Soundtrack specialty label Varese Sarabande releases a 2-CD set featuring Michael Giacchino’s complete score from Star Trek Beyond. 
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The fifth episode of Mars airs on the National Geographic Channel. The series is a hybrid drama/documentary about a fictional human mission to Mars in 2033, contrasted against efforts to prepare for such a mission in the present day. The series is produced by Ron Howard (Apollo 13). (more…)
Disney and Lucasfilm release Rogue One, the first standalone Star Wars “anthology” film of a projected series of such self-contained films. Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Ben Mendelsohn, and Forest Whitaker star in a story that leads directly into the opening scenes of the original Star Wars. (This film will eventually receive its own prequel, the two-season streaming series Andor.) (more…)
The sixth episode of Mars airs on the National Geographic Channel, bringing the show’s first season to an end. The series is a hybrid drama/documentary about a fictional human mission to Mars in 2033, contrasted against efforts to prepare for such a mission in the present day. The series is renewed for a second season after the conclusion of its first season. (more…)
British-born shuttle astronaut Piers Sellers dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61. A veteran of over 559 hours in space as a crew member of shuttle missions STS-112, STS-121 and STS-132, Sellers was trained as a meteorologist and did much of his research on climate change, eventually becoming NASA’s acting director of Earth sciences after retiring from flight duty.
33-inch-tall actor Mihaly “Michu” Meszaros, who donned the furry suit of the title character in the late ’80s sci-fi spoof Alf, dies at the age of 76. In any instances where the character was shown from head to toe, Meszaros wore a full-body suit, though in many cases the character was a puppet shown only from the chest up, operated and voiced by show (and character) creator Paul Fusco. To maintain the illusion, Meszaros was credited as a “personal assitant” to Alf for his appearances. A circus performer since the early 1970s, Meszaros also appeared in Big Top Pee-Wee, Waxwork, Warlock: The Armageddon, and the TV series Dear John.
Pioneering astronomer Vera Rubin, whose research led to the discovery of dark matter, dies at the age of 88. In the 1960s and ’70s, Rubin found that the rate of galaxies’ rotation could not be accounted for unless galaxies contained, on average, ten times more mass than could be distributed among the visible stars in that galaxy. This research led her to propose the theory of dark matter in the 1970s, though she tried for many years to find – or at least rule out – any other possible explanations to the galaxy rotation problem.
The 829th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1 (the 130th episode since the series’ revival). This Christmas-themed episode closes the ninth season, and reintroduces Nardole (Matt Lucas) as a new regular companion for the Doctor in a story that pastiches American superhero comics (and their media spinoffs). Justin Chatwin and Charity Wakefield guest star. (more…)
Actress and author Carrie Fisher, universally known as Princess Leia from the original Star Wars trilogy, dies four days after suffering from a massive heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles. Alongside a storied career that included movies such as The Blues Brothers, When Harry Met Sally, and a revival of Leia in 2015’s The Force Awakens, Fisher embarked on a writing career that included the semi-autobiographical novel Postcards From The Edge (later adapted into a movie in its own right), which fictionalized elements of her Hollywood upbringing, and autobiographies that exposed her lifelong battles with mental illness. She died at the age of 60.
Milan Records releases the soundtrack from the 2016 science fiction miniseries Mars by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis. (more…)
Cable channel Disney XD airs the 46th episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels. Forest Whitaker (Platoon, The Last King Of Scotland) guest stars, reprising his character from the recent film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. (more…)
Cable channel Disney XD airs the 46th episode of the series Star Wars: Rebels. Forest Whitaker (Platoon, The Last King Of Scotland) guest stars, reprising his character from the recent film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. (more…)
Cable channel Disney XD airs the 
Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan, the last human to leave the surface of the moon in the 20th century, dies at the age of 82. One of the members of NASA’s second astronaut class, recruited in 1963 to take part in the Gemini program, Cernan first flew into space aboard Gemini 9 in 1966, a mission in which he became the second American spacewalker, though his assigned tasks outside the Gemini spacecraft proved to be dangerously exhausting. His second flight, as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 10, saw him flying a lunar lander to within miles of the moon’s surface in May 1969, a dress rehearsal for the upcoming Apollo 11 mission. He commanded the final Apollo moon landing mission, Apollo 17, in December 1972, where he earned the title of “last man on the moon” by being the last astronaut to leave the lunar surface to re-enter the Apollo 17 lander. He later wrote an autobiography about his spaceflight experiences, and was frequently outspoken about his disappointment that no one walked on the moon again in his lifetime.
Veteran character actor Miguel Ferrer, a steady presence on TV and the big screen for over 30 years, dies of cancer at the age of 61. Fondly remembered for his villain role in the original Robocop, a recurring role on Twin Peaks, and a brief cameo as the first officer of the hapless U.S.S. Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, Ferrer was co-starring in the popular series NCIS: Los Angeles at the time of his death.
La-La Land Records releases a much-anticipated expanded edition of Mark Mancina’s soundtrack from the 1996 film Twister, now including the complete score from the movie. (more…)
Cable channel Disney XD airs the 
Masaya Nakamura, the founder of pioneering Japanese video game maker Namco, dies at the age of 91. Founded in 1955 as Nakamura Manufacturing Co., Namco was an early proponent of video game development in Japan, though it saw its earliest successes as the Japanese distributor of Atari arcade games imported from the U.S. After moderately successful early coin-ops such as Gee Bee, Namco quickly established itself as a global powerhouse with the release of such perennial classics as Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig Dug, Pole Position, and Xevious, among many others. Namco’s growth in the 1980s was so explosive that it absorbed Japanese film studio Nikkatsu in 1993 (several of whose titles Nakamura oversaw as executive producer), and later merged with Bandai in 2005.
The CW airs the 25th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Arthur Darvill, Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz and Victor Garber. John Barrowman (Torchwood) and NEal McDonough guest star.
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The CW airs the 56th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin. Greg Grunberg (Heroes) guest stars.
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The 102nd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Lexa Doig (Andromeda) guest stars.
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British actor Sir John Hurt, renowned for memorable roles in everything from I, Claudius to Alien to The Elephant Man to 1984 to Doctor Who, dies at the age of 77 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer (during which he kept actively working). Known to genre fans for the role of unlucky astronaut Kane in Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), though before this he had lent his voice to animated adaptations of Lord Of The Rings and Watership Down. He spoofed his Alien character for Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs in 1987. Other genre fare included the movie adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel Contact in 1997, V For Vendetta, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, the final two Harry Potter movies, and voiced the dragon in the BBC’s TV series Merlin. In 2013, he joined the pantheon of incarnations of the Doctor for Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, playing a previously unseen incarnation of the Time Lord, a role he reprised for Big Finish Productions’ Doctor Who audio plays.
The CW airs the 26th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Arthur Darvill, Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz and Victor Garber. John Barrowman (Torchwood) and NEal McDonough guest star.
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The CW airs the 57th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin.
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The 103rd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Lexa Doig (Andromeda) guest stars.
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The 11th and 12th episodes of the science fiction series The Expanse, based on the series of novels by James S.A. Corey (a pseudonym for writers Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham), is broadcast on cable channel Syfy. Hugh Dillon (Flashpoint, The Killing) guest stars in the second season premiere.
The CW airs the 27th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Arthur Darvill, Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz and Victor Garber.
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The CW airs the 58th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin.
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Actor Richard Hatch, who starred in the 1970s series Battlestar Galactica as Captain Apollo and then took on the new role of Tom Zarek in the show’s longer-running early 2000s re-imagining, dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 71. Both before and after his starring turn as Apollo, Hatch was a mainstay of 1970s and ’80s TV, with guest appearances in The Love Boat, CHiPS, Fantasy Island, MacGyver, T.J. Hooker and Baywatch. In 1999 he unsuccessfully pitched a Galactica revival to Universal Studios, based loosely on a line of post-TV-series novels he co-authored earlier in the ’90s. He also played a key role in the Star Trek fan film Prelude To Axanar, and was set to reprise his role in a feature-length fan project continuing its story.
The 104th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Lexa Doig (Andromeda) guest stars.
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The 13th episode of the science fiction series The Expanse, based on the series of novels by James S.A. Corey (a pseudonym for writers Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham), is broadcast on cable channel Syfy. Chad L. Coleman (The Orville) and Hugh Dillon (Flashpoint, The Killing) guest star.
Though it has yet to actually go to space, the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser spacecraft is floated as a possible savior for the Hubble Space Telescope, with a very preliminary mission proposal for a repair mission to the telescope which has now been operational in orbit for over a quarter of a century. The possible mission is brought forth as an example of increasing high-profile cooperation between NASA and private space companies. The Dream Chaser’s earliest orbit test flights are not expected to take place prior to 2019; if the mission takes place in 2020 at the earliest, Hubble will by then be 30 years old.
The 105th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW.
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The 14th episode of the science fiction series The Expanse, based on the series of novels by James S.A. Corey (a pseudonym for writers Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham), is broadcast on cable channel Syfy. Chad L. Coleman (The Orville) guest stars.
Cable channel Disney XD airs the