Operation Luna

For example, in episode 8 of Journey to the Moon , the crew hear a mysterious tapping on the outside of the ship; this effect was created "by tapping the needle of the gramophone pickup head, and playing that through an echo chamber". The operation of the Martian "Brain" when compiling an answer in response to questions was represented by the sound of a type Director - a telephone call routing device used in large city Strowger type telephone exchanges.

Chilton wrote three Journey Into Space novels, one for each of the three original series. The first novel, titled Journey Into Space , told the story of Journey to the Moon and was the first book that Chilton had written. Tacconi spent some time with Chilton absorbing the atmosphere of the saga, and portrayed in full colour the radio actors' likenesses to match the clever dialogue. The story was continued in in the episode adventure, Shadow over Britain. In March , Bruce Cornwell took over from Tacconi as artist, and Chilton lost his enthusiasm for the cartoon strip; thereafter it became a contractual chore for him.

Terence Patrick took over from Cornwall in April , and by the time the third adventure began The World Next Door , Chilton was no longer writing the scripts. The annual included a short story called Jet Morgan and the Space Castaway , written by Chilton and illustrated by Cornwell. The Transcription discs were sold overseas, and their fate was unknown, so for many years it was believed that all the episodes had been lost forever.

The BBC no longer possessed a suitable turntable on which to play the discs, but Kendall eventually managed to obtain an EMT turntable. To clean the discs, he soaked them in warm water containing Fairy Liquid , brushed them with a goats-hair brush, and dried them using kitchen towels. Kendall then transferred the recordings to magnetic tape, removing "clicks" from the sound using a device which he designed and built, called the Mousetrap or Front End.

He removed more severe clicks after the transfer, by scraping the oxide off the magnetic tape in appropriate places. In , Kendall digitally remastered the recordings for new abridged releases on audio cassette, and in , the unabridged remastered recordings began to be released on CD and internet download. Charles Chilton was asked to write a new one-off minute episode of Journey Into Space for this slot, and The Return from Mars was the result.

The plot was an approximate continuation from the end of The World in Peril. After more than thirty years in space, and missing presumed dead, the crew finally return to Earth. The episode was broadcast on 7 March In addition to the main characters , other characters in The Return from Mars included: This was a new episode based on the original series, with David Jacobs finally taking the role of Jet Morgan who has aged while the rest of his crew were in suspended animation owing to a systems malfunction.

Charles Chilton wrote the one-hour play which was set in the year It was broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday 12 April Another one-hour play, it was set in the year Currently, only the first novel has been released as an audiobook. The recording appeared much longer than the BBC version, 2 hours 11 minutes, so the play was cut into 4 pieces 30 — 36 minutes and became a mini-series that way. Indeed, Space Force had originally been intended as a new Journey Into Space serial, following on from The Return from Mars , until relatively late in the day, so its four central characters are clear 'doubles' for the Journey Into Space team.

In the version that was actually recorded and transmitted, one character Chipper Barnett refers to his grandfather Lemmy. The BBC releases of the three original series on CD and internet download are accompanied by page booklets with text written by Andrew Pixley.

These booklets provide detailed information about the series, and are available online:. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the novel by Toby Litt, see Journey into Space book. Archived from the original on Retrieved 30 April Journey Into Restored Space". Space opera serials — Buck Rogers Flash Gordon: Radar Men from the Moon Commando Cody: Science fiction opera Planetary romance Military science fiction.

Retrieved from " https: Webarchive template wayback links All articles lacking reliable references Articles lacking reliable references from April Views Read Edit View history. Languages Nederlands Suomi Edit links.

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Charles Chilton - Journey Into Space, Operation Luna, Episode 1

This page was last edited on 13 December , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The four main cast members of Journey Into Space: The World in Peril. Bruce Beeby episodes 2 to 6. But something goes wrong, and the rocket heads towards Las Vegas, out of control. The rocket hits Las Vegas, killing at least 35 people, and the Poker Flats site is shut down. Jet is appointed the rocket's pilot, and he and Lemmy travel to Australia to meet Mitch at the secret Operation Luna base. On arrival, Mitch takes them to meet Smitty, the team's doctor, but he is found dead.

Doc Matthews replaces Smitty who died from a coronary , and Lemmy is to be the radio operator. Mitch spots a plane flying around the launch site, suspects spies are active, and advances the launch date. Radio contact with Earth is lost. Lemmy hears odd 'music' on the radio, before contact is resumed, and a tiny meteor hits Luna. No damage is sustained, but Lemmy hears the strange music again outside the ship and panics. Luna is turned round for the Moon landing, and Lemmy hears the 'music' again during the final approach.

The crew narrate their first moonwalk by radio to Earth on 22 October While exploring a crater, Jet unaccountably vanishes from sight. The crew experience strange things: Jet has visions of the past and the future; Lemmy is disturbed by the 'music' again; Doc sees a strange dome over a crater, and writes an odd diary entry without realising.

Their last week on the moon passes without incident, but as they prepare to leave for home, the ship completely loses all power. The crew are stuck on the Moon and unable to trace what has caused the power failure. A fortnight passes, with the air temperature rising uncomfortably in the absence of air-conditioning. A UFO is seen on the televiewer on the seventh day, and strange noises are heard on the tenth. When they are left with just enough oxygen to reach home, power is suddenly restored to the ship, and the UFO is seen to have landed outside.

Mitch is inquisitive and enters the UFO, where he is temporarily possessed by an alien intelligence. Luna takes off and orbits the Moon; on the far side, the crew encounter a fleet of UFOs, which pursues them. The UFOs accelerate Luna to an incredible speed, and the crew blacks out. On recovering, they find themselves out in deep space, with no sign of the Earth or Moon. In the distance, a planet is approaching. The crew land Luna on the planet and discover that it shares many of Earth's characteristics — oxygen atmosphere, drinkable water, carbon-based vegetation and ice-caps at both the poles.

After studying the stars one night, Jet deduces that they in fact are on Earth, but that they've travelled thousands of years through time. Jet discovers a prehistoric stone knife near Luna, suggesting that they've travelled back in time; but there is some confusion over this when the crew discover the tracks of a great tank-like machine near their ship. One morning, a UFO exactly like the one seen on the moon lands nearby, and a voice is heard over the radio: The crew talk with 'the voice'.

They learn that the strange music they've been hearing is generated by a strange, omnipresent power that 'the voice' and his people use to drive their ships. Eventually it lands again, in a city of domed buildings.

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They learn more about 'the voice' and his people — they are a peaceful, scientific race from the opposite side of the universe. They learnt to travel through time when their solar system was threatened by its expanding sun. The crew explore the city, and are disturbed by a close encounter with a sabre-toothed tiger. Fortunately, the creature does not attack them, but they now realise that they have travelled back through time instead of forward.

They enter a domed building, walk down a long dark tunnel, and emerge in a huge underground city. They are invited into another building to meet 'the voice', but are terrified by what they find inside Next morning, 'the voice' tells the crew about the Earth's native 'forest creatures', destructive and hostile animals, and promises to help the crew get back to their own time. While preparing Luna for take-off, the crew are horrified to realise that the 'forest creatures' are, in fact, prehistoric humans. Luna takes off and is accelerated by the UFOs; the crew blacks out.

They start to ponder on the nature of time, and become concerned about their shortage of fuel, and whether they will remember their adventures when they reach their own time. The crew successfully return to the Moon in , but with no memory of their adventure on prehistoric Earth. However, their rations have been replaced by water and an unknown bread-like substance; Doc's diary contains a detailed account; and there's a prehistoric stone knife on board Luna Jet and Mitch travel from Earth to the Moon by rocket.

The Mars fleet the flagship Discovery, 8 freighters and 20 men begins its journey. During an EVA , Mitch's safety line fails, leaving him adrift. Jet manages to rescue Mitch, using a miniature rocket unit. Frank tells Lemmy he's not getting on at all well with Whitaker, his shipmate. Whitaker starts behaving very strangely while Jet is questioning him. While Whitaker is in a strange deep sleep, both Frank and Lemmy have nightmares. Radar suddenly reveals a huge meteor swarm ahead of the fleet, blocking its path. A large meteor destroys 7. Control discovers very odd information about Whitaker - the only man answering to his description was apparently born in , and has been missing since The fleet changes course twice to avoid the meteor swarm, but both times it moves to block their path again.

The fleet enters the swarm. Peterson reports an emergency on board 6 with Whitaker. On leaving the swarm, 6 is nowhere to be seen, and the swarm is now blocking radio contact with Control. Two weeks later, Discovery apparently re-establishes contact with home, but the crew are puzzled by the short delay between replies. A radio message apparently from Control orders the fleet to return home.

However, a bearing on the radio signal reveals the transmitter to be somewhere in front of the fleet, thus proving the message to be a fake. Whitaker is found badly injured in 6, but Peterson has vanished. Jet has a strange dream, and Whitaker dies, suddenly transforming into an old man. Recording tapes found in the cabin confirm the crew's suspicions that Whitaker faked the radio message. Peterson's suicide recording is found, and radio contact with Control is restored. The fleet enters orbit round Mars, and Discovery lands at the South Pole, but a strange soporific noise troubles the crew and causes them to crash-land.

They see a mysterious orange light, mistaking it for the landing light of the Discovery, and the same soporific noise heard during the landing causes them to lose consciousness.

Doc and Frank rescue Jet and Mitch, and Jet says he dreamed of a ruined city in a valley. Discovery's crew begin the exploration of Mars in the land trucks, whilst Freighter 2 begins to ferry supplies down from the fleet in orbit. However, on its second trip down, the freighter crew hear the soporific noise and crashes. Racing to reach the crashed freighter before sunset, the Discovery's crew reaches the Mare Australis, the plain north of the ice cap.

After nightfall, though unable to find the freighter they see a mysterious white light moving across the plain. In the morning, they locate the crashed freighter, but upon reaching it find its crew missing. However, there are strange marks in the ground nearby which Jet deduces to belong to "the light", realising that a ship has visited and kidnapped the freighter crew.

The Discovery crew travel west across the Mare Australis in pursuit of the mysterious ship. Meanwhile, Frank and Grimshaw, crew members of Freighter 1, reach the wrecked Freighter 2 and take up residence for the night. However, during the night, a 'sphere' spherical UFO arrives and its crew attempt to enter the wreck. Whilst observing the crew, Frank realises they are human. A few days later, Discovery's crew reach a valley in the Argyre Desert, and a city which is identical to the one in Jet's earlier dream.

Discovery's crew explore the valley's ruined city, but Lemmy vanishes, and experiences a hypnotic dream. He's later found with McLean pilot of 2 , who is now mysteriously able to breathe the Martian air.

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Doc deduces that Whitaker and McLean had been 'conditioned' hypnotised , allowing them to be controlled, as well as breathe in the Martian atmosphere. Mitch becomes separated from the others, and meets a man who claims to be a dingo hunter in Australia. McLean, pretending to be Mitch, enters the land truck and tries to overpower Lemmy, but Lemmy wins the fight. Meanwhile, Mitch, lost in the desert and now able to breathe the Martian atmosphere, comes across a house inhabited by a man and woman who claim to be sheep farmers living in Australia in The two main characters from Operation Chaos , Steve Matuchek, a werewolf and engineer for Nornwell Scrytronics, and Virginia "Ginny" Matuchek continue in their fight against the forces of evil.

Now married and in their 40s, they have three children—Val, the child they rescued from Hell in Operation Chaos when she was 3, now 14—15 years old; Ben, 10 years old; and Chryssa, 4 years old. The world of Operation Luna has an alternative history, which mostly resembled our own until a great "Awakening" brought awareness of supernatural forces to the world at large. This Awakening led to drastic changes in society; industrial machinery was largely replaced by technology driven by magic, spells, and "goetic forces" instead of fossil fuels and electricity.

For example, the main mode of transportation is broomsticks and magic carpets fitted with cabins for people to sit in; radios are called "runers," apparently activated by runes ; and the propulsion behind space flight is achieved by a combination of mechanical technology, spelled crystals, and arcane materials such as mummy dust. Steve helped in the construction of a spacecraft for Operation Selene, the United States' first attempt to send a manned craft to the Moon. However, a disaster caused by beings adverse to the mission destroy the vehicle and nearly kill the celestonaut, Curtice Newton, although Steve, in wolf form, saves her.

Afterward, Steve, Ginny, and a handful of people begin to investigate the disaster and make plans to put Operation Luna into effect, a smaller version of Operation Selene independent from NASA. Since the identities of the entities behind the Operation Selene disaster remain somewhat veiled and mysterious, Steve and Ginny enlist the help of a number of people, including Balawahdiwa, a Zuni high priest; Fotherwick-Botts, an enchanted sword that can talk; and Fjalar, a Norwegian dwarf who forged Fotherwick-Botts.

Though the characters live in Gallup, New Mexico , the characters travel to various other locations in their investigations, including London, England, various parts of Norway , and even Yggdrasil , the legendary Norse site of the World Tree.

Operation Luna

The time period is roughly in the late s. Although vague, their initial investigations reveal that the malevolent spirits who collaborated with Coyote are Asian in origin, leading them to suspect a connection to Dr. Fu Ch'ing , a Chinese scientist, government agent, and thaumaturge.