Ben – Fusion Patrol: Recent Episodes
Lone Locust Productions
Ben and Eugene discuss Irwin Allen’s second attempt to get City Beneath the Sea going with this TV movie and seeming back door pilot. They discuss the survivability of an asteroid strike in the Pacific Ocean, Robert Wagner’s evil ‘tache, the fact that the unsuspecting people of Pacifica were always going to get saddled with the H128, and wonder if the US President’s name is Nelsonson.
00:00:34 Introduction to City Beneath the Sea
00:07:18 Erwin Allen’s Recycling Tactics
00:24:53 The H-128 Dilemma
00:28:08 Asteroid Impact and Its Consequences
00:29:50 The Science of Destruction
00:33:52 Matthews’ Desperate Decision
00:47:45 Behind the Scenes: Writers and Directors
01:03:07 Final Thoughts on City Beneath the Sea
Next Week: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Twiki is Missing
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Not a movie, but a follow-up to our discussion of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea feature, as we look at this television episode remake of the movie.
Ben and Eugene examine the moral dilemmas faced by Admiral Nelson and Dr. Weber as they propose differing solutions to a catastrophic scenario. The discussion highlights key themes of mind control, ethical responsibilities, and the implications of leadership during crises. We draw connections to the original film, contrasting its existential threat with the episode’s localized crisis.
Next Week: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century – Space Vampire
In this episode of Fusion Patrol, Ben and Eugene delve into the 1961 Irwin Allen film “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” starring Walter Pidgeon and Joan Fontaine. The discussion centers on the USOS Seaview and Admiral Nelson’s desperate mission to extinguish a catastrophic burning of the Van Allen Belt, which threatens all life on Earth.
They explore the film’s key themes, including the clash between reason and fanaticism, as well as character dynamics, particularly between Nelson and his crew. We also reflect on our personal experiences with the film, critique its scientific elements, and analyze the portrayal of authority during the Cold War.
Next Week: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century – Cruise Ship to the Stars
This week Fusion Patrol looks at The Andromeda Strain as Ben and Eugene discuss hard science fiction tension built from plausible medical and military technology; human errors, prejudice, and design flaws that nearly trigger nuclear catastrophe; Nostalgic enthusiasm for long‑forgotten light pen computer interfaces; and a strangely prominent topless corpse and its clash with the film’s G‑rated reputation.
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN
Release Date: March 12, 1971
Runtime: 131 minutes
Starring: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid
Director: Robert Wise
Writer: Nelson Gidding
Synopsis: After a government satellite crashes in a small New Mexico town, nearly all residents die instantly from a mysterious extraterrestrial organism. An elite team of scientists is assembled in a secret underground facility to isolate the virus and determine why an elderly man and an infant were the only survivors. They must race against time and a nuclear self-destruct mechanism to neutralize the threat before it causes a global pandemic.
This week, Ben and Eugene look at the 1956 Japanese Kaiju classic, Rodan!
Or, as originally known, Sora no Daikaiju, Radon.
Rodan Release Date: December 26, 1956 (Japan), August 6, 1957 (US)
Runtime: 74 minutes
Starring: Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata
Director: Ishirô Honda
Writer: Takeshi Kimura, Takeo Murata (screenplay), based on story by Ken Kuronuma
Synopsis: Mining engineer Shigeru Kawamura investigates the deaths of his colleagues and discovers prehistoric nymphs along with a gigantic flying creature called Rodan. After Rodan terrorizes several towns, authorities attempt to stop the devastating monster in its destructive path.
I’m dropping a little detour here into the show notes, not directly about Rodan, but just because you may be interested. “Rodan! The Flying Monster” (1957) as it was billed in the US was distributed in association with King Brothers Productions, who, among other things, went on to produce Gorgo (1961), which is a film we’ll look at soon here on Fusion Patrol.
Friend of the show Anthony McKay has done a history of the King Brothers as part of his coverage of Gorgo for the most recently released issue of Little Shoppe of Horrors (Issue #52.)
If you’re interested in reading more, in the US, you can purchase it here, and if you’re in the UK, you can find it at Hemlock Books here. (Issue 52 wasn’t yet available on the UK site as of this writing, but should be soon.)
(This is not a paid promotion. Anthony provides us with a lot of fascinating background information, and he has written some fascinating articles for LSoH.)
This week Ben and Eugene look at the 1960 movie, Village of the Damned, inspired by the 1957 John Wyndham novel, the Midwich Cuckoos.
It’s hard to keep a good Phibes down. Would it be as hard to keep a bad Phibes down?
Ben and Eugene discuss the 1972 The Abominable Dr. Phibes sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again.
This week, on World Beyond movie Night, Ben and Eugene dip their toes into comedy/horror Diesel Punk with The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
Between seasons 1 and 2 of Space: 1999, Gerry Anderson took another stab at space opera, this time with an eye towards teachiing children about Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity.
How well did that plan go?
Find out as Ben and Eugene discuss The Day After Tomorrow. (AKA, Into Infinity)
“Barbarella, pychodella, there’s a kind of cockleshell about you…”
It began as a scandalous comic book, then Dino De Laurentiis thought, “hey, they oughta make a movie about that.”
…and now, Ben and Eugene have to watch it and discuss it.
It’s the 1968 movie, Barbarella starring Jane Fonda.
This week, it’s movie night, and Ben and Eugene take a serious look at a movie about a giant flying turtle. It’s 1995’s Gamera: Guardian of the Universe!
This week, Ben and Eugene look at the 1972 British-American pilot movie Baffled!, a supernatural thriller starring Leonard Nimoy.
This week, Simon, Ben, and Eugene discuss the Doctor’s sexuality and changes in the representation of sexuality on Doctor Who, Gatwa singing the same pitch as Gene Wilder, and Checkov’s psychic earrings as we look at the #DoctorWho episode #Rogue.
The lives of poor, downtrodden South Pacific Islanders are crushed under the heels of isolation, politics, disease, pollution and injustice… all while Quist and the Doomwatch team watch.
Ben and Eugene discuss The Islanders.
Episode Synopsis:
John Ridge is fingerprinting a group of bucolic, but slightly inbred-looking people. They feel he’s treating them like criminals and they start trashing the place. Outside, a man, Isaac, sees the disturbance and calls Dr. Quist.
When Quist arrives, the police are there and things are calmed down, a bit. Ridge with his super-spy training probably wouldn’t have been overpowered by the mob if he hadn’t been sick with the flu.
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Quist has a bit of a townhall session with the people, explaining to them what they already know, but the audience needs to understand. This is a compound, filled with displaced South Pacific islanders from the island of Saint Simon, which was evacuated due to a massive earthquake that rendered the island unsafe.
As a population of people that have been isolated from 150, they present Doomwatch with a fascinating opportunity to study the genetic differences they may exhibit having been cut off for so long. They trust Quist. He and his people are the only ones that have advocated for them. But they’ve been in England six months and the way of life is alien to them. They having no homes to call their own, nothing to do and feel they are not suited for the world they find themselves in. The leader of the group, Thomas, wants to return to the island.
Thomas’ son is Isaac and he has decided that he needs to find a way to integrate into their new world. He interviews for a job at a tea cake factory in London.
Quist goes to the Ministry to find out what can be done for the islanders. It’s bad news all around. Doomwatch is forbidden from conducting any further tests on the islanders before the press get wind that they’ve been using them as Guinea Pigs. Further, the official explains to Quist that, despite the appears of being self-sufficient, the island has been increasingly farmed out and the fish supply is dwindling. For many years, the UK has been supplementing them with materials and food from Fiji. Now that Fiji is independent, there is no more lifeline for them and the island cannot support them.
Even more, now that the Chinese have nuclear weapons, Saint Simon is a prime location for an early-warning base.
In short, the islanders and UK citizens and are free to do whatever they want, but they cannot return to the island.
Isaac gets a job, but it’s clear he was hired because the boss thinks he can exploit the hard-working, but naive islanders. Also, he can get some good publicity by “helping out” by giving them jobs.
Thomas comes down ill with the flu and is rushed to hospital. Other start coming down with the flu, too. Isaac’s mother is convinced that living in England and having no purpose in life is what’s killing Thomas., but the doctor assures them he just has the flu.
Back at Isaac’s job, the boss is genuinely impressed with him, and is thinking of putting Isaac on a management training program. This is interrupted by news that Thomas is seriously worse. Arriving at the hospital just in time for Thomas to tell him to “take my people home” and die. The islanders are suspicious, but Quist and the doctor are adamant, they’re not keeping anything from them.
That is, until the doctor discovers that Thomas died because of a liver problem. Some condition that he had previously but was worsened to the point of fatality by the flu. Others will die, too.
Quist informs the Ministry and discovers a survey is going to the island. Quist tags along and takes Isaac, too. While the science team does a general survey, Quist studies environmental factors. He finds something.
Back in England, they put the pieces together. During WWI, an American ship, the Arizona Star, was sunk by a U-Boat 100 miles west of Saint Simon. The Arizona Star was carrying a cargo of mercury, in containers that, under the best of conditions would break down in 50 years. That mercury is now contaminating the ocean and the fish that the islanders have been eating all their lives. The birds that eat the fish, poop on the farmlands and contaminate them, too. The island has been killing the inhabitants slowly for years.
Just one problem, the islanders most definitely want to go home now, and the ministry, trying to be nice have agreed to let them vote on the matter.
Quist must now put his arguments before the community and try to convince them to stay. They thought they were living in isolation from the rest of the world, but the world isn’t as small as it once was.
His warnings fall on deaf ears and they return to the island.
As a farewell gift, Isaac gave him his family bible – on original from when they left England 150 years ago. Inside the inscription tells of their thoughts on the world back then.
“We leave behind us an England of low wages and high prices; one law for the rich and another for the poor; a land of smoking factories, prisons, workhouses and mines where children slave ten hours a day.
We set sail to find a land where we can live and work as one man, where there will be no rich or poor; where there will be no idlers and all can exist by the sweat of their brow.”
Always the downer, Ridge shows Quist a newspaper headline. The Chinese have launched an ICBM and a South Pacific early warning system is being planned.
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For our tenth year podcasting, we’re featuring a series of special episodes looking at some of our favorite sci-fi movies. First up: Planet of the Apes.
Movie Synopsis:
A spacecraft from Earth plows through space at near light speed. Alone in the cockpit, George Taylor muses about the world he’s left behind forever and the future of mankind. At their current speed, centuries have passed on Earth in what has been only six months to them. Everything he knows is gone to dust, but does man still make war against his brother? Keep his neighbor’s children starving? He joins the remainder of his crew in suspended animation.
They awaken when the ship crashes in a lake on desolate world. Only three of the crew have survived and they escape the sinking craft to reach the shore. It isn’t promising, it seems a desolate, uncompromising world and they have but three days of rations.
After a long trek, they encounter lush fields and primitive, mute humans. When they are attacked by gun-wielding, horse riding gorillas, Taylor is separated from the others, shot in the throat and captured. Unable to speak, he tries to convey his intelligence to Dr. Zira, a Chimpanzee scientist on animal behavior.
Trapped in a world upside down, Taylor makes friends with Zira and her fiancé Cornelius and also begins to learn that the Minister of Science, an orangutan name Dr. Zaius has a particular interest in him. When he attempts to escape to avoid castration, Taylor manages to regain his voice and shocks the apes with his ability to speak.
Brought before a tribunal of the ruling Orangutans, Taylor is unable to convince them he is from outer space. The fate of the other astronauts is made known to him. One had been killed in the raid that captured Taylor, the other was lobotomized and is now a vegetable. With no corroboration, Taylor has no hope, and the orangutans make a show of demonstrating that Taylor isn’t really a reasoning, intelligent creature. Zira and Cornelius try to make a case that Taylor is a missing link between apes and humans, who must be their primitive ancestors. This is scientific heresy and they are indicted on charges.
Zaius talks privately with Taylor. In private, it’s clear Zaius understands Taylor’s intelligence is real and knows something more, but he believes Taylor to be from a tribe of advanced humans somewhere on the other side of the Forbidden Zone. If Taylor will just confess and give over the info on his tribe, they won’t cut off his nuts and lobotomize him.
That night, now fugitives from the law, Zira and Cornelius spring Taylor from his cage and they escape to the Forbidden Zone. There, Cornelius, an archaeologist, had previously found the remains of an ancient civilization. When they arrive at the dig, Zaius and his gorilla soldiers aren’t far behind. Taking Zaius hostage, Taylor forces him to give Cornelius the opportunity to present his evidence.
What Cornelius has found is all too familiar to Taylor: Eyeglasses, dentures and an artificial heart valve. Zaius dismisses Taylor’s explanations, but he cannot dismiss the talking human doll. Trussed up, Zaius reveals to Taylor that he knew man came first and that he was an evil, destructive creature who destroyed himself and turned a paradise into the Forbidden Zone.
Taylor leaves and heads further into the Forbidden Zone – a free man searching for answers. He finds them when he comes across the ancient ruins of the Statute of Liberty. The Planet of the Apes is Earth. Taylor has been home all along.
What starts as an innocent day measuring nitrites ends with a full scale invasion.
Ben and Eugene discuss Invasion.
Episode Synopsis:
Hardcastle and Ridge are in Yorkshire for a bit of nitrate measurement in the caves. They’ve employed two local lads, Dave and Reggie, to do the cave diving to collect water samples and have supplied them with some top-quality underwater gear for their work. While a storm brews outside, the boys go underwater and never come back up.
The entire village is called out to search for them and, although the villagers are concerned, the boys have a reputation and have “gone lost” before in the caves and turned up on their own later. Hardcastle and Ridge are very concerned, though, as they sent them into the caves and feel responsible.
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A survey of the geology and topography of the area suggests that there might be more openings to the cave further on, in a property known as Wendsdale Grange, which is an old manor house, now abandoned, with electric fences, copious “keep out” signs and an armed military presence keeping everyone out.
Greated with military stonewalling, Ridge learns nothing about the facility, save that the soldiers are wearing unusual boots and carry shotguns rather than rifles. His call to the Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary are put off – Ridge doesn’t need to know what’s going on in top-secret Wendsdale Grange.
Back at the pub, they learn from a local that the house stands as it once did, complete with furniture and strange silver men walking the balconies.
With Quist out of the country, Ridge decides to do a little breaking and entering. He doesn’t get far before he’s caught. Quist is called back and before the Parliamentary Secretary. After some persuading, Quist is filled in. During and after the war, the house was used to develop germ warfare. Five years ago, an accident occurred and the house was contaminated. The project was shut down and the entire area was closed off. Now, the military are enforcing a strict quarantine, patrolling the grounds, keeping people out and killing all animals that get onto the property. Everything killed is tested, and the entire area is constantly being monitored by scientists. Their precautions have proven adequate, so far. Quist demands to see inside the house himself and he and his team are allowed in.
Meanwhile, the boys have turned up. They decided that, while they had that fancy equipment, they could do a little extra exploring and they’ve turned up unharmed, and begin going on with their lives.
In the pub, Hardcastle notices a bottle that has been opened oddly. He saw one like it back at the Grange, and, he surmises, if that bottle had been opened years ago if would have had a layer of mold, but it didn’t. Ridge also sees a local girl carrying some baubles that look like the chandelier at the grange. She says the boys gave it to her.
They return to the Grange and inspect the bottle and the chandelier. They also see that two antique dueling pistols are missing from the wall. Searching the basement, they find a loose flagstone, leading to a well that, no doubt, leads to the caves.
It’s clear. The boys have been holed up in the Grange, unaware that it is contaminated with the highly contagious killer bug, and they have stolen the pistols to sell. The search is on, but they have left town to see an antiques dealer.
Quist and the military have no recourse. While there is an inoculation to prevent the loss of human life, the village must be evacuated, the families sent away, the livestock, animals and pets must be put down and burned and the exclusion zone expanded to include the village – a ghost town which will never be inhabited again.
The only good news, the boys never reached the antiques dealer, and fell ill before they could stop at a fun fair, potentially infecting hundreds of others.
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The first season (or is it the series?) of Battlestar Galactica comes to a close with an attack on a Cylon Basestar. Will the Galactica survive?
Ben and Eugene discuss.
Episode Synopsis:
Apollo, Sheba, Starbuck and Cassiopeia are on a…. let’s call it a double-date. Apollo takes them all for a surprise. A celestial chamber, high above the Galactica’s engines. A room not used in over 100 yahrens that opens up onto the vastness of space so that navigators could fix on stars for navigation… manually.
Apollo has been fixing it up, repairing the disused equipment. While there, a strange signal comes in on a Gamma frequency – a long obsolete type of communication. Apollo thinks it might be from Earth. With Boomer’s help they investigate. His conclusion: it might be a reflection of a nearby signal, or it could be a primary signal that has travelled 10,000 yahrens or more.
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The Galactica begins searching and finds a solar system in the path, they dispatch a patrol to investigate. What they find is a Cylon Basestar, guarding the rim of this galaxy and blocking the Galactica’s path. The Basestar is still unaware of the Colonial Fleet and faced with the alternative of backtracking a long way to go around… some thing or other, Adams decides to attack and hopefully destroy the basestar before they can muster an effective defense or call for backups and reveal the fleet’s position.
While the fighters prepare, Apollo hatches a crazy plan – a plan which Starbuck is all too eager to go along with – that involves flying Baltar’s Cylon raider to the basestar, getting inside and sabotaging the scanners before the attack begins, blinding them to the approaching Galactica.
Adama doesn’t like the plan, but he knows how to make it work. He offers Baltar his freedom in exchange for intel on the inside layout of the basestar and the normal operating procedures. Baltar agrees and, if they survive, he will be released – and marooned – on a habitable planet.
The plan doesn’t sit well with others, too. Cassiopeia and Sheba have words for Starbuck and Apollo, respectively. Cassiopeia is quite direct: She loves Starbuck and why does he have to volunteer for all the high-risk, certain death assignments?
Sheba on the other hand is less direct, but the situation is no different, she has come to realize that she is in love with Apollo and does not want to lose him. Nonetheless, our heroes have a mission to fly and they can’t be concerned about the feelings of hysterical womenfolk, by gosh.
Boomer also wants to go along with them, but he’s responsible and has a job to do – leading Apollo’s squadron. As a parting gift, he gives them something more practical than a kiss goodbye – he gives them a very, very important piece of high-tech felgercarb that will allow the Vipers to know which Cylon Raider has Apollo and Starbuck onboard, and therefore not destroy them in combat. I think we all know how well they’re going to look after that critical piece of kit.
Apollo and Starbuck infiltrate the basestar and their mission is a total success with only one casualty: the electronic gizmo dies a heroic death. The Galactica’s attack is a complete success, and the basestar destroyed.
…and Apollo and Starbuck survive because Boomer actually paid attention to one of Starbuck’s jokes.
Later, in the celestial chamber, Apollo is still waiting for the return of the signal. He still thinks it’s from Earth. Some routine ship-to-ship chatter that has spanned the stars, but since they have no automated monitoring and recording technology on the Galactica, he must sit and wait, hoping for something more. Starbuck convinces him to leave and attend the victory ceremony. After they leave a signal comes in, unseen.
The Eagle has landed.
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Toby Wren is dead. (Oops, spoilers.)
Ben and Eugene discuss the second series opener, “You Killed Toby Wren.”
“You Killed Toby Wren” is a follow-up episode to the Series One finale, “Survival Code,” one of the missing episodes. For more information on Survival Code, see this link at the Variant 14 blog: https://variant14.wordpress.com/category/s1e13-survival-code/
Episode Synopsis:
Our story opens with a tense scene. Toby Wren is suspended beneath a pier, attempting to defuse a ticking nuclear bomb, while Quist and Ridge watch nervously from a shack at the other end of the pier. With 60 seconds to go, the bomb disposal boys arrive, but it’s too late, Wren has successfully defused the detonation charge. Or has he? There’s one more wire and he has dropped his cutters into the sea.
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When the estimated detonation time passes without a boom, Quist is overjoyed… for all of about 5 seconds until the explosion goes off, killing Wren and the bomb squad. It is, at least, only a conventional explosion and the nuclear fuel had been dropped into the sea.
The Minister is overjoyed! Quist has been a pain in his butt since the beginning and now he can finally get rid of him over his mishandling of this situation. Now there will be a tribunal, after which he’ll be able to get rid of Quist once and for all.
Back at Doomwatch, things aren’t happy. Ridge is very much about blaming Quist for Toby’s death, and he is openly hostile to Quist. He’s completely out of sorts and barely has time to put the mash on Barbara Mason, Ms. Honeysett’s replacement. Ms Honeysett fell ill after the death of Toby and returned to Yorkshire. Ms. Mason has arrived at a very bad time at Doomwatch.
A man called Hardcastle is trying to reach Quist, but instead bumps into Ridge at the pub. He tells him that he needs Doomwatch to stop the work of his former mentor, Professor Hayland, preferably without exposing and ruining the man in the public eye. He is doing genetic hybrid research and has created chickens with human heads.
Ridge is called to the Minister, where he sounds out Ridge on being the new head of Doomwatch. Not the old Doomwatch: an exciting new Doomwatch with more power, more staff, more exciting stuff to do, it just relies on Quist being gone. The words are never spoken, but the Minister is relying on Ridge to crucify Quist at the tribunal.
Ridge returns to tell Quist what happened, but Hardcastle is meeting with Quist, and when Ridge discovers that Quist is strangely dismissive of an intervention on Hardcastle’s request, Ridge goes on another righteous rant, prompting Quist to fire him on the spot.
The Minister’s Permanent Undersecretary isn’t entirely against Quist, and sends him to speak with a psychologist, to get a report on his mental health for the Tribunal. At the session, Quist confronts his guilt over the development of the atomic bomb and the death of his wife, who also worked with and died on the Manhattan Project.
Ridge; however, has decided that he has the moral high ground and needs to shut down Hayland’s hybrid abominations and uses his magic penis powers to seduce Dr. Lennox, an associate of Hayland, into getting an opportunity to see what’s happening at the facility.
Inside he sees both a chicken AND a monkey with a human head and is disgusted. He threatens to shut all the animal experiments down, but Lennox calls him out and shocks him further by revealing they don’t need the animal hybrids anymore – they’ve got willing human women helping them – including herself and she’s already pregnant with a hybrid. If their night of passion had been three months earlier, Ridge could have been the father to one of the hybrids. This shuts him down completely. Honestly, I’m not sure why.
At the tribunal, Ridge gives testimony. His testimony isn’t unfavorable to Quist. He praises the man as having the most amazing brain and warns the tribunals science expert that Quist will cut him to ribbons. Ridge says, while he argued against Quist’s actions at the time, in retrospect, he sees Quist was right all along.
Later, Quist does cut the science expert to ribbons. Not only is Quist cleared at the tribunal, but also gets a date with the psychologist. A proper date – not another therapy session.
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There’s trouble brewing onboard the industrial ship Celestra. How is it tied to Starbuck’s long-lost flame?
Ben and Eugene take (apart) the Celestra.
Episode Synopsis:
Adama presides over a ceremony to honor Cmdr. Kronus, former Commander of the Battlestar Raikon and Adama’s former commanding officer. Kronus is being promoted to “fleet” commander of the industry ships for his sterling service getting amazing efficiency numbers from his ship, the Celestra. Kronus is a stickler for military decorum and order.
During the ceremony, Starbuck sees Aurora, Kronus’ pilot. She is an old flame that Starbuck thought dead at the massacre on Caprica. When he tries to talk to her, she’s cold, unforgiving that he didn’t bother to find out if she was alive and, as he tries to makes sense of what happened, he manages to jeopardize his relationship with Cassiopeia. Aurora leaves Starbuck to return to the Celestra, but unbeknownst to him, she’s up to something sneaky – obtaining navigational data from the Galactica’s computers without proper authorization.
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Starbuck cannot leave well enough alone. Apollo attempts to talk him out of heading to the Celestra to talk with her but instead gets talked into going along.
On the Celestra, Aurora, her current lover and a team of technicians sabotage the ship, take weapons and attempt to secure a shuttle. The Celestra stops for repairs and, since they are minor, the fleet continues on. The rebel plans fails when their element of surprise is lost and Apollo and Starbuck arrive unannounced. They are defeated, imprisoned and Kronus orders Apollo and Starbuck to return them, and himself, to the Galactica to file formal charges.
Now, Kronus’ Executive Officer, Charka, sees his opportunity to take permanent command of the Celestra. He and the bridge crew supply Apollo with the wrong flight coordinates. A course which will take them far away from the fleet and out of range of return or help. When they reach the point of no return, he orders the ship to go dark and, using the now-repaired engines, heads to rejoin the fleet.
On the shuttle, Aurora tells a tale of slave-labor aboard the Celestra. The rebels thought that the whole fleet was like that, while Kronus was completely unaware as it had been Charka’s doing all along. With the help of the rebel technicians, they rig up a way to find the Celestra and return to it. Out of fuel, Apollo and Starbuck manage to land the shuttle and attempt to take the bridge.
During the battle, the ship is plunged into an uncontrolled nose-dive, which Kronus sacrifices his life to correct. Apollo, Starbuck and the rebels are victorious and Charka and his evil band are put away for good.
The Galactica crew gathers again to honor Kronus, this time in death.
Meanwhile, Cassiopeia forgives Starbuck.
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People with batteries in them? Does it make them monsters? Will they run down? Will this bear any resemblance to today’s episode of Doomwatch, the Battery People?
Ben and Eugene find out.
Episode Synopsis:
Men, poorly outfitted in protective gear are working a fish farm, injecting the fish with hypodermic needles, as you do, when a fight breaks out between the foreman and one of the workers. It seems to be all about thumping their chests and proving who is the most manly. The fight is broken up when the Colonel, the plant owner, arrives and fires the troublemaker. He tells the foreman that their local MP has just been made Minister of National Security and that a visit may be in the offing. He also reminds the foreman and all the men are to be wearing protective gloves – which they aren’t, but they immediately put them on – just long enough for the Colonel to leave the room. As this is Doomwatch, the viewer is left in no doubt that the fate of these men isn’t promising.
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The new Minister of National Security is on Quist’s mind, too. As Quist’s new superior, he has called a meeting. Quist realizes that Doomwatch has a negative perception – they don’t do things – they prevent things. One could say, they hold back progress. Quist concocts the idea that Doomwatch should come up with series of “positive” programs to propose to the Minister to show that they aren’t all about breaking things. He asks Toby to come up with some ideas that might be pitched. Ideas that could impact the Minister’s local constituency.
It turns out to be the typical, “You guys are a bunch of negative nellies, spoiling everything and antagonizing things. Lay low on my watch,” meeting. Quist returns to Doomwatch and declares that they will not lay low.
Toby’s brilliant plans go out the window, but not before some curious data has come out of the computer. One of the valleys in the Minister’s local constituency has the highest incidence of divorce in Great Britain. That’s curious.
So too is the fact that it has a very high incidence of drunkenness – and not what you’d expect: a bunch old coal miners drinking beer down at the pub. Their poison of choice is a very un-welsh-miner-like gin. Which is not very many of them at all. And there’s been incidents of cock fighting, which strikes Quist as very odd indeed. Sure, he can imagine English people doing that, but not the Welsh! Cock fighting is all about a sexual frenzy!
(Naive me: Up till this point in my life, I always though cock fighting meant roosters.)
Ridge puts it indelicately – imagine, a bunch of burly Welsh miners, daintily sipping gin, giving their wives the cold shoulder and watching cock fighting.
Quist thinks it sounds like a job for Doomwatch and sends Ridge in undercover as a reporter to find out what’s going on.
First Ridge visits the cockfights, which he finds quite disturbing. Also, it turns out that cock fighting really is about roosters, and if that’s what gets people into a sexual frenzy, the last remaining dregs of my faith in humanity just got poured down a urinal.
Colonel Smithson is very helpful with Ridge’s inquiries, he wants the publicity. His farm is basically a standard battery farm for chicken and turkey and he’s happy to show it off – all but a couple “trade secret” areas, that is – which includes the fish we saw previously.
Ridge tours the facility and is disturbed by what he sees. Not that there’s anything wrong, just that battery farming is an unpleasant business.
Back at Doomwatch, the computer has turned up something interesting. Colonel Smithson, when he was in the military, was assigned to a project involving secret chemical weapons. One of those weapons would chemically dissolve the bones of an enemy. It was abandoned due to problems with the health of the workers on the project, specifically, chemical castration resulted.
That night, Ridge is not so keen on eating chicken or turkey, but luckily, Smithson has provided one of his new fish products for Ridge to try. It’s called Tastaway Trout and, amazingly, it has no bones! Unaware of the information about the chemical weapons, Ridge eats the fish, but, he has the presence of mind to break into the kitchen and secure a sample to send back to Doomwatch for analysis.
The next day, he visits the quite attractive ex-wife of the foreman. They’re divorced because he couldn’t… satisfy her urges anymore and she took to looking for it elsewhere. She makes it quite clear to Ridge that he could satisfy her urges right now, if he’d like. Amazingly, he wouldn’t like, and leaves.
Quist approaches the Minister and requests a formal inquiry. The Minister is reluctant but takes Quist to see Col. Smithson to confront him. Smithson denies everything, but also refuses to touch the fish in the same fashion as his workers. The Minister, to his credit, realizes that Smithson is aware of the problem and hiding it and authorizes the inquiry.
The foreman overhears the conversion and realizes that he and boys have been castrated and the Colonel knew about it. He surreptitiously trips the Colonel, who falls in the fish vat.
Quist is convinced the submersion will be fatal and he saw the foreman trip Smithson. Quist covers for the murderer and also posits that, even the Colonel would probably agree that, when all the men in the farm find out what he’d done to them, dying now was his best option.
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In this episode, the Galactica finds Earth… or Terra… which probably isn’t Earth. Plus Apollo and Starbuck get a little help from on high.
Ben and Eugene discuss this Experiment in Terra.
Episode Synopsis:
Picking up from last week’s episode, the evil Eastern Alliance enforcers, along with the Borelean Nomen have escaped the Galactica. Rather than recapturing them, Galactica’s fighters are pursuing them, hoping to follow them back to Lunar 7.
Apollo is separated out and captured by a Ship of Lights. As he was mostly dead the last time he was there and his memories were erased, he remembers nothing of the previous experience. He is introduced to John, one of the beings that has taken human form to interact with him. Apollo must go to the planet Terra and stop a devastating war. John can’t help him, though, so he’s on his own and just like that, he’s approaching the planet Terra in his Viper.
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Back on the tail of the evil Eastern Alliance ship, Starbuck detects Apollo’s absence but spots his locator at the extreme edge of detector range. Starbuck heads off on a one-way trip to rescue him.
On the planet Terra, Apollo really isn’t capable of getting with the program quickly enough. The Beings of Light have granted him a protective aura which makes him appear to be Major Charlie Watts – a bit of a scoundrel who is missing in action. He is met by Brenda, Charlie’s former girlfriend who was directed to Apollo’s landing site by John. Brenda’s father is in the Presidium, the ruling council of the Terran Nationalists, the democratic opposite to the evil Eastern Alliance.
Because Apollo is too stupid to figure out the situation that was clearly explained to him by John, he manages to convince Brenda not that he’s an alien lookalike of Charlie Watts sent to impersonate him and stop a war, but instead that he’s Charlie Watts gone nuts. He’s captured, sent for medial examination, and then locked up.
It turns out that the President of the Nationalists is preparing a massive peace treaty with the evil Eastern Alliance and he’s been locking up everyone that might oppose peace with the evil Eastern Alliance. Charlie Watts is one such person.
Meanwhile, Brenda’s father returns from a secret mission with evidence, but not proof, of some of the atrocities being carried out by the evil Eastern Alliance. He’s locked up, too – as is Brenda.
Now for the part you didn’t see coming: The evil Eastern Alliance has signed the peace treaty as a ruse. They plan to stage a massive surprise nuclear first strike and wipe out the Nationalists on the eve of peace.
Starbuck arrives and, after John grants him a protective aura, he breaks out Apollo and the others. Apollo must go to the Presidium, tell what he knows about Paradine and Lunar 7, and denounce the President’s peace treaty for what it is: A foolish attempt to placate an intractable and evil enemy.
Meanwhile Starbuck tries to get a signal back to the Galactica. The Galactica had already noticed the location of the missing pilots and left the fleet to intercept, traveling at light speed.
The Galactica arrives just in time to use its lasers to destroy the nuclear barrage while still in space. The evil Eastern Alliance think that the Nationalists have a new super weapon that renders their nuclear arsenal useless and so, once again, sue for peace, this time on the Nationalist’s terms.
The Nationalists, knowing that they don’t have a new super weapon, nor will they in the future, agree to talks from a position of false superiority. Peace, based on a wholly false premise seems assured.
Apollo returns to the Galactica, but before he does, John reveals to him what he needed to know: Terra is not Earth. Their journey continues.
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There’s a pesticide company and there’s a train, and the pesticides keep getting on and off the train, which may be an atomic coast-to-coast #Supertrain.
This also may have nothing at all to do with the episode. Find out as Ben and Eugene discuss Train and De-Train.
Episode synopsis:
In a forest in Sussex the animals are dead and John Ridge is investigating them. Meanwhile, Toby Wren is put on the job of finding out if any new pesticides are being released by British companies.
At a British pesticide company chief chemist Ellis is being given some unusual hints. His parking spot is removed, he gets a new secretary without warning, they remove the carpet from his office, his phone disappears, and the head of the company is avoiding talking to him. Whatever could it mean?
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When Toby Wren visits the company he overhears what they are doing to chief chemist Ellis. It seems that they are trying to give him a hint that they want him to leave. Instead, since he has a contract, they transfer him to a new job, a lesser job.
This doesn’t sit well with Toby. Ellis happens to be his former tutor at Cambridge, and a man that he has great respect and fondness for. This also means the Toby takes an instant dislike to the head of the chemical company, Mr. Mitchell.
Mitchell doesn’t really want to cooperate with him, and they delay turning over samples of their new chemical until after they’ve already started shipping it.
Quist is out of the country, so John Ridge is in charge. Ridge hatches a plan to smuggle Toby into the facility and have him obtain a sample of the chemical surreptitiously. They do this however Toby is caught.
Toby gives the head of the company a piece of his mind about the way they are treating Ellis and the head of the company uses a tape recorder to capture Toby’s rant.
Mitchel uses the tape to try to leverage Quist – who is now back in the country – into not investigating. Quist has no choice but to fire Wren.
However, Quist knows that, because Mitchell tried to leverage him with the tape, he has something to hide.
Ellis dies. Suicide. Later, both Wren and Mitchell receive copies of Ellis’ suicide note. While Mitchell destroys his copy, Wren uses his to confront him and force him to admit that he forced Ellis to perform unauthorized tests to which Ellis objected. Mitchell is forced to cooperate and gives back the tape of Wren.
There is justice in the world as, soon thereafter, Mitchell loses his parking spot and isn’t invited to important meetings. The De-Train leaves at noon.
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How can Baltar remain a credible villain if he remains in jail? Answer: He can’t, so, it must be time to escape!
Ben and Eugene discuss Baltar’s Escape.
Episode Synopsis:
Since the arrival of the Eastern Alliance Enforcers and Apollo and Starbuck’s prisoners, the Council have been getting increasingly upity. It seems the civilian government is chaffing under the yolk of Adama’s oppressive military regime and also, they seem, once again, to ignore the obvious danger and opt for an unrealistic policy of peace with a merciless opponent.
They rescind the state of emergency declared after the Cylons destroyed their worlds and return the fleet to civilian control. They also return the military to civilian oversight and Siress Tinya is appointed Council liaison to the Galactica – to make sure that the military follows Council orders.
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About this time, Baltar enlists his fellow prisoners, the Borellian Nomen and the Easter Alliance Enforcers into a planned prison break. Using the release and transfers of the Enforcers to the Galactica to star peace talks, The Nomen stage an escape, freeing Baltar and the Enforcers.
They capture the transfer shuttle and head to the Galactica, where the meet and imprison the Council of the Twelve, demanding that Adama release them or the Council will be killed.
Boxed into a corner, Adama hatches a plan to retake the prisoners, and turns himself over to Baltar as a hostage.
Apollo and Starbuck, along with Baltar’s Cylon pilots, execute a daring plan and save the day; however, the Alliance Enforcers are allowed to escape so that they can be tracked back to Lunar 7.
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This week, we review episode 6 of the current series of Doctor Who; Vampires in Venice.
Continuing with our special “Doctor Who season”, we review Flesh and Stone. We’re still cleaning up some technical problems with microphones, sound levels and such, but we’re working on them. Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/fusionpatrol
In our inaugural episode, Ben and Eugene overview the first three episodes of the 2010 Doctor Who series and have a more in-depth discussion of episode four – The Time of Angels.