Astral Quest

Space: 1999 #6

by John Rankine

Vintage TV tie-in paperback

Genres: Science Fiction

175 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

John Rankine (born Douglas Rankine Mason) is a British science fiction author, who has written books both as John Rankine and as Douglas R. Mason.

Rankine was born in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales and first attended Chester Grammar School and in 1937 went to study English Literature and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, where he was a friend of Anthony Burgess (as mentioned in Little Wilson and Big God: The First Part of the Confession, AB's autobiography).

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Space 1999 was a not-really-very-good television series fifty or so years ago; it was on for two years, and the first season was better than the first. We watched it because there was little other sf on television then, and it often looked cool, even if it was silly at times. The Moon takes off on a cosmic pinball jaunt through the cosmos, hi-ho! A variety of authors of the time did novelizations of the first season, along with some original stories, in ten volumes, and Michael Butterworth wrote adaptations for 23 of the 24 second season episodes in a six-volume series. There's nothing especially noteworthy about most of them; they vary in quality as did the scripts upon which they were based. The first season seemed to borrow heavily from Star Trek ideas. This sixth book from the first season was written by John Rankine, a science fiction writer who was also sometimes known as Douglas R. Mason. It adapts the final four episodes from season one which were left over from the first five books. These four included two of my favorites from the series, Dragon's Domain which takes us back before the Moon went on its walkabout, and The Testament of Arkadia, which was the final show of the first year, with a rocking soundtrack. The episodes in this one were The Infernal Machine from a screenplay by Anthony Terpiloff and Elizabeth Barrows, Mission of the Darians by Johnny Byrne, Dragon's Domain by Christopher Penfold, and The Testament of Arkadia, which was also written by Bryne. (No, not -that- Byrne, the English one.) Anyway, Space 1999... a brief nostalgic visit to near-forgotten television.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Rankine scores another creative win with his adaptation and intertwining of four more episodes of Space 1999. This novelization includes the episodes "The Infernal Machine", "Mission of the Darians", "Dragon's Domain" and "The Testament of Arkadia". Many have slight changes from the originally broadcasts, since Rankine was using the original scripts for his work. The added framework looks at some of the Alphans' (mainly Bergman's) plans and possibilities for what happens after they finally find a new world.

Of the four stories, my favorite is "Dragon's Domain", since it's one of those rare Space 1999 stories that goes back in time before the "Breakaway" pilot and shows us a bit of what the Alphans' lives were like before that catastrophic event.

Excellent read and very well-written.