Category: Universes, Franchises & Characters

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Cybermen, Part 3

Doctor WhoThe 400th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This story marks the Cybermen’s first story since the Troughton era, and closes out both the series’ 12th season and the “Nerva” plotline.

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

The Invisible Man

The Invisible ManThe TV movie-of-the-week The Invisible Man airs on NBC, starring David McCallum (The Man From UNCLE, Colditz), Melinda Fee, and Jackie Cooper. This is the first TV series to credit Harve Bennett (of The Six Million Dollar Man and Star Trek II) as one of its creators, alongside Steven Bochco, for whom The Invisible Man is his second such credit. The movie achieves a high enough rating to merit a series pickup later in 1975. Read more

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Cybermen, Part 4

Doctor WhoThe 401st episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This story marks the Cybermen’s first story since the Troughton era, and closes out both the series’ 12th season and the “Nerva” plotline.

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

Rod Serling, Twilight Zone creator, dies

Rod Serling in Night GalleryCelebrated writer Rod Serling dies at the age of 50 during a coronary bypass operation. An intelligent, rebellious mind from a young age, Serling developed an interest in writing – particularly for radio drama – before he graduated high school. He had also already developed a keen social consciousness at this age, which, combined with his authority-bucking nature, made his enlistment in the Army during World War II (immediately after graduating high school) an uneasy fit. As an Army paratrooper, Serling fought to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation. He was injured in combat and saw many of his comrades wounded or killed along the way, experiences which game him nightmares and informed many of his later works. He began his writing career in earnest after attending college on the G.I. Bill, and as radio gave way to television, he was at the forefront of the new profession of TV writing, with two scripts for anthology series – Patterns for Kraft Television Theatre and Requiem For A Heavyweight for Playhouse 90 – serving as career turning points. With corporate sponsors holding enormous sway over TV content in those days, Serling quickly found himself railing against the interference and outright censorship that resulted. Another anthology script, The Time Element, was intended as a pilot for an anthology Serling pitched to CBS, but was instead produced as an episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse; it proved popular enough to get The Twilight Zone greenlit by CBS. Serling often used science fiction and supernatural settings in his new series to address issues such as racism, fascism, racial inequality, and the futility of war. He famously wrote many script drafts for 1968’s Planet Of The Apes, and returned to the anthology format in 1969 with a new series for NBC, Night Gallery, and, following that series, a radio drama suspense series called The Zero Hour for Mutual Radio.

Star Trek: The God Thing

Star TrekAfter spending a month writing drafts of the same basic story, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry completes the final draft of a live-action script simply titled Star Trek II, though later publications will refer to this script as The God Thing. The script shares many basic structural similarities with the later Star Trek: The Motion Picture, including sweeping upgrades to the Enterprise, Kirk’s promotion out of the captain’s chair, Spock’s return to Vulcan to pursue a purge of his human emotions, and an alien force of unknown power approaching Earth. There, however, the similarities end, as the story depicts an alien entity taking over the minds of Starfleet officers, who begin reciting prayers and exhibiting dangerous degrees of religious zealotry. Kirk and his senior officers, of course, remain unaffected, and disobey the orders of their possessed superiors to save Earth, only to discover that the “God” entity is an alien being which has been influencing human development for thousands of years, having last appeared in a guise which inspired the Judeo-Christian belief system. Likely out of fear of offending its potential audience, The God Thing is swiftly rejected by Paramount, though Bantam Books expresses interest in Roddenberry novelizing his own unused script. Work on that novelization comes to a halt in 1977 as Roddenberry begins work on a prospective Star Trek TV revival, and though other authors will attempt to adapt Roddenberry’s script – including Walter Koenig, Susan Sackett and Fred Bronson, and frequent Trek novelist Michael Jan Friedman – The God Thing remains unpublished. Many elements of the story resurface in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

Doctor Who: Terror Of The Zygons, Part 1

Doctor WhoThe 402nd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This opens the show’s 13th season and shifts Doctor Who into the autumn months, where it remains for the rest of the 1970s. This is also the last UNIT story until the late 1980s. Read more

Return To Planet Of The Apes: Flames Of Doom

Return To Planet Of The ApesNBC premieres Flames Of Doom, the first episode of Return To The Planet Of The Apes, an animated Saturday morning offshoot of the Planet Of The Apes film/TV franchise. With no solid connecting tissue to the previous Apes sagas, this is Planet Of The Apes for kids, as produced by Ruby-Spears Enterprises. Read more Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

Doctor Who: Terror Of The Zygons Part 2

Doctor WhoThe 403rd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This is the last UNIT story until the late 1980s.

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

The Invisible Man: The Klae Resource

The Invisible ManNBC airs the first weekly episode of The Invisible Man, starring David McCallum (The Man From UNCLE, Colditz), Melinda Fee, and Craig Stevens (taking over Jackie Cooper’s role from the pilot movie). Robert Alda (Supertrain) and Conrad Janis (Quark) guest star. Read more

“The Dirty Dozen in space”

Blake's 7In a meeting with BBC Head of Series & Serials Ronnie Marsh, Dalek and Survivors creator Terry Nation – who has already found himself at odds with the producer of Survivors – pitches a new series idea. Described as “The Dirty Dozen in space,” Nation’s series idea envisions a slightly disharmonious group of rebels taking up arms against a totalitarian, almost Orwellian future government. The concept, which Nation names Blake’s 7 at the meeting, will take a few years to make it to the screen.

Doctor Who: Terror Of The Zygons Part 3

Doctor WhoThe 404th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This is the last UNIT story until the late 1980s.

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: Terror Of The Zygons Part 4

Doctor WhoThe 405th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This episode marks the final appearance of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart until 1983’s Mawdryn Undead. This is also the last UNIT story until the late 1980s.

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: Planet Of Evil, Part 2

Doctor WhoThe 407th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Prentis Hancock (Space: 1999) guest stars.

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: Planet Of Evil, Part 3

Doctor WhoThe 408th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Prentis Hancock (Space: 1999) guest stars.

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: Planet Of Evil, Part 4

Doctor WhoThe 409th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Prentis Hancock (Space: 1999) guest stars.

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