Tuesday 15 December 2015

1981: TALES OF TOMORROW: INVADERS AT GROUND ZERO by David Houston

From 1981: TALES OF TOMORROW: INVADERS AT GROUND ZERO. 

I was browsing the SF paperback section of my local secondhand book store recently when this caught my eye thanks to its totally STAR AGE cover: apparently a thinly veiled mash-up of THE INVADERS and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. 

The book is pretty battered but that just added to the nostalgic appeal. 

I'd say this was pretty opportunistic stuff as the "classic TV series" was ancient even then. It was a science fiction anthology that aired live (!) on the fledgling ABC TV network for 85 outings between 1951 and 1953. No doubt pioneering (it included adaptations of the work of genre greats like Arthur C. Clarke), I still very much doubt it evoked the post STAR WARS vibe of the Star Age. 

The back cover teases its imminant return to telly. That never happened but the TV genre anthology did stage a comeback in the 1980s with revivals of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS as well as newbies like AMAZING STORIES, MONSTERS, FREDDY'S NIGHTMARES, TALES FROM THE CRYPT (previously adapted for film) and others. THE OUTER LIMITS had to wait for the post X-FILES supernatural boom for its moment to shine again. 

2 comments:

  1. David Houston was the first editor of STARLOG but only for the first few issues until Howard Zimmerman took over. Houston still wrote the occasional guest column.

    Zimmerman stayed until issue 100 and then handed the reins over to David McDonnell who remained as editor until the magazine expired.

    McDonnell now writes regular blogs on the star trek site about his STARLOG days.

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  2. *** HASBRO TO MERGE TOY PROPERTIES ***

    What do G.I. Joe, Micronauts , Visionaries, M.A.S.K. and ROM all have in common ?

    Well apart from appearing on this blog, they will now all interact and interconnect according to this report :

    http://www.superherohype.com/news/361047-hasbro-universe-includes-g-i-joe-micronauts-visionairies-m-a-s-k-rom


    and now for the weekly round -up :

    further to your post on the LOST IN SPACE comic by innovation, a new LIS title is due out next year as seen here :

    http://www.denofgeek.us/books-comics/lost-in-space/251354/lost-in-space-relaunched-as-a-sci-fi-comic-book-series

    FP did indeed have the new BACK ISSUE and ALTER EGO ( I was lucky to get the only copy of this ). Hurrah !

    They also had s superb issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS with lots of articles on star wars , flash gordon and space : 1999 . Again , they only had the one copy.


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