Categories
Television

Future Cop

Future CopThe TV movie-of-the-week Future Cop airs on ABC, starring Ernest Borgnine (McHale’s Navy), Michael J. Shannon, and John Amos (Good Times), involving a veteran LAPD cop who is assigned a rookie trainee who turns out to be an android. The movie achieves a high enough rating to return as a short-lived series in 1977, though the show will also become the subject of a lawsuit over its premise.

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Crewed Spaceflight Enterprise Space Shuttle

Enterprise rolls out to the pad

EnterpriseThe Space Shuttle Enterprise, a full-sized, full-weight test article not intended for orbital flight, is mated to an external tank and a pair of solid rocket boosters and rolled out to Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral for engineering fit-checks of the redesigned launch pad (a hand-me-down from the Apollo era, where the same pad had launched all but one of the Saturn V rockets). Enterprise remains on the pad for over a month, providing the first photo opportunity of the full-size shuttle launch stack in all of its glory.

Categories
Computers

Small area networks on microcomputers

Corvus OmniNetCorvus Systems, makers of hard disk drives for the Apple II and other microcomputers, releases the Corvus OmniNet, the first local area networking hardware/software bundle aimed at small businesses, schools, and even high-end home users. Since Corvus’ 5 and 10 megabyte hard disk drives for the Apple II had initial price tags in the $5,000 range, Corvus also created the OmniNet hub to allow small businesses and schools to maximize that investment by allowing multiple computers to access it. Forseeing the future of the business market, Corvus also makes OmniNet cards for the IBM PC. Though Ethernet is already in use at this time, its expensive hardware and installation is generally limited to large business customers.

Categories
Books

Star Wars: Heir To The Empire

Heir To The EmpireAfter much pre-publicity billing it as – at long last – the Lucasfilm-authorized continuation of the storyline, Timothy Zahn’s novel “Star Wars: Heir To The Empire” is released by Bantam Books. Introducing Grand Admiral Thrawn, Talon Karrde and Mara Jade, among other characters later regarded by fans as mission-critical to the overall Star Wars storyline, the book also introduces the former Imperial capitol world Coruscant (a rare bit of naming that originates in non-movie media and is later carried over to “official” media). The first of a trilogy of novels, “Heir” forces its way to the top of the bestseller lists.

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Television

Space Precinct: Deathwatch – Part 2

Space PrecinctThe week-long American syndication window opens for the 24th and final episode of Gerry Anderson’s sci-fi police series Space Precinct. With the series’ continuation dependent upon its American ratings, Space Precinct is not renewed for a second season after it fails to carve out a niche in a very crowded genre field in syndication. The series will air later in the UK.

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Space Precinct now streaming on Shout! Factory

Categories
Television

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Tough Love

Buffy The Vampire SlayerThe 97th episode of Joss Whedon’s supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on the WB network. James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, and Alyson Hannigan also star. Clare Kramer guest stars.

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Television

Dark Angel: I And I Am A Camera

Dark AngelThe 18th episode of James Cameron & Charles H. Eglee’s cyberpunk series Dark Angel, starring Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly, airs on Fox. Rainn Wilson (The Office, Star Trek: Discovery) and Nana Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) guest star.

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Deaths Doctor Who Matters of Life & Death Television

John-Nathan Turner, Doctor Who producer, dies

JNTThe man who could arguably be considered the most high-profile (and controversial) producer of 20th century Doctor Who dies at the age of 54. John Nathan-Turner took over the reins of the Doctor’s adventures in 1980, drastically revamping the show’s look, sound, and feel, and forever altering its course by replacing Tom Baker as the lead actor in 1981; Nathan-Turner personally selected each of the following Doctors – Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy – for the remainder of the show’s tenure on BBC-TV. Always a staunch champion for the series at a point when its support among the BBC brass was at an all-time low, John Nathan-Turner attracted both attention and criticism for getting well-known performers to do guest stints on the show. It was under JN-T’s reign that Doctor Who was put on an 18-month “hiatus” (originally a full-scale cancellation), and eventually was dropped altogether.

Categories
Mars Exploration Rovers Uncrewed Spaceflight

Spirit’s sticky situation

SpiritNASA’s Spirit Mars rover becomes stuck in an area of soft, dusty soil in which its wheels can no longer gain traction. Efforts to simulate the problem on Earth begin, as well as studies to see if Spirit can free itself, but attempts to wiggle or rotate the rover’s wheels on Mars produce no results (and eventually wear out the independent motor of another of its wheels). The attempts to free Spirit from its Martian sandtrap continue through early 2010.