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.
The ongoing remodel of the site, the ongoing video series, and more are powered by your support! Join our Patreon, get access to our Discord, and help the site grow!
Welcome to Gene-ology, a podcast by Roddenberry Entertainment that dives deep into the early TV writing works of Gene Roddenberry. To fans, they were the Great Bird of the Galaxy and the First Lady of Star Trek. To their friends and co-workers, Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry were, perhaps, slightly less mythic figures with their own very human quirks, but still beloved and admired. In this panel from the TrekTalks 5 telethon in support of the Hollywood Food Coalition, Gene and Majel are remembered by those who knew them. Podcast hosted by Earl Green & Ashley Thomas TrekTalks panel hosted by John Champion Panel guests: Fred Bronson, Denise Crosby, Ernie Over, Rod Roddenberry 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 Memories of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry from those who knew and worked with them 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.
NASA donates the retired Space Shuttle Endeavour, stripped of working engines and other vital equipment, to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The last shuttle to be built, construction on Endeavour began in 1988 from spare parts to replace the destroyed Challenger; Endeavour lifted off for the first time in 1992, ultimately flying 25 missions, including many of the International Space Station construction missions. This also marks the final flight of the modified Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, which flew for the first time in 1977.
The sixth webisode of Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, a serialized story set immediately prior to the third season of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel’s website.
ABC premieres the first episode of Shaun Cassidy’s sci-fi/horror series Invasion, starring William Fichtner (Contact), Eddie Cibrian, and Lisa Sheridan. The series premiere has been delayed by several weeks due to sensitivity concerns; the show, which revolves around a hurricane hitting a Florida town, is debuting mere weeks after the disastrous landfall of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
The 13th episode of the radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, beginning a radio adaptation of Douglas Adams’ novel Life, The Universe, And Everything and reuniting most of the original radio cast (though even the late Peter Jones is represented via brief clips from the 1970s radio series before being “rebooted” to the voice of actor William Franklyn). Adapted by Dirk Maggs, this is the first Hitchhiker’s Guide radio project undertaken after Adams’ death in 2001. Toby Longworth guest stars.
The mission of the unmanned space probe Galileo ends in the clouds of the giant planet Jupiter, which it has orbited for eight years. Even as Galileo plunges toward Jupiter, it detects and reports evidence of a thin ring sharing the orbit of the small moon Amalthea, and then disintegrates as it falls into Jupiter. NASA has opted to send Galileo to its destruction, rather than risking a collision with Europa, which may harbor some of the ingredients necessary for life and might be contaminated if Galileo impacted it; Galileo’s mission was extended three times, with the vehicle lasting six years longer than anticipated in the original mission plan’s estimates, which included for the harsh radiation environment of Jupiter as a factor in expecting only a two-year mission.
MIT Press publishes Van Burnham’s non-fictional history of the video game industry and its products, “Supercade“. Covering developments from Spacewar! and the Magnavox Odyssey through the Playstation era, “Supercade” is a coffee table book lavishly illustrated with emulator screen shots (and some surprisingly low-resolution digital photos and scans) and numerous essays by various authors on arcade and console games of note.
The sixth 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. Rodney Rowland (Space: Above & Beyond) and Peter Williams (Stargate SG-1) star in a story co-written by SF author Greg Egan.
The seventh episode of George Lucas’ historical adventure series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles airs on ABC, starring Sean Patrick Flanery. Christopher Lee (The Satanic Rites Of Dracula, The Wicker Man, Star Wars Episode II) and Patrick Ryecart (A Bridge Too Far, Doctor Who) guest stars in the second season premiere.
Apollon Music, via its Compusic imprint, releases the album This Is Namco!, reinterpreting video game music from the celebrated game manufacturer’s back catalog.
The 658th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The 24th season also opens the era of the seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy. Kate O’Mara guest stars as the Rani.
Universal (a video game manufacturer unrelated to the Hollywood studio of the same name) introduces a cute arcade action game, Mr. Do!, casting players as a clown with a deadly weapon to use against underground monsters. Mr. Do! leads a revolution in the video game industry not with its game play, but with its form factor: it is sold as a conversion kit which can be plugged into a generic arcade cabinet, a concept which could potentially save arcade operators thousands of dollars by sparing them the expense of having to purchase an entire new machine to swap out games.
Charisma Records and Atlantic Records release the 11th album by Genesis, Abacab, featuring the singles “No Reply At All”, “Abacab” and “Man On The Corner”.
The 36th 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. Mackenzie Phillips and Gary Graham (Alien Nation) guest star in the third season premiere.
The 15th episode of Star Blazers, an English rewrite and dub of the 1974 anime series Space Battleship Yamato, premieres in syndication across the U.S.
Atari introduces the Atari 400 and Atari 800 home computers, one of the company’s first major product lines to show the imprint of Warner Communications. With only 8K of RAM (expandable to 16K), the Atari 400 (shown here) is intended to be more of a game machine, while the 48K Atari 800, with an actual keyboard, is intended to make inroads into the increasingly crowded home computer market. The same basic architecture, with significant modifications, will form the core of Atari’s next-generation video game console, the Atari 5200, which will be released in 1982.
The 14th 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. Edward Winter and Caskey Swaim star. Laurette Spang (Battlestar Galactica) guest stars in the second season premiere.
The 37th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Lindsay Wagner guest stars; her character will next return in the spinoff series, The Bionic Woman, in January 1976.
The 19th episode of the animated Star Trek airs on NBC, featuring scenes set in the Enterprise’s “recreation deck”, which can simulate any environment – more than a decade before Star Trek: The Next Generation’s holodeck.
The third episode of Land Of The Lost premieres on NBC. This episode introduces the Marshall family’s recurring dinosaur friend Dopey, and is written by Margaret Armen (Star Trek: The Animated Series).
NASA’s unmanned space probe Mariner 10 makes its second pass of the planet Mercury, six months after its first flyby. This time Mariner passes under the planet’s south pole, getting the first views of that part of Mercury, but barely flying within 30,000 miles of the surface. Once again, following its encounter with Mercury, Mariner 10 slipped into a solar orbit that would bring it back to Mercury several months later.
Decca Records releases the sixth album by the Moody Blues, A Question Of Balance, featuring the singles “Question” and “Melancholy Man”. Thanks to the band’s large following, the album – the second to be released by the band in 1970 – is an international bestseller.
The first episode of the mystery/spy-fi series Strange Report premieres on ITV, 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). Ed Bishop (UFO) guest stars.
ABC airs the 27th episode of Irwin Allen’s sci-fi series Land Of The Giants, starring Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, and Don Marshall. Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol) guest stars in the second season premiere.
ABC broadcasts the second episode of the Filmation animated series Fantastic Voyage, based on the 1966 movie of the same name. Marvin Miller, Ted Knight, and Jane Webb lead the voice cast.
The second episode of Irwin Allen’s adventure series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea airs on ABC, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison, based on Allen’s 1961 movie of the same name. Hurd Hatfield guest stars.
NBC airs the second episode of the military drama The Lieutenant, created and produced by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and starring Gary Lockwood (2001: a space odyssey) and Robert Vaughn (The Man From UNCLE). Kathryn Hays (Star Trek: The Empath) and Norman Fell (Three’s Company) guest star.
The second episode of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based on Wells’ story, premieres on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. on CBS. Adrienne Corri (A Clockwork Orange) stars.
Fox airs the third episode of the science fiction comedy-drama The Orville, starring and created by Seth McFarlane. Deobia Oparei and Rena Owen guest star. 
NASA donates the retired Space Shuttle Endeavour, stripped of working engines and other vital equipment, to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The last shuttle to be built, construction on Endeavour began in 1988 from spare parts to replace the destroyed Challenger; Endeavour lifted off for the first time in 1992, ultimately flying 25 missions, including many of the International Space Station construction missions. This also marks the final flight of the modified Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, which flew for the first time in 1977.
The sixth webisode of Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, a serialized story set immediately prior to the third season of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel’s website. 
ABC premieres the first episode of Shaun Cassidy’s sci-fi/horror series Invasion, starring William Fichtner (Contact), Eddie Cibrian, and Lisa Sheridan. The series premiere has been delayed by several weeks due to sensitivity concerns; the show, which revolves around a hurricane hitting a Florida town, is debuting mere weeks after the disastrous landfall of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. 
ABC airs the 25th episode of the J.J. Abrams-produced series Lost. The second season premiere introduces Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond. Anson Mount (Inhumans, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) guest stars. 
The 13th episode of the radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, beginning a radio adaptation of Douglas Adams’ novel Life, The Universe, And Everything and reuniting most of the original radio cast (though even the late Peter Jones is represented via brief clips from the 1970s radio series before being “rebooted” to the voice of actor William Franklyn). Adapted by Dirk Maggs, this is the first Hitchhiker’s Guide radio project undertaken after Adams’ death in 2001. Toby Longworth guest stars. 
Wiley Books publishes the non-fiction book Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer by Gordon Laing, an illustrated history of the evolution of microcomputer hardware. 
The mission of the unmanned space probe Galileo ends in the clouds of the giant planet Jupiter, which it has orbited for eight years. Even as Galileo plunges toward Jupiter, it detects and reports evidence of a thin ring sharing the orbit of the small moon Amalthea, and then disintegrates as it falls into Jupiter. NASA has opted to send Galileo to its destruction, rather than risking a collision with Europa, which may harbor some of the ingredients necessary for life and might be contaminated if Galileo impacted it; Galileo’s mission was extended three times, with the vehicle lasting six years longer than anticipated in the original mission plan’s estimates, which included for the harsh radiation environment of Jupiter as a factor in expecting only a two-year mission.
Big Finish Productions releases the 36th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. Tony Blackburn guest stars. 
MIT Press publishes Van Burnham’s non-fictional history of the video game industry and its products, “Supercade“. Covering developments from Spacewar! and the Magnavox Odyssey through the Playstation era, “Supercade” is a coffee table book lavishly illustrated with emulator screen shots (and some surprisingly low-resolution digital photos and scans) and numerous essays by various authors on arcade and console games of note. 
The sixth 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. Rodney Rowland (Space: Above & Beyond) and Peter Williams (Stargate SG-1) star in a story co-written by SF author Greg Egan.
Nippon Columbia releases Hiroshi Miyagawa’s soundtrack from the animated movie Space Battleship Yamato: The New Voyage. 
Virgin Publishing releases the 14th Doctor Who: The Missing Adventures novel, Managra by Stephen Marley, featuring the TARDIS team of the fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. 
Virgin Publishing releases the 42nd book in the Doctor Who: The New Adventures range, Toy Soldiers by Paul Leonard. 
Nippon Columbia releases Hiroshi Miyagawa’s soundtrack collection Space Battleship Yamato Background Music Collection Part 2, featuring music from the second season of the anime series. 
Atlantic Records releases the Yes compilation album Highlights – The Very Best of Yes, gathering the better-known singles from across the band’s history (and across the many genres they’ve inhabited). 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 126th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, kicking off the sixth season. Whoopi Goldberg and Jerry Hardin (The X-Files) guest star. 
The seventh episode of George Lucas’ historical adventure series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles airs on ABC, starring Sean Patrick Flanery. Christopher Lee (The Satanic Rites Of Dracula, The Wicker Man, Star Wars Episode II) and Patrick Ryecart (A Bridge Too Far, Doctor Who) guest stars in the second season premiere.
Apollon Music, via its Compusic imprint, releases the album This Is Namco!, reinterpreting video game music from the celebrated game manufacturer’s back catalog. 
The 658th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The 24th season also opens the era of the seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy. Kate O’Mara guest stars as the Rani.
ABC broadcasts the third episode of the animated Star Wars spinoff series Droids, featuring the voice of Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. 
Universal (a video game manufacturer unrelated to the Hollywood studio of the same name) introduces a cute arcade action game, Mr. Do!, casting players as a clown with a deadly weapon to use against underground monsters. Mr. Do! leads a revolution in the video game industry not with its game play, but with its form factor: it is sold as a conversion kit which can be plugged into a generic arcade cabinet, a concept which could potentially save arcade operators thousands of dollars by sparing them the expense of having to purchase an entire new machine to swap out games. 
Charisma Records and Atlantic Records release the 11th album by Genesis, Abacab, featuring the singles “No Reply At All”, “Abacab” and “Man On The Corner”. 
The 36th 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. Mackenzie Phillips and Gary Graham (Alien Nation) guest star in the third season premiere.
The 15th episode of Star Blazers, an English rewrite and dub of the 1974 anime series Space Battleship Yamato, premieres in syndication across the U.S. 
Atari introduces the Atari 400 and Atari 800 home computers, one of the company’s first major product lines to show the imprint of Warner Communications. With only 8K of RAM (expandable to 16K), the Atari 400 (shown here) is intended to be more of a game machine, while the 48K Atari 800, with an actual keyboard, is intended to make inroads into the increasingly crowded home computer market. The same basic architecture, with significant modifications, will form the core of Atari’s next-generation video game console, the Atari 5200, which will be released in 1982. 
The 14th 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. Edward Winter and Caskey Swaim star. Laurette Spang (Battlestar Galactica) guest stars in the second season premiere.
The 37th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Lindsay Wagner guest stars; her character will next return in the spinoff series, The Bionic Woman, in January 1976.
The 19th episode of the animated Star Trek airs on NBC, featuring scenes set in the Enterprise’s “recreation deck”, which can simulate any environment – more than a decade before Star Trek: The Next Generation’s holodeck. 
The third episode of Land Of The Lost premieres on NBC. This episode introduces the Marshall family’s recurring dinosaur friend Dopey, and is written by Margaret Armen (Star Trek: The Animated Series). 
The third episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring Jackson Bostwick, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. Pamelyn Ferdin (Star Trek, Space Academy) guest stars. 
NASA’s unmanned space probe Mariner 10 makes its second pass of the planet Mercury, six months after its first flyby. This time Mariner passes under the planet’s south pole, getting the first views of that part of Mercury, but barely flying within 30,000 miles of the surface. Once again, following its encounter with Mercury, Mariner 10 slipped into a solar orbit that would bring it back to Mercury several months later.
Decca Records releases the sixth album by the Moody Blues, A Question Of Balance, featuring the singles “Question” and “Melancholy Man”. Thanks to the band’s large following, the album – the second to be released by the band in 1970 – is an international bestseller. 
The first episode of the mystery/spy-fi series Strange Report premieres on ITV, 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). Ed Bishop (UFO) guest stars.
ABC airs the 27th episode of Irwin Allen’s sci-fi series Land Of The Giants, starring Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, and Don Marshall. Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol) guest stars in the second season premiere.
The 216th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Bernard Horsfall guest stars.
ABC broadcasts the second episode of the Filmation animated series Fantastic Voyage, based on the 1966 movie of the same name. Marvin Miller, Ted Knight, and Jane Webb lead the voice cast.
The 31st episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris.
The 39th episode of Batman airs on ABC. Van Johnson and Phyllis Diller guest star. 
The second episode of Irwin Allen’s adventure series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea airs on ABC, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison, based on Allen’s 1961 movie of the same name. Hurd Hatfield guest stars.
NBC airs the second episode of the military drama The Lieutenant, created and produced by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and starring Gary Lockwood (2001: a space odyssey) and Robert Vaughn (The Man From UNCLE). Kathryn Hays (Star Trek: The Empath) and Norman Fell (Three’s Company) guest star. 
The second episode of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based on Wells’ story, premieres on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. on CBS. Adrienne Corri (A Clockwork Orange) stars.