Doctor Who: The Horns Of Nimon, Part 2
The 523rd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Graham Crowden guest stars. This is the final Doctor Who episode of the 1970s.
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NBC airs the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 7
The seventh episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, initiating the second series of the now-hit cult science fiction phenomenon, the rest of which won’t be broadcast until the following month. This episode serves as a kind of Hitchhiker’s holiday special as a result. (Some elements of the second radio series will go on to form the basis of Adams’ novel The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.)
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Doctor Who: The Horns Of Nimon, Part 1
The 522nd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Graham Crowden guest stars. Though aired just before Christmas, this is not considered a “Christmas episode.”
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Doctor Who: Nightmare Of Eden, Part 4
The 521st episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. David Daker and Peter Craze guest star in a strangely-timed (just before Christmas?) anti-drug story.
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Monkey: The Power Of Youth
The fifth episode of the English-dubbed Japanese action series Monkey airs on BBC2. The series is a translation and dub of a fancifully satirical Japanese adaptation of the Chinese novel “Journey To The West”, starring Masaaki Sakai. 
Doctor Who: Nightmare Of Eden, Part 3
The 520th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. David Daker and Peter Craze guest star in a strangely-timed (just before Christmas?) anti-drug story.
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Monkey: Monkey Swallows The Universe
The fourth episode of the English-dubbed Japanese action series Monkey airs on BBC2. The series is a translation and dub of a fancifully satirical Japanese adaptation of the Chinese novel “Journey To The West”, starring Masaaki Sakai.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
After a tortured development history dating back to aborted early 1970s attempts to relaunch Star Trek on the big screen, Paramount premieres the much-anticipated (and much hyped) Star Trek: The Motion Picture in theaters. At over two hours, and boasting one of Jerry Goldsmith’s best movie scores, the movie bewilders viewers as much as it thrills them. Paramount claims not to make a profit on the movie at all – primarily by including all of the development costs of years of early movie attempts and the never-made Star Trek Phase II television series as part of the movie’s price tag – but, despite its assertion that the movie lost money, the studio begins making plans for a sequel.
Intellivision introduced
After over a year of play testing and preparation, Mattel Electronics launches the first major competitor to the market-dominating Atari VCS video game console: Intellivision (short for “Intelligent Television”). Boasting superior graphics and a library of the first-ever licensed sports titles (though licensed by various pro sports leagues, rather than by specific teams or individuals), Intellivision is well-poised to enter a market where sports games are all-important.
Doctor Who: Nightmare Of Eden, Part 2
The 519th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. David Daker and Peter Craze guest star in a strangely-timed (just before Christmas?) anti-drug story.
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Star Trek: The Literary Picture
Pocket Books releases the movie novelization “Star Trek: The Motion Picture“, written by Gene Roddenberry. This is Roddenberry’s only piece of Star Trek prose fiction.
Monkey: The Great Journey Begins
The third episode of the English-dubbed Japanese action series Monkey airs on BBC2. The series is a translation and dub of a fancifully satirical Japanese adaptation of the Chinese novel “Journey To The West”, starring Masaaki Sakai.
Star Trek: The Music Picture
CBS Records releases an LP of selections from Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, one of the earliest fully-digitally-recorded albums of any kind, soundtrack or otherwise. Thanks mainly to Goldsmith’s energetic main title, the album becomes a best-seller; many fans start to regard the music as the best part of the movie. Two reissues follow, culminating in a fan-pleasing 2012 release of the complete score.
Buck Rogers: Escape From Wedded Bliss
NBC airs the tenth episode of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. Pamela Hensley and Michael Ansara guest star, reprising their roles from the pilot movie.
Flight TE901
Air New Zealand Flight 901, a sightseeing flight making a round trip to Antarctica and then back to Auckland without landing, is lost with all hands when it crashes into the slopes of Mt. Erebus in Antarctica. Later investigations reveal that the flight crew and passengers were doomed by a typo made during autopilot data entry, switching the plane’s course from a low-altitude flyover of MacMurdo Sound to a low-altitude collision course with the mountain. (Also uncovered are the great lengths taken by Air New Zealand to accuse the crew of incompetence.) The steps taken to uncover the truth mark the birth of modern air disaster investigation, and the end of Antarctic sightseeing flights for at least a decade.
Doctor Who: Nightmare Of Eden, Part 1
The 518th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. David Daker and Peter Craze guest star in a strangely-timed (just before Christmas?) anti-drug story.
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Monkey: Monkey Turns Nursemaid
The second episode of the English-dubbed Japanese action series Monkey premieres on BBC2, starring Masaaki Sakai. The series is a translation and dub of a fancifully satirical Japanese adaptation of the Chinese novel “Journey To The West”, guest starring Eishin Tono (Ultraman Taro) and Akihiko Hirata (Godzilla, Fugitive Alien, Atragon).
Captain America II: Death Too Soon
The TV movie-of-the-week Captain America II: Death Too Soon airs on CBS, starring Reb Brown, Len Birman, and Connie Sellecca. Christopher Lee guest stars. The ratings for this second Captain America TV outing are not strong enough for CBS to greenlight a series.
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Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast
Buck Rogers: Cosmic Wiz Kid
NBC airs the ninth episode of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. Gary Coleman (Diff’rent Strokes) and Ray Walston (My Favorite Martian) guest star.
Doctor Who: Creature From The Pit, Pt. 4
The 517th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Myra Frances and Geoffrey Bayldon guest star.
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Monkey: Monkey Goes Wild About Heaven
The first episode of the English-dubbed Japanese action series Monkey premieres on BBC2, starring Masaaki Sakai. The series is a translation and dub of a fancifully satirical Japanese adaptation of the Chinese novel “Journey To The West”, and quickly gains a cult following in the UK.
Quatermass: An Endangered Species
The fourth episode of Nigel Kneale’s revived science fiction series Quatermass airs on London Weekend Television, starring John Mills and Simon MacCorkindale (Manimal). Toyah Willcox guest stars in the series finale.
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Beginning Of The Enz
Mushroom Records releases the Split Enz compilation album, Beginning Of The Enz. Rather than a straightforward “greatest hits” album, this LP gathers nearly all of the band’s early singles and B-sides recorded and released in the early ’70s prior to their first album. At the same time this album hits stores, Split Enz is back in the recording studio working on their next album, True Colours.
Salvage 1: Hard Water Part 2
The 15th episode of the series Salvage 1 airs on ABC, starring Andy Griffith, Joel Higgins, and Trish Stewart. Bert Freed (Hang ‘Em High) and Heather McAdam (Sisters) guest star. Due to underwhelming ratings for the two-part season premiere, ABC cancels the show after this episode, leaving a further four episodes unaired; they will surface later as the show reappears in cable reruns in the 1990s.
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Doctor Who: Creature From The Pit, Pt. 3
The 516th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Myra Frances and Geoffrey Bayldon guest star.
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NBC airs the Sapphire & Steel: Assignment Two, Part 8
ITV airs the 14th episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. This episode concludes the first season; due to scheduling conflicts with the series’ two stars, the series will not resume until 1981.
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Quatermass: What Lies Beneath
The third episode of Nigel Kneale’s revived science fiction series Quatermass airs on London Weekend Television, starring John Mills and Simon MacCorkindale (Manimal). Kevin Stoney and Toyah Willcox guest star.
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The Black Hole soundtrack
Disneyland Records releases an LP with selections from John Barry’s soundtrack for the movie The Black Hole, the first movie soundtrack ever recorded digitally. If anything, the music proves to be more enduring than the film it was meant to accompany, though Disney allows it to go out of print, never re-releasing it in any other format. A complete version will finally arrive on CD in 2011.