J O U R N E Y I N T O S P A C E ------------- ------- --------- 1953 - 1958 & 1981 First Show: 21 Sep, 1953 Last Show: 18 Jun, 1981 Number Shows: 72 Audition Show: none Series Description: JOURNEY INTO SPACE was the brainchild of BBC producer Charles Chilton, who had enjoyed much success with his Western serial, RIDERS OF THE RANGE and would later produce the final episodes of THE GOON SHOW. Fuelled by his own interest in astronomy and science, together with the rising public interest in the genesis of the Space Race, he began to work on a six part SF story in 1953 at the request of the BBC. Due to the unexpected and overwhelming audience response, this six week run was soon extended to a full 18. The first series, simply entitled JOURNEY INTO SPACE, (billed in the Radio Times as "Journey Into Space", A Tale of the Future) actually began on 21 Sept, 1953, broadcast on THE LIGHT PROGRAMME. It also enjoyed a weekly repeat and transmission on the General Overseas Service. The cast included Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, David Kossoff as Lemmy Barnet, Guy Kingsley Poynter as Doc Mathews and Bruce Beeby as Stephen Mitchell. After the initial run of 6 episodes, Beeby was replaced by Don Sharp. Filling out the cast was BBC announcer, David Jacobs. He played a variety of background parts and who would later provide the voices of nearly everyone other than the main cast in subsequent series. The second series, THE RED PLANET, started on its 20 week run a year later on 6 Sept, 1954 and showed Chilton's writing at its best. Beebly returned as Mitchell, although this was his last appearence in the series. THE RED PLANET was an unqualified triumph, telling of man's first attempt at planatary colonization. It finished on a rather downbeat cliffhanger ending that dovetailed seamlessly with it's sequel. To many, series 2 and 3 can be seen as one long 40 part story, so faithful is the continuity and plot structure. THE WORLD IN PERIL began on 26 Sept, 1955 and was to be the final radio journey for Morgan and his crew, at least for the 1950's. Once again, the portrayal of Mitchell changed hands, reverting back to Don Sharp, who would later find renown for his film directing. Kossoff too was absent, having left to pursue his stage career. He suggested actor Alfie Bass as his replacement, the substitution being invisible to the listening audience. After completion of the trilogy, it was realized that the quality of the origional recordings of the first series was inadequate for repeat broadcasts or overseas sales. To this end, a new version was mounted, this time a 13 episode serial, which began on March 26, 1958. This new production was christened OPERATION LUNA, omitting several plot strands, most notably those concerning Jet's father, Sir William Morgan. The WORLD IN PERIL cast were reunited, with the exception of Don Sharp, who was replaced by David Williams. This became the Transcription version. The effect that JOURNEY INTO SPACE had on the British public cannot be overstated. It was the last evening radio program to achieve higher audience figures than the BBC's TV service. Chilton wrote 3 best-selling novels, expanding upon themes from the radio shows. There was even a comic strip in the Express Weekly newspaper, with new stories suggested by Chilton. Sadly, all four series were destroyed in the purge of the BBC archive. The Transcription disks for OPERATION LUNA, THE RED PLANET and WORLD IN PERIL surfaced in the late 80's, discovered by BBC recording engineer Ted Kendall, having been reserved for overseas broadcast in 1957 and forgotten. After this discovery, the BBC repeated the trilogy on Radio 2 between 1989 and 1991. This was followed by edited cassette releases, with minor scenes and credits/ recaps removed. On 7 March, 1981, Radio 4 produced a Chilton-scripted 90-minute special, entitled THE RETURN FROM MARS, picking up the story from the end of THE WORLD IN PERIL. It is currently under consideration for cassette release by BBC Worldwide and has been aired on the BBC's new Radio 7, the BBC's outlet for their archived spoken-word entertainment. Chilton went on to create SPACE FORCE in 1984 and SPACE FORCE II in 1985, both of which are similar to JOURNEY INTO SPACE in many respects. Log Comments: This log is possible to information provided by Bill Boucher. The text of the Description section is totally based on information he sent with only editing by me. Since JOURNEY INTO SPACE consists of 3 multi-show series, a remake and a single-show special, the List below contains separations to display this. The episodes were untitled, so only episode numbers are shows in the Title field. Also shown in the log are two documentary/interview shows about the series. Chronological Log: Date Day Num Title ------------ --- --- ------------------------ .. JOURNEY INTO SPACE .. 7:30 - 8:00 PM, on the Light Programme 21 Sep, 1953 Mon 1 Episode 1 (lost) 28 Sep, 1953 Mon 2 Episode 2 (lost) 05 Oct, 1953 Mon 3 Episode 3 (lost) 12 Oct, 1953 Mon 4 Episode 4 (lost) 19 Oct, 1953 Mon 5 Episode 5 (lost) 26 Oct, 1953 Mon 6 Episode 6 (lost) 02 Nov, 1953 Mon 7 Episode 7 (lost) 09 Nov, 1953 Mon 8 Episode 8 (lost) 16 Nov, 1953 Mon 9 Episode 9 (lost) 23 Nov, 1953 Mon 10 Episode 10 (lost) 30 Nov, 1953 Mon 11 Episode 11 (lost) 07 Dec, 1953 Mon 12 Episode 12 (lost) 14 Dec, 1953 Mon 13 Episode 13 (lost) 21 Dec, 1953 Mon 14 Episode 14 (lost) moves to Tuesday, 8:00 - 8:30 PM 29 Dec, 1953 Tue 15 Episode 15 (lost) 05 Jan, 1954 Tue 16 Episode 16 (lost) 12 Jan, 1954 Tue 17 Episode 17 (lost) 19 Jan, 1954 Tue 18 Episode 18 (lost) Date Day Num Title Repeated Day ------------ --- --- ------------------------ ------------ --- .... THE RED PLANET .... 7:30 - 8:00 PM (repeat: 6:00-6:30 PM) on the Light Programme 06 Sep, 1954 Mon 19 Episode 1 12 Sep, 1954 Sun 13 Sep, 1954 Mon 20 Episode 2 19 Sep, 1954 Sun 20 Sep, 1954 Mon 21 Episode 3 26 Sep, 1954 Sun 27 Sep, 1954 Mon 22 Episode 4 03 Oct, 1954 Sun 04 Oct, 1954 Mon 23 Episode 5 10 Oct, 1954 Sun 11 Oct, 1954 Mon 24 Episode 6 17 Oct, 1954 Sun 18 Oct, 1954 Mon 25 Episode 7 24 Oct, 1954 Sun 25 Oct, 1954 Mon 26 Episode 8 31 Oct, 1954 Sun 01 Nov, 1954 Mon 27 Episode 9 07 Nov, 1954 Sun 08 Nov, 1954 Mon 28 Episode 10 14 Nov, 1954 Sun 15 Nov, 1954 Mon 29 Episode 11 21 Nov, 1954 Sun 22 Nov, 1954 Mon 30 Episode 12 28 Nov, 1954 Sun 29 Nov, 1954 Mon 31 Episode 13 05 Dec, 1954 Sun 06 Dec, 1954 Mon 32 Episode 14 12 Dec, 1954 Sun 13 Dec, 1954 Mon 33 Episode 15 19 Dec, 1954 Sun 20 Dec, 1954 Mon 34 Episode 16 26 Dec, 1954 Sun 27 Dec, 1954 Mon 35 Episode 17 02 Jan, 1955 Sun 03 Jan, 1955 Mon 36 Episode 18 09 Jan, 1955 Sun 10 Jan, 1955 Mon 37 Episode 19 16 Jan, 1955 Sun 17 Jan, 1955 Mon 38 Episode 20 23 Jan, 1955 Sun Date Day Num Title Repeated Day ------------ --- --- ------------------------ ------------ --- .. THE WORLD IN PERIL .. 7:30 - 8:00 PM (repeat: 6:30-7:00 PM) on the Light Programme 26 Sep, 1955 Mon 39 Episode 1 02 Oct, 1955 Sun 03 Oct, 1955 Mon 40 Episode 2 09 Oct, 1955 Sun 10 Oct, 1955 Mon 41 Episode 3 16 Oct, 1955 Sun 17 Oct, 1955 Mon 42 Episode 4 23 Oct, 1955 Sun 24 Oct, 1955 Mon 43 Episode 5 30 Oct, 1955 Sun 31 Oct, 1955 Mon 44 Episode 6 06 Nov, 1955 Sun 07 Nov, 1955 Mon 45 Episode 7 13 Nov, 1955 Sun 14 Nov, 1955 Mon 46 Episode 8 20 Nov, 1955 Sun 21 Nov, 1955 Mon 47 Episode 9 27 Nov, 1955 Sun 28 Nov, 1955 Mon 48 Episode 10 04 Dec, 1955 Sun 05 Dec, 1955 Mon 49 Episode 11 11 Dec, 1955 Sun 12 Dec, 1955 Mon 50 Episode 12 18 Dec, 1955 Sun 19 Dec, 1955 Mon 51 Episode 13 25 Dec, 1955 Sun 26 Dec, 1955 Mon 52 Episode 14 01 Jan, 1956 Sun 02 Jan, 1956 Mon 53 Episode 15 08 Jan, 1956 Sun 09 Jan, 1956 Mon 54 Episode 16 15 Jan, 1956 Sun 16 Jan, 1956 Mon 55 Episode 17 22 Jan, 1956 Sun 23 Jan, 1956 Mon 56 Episode 18 29 Jan, 1956 Sun 30 Jan, 1956 Mon 57 Episode 19 05 Feb, 1956 Sun 06 Feb, 1956 Mon 58 Episode 20 12 Feb, 1956 Sun Date Day Num Title ------------ --- --- ------------------------ .... OPERATION LUNA .... (re-make of series 1) 7:30 - 8:00 PM on the Light Programme 26 Mar, 1958 Wed 59 Episode 1 02 Apr, 1958 Wed 60 Episode 2 09 Apr, 1958 Wed 61 Episode 3 16 Apr, 1958 Wed 62 Episode 4 23 Apr, 1958 Wed 63 Episode 5 30 Apr, 1958 Wed 64 Episode 6 07 May, 1958 Wed 65 Episode 7 14 May, 1958 Wed 66 Episode 8 21 May, 1958 Wed 67 Episode 9 28 May, 1958 Wed 68 Episode 10 04 Jun, 1958 Wed 69 Episode 11 11 Jun, 1958 Wed 70 Episode 12 18 Jun, 1958 Wed 71 Episode 13 Date Day Num Title ------------ --- --- -------------------------- 18 Jun, 1981 Thu 72 RETURN FROM MARS (special) In Stereo, 90 minutes Date Day Num Title ------------ --- --- ---------------------------------------- 20 Jul, 1999 Tue na JOURNEY INTO SPACE AGAIN documentary/interview, BBC Radio 4, aired at 11:00 PM, 30 minutes. Guests: Charles Chilton, Andrew Faulds, David Jacobs 11 Mar, 2000 Sat na ANOTHER JOURNEY INTO SPACE David Jacobs interview, BBC Radio 4, 8:00 PM, 60 minutes. The last half of the show was an episode of the show. References: * "The Ultimate History of Network Radio Programming and Guide To All Circulating Shows", by Jay Hickerson, 27436 Desert Rose Ct., Leesburg, FL 34748 Other Logs: * JOURNEY INTO SPACE log, Jerry Haendiges Productions, 13808 Sunset Dr., Whittier, CA 90602 (http://www.otrsite.com) Reader Feedback: * Colin M. Bleads sent his list of episodes and episode descriptions from the BBC's Radio Times. It provided primary broadcast times and repeat broadcast dates and times. * Jim Sanderson provided the information about "Journey Into Space Again" and "Another Journey into Space". Last Update: Jul 25, 2007 This log is informational only and does not imply that I have these shows for trade or sale. The shows are still be protected under copyright law and should be obtained only from authorized dealers. The log may be freely reproduced and published on a no-profit basis. Please send error corrections or additional information to Frank M. Passage, 109 Elmwood Road, Verona, NJ 07044 (email: wb2ntp@arrl.net).