Doctor Who: Black Orchid, Part 1
The 570th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Many fans of the series consider this the “last pure historical story” – the Doctor and his companions are merely witnesses to events that have no other science fiction influence.
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Tales Of The Unexpected: Royal Jelly
ITV airs the tenth episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. Timothy West and Susan George guest star in the second season premiere.
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Star Wars: Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye
“Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye“, the first print fiction follow-up to George Lucas’ Star Wars, is published by Ballantine Books. Written by Alan Dean Foster – who had ghost-written the novelization of Star Wars published under Lucas’ name – “Splinter” originates as a concept for a low-budget movie follow-up in the event that the movie bombs. By the time of its publication, it’s readily apparent to all that the movie has succeeded, and that a sequel will be coming, leaving “Splinter”‘s status in the storyline uncertain. The cover artwork is by Ralph McQuarrie, whose pre-production illustrations were of vital importance during the making of the original movie.
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The Uranus Option
Despite the fact that a useful – and rare – alignment of the large outer planets will make a “Grand Tour” possible, NASA has only thus far funded a stripped-down version of the ambitious original Grand Tour plan, a pair of Mariner Jupiter/Saturn ’77 unmanned space probes (later renamed Voyager). Jet Propulsion Laboratory admits that scientists and mission planners have drawn up a “Uranus option” to extend the mission of one of the vehicles to reach Uranus four or five years after a Saturn encounter and gravity assist, and are making modifications to one of the vehicles to permit this contingency. (NASA has yet to approve continuing the MJS’77 program long enough to reach Uranus.) Mission planners also admit that a visit to Uranus could give the vehicle another gravity assist toward Neptune, while admitting that the odds of the vehicle surviving a journey to Neptune with its ability to gather images and scientific data intact would require “a miracle.”
The Enterprise in drydock
The 275-pound, 18-foot filming “miniature” of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek arrives at the Smithsonian, but it’s just as well that its planned display in the National Air & Space Museum won’t open until 1976: having suffered years of mishandling and barely-adequate storage at Paramount, with a final round of damage occurring during shipping, television’s most famous spaceship arrives in need of extensive repairs. Both of the round caps of the Enterprise’s warp engines are missing, and the intricate lighting setup built into the engines has been destroyed as a result, and the “radar dish” at the bottom of the model is missing as well. The Enterprise model will undergo extensive restoration and repainting for three months at the Smithsonian’s Maryland facility.
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Six Million Dollar Man: Doomsday And Counting
The sixth episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Gary Collins (The Sixth Sense) guest stars.
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: Episode 28
NBC airs the 28th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Laurence Harvey and William Windom guest star.
Land Of The Giants: The Marionettes
ABC airs the 49th episode of Irwin Allen’s sci-fi series Land Of The Giants, starring Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, and Don Marshall.
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Doctor Who: The Seeds Of Death, Part 6
The 237th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is the second appearance of the Ice Warriors.
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Star Trek renewed again
For the second year running, NBC makes an announcement over the closing credits of Star Trek, reassuring viewers that NBC has picked up the show for a third season. Where the second season’s renewal was brought about by a substantial fan letter-writing campaign (with guidance from Gene Roddenberry), the third season pickup comes after fans stage protest marches outside NBC’s headquarters in Burbank and New York, having gotten word (from Star Trek fan Bjo Trimble, by way of Roddenberry) that the series is likely to be cancelled. The renewal is a double-edged sword, however: in the fall, NBC will move the series to Friday nights, a time slot where it’s virtually guaranteed to be cancelled at the end of its third season.
Star Trek: The Omega Glory
The 52nd episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek premieres on NBC. A tale of patriotism perverted into a belief system, The Omega Glory is one of three Roddenberry scripts originally pitched to NBC as potential pilot episodes before the start of filming on season one.
Lost In Space: Treasure Of The Lost Planet
The 52nd episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris.
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The Avengers: The House That Jack Built
British broadcaster ABC airs the 101st episode of the spy-fi series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.
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Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea: Cradle Of The Deep
The 25th episode of Irwin Allen’s adventure series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea airs on ABC, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison. John Anderson guest stars.
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The National Severe Storms Laboratory
To further research into the formation and evolution of severe weather in the midwestern United States, the U.S. Weather Bureau establishes the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma. Operating in close cooperation with the University of Oklahoma’s meteorology department and the Severe Local Storms Warning Service in Kansas City, the NSSL focuses on improving prediction and detection of destructive weather, including tornadoes, quickly fixating upon the potential of Doppler radar.
One Step Beyond: The Mask
ABC airs the 46th episode of the supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland. Wesley Lau guest stars.
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Castle Bravo
The United States’ thermonuclear testing program Operation Castle commences with the first detonation, code named Castle Bravo, on a reef near Bikini Atoll. The most powerful hydrogen bomb detonation carried out by the American military during the 20th century, Castle Bravo has a yield of 15 megatons, three times greater than predicted, with a blast radius of over four miles. Radioactive fallout spreads over 7,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean, including neighboring islands and a Japanese fishing boat, with both populations showing symptoms of radiation sickness shortly afterward, forcing evacuations and later reparations.