Retrogram #7601: Beginning The Bicentennial With The Brits
theLogBook.com releases the 20th episode of the Retrogram podcast, hosted by Earl Green, covering the following shows from the week of December 29th, 1975:
- Space: 1999: The Last Sunset
- Doctor Who: The Brain Of Morbius Part 1
SpaceX sticks the landing from orbit
For the first time since a failed Dragon capsule launch to the International Space Station in June, SpaceX launches its Falcon 9 rocket with a payload of 11 OrbComm mini-satellites. After the second stage separates to go on to successfully deploy the OrbComm satellites, the first stage performs three engine burns to return for a stable landing. For the first time (after two previous attempts on oceangoing unmanned barges), the Falcon 9 drops to a gentle landing at a designated landing zone at Cape Canaveral, potentially paving the way for rockets whose first stages can return home for refurbishing and relaunch.
Soyuz TMA-03M
Part of the 30th full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-03M. Oleg Kononenko, André Kuipers and Donald Pettit take up residence on the ISS for 194 days, becoming part of the Expedition 29/30 crews. All three return to Earth in July 2012 aboard the same vehicle.
Quantum Leap: A Little Miracle
NBC airs the 40th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Charles Rocket (Max Headroom) guest stars.
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Doctor Who: Greatest Show in the Galaxy 2
The 681st episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. T.P. McKenna and Jessica Martin guest star in the final story of season 25.
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Soyuz TM-4 / Mir Expedition 3
The Soyuz TM-4 mission is launched by the Soviet Union, en route to space station Mir. Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov take up residence as the new long-duration crew aboard Mir, formally known as Expedition 3, and they eventually break all previous space endurance records by staying aboard Mir for exactly one year and one day, returning to Earth on December 21st, 1988. Cosmonaut Anatoli Levchenko, after the week-long overlap with the Expedition 2 crew, returns to Earth with Expedition 2 crew members Yuri Romanenko and Aleksandr Aleksandrov aboard the Soyuz TM-3 vehicle.
Vega 2 launched
Just days after its twin lifts off, the unmanned Vega 2 space probe is launched by the Soviet Union on a dual mission to drop off a lander at Venus and then to intercept Halley’s Comet in 1986. Derived from the USSR’s earlier Venera Venus landers, Vega 2 will test a refined landing system for landing on Venus by balloon, and will then join an international fleet of unmanned spacecraft attempting to take advantage of Halley’s visit to the inner solar system in late 1985 and early 1986.
Blake’s 7: Blake
BBC1 premieres the 52nd and final episode of Terry Nation’s science fiction series Blake’s 7. By all accounts one of the most memorable and unsettling television finales ever, the final episode hints strongly that evil has triumphed, and some viewers already experiencing depression as the Christmas holiday closes in are extremely disturbed by the series’ conclusion. Gareth Thomas guest stars as Blake, bringing the series full circle.
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Blake’s 7 now streaming on Britbox
Cosmos: Who Speaks For Earth?
The 13th and final episode of Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking science documentary series Cosmos premieres on PBS. A popular history of science and scientific theory vs. tradition and superstition, segueing into Sagan’s field of expertise (astrophysics), Cosmos is a major milestone in American documentary filmmaking and the popularization of science and the scientific method (and makes an instant celebrity out of Sagan).
Six Million Dollar Man: The Winning Smile
The 50th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Jennifer Darling guest stars.
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Strange Report: Report 4821: X-Ray – Who Weeps for the Doctor?
ITV airs the 13th episode of the mystery/spy-fi series Strange Report in the U.K., starring Anthony Quayle, Kaz Garas, and Anneke Wills (Doctor Who). (The series is an international co-production and airs in the United States on NBC.)
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The Owl Service
The first episode of children’s fantasy series The Owl Service premieres on British broadcast Granada Television, one of their first productions in color (though its first broadcast run is in black & white). The series, adapted by novelist Alan Garner from his own novel, comes in for criticism over disturbing scenes and language (despite the book having been critically acclaimed).
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Land Of The Giants: Home Sweet Home
ABC airs the 40th episode of Irwin Allen’s sci-fi series Land Of The Giants, starring Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, and Don Marshall. John Milford guest stars.
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Land Of The Giants now streaming on Amazon Prime
Fantastic Voyage: The Perfect Crime
ABC broadcasts the 15th episode of the Filmation animated series Fantastic Voyage, based on the 1966 movie of the same name. Marvin Miller, Ted Knight, and Jane Webb lead the voice cast.
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Doctor Who: The Invasion, Part 8
The 227th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. Kevin Stoney guest stars as Tobias Vaughn, and Nicholas Courtney returns as the freshly-promoted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, head of the newly created UNIT. This is the last Cybermen story until 1975.
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Apollo 8
Moved ahead in the schedule due to ongoing difficulties with the construction of the lunar module, Apollo 8 lifts off from Cape Canaveral on a mission that represents NASA’s biggest gamble yet in the race for the moon: on only the second manned Apollo flight, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders will go to the moon, orbit it in their command/service module, and return to Earth (the lunar module is still in the late stages of development). Mission planners plot out a free return trajectory – ensuring that without engines, Apollo 8 could loop around behind the moon and swing back toward home.
This mission is dramatized in the 1968 episode of HBO’s 1998 series From The Earth To The Moon.
Luna 13
The Soviet Union launches unmanned space probe Luna 13 toward the moon, where it becomes the third space vehicle to successfully make a soft landing on the lunar surface. Larger than its Soviet predecessor, Luna 9, Luna 13 measures the temperature, radiation, and hardness of the moon’s surface, all useful information to have in advance of a manned landing. After operating on the lunar surface for four days, the Luna 13 lander’s batteries are exhausted and the mission is over.
Lost In Space: Dream Monster
The 43rd episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris.
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Lost In Space now streaming on Amazon Prime
The Avengers: Too Many Christmas Trees
British broadcaster ABC airs the 91st episode of the spy-fi series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.
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The Avengers now streaming on Amazon Prime
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea: Long Live The King
The 15th episode of Irwin Allen’s adventure series Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea airs on ABC, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison. Carroll O’Connor (All In The Family, In The Heat Of The Night) guest stars.
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The Avengers: Death a la Carte
British broadcaster ABC airs the 65th episode of the spy-fi series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman.
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The Avengers now streaming on Amazon Prime
Doctor Who: The Dead Planet
The fifth episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. The Dead Planet is part one of the story now collectively known as The Daleks, the first story to feature the Doctor’s future arch-rivals, in a script written by Terry Nation (who had only taken the job writing for Doctor Who when his steady gig writing material for comedian Tony Hancock came to an abrupt end). In this episode, only the “sucker cup” of a Dalek is seen in the closing seconds.
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Ranger
NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech begin developing a set of guidelines for what is projected to be a series of five lunar missions, involving vehicles that will photograph the moon from approach to impact, transmitting the images back to Earth live. These guidelines are the beginning of the Ranger program, though technical difficulties will eventually result in nearly twice the number of Ranger unmanned vehicles than originally anticipated.
Tales Of Tomorrow: The Invader
The 14th episode of ABC’s science fiction anthology series, Tales Of Tomorrow, airs on ABC, with each episode’s opening titles proclaiming that the series is produced “in cooperation with the Science-Fiction League of America”, a collective of sci-fi writers including Isaac Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon among its members. This episode stars Eva Gabor, and sees the series returning to a weekly schedule after the end of Versatile Varieties’ run on ABC.
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