1979’s Alien Worlds delivers a fair amount of 70s/80s cheesiness and it can be heavy on genre clichés at times, but it still offers some decent sci fi stories and it can be a fun listen.
What Is It?
This radio series from the late 1970s began each episode with the following introduction:
Slowly rotating at the edge of deep space, 1,000 kilometers beyond the atmosphere of 21st-century Earth, is the Arthur C. Clarke Astronomical Observatory: Starlab. Here Starlab Research Director Maura Cassidy, along with the scientists and technicians of the International Space Authority, watch over the countless stars and planets that fill the silent distances beyond the giant space station.
The series was a quasi-anthology that had regular characters who encountered space travelers, aliens, and other galactic phenomena in stand-alone stories that would span one to three thirty-minute radio episodes. In a sense, it was much like an audio version of Star Trek with series regulars encountering a different situation each week, only in this case it mostly revolved around the Starlab space station instead of a starship exploring the galaxy. It also shared a positive outlook on the future, much like Trek and very much in contrast to the darker sci fi we have encountered on television and at the movies over the past thirty-plus years.
Created by: Lee Hansen
Voice Cast: Linda Gary, Roger Dressler, Bruce Philip Miller, Corey Burton
Originally Aired: 1979 – 1980 (3 Seasons Totaling 30 Episodes)
Legacy:
While this series leans heavily on genre clichés and has a noticeable cheesiness about it as well as a bit of a retro-feel, it delivered some interesting science fiction stories at a point that the genre was reviving itself, and it can be fun at times.
A Closer Look:
In the late 70s, a little film called Star Wars shook the entertainment industry and proved that science fiction could have broad appeal and could prove profitable. There was a frantic rush to capitalize on the Star Wars-mania that arose after that film set records at the Box Office leading to an explosion of the genre pretty much across every medium. Big-budget films like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Moonraker, and Alien rode the Star Wars wave into the theaters. High-dollar television series like Battlestar: Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century showed up on the small screen. The Starhawks comic strip appeared in the newspapers, while The Micronauts and Rom: Spaceknight helped push comic books in more of a sci fi direction. And in 1979, a radio series called Alien Worlds showed up on the airwaves (along with another little audio adventure known as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but that’s a whole story in itself).
The series was created by radio personality Lee Hansen and its production company Watermark, Inc. gave it a decent budget which allowed for high production values, a strong voice cast (which included Casey Kasum guest starring in one episode), and a good stable of writers (which included a young J. Michael Straczynski penning one installment). The series proved popular at the time it was released, obviously capitalizing on the success of Star Wars which hit theaters a year and a half before Alien Worlds debuted. It does not necessarily stand up as well today, though, as it has the feel of a show from a different era that doesn’t quite measure up to more modern standards. The acting tends to vacillate between melodramatic and stiff, and the dialogue is often stilted or just plain mundane (but then these are common complaints among a lot of sci fi productions). It throws in many genre clichés and plenty of copy-and-paste lines that feel like they are lifted straight from the movies, comics, and pulps of old. And the much-vaunted symphonic soundtrack actually emphasizes the camp elements more than it complements the stories.
But then a lot of that is because the show is very much a product of its time and hasn’t necessarily aged well. If you can look past that, you find a fun little series here that makes an earnest attempt to deliver some good science fiction stories instead of just capitalizing on the sci fi rage of the time. Most of the episodes have a good idea somewhere at their core, even if sometimes you have to wade through a fair amount of cheese to get there. Plus, the show made an early attempt to deliver a strong female lead in a sci fi property with the Maura Cassidy character (voiced by Linda Gary).
I would not rate this show as highly as the 50s classic radio shows X Minus One and Dimension X (more on those at this link) because those relied heavily on adapting some of the best stories from known science fiction authors. Of course, they also suffer from feeling dated and have their own cheesiness about them (though we tend to forgive them that a bit more because of their age). But all things considered, all three shows actually stand quite well together as important examples of science fiction radio.
Cancelled Too Soon?
Two seasons totaling twenty-six episodes were broadcast in the show’s original run from 1979 to 1980. A third season was begun, but only four episodes were completed and those never aired during the original run. Radio dramas were a product of the past even at that time, and did not find much of an audience on the airwaves. A fair amount of money was pumped into Alien Worlds and it apparently did not generate sufficient returns, so it was capped off after thirty episodes had been produced.
Should It Be Rebooted?
Yes. In this current age when audiobooks and podcasts have emerged as an important segment of the entertainment industry, a revival of Alien Worlds could certainly work. It could be done as a complete reboot, or just a continuation of the original series, perhaps picking up several decades later. That way some of the original voice cast could return, but new actors could take over the main roles. Since the show was essentially an anthology with recurring characters, there is no reason they couldn’t continue with new episodes. And bringing on some science fiction writers, and/or adapting sci fi short stories, could turn this into a strong genre entry in the audio realm. I don’t know who holds the rights to the property these days, but it sure seems like now is the time to bring this one back.
Interesting Facts:
Lee Hansen was a DJ for the armed forces in Vietnam and his morning show “The Dawnbreaker” was the first of its kind and was similar to the one that inspired the Robin Williams movie Good Morning Vietnam.
To create “the hollow sounds of movement inside the metallic Starlab”, the cast and crew spent four days in the empty oil tanker Atlantic Trader. They walked all around the ship recording their footsteps and other sounds that could be used in the show.
The symphonic musical score for the show was created by composer Jim Kirk. There’s no indication yet that he has any relation to a future starship captain . . .
Where Can You Listen To It?
Alien Worlds was airing on Sirius XM radio at one point along with X Minus One and Dimension X, but it does not appear to be there now. Old Time Radio put out a CD with sixteen episodes in MP3 format and you can still find that available from sellers like Amazon.com. You can also find episodes available on YouTube, and this show is definitely worth seeking out.
