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Movies Star Wars

Star Wars: The Comic

The Star WarsMarvel Comics begins shipping the first issue of its six-issue adaptation of George Lucas’ upcoming film Star Wars, with Lucas reaping the rewards of the licensing arrangement directly since 20th Century Fox has allowed him to keep all merchandising rights to the yet-to-premiere movie. Adapted from the screenplay and edited by Roy Thomas, with artwork by Howard Chaykin, lettering by Jim Novak and colors by Marie Severin, the first six issues offer an interesting visual take on a universe whose visuals were not finished enough for the artist to view ahead of time. After the six issue movie tie-in, Thomas and Chaykin would begin concocting the budding franchise’s first-ever non-film storylines.

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Radio & Audio

Don’t Panic

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyWith the BBC giving his creation a late-night time slot indicating that they don’t really know what to do with it, Douglas Adams bursts onto the scene with the premiere of his radio series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Another attempt at mixing comedy and science fiction, Adams’ densely-worded style of wit catches on with an audience that’s never heard anything like it before. Hitchhiker’s Guide goes on to conquer nearly every medium exposed to it in the years to come.

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Columbia Crewed Spaceflight Space Shuttle

Columbia completed (almost)

ColumbiaSpace Shuttle Columbia is officially rolled out of the Rockwell International construction facility in Palmdale, California, even though her outer “skin” is still unfinished – NASA technicians continue working on perfecting the first spaceworthy shuttle’s thermal tiles for much of the next year, delaying the first launch until sometime in 1981 (just another in a series of delays for a vehicle that had been intended to fly as early as 1977).

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Communications Music Science & Technology

The Compact Disc

Comapct DiscFollowing five years of research and development, Netherlands-based Philips Electronics demonstrates one of the earliest iterations of the compact audio disc, an optical disc in the now-familiar five-inch size which can be read by a CD player with a laser diode. Philips and Sony, who have been developing the new medium in parallel, will later join forces and create a standard for audio compact discs in 1980, introducing the CD as a consumer product in the early 1980s despite resistance from record companies with a vested interest in vinyl LPs (and only a begrudging acceptance of audio cassettes). In addition to higher audio fidelity and a more durable medium (an optical disc encased in a plastic shell, protecting the physical surface that is so often damaged with vinyl), the CD and its player can also compensate for any damage suffered by the disc through error correction.

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Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: Earthshock, Part 1

Doctor WhoThe 572nd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. What most fans don’t realize, thanks to a carefully coordinated reveal, is that Earthshock is the first Cyberman story since 1975’s Revenge Of The Cybermen. The Cybermen are only seen at the end of part one, and producer John Nathan-Turner declines the potentially valuable offer of a Radio Times magazine front cover in order to preserve the surprise.

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Video Games

Emerson Arcadia 2001

Arcadia 2001Emerson, an American radio and telvision manufacturer that has shown no previous interest in the video game boom, releases its own console, the Emerson Arcadia 2001. Intended to be a serious challenger to the Atari VCS and Intellivision, the Arcadia 2001 has limited graphics capabilities and a limited library boasting relatively generic sports games and knock-offs of popular arcade games, as well as a few incredibly obscure licensed arcade ports.

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Television

Dark Shadows: Episode Ten

Dark ShadowsThe tenth episode of a modern reboot of Dan Curtis’ gothic horror series Dark Shadows is broadcast on NBC, starring Ben Cross, Lysette Anthony, Roy Thinnes (The Invaders), and Jean Simmons.

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Television

The Tomorrow People: The Monsoon Man – Part 5

The Tomorrow PeopleThe 15th episode of Roger Price’s rebooted science fiction series The Tomorrow People is broadcast on ITV in the U.K. (and will appear later on Nickelodeon in North America), starring Kristian Schmid, Naomie Harris (Spyfall), and Christian Tessier. Christopher Benjamin (Doctor Who) and Mac McDonald (Red Dwarf) guest star in the second season finale.

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Television

The Tomorrow People: The Living Stones – Part 5

The Tomorrow PeopleThe 25th and final episode of Roger Price’s rebooted science fiction series The Tomorrow People is broadcast on ITV in the U.K. (and will appear later on Nickelodeon in North America), starring Kristian Schmid, Alexandra Milman, and Christian Tessier. Clive Merrison and Danny John-Jules (Red Dwarf) guest star. After this series, The Tomorrow People will be revived in the 21st century for an American audience, as well as a series of Big Finish audios continuing the adventures of the 1970s series’ cast of characters.

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Television

Crime Traveller: Death In The Family

Crime TravellerThe second episode of the time-travel/crime series Crime Traveller is broadcast on BBC1, created and written by Anthony Horowitz (Foyle’s War), starring Michael French (Casualty) and Chloe Annett (Red Dwarf). Mary Tamm (Doctor Who) guest stars.

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Crewed Spaceflight Discovery International Space Station Space Shuttle

STS-102 / ISS Expedition 2

Space ShuttleSpace Shuttle Discovery lifts off on the 103rd shuttle flight, a mission to exchange crewmembers aboard the International Space Station. In the cargo bay is a logistics module containing consumables, supplies, and equipment racks to be installed in the Destiny laboratory module. Aboard Discovery for her 29th flight are Commander James Wetherbee, Pilot James Kelly, mission specialists Andrew Thomas and Paul Richards, and ISS Expedition 2 crewmembers James Voss, Susan Helms and Yuriy Usachev. The Expedition 1 crewmembers (William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev) return to Earth aboard the shuttle.