Magazine, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[March 4, 1968] Everything Old is New Again (New Writings in SF-12 & Famous Science Fiction Issues #4-6)

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by Mx. Kris Vyas-Myall

Lady Penelope Magazine cover

Overlooked by many, my favourite comic book right now is Lady Penelope, TV21’s magazine for girls. Between the great stories of Spectrum’s Angels, Bewitched and (surprisingly) Crossroads, they have delightful pop culture articles.

Album Covers from Jefferson Airplane, Kaleidoscope and The Rascals
Three recent psychedelic albums whose art evokes the past

In a recent piece they pointed out how current culture seems to be drawing from pre-war sources, whether that be in fashion, where people are seemingly emulating the flappers of Thoroughly Modern Millie and the military outfits of Khartoum, music, with music hall and ragtime mixing with psychedelia, or television, with the success of The Forsyte Saga and The World of Wooster.

As such, the line between current and past styles is becoming more blurred, something reflected in this article’s selection of fiction:

New Writings in SF-12

New Writings in SF 12 Cover

In his foreword, Carnell muses on how changes in SF style seem to follow the sunspot cycle and happen differently on both sides of the Atlantic. He states that Harrison here represents the Ballardian inner-space type of story, Kapp representing the Vancian “medieval futurism”, Rome and Sellings could only be told in the current style, whilst White and Rankine are more traditional.

Vertigo by James White

We start with a return to White’s “Sector General”, where the crew of Descartes conduct an exploratory mission to a soupy planet nicknamed “Meatball”, where they discover a tool that psychically responds to the user's needs. Soon the native species makes a first attempt at spaceflight and Descartes’ crew attempts a rescue.

This is the kind of high quality I have come to expect from these tales. Strong character work, fascinating depiction of alien life and well-paced action. White knows what he does and does it well.

Four Stars

Visions of Monad by M. John Harrison

Bailey is a poet who became disillusioned with life. He consented to spend two weeks in a sensory deprivation tank and now spends his time with Monad, his beatnik artist lover, in a hedonistic haze, struggling to connect with reality.

This is more Moorcock New Worlds than Carnell’s, very hip and New Wavey. One with marginal SF content (SD experiments featuring in thrillers such as The Mind Benders) but very well told and evocative.

Four Stars

Worm in the Bud by John Rankine

Commander Dag Fletcher is sent to retrieve Peter Quinn, an IGO diplomat who has tried to ensure peace is maintained with the insectoid Chrysaorties. However, the planet is inhospitable, the takeoff is delayed, and Fletcher senses the aliens cannot be trusted…

As you may recall, I am not a fan of these stories, and I continued to dislike both the content and the style of this piece.

One Star

They Shall Reap by David Rome

The welcome return of one of Carnell’s better writers (and a contributor to the Journey), last seen at the end of ’64.

This one is Twilight Zone-esque, where Adam and Eve and their two children move into the Rich Valley Development, a seemingly utopian farming community where no effort is needed to make the crops grow. But is it all too good to be true?

These kind of sinister conformist community tales are fairly common but this is an effective example.

Three Stars

The Last Time Around by Arthur Sellings

In the future a few specialist pilots are needed to fly D.C.P. (Direct Continuum Propulsion) ships to explore new planets, but the time dilation effect means the crew comes back many years later. This follows Grant’s attempts to adjust to Earth after these trips away.

This is a very slow story but a clever one to explore changes in society and how love could work for a time traveler, with a morally ambiguous ending.

A high four stars

The Cloudbuilders by Colin Kapp

This novella tells of a future where gas balloons are the main form of transport. Guild Journeyman Jacobi comes to Catenor to help with the construction of hydrogen ships, whilst dealing with Cloud Pirate raids.

I have not much liked Kapp’s “Unorthodox Engineer” tales but this is an improvement in both style and content. The main issue is it is too long because Kapp over describes everything. It makes what could have been a marvellous short, a touch flabby.

Three stars

So a good selection in New Writings, but how will Famous fare? One positive point to start with is that I don’t believe any of these stories have been reprinted since first publication. As to the quality? Read on:

Famous #4

Famous #4 Cover
Illustration by Virgil Finlay, unknown source

Standards in Science Fiction – Science Fiction as Delight

Lowdnes uses his editorials across all three issues to look in depth at what makes good science fiction enjoyable. Well worth a glance.

The Man Who Awoke: 2. Master of the Brain by Laurence Manning

The Master Brain under attack
Illustration by Frank R. Paul

Continuing the 1933 serial, Norman Winters now awakes in 10,000 AD. Here he finds a society governed by a computer called the Brain. People live in cities under its direction, doing a small amount of work according to their rank and then spend the rest of their time in leisure facilities. However, the brain may no longer need humans at all, and Winters agrees to aid rebels in freeing themselves from its control.

This very much feels like a product of the time, combining together elements of The Machine Stops and Brave New World into an adventure tale. What it lacks in originality though, it makes up for in style and characterization.

Four Stars

… Do Not Fold or Mutilate … by William M. Danner

A new piece by a writer I am unfamiliar with. Danner tells of a man in an overcrowded society trying to deal with a change to his assistance card.

Whilst the atmosphere conjures up Make Room! Make Room! the actual tale is a standard one of failing bureaucracy like we have read many times before.

A low three stars

The Last Shrine by Chester D. Cuthbert

In Mexico lies the mysterious Valley of Peace, our narrator goes in to discover the truth behind the legends and meets a mysterious native tribe.

Originally from the same issue as Voice of Atlantis, these kind of “lost race” stories were already old fashioned in the 30s and the addition of strange science and dreams doesn’t do much to aid it.

Two Stars

The Times We Had by Edward D. Hoch

The other new fiction is from a long-time horror writer and regular contributor to Lowdnes’ other magazines. In a change to Hoch’s usual style, this involves Turkmen’s return to his family after a year on the moon and recounting his life there.

A lovely slice of life piece with a great twist in the tail.

Four Stars

Master of the Octopus by Edward Olin Weeks

Going back to the 19th Century, Weeks’ story comes from Pearson’s Magazine in 1899. This reprint has an introduction by Sam Moskowitz on how it fits into the history of lighting.

The Consolidated Lighting Company of America has become so powerful and successful it has been nicknamed The Octopus and its president seen as possibly the smartest man on the planet. However, when an inventor brings him a perpetual light with no need of external energy, he may have met his match.

This seems to me to be a satire of Thomas Edison and General Electric. And, even though it starts bright, it ends dimly.

A low three stars

The City of Spiders by H. Warner Munn

This final novelette comes from the early days of Weird Tales, in 1926. Our narrator relates the tale of Jabez Pentreat, an etymologist who travels into the jungles of Venezuela, finding a stone city overrun with spiders and ruled over by a giant telepathic Spider King.

Whilst Munn does a good job of showing an alien kind of intelligence (the influence of Lovecraft is clear) I found myself more in mind of giant insect B-Movies, and the treatment of the South American natives left a bad taste in my mouth.

Two Stars

Ratings for Famous #2 & 3, The Moon Menace winning for #2 and The Man Who Awoke & The Last American winning for #3.
For issues 2 and 3, it seems the older the story, the more well liked it is.

Famous #5

Famous #5 Cover
Illustration by Frank R. Paul, originally from Wonder Stories – May 1933 illustrating Gulliver 3000 AD by Leslie F Stone

The Pygmy Planet by Jack Williamson

The Pygmy Planet in the x-ray beam as a small plane flies towards it.
Illustration by H. W. Wesso

Dr. Whiting, to test evolution, creates a miniature planet in his laboratory using x-rays. The planet (as smaller objects experience time at high speed) has advanced to such a stage the creatures on it have been able to kidnap Whiting and bring him down. His lab assistant Agnes summons her friend Larry for help. When a machine-monster from the planet also grabs Agnes, Larry must shrink himself down and rescue them both.

A Machin-Monster leaves the planet to menace Agnes and Larry.
Illustration by Frank R. Paul

Reprinted from 1932’s Astounding, I cannot help thinking readers at the time would have found the entire tale just as silly as I did. And whilst it is better told than Cummings' similar story a few issues ago, it is very oddly paced with the adventure section feeling far too short and the ending being a poor one.

Two Stars

Destroyers by Greg D. Bear

Not just new fiction but a new writer to the scene, which is always good to see. In the future he describes, some people are licensed to be “destroyers” if they have a reason for their hatred. A writer interviews several contradictory destroyers to ascertain their motives.

A very silly satire but Bear’s style shows promise.

A higher two stars

The Man Who Awoke: 3. The City of Sleep by Laurence Manning

Winters, surrounded by scientists, investigates a man attached to a machine.
Illustration by Frank R. Paul

We continue Norman Winters' journeys into the future. In this millennium the world has seen a big increase in temperature and the population of America are all black. More and more people are entering into a computer-generated fantasy world where all their wishes can be fulfilled. However, this is creating a crisis, as soon there will be too few people left outside to maintain the machines or to reproduce.

Of all the societies Manning has shown us, I find this one the most fascinating so far. Whereas the prior installment felt distinctly of the period, this could easily have been produced today by Philip K. Dick. It continues to ask great questions about our future, balancing the good and bad of possibilities.

Five Stars

Echo by William F. Temple

We come now to a new tale by an old hand. This is an unusual spy story, where the Saurian Venusians have taken over the body of Richard Gaunt by use of a temporary echo of the personality of Narvel. They intend to steal the secrets of Organic Materials Inc., however, it turns out that being a human is harder than it seems.

Whilst it is a more original take on the genre, I found it confusing and unpleasant.

A low two stars

Plane People by Wallace West

Astronomers observe the two dimensional comet.
Illustration by Paul Orban

Finally, we have the return of Wallace West with this piece from Astounding November 1933. Whilst studying a two dimensional comet, astronomer Adolph Strauss, his son Frank, Frank’s girlfriend Marie and clerk Bert Wheeler, find themselves transported on to it. There they discover an entire civilization of flat people.

The group are surrounded by the flat Plane People
Illustration by Paul Orban

This is a combination of Off on a Comet, Flatland and A Princess of Mars without managing to be anywhere near as interesting as any of them. I found the whole experience silly and dull. Add to that the unpleasant writing of Marie throughout, it is incredibly weak.

One Star

Rankings for Famous #5, with The City of Spider winning.
Once more showing my opinions are at odds with the average Famous reader.

Famous #6

Famous #5 Cover
Illustration by Frank R. Paul, illustrating The Individualists for the original 1933 Wonder Stories publication

The Hell Planet by Leslie F. Stone

Illlustration for Hell Planet with the crew surrounded by Vulcanites
Illustration by Frank R. Paul

The crew of the Adventure travel to the (much hypothesized at the time, 1932) planet Vulcan, close to the sun. They are in search of Cosmicite, a rare metal which can act as a near perfect insulator. However, Vulcan is dangerous to human life and the Vulcanites may not be keen to part with it.

Stone does a great deal of work to make the Vulcanites another civilization and not merely generic tribespeople. And although the work does contain some cliches of the period, it ends up being smarter than I expected.

Four Stars

The Dragon-Kings by L. Sprague de Camp

The first poem for Famous, from the current laureate of F&SF, apparently being an ode to dinosaurs. I can’t help think it may have been rejected by his usual venue for being very poor fare.

One Star

The Individualists by Laurence Manning

Individualists image showing Winters hiding from a walking city.
Full version of cover illustration

In the fourth installment of The Man Who Awoke series, Winters now awakes in 20,000 AD where he finds a world full of cities that move around like Wells’ Martian Tripods and battle each other, but inside they have only a single inhabitant.

This portion feels different to the prior installment in a few ways. Firstly, whilst the others are more complexly thought-out societies, this feels more Swiftian in its approach, absurdism to make a point. Secondly, he ends being unable to make any changes to this era, the individual tendency being overwhelming. Thirdly, another person decides to copy his methods of suspension. How the last part will play out we will have to see in the final installment.

Not my favourite piece but still fascinatingly told and makes great points.

Four stars

More Than One Way by Burt K. Filer

The final new piece is from one of Pohl’s recent discoveries. Humans of 2071 are trying to deal with Denobleans (flying snake creatures). Scotty and Mel develop the EDM (ensephalodigital manipulator) which allows them to pursue alternative paths of evolution of creatures including man.

Ridiculous science, psi-powers, dull engineering details, human ingenuity beating aliens. I would bet my hind teeth this was an Analog reject.

One Star

The Invulnerable Scourge by John Scott Campbell

The final story comes from November 1930’s Wonder Stories. Following a debate between Dr. Riis and Prof. Pfeffler over the superiority of man or insect, the former develops an insect that is completely immune to natural predators. Unsurprisingly it escapes.

With the first-place result for City of Spiders, I guess a lot of readers like these bug-based horror tales. This one is more apocalyptic and good at times, but I was mostly rolling my eyes at it and the ending is a big disappointment.

Two Stars

Rankings for Famous #5, with City of Sleep winning.
Well, one person disliked the West novelette at least…

Past or Future?

Chainmail miniskirt design from 1967
Is Paco Rabane's design meant to be futuristic or historical?

Once again, it seems that sometimes new is better, at others the old has something to teach us. In the 1990s or 2000s, will people be trying to imitate the styles of the 1960s? Only time will tell.




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Magazine, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[March 2, 1968] Rules and Regulations (April 1968 IF)

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by David Levinson

New rules

Readers don’t need to be reminded that the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France came to a close just two weeks ago. Of course, most of the attention has gone to French skier Jean-Claude Killy, who took all three gold medals in the Men’s Alpine events, and American Peggy Fleming’s absolutely dominating performance in the Ladies’ Figure Skating competition. But the Games also saw many firsts. Norway took the most medals with 14, taking the top spot from the Soviet Union for the first time since the latter began participating. Morocco fielded a team for the first time (believe it or not, there’s decent skiing in the Atlas Mountains), and East and West Germany participated as separate countries for the first time. This was also the first time the Winter Games were broadcast in color.

There were also some new rules. There has been growing concern over the last few years about athletes taking various drugs to improve their performance, commonly called doping. In 1967, the International Olympic Committee finally joined most other sport associations in instituting a ban on the practice. A total of 86 athletes were tested for various substances, and all tests came back negative. The IOC also began performing sex tests on female athletes this year in order to prevent intersex persons from competing in women’s competition. None were found, but after the policy was announced last year, several Eastern European athletes announced their retirement, which prompted a great deal of speculation.

The stars of the show. (l.) Jean-Claude Killy sporting his medals. (r.) Peggy Fleming in her spectacular performance.

Rules that bend, rules that break

Sometimes rules may be onerous, wrong, or perhaps just inconvenient. Maybe you need to bend them a little, maybe you need to break them and replace them with something better. The stories in this month’s IF offer several cases in point.

The Advanced Guard prepare to study the fauna of Chryseis. Art by Vaughn Bodé

The Man in the Maze, by Robert Silverberg

Richard Muller was one of Earth’s top diplomats when he was sent to make contact with the first aliens humanity had discovered. On his return, he discovered that no one could stand to be around him for more than a few minutes, for reasons that are not yet explained. In disgust, he retreated to the desolate planet Lemnos and the heart of a million-year-old city surrounded by deadly traps. Now his services are needed again. Charles Boardman, the man who sent Muller on the mission that gave him his affliction, and Ned Rawlins, the son of Muller’s late best friend, have come to recruit him. With the aid of robots to plan a safe route through the maze, they make their way deep into the city. As the installment ends, young Ned is about to find Muller. To be continued.

A robot seeks the next lethal trap. Art by Gaughan

If this sounds familiar, that’s because Silverberg is working with the myth of Philoctetes, the heir to the bow of Hercules whose festering wound caused the Greeks to maroon him on the way to Troy, but who is needed for their victory. More specifically, he’s using the play by Sophocles with a bit of Algis Budrys’s Rogue Moon thrown in for excitement. Muller is Philoctetes, Boardman is wily Odysseus, and Rawlins is the naive and honorable Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. This is all set-up, with Muller’s past revealed in flashbacks as the viewpoint shifts among the three main characters. It’s very good, but the meat will come in the next installment.

A very high four stars, with a probable five for the whole thing.

The Edward Salant Letters, by Jerry Juhl

A series of letters between a customer having trouble with his Phonotyper and the computerized service department of American Business Equipment.

Do not fold, spindle or mutilate. Art uncredited

Jerry Juhl is this month’s new author. More interestingly, he is a writer and puppeteer for the Muppets, which American readers may have seen on The Tonight Show, The Mike Douglas Show, or in commercials. Readers outside the U. S. are probably out of luck, but keep your eyes open for them. They’re very, very funny. As for the story, we’ve seen this a hundred times, but this one has an unusual twist that makes it fresh. I certainly didn’t see it coming.

A high three stars.

The Rim Gods, by A. Bertram Chandler

A group of Neo Calvinists from the planet Francisco has stopped at Lorn on their way to Kinsolving’s Planet. Around a century ago, a Stone Age man, an artist who made animals appear by making cave paintings of them, appeared there. He eventually found his way to Francisco and joined the Neo Calvinists. Also with them is the cave artist’s great-granddaughter, one of Francisco’s Blossom People, who practice a sort of hedonistic Zen. The Neo Calvinists believe she has inherited her ancestor’s power and want to use her to bring the Lord to Kinsolving’s Planet and make it a New Sinai. To his great dismay, Commodore John Grimes has been ordered to accompany them as an observer.

They look like fun. Art by Morrow

John Grimes is a man who enjoys his pipe and likes a good tipple. He’s the last person who should be locked in a small ship with this straitlaced bunch. Of course, that’s where this story gets its humor and most of its tension. It’s an enjoyable read if you’ve liked some of Grimes’ earlier adventures, but the ending is a bit confused and rushed.

Three stars.

Meanwhile, Back at the Worldcon…, by Lin Carter

Carter wraps up his report on last year’s Worldcon. It’s mostly more name-dropping, a brief mention of the costume ball, and an enumeration of the Hugo Awards. As I said last month, you're better off reading the Journey’s con report.

A low three stars.

The Product of the Masses, by John Brunner

An Advanced Guard unit under Commander Jeff Hook has been dispatched to the planet Chryseis to assist Dr. Leila Kunje and her team of biologists in studying the local fauna. Unfortunately, the loose, non-hierarchical style of the Advanced Guard are at odds with the extremely repressed (or uptight as the kids are saying these days) attitude of Dr. Kunje. An attitude so repressed it blinds her to some obvious facts, causing problems for everyone.

The local fauna to be studied. These are the smaller males. Art by Vaughn Bodé

They say John Brunner is two authors: the literary New Wave writer who sells to the British market and the outdated hack who writes for the American market. This is work even the hack ought to be ashamed of. Dr. Kunje is a character type that only British male authors seem to write: deeply, angrily sexually repressed to the point of denying the existence of sex, love or even affection. I’m reminded of the journalist in Arthur C. Clarke’s A Fall of Moondust who suffers from “impacted virginity.” No zoologist who is unable to see the glaringly obvious facts in this story would ever have risen to the level that would allow her to be chosen for this mission. It’s a pity, because this could have been a fun, if inconsequential adventure story.

Barely two stars, based only on Brunner being able to string together entertaining sentences.

Slowboat Cargo (Part 3 of 3), by Larry Niven

On the planet Plateau, Matt Keller has become involved with the Sons of Earth, who hope to overthrow the rule of the crew and become more than a labor force and source of organs. When the group was arrested, Matt managed to escape thanks to his strange ability to make people forget he exists. Meanwhile, a mysterious new technology has arrived from Earth via unmanned ramjet. Matt rescued the leadership of the Sons of Earth, and a bit of coincidence brought them into contact with planetary leader Millard Parlette. Together, they start work on a compromise that will put an end to the unjust treatment of the colonists and one day lead to the end of the organ banks. Unbeknownst to them, Matt and another rebel have entered the Hospital again on slightly different rescue missions.

Matt quickly learns to control his power and discovers a corollary power as well. He rescues the girl he fell for back in the first installment, but she proves either to have been driven insane by torture or to have been a fanatic all along. Meanwhile, the politicians come to the realization that there are more factions than just crew and colonist. Talk will have to be backed up by action.

And as the story ends, an Earth ramrobot bound for We Made It catches the attention of the space-dwelling alien merchants known as the Outsiders.

Matt takes a dive. Art by Adkins

Once again, the more interesting bits are people sitting around talking politics. The action verges on the repetitive, and while the actions of the young woman Matt rescues result in the main antagonist getting his just deserts, they felt unjustified by the story. Of course, we barely got to know her at all, so that could be part of the problem. Nevertheless it’s an enjoyable read. It’s also a reminder that the real work begins once the revolution ends. Plateau has a long way to go to become the equitable and just society we saw in The Ethics of Madness.

Three stars for this installment, but I think the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and might be worth four stars.

Summing up

When I finished the magazine, I thought it was the best issue of IF in over a year. After all, when the worst story is by John Brunner, it’s got to be pretty good, right? Unfortunately, that Brunner story really brings down the average. Still, it does hold the end of pretty good novel, the start of a novel that may be very, very good, and a couple of decent stories. I think I’d be happy if IF was this enjoyable every month.

Looks like MacApp may be investigating another alien society, and new Zelazny. Fingers crossed!

I have no idea what to make of tonight's episode of Star Trek

Come join us and help us figure it out!




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Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV

[February 28, 1968] Zero for the Price of Two (Star Trek: "By Any Other Name")

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by Janice L. Newman

This week’s Star Trek episode starts in one genre and ends up in another, ultimately making a promise it just can't deliver on.

The story opens with the Enterprise responding to a distress signal and landing on an out-of-the-way planet. They encounter aliens that appear human, who immediately commandeer the ship. When the landing party attempts to resist, the aliens make a chilling example: they turn two members of the landing party (both garbed in red) into small, strangely-shaped objects, apparently by removing all the water from their bodies and leaving the concentrated essential salts and minerals. One of these objects is crushed before Captain Kirk’s eyes, while the other is restored to his normal human state.

I want to take a moment to note how compelling this part is. It could have been corny in a different kind of show. Yet it’s unexpectedly effective as Kirk crouches over the powdery remains of one of his crewmembers, shocked. There’s no gore or blood, yet it is genuinely horrific.

This promising beginning leads to a promising next act, where the aliens have successfully taken over the ship. Scotty and Spock work out a method to blow up the ship rather than let the aliens take it back to their home planet and start an intergalactic takeover. Kirk nixes the idea, apparently unable to bear the idea of destroying the Enterprise and everyone aboard. Instead of bluffing the aliens or coming up with some clever solution, Kirk flails helplessly, especially when the aliens proceed to turn the entire rest of his crew into salt sculptures. This is once again very creepy and effective, particularly when Kirk comes upon a hallway filled with the fragile objects. Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Spock, and Scotty are the only ones who remain un-salted.

Spock is, appropriately, the one who identifies the aliens’ weakness: they have taken the forms of humans and are now subject to human weaknesses, desires, and emotions. Together, the four hatch a plan to wrest back control of the ship from the aliens.

This is the point where the episode takes a hard left turn into comedy from horror. Of course I expected that the crew would ultimately win, but the tonal shift from creeping horror and despair to wacky high jinks is jarring. Not only that, but the crew’s plan doesn’t make much sense.

McCoy injects one of the aliens with something that will gradually fray his temper, making him angrier and angrier until he snaps. But why didn’t McCoy just use something to knock him out?


"Hey!  Did you put knock-out juice in there?"  "Rats!  Why didn't I think of that?"

Scotty introduces one of the aliens to alcohol, eventually drinking him under the table. These scenes are funny; James Doohan is a talented actor. But since Scotty collapses shortly after his drinking buddy does, ultimately he makes no difference to the plot. Also, why didn’t Scotty just put something in the alien’s drink to knock him out sooner?


"Shay… Did you put knock-out juice in the booze?"  "Ach!  Why didn't I think of that?"

Kirk calls ‘dibs’ on the female alien and repeats the technique he’s come to use on any woman who has captured him: he seduces her (see: “Catspaw”, “Gamesters of Triskelion”, etc). In a nice switch, at first she seems completely uninterested and cold. Disappointingly, this doesn’t last, with her soon falling into his arms again. By the way, Kirk was definitely close enough to have knocked her out with his standard chop to the neck (which he had already used this episode!)


"Say…your lips wouldn't be drugged would they?"  "Why didn't I think of…I mean…why, yes!"

Spock plays on the alien leader’s jealousy, making him angry enough to eventually attack Kirk with his bare hands. Spock has several opportunities to neck-pinch the leader, but does not.


"Say…my shoulder is tense.  Would you mind gripping it?"  "No thanks."

Captain Kirk then gives a monologue which almost makes up for everything in the episode I disliked up to this point. If the aliens are behaving like this after just a day of being human, he says, what will they be like after the 300 years it will take them to get back to their home planet? They won’t even be the same species anymore, they’ll basically be humans, and therefore invaders.


"Aren't you… glad.. you use Dial?  Don't you wish everyone did?"

Sadly, this cleverness is ruined by how easily the once-intractable aliens agree and give in and how quickly everything is wrapped up.

This almost feels like two halves of different episodes. Moreover, the solution is far too pat and comes too easily to have real emotional impact. I assume the scriptwriter wrote himself and the crew into a corner by making the aliens too powerful, then had to do something implausible to get himself out of it.

Three stars, mainly for Scotty and the salt effect.

A Convenient Escape


by Joe Reid

Do you remember that age-old riddle, “what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?” I promise to answer that at the end of this piece.  The question for this week’s Star Trek episode is, what happens when an undefeatable adversary meets an undefeated crew?  In “By Any Other Name”, our heroes were set upon by an enemy that had them outclassed and beaten in every conceivable way.  They faced technology that they could not understand or overcome and a foe that was unrelenting and capable.

When Rojan of Kelva made his appearance, with the female Kelinda at his side, he calmly got right to the point and made his demands clear.  Then he followed up by showing the potency of their power, making the crew impotent.  Impotence in that within a minute and a half he'd paralyzed the team on the planet, making it impossible for them to fight back.  Then he conquered the ship, taking over the critical functions before Kirk had a moment to understand how outmatched they were.  Before we knew it the crew of the Enterprise were slaves on their own ship, most of them converted to mineral polyhedrons. 

Facing a technologically superior baddie that forced them to play red-light green-light or turned them into bouillon cubes, there should have been no way the crew could have gotten out of this trap.  Yet before the end of the episode, the momentum completely shifted to benefit Kirk and company.

This shift happened when Rojan and his associates suddenly became grossly incompetent.  In a short amount of time the Kelvans went from calculating, strategic, and disciplined conquerors that were always in control to drunk, horny, jealous, and rebellious teenagers.  After failing to subvert the Kelvan technological advantage both on the planet and on the ship, Kirk’s strategy to win boiled down to getting the Kelvans to succumb to human faults.


Drea, the one remaining competent Andromedan

In the end this episode allowed the crew to escape their unbeatable dilemma too easily.  I think that more time was needed to unravel a foe of this caliber.  After being introduced to such a credible threat, allowing said threat to beat itself so quickly was a real lost opportunity.  Perhaps this provides us with that answer to that age-old riddle that I promised at the start.  The irresistible force and the immovable object must both yield in order to remain what they are upon meeting.  Answers to ancient puzzles aside, having this unbeatable threat beat itself in the final minutes of the show failed to deliver the payoff that I expected from Star Trek.  The Kelvans lost all credibility in the end and so did this episode.

2 stars

A Generation of Idiots


by Erica Frank

The Kelvans planned a 300-year journey to the Andromeda galaxy. That's a long time, so the trip was planned to involve multiple generations. The Kelvans were born among the stars, and their children would be born en route to another world.


This is a neat effect.

"Generation ships" have been addressed in science fiction before: Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky, Brian Aldiss's Starship ("Non-Stop" in the UK), Judith Merril's "Wish Upon a Star" among them.

In both novels, the "crew" has long forgotten the purpose of their journey. In Merill's story, the arrangement of officers is very different from a standard exploratory mission: the rules have been adapted for multi-generation space travel. In all of them, the authors considered that the great-great-great grandchildren of those who set out will have different goals and priorities than the initial crew.

I do not believe that was considered in this episode.

Set aside that the Enterprise is not designed for this–it does not have food for hundreds of years; its equipment isn't designed to last that long. Pretend that whatever they do to improve the engines will remove the need for repairs or spare parts, and that Sulu's garden will provide enough food. Let's pretend the Enterprise and a small crew can make this trip safely.

The "small crew" is three men and two women. That's not a large breeding pool. But let's pretend that, since they made "perfect" human bodies, they have no troublesome recessive genes; there are no issues with inter-breeding. They designed these bodies with a generation ship in mind, after all.


Do they even know how human breeding works? They didn't know kissing. Are they planning to use the Enterprise's medical records to teach them childbirth, child-rearing, and so on?

They'll need about 4 to 5 new generations per century, depending on what ages they are when they start having children. If they wait until they are 30 or so, they'll have fewer generations–less distance from the original crew. But in that case, the fourth generation will barely remember the originals, and the fifth will not know them at all.

Are they going to have children in neat, exact generations, all births within a 5-10 year period followed by a long gap? How will they enforce that, eight generations down the line?

Nothing about their "generation ship" plan makes sense.

The episode had some good points: Scotty drinking Tomar under the table; Kirk and Spock subtly cooperating to push Rojan into a jealous rage. But the Kelvans' basic plan is so deeply flawed that I watched to see how, not whether, our heroes would foil it.

Two and a half stars. Everything was great… except the actual plot.

Seven Deadlies


by Jessica Dickinson Goodman

Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Spock, and Scotty's plan to use the Andromodeans' newfound humanity against them takes rather a dim view of our (mostly) shared species. It seemed like they each picked a Catholic Deadly Sin to specialize in: the Andromodeans already had more pride than they knew what to do with, plus ample greed on tap; to that potent mix, Scotty served gluttony, McCoy provoked wrath, Spock worked with Captain Kirk on engendering envy, and Captain Kirk spiced things up with lust. The only missing sin by my count was sloth, though there is something kind of inherently parasitic, if not explicitly lazy, in their approach to finding themselves a ride home.


"Get off me!  You don't rank me and you don't have pointed ears, so just get off my neck!"

I wonder what a version of this story might have been if they had instead focused on virtues, on appealing to human curiosity, ingenuity, empathy, even entrepreneurialism, cleverness, or wisdom. Janice is right, the hard left turn to comedy stripped this episode of all of its potential insight into the human condition, taking us from the meaningful deeps and leaving us in frothy waters. But it is fun to imagine what other species-level traits visiting aliens might be saddled with: Our taste for adventure? Our tendency to anthropomorphize ships? Our habits of collecting pets? There are so many more things that make each and every one of us "human" than the sins the officers of the Enterprise honed in on.

Three stars.



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Magazine, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[February 26, 1968] Stormy Weather (March 1968 Analog)

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by Gideon Marcus

There's no sun up in the sky

Out in the vastness of space, a constellation of man-made moons keeps watch on the Earth below.  Unlike their brethren, the military sentinels that look out for rocket plumes and atomic blasts, these benign probes monitor the planet's weather with a vantage and a vigilance that would make a 19th Century meteorologist green with envy.

In addition to the wealth of daily data we get from TIROS, ESSA, and Nimbus, the West is now getting aid from an unlikely, but no less welcome, source: behind the Iron Curtain.

Two years ago, the Soviets rebuffed the idea of exchanging weather satellite imagery.  "No need," was what they said; "no sats," was probably the real story.  For in August of 1966, all of a sudden, the USSR activated the "Cold Line" link between Moscow and Washington for the exchange of meteorological data.  This action coincided with the recent launch of Cosmos 122, revealed to be a weather satellite.

This constituted a late start in the weather race–after all, TIROS had been broadcasting since 1960.  Nevertheless, better late than never.  Unfortunately, the Soviets first sent only basic weather charts with limited cloud analysis.  Not much good without the raw picture data.  When we finally got the pictures, starting September 11, 1966, the quality was lousy–the communications link is just too long and lossy.  Our ESSA photos probably didn't look any better to them.

By March 1967, however, the lines had been improved, and Kosmos 122 was returning photos with excellent clarity.

We also got infrared data.  The resolution was much worse, but the Soviets maintained they did first discover a pair of typhoons bearing down on Japan.

Since then, the USSR has orbited at least two more weather satellites, Kosmos 144 and Kosmos 184, both returning the same useful data, often from different orbital perspectives than we can easily reach.  For instance, the Soviet pictures offer particularly good views of the poles and northern Eurasia.

It's a little thing, perhaps, this trading of weather data between the superpowers.  But anything that promotes peaceful exchange and keeps the connections between East and West ready and friendly is something to appreciate.  Sometimes the Space Race is more of a torch relay!

Raining all the time


by Kelly Freas

In sharp contrast, Analog remains an island unto itself, and like all inbred families, often produces challenged offspring.  Such is the case with the March 1968 issue, which ranges from middlin' to awful.

The Alien Rulers, by Piers Anthony


by Kelly Freas

We start with the awful.

Fifteen years ago, the blue-skinned Kaozo engaged our space fleet, destroyed it utterly, and became the benevolent masters of Earth.  They created a working socialist society, implementing tremendous public works projects, and humanity proved remarkably complacent under their rule.  Nevertheless, a revolution of sorts has been hatched, and Richard Henrys is tasked with the stickiest assignment–assassinate the Kazo leader, Bitool.

Henrys is quickly captured, but instead of facing execution, Bitool offers him a deal: protect Seren, the first female Kazo on Earth, during the next three days of the revolution, and he can go free.

Sounds like a decent setup.  It's actually a terrible story.  For one thing, the author of Chthon has all of his off-putting tics on display.  Seren is a straw woman, whose vocabulary is largely limited to "Yes, Richard," and "No, Richard."  The social attitudes of this far future world seem rooted in the Victorian times, with passages like this:

"You'll pose as my wife.  Hang on to my arm and–"

"Pose?" she inquired.  "I do not comprehend this, Richard."

Damn the forthright Kazo manner!  He had five minutes to explain human ethics, or lack of them, to a person who had been born to another manner.  Pretense was not a concept in the alien repertoire, it seemed.

He chose another approach.  "For the time being, you are my wife, then.  Call it a marriage of convenience."  She began to speak, but he cut her off.  "My companion, my female.  On Earth we pair off two by two.  This means you must defer to my wishes, expressed and implied, and avoid bringing shame upon me.  Only in this manner are you permitted to accompany me in public places.  Is this clear?"

And this one:

"I promised to explain why this subterfuge was necessary.  I didn't mean to place you in a compromising situation, but–"

"Compromising, Richard?"

"Ordinarily a man and a woman do not share a room unless they are married."

And then, there's the scene where the feminine disguise Richard puts together for Seren falls apart because her body lacks mammalian contours.  Why doesn't he then dress her in male clothes?  And when her stockings start to fall off her legs, I couldn't help wondering how they'd somehow uninvented Panty Hose in the 21st Century.

But then, I'm not sure if Piers Anthony has actually ever talked to a woman, much less seen her in her underthings.

On top of that, the final revelation that the Earth fleet was never destroyed, but instead went on to conquer Kazo, and the two planets have swapped overlords (both governments populated only by the very best technocrats) is so ridiculous as to beggar belief.  That Henrys is invited to become one of the ruling class largely for his novel ideas on how to cut a cake fairly, well, takes the cake.

One star.

Uplift the Savage, by Christopher Anvil


by Kelly Freas

Members of an interstellar agency learn that the best way to increase the technological sophistication of a primitive race is not to give them expertise, but allow them to steal it.  The two-page point is hammered in using fourteen pages of digs at women, higher education, and educated women.

One star.

The Inevitable Weapon, by Poul Anderson


by Harry Bennett

A scientist discovers teleportation.  Useless for interstellar travel, at least for a while, it's great for beaming in concentrated starlight–as a weapon at first, but potentially, to provide energy.

This would be a decent, one-page Theodore L. Thomas piece in F&SF.  Instead, it's fourteen pages of bog-standard detective/secret agent thriller.

Two stars.

Birth of a Salesman, by James Tiptree, Jr.


by Kelly Freas

Jim Tiptee's freshman story is an Anvilesque tale of breakneck pace and nonstop patter.  T. Benedict of the Xeno-Cultural Gestalt Clearance (XCGC) has got a tough job: making sure the trade goods of the galaxy not only take into account the taboos or allergies of alien customers, but also the transhipment longshorebeings. 

Tedium sets in by page two, which, coincidentally, is how many stars I rate it.

The Horse Barbarians (Part 2 of 3), by Harry Harrison


by Kelly Freas

A lot and very little happen in this installment of Jason dinAlt's latest adventure.  Last time on Deathworld III, Jason offered up his fellow Pyrrans as mercenaries to wipe out the horse barbarians on the planet Felicity.  It's fair play, after all, since these barbarians (absolutely not the Mongols, because they have red hair!) slaughtered the last attempt at a mining camp on their frozen plateau.

So, Jason accompanies "Temuchin", the warlord, on an expedition down a cliffside to the technologically advanced civilization on the plains below.  There, they steal some gunpowder, kill a lot of innocent people, and come back–in time to link up with the rest of the Pyrrans for a raid on the Weasel clan.  More slaughter ensues.

Jason feels kind of bad about his part in the killing, but it's all a part of a master plan to someday, eventually, pacify the warriors with by opening up a trade route with the south (as opposed to setting up off-world trade, since the barbarians hate off-worlders).  So whaddaya gonna do?

Well, personally?  Pick a different career path.  Even if the nomads are the biggest savages since the Whimsies, Growleywogs, and Phantasms, what right do the Pyrrans have to kill…anyone? 

Setting aside the moral concerns, Harrison is still an effective writer.  I wasn't bored, just a bit disgusted.

Three stars.

Practice!, by Verge Foray


by Kelly Freas

A shabby little private school for problem children is suddenly the subject of a set of accreditation inspectors.  There's nothing wrong with the kids or the staff–the problem is that the snoops might discover it's really a training ground for junior ESPers!  Luckily, the tykes are on the side of management, and the inspectors are snowed.

I went back and forth on whether this very Analogian tale deserved two or three stars.  On the one hand, I'm getting a little tired of psi stories (the headmaster in the story even says there's no such thing as something for nothing–and that's what psi is), and I resented the smug digs at public school.

But what swayed me toward the positive end of the ledger (aside from the unique and lovely art) was the bit at the end whereby it's suggested that the reason for the school, and the reason psi is so unreliable, is because, like music or language, it's something that needs to be practiced from an early age.  It's a new angle, and pretty neat.

So, three stars.

Can't go on…

Wow.  2.1 stars is bottom-of-Amazing territory, and it easily makes this month's Analog the worst magazine of the month.  Compare it to Fantastic (2.2), IF (3), New Worlds (3.3), and the excellent Fantasy and Science Fiction (3.6), and the contrast is even stronger.

Because of the paucity of magazines, you could fit all the really good stuff into, say, one issue of Galaxy.  On the other hand, women wrote 12% of new fiction this month, which is decent for the times (not to mention the episodes of Star Trek D. C. Fontana has been penning).

It's 1968, an election year.  Maybe this is the year Campbell hands the reins over to someone else.  It certainly couldn't hurt the tarnished old mag.

And then, maybe the sun will come out again!

Speaking of election news, there's plenty of it and more on today's KGJ Weekly report.  You give us four minutes, and we'll give you the world:



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Magazine, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[February 24, 1968] Sex, Mind-Rape, Sitars and Fun Palaces New Worlds, March 1968

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by Mark Yon

Scenes from England

Hello again!

And yes, I’m relieved that we have another monthly issue of New Worlds. As you may know publication has been a little erratic of late, but I’m pleased to see that we may be settling back into a monthly routine.

That’s not to say that the magazine hasn't changed in form. Not only have we gone big and glossy and increased the price per issue to 5/- to allow this, but the content has also changed. The magazine, as perhaps befitting its Arts Council sponsorship, has begun to incorporate more art, more non-fiction articles and less traditional science fiction, which has evoked protests that it is betraying its origins as “a science fiction magazine”. Now we get softer fiction, often allegorical, often nonlinear, with never a spaceship to be seen.

Similarly, another change has caused unease. Have you noticed that things have gotten a little more raunchy of late? Well, perhaps not raunchy – that would be very un-British! But let us say that there is more explicit content.

The last issue was a prime example of this. But what does that mean for this month’s issue?

Let’s go and have a look.

Cover by Vivienne Young

Lead in by The Publishers

For anyone wondering where once-Associate Editor Langdon Jones has been lately, the Lead In explains all. He is no longer working for New Worlds, but instead concentrating on his own writing. The Lead In is totally devoted to him, which is useful for readers to understand his story. 4 out of 5.

The Eye of the Lens by Langdon Jones

This tour de force takes up most of the issue. I’m not a huge fan of having to have an author explain his story, as Langdon Jones has in the Lead In. However, on this occasion it does help to make sense of what otherwise would be a group of random and meaningless elements.

Lyrical prose, poetry, visual imagery – Langdon Jones pulls out all the stops here to create a story made up of parts in different styles that’s difficult to describe, even with his handy notes given. The Hall of the Clock seems almost Gormenghast-ian in its description of allegorical machinery, whilst The Eye of the Lens seems reminiscent of Godard. We have narrative, film scripts and even prose diagrams that remind me of Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination.

Langdon Jones's plot by diagram

It is perhaps best to appreciate each section rather than try and make any sense of the overall plot – there doesn’t seem to be one. Instead, there’s lots of writing with dramatic and dynamic imagery, often religious as well as sexual, which may not be to everyone’s taste. (We really are trying to offend here, aren’t we?) Nevertheless, The Eye of the Lens is perhaps Langdon’s best work to date, if a tad befuddling – again, that may be the point. 4 out of 5.

Lib by Carol Emshwiller

A lyrical story that seems to involve the sexual encounters of Lib, yet as is typical of these stream-of-consciousness-type stories, is deliberately enigmatic. I wasn’t clear whether this was a casual fling or a description of Lib’s profession, although I suspect the latter. This ambiguity may be the point in these days of sexual liberation. 3 out of 5.

The Interrogation by David Lunde

Ah, poetry, about how torture leads to an inward-looking perspective. Short. Doesn’t outstay its welcome. But…dare I say it…surprisingly predictable. 3 out of 5.

Bug Jack Barron (Part 3 of 6) by Norman Spinrad

Quick recap: media celebrity Jack Barron is still embroiled in political machinations determined to force through the Senate the Freezer Utility Bill, a law which will allow Benedict Howards and his corporation The Foundation for Human Mortality a monopoly on cryogenics in the future. Jack, however is still pining for his ex-wife Sara Westerfeld, who unbeknownst to Jack has been covertly contracted by Howards to get to him.

The beginning of this part involves sex between Barron and his secretary Carrie. The next day Barron is contacted by Gregory Morris, Governor of California, who makes Jack an offer to be the next President of the United States. All Jack has to do is sign up to the Republican Party and be their figurehead. Jack laughs the offer away, and the call ends acrimoniously. Explaining this to his Negro friend Lukas Greene, Jack is made another offer by Greene – this time on behalf of the Social Justice Coalition. Whilst thinking this over, Jack meets Sara again and their love is rekindled.

If last month’s part was “style over substance”, this part feels more so. Much of it seems to be just sex, and even with the more adult material of late I feel that we’re pushing pretty close to boundaries here. Like the Brian Aldiss "Charteris" story a couple of issues ago, the author seems to want to use linguistic styles to do little more than see what sexual activity he can get away with. It all feels a little grubby, frankly. That’s not to say the story doesn't move on, but I can’t help feeling that the plot’s really more interested in other things at this point. 3 out of 5.

Article: Fun Palace, Not A Freak Out by Charles Platt


More cut-up-art shenanigans from Charles Platt. This month he seems to be ranting about overstimulation and sex. Seems to fit in with the general theme of the issue. 3 out of 5.

The Head Rape by D. M. Thomas

A poetical rumination on a rape whilst telepathically connected to the rapist. Not for the faint-hearted; it is purposefully shocking, and perhaps distasteful, meant to deliberately provoke. Memorable, but not in a pleasant way. 2 out of 5.

Article: Sex, Sitars and Superimposition by Stacy Waddy

Great title, so-so article. Stacy Waddy reports on the International Knokke Experimental Film Festival. As the name of the Festival suggests, it sounds like it was weird but fun – but I think that perhaps you had to be there to fully appreciate it. Stacy makes a point, though, that the organisers missed a trick by banning audience participation, a chance to bridge the gap between film-action and real-life-action. 3 out of 5.

Article: Book Reviews – Getting The Stuff – A Review of Norman Mailer’s Why Are We in Vietnam? by Douglas Hill and James Sallis

Douglas Hill reviews in detail Norman Mailer’s book Why Are We in Vietnam?. Generally the book is well received, although Douglas points out that because the narrator of this "exciting" book is seen as “foulmouthed” it is unlikely that Why Are We in Vietnam? will be published in Britain. However, if ever justification for the political goings-on in Bug Jack Barron were needed, this may be it.

Continuing the political theme, in the second half new-Associate Editor James Sallis reviews Jack Newfield’s A Prophetic Minority: The American New Left. I must admit that the reading of US events in “a British magazine”, or even reviewing a book that the British general public may not ever see, seems a little odd, yet understandable when you realise that the magazine is now being sold in the US. Such reviews and articles reflect Moorcock’s determination to reach an American audience. (Anyone else notice the 75c price on the cover in recent months as well?)

You may remember Sallis from his odd short story Kazoo in issue 174 back in August 1967. I wasn’t too impressed, myself, but he has an acceptable go as a reviewer here, discussing Hump: Or Bone by Bone Alive by David Benedictus, another book that I have never heard of. This review didn’t really persuade me to read it, either.

Summing up New Worlds

Another issue that seems to want to push boundaries whilst fitting the description of the new New Worlds I gave at the beginning of this review. The emphasis on sex and religion is noticeable – presumably it gains casual readers – although really this is more of the same from the ‘Brave New World’ that Moorcock, Platt and their associates are determined to create. Most of this issue is actually quite hard to describe, being nonlinear and at times nonsensical.

There’s a lot of introspective navel-gazing here, in both the articles and in the fiction. I suspect that your enjoyment of this issue will mainly be determined by how much you like the Langdon Jones and Jack Barron stories, as they dominate. Nice to see Carol Emshwiller's byline–women don't appear often in British mags, and it looks like Moorcock is trying to widen the field a little.

And that’s it, until next time.



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TV

[February 22, 1968] Reich or Wrong? (Star Trek: "Patterns of Force")

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Cowboys and Indians and Nazis


by Lorelei Marcus

Thrice recently we have been cautioned of the importance of the Prime Directive, and the consequences if it is not followed properly. While it seemed almost nonexistent as a concept up until halfway through season two, the prime directive now stands as one of the most popular story devices in our recent crop of episodes. "Patterns of Force" is no exception; it can almost entirely be summarized as a less elegant, Nazi flavored clone of "A Piece of the Action", another episode that featured the prime directive prominently.

The Enterprise arrives at planet Ekos in search of John Gill, a cultural scientist sent to observe the planet's primitive culture and development. His recent disappearance sparks the Federation to investigate, and what they find is a planet far beyond what its technological level should be, a society modeled exactly on Nazi Germany, and John Gill as "Führer".


Not since Martin Landau as Martin Bormann have we seen such an effective portrayal of a Nazi.

Like the gangster world in "A Piece of the Action", the Ekosian society's emulation of Earth history is no coincidence, but the result of direct tampering from outside forces. However the tampering of Ekos' evolution began not with the Federation, but their more advanced sister planet, Zeon, which led to Ekos accessing nuclear warheads and a space fleet. Still, even after fifty years relations between the two planets remained peaceful, and only in the past six years did Ekos begin to model a fascist regime. The only explanation is further manipulation from Gill himself.


Filmed at the Reich Building in Beautiful Downtown Burbank!

Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet to try to find Gill and get an explanation. Despite their clever civilian disguises, they are quickly identified as aliens by SS guards. Much judo chop, neck pinch, and uniform stealing high jinks later, they try to infiltrate Nazi headquarters, and are once again discovered thanks to Spock's ears. One obligatory whipping scene later, with some good special-effects for Spock's green blood, and our leads find themselves in prison alongside a Zeon rebel. We learn that the Ekosians plan to wipe out all Zeons both on their own planet and the Zeon home world, their "final solution" as Isak the rebel puts it.


Sweeps week

Horrified, Kirk and Spock fashion a quick escape by using the transponders embedded in their arms for a purpose they were absolutely not intended (turning them into primitive phasers? I'm sure we'll never see this highly useful technology again). With Isak's help, Kirk and Spock join forces with the underground resistance. They plan to infiltrate an elite banquet that night where the Führer is to make an appearance.


Berets and ascots–that's how you know they're resistance

A string of good luck and hidden allies sees them into the banquet, and subsequently the sound booth where Gill gives a speech to the nation initiating the final solution operation. After the speech, they discover that Gill has been drugged, likely by his second in command, who has been the real force pushing for Zeon extermination. Spock performs a Vulcan mind meld to discover why Gill chose to instate a Nazi regime in the first place.

Gill explains that he was only trying to unite a fractured world under an efficient state. He never foresaw such consequences to his actions. Luckily, he is able to give a speech to the people before he dies, and the Holocaust is ultimately called off.


"You won't have John Gill to kick around anymore…"

This story, like "A Piece of the Action", relies on imitative aliens who build their societies around the books and words of outsiders. The sociopolitical situation of two already communicating planets seems too complicated a situation for Gill to have been able to come into and impose an entirely new social structure. I will admit I am a little tired of how Star Trek treats its aliens as if they are children who simply play the Cowboys and Indians they see on TV, rather than think and build for themselves, no matter how primitive the society. For "A Piece of the Action" it worked, particularly because there was a 100 year lead time and a naturally curious and imitative civilization that was infected. This episode was less effective, especially with two pre-existing aliens complicating the mix.

That said, along with its many flaws, there was much to like about the episode. I'll let my co-writers cover the details, but I will say that while the episode was fun to watch, it left me feeling a bit hollow and unconvinced, as if its true purpose for existing was to just put Kirk and Spock in (and occasionally out of) SS uniforms.

Three stars.

Out of Time


by Joe Reid

Having traveled a bit in my time I have come across people who I felt held beliefs and a way of life that held them back from being all that they might be.  Without naming places I can clearly remember times when I thought, “if I could only do something to change how these folks live, they might all be able to make something of themselves.” Faced with places where people lived in poverty, violence was not far.  Never once did I think that struggling people would be better off if we could just make them all Nazis.  This week’s episode failed to adequately answer how a learned historian like John Gill could have come to that conclusion.  I feel like the episode lacked the time needed to explain how that could have come to pass.

It would have been one thing to have taken elements of mid twentieth century German Nazi culture and apply parts of it to make a society better.  After all, I have always been told that under Hitler the trains ran on time (a fallacy to be precise).  It was a total other thing to copy the Nazis whole hog: symbols, behaviors, and uniforms.  The members of the crew that saw what Fuhrer Gill had created all knew how bad the Nazis of history were and were perplexed that it would be repeated.  The brief half-comatose explanation from Gill that Nazis were efficient fell a little shy of the mark.  If we had been given time with a lucid Gill who could have explained why he felt no better options existed, it would have added more credibility to the events as they played out.


"Didn't you see Judgment at Nuremberg?  How about The Brothers Karamozov?"

My next quarrel with the episode is in regard to how quickly it ended.  Within a minute of Gill receiving a fatal shot from his captor, three things happened: The Zeon representatives decided that all of their problems were over and they could take care of things going forward. Kirk considered the planet for admission to Star Fleet, and the ship left the planet.  This leads us to the conclusion that Gill wasn’t wrong at all.  The people were doing great and always would have done great as Nazis as long as no bad people took charge.  That torture, oppression and fear are great tools if you do it without being evil.

Lastly, the motivations of the villain of the episode (Deputy Fuhrer Melakon) went completely unexplained.  He drugged Gill, assumed command, and fought a campaign of oppression against a people for no other reason than, he’s just a bad guy.  If we had only learned that he had a bad history with the Zeons, or that he was one himself and hated it–anything as a motivation–it would have been a good use of time to further the plot.

As it stood, “Patterns of Force” fell too far from believability to be considered a good use of my time.  The leaps that I was asked to make were too far.  Given more time and explanation, perhaps we could have come to a better story.

Two stars.

Springtime for Hitler?


by Janice L. Newman

My feelings on “Patterns of Force” are mixed. There was much to like about the episode. There were two ‘volte-face’ moments that were excellently done. The first caught me by surprise, yet was completely plausible: of course the rebels would want to make certain that the people they were allowing into the heart of their base weren’t secretly Nazi spies. The second moment was cleverly set up, so that it was less of a surprise yet very satisfying. It wasn’t even implausible that there would be Ekosians and Ekosian supporters at high levels of government. After all, Gill would have surrounded himself with good, like-minded people during his rise to power, people like Eneg and Daras’ father. [And don't forget the recent example of Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy who made it to the #3 position in Syria before being caught and executed. (ed.)]

Yet there were elements of the episode that bothered me. For one, other than the aforementioned curveballs, the plot was subtle as a brick, to the point where it threw me out of the episode. Gee, do you think the ‘Ekosians’ might be an especially imitative people (‘echoing’ the culture of others)? Gosh, with names that sound like “Issac” and “Abraham”, how could the people of “Zion” — sorry, I meant “Zeon” — be anything but Jewish?


Funny–they don't look Jewish…

More frustrating than the heavy-handed writing was an important assertion that the story left unchallenged. Even today, there are people who glorify the Nazis and buy into their propaganda. Gill states that Hitler’s regime was the “most efficient state Earth ever knew,” and Spock, the voice of reason, supports and reinforces him! “That tiny country, beaten, bankrupt, defeated, rose in a few years to stand only one step away from global domination.” However, this argument is fundamentally flawed. Just as “Space Seed” fails to challenge the idea that eugenics could work at all, “Patterns of Force” leaves out the fact that Hitler’s success was built on theft, lies, and broken promises long before Germany went to war.

But in the end, my issue with this episode is more emotional than logical. A Piece of the Action does a wonderful job of showing how a culture could be ‘infected’ by another culture. But the Mafioso characters are deliberately cartoonish in their portrayals, fun and larger-than-life and slightly ‘off’. It doesn’t work as well with Nazis. Watching stormtroopers beat and kick and scream at innocent people in the street, seeing them whipping characters I care about, seeing characters I like dressed like Nazis–these things made me uncomfortable. Yes, watching Nazis repeatedly getting knocked out, neck-pinched, shot, and led around by the nose was fun. And yes, I appreciate the message that “Nazis are bad”, even if it was a bit simplistic and unsubtle. But for me, I’d just as soon not see Nazis infect my futuristic science fiction, especially accompanied by mostly unchallenged assertions that they were ever “efficient” or successful.

In quality this was a four-star episode, but my discomfort takes my personal rating down to three stars.

Lord Acton was right


by Gideon Marcus

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  It was explicitly referenced in this episode, and it explains a lot.  After watching "Patterns of Force", one of the biggest objections of my fellow watchers to the episode's premise was that resurrecting the Nazis was a bridge too far–too obvious, too ridiculous for a serious historian to consider.


"Hogaaaan!"

But is it really so unbelievable that John Gill, elevated to Godhood to the Ekosians by his knowledge of history and technology long before he became "The Fuhrer", would choose that model?  You and I know (especially if we've read Shirer's Rise and Decline of the Third Reich) that the Hitler regime was anything but "the most efficient the world had ever seen", but would Gill?

We're less than a quarter century from the passing of the most evil government on Earth, yet just last year, the American Nazi party leader was assassinated by one of his henchmen for not being fascist enough. Kids who push counters around on maps in games like Blitzkrieg and Afrika Korps call their clubs "4th SS Panzer", "The Gauleiter Club", "Panzer Lehr Division", and like that.  I have no doubt that, two hundred years from now, there will be historians who miss the point, seduced by dazzling military conquests, Leni Riefenstahl films, and Hugo Boss uniforms.

So, I actually find "Patterns of Force" all too plausible.

I also found it (he said a little sheepishly) quite enjoyable.  With the exception of one clumsy scene edit (the one that ends with Yitzhak saying, "This is more our fight than yours") it's a well put together episode.  Shatner reins in his Shatnerisms, delivering a compelling performance.  Nimoy has the charm one expects of a real ubermensch among people playing at being ubermenschen.  Kelley has a truncated role, but he is at his very best.


"What in blazes is going on here?"

The scoring is an effective mix of library and new music.  The guest stars are quite excellent, actually (though the dubbed "actors" in the first scene on Ekos are some of the worst).

And the showrunners clearly know that women make a big part of their audience.  Why else would the two leads be half-naked for half the episode?


"Very interesting!"

Four stars.

"There's a new episode of Star Trek tomorrow!" "I'll drink to that."

Come join us–here's the invitation!



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Magazine, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[February 20, 1968] 1-2-3 What are we fighting for? (March 1968 Fantasy and Science Fiction)

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by Gideon Marcus

Sock it to me

In the middle of this month's issue of F&SF is this ad:

In short, 68 members of the science fiction community (most of them authors, but some I only know of from fandom) have paid lucre to support staying the course in Vietnam.  Some of the names on the list surprised me: Biggle, Buck, De Vet, Galouye… I should have thought they'd be less belligerent.  And, of course, Bradley's name just makes me sick.

But, as David pointed out, the language is "weasel-worded. It's perfectly possible to be opposed to the war, but feel that the US has an obligation to South Vietnam."

I'll also note that, for this ad to have come out in this issue, it must have been prepped last year.  This is before the recent offensive, when it could be said with a straight face (albeit with decreasing credibility) that we were slowly but surely "winning" in Vietnam.

I was rather surprised to find this ad in F&SF, to be sure.  It's the most liberal of the SF mags–this felt like it would be more at home in Analog.  But then, flipping to the back of the issue, I found this:

That's right–half again as many authors and fans are against staying in Vietnam (they use the older spelling, "Viet Nam").  One wonders which ad came first, and did the two campaigns know about each other?

Does this kind of political posturing belong in our science fiction magazines?  I was already seeing buzz about this in the fanzines even before the ad was printed (I somehow ended up out of the loop, but San Diego is a bit of a fandom backwater).  One fan opined that fans had no business politicizing our sacred pages.

I just think it's a mark of how polarizing and important this debate is that it now has spilled over into our sanctum sanctorum, the monthly escapist literature.  I can only imagine the war of ads will become more bitter now that the actual fight has escalated.

Doo-whackadoo


by Gahan Wilson

Aside from the shots traded in the dueling ads, the rest of the issue is actually surprisingly pleasant, if not entirely placid.  A number of these stories could have been played for horror, but instead, deliberately eschew it.  Intentional?  Or just a happy coincidence?  (I prefer my stories with happy endings.)

The Egg of the Glak, by Harvey Jacobs

Harold North is an unprepossessing campus cop, whose life is irrevocably changed when he meets and befriends the eccentric Professor Hickhoff.  In addition to being obssessed with the monopthongization of the English language (as well as with Harold North), the rotund professor also has a secret of the zoological kind.  Upon his untimely passing, his dying request is that North procure the egg of the last Glak, a Labradorian avian, from a local pet store owner.  After hatching it, North must release it in its home wilds.

Thus ensues a lusty, mildly hazardous, and rather droll journey in which North procures the egg and keeps it from the clutches of Nagle, an anthropologist who would make his reputation on the discovery.  Along the way, North finds romance, of a sort, but mostly haplesses his way through the endeavor.

What makes this tale is the telling.  It threads the line between light and serious, literary and earthy, bawdy and chaste.  It's something Goulart or Lafferty might have come up with on one of their better days.

Interestingly, Harvey Jacobs has only appeared on Galactic Journey twice before, and both were unfavorable outings.  This one, on the other hand, I thoroughly enjoyed.

Five stars.


by Gahan Wilson

The Ajeri Diary, by Miriam Allen deFord

DeFord, on the other hand, is a name that needs no introduction; she's as grizzled (in her ladylike fashion) as they come.  This tale is of an anthropologist who visites the rigidly segregated planet of Ajeri.  divided along sexual lines into "eskons" and "orgs", the researcher gradually learns that those terms do not precisely align with male and female.

Knowing deFord's penchant for horrific stings in the tail, I was on tenter hooks for much of the piece, especially when the anthropologists finds himself having more and more in common with the neuter "eskons".  But in the end, what we really have is a thoroughly logical state of societal affairs–indeed, something of an utopia…

For some values of utopia, in any event!

Four stars, and the Anti-Queen Bee Award for the month.

Whose Short Happy Life?, by Sterling Lanier

Two hundred years after the Atomic Apocalypse, a hunting party invades the Reserve in search of the most deadly game–the preserved tribes of The Enemy.  About halfway through, you'll figure out that something is amiss, but it's worth the ride to the end to figure out what it is.

Four stars.

Dinosaurs in Today's World, by L. Sprague de Camp

Unusually, we have two science fact articles this issue.  This is the weaker of the two, a piece on whether dinosaurs could yet live somewhere on the globe.  It's sort of a poor man's version of a Ley piece I'm sure I read several years ago.

Three stars.

Budget Planet, by Robert Sheckley

Here is an excerpt from an upcoming book, Dimension of Miracles, that (sort of) stands on its own.  It's the account of a planet builder who cuts corners every chance he gets, and his personal reminiscence of his contract with a certain Jehovah.

It's a lot of fluff, but kind of fun.  Three stars.

The Shapes, by J. H. Rosny aîné

This piece is a contender for the "oldest reprint" award.  A Damon Knight translation from the French (he's quite good at those), it is the story of an extraterrestrial invasion in a pre-Sumerian (but more advanced) Mesopotamia.

Not bad, though the "scientific account" portion in the middle both drags and feels strongly out of flavor with the beginning and end.

Three stars.

The Seventh Planet, by Isaac Asimov

This is a good, but somehow hollow account of the discovery and nature of the planet Mercury, one of the harder planets to observe as it never is very far from the Sun (I had little difficulty finding it when I lived in the desert — the horizons are very low there).

Four stars, I suppose.

That High-Up Blue Day That Saw the Black Sky-Train Come Spinning, by David R. Bunch

Finally, the most forgettable story is this piece of frivolity about two drunks who concoct an alien menace as a prank–but was one of them actually serious?

Two stars.

Who cares? I don't give damn!

However one may feel about the expanding war in Southeast Asia, I think we must remain united on this one matter: the March 1968 issue of F&SF is pretty darned good.  And if we be not united, well, I'd like to hear where you agree or disagree.

You won't even have to pay me to take out an ad…



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Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV

[February 18, 1968] Yet(i) Again, London Is Under Attack (Doctor Who: The Web Of Fear [Part One])

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By Jessica Holmes

After a cracking serial last month with a really fresh story format, we’re getting another ‘base under siege’ plot in Doctor Who. Will The Web Of Fear turn out to be the same old yarn, or have Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln found a way to put a new spin on the format?

EPISODE ONE

You might recall that the last episode of Doctor Who ended with the TARDIS leaning on its side and the occupants clinging on for dear life. It provides a nice little high-action start to the episode, as Jamie manages to climb to the TARDIS door controls and save the group. Out of one perilous situation, the Doctor immediately wants to go and look for another adventure.

Sometimes I think he must enjoy being in imminent danger of a horrible death.

Well, he doesn’t have to go far. The TARDIS stops, but it hasn’t landed. It’s caught in something. Something like a web.

It turns out we are back on Earth in (roughly?) the modern day. Remember Professor Travers (Jack Watling) from The Abominable Snowmen? He’s back, but rather a lot older, and in quite a bit of trouble. He managed to recover a Yeti along with their control equipment and brought it back to London. Rather than keep it safe, he went and sold it to a wealthy collector, yet carried on tinkering with the control sphere. As you can imagine, this has backfired big-time, and he can’t persuade the collector to give it up. The ridiculously-stereotypical Silverstein (whose personality can be summed up with the words ‘greedy’, ‘rich’ and ‘stubborn’) soon ends up on the wrong side of his prized Yeti, and by the next scene, London is in a sorry state indeed.

The Yeti are taking over, spreading a mysterious weblike fungus through the Underground. Trying to hold back the onslaught are our main cast of side characters. We’ve got resident ‘Yeti Experts’, Professor Travers and his daughter Anne (Tina Packer), a handful of soldiers trying to hold out against the Yeti threat, and an absolutely infuriatingly irritating journalist reporting on the situation, Harold Chorley (Jon Rollason).

The TARDIS breaks free of the webbing and lands in the Underground, the group soon finding that the street level entrances are closed off.

Trapped on the London Underground. That sounds like my personal Hell.


The cinematography in this serial is rather good I must say. Some interesting angles and dramatic lighting. Makes things a lot more visually interesting.

Victoria and Jamie soon get caught by a couple of patrolling soldiers, but the Doctor evades capture by being conveniently off-camera.

The kids soon get to meet everyone hunkered down at the base, and Anne quickly establishes herself as my favourite new character. I just have a real soft spot for smart women who know how to handle condescending men.

Oblivious to the full details of the situation, Victoria and Jamie think that they’re protecting the Doctor when they insist that they were alone in the tunnel. However, what they don’t know is that the soldiers have a plan for halting the advance of the Yeti. They’re going to collapse the tunnel, and the kids have just given them the all clear.

The Doctor could not have picked a worse time to start poking around the explosives stockpile.

EPISODE TWO

The charges go off with more of a whimper than a bang, to the soldiers’ surprise. What they don’t know is that the Yeti have covered the explosives in webbing, containing the explosion. Thinking that the Doctor may have tampered with the charges, finding the Doctor becomes a high priority. But he’s nowhere to be found. At all. In this entire episode. I think he must have gone on his holidays.

Travers gets to introduce his daughter to Jamie and Victoria, and Anne finds their time travel story a bit hard to believe. She later confesses to her father that she’s a bit suspicious of the Doctor, finding his arrival a tad convenient. She’s not the only one. Chorley is starting to take an interest in the Doctor as well.


Don't you just hate it when you can't get a guy to take a hint and leave you alone?

While searching the tunnels for the Doctor, Jamie makes the acquaintance of a singing driver, Evans (Derek Politt), who is very Welsh. I know they call it the land of song but there’s a time and a place. He’s the sole survivor of a Yeti attack, and tells Jamie he saw one of the Yeti carrying a pyramid. Evans joins Jamie on his journey through the tunnels, but before they run into the Doctor, a Yeti runs into them.

The pair find themselves hemmed in by a Yeti and a wall of advancing… soap bubbles? Of all the ways to make a special effect for spreading web or fungus, soap bubbles would not be the method I’d go for. It doesn’t really look anything like the fungus covering the rest of the tunnels. Still, it would be funny if the Yetis’ web-shooting gun was actually just a water pistol filled with washing-up liquid.


Now, webs that help Yetis can feel soft as your face with miiild greeeen…Faaairy Liiiquiiiid!

EPISODE THREE

Shooting the pyramid does nothing to stop the advance of the soap suds or the Yeti (there must be at least one more out there, methinks), so the pair flee into a side tunnel.

Victoria strikes out on her own to find the Doctor, and soon enough finds him in the company of a new arrival to the Underground: Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). What a posh name that is.

Lethbridge-Stewart is here to take over leadership of the little group of soldiers. He has the right paperwork and everything. Still, with the circle line fully consumed by the fungus, the soldiers are a little suspicious of where he came from.

As for Jamie and his Welsh friend, they split up once Evans sees an opportunity to escape. He returns not long later, partly because he felt a bit guilty about abandoning everyone else, but mostly because the street access turned out to be locked.

Once everyone (sans Jamie) is gathered together, Lethbridge-Stewart gives a briefing full of information I’m pretty sure the soldiers should already know given that they’ve been watching this whole situation unfold. Still, he seems an authoritative chap who knows what he’s doing. I already like him better than Chorley, who keeps butting into everything, won’t shut up about finding an escape route, and is getting on my last nerve.

Realising that the Yeti keep cocooning any explosives the soldiers place before they get a chance to set them off, the Doctor suggests putting the explosives on a moving trolley. The Colonel approves of the idea, and it begins to look like the situation might turn to their side.

Then Victoria and Anne realise that one of the Yeti control figurines is missing.

And someone is using it right now, to send a Yeti into the explosives store and web the place up. How very convenient that they should choose to do that at this precise moment… unless it’s not a coincidence. Finding the missing figurine in the weapons store, the Doctor realises that someone in the group must have put it there, and that person is in league with the Great Intelligence.

This base-under-siege is turning into a bit of a whodunnit! That’s refreshing.

Chorley seems oddly horrified when Victoria tells him of the Doctor’s intentions to blow the tunnel, and he’s a little too interested in the Doctor’s TARDIS. He leaves in a hurry once the Doctor shows up, and the Doctor is instantly suspicious—especially when he realises the journalist has locked the door behind him.

I don’t know, I think that Chorley seems a bit too obvious a suspect. I think he's just a coward who wants to use the TARDIS to escape.

They aren’t trapped for long, as Jamie finally emerges from the labyrinth of tunnels to let them out. Good timing!

A scream from another room brings Anne and Travers running to discover one of the soldiers, Weams, dead and all webbed up. A Yeti figurine lies beside him on the floor… and the real thing is looming over them, ready to strike!


What a wonderful facial expression. He looks like one of those Greek tragedy masks.

Final Thoughts

So, we’re halfway through The Web Of Fear and so far it’s fine, I suppose. It's a pretty good serial but nothing that has me forgetting to take notes because I’m so engrossed in the story. It is cool to see Travers again! I appreciate the continuity here. I was a bit surprised to see the Great Intelligence returning so soon, but it’s an interesting villain, so who am I to complain?

I have to applaud the crew for the set design in this serial, with particular regards to the Tube station set. You can practically smell the old dust and stale sweat. I kept half expecting a train to come through at any moment. The resemblance to the actual Underground is uncanny—so much so that I’m not the only one who thought they’d filmed on location. I did do some digging to double check, but it is definitely just a set. Well done, crew.

It’s too early to tell if this serial will do anything very interesting with the base-under-siege format, but the mystery elements of the plot are quite promising.

We’ve also got a decent roster of supporting characters, with Anne being a bit of a favourite for me.

The Colonel’s not yet had enough screen-time for me to draw any conclusions about him, but I hate Chorley so much I just want him to go get lost in a long dark tunnel. Of which there are many, many, MANY in the Underground.

Still, at least his existence isn't an insult to an entire group of people.

Certainly, Evans could not be more Welsh if they called him 'Cymru Llandudno of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychrwyrndroblllantysiliogogogoch', and it's not an entirely flattering depiction. The singing habit is quite endearing but he’s not exactly bright and definitely not brave. Basically the same old insults the English have been tarring the Welsh with for centuries.

But Silverstein… wow. The depiction of Evans is unflattering but the short scene featuring Silverstein is just absurdly bad. The writers cannot have been oblivious to what they were doing there. They could have just made him a stubborn rich bloke, but they just had to go all in on the antisemitic caricature. It’s very disappointing to see.

I know it’s possible to worry too much about what other people might think about your writing, but maybe some writers could stand to worry about it a little more.




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Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV

[February 16, 1968] In their words (Star Trek: "Return to Tomorrow")

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This week's review is a little bit different–for the first time, we've gotten the characters themselves to comment on the episode!  We think you'll find their thoughts most illuminating…

Sargon

Would that I could return us back to that yesterday those hundreds of eons ago.  Back when I possessed the hubris to decide that the best, brightest, and most wealthy of our people were worthy of surviving the calamity that had destroyed our people and our planet.  Mercifully, entropy mostly corrected my error in judgment and took the majority of those I sought to preserve.  All that remained were Henoch, a brilliant and driven member of the ruling class, Thalassa, a woman of unparalleled talent who was my wife, and me, the man who created the means for us to outlive all we have ever known.  My name was Sargon.

Although our people excelled in power, reaching the pinnacles of science, technology, body, mind, and spirit, we were unable to save our planet.  Some of us sent out space vessels to seed other worlds.  The rest of us remained behind to fight our world’s demise.  We failed.  So, we few transferred our consciousness to receptacles; our lives and days as living breathing beings came to an end.  In our haste to preserve ourselves, we failed again, storing our consciousnesses successfully, but lacking any physical means to return us to any likeness of our yesterday.  Nevertheless, the years have given me and the others all nature of powers as we’ve continued to develop our minds without bodies.


What was left of us.

The day of our hope came when my mind, able to reach far out into the cosmos, touched them, touched him.  Humans.  Scientists.  Explorers.  So much like us that I suspect them to be kin to us.  From their minds I deduced a way to call them to us.  I knew they would help us willingly given the right motivation.  Whether that motivation was the safety of their vessel, the desire for new knowledge, or the will to avoid enslavement, they would help us.  Their leader, Kirk, a brave and solid man, would help us. 


The object of my call–suspicious, but not so obstreperous as he had been to other beings who had seized his ship.

The problem I faced was first that these people would never knowingly help me end the lives of myself and my companions.  Also, that Thalassa and Henoch had not yet come to the same conclusion that I had.  That our continued existence would bring about ruin to these new worlds of people.  Returning to the mistakes we made in our yesterday would pervert and eventually destroy the tomorrow that these beings should live.  So in order to end the continued existence of my people and preserve the future of Kirk’s people I developed a plan to motivate my people and Kirk’s.  For me and mine, what would be more motivating than returning to living bodies?  For Kirk’s people, the promise of our technology in exchange for temporary use of their bodies. 


The android forms I knew would be unpalatable to my companions.

When I inhabited Kirk’s body, he would come to know my good intent for him and his people, but not my every thought.  This was important since I would not be able to remain in it for long periods of time.  For Thalassa I found a suitable woman, so much like she was in our yesterday.  I feared for Henoch’s intentions. 

Knowing that he might not come to see the danger that we posed to these beings, for him we would hide the truth of his mind from the humans.  The Vulcan among them would serve as a vessel that should contain Henoch long enough for my plan to work.  Preventing Henoch interfering while hopefully allowing Thalassa to come to understand my way.

This endeavor would reveal temptations, even for me.  Knowing it would be good to feel again, even for a short while.  But, like Kirk, I would not divert from the path that I have chosen.  I would prevent the resurrection of yesterday and the troubles we would cause.  I would return these humans to the tomorrow that should exist for them.  And with that as my final thought, I sent a Priority One Distress Call to the humans.

If it be not hubris, I give four stars for this episode of our unlife.

Thalassa

We spent 500,000 years asleep, waiting to be awoken and to return to our lives. I remember asking my husband why we simply didn’t cross the vastness of space as we had before, gathering material to build new bodies for ourselves. He told me that it was too late. I did not understand what that meant.

Encountering the humans was like looking into the distant past. I was reminded of what it was to be able to laugh when Sargon awoke me to observe the engineer and the doctor exchanging pithy and sarcastic observations. Dr. McCoy in particular had many amusing things to say.

With all of our power, of course we could have built androids that could feel. According to the ship’s records, even the human Dr. Roger Korby succeeded in doing so, using far more primitive tools than we could craft. But Sargon insisted that we must not give in to temptation, and the only way to prevent it was the path he outlined: a cold and sterile one. It was not until I found myself torturing the earnest Dr. McCoy that I realized Sargon was right.


A return to monstrous ways.

For we would have used our powers to make ourselves gods. Not kind or benevolent gods, but capricious and cruel ones. And so the last hope was gone. We failed Sargon’s test, and the price was our lives. It was the right choice to make. Three stars left behind in the cosmos, for Enoch, Sargon, and myself.

Henoch

I have to say, it was a bit of a bummer to spend half a million years trapped in a ball, only to be tricked out of a life of Godhood.  Of course, one wonders why I ever consented to be archived in the first place, given how incorrigible I was.  Certainly, I didn't change my ways after an eon of reflection, nor after my entire planet was destroyed by hubris.  Actually, the reason is simple: once I got into that superb Vulcan physique, surrounded by beautiful (and competent) women, well, how could I resist?


"Well, hello."

The best practical joke I got to play in my brief time of freedom was contorting poor Mr. Spock's face into great displays of emotion.  Sure, he's betrayed emotion before, under the effects of spores and long-chain molecules, but never has he been so casually flirtatious, so smugly sardonic, so deliciously satanic.  I must pat myself on the back.  Or, at least, I would…if I still had a back.

The flood of senses I so briefly enjoyed seemed to lend cinematography and even soundtrack to my every nefarious move.  I was reminded of the rare but innovative angles employed by the 20th Century TV director Ralph Senensky, and the artful strains produced by composer George Duning.  The clever quips that were wholly my own creation were as good as anything TV writer John T. Dugan could have come up with.  (If you're wondering how I am so conversant with ancient broadcast personalities, remember I briefly shared a soul with the walking encyclopedia that is Spock).

Really, I don't regret too much about this episode of my life–except for that damned goody-goody Sargon and that lightweight of a captain whose body he took over.  Kirk must have been so thrilled at the prospect of surrendering his slab of a figure–you could. tell. by. the. way. he. paused. after. every. word.  And then the way Sargon felt up his purloined pectorals…and they call me obscene!


I mean, really…

Finally, while I might respect the skills of the Enterprise's chief engineer, who picked up my technical expertise much faster than I'd thought a primitive could, I still couldn't stand talking to him for any length of time.  His voice reminded me too much of Sargon's.


Fortunately, he was more interested in our littler Tinker-toys than Thalassa.

Oh, I need to rate this bit of my life as well as talk about it?  Fine.  Three and a half stars.  It'd be four if it weren't for weird ol' Captain Kirk.

I know Shatner is proud of his turn in Judgment at Nuremberg, but this may be going a bit too far the other way…

Join us tonight at 8pm Eastern (or Pacific!)



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Book, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[February 14, 1968] Triple John (February 1968 Galactoscope)

4 Comments


by Mx. Kris Vyas-Myall

The Butterfly Kid by Chester Anderson

Drugs seem to be everywhere these days in science fiction. From Aldiss’ Acid War stories in New Worlds, through Dick’s Faith of Our Fathers in Dangerous Visions, to Brunner’s Productions of Time in Fantasy & Science Fiction. Some days I wonder if I am the only person in fandom that isn’t getting high and floating up among The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam’s Dice.

As such, it was only a matter of time before we got a real hip novel that fully blurs the boundary between fantastic and the psychedelic. Anderson is the one to give it to us.

One Pill Makes You Larger

So, what is this book about? On a basic plot level it is about Chester and Mike (fictionalised versions of the author and his sometimes co-writer) who seem to be sort of hippies living in 1977. They discover people affected by a mysterious new drug called Reality Pills, which cause psychedelic hallucinations to physically appear, such as a kid able to create butterflies and another person with their own halo. They set about tracking down the source of this, which, as the cover gives away, turns out to be extra-terrestrial.

As you can imagine, this gets very surreal quickly. Here is a sample conversation:

“Excuse me,” said another tall blue lobster, making its way to the john.
“One of yours?” I wondered. “I thought it was one yours.”
“I don’t like blue lobsters.”

Your willingness to just go with these kinds of sections without any prelude will likely dictate your enjoyment of the novel.

One Pill Makes You Small

But that, for me, isn’t what the book is really about. Rather, it gives us a window on to a subculture, the lives of dropouts and experimental rock groups in Greenwich Village right now. As I have not been there myself, I cannot speak to the reliability of Anderson’s vision but it is a vivid one imbued with a feeling of time and place, just as clear as if someone was talking to me about Middle Earth Club in London.

That is not to say I understood it all, and New Yorkers may well be able to “dig” more of it than I do, but it feels real and lived in, in a way so much science fiction does not.

And The Ones Your Mother Gives You, Don’t Do Anything At All

There are certain parts that do not work as well for me. It is filled with a lot of references to New York life and pop culture, some of which I understood (e.g. use of an obscure Tolkien simile) but other meanings were totally lost on me.

Perhaps more importantly, I am not certain if it is really “about” anything much. With its style and boundary pushing content, it is clearly aiming more for the literary than Campbell-esque end of the market. But Last Exit To Brooklyn this is not, whilst the current trial for that book’s UK publication hinges on its merits as a great work of literature, I cannot help but feel that argument could not be made in this case. Scenes like the Goddess Fellatia attempting to rape a police officer feel added more for the sake of shock value than any complex point being made.

Remember What The Dormouse Said, “Feed Your Head!”

Having said all that, I believe it still passes Sturgeon’s Law and is better than 90% of science fiction on the market. It is not perfect by any stretch and falls down in a number of areas. But it is still quite a groovy trip to take.

Four Stars

Here are some damning short takes from Kris and Jason–and both involve Lin Carter and Belmont Books!

The Thief of Thoth, by Lin Carter, and …And Others Shall Be Born, by Frank Belknap Long

"Belmont Double? Don't Bother. Dead Boring, Better-off Dreaming!"

Tower at the Edge of Time, by Lin Carter

"Ugh I just can’t get into this stupid barbarian book. Lin Carter’s writing is so full of stereotypes and clichés. I’ve tried a few times to get through it and can’t. I’m tagging out for this month."


by Gideon Marcus

Ace Double H-40

Here's another shortish take, simply because this Double doesn't merit more:

C.O.D. Mars, by E. C. Tubb


Art by Jack Gaughan

The first interstellar journey results in horror: of the five crew, only three remain alive. The other two are carriers of an extraterrestrial disease, or perhaps worse–unwitting vessels of an alien invasion.

Someday, someone might write a superb book or series of books about a private investigator who jaunts through the asteroid belt, trying to thwart a Martian plot to weaponize alien technology (in the guise of infected humans) to gain an upper hand against Earth. This one isn't it.

It's not bad, but it's back to the humdrum potboiling that's associated with Tubb (sad, because we know he, and Ace, can do better–viz. The Winds of Gath). Part of the issue is the length; this is really a long novella, and the ending is rushed and pat–probably as a result.

Three and a half stars.

Alien Sea, by John Rackham


Art by George Zei

A ruined ship crewed by extra-terrestrials, the last survivor of a devastating planetary conflict, makes a close approach to their alien sun. As its hull chars and the crew and passengers succumb one by one to the heat, their only hope is that their cometary orbit will swing it quickly back for a rendezvous with their doomed world. But when they reach home, they find the doomsday weapons have sunk the two warring continents. All that is left is waves…and survivors on an enemy satellite. Together, they must build a new society, one free from strife.

Great premise! I was certainly hooked. Sadly, that's just the first chapter.

Then there's a jump of two millennia, and the focus is on a human conflict. Earthers have arrived on this alien world, unaware of the planet's history or inhabitants, intending to establish a fueling station. But rivals from Venus, peopled by intellectual exiles from Earth, have made contact with the indigenes. They are putting together an alien/Venusian invasion force to take Earth for their own.

The main body of the text, involving a telepathic sensitive who records experiences for television audiences at home, as well as the panoply of beautiful and topless (but at least capable) women he encounters, reads like a tepid planetary adventure from the '50s, complete with two-page digressions to lovingly describe some new piece of technology.

Two and a half stars.


by Fiona Moore

Chocky, by John Wyndham

John Wyndham’s latest novel, Chocky, an expansion of a novelette of the same name published in Amazing Stories in 1963, will be something of a disappointment to fans of the blend of cutting social commentary and dystopian science fiction which has characterised most of his novels to date. It’s much more in the mode of Wyndham’s earlier short fiction, but stretched out to the point where the conceit fails to hold the reader’s attention.

Plotwise, not an awful lot happens. A young boy, Matthew Gore, develops what his father, our point-of-view character, takes to be an imaginary friend, Chocky. It’s fairly apparent to the reader, though not so much to his family and teachers, that Chocky is an alien scout who is investigating the Earth through a telepathic rapport with Matthew. Chocky asks a lot of questions about things like geography, internal combustion engines, and gender; in return Chocky teaches Matthew sophisticated mathematical concepts like binary systems, and is sometimes able to take him over and impart abilities he doesn’t naturally possess. After a couple of incidents where Chocky, working through Matthew, does something which winds up in the national press, the family comes to wider, and possibly more sinister, attention.

And… well, that’s it. The action never gets exciting enough to be a thriller. Matthew and his family are never well-developed enough for this to become a poignant character piece. Details like the fact that Matthew is adopted are introduced but never achieve wider relevance. Matthew’s collection of busybody relatives lurk in the wings as a threat to Chocky’s privacy, but that’s all they remain: a minor complication. There’s very little sense of peril or threat from Chocky as there was from the children in The Midwich Cuckoos; the alien is just here to observe, not to take over. The setup, with a cosy suburban family, suggests that Chocky will upend that cosiness and force their prejudies and banalities into the open, but we’re disappointed on that score too. Wyndham does have some of his usual fun with the foibles of middle-class British society, but he never really twists the knife.

It’s frustrating because this could have been a much more exciting and relevant book. A story in which a little boy’s life is torn apart by scientists and politicians desperate to make first contact with aliens could have been heartrending; a story in which a lonely child’s isolation is used for sinister ends by a non-human being likewise. The first part of the book focuses so heavily on the social pressure Matthew’s parents felt to have children that one thinks this will be one of the themes of the story, however, this isn’t paid off either.

But there’s not much point in speculating about what Chocky could have been. It is what it is—an overextended novelette that promises much but delivers little, and is a disappointment compared to the works which made Wyndham famous. Two out of five stars.



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55 years ago: Science Fact and Fiction