It’s time to go back into The Zone with Paramount Pictures’ Complete Series on blu-ray! The first episode up this week is The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank. Written and directed by Montgomery Pittman, this tale first aired on 23 February, 1962. Jeff Myrtlebank (James Best) wakes up at his own funeral, and while the…
Tag: earth
Doctor Who (David Tennant) – Planet of the Ood, and The Sontaran Stratagem
The mysterious Ood return this week in Planet of the Ood. Written by Keith Temple, this episode had an airdate of 19 April 2008, and updated the Ood mythology a bit, as the Doctor (Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) find themselves on an ice planet that serves as a factory for the Ood. It seems…
Star Trek: Crisis On Centaurus (1986) – Brad Ferguson
Well, except for the product placement, the implication that the Earth isn’t under a one government rule, and that the economics of the future are a little different (according to Picard) which is not followed here, most of this tale is fairly enjoyable. In fact, of it had been rewritten and edited a little more…
Star Trek: The Animated Series (1974) – Albatross, How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth, and The Counter-Clock Incident
Captain’s log: stardate 5275.6 Dario Finelli pens the ante-penultimate episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series. Airing on 28 September, 1974, the story idea is a smart one: Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) finds himself accused of causing an alien plague. Kirk (William Shatner) is stunned, and he and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) investigate the events and…
Doctor Who (David Tennant) – Last of the Time Lords, and Voyage of the Damned
This week it’s up to Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) to save the Doctor (Tennant), Captain Jack (John Barrowman) and her family so the Time Lord can stop the Master (John Simm) from his attempt to take over the world. The story has moved on some time (a year!) since last week’s episode, but Russell T….
Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) – The Magicks of Megas-Tu, Once Upon a Planet, and Mudd’s Passion
Captain’s log: stardate 1254.4 Long before the search for Eden and God led the Enterprise to the Final Frontier in Star Trek V, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) encountered a similar adventure in a similar location. Written by Larry Brody, this episode aired on 27 October, 1973. The Enterprise…
The Twilight Zone (1961) – It’s a Good Life, Deaths-head Revisited, and The Midnight Sun
Paramount Picture’s The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series starts off with a classic episode this week. So good, it was remade by Joe Dante in the feature film (and it was very much suited to his storytelling style). Hold onto your happy thoughts as the series creator Rod Serling penned teleplay from a story by…
Star Trek: The Original Series (1968) – Plato’s Stepchildren and Wink of an Eye
Captain’s log: stardate 5784.2 Plato’s Stepchildren first screened on 22 November, 1968 and was written by Meyer Dolinsky. The episode is of historical note because of the first American broadcast interracial kiss when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) kisses Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). Beyond that, the story is rather basic. The Enterprise is summoned to a…
Star Trek: Ishmael (1985) – Barbara Hambly
My journey with the non-canon Star Trek Pocket Books continues. And this novel from 1985 demonstrates what was happening in Trek pages before Paramount took a stronger stance on what the novels could be about. Previous to this we’ve encountered Trek novels with slash overtones between James T. Kirk and his science officer, the Vulcan…
The Impossible Voyage (1904) – Georges Melies
Also known as Whirling the Worlds, Melies next masterpiece is my port of call as I continue exploring the trailblazing work of the French showman, thanks to DK Books’ The Movie Book. Running about twenty minutes, the short uses Jules Verne’s Journey Through the Impossible as its basis. A group of explorers and an inventor…
The Mind Reels 