The Star Kings

Howdy-do to all you Travelers Among the Stars! 

Welcome back to another fun-filled thrill-a-minute report here at Squadron HQ!  This time, we're talking about a rollicking space opera adventure that encapsulates the sort of entertainment we strive for here at TAS.  It has everything!  It has telepathy, time-travel, planet-hopping, imposter royalty, romance with a space princess, mutant blob monsters, a massive space war, and a weapon that could destroy the entire galaxy!

What is it?  It's "The Star Kings" by Edmond Hamilton! 

Edmond Hamilton was, of course, a popular, prolific pulp writer whose stories filled the pages of many a sci-fi and horror magazine.  Later, he moved on to write stories for comic books like Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern.  He wrote several space opera stories, including the Captain Future and Starwolf series.

John Gordon is a pilot who survived World War II and returned to his everyday life as an accountant, which he now finds very dull.  At night when he drifts off to sleep, he begins to hear a voice in his head.  It is Zarth Arn, a prince of the Mid-Galactic Empire calling from 200 centuries in the future.  He wants to study history first-hand by switching bodies with John Gordon, kinda like in Quantum Leap.

Gordon--craving adventure, excitement, and really wild things--jumps at this opportunity.  His consciousness is transported through Time And Space into the body of Zarth Arn in his Earth laboratory 200,000 years in the future.  Zarth Arn is not only a prince (second-son of the Imperial Emperor) but also a scientist.  Apparently, he does this mind-swap thing with various persons throughout history, and his trusted associate is present to help Gordon get oriented and updated with simple things like language.

But then Gordon gets pulled into a much more exciting adventure than he planned.  The laboratory where the mind transfer took place is attacked by a group of political dissidents; they are troops of "the Cloud," headquarters of the League of Dark Worlds.  They want to kidnap Zarth Arn, who--as a member of the royal family--knows the secret of the Empire's super-weapon.  They have come for John Gordon!

They conveniently kill the assistant guy, the only guy who knows that Gordon is NOT Prince Zarth Arn.  Then, by luck and happenstance, these troops are in turn conquered by a passing patrol of the Imperial navy, and Gordon is saved!  Sort of!  They insist on reporting the incident to Zarth's father--the Emperor!--who orders his son return home to the safety of the Imperial capital city of Throon!  They take Gordon away from the lab and the precious mind-swapping device!

From here on out, Gordon's sole objective is to return to Earth and bring the real Zarth Arn back to deal with his own problems.  But Gordon just keeps getting farther and farther from this goal as he is bombarded with one setback after another!  

He is accused of treason, framed for the assassination of the Emporer, kidnapped by agents of the Cloud, tortured with a mind-reading ray, crash lands on a planetoid filled with monsters, causes a mutiny, and pressured to use a secret weapon that-if used incorrectly-could destroy the entire galaxy!  Wow!

This is a nonstop thrill ride!  Like, no kidding, EVERY chapter ends with a little cliffhanger that makes you want to keep going!  It is a little episodic, and, as others on the internet have pointed out, it is corny and cheesy--but these are just plusses, in my opinion!  

I WILL be reading this again sometime!  I've read some other Edmond Hamilton stories, but this just makes me want to find some more!  So if you like super-cheesy, action-packed space operas, I highly recommend that you read "The Star Kings"!  You won't go wrong!

Apparently, there are more stories in this series, but I haven't found them...yet!  Have you read this one?  Or any Edmond Hamilton stories?  Drop a comment below to tell us what you read and what you thought about it!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger

Greetings, all you cadets who Travel Among Stars!

I just finished watching all the episodes of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, conveniently located on YouTube, for anyone interested.  So, since it's fresh in my mind, I thought I'd talk about it today.

Rocky Jones is a TV show that aired back in 1954.  Technically, I think it was a kids show, but it was still pretty good.  Rocky Jones is--now get this--a Space Ranger (didn't see that one coming, did you?).  The Space Rangers are sort of space cops who patrol space to uphold the laws and treaties of the United Worlds.  

He patrols the spaceways in a V-2 type rocket ship.  First in one called the Orbit Jet, which is later replaced by the Silver Moon.  He has a co-pilot named Winky (replaced later when the actor was arrested for carrying a firearm), later replaced by Biffen Cardoza, an alien from Herculon.  His crew often included space navigator, Vena Ray, and Junior Space Cadet Bobby--the token kid all these shows require.  There was often a scientist on board too.  Earlier episodes featured Professor Newton, Bobby's ward (replaced when the actor died), and later replaced by Professor Mayberry.

Other characters made regular appearances, most notably Secretary Drake, the head of the Office of Space Affairs (and the Space Rangers), and Ranger Clark who was in charge of space station O.W.9.  

The show featured episodic stories that mostly formed short 3-chapter story arcs, with a few one-episode stories thrown into the mix.  During this run, we travel to various moons and planetoids, all conveniently coated with an oxygen-rich atmosphere.  We also meet a wide array of indigenous alien peoples...who all look human and either speak or learn English.

Some of the science is kinda wonky, but makes for interesting stuff.  Like a pair of moons connected by a chain of atmosphere, their gravity pulling one another across the galaxy on an unfixed course, until one inevitably crashes into a planet that is running on a fixed orbit.  There was some silly double-talk about how the heat in the desert makes you see mirages that are not there, so super-cold light can turn something that is there invisible.  

All the cheesy tropes and clichés that you think of with 50's sci-fi are here, but they were new at the time, and setting up the tropes and clichés we all think of. It's actually more sophisticated stuff than I was expecting.  And you can clearly see where it may have influenced later stuff.

The Space Ranger uniforms, for example, look as though they may have inspired the uniforms worn by the ship's crew in Forbidden Planet, and certain Star Trek uniforms.  Vena Ray was a female bridge officer on a star ship long before Lt. Uhura.  And Professor Newton's costume and hair reminded me (a lot) of William Harnell as the first incarnation of Dr. Who.

Apparently episodes got edited together to make a bunch of movies, and a couple of these were featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Some of these are also available on various streaming platforms, and apparently it's also available on DVD.  But as I said earlier, you can watch the entire series on YouTube for free!

Well, I guess that's all I have to say about that (at least for now)!  So be sure to tune in next time when I talk about...uh...something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell