ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Let's Create a Sequel!
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~ A Question for the Members: We're all aware of the faults and failings of George Pal's fourth movie. like the fact that the crazy General Merit lost his marbles and decided that God didn't want mankind to explore space.

Did anyone involved in this production think that was a good idea? And did George Pal think he was changing the minds of misguided people who thought we shouldn't be venturing out into space?

~ Here's what I came up with.: We can't fix George's fourth film, but we can suggest a sequel that might have been made during the long spell between Conquest of Space and The Time Machine.

The goal here is to devise a plot which requires multiple interplanetary missions to Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. This would provide the Grand Tour of the Solar System which was inspired by Chesley Bonestell's famous art book.





That's a tall order — especially since this is supposed to be an "imaginary" sequel to the existing Conquest of Space from 1955. That means the story can't be about several spaceships from Earth which travel super-fast to reach their various destinations fast enough to complete . . . some kind of dramatic mission.

Okay, so how 'bout this premise instead. Mankind is faced with a monumental challenge.

We have to relocate Earth's population to various colonies which we've already established in several locations throughout the solar system. This is necessary because a series of large asteroids are approaching Earth . . . and our planet might be destroyed.

Obviously this sequel takes place a few hundred years after the 1955 movie, so we can include advanced technology which makes it possible for mankind to have colonies all around the solar system — along with spacecraft which can zip around quicker than you can saw, "This pizza took too long to be delivered!"

Now, before anybody says, "Hey, they didn't have movies about FTL starships back in the 1950s!", please take a moment to consider This Island Earth, which came out the same year as Conquest of Space, and Forbidden Planet, just one year later!







Having said that, please ponder this.

The purpose of George Pal's movie was to promote the lofty concepts presented in Bonestell's lovely book. Unfortunately the movie didn't do that very well . . . so I'm proposing a better way, in the form of this imaginary sequel. It doesn't just show beautiful planets which are (at best) inhospitable — it shows planets which mankind has found ways to create new homes for himself!

So, imagine a movie which includes advanced spacecraft which race around the solar system, desperately transporting people from Earth to our colonies on the Moon, and some of the moons which orbit Jupiter and Saturn.





Thye also take millions pf people to the colonies on the extensively terraformed Mars!





In addition to this, we have numerous multi-ringed space stations orbiting Earth, each of which house thousands of people.





These space stations are equipped with rocket engines located both above and below the hubs, and these engines can send the stations away from Earth if this becomes necessary. They can even relocate the stations to make them orbit the Moon — or send them to other planets in the solar system!

The point of this story is show that mankind has truly achieving the Conquest of Space! We inhabit colonies all over the solar system — and when we need to evacuate the Earth, we can do that . . . simply because that's part of our plan to survive!

THAT, by gum, would be the true Conquest of Space!

So, this ambitious "imaginary movie" presents the incredible story of Earth's well-planned evacuation, using brilliantly designed technology by a future generation who is living up to its full potential.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)