Doctor Who: The Stolen Earth
The 752nd episode of Doctor Who (the 54th since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Billie Piper and Bernard Cribbins guest star. This episode brings back Dalek creator Davros for his first appearance in the series since 1988, and is the first half of a two-part season finale.
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Jeremiah: Out Of The Ashes
Pay cable channel Showtime premieres the 16th episode of J. Michael Straczynski’s post-apocalyptic series Jeremiah. Ty Olsson (Battlestar Galactica) guest stars.
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Stargate SG-1: Frozen
The 112th episode of Stargate SG-1 airs on the Sci-Fi Channel, starring Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, and Corin Nemec. Bruce Harwood (The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen) and Dorian Harewood guest star.
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Sliders: Invasion
Fox airs the 21st episode of Tracy Torme’s alternate-universe science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, John Rhys Davies, Sabrina Lloyd, and Cleavant Derricks. This episode marks the first appearance of the Kromaggs, a recurring enemy that will persist for the remainder of the series.
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Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures: Nail The Conquering Hero
Fox premieres the first episode of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, starring Evan Richards, Christopher Kennedy, and Rick Overton (playing the roles played in the 1989 movie by Alex Winter, Keanu Reeves, and George Carlin, respectively). Time travel still figures prominently although the characters’ adventures are reframed as a half-hour sitcom. Diedrich Bader guest stars.
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Robin Of Sherwood: The Time Of The Wolf, Part 2
The 26th episode of Richard Carpenter’s fanciful retelling of the Robin Hood legend, Robin Of Sherwood, airs on ITV, starring Jason Connery, Mark Ryan, Judi Trott, and Nickolas Grace. Richard O’Brien (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and James Coombes (Howards’ Way, Dinosapien) guest star in the final episode of the series. A fourth season had been planned and partially written, but Goldcrest Films International, one of the production partners, has experienced a downturn in its financial fortunes, forcing it to withdraw. The cash-strapped HTV (Harlech Television) network producing the show is left with no choice but the cancel the series after losing Goldcrest’s critical financial support.
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Fleetwood Mac: Mirage
Warner Bros. Records releases the 13th Fleetwood Mac album, Mirage, the band’s first studio recording since 1979. With the hits “Hold Me”, “Gypsy”, “Can’t Go Back” and “Love In Store”, the album climbs the charts quickly, but the band quickly disperses to solo careers again, not recording any further new material until 1987’s Tango In The Night.
Enterprise takes to the sky again
Riding the back of a modified Boeing 747, Space Shuttle Enterprise ascends to 22,000 feet for her second “active-captive” test flight, with all systems powered up and a crew aboard (astronauts Joe Engle and Richard Truly). The combined vehicle reaches speeds of over 300 miles per hour, and angles for “dropoff” – for upcoming test flights in which the Enterprise will actually separate from the 747 and glide to its landing strip – are studied for future reference.
Rod Serling, Twilight Zone creator, dies
Celebrated writer Rod Serling dies at the age of 50 during a coronary bypass operation. An intelligent, rebellious mind from a young age, Serling developed an interest in writing – particularly for radio drama – before he graduated high school. He had also already developed a keen social consciousness at this age, which, combined with his authority-bucking nature, made his enlistment in the Army during World War II (immediately after graduating high school) an uneasy fit. As an Army paratrooper, Serling fought to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation. He was injured in combat and saw many of his comrades wounded or killed along the way, experiences which game him nightmares and informed many of his later works. He began his writing career in earnest after attending college on the G.I. Bill, and as radio gave way to television, he was at the forefront of the new profession of TV writing, with two scripts for anthology series – Patterns for Kraft Television Theatre and Requiem For A Heavyweight for Playhouse 90 – serving as career turning points. With corporate sponsors holding enormous sway over TV content in those days, Serling quickly found himself railing against the interference and outright censorship that resulted. Another anthology script, The Time Element, was intended as a pilot for an anthology Serling pitched to CBS, but was instead produced as an episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse; it proved popular enough to get The Twilight Zone greenlit by CBS. Serling often used science fiction and supernatural settings in his new series to address issues such as racism, fascism, racial inequality, and the futility of war. He famously wrote many script drafts for 1968’s Planet Of The Apes, and returned to the anthology format in 1969 with a new series for NBC, Night Gallery, and, following that series, a radio drama suspense series called The Zero Hour for Mutual Radio.
Vega 4: Flight Of Fate
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation airs the fourth episode of the science fiction series Vega 4, starring John Fassen (a veteran of ABC’s first genre series, The Stranger). This series is a follow-up to the 1966 series The Interpretaris.
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The Andromeda Breakthrough: Cold Front
The first episode of the British science fiction series The Andromeda Breakthrough, created and written by John Elliot and astronomer Fred Hoyle as a follow-up to 1961’s A For Andromeda, is broadcast on the BBC, starring Peter Halliday, Susan Hampshire, John Hollis (The Empire Strikes Back), and Mary Morris. Unlike A For Andromeda, this series exists in the BBC archives in its entirety.
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H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man: Shadow Bomb
The 25th episode of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, based on Wells’ story, airs on ITV; this episode will air in December 1959 in the U.S. on CBS. Walter Gotell (The Spy Who Loved Me) and Ian Hendry (The Avengers) star in an episode co-written by Brian Clemens (The Avengers) and Ian Stuart Black (Doctor Who).
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