Doctor Who: Robot Part 1
The 382nd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Tom Baker makes his debut as the fourth Doctor in this first episode of the show’s 12th season. (The December 1974 premiere date also gives Baker his claim to being the Doctor for “seven years” by about three days.) Ian Marter makes his first appearance as the Doctor’s new companion, Naval Surgeon Lt. Harry Sullivan.
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Salyut 4
The Soviet Union launches its fourth orbital space station, Salyut 4. Much like Skylab, Salyut 4 is fitted with a solar telescope and X-ray astronomy equipment, which is trained on the X-ray source (and potential black hole) Cygnus X-1 during its flight. Three crews will go on to occupy Salyut 4 before it is deorbited in 1977; it is the first Soviet space station to successfully be occupied by multiple crews.
Robert’s Robots: Santa Claus-Trophobia
The 14th and final episode of the British comedy series Robert’s Robots airs on ITV licensee Thames Television, starring John Clive (A Clockwork Orange, Yellow Submarine) as eccentric inventor Robert Sommerby and Nigel Pegram as one of his robot creations. In addition to being the show’s Christmas special, this episode is also both a musical and the series finale.
Six Million Dollar Man: The Peeping Blonde
The 24th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Farrah Fawcett Majors guest stars.
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Kolchak: Horror In The Heights
ABC airs the 11th episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, based on the 1973 TV movie The Night Stalker and starring Darren McGavin. Phil Silvers (Sgt. Bilko) guest stars.
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Robert’s Robots: Rampaging Robots
The 13th episode of the British comedy series Robert’s Robots airs on ITV licensee Thames Television, starring John Clive (A Clockwork Orange, Yellow Submarine) as eccentric inventor Robert Sommerby and Nigel Pegram as one of his robot creations.
Altair 8800
The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics Magazine goes on sale days before Christmas 1974, with its cover article heralding the arrival of the MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer. The first open-architecture microcomputer, the Altair is available in kit form or fully assembled, with 4K of RAM built around an Intel 8080 processor. Expecting to sell a few hundred kits, MITS founder Ed Roberts finds himself flooded with so many orders that he has to hire additional workers to start catching up with the backlog of purchases, with the time from order to delivery stretching into months. This is the beginning of the modern computer revolution, with companies other than MITS producing peripherals and software for the Altair. The most notable of these third-party vendors is a newly-formed company called Microsoft – a two-man operation founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen – which produces a working version of the BASIC language for the Altair.
Shazam!: The Gang’s All Here
The 15th episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring Jackson Bostwick, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. This episode concludes the first season.
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Kolchak: The Energy Eater
ABC airs the tenth episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, based on the 1973 TV movie The Night Stalker and starring Darren McGavin. John Alvin guest stars.
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Six Million Dollar Man: Stranger In Broken Fork
The 23rd episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Sharon Farrell guest stars.
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Robert’s Robots: Gastronomics Anonymous
The 12th episode of the British comedy series Robert’s Robots airs on ITV licensee Thames Television, starring John Clive (A Clockwork Orange, Yellow Submarine) as eccentric inventor Robert Sommerby and Nigel Pegram as one of his robot creations.
Shazam!: The Past Is Not Forever
The 14th episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring Jackson Bostwick, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne.
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Planet Of The Apes: Up Above The World…
The 13th and final episode of the TV spinoff of Planet Of The Apes, Up Above The World So High, premieres on CBS. (The network passes on an earlier episode, The Liberator, as being too controversial.) This concludes the live-action TV run of Planet Of The Apes.
Kolchak: The Spanish Moss Murders
ABC airs the ninth episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, based on the 1973 TV movie The Night Stalker and starring Darren McGavin. Keenan Wynn and Richard Kiel guest star.
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Robert’s Robots: Courting Disaster
The 11th episode of the British comedy series Robert’s Robots airs on ITV licensee Thames Television, starring John Clive (A Clockwork Orange, Yellow Submarine) as eccentric inventor Robert Sommerby and Nigel Pegram as one of his robot creations.
Pioneer 11 visits Jupiter
NASA’s Pioneer 11 space probe passes close to Jupiter, barely 27,000 miles above the giant planet’s cloudtops, again encountering radiation capable of frying spacecraft electronics. Pioneer 11 captures the first images of Jupiter’s polar cloud structure and pulls off a daring gravity assist maneuver: the planet’s gravity flings Pioneer 11 up and over the north polar region and across the solar system for a 1979 rendezvous with Saturn, the first spacecraft to visit that planet.
Shazam!: The Braggart
The 13th episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring Jackson Bostwick, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne.
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Planet Of The Apes: The Cure
The 12th episode of the TV spinoff of Planet Of The Apes premieres on CBS. Sondra Locke guest stars.
Kolchak: Bad Medicine
ABC airs the eighth episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, based on the 1973 TV movie The Night Stalker and starring Darren McGavin. Richard Kiel guest stars.
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Six Million Dollar Man: Act Of Piracy
The 22nd episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Stephen McNally and Carlos Romero guest star.
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Robert’s Robots: I Spy With My Little Ear
The tenth episode of the British comedy series Robert’s Robots airs on ITV licensee Thames Television, starring John Clive (A Clockwork Orange, Yellow Submarine) as eccentric inventor Robert Sommerby and Nigel Pegram as one of his robot creations.
Shazam!: The Delinquent
The 12th episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring Jackson Bostwick, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne. Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, The Tick) guest stars.
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The Six Million Dollar Man: The Deadly Replay
The 21st episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Clifton James (Cool Hand Luke, Live And Let Die) guest stars.
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Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Charisma Records releases Genesis‘ epic-length double album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, a mythological concept album which proves to be Peter Gabriel’s last studio album with the band. The album will go on to be widely regarded as one of the creative peaks for the group.
Electric Light Orchestra: Eldorado
Electric Light Orchestra‘s fourth album, Eldorado, is released, featuring the single “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head”. This is the first ELO album with a full orchestra (as opposed to previous albums’ practice of overdubbing three string players endlessly), and the first to be released in the US before its UK release date.
Robert’s Robots: A Full Head Of Steam
The ninth episode of the British comedy series Robert’s Robots airs on ITV licensee Thames Television, starring John Clive (A Clockwork Orange, Yellow Submarine) as eccentric inventor Robert Sommerby and Nigel Pegram as one of his robot creations.
You’re listening to Earth FM
The first transmission from Earth designed to be a message for interstellar listeners is broadcast from the newly-refurbished Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. Weighing in at 210 bytes, the message is a binary transmission that, when properly assembled, provides a graphical representation of Earth’s solar system, a human being, the makeup of human DNA and the elements from which it is constructed, and the population of Earth. Though the Arecibo dish is pointed in the direction of the M13 globular cluster at the time of the message’s transmission, that cluster will have moved in the 25,000 years it takes for the message to reach that location (and, in any case, Earth and its entire solar system will have moved in the 25,000 additional years it would take to receive a reply), so the message is more of an interstellar technology demo than a message in a bottle.
Shazam!: Little Boy Lost
The 11th episode of Filmation’s live-action Shazam! series airs on CBS, starring Jackson Bostwick, Michael Gray and Les Tremayne.
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NOAA-4
NASA and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration launch NOAA-4, a weather satellite intended to operate in a near-polar low Earth orbit. NOAA-4 is based on the already-flown ITOS satellite design, and will operate without any major malfunctions through November 1978.