Day: March 4, 2007
Sci-Fi Channel airs the Sarah Jane Adventures action figures
British toymaker Character Options releases a wave of three action figure double-packs from the Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures. Made in scale with the company’s popular range of Doctor Who toys, the spinoff characters do not sell well enough to justify the manufacture of a second series of figures.
Leonard Rosenman, film composer, dies
Oscar-winning Film and TV composer Leonard Rosenman dies at the age of 83. Known for such movie scores as East Of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause (both starring James Dean), he also created the music for pivotal SF movies such as Fantastic Voyage, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Ralph Bakshi’s animated rendition of Lord Of The Rings, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and Battle For The Planet Of The Apes. He also scored episodes of TV’s original Twilight Zone, Amazing Stories and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, among a great many others, including National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau specials.
Gary Gygax, D&D creator, dies
The co-creator of the seminal “paper-and-dice” role playing game Dungeons & Dragons dies at the age of 69. Gary Gygax helped to devise the D&D system with Dave Arneson in 1974, and the game instantly took off, with players adoring its simultaneous escapism and complexity, and parents – usually having heard horror stories of a few bad apples – protesting the game vigorously. D&D created its own little empire for publisher TSR Inc., and numerous add-ons and imitations followed (including virtually the entire metal miniature gaming industry), influenced video and computer games, and inspired an animated series (whose production he was involved in) and movies. He still received – and enjoyed – fan mail from avid D&D players past and present.
GOES-15
NOAA’s GOES-15 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral into geosynchronous orbit to monitor weather patterns over the United States. In accordance with NOAA’s policy of having standby weather satellites already in orbit before their predecessors are decommissioned, GOES-15 is held in reserve until late 2011, when it will become the primary GOES-WEST satellite. It remains in orbit on active weather-watching duty.
Tony Dyson, Star Wars droid builder, dies
The designer and builder of the original R2-D2 props/costumes for Star Wars, roboticist and former toy designer Professor Tony Dyson, is found dead in Malta. Using Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork as his guide, Dyson built eight full-size R2 units for the 1977 film, some of them remote-controlled marvels of electronics, and others hollow shells to be operated by actor Kenny Baker. Dyson’s other film credits included Superman II and the James Bond film Moonraker. He provided other specialized droids for the original trilogy, and later formed a droid builders’ club in the UK, though he was legally forbidden by Lucasfilm to use his original 1976 design specifications. Some of his proteges went on to build R2 units for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Mr. Dyson was 68.
Star Wars Rebels: Secret Cargo
Cable channel Disney XD airs the 52nd episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels. Lars Mikkelsen (House Of Cards, Sherlock) and Genevieve O’Reilly (reprising her role of Mon Mothma from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) guest star.
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Star Wars: Rebels now streaming on Amazon Prime
Arrow: Brothers & Sisters
The 152nd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW.
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Luke Perry, actor, dies
Actor Luke Perry, at the time a current regular on the CW’s Riverdale series and a former teen heartthrob from his years as one of the stars of Fox’s Beverly Hills 90210 throughout the 1990s, dies at the age of 52 several days after suffering from a major stroke. Among his many high-profile series roles were HBO’s acclaimed prison drama Oz, and the starring role in Jeremiah, Showtime’s early 21st century adaptation of a popular post-apocalyptic comic book, adapted by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. He also had a minor part in the 1997 genre cult classic The Fifth Element, and was one of the stars of the 1992 movie Buffy The Vampire Slayer, upon which the later TV series was based. His first TV role – albeit uncredited – was in an episode of 1982’s short-lived time travel series Voyagers!.
More about Jeremiah in the LogBook and theLogBook.com Store
Jeremiah now streaming on Amazon Prime