Tag Archives: television

TV

(May 20, 1963) More wooden acting (The British show, Space Patrol )

9 Comments


By Ashley R. Pollard

The United Kingdom has recently been blessed with yet another televised science fiction spectacular: Space Patrol, is a brand new puppet show produced by Roberta Leigh for the Associated British Corporation. (I'm informed that this new series will be renamed when it's shown on American TV to Planet Patrol.)

Set in the year 2100, the story chronicles the adventures of Captain Larry Dart and the crew of Galasphere 347. He is aided by Slim from Venus, and Husky from Mars. The former elfin like, the latter stocky with a love for sausages.

They work for the United Galactic Organization whose headquarters are set in New York.

There is also a large supporting cast including: Colonel Raeburn their boss, and Marla his blonde assistant from Venus, who gets this wonderful line of dialogue: "There are no dumb blondes on Venus." They're joined on occasion by Professor Aloysius O’Brien O’Rourke Haggerty, and his daughter Cassiopeia. Appearing with them is their pet Martian parrot called, Gabblerdictum.

Space Patrol's creator, Roberta Leigh (actually Rita Lewin née Shulman) is what I understand Americans call a bit of a mover and shaker.

Not only is she the first woman to own her own television production company — National Interest Pictures — but she's also an author with her novel In Name Only, published in 1950. In addition, she is also an accomplished abstract artist, and music composer.

I became aware of her first through the children's show Sara and Hoppity, about a dolls hospital, which was based on one of her novels. But, she's probably better known for her collaboration with AP Films who produced Torchy the Battery Boy, a charming and delightful children's show directed by Gerry Anderson.

While Hoppity and Torchy were both aimed at the younger audience, Patrol looks to be aimed at a slightly older age group. Driven by the current interest in all things to do with space, this show introduces science fiction to a receptive audience.

Or at least, so I surmise from the reaction of my friend's young son whom I babysit, who sat enraptured while watching the first episode, as he did watching the other popular SF marionette shows, Supercar and Fireball XL5. Like Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation series', Space Patrol puppets have mouth movements that are synchronized with the voice actors' words.

Also of note, is the use of electronic music for the opening and closing credits, composed by Roberta Leigh. She really is a polymath of some considerable talent. While this is not the first time electronic music has been used for a production, as that credit must go to my favourite SF film of all time, Forbidden Planet, it's still a first for television. One wonders if it will set a trend for British SF shows.

So far six episodes of Space Patrol have been transmitted:

The first, The Swamps of Jupiter, involves the crew being sent to investigate a scientific base they've lost contact with on Jupiter. OK, we shall have to overlook the small fact that Jupiter is a gas giant.

But what's interesting is that in many other respects the story sticks to what might be considered plausible science, in particular, transit time. The crew therefore travel in a freezer for their three-month journey from Earth to Jupiter. Compare this to how space travel and distances are dealt with in Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL5. In Space Patrol ships take months to travel around the Solar system while Fireball XL5 travels to other stars in no time at all.

Anyway, Swamps has the crew stop Martian hunters who murdered all the scientists, and who are now hunting and killing sentient aliens for their fur. Boo hiss. But Captain Dart and Crewman Husky bring them to justice.

The second episode, The Wandering Asteroid, sees our intrepid heroes take on the mission to destroy a rogue asteroid that is heading towards the Martian capital of Wotan. Given the increased awareness in the threat that asteroids pose to life on Earth, this seems a most apt subject for a series about travel in space.

I'm sure this would make a good plot for a large budget Hollywood action film.

In episode three, The Dark Planet, we are introduced to Professor Haggerty and his daughter Cassiopeia. They're scientists researching plants from Uranus that appear to think. After twenty people sent to survey Uranus are lost, the crew of Galasphere 347 go to investigate. The plants turn out to be less than friendly, and I don't know why, but the story reminded me of the 1960 Roger Corman movie, Little Shop of Horrors, with talking plants killing people.

Episode four is called, The Slaves of Neptune, a title that elicits a da, da, dum for setting the tone of the story. Galasphere 347 is sent to investigate. They discover that a Neptunian overlord named Tyro is behind the mysterious disappearance of a colony spaceship. He's using his dastardly hypnotic power to enslave people.

The fifth episode is called, The Fires of Mercury. The story is driven by the freezing conditions threatening the colony on Pluto. Marla, the very smart blonde Venusian assistant to Colonel Raeburn, realizes that the disaster can be alleviated by transmitting energy from Mercury using Professor Haggerty's invention that converts heat into radio waves.

The last episode I've watched was The Shrinking Spaceman. The gallant crew of Galasphere 347 go off to repair a sonar beam transmitter in the asteroid belt and Husky the Martian shrinks after cutting himself on one of the rocks. Put into suspended animation and taken back to Earth, Professor Haggerty is in a race against time to save him.

In Space Patrol mankind has met aliens from stars, and law and order is being brought to the worlds. At the end of each episode we see a city of the future, clean and marvelous.  The age to come certainly looks promising, and with another twenty episodes to be aired, our immediate future also looks bright.




9 Comments Leave A Comment
TV

[May 4, 1963] The Twilight Zone, Season 4, Episodes 13-16

4 Comments


by Natalie Devitt

Last month I touched on the possibility that The Twilight Zone could be running out of ideas, considering that a number of the stories seemed to rehash a number of previously done storylines. I concluded that as long as the recycled stories seemed to work, I was not going to judge the episodes too harshly. That is, until April’s episodes aired. So, which episodes fared the best?

The New Exhibit, by Charles Beaumont

If you have a taste for the macabre, you’ll surely love The New Exhibit. The episode is the story of a dedicated wax museum employee by the name of Martin, who loves his job so much that he takes it home with him. Martin, played by actor Martin Balsam, someone who you may recognize from Psycho and The Twilight Zone's The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine, is informed by his employer that the wax museum where he curates an exhibit called “Murderer’s Row” will be closing soon.

Upon hearing the news, Martin offers to watch over the figures that he has spent years meticulously caring for, until a buyer for the figures can be found. He houses the sculptures in his basement, much to his wife’s dismay. As time passes, Martin begins to care a little bit too much to the effigies of famous murders, like Jack the Ripper and Henri Désiré Landru.

The New Exhibit brilliantly captures one man’s descent into madness. There is not one scene that does not advance the plot. With each moment, the audience sees the great lengths that Martin is willing to go in order to keep the wax figures to himself.

To top things off, Martin Balsam does a great job of playing a man who has an increasingly difficult time telling the difference between fantasy and reality. A man who begins the story innocently wondering what could drive a man to commit some pretty heinous crimes, but then turns into a man who may be willing to commit a few heinous crimes of his own.

Aside from the fairly predictable ending, I really enjoyed The New Exhibit. I give it four stars.

Of Late I Think of Cliffordville, by Rod Serling (based on "Blind Alley," by Malcolm Jameson)

In Of Late I Think of Cliffordville, character actor Albert Salmi plays William, an aging business man, who after achieving great success still feels unfulfilled. One night after work, he gets drunk and confesses to the janitor at his office that his achievements mean nothing, and that he would like nothing more than to return to his hometown of Cliffordville, Indiana.

Shortly after this confession, he discovers a new travel agency in his office building. The travel agency is owned by a striking young woman named Miss Devlin, played by statuesque dancer-turned-actress, Julie Newmar. Miss Devlin, who wastes no time revealing that she is the devil, offers to send William back to his boyhood home of Cliffordville. Insisting that he can keep the knowledge that he has gained over his life, but still start over looking like a young adult, William agrees to Miss Devlin’s offer.

How long has it been since we had a story about some man who tries to change the past or makes a deal with the devil? The answer: one month. I know these have been reoccurring stories throughout the series, but I have to wonder if The Twilight Zone has gotten so desperate for stories that they don’t even bother waiting to recycle their ideas anymore.

To make matters worse, I do not really believe Albert Salmi in the scenes where he plays an older version of William. While the episode’s special effects makeup looks fine, it is not great. Additionally, Albert struggles to really disappear into his role as an old man looking back on his life. On the other hand, Julie Newmar makes a very charming villain in this episode.

This episode never really seems to hit its stride. For that reason, I give it two stars.

The Incredible World of Horace Ford, by Reginald Rose

The Incredible World of Horace Ford is about a man consumed by the past. His name is Horace and is played by Pat Hingle. He is in his late thirties, married and has a job designing toys. Wracked with stress for having to be his family’s breadwinner, he escapes by spending most of his days thinking and talking about his childhood.

One day Horace decides to visit his childhood neighborhood, and to his surprise he finds that not a single thing has changed. He returns few more times to find that it is as if the past keeps on playing again and again. If that was not strange enough, he also finds that the boys he knew as a child never grew up. Horace soon realizes through these trips down memory lane that the past is not exactly the way that he remembers it.

While I do not think an audience needs to like a character, they do need to care about them. I hate to admit that I struggled to care about Horace. Pat Hingle is a perfectly capable actor, but I think he may have been miscast as Horace. He just seemed like an annoying man-child. Also, some of the dialogue involving Horace’s overbearing mother, did not flow very well and at times was unintentionally funny.

Overall, this episode was very unsatisfying. I really hate to give it only one and half stars.

With the exception of the stellar The New Exhibit, this was easily the least enjoyable bunch of episodes I have watched this season. I really hope that things improve. We only have a few more episodes left in the season.



!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

4 Comments Leave A Comment
TV

[April 7, 1963] The Twilight Zone, Season 4, Episodes 9-12

1 Comment


by Natalie Devitt

This past month on The Twilight Zone has been quite the experience. It has included anything from deals with the devil to time travel. It has also thrown in parallel universes and wish granting genies just for fun. If any of those things sound familiar, there may be good reason. The show does seem to be rehashing some old ideas. So, has The Twilight Zone finally run out of steam, or is it just offering new interpretations of some old classics? After four seasons one thing is for sure: anything is possible in The Twilight Zone.

Printer’s Devil, by Charles Beaumont

What is the price you would pay for one last chance at achieving a dream? That is the question that Douglas Winter, played by Robert Sterling, has to wrestle with in Printer’s Devil. Douglas is the editor of a failing newspaper called The Courier. Faced with the possibility of the paper, to which he has dedicated his life, folding, Douglas contemplates suicide. He drives himself out to a local bridge in the middle of the night, hoping to end it all there.

At the bridge, he meets a mysterious stranger named Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith is played by Twilight Zone favorite Burgess Meredith. Mr. Smith offers Douglas everything he needs in order to keep The Courier in business. In no time, the paper is beating its competition to the latest scoop. In this surprisingly strong update of Faust, Douglas begins to question if his paper’s success is worth the price he will have to pay Mr. Smith, who is really the devil in disguise.

A story about someone selling their soul to the devil is hardly a new one. The episode’s writer, Charles Beaumont, knows that and has fun with the cliché in his script. Mr. Smith even makes jokes about the rumors that violinist Niccolò Paganini sold his soul to the devil to become a virtuoso. In addition, the script does not waste time revealing that Mr. Smith is the devil. In fact, during his first scene on screen, Mr. Smith is shown lighting his crooked cigar with his fingertip, so the viewer is aware of Mr. Smith's diabolic nature from the get-go. The story spends most of the time focusing on the characters and their motivations, which I feel helps to make this version of a classic bargain work surprisingly well.

The story’s script is made even better by Burgess Meredith’s mischievous performance as Mr. Smith. He really seems to relish his role without being hammy as he tells Douglas that no modern man could possibly believe that he could sell his soul to the devil, and that the contract he drew up for Douglas’ soul was just him being an eccentric old man.

This episode offers a new twist on an old tale. I give it three and a half stars.

No Time Like the Past, by Rod Serling

Dana Andrews stars as Paul Driscoll, a man who thinks he has the solution for the problems that plague the world today. He uses a time machine in hopes of altering the past and preventing the world’s current problems. He tries going back to Hiroshima in 1945, just in time to warn people about the atomic bomb. There, he is dismissed as being crazy, so he then tries going back to Berlin in 1939 to assassinate Hitler. His plans are foiled, so he travels back to 1915 to stop the RMS Lusitania from being torpedoed by a German U-boat. Once again, things do not go as planned.

Douglas’ failed attempts to alter the past cause him to conclude that the past cannot be changed. He decides to time travel one last time, this time to Homeville, Indiana in the year 1881, where he says he plans to go, “to live, not to change anything.“ It is a place where he could be free of the all the problems in the present day. Only, once again, things do not go quite as well as he hopes.

It turns out that the good old days are not quite as good as he imagined they would be. Bad things continue to happen all around him, and he still is powerless to do anything. Even if he could change things, he considers the possibility that his actions cause a chain reaction for things to change for the worse. One thing is certain, though. Having come from the future, he can predict every historical event or disaster before it actually happens, which has its disadvantages.

This is another story with a familiar theme — the episode Back There tread similar ground. That said, this episode is not bad, but it takes a while to get going. At first, it jumps from time to time, with transitions not as smooth as they could have been. Once the story does stay for a while in a single time period, as it does in 1881, the episode improves dramatically.

This episode was a perfectly fine way to spend a Thursday night. It deserves three stars.

The Parallel, by Rod Serling

Robert Gaines, played by Steve Forrest, is an astronaut who has returned to Earth from space. He blacks out shortly before landing, but he somehow manages to get land and everything seems fine at first. As he tries to transition back into everyday life, he finds that life back on Earth is not quite the way he remembers it. His house is a little different, his wife seems uncomfortable when he shows her affection, his colleagues cannot remember his proper ranking at work, nobody knows that John F. Kennedy is president, and one day, his daughter tells him that she does not know who he is. Robert comes to the conclusion that he must have landed in a parallel universe, but not everyone agrees with him.

This is an episode that really uses the hour long length to its advantage. It uses the extra time to build suspense as the people closest to Robert begin to question his sanity due to all of his theories about parallel time. Additionally, a number of sequences, including one in a hospital and some at the space station, use a lot things like low key lighting and lots of shadows to intensify the atmosphere of fear and suspicion in a manner similar to that used in film noir and horror films.

Unfortunately, the ending was not quite as strong as the rest of the episode, but overall this episode was pretty good. It earns three stars from me.

I Dream of Genie, by John Furia, Jr.

I Dream of Genie tells the story of a perpetually unlucky nebbish named George Hanley, played by Howard Morris, who purchases an oil lamp. While trying to clean the lamp, he accidentally rubs it and releases its genie. Out of his lamp, the genie reveals himself to be a cranky old man, who does not look or act like your traditional genie. For example, he wears modern western clothing. The genie tells George that he will grant him only one wish. George works through his options in fantasy first, so as to make the best decision. He imagines himself married to a beautiful secretary from work, then being rich, and finally, becoming the President. Sadly, even in his dreams, he cannot seem to catch a break.

When I realized that this episode would be a comedy, I was excited about the possible change of pace. Perhaps it would provide some much needed relief from the darker and more serious tones of the previous episodes. I could not have been more wrong. The generally good acting can save even the worst episodes of this series, but that is not the case this time around. The acting was so over the top, and not in an entertaining way. This was especially the case in scenes where George is trying to win the love of his coworker, Ann. The fact that this episode was an hour long made it even harder to watch. To make matters worse, George’s final wish does not reward the viewer for not changing the station.

The Twilight Zone has made better episodes about lonely and down on their luck men who finally seem to get a chance to turn their lives around. Incorporating comedy into this series has been a risk that often does not seem to pay off. This episodes was sadly not an exception to that rule.

All I can give this episode is one star, which I hate to admit is probably being generous.

The Twilight Zone revisited some familiar stories and themes this time around, which actually seemed to work most of the time. It remains to be seen if this will continue to be the case. I will just have to keeping on watching to find out. I hope you'll join me — both misery and joy love company.



!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

1 Comment Leave A Comment
TV

[March 10, 1963] The Twilight Zone, Season 4, Episodes 5-8

3 Comments

[We have a special treat for you, today. One of the Journey's long-time followers has prepared a review of the latest episodes of The Twilight Zone. Natalie describes herself as having "devoted her life to finding the best and the worst popular culture has to offer. Areas of expertise include music, movies and television." I hope you enjoy her words as much as I did…and perhaps we can convince her to return?]


by Natalie Devitt

As you know by now, The Twilight Zone is no longer the most consistently good show. Episodes have been varying dramatically in terms of quality. The longer episodes this season have not helped matters. Some episodes seem padded to add time to stretch to the full hour, while others would probably work better as feature length films. That was certainly the case with some of the episodes this past month, but the episodes were not without moments of brilliance.

Mute, by Richard Matheson

Mute is the story of a young girl named Ilse, who is used as a test subject by her parents. Her parents are members of an organization that studies telepathy. Even though Ilse is perfectly capable of learning how to speak, as part of a deal with other members of the organization, her parents raise her to communicate using only telepathy and document the results for other members of their organization.

Sadly, her parents never seem to consider what would happen to Ilse if they were no longer able to care for her. So, when the family’s home suddenly burns down one night, killing both of her mother and her father, Ilse is left without the means to communicate with those around her. Luckily, the local sheriff and his wife offer her a place to stay, while they try to contact her next of kin. In the meantime, they enroll her in school, assuming that the school would teach her everything thing she needs to know in order to assimilate.

I hate to admit that after last season’s Little Girl Lost, I expected a higher caliber of work from screenwriter Richard Matheson. This episode does not seem to work as an hour long story. What could be an interesting episode about the pressure to conform or adults not always knowing what is best for children, turns into an episode that fails to leave any lasting impression.

That said, Ann Jullian, who you may remember in Babes in Toyland and Gypsy, does a fine job as Ilse. In addition, the camera work with its frequent tilts and pans, effectively conveys Ilse’s feelings of being disoriented as she transitions from having lived in silence to being thrown into a world of filled sound. The episode deserves two and a half stars.

Death Ship, by Richard Matheson

This episode gives a glimpse into the future. In the year 1997, Earth is overpopulated, so humans are in need of a new planet to colonize. A crew aboard a spaceship set out on an expedition in hopes of finding one. Once they finally land on a planet that they think has potential, they find a spaceship that bears a striking resemblance to their own. After assessing the situation, they enter the spaceship only to find a crew that looks just like them — except for one thing, the men in the spaceship are dead. The living crew struggle to find an explanation for how the ship and their deceased doppelgangers ended up on the planet, and how they can avoid meeting a similar fate.

This episode stars Jack Klugman and Ross Martin, and is a pretty consistently good episode. It can be at times fairly predictable. My biggest complaint is that a number of the sets have clearly been reused in order to cut costs. Even though the episode did not offer anything new visually, I still give it three stars.

Jess-Bell, by Earl Hammer Jr.

There is something special about Jess-Belle, a tale of obsession that aired just in time for Valentine’s Day. This episode takes place in the not too distant past of the Appalachian Mountains. The title character in the episode is played by an unrecognizable Anne Francis, best known for her work as Altaira in Forbidden Planet. This time the usually blonde actress is sporting a black wig and playing a desperate young woman, who enlists the help of a local witch, referred to as Granny Hart, to win back a former lover by the name of Billy Ben. Billy Ben is played by Western regular James Best. Not surprisingly, trouble ensues.

Anytime a blonde actress wears a dark wig and flirts with the dark side, you know what you are watching is bound to be entertaining, even if it is not in the way originally intended. To its credit, though, Jess-Belle manages to be very effective with its strong performances and haunting atmosphere, despite most of its characters being hillbilly stereotypes. I could not get this episode out of my head for days, so for that reason I give it four stars.

Miniature, by Charles Beaumont

This episode is about a character named Charley, who is played brilliantly by Robert Duvall. He is in his thirties and still lives at home with his controlling mother. He struggles to hold down a job or find a mate.

One day on a trip to the museum he finds the excitement he craves in the most unlikely of places, inside a dollhouse. The only problem is that nobody else seems to realize that a beautiful doll in the museum dollhouse is alive. Most of the story revolves around his overbearing mother and well-meaning sister trying to help him meet all of the markers of an ordinary adult life. The more his family members try to help him out of his state of arrested development, the more Charley escapes into fantasies of a love affair with the doll.

The years Robert Duvall spent honing his acting skills in the theatre world have finally paid off, because I cannot praise him enough for his work in this episode. Sometimes when actors transition from theater to television, they can be overly dramatic, because they are used to playing to the back of the house. That is certainly not the case with Robert Duvall‘s subtle performance in Miniature.

Charley, if played by a less skilled actor could seem pathetic, because he is almost unbelievably passive at work and at home. Also, his imaginary relationship with the doll could have come across as being creepy in the wrong hands. Robert’s approach to the character, makes the episode incredibly touching, even to viewers who may not relate to Charley. The acting alone earns the episode a solid three stars.

The most recent episodes certainly had their flaws, but I still found them enjoyable to watch. I am curious to see what the rest of the season has to offer.




3 Comments Leave A Comment
TV

[February 4, 1963] Fiddler in the Zone (a most unusual episode of Serling's show)

4 Comments

[If you live in Southern California, you can see the Journey LIVE at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego, 2 p.m. on February 17!]


by Victoria Lucas

Now that the Traveler has treated you to a review of the first four episodes of the new season of Twilight Zone, I thought you would like to hear about the secret fifth episode that aired last month, but not on Friday at 9:00 PM…

Most evenings I’m out, doing little theatre, or in, typing to supplement my income, but on January 15th, I had just finished a thesis and the drama season hadn’t recovered from the holidays yet, so I twiddled the dial on the television and there he was, “Old Blue Eyes.” Also known as Jack Benny, a fellow who has been on TV for more than a decade. 

A brief intro from the University of Arizona’s biography stacks: this graduate of vaudeville, like my mother, found his way onto radio in the 1930s and (unlike my mother), then into television.  Born Benny Kubelski and trained on the violin since age 6, Benny pretends to play badly, won’t reveal his age (which is perpetually 39), and is fully aware of his own ridiculousness–as evinced by his frequent, off-stage stares.

I have a feeling that SFF-lovers likely know Rod Serling and his “Twilight Zone” better than they know Benny and his menage of characters that include his wife, Mary Livingston, and vaudeville comedian Eddie Anderson (“Rochester”).  Of course, I could be wrong.  I am discovering that fans are a diverse lot.

Anyway, the plot of the January 15 show involves Benny pretending to try to hire Serling to add some culture to his uncouth “writers,” one of whom Serling says “can type with his toes.” Although they don’t know about Twilight Zone, they do know about “Wreck of a Heavyweight” (Requiem for a Heavyweight, which earned Serling his second Emmy).

When (predictably) Serling emerges disheveled a second time from the writers’ den, he and Benny decide to call it quits on the idea of making Benny’s scripts better, and he and Serling part friends.  However, Benny isn’t satisfied with Serling’s explanation of what the “Twilight Zone” is.  After Serling leaves and as Benny gets ready to leave his office, he opines to himself, “I can’t get over it.  An intelligent fella like him trying to tell me that there’s a Twilight Zone, a thing, a place!  Oh, well.”

As Benny walks home in the dark, a Twilight Zone-like fog envelops him and the music takes off on a Twilight Zone-like theme.  Before long he runs into a sign reading, “Welcome to Twilight Zone.  Population unlimited. [an arrow left] Subconscious 27 Mi./ [an arrow right] Reality 35 Mi.” (It gets a laugh, if only canned.) Benny finally sees his house across the street and goes and rings the bell.  Rochester answers but doesn’t recognize Benny.  Rochester calls on his employer, “Mr. Zone” (Serling) to deal with the situation, and Serling explains that the town is named after him (“You can call me Twi”), and he is the mayor.

Benny accuses Serling, Rochester, and tenor Dennis Day from his show of gaslighting him (credit to Ingrid Bergman in the 1944 film Gaslight).  But Serling has the last word within the teleplay: “Anybody who claims to be 39 as long as he has is a permanent resident of the Twilight Zone.”

I love it.  I hope you get a chance to see this episode in the summer reruns .  Benny is silly, funny, and one of the architects of my sense of humor, which runs to the dry and ironic.  I listened to his show when I was a little girl playing in the dirt with my two-inch-long toy cars a few feet from my father’s workshop, where he always had the radio comedy shows playing on the long summer nights: Benny, Edgar Bergen (whom I saw in Tucson!), Fibber McGee and Molly, Burns and Allen, Fred Allen, Duffy’s Tavern.  They will always make me laugh.  Unlike Twilight Zone, which I also watch — but not for the humor.

[P.S. If you registered for WorldCon this year, please consider nominating Galactic Journey for the "Best Fanzine" Hugo.  Check your mail for instructions…]




4 Comments Leave A Comment
TV

[February 2, 1963] Whither the Prodigal Son?  (Twilight Zone, Season 4, Episodes 1-4)

5 Comments

[If you live in Southern California, you can see the Journey LIVE at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego, 2 p.m. on February 17!]


by Gideon Marcus

Every year, the TV networks play musical chairs with their shows.  Some programs get canceled.  Others get revived.  Popular shows might get more attractive time slots; others might get demoted.  Last year, it looked as if The Twilight Zone had gone the way of the dodo after its third season.  In its place came the sitcom Fair Exchange (which I haven't watched). 

Now, creator Rod Serling's baby is back, albeit in a different form.  Now simply dubbed Twilight Zone, the show is an hour long, has a snazzy new title sequence, and it's clear that Serling is no longer on set for shooting.  Rather than appearing as an integral part of each episode, as he did in Seasons 2 and 3, he instead appears to be pre- or post-filming his monologues elsewhere.

How did the first crop of Twilight Zone fare?  Let's find out:

In His Image, by Charles Beaumont

A young man is plagued by blackouts and half-memories of murder.  When he takes his fiancee (whom he has known for all of four days) back to his home town that he left just a week before, he finds twenty years appear to have elapsed — and his family has no trace of existence at all.  Who is this man?  Where did he come from?  And what is the cause of his manic episodes?

George Grizzard gives a fine turn as the afflicted protagonist in a story that has more than one twist.  While the pacing is a little slow, the course of the characters and the nuanced storytelling keeps it going for the expanded length of the show.  Four stars.

The Thirty Fathom Grave, by Rod Serling

Far less successful is this modern-day ghost tale set in the Pacific.  An American destroyer runs across a stranded submarine from which ominous tapping sounds emanate.  Simultaneously, the ship's Chief Boatswain, a survivor of a sub drowning twenty years prior, feels he is being drawn to the wreck.  Turns out, of course, that the wreck is the Bos'n's sub.

What might have been an effective half-hour show is padded to oblivion.  We get treated to the same exploratory diving sequence three times as a man in a tank plods on the side of a mock-up of an old sub.  Bad stuff.  One star.

Valley of the Shadow, by Charles Beaumont

A journalist stops for gas on the way to Albuquerque and discovers a reclusive town filled with wondrous technologies and tight-lipped citizens.  When he tries to leave, he finds himself a prisoner — possessing too much knowledge of the place's secrets to ever rejoin civilization.

This is another show with far too much padding, compounded with a truly unlikable main character, though the premise is mildly interesting.  Two stars.

He's Alive, by Rod Serling

The last of the quartet features a young Neo-Nazi, an American Brownshirt with a hatred of the non-White but a paradoxical fondness for an old Holocaust survivor.  This would-be dictator's struggle toward prominence is directed by a mysterious man, his face shadowed.  This mentor speaks in a German accent, writhing his hands expressively, urging his protégé more deeply into depravity.  CAN YOU GUESS WHO THIS MYSTERY MAN IS?

He's Alive goes on too long.  Perhaps an hour too long.  One star.

So how does this new, longer format hold up?  Conceivably, a full hour allows more time allows for character and plot development.  On the other hand, it is highly unkind to the one-trick shows, forcing the lead-up to the payoff to be intolerably long.  Thus far, the score is 1-3.  The Young Traveler has already begged off watching this season, and I am tempted to follow.  We shall see…

[P.S. If you registered for WorldCon this year, please consider nominating Galactic Journey for the "Best Fanzine" Hugo.  Check your mail for instructions…]




5 Comments Leave A Comment
Science Fiction/Fantasy

[January 20, 1963] The Big Freeze (news from a UK fan)

Leave a comment

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


By Ashley R. Pollard

The new year has brought snow. Lots of snow. So much snow that parts of Britain have been brought to a standstill. I thought last year was bad, but this year puts last years snow into perspective, in much the same way as downing a yard of ale as compared to a good old British pint of beer does.

And just to make things clear, when I say snow, I don't mean a few fluffy flakes falling on London.

Parts of the country have been cut-off by the amount of snow that has fallen here. A blizzard left up to 20 feet of snow in some places. The BBC news shows images of the sort of thing one might see in some Hollywood extravaganza set in the Antarctic wastes.

One almost expects to see penguins or Polar bears. I could easily imagine Polar bears swimming here to enjoy our climate. It's a snowpocalypse I tell you. Send food parcels now! 

OK, I jest, but not by much.

Really, it started snowing on Boxing Day and has continued to snow pretty much until now. A waterfall has frozen in Wales, I know Niagara Falls freezes, but this is Britain, we haven't experienced these conditions for a very long time. How long ago you might ask? The Met Office says this has been the coldest January since 1814.

That's a long time ago.

Also, the sea in Whitstable Bay froze. The sea water froze out to four miles at Dunkirk. I knew theoretically it can happen, but…

As I'm writing this, the forecast for tonight is for temperatures to drop to minus eight degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, I work and live in London. So I may moan and grumble, but I don't have to face the hardships of those people living in the countryside cut-off by snow drifts.

But, there is a promise of a thaw in a few days time. I can only hope that the Met Office is correct in their prediction.

I'm sure they're right, after all, Cliff Richard's new musical film, Summer Holiday, premiered the other week in London. Surely this presages warmer weather to come? Cliff Richard and The Shadows are a popular young persons band, for those who have not heard of him or them.

This is, as always, only the backdrop to the wonderful world of the science fiction, like myself and my friends in The London Circle.

Oh, what jolly japes and fun were had as we sat drinking, discussing the mood of the general population. We fans talked about stories set in snowy wastelands. Frankenstein was mentioned as the prime setting. Lovecraft's, At the Mountains of Madness, was also deemed germane.

And, of course, the horror of starvation as food ran out with the railways and roads snowbound. SF fans have a great imaginations, and the amazing ability to create stories from whole cloth. It was almost like we were re-enacting the Shelley, Byron, and Polidori's competition to write a scary story. 

Then somebody mentioned we'd all have to live by eating pork pies supplied by Brian Burgess. That leavened the tone of the conversation, making everyone present burst out in laughter. A laughter with a slight hollow ring to it, as anyone who has survived the experience one of eating one of Brian's famous pork pies can attest.

Brian, a rather large man, who can appear intimidating when you first meet him, can best be described as one of fandoms great eccentrics. Which is saying something when it comes to fandom. Though, after thinking about it for a moment, British people in general can be rather eccentric. Or so my American friends tell me.

I blame the war, but war stories will have to wait for another time.

Last month I mention That Was The Week That Was. This month, in a more serious vein, befitting the serious weather we're facing, another news show I recommend people to try and catch, if they can. The commercial broadcaster, Grenada Television, launched The World in Action. An unorthodox current affairs programme that investigates more thoroughly what That Was The Week That Was mocks.

Already there are rumblings in the House as the news team's probing into underhand dealing and corruption threaten to expose the great and the good. I shall be making time to watch The World in Action and report back.

And on another serious note, the leader of the Labour Party, Hugh Gaitskell, died suddenly at the age of 56 from heart failure. His sudden passing has shocked the establishment, being labelled a national tragedy.

He was certainly a more moderate politician than some of his more left wing party colleagues, and I admired his appeals to reason. Though my psychological background always makes me doubt that such appeals will be effective. In the words taken from the short story collection, Assignment in Eternity, Robert Heinlein said, "Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal."

I couldn't agree more.

So that's it for another month. I promise to wrap up warm and stay safe. You do the same, please.

[P.S. If you registered for WorldCon this year, please consider nominating Galactic Journey for the "Best Fanzine" Hugo.  Check your mail for instructions…]




No comments Leave A Comment
TV

[December 19, 1962] That Was the Month that Was (Christmas Cheer from a UK fan)

3 Comments

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


By Ashley R. Pollard

And another year draws to a close with what promises to be a White Christmas after a foggy start to the month.  December has been a bad month for people with breathing problems living in London as the smog has been terrible.  So bad that it has been mentioned as a topic not only on the BBC news, where you'd expect it to be, but mocked in their new satirical weekly news show, That Was The Week That Was. But, before I delve into that show, allow me a few lines to remind people how serious this problem is.

The smog of 1952, called the Great Smog of London (which should be a clue to how bad it was) killed an estimated 4000 people, and caused respiratory complaints in another 100,000 more.  At its worst one could only see a few yards ahead, and it shut down the London Ambulance Service, which forced people to make their own way to hospital.  This pea-souper, a euphemism for thick fog, was so serious it led directly to the introduction of the Clean Air Act of 1956.

This year's smog has not been, on any scale, as bad, but 90 people have died.  As someone who has suffered from bronchial problems, this has been personally worrying.  However, a few days ago the weather changed, and we had snow.  We've also been told to expect more very cold winds arriving from the East — a present from Siberia that quite frankly I could do without, but there again, anything is better than more smog.

And, looking on the bright side, it means this year there's a good chance of London having a White Christmas.

Anyway, enough of the doom & gloom; there's more entertaining things to talk about.  As I alluded to above, a new TV show aired at the end of November that, while not science fictional, I think will amuse and entertain SF fans on both sides of the Atlantic.  It's called, That Was The Week That Was, fronted by David Frost.  It certainly seems to appeal to my acquaintances in London fandom.

The show is fearless, being outrageously funny, poking fun at the British establishment, satirising current political events and other relevant issues.  This is helped by having a very good cast.  I use the word "cast" advisedly.  While David Frost is a presenter, and Bernard Levine a journalist, and William Rushton a cartoonist, this is a news show that also features singers and actors, for example, Millicent Martin sings the opening theme tune, and David Kernan deliver witty musical interludes between the news.  The commentary on the news is also counterpointed through comedy sketches that send up British mores and social conventions using British actors like Lance Percival, Roy Kinnear, and Robert Lang.  I also recognized the American actor, Al Mancini, when he appeared, too.

I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that this show is ground breaking. 

Not only because it uses ironical humour to ridicule the stupidities and vices of the political establishment, but also because of the way format of the show and presentation is used to make the viewer feel part of the audience.  For example, the cameras are seen during the transmission of the programme, and are part of the presentation of the show.

Psychologically it's fascinating to see That Was The Week That Was breaking traditional TV conventions — this even extends to its running time, whose only constant seems to be that it runs to the length required to deliver show.  It must drive the people in charge of scheduling crazy. 

So, take a look at That Was The Week That Was if you get the chance.  It should be funny to folks on both sides of the Pond.  Certainly, some of the things it covers may go over American viewers' heads, but if you want to understand Britain and our humour, it's well worth catching this if you can.

Besides watching too much television recently (my only excuse being the weather as mentioned) I did manage to go and see David Lean's new film, Lawrence of Arabia, on its opening night at the Odeon, Leicester Square.  I've been reliably informed it will be shown on American screens around the twentieth of this month.  There's a lot of excitement over the film and the performance of Peter O'Toole as Lawrence. Many believe the film will be a strong contester in the next Oscar nominations.

Before I finish this month's piece, because science is at the heart of science fiction, I want to congratulate the winners of two Nobel Prize science awards.

First, the British molecular biologists Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins, who along with an American scientist Dr. James D. Watson, have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the molecular structure of nucleic acids, and the significant role the unique double helix structure plays in the transfer of genetic information in living organisms.

Second, the British biochemists Dr. Max Perutz and Dr. John Cowdery Kendrew who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in investigating the structure of haem-containing proteins.  Well done to both teams.

So, another exciting month has flown by, which leaves me with only one thing left to say, Merry Christmas from me to all of you reading this.

3 Comments Leave A Comment
TV

[November 25, 1962] Great Balls of Fire!  (Gerry Anderson's new series, Fireball XL5)

6 Comments

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


By Ashley R. Pollard

One part of me wants to ask where has the year gone?  The other part of me say, what a year this has been for British science fiction.  A mere five years ago the idea of spaceship orbiting our world was the stuff of SF.  Sputnik changed all that.  Then Yuri Gagarin went into space in Vostok.  And, from that moment, the world of SF manifested into the minds of all mankind.  Not as some improbable fantasy, from starry eyed dreamers, but as reality arisen from technology; born of war, but turned into something greater.

Phew — and what a ride the last five years have been for SF.

I've mentioned in a past article that Britain has Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future.  Now we also have Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol.  Not the hero of a comic strip, but rather of a children's television show from Anderson Provis Films (APF), which you may all remember from when I talked about their production last year, Supercar.

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson are back with another Supermarionation series, Fireball XL5.  Supermarionation is their term to describe puppets that speak using electronic synchronization, and the Andersons have used it to great effect, creating a brand new medium for SF.

So far, I have managed to watch all four episodes of Fireball that have come out, while babysitting my friend's six year-old, who sits entranced by the show.  And what a show it is.  Seeing my friend's son swept up in the excitement of space has been an eye-opener for me.  I'm used to the idea that people don't get SF, unless they're fans.  But now I'm seeing the first of a new generation for whom space is the new frontier. This means all the excitement and expectations that go with it are just a normal part of their lives.

So, let me introduce you to the cast of characters.  Steve Zodiac I've already mentioned, and he leads a crew of three.  Doctor Venus is Fireball XL5's resident space medic for when things go wrong.  Professor 'Matt' Mattic is the ship's engineer and scientist.  And this being a show set in the future, the final member of the crew is Robert the Robot, invented/made by the aforementioned Professor Mattic.

As an aside, for those interested, Doctor Venus is voiced by Sylvia Anderson, and Robbie's voice is artificially generated by Gerry Anderson using a 'vibrator' mechanism used for those unfortunates who have had throat cancer and have had their larynx removed.

In addition, Fireball XL5 acquires a pet/ship's mascot in the form of Zoonie the Lazoon, who is mildly telepathic and can mimic human speech, which is played for comic relief.  Essentially an intelligent talking dog.  The young lad I watch over is totally immersed in the adventures that put the crew of Fireball XL5 into peril — a lesson that stories which provoke strong emotional reactions are engrossing.

In addition to the crew of Fireball XL5, there are two other regular supporting characters.  The first is Commander Wilbur Zero, Commander-in-Chief of the World Space Patrol, and Lieutenant Ninety, his assistant Space City controller.  That's quite a cast of characters to remember, but my friend's son seems to have their names down pat.

Of course intrepid heroes need villains.  The first ones we meet are the Subterrains introduced in the opening episode Planet 46, who have launched a 'planetomic' missile at Earth.  Boo, hiss.  And who we know are fiendish, because when they capture Doctor Venus they launch another missile with her aboard.  Fortunately, Zodiac, Robbie and the Professor save the day.

Episode two, The Doomed Planet, starts in medias res with the crew avoiding a rogue planet that has been flung out of its orbit.  This planet is now on a collision course with another world, which the crew assumes is uninhabited.  It's also the first time we see Zoonie, who is introduced as a pet Doctor Venus has had for three months, which I thought was a rather neat story telling trick.  No doubt that Zoonie will get more background later, as the series progresses.  The story continues with the reveal that a UFO, from said uninhabited planet, has followed them back to Earth.  After pursuing the UFO the crew of Fireball XL5 save the doomed planet by destroying the rogue one that we met at the beginning of the episode.  All very exciting.

The next episode, Space Immigrants, has a spaceship called the Mayflower III going to start a new colony that's 236 light years away from Earth.  But the planet is occupied by the villainous Lillispatians, who consider humans beings savages, and who intend to enslave the colonists.  However, their name should be a clue to one part of the dénouement, which ends with Steve Zodiac using Zoonie to save the day, because to the Lillispatians, the cute Lazoon is a ferocious monster.

The most recent episode, Plant Man from Space, has Professor Matic's old 'friend' Dr. Rootes attempt to take over the Earth with the eponymous plant man.  Which as you can imagine has a combination of excitement and comedy to entertain the younger viewer.

While one could criticize some of the dialogue and characterization of Fireball XL5 as, dare I say, wooden, there is a lot to commend about this show.  Steve Zodiac may be the hero with a robotic side-kick, but Doctor Venus, even though put upon by some of the supporting male characters, shows that she is a capable doctor and leader too.

There are more episodes to come, and the opening and closing music for Fireball XL5 is rather compelling.  The opening credit sequence has a rather nice dirty jazz saxophone, while the end theme song, Fireball sung by Don Spencer will (I have it on good authority) be released as a single.  Also, while talking about pop songs, or 'pop-pickers', I must draw your attention to a four piece beat combo called the Beatles, and their catchy new single Love me Do that I heard on the show Pick of the Pops presented by Alan Freeman.

And finally, to finish my piece this month, I would like to mention the introduction of the Ford Mark 1 Cortina, which is quite stunningly pretty.  Ford have managed to encapsulate the American penchant for futuristic looking fins into a car that suits British sensibilities.  If I had the need to buy a new vehicle, this would be on my list of cars to look at.

So, another exciting month has flown by, which leaves me with only one thing left to say, Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

6 Comments Leave A Comment
Fashion, music, politics, sports

[November 8, 1962] Late Night with the Journey (Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin… and Steve Allen!)

4 Comments

[if you’re new to the Journey, read this to see what we’re all about!]


by Victoria Lucas

When I got back from Stanford in June, I was ready for a little TV.  I didn’t take one to school and didn’t have time to watch it anyway.  I worked most of the time I wasn’t in class or doing homework so I could stay in school.  I got a student loan, and paying off that and paying the mortgage on my mother’s house where I lived is difficult, so I type papers and theses here. 

I’m often also at work evenings—my salary includes coming to work on weekends so I can run the box office for the Drama Department where I’m the secretary—and if I’m not doing that I often work on community productions, like the ones for Playbox or the dinner theatre, or act as a “clacker” for the Drama Department productions or others (clapping and laughing loudly).  And I go to concerts.

About the only time I have to watch TV is late at night — after I can’t type any more, the rehearsals are over, the concerts done with, the occasional parties over, the box office closed and plays over.  I used to watch Jack Paar on “The Tonight Show,” but I understand he walked out, and his last show was March 29.  I don’t know, I guess I tried some of the guest-hosts (Merv Griffin, Arlene Francis, et al.) they had on in his place, but none I watched caught my fancy.  (Griffin went into daytime TV, interviewing people.)

I understand Johnny Carson finally replaced Paar October 1.  But he didn’t catch my fancy either.  I think only of seeing him in “Who Do You Trust?” his daytime show I would see when sick at home with the TV for company, and I don’t like the way he mocks housewives.

So I twiddled the dial and into my room at the back of the house walked Steve Allen, laughing.  He used to be the host for “The Tonight Show.” In fact, he started the thing.  But now he has the theatre where the show is taped named after him and can do pretty much anything he wants.  Carson wears tailored suits that look expensive and his humor—what there is of it—is deadpan.  That’s OK, but by the time I turn on the TV at night I want laughter, lots of it.  I want Steve Allen yelling “SMOCK SMOCK” back at the audience when they make bird noises at him.  I don’t mind if he dives into a pool full of Jello or his other opening stunts.  (It gives me time to get settled until the screaming dies down.) I want Steve Allen leaving the studio to accost some unsuspecting passers by on the streets outside or at the very least making fun of the people at Hollywood and Vine. 

OK, there’s an occasional guest, but between guests and his piano music, he laughs and does crazy stuff and breaks himself up laughing when he sees himself on a monitor.  And I love it when he has his wife Jayne Meadows on.  One word that has been applied to him explains why I like to watch Allen: unpredictable.  I like music that surprises me, theatre/movies with endings I can’t foretell, jokes with punchlines I can’t anticipate.  Wrap all that up with intelligence, eloquence, musicianship, and a sense of humor that won’t quit, and you’ve got Steve Allen.  If you aren’t watching him already, I suggest you start.

Incidentally, Lionel Van Deerlin won his seat in the California election for the 37th District Tuesday.  I didn’t stay up eating a pomegranate while waiting for election results the way I used to when I was younger, but kept an ear out for the results.  Remember, he’s the guy who was newscaster and news director for local television after an unsuccessful run for Congress 4 years ago.  It’ll be interesting to see what a Democrat from the usually Republican San Diego will do for a change.

[Sadly, but expectedly, the unincorporated community of Vista will be represented henceforth by James B. Utt, who is somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun.  At least Governor Brown trounced Tricky Dick! (Ed.)]

4 Comments Leave A Comment