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Spaceman's Punch (Raumfahrer Bowle)

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An authentic 1960s recipe courtesy of Cora Buhlert

Ingredients:

    4 oranges
    4 lemons
    1 can of pineapples chunks with juice
    1 can of peaches with juice
    2 bananas
    1 package of frozen strawberries
    half a bottle of rum
    a quarter bottle of Blue Curacao or other orange liqueur
    1 bottle of ginger ale
    Sugar to taste
  1. Squeeze the oranges and lemons and put the juice into a big punch bowl.
  2. Add the pineapples and peaches to the punch bowl with the juice from the can.
  3. Slice the bananas and unfreeze the strawberries and add them to the bowl as well.
  4. Pour half a bottle of rum (either white or brown) and a quarter bottle of orange liqueur into the bowl and let it settle.
  5. Just before serving, fill up the punch with ginger ale.
  • Because of the fruit, the punch usually doesn't need any sugar, but if you prefer it sweeter, you can add some. Use icing sugar – it dissolves more quickly.

  • If you use Barcardi or other white rum and Blue Curacao, the punch will take on an unearthly greenish-blue colour. However, we mostly use brown rum and Grand Marnier or Cointreau instead of Blue Curacao. Triple Sec or any other kind of orange liqueur work as well.

  • You can also add some kiwis for an extra alien look, but kiwis are unknown in Germany in the 1960s.

This punch packs a punch, but is remarkably hangover proof.

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Book

[December 31, 1963] A not unpleasant ordeal (Ordeal in Otherwhere by Andre Norton)

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by Cora Buhlert

The Newest from Andre Norton

1963 is almost history and here in Germany, I'm getting ready for New Year's Eve. I have friends coming over, a bowl full of spaceman's punch, plenty of nibbles, champagne in the fridge, a record player with all the latest albums and fireworks to welcome the new year.

I've been a good girl and so Santa brought me presents, including science fiction paperbacks from the US. I dug into one of the books right on Christmas Eve, even before Gruß an Bord, a radio program sending greetings to the crews of German ships around the globe, had finished.

That book was Ordeal in Otherwhere by Andre Norton, whose real name is Alice Marie Norton. I've heard of Norton before, right here at the Journey, but so far I've never read anything by her. Time to rectify that.

Ordeal in Otherwhere is the sequel to a novel entitled Storm over Warlock. I haven't read it, though Terra – Utopische Romane ran a translation last year. Not that it matters much, for Ordeal in Otherwhere is perfectly understandable, even if you haven't read the earlier book.

The story, in brief

The novel starts with our protagonist, a young lady named Charis Nordholm, on the run. Via flashbacks, the reader learns that Charis came to the colony world Demeter with her father, a government education officer. The colonists, a religious cult, were wary of the government and considered Charis "unfemale" because of her education. Then disaster struck in the form of a plague, which first killed the government agents, including Charis' father, and then spread to the colonists, hitting only men and post-pubescent boys. The superstitious colonists blamed the government and hunted down survivors like Charis.

With any other author, this religion versus science conflict would have been the story, for there is certainly novel's worth of material here. And indeed, I wonder whether Andre Norton wrote that novel elsewhere. But here, the events on Demeter are merely background, By chapter two, Charis has left Demeter behind, never to be seen again except in a dream sequence. Though I wonder what became of the colonists and if they survived.

Charis' salvation come in the form of a dodgy trader whose rocket ship just happens to land at the very moment Charis is recaptured. The trader sells indentured workers to the colonists in exchange for Charis. A teenaged girl indentured to a space captain of questionable morality raises all sorts of unpleasant possibilities. But Norton's books are marketed as juveniles and so Charis' virtue remains intact. The trader sells Charis to the merchant captain Jagan who miraculously has no unsavoury designs either. Jagan has a trading permit for Warlock, a planet inhabited by matriarchal aliens, the Wyvern. The Wyvern refuse to negotiate with men, so Jagan needs a woman. The first one went mad, so now it's Charis' turn.

Charis manages to send a message to a government outpost on Warlock. But before help can arrive, she finds herself compelled to walk across Warlock to meet the Wyvern. En route, Charis also finds a friend, the curl-cat Tsstu. There is a dreamlike, almost psychedelic quality to Charis' journey. Andre Norton has a gift for evocative descriptions of alien landscapes, which she employs to full effect here.

Charis' sojourn among the Wyvern, who teach her telepathy and teleportation, is brief, then Charis uses her newfound abilities to return to the trading post, only to find it destroyed, everybody inside dead. However, Charis also meets a new allies, Survey Corps cadet Shann Lantee and his pet wolverine Taggi. Shann is the protagonist of Storm Over Warlock. He is also – and that's sadly still remarkable even in our otherwise progressive genre – described as a black man. Alas, the cover – an otherwise accurate illustration of Charis, Shann, Tsstu and Taggi – completely ignores this.

Shann believes pirates are responsible for the attack on the trading post. However, a mysterious spear found on site points at the Wyvern. Both theories are sort of correct, because outlaws have freed Wyvern males from female control and are using them as muscle. In retaliation, the Wyvern females want to attack all humans. Only Charis can prevent this.

After many travails, Charis finds Shann a prisoner of the Wyvern, unresponsive and trapped inside a dream. Joining forces with Taggi and Tsstu, Charis enters Shann's dream prison and breaks him out. In the process, a mental bond is forged between all four of them.

It turns out that the pirate attack is a corporate takeover. A company has sent mercenaries to gain control of Warlock.The mercenaries have taken over the government base. They also have a device that can nullify the Wyvern’s power. And only Charis, Shann and their animal companions can stop them.

Shann is taken prisoner once more, but Charis escapes and warns the Wyvern and Shann's boss Ragnar Thorvald. But the plan to retake the base hinges on Charis, who stumbles into the base, babbling about snakes. The mercenaries take her to the medbay, which conveniently is also where Shann is held, catatonic in an attempt to avoid interrogation. With help from Tsstu, Taggi and his mate Togi, Charis manages to revive him.

The novel culminates in a standoff between Charis, Shann, Taggi and Tsstu on one side and the Wyvern males on the other. Shann and Charis broker a peace between the Wyvern males and females, so no one can exploit the rift between the sexes (which makes me wonder how they manage to reproduce) anymore.

Thorvald is impressed and drafts Charis as well as Tsstu and Taggi into service. Charis doesn't mind, because by now she has become fond of Shann and not just because of their mind link either.

My Observations

Charis is a likable protagonist, a smart and resourceful young woman of the kind that is still too rare in our genre. She spends much of the novel reacting to events, but towards the end, Charis is clearly in control and even Thorvald must bow to her will. Charis also rescues Shann repeatedly.

Unfortunately, Charis is the only competent human female we encounter – all others are either aliens, animals, nameless colonists or Charis' crazed predecessor. Besides, neither the government nor the villainous corporation consider sending women to Warlock, though that's a no brainer. In many ways, human society or what we see of it is the polar opposite of Wyvern society, a world where men hold all the power and women, particularly educated women like Charis, are a rarity. In fact, I wonder if Norton wanted to make just this point or whether she unconsciously defaulted to genre conventions.

The genuinely alien Wyvern are neither portrayed as pure menace nor as beyond reproach – after all, the females control the males and consider them mindless brutes incapable of rational thought. The portrayal of an alien society where the rift between males and females is so great that they barely seem part of the same species brings to mind books such as Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex) by French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir or The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, both of which diagnose the same problem in our society. I have no idea whether Andre Norton has read either book, but Ordeal in Otherwhere almost feels like a response to these and similar works.

Ordeal in Otherwhere is science fantasy rather than science fiction. There are spaceships and blasters, but Norton never gives much detail about either. Even the nullifier, the device on which the plot hinges, is never described nor do we learn where it came from. Meanwhile, "the Power" is basically magic, controlled via mystical symbols. Norton even acknowledges this, since the Wyvern females are referred to as witches throughout the novel. This seems to be a recurring theme with Norton, as her earlier novel Witch World shows. 

The hint of romance between Charis and Shann feels like an afterthought. True, Charis is quite taken with Shann from their first meeting on and worries much more about him than she ever thinks about her late father. We don't know Shann's feelings, because we never get any insight into him; Charis is the sole point-of-view character. Nonetheless, the romance feels oddly chaste. There is no kiss, let alone more. Holding hands is as far as Charis and Shann go. Even when Charis searches the unconscious Shann for useful items or when they sleep huddled together in a cave, Shann's head resting in Charis' lap, there is no hint of physical passion. This total lack of sex is not limited to Charis and Shann either – absolutely no one in this novel, whether human or Wyvern, seems to have sex with the possible exception of Taggi and Togi, since they have cubs.

I'm no big fan of animal companions, since they often seem too anthropomorphic. However, I really liked Tsstu and Taggi. Both are fully rounded characters in their own right, yet it's clear that their thought processes are very alien, when Charis links with them. Animal companions seem to be another recurring theme with Andre Norton. At one point, Charis asks Shann whether he is a Beastmaster, which happens to be the title of an earlier Norton novel. Coincidentally, I had to look up what sort of animal a wolverine is. I had assumed a wolf-like creature, but it turns out a wolverine is what we call "Vielfraß" (eats a lot) in German.

Summing up

Overall, I enjoyed Ordeal in Otherwhere, though there are some issues with the novel. The plot moves at a brisk pace, so brisk that I occasionally had to flip back to check if I hadn't accidentally skipped a page or two. There is easily material for two or three novels here and so Ordeal in Otherwhere feels rushed. Nonetheless, I will seek out other books by Andre Norton.

An enjoyable adventure in the grand old planetary romance tradition. Four stars.

Happy new year, from all of us at the Journey!  Here's to a bright 1964…

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TV

[December 29, 1963] Meet the Unknown (Twilight Zone, Season 5, Episodes 9-12)

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by Natalie Devitt

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This past month several characters tried their best to deal with the uncertainties commonly found in the dimension known as The Twilight Zone. Everybody encountered something unfamiliar. There were strange planets to explore, men reliving the distant past, effects of an experimental serum, and a man trying his best to avoid the ultimate unknown, death.

Probe 7, Over and Out, by Rod Serling

Moby Dick actor Richard Basehart plays Colonel Adam Cook in Probe 7, Over and Out. Cook has crashed his spacecraft on another planet. During the crash, he sustained a number of injuries, including two broken bones and one broken arm. To make matters worse, he only has about enough food to last him a week. In hopes of getting help, he tries contacting his planet of origin, only to be told by his home base that his planet may be on the brink of war and probably would not be able to offer him much assistance.

As Probe 7, Over and Out’s opening monologue states, “He survived the crash, but his ordeal is yet to begin.“ Assuming that he is all alone on this planet and that he will probably have to make it his new home, Cook begins to explore his surroundings. What he does not realize is that there is one other inhabitant, a young woman named Norda, played by television actress Antoinette Bower, also stranded on the planet. The two struggle to adjust to one another and to carve out an existence on a planet very foreign to both of them.

I am happy to see The Twilight Zone return after a couple of weeks off of the air, even if Probe 7, Over and Out is not the strongest entry in the series. The episode is not the first science fiction story to basically retell the story of Adam and Eve, and I cannot imagine that it will be the last. Also, it reminds me a little of previous The Twilight Zone episode Two. Despite not having the most original story, Probe 7, Over and Out works surprisingly well, which is why I give it three stars.

The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms, by Rod Serling

The 7th is Made Up of Phantom tells the story of a group soldiers in 1964, who are undergoing some training exercises near the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn. The men, played by Ron Foster, Randy Boone and Warren Oates, soon realize that the battle actually occurred on exactly that same day back in 1876. As Rod Serling says in the very beginning of the episode, “Past and present are about to collide,” and there could not be a more accurate way of describing what happens in The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms.

Throughout their training, the men retrace the steps of the 7th Calvary. They find a tipi tent, a soldier’s canteen, the men hear sounds made by plains tribesmen, and they see smoke signals. The soldiers use their knowledge of the battle to try to make sense out of a very extraordinary situation.

The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms has a pretty good premise, but it is not very satisfying. Though, the episode is not without some merit. This entry leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Sometimes that can hurt a story or it can work in its favor. In the case of The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms, I really like that things are not over explained and that you never see anybody from the opposing side, which I think only added to its eeriness. Also, I enjoyed the episode's ending. All in all, I give this entry two and a half stars.

A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain, by Rod Serling

Patrick O’Neal stars as Harmon in A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain. Harmon is a wealthy older gentleman, who as the story’s opening narration states is “enslaved by a love affair with a wife forty years his junior.” His much younger and beautiful wife, Flora, is portrayed by Ruta Lee of Seven Brides of Seven Brothers. Flora seems to be in the marriage for Harmon’s money, and often complains that her husband lacks the energy necessary to keep her interested.

In an act of desperation, Harmon begs his brother Raymond, played by Walter Brooke, to inject him with a youth serum that his brother has only tested on lab rats. Hesitant at first, the scientist eventually agrees to administer the drug to Harmon. At first, the serum works quite well. Much to Flora’s delight, Harmon begins to look like a younger and more handsome version of himself, but like everything in The Twilight Zone, the drug does come with a downside.

Overall, A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain is just fair. The twist ending was entertaining, even if it was a bit predictable, though I cannot help but wonder what happened to the characters after the episode ended. My biggest problem with this episode is that none of the characters are very sympathetic. Sure you feel bad for Harmon, but only for a little while. This entry is a little underwhelming, so it deserves two stars.

Ninety Years Without Slumbering, by Richard De Roy

In Ninety Years Without Slumbering, Ed Wynn and Rod Serling work together yet again, after previous projects, like Playhouse 90’s Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Twilight Zone’s One for the Angels. This time around, the incredibly versatile Wynn plays Sam, an elderly man who lives with his granddaughter and her husband. Sam’s loved ones notice that Sam is becoming increasingly obsessed with caring for his grandfather clock. Sam never seems to sleep, and instead spends his nights tinkering with the clock.

Concerned that this obsession is consuming his life, his family encourages him to seek professional help. After some convincing, Sam agrees to see a psychiatrist. In privacy, Sam tells his shrink that the clock was purchased on the day he was born, and that he fears that his life depends on the clock continuing to tick. Upon hearing Sam‘s confession, his psychiatrist urges him to sell the clock.

Sam considers putting the device up for sell, until a neighbor tells him that she is interested in buying the clock. Worried that the price may be a little too steep for her to afford, Sam offers to give the neighbor a deal to postpone payment as long as she lets him maintain the clock, which requires winding every two days. Needless to say, the arrangement does not work for long.

I must admit that Ninety Years Without Slumbering was not the strongest story. Also, the ending, while not entirely expected, may require a little too much suspension of disbelief, even for The Twilight Zone. When it comes down to it, it is really Ed Wynn’s performance as Sam that single-handedly makes the episode worth watching. The episode receives three stars just for that.

The Twilight Zone is always a nice break from the ordinary. This time is no different. The most recent episodes were worth watching, even if they would not rank among the most memorable of the series.



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Book, Magazine

[December 27, 1963] Democracy, Doctors and Decline ( New Worlds, January 1964)

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by Mark Yon

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Snapshot from England

Hello from 1964!

Christmas here was a good one. The weather, though cold, was nothing like last year’s record-breaking Winter, thank goodness.

As rather expected, The Beatles were Number 1 in the charts with I Want to Hold Your Hand. They have dominated British culture this year, and this going straight to the top of the charts here reflects that. There were pre-orders of over one million copies.

I’ve also had chance to catch up with some movies in the cinema. This year’s Christmas movie for the family was It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, which we enjoyed a lot. Very silly, but we enjoyed looking out for all the cameos. We will probably go see Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone over the holiday season, which appeared in the cinema on Boxing Day here. Really looking forward to seeing how much of the novel remains. 

And so, to genre business. On the magazine front I have to start this month’s report with the sad validation of something I’ve been expecting for a while now. Since we last spoke it has been announced that “due to declining sales” New Worlds and Science Fantasy magazines are to close. It is sad, but not too surprising. I have for a number of months now been commenting on the variable quality of our homegrown content, and it has been clear in a number of ways that things have been difficult, so this is not a complete surprise. According to the news release we definitely have material until the April 1964 issue and then I guess we will see what happens. I am hopeful that this will not be the end of British-based magazines, though. There are rumours of a take-over bid that will allow at least one of the magazines to continue, but nothing is definite. Interesting times!

On a more positive note, the television programme Doctor Who has continued to enthral the household. It has become our family “must-see” on a Saturday teatime. New Traveller Jessica has written about this in detail, so I won’t go into it at great length. Whilst I was less impressed with the caveman story that followed the promising first episode, the latest tale is a science-fictional one which has introduced a metallic monster that Mr. H.G. Wells would have been proud of. The Daleks are quite inhuman and scarily strident in their determination for galactic subjugation. More importantly, they are an enormous success for the BBC. They have clearly struck a chord. I look forward to seeing where this goes.

The Reading Matter at Hand

To the January 1964 edition of New Worlds, then.

This month’s cover is a return to the plain but brightly-coloured style of a few months ago. No moonscape, but a lurid shade of yellow. The cover type is easy to read, as there is nothing else there to distract from the reader’s eye. Effectively simple, but will it sell magazines?  Not really sure that it matters given the month’s news, which may be Mr. Carnell’s view as well. The general impression is of a magazine on the cheap – how different to the lurid cover of your American issues!

The text inside is, thankfully, a little better.

on political attitudes in s-f, by Mr. John Brunner

Having bemoaned the lack of discussion in last month’s Editorial, this month’s examination of the importance of politics in s-f by Mr. Brunner is much more like the usual article of old. More importantly, it is literate, knowledgeable and even amusing, making the reader examine whether the traditional capitalist view is the only one and where such a review has originated from.

I know that this will have been written months ago, before the events of November, but it is still surreal to read about politics in fiction at a time when real-world politics is in such a state.  Democracy is still in flux.

Onto the stories!

dilemma with three horns, by Mr. Donald Malcolm

And here we have the return of Mr. Malcolm’s ongoing P.E.T. (Planetary Expedition Team) series, last seen in February 1963 with twice bitten. This one taps into that ‘sensawunda’ often exhibited by alien environments, to create a straightforward, old-school predicament that would not be remiss of, say, Analog magazine. Our intrepid explorers are given a seemingly impossible choice – stranded from their mothership, do they remain on the newfound planet and die through overexposure to increasing radiation or leave the planet and die because they have to pass through the extremely high Van Allen radiation belt?

To add to this, the third problem of the dilemma is that the intense gravity is causing spinal damage that is untreatable on the planet. I liked it, up to the rather convenient solution, which is plucked out of nowhere and devalues the story overall. What strikes me most though is how this story is not typical New Worlds fare these days. It shows how much the magazine has changed in the last couple of years.  3 out of 5.

the last generation, by Mr. Ernest Hill

And for contrast, this one is more like the “new style” stories of the magazine. A story set far in the future, filled with technical gobbledegook and an attempt to be controversial by combining science with religion. Really its little more than a more complicated version of what Mr. van Vogt was doing in the 1940’s.  It is rather full of its own self-importance, whereas I was less impressed. Kudos for trying to be different, but ultimately this falls short of its own ambition.  2 out of 5.

the countenance, by Mr. P. F. Woods

Mr. Woods’s latest resurrects that old idea that the infiniteness of space is too much for mere Humans to cope with. Summarise it as “Space is bad for you”. Not a new idea – Mr. Poul Anderson had something similar in Brain Wave in the 1950’s and then, of course, there’s Mr. Isaac Asimov’s famous Nightfall even further back. There’s even a touch of Mr. Lovecraft’s tales of Cosmic Horror, though the cause here is never clearly explained. It’s entertainingly done through the eyes of a young teenager and his older mentor but is a tad predictable – even with the rather expected and dispiriting twist. 3 out of 5.

toys, by Mr. John Baxter

Set in Mr. Baxter’s home territory of Australia, this story of a cobbler and the toys he creates is an updating of the old Pinocchio story. It makes its point about toys being weapons well – rather appropriately at Christmastime – but is also a little depressing.  3 out of 5.

the dark mind (Part 3 of 3), by Mr. Colin Kapp

The last part of Mr. Kapp’s serial continues at a breakneck pace and with not too much sense, full of the same large type face seen in the previous two. This time, Ivan Dalroi, with his dormant powers unleashed and with a single-minded determination for revenge, travels to other worlds to get it. The ending shows us the much bigger picture beyond Dalroi and gives Humanity a reputation for being the tearaway teenagers of the known worlds. It’s a frantic ending to an energetic story, that ties everything up in a bit of a rush at the finish. Whilst I’m always a little wary of a story that depends on textual gimmicks to work (although it did work for Alfred Bester, admittedly) it is good fun, even if it doesn’t dwell with the reader too long.  3 out of 5.

Strangely, and bearing in mind that we now know that we have only a limited time left for New Worlds, there’s a request for readers to contribute to a ‘State of the Nation’ report for 1963.  It is the first update since 1958, and so should reflect what Mr. Carnell has been trying to do over the last couple of years. I guess we’ll know before the magazine goes, which may be the point.  Perhaps it can be used to determine a fresh start.

Lastly, this month’s Book Reviews are split between editor Mr. John Carnell and book reviewer Mr. Leslie Flood. Mr. Carnell looks at the books imported from your good selves across the water. Of the novels, Mr. Hal Clement’s Mission of Gravity is “in a class of its own” and Ms. Rosel George Brown’s A Handful of Time is “quietly charming”. There are also a couple of anthologies worth looking at. Mr. Martin Greenberg’s anthology Men Against the Stars is a cut-down version of the US version but still “about the best of the current bunch”. Similarly, Mr. T. E. Dikty’s 5 Tales from Tomorrow is also shorter than its US counterpart but is praised for including Mr. Tom Godwin’s The Cold Equations. It is strange to read stories from 1955 appearing here nearly 9 years later, though they do show us how different things were “then” and “now”. We have changed a great deal.

Mr. Flood looks at the new British books new to print here. It’s not all good – Mr. George Hay’s Hell Hath Fury is a story collection from the now-defunct Unknown magazine, but has the reviewer questioning whether this is actually the best of the magazine in a “curiously dated and dispirited collection of ghosts and deviltry”.

Faring better is Mr. Arthur C. Clarke’s juvenile novel Dolphin Island, a minor work but an “entertaining adventure” that “does not talk down beyond the level aimed at.” Moon of Destiny by Mr. Lester de Rey and Destination Moon by Mr. Hugh Walters are also briefly mentioned as “space-flight adventures of some considerable excitement, plausibility and scientific accuracy”.

Summing up

The news of the magazine’s demise has dampened my enthusiasm of the issue a little. I guess that I should make the most of the magazine before it disappears. Again, though, it is a solid issue without being outstanding. I am glad that New Worlds has, unlike many, made it to the end of the year, but I am torn between feeling sad that I’ll never see its like again and bemusement over whether it will be actually missed when it goes.

Until next month.




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Movies

[December 25, 1963] Animating an Epic (Don Chaffey's Jason and the Argonauts)

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by Rosemary Benton

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Merry Christmas, everyone!

With the United States still reeling from recent events, I feel that now more than even would be the appropriate time to reflect on the past months and be grateful for the artistic talents and accomplishments that have helped bring us joy even in dark times. To that end I would like to say thank you to authors Andre Norton, J. G. Ballard and Daniel F. Galouye for their respective works of high fantasy, speculative fiction and intense science fiction/horror over the year. In film, actors Vincent Price and Julie Harris, as well as director Ishirō Honda, brought audiences horror tales both comical and macabre.

In the spirit of appreciation for the hard working men and women who bring the world its entertainment there is also one film which has been sadly overlooked this past June which I will now heap well deserved praise upon. I am speaking, of course, of Jason and the Argonauts.

Directed by Walt Disney Productions veteran Don Chaffey, and starring the wonderful acting talent of Honor Blackman and Nancy Kovack, Jason and the Argonauts is a fairly faithful adaptation of the Greek hero Jason's quest to acquire the mythical Golden Fleece and rightfully ascend to the throne of Thessaly. Through the artistic majesty of stop-motion animation and the craftiness of experienced low-budget filmmaking, Jason's eye-popping adventures through the ancient Greek world of monsters, prophecy, magic and gods come to life like they never have before. 

On the eve of the sacking of Thessaly, the antagonist Pelias (played by Douglas Wilmer) asks a prophet if Zeus has willed his victory against King Aristo. The prophet confirms that he will indeed be victorious, but as Pelias is about to lay down his sword to show faith in the prediction and his dedication to Zeus, the prophet informs him that King Aristo is not without heirs to the throne. Pelias snatches back his sword and declares that he will kill all of the royal family. In doing so not only does he falter in his faith to the gods, but goes too far when he hunts down and murders Aristo's daughter Briseis as she is praying for protection from the goddess, Hera (played by Honor Blackman). Due to his overzealousness, Pelias is told by Hera, disguised as the temple's priestess, that the infant Jason has been taken into hiding and will one day return to kill him.

The scene then cuts to Olympus where Zeus (played by Niial MacGinnis) is watching the battle through a fountain. Hera returns to bargain with Zeus for her right to seek restitutions against Pelias for the defamation of her temple. Zeus acquiesces, but only permits Hera to directly aid Jason five times for the five times that Briseis called out to Hera by name. Thus the stage is set for the inevitable reunion 20 years later between King Pelias of Thessaly and the vengeful, adult Jason (played by Todd Armstrong).

Through perseverance in daring battles against a giant living statue, harpies, a hydra and undead soldiers, along with luck granted by his heavenly protector, Jason and his crew aboard the ship Argo ultimately claim ownership of a legendary and powerful artifact: the Golden Fleece. With this in hand, he intends to return home and show that it is his divine right to rule Thessaly.

That, however, is a story for another time. The movie ends before Jason is able to retake the kingship from Pelias. After defeating seven skeleton warriors sown by King Aeëtes of Colchis (played by Jack Gwillim) using the teeth of the defeated hydra, the remaining Argonauts and the sorceress Medea set out to sea once more. The film concludes with Zeus and Hera determining that their meddling in the mortal lives of their champions is not yet over and that they may yet have further plans for Jason. 

Despite an ending that just begs for a sequel in order to finish off Jason's initial quest to kill Pelias, the film as a whole is very, very well executed. Jason and the Argonauts is a masterpiece in special effects, atmospheric musical scoring, and well paced storytelling (in spite of the choice to not conclude the film back in Thessaly). A review from Variety magazine rightfully expresses awe at the resourcefulness of Don Chaffey, making note of the fact that not only did the film showcase the pinnacle of stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen's craft, but managed to stretch its meager 3 million dollar budget to include a life size replica of the Argo!

Not only is Jason and the Argonauts a prized piece of art from Morningside Productions and Columbia Pictures, but it also stands as a proud member of a newly emerging genre within science-fiction and fantasy stories. More accurately, it is a tour de force within the hotly debated and evolving subgenre of "sword and sorcery" (as defined within the magazine Amra by Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock). What seems to be paramount to this subgenre includes the following:

World building elements of medieval and/or ancient technology enhanced with paranormal and borderline science-fiction elements.

Jason and the Argonauts has those aplenty from talking statues, gods who can teleport or grow at will, and golden ram's wool that can revive the dead. The power behind such miracles is only loosely defined as "the will of the gods", but there is a quasi-scientific ritual or pattern that brings these miracles to pass. IE to speak with Hera and receive her advice Jason must talk to the figurehead of the Argo, or to revive someone with the Golden Fleece the pelt must first be placed on the subject and then prayed over. 

and,

Developed substantial characters whose vendettas move the plot forward one personal battle at a time.

Consider the plight of Jason, rightful heir to the throne of Thessaly, and even the minor character King Phineus who was once blessed by the gods but is now cursed due to hubris. Rather than focusing on merely the politics of governance and other widespread or far reaching changes to the world, the story of Jason and the Argonauts is wrapped up entirely in the mission of only a few people. It is epic, but surprisingly small and human in a way. The entire human race isn't learning the same lessons as Jason by partaking in the quest for the Fleece with him, but we do learn as an audience when listen to the retelling of his story.

When held up against other "sword and sorcery" titled such as Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian series, C. L. Moore's Black God's Kiss and to an extent Andre Norton's Witch World, Jason and the Argonauts seems right at home. It will be interesting to see how the addition of this highly entertaining and memorable movie evolves the genre to which it belongs. In terms of the creative team behind the film, I find it hard to think of how the special effects techniques will continue to improve after reaching such perfection, but I have faith in Ray Harryhausen and hope that he can continue to find funding and future feature length partnerships in the film industry.

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Book, Fashion, music, politics, sports, Magazine

[December 23, 1963] Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New (January 1964 Fantastic)

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by Victoria Silverwolf

[Time is running out to get your Worldcon membership!  Register here to be able to vote for the Hugos.]

Ring Out the Old

Is it 1964 yet?


The caption says Happy New Year, Kids!

These happy young cosmonauts seem to think so.  That's a Vostok rocket they're carrying.  You remember Vostok, don't you?  The Soviet space program that sent the first man and the first woman into orbit?  No wonder they look so happy.

Here in the good old USA we do things a little differently.


It's not even Christmas yet, but this guy is ready.

No matter how you celebrate the holiday season, this is the time to remember the old and look forward to the new.  For Americans, of course, the most important change was the loss of a martyred President and the inauguration of a new one.  We are not likely to forget 1963 for a very long time.


Norman Rockwell pays tribute to the late JFK.

When it comes to space travel, yesteryear's new ideas turn old very quickly.  The X-20 program was cancelled this month, after seven years of development.  There goes $660,000,000 down the drain.  Looks like the proposed Dyna-Soar reusable spacecraft is now as dead as a dinosaur.


Now that's what I call a real spaceship!

The old British Empire continues to evolve into new, independent nations.  As of December 12, Zanzibar and Kenya are the newest members of the United Nations.

In the world of popular music, a new artist paid tribute to a man who lived more than seven hundred years ago.  Belgian singer-songwriter Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers, better known in the United States as the Singing Nun, holds the top position on the American music charts with her original composition Dominique. 

Deckers is a member of the Missionary Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Fichermont, where she took the name Sister Luc-Gabrielle.  In her native land she is called Sœur Sourire (Sister Smile.) The song pays tribute to Saint Dominic (1170-1221), for whom the order is named.  You don't have to be Catholic, or understand French, to appreciate the Singing Nun's pleasant voice, or the cheerful melody of her song.


The second foreign language song to reach Number One in the USA this year.  At least the Americans didn't give it a silly name, the way they changed Kyu Sakamoto's lovely tune Ue o Muite Arukō into Sukiyaki.

Ring In the New

Fittingly, the latest issue of Fantastic (and the first dated in the coming year) features the first half of a new novel, but one that was born twenty-five years ago.


(cover by EMSH)

The Lords of Quarmall, by Fritz Leiber and Harry Fischer

You may not know the name Harry Fischer.  A new writer, perhaps?  Well, not exactly.  In fact, Fischer created the famous characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in a letter to his friend Leiber nearly three decades ago.  Since then, of course, the great fantasist has made the pair of adventurers his own.  In 1937, Fischer wrote about ten thousand words of a novel.  Leiber completed it, and it appears here for the first time.

Quarmall is a strange kingdom.  Its ruler lives in a keep above ground, but the rest of his realm lies deep down below.  He has two adult sons.  One reigns over the upper half of this underground land, the other the lower half.  The brothers are bitter rivals, each trying to destroy the other through treachery and magic.  They also plot against their father.  He, in turn, hopes to eliminate his sons and leave his kingdom to the unborn child of a concubine. 

Unknown to each other, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are each hired as a swordsman by one of the brothers.  When the king's archmage announces the death of his master, the conflict between the siblings explodes into open warfare.

As you would expect from Leiber, this tale of derring-do is full of vivid, exotic details.  The plot moves slowly, with much of the story taken up with the bored frustration of the two heroes.  Fafhrd's rescue of a lovely young slave doomed to be tortured provides some excitement.  No doubt the second half will provide plenty of sorcery and swordplay.  It's not a bad yarn, but hardly up to Leiber's usual standard.

Three stars.

Minnesota Gothic, by Dobbin Thorpe

Another new author?  Hardly.  Thomas M. Disch, who appears later in the magazine, hides behind this peculiar pseudonym.  The story is about a little girl named Gretel, but don't expect an old-fashioned fairy tale.  The time is now.  Gretel's mother leaves her in the care of a very old woman and her strange, bedridden brother.  Black magic is involved, but not the way you might expect.  This is a well-written, chilling little story.  I wouldn't advise reading it on a dark and stormy night.

Four stars.

The Word of Unbinding, by Ursula K. LeGuin

With four or five stories to her credit, LeGuin is still a relatively new voice in fantasy fiction, but her skill makes her seem like an old pro.  Her latest tale of enchantment begins with a wizard trapped in a prison made of darkness.  An evil sorcerer robbed him of his magic staff and locked him away.  Although the loss of his staff greatly diminishes his power, he still possesses the ability to transform himself.  He attempts to escape in many ways, only to be recaptured and made even weaker.  In order to defeat his enemy, he must pay the ultimate price. 

The author creates a dark fantasy of great imagination and vividness.  The reader is sure to empathize with the despair and heroism of the protagonist.

Four stars.

Last Order, by Gordon Walters

Like LeGuin, Walters is a writer with few published works. Sadly, he doesn't share her talent.  The story begins on an asteroid.  An undescribed being tries to protect its master from an attack by police robots.  When the master dies, it seeks revenge on all those who resemble the robots.  The scene shifts to Earth.  A detective with a fear of space travel receives an invitation to investigate the asteroid with his old partner, who left for space long ago.  It turns out that the vengeful being kills anyone who arrives on the asteroid.  After a dangerous encounter with the being, the truth comes out.

The characters frequently speculate about the possibility of a disembodied alien lifeform joining with spacemen in symbiosis.  This turns out to be a complete red herring.  The reader quickly learns that the spacesuits of the future are intimately connected to the bodies of their wearers, so the climax of the story is no surprise.  There's much too little plot for a novelette.

Two stars.

A Thesis On Social Forms and Social Controls in the U. S. A.,by Thomas M. Disch

The secret identity of Dobbin Thorpe emerges from disguise with this fictional essay.  It describes a nightmarish world of the future.  In the Twenty-First Century, China and the Soviet Union destroy each other in an atomic war.  Africa collapses into a state of permanent crisis.  Europe is under the control of the Vatican.  (Most Protestants move to the United States, which now includes Canada.) Only Australia emerges unchanged.

Disch begins with the famous dictums of George Orwell.  War is Peace.  Ignorance is Strength.  Freedom is Slavery.  To these, he adds two more.  Life is Death.  Love is Hate.  One by one, he describes how these principles apply to American society.  All adult males serve one year out of every five as a brutalized slave.  The other four years they indulge in unrestrained orgies of pleasure.  Women must care for the children they bear from multiple mates, or else serve as laborers or prostitutes. 

The author paints a terrifying portrait of a culture that deliberately chooses to be schizophrenic.  The essay's cold logic convinces the reader that such an insane world might truly exist.  The stories by Thorpe and Disch could not be more different, except for the fact that they both induce a strong sense of foreboding.

Four stars.

Summing Up, and a Bonus Review

The new year begins with a very pessimistic issue of the magazine.  From the sadistic Lords of Quarmall, to the insane world of the future, hardly a hint of hope appears in its pages.  Even the book review by S. E. Cotts deals with a novel haunted by doom.  I have read The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, discussed in the column.  It's a very strange book.  A group of eccentric people waits for the end of the world inside a weird house.  Like everything I have read by Jackson, it is unique.  I recommend it for reading by the fireplace on a dark night, waiting for the old year to fade away.

Five stars.

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Book, Magazine, Science / Space Race

[December 21, 1963] Soaring and Plummeting (January 1964 Fantasy and Science Fiction)

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by Gideon Marcus

[Time is running out to get your Worldcon membership!  Register here to be able to vote for the Hugos.]

The Balloon goes Up

It's been something of a dry patch for American space spectaculars, and with projects Gemini and Apollo both being delayed by technical and budgetary issues, it is no wonder that NASA is hungry for any positive news.  So you can excuse them for trumpeting the launch of Explorer 19 so loudly — even if the thing is just a big balloon.  How excited can anyone get about that?

As it turns out, plenty excited.

Explorer 19, launched December 19, 1963, is a spherical balloon painted with polka-dots (they keep the sun from making it too hot or cold), and what it does is measure the atmosphere as it circles the Earth.  Not with any active instruments, but just by moving.  All orbiting spacecraft have an ideal route, one determined by Newton's laws.  If there were no air at all up there, the satellite would just keep orbiting in the same path forever (though the Moon and the Sun exert their own influences).  But there is air up there.  To be sure, the "air" up above 600 kilometers in altitude is hardly deserving of the name — it's a harder vacuum than we can make on the ground!  Nevertheless, the stuff up there is denser than what is found in interplanetary space, and we can tell its density from the slow slip of Explorer 19 in its orbit. 

If we want to know what kind of science we'll get from Explorer 19, all we have to do is look to Explorer 9.  Launched two years ago, it is a virtual twin.  Both Explorers were launched from cheap, solid-fuel Scout rockets.  Both have tracking beacons that failed shortly after launch.  The only way to get any data from these missions is to track the satellites by sophisticated cameras.

Explorer 9 has already contributed immensely to our knowledge of Earth's upper atmosphere.  Thanks to constant photographic tracking of the satellite, scientists have seen the expansion of the atmosphere as it heats up during the day as well as shorter term heating from magnetic storms in the ionosphere.  As a result, we are getting a good idea of the "climate" on the other side of the atmosphere over a wide range of latitudes. 

This is not only useful as basic science; the folks who launch satellites now have a better idea how long their craft will last and the best orbits to shoot them into, saving money in the long run.  It is one of the many examples of how the exploration of space bears immediate fruit and also extended benefits.

And that's something to be excited about!

The other shoe drops

On the other hand, the January 1964 Fantasy and Science Fiction begins the year on the wrong foot.  It is yet another collection of substandard and overly affected tales (leavened by a few decent pieces that somehow manage to get through), something like what Analog has become, though to be fair, I'm really looking forward to Analog this month. 

But first…

Pacifist, by Mack Reynolds

The best piece of the month is Pacifist by the prolific, seasoned, and (on occasion) excellent Mack Reynolds.  On a world much like ours, but where the balance of power is held between the north and south hemispheres, an anti-war group determines that the only way to curb our species' bellicose tendencies is to frighten the war-wagers with violence.  But can you really quench fire with fire?

It works because of the writing, something Reynolds never has trouble with.  Four stars.

Starlight Rhapsody, by Zhuravleva Valentina

This curious piece, in which a young woman astronomer discerns intelligent signals being broadcast from the nearby star, Procyon, originated in the Soviet Union.  It was then translated into Esperanto, of all languages, and then found its way into English.  The result is…well, I'll let our Russian correspondent give us her thoughts:


by Margarita Mospanova

In Russian, Starlight Rhapsody is actually a very pretty story — melodic and full of poetry, literally and metaphorically. It’s fairly melancholy, with just a touch of underlying Soviet optimism, nothing too garish in this case. But the translation…

Man, the translation makes me want to tear my hair out. It’s awful. It misses entire paragraphs of text as well as actual poems in the beginning and in the end. And the prose itself in no way resembles the original. Hell, it’s as if the translator used some kind of computerized translation device and just removed the grammatical mistakes afterwards. I’m really disappointed because the original story is really unexpectedly good.


by Gideon Marcus

You can get a glimmer of the story's original strength even from the twice-butchered version that editor Davidson provides.  Thus, three dispirited stars.

The Follower, by Wenzell Brown

Witness the perfect match: A milquetoast who decides to make his mark on society by stalking someone, and a paranoiac who only finds satisfaction when someone really is after him.  But their game develops a twist when their twin psychoses create a third player combining the worst aspects of both.

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?  If it were better done or more profound in its revelation, it might have been.  As is, it straddles the line between two and three stars, leaning toward the former.

The Tree of Time (Part 2 of 2), by Damon Knight

The conclusion of last month's adventure, in which a not-quite-man from the future is abducted from our time by frog people from his and then left to die in an experimental dimension ship.

After a reasonably thrilling beginning, the book reverts to what it was from the start — a pointless pastiche of the worst elements of science fiction's "Golden Age."  Deliberate or not, it's no less unreadable for it.

One star.  Feh.

Thaw and Serve, by Allen Kim Lang

Lang explores an interesting idea: hardened criminals are quick-frozen and deposited two centuries into the future.  It is the ultimate passing of the buck.  Turns out the future doesn't know what to do with them either, choosing to dump them in the wilds of Australia.  There, they fight it out for the televised amusement of the future-dwellers.

Written and plotted with a heavy hand, it's not one of Lang's better works.  In fact, the best thing about the story is the biographical preamble (Lang's middle name was given to him by Koreans during the war).

Two stars.

Nackles, by Curt Clark

"Curt Clark" (I have it on good authority that it's actually Donald Westlake) offers up the chilling story of the creation of a deity.  In this case, it's Santa Claus' dark shadow, the child-abducting "Nackles," who is caused to exist the same way as any other god — through widespread promulgation of belief.

Deeply unpleasant, but quite effective.  Three stars (four if this is your kind of thing).

Round and Round and …, by Isaac Asimov

At long last, I finally understand the concept of the "sidereal day," as well as the length of such days on other planets.  Thank you, Doctor A!  Four stars.

The Book of Elijah, by Edward Wellen

If you haven't read First and Second Kings (or as the uninitiated might call them, "One and Two Kings"), Elijah was a biblical prophet, passionate in his service of the Lord, who ascended to Heaven in flame and is due to return just before the End Times.  Ed Wellen, best known for his "funny" non-fact articles in Galaxy, writes about what happens to Elijah during his sojourn off Earth.

The Book is written in pseudo-King James style and is about as fun as reading the Bible, without any of the spiritual edification.  One star.

Appointment at Ten O'Clock, by Robert Lory

Last up, we have the tale of man with just ten minutes to live…over and over and over again.  Ten O'Clock has the beginning of an interesting concept and some deft writing, but it is short-circuited in execution.  It reads like the effort of a promising but neophyte author (which, in fact, it is — this is his second work).  Three stars.

This is what the once proud F&SF has been reduced to: a lousy Knight serial (shame, Damon!), a disappointing translation, some bad little pieces, and a couple of bright spots.  And Asimov's column, which I read, even if few others seem to.

Oh well.  I've already paid for the year.  Might as well see it through.

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TV

[December 19, 1963] Veiled Secrets (The Outer Limits, Season 1, Episodes 9-12)

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by Natalie Devitt

[Time is running out to get your Worldcon membership! Register here to be able to vote for the Hugos.]

It seems that during this past month of The Outer Limits almost everyone has a secret. Whether it’s aliens plotting to take over the world, prisoners of war resisting their interrogators, a research facility with a monster hidden away in the back of a laboratory, or phony mediums pretending to make contact with the dead; everyone is going to great lengths to hide something…

Corpus Earthling, by Orin Borsten

Robert Culp returns to The Outer Limits. This time for Corpus Earthling, which is adapted from Louis Charbonneau’s novel by the same name. Corpus Earthling is not quite as strong of a story as Culp’s last outing on the series, The Architects of Fear, but it is not without its charm. Corpus Earthling is the story of Doctor Cameron, portrayed by Culp, who while working in the lab one day, overhears two aliens plotting to take over the world. According to the show’s narrator, these extraterrestrials are posing as "two black crystalline rocks: unclassifiable. Objects on the border between the living and the nonliving."

If this sounds silly, bear with me. Despite rocks not actually being able to speak, there is reason to believe that Cameron’s ability to hear the rocks communicating may be the result of a plate that was implanted in his head. Or could it just simply be him imagining things because of the injury that led him to get the plate in the first place? Worried that he may be losing his grip on reality, Cameron and his wife, wonderfully played by Angel Baby actress Salome Jens, decide to take the honeymoon that they had been postponing. The couple take off to Tijuana, unaware that the rocks have already possessed the body of Cameron’s colleague, Doctor Temple, played by television actor Barry Atwater. Temple follows Cameron and his wife all the way to Mexico, vowing to catch Cameron at any cost.

The last time rocks from outer space seemed this threatening was the 1957 film, The Monolith Monsters. Like The Monolith Monsters, Corpus Earthling is probably not for everyone, but that’s okay. Both are perfectly enjoyable to me. The rocks at the center of this story resemble two Jell-O molds that jiggle every time they communicate with one another. They also morph into other shapes that at times are no more scary than the title creature from William Castle’s The Tingler before eventually controlling Doctor Temple’s body. Once the alien rocks take over Doctor Temple‘s body, the episode improves dramatically. Temple becomes cold and emotionless. He speaks with a strange echo. Additionally, Temple ages rapidly and looks like a ghoul from Carnival of Souls.

Cinematographer Conrad Hall did a terrific job with this episode. Corpus Earthling uses shadows to create a dark atmosphere, and as a result the episode feels like a horror movie. The viewer knows Doctor Temple is stalking them and could be lurking in the shadows at any moment, and whatever the viewer does not see, they can fill in with their imagination. I am sure some may find the whole alien possession thing a little too much like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but I personally think Corpus Earthling is just creepy good fun. It may even be the show’s spookiest episode yet. All of this is reason enough for me to give it three and a half stars.

Nightmare, by Joseph Stefano

The aptly titled Nightmare follows a group of soldiers who board a rocket from Earth to the planet of Ebon. Ebon is according to the show’s narrator a " black question mark at the end of a dark foreboding journey.” When the men reach Ebon, they are taken as prisoners of war. The soldiers are told that they have no hope to escape and they are forced to undergo interrogations, which the inhabitants of Ebon or the Ebonites as they are called, refer to as "exploratory interviews.” In addition to the interrogations, the Ebonites can control any one of a person’s five senses. The Ebonites use this ability, along with a mind altering substance, in order to get information from the soldiers. Not surprisingly, that information comes at a pretty steep price.

The set design for Nightmare could not be more minimal. The cold and sterile appearance of the set is a perfect fit for the story. Instead of filling up the space visually, the episode focuses on outstanding acting from a terrific group of actors, a well-written script, and a musical score that could not be more appropriate. While the entire cast for Nightmare is top-notch, it is Jim Shigeta’s performance that really stands out. A pretty intense episode is made even more terrifying by the makeup and costumes worn by the actors playing the Ebonites, with their wings and very pronounced brow ridges.

Overall, this is a great episode that captures what happens to men when they are put under extreme stress. Recent events delayed this episode’s airing, but it was definitely worth the wait. It receives five stars.

It Crawled Out of the Woodwork, by Joseph Stefano

In It Crawled Out of the Woodwork, an accident at a center for energy research called NORCO results in the creation of a large cloud of energy. According to the law of the conservation of energy, energy cannot be created or destroyed. Since the researchers cannot destroy the cloud, and also so they can study it, it is kept hidden in a room in the back of a lab that is often referred to as "the pit.” Unaware of NORCO’s secret, Michael Forest stars as Stuart Peters, who relocates to California with his younger brother Jory, played by Scott Marlowe, intending to join NORCO’s team of researchers. Before his first day on the job, Peters and his brother decide to sneak a peek at NORCO, so they get in the car and drive by the property. When the men pull their car up to the gate, they are told by a guard to "look fast, but nobody is allowed to hang around here.” Unbeknownst to them at the time, the guard scribbles a note on the inside of a book of matches which he hands to one of the brothers, saying "Don’t come back. NORCO doomed.”

The next day after reading the note, Stuart mentions it to his boss at NORCO. Behind his back, Stuart’s boss gives instructions for Stuart to be lured into the pit, where Stuart is drained by the creature of his energy and passes away on the spot. Jory is never notified of his brother‘s death. Days later, a reanimated Stuart shows up at the apartment, but this time he is wearing what appears to be a pacemaker, even though he never had a history of heart problems. He and Jory get into an altercation, which results in Stuart falling into a bathtub filled with water. The water destroys the pacemaker and kills Stuart once and for all. A gentleman by the name of Sergeant Siroleo, portrayed by Edward Asner, is assigned to investigate Stuart’s death, and what he uncovers has to be seen to be believed.

We are only on the eleventh episode of The Outer Limits and we already have another being that relies on energy. You may recall a similar monster in The Man with the Power. The creature in It Crawled Out of the Woodwork is unique in the fact that it is not the usual man in a costume with special effects makeup and prosthetics on his face. Aside from its somewhat disappointing first appearance, the monster is created using mostly special effects, which is a welcome change of pace (though I have grown so fond of the usual man in a suit).

Like most previous episodes, It Crawled Out of the Woodwork benefits from having a great cast of actors that feed off of each other and help to make an otherwise decent story good. I give It Crawled Out of the Woodwork three stars.

The Borderland, by Leslie Stevens

British actor Barry Jones stars in The Borderland as Dwight Hartley, a man desperate to make contact with his dead son, Dion. Mr. Hartley enlists the help of a medium by the name of Mrs. Palmer, played by theatre and film actress Gladys Cooper. Those not familiar with the character actress would probably recognize her from The Twilight Zone’s Nothing in the Dark and Passage on the Lady Anne. Mrs. Palmer arranges a séance and claims to have success communicating Mr. Hartley’s son, until two scientists who happen to be at the séance, Ian and Eva, expose Mrs. Palmer as the scam artist that she is.

Later, Ian explains to Mr. Hartley that he and Eva are working on an experiment that they hypothesize will help them to go beyond The Borderland to cross over to the fourth dimension. Also, that all they need is access to a larger magnetic field and a more powerful power source. Eager to repay Ian and Eva for helping him with Mrs. Palmer, Mr. Hartley offers to fund their project under the condition that it can be used to try to make contact with Dion. The only problem is Mrs. Palmer has secretly devised a plan to ruin the experiment.

Despite a somewhat interesting premise, great actors and being incredibly well-shot, The Borderland failed to really entertain or move me. A story about a man wanting to reconnect with his dead son has the potential to bring tears to a person’s eyes, but none of the characters were really developed enough for me to care about them. The scenes involving Mrs. Palmer trying to sabotage the experiment were pretty silly and seemed very out of place with the rest of the story. I have no choice but to give two stars for what was easily the least enjoyable episode this past month.

The mysteries of The Outer Limits continue to keep me under the show’s spell. The Borderland was the only real letdown in an otherwise almost consistently good month.



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Magazine

[December 17, 1963] The Ink-and-Paper Zoo (February 1964 Worlds of Tomorrow)

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by Victoria Silverwolf

I suppose it's appropriate that a magazine about the future should bear a cover date from a year that hasn't arrived yet.  While the rest of us count the days until the end of 1963, editor Frederik Pohl peers into his crystal ball and discovers what 1964 has in store.  According to the latest issue of Worlds of Tomorrow, it's a very mixed picture indeed.  With so many different kinds of science fiction stories inside its pages, the magazine is something of a Noah's Ark of imaginative literature.  Let's go for a ride, shall we?

Lord of the Uffts, by Murray Leinster

This novella, from an author who has written science fiction for more than four decades, takes up half the magazine.  It begins with a man having just returned from a deadly planet where he collected precious gems.  He celebrates his good luck in the time-honored way of getting roaring drunk.  When he wakes up, he finds himself aboard a rickety spaceship bound for parts unknown.  It seems that, while in his cups, he agreed to serve as navigator for the man who owns the vessel.  He also got into a fight with the police.  His new employer hasn't paid his bills, so they both take off in a hurry to escape the authorities. 

The master of the spaceship claims to have a plan to win a vast fortune by journeying to a certain planet.  Humans from another world settled it long ago.  They have since degenerated into a pre-industrial society.  Also inhabiting the planet are sentient aliens who look exactly like pigs.  The humans hire them for various odd jobs, in exchange for beer.  Despite this arrangement, which benefits both species, the pigs have nothing but contempt for the humans, openly insulting them at every opportunity. 

The owner of the spaceship violates a serious taboo by offering to do business with the humans.  They consider paying a person for goods or services an unforgivable insult.  In their eyes, such things are fit only for the pigs.  So serious a breach of etiquette is this that they sentence the man to death by hanging.  The protagonist faces a similar fate, when he inadvertently offends his host by speaking words of flattery to the pigs.  Complications ensue.  The hero eventually finds out why the humans have lost their advanced technological skills, possess only shoddy goods, and depend on the pigs for labor.  He eventually manipulates both species into a new way of life, and lives happily ever after with the love of his life.

This is a tongue-in-cheek tale of adventure, with touches of comedy and satire.  Despite threats to his life, the protagonist never seems to be in any real danger.  The explanation for the ways the humans live is predictable, given a strong hint early in the story.  Although it provides some amusement, the story goes on too long to sustain its lighthearted tone. 

Two stars.

The Provenance of Swift, by Lyle G. Boyd

This is a mock article claiming to provide evidence that Jonathan Swift was a Martian.  Readers of Gulliver's Travels will not be surprised to learn that it is based on the odd coincidence that the great satirist wrote about Mars having two moons long before they were discovered.  Well aware that this has been pointed out many times before, the author provides other so-called proofs.  Incidents in the life of Swift are interpreted in outrageous ways.  Even if this is intended as a spoof of misguided scholarship, it's a one-joke parody.  If nothing else, the reader learns quite a bit about a gifted writer.  (Swift, that is, not Boyd.)

Two stars.

Alpha, Beta, Love…, by Bill Doede

A man and a woman land on a planet in order to find out if it is suitable for colonization.  It is inhabited by two disembodied beings in the form of glowing spheres, able to teleport at will, and to manipulate the minds and bodies of the humans.  One of the globes, who used to be male, is more-or-less friendly.  The other, who once inhabited a female body, is so resentful of never having had a love life that she attempts to kill the humans.  The human man figures out a way to block the aliens' telepathic powers through a technological trick which is not very convincing.

They next encounter a furry humanoid creature with sticky pads on its digits, like those of a gecko.  This meeting turns out to have more to do with the spheres than expected.  Other strange things happen, but what is really at stake is whether the woman will fall in love with the man or not. 

This is an odd story.  The author has an active imagination, but the plot never hangs together. 

Two stars.

When the Stars Answer, by T. K. Brown III

This tale of first contact begins with a history of radio astronomy, leading up to Project Ozma.  The fictional part begins when a spaceship arrives from the star 61 Cygni, in response to signals from Earth.  The sole passenger appears human, but has vastly superior intelligence.  There's a clever twist in the plot that should have ended the story.  Unfortunately, one final paragraph turns the whole thing into a silly farce.

Two stars.

A Message from Loki, by James Blish

A writer better known for fiction offers an article about Jupiter's Great Red Spot.  Based on the behavior of high winds on the surface of the Earth, he suggests that it might lie above a gigantic plateau.  Since we don't even know if Jupiter has a solid surface at all, this is highly speculative. 

Two stars.

The Transcendent Tigers, by R. A. Lafferty

A seven-year-old girl receives a red cap, along with other small gifts, on her birthday.  This gives her the power to do incredible things, from turning a hollow ball inside out without tearing it to solving an impossible wire puzzle.  Disaster soon follows.  Very few writers can pull off this strange kind of apocalyptic whimsy as well as Lafferty.  His use of unusual names, bizarre words, deadpan dialogue and narration, and quotes from fictional journals makes this tale of worldwide catastrophe charming. 

Four stars.

Little Dog Gone, by Robert F. Young

The magazine ends almost the same way it began, with a man waking up from a drunken spree to find himself far off in space.  In this case, the fellow is an actor, who destroyed his career with his drinking.  He winds up on a frontier colony planet.  The first creature he meets looks very much like an ordinary dog, but has the power to teleport.  The friendly little animal accompanies him into town.  There he meets a woman who used to play a sort of female Tarzan on interplanetary television.  Down on her luck, she now works at the local bar.  Together the three form a space-going medicine show, making use of the dog's ability.  Success leads the man to confront his past, and to make a decision about his future.  Readers familiar with the author's works will not be surprised to learn that this is a sentimental love story.  Nevertheless, although it wears its heart on its sleeve, it never becomes overly emotional. 

Four stars.

Summing up

From pigs to tigers to dogs, this issue provides a menagerie of science fiction.  Although not all the specimens on display are equally interesting, it's worth walking by their cages to see what weird creatures are looking back at you.

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TV

[December 15, 1963] Our First Outing Into Time And Space (Dr. Who: THE FIREMAKERS)

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By Jessica Holmes

Welcome back, class. I'm not sure why I'm calling you class. I'm not a teacher, but if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s waffling on at people who may or may not be listening to me. So, are we ready for some more Doctor Who? Our first serial just wrapped up, so it's time for a bit of a recap, and my thoughts.

We last saw the T.A.R.D.I.S having turned up in a desolate wasteland, observed by an unknown shadow. Where are we? Who was the shadow? Am I going to keep asking rhetorical questions?

Let's find out.

THE CAVE OF SKULLS

So, after the first installment I was rather looking forward to this one. I curled up with a nice cup of tea and a guinea pig – the best viewing partner.

The episode picks up where it left off in An Unearthly Child, with the shot of a shadow looming over the T.A.R.D.I.S. We cut away, and get to see who's casting the shadow: a rather grubby looking chap in desperate need of a good haircut. This is Kal, a Palaeolithic man, and contender for the leader of his tribe. Winter is fast approaching, their old firemaker is dead, and his son, Za, has no more idea of how to make a fire than any of the others. Control of the tribe will go to whomever becomes the new firemaker.


Kal and his mate, Hur, attempt to make fire. Close, but no cigar.

Within the T.A.R.D.I.S., Ian and Barbara are waking up, and much to the Doctor's (and my own) frustration, Ian is still under the impression that this is some sort of trick. The Doctor surmises that they all have travelled back in time. Of course Ian doesn't believe him, because apparently Ian's head is full of sawdust.

"If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?"
The Doctor

I couldn't have put it better myself. (In fairness to Ian, if I met an old man with a police box that was bigger on the inside and could travel back in time, and found myself in a junkyard one minute and a wasteland the next, I'd think I was either being tricked or going a bit loony.)

The doors of the T.A.R.D.I.S. open up, and off we go!

The Doctor and Susan notice to their dismay that their T.A.R.D.I.S. still looks like a police box. The ship is meant to disguise itself upon arriving in a new locale, but it hasn't happened this time. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the Doctor gets around to fixing it.

Unbeknownst to the group, our hairy friend Kal has been watching them closely, and is making his approach.

The Doctor, meanwhile, decides that now is a good time to smoke his pipe. However, as he strikes his match, Kal pounces on him. My own doctor does always say that smoking is bad for one's health.


Remember, kids. If you use tobacco, we can’t guarantee a caveman won’t suddenly pounce on you.

The rest of the group don’t take long to notice his absence. Susan completely loses her head; to say she doesn’t appear to cope well with stress would be putting it mildly. I do hope she toughens up a bit.

Kal arrives at his tribe’s cave with the Doctor slung over his shoulder, a mighty prize for the Doctor can make fire from his fingertips. The tribe gets straight to bickering over who gets to learn fire. It’s a lot like a Commons debate. The Doctor would happily give them fire, if only to shut them up, were it not for the fact that he’s all out of matchsticks.

It seems like all is lost for the Doctor when the rest of the group come charging in…and are captured immediately.

So much for a daring rescue.

The episode ends with our band of travellers being sealed into the eponymous Cave Of Skulls.


An interesting touch. I can’t be certain, but that looks like a genuine human skull to me.

This one was a bit slow at the start, and though I'm not averse to a bit of political drama, I can't really see that a child would much care for it.

THE FOREST OF FEAR

A week later for us (and no time at all for our characters), we follow on with the group trapped, the tribe planning to force the Doctor to make fire at sunrise, and all hope, seemingly, lost.

In the cave, the tribe sleep. One, however, does not: an elderly woman whose name I don't think we ever learn, which is surprising considering she might be one of the most important characters of the serial. She’s an old-fashioned cavewoman. Who needs this new-fangled fire? Everyone got along before fire, didn’t they?

The old woman steals a knife and slips away from the tribe. Last week, she wanted to kill the travellers. Looks like she's about to follow through, but someone has spotted her: Za's mate, Hur. I admit I only know that’s her name from the credits, as I don’t recall anyone ever referring to her by name within the episode proper.


It’s sharper than it looks.

Back in the creatively named CAVE OF SKULLS, the travellers are working on an escape. They're not getting far with their hands bound, but are at least starting to work together.

"Fear makes companions of all of us."
The Doctor

Companions. I like that.

Susan is the first to notice the old woman entering the cave, with a scream so shrill my poor guinea pig almost leapt off the couch and ran all the way home to his sisters. I think my ears are still ringing.

Hur wakes Za, and her suspicions are the same as mine. She reasons that if they stop the old woman from killing the companions, the Doctor will reward Za with fire. However, in a subversion of expectations, it turns out we were wrong. With the old woman’s help, our heroes escape, but the old woman isn't so lucky.

Za pursues them into the forest. Barbara loses her head as the group realises they are lost, and the Doctor and Ian begin to bicker, in a way that oddly mirrors the 'cave-men', over which of them is the leader. Looks like some things never change.


The dreaded boar.

At the sight of a dead boar, Barbara helpfully screams the whole forest down, alerting Za to their whereabouts. Well done, Barbara. Again, I do hope that the women of the group completely losing their senses at the first time of trouble doesn’t become a recurring trend.

Bad news: Za isn't the deadliest thing in the forest. Luckily for Barbara, the never-seen beast finds Za before it finds her. Za’s caterwauling echoes across the forest, and though he's been pursuing them, Barbara insists on going back to help. The Doctor, much disgruntled, brings up the rear of the group, preferring to leave Za to his fate and make their escape. Still, he won't abandon Susan, so the companions double back and find Za, horrifically wounded.

Back in the cave of skulls, a phrase I find myself compelled to say in a dramatic voice, I'm relieved to find the old woman is still alive. She seems like the only cave-person with her head screwed on properly. My relief turns to dread when Kal finds and interrogates her. He's not pleased she helped them. Not pleased one bit.

In the forest, our companions tend to Za, and Hur has some difficulty with the concept of kindness, something I find confusing. Paleolithic people were not mindless ‘savages’. Any human society, no matter how different from what you’d consider to be ‘civilisation’, must be based on cooperation and mutual aid if it is to function. In less clinical terms, kindness makes the world go round, and wherever and whenever you are, people are people.


The companions administer first aid to Za.

The Doctor, however, doesn't seem to be feeling kind. In fact, Ian has to stop him murdering poor Za with a rock. I like a grumpy hero, but not one who murders people. It has to be said that the Doctor doesn't seem like a terribly nice man, let alone a good one. I hope he softens up over time.

The companions move off, taking Za with them on an improvised stretcher, but back with the tribe, trouble stirs. The old woman is dead, and Kal is quick to accuse Za of the crime.

And it's in this frame of mind that the tribe surround our companions as they approach the T.A.R.D.I.S. It doesn't seem like everyone's going to make it out of this adventure in one piece.


So close, but so far away.

I enjoyed this episode more than last week’s, in spite of the quibbles I had. It was simply more exciting, with some good plot twists.

THE FIREMAKER

Here we come to the conclusion!

Our companions have been caught and brought back to the tribe, where Kal formally accuses Za of killing the old woman with his knife. But Kal didn't count on one thing—the Doctor.

The Doctor notices that there is no blood on Za's knife. Kal insists it's a bad knife, and almost like toying with a small child, the Doctor manipulates him into taking out his own knife to prove his is better. I can’t say whether this says more about the Doctor’s intelligence or Kal’s general lack of it. Sure enough, Kal’s knife is covered in blood.


The Doctor is on the case.

The tribe, egged on by the Doctor, casts Kal out into the wilderness, and Za seals the companions back into the cave of skulls. How's that for gratitude?

Hur, however, seems to have a brain cell or two to rub together, and fills him in on what the companions did for him after the beast attacked. Za becomes less hostile, but he still needs fire if he wants to lead. I think the old woman might have been right: the more I see of this tribe, the less I think they can be trusted with fire.

Za goes to the cave to speak with the companions, who are currently working on getting a fire going. The tribe believe that if they sacrifice the companions to the sun ('Orb'), it will give them fire. No need for that—Ian just managed to kindle a small flame.


Kal on the verge of learning a painful lesson: Fire hot.

However, Kal isn’t about to give up without a fight. He arrives at the cave, and attacks Za for control of the fire. In the ensuing fight, it's quite hard to tell what's going on, with the similar costumes and makeup for our two cavemen, but the scene itself looks good, with the flickering firelight dancing off the vicious fighters.


Za gains the upper hand.

In the end, Za is victorious, and emerges from the cave with a torch, having won the battle for leadership. However, though he has what he wanted, he decides to keep hold of the companions, and with them, a steady fire supply, so they take matters into their own hands.

Time for a cunning plan. It’s so cunning it will take your breath away:

Get a torch. Get a skull. Put the skull on the torch. Hide.

That’s it, that’s the full extent of the plan. Our companions make a break for it when the cave-people are too busy being scared out of what little wits they had.

Za, quick on the uptake as always, realises that the skulls on sticks are not any sort of demonic entity, and the tribe gives chase in a scene that, I'll be honest, is clearly limited by the confines of the studio. Lots of close-ups on panicked faces without any reference as to how close behind the tribe are. It doesn't do much for the tension.

The companions at long last make it back to the T.A.R.D.I.S. and take off. But where to? Who can say? Suffice it to say, it doesn’t look like Ian and Barbara are making it back to modern England any time soon. In fact, they land in a strange-looking forest, bone-white trees all around, and leave the T.A.R.D.I.S. after Susan checks the radiation meter and sees that it reads unthreatening levels.

However, it looks like they're in for a nasty surprise. Unseen by any of them, the needle is creeping up…

Final Thoughts

All in all, this trip in the T.A.R.D.I.S. was quite enjoyable, but didn't quite live up to the promise of its first instalment. Our characters are beginning to emerge, and though I like Ian and Barbara, I admit I find Susan a bit annoying, and the Doctor, though still my favourite by virtue of being the most interesting, could do with a lesson or two in humanity.

A positive aspect I'd like to note is the lack of an obvious 'goodie' outside of the main group. The politics of the cave are an ugly mess, and our companions are just unlucky enough to be stuck in the middle of it. I think there might be a metaphor in that, somewhere. It occurs to me now that though Za has fire, he still doesn’t know how to make more. What's going to happen to the tribe when the fire burns out? Is this group of early humans doomed?

So, though some bits were slower than others, I think we can safely say there's enough promise to stick with the series. I want to see more adventures from this crew of varying intrepidness, and I look forward to the next serial.

What's coming next, do we think? Another planet? The alien sand the Doctor promised? Or perhaps it could be our own far into the future. Or not so far, if you're feeling pessimistic.

I'll leave you all to mull it over.

Until next time, then!

3.5 out of 5 stars




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