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Monthly Archives: March 2015
The Corpse on the Grating – Hugh B. Cave
Last story of the Pulp Fiction Megapack. Number XXV of XXV.
Dale and the mysterious M.S. have been summoned to the home of Professor Daimler. He tells them of his efforts and failure at bringing a dead body back to life.
I assume Daimler will return because that scene was a big fat nothing. Returning from the Professor’s home, they pass a large dark warehouse, made more frightening by the corpse clinging to the iron door. He appears to have died of horror. M.S. fancies himself a reader of dead minds. He divines that there is something terrible about Room 4167 in the warehouse. When Dale scoffs, M.S. offers him £100 if he will spend the night in that room — a trope we’ve seen before.
That night, Dale enters the building with M.S.’s assistance and climbs the stairs in search of room 4167. Once in the dark 4167, he fortuitously finds a flashlight. He does end up seeing something that horrifies him, and M.S. has an explanation.
Really, though, it is so uninteresting that it deserves to be at the ass-end of a $.99 anthology of 25 stories.
Post-Post:
- First published in Astounding Stories of Super-Science, February 1930. Entire issue available here, but why would ya?
- Also that month: Pluto discovered.
Tales From the Crypt – Spoiled (S3E13)
The sexy Fuchsia Monroe is trying to get some attention from her husband / business partner Evian. When he is more interested in closing a deal, she grabs one of the dudes in the office and begins seducing him with a Hillaryesque “When I see something I want, I take it. Rules aren’t for me.”
The camera pulls back to reveal this is a soap opera being watched by two housewives folding laundry — Janet and Louise. Janet thinks they should be more aggressive and take-charge in their relationships.
When Dr. Leon gets home, he gives Janet a quick kiss then goes down to his basement lab. He feels that his new anesthetic might have saved the life of a patient he lost today, so might want to check Wikipedia for what anesthesia actually does.
When the TV goes out during a crucial moment in her soap opera, Janet calls the cable company. They send out their studly installer “Abel, with the cable.” After some sexual innuendo, he installs her cable. Before they can really get down to it, he is called away on one of them cable emergencies you always hear about.
A few days later, Leon catches them making out and tries out his new long lasting anesthetic on them. Bottom line, he does a head transplant.
Fine story, some great casting, and appropriate directorial tone for the series for a change. But for some reason I just couldn’t get into it. I blame my self. This is a good episode even if I’m not appreciating it right now.
If nothing else it features the beautiful Faye Grant. She was probably best known for fighting the reptiles as Dr. Julia Grant in the original V. Now she is probably best known for being married to the reptilian Stephen Collins.
Post-Post:
- Title Analysis: I can’t even guess how it connects to the story.
- This is Connie Johnson’s only writing credit. Luckily, they teamed her up with veteran Doug Ronning who has two writing credits, both on TFTC.
- Strange how people are popping up in twos: Carol Lynley, Harry Guardino, and now Alan Rachins.
The Floating Island of Madness – Jason Kirby
Who is Algernon Fraser? 
Our narrator Secret Service Agent Ainslee is flying over the Arabian Desert with Brice of Scotland Yard and Foulet of the French Sureté. They have been tailing a small aircraft all day. Suddenly their prey seems to go to warp speed, quickly becoming a speck on the horizon, then disappearing from their sight.
Who is Algernon Fraser?
We flashback to 2 days earlier when Ainslee is in Constantinople (not Istanbul) and loses a suspect. He finds that Foulet lost the same man in the same way and location. Foulet believes this man is tied to an organization trying to conquer the world. All they have to go on is that both escapes took place on a roof and an airplane was nearby.
Who is Algernon Fraser?
They meet Brice that night and he shares his plan with them. They meet at the airfield before dawn. After a few hours, they spot an airplane (and get inordinately giddy considering this is an airfield). It does turn out to be the one they were waiting for, as a glider quickly zips from a rooftop to be towed by the airplane. This is where we joined their story.
The airplane has vanished and they are running low on fuel. They decide to do the sensible thing and turn back, but some force holds the plane on the same course. Their speed accelerates beyond the craft’s ability. Like Dagney Taggart, they penetrate a barrier and find themselves landed on a solid surface.
They deplane onto a massive flat area surrounded by a six foot wall and are greeted by emotionless drones. They are told that they will be taken to meet The Master. And, by the way, don’t try to “go over the wall” because we are 2,000 feet in the air.
After a short walk, they arrive in a laboratory and meet The Master — Algernon Fraser. Ainslee knows the name. Five years ago, Fraser had burst onto the scientific community with amazing discoveries. “Discoveries that would reorganize the living conditions of the world.” Then, like John Galt, he just disappeared. No one knew if he was dead or alive. Soon he was forgotten. He established this floating “Galt’s Gulch” using his scientific discoveries.
Fraser explains his discovery of Fleotite which is “not only lighter than air, but lighter than ether.” I assume he doesn’t mean the anesthetic, so is he saying it is lighter than space? Which way would it float? He further describes his uses of light and magnets which have enabled his escapes, the speed of his aircraft, how gliders can be sucked off of rooftops, and how this giant platform can be hanging in the air.
Having been written long before James Bond was created, the three agents do not recognize the now-standard explanation by the villain before doing something awful to them. Of course had they known, they would still be comforted by the fact that the dastardly time-released deed always backfires.
Fraser has the three men injected with a serum that will turn them into compliant automatons just like the Obama Press Corp, yet retain their memories and intelligence. They will lose all will and power to resist. Through an unlikely ruse, they switch out the syringe’s content with water. And he used the same same syringe on all three men?
Unfortunately, Fraser deems Brice to be the most intelligent of the three and has the doctor give him another — real — injection. Damn that British accent for making him sound so intelligent!
Yada yada, Ainslee and Foulet are on a deck beneath the platform. The serum has worn off after three days. He wants secret information about their countries, or he will cut loose the deck to fall 2,000 feet. As they refuse, he starts cutting cables. As he gets to the last two, Brice appears and knocks him out.
Brice pulls the two agents up and tells them to escape in the plane they came in; he will join them later. Reluctantly, they take off without their friend. They see the platform start to falter — Brice has shut down the lights and magnets that stabilized it and drew in their airplane. They watch the platform ascend “straight to the stars”, and are relieved to see a parachute floating Brice safely to earth.
They land on the hard Arabian Desert sand and reunite with their friend. Sadly, unless Fraser was nice enough to refuel their plane, they are going to die in the middle of the desert.
Post-Post:
- First published in Astounding Stories of Super Science, January 1933.
- Also that month: On the 30th, Hitler appointed Chancellor, promises parliamentary democracy. What could possibly go wrong?
Outer Limits – The Deprogrammers (S2E16)
I wish I could deprogram this from my line-up. See what I did there?
Earth has been conquered by giant reptilian aliens which have brainwashed and enslaved humanity to be worshipful and submissive to their new masters; just like the media to Obama.
They might be murderous beasts, but they haven’t lost touch with their softer side. Koltok has 2 human slaves draw him a warm bath in what appears to be the lobby of a hotel. He then calls for bath oils to go into the viscous goo he bathes in, which already appears to be about 30-weight. When one of the slaves drops the oil, Koltok slaps him across the room, killing him.
The other slave, Evan, is due to leave that day for a rejuvenation i.e. re-education update after bath time. However, he is abducted from the bus and awakens in a resistance facility run by Professor Davis (Brent Spiner). To break his literally slavish devotion the lizards, Davis throws him around the room with a strength I doubt Spiner possesses, but gets no reaction.
They then leave him alone in a bedroom with a one way mirror. When he sees his own reflection for the first time since his enslavement, he passes out. Davis throws him into a bathtub and sprays him in the face with the shower. Evan tries to escape, but just happens to open the door where is wife is staying . . . who just happens to be standing right by the door.
This leads to an interminable series of melodramatic scenes meant to bring Evan’s humanity to the surface again. Finally, after learning of the death of their child, he is back to his old self (no, his old-old self) and agrees to go on a mission to kill Koltok.
Supposedly back from his rejuvenation, Evan is once again drawing Koltok a bath. He brings the precious oils to him, but drops the bottle in the bath. The oil has been replaced with some agent that hardens the goo he bathes in so he is trapped. Evan beats him to death and takes his head back to resistance HQ. Fortunately, no one along his route questions why he is carrying a blood-soaked white pillow case. And this was no small head — this was one of those Ted Kennedy 25-pounders.
Unfortunately, the resistance operation is a ruse and this has all been an insidious plot to 1) kill Koltok so his even more eviller rival can succeed him, and 2) waste 45 minutes of my life.
Erich Anderson brings nothing to his role as Evan, though, to be fair he is basically playing a zombie for most of the episode. His wife did not exactly leap off the screen either.
The big surprise and disappointment was Brent Spiner as the head of the resistance. Whether it was simple miscasting, or maybe he is just too type-cast as Data, he is largely responsible for the failure of the episode. Every time he spoke, I heard EmotionChipData, Lore or the young Noonian Soong.
There is also the strange decision to show only the reptile’s arm for most of the episode. We only get a shot of the head and body near the very end. While they are certainly monstrous, the reveal is not shocking enough to justify the wait. And the reptilian arms are not alien enough to generate much suspense about what they are connected to.
Post-Post:
- Canadian disc title: Les Déprogammeurs.