Valery Polyakov, record-setting cosmonaut, dies
The cosmonaut who still holds the record for the longest single stay in space, Dr. Valery Polyakov, dies at the age of 80. Born in 1942, Polyakov joined the cosmonaut corps in 1972, and then had to wait sixteen years for his first flight, aboard Soyuz TM-6 to the Mir space station in 1988, where he stayed for 240 days. In January 1994 he returned to Mir aboard the Soyuz TM-18 mission, and remained in orbit for a continuous 437 day stay, still the longest continuous spaceflight undertaken by a human being at the time of his death. He returned to Earth in March 1995 and retired from the active cosmonaut rotation a few months later, remaining with the post-Soviet Russian space program as an advisor in the area of the health effects of long-term spaceflight, as well as having a hand in selecting future cosmonauts. He was awarded both the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of the Russian Federation over the course of his career. Though fellow cosmonaut Sergei Adveyev holds the record for the most time in space, that time was accumulated over the course of three missions; as of 2022, Polyakov’s single-flight record remains unbroken.
Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo president, dies
The president of Nintendo through the latter half of the 20th century, Hiroshi Yamauchi, dies at the age of 85. Having dropped out of college to assume control of Nintendo from his ailiing grandfather in 1949, Yamauchi transformed the company from a maker of playing cards into a power player in the electronic game market, even though Nintendo’s first video game product was a licensed version of the American-made Magnavox Odyssey. Twice, Yamauchi boldly decided to break into the American video game market with no guarantee of success: once with the arcade game Donkey Kong, and again with the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System, even after a Stateside licensing deal with Atari fell through at the last minute, depriving the NES of Atari’s existing marketing and distribution channels.
Eureka: One Giant Leap…
Syfy airs the 63rd episode of the science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Joe Morton. David Foley (The Kids In The Hall), Matt Frewer (Max Headroom), Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Ming-Na Wen (Agents Of SHIELD, The Book Of Boba Fett), Felicia Day (Mystery Science Theater 3000), and Tembi Locke (Sliders) guest star.
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Saturn 3 soundtrack
Soundtrack specialty label Intrada releases Elmer Bernstein’s soundtrack from the oddball 1980 Kirk Douglas sci-fi vehicle Saturn 3. This is the first release of the movie’s soundtrack, with the master tapes having spent most of the intervening years being unaccounted for.
Eureka: Purple Haze
Sci-Fi Channel airs the tenth episode of the quirky modern-day science fiction series Eureka, starring Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson, Debrah Farentino, Joe Morton, and Matt Frewer. (In the UK and elsewhere, this series is retitled A Town Called Eureka.)
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Eureka now streaming on Amazon Prime
Stargate SG-1: Brief Candle
Pay cable channel Showtime premieres the eighth episode of Stargate SG-1.
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Neverwhere: Knightsbridge
The second episode of Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry’s modern-day fantasy series Neverwhere airs on BBC2, starring Gary Bakewell, Laura Fraser, Hywel Bennett, and Paterson Joseph. Peter Capaldi (The Thick Of It, Doctor Who) guest stars.
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Deadly Games: The Boss
The third episode of science fiction series Deadly Games is broadcast on UPN, starring James Calvert, Cynthia Gibb, and Chrstopher Lloyd (Taxi, Back To The Future); Leonard Nimoy serves as the series’ executive producer. LeVar Burton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) guest star.
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Forever Knight: A Fate Worse Than Death
The 24th episode of the supernatural crime series Forever Knight airs in syndication, starring Geraint Wyn-Davies, Catherine Disher, Nigel Bennett, and John Kapelos. Natalie Radford (TekWar) guest stars.
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Forever Knight now streaming on Amazon Prime
RoboCop: Nano
The 19th episode of RoboCop: The Series airs in syndication, starring Richard Eden, Yvette Nipar, Blu Mankuma, and Andrea Roth.
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Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends: The Crime Of All Centuries
NBC airs the second episode of the Marvel animated series Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends, starring the voices of Dan Gilvezan (Transformers), Kathy Garver (Family Affair), and Frank Welker (Scooby-Doo, Transformers, The Smurfs). This episode is co-written by novelist Donald F. Glut (of The Empire Strikes Back novelization fame).
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Star Blazers: Episode 13
The 13th episode of Star Blazers, an English rewrite and dub of the 1974 anime series Space Battleship Yamato, premieres in syndication across the U.S.
Raven: Episode 1
The first episode of Raven premieres on British broadcaster ITV, starring Phil Daniels (Quadrophenia) and Shirley Cheriton (EastEnders). The series is created and written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray (Children Of The Stones).
Six Million Dollar Man: The Return Of Bigfoot Part 1
The 58th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Lindsay Wagner, John Saxon, Sandy Duncan, Stefanie Powers, and Ted Cassidy guest star in the fourth season prmiere, whose story will be concluded on The Bionic Woman.
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The Invaders: The Watchers
The 20th episode of Larry Cohen’s science fiction series The Invaders, starring Roy Thinnes and produced by Quinn Martin’s QM Productions, is broadcast on ABC. Shirley Knight (As Good As It Gets) and Kevin McCarthy (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers) guest star.
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Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea: Jonah And The Whale
The 33nd episode of Irwin Allen’s adventure series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea airs on ABC, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison. Gia Scalia guest stars in the second season premiere, and the first episode of the series to be broadcast in color.
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Project Orion: lunar and Mars missions studied
A report prepared by the Future Projects Office of NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center and General Atomic, the nuclear power division of General Dynamics, outlines in great detail ways that existing rocket technology (namely the Saturn V, which will not fly until 1967) and theoretical nuclear pulse propulsion technology could be combined to facilitate exploration of the moon and Mars. (Though derived from the Project Orion studies of the late 1950s, the potential nuclear-powered NASA program suggested in this document is not referred to as Orion.) The report, over 174 pages, goes into great detail about crew module design, radiation exposure, ways to mitigate the inevitable ablation of the “pusher plate” at the rear of the vehicle that will absorb a series of nuclear explosions at close range and translate the energy released into forward thrust, and even possible catastrophic launch abort modes, many of which would qualify as at least a small nuclear disaster. Even the health effects on civilian onlookers of a successful launch are considered, from retinal damage caused by viewing high-altitude firings of the nuclear propellant explosions to fallout risks, as well as potential collateral damage to satellites and non-hardened computers resulting from repeated electromagnetic pulses. The mission profiles considered are constrained to lunar missions and missions to Mars. (It’s worth noting that, by the time of this report’s issuance, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has been ratified by both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., making it illegal to put nuclear pulse propulsion into practice.)
Tales Of Tomorrow: The Chase
The 48th episode of ABC’s science fiction anthology series, Tales Of Tomorrow, airs on ABC. Much of the second season is missing, including this episode.
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The Adventures Of Superman: Superman On Earth
The first episode of The Adventures Of Superman premieres in syndication on TV stations across the United States, based on the comic by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. George Reeves, Phyllis Coates, and Jack Larson star. Robert Rockwell guest stars as Jor-El in a retelling of Superman’s origin story.
