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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. It features Lee Marvin in front of a high-tech viewscreen, but this is no starship – Gene-ology opens its investigation into a very unusual foray into "true crime" with Gene Roddenberry adapting the particulars of a notorious Seattle murder case into dramatic form. It's also a career milestone for Gene: the last script he would write for a show that he didn't also create. 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 "Queen Anne Killer Unidentified: The Michael Olds Story". 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. 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 67th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Matt Ryan, Brandon Routh, and Tala Ashe. This episode is the fourth season finale.
The second Boeing X-37B unmanned spacecraft, last flown in 2011-2012, returns to orbit atop an Atlas V rocket. Operated by the U.S. Air Force, the X-37B stays in orbit for just a few days shy of two years, performing classified military tasks as well as research for NASA, and it is capable of re-entering the atmosphere and gliding to a runway landing, very much like the Space Shuttle, of which it resembles a smaller version. Also deployed along with the X-37B is LightSail, an experimental solar sail test vehicle designed, built, paid for and operated by the Planetary Society, building on solar sail concepts originated by Society co-founder Carl Sagan. In a first, the mission will end on the former space shuttle landing strip at Kennedy Space Center in 2017.
The prelude to the animated spinoff series Tron Uprising airs on Disney XD. Originally devised as ten mini-episode teasers, Beck’s Beginning is recognized as a strong enough story in its own right to serve as a full episode-length pilot. Elijah Wood and Bruce Boxleitner star as the voices of Beck and Tron.
The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches unmanned space probe AKATSUKI, known more formally as the Venus Climate Orbiter. The spacecraft is expected to reach Venus in seven months and take up orbit around that planet, where it will study Venus’ atmosphere in depth. “Akatsuki” translates to “Dawn”, but is referred to by its Japanese name to avoid confusion with NASA’s asteroid-belt-exploring Dawn spacecraft.
The 718th episode of Doctor Who (the 20th since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Roger Lloyd Pack and Shaun Dingwall guest star. This is the second part of the story begun in Rise Of The Cybermen.
The 144th and final episode of Joss Whedon’s supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on UPN. James Marsters and Alyson Hannigan also star. Nathan Fillion (Firefly), David Boreanaz (Angel), and Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse) guest star in the series finale.
The 182nd episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and Robert Patrick. Nicholas Lea and Annabeth Gish guest star in the eighth season finale.
Little & Brown publishes J.C. Herz’s non-fictional analysis of the video game industry, “Joystick Nation“. The books is a series of essays on the origins, appeal, marketing and interpretation of video games, often from an academic and sociological perspective. A TV documentary project based on the book is announced at a later date, but never enters production.
CMC International Records releases the Electric Light Orchestra Part II live album One Night: Live In Australia as a single-CD release for the North American market (the album was previously given a two-disc release in Europe). The master recordings of this album change hands, cheaply, many times over many years, resulting in a great many reissues under different titles.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 61st episode of J. Michael Straczynski’s science fiction series Babylon 5. Michael O’Hare guest stars as Jeffrey Sinclair, the original commander of Babylon 5, in a two-part story which clears up the mysteries left dangling at the end of the first season episode Babylon Squared. As in previous seasons, the final five episodes of the season are held back until the fall.
The 44th episode of the supernatural crime series Forever Knight airs in syndication, starring Geraint Wyn-Davies, Catherine Disher, Nigel Bennett, and John Kapelos.
For the first time in five years, and the first time under the auspices of the Russian Federation, a new module is launched to expand the Mir space station. Originally devised as an add-on compartment to house experiments and equipment of a military nature, the Spektr module is, somewhat ironically, refitted to house American astronauts who will be joining future Mir station crews. Spektr also doubles Mir’s power generating capacity with its own solar panels.
Fox airs the 27th and final episode of the sci-fi western, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., starring Bruce Campbell, Julius Carry, and Christian Clemenson. John Astin (The Addams Family) and football legend Terry Bradshaw guest star in the series finale.
NBC airs the 74th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Charles Rocket (Max Headroom) and Terry Farrell (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) guest star in the fourth season finale.
The earliest test images from the Hubble Space Telescope alert ground-based astronomers to a serious problem: the telescope’s huge mirror has been ground to an incorrect shape, leaving the $2,000,000,000 telescope with a vision problem resulting in blurry pictures. Though they’re still an improvement over ground-based telescopes, the telescope’s main selling point – high-resolution images of distant objects – is moot. With the public considering the expensive satellite a failure (oblivious to the fact that it can be serviced via Space Shuttle), NASA begins an extensive investigation into the problem, arriving at a possible repair that can’t be applied until the first shuttle servicing mission to Hubble in 1993. In the meantime, attempts to correct the problem with Earthbound computer image processing yield some usable images.
The 21st episode of the horror anthology series Freddy’s Nightmares is broadcast in syndication in North America, hosted by Robert Englund in character as Freddy Krueger. Jeff Conaway (Wizard and Warriors, Babylon 5, Taxi) guest stars.
The 25th episode of the syndicated Alexander and Ilya Salkind-produced Superboy series, starring John Haymes Newton and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sybil Danning guest stars in an episode written by Superman/The Flash comics writer Cary Bates.
The 11th 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. David Hedison (Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, The Fly) guest stars.
NASA launches the 1,100 pound Pioneer Venus Orbiter, designed to orbit Venus for a year to study the planet’s atmosphere and its interaction with other space phenomena. Though launched separately, the two Pioneer Venus spacecraft will arrive at Venus within days of one another in December 1978. The Orbiter takes radar observations of the cloud-shrouded planet, from which the first surface map of Venus is derived. As with many other unmanned NASA spacecraft designed for relatively short-duration missions, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter outlives its design lifespan, staying fully functional into the 1990s and eventually becoming the only American spacecraft to view Halley’s Comet in 1986.
NBC airs the 43rd and final episode of Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Rod Serling. Susan Strasberg guest stars. The series will resurface in syndication, but cut down to half-hour form, often severely truncating or even omitting story segments from the earlier hour-long episodes and, bizarrely, incorporating equally significantly edited-down episodes of the hour-long Gary Collins series The Sixth Sense (also produced by Universal) with new Rod Serling intros to pad out the syndication package.
The 163rd episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second Doctor’s second and final encounter with the Daleks, and this story also introduces Deborah Watling as new companion Victoria Waterfield. This episode is now missing from the BBC’s archives.
The CW airs the 67th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Matt Ryan, Brandon Routh, and Tala Ashe. This episode is the fourth season finale.
The 835th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1 (the 136th episode since the series’ revival). Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, and Matt Lucas star. Michelle Gomez guest stars. 
The second Boeing X-37B unmanned spacecraft, last flown in 2011-2012, returns to orbit atop an Atlas V rocket. Operated by the U.S. Air Force, the X-37B stays in orbit for just a few days shy of two years, performing classified military tasks as well as research for NASA, and it is capable of re-entering the atmosphere and gliding to a runway landing, very much like the Space Shuttle, of which it resembles a smaller version. Also deployed along with the X-37B is LightSail, an experimental solar sail test vehicle designed, built, paid for and operated by the Planetary Society, building on solar sail concepts originated by Society co-founder Carl Sagan. In a first, the mission will end on the former space shuttle landing strip at Kennedy Space Center in 2017.
The prelude to the animated spinoff series Tron Uprising airs on Disney XD. Originally devised as ten mini-episode teasers, Beck’s Beginning is recognized as a strong enough story in its own right to serve as a full episode-length pilot. Elijah Wood and Bruce Boxleitner star as the voices of Beck and Tron. 
The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches unmanned space probe AKATSUKI, known more formally as the Venus Climate Orbiter. The spacecraft is expected to reach Venus in seven months and take up orbit around that planet, where it will study Venus’ atmosphere in depth. “Akatsuki” translates to “Dawn”, but is referred to by its Japanese name to avoid confusion with NASA’s asteroid-belt-exploring Dawn spacecraft.
The 718th episode of Doctor Who (the 20th since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Roger Lloyd Pack and Shaun Dingwall guest star. This is the second part of the story begun in Rise Of The Cybermen. 
The Weird Al Yankovic album, Poodle Hat, is released, featuring the singles “Ode To A Superhero” and “eBay”. 
The 144th and final episode of Joss Whedon’s supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on UPN. James Marsters and Alyson Hannigan also star. Nathan Fillion (Firefly), David Boreanaz (Angel), and Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse) guest star in the series finale.
The 182nd episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and Robert Patrick. Nicholas Lea and Annabeth Gish guest star in the eighth season finale.
UPN airs the 93rd episode of Star Trek: Voyager, closing the show’s fourth season. Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) guest stars. 
Little & Brown publishes J.C. Herz’s non-fictional analysis of the video game industry, “Joystick Nation“. The books is a series of essays on the origins, appeal, marketing and interpretation of video games, often from an academic and sociological perspective. A TV documentary project based on the book is announced at a later date, but never enters production. 
CMC International Records releases the Electric Light Orchestra Part II live album One Night: Live In Australia as a single-CD release for the North American market (the album was previously given a two-disc release in Europe). The master recordings of this album change hands, cheaply, many times over many years, resulting in a great many reissues under different titles. 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 94th episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. 
The 25th and final episode of Lawrence Hertzog’s paranoid spy-fi thriller Nowhere Man, starring Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek), airs on UPN. Hal Linden guest stars in the series finale. 
UPN airs the 41st episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Brad Dourif guest stars; this is the finale of Voyager’s second season. 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 61st episode of J. Michael Straczynski’s science fiction series Babylon 5. Michael O’Hare guest stars as Jeffrey Sinclair, the original commander of Babylon 5, in a two-part story which clears up the mysteries left dangling at the end of the first season episode Babylon Squared. As in previous seasons, the final five episodes of the season are held back until the fall. 
The 44th episode of the supernatural crime series Forever Knight airs in syndication, starring Geraint Wyn-Davies, Catherine Disher, Nigel Bennett, and John Kapelos. 
For the first time in five years, and the first time under the auspices of the Russian Federation, a new module is launched to expand the Mir space station. Originally devised as an add-on compartment to house experiments and equipment of a military nature, the Spektr module is, somewhat ironically, refitted to house American astronauts who will be joining future Mir station crews. Spektr also doubles Mir’s power generating capacity with its own solar panels.
Fox airs the 27th and final episode of the sci-fi western, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., starring Bruce Campbell, Julius Carry, and Christian Clemenson. John Astin (The Addams Family) and football legend Terry Bradshaw guest star in the series finale.
NBC airs the 74th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Charles Rocket (Max Headroom) and Terry Farrell (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) guest star in the fourth season finale.
The earliest test images from the Hubble Space Telescope alert ground-based astronomers to a serious problem: the telescope’s huge mirror has been ground to an incorrect shape, leaving the $2,000,000,000 telescope with a vision problem resulting in blurry pictures. Though they’re still an improvement over ground-based telescopes, the telescope’s main selling point – high-resolution images of distant objects – is moot. With the public considering the expensive satellite a failure (oblivious to the fact that it can be serviced via Space Shuttle), NASA begins an extensive investigation into the problem, arriving at a possible repair that can’t be applied until the first shuttle servicing mission to Hubble in 1993. In the meantime, attempts to correct the problem with Earthbound computer image processing yield some usable images.
The 21st episode of the horror anthology series Freddy’s Nightmares is broadcast in syndication in North America, hosted by Robert Englund in character as Freddy Krueger. Jeff Conaway (Wizard and Warriors, Babylon 5, Taxi) guest stars.
The 25th episode of the syndicated Alexander and Ilya Salkind-produced Superboy series, starring John Haymes Newton and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sybil Danning guest stars in an episode written by Superman/The Flash comics writer Cary Bates.
ITV airs the second episode of the HTV West-produced children’s fantasy series Into The Labyrinth, co-created by Bob Baker (Sky, Doctor Who, K-9) and starring Ron Moody and Pamela Salem. 
The 11th 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. David Hedison (Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, The Fly) guest stars.
NASA launches the 1,100 pound Pioneer Venus Orbiter, designed to orbit Venus for a year to study the planet’s atmosphere and its interaction with other space phenomena. Though launched separately, the two Pioneer Venus spacecraft will arrive at Venus within days of one another in December 1978. The Orbiter takes radar observations of the cloud-shrouded planet, from which the first surface map of Venus is derived. As with many other unmanned NASA spacecraft designed for relatively short-duration missions, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter outlives its design lifespan, staying fully functional into the 1990s and eventually becoming the only American spacecraft to view Halley’s Comet in 1986.
NBC airs the 43rd and final episode of Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Rod Serling. Susan Strasberg guest stars. The series will resurface in syndication, but cut down to half-hour form, often severely truncating or even omitting story segments from the earlier hour-long episodes and, bizarrely, incorporating equally significantly edited-down episodes of the hour-long Gary Collins series The Sixth Sense (also produced by Universal) with new Rod Serling intros to pad out the syndication package.
The 324th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Roger Delgado guest stars as the Master; future Star Wars star David Prowse appears as the Minotaur. 
The 163rd episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second Doctor’s second and final encounter with the Daleks, and this story also introduces Deborah Watling as new companion Victoria Waterfield. This episode is now missing from the BBC’s archives. 
The 32nd episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Jack Klugman and John Anderson star in an episode written by Serling.