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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.
The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches the unmanned SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) spacecraft to orbit Earth’s moon. SELENE is nicknamed Kaguya after a princess of the moon from Japanese folklore. Kaguya is scheduled to enter a polar lunar orbit in October, where it will conduct experiments in spectography, radio science, and charged particle and gamma ray detection. Though Kaguya has an on-board camera to map lunar terrain, the views for which it will become most famous will be shot by two HDTV cameras supplied by Japanese television network NHK, providing spectacular views of the lunar surface as they would be seen by an orbiting explorer.
The fourth webisode of Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, a serialized story set immediately prior to the third season of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel’s website.
Russia launches the Pirs docking module into orbit, where automatic systems allow it to rendezvous with the International Space Station for docking to the existing Zvezda module. The Pirs module adds a docking port for Soyuz capsules, as well as an airlock for future spacewalks.
The fifth episode of the Sci-Fi Channel original series Welcome To Paradox airs, a loosely-connected anthology of science fiction stories set in Betaville, a utopian future city whose incredible technology has frequently unintended side-effects. Samantha Ferris (The 4400) and Megan Leitch (The X-Files) star in a story based on the work of author “James Tiptree Jr.” (the pseudonym of late SF author Alice Bradley Sheldon).
NASA’s unmanned Magellan space probe, having completed three extensive campaigns of mapping the surface of Venus from orbit with cloud-penetrating radar, begins a fourth mission phase, this time sending constant engineering telemetry to Earth, where measurements of Doppler shift in the signal received allows Earthbound scientists to map the gravitational field of Venus. Magellan’s map-making days are over, having achieved a 98% complete map of the cloud-shrouded planet that it has been orbiting since 1990.
Completely unrelated to the brief series of toys released by Galoob durign the show’s first season, Playmates Toys begins to release a larger-scale series of action figures based on Star Trek: The Next Generation in late 1992, as the series’ sixth season is launched (and has become a TV favorite). The initial assortment of ten characters, a combination of Enterprise crewmembers and enemies for them to fight, is released, complete with copious accessories to make them popular with kids. But Playmates – whose biggest toy license previously has been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – quickly finds that it has a new hit toy line on its hands, but the buyers are older than anticipated.
The 657th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The 24th season also opens the era of the seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy. Kate O’Mara guest stars as the Rani.
The tenth episode of Star Blazers, an English rewrite and dub of the 1974 anime series Space Battleship Yamato, premieres in syndication across the U.S.
Cinematronics introduces the first vector graphics arcade game, Space Wars, designed and programmed by Larry Rosenthal, using Rosenthal’s “Vectorbeam” technology. The game is based on the 1960s mainframe game Spacewar!. The high-resolution vector graphics technology, which offers better graphics (at the cost of limiting them to black & white displays), becomes an arcade mainstay as other manufacturers such as Atari and Sega begin using similar displays.
The superhero TV movie-of-the-week Spider-Man airs on CBS, starring Nicholas Hammond (The Sound Of Music) and David White (Bewitched). Based on the Marvel comic of the same name, Spider-Man tells the origin story of Peter Parker, a young man who gains superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Heavily promoted at the height of the character’s comics popularity, the movie does well in the ratings, but due to its effects budget, CBS is only willing to approve a short run of hour-long episodes for the following year.
The 36th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Lindsay Wagner guest stars in the third season premiere; Martin E. Brooks joins the cast, taking over the role of Dr. Rudy Wells.
The second episode of Land Of The Lost premieres on NBC. This episode, written by David Gerrold, introduces the show’s primarily recurring villains, the reptilian Sleestaks.
Astronomer Charles Kowal discovers Leda, a tiny, previously undiscovered moon of Jupiter, using Mount Palomar Observatory’s telescope. With a radius of less than seven miles and an inclined orbit, Leda is the first Jovian moon discovered in over two decades, and is among the last to be discovered using ground-based telescopes in the 20th century.
ABC premieres the first episode of the Filmation animated series Fantastic Voyage, based on the 1966 movie of the same name. Marvin Miller, Ted Knight, and Jane Webb lead the voice cast.
The 30th episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris. This is the beginning of Lost In Space’s second season, and is the first episode of the series to be broadcast in color. Strother Martin guest stars.
The first episode of Irwin Allen’s adventure series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea premieres on ABC, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison, based on Allen’s 1961 movie of the same name. Eddie Albert guest stars in the series pilot, which was filmed in color, though the first season proper will be produced in black & white, and the pilot is broadcast in black & white as well.
NBC premieres the first episode of the military drama The Lieutenant, created and produced by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and starring Gary Lockwood (2001: a space odyssey) and Robert Vaughn (The Man From UNCLE). Bill Bixby (The Magician, The Incredible Hulk) guest stars.
The first episode of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based on Wells’ story, premieres on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. on CBS. Lisa Daniely and Deborah Watling (Doctor Who) star.
The seventh episode of ABC’s science fiction anthology series, Tales Of Tomorrow, air on ABC, with each episode’s opening titles proclaiming that the series is produced “in cooperation with the Science-Fiction League of America”, a collective of sci-fi writers including Isaac Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon among its members. This episode, based on a story by Charles Sheckley, no longer remains in the archives and may be lost.
Silva Screen Record releases an expanded edition of Peter Howell’s soundtrack from the 1983 Doctor Who 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors, including music from both the original 1983 broadcast version and the additional material from the extended home video version. 
Silva Screen Records releases Don Harper’s soundtrack from the 1968 Doctor Who story The Invasion. 
The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches the unmanned SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) spacecraft to orbit Earth’s moon. SELENE is nicknamed Kaguya after a princess of the moon from Japanese folklore. Kaguya is scheduled to enter a polar lunar orbit in October, where it will conduct experiments in spectography, radio science, and charged particle and gamma ray detection. Though Kaguya has an on-board camera to map lunar terrain, the views for which it will become most famous will be shot by two HDTV cameras supplied by Japanese television network NHK, providing spectacular views of the lunar surface as they would be seen by an orbiting explorer.
The fourth webisode of Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, a serialized story set immediately prior to the third season of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel’s website. 
Russia launches the Pirs docking module into orbit, where automatic systems allow it to rendezvous with the International Space Station for docking to the existing Zvezda module. The Pirs module adds a docking port for Soyuz capsules, as well as an airlock for future spacewalks.
The fifth episode of the Sci-Fi Channel original series Welcome To Paradox airs, a loosely-connected anthology of science fiction stories set in Betaville, a utopian future city whose incredible technology has frequently unintended side-effects. Samantha Ferris (The 4400) and Megan Leitch (The X-Files) star in a story based on the work of author “James Tiptree Jr.” (the pseudonym of late SF author Alice Bradley Sheldon).
NASA’s unmanned Magellan space probe, having completed three extensive campaigns of mapping the surface of Venus from orbit with cloud-penetrating radar, begins a fourth mission phase, this time sending constant engineering telemetry to Earth, where measurements of Doppler shift in the signal received allows Earthbound scientists to map the gravitational field of Venus. Magellan’s map-making days are over, having achieved a 98% complete map of the cloud-shrouded planet that it has been orbiting since 1990.
Completely unrelated to the brief series of toys released by Galoob durign the show’s first season, Playmates Toys begins to release a larger-scale series of action figures based on Star Trek: The Next Generation in late 1992, as the series’ sixth season is launched (and has become a TV favorite). The initial assortment of ten characters, a combination of Enterprise crewmembers and enemies for them to fight, is released, complete with copious accessories to make them popular with kids. But Playmates – whose biggest toy license previously has been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – quickly finds that it has a new hit toy line on its hands, but the buyers are older than anticipated. 
The 657th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The 24th season also opens the era of the seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy. Kate O’Mara guest stars as the Rani.
ABC broadcasts the second episode of the animated Star Wars spinoff series Droids, featuring the voice of Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. 
The tenth episode of Star Blazers, an English rewrite and dub of the 1974 anime series Space Battleship Yamato, premieres in syndication across the U.S. 
Cinematronics introduces the first vector graphics arcade game, Space Wars, designed and programmed by Larry Rosenthal, using Rosenthal’s “Vectorbeam” technology. The game is based on the 1960s mainframe game Spacewar!. The high-resolution vector graphics technology, which offers better graphics (at the cost of limiting them to black & white displays), becomes an arcade mainstay as other manufacturers such as Atari and Sega begin using similar displays. 
The superhero TV movie-of-the-week Spider-Man airs on CBS, starring Nicholas Hammond (The Sound Of Music) and David White (Bewitched). Based on the Marvel comic of the same name, Spider-Man tells the origin story of Peter Parker, a young man who gains superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Heavily promoted at the height of the character’s comics popularity, the movie does well in the ratings, but due to its effects budget, CBS is only willing to approve a short run of hour-long episodes for the following year. 
The 36th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Lindsay Wagner guest stars in the third season premiere; Martin E. Brooks joins the cast, taking over the role of Dr. Rudy Wells.
The 18th episode of the animated Star Trek series on NBC. The episode is written by The Trouble With Tribbles writer David Gerrold. 
The second episode of Land Of The Lost premieres on NBC. This episode, written by David Gerrold, introduces the show’s primarily recurring villains, the reptilian Sleestaks. 
The second episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring Jackson Bostwick, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. 
Astronomer Charles Kowal discovers Leda, a tiny, previously undiscovered moon of Jupiter, using Mount Palomar Observatory’s telescope. With a radius of less than seven miles and an inclined orbit, Leda is the first Jovian moon discovered in over two decades, and is among the last to be discovered using ground-based telescopes in the 20th century.
The 215th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Bernard Horsfall guest stars. 
ABC premieres the first episode of the Filmation animated series Fantastic Voyage, based on the 1966 movie of the same name. Marvin Miller, Ted Knight, and Jane Webb lead the voice cast.
The 30th episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris. This is the beginning of Lost In Space’s second season, and is the first episode of the series to be broadcast in color. Strother Martin guest stars.
The 37th episode of Batman airs on ABC. Julie Newmar guest stars as Catwoman. 
The first episode of Irwin Allen’s adventure series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea premieres on ABC, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison, based on Allen’s 1961 movie of the same name. Eddie Albert guest stars in the series pilot, which was filmed in color, though the first season proper will be produced in black & white, and the pilot is broadcast in black & white as well.
NBC premieres the first episode of the military drama The Lieutenant, created and produced by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and starring Gary Lockwood (2001: a space odyssey) and Robert Vaughn (The Man From UNCLE). Bill Bixby (The Magician, The Incredible Hulk) guest stars. 
The 38th and final episode of the science fiction drama series Men Into Space airs on CBS, starring William Lundigan.
The first episode of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based on Wells’ story, premieres on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. on CBS. Lisa Daniely and Deborah Watling (Doctor Who) star.
The seventh episode of ABC’s science fiction anthology series, Tales Of Tomorrow, air on ABC, with each episode’s opening titles proclaiming that the series is produced “in cooperation with the Science-Fiction League of America”, a collective of sci-fi writers including Isaac Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon among its members. This episode, based on a story by Charles Sheckley, no longer remains in the archives and may be lost.