ABC premieres the 12th episode of Shaun Cassidy’s sci-fi/horror series Invasion, starring William Fichtner (Contact), Eddie Cibrian, and Lisa Sheridan. Elizabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) guest stars. 
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The second episode of the science fiction sitcom Hyperdrive premieres on BBC2, starring Nick Frost, Miranda Hart and Kevin Eldon. Geoffrey McGivern (The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) and Montserrat Lombard (Ashes To Ashes) guest star. (more…)
NASA launches the unmanned New Horizons probe on a course for the minor planet Pluto, the first spacecraft built to explore that destination. A trajectory with multiple planetary flybys and gravitational assists is designed to sling New Horizons toward Pluto within a decade (compared to Voyager 2’s 12-year trek to Neptune).
New Horizons will enter Pluto’s surprisingly complex system in 2015.
ITV premieres the first episode of Steven Gallagher’s short-lived science fiction drama Eleventh Hour, starring Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation). (more…)
The 186th episode of Stargate SG-1 airs on the Sci-Fi Channel, starring Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Beau Bridges, and Michael Shanks. (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 33rd episode of Stargate Atlantis. Beau Bridges and Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files) guest star. (more…)
Sci-Fi channel airs the 26th episode of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. Colm Feore guest stars. (more…)
Wanna-be fifth networks UPN and the WB both announce that they will go off the air in late 2006, after 11 years of struggling to make a dent against the “big four” networks. (Both networks signed on in January 1995, the WB premiering its programming one week before UPN went on the air with the premiere of Star Trek: Voyager; WB later found its own genre niche with the series adaptation of Joss Whedon’s Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and its popular spinoff, Angel, along with the “young Superman” prequel Smallville.) However, some of their programming may survive to be seen on a new joint venture between Warner Bros. and UPN’s parent network, CBS. This new network, The CW, will have programming and personnel held over from both defunct networks. The announcements do not mention how the merger will work out in broadcast markets where affiliate stations exist for both networks.
ABC airs the 36th episode of the J.J. Abrams-produced series Lost. Neil Hopkins guest stars. (more…)
ABC premieres the 13th episode of Shaun Cassidy’s sci-fi/horror series Invasion, starring William Fichtner (Contact), Eddie Cibrian, and Lisa Sheridan. (more…)
The third episode of the science fiction sitcom Hyperdrive premieres on BBC2, starring Nick Frost, Miranda Hart and Kevin Eldon. (more…)
ITV premieres the second episode of Steven Gallagher’s short-lived science fiction drama Eleventh Hour, starring Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation). (more…)
The 187th episode of Stargate SG-1 airs on the Sci-Fi Channel, starring Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Beau Bridges, and Michael Shanks. (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 34th episode of Stargate Atlantis. Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1) guest stars. (more…)
Sci-Fi channel airs the 27th episode of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. Richard Hatch guest stars. (more…)
Astralwerks releases the Röyksopp live album Röyksopp’s Night Out. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 78th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Colin Baker and Maggie Stables. (more…)
The fourth episode of the science fiction sitcom Hyperdrive premieres on BBC2, starring Nick Frost, Miranda Hart and Kevin Eldon. Colin McFarlane (Torchwood, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) guest stars. (more…)
ITV premieres the third episode of Steven Gallagher’s short-lived science fiction drama Eleventh Hour, starring Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation). (more…)
The 188th episode of Stargate SG-1 airs on the Sci-Fi Channel, starring Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Beau Bridges, and Michael Shanks. (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 35th episode of Stargate Atlantis. Peter Woodward (Crusade) guest stars. (more…)
Sci-Fi channel airs the 28th episode of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. Richard Hatch guest stars. (more…)
The fifth episode of the science fiction sitcom Hyperdrive premieres on BBC2, starring Nick Frost, Miranda Hart and Kevin Eldon. Sally Phillips (Bridget Jones’s Diary) guest stars. (more…)
A self-taught composer whose scores for the original Toho Studios Godzilla films have become cult favorites, Akira Ifukube dies at the age of 91. He trained in the lumber industry and served as a forestry office during World War II, but he explored his interest in music in his spare time and became a university music instructor in 1946. In 1954, he scored the first Godzilla movie, and that music was tracked into later films in the series and has been re-recorded, covered and sampled by numerous artists since then. Aside from his film scoring work, he has been credited with hundreds of musical compositions since then and served as president of the Tokyo College of Music from 1976 to 1987.
ABC airs the 37th episode of the J.J. Abrams-produced series Lost. Kim Dickens guest stars. (more…)
ABC premieres the 14th episode of Shaun Cassidy’s sci-fi/horror series Invasion, starring William Fichtner (Contact), Eddie Cibrian, and Lisa Sheridan. (more…)
Actor Phil Brown, who secured a permanent place in SF lore with the role of Uncle Owen in Star Wars, dies at the age of 89. After spending the early years of his career working in stage productions in New York, he moved to Hollywood and co-founded the Actors’ Laboratory. He was only one film into a directing career when he was blacklisted during the McCarthy hearings, and left America to work in London in 1952 as both an actor and director, not to move back to the US until 1993. He found that his Star Wars role, even as brief as it was, won him a place of honor at many SF conventions, and he spent recent years making the rounds and meeting his fans. He also appeared in Superman, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Twilight’s Last Gleaming, the TV miniseries The Martian Chronicles, and played a brief part in a trailer assembled by Richard Hatch to pitch a revival of the original Battlestar Galactica series.
ITV premieres the fourth and final episode of Steven Gallagher’s short-lived science fiction drama Eleventh Hour, starring Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation). (more…)
The 189th episode of Stargate SG-1 airs on the Sci-Fi Channel, starring Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Beau Bridges, and Michael Shanks. (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 36th episode of Stargate Atlantis. Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1) guest stars. (more…)
Sci-Fi channel airs the 29th episode of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. Dana Delany guest stars. (more…)
Actor Andreas Katsulas, known to SF fans as Babylon 5′s eloquent Ambassador G’Kar, dies of lung cancer at the age of 59. After making a mark with Star Trek fans as Next Generation’s feisty recurring Romulan, Commander Tomalok, he landed the part of Babylon 5′s resident Narn ambassador and stayed with it from the 1993 pilot movie through the most recent Babylon 5 project to date, the 2002 TV movie Legend Of The Rangers. He also made appearances in Max Headroom, Alien Nation, Star Trek: Enterprise, Millennium, NYPD Blue, and movies such as the big-screen adaptation of The Fugitive.
Ralph Baer, the inventor of home video games, receives the National Medal of Technology from President George W. Bush. While working for defense contractor Sanders & Associates in the 1960s, Baer pioneered the concept of interactive television programming, eventually gathering a hand-picked team to create a prototype called the Brown Box. Baer and his employer licensed the technology to Magnavox, which repackaged it and marketed it as the world’s first home video game console, the Odyssey. Baer also created other key video game innovations, such as the first light gun.
The sixth episode of the science fiction sitcom Hyperdrive premieres on BBC2, starring Nick Frost, Miranda Hart and Kevin Eldon. This brings the first season to an end; a second season will follow in 2007. (more…)
ABC airs the 38th episode of the J.J. Abrams-produced series Lost. Mira Furlan (Babylon 5), Clancy Brown (Highlander, Earth 2) and Michael Emerson guest star. (more…)