Year: 1968

Categories
Star Trek Television

Star Trek: Assignment: Earth

  • March 29, 1968

Star TrekThe 55th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek premieres on NBC, guest starring Robert Lansing and Teri Garr. An oddball episode concerning itself heavily with its time-traveling guest star, Assignment: Earth is actually a sneaky “pilot” for a potential Star Trek spinoff – and Gene Roddenberry’s hedge against unemployment, as he has every reason to believe, at the end of Star Trek’s second season, that his series is about to be cancelled.

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Categories
Movies

2001: a space odyssey

  • April 2, 1968

HAL 9000The product of a four-year collaboration between visionary SF writer Arthur C. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick, MGM’s 2001: a space odyssey premieres, delighting fans of hard SF and bewildering audiences and critics. It is released alongside Clarke’s novel of the same story, which both clarifies some of the more inscrutible story points (such as the reason for the behavior of HAL, the ship’s computer) and confuses others (the book depicts a mission to Saturn; the movie depicts a mission to Jupiter). Many critics and science fiction writers regard the movie as an instant classic of the genre, one which continues to be hugely influential in the years and decades to come.

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Categories
Luna Uncrewed Spaceflight

Luna 14

  • April 7, 1968

Luna 14The Soviet Union launches unmanned space probe Luna 14 toward the moon, where it takes up a lunar orbit and returns scientific data on cosmic rays and gravitational variances. This is the last orbital mission of the Luna series; future Luna vehicles will be landers or landers with rovers, some with sample return capability.

Categories
Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: The Wheel In Space, Pt. 6

  • June 1, 1968

Doctor WhoThe 209th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This story sees the return of the Cybermen and the introduction of Wendy Padbury as the Doctor’s new companion, Zoe. This episode concludes the series’ fifth season, but it leads directly into an unusual “in-universe” rerun of The Evil The Daleks for the following severn weeks. This is one of two episodes remaining intact from this story.

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Categories
Television

Vega 4: Mission Of Vega 4

  • June 7, 1968

Vega 4The Australian Broadcasting Corporation premieres the first episode of the science fiction series Vega 4, starring John Fassen (a veteran of ABC’s first genre series, The Stranger). This series is a follow-up to the 1966 series The Interpretaris.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Television

Vega 4: The Forbidden Planet

  • June 14, 1968

Vega 4The Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the second episode of the science fiction series Vega 4, starring John Fassen (a veteran of ABC’s first genre series, The Stranger). This series is a follow-up to the 1966 series The Interpretaris.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Television

Vega 4: Double Trouble

  • June 21, 1968

Vega 4The Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the third episode of the science fiction series Vega 4, starring John Fassen (a veteran of ABC’s first genre series, The Stranger). This series is a follow-up to the 1966 series The Interpretaris.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Television

Vega 4: Flight Of Fate

  • June 28, 1968

Vega 4The Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the fourth episode of the science fiction series Vega 4, starring John Fassen (a veteran of ABC’s first genre series, The Stranger). This series is a follow-up to the 1966 series The Interpretaris.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Television

Vega 4: Dive Into Danger

  • July 5, 1968

Vega 4The Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the fifth episode of the science fiction series Vega 4, starring John Fassen (a veteran of ABC’s first genre series, The Stranger). This series is a follow-up to the 1966 series The Interpretaris.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Television

Vega 4: Zodian’s Day

  • July 12, 1968

Vega 4The Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the sixth episode of the science fiction series Vega 4, starring John Fassen (a veteran of ABC’s first genre series, The Stranger). This series is a follow-up to the 1966 series The Interpretaris.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Television

Vega 4: Day Of Destruction

  • July 19, 1968

Vega 4The Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the seventh and final episode of the science fiction series Vega 4, starring John Fassen (a veteran of ABC’s first genre series, The Stranger). This series will be followed up in 1970 by a sequel, Phoenix Five.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Categories
Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight Weather & Climate

ESSA-7

  • August 16, 1968

ESSAThe recently-rechristened Environmental Sciences Service Administration launches, with the help of NASA, ESSA-7, the latest in a constellation of weather satellites operated by the former U.S. Weather Bureau. Like many of the other ESSA satellites, technical problems plague ESSA-7, and its camera system fails within a year. Engineering tests are carried out with ESSA-7 after it goes blind until the satellite is shut down early in 1970.