theLogBook.com is a chronicle of how we used to imagine the future – an ever-expanding
logbook of what our entertainment, our culture, and even our brightest minds thought would happen.
It’s nostalgia – and some real history – that gives factual context to the fiction, cultural
context to the factual, and always looks to the future.

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Published On: November 9, 2012

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & ChromeThe first segment of the movie Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, a prequel to Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, premieres online at Machinima.com. Broken into ten segments, it is intended to pilot a series chronicling the early military career of William Adama, though after a 2013 airing on Syfy, no series is ordered.

This entry is forthcoming.

Published On: November 9, 2004

TitanA billion miles from the sun, you don’t need molten lava for volcanoes – you just need subsurface ice to warm up and erupt as water. That’s what NASA scientists think they’ve spotted in a radar image of the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan sent back in late October by the Cassini unmanned probe. A bright, flow-like feature may be indicative of something oozing out onto Titan’s surface from below – and at the frigid temperatures experienced in Saturn’s orbit, ice volcanoes are more likely than the molten rock variety seen on Earth and Mars. If confirmed, this wouldn’t be the first “ice volcano” found in our solar system; Voyager 2 had already spotted an eruption on the surface of Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, as it swung by in August 1989.

Published On: November 9, 1998

Welcome To ParadoxThe 13th episode of the Sci-Fi Channel original series Welcome To Paradox airs, a loosely-connected anthology of science fiction stories set in Betaville, a utopian future city whose incredible technology has frequently unintended side-effects. Dana Ashbrook (Twin Peaks) stars in a story co-written by SF author Ron Goulart. With ratings for the Canadian-made series not being particularly impressive, Welcome To Paradox is not renewed for a second season.

This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could join theLogBook team and write this guide or support the webmaster’s efforts to expand the site.

Published On: November 9, 1988

Doctor WhoThe 675th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Though not generally known outside of the inner circle of the cast and crew, this story is intended to be a surreal parody of the Thatcher administration.

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!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store
Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

Published On: November 9, 1980

The seventh episode of Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking science documentary series Cosmos premieres on PBS. A popular history of science and scientific theory vs. tradition and superstition, segueing into Sagan’s field of expertise (astrophysics), Cosmos is a major milestone in American documentary filmmaking and the popularization of science and the scientific method (and makes an instant celebrity out of Sagan).

Published On: November 9, 1979

The Incredible HulkThe 42nd episode of the live-action series based on Marvel’s comic The Incredible Hulk airs on CBS, starring Bill Bixby, Jack Colvin, and Lou Ferrigno. Esther Rolle guest stars.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Published On: November 9, 1978

BreakoutAtari releases the Breakout cartridge for the Atari VCS, one of the console’s first-ever ports of an existing arcade game and – thanks to two years of advancements in technology – a more sophisticated game than the coin-op that inspired it, which could only display black & white graphics. Read more

Published On: November 9, 1974

Shazam!The tenth episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring Jackson Bostwick, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. This episode is written by Donald F. Glut (latter better known for writing the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back).

More about Shazam! in the LogBook and theLogBook.com Store

Published On: November 9, 1969

Strange ReportITV airs the eighth episode of the mystery/spy-fi series Strange Report in the U.K., starring Anthony Quayle, Kaz Garas, and Anneke Wills (Doctor Who). (The series is an international co-production and airs in the United States on NBC.) Julian Glover (For Your Eyes Only, The Empire Strikes Back) guest stars.

This series is not yet fully chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.

Published On: November 9, 1968

Doctor WhoThe 221st episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Kevin Stoney guest stars as Tobias Vaughn, and Nicholas Courtney returns as the freshly-promoted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, head of the newly created UNIT. This is the last Cybermen story until 1975.

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!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Published On: November 9, 1968

AreciboCornell University student Richard Lovelace, working at the Cornell-funded Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico, uses the massive telescope and its on-site computers to determine the rotational period of a pulsar discovered near the center of the Crab Nebula, approximately 6,500 light years from Earth. The position of the pulsar relative to the nebula strengthens the case for pulsars and (still hypothetical) neutron stars occurring at the heart of supernova remnants. The Crab Nebula pulsar had been discovered only three years earlier.

Published On: November 9, 1967

Apollo 4As questions over the safety of the Apollo spacecraft continue to rage, NASA performs the first “all-up” test of the Saturn V rocket with an unmanned launch officially designated Apollo 4. Unsure of what to expect, onlookers and press are stunned by the roar of the five huge F-1 engines; the vibrations cause CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite’s broadcast booth to partially collapse while he’s on the air – over three miles away. The entire vehicle performs flawlessly, propelling the empty (but active) Apollo command/service module to a distance of 10,000 miles before commanding it to return to Earth, simulating the speed and return angle of a vehicle returning from the moon.

Absolutely no generative AI was used in the creation of the content on this website.
It’s mostly just some guy named Earl.

EG