Jerry Doyle, Babylon 5 actor, dies
Actor and radio talk show host Jerry Doyle, who played Security Chief Michael Garibaldi for the entire run of the 1990s science fiction series Babylon 5 (the only human character to survive the considerable number of cast changes from 1992 through 1999), is found dead in his Las Vegas home at the age of 60. After his final appearance as Garibaldi in the Babylon 5 TV movie A Call To Arms, Doyle joined B5 co-star Peter Jurasik in a recurring role in the final seasons of the Sci-Fi-Network-revived Sliders before a run for Congress on a Republican ticket, and becoming a conservative radio talk show host.
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Krull soundtrack
La-La Land Records releases a 2-CD set of James Horner’s complete score from the 1984 fantasy movie Krull. The release is timed to coincide with the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.
Stargate SG-1: Red Sky
Pay cable channel Showtime airs the 91st episode of Stargate SG-1.
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Sliders: Slidecage
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 56th episode of the science fiction series Sliders, starring Jerry O’Connell, Cleavant Derricks, Kari Wuhrer, and Charlie O’Connell. This episode is directed by Jerry O’Connell, and uses sets from the already-cancelled Timecop series.
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Sliders now streaming on Amazon Prime
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E:FC: Infection
The national syndication window opens for the 20th episode of the posthumous Gene Roddenberry science fiction series Earth: Final Conflict, the last first season episode to be broadcast, though wildly out of order. Somewhat inexplicably, the show’s distributor, Tribune Entertainment, has held this episode back to air during the July ratings sweeps, despite its storyline being referenced in later episodes that were moved up in the running order.
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Earth: Final Conflict now streaming on Amazon Prime
Stargate SG-1: Children Of The Gods
Pay cable channel Showtime premieres the first episode of Stargate SG-1, a television continuation of the hit 1995 science fiction movie Stargate. Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver) stars as Colonel Jack O’Neill (a role played in the movie by Kurt Russell). To make the series fit in with the cable channel’s other fare, there is nudity in the pilot, though that does not become a recurring feature of the series.
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Stargate SG-1 now streaming on Amazon Prime
Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast
Return To Jupiter: Jettison
The eighth episode of Return To Jupiter airs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Co-produced by ABC and Japanese network NHK, this children’s sci-fi series stars Sonia Todd (Home And Away) and David Wenham (The Lord Of The Rings trilogy).
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Babylon 5: A Voice In The Wilderness, Part 1
The week-long national syndication window opens for the 18th episode of Babylon 5. Thanks in part to its mid-season debut, this is one of several episodes of Babylon 5 aired during the usually-ignored July ratings sweep, an unusual move for any series, syndicated or network.
More about Babylon 5 in the LogBook and theLogBook.com Store
Babylon 5 now streaming on Amazon Prime
Soyuz TM-15
The Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-15 lifts off from Kazakhstan, carrying cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Sergei Avdeyev, along with French spationaut Michel Tognini, to space station Mir. Tognini remains aboard Mir for two weeks, returning with the Soyuz TM-14 crew, while Solovyev and Avdeyev are aboard for the long haul, manning Mir for 188 days before returning to Earth early in 1993.
Star Cops: Trivial Games and Paranoid…
The fourth episode of Chris Boucher’s futuristic police drama Star Cops, Trivial Games and Paranoid Pursuits, premieres on the BBC. Daniel Benzali and Robert Jezek guest star.
Capcom releases the arcade video game Salyut 7’s debris strike
A small object hits one of the windows aboard the Soviet Union’s Salyut 7 space station, leaving a noticeable dent on its exterior layer but not causing enough damage to vent the station’s atmosphere into space (luckily for resident cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, who might have to evacuate in their Soyuz T-9 vehicle in such an emergency). Though speculations include a micrometeoroid or wayward debris from a previous space mission, the exact cause of the impact is never confirmed.
Space Odyssey
Sega releases the arcade game Space Odyssey in American arcades. With its depiction of Schwarzchild radius-style black holes scrolling under the player’s spaceship, this is among the first arcade video games with isometric 3-D graphics.
Viking 1 at Phobos
The Viking 1 orbiter, observing Mars from orbit while relaying data from the Viking 1 lander to Earth, snaps a close-up view of the Martian moon Phobos from within 5,000 miles. Though more distant from Phobos than Mariner 9’s closest pass in 1972, the Viking cameras are vastly superior, revealing greater detail even at greater distances; craters as small as 13 miles across can be seen in the images. JPL scientists and mission planners are already developing ideas for future Mars missions, including unmanned landers with wheeled rovers.