The Worlds Of Jerome Bixby

The Worlds Of Jerome Bixby

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

GALLERY OF RARE "MEN INTO SPACE" PUBLICITY PHOTOS AND MORE


Wikipedia on Men into Space:

Men Into Space is an American science-fiction television series broadcast from September 30, 1959 to September 7, 1960 by CBS which depicted future efforts by the United States Air Force to explore and develop outer space. The black-and-white filmed show starred William Lundigan as Col. Edward McCauley.
The series was not set in a specific era, but clues throughout the scripts indicated that it took place in the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, with the first moon landing somewhere around 1975. Props were occasionally futuristic (such as a forerunner of today's real-life LCD TVs) but the show's earthly clothing and environs, including automobiles, telephones and other machines, were decidedly 1950s. However, a line of dialogue in "Christmas on the Moon," suggests that the events of that episode take place 2,000 years after the birth of Christ.

Men Into Space was somewhat unusual for a TV action series in that it had numerous recurring characters, but only one --- the protagonist, Col. Edward McCauley (William Lundigan) --- who was in each of the 38 episodes in the series. Tyler McVey appeared in seven episodes as Major General Norgath. Ron Foster appeared five times as Lieutenant Neil Templeton.

McCauley was a sort of "everyman" character who was viewed in the show as the most experienced and illustrious astronaut. As depicted in the scripts, the low-key but decisive McCauley was ubiquitous, assigned to every important space mission over at least a decade, including the earliest manned flights, the first flight to the moon, many additional moon landings and moon base construction missions, construction of a space station, and two flights to Mars (neither succeeded, and folklore has it that plans for a never-aired second season would have focused on further missions to Mars and beyond).

In many episodes, the astronauts were faced with accidents or technical problems that required innovation. The program was not idealistic; missions sometimes failed and astronauts sometimes died. For example, a scientist-astronaut stricken with a coronary thrombosis while exploring the moon was not expected to survive the G-forces of the return flight, so his comrades stowed the space-suited patient in a steel drum filled with water, to cushion him during launch. A "Space Race" episode involved spacecraft from the USA and USSR starting out almost simultaneously on the first Mars mission, with one of the craft aborting its effort to rescue the other craft and crew after it experienced problems.

The series included an episode whose plot essentially paralleled the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission's explosion in space more than a decade later, and another that was an uncanny foretelling of the accident that befell the real Gemini VIII mission in 1966.

Scripts often considered the human factor, and while action was the show's forte, humor and romance were part of the mix. Men Into Space predicted women astronauts and scientists, and married couples in space.

Accuracy

The series was advertised as being for its era an extremely accurate preview of manned spaceflight, based on scientific studies and buttressed by technical assistance from the USAF's ballistic missile and space medicine offices. The spacecraft designs, however, veered inconsistently between early 1950s Wernher Von Braun concepts, and later, totally scaled-down proposals.[clarification needed] Visual backdrops and conceptual designs of spacecraft, space stations and a moon base depended somewhat on contributions from notable astronautics artist Chesley Bonestell. The series also availed itself of extensive documentary footage of early missile launches. It evoked the earlier Disney space exploration documentaries, which in turn owed their look and feel to a widely read, early 1950s series on the subject in the old Collier's Weekly magazine, where Bonestell's art also held sway.

Prediction of technologies in use today

Men Into Space, later syndicated as Space Challenge, used for its plots many technical and human problems anticipated by engineers and planners. For example, the show depicted attempts to refuel spacecraft by tanker in orbit, construction of a space telescope, an experiment to dispose of high level atomic waste by launching it into the sun, the search for life-sustaining frozen water on the moon, exploration and destruction of an asteroid whose orbit threatened Earth, and exo-fossil evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Although the series was modestly budgeted, it was cleverly mounted with what, for its era, were good special effects helmed by Louis DeWitt. Even decades later, the series can still be appreciated for its attention to detail and accurate physics.

Scientific accuracy

A narrator explained in nearly every episode why the astronauts needed magnetic boots to walk in or upon their free-falling spacecraft, how a jet thruster backpack could propel an astronaut through the vacuum of space, why a wrong angle of attack could doom a spacecraft upon atmospheric re-entry, and so forth. The spacecraft in the program were shown gliding to a powerless landing on a dry lake bed, just like the real Space Shuttle nearly 25 years later.

On the other hand, the show repeatedly depicted sound in the vacuum of space. Airlocks hummed, rockets roared, explosions boomed, and footsteps on the moon's surface could be heard.

Production notes

The program was produced by Ziv Television Programs, Inc., whose other notable series included Sea Hunt. The theme and recurring background music were written and conducted by David Rose. The series was produced by Lewis J. Rachmil.

Among the guest stars was Keith Larsen of the CBS series Brave Eagle and The Aquanauts. Joyce Taylor played the role of Mary McCauley in the series, but Angie Dickinson played the role in the pilot episode. Other guest stars include Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Joe Maross, Gavin MacLeod, Donald May, Harry Townes, Whit Bissell, Simon Oakland, Warren Stevens, Murray Hamilton, Brett King, Robert Reed, William Schallert, James Drury, James Best, Nancy Gates, Allison Hayes, Werner Klemperer, Paul Burke and Marshall Thompson.

Spacesuit costumes and special-effects footage of space vehicles (shot with miniature models) were later re-used in The Outer Limits. The pilot episode used real, high-altitude pressure suits developed by the United States Navy but most of the space suits used in the show were US Air Force designs.


















Buy Star Trek & Men into Space Scripter Jerome Bixby's Mirror, Mirror in  Kindle only $3.99.

 See all 7 Men into Space episodes scripted by Jerome Bixby free - click here.

 


Sunday, December 14, 2014

FREE WATCH ALL 7 EPISODES STAR TREK TOS WRITER JEROME BIXBY WROTE FOR SHOW'S PREDECESSOR 'MEN INTO SPACE"

YOURS TO WATCH FREE 

ALL 7 EPISODES STAR TREK TOS WRITER JEROME BIXBY WROTE FOR STAR TREK'S PREDECESSOR "MEN INTO SPACE"

PRESENTED BY THE NEW JEROME BIXBY COLLECTION

"MIRROR, MIRROR: CLASSIC SF STORIES BY THE LEGENDARY STAR TREK AND FANTASTIC VOYAGE WRITER

THIS COLLECTION CONTAINS THREE OF HIS 1950s MAGAZINE STORIES HE LATER ADAPTED IN TO SCRIPTS FOR STAR TREK TOS

EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY HIS SON, SCREENWRITER EMERSON BIXBY 

Buy for only $3.99 in Kindle at Amazon.

Below watch 7 episodes of the legendary 1960 science fiction television show Men into Space written by Jerome Bixby. Bixby is celebrated by Star Trek fans for his four scripts for the original series, Mirror, Mirror, By Any Other Name, Who Morns for Adonis?, and Day of the Dove. But six years earlier he had learned the craft of creating top-quality science fiction for television as a staff writer for Men into Space.


The episodes Jerome Bixby wrote for Men into Space showcase many of the qualities that would later make his Star Trek episodes among the best written for TOS. We hope you will enjoy watching them and that you will consider looking at Mirror, Mirror, a new collection of his science fiction stories from the golden age of the pulp magazines that features three stories he later used ideas and themes from in his Star Trek Scripts.

 
24 Is There Another Civilization? (story)

His first contribution to the series, a story outline. The script was written by someone else, but Bixby provided a strong and intriguing plot.





32 Mission to Mars (as Lewis Jay)

With his first script for the series, Jerome Bixby seems to have become the chief script writer, as he procuces all but one of the remainder of the season's teleplays.




33 Moon Trap (as Lewis Jay)

His skills as an early television writer, when tense dialogue was as important as action, show off well in this episode.





35 Into the Sun (as Lewis Jay)




Buy Star Trek Scripter Jerome Bixby's Mirror, Mirror in  Kindle only $3.99.



Click here to see the final three episodes of Men into Space. Including the never aired on TV 38th episode. All three penned by Jerome Bixby.











FREE WATCH FINAL 3 EPISODES STAR TREK TOS WRITER JEROME BIXBY WROTE FOR SHOW'S PREDECESSOR 'MEN INTO SPACE"

PRESENTED BY THE NEW JEROME BIXBY COLLECTION

"MIRROR, MIRROR: CLASSIC SF STORIES BY THE LEGENDARY STAR TREK AND FANTASTIC VOYAGE WRITER

THIS COLLECTION  CONTAINS THREE OF HIS 1950s MAGAZINE STORIES HE LATER ADAPTED IN TO SCRIPTS FOR STAR TREK TOS

EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY HIS SON, SCREENWRITER EMERSON BIXBY 


Buy Star Trek Scripter Jerome Bixby's Mirror, Mirror in  Kindle only $3.99.




36 The Sun Never Sets (as Lewis Jay)




37 Mystery Satellite (as Lewis Jay)
Another idea rich, well-dialoged Bixby Script. Traces of his future work for Star Trek TOS can be seen.








38 Flight to the Red Planet [never aired on TV] (as Lewis Jay)
On Phobos McCauley must make desperate decisions to complete their mission to Mars. Too bad the series wasn't renewed for the second season.




Buy Star Trek Scripter Jerome Bixby's Mirror, Mirror in  Kindle only $3.99.










Friday, December 5, 2014

"Mirror, Mirror" New Jerome Bixby Collection Reaches Top 10 on Star Trek Bestseller List at Amazon Kindle






  The famed Star Trek script writer's new collection of eleven stories from the pulp science fiction magazines, Mirror, Mirror, has reached the top 10 on the Star Trek bestseller list at Amazon Kindle and the top 50 among science fiction anthologies and collections.
   Before he wrote four fan-favorite Star Trek episodes, and the screen story for the movie Fantastic Voyage, Jerome Bixby (1923-1998) was a highly regarded professional science fiction magazine editor. But Bixby deserted magazine editing for Hollywood. Bixby is best remembered for episodes he wrote for the original Star Trek television series, and is much revered by series fans for introducing, in "Mirror, Mirror," the concept of the "mirror universe" where The Federation and Kirk, Spock, et al, are all their evil exact opposites in character and deed. 
   Bixby also wrote three other episodes, "By Any Other Name," "Day of the Dove," and, "Requiem for Methuselah," which are ranked among the best in the series. The new collection contains a trio of rarely reprinted novelettes containing ideas that Bixby would later mine and transmogrify in two of his highly regarded Star Trek episodes. These stories are "One-Way Street" and "Mirror, Mirror" (both used in the ST script "Mirror, Mirror") and "Cargo to Callisto" (used in "By Any Other Name"). The collection also contains Bixby's most famous short story, "It's a Good Life," memorably dramatized first on The Twilight Zone, then in the Twilight Zone Movie, and finally reinterpreted for the twenty-first century on the series 2002 incarnation, in "It's Still a Good Life."





Thursday, December 4, 2014

Mirror, Mirror Featured on Roddenberry Site

Digital Parchment Services is thrilled that the Roddenberry section of the SF news site, Nexus, has featured the release of our Jerome Bixby collectionMirror, Mirror:


Jerome Bixby Stories Spotlighted In New Book
'Mirror, Mirror' collection features magazine tales that inspired 'Star Trek' episodes
Stories used by writer Jerome Bixby to create two "Star Trek: The Original Series" episodes are featured in a new book compiling his science fiction work. 
Titled "Mirror, Mirror Classic SF by the Famed Star Trek and Fantastic Voyage Writer," the book from Digital Parchment Services includes the never-before-reprinted novelettes "One-Way Street," "Mirror, Mirror" and "Cargo to Callisto." Bixby molded the first two novelettes into a script for his famous 1967 Season 2 episode "Mirror, Mirror" -- which went on to earn a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation -- and the last for the 1968 Season 2 episode "By Any Other Name." 
The book also contains Bixby's famous short story, "It's a Good Life," which was adapted for "The Twilight Zone" and 1983's "Twilight Zone: The Movie." Other stories include his first tale from 1949, "Tubemonkey," and "The God Plllnk," which was published in 1964. 
Bixby, who was a highly regarded science fiction magazine editor and writer, also wrote the "Star Trek" episodes "Day of the Dove" and "Requiem for Methuselah." He enjoyed success beyond "Star Trek," however, having co-wrote the story for 1966's "Fantastic Voyage" and penning 1958's "It: The Terror from Beyond Space," which served as inspiration for Ridley Scott's classic sci-fi film "Alien." 
Screenwriter and producer Emerson Bixby, Jerome's son, edited the book and wrote its introduction. 
The book arrived in stores Nov. 18, and it costs $3.99 for the ebook edition and $9.99 for paperback.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

DIGITAL PARCHMENT SERVICES Publishes MIRROR, MIRROR By Star Trek And Fantastic Voyage Writer Jerome Bixby!


Digital Parchment Services
Is Proud To Announce The Publication Of

MIRROR, MIRROR
Classic SF By The Famed Star Trek And Fantastic Voyage Writer

NEW JEROME BIXBY COLLECTION
CONTAINS THREE SF MAGAZINE STORIES THAT INSPIRED TELEPLAYS HE WROTE FOR THE ORIGINAL STAR TREK TV SERIES (1966-69)

For Immediate Release

"Mirror, Mirror", the first collection of Jerome Bixby's science fiction in nearly fifty years, showcases three forgotten pulp magazine stories by that Bixby adapted for the acclaimed Star Trek episode.

Before he wrote four fan-favorite Star Trek episodes (receiving a nomination for the coveted Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation), and the screen story for the movie Fantastic Voyage, Jerome Bixby (1923-1998) was a highly regarded professional science fiction magazine editor and writer remembered for his "yeoman work in raising the standards of the science fiction action story (…) whose own stories, though few, are much sought after by discriminating readers." (Science Fiction Stories 1953)

Bixby soon deserted magazine editing for Hollywood, where he wrote a number of low-budget, late-1950s monster movies including It: The Terror from Beyond Space (the acknowledged inspiration for Alien), and landed scripting chores on the documentaryesque early science fiction television series, Men Into Space, before striking it big when he sold Fantastic Voyage to a studio.

Jerome Bixby is best remembered, however, for the four episodes he wrote for the original Star Trek television series, and is much revered by series fans for introducing, in "Mirror, Mirror," the concept of the "mirror universe" where The Federation and Kirk, Spock, et al, are all their evil exact opposites in character and deed. 

Bixby also wrote three other episodes, "By Any Other Name," "Day of the Dove," and, "Requiem for Methuselah," all of which critics and fans rank among the best in the series.

Fans of all types will thrill to learn that this first-ever collection focusing on Jerome Bixby's science fiction will showcase a trior of never-before-reprinted novelettes containing ideas that Bixby would later mine and transmogrify in two of his highly regarded Star Trek episodes, "One-Way Street" and "Mirror, Mirror" (both used in the ST script "Mirror, Mirror") and "Cargo to Callisto" (used in "By Any Other Name").

The collection will also contain Bixby's most famous short story, "It's a Good Life," memorably dramatized first on The Twilight Zone, then in the Twilight Zone Movie, and finally reinterpreted for the twenty-first century on the series 2002-3 incarnation, in "It's Still a Good Life."

Other Bixby classics include his first SF story for a pulp magazine, "Tubemonkey" (1949), and his very last, "The God Plllnk" (1964). You will also find a half-dozen other "lost" stories and novelettes reprinted for the first time since their original magazine publication in the 1950 and '60s.

Mirror, Mirror was edited and features a long personal Introduction by his son, screenwriter and producer, Emerson Bixby.

To be released in both trade paperback and as an ebook, "Mirror, Mirror Classic SF by the Famed Star Trek and Fantastic Voyage Writer" is a collection with something for everyone; it's for fans of pulp magazines, for fans of good science fiction writing, and for every fan who has ever journeyed along the space lanes with Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

Digital Parchment Services ebooks and paperbacks are available online through Amazon, B&N, and other sites, while our ebooks debut at Amazon for Kindle, and other platforms and bookselling sites to be announced.

ebook           
Introductory price: $3.99Regularly $6.99           
ISBN 9781615082414

Trade Paper            
Introductory price $9.99Regularly $14.99
ISBN 9781503302433

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For Review Copies Contact:
M.Christian, Publisher
Digital Parchment Services

Digital Parchment Services is a complete ebook and print service for literary estates and literary agents. The founders of Digital Parchment Services are pioneers in digital publishing who have collectively published over 2,500 ebooks and PoD paperbacks since 1998.

DPS clients include the estates of multiple Hugo winning author William Rotsler, and science fiction legend Jody Scott; authors such as Locus Award finalist Ernest Hogan, Hugo and Nebula nominee Arthur Byron Cover, prize winning mystery author Jerry Oster, psychologist John Tamiazzo, Ph.D., award winning nutritionist Ann Tyndall; and Best of Collections from Fate Magazine and Amazing Stories.

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Friday, November 21, 2014

Emerson Bixby on His Father, Jerome Bixby's Early Years In Hollywood

INTRODUCTION

Jerome Bixby: It Was a Good Life


By EMERSON BIXBY

 (excerpted from the Introduction to the new Jerome Bixby collection, Mirror, Mirror: Classic SF by the Legendary Star Trek and Fantastic Voyage Writer)

After writing several thousand short stories — science fiction, action, horror, western, comedy, etc. — and working for Planet Stories, Thrilling Wonder, Galaxy and other popular pulp magazines, Dad turned his attention to the screen.  He continued writing short stories, often adapting them later for television or film, as with “One-Way Street,” which was part of his inspiration for Trek’s “Mirror, Mirror.” He took the theme from "One-Way Street" and a
story titled "Mirror, Mirror," story, from which he also lifted the title.
Dad’s first screenplay was a Western titled "The Body at Miller's Creek", which sadly never got filmed.  Similar to "The Man From Earth", it took place in one location and was mostly dialogue.  A cowboy steps into a saloon during a fierce blizzard, orders a bottle of whisky, and mentions in passing that there's a body beneath the ice at Miller's Creek.  Others in the saloon, also trapped by the blizzard, begin to speculate as to whose body it is, and some fear they are responsible for his death.  The Sheriff who ran a drifter out of town, the bar-girl who harshly rebuffed an advance, the bartender who threw out a drunk, the rancher who argued with his son, and so on.  These people spend most of the film baring their souls, confessing their sins and regrets, while the cowboy just sits and listens, drinking his whiskey.  Then next morning, he rides out of town, pausing to look at the body beneath the ice, and realizes it's a scarecrow.  A year or two later, “Miller’s Creek” almost became an episode of “Have Gun Will Travel”, with Paladin playing an almost silent role.  Dad felt the producers passed on the script because there was no bloodshed, no conflict, and Paladin doesn’t kill anyone.

Dad always loved Westerns.  He wrote a few more, none of which saw the light of day.  In retrospect, he assumed he was trying too hard, almost attempting to re-write the genre.  He never bothered with the familiar plots like railroads coming through, so-and-so's out for revenge, and Indian attacks.  Instead, he kept attempting to write a new Western, something other than the run-of-the-mill stories Hollywood kept turning out.  Don't get me wrong, Dad loved the good ones.  "Red River" was his favorite, followed closely by "The Ox-Bow Incident." 

In 1957, after the fourth or fifth rejected Western, Dad decided to try writing science fiction films.  The next year, "It! The Terror From Beyond Space", "Curse of the Faceless Man", and "The Lost Missile" hit theaters pretty much back-to-back.

"The Lost Missile" was Dad's first film, which he scripted with John McPartland.  On the first day of filming, the director dropped dead of a heart attack, and his son took over.  The film was well-received, but it suffered from an overuse of stock footage.  There was easily fifteen minutes of it: jets taking off, jets landing, soldiers running, jets taking off, jets landing. 
Then came "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", which was Dad's answer to "The Thing."  Dad went to his grave praising Kenny Peach, the film's cinematographer, and Paul Blasdel, who designed the creature.  He was on the set for much of the filming, and struck up friendships with both Marshal Thompson and Dabbs Grier, who turned out to be an okay chess player. 

“It!” was followed by "Curse of the Faceless Man."  Now, if anyone out there ever wants to torture me for information, just play Rap music and force me to drink Decaf, and I'll sing.  For Dad, just mention "Faceless Man" and he'd beg for mercy.  His original script was a love story, essentially "Titanic" with a volcano.  Set against the eruption of Vesuvius, a beautiful Princess falls for a lowly Slave, but their undying love can never be.  The first half of the script dealt with our star-crossed love-birds hiding their passion in shadow.  Then the Volcano erupts, and our hero spends the rest of the script attempting to get his love out of harm's way.  Jumping from one building to the next over rivers of lava, outrunning landslides of molten rock, always one step ahead of the villain who wanted the Princess's hand for himself and who now vows that both shall die. 

"The Faceless Man" was a good script, but the producers were amused that Dad actually thought they had money to spend on it.  Someone, Robert Kent, I believe, came up with the bright idea of losing the love story, and hey, let's make our hero a mummy!  Dad never visited the set, and had no idea that his volcanic love story had become a third-rate mummy rip-off.  After the premiere, I understand he shared some colorful expletives with Kent and put it all behind him. 

In the late '50's, Dad wrote for "Men Into Space", a sci-fi adventure series that attempted to depict the coolness of space travel, minus a budget.  He wrote a script titled "Eye in the Sky", about a military satellite that spots the lone survivor of a shipwreck in a lifeboat.  "Men Into Space" refused to do the episode; something about Department of Defense not wanting anyone to think we had satellites pointing down at Russians, or, goodness knows, Americans.  Dad left the show shortly after.

Dad met a girl in, I believe, late 1958; an interesting precursor of the impending '60s drug-culture.  After the divorce a few years later, Dad raised me and my two brothers single-handedly.  In case I haven't already said this, my father wasn’t just a multi-talented writer, he was an excellent parent.

When Dad's story "It's a Good Life" was used as an episode of "The Twilight Zone," Dad had originally wanted to do the script himself.  It turned out Rod Serling had written the script before purchasing the rights.  Dad was so impressed with Serling's script that he didn't change one word. 

In 1966, a new show about space travel caught Dad's eye: "Star Trek."  After the third episode, Dad sat and wrote a script on spec, "Mother Tiger."  In it, the Enterprise encounters
a derelict ship with an alien in suspended animation; an exiled criminal from its home world and now the sole survivor of its race, which begins laying hundreds of eggs.


Roddenberry loved the script, but it would have been far too expensive to film, so Dad promptly wrote "Mirror, Mirror," which was by far his best Trek.  I'm sure everyone has heard stories of a certain actor on Trek taking lines from other characters.  This almost happened in "Mirror, Mirror," where so-and-so wanted this line, that line, and Dad threw a fit.  So the director, Marc Daniels, suggests to so-and-so that they call the head of Paramount, and have them call the head of Desilu Productions, and have them call Daniels in the next "two minutes", at which point he'll be happy to alter the script.  Daniels then said action and the scene was shot, with no changes to Dad's dialogue.  Dad was forever grateful to Daniels for that. 

Read more about the making of "Mirror Mirror" and Jerome Bixby's other celebrated Star Trek episodes "By any Other Name," "Requiem for Methuselah" and "Day of the Dove," as well as the saga of Fantastic Voyage, and more, in Emerson Bixby's fascinating account of his father's adventures in Hollywood - and beyond. Plus 9 more great novelettes and short stories for the new Jerome Bixby collection Mirror, Mirror: Classic SF by the Legendary Star Trek and Fantastic Voyage Writer $3.99 for Kindle.

Emerson Bixby is a screenwriter and director whose credits include Together in Heaven, On a Dark and Stormy Night (as by Bix Smithee),  INRI, Deception,Last Dance,  Bikini Island, and Disturbed.