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Journey Into Space is a radio series first broadcast in the 1950s. As you can probably tell from the title it is a science fiction series and deals primarily with man's conquest of the Moon and Mars, as well as encounters with extra-terrestrial life. It was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme (now called Radio 2) in 1953 and ran until 1958. There were 58 episodes in total, although some of these were remade into abridged versions. Each episode was lasted half-an-hour. For more details on the alternative versions, see the episode guide.
Journey Into Space: The Return From Mars was a one-off play broadcast on radio 4 in 1981. This came about due to the success of The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy radio series broadcast on radio 4 from 1978-1980. Made aware of how successful science fiction on radio could be, radio 4 commissioned a whole season of SF plays and one of these was an attempt to resurrect the legendary series Journey Into Space from the 1950s. The new 90 minute play was written by Charles Chilton and intended the reunite the cast from the original series, but radio bosses decided to use a new younger cast. In addition to this the play could never hope to match the epic scope of the original series and so disappointed many fans of the original. However, the use of stereo sound and music from the 1950s were successful aspects, making it seem more like a movie than a play. It was broadcast on radio 4 under the banner of the long-running Saturday Night Theatre and was produced by Glyn Dearman who would later go on to produce the epic Earthsearch series. Other plays in the 1981 SF season included an adaption of The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. Space Force can be classed both as a sequel to Journey Into Space or as an entirely new series. Both were written by Charles Chilton and Space Force was developed in 1984 in an attempt to try and recapture the success of the original. The link between the two is the character of Lemuelle 'Chipper' Barnet. Is he is the grandson of Lemmy Barnet, the radio operator in Journey Into Space? Or did Charles Chilton like the name so much that he simply used it again? The other characters Commander Saxon, Professor Magnus and Lauderic, the engineer, are also representative of Jet, Doc and Mitch in Journey Into Space. The series repeats many aspects of Journey Into Space, such as cliff-hanger situations but in the it compliments rather than contradicts the 1950s version. On this web site, Space Force is generally classed as a sequel to Journey Into Space, even if it isn't quite an equal. There were two series of Space Force broadcast on radio 2, the first in 1984 and the second in 1985. For more details see the episode guide.
On tape / CD: Journey Into Space has so far only been released on cassette and only in abridged forms. It has not been released on CD, although plans are afoot to release a complete box set in spring 2004. On tape all three Journey Into Space serials were heavily edited. The one off play, The Return From Mars, wasn't however. Space Force has never been commercially released and, due to the high amount of film score music used in the background, may prove too expensive for the BBC to bring out. On air: The BBC has recently launched a new digital radio station BBC 7, which has a science fiction slot. All three Journey Into Space stories have been repeated once already, whereas the two series of Space Force have both been repeated twice . See news for more details. The novelisations of the Journey Into Space, The Red Planet and The World In Peril have been out of print for many years. First editions of all three are very rare and the PAN paperback of The Red Planet is scarce. The only place you are likely to find them is at a secondhand bookshop. You could try one of the growing number of online specialist secondhand bookstores, such as www.zardozbooks.co.uk or www.abebooks.co.uk - but be warned, they may only come in from time to time and they may cost a fare bit!
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