Michael Lauck's Blog - Posts Tagged "old-time-radio"
Early Science Fiction TV, Radio and Murray Leinster
Today I got a copy of the 1960 Berkley Medallion paperback Men Into Space by Murray Leinster, based on the 1960 television program by the same name. I am incredibly excited. I have been waiting for this book for a while because Murray Leinster is under-appreciated in the modern age of science fiction and because Men Into Space, which is pretty much in the same boat as poor ol' Murray, is a current retro-science fiction TV series favorite of mine.
I had heard of Men Into Space but I had also heard it was a lost series, like so many early TV shows. Syndicated by Ziv in 1960, it was arguably the first serious non-anthology science fiction series and definitely the first serious American TV show dedicated to space travel. The show's main character, and the only character in every episode, is Colonel McCauley (portrayed by William Lundigan). The most experienced man in the US space program, it follows him as he troubleshoots problems and commands missions to orbit and the moon. When the broadcast silence fiction television network Comet came to St. Louis a couple of years ago, I was thrilled to see Men Into Space was a regular part of their weekend line up. I was hooked from the first episode. I even bought a McCauley space helmet on eBay. The show is dated scientifically and socially, but at its core it is hard science fiction adventure. No aliens, no rayguns. no vague science to replace what is otherwise basically magic. The special effects are not groundbreaking, but they don't detract from the story, either. Now that I am in the Kansas City area, I still watch. (Even if you don't have Comet in your area, you can stream it from their website!) And recently I found out there was a novelization and, better yet, it was written by Murray Leinster!
I am a big Murray Leinster fan, but he is one of those great (and prolific) writers from science fiction's golden age who just isn't recognized anymore. It is hard to find his works, unless you are willing to settle for old paperbacks that smell like gramma's basement. I think the main reason this happened was because his work did not ever jump to television. Two movies were made that were based on his books, though. As far as I recall, The Navy vs The Night Monsters is a late sixties kid friendly matinee fare (and pretty forgettable!) based on The Monster at the End of the World. Amicus, the great British science fiction and horror studio, also adapted his story The Wailing Asteroid into their late 1960s film The Terrornauts, which is fun but not exactly high art.
Where Leinster's stories shined was radio. The two great NBC golden age science fiction radio shows, Dimension X and X Minus One, adapted several of his works including A Logic Named Joe (which kind of pegged the whole Alexa/Siri/smart house thing), First Contact (which might have been the first use of a "universal translator" in science fiction and, yes, did later form the basis of a lawsuit against the Star Trek franchise), The Lost, Sam, This Is You and If You Was A Moklin. Another early science fiction radio show, Exploring Tomorrow, did a production of First Contact as well and NPR's science fiction radio revival show 2000x also produced Leinster's story Mad Planet around 1999. All this glorious radio (and it is glorious radio; you really should download some Dimension X and X Minus One if you haven't heard any; they are both on Archive.org.) is amazing but it hasn't kept Leinster's name in the science fiction main stream, and that is a shame!
Okay, that's enough from me! I am anxious to read this 58 year old paperback which, thankfully, doesn't even smell like gramma's basement! If you want to hear (and see) me rant poetic about all this and probably a bit more, you can see it on YouTube.
I had heard of Men Into Space but I had also heard it was a lost series, like so many early TV shows. Syndicated by Ziv in 1960, it was arguably the first serious non-anthology science fiction series and definitely the first serious American TV show dedicated to space travel. The show's main character, and the only character in every episode, is Colonel McCauley (portrayed by William Lundigan). The most experienced man in the US space program, it follows him as he troubleshoots problems and commands missions to orbit and the moon. When the broadcast silence fiction television network Comet came to St. Louis a couple of years ago, I was thrilled to see Men Into Space was a regular part of their weekend line up. I was hooked from the first episode. I even bought a McCauley space helmet on eBay. The show is dated scientifically and socially, but at its core it is hard science fiction adventure. No aliens, no rayguns. no vague science to replace what is otherwise basically magic. The special effects are not groundbreaking, but they don't detract from the story, either. Now that I am in the Kansas City area, I still watch. (Even if you don't have Comet in your area, you can stream it from their website!) And recently I found out there was a novelization and, better yet, it was written by Murray Leinster!
I am a big Murray Leinster fan, but he is one of those great (and prolific) writers from science fiction's golden age who just isn't recognized anymore. It is hard to find his works, unless you are willing to settle for old paperbacks that smell like gramma's basement. I think the main reason this happened was because his work did not ever jump to television. Two movies were made that were based on his books, though. As far as I recall, The Navy vs The Night Monsters is a late sixties kid friendly matinee fare (and pretty forgettable!) based on The Monster at the End of the World. Amicus, the great British science fiction and horror studio, also adapted his story The Wailing Asteroid into their late 1960s film The Terrornauts, which is fun but not exactly high art.
Where Leinster's stories shined was radio. The two great NBC golden age science fiction radio shows, Dimension X and X Minus One, adapted several of his works including A Logic Named Joe (which kind of pegged the whole Alexa/Siri/smart house thing), First Contact (which might have been the first use of a "universal translator" in science fiction and, yes, did later form the basis of a lawsuit against the Star Trek franchise), The Lost, Sam, This Is You and If You Was A Moklin. Another early science fiction radio show, Exploring Tomorrow, did a production of First Contact as well and NPR's science fiction radio revival show 2000x also produced Leinster's story Mad Planet around 1999. All this glorious radio (and it is glorious radio; you really should download some Dimension X and X Minus One if you haven't heard any; they are both on Archive.org.) is amazing but it hasn't kept Leinster's name in the science fiction main stream, and that is a shame!
Okay, that's enough from me! I am anxious to read this 58 year old paperback which, thankfully, doesn't even smell like gramma's basement! If you want to hear (and see) me rant poetic about all this and probably a bit more, you can see it on YouTube.
