Tag: Season Premiere

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Season 1 Stranger Things

The Vanishing Of Will Byers

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

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

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

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

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

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 11

Twentica

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

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

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

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

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 3 Star Wars

Steps Into Shadow

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

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

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

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

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 1 Westworld

The Original

WestworldVacationgoers flock to a futuristic, robot-populated amusement park, where, for a hefty fee, they can experience the dangers and delights of bygone eras – indulgences that tend to focus on sex, violence, or both. The robotic “hosts” are constantly maintained by a team of technicians, programmers, and scenario writers, and after each scenario reset, the robots’ memories are wiped…or at least, that’s the plan. Some of the robots begin exhibiting signs of a crippling existential awareness, to the point of total breakdown. It doesn’t help matters that a black-clad visitor to the park has made it his mission to torture various robots to the brink of total failure, searching for a “deeper level of the game”. As Dr. Ford, the creator of Westworld’s robots, diagnoses a troubling case of this existential breakdown, the robot he is examining demonstrates a disturbing awareness of who, what, and where it is…and promises revenge upon its creators. Another robot, the oldest one in the entire park, returns to her existence as farmgirl Dolores Abernathy, but she too has experienced an awakening. Despite these and other failures, Westworld remains open to paying guests.

telepaly by Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy
story by Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy and Michael Crichton
directed by Jonathan Nolan
music by Ramin Djawadi

WestworldCast: Evan Rachel Wood (Dolores Abernathy), Thandie Newton (Maeve Millay), Jeffrey Wright (Bernard Lowe), James Marsden (Teddy Flood), Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Armistice), Luke Hemsworth (Stubbs), Sidse Babett Knudsen (Theresa Cullen), Simon Quarterman (Lee Sizemore), Rodrigo Santoro (Hector Escaton), Angela Sarafyan (Clementine Pennyfeather), Shannon Woodward (Elsie Hughes), Ed Harris (The Man in Black), Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Robert Ford), Louis Herthum (Peter Abernathy), Steven Ogg (Rebus), Michael Wincott (Old Bill), Eddie Rouse (Kissy), Brian Howe (Sheriff Pickett), Demetrius Grosse (Deputy Foss), Ptolemy Slocum (Sylvester), Leonardo Nam (Lutz), Kyle Bornheimer (Clarence), Bradford Tatum (Bartender / New Abernathy), Lena Georgas (Lori), Currie Graham (Craig), Timothy Lee DePriest (Walter), Jeff Daniel Phillips (Tenderloin), Bridgid Coulter (Mother of Young Boy), Regi Davis (Father of Young Boy), Mataeo Mingo (Boy of 8), Trevante Rhodes (Bachelor), Micky Shiloah (Bachelor), Keller Wortham (Bachelor), Olivia May (Hooker), Jackie Moore (Hooker), Alex Marshall-Brown (Hooker), Jeffrey Muller (Man on Train), Brook Kerr (Woman on Train), Bradley Snedeker (Passenger), Patrick Quinlan (Passenger), Bianca Lopez (Diagnostic Programmer), WestworldMolly Schreiber (Bachelorette), Stefanie Chin (Girlfriend), Joshua Sawtell (Controller), Nihan Gur (Female Laughing Host)

Notes: Actor Eddie Rouse (American Gangster, Pineapple Express), died of liver failure several weeks after filming his role in the Westworld pilot in 2014. The character of Kissy was meant to be a recurring role for him; the pilot episode is dedicated to his memory.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Black Mirror Season 3

Nosedive

Black MirrorSocial media “ratings”, bestowed by friends, strangers and random passerby alike, are as much currency as actual money, determining not just social standing, but what kind of jobs and housing are available. Smiles are everyday attire, worn to avoid “downvotes” for being considered surly or impolite. Lacie Pound, hovering between 4.0 and 4.5 out of 5, “upvotes” everyone she meets; it’s the polite thing to do, and it’s expected. At home, however, she is stuck living in a small house with her brother, but Lacie is eyeing a more upscale residence – one that she can only afford if she reaches a steady 4.5 social media rating, qualifying her for a discount. The opportunity to boost her profile appears in the form of an invitation to be the maid of honor at a childhood friend’s wedding…but does Lacie even have the necessary clout to make the trip?

Get the DVDsteleplay by Rashida Jones and Mike Schur
story by Charlie Brooker
directed by Joe Wright
music by Max Richter

Black MirrorCast: Bryce Dallas Howard (Lacie Pound), Alice Eve (Naomi Jayne Blestow), Cherry Jones (Susan), James Norton (Ryan Pound), Alan Ritchison (Paul), Daisy Haggard (Bets), Susannah Fielding (Carol), Michaela Coel (Airport Stewardess), Demetri Goritsas (Hansen), Kadiff Kirwan (Chester), Sope Dirisu (Man in Jail), Clayton Evertson (Ted), Andrew Roux (Electro Station Assistant), Anjana Vasan (Space Cop), Colin Moss (Anthony), Nambitha Ben-Wazi (Glam Woman), Jeffrey Davenport (Cab Driver), Ntokozo Majozi (Jack the Barrista), Justin Munitz (Keith), Zandile Madliwa (Alien Girl), Kevin Otto (Pastor), Shane Zaza (Chuck), Abubakar Salim (Airport Guard), Jennie Nielson (Woman in Car), Deon Lotz (Man in Car), Daniel Newton (Kid on Quad Bike), Rebecca Newton (Kid’s Younger Sister), Lewelyn Van den Berg (Male Jogger), Blessing Mamuesa (Glam Woman’s Son)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Class Season 1

For Tonight We Might Die

ClassShadows stalk the students of Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London. For some, it’s the shadow of loneliness, while for others, it’s the shadow of their parents’ expectations and lack of understanding. For Charlie, however, it’s a more literal threat, an alien race called the Shadow Kin who wiped out the entire species he ruled over as its prince. A soldier of a rival species, the Quill, is beholden to protect him for the rest of his life. Rescued from the last days of the Shadow Kin’s genocide against Charlie’s people by a time traveler called the Doctor, Charlie and “Mrs. Quill” are quietly dropped into Coal Hill School as enigmatic student and short-fused teacher. The Doctor believed both of them could learn much from each other, and from humanity. But when the Shadow Kin rip open a tear in the fabric of space and time, allowing them to run riot at Coal Hill on prom night, time may be up for Charlie, for Mrs. Quill, and for the entire human race unless the Doctor intervenes again.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Patrick Ness
directed by Ed Bazalgette
music by Blair Mowat
theme song “Up All Night” by Alex Clare

Cast: Katherine Kelly (Miss Quill), Greg Austin (Charlie), Fady Elsayed (Ram), Sophie Hopkins (April), Vivian Oparah (Tanya), Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jordan Renzo (Matteusz), Ben ClassPeel (Coach Dawson), Shannon Murray (Jackie), Aaron Neil (Varun), Natasha Gordon (Vivian), Anna Shaffer (Rachel), Paul Marc Davis (Corakinus), Nigel Betts (Mr. Armitage), Pooja Shah (Miss Shah), Alex Leak (Kevin), Laura Jane Hudson (Mrs. Linderhof), Satnam Bhogal (Counter Clerk), Ellie James (Student 1), Moses Adejimi (Student 2), Assay Hagos (Student 3), Shalisha James-Davis (Student 4)

ClassNotes: Long-suffering Coal Hill head teacher Mr. Armitage, played as always by Nigel Betts, previously appeared in the Doctor Who episodes Into The Dalek, The Caretaker, and Dark Water. Due to a year-long hiatus in the show as a result of the changeover from Steven Moffat’s production team to that of incoming Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall, this was – apart from a specially-made trailer to introduce new companion Bill – Peter Capaldi’s only in-character appearance as the Doctor between the 2015 and 2016 Doctor Who Christmas episodes; he is not expected to be a recurring fixture of Class.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mars Season 1

Novo Mundo

Mars2033: Daedalus, a multi-national, partially privately funded interplanetary vehicle, is about to land the first human expedition on the surface of Mars. After a year traveling from Earth to the red planet, a fault develops in one of the braking thrusters used to slow Daedaleus for a soft landing. Mission Commander Ben Sawyer personally takes on the task of replacing the circuit that will allow the thruster to fire, but this means he’s out of his seat when Daedalus enters the Martian atmosphere, subjecting him to a sudden return of gravitational G forces without the benefit of his seat in the crew cabin. Daedalus also lands off-course, away from a habitat/lab module already delivered to Mars via an unmanned rocket, but a closer workshop module may offer shelter in the meantime.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Karen Janszen
story by Karen Janszen and Paul Solet
based on the book “How We’ll Live On Mars” by Stephen Petranek
directed by Everardo Gout
music by 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), Ben Cotton (Ben Sawyer), Olivier Martinez (Ed Grann), Nick Wittman (Oliver), Antoinette Fekete (Sam), Kata Sarbo (Ava Macon), Laurent Winkler (Flight Director, Mission Control), Sara Martins (Louise Varda)

MarsNotes: Interspersing dramatic re-enactments of a potential Mars landing scenario with modern-day interviews with such figures as Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Andy Weir (author of The Martian), Mars is produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (producers, through Imagine Entertainment, of such past space exploration fare as Apollo 13 and From The Earth To The Moon).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Doctor Who New Series Season 10

The Pilot

Doctor WhoBill Potts works in the university cafeteria, and though she’s not taking his classes, she attends lectures by a mysteriously tenured professor known only as the Doctor. He’s as likely to lecture on poetry as on physics, and seems to know a little bit about everything – a lot, actually. He’s also very observant, and knows that Bill isn’t one of his students, and offers to tutor her anyway.

Bill catches the eye of a fellow student named Heather, though their conversations never seem to go where expected. Heather is preoccupied with a puddle of standing water which has the audacity to exist in a fenced-in concrete area where there has been no rain for days. Bill relates this to the Doctor, who is suddenly very curious about the puddle, and the scorch marks surrounding it on the concrete: the telltale sign of a recently landed spacecraft. The next time Bill sees Heather, the girl is drenched in an unending torrent of water, has dead eyes, can only repeat what Bill says, and seems to be following her obsessively. Bill races into the Doctor’s office to get away from her, and the Doctor (with Nardole still in tow) whisks her away in the TARDIS. But wherever they go in time and space, whether it’s sunny Sydney or the hell of the Dalek-Movellan war, Heather follows…and won’t give up until Bill joins or rejects her.

Order the DVDDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Steven Moffat
directed by Lawrence Gough
music by Murray Gold

Cast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill), Matt Lucas (Nardole), Jennifer Hennessy (Moira), Stephanie Hyam (Heather), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voices)

Doctor WhoNotes: This is the first (and only) screen appearance of the Movellans since their only other appearance in 1979’s Destiny Of The Daleks; they are primarily a background detail here, and not central to the plot, just like the Daleks that show up without being the central threat. The Doctor seems to have an abundance of his retired sonic screwdrivers on hand – score one product placement for Character Options and Underground Toys – and has framed photos of River Song and Susan on his desk.

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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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

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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

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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

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Gifted, The Season 1

eXposed

The GiftedPolice squad cars pursue a young woman in Atlanta, only to lose track of her when she opens a glowing portal out of nowhere with her bare hands, leaping through it. She emerges through another portal in an abandoned building, and finds herself surrounded by others – others like herself. Police converge on the building, and after a fierce fight between police revolvers and powers almost beyond human comprehension, two of the suspects are taken into custody, while two of the cops are killed.

Teenager Lauren Strucker’s socially awkward younger brother Andy sneaks out of the house to accompany her to a school dance. When he’s picked on and tortured by the school bullies, Andy goes into a rage, unleashing an enormous amount of energy that almost brings the walls of the school down. Lauren, aware of his powers, drags Andy out of the school and races home. The incident has already made the news, attracting federal attention as America debates taking tougher measures to detect and contain mutants among the population. As Lauren explains to her mother that she and Andy have latent mutant powers, there’s a knock at the door. But it’s not the police, or indeed anyone with even the slightest respect for civil rights. Sentinel Services wages a secret war against the mutant populace. Andy again unleashes his powers to help his family escape. The Struckers are on the run.

This poses a serious dilemma for Reed Strucker, an attorney who has prosecuted cases involving mutants in the past…but he’s also in a very good position to know about the underground network that the mutants have built to protect themselves. Now he has to depend on the people he once helped to hunt down to save his children and his wife…and even if he can convince the mutants to help, it may not be enough to save Reed Strucker himself.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Matt Nix
based on the X-Men comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
directed by Bryan Singer
music by John Ottman

The GiftedCast: Stephen Moyer (Reed Strucker), Amy Acker (Caitlin Strucker), Sean Teale (Marcos Diaz / Eclipse), Natalie Alyn Lind (Lauren Strucker), Percy Hynes White (Andy Strucker), Coby Bell (Jace Turner), Jamie Ching (Clarice Fong / Blink), Blair Redford (John Proudstar / Thunderbird), Emma Dumont (Lorna Dane / Polaris), Toks Olagundove (Carla Jackson), Dale Godboldo (Ted Baird), Steffan Argus (Jack), Pierce Foster Bailey (Trevor), Giovanni DeVito (Dax), Billy Blair (Truck Driver), Dinarte de Freitas (Pedro), Dalton Gray (Jake), Josh Henry (Ben), Roscoe Johnson (Guard), Cynthia Jackson (Waitress), Jason Jamal Ligon (Side-Eye), Hayley Lovitt (Sage), Joe Nemmers (Agent Weeks), Jeff Daniel Phillips (Fade), Scott Parks (Passenger Cop), Jermaine Rivers (Shatter), Matthew Tompkins (Cal Jameson), Stan Lee (Stan Lee)

The GiftedObligatory Stan Lee cameo: Lee walks out of the bar, pausing in the doorway as he passes Marcos, who is en route to meet with Reed Strucker. Hi, Stan!

Notes: Though the X-Men are mentioned briefly, The Gifted presents a more small-scale look at the plight of mutants in America. The series is not based upon a particular comic, but was created by Matt Nix (creator and showrunner of the hit spy series Burn Notice) as a story taking place in the X-Men’s “universe”. Since the show is produced by 20th Century Fox (as opposed to Disney/ABC), The Gifted may share universes with that studio’s X-Men films, but is not part of the continuity of the bulk of Marvel’s Disney-produced film and TV output.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Red Dwarf Season 12

Cured

Red DwarfCat’s critical misunderstanding of the game of poker is interrupted by the discovery of a centuries-old American base on a nearby moon, one which Kryten believes was the last outpost of a project to genetically breed the roots of evil out of human beings. Cryogenic tubes are labeled with the names of some of humanity’s worst offenders – Hitler, Vlad, Stalin, Messalina – brought back to life through genetic manipulation, as well as Professor Telford, presumably the scientist conducting the experiment. He claims these pillars of human evil are cured, and over dinner they do seem friendly enough, but aware of the Starbug crew’s suspicions. When those suspicions appear to be justified, how much evil will the Boys from the Dwarf have to employ to save their own skins?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten 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), Adrian Lukis (Professor Telford), Ryan Gage (Hitler), Chloe Hawkins (Messalina), Callum Coates (Stalin), Philippe Spall (Vlad the Impaler)

Notes: The Dwarfers are better qualified than most to know whether or not they’re dealing with the real Hitler. After all, Lister stepped through Timeslides Red Dwarf(1989) to rumble with the Fuhrer, and a waxwork droid of Hitler led his unlikely troops into a Meltdown (1990) against Rimmer’s forces.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Rebels Season 4 Star Wars

Heroes Of Mandalore – Part 1

Star Wars: RebelsKanan, Chopper and Ezra return with Sabine to Mandalore to fight the Imperial occupation of that planet, only to find that they’ve walked into a trap designed to deliver Sabine into the hands of the Saxon family. With the help of Mandalorians and Jedi alike, Sabine escapes the trap, only the discover that her father is being moved to another facility for public execution. Sabine and her ragtag group of followers, now including Mandalorians from House Kryze, intercept the convoy transporting her father. A fierce fight ensues, but he is rescued – just before a sound very familiar to Sabine heralds a new tragedy about to strike.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Henry Gilroy & Steven Melching
directed by Steward Lee
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 / Stormtrooper #2), Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren), Steve Blum (Zeb / Stormtrooper #3 / Stormtrooper #4), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Alrich Wren), Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan Kryze), Andrew Kishino (Captain Hark / Stormtrooper #1 / Imperial Transport Driver #1), Kevin McKidd (Fenn Rau), Dave Filoni (Imperial Mandalorian Commander), Ritesh Rajan (Imperial Transport Driver #2 / Tristan Wren), Matthew Wood (Stormtrooper #5), Tobias Menzies (Tiber Saxon), Sharmila Devar (Ursa Wren)

RebelsNotes: Genre royalty peppers the cast of the two-part season opener, includuing Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck from the reimagined 21st century version of Battlestar Galactica) and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, whose credits both in and out of the science fiction genre are almost too numerous to list here, including a regular role on the short-lived ’90s space opera Space Rangers, guest appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Alien Nation, Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1, and many others.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 2 Stranger Things

MADMAX

Stranger ThingsHanging out at the local arcade as in fall 1984 is a perfectly ordinary activity, unless you live in Hawkins, Indiana and your name is Will Byers and it’s been a year since the most terrifying experience of your life. One moment he feels like a storm is brewing outside the arcade, the next moment he – and the arcade – are in the Upside Down, and the storm clouds part to reveal an enormous spider-like creature. And then, just as suddenly, Will is back among his friends, who are more interested in who has beaten Dustin’s high scores and left only the name “MADMAX”. By coincidence, the boys have a new classmate named Maxine (though she prefers to go by Max); when they try to find out more about her, she leaves them a note to leave her alone…not that this discourages Justin or Lucas. Will’s mother takes him to Hawkins National Lab to speak to a doctor there about his recent experience; both Will and Joyce have to be reassured that the lab is under new management, and Dr. Owens is looking out for Will. Another vision of the Upside Down, this time longer and scarier, grips Will. Elsewhere, Police Chief Jim Hopper has a dinner guest with a liking for Eggos.

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

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), Noah Schanpp (Will Byers), Sadie Sink (Max), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Dacre Montgomery (Billy), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Sean Astin (Bob Newby), Paul Reiser (Dr. Owens), Linnea Berthelsen (Roman), Joe Chrest (Ted Wheeler), Catherine Curtin (Claudia Henderson), Brett Gelman (Murray Bauman), Kai L. Greene (Funshine), Randy Havens (Mr. Clarke), James Landry Hebert (Axel), Anna Jacoby-Heron (Dottie), Gabrielle Maiden (Mick), Rob Morgan (Officer Powell), Chelsea Talmadge (Carol), Glennellen Anderson (Nicole), Cynthia Barrett (Mrs. Holland), Alan Boell (Adams), Gilbert Glenn Brown (Cop #4), Matty Cardarople (Keith), Madelyn Cline (Tina), Abigail Cowan (Vicki), Brian F. Durkin (Cop #1), Joe Davison (Nerdy Tech), Lauren Halperin (Dr. Owens’ Assistant), Christopher Johnson (Cop #2), Fenton Lawless (Merril), Charles Lawlor (Mr. Medvald), David A. MacDonald (Flamethrower Soldier), Aaron Munoz (Mr. Holland), Tinsley Price (Holly Wheeler), Susan Shalhoub Larkin (Florence), Tony Vaughn (Principal Coleman), Ricardo Miguel Young (TV Reporter)

Stranger ThingsNotes: Everything about the arcade feels spot-on, such as Dragon’s Lair taking the world by storm in 1984, but one minor detail had to be changed for the story to work: neither Centipede nor Dig Dug allowed more than three characters on their high score screens. Neither game would have had room for “MADMAX” or “DUSTIN” on their high score tables. Paul Reiser isn’t just the Mad About You guy or the My Two Dads guy; his role as Burke in 1986’s Aliens gives him some serious genre cred.

LogBook entry by Earl Green