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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. It features Lee Marvin in front of a high-tech viewscreen, but this is no starship – Gene-ology opens its investigation into a very unusual foray into "true crime" with Gene Roddenberry adapting the particulars of a notorious Seattle murder case into dramatic form. It's also a career milestone for Gene: the last script he would write for a show that he didn't also create. 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 "Queen Anne Killer Unidentified: The Michael Olds Story". 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. 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 Paramount Plus abruptly announces that the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy, created by Dan & Kevin Hageman, will be leaving the service a week after the announcement, at the end of June. The second season, deep into the post-production process, will be completed, and an attempt will be made to sell both the first and second seasons to another distribution outlet (though, as with recent cancellations on other streaming services, there is also a possibility of the show being shelved entirely as a tax write-down). After the announcement that Star Trek: Discovery’s upcoming fifth season will be its last, Prodigy is the second Star Trek series to be cancelled in 2023. (It is one of several shows to leave Paramount Plus on extremely short notice at the end of June.)
Streaming service Disney Plus releases the third episode of Loki, created for TV by Michael Waldron and starring Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
Former actress Jackie Lane, who portrayed the first Doctor’s companion, Dodo Chaplet, in the third season of Doctor Who opposite William Hartnell, dies at the age of 79. One of the actresses originally considered for the role of Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, at the beginning the series, Ms. Lane wasn’t offered a role until the show entered its third season. The character of Dodo was rather abruptly introduced at the end of part four of The Massacre, and then is not seen again after the end of part 4 of The War Machines, presumably having decided to stay on Earth in her native time period, though the character’s fate is never specified; in real life, her contract was allowed to expire with no attempt made to keep her in the series. Burned by that experience, she retired from acting and became an agent, representing fellow Doctor Who stars Tom Baker and Janet Fielding during that phase of her career. Though she appeared in a handful of DVD bonus features covering her time on Doctor Who, she chose to stay out of the convention ecosystem, resisting offers to make public appearances.
The 738th episode of Doctor Who (the 40th since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Guest starring John Barrowman and John Simm (Life On Mars), this is the second part of a three-part season finale reintroducing the Master, the Doctor’s rival Time Lord from the classic series. This episode offers the first glimpse of the Time Lords – in full classic series regalia – since the beginning of the new Doctor Who series.
Premium cable channel Showtime airs the 39th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The X-Files) and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest star.
Premium cable channel Showtime airs the 14th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Richard Thomas (The Waltons) guest stars.
Despite plans having recently been expanded with international partnerships, including the Russian space program, the International Space Station comes within a single vote of being cancelled altogether in the United States House of Representatives. The measure to cancel the program is added to NASA’s authorization bill, which comes up for an annual vote; the measure is brought to the House floor by Indiana Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer and New Jersey Republican Rep. Richard Zimmer. Opposition to the space station comes in the form of budget concerns (the $9,000,000,000 already run up in research and construction is more than the total NASA expected to spend when it was directed to build, launch, and staff the station during the Reagan administration). Opponents of the station keep up their attempts to cancel it, however; a vote is later held for a bill that would strip NASA of station funding, effectively ending the program, and that vote also fails. The program survives by a wider margin in a later Senate vote as well. The same session of Congress does prove to be the end of another major scientific endeavour, the Superconducting Supercollider project already under construction in Texas.
Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, featuring the song “The Moon’s A Window To Heaven” performed by Hiroshima (though it’s a version of the song that isn’t featured in the movie itself).
A leading NASA climate scientist, Dr. James E. Hansen, addresses the United States Congress with a warning: the past five months of 1988, the hottest months in the history of weather records, are the beginning of a dangerous trend in Earth’s climate history, and studies conducted by experts show that the cause is increasing man-made pollution. Though Hansen’s claims will continue to be debated for decades (while only slow progress is made in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in that same time), the five-month period in question will not be the last consecutive stretch of rising worldwide temperatures.
Broderbund Software introduces the earliest versions of Doug Smith’s computer game Lode Runner, including the Atari Home Computer version. Inspired by the obscure arcade game Space Panic, Lode Runner gives players a weapon that digs rather than directly disabling enemies. A game franchise spanning multiple platforms and decades is spawned.
The ongoing race to improve arcade game graphics takes a sudden turn with the introduction of the first laserdisc-driven game to hit arcades, Dragon’s Lair. Featuring animation by former Disney protege Don Bluth, and a branching structure that depends heavily on players performing the right actions at just the right times, Dragon’s Lair is rigid in game play, but breathtaking in beauty; most arcade operators set the price for a single game at 50 cents just to offset the cost of the machine – and players gladly wait in line just to watch others guide Dirk the Daring through the castle.
Broderbund Software introduces the earliest versions of Doug Smith’s computer game Lode Runner, including the Apple II version. Inspired by the obscure arcade game Space Panic, Lode Runner gives players a weapon that digs rather than directly disabling enemies. A game franchise spanning multiple platforms and decades is spawned.
Following a communications blackout scare in April 1978, JPL uploads an autonomous command sequence to the Voyager 2 unmanned space probe, which would allow the spacecraft to carry out a self-guided mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the results of which would automatically be transmitted to Earth even if Voyager 2 can receive no further instructions from Earth. Due to the command storage limitations of Voyager 2’s onboard computer, this automatic backup mission plan makes no allowances for pictures of Jupiter, saving that capability for Saturn instead. In the event that Voyager 2 can no longer hear commands from Earth, the extended mission to Uranus and Neptune would be forfeited in favor of “minimum science return” from Jupiter and Saturn.
20th Century Fox files a lawsuit against Hollywood rival Universal Pictures over Universal’s upcoming made-for-TV science fiction saga Battlestar Galactica, which 20th Century Fox contends is a copy of its theatrical smash hit Star Wars. Specificially, the studio behind Star Wars claims that the television series infringes on the script for Star Wars, and requests an injunction to bring production to a halt and keep ABC from airing it. The first decision in the case won’t happen until 1980, by which time Battlestar Galactica will already have ended its TV run.
The MGM movie Logan’s Run premieres, starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter, and based on the science fiction novel of the same name by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Set in an unspecified future, Logan’s Run depicts a world where citizens of a domed society must be euthanized at the age of 30 (21 in the original novel), supposedly to alleviate overpopulation; those who try to avoid this fate are labeled runners, to be pursued by armed Sandmen. Logan is a Sandman who finds himself running as his 30th birthday approaches. A television version follows in 1977, though without any of the movie’s cast.
The 355th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This episode closes the series’ tenth season on the air, and is the last to feature Katy Manning as the Doctor’s companion, Jo Grant. The character doesn’t resurface until a 2010 episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
With planning already well underway for the Apollo-Soyuz mission which won’t take place until 1975, NASA commissions a study from McDonnell Douglas to explore the feasibility of a follow-up to the international space mission, possibly involving joining the backup of the Skylab space station (known as “Skylab B”) and a yet-to-be-launched Soviet Salyut space station at some point in the latter half of the 1970s, effectively creating a joint international space station. Although the study goes so far as to specify issues of concern regarding the structure of the two stations and their respective standard atmospheric pressures, the recommendations are shelved pending the outcome of the Apollo-Soyuz flight. Significant political developments in the late 1970s will prevent the idea of an international station from moving forward for at least a quarter century.
BBC2 airs the 48th episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of The Unknown. Written by Michael J. Bird, the story stars John Nettleton and June Ellis. This episode no longer exists in the BBC’s archives.
The 50th episode of the syndicated science fiction Science Fiction Theatre airs on stations across the U.S. Hosted by Truman Bradley, the episode stars Marshall Thompson and Virginia Christine.
Streaming service Paramount Plus abruptly announces that the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy, created by Dan & Kevin Hageman, will be leaving the service a week after the announcement, at the end of June. The second season, deep into the post-production process, will be completed, and an attempt will be made to sell both the first and second seasons to another distribution outlet (though, as with recent cancellations on other streaming services, there is also a possibility of the show being shelved entirely as a tax write-down). After the announcement that Star Trek: Discovery’s upcoming fifth season will be its last, Prodigy is the second Star Trek series to be cancelled in 2023. (It is one of several shows to leave Paramount Plus on extremely short notice at the end of June.)
Streaming service Disney Plus releases the third episode of Loki, created for TV by Michael Waldron and starring Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
Former actress Jackie Lane, who portrayed the first Doctor’s companion, Dodo Chaplet, in the third season of Doctor Who opposite William Hartnell, dies at the age of 79. One of the actresses originally considered for the role of Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, at the beginning the series, Ms. Lane wasn’t offered a role until the show entered its third season. The character of Dodo was rather abruptly introduced at the end of part four of The Massacre, and then is not seen again after the end of part 4 of The War Machines, presumably having decided to stay on Earth in her native time period, though the character’s fate is never specified; in real life, her contract was allowed to expire with no attempt made to keep her in the series. Burned by that experience, she retired from acting and became an agent, representing fellow Doctor Who stars Tom Baker and Janet Fielding during that phase of her career. Though she appeared in a handful of DVD bonus features covering her time on Doctor Who, she chose to stay out of the convention ecosystem, resisting offers to make public appearances.
BBC Radio 4 airs the factual radio program On The Outside, It Looked Like An Old-Fashioned Police Box, hosted by Mark Gatiss, a brief history of the Target Books novelizations of classic Doctor Who episodes. 
Sire Records releases Regina Spektor‘s fifth album, Far. 
Big Finish Productions releases the 109th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy. 
The 738th episode of Doctor Who (the 40th since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Guest starring John Barrowman and John Simm (Life On Mars), this is the second part of a three-part season finale reintroducing the Master, the Doctor’s rival Time Lord from the classic series. This episode offers the first glimpse of the Time Lords – in full classic series regalia – since the beginning of the new Doctor Who series. 
Sci-Fi Channel premieres the 30th episode of Farscape. 
TNT airs the third episode of J. Michael Straczynski’s short-lived Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade. Michael Beck (Xanadu) guest stars. 
Renaissance Records releases Joined Like Notes, an album by Bill Mumy (Lost In Space, Babylon 5), including a song chronicling the further adventures of Mumy’s Lost In Space character. 
Premium cable channel Showtime airs the 39th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The X-Files) and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest star.
Despite plans having recently been expanded with international partnerships, including the Russian space program, the International Space Station comes within a single vote of being cancelled altogether in the United States House of Representatives. The measure to cancel the program is added to NASA’s authorization bill, which comes up for an annual vote; the measure is brought to the House floor by Indiana Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer and New Jersey Republican Rep. Richard Zimmer. Opposition to the space station comes in the form of budget concerns (the $9,000,000,000 already run up in research and construction is more than the total NASA expected to spend when it was directed to build, launch, and staff the station during the Reagan administration). Opponents of the station keep up their attempts to cancel it, however; a vote is later held for a bill that would strip NASA of station funding, effectively ending the program, and that vote also fails. The program survives by a wider margin in a later Senate vote as well. The same session of Congress does prove to be the end of another major scientific endeavour, the Superconducting Supercollider project already under construction in Texas.
A leading NASA climate scientist, Dr. James E. Hansen, addresses the United States Congress with a warning: the past five months of 1988, the hottest months in the history of weather records, are the beginning of a dangerous trend in Earth’s climate history, and studies conducted by experts show that the cause is increasing man-made pollution. Though Hansen’s claims will continue to be debated for decades (while only slow progress is made in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in that same time), the five-month period in question will not be the last consecutive stretch of rising worldwide temperatures.
Broderbund Software introduces the earliest versions of Doug Smith’s computer game Lode Runner, including the Atari Home Computer version. Inspired by the obscure arcade game Space Panic, Lode Runner gives players a weapon that digs rather than directly disabling enemies. A game franchise spanning multiple platforms and decades is spawned. 
The ongoing race to improve arcade game graphics takes a sudden turn with the introduction of the first laserdisc-driven game to hit arcades, Dragon’s Lair. Featuring animation by former Disney protege Don Bluth, and a branching structure that depends heavily on players performing the right actions at just the right times, Dragon’s Lair is rigid in game play, but breathtaking in beauty; most arcade operators set the price for a single game at 50 cents just to offset the cost of the machine – and players gladly wait in line just to watch others guide Dirk the Daring through the castle. 
Following a communications blackout scare in April 1978, JPL uploads an autonomous command sequence to the Voyager 2 unmanned space probe, which would allow the spacecraft to carry out a self-guided mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the results of which would automatically be transmitted to Earth even if Voyager 2 can receive no further instructions from Earth. Due to the command storage limitations of Voyager 2’s onboard computer, this automatic backup mission plan makes no allowances for pictures of Jupiter, saving that capability for Saturn instead. In the event that Voyager 2 can no longer hear commands from Earth, the extended mission to Uranus and Neptune would be forfeited in favor of “minimum science return” from Jupiter and Saturn.
20th Century Fox files a lawsuit against Hollywood rival Universal Pictures over Universal’s upcoming made-for-TV science fiction saga Battlestar Galactica, which 20th Century Fox contends is a copy of its theatrical smash hit Star Wars. Specificially, the studio behind Star Wars claims that the television series infringes on the script for Star Wars, and requests an injunction to bring production to a halt and keep ABC from airing it. The first decision in the case won’t happen until 1980, by which time Battlestar Galactica will already have ended its TV run.
The MGM movie Logan’s Run premieres, starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter, and based on the science fiction novel of the same name by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Set in an unspecified future, Logan’s Run depicts a world where citizens of a domed society must be euthanized at the age of 30 (21 in the original novel), supposedly to alleviate overpopulation; those who try to avoid this fate are labeled runners, to be pursued by armed Sandmen. Logan is a Sandman who finds himself running as his 30th birthday approaches. A television version follows in 1977, though without any of the movie’s cast. 
The 355th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This episode closes the series’ tenth season on the air, and is the last to feature Katy Manning as the Doctor’s companion, Jo Grant. The character doesn’t resurface until a 2010 episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
With planning already well underway for the Apollo-Soyuz mission which won’t take place until 1975, NASA commissions a study from McDonnell Douglas to explore the feasibility of a follow-up to the international space mission, possibly involving joining the backup of the Skylab space station (known as “Skylab B”) and a yet-to-be-launched Soviet Salyut space station at some point in the latter half of the 1970s, effectively creating a joint international space station. Although the study goes so far as to specify issues of concern regarding the structure of the two stations and their respective standard atmospheric pressures, the recommendations are shelved pending the outcome of the Apollo-Soyuz flight. Significant political developments in the late 1970s will prevent the idea of an international station from moving forward for at least a quarter century.
BBC2 airs the 48th episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of The Unknown. Written by Michael J. Bird, the story stars John Nettleton and June Ellis. This episode no longer exists in the BBC’s archives.
The first episode of the spy-fi series Adam Adamant Lives! premieres on BBC1, starring Gerald Harper and Juliet Harmer. 
CBS broadcasts the 11th episode of the anthology series ‘Way Out, hosted by author Roald Dahl. Woodrow Parfrey (Time Express) stars.
The 50th episode of the syndicated science fiction Science Fiction Theatre airs on stations across the U.S. Hosted by Truman Bradley, the episode stars Marshall Thompson and Virginia Christine.