Day: November 12, 2020

Daleks!: The Archive Of Islos

Daleks!The BBC premieres the first episode of Daleks!, an animated Doctor Who spinoff centered around that franchise’s most enduring villains, on YouTube, featuring the voices of Ayesha Antoine and Nicholas Briggs. This is part of the “Time Lord Victorious” alternate-timeline multimedia event. Read more

The Mandalorian: Chapter 1

The MandalorianStreaming service Disney+ opens for business with the first episode of Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian, the first live-action TV series set in the Star Wars universe, starring Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, and Nick Nolte. Returning to the saga’s roots as a space western, this marks Disney’s entrance into the increasingly crowded premium streaming service race. Read more Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

Stan Lee, Marvel Comics editor, dies

Stan LeeMarvel Comics’ most famous editor (and arguably its most famous creator, to the chagrin of some of the artists with whom he worked), Stan Lee, dies at the age of 95, several months after announcing that his days of attending conventions and making public appearances were over. Born in 1922, he began working at Timely Publications mere months after the company’s formation, thanks to a family connection with the company’s publisher, and became interim editor of Timely’s comics output in 1941. Timely had already seen success with artist/writer Jack Kirby’s Captain America, and Lee would not really make his mark until after a three-year sabbatical during which he enlisted in the U.S. Army and turned his talents to writing material supporting the war effort. It was during the early 1960s that Lee’s real influence on the company begin to be known, collaborating with Kirby on The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, X-Men, and others, and co-creating The Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with artist Steve Ditko. Under Lee’s editorship, Marvel led a revolution in interpreting comic book superheroes as complex, multifaceted, and flawed individuals, many of which remained bankable enough properties to lead to Disney’s 2009 acquisition of the company and rapid expansion of movie and TV adaptations of numerous characters and titles.

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Legends Of Tomorrow: Wet Hot American Bummer

ArrowThe CW airs the 55th episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Matt Ryan, Brandon Routh, and Tala Ashe.

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Arrow: The Demon

ArrowThe 143rd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Lexa Doig (Andromeda) guest stars.

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Mars: We Are Not Alone

MarsThe seventh episode of Mars airs on the National Geographic Channel, inaugurating the show’s second season. The series is a hybrid drama/documentary about a fictional human colony on Mars in 2042, contrasted against efforts to prepare for such a mission in the present day. The series is produced by Ron Howard (Apollo 13). Esai Morales (Caprica) guest stars.

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Arrow: Guilty

ArrowThe 52nd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW.

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Battlestar Galactica Volume 4 soundtrack

Soundtrack specialty label Intrada releases a fourth volume of Stu Phillips’ episode soundtracks from the TV Series Battlestar Galactica. The complete scores from the two-part episodes The Living Legend and War Of The Gods are included. The label also announces that this is its final classic Galactica music release.

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Hayabusa on Itokawa

HayabusaA second attempt is made by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency to bring its unmanned space probe, Hayabusa, close enough to gather a sample of surface material from asteroid 25143 Itokawa. It attempts to deploy a mini-rover called Minerva to explore Itokawa from the surface, but a glitch results in a trajectory that leaves Minerva tumbling into space, never to reach Itokawa. Hayabusa lands on Itokawa’s surface itself, though mission controllers don’t realize this for several more days. Contact is lost with Hayabusa for a short while, and when it is regained, the vehicle has left the surface and gone into safe mode.

Rediscovering Lost Scores

SoundtrackEast Side Digital releases the Rediscovering Lost Scores soundtrack compilations, featuring Wendy Carlos’ music from The Shining, Tron, Woundings and more.

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The Clone Wars: Chapter 4

Clone WarsBridging the gap between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III, Cartoon Network premieres the fourth mini-episode of Genndy Tartakovsky’s The Clone Wars animated shorts.

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Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Conversations With Dead People

Buffy The Vampire SlayerThe 129th episode of Joss Whedon’s supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on UPN. James Marsters and Alyson Hannigan also star.

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E:FC: Guilty Conscience

Earth: Final ConflictThe 95th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict, airs in syndication, starring Jayne Heitmeyer, Von Flores, Melinda Deines, Guylaine St. Onge, and Alan Van Sprang.

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Earth: Final Conflict now streaming on Amazon Prime

The X-Files: Without

The X-FilesThe 163rd episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, and Robert Patrick. Jeff Gulka guest stars. Duchovny no longer appears in every episode of the series after this episode, a development which is met with some skepticism from the show’s ardent fandom.

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Voyager 2’s silent scare

Voyager 2NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, nearly ten years after its final planetary encounter, suddenly goes quiet. For 66 hours, the space probe returns no signal or telemetry data to Earth, while engineers on the ground send 720 commands to Voyager 2 to begin transmitting again. When Voyager 2 does re-establish communications with Earth, it has switched to a backup transmitter, and the temperature of some on-board components is warmer than expected. The spacecraft has not gone into a safe mode, but reports receiving only 19 of the 720 commands to transmit. At nearly six billion miles from Earth, Voyager 2 is heading for the edge of the solar system at 35,000 miles per hour, and is expected to remain functional into the 2020s, provided the spacecraft experiences no further major faults.

STS-74: Atlantis returns to Mir

Space ShuttleNASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on the 73rd shuttle flight, an eight-day mission to dock with Russian space station Mir. Due to the docking difficulties of the first flight – which required Mir crew members to move one of their station’s modules out of the shuttle’s way temporarily – Atlantis carries a Russian-made docking adapter which adds a tunnel to one of Mir’s docking ports, allowing the shuttle to join up with the station without further module relocation. Atlantis carries Commander Kenneth Cameron, Pilot James Halsell, and mission specialists Jerry Ross, William McArthur and Chris Hadfield to visit Mir; there is no crew exchange on this flight.

Lois & Clark: Ultra Woman

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of SupermanThe 50th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Shelley Long (Cheers) and Mary Gross guest star.

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Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman now streaming on Amazon Prime

The X-Files: Space

The X-FilesThe ninth episode of Chris Carter’s modern-day science fiction series The X-Files airs on Fox, starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, and guest starring Ed Lauter and Susanna Thompson.

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Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: Crystal Hawks

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.Fox airs the 12th episode of the sci-fi western, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., starring Bruce Campbell, Julius Carry, and Christian Clemenson. Billy Drago (The Untouchables) and Sheena Easton guest star.

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The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr. now streaming on Amazon Prime

Superman: Episode 9

SupermanCBS airs the ninth episode of the animated series Superman, starring the voices of Beau Weaver and Ginny McSwain, and comprised of two stories: Bonechill and The Driver’s License.

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Superman now streaming on Amazon Prime

Superboy: Bringing Down The House

SuperboyThe sixth episode of the syndicated Alexander and Ilya Salkind-produced Superboy series, starring John Haymes Newton and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Sabrina Lloyd (Sliders) guest stars.

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Twilight Zone: Our Selena Is Dying

The Twilight ZoneThe 43rd episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs in syndication. Terri Garber stars in J. Michael Straczynski’s adaptation of a previously undiscovered Rod Serling script.

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The Twilight Zone now streaming on Paramount Plus

Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense: Black Carrion

Hammer House Of Mystery And SuspenseThe eighth episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense airs on ITV; the series will be shown later in the U.S. under the title Fox Mystery Theatre. Season Hubley guest stars.

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Split Enz displays Conflicting Emotions

Split EnzThe eighth album from Split Enz, Conflicting Emotions, is released. Despite the catchy single “Strait Old Line”, the album doesn’t sell as well is the group’s previous three albums (perhaps a side-effect of lower exposure due to the previous album’s lead single being artificially strangled by radio programmers). This is the last album to feature founding member Tim Finn; his younger brother Neil elects to keep the band together to continue recording.

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The Powers Of Matthew Star: Endurance

The Powers Of Matthew StarThe eighth episode of the science fiction series The Powers Of Matthew Star airs on NBC, starring Peter Barton and Louis Gossett Jr. Barry Van Dyke (Battlestar Galactica, Diagnosis Murder) and Spencer Milligan (Land Of The Lost) guest star.

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