Time Tunnel: The Day The Sky Fell In
The fourth episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series The Time Tunnel airs on ABC, starring James Darren and Robert Colbert. Linden Chiles, Whit Bissell, and Lee Meriwether geust star.
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The Time Tunnel now streaming on Amazon Prime
Thunderbirds: Trapped In The Sky
UK broadcaster ATV Midlands premieres the first episode of Gerry Anderson’s science fiction series Thunderbirds, featuring the voices of Shane Rimmer, David Graham, Sylvia Anderson, Ray Barrett, and Peter Dyneley. The series is filmed with puppets on detailed miniature sets, with “exteriors” involving equally detailed miniature models a system Anderson refers to as “Supermarionation”, also used on such past series as Supercar, Fireball XL5, and Stingray.
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The Outer Limits: The Architects Of Fear
ABC airs the third episode of Leslie Stevens’ anthology series The Outer Limits. Robert Culp stars in a script by Meyer Dolinsky.
Twilight Zone: King Nine Will Not Return
The 37th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Bob Cummings and Gene Lyons star in the second season premiere, written by Serling, who appears on-camera as the show’s narrator for the first time.
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The Twilight Zone now streaming on Paramount Plus
Men Into Space: Moon Probe
The first episode of the science fiction drama series Men Into Space premieres on CBS, starring William Lundigan. Angie Dickinson guest stars. This is a rare instance of a network program produced by Ziv Television, which is better known for its syndicated offerings. Men Into Space predicts several future developments in the space program with surprising accuracy, given both its budget and the fact that men have yet to go into space at the time of the series’ premiere.
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Nuclear Pulse Propulsion
As part of a post-Manhattan-Project program of seeking peaceful uses for the technology previously developed for the construction and delivery of nuclear weapons, an informal report authored in August by C.J. Everett and Stanislaw Ulam is distributed from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Atomic Energy Commission and other interested parties on this date. The report outlines a theoretical space propulsion system which would eject and detonate a series of nuclear explosives behind a spacecraft, pushing it forward at high velocity. The suggested spacecraft design would carry a pusher plate and shock-absorber system to minimize the acceleration effects on crew members in a shielded payload section. This is the culmination of a series of ideas Ulam had devised over the past decade, which would theoretically put interplanetary or even interstellar travel within reach. As the space race heats up, Ulam and Everett’s proposal will be revisited and expanded upon, at least on paper; physicist Freeman Dyson, in particular, will spend considerable time and research on what will come to be known as Project Orion (unrelated to the 21st century Orion crewed spacecraft design).