Spacemens Luck

 

Where Tom Corbett, Captain Video, CMDR Corry and Other Spacemen Still Live

Journey into Space

This website is dedicated to those shows that gave me my first vision of space travel (The vision Robert A. Heinlein gave us) as a young lad in the early 1950′s. The radio show “Journey Into Space” was not one of them. In fact I never heard it until the early 2000′s. But when I finally discovered this series I so enjoyed it (especially the first story Operation Luna) that I must include it here because it does fit the vision of Heinlein’s space travel.

Journey into Space was written by BBC producer Charles Chilton, who’s previous credits include a Western serial, “Riders Of The Range” and later a producer for the final episodes of “The Goon Show.” Journey into Space was as it’s title suggests a science fiction adventure serial that ran for three epic series and told the tale of man’s attempts to conquer first The Moon and later Mars over 50 plus episodes during the 1950′s. Journey into Space – Operation Luna was originally broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 21 September 1953 (Monday evenings at 7.30pm). Final transmission was on the 19th of January 1954.

Get MP3 Collection of Journey Into Space Episodes

Journey Into Space was BBC Radio’s smash 1950’s hit of science fiction adventure. Old Time Radio (OTR) historians note that this was the last BBC Radio production that had more people listening to their radio than watching television at the same time!

Journey into Space Cast

The series is made up of three sequental science fiction stories, “Operation Luna” (13 episodes), “The Red Planet” (20 episodes), and “The World in Peril” (20 episodes). Each episode was about 30 minutes in length. Listeners were gripped by the outerspace adventures, time travels and alien encounters of the heroic crew of the Luna, Captain Jet Morgan, Doc Matthews, engineer Mitch Mitchell and harmonica playing radio operator Lemmy Barnet.

Radio Times

The first of the three stories, takes place in the distant future of 1965 (the year in which Chilton believed humans would first walk on the Moon) and is about Man’s first manned flight to the Moon. In it Captain ‘Jet’ Morgan, Doc, Mitch and Lemmy comprise the record breaking crew of the space ship Luna. The second story is of the same crew members on a new mission aboard a new space ship, Discovery, going on to Mars as part of a fleet of ships launched from the Moon. The third and final series of the original was a story of protecting the Earth from Martians.

The music was composed and conducted by Van Phillips for all three series. During early episodes the music was recorded beforehand, and played during the recording sessions. Later, an eight-piece orchestra was present in the studio for live music. Titles of the compositions used are “A Picture of the Universe”, “Rocket Away”, “Music for Outer Space”, “The Red Planet”, “Crossing the Plains”, and “Sunrise”.

Charles Chilton wrote 3 best-selling novels, expanding upon themes from the radio shows. They were originally published in hardback, and later in paperback. The first novel, Journey Into Space, was first published in 1954. Chilton’s second novel of The Red Planet was first published in 1956 and the third novel, The World in Peril in 1960.

There was even a comic strip in the Junior Express Comic’s in 1956, with new stories by Charles Chilton. The first adventure, titled “Jet Morgan in Planet of Fear,” was a 35-episode sequel to The World in Peril. Then in 1957 there was a 32 episode adventure, “Shadow over Britain.” There was a third adventure titled “The World Next Door.” The 1956 Express Weekly annual contained a short black & white comic strip called “Jet Morgan and the Space Pirates.” The 1957 annual included a short story called “Jet Morgan and the Space Castaway.”

In my next post I will provide an over view for all three series. Later I will add each episode with a more detailed episode summary, in the original series order. I have all 53 episodes of the 3 original series in my collection. Over time I will be adding these episodes to the website for your listening pleasure.

List of Journey Into Space Episodes: