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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. To fans, they were the Great Bird of the Galaxy and the First Lady of Star Trek. To their friends and co-workers, Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry were, perhaps, slightly less mythic figures with their own very human quirks, but still beloved and admired. In this panel from the TrekTalks 5 telethon in support of the Hollywood Food Coalition, Gene and Majel are remembered by those who knew them. Podcast hosted by Earl Green & Ashley Thomas TrekTalks panel hosted by John Champion Panel guests: Fred Bronson, Denise Crosby, Ernie Over, Rod Roddenberry 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 Memories of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry from those who knew and worked with them 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.
Streaming service Disney Plus releases the fourth episode of Loki, created for TV by Michael Waldron and starring Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Owen Wilson. Richard E. Grant guest stars.
Big Finish releases the audio drama box set Star Cops: Mother Earth 1, including the audio episode Tranquility And Other Illusions, the first official continuation of Chris Boucher’s futuristic 1980s TV police drama Star Cops.
Big Finish releases the audio drama box set Star Cops: Mother Earth 1, including the audio episode One Of Our Cops Is Missing, the first official continuation of Chris Boucher’s futuristic 1980s TV police drama Star Cops. As some members of the original TV cast have died in the intervening years, this first audio adventure introduces new characters and cast members.
Big Finish Productions releases the Doctor Who: The Lost Stories audio drama Crime Of The Century, audio versions of scripts that were intended for, but never produced by, Doctor Who on television. Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred star in a story originally intended for the unmade 1990 season of Doctor Who.
The 739th episode of Doctor Who (the 41st since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Guest starring John Barrowman and John Simm (Life On Mars), this is the final part of a three-part season finale reintroducing the Master, the Doctor’s rival Time Lord from the classic series. Freema Agyeman departs the TARDIS as Martha in this episode, returning as a recurring character the following season.
The Daleks are out of the running for the ninth Doctor’s adventures, according to the BBC and Doctor Who‘s new producer, Russell T. Davies. Apparently it’s not just a matter of money either – the estate of Terry Nation (the late creator of the Daleks, Blake’s 7 and other classics of British SF TV) wants editorial input into the Daleks’ use in any new stories. But fear, not, Davies says: “We’re disappointed the Daleks won’t be included but we have a number of new and exciting monsters. And I can confirm we have created a new enemy for the Doctor which will keep viewers on the edge of their seats.”
Showtime airs the 120th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of the 1960s science fiction anthology series. Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5, Tron) guest stars.
Premium cable channel Showtime airs the 40th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Sheena Easton and John Pyper-Ferguson (Caprica) guest star.
Ron Howard’s big-screen dramatization of Apollo 13, based on the book Lost Moon co-written by Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell and starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, and Ed Harris, premieres.
Premium cable channel Showtime airs the 15th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) guest stars.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin brings an end to the secretive Soviet-era Buran project, which was the Soviet military’s answer to (and near-copy of) the American Space Shuttle fleet. Even though a second orbiter, Ptichka, is almost complete, and three others are in various stages of construction, Yeltsin and his advisors see no future for Buran and end the program as a cost-cutting measure. Due to its crash development and cost overruns, the Buran program has only launched a single unmanned shuttle on one orbital flight after the expenditure of the equivalent of $16,000,000,000.
The seventh 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. (The series has already been cancelled at this point; NBC is burning off the remaining episodes in off-season time slots.)
Completely refitted from a lightweight airframe originally fabricated for stress, vibration and thermal testing, Space Shuttle Challenger is rolled out of her Rockwell International assembly plant in Palmdale, California. Experience gained in the construction of Challenger’s sister ship, Columbia, means that the second completed shuttle in the fleet is over one ton lighter than Columbia. Challenger would make her first flight in just under a year.
Nintendo follows up on the hugely successful Donkey Kong arcade game with its first sequel, Donkey Kong Junior. Not only does the new game prove that the original’s success wasn’t a fluke, but it gives Mario his name for the first time (well, his first name) and throws in some role reversal, putting the player in the position of having to save Donkey Kong, who was the first game’s nemesis.
After spending a month writing drafts of the same basic story, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry completes the final draft of a live-action script simply titled Star Trek II, though later publications will refer to this script as The God Thing. The script shares many basic structural similarities with the later Star Trek: The Motion Picture, including sweeping upgrades to the Enterprise, Kirk’s promotion out of the captain’s chair, Spock’s return to Vulcan to pursue a purge of his human emotions, and an alien force of unknown power approaching Earth. There, however, the similarities end, as the story depicts an alien entity taking over the minds of Starfleet officers, who begin reciting prayers and exhibiting dangerous degrees of religious zealotry. Kirk and his senior officers, of course, remain unaffected, and disobey the orders of their possessed superiors to save Earth, only to discover that the “God” entity is an alien being which has been influencing human development for thousands of years, having last appeared in a guise which inspired the Judeo-Christian belief system. Likely out of fear of offending its potential audience, The God Thing is swiftly rejected by Paramount, though Bantam Books expresses interest in Roddenberry novelizing his own unused script. Work on that novelization comes to a halt in 1977 as Roddenberry begins work on a prospective Star Trek TV revival, and though other authors will attempt to adapt Roddenberry’s script – including Walter Koenig, Susan Sackett and Fred Bronson, and frequent Trek novelist Michael Jan Friedman – The God Thing remains unpublished. Many elements of the story resurface in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
The fourth Planet Of The Apes film, Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes is released in theaters, starring Roddy McDowall, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, and Ricardo Montalban. The Apes film franchise shifts to a near-future setting that picks up the threads of Escape.
BBC2 airs the 49th and final episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of The Unknown. Written by David T. Chantler, the story stars Freddie Jones (Children Of The Stones, Dune). This final episode no longer exists in the BBC’s archives.
After a record-setting 22 day stay about Soviet space station Salyut 1, the crew of Soyuz 11 prepares to return home. As they undock and fire their retro rockets to bring their vehicle out of orbit, Soyuz depressurizes without warning, killing the crew – Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev – within a minute. (The cramped design of the Soyuz cabin makes no allowances for cosmonauts to wear spacesuits.) Soyuz flights will be grounded for two years until the vehicle can be redesigned to prevent another tragedy. Two members of the grounded prime crew, Alexei Leonov (the first man to walk in space) and Valery Kubasov, are later reassigned to the international Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.
British broadcaster ABC airs the first episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of This World. Adapted by Leon Griffiths from a story by Rog Phillips, the story stars Nigel Stock and is introduced by Boris Karloff (in much the same way that Rod Serling introduced episodes of The Twilight Zone). This script will be reused in 1969 during the third season of the BBC’s anthology series Out Of The Unknown, whose original producer, Irene Shubik, is script editor of Out Of This World. This episode no longer exists in the archives.
CBS broadcasts the 12th episode of the anthology series ‘Way Out, hosted by author Roald Dahl. Murray Hamilton (Jaws) and Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) star.
The 51st episode of the syndicated science fiction Science Fiction Theatre airs on stations across the U.S. Hosted by Truman Bradley, the episode stars Arthur Franz and Susan Cummings.
Streaming service Disney Plus releases the fourth episode of Loki, created for TV by Michael Waldron and starring Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Owen Wilson. Richard E. Grant guest stars.
Big Finish releases the audio drama box set Star Cops: Mother Earth 1, including the audio episode Tranquility And Other Illusions, the first official continuation of Chris Boucher’s futuristic 1980s TV police drama Star Cops. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 161st Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Mark Strickson. 
Big Finish Productions releases the sixth Doctor Who audio drama in its Fourth Doctor Adventures range, starring Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 148th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Mark Strickson. 
Big Finish Productions releases the Doctor Who: The Lost Stories audio drama Crime Of The Century, audio versions of scripts that were intended for, but never produced by, Doctor Who on television. Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred star in a story originally intended for the unmade 1990 season of Doctor Who. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 135th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Colin Baker, Wendy Padbury, and Frazer Hines. Alexander Siddig (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Primeval) guest stars. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 122nd Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 20th episode of the new Eighth Doctor Who audio dramas, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 14th episode of the new Eighth Doctor Who audio dramas, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. 
The 739th episode of Doctor Who (the 41st since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Guest starring John Barrowman and John Simm (Life On Mars), this is the final part of a three-part season finale reintroducing the Master, the Doctor’s rival Time Lord from the classic series. Freema Agyeman departs the TARDIS as Martha in this episode, returning as a recurring character the following season. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 83rd Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Paul McGann and India Fisher. 
Big Finish Productions releases the seventh Gallifrey audio drama, a Doctor Who audio spinoff starring Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 70th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford. 
The Daleks are out of the running for the ninth Doctor’s adventures, according to the BBC and Doctor Who‘s new producer, Russell T. Davies. Apparently it’s not just a matter of money either – the estate of Terry Nation (the late creator of the Daleks, Blake’s 7 and other classics of British SF TV) wants editorial input into the Daleks’ use in any new stories. But fear, not, Davies says: “We’re disappointed the Daleks won’t be included but we have a number of new and exciting monsters. And I can confirm we have created a new enemy for the Doctor which will keep viewers on the edge of their seats.”
Big Finish Productions releases the tenth Dalek Empire audio drama, a Doctor Who audio spinoff starring David Tennant and William Gaunt. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 58th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. 
Pay cable channel Showtime premieres the 66th episode of Stargate SG-1. This is the fourth season premiere. 
Showtime airs the 120th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of the 1960s science fiction anthology series. Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5, Tron) guest stars.
TNT airs the fourth episode of J. Michael Straczynski’s short-lived Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade. Gary Graham (Alien Nation) guest stars. 
Ron Howard’s big-screen dramatization of Apollo 13, based on the book Lost Moon co-written by Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell and starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, and Ed Harris, premieres. 
Russian President Boris Yeltsin brings an end to the secretive Soviet-era Buran project, which was the Soviet military’s answer to (and near-copy of) the American Space Shuttle fleet. Even though a second orbiter, Ptichka, is almost complete, and three others are in various stages of construction, Yeltsin and his advisors see no future for Buran and end the program as a cost-cutting measure. Due to its crash development and cost overruns, the Buran program has only launched a single unmanned shuttle on one orbital flight after the expenditure of the equivalent of $16,000,000,000.
The seventh 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. (The series has already been cancelled at this point; NBC is burning off the remaining episodes in off-season time slots.)
ITV airs the 91st episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Carol Lynley (The Poseidon Adventure, The Night Stalker) guest stars.
Completely refitted from a lightweight airframe originally fabricated for stress, vibration and thermal testing, Space Shuttle Challenger is rolled out of her Rockwell International assembly plant in Palmdale, California. Experience gained in the construction of Challenger’s sister ship, Columbia, means that the second completed shuttle in the fleet is over one ton lighter than Columbia. Challenger would make her first flight in just under a year.
Nintendo follows up on the hugely successful Donkey Kong arcade game with its first sequel, Donkey Kong Junior. Not only does the new game prove that the original’s success wasn’t a fluke, but it gives Mario his name for the first time (well, his first name) and throws in some role reversal, putting the player in the position of having to save Donkey Kong, who was the first game’s nemesis. 
After spending a month writing drafts of the same basic story, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry completes the final draft of a live-action script simply titled Star Trek II, though later publications will refer to this script as The God Thing. The script shares many basic structural similarities with the later Star Trek: The Motion Picture, including sweeping upgrades to the Enterprise, Kirk’s promotion out of the captain’s chair, Spock’s return to Vulcan to pursue a purge of his human emotions, and an alien force of unknown power approaching Earth. There, however, the similarities end, as the story depicts an alien entity taking over the minds of Starfleet officers, who begin reciting prayers and exhibiting dangerous degrees of religious zealotry. Kirk and his senior officers, of course, remain unaffected, and disobey the orders of their possessed superiors to save Earth, only to discover that the “God” entity is an alien being which has been influencing human development for thousands of years, having last appeared in a guise which inspired the Judeo-Christian belief system. Likely out of fear of offending its potential audience, The God Thing is swiftly rejected by Paramount, though Bantam Books expresses interest in Roddenberry novelizing his own unused script. Work on that novelization comes to a halt in 1977 as Roddenberry begins work on a prospective Star Trek TV revival, and though other authors will attempt to adapt Roddenberry’s script – including Walter Koenig, Susan Sackett and Fred Bronson, and frequent Trek novelist Michael Jan Friedman – The God Thing remains unpublished. Many elements of the story resurface in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
The fourth Planet Of The Apes film, Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes is released in theaters, starring Roddy McDowall, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, and Ricardo Montalban. The Apes film franchise shifts to a near-future setting that picks up the threads of Escape. 
BBC2 airs the 49th and final episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of The Unknown. Written by David T. Chantler, the story stars Freddie Jones (Children Of The Stones, Dune). This final episode no longer exists in the BBC’s archives.
After a record-setting 22 day stay about Soviet space station Salyut 1, the crew of Soyuz 11 prepares to return home. As they undock and fire their retro rockets to bring their vehicle out of orbit, Soyuz depressurizes without warning, killing the crew – Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev – within a minute. (The cramped design of the Soyuz cabin makes no allowances for cosmonauts to wear spacesuits.) Soyuz flights will be grounded for two years until the vehicle can be redesigned to prevent another tragedy. Two members of the grounded prime crew, Alexei Leonov (the first man to walk in space) and Valery Kubasov, are later reassigned to the international Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.
The second episode of the spy-fi series Adam Adamant Lives! airs on BBC1, starring Gerald Harper and Juliet Harmer.
British broadcaster ABC airs the first episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of This World. Adapted by Leon Griffiths from a story by Rog Phillips, the story stars Nigel Stock and is introduced by Boris Karloff (in much the same way that Rod Serling introduced episodes of The Twilight Zone). This script will be reused in 1969 during the third season of the BBC’s anthology series Out Of The Unknown, whose original producer, Irene Shubik, is script editor of Out Of This World. This episode no longer exists in the archives.
CBS broadcasts the 12th episode of the anthology series ‘Way Out, hosted by author Roald Dahl. Murray Hamilton (Jaws) and Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) star.
The 51st episode of the syndicated science fiction Science Fiction Theatre airs on stations across the U.S. Hosted by Truman Bradley, the episode stars Arthur Franz and Susan Cummings.