theLogBook.com is a chronicle of how we used to imagine the future – an ever-expanding logbook of what our entertainment, our culture, and even our brightest minds thought would happen. It’s nostalgia – and some real history – that gives factual context to the fiction, cultural context to the factual, and always looks to the future.
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Welcome to Gene-ology, a podcast by Roddenberry Entertainment that dives deep into the early TV writing works of Gene Roddenberry. We finish finally getting to watch Mr. District Attorney for ourselves, and after picking the best episode of these three, we try to narrow down: what was the best episode of Mr. District Attorney written by fledgling writer Gene Roddenberry? Hosted by Earl Green & Ashley Thomas About Gene-ology Gene-ology explores Gene Roddenberry's early television scripts, including his lesser-known works before Star Trek using the Mission Log format popularized by Roddenberry Podcasts. We analyze the themes, writing style, and cultural impact of his scripts, and we even unearth stories from the Roddenberry archives that were never produced. Join us as we trace the roots of Gene's creative genius. In This Episode A breakdown of key moments and themes in Mr. District Attorney. Exploring Gene Roddenberry's evolving style and storytelling. How this episode ties into the broader TV landscape of the time and reflects the early seeds of Roddenberry's visionary work. Guest stars and unique production elements that bring this episode to life. Join the Conversation What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts, theories, and favorite moments in the comments or reach out to us on social media or email us at missionlog@roddenberry.com Did you know Roddenberry Podcasts is on YouTube? Find the video versions of your favorite shows like Mission Log: Prodigy, Mission Log: The Orville, as well as exclusive content only available on YouTube. Subscribe now! https://www.youtube.com/@RoddenberryEntertainment?sub_confirmation=1 Follow us on Social Media: INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/roddenberrypodcasts BLUESKY https://bsky.app/profile/roddenberrypod.bsky.social THREADS https://www.threads.net/@roddenberrypodcasts FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/MissionLogPod Our shows are part of the Roddenberry Entertainment family. For more great shows and to learn how we live the legacy of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, follow us here: RODDENBERRY PODCASTS https://www.instagram.com/RoddenberryPodcasts RODDENBERRY ENTERTAINMENT https://www.instagram.com/RoddenberryOfficial RODDENBERRY FOUNDATION https://www.instagram.com/TheRoddenberryFoundation Support the Show For as little as $1 a month, you can gain access to our Mission Log Discord Community! There, we continue the discussion with dedicated channels and a weekly video chat with the hosts. Become a member of our Patreon today! https://www.Patreon.com/MissionLog Subscribe and Stay Tuned Be sure to subscribe to Gene-ology for more deep dives into Gene Roddenberry's early works. New episodes are released regularly as we uncover more of Gene's television legacy. – Gene-ology is produced by Roddenberry Entertainment. Executive producer Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry. Visit https://Podcasts.Roddenberry.com for more great content. Edited by Earl Green.
The BBC premieres the first episode of Daleks!, an animated Doctor Who spinoff centered around that franchise’s most enduring villains, on YouTube, featuring the voices of Ayesha Antoine and Nicholas Briggs. This is part of the “Time Lord Victorious” alternate-timeline multimedia event.
Streaming service Disney+ opens for business with the first episode of Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, the first live-action TV series set in the Star Wars universe, starring Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, and Nick Nolte. Returning to the saga’s roots as a space western, this marks Disney’s entrance into the increasingly crowded premium streaming service race.
The seventh episode of Mars airs on the National Geographic Channel, inaugurating the show’s second season. The series is a hybrid drama/documentary about a fictional human colony on Mars in 2042, contrasted against efforts to prepare for such a mission in the present day. The series is produced by Ron Howard (Apollo 13). Esai Morales (Caprica) guest stars.
Marvel Comics’ most famous editor (and arguably its most famous creator, to the chagrin of some of the artists with whom he worked), Stan Lee, dies at the age of 95, several months after announcing that his days of attending conventions and making public appearances were over. Born in 1922, he began working at Timely Publications mere months after the company’s formation, thanks to a family connection with the company’s publisher, and became interim editor of Timely’s comics output in 1941. Timely had already seen success with artist/writer Jack Kirby’s Captain America, and Lee would not really make his mark until after a three-year sabbatical during which he enlisted in the U.S. Army and turned his talents to writing material supporting the war effort. It was during the early 1960s that Lee’s real influence on the company begin to be known, collaborating with Kirby on The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, X-Men, and others, and co-creating The Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with artist Steve Ditko. Under Lee’s editorship, Marvel led a revolution in interpreting comic book superheroes as complex, multifaceted, and flawed individuals, many of which remained bankable enough properties to lead to Disney’s 2009 acquisition of the company and rapid expansion of movie and TV adaptations of numerous characters and titles.
The 143rd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Lexa Doig (Andromeda) guest stars.
Soundtrack specialty label Intrada releases a fourth volume of Stu Phillips’ episode soundtracks from the TV Series Battlestar Galactica. The complete scores from the two-part episodes The Living Legend and War Of The Gods are included. The label also announces that this is its final classic Galactica music release.
A second attempt is made by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency to bring its unmanned space probe, Hayabusa, close enough to gather a sample of surface material from asteroid 25143 Itokawa. It attempts to deploy a mini-rover called Minerva to explore Itokawa from the surface, but a glitch results in a trajectory that leaves Minerva tumbling into space, never to reach Itokawa. Hayabusa lands on Itokawa’s surface itself, though mission controllers don’t realize this for several more days. Contact is lost with Hayabusa for a short while, and when it is regained, the vehicle has left the surface and gone into safe mode.
Bridging the gap between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III, Cartoon Network premieres the fourth mini-episode of Genndy Tartakovsky’s The Clone Wars animated shorts.
The 129th episode of Joss Whedon’s supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on UPN. James Marsters and Alyson Hannigan also star.
The 95th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, airs in syndication, starring Jayne Heitmeyer, Von Flores, Melinda Deines, Guylaine St. Onge, and Alan Van Sprang.
The 163rd episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and Robert Patrick. Jeff Gulka guest stars. Duchovny no longer appears in every episode of the series after this episode, a development which is met with some skepticism from the show’s ardent fandom.
NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, nearly ten years after its final planetary encounter, suddenly goes quiet. For 66 hours, the space probe returns no signal or telemetry data to Earth, while engineers on the ground send 720 commands to Voyager 2 to begin transmitting again. When Voyager 2 does re-establish communications with Earth, it has switched to a backup transmitter, and the temperature of some on-board components is warmer than expected. The spacecraft has not gone into a safe mode, but reports receiving only 19 of the 720 commands to transmit. At nearly six billion miles from Earth, Voyager 2 is heading for the edge of the solar system at 35,000 miles per hour, and is expected to remain functional into the 2020s, provided the spacecraft experiences no further major faults.
NASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on the 73rd shuttle flight, an eight-day mission to dock with Russian space station Mir. Due to the docking difficulties of the first flight – which required Mir crew members to move one of their station’s modules out of the shuttle’s way temporarily – Atlantis carries a Russian-made docking adapter which adds a tunnel to one of Mir’s docking ports, allowing the shuttle to join up with the station without further module relocation. Atlantis carries Commander Kenneth Cameron, Pilot James Halsell, and mission specialists Jerry Ross, William McArthur and Chris Hadfield to visit Mir; there is no crew exchange on this flight.
The 50th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Shelley Long (Cheers) and Mary Gross guest star.
The ninth episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, and guest starring Ed Lauter and Susanna Thompson.
Fox airs the 12th episode of the sci-fi western, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., starring Bruce Campbell, Julius Carry, and Christian Clemenson. Billy Drago (The Untouchables) and Sheena Easton guest star.
The sixth episode of the syndicated Alexander and Ilya Salkind-produced Superboy series, starring John Haymes Newton and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sabrina Lloyd (Sliders) guest stars.
CBS airs the ninth episode of the animated series Superman, starring the voices of Beau Weaver and Ginny McSwain, and comprised of two stories: Bonechill and The Driver’s License.
The 43rd episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs in syndication. Terri Garber stars in J. Michael Straczynski’s adaptation of a previously undiscovered Rod Serling script.
The eighth episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense airs on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. under the title Fox Mystery Theatre. Season Hubley guest stars.
The eighth album from Split Enz, Conflicting Emotions, is released. Despite the catchy single “Strait Old Line”, the album doesn’t sell as well is the group’s previous three albums (perhaps a side-effect of lower exposure due to the previous album’s lead single being artificially strangled by radio programmers). This is the last album to feature founding member Tim Finn; his younger brother Neil elects to keep the band together to continue recording.
The eighth episode of the science fiction series The Powers Of Matthew Star airs on NBC, starring Peter Barton and Louis Gossett Jr. Barry Van Dyke (Battlestar Galactica, Diagnosis Murder) and Spencer Milligan (Land Of The Lost) guest star.
ABC airs the 33rd episode of Stephen J. Cannell’s superhero comedy series The Greatest American Hero, starring William Katt, Connie Sellecca, and Robert Culp.
For the first time in history, a space vehicle returns to space for a second complete mission. Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on its second test flight, with another two-man crew consisting of Joe Engle and Richard Truly, the first all-rookie American space crew since the last Skylab flight. Refinements to various systems are to be tested on this mission, as well as the first use of the remote manipulator arm, upon which nearly all claims of the shuttle’s ability to deploy, retrieve and repair satellites rest.
Thanks to a significant gravity assist from Jupiter, Voyager 1 arrives at Saturn only a year behind Pioneer 11, imaging the planet, its rings and its moons in far greater detail. Its planned trajectory takes Voyager 1 close to the cloud-shrouded moon Titan, whose surface scientists hope to be able to see for the first time, but the close flyby yields only the featureless clouds, much to the mission planners’ disappointment. This is Voyager 1’s final planetary stop, with a proposed visit to Pluto having fallen by the wayside early in mission planning in favor of the close-up look at Titan.
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.
The 48th and final episode of Gerry Anderson’s space adventure series Space: 1999 airs on British broadcaster ITV, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Catherine Schell. Patrick Troughton (Doctor Who) guest stars in the series finale. The show’s run, and very tentative plans for either a third season or a spinoff led by Catherine Schell as Maya, have already ended thanks to a combination of cast members’ demands for raises and creative control, the slowly unraveling marriage of producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, and ITC head Lord Lew Grade’s desire to redirect the funds for the series toward a pet film project, Raise The Titanic.
The 44th episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. Michael Callan (Cat Ballou, The Magnificent Seven) guest stars.
The tenth episode of Filmation’s Saturday morning science fiction series Space Academy airs on CBS. Commander Gampu begins to worry that, what with being 300 years old, he may be losing his touch as the leader of Space Academy.
Absolutely no generative AI was used in the creation of the content on this website. It’s mostly just some guy named Earl.
The BBC premieres the first episode of Daleks!, an animated Doctor Who spinoff centered around that franchise’s most enduring villains, on YouTube, featuring the voices of Ayesha Antoine and Nicholas Briggs. This is part of the “Time Lord Victorious” alternate-timeline multimedia event. 
Disney Music releases the soundtrack from the first episode of The Mandalorian streaming series, composed by Ludwig Goransson (The Mandalorian, Black Panther). 
Streaming service Disney+ opens for business with the first episode of Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, the first live-action TV series set in the Star Wars universe, starring Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, and Nick Nolte. Returning to the saga’s roots as a space western, this marks Disney’s entrance into the increasingly crowded premium streaming service race. 
The seventh episode of Mars airs on the National Geographic Channel, inaugurating the show’s second season. The series is a hybrid drama/documentary about a fictional human colony on Mars in 2042, contrasted against efforts to prepare for such a mission in the present day. The series is produced by Ron Howard (Apollo 13). Esai Morales (Caprica) guest stars. 
Marvel Comics’ most famous editor (and arguably its most famous creator, to the chagrin of some of the artists with whom he worked), Stan Lee, dies at the age of 95, several months after announcing that his days of attending conventions and making public appearances were over. Born in 1922, he began working at Timely Publications mere months after the company’s formation, thanks to a family connection with the company’s publisher, and became interim editor of Timely’s comics output in 1941. Timely had already seen success with artist/writer Jack Kirby’s Captain America, and Lee would not really make his mark until after a three-year sabbatical during which he enlisted in the U.S. Army and turned his talents to writing material supporting the war effort. It was during the early 1960s that Lee’s real influence on the company begin to be known, collaborating with Kirby on The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, X-Men, and others, and co-creating The Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with artist Steve Ditko. Under Lee’s editorship, Marvel led a revolution in interpreting comic book superheroes as complex, multifaceted, and flawed individuals, many of which remained bankable enough properties to lead to Disney’s 2009 acquisition of the company and rapid expansion of movie and TV adaptations of numerous characters and titles.
The CW airs the 55th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Matt Ryan, Brandon Routh, and Tala Ashe. 
The 143rd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Lexa Doig (Andromeda) guest stars.
Streaming service CBS All Access releases the ninth episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Jayne Brook (Chicago Hope) guest stars. 
The fifth episode of Russell T. Davies’ children’s science fiction series Wizards vs. Aliens airs on CBBC., starring Annette Badland, Brian Blessed (Flash Gordon), and Gwendoline Christie (Game Of Thrones). 
Soundtrack specialty label Intrada releases a fourth volume of Stu Phillips’ episode soundtracks from the TV Series Battlestar Galactica. The complete scores from the two-part episodes The Living Legend and War Of The Gods are included. The label also announces that this is its final classic Galactica music release.
EMI Records releases He Will Have His Way: The Songs Of Tim and Neil Finn, an all-star collection of covers of songs written by the Finn Brothers, including their solo work, Split Enz, and Crowded House. 
The 32nd episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures airs on CBBC, starring Elisabeth Sladen (Doctor Who). Suranne Jones guest stars. 
The tenth episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures premieres on BBC iPlayer, the first half of a two-part storyline. 
A veteran of the musical stage on both sides of the Atlantic, Doctor Who/Torchwood cast member John Barrowman‘s album Another Side is released. 
BBC3 airs the fifth episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. This episode is written by Sapphire & Steel creator P.J. Hammond. 
A second attempt is made by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency to bring its unmanned space probe, Hayabusa, close enough to gather a sample of surface material from asteroid 25143 Itokawa. It attempts to deploy a mini-rover called Minerva to explore Itokawa from the surface, but a glitch results in a trajectory that leaves Minerva tumbling into space, never to reach Itokawa. Hayabusa lands on Itokawa’s surface itself, though mission controllers don’t realize this for several more days. Contact is lost with Hayabusa for a short while, and when it is regained, the vehicle has left the surface and gone into safe mode.
East Side Digital releases the Rediscovering Lost Scores soundtrack compilations, featuring Wendy Carlos’ music from The Shining, Tron, Woundings and more. 
The 81st episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN. Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard) guest stars. 
The 60th episode of the prequel spinoff Star Trek: Enterprise airs on UPN. 
Bridging the gap between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III, Cartoon Network premieres the fourth mini-episode of Genndy Tartakovsky’s The Clone Wars animated shorts. 
The 129th episode of Joss Whedon’s supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on UPN. James Marsters and Alyson Hannigan also star.
Not Lame Records releases the Jellyfish rarities box set Fan Club, featuring demos, unreleased tracks and copious live tour recordings. 
The 95th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, airs in syndication, starring Jayne Heitmeyer, Von Flores, Melinda Deines, Guylaine St. Onge, and Alan Van Sprang.
Capitol Records releases the Paul McCartney solo album Driving Rain, featuring the single “From A Lover To A Friend”. 
The 163rd episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and Robert Patrick. Jeff Gulka guest stars. Duchovny no longer appears in every episode of the series after this episode, a development which is met with some skepticism from the show’s ardent fandom.
NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, nearly ten years after its final planetary encounter, suddenly goes quiet. For 66 hours, the space probe returns no signal or telemetry data to Earth, while engineers on the ground send 720 commands to Voyager 2 to begin transmitting again. When Voyager 2 does re-establish communications with Earth, it has switched to a backup transmitter, and the temperature of some on-board components is warmer than expected. The spacecraft has not gone into a safe mode, but reports receiving only 19 of the 720 commands to transmit. At nearly six billion miles from Earth, Voyager 2 is heading for the edge of the solar system at 35,000 miles per hour, and is expected to remain functional into the 2020s, provided the spacecraft experiences no further major faults.
UPN airs the 76th episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Kurtwood Smith guest stars. 
Fly Records releases the second and final Home Cookin’ album Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, featuring the single “X-Rated Superstar”. 
Fox premieres the seventh episode of the military science fiction series Space: Above And Beyond. 
NASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on the 73rd shuttle flight, an eight-day mission to dock with Russian space station Mir. Due to the docking difficulties of the first flight – which required Mir crew members to move one of their station’s modules out of the shuttle’s way temporarily – Atlantis carries a Russian-made docking adapter which adds a tunnel to one of Mir’s docking ports, allowing the shuttle to join up with the station without further module relocation. Atlantis carries Commander Kenneth Cameron, Pilot James Halsell, and mission specialists Jerry Ross, William McArthur and Chris Hadfield to visit Mir; there is no crew exchange on this flight.
The 50th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Shelley Long (Cheers) and Mary Gross guest star.
Fox airs the 12th episode of the sci-fi western, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., starring Bruce Campbell, Julius Carry, and Christian Clemenson. Billy Drago (The Untouchables) and Sheena Easton guest star.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 81st episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Andreas Katsulas (Babylon 5) guest stars. 
The sixth episode of the syndicated Alexander and Ilya Salkind-produced Superboy series, starring John Haymes Newton and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sabrina Lloyd (Sliders) guest stars.
CBS airs the ninth episode of the animated series Superman, starring the voices of Beau Weaver and Ginny McSwain, and comprised of two stories: Bonechill and The Driver’s License.
The 43rd episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs in syndication. Terri Garber stars in J. Michael Straczynski’s adaptation of a previously undiscovered Rod Serling script.
The eighth episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense airs on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. under the title Fox Mystery Theatre. Season Hubley guest stars.
The eighth album from Split Enz, Conflicting Emotions, is released. Despite the catchy single “Strait Old Line”, the album doesn’t sell as well is the group’s previous three albums (perhaps a side-effect of lower exposure due to the previous album’s lead single being artificially strangled by radio programmers). This is the last album to feature founding member Tim Finn; his younger brother Neil elects to keep the band together to continue recording. 
The eighth episode of the science fiction series The Powers Of Matthew Star airs on NBC, starring Peter Barton and Louis Gossett Jr. Barry Van Dyke (Battlestar Galactica, Diagnosis Murder) and Spencer Milligan (Land Of The Lost) guest star.
ABC airs the 33rd episode of Stephen J. Cannell’s superhero comedy series The Greatest American Hero, starring William Katt, Connie Sellecca, and Robert Culp. 
For the first time in history, a space vehicle returns to space for a second complete mission. Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on its second test flight, with another two-man crew consisting of Joe Engle and Richard Truly, the first all-rookie American space crew since the last Skylab flight. Refinements to various systems are to be tested on this mission, as well as the first use of the remote manipulator arm, upon which nearly all claims of the shuttle’s ability to deploy, retrieve and repair satellites rest.
Thanks to a significant gravity assist from Jupiter, Voyager 1 arrives at Saturn only a year behind Pioneer 11, imaging the planet, its rings and its moons in far greater detail. Its planned trajectory takes Voyager 1 close to the cloud-shrouded moon Titan, whose surface scientists hope to be able to see for the first time, but the close flyby yields only the featureless clouds, much to the mission planners’ disappointment. This is Voyager 1’s final planetary stop, with a proposed visit to Pluto having fallen by the wayside early in mission planning in favor of the close-up look at Titan.
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. 
The eighth episode of Glen A. Larson’s science fiction series Battlestar Galactica airs on ABC. 
The 464th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Wanda Ventham, Denis Lill and Scott Fredericks guest star.
The 48th and final episode of Gerry Anderson’s space adventure series Space: 1999 airs on British broadcaster ITV, starring Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Catherine Schell. Patrick Troughton (Doctor Who) guest stars in the series finale. The show’s run, and very tentative plans for either a third season or a spinoff led by Catherine Schell as Maya, have already ended thanks to a combination of cast members’ demands for raises and creative control, the slowly unraveling marriage of producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, and ITC head Lord Lew Grade’s desire to redirect the funds for the series toward a pet film project, Raise The Titanic. 
The 44th episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. Michael Callan (Cat Ballou, The Magnificent Seven) guest stars.
The tenth episode of Filmation’s Saturday morning science fiction series Space Academy airs on CBS. Commander Gampu begins to worry that, what with being 300 years old, he may be losing his touch as the leader of Space Academy. 