The Blast Off Cold Sun Experiment

August, 1954, (only 57 years ago) brought us five new episodes of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. This month is the transition from Season 1 to Season 2. Many characters change with little in-story explanation.

Blast Off, part I- This is going to be a rough one. Rocky and Bobby are flying the Orbit Jet on their own when they get caught in an asteroid storm. I'm sure with a little thought it could have been avoided, like looking at the RADAR, but the ship takes damage. They start losing Oxygen and Rocky finds a nearby unexplored planet to land on. Unbeknownst to them it is inhabited by two primitive cultures, and their arrival does not go unnoticed. Apparently Rocky's appearance coincides with a mythological second-coming of the All High. Valley People worship these beliefs and the Hill People don't (or is it the other way around, I can't tell). There has been much strife between the two, but an impending marriage after centuries of conflict is supposed to easy tensions. Then Rocky shows up by accident on their world and screws everything; Hill People resent them, and the Valley People blindly worship them. Rocky opts for First Contact with the primitive cultures (as there is apparently no Prime Directive with the United Worlds). He tries to convince them he is from Earth but they don't listen and show him a plaque saying the All High were destined to return in the future. And, that time is now. The carved face on the plaque is human. Rocky idiotically chooses to become more involved because if he manages to get off the planet it would destroy the religious nature of the people. For the time being he decides to stay and they are taken to a sacred place where they are to live their lives. It is a saucer landing site of an alien race from another star that must have been the inspiration for the current religious movement. Rocky and Bobby head back to the Orbit Jet to send a distress call, because they have no spare parts to repair the oxygen system. TO BE CONTINUED. They're mere presence is provocative enough to start a war on this planet. How are there planets in the solar system that haven't been explored yet? They show a sun rise from the planet and the sun was big enough to be from the distance of Earth's orbit. Instead of using an SOS signal, Rocky sets the distress beacon to repeat "Orbit Jet" in Celestial Code to any passing ship.

Blast Off, part II- On Earth, Space Affairs figures out Rocky and Bobby are missing. Winky is off on his own looking for Rocky so he's out of the picture. Vena, Professor Newton and Ranger Sandy blast off to the last known location reported. Meanwhile, Rocky is contending with fear and suspicion all around him as he tries to make a kiln to heat metal for the Oxygen Compressor repair. While he's distracted the Hill People drop rocks on the Orbit Jet, knocking it over. But not before the rescue ship picks up Rocky's distress signal and lands (stupidly) next to the damaged Orbit Jet. All three are captured climbing out of the rocket. The daughter of the Valley People tries to warn Rocky all this stuff is going down and she is scratched by the Flower of Death. Rocky attends to her instead and misses out on the whole rescue-party-being-captured thing. A shaman is used to prey for anti-poison as Rocky is now being blamed for the "great evil". Then he gets really pissed to find out his friends are held captive. He runs off and negotiates a plan to save the girl, by getting medicine off-planet, and leaving Bobby behind to be sacrificed in case Rocky never returns. These people really don't respect the All High myths at all. After Rocky leaves, Bobby learns that the other three will be sacrificed, anyway, and engineers a jail break. They all run off to the walled garden, cave area the locals had set aside for the All Highs to live in; a place that is taboo to enter. TO BE CONTINUED. Newton explains that the planet has never been discovered before because it's in the outer reaches of the solar system and should be bitter cold. It obviously isn't but no explanation is giving to why this planet is thriving. Netwon also explains there are, like, a hundred unexplored planets out there, kind of like Kuiper Belt Objects, I guess.

Blast Off, part III- Rocky gets all the medicine on Earth he needs, but not any spare parts. He gets back to the primitive planet (he lands next to the wrecked Orbit Jet again) and learns his friends have all escaped. He needs Newton to administer an anti-poison. This time he brought a personal communication device and tells Sandy to get everyone back to the village (Hill or Valley, I can't tell anymore). Newton saves the sick girl but learns the other people wrecked the second rocket. Everyone heads to the flying saucer as the only viable alternative to escape. It needs a bunch of repair, and Rocky makes up something about using gravity as energy. Over the next day or so they are able to sneak to the rockets using a complex cave system to get all the parts they need. They finally get off the ground but have to land again later to recharge something. During this time the locals tried to cause an avalanche on the saucer (Rocky and the crew, didn't even notice), but one of their own was gravely injured. Newton injects him with something that cures him of infection and all the broken bones and crushed organs (with one frakking injection!), and finally all the indigenous people like the Space Rangers. Rocky promises this new planet will be an outpost to explore the outer planets and beyond, then they finally leave in the saucer. THE END. I really want to know what happens when they land on Earth with a saucer that can travel between stars. This could completely shift the balance of power to the United Worlds. This story would have been over in about one episode if Rocky started using his ray-gun against all the hostiles. If Rocky and friends would have stopped parking their rockets in valleys none of their ships would have been destroyed. When Rocky is on Earth he couldn't have brought some Space Marines or some other back-up? I do like the saucer, it has running lights that spin around the edge and a cool sound. That's the best that can come out of this thoughtless story. This isn't a new Sci-Fi story but I do see some ideas here handled much better the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Who Watches the Watchers. This is the end of the original batch of 26 episodes...

The Cold Sun, part I- ... and this is the start of the final 13 episodes; in other words, Season 2. The sun is providing light, but no heat, and might have something to do with sunspot activity. This is also causing interference on all Astrophone calls to and from Earth. Rocky is on his way back on the Silver Moon XV3 with Vena, Bobby, Professor Mayberry and some co-pilot without a name. I think Winky is lost in space from last story as there is no mention of him. Neither is there mention of Professor Newton, who was probably put in a rest home. The new top Olympian on Earth, Rudy DiMarco, is visiting Secretary Drake at the Office of Space Affairs in the hopes of meeting Rocky. Dr. Reno, a civilian adviser, seems to be hatching a scheme with DiMarco. But the real thing going on is an end to the hostilities between the United Worlds and Herculon. It appears an old leader has lost his position and Juliandra, known as the Suzerain of Herculon (sound familiar?) wants to be more friendly. She proposes an exchange of personnel to better learn each others' cultures. Her most trusted officer, Biffen Cardoza, for Rocky Jones. Rocky of course declines, but they offer up DiMarco instead. DiMarco has something to prove and beats Rocky in a boxing match before the exchange. Once they get to Herculon, introductions go all around, but DiMarco sneaks off and meets with a contact to cause a rift in the proceedings. That night Vena is forced under hypnosis to write a fake kidnapping letter for Rocky. He goes out looking for her and gets in over his head, until Biffen shows up and saves him. They complain to Juliandra who has no idea what's going on, then Bobby finds Vena has been asleep in her room the whole time. (Nobody thought to look?) At this point Vena nicknames Biffen as "Biff", better than the name Winky. With everything back to "normal" Rocky calls Ranger Clark on OW9 to relay a message to Space Affairs, but all communications with Earth have been lost. TO BE CONTINUED. It's a nice touch that they no longer have the Orbit Jet since it was wrecked and stripped of parts last episode. The new rocket ship has a better looking dashboard, too. The first look at the Herculon capital is the same as the Ophiuchian capital. There must be a contractor out there building all the same buildings on the Outlaw Worlds. For that matter they also use the same mind control device that Cleolanthe was known for. In the real world of science, sunspots are a sign of a healthy star and become more plentiful during the Solar Maximum. However, during Solar Minimum we no longer see sunspot activity (or very little) and have begun to consider it indicates a cooling trend on Earth. At least heavy sunspot activity can have a huge effect on unshielded communication satellites, so that's not too far off in the story.

The Cold Sun, part II- Space Affairs is in lock-down on Earth because they are the only ones who know anything about the sun being the cause of the cold spell. This includes Drake, Mayberry and Reno. Mayberry has a theory, which isn't too far from something Newton would come up with. The sun's heat is being absorbed by a blanket effect over the surface of it. What ever that effect is the sun is still shining, but all the heat is trapped on the surface. Huh?!? The new plan, is to first get two ships, XV9 and the Silver Moon, loaded with Trotanic Missiles. Since there is no solar heat, Mercury is approachable, something the Space Rangers can't normally do. Mercury has a moon named Torita [sic]. Again, Huh?!? Both rockets are to land on the little moon and shoot four rockets into the sun to overheat it and blow away the blanket effect. Did anyone notice that the eight Trotanic Missiles fired at the moon, Posita, in Crash of Moons had no effect? Rocky leaves Herculon, with a special message for Drake's eyes only from Juliandra, and heads for station OW9. Little does anyone expect but at that moment OW9 is being ransacked by Pinto Vertando, who has turned interstellar pirate. To make his escape, Vertando, shoots a gyro control and the station becomes unstable and shakes a bunch. They leave Ranger Clark stuck on the station when Rocky tries to land. To make matters worse, all visiograph activity and Astrophone use is dead and Rocky has to dock on a moving target blind. He succeeds on manual, rescues Clark, then chases down Vertando. Even blind he disables his ship and captures all three pirates before heading to Earth. When Rocky arrives he hands over his three prisoners to authorities and gives Drake the message. For whatever reason, Juliandra is smitten with DiMarco and plans to marry him, making the Olympian the new ruler of Herculon. All part of some plan I think. Repairs (that aren't explained) are being made to the Silver Moon and all are nearly ready to go to Torita and fix the Sun. TO BE CONTINUED. The Space Rangers must have reversed engineer that saucer Rocky took, because the Silver Moon is able to go to Herculon, which orbits a different star, they call Oona. Even though it looks the same as all the other rockets, Bobby points out a new super-fast XV27, no doubt with more saucer parts, while on Herculon. According to the story, Earth is still getting light, but without heat, from the sun. So in this universe the photon packet of energy that is released from the sun, as light, cannot impact any molecules and vibrate them, thus causing heat. That's just not how light works, there is no light without heat. It's good they understood that the sun effects the Earth's weather but they get the rest wrong. I'm trying to suspend my disbelief for the shows sake, but these scientists have got to go. For payment to help the displaced people of Ophiuchus, Cleolanthe must have shared Trotanic Missile technology with the Space Rangers.