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Welcome to Gene-ology, a podcast by Roddenberry Entertainment that dives deep into the early TV writing works of Gene Roddenberry. With his own show just months away from launching, Gene Roddenberry racks up one last rodeo, so to speak – his final script for a TV western, and a fairly prestigious one at that, with famous faces and a message or two along for the ride with The Virginian. Hosted by Earl Green & Ashley Thomas About Gene-ology Gene-ology explores Gene Roddenberry's early television scripts, including his lesser-known works before Star Trek using the Mission Log format popularized by Roddenberry Podcasts. We analyze the themes, writing style, and cultural impact of his scripts, and we even unearth stories from the Roddenberry archives that were never produced. Join us as we trace the roots of Gene's creative genius. In This Episode A breakdown of key moments and themes in "Run Away Home". Exploring Gene Roddenberry's evolving style and storytelling. How this episode ties into the broader TV landscape of the time and reflects the early seeds of Roddenberry's visionary work. Guest stars and unique production elements that bring this episode to life. Special Segment: Dramatic Recreation Since this script is not available to the public, we've brought it to life with a dramatic recreation! Special guests Duncan K. Fraser, Kevin Ibbotson, Alan Simonis, Matthew Corey and Heather Engholm perform a key section of the script. Listen in as they bring the story to life in this exclusive performance. Join the Conversation What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts, theories, and favorite moments in the comments or reach out to us on social media or email us at missionlog@roddenberry.com Did you know Roddenberry Podcasts is on YouTube? Find the video versions of your favorite shows like Mission Log: Prodigy, Mission Log: The Orville, as well as exclusive content only available on YouTube. Subscribe now! https://www.youtube.com/@RoddenberryEntertainment?sub_confirmation=1 Follow us on Social Media: INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/roddenberrypodcasts BLUESKY https://bsky.app/profile/roddenberrypod.bsky.social THREADS https://www.threads.net/@roddenberrypodcasts FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/MissionLogPod Our shows are part of the Roddenberry Entertainment family. For more great shows and to learn how we live the legacy of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, follow us here: RODDENBERRY PODCASTS https://www.instagram.com/RoddenberryPodcasts RODDENBERRY ENTERTAINMENT https://www.instagram.com/RoddenberryOfficial RODDENBERRY FOUNDATION https://www.instagram.com/TheRoddenberryFoundation Support the Show For as little as $1 a month, you can gain access to our Mission Log Discord Community! There, we continue the discussion with dedicated channels and a weekly video chat with the hosts. Become a member of our Patreon today! https://www.Patreon.com/MissionLog Subscribe and Stay Tuned Be sure to subscribe to Gene-ology for more deep dives into Gene Roddenberry's early works. New episodes are released regularly as we uncover more of Gene's television legacy. – Gene-ology is produced by Roddenberry Entertainment. Executive producer Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry. Visit https://Podcasts.Roddenberry.com for more great content. Edited by Earl Green.
The 889th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1 (the 190th episode since the series’ revival), starring Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu. Co-written by Russell T. Davies, this episode is a sequel to Davies’ 2008 episode Midnight.
The CW airs the 17th episode of Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose and Rachel Skarsten. Alex Zahara (Babylon 5: Legend Of The Rangers, Jeremiah) guest stars.
Frontiers Records releases the Alan Parsons solo album The Secret, featuring performances by Steve Hackett (Genesis) and Lou Gramm (Foreigner). The album revolves around the central themes of mortality and magic.
Astronomers reveal that Makemake, an icy dwarf planet orbiting in the distant Kuiper Belt region of the solar system, has a moon, first spotted in 2015 by a team using the Hubble Space Telescope. (The news comes just days after the 26th anniversary of Hubble’s launch.) With an estimated diameter of 100 miles (compared to the 870 mile diameter of its parent body), the satellite orbits Makemake at a distance of 13,000 miles, taking twelve days to complete one orbit. Previous observations failed to pick up on the dark, dim body due to the relatively bright glare of Makemake itself.
The 744th episode of Doctor Who (the 46th since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Freema Agyeman, Bernard Cribbins and Christopher Ryan (The Young Ones) guest star in the first appearance of the Sontarans in Doctor Who since 1985. This is the first half of a two-part story.
The seventh full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia aboard Soyuz TMA-2, a drastic change from their original mission plan. Originally planned to be another short-term “ferry flight” to swap out the station’s Soyuz lifeboat vehicle, Soyuz became the only way to send full-time crews to the station during the post-Columbia-disaster grounding of the American shuttle fleet. Yuri Malenchenko and Ed Lu took up residence aboard the ISS for 184 days, returning in October 2003 with Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque. With the shuttle fleet landlocked, two-man ISS crews became the norm, as three-man crews relied on the greater resupply capacity of the shuttles.
The 41st episode of James Cameron & Charles H. Eglee’s cyberpunk series Dark Angel, starring Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly, airs on Fox. Ashley Scott (Birds Of Prey, Jericho) guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 168th episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This episode continues a tightly-serialized eight-episode run-up to the series finale. Louise Fletcher guest stars.
The 19th episode of Highlander: The Raven, starring Amanda Gracen and Paul Johannson, airs in syndication; the series is a spinoff from Highlander: The Series. Miles Richardson (Mindgame, Mindgame Trilogy) guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 87th episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, starring Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor. Ted Raimi guest stars.
The 41st episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, airs in syndication, starring Robert Leeshock, Lisa Howard, Von Flores, and Richard Chevolleau. Janet Kidder (Continuum, Star Trek: Discovery) guest stars.
Pay cable channel HBO airs the eighth episode of the docudrama From The Earth To The Moon, chronicling NASA’s quest to reach the moon, and two episodes debut each Sunday of the show’s run. Lane Smith (V), Jay Mohr and Ethan Phillips (Star Trek: Voyager) guest star.
Pay cable channel HBO airs the seventh episode of the docudrama From The Earth To The Moon, chronicling NASA’s quest to reach the moon, and two episodes debut each Sunday of the show’s run. Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Dave Foley (The Kids In The Hall)and Paul McCrane (ER, The Shawshank Redemption) guest star.
The 114th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Glenn Morshower guest stars.
The 70th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Jennifer Hetrick (Star Trek: The Next Generation and Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1) guest star.
Fox airs the 16th episode of Tracy Torme’s alternate-universe science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, John Rhys Davies, Sabrina Lloyd, and Cleavant Derricks.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 36th episode of Babylon 5. First season Julie Caitlin Brown returns in an unrelated guest role (minus Narn makeup).
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 145th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Norman Lloyd (St. Elsewhere), Linda Thorson (The Avengers) and Maurice Roeves (The Nightmare Man) guest star.
Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on a mission lasting nearly ten days, carrying the Spacelab laboratory module in its cargo bay. This flight, Spacelab D-2, includes medical and material experiments, with one experiment controlled by an Apple Macintosh computer carried into orbit. Amateur radio messages are exchanged with the crew of the Mir space station. Aboard Columbia for her 14th flight are Commander Steven Nagel, Pilot Terence Henricks, mission specialists Jerry Ross, Charles Precourt and Bernard Harris Jr., and payload specialists Ulrich Walter and Hans Schlegel.
The fourth episode of the science fiction police series Mann & Machine, co-created by Dick Wolf and Robert de Laurentiis, is broadcast on NBC, starring David Andrews and Yancy Butler. Curtis Armstrong (Revenge Of The Nerds) and Mitchell Ryan guest star. The series is cancelled due to low ratings after this episode, with the five remaining produced episodes “burned off” over the summer.
The 97th episode of the syndicated series Superboy, starring Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sherman Howard and Bill Mumy (Lost In Space, Babylon 5) guest star.
The 17th episode of Richard Carpenter’s fanciful retelling of the Robin Hood legend, Robin Of Sherwood, airs on ITV, starring Jason Connery, Mark Ryan, Judi Trott, and Nickolas Grace. Cyril Cusack and David Rappaport (Time Bandits, The Wizard) guest star.
A major accident at the #4 reactor of the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear power facility, near the border of Ukraine and Belarus, causes a significant release of radioactive material into the air. Much of the material has immediate consequences for the nearby city of Pripyat, but the effects are felt both elsewhere in the Soviet Union and in Europe. Worse still, the Soviet government tries to cover up the incident, until the mounting evidence of a major incident forces them to admit, two days after the fact, that a core meltdown occurred and that the resulting release of radioactive material has international reach and consequences. Some emergency workers die of massive radiation exposure, and an increase is seen in other illnesses, including cancer, in exposed human populations nearby. Over 100,000 people are evacuated from nearby areas. Premature deaths and genetic mutations are observed in nearby wildlife for years after the incident. The costs of mitigation and containment of the toxic reactor site will become a major factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union a few years later. The exclusion zone established around the facility may be a safe place for humans to live again for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.
CBS premieres the made-for-TV movie The Phoenix, starring Judson Scott and E.G. Marshall. Serving as a prospective series pilot, The Phoenix proves popular enough to merit a series pickup, though that series will last only a few weeks in the spring of 1982.
ITV airs the 18th episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. Joan Collins guest stars.
The first episode of Time Express premieres on CBS, starring Vincent Price and Coral Browne. Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Gay Rowan (The Starlost), and John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest star.
Casablanca Records releases Lenny & Squiggy present Lenny and the Squigtones, an album combining spoken-word comedy and ’50s rock pastiches performed by Michael McKean and David Lander in their characters best known to the general public from recurring appearances on Laverne & Shirley.
The 399th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This story marks the Cybermen’s first story since the Troughton era, and closes out both the series’ 12th season and the “Nerva” plotline.
The 889th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1 (the 190th episode since the series’ revival), starring Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu. Co-written by Russell T. Davies, this episode is a sequel to Davies’ 2008 episode Midnight.
The CW airs the 25th episode of Superman & Lois, starring Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Jordan Elsass, and Alex Garfin.
The CW airs the 17th episode of Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose and Rachel Skarsten. Alex Zahara (Babylon 5: Legend Of The Rangers, Jeremiah) guest stars.
Frontiers Records releases the Alan Parsons solo album The Secret, featuring performances by Steve Hackett (Genesis) and Lou Gramm (Foreigner). The album revolves around the central themes of mortality and magic. 
The 135th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW.
The 42nd episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin, airs on the CW.
Astronomers reveal that Makemake, an icy dwarf planet orbiting in the distant Kuiper Belt region of the solar system, has a moon, first spotted in 2015 by a team using the Hubble Space Telescope. (The news comes just days after the 26th anniversary of Hubble’s launch.) With an estimated diameter of 100 miles (compared to the 870 mile diameter of its parent body), the satellite orbits Makemake at a distance of 13,000 miles, taking twelve days to complete one orbit. Previous observations failed to pick up on the dark, dim body due to the relatively bright glare of Makemake itself. 
The 744th episode of Doctor Who (the 46th since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Freema Agyeman, Bernard Cribbins and Christopher Ryan (The Young Ones) guest star in the first appearance of the Sontarans in Doctor Who since 1985. This is the first half of a two-part story. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 12th episode of the new Eighth Doctor Who audio dramas, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. 
ABC premieres the 19th episode of Shaun Cassidy’s sci-fi/horror series Invasion, starring William Fichtner (Contact), Eddie Cibrian, and Lisa Sheridan. James Frain (Tron Legacy, Star Trek: Discovery) guest stars. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 68th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford. 
Hollywood Records releases Joby Talbot’s soundtrack from the movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, featuring vocals by Neil Hannon. 
The seventh full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia aboard Soyuz TMA-2, a drastic change from their original mission plan. Originally planned to be another short-term “ferry flight” to swap out the station’s Soyuz lifeboat vehicle, Soyuz became the only way to send full-time crews to the station during the post-Columbia-disaster grounding of the American shuttle fleet. Yuri Malenchenko and Ed Lu took up residence aboard the ISS for 184 days, returning in October 2003 with Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque. With the shuttle fleet landlocked, two-man ISS crews became the norm, as three-man crews relied on the greater resupply capacity of the shuttles.
Pay cable channel Showtime premieres the eighth episode of J. Michael Straczynski’s post-apocalyptic series Jeremiah. 
The 66th episode of Farscape airs on the Sci-Fi Channel, starring Ben Browder and Claudia Black. Kent McCord stars in the third season finale. 
The 41st episode of James Cameron & Charles H. Eglee’s cyberpunk series Dark Angel, starring Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly, airs on Fox. Ashley Scott (Birds Of Prey, Jericho) guest stars.
Pay cable channel Showtime airs the 106th episode of Stargate SG-1. Danielle Nicolet (The Flash) guest stars.
Big Finish Productions releases the 31st Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Paul McGann and India Fisher. 
UPN airs the 141st episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Tony Amendola (Stargate SG-1) guest stars. 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 168th episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This episode continues a tightly-serialized eight-episode run-up to the series finale. Louise Fletcher guest stars. 
The 19th episode of Highlander: The Raven, starring Amanda Gracen and Paul Johannson, airs in syndication; the series is a spinoff from Highlander: The Series. Miles Richardson (Mindgame, Mindgame Trilogy) guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 87th episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, starring Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor. Ted Raimi guest stars. 
The 41st episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, airs in syndication, starring Robert Leeshock, Lisa Howard, Von Flores, and Richard Chevolleau. Janet Kidder (Continuum, Star Trek: Discovery) guest stars.
UPN airs the 114th episode of Star Trek: Voyager. 
RealWorld Records releases Afro-Celt Sound System‘s second album, Volume 2 – Release, featuring the single “Release” with guest vocalist Sinead O’Connor. 
Pay cable channel HBO airs the eighth episode of the docudrama From The Earth To The Moon, chronicling NASA’s quest to reach the moon, and two episodes debut each Sunday of the show’s run. Lane Smith (V), Jay Mohr and Ethan Phillips (Star Trek: Voyager) guest star. 
Pay cable channel HBO airs the seventh episode of the docudrama From The Earth To The Moon, chronicling NASA’s quest to reach the moon, and two episodes debut each Sunday of the show’s run. Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Dave Foley (The Kids In The Hall)and Paul McCrane (ER, The Shawshank Redemption) guest star. 
The 114th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Glenn Morshower guest stars.
The 84th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. 
Fox premieres the 21st episode of the military science fiction series Space: Above And Beyond. 
Fox airs the 16th episode of Tracy Torme’s alternate-universe science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, John Rhys Davies, Sabrina Lloyd, and Cleavant Derricks.
Fox airs the sixth episode of Sliders, Tracy Torme’s alternate-universe science fiction series. 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 36th episode of Babylon 5. First season Julie Caitlin Brown returns in an unrelated guest role (minus Narn makeup). 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 13th episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 145th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Norman Lloyd (St. Elsewhere), Linda Thorson (The Avengers) and Maurice Roeves (The Nightmare Man) guest star. 
Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on a mission lasting nearly ten days, carrying the Spacelab laboratory module in its cargo bay. This flight, Spacelab D-2, includes medical and material experiments, with one experiment controlled by an Apple Macintosh computer carried into orbit. Amateur radio messages are exchanged with the crew of the Mir space station. Aboard Columbia for her 14th flight are Commander Steven Nagel, Pilot Terence Henricks, mission specialists Jerry Ross, Charles Precourt and Bernard Harris Jr., and payload specialists Ulrich Walter and Hans Schlegel.
The fourth episode of the science fiction police series Mann & Machine, co-created by Dick Wolf and Robert de Laurentiis, is broadcast on NBC, starring David Andrews and Yancy Butler. Curtis Armstrong (Revenge Of The Nerds) and Mitchell Ryan guest star. The series is cancelled due to low ratings after this episode, with the five remaining produced episodes “burned off” over the summer.
The 97th episode of the syndicated series Superboy, starring Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sherman Howard and Bill Mumy (Lost In Space, Babylon 5) guest star.
The 17th episode of Richard Carpenter’s fanciful retelling of the Robin Hood legend, Robin Of Sherwood, airs on ITV, starring Jason Connery, Mark Ryan, Judi Trott, and Nickolas Grace. Cyril Cusack and David Rappaport (Time Bandits, The Wizard) guest star.
A major accident at the #4 reactor of the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear power facility, near the border of Ukraine and Belarus, causes a significant release of radioactive material into the air. Much of the material has immediate consequences for the nearby city of Pripyat, but the effects are felt both elsewhere in the Soviet Union and in Europe. Worse still, the Soviet government tries to cover up the incident, until the mounting evidence of a major incident forces them to admit, two days after the fact, that a core meltdown occurred and that the resulting release of radioactive material has international reach and consequences. Some emergency workers die of massive radiation exposure, and an increase is seen in other illnesses, including cancer, in exposed human populations nearby. Over 100,000 people are evacuated from nearby areas. Premature deaths and genetic mutations are observed in nearby wildlife for years after the incident. The costs of mitigation and containment of the toxic reactor site will become a major factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union a few years later. The exclusion zone established around the facility may be a safe place for humans to live again for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.
CBS premieres the made-for-TV movie The Phoenix, starring Judson Scott and E.G. Marshall. Serving as a prospective series pilot, The Phoenix proves popular enough to merit a series pickup, though that series will last only a few weeks in the spring of 1982. 
The sixth episode of Brian Daley’s radio drama adaptation of the science fiction blockbuster Star Wars airs on National Public Radio stations in the U.S. Mark Hamill stars as Luke Skywalker, and Perry King stars as Han Solo. 
ITV airs the 38th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Michael Kitchen guest stars.
The first episode of Time Express premieres on CBS, starring Vincent Price and Coral Browne. Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Gay Rowan (The Starlost), and John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest star. 
Casablanca Records releases Lenny & Squiggy present Lenny and the Squigtones, an album combining spoken-word comedy and ’50s rock pastiches performed by Michael McKean and David Lander in their characters best known to the general public from recurring appearances on Laverne & Shirley. 
The fourth episode of The Amazing Spider-Man airs on CBS, starring Nicholas Hammond and Robert F. Simon. Morgan Fairchild guest stars. 
The 399th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This story marks the Cybermen’s first story since the Troughton era, and closes out both the series’ 12th season and the “Nerva” plotline.