Zero sum game
by Janice L. Newman
Ever since his masterful performance in “The Naked Time”, I’ve been eager to see more episodes featuring Leonard Nimoy’s half-Vulcanian, half-human character, “Spock”. This episode revolves around Spock, but it unfortunately does a poor job of what it sets out to do.
Continue reading [January 12, 1967] Most illogical (Star Trek: "The Galileo Seven")
But first, please read this brief interlude!
As you know, in addition to Galactic Journey, I also run Journey Press, devoted both to republishing classics discovered while on this trek through time, but also to publish new works of science fiction in fantasy that (I hope!) live up to the quality and tradition of the classic works we offer.
If anyone would enjoy these works, we know it will be you. This holiday season, pick up a title or three from Journey Press! It's the best present you can give yourself, a loved one…and us!
The Sum of its Parts
by Janice L. Newman
Back in July, a few Journeyers were lucky enough to catch a private showing of "The Cage", the first pilot of the new Star Trek series. I say ‘first’ pilot, because despite the amount of money invested in making it, it was never publicly aired on TV, which seemed a shame. Still, it’s understandable – the cast and crew of the ship are almost completely different from the actors who were finally chosen for the TV show, with only Mr. Spock appearing in the same role in both. (Majel Barett appears in both, but as different characters.)
But isn’t it a waste to spend so much and work so hard on a great episode like "The Cage" and then not use it? Desilu, the studio producing Star Trek, must have thought so. They decided to use the footage after all, but in one of the most innovative ways I’ve ever seen – appropriate for a modern, forward-thinking science fiction show.
Gene Roddenberry took the original episode and wrote a new story around it, turning into a 2-part episode that frames the "The Cage" in a way that is both compelling and fits well into the narrative and characters as they have been established in the past 10 episodes.
Continue reading [December 4, 1966] Riddle wrapped in an enigma (Star Trek: "The Menagerie")
Two for the Price of One
by Janice L. Newman
Some stories become seminal. They are told and re-told, with additions and variations, but always at heart recognizable. The heartwarming tale of A Christmas Carol, the story of Frankenstein, the great, sweeping drama of Romeo and Juliet – elements of each of these have become embedded in our culture and our consciousness.
Tonight’s Star Trek episode drew from one such cultural touchstone: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. You can already guess, just from knowing that much, what it’s about. But is it well done?
Continue reading [October 12, 1966] Inside Out (Star Trek's "The Enemy Within")
A New Tradition
by Janice L. Newman
It’s official, we now have a “Star Trek” night at our house each week, when we gather our friends and watch the latest episode. Though we’ve only watched two episodes so far, the show is off to an interesting start! This week we saw “Charlie X”, which had thematic similarities to both of the pilots we saw at Tricon.
Continue reading [September 20, 1966] In the hands of an adolescent (Star Trek's "Charlie X")
by Janice L. Newman
Sibyl Sue Blue was not what I expected.
Set in the futuristic year of 1990, Rosel George Brown’s Sibyl Sue Blue takes place in a world both like and unlike today’s world of 1966. Sibyl is a tenacious and smart detective working for the city’s homicide department. When a series of bizarre ‘suicides’ start plaguing the city’s youth, she’s called in to investigate. As she follows the clues, she’s drawn into increasingly strange events, from trying alien drugs to being invited to join a spacefaring millionaire on an off-world jaunt.
Sounds like fun, right? Yet when Judith Merril told me the other day that she’ll be reviewing it in an upcoming issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction, she mentioned that “…under all the froth and fun and furious action, there is more acute comment on contemporary society than you are likely to find in any half dozen deadly serious social novels.”
She’s right!
The cover of Sibyl Sue Blue shows her smoking her signature cigar.
Continue reading [July 10, 1966] Froth, Fun, and Serious Social Commentary (Sibyl Sue Blue)
by Janice L. Newman
TV Christmas
The holidays are here! In other times and places, people gather or huddle around a bright, crackling fire, drinking hot cider and pressing close to keep out winter’s chill. In the Traveler’s house, here in Southern California in the year of 1965, we gather around a bright, staticky TV screen, watching movies and sipping Ovaltine as the Santa Ana winds bluster outside our windows.
And that is how we came to see a pair of Christmas-themed features on our small screen in the first half of December.
Devil or Angel
by Janice L. Newman
Seven Days in May premiered three nights ago! My husband and I made sure to get to the theater early, as we wanted to claim good seats for this star-studded and much anticipated political drama. Given the amount of talent assembled both in front of and behind the camera, there was no way the film would be a disaster. At the same time, Seven Days in May wasn’t quite an unmitigated success. The film is a flawed jewel, the minor imperfections standing out all the more so against the clarity and glitter of an otherwise perfect gem.
Continue reading [February 15, 1964] Flaws in the seventh facet (Seven Days in May)
![[January 12, 1967] Most illogical (<i>Star Trek</i>: "The Galileo Seven")](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/670112title-672x372.jpg)
![[December 4, 1966] Riddle wrapped in an enigma (<i>Star Trek</i>: "The Menagerie")](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/661204title-672x372.jpg)
![[October 12, 1966] Inside Out (<i>Star Trek's</i> "The Enemy Within")](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/661012title-672x372.jpg)
![[September 20, 1966] In the hands of an adolescent (<i>Star Trek</i>'s "Charlie X")](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/660920a-672x372.jpg)
![[July 10, 1966] Froth, Fun, and Serious Social Commentary (<i>Sibyl Sue Blue</i>)](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sibyl_Sue_1966-452x372.jpg)
![[December 12, 1965] Something Old, something New (<i>The Bishop's Wife</i> and <i>A Charlie Brown Christmas</i>](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/651212feature-672x372.jpg)
![[February 15, 1964] Flaws in the seventh facet (<i>Seven Days in May</i>)](https://galacticjourney.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/640212may-672x372.png)