ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E24 Is There Another Civilization?

In case you're thinking that Men Into Space never dealt with alien being or alien spacecraft, think again!

In this episode, a ship returning from the Moon encounters a cloud of space debris in Earth orbit which turns out to be the fragments of an alien spaceship which apparently collided with a large meteoroid in orbit around the Earth . . . 500 hundred years ago!

Analysis of the fragments retrieved from the orbiting debris reveal that the metal is superior to any alloy we have, and that the lubricant around the moving parts in some of the fragments remains fluid at minus 60°.

I looked up the temperature at which motor oil freezes. It's -20°.

Furthermore, the lubricant contained microscopic bubbles of chlorine gas which was trapped in the liquid when it was manufactured — the same way bubbles of our air is sometimes trapped in petroleum lubricants when it's manufactured!

Therefore, a component of the alien's atmosphere must have been chlorine gas.

Unfortunately this episode doesn't address the obvious fact that the discovery of an orbiting cloud of material and components from an advanced alien civilization would instantly become the number one priority of America's space program!

Dozens of space missions would hastily be organized to collect every surviving fragment of the alien space ship. If you watch the episode at the link below you'll see that the debris cloud is sizable . . . and some of the fragments are as big as a refrigerator!

Fortunately the series does end with a press conference in which the officials of the space program provide "full disclosure" when they brief the press on this historic discovery, and they make no attempt to hide the fact that it proves "We Are Not Alone!"

They even show the reporters a model which the scientists created to demonstrate what the alien craft might have looked like.





Admittedly this doesn't look much like analien spaceship, it just looks like what I wish the American spaceships looked like in this series!

However, Colonel McCauley does state that this was the alien ship which visited Earth [i]five hundred years ago[i] during Earth's 15th century! And he poses the question about what the aliens' spacecraft might look like now . . . half-a-millennium later!

With that in mind, gentlemen, here's what the spacecraft look like this 1959 series —





— and here's what Blue Horizon is currently using . . . 63 years later!





So, I guess we've got a long way to go before we get to spacecraft as sexy as this, eh?





_ Men Into Space S01E24 Is There Another Civilization?


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

This was the best...although the last...of all the episodes .

One point about this series is that it encouraged and excited a generation! This feeling...a sense of a destiny in the stars has been somewhat lacking in the present age, although the "fantasy" of it is still strong. What is missing is the will to make it a reality!

Star Wars, Star Trek, .all the rest...just a fable...just a story far from the possible!

The future needs a spark to ignite its' candle!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

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You are absolutely right, Gord!

However, this statement is not quite correct.

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E27 Lunar Secret

The original story jon which Destination Moon was based on included story elements which suggested that some other nation had a base on the Moon.

This episode is about the suspicion that man made structures were on the Moon which weren't put there by American astronauts.

The story is dramatic and unpredictable. The climax is both imaginative and satisfying. And the subplot with the the astroanaut and his daughter who lost the mother in an auto accident left me with manly tears.

Gawdamighty, the episodes of this series are the "Lost Sci-Fi Movies" I hoped I'd find after watching all the classics over and over again.

_________ Men Into Space S01E27 Lunar Secret


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E28 Voice of Infinity

Yet another amazing story from this incredible series from 1959.

It does an amazing job of presenting the remarkable bravery and optimism this county had back in the fifties, when we believed in the bright future we were shown through the best of the science fiction movies and television series we enjoyed.

This complex story is difficult to summarize. It involves a conflict between Colonel McCauley and a psychologists who requires the men on the space station to wear sensors which indicate when their stress levels are too high to complete critical tasks.

The message here is all about how men under stress are capable of making accurate decisions long after they've reached they're maximum stress level.

_______ Men Into Space S01E28 Voice of Infinity


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E01 Moon Probe

The series kicks off with an impressive episode about the first flight to the Moon, beginning with a very realistic press conference with a few dozens reporters in a briefing room which includes a large screen in front which shows the rocket gantry.

The episode has many familiar faces, including Angie Dickinson as Colonel McCauley wife, Charles Herbert (The Colossus of New York) as McCauley's son, Ed Kemmer (Space Patrol) as the communications office,

Two of the reporters were played by James Anderson (Five and I Married a Monster From Outer Sapce), and Robert Cornthwaite (The Thing from Another World)

The mission portrayed in this story is parallels Apollo 1, the first manned mission to test the Apollo spacecraft. It evens uses a three-man crew, as did all the Apollo programs.

One big difference is the way the crewmen are shown boarding the spacescraft only five minutes before the launch, unlike all the NASA missions which put the crew aboard several hours before the launch.

On the other hand, most of the scenes in Mission Control were all shot in the Cape Canaveral lauch site in Florida.

The biggest difference between this episode and any of the Apollo missions is the fact that when the second stage booster fails to release, Colonel McCauley suits up, leaves the capsule, and uses an acetylene torch to cut through the clamp which is stuck!

While McCauley is outside, one of the other astronauts fixes a burned out control panel. I'm pretty sure THAT never happened during the Apollo missions.

But the heroic efforts by all NASA personal involved with the Apollo 13 mission certainly surpassed this episode . . . except for the amazing scene when McClauley is thrown from the hull of the ship after cutting the boost free!

Mission Controls calls upon all tracking stations world-wide to assist in the rescue by track McCauley's constant transmission of his name, over and over. We see shots of different tracking stations in Japan, Russia, and several others as they provide updates on McCauley's position.

It's an incredible scene, and it suggests that the world was expected to make the exploration of space a world-wide effort.

Because of this multinational effort the spacecraft alters course, chases him down, and throws him a lifeline so he can be pulled back inside!

Watch this episode at the link below and enjoy the amazing drama in space.

__________ Men Into Space S01E01 Moon Probe


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E02 Moon Landing

The second episode combines all the Apollo missions up to an including Apollo 11. I also has a scene in which the crew launch flares at the surface of the night side, to get a glimpse of the Moon's far side.

But the Moon landing doesn't go well at all.

Seconds after touching down, one of the landing legs sinks into a section of soft lunar dirt and the ship begins to tip over! The crew make a hasty lift off, but one astronaut is injured because he's not in in crash couch.

The Sets of the Moon's surface is impressive. I seems to be huge, and it includes a wealth of details.

While working on the lunar surface the injured astronauts collapse, and the other men determine that he sustained a broken rib during the emergency liftoff. (You'll have to watch the episode to find out how this story ends.)

_________ Men Into Space S01E02 Moon Landing


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E03 Building a Space Station

We only get one episode about a space station's construction, and it deals with a life-threatening mishap when the first two large sections are joined in space.

Later in the series we get a fully operational space station — and she's a doozy, too!





In this story the resourceful and courageous Colonel McCauley searches for a way to save an astronaut who is trapped. There's plenty of weightless scenes in this one, and less of that silliness about needing magnetic boots to prevent the dreaded "floating around" — which real astronauts delight in doing all the time, for Pete's sake!

But of course, that kind of FX was no piece of cake back in the Good Old Days.

__ Men Into Space S01E03 Building a Space Station


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E04 Water Tank Rescue

Here's a perfect example of NASA's "can do" attitude when the Space Race was in full bloom, and emergencies like Apollo 13 were dealt with by "steely-eyed missile men" who solved unsolvable problems with improbably solutions!

Remember that scene where the guys jury-rigged the CO2 scrubbers by fitting square pegs into round holes . . . with Duct Tape?

Well, here's the same kind of miraculous story.

A lunar crew saves the life of a fellow crewmen with a bad heart condition by building a water tank that will minimize the stress on his body during lift-off, by completely immersing him (wearing his spacesuit) inside a pair of joined 50-galloon drums filled with water!

I wasn't entirely sure this idea would work . . . until I thought it through. But when I saw that the double-drum tank was laid horizontally with the man inside and then it was filled with water, I realized it would work.

When the spacecraft lifted off, the G-forces on the man's body were distributed evenly around him by the water pressure, rather than just pushing him "down" against a crash couch.

In other words, with every square inch of the force being applied equally from all sides by the water pressure, there was less pressure from above by the G-force and below from a crash couch he'd have been laying on.

Admittedly I'm not sure how that helped the man's ailing heart. However, if he'd been suffering from broken bones, this method would acted like a plaster body cast and held everything perfectly in place!

_____ Men Into Space S01E04 Water Tank Rescue


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E05 Lost Missile

Strictly speaking it isn't a missile, it's a spacecraft which is testing a nuclear propulsion system. It's unmanned and being flown by remote control, since the propulsion system is untested.

The propulsion systems works just fine . . . but the remote control system malfunctions, and the spacecraft is headed for the Moon! Unfortunately there's a scientific team on the lunar surface, and they'll be killed by the remediation.

Colonel McCauley and the designer of the propulsion system catch up with the experimental rocket, space-walk over to it, and go aboard to shut down the reactor.

Naturally things don't go as planned, but you'll have to watch it see exactly how.

__________ Men Into Space S01E05 Lost Missile


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E06 Moonquake

I thought the science advisors for this show had goofed when they allowed a show about moonquakes, but I Googled the question and got this.
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The existence of moonquakes was an unexpected discovery from seismometers placed on the Moon by Apollo astronauts from 1969 through 1972.

Moonquakes are not believed to be caused by tectonic plate movement (as earthquakes are), but by tidal forces between Earth and the Moon.
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Since the moonquake in this episode occurred right after the men fired seismic charges, I suppose it's possible that stress beneath the surface was close to causing a quake, and the explosive shock was just the catalyst needed in the area.

__________ Men Into Space S01E06 Moonquake


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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*__* _WARNING! EVEN MORE SPOILERS THAN USUAL__*__*

Men Into Space S01E29 From Another World

kThe premise of the story in this episode is one of the most exciting in the series. It's the second episode that involved a mission to the asteroid.

While collecting rock samples on the asteroid, Colonel McCauley's air supply malfunctioned and he passed out. But just before doing so he claims that he saw a fossil in the nearby rock face — a pterosaur!

McCauley draws a quick sketch of it.





When I watch again I was convinced that they cheat us by not finding the fossil — and I was right. Seconds after McCauley and the geologist have to get back to the ship before the asteroid gets too far from Earth, the camera pans over to a rock face that the men almost got to before leaving.

As the camera moves in for a close-up, we see the fossilized remains of the pterosaur.





Damn . . .

However, after returning to Earth, McCauley is called into the general's office where the geologists, the flight surgeon, and several other officers are waiting.

The geologist shows McCauley what he discovered inside one of the rock samples he took. It's not a fossil of a pterosaur . . . it's a cave drawing of one!





So, not only is the asteroid a fragment of a "lost planet" in our solar system, it once had both dinosaurs AND intelligent beings similar to our distant ancestors!

Imagine the frustration this would cause the scientific community when they're told that our rockets can't go back to the asteroid immediately — of perhaps even for many decades — because it's orbit seldom brings it close enough to the Earth!

Add to this the fact that other asteroids in the Asteroid Belt may-or-may-not have similar fossils . . . and even if they do, finding them would be almost impossible.

But this episode is another example of why I love this series so much (and why I'm puzzled by how few replies these posts are getting.)

____ Men Into Space S01E29 From Another World


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E30 Emergency Mission

This exciting episode is similar to Marooned in that the three-man crew of lunar mission, the ship's engines fail and it overshoots the Moon.

McCauley is forced to use a new experimental rocket which is faster than the ones currently in use. The problem is that the ship has only been tested in remotely controlled flights, and its faster velocity uses fuel more rapidly.

The lost ship goes out of radio range before the desperate rescue mission lifts off, so they don't even know that the experimental ship is on the way! But by the time McCauley catches up with them, they don't have enough fuel to return to Earth and make a landing!

So, McCauley arranges for a tanker to rendezvous with them before they reach Earth orbit. A previous episode called Tankers in Space (S01E14) has some wonderful special effects which depict the difficulties in maneuvering two ships side by side while connected by fuel lines.

_____ Men Into Space S01E30 Emergency Mission


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E31 Beyond the Stars

The story, told partly in flash backs, involves an accident at a moon base on the far side of the Moon which maintains a radio telescope.





William Lundigan's costars with James Best and Gene Nelson, the later of whom starred in musical Oklahoma in 1955.

The producers must have thought it would be a shame to have the man who gave us [i]Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City[i/] and not let him sing!

So, Mr. Nelson strums his guitar and makes a brief romantice ballad to entertain his fellow astronauts.

The song (which the three men tape recorded) is used near the end when the radio telescope picks up a signal which MrCauley and company theorize might be a series of mathematical equation from a star 200 light years away.





They decided to transmit Gene's song towards the star as a reply to the alien race which may have sent it.

This was yet another enjoyable episode which presented both an entertaining story and imaginative concepts.

_______Men Into Space S01E31 Beyond the Stars


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Men Into Space S01E32 Mission to Mars

The Space Race of the 1960s is well represented in this episode, in which an American mission and a Russia mission to Mars causes tension between the nations, along with frantic preparations to be he first nation to reach the Red Planet.

Prior to their launches, the Americans and the Russians who are preparing their respective spacecraft for their Mars missions have a friendly gathering at the Russian base and toast the success of their missions.

IMDB includes this trivia item.
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The (superior looking) Soviet space craft is based on the 1957 Revell model "XSL-01 Manned Space Ship", designed by aerospace engineer Ellwyn E. Angle.
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The American spacecraft lifts off several minutes before the Russian ship, but soon after that the Russian ship radios a mayday . . . and then it explodes!

The Americans make a noble sacrifice by abandoning the Mars mission and rescuing the Russians from their badly damaged spacecraft.







McCauley finds both Russians alive but unconscious (John Van Dreelen and David Janti), and he transports them back to his ship. The Russians revive and express their gratitude for being rescued.

Incidentally, the moment I saw the young Russian cosmonauts I recognized him as the actor who played the Russian private, Ivan Godofsky, in The 27th Day (1957).







But when I tried to confirm this by looking up the actor's name — Azemat Janti — in the cast of this espiode, he wasn't listed!

I was absolutely positive it was the same guy! Those smouldering eyes were unmistakable.

However, when I looked up of the three actors whose character names where not listed on IMDB for this episode, I found that the actor named David Janti was in fact Azemat Janti!

HA! I KNEW it!

_______ Men Into Space S01E32 Mission to Mars


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)