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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. 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.
Actor Stephen Moore, who originated the woeful voice of Marvin the Android in the original 1978BBC Radio production of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, dies at the age of 81. Ironically, it was another voice role, in a Czechoslovakian-made production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1959, featuring only puppets, that started Moore’s screen career. He would later go on to play memorable roles in Rock Follies, The New Avengers, Solo, and The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole. In 2010, he appeared as a war-weary Silurian elder opposite Matt Smith in the Doctor Who episode Cold Blood. Having played Marvin’s voice on radio in 1978 and 1979, and reprising the role for the 1981 BBC2 TV adaptation of Hitchhiker’s Guide, Moore returned to play Marvin again in BBC Radio’s early 21st century adaptations of the Hitchhiker’s Guide novels that weren’t directly based on the original radio series.
Actor Robert Forster, a fixture in films and TV since the 1960s, dies at the age of 78 following a brief battle with brain cancer. Cult sci-fi fans may know him best as Captain Dan Holland in 1979‘s The Black Hole or for his regular role in Heroes, but Forster’s credits spanned over 100 movies, the last of which – the Breaking Bad epilogue film El Camino – debuted on Netflix on the day he died. (An appearance in an episode of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories revival would not premiere until after Forster’s death.) He was the lead in two early 1970s series, Banyon and Nakia, and received an Oscar nomination (and an unexpected resurgence of his career) for his role in Qunetin Tarantino’s 1997 film Jackie Brown. He went on to play regular roles in such series as Karen Sisco, The Grid, Alcatraz, Last Man Standing, and the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first human being to perform extravehicular activity (or, as it has become more commonly known, a spacewalk) outside his spacecraft, dies at the age of 85. He was among the 20 Soviet Air Force pilots selected to undergo cosmonaut training in 1960, and undertook the historic first spacewalk on March 18th, 1965, aboard the Voskhod 2 mission. He remained outside the vehicle for twelve minutes, but due to his spacesuit inflating with the pressure of his breathing oxygen, he had severe difficulty climbing back into the tunnel that extended from the vehicle itself for his exit, leading mission controllers in Russia to consider the possibility that he might perish without being able to climb back in. He was able to re-enter the Voskhod capsule with considerable effort, and became a favorite among Soviet-era mission planners for the honor of being the first cosmonaut to set foot on the moon, but crewed Soviet lunar missions never came to fruition as the Apollo moon shots took the lead in the space race. Leonov was later selected to lead the Soyuz 19 mission, the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, in 1975. He was also an avid artist who drew and painted many of his own space experiences, as well as those related to him by other astronauts and cosmonauts.
The 810th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1 (the 111th episode since the series’ revival), starring Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. John Sessions guest stars.
The BBC announces that broadcast archive company TIEA has recovered nine missing episodes of Doctor Who, all from the Patrick Troughton era, completing one story of which only one episode was previous held in the BBC archives (The Enemy Of The World) and almost completing another story (The Web Of Fear), which is now missing only the third of its six episodes. All nine episodes have been found in surprisingly good condition in at a regional broadcaster in Nigeria, which had received the episodes from a Hong Kong broadcaster in the early 1970s. All nine episodes are made available for digital download, with remastered DVD releases due in time for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who in November 2013. The find had been the subject of wild speculation on the internet for months.
Soundtrack specialty label Intrada releases the first-ever soundtrack from 2009 Planet Of The Apes: The Series, featuring music and the series title theme by Lalo Schifrin, and additional music by Earle Hagen.
Carnie Mellon University inducts five new members to its Robot Hall Of Fame at a press event promoting the movie adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. The 2004 inductees, again split almost evenly between fictional and real robots, are:
Astro Boy (1951, manga/anime character)
Robby The Robot (1956, from Forbidden Planet)
Shakey (1966, Stanford Research Institute – first robot capable of autonomous tasks)
On the 100th flight of the American shuttle program, Space Shuttle Discovery pays a 13-day visit to the International Space Station, making final preparations before the station’s first crew arrives. A new shuttle docking port is added, and the first section of external truss is bolted onto the station, the beginning of a structure that will support the larger solar power panels to be installed during later construction missions. Discovery’s 28th crew is Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Pam Melroy, and mission specialists Koichi Wakata, Leroy Chiao, Peter Wisoff, Michael Lopez-Alegria and William McArthur.
The 46th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, airs in syndication, starring Robert Leeshock, Jayne Heitmeyer, Von Flores, and Richard Chevolleau. Lisa Howard (Highlander) guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 93rd episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, starring Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor. Kevin Smith guest stars.
The 75th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Tucker Smallwood (Space: Above & Beyond) guest stars.
Fox airs the 26th episode of Tracy Torme’s alternate-universe science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, John Rhys Davies, Sabrina Lloyd, and Cleavant Derricks.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 41st episode of Babylon 5. This episode is the last appearance of Andrea Thompson as Babylon 5’s resident telepath, Talia Winters. Patricia Tallman guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 22nd episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Frank Langella, Louise Fletcher, Philip Anglim and Steven Weber (Wings) guest star. This is the conclusion of a three-part story.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 25th episode of the fantasy series Highlander, starring Adrian Paul (War Of The Worlds), Alexandra Vandernoort, and Stan Kirsch, and based on the mythology created in the 1986 movie of the same name.
EMI Records releases the novelty single Tongue Tied by “The Cat”, a.k.a. Red Dwarf cast member Danny John-Jules. The song, which was written by Howard Goodall and featured prominently in the last episode of Red Dwarf’s second season, is re-recorded for this single (as well as provided in a variety of remixed forms).
The 688th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Ian Hogg and Sylvia Sims guest star. This is the last story filmed for the original series, though it’s broadcast as the second story of the season.
The 12th episode of the science fiction comedy Red Dwarf airs on BBC 2. Angela Bruce guest stars as the female Lister from the alternate universe, and Hattie Hayridge makes her debut as Hilly, an alternate female Holly (Hayridge joins the series full time in the third season). This is the final episode of Red Dwarf’s second season.
CBS airs the 27th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Glynnis O’Connor and Lisa Eilbacher star in an episode comprised of two short stories, Rockne S. O’Bannon’s The Storyteller and Nightsong.
The Learning Company tries on Rocky’s Boots, an innovative educational computer game designed to teach players the basics of circuit diagrams and basic logic by designing virtual machines to kick specific objects on screen. The game is designed by Warren Robinett, a former Atari programmer whose previous claim to fame is the hit game Adventure.
The fifth episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Horror airs on ITV. Nicholas Ball (Lifeforce), Rachel Davies (Boon, Linda Green), and Brian Croucher (Blake’s 7) guest star.
The 532nd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Jacqueline Hill (who starred in early seasons of Doctor Who as Barbara, one of the Doctor’s first companions) guest stars.
Under the watchful eye of Marvel UK editor Dez Skinn, Doctor Who Magazine‘s first issue hits British newsstands under the title Doctor Who Weekly (it goes monthly after 61 weekly issues, coinciding with the beginning of Peter Davison’s tenure). Included are pictorial retrospectives of past Doctors and Dalek stories, a fourth Doctor comic titled “The Iron Legion”, a Doctor-less Dalek comic, and – oddly and yet appropriately – the first part of a comic adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” scripted by Chris Claremont, all in 28 pages. Rub-off transfer artwork of the fourth Doctor, various explosions and dinosaurs (unrelated to the current TV episodes) are also included on the front cover.
ABC airs the sixth episode of Sid & Marty Krofft’s The Lost Saucer, starring Jim Nabors (The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle USMC) and Ruth Buzzi (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In).
The 21st episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring John Davey, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family) guest stars.
Atari releases its fourth arcade game: the very first video maze game, Gotcha!. The two-player game is essentially a game of tag played in a slowly-shifting maze, with the controllers inexplicably covered with dome-shaped pink rubber covers, leading Gotcha! to be dubbed “the boob game”.
A working group of scientists and engineers at NASA submit an official proposal for a spacecraft using synthetic aperture radar to map the surface of the planet Venus. Conceived as a mission that could be launched from a Titan IIIe or from the space shuttle, both of which still exist only on the drawing board, Venus Orbiter Imaging Radar (or VOIR) is designed to offer extensive mapping of Venus at a resolution much better than the coarse resolution of radar signals originating from Earth-based radio astronomy facilities such as Arecibo, along with such cutting-edge technologies as stereoscopic imaging and solar electric propulsion. Work on this mission will continue through the early 1980s, at which point it is cancelled by NASA and replaced by a cheaper mission intended to achieve the same goals, Magellan.
The Soviet Union launches the first Soyuz mission since the American moon landing, Soyuz 6. With Georgi Shonin and future Apollo-Soyuz crewmember Valery Kubasov aboard, Soyuz 6 is intended to “chase’ two other manned Soyuz capsules launched in the days ahead, filming them as they perform an orbital docking maneuver. When the rendezvous radar gear aboard all three Soyuz vehicles fail to function properly, the docking is aborted. Shonin and Kubasov return to Earth after nearly five days in space.
After a year of redesign and reorganization, NASA resumes manned flights with Apollo 7, the first of the successful Apollo flights. An 11-day Earth-orbit shakedown cruise for the Apollo command/service module, the mission becomes contentious when the three-man crew – Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham and Donn Eisele – is loaded down with a jam-packed mission plan. Worse, Schirra comes down with a cold which quickly spreads to his crewmates in the enclosed biosphere of the Apollo command module. The flight’s technical goals are met with flying colors, though the crew’s snippy responses to ground controllers keep them off the crew rotation for future Apollo flights.
The British Stereo Collective / Federation collaborative EP Marked To Kill is released via Bandcamp, with lyrics (and a video) connecting the song to the BBC space opera Blake’s 7. The release of the single both digitally and on vinyl benefits charity. 
Actor Stephen Moore, who originated the woeful voice of Marvin the Android in the original 1978 BBC Radio production of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, dies at the age of 81. Ironically, it was another voice role, in a Czechoslovakian-made production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1959, featuring only puppets, that started Moore’s screen career. He would later go on to play memorable roles in Rock Follies, The New Avengers, Solo, and The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole. In 2010, he appeared as a war-weary Silurian elder opposite Matt Smith in the Doctor Who episode Cold Blood. Having played Marvin’s voice on radio in 1978 and 1979, and reprising the role for the 1981 BBC2 TV adaptation of Hitchhiker’s Guide, Moore returned to play Marvin again in BBC Radio’s early 21st century adaptations of the Hitchhiker’s Guide novels that weren’t directly based on the original radio series.
Actor Robert Forster, a fixture in films and TV since the 1960s, dies at the age of 78 following a brief battle with brain cancer. Cult sci-fi fans may know him best as Captain Dan Holland in 1979‘s The Black Hole or for his regular role in Heroes, but Forster’s credits spanned over 100 movies, the last of which – the Breaking Bad epilogue film El Camino – debuted on Netflix on the day he died. (An appearance in an episode of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories revival would not premiere until after Forster’s death.) He was the lead in two early 1970s series, Banyon and Nakia, and received an Oscar nomination (and an unexpected resurgence of his career) for his role in Qunetin Tarantino’s 1997 film Jackie Brown. He went on to play regular roles in such series as Karen Sisco, The Grid, Alcatraz, Last Man Standing, and the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks.
BSX Records releases Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner’s soundtrack from the documentary What We Left Behind. 
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first human being to perform extravehicular activity (or, as it has become more commonly known, a spacewalk) outside his spacecraft, dies at the age of 85. He was among the 20 Soviet Air Force pilots selected to undergo cosmonaut training in 1960, and undertook the historic first spacewalk on March 18th, 1965, aboard the Voskhod 2 mission. He remained outside the vehicle for twelve minutes, but due to his spacesuit inflating with the pressure of his breathing oxygen, he had severe difficulty climbing back into the tunnel that extended from the vehicle itself for his exit, leading mission controllers in Russia to consider the possibility that he might perish without being able to climb back in. He was able to re-enter the Voskhod capsule with considerable effort, and became a favorite among Soviet-era mission planners for the honor of being the first cosmonaut to set foot on the moon, but crewed Soviet lunar missions never came to fruition as the Apollo moon shots took the lead in the space race. Leonov was later selected to lead the Soyuz 19 mission, the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, in 1975. He was also an avid artist who drew and painted many of his own space experiences, as well as those related to him by other astronauts and cosmonauts.
The CW airs the 48th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin. Ralph Hemecker (Witchblade) directs.
The 810th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1 (the 111th episode since the series’ revival), starring Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. John Sessions guest stars.
The BBC announces that broadcast archive company TIEA has recovered nine missing episodes of Doctor Who, all from the Patrick Troughton era, completing one story of which only one episode was previous held in the BBC archives (The Enemy Of The World) and almost completing another story (The Web Of Fear), which is now missing only the third of its six episodes. All nine episodes have been found in surprisingly good condition in at a regional broadcaster in Nigeria, which had received the episodes from a Hong Kong broadcaster in the early 1970s. All nine episodes are made available for digital download, with remastered DVD releases due in time for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who in November 2013. The find had been the subject of wild speculation on the internet for months.
The 57th episode of the science fiction comedy Red Dwarf airs on UK cable/satellite comedy channel Dave. This is the second episode of Red Dwarf X, the first full season of the series since 1999. 
The 51st episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures airs on CBBC, starring Elisabeth Sladen (Doctor Who). 
The 36th episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures airs on CBBC, starring Elisabeth Sladen (Doctor Who). 
ABC airs the 49th episode of the J.J. Abrams-produced series Lost. Byron Chung guest stars. 
Soundtrack specialty label Intrada releases the first-ever soundtrack from 2009 Planet Of The Apes: The Series, featuring music and the series title theme by Lalo Schifrin, and additional music by Earle Hagen. 
Carnie Mellon University inducts five new members to its Robot Hall Of Fame at a press event promoting the movie adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. The 2004 inductees, again split almost evenly between fictional and real robots, are:
Scitron Digital releases an EP of remixes of music from the video game Super Xevious by Haruomi Hosono (Yellow Magic Orchestra). 
UPN airs the 147th episode of Star Trek: Voyager. 
On the 100th flight of the American shuttle program, Space Shuttle Discovery pays a 13-day visit to the International Space Station, making final preparations before the station’s first crew arrives. A new shuttle docking port is added, and the first section of external truss is bolted onto the station, the beginning of a structure that will support the larger solar power panels to be installed during later construction missions. Discovery’s 28th crew is Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Pam Melroy, and mission specialists Koichi Wakata, Leroy Chiao, Peter Wisoff, Michael Lopez-Alegria and William McArthur.
The 46th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, airs in syndication, starring Robert Leeshock, Jayne Heitmeyer, Von Flores, and Richard Chevolleau. Lisa Howard (Highlander) guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 93rd episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, starring Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor. Kevin Smith guest stars. 
The 75th episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Tucker Smallwood (Space: Above & Beyond) guest stars.
Fox airs the 26th episode of Tracy Torme’s alternate-universe science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, John Rhys Davies, Sabrina Lloyd, and Cleavant Derricks. 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 41st episode of Babylon 5. This episode is the last appearance of Andrea Thompson as Babylon 5’s resident telepath, Talia Winters. Patricia Tallman guest stars. 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 22nd episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Frank Langella, Louise Fletcher, Philip Anglim and Steven Weber (Wings) guest star. This is the conclusion of a three-part story. 
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 25th episode of the fantasy series Highlander, starring Adrian Paul (War Of The Worlds), Alexandra Vandernoort, and Stan Kirsch, and based on the mythology created in the 1986 movie of the same name.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 155th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. 
EMI Records releases the novelty single Tongue Tied by “The Cat”, a.k.a. Red Dwarf cast member Danny John-Jules. The song, which was written by Howard Goodall and featured prominently in the last episode of Red Dwarf’s second season, is re-recorded for this single (as well as provided in a variety of remixed forms). 
The 688th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Ian Hogg and Sylvia Sims guest star. This is the last story filmed for the original series, though it’s broadcast as the second story of the season.
NBC airs the 11th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.
The 12th episode of the science fiction comedy Red Dwarf airs on BBC 2. Angela Bruce guest stars as the female Lister from the alternate universe, and Hattie Hayridge makes her debut as Hilly, an alternate female Holly (Hayridge joins the series full time in the third season). This is the final episode of Red Dwarf’s second season. 
UK regional broadcaster TVS airs the fifth episode of Richard Cooper’s alternate-history series Knights Of God, portraying a struggle between oppressive government and rugged resistance fighters in a post-civil-war UK. Nigel Stock and Don Henderson (Star Wars) guest star. 
The 647th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Lynda Bellingham, Michael Jayston, Nabil Shaban and Brian Blessed guest star.
CBS airs the 27th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Glynnis O’Connor and Lisa Eilbacher star in an episode comprised of two short stories, Rockne S. O’Bannon’s The Storyteller and Nightsong.
The Learning Company tries on Rocky’s Boots, an innovative educational computer game designed to teach players the basics of circuit diagrams and basic logic by designing virtual machines to kick specific objects on screen. The game is designed by Warren Robinett, a former Atari programmer whose previous claim to fame is the hit game Adventure. 
Warner Bros. Records releases the first solo album by Donald Fagen, The Nightfly, featuring the singles “I.G.Y.” and “New Frontier”. 
The fifth episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Horror airs on ITV. Nicholas Ball (Lifeforce), Rachel Davies (Boon, Linda Green), and Brian Croucher (Blake’s 7) guest star.
The 532nd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Jacqueline Hill (who starred in early seasons of Doctor Who as Barbara, one of the Doctor’s first companions) guest stars.
NBC airs the fourth episode of Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. Frank Gorshin (Batman) and Markie Post (Night Court) guest star. 
Under the watchful eye of Marvel UK editor Dez Skinn, Doctor Who Magazine‘s first issue hits British newsstands under the title Doctor Who Weekly (it goes monthly after 61 weekly issues, coinciding with the beginning of Peter Davison’s tenure). Included are pictorial retrospectives of past Doctors and Dalek stories, a fourth Doctor comic titled “The Iron Legion”, a Doctor-less Dalek comic, and – oddly and yet appropriately – the first part of a comic adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” scripted by Chris Claremont, all in 28 pages. Rub-off transfer artwork of the fourth Doctor, various explosions and dinosaurs (unrelated to the current TV episodes) are also included on the front cover.
The eighth episode of the animated science fiction series Battle Of The Planets, Fearful Sea Anemone, airs nationwide in syndication. The series is a translation and English dub of the anime series Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman. 
The 408th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Prentis Hancock (Space: 1999) guest stars.
ABC airs the sixth episode of Sid & Marty Krofft’s The Lost Saucer, starring Jim Nabors (The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle USMC) and Ruth Buzzi (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In).
The 21st episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring John Davey, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family) guest stars.
The fifth episode of the TV spinoff of Planet Of The Apes premieres on CBS. 
Atari releases its fourth arcade game: the very first video maze game, Gotcha!. The two-player game is essentially a game of tag played in a slowly-shifting maze, with the controllers inexplicably covered with dome-shaped pink rubber covers, leading Gotcha! to be dubbed “the boob game”. 
A working group of scientists and engineers at NASA submit an official proposal for a spacecraft using synthetic aperture radar to map the surface of the planet Venus. Conceived as a mission that could be launched from a Titan IIIe or from the space shuttle, both of which still exist only on the drawing board, Venus Orbiter Imaging Radar (or VOIR) is designed to offer extensive mapping of Venus at a resolution much better than the coarse resolution of radar signals originating from Earth-based radio astronomy facilities such as Arecibo, along with such cutting-edge technologies as stereoscopic imaging and solar electric propulsion. Work on this mission will continue through the early 1980s, at which point it is cancelled by NASA and replaced by a cheaper mission intended to achieve the same goals, Magellan.
The fifth episode of Leslie Steven’s “spy-fi” series Search airs on NBC, starring Tony Franciosa and Burgess Meredith. Louise Sorel guest stars. 
The Soviet Union launches the first Soyuz mission since the American moon landing, Soyuz 6. With Georgi Shonin and future Apollo-Soyuz crewmember Valery Kubasov aboard, Soyuz 6 is intended to “chase’ two other manned Soyuz capsules launched in the days ahead, filming them as they perform an orbital docking maneuver. When the rendezvous radar gear aboard all three Soyuz vehicles fail to function properly, the docking is aborted. Shonin and Kubasov return to Earth after nearly five days in space.
The 59th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek airs on NBC. Melvin Belli guest stars; future Space Academy cast members Pamelyn Ferdin and Brian Tochi both appear as children in this episode. 
After a year of redesign and reorganization, NASA resumes manned flights with Apollo 7, the first of the successful Apollo flights. An 11-day Earth-orbit shakedown cruise for the Apollo command/service module, the mission becomes contentious when the three-man crew – Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham and Donn Eisele – is loaded down with a jam-packed mission plan. Worse, Schirra comes down with a cold which quickly spreads to his crewmates in the enclosed biosphere of the Apollo command module. The flight’s technical goals are met with flying colors, though the crew’s snippy responses to ground controllers keep them off the crew rotation for future Apollo flights.