In 1949 and 1950 a science fiction serial by Raymond F. Jones appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories. Within half a decade that serial would make history as the basis of the first science fiction movie about interstellar travel and interstellar war. The next Hollywood movie to venture to another solar system was Forbidden Planet, a wholly original construct of the prestige studio MGM. But solid, reliable Universal Studios was there first...long before Star Trek.
This Island Earth was really the first Star Wars. Colorful, spectacular, wildly imaginative, it lived up to everything its agent could possibly want, a man who was known as Mr. Science Fiction and who now brings back this classic novel: Forrest J Ackerman. A phrase he coined in another galaxy a long time ago say's it all: Gosh Wow! This story has it all.
The cover of this special edition features Jeff Morrow in the role of one of the most sympathetic aliens in 1950's science fiction film (the other is Michael Rennie in The Day the Earth Stood Still, also adapted from a literary source). In the novel he is Jorgasnovara, in the movie the less jaw Breaking Exeter. In both print and celluloid he comes to respect the Earth scientists essayed by Rex Reason and Faith Domergue.
This Island Earth is a book of heroes. The first half of the film closely follows the novel but then diverges from the intellectual challenges faced by Dr. Cal Meachem to more cinematic fare. Reading the novel now, one cannot help but marvel at how Jones' views everything from labor disputes to the predictability of computers influenced later movies and television, making This Island Earth, the novel, even more influential than-one would guess from ThisIsland Earth the movie.
