"Tales of Tomorrow" (1951-1953)

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I've just found several episodes of the very old science fiction television series Tales of Tomorrow on the Internet Archive.

"Verdict From Space," the premiere episode, was adapted by Theodore Sturgeon from his own short story "The Sky Was Full of Ships" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1947.) The television version follows the story fairly closely. A guy who has invented a sort of super blow-torch is contacted by an archaeologist who wants him to burn through an otherwise impenetrable cave wall to get at an ancient machine that has been recording all activities on Earth for a million years or so. (The cave had been opened up by an earthquake just long enough for the scientist to examine the gizmo, but then it sealed itself up.) The archaeologist dies during the investigation, and the inventor is put on trial for murder, his unbelievable story his only alibi. The ending reminds us that you should let sleeping dogs lie.

The original story:

https://www.unz.org/Pub/ThrillingWonder-1947jun

(You have to click on the title of Sturgeon's story, then click on "A Hitch in Time" and go to the end of page 65 to get the last few paragraphs of it.)

The adaptation:

https://archive.org/details/Tales_Of_Tomorrow_-_Verdict_From_Space

For the really primitive days of television, it's not too bad. It's all live, so the sets and special effects are quite limited. It's somewhat overacted. But I was impressed by the fairly smooth transition from the opening scenes of the murder trial to the flashback in the cave. Despite its limitations, the story is interesting enough to make this worth watching.

 

[Droflet]

The great Theodore Sturgeon? I'm there. Ta, Victoria.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Blunder" is based on a story by Philip Wylie that appeared in Collier's (January 12, 1946):

https://www.unz.org/Pub/Colliers-1946jan12

(This is even trickier to read than the last one. You have to click on "Blunder" to get the first couple of pages, then use the "PDF Size" menu to select "full screen" to make it large enough to read, unless your eyes are a lot better than mine are. Then you have to arrow back, select "The Size of Stettinus," once again select "full screen," then go down to pages 63 and 64 to get the end of the story.)

Here's the adaptation:

https://archive.org/details/TalesOfTomorrowBlunder1951

The written version deals with a couple of scientists way up in the Arctic who plan to set off controlled bismuth fission as a source of energy. They perform their experiment deep underground, in an isolated area, in case anything goes wrong. The story shifts point of view to several places around the world, as other scientists realize that the two experimenters have failed to take new information, recently published in a journal, into consideration. Things don't go well. The story is primarily an indictment of keeping scientific knowledge secret for security reasons.

The television version changes the two scientists to one, who has his wife along with him. From the start he admits that there's a small chance that things could go wrong, but he feels the prospect of providing a source of cheap energy for centuries to come is worth the risk. Once again the fact that the experimenter is not away of new information recently published comes into play. As you'd expect, things don't go well. The TV version adds a prologue and an epilogue set in a planetarium to provide ironic commentary.

Wylie's story isn't exactly subtle, and the adaptation really hits the viewer over the head with the danger, so there are no big surprises in store. Use of stock footage at the end is much less effective than Wylie's vivid description of what happens. However, the story is rather distant, and the adaptation adds some emotion, even if it's generally overacted.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"A Child is Crying" is based on a story by the great suspense writer John D. MacDonald which first appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories (December 1948). I don't have a direct link to the text of the story, but you can listen to Michael Hanson, host of the radio series "Mindwebs," read it here:

https://archive.org/details/MindwebsAChildIsCryingByJohnT.McDonald

(Apparently "Mindwebs" just consisted of the host reading a science fiction story with music added in the background, so I think the text has not been changed.)

A detailed discussion of the story and its television adaptation by a MacDonald fan here:

http://thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.com/2009/11/child-is-crying.html

Anyway, the only major change is that the story is about a little boy and the TV version is about a little girl. In both cases, the child is super-intelligent, and is even able to predict future events. Of course, that means the government has to get involved, particularly when the child announces that an atomic attack will occur in the near future.

The little girl is played quite well by Robin Morgan, who eventually left acting to become a well-known feminist activist.

https://archive.org/details/TalesOfTomorrow-AChildIsCrying_607

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

From this point on there are several episodes to which I do not have access. The next one I can watch is:

"The Dark Angel" is adapted from the story of the same name by "Lewis Padgett" (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore) from Startling Stories, March 1946. I had already reviewed this in the short story thread.

A man learns that his wife is a superhuman mutant, growing from her "child" state to the full, almost unimaginably powerful "adult" stage. Interesting, with a twist at the end.

It can be read here (although credit is given to Kuttner only):

http://www.fadedpage.com/books/20130318/20130318.html

The adaptation follows the story pretty closely. (The first few minutes seem to be missing.)

https://archive.org/details/Tales_Of_Tomorrow_-_The_Dark_Angel

 

[BAYLOR]

The series was a precursor to the Twilight Zone. I think I've seen one episode of it.

 

[Foxbat]

I have season one on DVD. A most interesting series

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Crystal Egg" is based on the story of the same title by H. G. Wells.

The Crystal Egg by H.G. Wells

The adaptation is only moderately faithful to the story, adding a more melodramatic ending.

Tales of Tomorrow #9: The Crystal Egg : George E. Foley : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Both deal with device found in a shop which supplies a view of the planet Mars. Wells gives the reader a detailed, exotic description. The television show, unfortunately, shows only a cheap painting (with a ringed planet looming large in the sky, unlike anything you'd see from Mars) and a laughably silly one-eyed puppet as a Martian. Not showing the Martian landscape would make this a better episode.

 

[BAYLOR]

"The Crystal Egg" is based on the story of the same title by H. G. Wells.

The Crystal Egg by H.G. Wells

The adaptation is only moderately faithful to the story, adding a more melodramatic ending.

Tales of Tomorrow #9: The Crystal Egg : George E. Foley : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Both deal with device found in a shop which supplies a view of the planet Mars. Wells gives the reader a detailed, exotic description. The television show, unfortunately, shows only a cheap painting (with a ringed planet looming large in the sky, unlike anything you'd see from Mars) and a laughably silly one-eyed puppet as a Martian. Not showing the Martian landscape would make this a better episode.

They made a lot of those early science fiction shows as cheaply as possible.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Test Flight" is based on the story "Vital Factor" by Nelson Bond, which appeared in the August 1951 issue of Esquire. I'll attach the text of this brief tale (along with some test questions from some class or other.)

The adaptation is here:

Test Flight : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

It follows the plot of the story quite closely. A multi-millionaire is obsessed with becoming the first man to conquer space, so he spends huge amounts of money having a spaceship constructed. A fellow shows up who offers to build an engine making use of "counter gravity." There's a twist at the end.

This episode is notable for having a big star in the person of Lee J. Cobb. He muffs his lines at the start (this is all done live, remember) but recovers nicely. Stock footage takes the place of special effects, except at the very end, where it's not particularly good. But the story is interesting enough.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

double post -- ignore

 

[BAYLOR]

"Test Flight" is based on the story "Vital Factor" by Nelson Bond, which appeared in the August 1951 issue of Esquire. I'll attach the text of this brief tale (along with some test questions from some class or other.)

The adaptation is here:

Test Flight : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

It follows the plot of the story quite closely. A multi-millionaire is obsessed with becoming the first man to conquer space, so he spends huge amounts of money having a spaceship constructed. A fellow shows up who offers to build an engine making use of "counter gravity." There's a twist at the end.

This episode is notable for having a big star in the person of Lee J. Cobb. He muffs his lines at the start (this is all done live, remember) but recovers nicely. Stock footage takes the place of special effects, except at the very end, where it's not particularly good. But the story is interesting enough.

Thats's the episode I saw that , It co starred Harry Townes . It was pretty good.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Search for the Flying Saucer" is not based on any printed story, as far as I can tell. That probably explains why it's pretty simple, and not very good.

An Air Force officer, who was discharged for seeing UFO's, comes to a small New Mexico town to investigate reports of flying saucers. He encounters a typical eccentric old character who seems to know something about the saucers, and a young woman with whom he has a whirlwind romance. Not much happens, and then there's an unsurprising twist.

The Search For The Flying Saucer : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Sneak Attack" was first broadcast on the tenth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and its intentions as Cold War propaganda are clear. It's credited to a story by Russell V. Ritchey, but I can find nothing about the original. I was able to find out that Russell V. Ritchey (unless there was somebody with the same name) was an colonel in the United States Air Force, and was the founder of the USAF's Squadron Officer School.

In any case, "Sneak Attack," set in the future year of 1960, starts off with an American in a hospital somewhere behind the Iron Curtain. There's an intriguing bit where the doctor treating him for the gunshot wounds he received while sneaking over the border thinks he actually a agent of her own nation, pretending to be an American agent. Nothing comes of this, however; he's really an American spy.

Meanwhile, unmanned planes (an interesting prediction of drones, played here by stock footage and a child's toy plane) have landed in twenty-five major American cities. One of them blows up, destroying the city of Denver. The US is given an ultimatum; surrender to its unnamed enemy (let's face it; from the accents, it's clear we're talking about the USSR) or face the complete destruction of the other twenty-four cities.

Back in the hospital, our hero, with the help of the doctor, who doesn't approve of her nation's actions, does some low budget James Bond stuff (he even gets a kiss from the pretty doctor) and blows up the gizmo that controls the drones.

It's not great entertainment, but an interesting time capsule.

Sneak Attack : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Invader" seems to be another original story, not based on a printed source. It's certainly better than "The Search for the Flying Saucer."

A rather cold scientist and his gentle, sensitive son (who would rather be a writer), along with the son's intended (Eva Gabor, of all people, but playing against type, with very little of the glamour girl about her) are on a ship doing some kind of research. A brightly glowing object falls into the sea near them. The ship's diver refuses to go down to investigate, and the scientist is too old, so the son reluctantly agrees to do it. (Nobody suggests that Gabor put on the diving suit, although she seems to be more of a competent scientist than her husband-to-be.) He comes back different . . .

This episode would seem to be "influenced" by The Thing From Another World, released earlier the same year.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Dune Roller" is based on the novelette "Dune Roller" (Astounding, December 1951) by Julian May, still in her teens when she sold it, under the name "J. C. May." She published one other story in 1953, then left the field to do tons of non-fiction until she started publishing novels in 1981. I don't have a link to the text, but it's been reprinted many times and is considered something of a classic. Not bad for your first sale! Here are some of the author's own illustrations for the story, which also appeared in Astounding on first publication.


Dune Roller by Julian May : SFFaudio

The TV version isn't bad. It takes place on an island in Lake Michigan. We begin with a local character telling a little girl a tall tale about the "dune roller," a mythical creature something like a giant hoop snake that rolls after its victims and burns them up. Pretty soon we meet a biologist who is interested in some odd rocks on the island. We find out that these weird minerals give off heat at times, and seem to want to join together to form bigger pieces, and even move on their own . . .

This is a fairly effective little thriller, with an unusual "monster." Given the very limited resources of the folks making this thing, it was a good idea to avoid showing the "dune roller," and instead just making use of bright lights on the actors' faces. The only special effect shows up at the very end, and it's not too bad.

Tales of Tomorrow #15: The Dune Roller : George F. Foley : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

"Dune Roller" was also adapted into the 1971 movie The Cremators. By all accounts, it is very bad. Here's a trailer for it.

The Cremators - trailer : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Frankenstein" is, of course, an extremely loose, extremely simple version of the Mary Shelley classic. Heavily annotated version here:

Frankenstein - BookDoors - Ebook Annotations Platform

The adaptation boils this down to the basics: Frankenstein creates the creature, it goes on a rampage, it gets destroyed. The creature is played by Lon Chaney, Jr., a role he had previously taken on in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). His appearance here is not at all like the Karloff/Universal version; instead it's a pretty decent makeup job, resulting in a bald head covered with scars.

The story goes that Chaney thought this live broadcast was a rehearsal, so he puts down a chair that he was supposed to smash. You can't really tell, because he plays the creature as innocent and confused as much as angry. It's actually a good mute acting job.

Tales of Tomorrow #16: Frankenstein : George E. Foley : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"What You Need" is based on the story of the same name by "Lewis Padgett" (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore) which appeared in Astounding, October 1945.

http://www.sleepingdogstudios.com/Network/Network_2013_14/What_you_need_story.pdf

Original illustrations:

What You Need by Lewis Padgett (aka Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore) : SFFaudio

This story was also adapted as a memorable episode of The Twilight Zone. Both versions are are pretty faithful to the story, since it has such a strong plot. It's a classic "weird little shop" tale, about a fellow who seems to always have exactly what you need. The main difference is that Tales of Tomorrow retains the rather implausible future calculating gizmo from the story while The Twilight Zone eliminates this and treats the story as pure fantasy. The Tales of Tomorrow version is pretty good, if not as good as The Twilight Zone.

Tales Of Tomorrow What You Need : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Age of Peril" is loosely based on "Crisis, 1999" by Fredric Brown (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 1949.) I don't have the text, but here's a detailed description of the story and its adaptation:

bare•bones e-zine: Fredric Brown on TV Part Six – Tales of Tomorrow: Age of Peril

The gimmick is a perfect lie detector. So perfect, in fact, that if the suspect passes the lie detector test, not even photographic evidence of the crime is enough to convict. If you can swallow this implausibility, then you might get something out of this story of a criminal who is caught at the scene of the crime, but is able to deny any culpability when hooked up to the device. The final twist implies a completely different kind of society, but it's hard to believe the premise.

Age Of Peril : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Children's Room" is based on the story of the same name by Raymond F. Jones, which appeared in Fantastic Adventures, September 1947.

"The Children's Room" by Raymond F. Jones, Fantastic Adventures, September 1947 - UNZ.org

Both it and the adaptation start off with a super-intelligent boy who can read books in an unknown language; books he gets from the "children's room" of a library which doesn't have such a room . . .

The adaptation is actually darker in tone, particularly towards the end. It's not bad at all, and boils down the rather talky novelette to its basics.

The Childrens Room : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive