The four main characters:

Jet
Lemmy
Doc
Mitch

Jet Morgan

Full Name: Andrew Morgan
Occupation: Captain, Pilot

Played as a traditional square jaw hero, the character of Jet Morgan was very much keeping in with the character of the actor who played him Andrew Faulds.

As a commander Jet was authoritive and clear thinking, keeping his crew together as they faced perplexing mysteries and life threatening situations. Although he feared the unknown as much as anyone else, Jet was driven on by an insatiable scientific curiosity - even in the face of danger.

Jet remained calm at all times. The only exception was when he was faced with an insubordinate crew member. There were often arguments between Jet and Mitch during times of stress and the Captain had difficulty with the mysterious Whitaker during the long journey to Mars.

Born in Scotland, Jet was well educated both scientifically and artistically. As a boy Jet learnt Shakespeare at school and was taught astronomy by his Uncle Hector. He read lots of science fiction books including "The First Men In The Moon" by H.G. Wells. Like many other youngsters his age Jet dreamed of travelling into space; to planets such as Venus and Mars.

During the flight to the Moon, Jet became the first man to walk in space after a meteor hit the ship and he stepped out into the unknown in order to inspect the damage.

Between 1965 and 1971 Jet Morgan was the pilot of 27 more flights to the Moon. Most of these were ferrying the supplies needed to build a lunar base - the stepping off point for a trip to Mars.

After four years of planning, training and building Jet was reunited with Doc, Lemmy and Mitch when they finally departed for the red planet in April 1971.

Now in command of the Flagship Discovery and a fleet of nine Freighter ships, Jet faced some of the toughest challenges to his career.

In 1972 Jet and his faithful crew were asked to return to Mars to find out more about the Martians plan to invade the Earth. They foiled the invasion in 1973 and had a brief rest on Earth before embarking on more adventures.

With their knowledge of the Martian asteroids Jet and crew were the obvious choice to investigate an abandoned asteroid in orbit between the Earth and Mars. They achieved this using a new ship called the Discovery II. But on the return trip, the Discovery II was caught in a time warp and transported into the future.

It wasn't until 2026 Earthtime that a message was picked up from the missing rocketship. The Discovery had been lost for forty years on Earth but the crew had only aged a couple of days due to their journey forward and backward in time.

Jet explained that his crew had been transported by a time warp; to an Earth now ruled by the Talian people. He had fallen in love with a Talian woman - who although looking younger than him was actually many years older.

The time dilation effect was causing Jet and his crew to age too and affected their return to Earth by knocking them 54 years of course.

Lemmy Barnett

Full name: Lemmuelle Barnett
Occupation: Radio operator


Lemmy is perhaps the most realistic character in Journey Into Space. He is a cockney radio operator not only based the actors who played him - David Kossoff and Alfie Bass - but also the writer Charles Chilton, who was a radio operator for the R.A.F. in wartime.

As a boy Lemmy lived in the East End of London with his mother and Mr Vanburg, the tenant upstairs. Even at this early stage he was interested in radios. The Barnetts later moved out to Hampstead Heath.

Lemmy came from a Jewish background and often spoke fondly of his Earth life, particularly his girlfriend Becky, who also lived in London.

Lemmy had been Jet's radio operator aboard the Morgan Stratoship. He was brought in on Luna when Mitch's radio operator Newcombe fell ill.

During the course of the adventures Lemmy proved to be particularly adept at hearing sounds which other people couldn't hear, whether they were voices, music or choirs!

He would often sing whilst working and play the harmonica which he had brought with him from Earth. He also had a sense of humour which made him popular with the rest of the crew.

But Lemmy wasn't always cheerful and optimistic. He's often the first to complain about a whatever perilous situation the crew find themselves in. Finding themselves trapped on prehistoric Earth his reaction is "I've got to resign myself to the fact that I'm going to be a caveman and like it."

Lemmy's reaction to the world of space - with its zero gravity, many planets and grim feeling of isolation - was that of the everyday man. He found that he didn't understand half of it and the other half terrified him!

When it came to defending himself, Lemmy managed it on both a physical and mental level. On Mars he had to fight off two attacks from McLean, the conditioned crewman under the influence of the Martians. Doc also helped Lemmy to fight off the conditioning effect when it was used on them, by telling him to stay awake and resist any feelings of tiredness. Lemmy was thus able to overcome the sleep inducing sound on subsequent occasions.

Despite of saying that he is a bachelor on the journey to the Red Planet, at some point - perhaps after foiling the Martian invasion, Lemmy conceives a child. His grandson Chipper appears in the series Space Force set in 2010. (Although the events depicted in The Return From Mars and Space Force may well have take place in a parallel universe, distinct and separate to that of Journey Into Space.)

Doc Matthews

Full name: Doctor Matthews
Occupation: Doctor of Space Medicine


Doc Matthews was a Canadian specialist in the field of astronautics. He was called in as ship's Doctor when Newcombe, Mitchell's previous director of medicine was found dead in Australia.

Doc became an essential part of the team. With a voice of calm and a thinker's approach, he helped to unravel many of the mysteries that the crew encountered.

Doc's diaries provided detailed accounts of what took place on each trip. He was in effect the narrator of the story. Sometimes the log itself became part of the story.

When the crew of Luna were returned to their own time in orbit around the Moon, they lost all memory of their adventure on pre-historic Earth and encounter with an ancient alien culture, so Doc's diary was the rocketship crew's only clue as to what happened during their time travelling exploits.

Docs 'ship' logs also provided vital evidence when trying to convince space HQ that the planet Mars posed a threat to Earth security.

Doc often had to convince the others to see reason, offering words of caution when Jet wanted to leap into action, reassurance when Lemmy got into a panic and common sense when Mitch started a heated argument.

Mitch

Full name: Stephen Mitchell
Occupation: Engineer


Mitch was born in Australia in 1937. He was the designer of Luna and the atomic motor which powered it. He was also later instrumental in the design of the fleet of ships that would take man to Mars.

Mitch is described by Doc in chapter three of the first Journey Into Space novelisation as follows:

Sitting at the same dinner table as Mitch, and hearing him speak in his broad Australian accent, I found it hard to convince myself that he was the man primarily responsible for it all. His manner was a bit rough, his jokes apt to be somewhat coarse and his conversation blunt and staight to the point. He expected others to speak their minds, too.

In the same chapter of the first book, the following background for Mitch is also revealed:

He was tall and slim and looked older than his thirty-six years. He had that casual, nonchalant, patient air, so typical of many Australians, particularly those who have spent most of their lives away from the cities.

Mitch was born in the outback, his father being a cattle rancher and a very successful and prosperous one, too. Steve Mitchell senior had served as [a] flight mechanic in the second world war and flying was an obsession with him. Small aircraft, including helicopters, were as common on his cattle station, said to be the largest in Queensland, as jeeps were on others.

Young Mitchell inherited his father's love of everything to do with aircraft and aircraft engines. From the ranch he went to an engineering college in Sydney where he took his degree and afterwards joined the research department of a jet-aircraft manufacturer.

He did not remain with them long for he had developed a keen interest in atomic power and was soon offered a remunerative post with the Royal Australian Navy for whom he helped perfect the first atomic motor for use in warships. Three years later a smaller type for submarines was given its trials with most encouraging results. And then came a big change in Mitch's life. His father died. Mitch put the cattle station into the hands of a manager and took a long vacation to take stock of the future.

He decided he had had enough of ships and felt a strong desire to work in aeronautics again, or better still, astronautics. Astronautics was the new science. The aircraft company for whom he had first worked built many of the research rockets fired at the proving ground at Woomera. Mitch had modified the motors of a number of the liquid-fuel rockets then in use, rendering them more economical in fuel consumption and, in consequence, more efficient in performance.

But liquid-fuel motors had about reached their limit and further development along that line was pointless. It was then that the idea of designing a light atomic motor occurred to him.

The more he thought about it, the more the idea appealed. He resigned his post with the Navy and set to. His drawing-office was the converted living-room of his father's ranch house. There he spent long hours of the day and night bent over his board. When he grew tired or felt in need of a mental refresher, he saddled up a horse and rode out on cattle round-ups with the stockmen, living in the open with them for days at a time. At last, some eighteen months later, his plans were complete. He had, he was convinced, found the answer to space travel. Now all he had to do [was] prove it.

(Extracts from "Journey Into Space" by Charles Chilton, published by Herbert Jenkins, 1954)

During the first trip to the Moon, Mitch argued with Jet and everyone else because he was very possessive of the ship he had spent years designing and building. He calmed down in later adventures but still made fun of Lemmy, particularly during their return visit to Mars.

On October 18th 1965, Mitchell became the first man on the Moon. It was seven years later, at the age of 43, that he became the second man to set foot on Mars.

Mitch was the Chief Engineer of the Mars Space Fleet but during the exploration of the planet he got lost and became separated from the others, thinking he was back home in Australia.