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Space: 1999 #2
Moon Odyssey
Moon Odyssey by John Rankine. Novelisation of "Alpha Child", "The Last Sunset", "Voyager's Return" and "Another Time, Another Place". Rankine employs a much more conservative approach to the novel, with a faithful script-to-prose adaption of the four episode. Any linking of the four segments is minimal and does not alter events. Thankfully, no explanations are offered for the mysterious and mind-blowing events that the Alphans experience. Rankine's style is clean and fast-paced and, while maintaining character integrity, portrays the regulars as more down-to-earth, regular people in contrast to Tubb's über-intelligent, more tension-ridden interpretation. Changes from established episodes are few and usually because they were present in the final shooting scripts and reflective of last-minute (1) Sue Crawford was originally named Cynthia Crawford. (2) Jarak and Rena's pursuers from home appeared in a fleet of six ships identical to theirs rather than one large warship. (3) The conclusion of the "biological clock" dialogue between Sandra Benes and Paul Morrow in "The Last Sunset" excised from the final print is restored ( "Do you know what sound I miss most in the silence of space?" "Birdsong?" And now, before the kiss, "The sound of children".)
156 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
John Rankine
61 books4 followersJohn Rankine (born Douglas Rankine Mason) is a British science fiction author, who has written books both as John Rankine and as Douglas R. Mason.
Rankine was born in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales and first attended Chester Grammar School and in 1937 went to study English Literature and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, where he was a friend of Anthony Burgess (as mentioned in Little Wilson and Big God: The First Part of the Confession, AB's autobiography).
Rankine was born in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales and first attended Chester Grammar School and in 1937 went to study English Literature and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, where he was a friend of Anthony Burgess (as mentioned in Little Wilson and Big God: The First Part of the Confession, AB's autobiography).
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 3, 2024
Have You Seen Jackie?
This second volume boasts adaptations of four episodes: "Alpha Child," "The Last Sunset," "Voyager's Return," and "Another Time, Another Place." Author John Rankine did an outstanding job capturing in prose each episode (and it certainly helped that he was assigned several of Year One's strongest shows).
These prose adaptations are an excellent complement and an elaboration on the episodes. I'm enjoying the series and finding the books give me a greater appreciation for the episodes, providing insight into the characters' thoughts and motivations that the restrictions of television couldn't allow. Rankine is especially gifted at vivid descriptions, and if you enjoy good writing, you'll appreciate all he brought to these pages that deepens and broadens what is only hinted at in the television scripts.
That said, my enjoyment was enhanced by knowing the episodes and I certainly pictured in my mind Julian Glover as Jarak, Jeremy Kemp as Ernst Quellar, and most vividly of all Judy Geeson as Regina Kesslann. I recommend reading the adaptations after enjoying the episodes, allowing the prose to act as a supplement to the show, providing the voices and the visuals to draw upon.
I give to all my fellow fans an enthusiastic thumbs up on this book and the preceding volume. John Rankine will return to write two more volumes of adaptations as well as two original Space: 1999 novels. I'm eagerly anticipating reading those (once I secure affordable copies!).
I will close with a compilation of quotations I especially enjoyed that I hope will provide prospective readers a preview and a taste of Rankine's appealing and sophisticated style.
The Ring of Rankine
"The infinite corridors of space-time; random alleys for their Moon ball to rattle in." (18)
"Koenig looked from screen to screen. Carter and Morrow. The axeman and the advisor." (21)
"A whirlwind billowed up the elevation shaft to launch pad one, spewing up a fountain of debris like a ticker tape welcome in reverse." (51)
"Their Moon was ploughing its furrow in an empty quarter. (120)
"Bergman shifted irritably, not liking to be outside the confines of knowledge." (127)
Classical Gas
Rankine demonstrated his knowledge of mythology and the classics and drew upon those rich resources to great effect.
"A tannoy blared out and the lotus eaters turned lazily to listen to the next ration of good news." (56)
"Then the rain flurry was a deluge and they were out again, capering like crazy children in the first rain they had seen for too long. Paul Morrow was holding Sandra in the rain, her hair flattened in a sheath, water running over her shoulders, falling from the points of her breasts like a nymph in a fountain." (59)
"The screen was filled with the blue and white whorls of Earth planet. ... They had come home after their long wandering. It was their Ithaca. (128)
"[Regina] opened the door and ran into the corridor, pain wracking her, moving jerkily in her floating flimsy wrap like a Maenad maddened and stung by an ivy leaf brew. ... Regina Kesslann had appeared in the doorway of Main Mission. Her hair disheveled, head weaving from side to side, eyes wild with a panic fear she could not control, a flimsily packaged nude, incongruously aiming a stun gun." (133-35)
Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy
The passages below brought to mind the Trek films likening Cap'n Kirk with his wooden wheel to the clipper ship commanders of old. Rankine was out in front drawing the parallel for Koenig.
"John Koenig ... was keeping a vigil like a captain in a homebound clipper driving his ship in a half gale." (75)
"The whole fabric of Main Mission was creaking and groaning with stress like the timbers of a wooden ship in a hurricane wind." (122)
After reading that evocative line, I just had to listen to Jefferson Airplane's version of "Wooden Ships," which opens with exactly that creaking and groaning!
No Sense, Please, We're British
As a colonial, the following lines left me flummoxed and befuddled.
"Above the barren lunar surface the sky was flushing with a rose madder down. They had a bright sun like a warm penny standing on the horizon. (52)
"Alan Carter said, 'there are twenty-seven serviceable Eagles available for a search plan. A pound to a pinch of porridge not one of them's still on the pad.'" (65)
I'm assuming this is the Aussie equivalent of the American "a dollar to a donut"?
"... they ripped out lengths of cladding for a pitched roof. it was a Heath Robinson structure at best, but Morrow was inordinately proud of it, as though he was seeing it as a Winter Palace." (73)
I thought surely Rankine must have meant Robinson Crusoe, but I looked it up in my Funk & Wagnalls (okay, Google) and learned Heath Robinson was the original English cartoonist of elaborate contraptions whose work inspired American Rube Goldberg.
" [Helena] heard Bergman make a request for computer service and heard its plummy tones. (90)
"Plummy"? I thought, does Rankine mean "plucky"? No, "plummy" refers to a high-class, well-bred English accent.
And now for something completely different... (to misappropriate a line from Monty P.). A treat for those steadfast souls who stuck with this review from the brim to the dregs...
The Moon Odyssey Drinking Game!
Toss back a swig of Sanka or something stronger whenever you come upon these peculiar and/or oft-used Rankine phrasings:
Klaxons Those "awooga" alarms, which sound ceaselessly throughout the book. Glad they didn't use those on the show!
Earth planet Why does Rankine redundantly append "planet" to most mentions of Earth?
Spacers Rankine's eccentric shorthand term for spacecraft, spaceships, etc.
Bathroom breaks--and you'll need 'em--are allowed whenever the frequently employed word "freak" appears. Enjoy!
PS: My review title is taken from the Dukes of Stratosphear/XTC song of the same name. Knowing the band were fans of comic books and very likely of sci-fi shows like Space: 1999 as well, I wonder if "Alpha Child" was the song's inspiration. After all, Jackie really was "a strange, strange, strange little boy"!
This second volume boasts adaptations of four episodes: "Alpha Child," "The Last Sunset," "Voyager's Return," and "Another Time, Another Place." Author John Rankine did an outstanding job capturing in prose each episode (and it certainly helped that he was assigned several of Year One's strongest shows).
These prose adaptations are an excellent complement and an elaboration on the episodes. I'm enjoying the series and finding the books give me a greater appreciation for the episodes, providing insight into the characters' thoughts and motivations that the restrictions of television couldn't allow. Rankine is especially gifted at vivid descriptions, and if you enjoy good writing, you'll appreciate all he brought to these pages that deepens and broadens what is only hinted at in the television scripts.
That said, my enjoyment was enhanced by knowing the episodes and I certainly pictured in my mind Julian Glover as Jarak, Jeremy Kemp as Ernst Quellar, and most vividly of all Judy Geeson as Regina Kesslann. I recommend reading the adaptations after enjoying the episodes, allowing the prose to act as a supplement to the show, providing the voices and the visuals to draw upon.
I give to all my fellow fans an enthusiastic thumbs up on this book and the preceding volume. John Rankine will return to write two more volumes of adaptations as well as two original Space: 1999 novels. I'm eagerly anticipating reading those (once I secure affordable copies!).
I will close with a compilation of quotations I especially enjoyed that I hope will provide prospective readers a preview and a taste of Rankine's appealing and sophisticated style.
The Ring of Rankine
"The infinite corridors of space-time; random alleys for their Moon ball to rattle in." (18)
"Koenig looked from screen to screen. Carter and Morrow. The axeman and the advisor." (21)
"A whirlwind billowed up the elevation shaft to launch pad one, spewing up a fountain of debris like a ticker tape welcome in reverse." (51)
"Their Moon was ploughing its furrow in an empty quarter. (120)
"Bergman shifted irritably, not liking to be outside the confines of knowledge." (127)
Classical Gas
Rankine demonstrated his knowledge of mythology and the classics and drew upon those rich resources to great effect.
"A tannoy blared out and the lotus eaters turned lazily to listen to the next ration of good news." (56)
"Then the rain flurry was a deluge and they were out again, capering like crazy children in the first rain they had seen for too long. Paul Morrow was holding Sandra in the rain, her hair flattened in a sheath, water running over her shoulders, falling from the points of her breasts like a nymph in a fountain." (59)
"The screen was filled with the blue and white whorls of Earth planet. ... They had come home after their long wandering. It was their Ithaca. (128)
"[Regina] opened the door and ran into the corridor, pain wracking her, moving jerkily in her floating flimsy wrap like a Maenad maddened and stung by an ivy leaf brew. ... Regina Kesslann had appeared in the doorway of Main Mission. Her hair disheveled, head weaving from side to side, eyes wild with a panic fear she could not control, a flimsily packaged nude, incongruously aiming a stun gun." (133-35)
Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy
The passages below brought to mind the Trek films likening Cap'n Kirk with his wooden wheel to the clipper ship commanders of old. Rankine was out in front drawing the parallel for Koenig.
"John Koenig ... was keeping a vigil like a captain in a homebound clipper driving his ship in a half gale." (75)
"The whole fabric of Main Mission was creaking and groaning with stress like the timbers of a wooden ship in a hurricane wind." (122)
After reading that evocative line, I just had to listen to Jefferson Airplane's version of "Wooden Ships," which opens with exactly that creaking and groaning!
No Sense, Please, We're British
As a colonial, the following lines left me flummoxed and befuddled.
"Above the barren lunar surface the sky was flushing with a rose madder down. They had a bright sun like a warm penny standing on the horizon. (52)
"Alan Carter said, 'there are twenty-seven serviceable Eagles available for a search plan. A pound to a pinch of porridge not one of them's still on the pad.'" (65)
I'm assuming this is the Aussie equivalent of the American "a dollar to a donut"?
"... they ripped out lengths of cladding for a pitched roof. it was a Heath Robinson structure at best, but Morrow was inordinately proud of it, as though he was seeing it as a Winter Palace." (73)
I thought surely Rankine must have meant Robinson Crusoe, but I looked it up in my Funk & Wagnalls (okay, Google) and learned Heath Robinson was the original English cartoonist of elaborate contraptions whose work inspired American Rube Goldberg.
" [Helena] heard Bergman make a request for computer service and heard its plummy tones. (90)
"Plummy"? I thought, does Rankine mean "plucky"? No, "plummy" refers to a high-class, well-bred English accent.
And now for something completely different... (to misappropriate a line from Monty P.). A treat for those steadfast souls who stuck with this review from the brim to the dregs...
The Moon Odyssey Drinking Game!
Toss back a swig of Sanka or something stronger whenever you come upon these peculiar and/or oft-used Rankine phrasings:
Klaxons Those "awooga" alarms, which sound ceaselessly throughout the book. Glad they didn't use those on the show!
Earth planet Why does Rankine redundantly append "planet" to most mentions of Earth?
Spacers Rankine's eccentric shorthand term for spacecraft, spaceships, etc.
Bathroom breaks--and you'll need 'em--are allowed whenever the frequently employed word "freak" appears. Enjoy!
PS: My review title is taken from the Dukes of Stratosphear/XTC song of the same name. Knowing the band were fans of comic books and very likely of sci-fi shows like Space: 1999 as well, I wonder if "Alpha Child" was the song's inspiration. After all, Jackie really was "a strange, strange, strange little boy"!
December 6, 2016
Better story when author not trying to justify the madness with real science. These scripts seem to have inspired Star Trek The Motion Picture & Star Trek The Next Generation episode 'The Child'.
September 30, 2017
Based on the 1970's t.v. series, our unwilling travelers on Moonbase Alpha are still looking for a suitable planet to settle on, bumping into plenty of aliens and space phenomena along the way. Each volume has three or four sections, all based on an episode of the show. And it appears the series can be read in any order. See my review of the first book, Space 1999: Breakaway, for more background.
October 26, 2025
Four episodes from the TV show condensed into one book:
The SF stock story where a baby is born and grows up quickly because it is taken over by an alien.
The space probe with the Queller drive comes back home.
The moon goes through some space and time dilation and they meet their dopplegangers.
Alien probes come and terraform the moon so they can live on the surface.
The SF stock story where a baby is born and grows up quickly because it is taken over by an alien.
The space probe with the Queller drive comes back home.
The moon goes through some space and time dilation and they meet their dopplegangers.
Alien probes come and terraform the moon so they can live on the surface.
July 25, 2013
Rather disappointing and disjointed...the writer tries too hard to adapt too many episodes into one book; there's no plot element carryover between the vignettes. The story is rather dated and dull as well, and the author doesn't seem to want to bother with clear descriptions, characterization or anything else. More Tom Swift Jr. in style than proper sci-fi.
Read
March 5, 2016EX-LIB. FIRST EDITION. 5 OTHER NOVELISATIONS EXIST: 1) BREAKAWAY (BY E.C. TUBB); 3) THE SPACE GUARDIANS (BY BRIAN BALL); 4) COLLISION COURSE (BY E.C. TUBB); 5) LUNAR ATTACK (BY JOHN RANKINE); 6) ASTRAL QUEST (BY JOHN RANKINE).
January 27, 2012
An adaptation of a few episodes of the first season of the old tv show. It's true to the source material and serves to bring back the now-nostalgic flavor of the era.
January 28, 2012
A fun nostalgic trip back to Gerry Anderson's groovy psychedelic future, the year 1999!
May 21, 2016
Similar story lines to other SyFy series.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews