Alien Worlds: Facts

Facts

Despite the name, this file about the old radio show Alien Worlds is pretty short on facts, but it makes up for this with bold (and repeated) assertions. Happily the show was high enough profile to warrant a Wikipedia entry.

B5 fans take note:

Writer(s) Lee Hansen
Ron Thompson
J. Michael Straczynski

Alien Worlds: 01-The Sunstealers Pt 1

Alien Worlds: 01-The Sunstealers Pt 1

We're quickly introduced to our cast of characters, given a bit of tragic back story for tow of them - this better not end in romance, guys - and given the first problem facing our heroes: the Sun is going out. Our two rocket jockeys are fired off towards the Sun, to what end is not clear, and while the station Poindexter has worked out what could be causing the problem, nobody is listening to him. This may be because his voice actor isn't very good (but his lines aren't that great).

In short order, the two rocket guys have found and been captured by the source of the problem, which is aliens! Sun-stealing aliens! Who in their defense don't seem to have anything against humans specifically. Our extinction is merely the necessary cost of keeping their civilization powered and who can argue with that?

This name-drops Arthur C. Clarke but the influences are considerably more pulpy than ACC: think Buck Rogers, Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, Rockets in Ursa Major or the contemporary Canadian show Johnny Chase: Secret Agent of Space.

Alien Worlds: The Sunstealers Part II

The Sunstealers Part II

Can our heroes, armed only with cutting edge technobabble devices, save the Sun and prevent the extinction of humans orbiting it in this, the second of about 30 episodes? And if they do, will they manage to finish the episode off with a joke as they watch the vapourised remains of beings not unlike themselves expand through space?

Yeah, this is pretty awful. And there is a progression of notes the background music likes that is very reminiscent of Star Trek's music.

Alien Worlds: The Starsmith Project pt1 and The Starsmith Project pt2

The Starsmith Project pt1

The Starsmith Project pt2

Suddenly aliens attack, stealing vital parts for a new FTL amplifier intended to secure Earth's supremacy over lesser races! And apparently the ISA doesn't really have a lot of people to call on because once again the SET crew who gets tapped is SET Captain Jon Graydon and his buddy SET Captain Buddy Griff. One thing we learn early on is that Buddy really needs to get laid, because he's hitting on everyone he meets and speculating on people who he could hit on if it turns out they exist.

Buddy almost gets wish for a Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter except what he actually gets is a Mad Emperor's Beautiful Daughter, not human (or especially human looking) and not interested in the little horndog. He doesn't seem much interested in her.

In any case, it turns out the aliens are not stealing the device because they have imperial designs but because their sun is going out and their atmosphere is losing its precious the writer made some crap up. Attempts at diplomacy fail but happily a solution falls into the characters' laps and all is well.


I got a rather Edmond Hamilton vibe off this two-parter. In particular I was reminded of his Interstellar Patrol, which also involved a general lack of any grasp of scale or basic science and which also feature alien societies faced by entropic doom. The Legion always took care to exterminate any endangered species, though, whereas the ISA cheerfully hands over the technology on which the security of Earth, attacked by rampaging aliens one episode ago, depends once they decide the new aliens are worthy of it.

I couldn't help but notice some stuff seemed to happen purely to push the plot in certain directions, like how it turns out alien shape-shifters are peculiarly vulnerable to the effects of hyperdrive but only when wearing someone else's shape.