NOTES ON WRITING MISSION TO PLUTO
I had some help from some of the old story guides from Mosher that I had in
my collection. Of course, they paid no attention to continuity...and why should
they, television was still in its infancy. I sent Jean-Noel copies which
she was able to use in some of the background stories for her book. One in
particular, dealt with the interplanetary wars and how devastated the planets
were, etc. A very early one dealt with the fact that the SP had barely reached
the planets, etc. Many years ago I bought a ton of the early 15 minute SP
scripts from Andy Anderson and when you read them, you can see the impact of a
few of the early “style sheets” on the stories. However, as time
passed within a year, they’re all over the place. Once the ABC shows
began they paid a lot more attention to continuity. However, since radio
had no such limitations and because SP was continually in the top 10 of all
shows for a Saturday (quite a feat actually), they went a lot further.
For example, many have thought that the tiny wing like space craft in the
opening of the show had no name. Actually it did. It was the
“Atmosphere Ship” and used for travel, mostly around a planet. Radio
named it and used it quite a bit, though it was never used in the television
series.
My thinking is that over time we can tie everything together so that it all
makes some sense...at least a story at a time. When we’re done, we
should have a novel ready for publication – a few more tie in graphics – and
some fun in the meantime.
Since TV and the time of SP was shadowy and dark – the people few, etc., I
wanted to actually make that part of the SP world...something that would
actually have happened if the wars had been that severe. It would also
account for the need for a Space Patrol to actually keep the “Space Lanes”
clear.
I’ve always thought the concept of atmosphere locks was a brilliant concept of
Mosher’s. Today’s science could otherwise impact pretty harshly given we
know that Venus, Mars, etc., are pretty uninhabitable and since the NASA
scientists have ruled out silicone cell life as a possibility, that only leaves
carbon based life. Now, if we expand the idea of the atmosphere locks to
encompass some gravitational properties that wouldn’t throw off the orbit of
the other planets, we have a way that an earlier earth could have populated the
planets. Sci-Fi wise, this makes us original in that instead of other
planets coming to our world and creating civilization, we travel to theirs.
Space Patrol’s time line which was many thousands of years into the
future, lets us do that. It’s more than enough time for outer planetary
civilizations to have come and gone (such as the Martian Carnigans).
-- Warren Chaney