Doctor Who: The Final Test

Doctor WhoThe 114th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part four of the story now collectively known as The Celestial Toymaker. This is the only episode of this story not missing from the BBC’s archives.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Doctor Who: Don’t Shoot The Pianist

Doctor WhoThe 116th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part two of the story now collectively known as The Gunfighters.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Doctor Who: Johnny Ringo

Doctor WhoThe 117th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part three of the story now collectively known as The Gunfighters.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Nimbus 2

NimbusNASA launches the Nimbus 2 satellite, designed to observe weather patterns from orbit and test new weather and climate detection technologies. Nimbus 2’s only means of data storage fails within weeks, and that system’s only backup fails later in the year. Nimbus 2 is shut down in 1969 when the system it uses to maintain orientation to Earth’s horizon also fails.

Doctor Who: The O.K. Corral

Doctor WhoThe 118th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part four of the story now collectively known as The Gunfighters. This is the final episode of the original series with an episode title independent of the story’s overall umbrella title; all future episodes will simply be “part one,” “part two,” etc. of their respective stories.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Surveyor 1 lands on the moon

SurveyorNASA’s first attempt to soft-land an unmanned space probe on another body in the solar system ends with a perfect landing: Surveyor 1 snaps photos from the moon’s surface, takes measurements of the local environment, and provides valuable engineering data about the surface that will prove helpful in constructing the much heavier Apollo lunar modules that will – it is hoped – take astronauts to the moon by the end of the decade.

Gemini 9

Gemini 9Gemini 9 lifts off on a three-day mission to complete the still unfulfilled docking objectives of the Gemini program. The flight has already seen significant problems, not the least of which is the death of the originally-assigned crew, Elliott See and Charles Bassett, in an accident involving T-38 training jets. The backup crew, Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan, fly Gemini 9 instead, but find that their rendezvous/docking target is still trapped in the aerodynamic shroud that protected it during launch (the shroud would normally have been jettisoned). Furthermore, a spacewalk has been written into the mission plan, requiring Cernan to leave Gemini and go to the rear of the vehicle to unstow and test a “jetpack” (an early prototype of the Manned Maneuvering Unit that will finally see use in the space shuttle program in the 1980s). The spacewalk becomes a two-hour ordeal which leaves Cernan exhausted, thanks to the lack of handholds on the exterior of the Gemini capsule. The flight ends after three days in space.

Doctor Who: The Savages, Part 2

Doctor WhoThe 120th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Frederick Jaegar guest stars. This episode is now missing from the BBC’s archives.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Doctor Who: The Savages, Part 3

Doctor WhoThe 121st episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Frederick Jaegar guest stars. This episode is now missing from the BBC’s archives.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Doctor Who: The Savages, Part 4

Doctor WhoThe 122nd episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Frederick Jaegar guest stars. This marks the final appearance of Peter Purves as TARDIS traveler Steven, who stays behind to help guide an alien civilization. This episode is now missing from the BBC’s archives.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Doctor Who: The War Machines, Part 2

Doctor WhoThe 124th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the first complete story to take place in modern day England since An Unearthly Child.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Doctor Who: The War Machines, Part 3

Doctor WhoThe 125th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the first complete story to take place in modern day England since An Unearthly Child.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Doctor Who: The War Machines, Part 4

Doctor WhoThe 126th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. TARDIS traveler Dodo remains in modern day London at the end of the story, which also concludes the series’ third season.

This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Gemini 10

Gemini 10With the docking and EVA goals of the Gemini program still unmet, and with the first Apollo missions looming ahead in the mission schedule, Gemini 10 lifts off with a lot riding on it (in addition to astronauts John Young and Michael Collins). Over the course of nearly three days, the Gemini 10 crew makes up for lost time, successfully docking with an Agena booster and changing the vehicle’s orbital altitude to 188 miles – a new distance-from-Earth record for a manned spacecraft. Collins conducts two spacewalks, but the lack of handgrips on the exterior of the Gemini capsule frustrates his efforts. Gemini 10 returns after three days in space.

Batman: The Movie

BatmanBased on the popular television series of the same name, 20th Century Fox’s feature film Batman premieres in American theaters, starring Adam West, Burt Ward, and, reprising their villain roles from the series, Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, and Frank Gorshin, while Lee Meriwether takes over the role of Catwoman. With a budget significantly greater than that of its TV counterpart, the movie introduces new Bat-vehicles, including a helicopter and a boat, footage of which will be spliced into many a later episode of the TV series. Read more

The changing face of Doctor Who

Patrick TroughtonWith the series’ two most recent producers reporting that actor William Hartnell has become nearly impossible to work with, the first steps are taken to regenerate Doctor Who by hiring a new actor to play the part: Patrick Troughton. In closed-door meetings at the BBC, producer Innes Lloyd and BBC Head of Drama Sydney Newman (who also happens to be Doctor Who’s creator) offer Hartnell the chance to leave, and – having already taken the liberty of contacting him to gauge his interest in the part – contract actor Patrick Troughton to replace Hartnell as the Doctor. Hartnell, suffering from arteriosclerosis, accepts the escape hatch and agrees to leave the series. Lloyd and Newman begin brainstorming ideas to explain the radical change in the Doctor’s look, agreeing that the time has finally come to firmly establish that the Doctor is not human at all. Lloyd envisions a tough “pirate captain” persona for the new Doctor, a notion ultimately rejected by Newman, who instead proposes that the character be played as a “cosmic hobo,” an idea which Troughton likes much better. None of this activity is revealed to the press or the public for some time.