By Mx Kris Vyas-Myall
My area of the UK (considered either the Northern Home Counties or Southern Midlands depending on who you speak to) is not a particularly densely populated region. Even with commuter growth since the War, there are only two towns within 50 miles that contain over 100,000 people. This is all set to change with a new government plan.
Plan for new town (red dot is where I live)
The £700m plan for a new town has been approved. Called Milton Keynes (from a small village on part of the site) it is set to house 250,000 people before the end of the century and to be one of the biggest experiments in urban planning in British history.
Example housing estate plan
First off, the city is designed to appeal to both ends of the social spectrum. For the upwardly mobile it is designed with the car-driving homeowner in mind. As many as half of properties are to be for sale rather than rented and with a density of 10 people per acre, to ensure that the managerial class don’t feel squeezed in. Also, the road system is designed on a grid to ease congestion with places of employment spread throughout the city, to stop rush hour traffic.
Zoning masterplan. Yellow is residential, purple employment, red commercial, blue education, green is for parks
For those less well off, there will be wide walkways for the handicapped to travel on easily and the development of a “dial-a-bus” service, ensuring that a bus will pick you up only a short walk from your house in a short period of time.
I could spend an entire article and not get close to all the experimentation to take place in Milton Keynes. The city of the future is coming soon!
Back in the magazines though, things seem to be heading in the opposite direction, as Vision of Tomorrow takes a turn towards the past:
Vision of Tomorrow #7
Cover Illustration: Jupiter as seen from Callisto by David A. Hardy
Editorial: Something Old, Something New by Philip Harbottle
Harbottle is back in the editorial space but for good reason. He wants to explain that the previously unpublished John Russell Fearn story in this issue came about due to the Impatient Dreamers articles. In digging through his old files on Tales of Wonder, Gillings found that Fearn had never requested its return and JRF’s widow gave permission for its reprinting here.
Rejection Syndrome by Douglas R. Mason
Illustrated by Eddie Jones
Martin Almond goes in to hospital and accidentally gets fitted with the cybernetic leg of Agent Hazard, an assassin.
At times it seemed like it was going to be similar to We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, but it ended up being more pedestrian with some outdated statements about women.
Two Stars
Zwoppover by Jack Wodhams
Illustrated by Eddie Jones
Zwopp is a planet where travel to and from is banned. This is because the predominant species, the Zwoppova, have the ability to swap bodies, leaving trails of mischief in their wake. When one arrives on Earth, it is up to Jodell to track it down.
Oh, another Wodhams comedy! What joy! And one that goes on for 13 pages. Obviously, someone must like these as they appear with such regularity, but I am always glad when they are finally over.
One Star
Rebirth by Lee Harding
Illustrated by Eddie Jones
At some time in the remote past, mankind spread out from the lost first world. Now the controllers are working their way backwards repopulating the lost planets of man with synthetic beings. However, on this particular world, their creations are ignoring their programming.
It is surprising to see such an old-fashioned tale from Lee Harding. This feels like it should have come out thirty years ago and, even then, it would probably have been considered forgettable.
Two Stars
Moons of Jupiter by David A. Hardy
A new science fact section for the magazine. This one giving us a quick rundown of Jupiter’s satellites.
Fine for what it is, but at only a single page it doesn’t feel that different from what I would read in an encyclopedia or children’s comic book.
Three Stars
Into the Unknown by John Russell Fearn
Illustrated by Eddie Jones
As is noted in the introduction, this is a previously unreleased story from Harbottle’s favourite writer. Dr. Cassell Turman has developed his own form of Time Machine. Time cannot be travelled on as a dimension but rather the forces of “progress” can be sent backwards, reversing time for inanimate objects and plants but leaving animals unaffected. Unfortunately, he fails to set up the forcefields correctly. The whole human race is tumbled back in time with there being no way of turning off the machine (as it no longer exists once progress has started).
This is a pulp-era take on the Counter-Clock World idea, but unfortunately not a very interesting one. Long conversations and over-descriptions accompany people plodding around the Earth until its birth (and their death). The best that could be said is it may teach some people facts about geology, but nothing I didn’t already know.
One Star
The Impatient Dreamers: Something Old, Something New by Walter Gillings
Reproduction of the cover of the first issue of Fantasy showing Menace of the Metal Men. Illustrated by S. R. Drigin.
Gillings continues his journey through the early British SF magazines, comparing the contents of magazines Tales of Wonder and Fantasy before the Second World War’s paper rationing cut short their publications.
This section gets a bit too far into the weeds for my liking, but it is still good and may well appeal more to other fans. Of particular interest are the aims of the two magazines. Wonder believed the British public wasn’t ready for more imaginative science fiction, whilst Fantasy wanted to push the boundaries to be able to compete with American magazines.
Four Stars
Fantasy Review
Illustrated by Eddie Jones
Katheryn Buckley reviews William Temple’s The Fleshpots of Sanasto, which she felt worked well as traditional science fiction but has criticism of some sections, particularly his depiction of Autism. John Foyster reviews Jirel of Joiry by CL Moore, for which he has high praise, but is less impressed with Science Fiction Yearbook Number 3, criticizing it for containing a poor selection of tales compared with the prior volumes.
Limbo Rider by Sydney J. Bounds
Illustrated by Eddie Jones
In order to colonise the galaxy, the Space-Time Shunt is developed, allowing ships to drop out of normal space into “Limbo” and then reappear across the galaxy. Although most of the bugs have now been worked out of the system the ghosts of those lost still reach out when in Limbo. As such, only schizophrenics are allowed to fly the colonist ships as they can survive repeated trips without losing their minds. Larry Comber is one such person piloting the starship Ganges, but he finds himself struggling to resist the siren call of Limbo.
A not very original tale, I was particularly reminded of the Out of the Unknown episode Lambda 1, but it is neatly told for a vignette.
A low three stars
Vision’s Australian Personalities and Contributors
And we finish with a photo collage of some regular contributors to the magazine. Strong beard representation here.
Neither economical nor poetic
Whilst Milton Keynes may evoke the names of a famous Poet and Economist, the same cannot be said for the contents of this issue of Vision of Tomorrow. After seeming like it was finally getting a handle on producing great modern science fiction, I felt as though I was back reading issues of Famous.
Looking at next month’s contents I am nervous at the return of Ken Bulmer and another John Russell Fearn story. Hopefully my fears are unfounded and Harbottle can build a truly modern city in these pages, rather than being the kind of forgotten footnote a new Gillings will write about in forty years.
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
