Big Finish Productions releases the 120th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy. 
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The tenth episode of Joss Whedon’s futuristic “spy-fi” series Dollhouse airs on Fox, starring Eliza Dushku. Aisha Hinds (Invasion, Under The Dome) guest stars.
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Big Finish Productions releases the 18th episode of the new Eighth Doctor Who audio dramas, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. (more…)
The fan-produced Star Trek production Star Trek: Intrepid releases its second episode. The UK-based production is shot almost entirely in front of green screen with computer-generated backgrounds added in post production. (more…)
NASA’s Spirit Mars rover becomes stuck in an area of soft, dusty soil in which its wheels can no longer gain traction. Efforts to simulate the problem on Earth begin, as well as studies to see if Spirit can free itself, but attempts to wiggle or rotate the rover’s wheels on Mars produce no results (and eventually wear out the independent motor of another of its wheels). The attempts to free Spirit from its Martian sandtrap continue through early 2010.
The 11th episode of Joss Whedon’s futuristic “spy-fi” series Dollhouse airs on Fox, starring Eliza Dushku. Aisha Hinds (Invasion, Under The Dome) and Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Rogue One) guest star.
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Varese Sarabande releases 
Michael Giacchino’s soundtrack from the movie Star Trek is released on Varese Sarabande Records. (more…)
Paramount Pictures releases J.J. Abrams’ film Star Trek, starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and Karl Urban. A reboot of the classic TV era of Star Trek, this movie is explicitly stated to be the beginning of an alternate timeline (referred to later as the “Kelvin Universe”) separate from the “prime timeline” seen in all prior movie and TV iterations of the franchise. With a marketing blitz clearing the way for its premiere, this turns out to be the most financially successful film in the Star Trek franchise. (more…)
The 12th episode of Joss Whedon’s futuristic “spy-fi” series Dollhouse airs on Fox, starring Eliza Dushku. Mark Sheppard (Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica) and Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Rogue One) guest star in the first season finale. A further episode, Epitaph One, is produced as a potential series finale, but upon renewal of Dollhouse, that episode does not air on broadcast TV, instead going direct to DVD via the box set release of this season.
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Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on the 126th shtutle flight, the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (and the only post-Columbia flight not to visit the International Space Station). The repairs and upgrades conducted during a series of spacewalks will extend Hubble’s operation life through at least 2014. Aboard Atlantis for her 30th flight are Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Greg Johnson, and mission specialists John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino, Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur. This mission was nearly cancelled in light of post-Columbia flight rules requiring all shuttle flights to visit the space station.
Michael Giacchino’s soundtrack to the fourth season of Lost is released on Varese Sarabande Records. (more…)
The European Space Agency launches a single Ariane 5 rocket to deliver a pair of unmanned space telescopes to the L2 LaGrange point trailing Earth. The super-cooled Herschel Space Observatory will search for objects at the far-infrared end of the spectrum, while the Planck Space Observatory will scan the microwave spectrum. Though both telescopes are sent to the same general region of space, they are entirely separate spacecraft which will operate independently of one another.
La-La Land Records releases Elmer Bernstein’s soundtrack from the 1980 disaster movie parody Airplane!. (more…)
The 20th full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-14. Roman Romanenko, Frank De Winne and Robert Thirsk take up residence on the ISS for 188 days, becoming half the ISS’ first six-person crew. All three crew members return about the same Soyuz capsule in December 2009.
Big Finish Productions releases the 121st Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 19th episode of the new Eighth Doctor Who audio dramas, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. (more…)
La-La Land Records releases Bear McCreary’s soundtrack from the Battlestar Galactica spinoff pilot Caprica. (more…)
Japan’s unmanned Kaguya spacecraft, also known as SELENE, is intentionally crashed into the surface of Earth’s moon, which it has been orbiting and studying for nearly two years (twice its intended one-year operational lifetime). Having completed its observations and studies (as well as transmitting back to Earth high-definition camera views of the moon from orbit), Kaguya impacts near the crater Gill.
Sire Records releases Regina Spektor‘s fifth album, Far. (more…)
BBC Radio 4 airs the factual radio program On The Outside, It Looked Like An Old-Fashioned Police Box, hosted by Mark Gatiss, a brief history of the Target Books novelizations of classic Doctor Who episodes. (more…)
NOAA’s GOES-14 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral into geosynchronous orbit to monitor weather patterns over the United States. It will be held in reserve until August 2012, when it will be activated to begin monitoring Tropical Storm Isaac as it closes in on the Gulf Coast, and it will redirected to monitor Hurricane Sandy’s approach and landfall on the east coast of the United States. In 2013 it will be moved to a position near the GOES-EAST geostationary position to cover the Atlantic Ocean and the east coast during one of GOES-13’s many technical outages. It remains in orbit on standby.
Big Finish Productions releases the 20th episode of the new Eighth Doctor Who audio dramas, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 122nd Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy. (more…)
BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a made-for-radio Torchwood audio play, starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd, and Tom Price. (more…)
BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a made-for-radio Torchwood audio play, starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles, and Gareth David-Lloyd. (more…)
BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a made-for-radio Torchwood audio play, starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles, and Gareth David-Lloyd. (more…)
A tantalizing trailer for the unfinished Doctor Who fan film Devious, which included Jon Pertwee’s final performance in character and in costume as the Doctor, is released as a bonus feature on the Doctor Who DVD The War Games. (more…)
BBC1 airs the 27th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood. Unlike previous seasons, this season – subtitled Children Of Earth – is only five episodes long, broadcast at a rate of one installment per night, with the implication that the story is unfolding more or less in real time. Peter Capaldi and Paul Copley guest star. 
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The Sci-Fi Channel, launched in 1992, implements a major rebranding campaign, in the process renaming itself Syfy (a change that meets with some derision from the genre fan community). Unlike the generic term “sci-fi”, the new name can be copyrighted and marketed more aggressively. (Though the “Syfy” spelling was originated by a fan-run website called Syfy Portal, that site’s owners sold that brand earlier in the year, renaming their site Airlock Alpha in the process.) Along with the rebranding comes a somewhat more expansive view of what constitutes genre programming, with reality shows and sports programming (some of it shared with other cable channels under Comcast/Universal ownership) now, another move that meets with criticism and will be somewhat reduced over time.
BBC1 airs the 28th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood. Unlike previous seasons, this season – subtitled Children Of Earth – is only five episodes long, broadcast at a rate of one installment per night, with the implication that the story is unfolding more or less in real time. Peter Capaldi and Paul Copley guest star. (more…)
BBC1 airs the 29th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood. Unlike previous seasons, this season – subtitled Children Of Earth – is only five episodes long, broadcast at a rate of one installment per night, with the implication that the story is unfolding more or less in real time. Peter Capaldi and Paul Copley guest star. (more…)
BBC1 airs the 30th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood. Unlike previous seasons, this season – subtitled Children Of Earth – is only five episodes long, broadcast at a rate of one installment per night, with the implication that the story is unfolding more or less in real time. Peter Capaldi and Paul Copley guest star. (more…)
Syfy airs the 34th episode of the science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson, and Joe Morton. Ty Olsson (Battlestar Galactica) guest stars in the long-delayed continuation of the third season, a side-effect of the 2007-2008 Writers’ Guild strike.
BBC1 airs the 31st episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood. Peter Capaldi and Susan Brown guest star. The experimental five-episode season proves to bit a hit with critics and viewers, particularly in America, where it’s hailed as one of the television events of the year, imported or not. (more…)