu Onyo), Zachary Gordon (Mart Mattin), Kath Soucie (Mira Bridger), Warwick Davis (Rukh), RebelsClancy Brown (Ryder Azadi)

Notes: The episode-ending coda reveals that Hera and Captain Rex fought in the battle of Endor, and Rogue One had already revealed the Ghost‘s presence at both Yavin IV and the battle of Scarif. Some time after the liberation of Lothal, Hera has a son, Jacen Syndulla, and Sabine’s narration in the coda indicates that Jacen’s father was Kanan. Ezra’s fate is left unresolved, with the tantalizing hint that Sabine and Ahsoka Tano begin a quest to find him after the fall of the Empire, perhaps to be chronicled elsewhere.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 11

The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS receives a number of distress calls from one place and time: the planet Ranskoor Av Kolos, over 3,000 years in the future of the Doctor’s companions. When the Doctor and friends arrive there, they’re only able to set foot outside the TARDIS if they’re wearing neural stabilizers to fend off a constant psychic attack. They find a fellow traveler, wandering in a daze, discovering that his crew is being held hostage because he stole an oddly-shaped container holding a violently vibrating sphere from their captor: Tzim-Sha, the assassin whose hunt on Earth the Doctor interrupted. As he was also responsible for the death of Grace, Graham decides he has a score to settle, even if doing so violates everything he’s learned from his travels in the TARDIS. As Graham and Ryan go to recover Paltraki’s captured crew, the Doctor and Yaz discover that Ranskoor Av Kolos’ native residents, the powerfully telepathic Ux, have been enslaved by Tzim-Sha, using their incredible powers to “steal” planets from across space and time, trapping them in the containers. Tzim-Sha’s next target is decided when the Doctor’s arrival reminds him of where he was last defeated: Earth.

Order the DVDwritten by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Childs
music by Segun Akinola

Doctor WhoCast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Phyllis Logan (Andinio), Mark Addy (Paltraki), Percelle Ascott (Delph), Samuel Oatley (Tzim-Sha), Jan Le (Umsang)

Notes: Tzim-Sha (a.k.a. “Tim Shaw”) was last encountered in the season premiere, The Woman Who Fell To Earth. The Doctor refers to the TARDIS as a ghost monument, also a reference to earlier in the season (The Ghost Monument). This isn’t the first time that the Doctor has dealt with someone stealing planets out of their rightful place in time and space, nor is it even the first time that Earth has been targeted; Davros ripped Earth and numerous other planets out of their respective orbits in The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End (2008), Doctor Whoand before that, had to recover the planet Calufrax (The Pirate Planet, 1978). Percelle Ascott was one of the stars of the Russell T. Davies series Wizards vs. Aliens, a show which was created in part to ensure continued work for the BBC crew assembled to produce The Sarah Jane Adventures, the Doctor Who spinoff which had ceased production due to the death of Elisabeth Sladen in 2011.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Mars Season 2

The Shakeup

MarsDecember 2042: With Roland St. John breathing down his neck and Lukrum shareholders on Earth demanding results for the costly expedition to Mars, Hurrelle decides to start using explosives to fast-track the discovery of water, and even invites Olympus Town to send Marta to gather water samples. But moments after the charges are blown, a massive quake rocks the Valles Marineris drill site, and does massive damage to the nearby Lukrum colony. Olympus Town is also severely shaken, but largely undamaged, but Amelie is forced to choose between leaving her prematurely-born baby in an incubator that may be failing, or removing her. Commander Seung leads a rescue expedition to the Lukrum colony, finding a number of survivors, but also several people who died when life support failed, including Hurrelle, who barged into the colony to try to save as many of his people as he could. The Lukrum survivors are taken to Olympus Town and given shelter. On Earth, Roland St. John, CEO of Lukrum, expects the IMSF to provide “political cover” in exchange for a healthy infusion of funding for the IMSF’s Martian science activities…but, perhaps at the risk of her career, Secretary-General Richardson has grown tired of doing Lukrum’s bidding, and decides to let Seung and the rest of the Olympus Town and Lukrum colonists, as well as the first human child born on Mars, reveal the truth to the people of Earth about the difficulty of life on Mars, and whether or not the cost in lives has been worth it.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Dee Johnson
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Ashley Way
music by Brian Reitzell

MarsCast: Jihae (Hana Seung / Joon Seung), Sammi Rotibi (Robert Foucalt), Alberto Ammann (Javier Delgado), Clementine Poidatz (Amelie Durand), Anamaria Marinca (Marta Kamen), Cosima Shaw (Dr. Leslie Richardson), Gunnar Cauthery (Lt. Michael Glenn), Roxy Sternberg (Jen Carson), Evan Hall (Shep Marster), Jeff Hephner (Kurt Hurrelle), Levi Fiehler (Cameron Pate), Esai Morales (Roland St. John), Martin Angerbauer (Danny), Jennifer Armour (American Reporter), Attila Arpa (Volkov), Helen Austin (British Reporter), Naomi Christie (Zhen Zhen Yow), Toby Cisneros (American Reporter), Emily Corcoran (Ms. Wilson), Khash-Erdene Ganbold (South Korean Rep. Kim), Nicholas Goh (Gan Chen), Shea Hephner (Chelsea Hurelle), Fen Fen Huang (Chinese Reporter), Sonia Kaur (Anika Chandra), Sorel Kembe (Nigerian Rep. Odogwu), Anna Sophie Marie (IMSF Crew Member), David Miller (Assistant), Joan Carles Suau (Argentinian Reporter), Alexandria Szucs (Abby), Nick Waring (E.U. Rep Davies)

LogBook entry by Earl Green