Doctor Who: The Seeds Of Death, Part 6

Doctor WhoThe 237th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second appearance of the Ice Warriors.

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

Apollo 9

Apollo 9Apollo 9 lifts off on a ten-day mission to test the first lunar lander, but only in Earth orbit. Jim McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart put the lunar module, nicknamed Spider, through its paces, while David Scott mans the command module Gumdrop. This is the first flight of the completely non-aerodynamic lunar module, and various docking maneuvers and spacewalk scenarios are practiced. The crew returns to Earth in the Apollo command module, while Spider is left in a low orbit which decays two weeks later, allowing it to disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere.

This mission is dramatized in the Spider episode of HBO’s 1998 series From The Earth To The Moon.

Star Trek: All Our Yesterdays

Star TrekThe 78th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek airs on NBC. Ian Wolfe and Mariette Hartley guest star. The last episode of Star Trek, originally scheduled for the following week, is pre-empted and aired months later with little fanfare. Read more

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates, Part 2

Doctor WhoThe 239th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second story written by Robert Holmes. Part 2 is the only intact episode of this story remaining in 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

Out Of The Unknown: Target Generation

Out Of The UnknownBBC2 airs the 36th episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of The Unknown. Adapted by Clive Exton from a story by Clifford D. Simak, this script was previously used in the 1962 anthology series Out Of This World. This episode no longer exists in the BBC’s archives.

More about Out Of The Unknown in the LogBook

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates, Part 3

Doctor WhoThe 240th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second story written by Robert Holmes, and is the most recent Doctor Who story to be missing entire episodes 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

Star Trek: from cancellation to syndication

Star TrekHaving completed its purchase of Desilu Studios, Paramount runs the first print advertisement in Vol. 76, Issue 12 of Broadcasting Magazine, offering Star Trek reruns in syndication. Even though the last episode has yet to air on NBC, it is perhaps telling that the ad promises a set number of “79 episodes of constant quality, now being seen in over 65 countries around the world” – confirmation that there will be no further episodes beyond the current season.

More about Star Trek in the LogBook

Mariner 7 launched

Mariner 7NASA and JPL launch the unmanned Mariner 7 space probe on a mission to Mars, where it will be joined by its recently-launched identical twin, Mariner 6. Mariner 7 will take five months to reach the red planet, but on a slightly faster trajectory it will arrive just days behind Mariner 6. Both will fly past Mars twice as close as the planet’s previous unmanned visitors.

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates, Part 4

Doctor WhoThe 241st episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second story written by Robert Holmes, and is the most recent Doctor Who story to be missing entire episodes 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

Out Of The Unknown: Get Off My Cloud

Out Of The UnknownBBC2 airs the 38th episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of The Unknown. Adapted by David Climie from a story by Peter Phillips, the story stars Peter Barkworth and features an appearance by the Daleks (complete with David Graham providing their voices) from the series’ BBC stablemate, Doctor Who. Directed by Peter Cregeen, a future BBC Head of Series who would become infamous for cancelling Doctor Who after its 1989 season, this episode closes the third season, but no longer exists in the BBC’s archives. Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates, Part 5

Doctor WhoThe 242nd episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second story written by Robert Holmes, and is the most recent Doctor Who story to be missing entire episodes 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

Happy birthday, Internet!

Command?This is the observed day of the internet’s birth, actually marking the day that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency chose the contractor to build the initial nodes and connections of the ARPAnet. Though the internet is ubiquitous from a 21st century perspective, its origins lie in a disquieting Cold-War-era concept of a distributed computer communications network whose operations could continue even if multiple nodes of the network have been disrupted or destroyed. ARPAnet, the forerunner to the modern internet, will become operational on an experimental basis later in 1969.

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates, Part 6

Doctor WhoThe 243rd episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second story written by Robert Holmes, and is the most recent Doctor Who story to be missing entire episodes 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

Nimbus 3

NimbusNASA launches the Nimbus 3 satellite, designed to observe weather patterns from orbit and test new weather and climate detection technologies. Nimbus 3 is the first Earth-orbiting spacecraft to test the SNAP-19 radioisotope thermoelectric generator system; devices similar to the SNAP-19 will become the primary power source for later deep space and outer solar system interplanetary missions. Nimbus 3 loses attitude control in 1970, but is kept online for engineering information-gathering purposes until 1972.

Doctor Who: The War Games, Part 1

Doctor WhoThe 244th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Jane Sherwin, David Savile and Philip Madoc guest star. This is Patrick Troughton’s final story as the incumbent Doctor, the final Doctor Who story of the 1960s, and the final story made in black & white. Read more

Doctor Who: The War Games, Part 2

Doctor WhoThe 245th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Jane Sherwin, David Savile and Philip Madoc guest star. This is Patrick Troughton’s final story as the incumbent Doctor, the final Doctor Who story of the 1960s, and the final story made in black & white.

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

NASA solicits shuttle, station proposals

Space ShuttleNASA formally asks various major players in the aerospace industry for proposals for what the agency sees as its two major projects for the 1970s: an orbiting space station and a reusable Space Shuttle to make routine flights from Earth to the station – which NASA hopes will be a “50 man space base” – and back again, with supplies, experiments, and new crew members. (Within mere weeks, the hypothetical station’s equally hypothetical crew will be downsized to a dozen.) In the event that the development curve on the Space Shuttle proves to be a long one, NASA says it will keep Apollo and even Gemini spacecraft in service to make flights to the station.

Doctor Who: The War Games, Part 3

Doctor WhoThe 246th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Jane Sherwin, David Savile and Philip Madoc guest star. This is Patrick Troughton’s final story as the incumbent Doctor, the final Doctor Who story of the 1960s, and the final story made in black & white.

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 Games, Part 4

Doctor WhoThe 247th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Jane Sherwin, David Savile and Philip Madoc guest star. This is Patrick Troughton’s final story as the incumbent Doctor, the final Doctor Who story of the 1960s, and the final story made in black & white.

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