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Welcome to Gene-ology, a podcast by Roddenberry Entertainment that dives deep into the early TV writing works of Gene Roddenberry. Is this the best television script Gene Roddenberry wrote prior to creating Star Trek? Gene's singular episode of the popular medical drama Dr. Kildare is a powerful story full of rich characters and raw emotions – the bedrock of great television drama. Hosted by Earl Green & Ashley Thomas About Gene-ology Gene-ology explores Gene Roddenberry's early television scripts, including his lesser-known works before Star Trek using the Mission Log format popularized by Roddenberry Podcasts. We analyze the themes, writing style, and cultural impact of his scripts, and we even unearth stories from the Roddenberry archives that were never produced. Join us as we trace the roots of Gene's creative genius. In This Episode A breakdown of key moments and themes in "A Distant Thunder". Exploring Gene Roddenberry's evolving style and storytelling. How this episode ties into the broader TV landscape of the time and reflects the early seeds of Roddenberry's visionary work. Guest stars and unique production elements that bring this episode to life. Special Segment: Dramatic Recreation Since this script is not available to the public, we've brought it to life with a dramatic recreation! Special guests Jeff Gauntt and Bonnie Gordon perform a key section of the script. Listen in as they bring the story to life in this exclusive performance. Join the Conversation What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts, theories, and favorite moments in the comments or reach out to us on social media or email us at missionlog@roddenberry.com Did you know Roddenberry Podcasts is on YouTube? Find the video versions of your favorite shows like Mission Log: Prodigy, Mission Log: The Orville, as well as exclusive content only available on YouTube. Subscribe now! https://www.youtube.com/@RoddenberryEntertainment?sub_confirmation=1 Follow us on Social Media: INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/roddenberrypodcasts BLUESKY https://bsky.app/profile/roddenberrypod.bsky.social THREADS https://www.threads.net/@roddenberrypodcasts FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/MissionLogPod Our shows are part of the Roddenberry Entertainment family. For more great shows and to learn how we live the legacy of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, follow us here: RODDENBERRY PODCASTS https://www.instagram.com/RoddenberryPodcasts RODDENBERRY ENTERTAINMENT https://www.instagram.com/RoddenberryOfficial RODDENBERRY FOUNDATION https://www.instagram.com/TheRoddenberryFoundation Support the Show For as little as $1 a month, you can gain access to our Mission Log Discord Community! There, we continue the discussion with dedicated channels and a weekly video chat with the hosts. Become a member of our Patreon today! https://www.Patreon.com/MissionLog Subscribe and Stay Tuned Be sure to subscribe to Gene-ology for more deep dives into Gene Roddenberry's early works. New episodes are released regularly as we uncover more of Gene's television legacy. – Gene-ology is produced by Roddenberry Entertainment. Executive producer Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry. Visit https://Podcasts.Roddenberry.com for more great content. Edited by Earl Green.
The CW airs the 50th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Tala Ashe. Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who), Neal McDonough, and John Noble (Fringe) guest star.
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its fourth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the third flight for the second New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the third flight for the second New Shepard reusable booster; both will be flown again later in 2016.
The 41st episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Caity Lotz (Mad Men, Legends Of Tomorrow) guest star.
Part of the 23rd full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-18. Aleksandr Skvortsov, Mikhail Korniyenko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson take up residence on the ISS for 164 days, becoming part of the Expedition 23/24 crews. All three return to Earth in September 2010 aboard the same vehicle.
BBC1 airs the first segment of an animated Doctor Who adventure, The Infinite Quest, as part of the youth-oriented fan feedback series Totally Doctor Who. David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, and Anthony Stewart Head lead the voice cast. The full story, assembled into a single episode, will be made available later on DVD.
UPN airs the fifth episode of the animated video game spoof Game Over, featuring the voices of Patrick Warburton and Lucy Liu. The series is removed from UPN’s prime time schedule with one episode left unaired, which will get its debut on the DVD release.
Bridging the gap between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III, Cartoon Network premieres the 16th mini-episode of Genndy Tartakovsky’s The Clone Wars animated shorts.
The 155th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Michelle Joyner guest stars.
Sci-Fi Channel premieres the third episode of Farscape. (Early episodes of this series are aired out of the producers’ preferred story order or, for that matter, production order.)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 66th episode of the science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, Cleavant Derricks, Kari Wuhrer, and Charlie O’Connell. Malcolm Jamal-Warner (The Cosby Show, Jeremiah) guest stars.
Showtime airs the 95th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of the 1960s science fiction anthology series. Dale Midkiff (Time Trax) guest stars in an episode directed by Lou Diamond Phillips.
The 40th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Charles Napier, Erick Avari, and Michelle Phillips guest star.
Data East releases the arcade video game Lock ‘n’ Chase in the United States. Though bearing some distinctive differences from Pac-Man, the game gets lost in a glut of Pac-Man knock-off coin-ops also in circulation.
Microsoft enters the computer hardware business with a Z80 processor card for the Apple II computer. This peripheral allows the Apple II to run the CP/M operating system and Microsoft BASIC (the Apple II is well on its way to dominating the home computer market at this point). Selling it for nearly $350 is responsible for bringing in the bulk of Microsoft’s revenue between now and the introduction of Microsoft DOS for the IBM PC.
The ninth episode of the series Salvage 1 airs on ABC, starring Andy Griffith, Joel Higgins, and Trish Stewart. Richard Jaeckel (Spenser For Hire) and Moses Gunn (Shaft, Father Murphy) guest star.
The sixth episode of Harold Jack Bloom’s sci-fi series Project UFO airs on NBC, portraying fictionalized investigations into what the show claims are actual cases from the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigations. William Jordan and Caskey Swaim star. Scott Hylands (Night Heat, V) and Brian Tochi (Space Academy) guest star.
The 453rd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. John Bennett, Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin guest star. This episode brings Doctor Who’s 14th season to an end.
The product of a four-year collaboration between visionary SF writer Arthur C. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick, MGM’s 2001: a space odyssey premieres, delighting fans of hard SF and bewildering audiences and critics. It is released alongside Clarke’s novel of the same story, which both clarifies some of the more inscrutible story points (such as the reason for the behavior of HAL, the ship’s computer) and confuses others (the book depicts a mission to Saturn; the movie depicts a mission to Jupiter). Many critics and science fiction writers regard the movie as an instant classic of the genre, one which continues to be hugely influential in the years and decades to come.
The 26th episode of the time travel sitcom It’s About Time, created by Sherwood Schwarz (I Dream Of Jeannie) and starring Frank Aletter, Jack Mullaney, and Imogene Coca, is broadcast on CBS. This episode, the final one shown, is left over from the original formulation of the series premise, in which the astronauts were stranded in the stone age.
The 111th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part one of the story now collectively known as The Celestial Toymaker. The first story of the series under the stewardship of its third producer, Innes Lloyd, this episode is missing from the BBC’s archives.
The Soviet Union launches the space probe Zond 1 toward Venus, a more sophisticated version of the Venera 1 vehicle sent to that planet in 1961. Thanks to an electrical short within the Zond space probe, ground controllers lose all contact a month after it leaves Earth; by the time it swings past Venus at over 60,000 miles months later, Zond 1 has shut down completely.
An unmanned Soviet lunar lander, Luna 4, is launched from the USSR’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. Unlike Luna 2, which intentionally crashed into the moon with no attempt to slow its approach, Luna 4 is the first atempt at a vehicle intended to survive its descent to the lunar surface and make observations from the ground. A failed course correction engine burn leaves the 3,000-pound vehicle in a wide, looping orbit around the Earth, unable to reach the moon at all. The Soviet Union, after several more attempts, will eventually achieve the first unmanned soft landing on the surface of the moon three years later.
British broadcaster ABC airs the fifth episode of Pathfinders To Venus, a follow-up series to Pathfinders In Mars, produced by future Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman. George Colouris and Gerald Flood (City Beneath The Sea) star; the script is written by Malcolm Hulke (Doctor Who) and Eric Paice (Star Maidens). Though the original master tape of this episode was later wiped for reuse, film recordings of all eight episodes will be recovered and released on DVD in the 21st century.
The CW airs the 50th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Tala Ashe. Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who), Neal McDonough, and John Noble (Fringe) guest star.
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its fourth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the third flight for the second New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the third flight for the second New Shepard reusable booster; both will be flown again later in 2016.
The 41st episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Caity Lotz (Mad Men, Legends Of Tomorrow) guest star.
A complete expanded edition of Jerry and Joel Goldsmith’s soundtrack from the movie Star Trek: First Contact is released on GNP Crescendo Records. 
Part of the 23rd full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-18. Aleksandr Skvortsov, Mikhail Korniyenko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson take up residence on the ISS for 164 days, becoming part of the Expedition 23/24 crews. All three return to Earth in September 2010 aboard the same vehicle.
BBC1 airs the first segment of an animated Doctor Who adventure, The Infinite Quest, as part of the youth-oriented fan feedback series Totally Doctor Who. David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, and Anthony Stewart Head lead the voice cast. The full story, assembled into a single episode, will be made available later on DVD. 
Disco Mix Club Records releases a Back To Mine compilation album picked by Norwegian duo Röyksopp. 
Just a week after the series’ revival, the 700th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Zoe Wanamaker and Yasmin Bannerman guest star. 
UPN airs the fifth episode of the animated video game spoof Game Over, featuring the voices of Patrick Warburton and Lucy Liu. The series is removed from UPN’s prime time schedule with one episode left unaired, which will get its debut on the DVD release. 
UPN airs the fourth episode of the animated video game spoof Game Over, featuring the voices of Patrick Warburton and Lucy Liu. Common and Jennifer Coolidge guest stars. 
Bridging the gap between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III, Cartoon Network premieres the 16th mini-episode of Genndy Tartakovsky’s The Clone Wars animated shorts. 
The 43rd episode of the Star Trek prequel spinoff Enterprise premieres on UPN. 
Sci-Fi Channel premieres the 33rd episode of Lexx. Nigel Bennett (Forever Knight) guest stars as Prince. 
The 155th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Michelle Joyner guest stars.
Sci-Fi Channel premieres 
Sci-Fi Channel premieres the third episode of Farscape. (Early episodes of this series are aired out of the producers’ preferred story order or, for that matter, production order.) 
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 66th episode of the science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, Cleavant Derricks, Kari Wuhrer, and Charlie O’Connell. Malcolm Jamal-Warner (The Cosby Show, Jeremiah) guest stars.
Showtime airs the 95th episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of the 1960s science fiction anthology series. Dale Midkiff (Time Trax) guest stars in an episode directed by Lou Diamond Phillips.
The 40th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Charles Napier, Erick Avari, and Michelle Phillips guest star.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 66th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Jennifer Hetrick and Max Grodenchik (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) guest star. 
The 17th episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 airs on KTMA, an independent TV station in Minneapolis, starring Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, and Josh Weinstein. 
Data East releases the arcade video game Lock ‘n’ Chase in the United States. Though bearing some distinctive differences from Pac-Man, the game gets lost in a glut of Pac-Man knock-off coin-ops also in circulation. 
Microsoft enters the computer hardware business with a Z80 processor card for the Apple II computer. This peripheral allows the Apple II to run the CP/M operating system and Microsoft BASIC (the Apple II is well on its way to dominating the home computer market at this point). Selling it for nearly $350 is responsible for bringing in the bulk of Microsoft’s revenue between now and the introduction of Microsoft DOS for the IBM PC.
The ninth episode of the series Salvage 1 airs on ABC, starring Andy Griffith, Joel Higgins, and Trish Stewart. Richard Jaeckel (Spenser For Hire) and Moses Gunn (Shaft, Father Murphy) guest star.
The sixth episode of Harold Jack Bloom’s sci-fi series Project UFO airs on NBC, portraying fictionalized investigations into what the show claims are actual cases from the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigations. William Jordan and Caskey Swaim star. Scott Hylands (Night Heat, V) and Brian Tochi (Space Academy) guest star.
The 453rd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. John Bennett, Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin guest star. This episode brings Doctor Who’s 14th season to an end.
The product of a four-year collaboration between visionary SF writer Arthur C. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick, MGM’s 2001: a space odyssey premieres, delighting fans of hard SF and bewildering audiences and critics. It is released alongside Clarke’s novel of the same story, which both clarifies some of the more inscrutible story points (such as the reason for the behavior of HAL, the ship’s computer) and confuses others (the book depicts a mission to Saturn; the movie depicts a mission to Jupiter). Many critics and science fiction writers regard the movie as an instant classic of the genre, one which continues to be hugely influential in the years and decades to come. 
The 26th episode of the time travel sitcom It’s About Time, created by Sherwood Schwarz (I Dream Of Jeannie) and starring Frank Aletter, Jack Mullaney, and Imogene Coca, is broadcast on CBS. This episode, the final one shown, is left over from the original formulation of the series premise, in which the astronauts were stranded in the stone age.
The 111th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part one of the story now collectively known as The Celestial Toymaker. The first story of the series under the stewardship of its third producer, Innes Lloyd, this episode is missing from the BBC’s archives. 
The Soviet Union launches the space probe Zond 1 toward Venus, a more sophisticated version of the Venera 1 vehicle sent to that planet in 1961. Thanks to an electrical short within the Zond space probe, ground controllers lose all contact a month after it leaves Earth; by the time it swings past Venus at over 60,000 miles months later, Zond 1 has shut down completely.
An unmanned Soviet lunar lander, Luna 4, is launched from the USSR’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. Unlike Luna 2, which intentionally crashed into the moon with no attempt to slow its approach, Luna 4 is the first atempt at a vehicle intended to survive its descent to the lunar surface and make observations from the ground. A failed course correction engine burn leaves the 3,000-pound vehicle in a wide, looping orbit around the Earth, unable to reach the moon at all. The Soviet Union, after several more attempts, will eventually achieve the first unmanned soft landing on the surface of the moon three years later.
British broadcaster ABC airs the fifth episode of Pathfinders To Venus, a follow-up series to Pathfinders In Mars, produced by future Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman. George Colouris and Gerald Flood (City Beneath The Sea) star; the script is written by Malcolm Hulke (Doctor Who) and Eric Paice (Star Maidens). Though the original master tape of this episode was later wiped for reuse, film recordings of all eight episodes will be recovered and released on DVD in the 21st century.