theLogBook.com releases the ninth episode of the Retrogram podcast, hosted by Earl Green, covering the following shows from the week of December 30th, 1979:
- Buck Rogers In The 25th Century: Space Vampire
- The Incredible Hulk: Broken Image
- Flash Gordon: Chapter 16: Ming’s Last Battle
- Doctor Who: The Horns Of Nimon Part 3
Terrance Dicks, script editor of Doctor Who from 1968-1974, and writer of many episodes of the show both during and after that time, dies at the age of 84. He first took on Doctor Who script editing duties during the Patrick Troughton years under producer Derrick Sherwin, culminating in taking over as co-writer of an epic ten-part finale for the second Doctor, The War Games, when two other planned scripts fell through on very short notice. In incoming producer Barry Letts and frequent writer Malcolm Hulke, Dicks found a kindred spirits keen to introduce real-world issues into Doctor Who’s storytelling, resulting in what many fans of the original series regard as a golden age for the series. During the break between the 1973 and 1974 seasons, Dicks and Letts collaborated on an original science fiction series, Moonbase 3, which lasted a single season. When Tom Baker took over from Jon Pertwee, Dicks was succeeded by his protege (and frequent Doctor Who writer) Robert Holmes as the script editor, and then wrote numerous stories of his own, including Baker’s debut story, Robot, The Brain Of Morbius, The Horror Of Fang Rock, State Of Decay, and The Five Doctors. After Doctor Who ceased to exist as an active BBC production in the 1990s, Dicks contributed scripts to numerous commercial (but largely fan-made) direct-to-video productions, such as Shakedown, Mindgame, and Mindgame Trilogy. He also wrote for Space: 1999, Big Finish Productions, and the vast majority of Target Books’ voluminous output of Doctor Who novelizations in the 1970s and ’80s, based upon both his own scripts and those of other scriptwriters, which may ironically be the work for which he is ultimately best known.
India’s mission to safely put a lander and an autonomous rover on the surface of the moon ends with a sudden loss of data. Deployed by the successful Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, the Vikram lander (carrying the Pragyan rover) begins a powered descent to the lunar surface, only to cease communicating with ground controllers in India at an altitude of 2.1 kilometers. With the speed of Vikram’s descent at the time of data loss measured at 60 meters per second via telemetry, ground controllers declare it likely that Vikram crashed into the moon, resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its payload, a fate somewhat similar to that of the Israel-launched Beresheet lander earlier in the year. The orbiter continues to function, and will search for signs of water ice at the south pole of the moon.
theLogBook.com releases the tenth episode of the Retrogram podcast, hosted by Earl Green, covering the following shows from the week of September 1st, 1974:
- Land Of The Lost: Cha-Ka
- Shazam!: The Joy Riders
- Star Trek: The Animated Series: The Pirates Of Orion
theLogBook.com releases the 11th episode of the Retrogram podcast, hosted by Earl Green, covering the following shows from the weeks of July 25th and August 1st, 1971:
- Ace Of Wands: Seven Serpents, Sulphur, And Salt Episode 2
- Ace Of Wands: Seven Serpents, Sulphur, And Salt Episode 3
This episode had been released at an earlier date to the site’s Patreon supporters.
Streaming service CBS All Access debuts the fifth episode of Short Treks, a series of 15-20 minute short stories set in the Star Trek universe. Starring Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn, this installment focuses on Spock’s first day aboard the Enterprise.
The first episode of Batwoman premieres on the CW, starring Ruby Rose and Rachel Skarsten, premieres on the CW. Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, this series shares continuity with Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends Of Tomorrow.
More about Batwoman in theLogBook.com Store
Batwoman now streaming on HBO Max
The CW airs the 114th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin. This is the sixth season premiere.
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Streaming service CBS All Access debuts the sixth episode of Short Treks, a series of 15-20 minute short stories set in the Star Trek universe. Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel) and H. Jon Benjamin (Archer) guest star.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first human being to perform extravehicular activity (or, as it has become more commonly known, a spacewalk) outside his spacecraft, dies at the age of 85. He was among the 20 Soviet Air Force pilots selected to undergo cosmonaut training in 1960, and undertook the historic first spacewalk on March 18th, 1965, aboard the Voskhod 2 mission. He remained outside the vehicle for twelve minutes, but due to his spacesuit inflating with the pressure of his breathing oxygen, he had severe difficulty climbing back into the tunnel that extended from the vehicle itself for his exit, leading mission controllers in Russia to consider the possibility that he might perish without being able to climb back in. He was able to re-enter the Voskhod capsule with considerable effort, and became a favorite among Soviet-era mission planners for the honor of being the first cosmonaut to set foot on the moon, but crewed Soviet lunar missions never came to fruition as the Apollo moon shots took the lead in the space race. Leonov was later selected to lead the Soyuz 19 mission, the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, in 1975. He was also an avid artist who drew and painted many of his own space experiences, as well as those related to him by other astronauts and cosmonauts.
Actor Robert Forster, a fixture in films and TV since the 1960s, dies at the age of 78 following a brief battle with brain cancer. Cult sci-fi fans may know him best as Captain Dan Holland in 1979‘s The Black Hole or for his regular role in Heroes, but Forster’s credits spanned over 100 movies, the last of which – the Breaking Bad epilogue film El Camino – debuted on Netflix on the day he died. (An appearance in an episode of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories revival would not premiere until after Forster’s death.) He was the lead in two early 1970s series, Banyon and Nakia, and received an Oscar nomination (and an unexpected resurgence of his career) for his role in Qunetin Tarantino’s 1997 film Jackie Brown. He went on to play regular roles in such series as Karen Sisco, The Grid, Alcatraz, Last Man Standing, and the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks.
Actor Stephen Moore, who originated the woeful voice of Marvin the Android in the original 1978 BBC Radio production of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, dies at the age of 81. Ironically, it was another voice role, in a Czechoslovakian-made production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1959, featuring only puppets, that started Moore’s screen career. He would later go on to play memorable roles in Rock Follies, The New Avengers, Solo, and The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole. In 2010, he appeared as a war-weary Silurian elder opposite Matt Smith in the Doctor Who episode Cold Blood. Having played Marvin’s voice on radio in 1978 and 1979, and reprising the role for the 1981 BBC2 TV adaptation of Hitchhiker’s Guide, Moore returned to play Marvin again in BBC Radio’s early 21st century adaptations of the Hitchhiker’s Guide novels that weren’t directly based on the original radio series.
The CW airs the second episode of Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose and Rachel Skarsten.
More about Batwoman in theLogBook.com Store
Batwoman now streaming on HBO Max
The 161st episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW. Susanna Thompson (Star Trek: Voyager) and John Barrowman (Torchwood, Doctor Who) guest star in the season eight premiere.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.
The CW airs the 115th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin. Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) guest stars.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.
The CW airs the third episode of Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose and Rachel Skarsten.
More about Batwoman in theLogBook.com Store
Batwoman now streaming on HBO Max
The 162nd episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.
The CW airs the 116th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin. Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) guest stars.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.
The CW airs the fourth episode of Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose and Rachel Skarsten.
More about Batwoman in theLogBook.com Store
Batwoman now streaming on HBO Max
The 163rd 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.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.
theLogBook.com releases the 12th episode of the Retrogram podcast, hosted by Earl Green, covering the following shows from the week of October 26th, 1986:
- Tales From The Darkside: The Geezenstacks
- Starman: Secrets
- Star Wars: Ewoks: The Season Scepter
- The Real Ghostbusters: When Halloween Was Forever
- Doctor Who: The Trial Of A Time Lord Part 9
The CW airs the 117th episode of The Flash, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ superhero starring Grant Gustin. Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) guest stars.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.
Streaming service Apple TV debuts episodes one, two and three of Ronald D. Moore’s fictional alternate history of the American space program, For All Mankind. Based on the premise of a rapid acceleration of the Apollo program after the Soviet Union places the first man on the moon, the series stars Joel Kinnaman (Altered Carbon, Robocop, Suicide Squad), Michael Dorman (Patriot), and Sarah Jones (Alcatraz, Damnation). Colm Feore (Chicago, Thor) guest stars. Though covering some of the same subject matter (Apollo missions to the moon), this series is unrelated to the well-regarded 1989 documentary movie of the same name.
The CW airs the fifth episode of Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose and Rachel Skarsten.
More about Batwoman in theLogBook.com Store
Batwoman now streaming on HBO Max
The 164th episode of Arrow, a modern-day reboot of DC Comics’ Green Arrow superhero starring Stephen Amell, airs on the CW.
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could help change that.