About the Journey Imagine living in the Silver Age of science fiction and fantasy. A youthful JFK is President. John Glenn is a national hero. Stranger in a Strange Land has just won the Hugos. Joanna Russ and Ursula K. Le Guin are promising new authors. Spider Man, The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, and Thor are bursting onto the comics scene. What would it be like to actually be there, experiencing life, the movies, the books, the music, day per day? The Traveler and co. live in 1963, regularly commuting 55 years into the future to write about then-contemporary science fiction and fantasy, particularly fiction found in magazines. But that’s not all there is to life 55 years ago! So expect to read about the movies, the space shots, the politics, the music, and much more! There is nothing like the Journey anywhere else in the universe. Come jump through the portal and see a world you may but dimly remember, or which you may never have seen before, but without which your time could never have been… If you enjoy this collection, you can read more at the Galactic Journey blog site , or join us on Discord at Portal 55. Galactic Journey Selected posts and tweets from a fanzine blog Edited by Gideon Marcus Contents Twilight Zone, Season 4 Episodes 5–8 ............................................................................................ 3 A Brighter Future New Worlds, May 1963 ......................................................................... 11 More Wooden Acting The British Show, Space Patrol ............................................................ 20 The Future in a Divided Land, Part 2 An Overview of Science Fiction in East and West Germany ......... 31 Africa: From End to End a Beautiful Garden Vogue’s New Grand Tour .................................................................... 40 Engineers at Play Spacewars!, Hacking, and the PDP-1 ................................................ 50 Laughing Mushrooms Ishirō Honda’s Matango ...................................................................... 59 Oh Brave New World The 1963 Worldcon .............................................................................. 68 Druids at College An Old Religion for a New Era .......................................................... 80 Coming Up for Air The October 1963 Amazing .................................................................. 86 Out of Sight The Man with the X-Ray Eyes ............................................................... 96 An Integral Future Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We .................................................................... 104 Dr. Who? An Adventure in Space and Time ................................................... 111 A Composer After My Own Heart A Theme Song for Dr. Who ............................................................... 122 SF or Not SF? That Is the Question They Came from the Mainstream, 1963 Edition ................................. 131 Count Every Star 1963’s Galactic Stars ........................................................................... 139 Best Poetry ........................................................................................... 141 Best Vignette (1-9 pages): ................................................................. 142 Best Short Story (10-19 pages): ........................................................ 143 Best Novelette (20-45 pages) ............................................................ 144 Best Novella (46+ pages) .................................................................. 145 Best Novel/Serial .............................................................................. 146 Science Fact ........................................................................................ 147 Best Magazine .................................................................................... 148 Best Author(s) .................................................................................... 149 Best Artist ........................................................................................... 150 Best Dramatic Presentation .............................................................. 153 Best Fanzine ....................................................................................... 154 About the Journey Who We Are........................................................................................ 157 Galactic Journey @journeygalactic [Jan. 1, 1963] Happy New Year, from the cast of the new Tonight Show! 1 March 10, 1963 Galactic Journey @journeygalactic [Feb. 7, 1963] “What computer do you prefer, Bob?” “Definitely the Control Data, Bill!” 2 Twilight Zone, Season 4 Episodes 5–8 March 10, 1963 [We have a special treat for you, today. One of the Journey’s long-time followers has prepared a review of the latest episodes of The Twilight Zone. Natalie de- scribes herself as having “devoted her life to finding the best and the worst popular culture has to offer. Areas of expertise include music, movies and television.” I hope you enjoy her words as much as I did…and perhaps we can convince her to return?] by Natalie Devitt As you know by now, The Twilight Zone is no longer the most consis- tently good show. Episodes have been varying dramatically in terms of quality. The longer episodes this season have not helped matters. Some episodes seem padded to add time to stretch to the full hour, while others would probably work better as feature length films. That was certainly the case with some of the episodes this past month, but the episodes were not without moments of brilliance. 3 March 10, 1963 Mute, by Richard Matheson Mute is the story of a young girl named Ilse, who is used as a test subject by her parents. Her parents are members of an organization that studies telepathy. Even though Ilse is perfectly capable of learning how to speak, as part of a deal with other members of the organization, her parents raise her to communicate using only telepathy and document the results for other members of their organization. Sadly, her parents never seem to consider what would happen to Ilse if they were no longer able to care for her. So, when the family’s home suddenly burns down one night, killing both of her mother and her fa- ther, Ilse is left without the means to communicate with those around her. Luckily, the local sheriff and his wife offer her a place to stay, while they try to contact her next of kin. In the meantime, they enroll her in school, assuming that the school would teach her everything thing she needs to know in order to assimilate. 4 GalacticJourney.org I hate to admit that after last season’s Little Girl Lost, I expected a higher caliber of work from screenwriter Richard Matheson. This episode does not seem to work as an hour long story. What could be an interesting epi- sode about the pressure to conform or adults not always knowing what is best for children, turns into an episode that fails to leave any lasting impression. That said, Ann Jullian, who you may remember in Babes in Toyland and Gypsy, does a fine job as Ilse. In addition, the camera work with its frequent tilts and pans, effectively conveys Ilse’s feelings of being disori- ented as she transitions from having lived in silence to being thrown into a world of filled sound. The episode deserves two and a half stars. Death Ship, by Richard Matheson This episode gives a glimpse into the future. In the year 1997, Earth is overpopulated, so humans are in need of a new planet to colonize. A crew aboard a spaceship set out on an expedition in hopes of finding one. Once they finally land on a planet that they think has potential, they find a spaceship that bears a striking resemblance to their own. After assess- 5 March 10, 1963 ing the situation, they enter the spaceship only to find a crew that looks just like them — except for one thing, the men in the spaceship are dead. The living crew struggle to find an explanation for how the ship and their deceased doppelgangers ended up on the planet, and how they can avoid meeting a similar fate. This episode stars Jack Klugman and Ross Martin, and is a pretty con- sistently good episode. It can be at times fairly predictable. My biggest complaint is that a number of the sets have clearly been reused in order to cut costs. Even though the episode did not offer anything new visually, I still give it three stars. Jess-Bell, by Earl Hammer Jr. There is something special about Jess-Belle, a tale of obsession that aired just in time for Valentine’s Day. This episode takes place in the not too dis- tant past of the Appalachian Mountains. The title character in the episode is played by an unrecognizable Anne Francis, best known for her work as Altaira in Forbidden Planet. This time the usually blonde actress is sporting 6 GalacticJourney.org a black wig and playing a desperate young woman, who enlists the help of a local witch, referred to as Granny Hart, to win back a former lover by the name of Billy Ben. Billy Ben is played by Western regular James Best. Not surprisingly, trouble ensues. Anytime a blonde actress wears a dark wig and flirts with the dark side, you know what you are watching is bound to be entertaining, even if it is not in the way originally intended. To its credit, though, Jess-Belle man- ages to be very effective with its strong performances and haunting atmo- sphere, despite most of its characters being hillbilly stereotypes. I could not get this episode out of my head for days, so for that reason I give it four stars. Miniature, by Charles Beaumont This episode is about a character