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Communications Science & Technology Television

Our World: we now go live to…

Our WorldAn international production caried out live via satellite on a scale previously unimagined, Our World chronicles the activities of several countries in an all-star, real time TV broadcast to 26 countries, with segments aired live from Canada, the United States, Britain, Japan and Australia – the producers, based at the BBC, forbid pre-taped segments. Celebrity guests taking part in the live broadcast include painter Pablo Picasso, Marshall McLuhan, and the Beatles (performing “All You Need Is Love”); events seen happening live include the construction of a Saturn V rocket at Kennedy Space Center and the construction of the Japanese subway system. As laid out in the planning documents for the broadcast, which took nearly a year to prepare for, no heads of state or political figures are permitted to appear; the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland abruptly end their participation just four days before the airdate, protesting the west’s stance on the Six Day War in the Middle East. An estimated 400 million people watch worldwide – the largest audience of any single television broadcast to date.

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Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: The Evil Of The Daleks, Part 7

Doctor WhoThe 169th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second Doctor’s second and final encounter with the Daleks, though it is the last Dalek story (and, barring a brief glimpse on a viewscreen in 1969’s The War Games, the last Dalek appearance) for the remainder of the 1960s. Dalek creator Terry Nation withdraws the BBC’s rights to use the Daleks in Doctor Who, intending to launch the Doctor’s enemies in their own series, possibly in America. The prospective Doctor-less Dalek series never comes to pass, and the Cybermen reign as the second Doctor’s most enduring recurring enemies as a result. The Daleks do not headline a Doctor Who story again for five years. This concludes the fourth season of Doctor Who, the show’s first post-regeneration season, and marks the end of producer Innes Lloyd’s tenure as showrunner. This episode is now missing from the BBC’s archives.

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Surveyor Uncrewed Spaceflight

Surveyor 4 doesn’t land on the moon

SurveyorFor the second time, one of NASA’s robotic Surveyor space probes fails to make it to the moon intact. Launched three days before, Surveyor 4 – which is, coincidentally, targeted to land in roughly the same area that previous lander Surveyor 2 failed to reach – is mere minutes from the lunar surface when contact is lost. There is no means of determining what has caused the failure, though the most likely hypothesis is an explosion of the solid fuel rockets intended to slow Surveyor 4’s descent prior to landing.

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Doctor Who Lost Episodes Television

The Doctor, deleted

Doctor WhoThough every episode of the series to date has been flagged for indefinite retention due to its popularity in foreign markets, for the first time, the BBC archive issues instructions to erase most of the first three seasons of Doctor Who. This covers every episode from An Unearthly Child through the final episode of The Gunfighters, and it is at this point that many complete stories are lost forever in video form (such as Marco Polo and The Massacre), and huge swaths of the series’ run are erased as well (much of the 12-part epic The Daleks’ Master Plan). The series thus far has been produced in 405 line PAL videotape, and a new 625 line standard will become the default recording/transmission option in 1968. Many of the erased episodes are recovered years later from the foreign markets to which they were sold, from Africa to the Middle East, but many are never seen again.

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Lunar Orbiter Uncrewed Spaceflight

The last of the Lunar Orbiters

Lunar OrbiterNASA’s final Lunar Orbiter satellite is sent to the moon, with a goal of completing the mapping of the moon’s surface left unfinished by mechanical issues with its predecessor. Lunar Orbiter 5 completes the mapping of the lunar far side and helps engineers and scientists determine signal coverage from the Earth-based tracking stations that will help NASA stay in contact with future Apollo missions to the moon.

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Uncrewed Spaceflight Viking Voyager

Voyager mission cancelled

VoyagerAfter data returned by JPL’s Mariner spacecraft reveals that – as JPL predicted – Mars has a thin atmosphere and very low atmospheric pressure, plans for a Saturn V-launched orbiter with two 10,000-pound Mars landers are scuttled. The Voyager Mars mission, not expected to launch until 1973, proved too complex and costly for the current state of the art. The Voyager name will later be bestowed upon a pair of Mariner spacecraft exploring beyond the orbit of Mars, while the Voyager concept will later be scaled down to a more feasible and cost-effective orbiter/lander combination called Viking.

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Television

The Invaders: Condition: Red

The InvadersThe 18th episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, is broadcast on ABC. Antoinette Bower guest stars in the first episode of the series’ second season.

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Surveyor Uncrewed Spaceflight

Surveyor 5 lands on the moon

SurveyorDespite an in-flight fuel pressure glitch that threatens to make this the third failure for the Surveyor program, Surveyor 5 successfully touches down in the moon’s Sea of Tranquility thanks to remote in-flight reprogramming by NASA engineers. Among its objectives on the lunar surface is a precise measurement of the elements comprising the lunar soil.

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Television

The Invaders: The Saucer

The InvadersThe 19th episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, is broadcast on ABC. Anne Francis (Forbidden Planet, Honey West) and Dabney Coleman (9 To 5, WarGames) guest star.

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Television

The Invaders: The Watchers

The InvadersThe 20th episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, is broadcast on ABC. Shirley Knight (As Good As It Gets) and Kevin McCarthy (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers) guest star.

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Television

The Invaders: Valley Of The Shadow

The InvadersThe 21st episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, is broadcast on ABC. Nan Martin (A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) and Ted Knight guest star.

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Star Trek Television

Star Trek: The Changeling

Star TrekThe 32nd episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek premieres on NBC. Captain Kirk continues his winning streak of logically talking sentient computers into self-destructing, impressing Mr. Spock to no end. Scotty becomes the latest senior Enterprise officer to die in the line of duty, and by the end of the episode becomes the latest senior officer to miraculously come back to life.

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