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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.
Streaming service CBS All Access debuts the tenth episode of Star Trek: Picard, starring Patrick Stewart, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Alison Pill, and Evan Evagora. Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager), Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest star in the first season finale.
The CW airs the 49th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Tala Ashe. Neal McDonough and John Noble (Fringe) guest star.
The 40th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Jessica De Gouw (Dracula) and Caity Lotz (Mad Men, Legends Of Tomorrow) guest star.
The ninth episode of the Battlestar Galactica spinoff series Caprica, a non-space-based tale of the creation of the Cylons over half a century before the events seen in Galactica, premieres on cable channel Syfy. James Marsters (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel) guest stars.
The fourteenth full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-14. Gennady Padalka and Michael Barratt take up residence on the ISS for 199 days. Arriving with them on the ISS for a 12-day stay is returning space tourist Charles Simonyi, who returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-13 with the Expedition 18 crew. As with his previous flight to the ISS, Simonyi pays for his own Soyuz seat and mission training.
After considerable fanfare and build-up, Doctor Who returns to BBC1 with its 699th episode. Rose opens the first season of the revived show and introduced the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion Rose (Billie Piper), along with a host of supporting characters who reappear throughout the first two seasons. Thanks to a carefully managed publicity campaign, the new Doctor Who is a genuine hit with viewers and discussions of a Christmas special and a second season begin almost immediately at the BBC.
Paul Hester, former drummer for Split Enz and Crowded House, is found dead at the age of 46 in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Though police say the death is not “suspicious,” they rule it a suicide. Hester was a mainstay of the Melbourne music scene in the 80s when he auditioned to fill the vacant drum seat in Australian/New Zealand supergroup Split Enz. He joined the group for its 1984 tour, and only recorded one album, 1985’s See Ya Round, in the studio with Split Enz before the band broke up. He joined Neil Finn in a quest to launch a new band which, with the addition of bassist Nick Seymour, was eventually christened Crowded House and scored a #2 on the Billboard charts in early 1987 with “Don’t Dream It’s Over”. He recorded and toured with Crowded House until 1994, when the rigors of touring – and impending fatherhood – convinced him to return to Melbourne with his family.
Bridging the gap between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III, Cartoon Network premieres the 11th mini-episode of Genndy Tartakovsky’s The Clone Wars animated shorts.
Following up on observations from Earth-based telescopes, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is pointed toward the star V838 Monocerotis – an object of very little previous interest – to discover why it’s suddenly the brightest thing in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. What Hubble sees surprises scientists on the ground: a “shell” of matter surrounding the star, illuminated from within and expanding outward into space (actual photo sequence seen here). What astronomers had seen previously was the illumination of the dust cloud, which is much larger than the star itself. Scientists theorize that the expanding dust cloud is not an indication of a supernova, but a sign that V838 Monocerotis is expanding, expelling gas and then shrinking again. The star is over 20,000 light years from Earth.
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 65th episode of the science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, Cleavant Derricks, Kari Wuhrer, and Charlie O’Connell.
Premium cable channel Showtime premieres the first episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Beau Bridges, Lloyd Bridges, and Helen Shaver guest star in Melinda Snodgrass’ screenplay based on George R.R. Martin’s novella.
The 39th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Terry Kiser (A Weekend At Bernie’s) guest stars.
The 30th episode of the science fiction comedy Red Dwarf airs on BBC 2. This mind-bending episode ends the fifth season, and guest stars Timothy Spall (The King’s Speech) and Lenny Von Dohlen (Electric Dreams, Twin Peaks, The Pretender).
NBC premieres the first episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. As a high-concept mid-season replacement, the show’s first season is brief, but quickly finds a cult following.
After three years of tinkering with the basics of the concept, and spending much of his downtime from the 1988 Writers’ Guild strike refining the idea, writer J. Michael Straczynski completes his first draft script and series bible for a new science fiction series, Babylon 5. In the coming months he will pitch it to several networks, studios, and broadcasters (including Paramount, which passes on it), finally finding a receptive ear in Chris-Craft Television executive Evan Thompson. Thompson, in turn, introduces Straczynski to Warner Bros. TV executive Dick Robertson, with whom Thompson is exploring the possibility of launching a new network.
The fifth 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. Edward Winter (playing a role unrelated to his series regular role in Project UFO’s second season) guest stars.
Potential contractors for NASA’s upcoming Space Shuttle offer specs based on their final design studies, which still assume that the shuttle’s giant booster will be a manned, winged vehicle in its own right that will return to a runway on Earth after its fuel is used up. One thing that both studies suggest, however, is an aluminum airframe which requires a shift away from the ablative metallic heat shields of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. A system of carbon-reinforced “shingles” is suggested as an alternative, and is approved by NASA, though developing the technology to create, install and maintain these tiles delays the first Shuttle launch into the 1980s, and the tiles are still prone to damage during both launch and re-entry – a weakness that will eventually seal the end of the Space Shuttle era.
The 43rd episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, is broadcast on ABC. Peter Mark Richman, Susan Oliver, and John Milford guest star in the final episode of the series.
Meetings commence at the BBC to hash out ideas for a new children’s science fiction series to be produced in-house, possibly involving a time machine, an aloof old man, a younger “man of action” character, a female scientist, and a younger woman. As the creative lightning rod of this series development, Sydney Newman begins to weed out ideas he considers unsuitable – such as giving these characters the roles of “science troubleshooters” working for the government – and homes in on the time travel idea, as well as the old man character, who emerges as a man of mystery. These are the first creative meetings from which the BBC’s Doctor Who will emerge.
This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
British broadcaster ABC airs the fourth 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.
Streaming service CBS All Access debuts the tenth episode of Star Trek: Picard, starring Patrick Stewart, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Alison Pill, and Evan Evagora. Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager), Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest star in the first season finale. 
The CW airs the 49th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Tala Ashe. Neal McDonough and John Noble (Fringe) guest star.
The 40th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Jessica De Gouw (Dracula) and Caity Lotz (Mad Men, Legends Of Tomorrow) guest star.
The ninth episode of the Battlestar Galactica spinoff series Caprica, a non-space-based tale of the creation of the Cylons over half a century before the events seen in Galactica, premieres on cable channel Syfy. James Marsters (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel) guest stars. 
The fourteenth full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-14. Gennady Padalka and Michael Barratt take up residence on the ISS for 199 days. Arriving with them on the ISS for a 12-day stay is returning space tourist Charles Simonyi, who returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-13 with the Expedition 18 crew. As with his previous flight to the ISS, Simonyi pays for his own Soyuz seat and mission training.
BBC2 airs the 25th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. James Marsters guest stars. 
After considerable fanfare and build-up, Doctor Who returns to BBC1 with its 699th episode. Rose opens the first season of the revived show and introduced the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion Rose (Billie Piper), along with a host of supporting characters who reappear throughout the first two seasons. Thanks to a carefully managed publicity campaign, the new Doctor Who is a genuine hit with viewers and discussions of a Christmas special and a second season begin almost immediately at the BBC. 
Paul Hester, former drummer for Split Enz and Crowded House, is found dead at the age of 46 in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Though police say the death is not “suspicious,” they rule it a suicide. Hester was a mainstay of the Melbourne music scene in the 80s when he auditioned to fill the vacant drum seat in Australian/New Zealand supergroup Split Enz. He joined the group for its 1984 tour, and only recorded one album, 1985’s See Ya Round, in the studio with Split Enz before the band broke up. He joined Neil Finn in a quest to launch a new band which, with the addition of bassist Nick Seymour, was eventually christened Crowded House and scored a #2 on the Billboard charts in early 1987 with “Don’t Dream It’s Over”. He recorded and toured with Crowded House until 1994, when the rigors of touring – and impending fatherhood – convinced him to return to Melbourne with his family.
UPN airs the third episode of the animated video game spoof Game Over, featuring the voices of Patrick Warburton and Lucy Liu. Jeffrey Tambor (Max Headroom) guest stars. 
Bridging the gap between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III, Cartoon Network premieres the 11th mini-episode of Genndy Tartakovsky’s The Clone Wars animated shorts. 
Following up on observations from Earth-based telescopes, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is pointed toward the star V838 Monocerotis – an object of very little previous interest – to discover why it’s suddenly the brightest thing in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. What Hubble sees surprises scientists on the ground: a “shell” of matter surrounding the star, illuminated from within and expanding outward into space (actual photo sequence seen here). What astronomers had seen previously was the illumination of the dust cloud, which is much larger than the star itself. Scientists theorize that the expanding dust cloud is not an indication of a supernova, but a sign that V838 Monocerotis is expanding, expelling gas and then shrinking again. The star is over 20,000 light years from Earth.
Sci-Fi Channel premieres the 32nd episode of Lexx. Nigel Bennett (Forever Knight) guest stars as Prince. 
Sci-Fi Channel premieres the second episode of Farscape, Back And Back And Back To The Future. (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 65th episode of the science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, Cleavant Derricks, Kari Wuhrer, and Charlie O’Connell.
Premium cable channel Showtime premieres the first episode of The Outer Limits, a revival of Leslie Stevens’ 1960s science fiction anthology series. Beau Bridges, Lloyd Bridges, and Helen Shaver guest star in Melinda Snodgrass’ screenplay based on George R.R. Martin’s novella.
The 39th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Terry Kiser (A Weekend At Bernie’s) guest stars.
The 30th episode of the science fiction comedy Red Dwarf airs on BBC 2. This mind-bending episode ends the fifth season, and guest stars Timothy Spall (The King’s Speech) and Lenny Von Dohlen (Electric Dreams, Twin Peaks, The Pretender). 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 65th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. 
NBC premieres the first episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. As a high-concept mid-season replacement, the show’s first season is brief, but quickly finds a cult following.
After three years of tinkering with the basics of the concept, and spending much of his downtime from the 1988 Writers’ Guild strike refining the idea, writer J. Michael Straczynski completes his first draft script and series bible for a new science fiction series, Babylon 5. In the coming months he will pitch it to several networks, studios, and broadcasters (including Paramount, which passes on it), finally finding a receptive ear in Chris-Craft Television executive Evan Thompson. Thompson, in turn, introduces Straczynski to Warner Bros. TV executive Dick Robertson, with whom Thompson is exploring the possibility of launching a new network.
NBC airs the 31st episode of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. 
The fifth 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. Edward Winter (playing a role unrelated to his series regular role in Project UFO’s second season) guest stars.
The 452nd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. John Bennett, Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin guest star.
Toho releases the 15th Godzilla movie, Terror of MechaGodzilla. 
Potential contractors for NASA’s upcoming Space Shuttle offer specs based on their final design studies, which still assume that the shuttle’s giant booster will be a manned, winged vehicle in its own right that will return to a runway on Earth after its fuel is used up. One thing that both studies suggest, however, is an aluminum airframe which requires a shift away from the ablative metallic heat shields of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. A system of carbon-reinforced “shingles” is suggested as an alternative, and is approved by NASA, though developing the technology to create, install and maintain these tiles delays the first Shuttle launch into the 1980s, and the tiles are still prone to damage during both launch and re-entry – a weakness that will eventually seal the end of the Space Shuttle era.
The 43rd episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, is broadcast on ABC. Peter Mark Richman, Susan Oliver, and John Milford guest star in the final episode of the series.
The 110th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part four of the story now collectively known as The Ark.
Meetings commence at the BBC to hash out ideas for a new children’s science fiction series to be produced in-house, possibly involving a time machine, an aloof old man, a younger “man of action” character, a female scientist, and a younger woman. As the creative lightning rod of this series development, Sydney Newman begins to weed out ideas he considers unsuitable – such as giving these characters the roles of “science troubleshooters” working for the government – and homes in on the time travel idea, as well as the old man character, who emerges as a man of mystery. These are the first creative meetings from which the BBC’s Doctor Who will emerge.
British broadcaster ABC airs the fourth 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.