If you have never read
the Lensmen series by E .Doc Smith then find a copy somewhere and have a
go. That work, written back in the
Thirties set the standard for space opera that has now become the standard for
great movie making. It gave me great
pleasure when I read them back forty years ago.
What was most
impressive for a novel was the sheer pace and visual grandeur maintained
throughout. When Star Wars first came
out, it evoked my best memories of E Doc Smith’ work as a few years earlier,
Star Trek had caught the wonder of it all.
We are going to have a
trilogy, and possibly another after that.
A new generation will learn of the universe of the Lensmen.
A couple of months ago
a specialist stated that everything can be done today on the screen. The Lensmen will need all of it and more as
it imagines swirls of stars and battling starships.
Star Wars was inspired
by the Lensmen, now perhaps the Lensmen can be inspired by Star Wars. Before Star Wars, it was impossible to
explain the appeal of science fiction to the uninitiated. After Star Wars blew everyone off their seats
it stopped been ridiculed. Today Lensmen
the trilogy is everyone’s entertainment.
JANUARY 07, 2011
The internet movie database has the Lensmen movie listed as
sometime in 2011 I am thinking it will get delayed to a May
release in 2012 to load up the special effects.
Lensmen was the biggest of the space opera books in classic science fiction
Writer J. Michael Straczynski said in 2009 he's finished his second draft for Lensmen, and producer Ron Howard and Universal are happy with it. He said it'll be very character-based, typical of Howard's work, and yet the special effects will be cutting edge. And it'll keep the massive scale of the original novels, as much as possible:
Lensmen was the biggest of the space opera books in classic science fiction
Writer J. Michael Straczynski said in 2009 he's finished his second draft for Lensmen, and producer Ron Howard and Universal are happy with it. He said it'll be very character-based, typical of Howard's work, and yet the special effects will be cutting edge. And it'll keep the massive scale of the original novels, as much as possible:
I think it really does create that world and what's cool about it is
all the character stuff that's in there now. It's just the sheer scope and
scale of it, which is what the Doc Smith books were always about to me to a
large extent; the scale was insane. We found ways to really dramatize that.
My best case hope - Lord of the Ring movies in space mixed with the fourth season Babylon 5 Shadow War with an Avatar effects budget.
And he describes one crucial sequence:
Case in point, this is a very small example from the script, take this
as being emblematic of the scale of the whole thing: you've got these two
fleets battling it out, you've seen it a hundred times before. But now, within
that massive fleet battle you have two ships locked on with gravity (lances?)
firing at each other, they're linked together like scorpions in a
bottle tied with a string, by the gravity beams. Inside that, you have the crew
of one ship in EVA suits with armor coming out to try and board the other ship.
They send their people out to stop them, so we have hand-to-hand combat.
Forget Avatar,
Lensman Is The Next Big Thing
By Josh Tyler
Published: 2009-06-25
04:31:12
J. Michael Straczynski
was the Ronald D. Moore of the 90s. As the mind behind Babylon
Among the many projects on his plate, Straczynski is working on an adaptation of the classic “Lensman”stories of E.E. "Doc" Smith. Smith was one of the earliest godfathers of science fiction. His work was first published in the thirties and went on to inspire many of genre’s most legendary authors and a lot of the science fiction you spend your time watching now. The Lensman series is complex beyond all reason, a sprawling, epic story which takes follows a group of human beings who travel beyond space and dimension in a far off future to serve as guardians of the universe.
Boiling the Lensman series down into a script is no small feat, but apparently it’s a feat JMS has already accomplished. He recently appeared on the Babylon Podcast where he revealed that, “the second draft is in. Everyone is very happy with it, and we'll now see where that goes.”
As for who decides where it goes from here, last we heard Ron Howard and Universal were behind the project. JMS confirms that they’re still behind it saying, “We're looking to do new things with effects, and of course with Ron Howard involved it's always going to be character-oriented, so we combine what you can do with effects these days with a really strong character story.” Sounds like the film is a lot farther along than it was back then, when they were still trying to secure the rights necessary for making the film. Since JMS has written a script and turned it in, I suspect that means they now have the rights to make it. If they like what he did, this thing may actually move ahead.
If it does move ahead, if this thing actually gets made, we’re talking space opera on a scale not seen in anything since Star Wars. The scope of Lensman is huge. Talking about the size of it all, JMS tells the BabCast, “I think it really does create that world and what's cool about it is all the character stuff that's in there now. It's just the sheer scope and scale of it, which is what the Doc Smith books were always about to me to a large extent; the scale was insane. We found ways to really dramatize that.”
Then he goes on to give us a taste of just what he’s written. Says Straczynski, “Case in point, this is a very small example from the script, take this as being emblematic of the scale of the whole thing: you've got these two fleets battling it out, you've seen it a hundred times before. But now, within that massive fleet battle you have two ships locked on with gravity (lances?) firing at each other, they're linked together like scorpions in a bottle tied with a string, by the gravity beams. Inside that, you have the crew of one ship in EVA suits with armor coming out to try and board the other ship. They send their people out to stop them, so we have hand-to-hand combat.” In Smith’s books warriors use very vicious weapons called “space-axes” in hand to hand combat. Imagine armored attackers flinging themselves into cold of space ready to rip each other to shreds.
JMS is one hell of a writer. I have every confidence that he’s pulled this script off, and if he’s pulled it off, and if Ron Howard does this thing right, then when finally seen onscreen there’s a very good chance that Lensman will blow our minds. Right now everyone’s focused on Avatar but if Lensman succeeds then a couple of years ago we’ll be talking about this in precisely the same way as the next big thing.
Among the many projects on his plate, Straczynski is working on an adaptation of the classic “Lensman”stories of E.E. "Doc" Smith. Smith was one of the earliest godfathers of science fiction. His work was first published in the thirties and went on to inspire many of genre’s most legendary authors and a lot of the science fiction you spend your time watching now. The Lensman series is complex beyond all reason, a sprawling, epic story which takes follows a group of human beings who travel beyond space and dimension in a far off future to serve as guardians of the universe.
Boiling the Lensman series down into a script is no small feat, but apparently it’s a feat JMS has already accomplished. He recently appeared on the Babylon Podcast where he revealed that, “the second draft is in. Everyone is very happy with it, and we'll now see where that goes.”
As for who decides where it goes from here, last we heard Ron Howard and Universal were behind the project. JMS confirms that they’re still behind it saying, “We're looking to do new things with effects, and of course with Ron Howard involved it's always going to be character-oriented, so we combine what you can do with effects these days with a really strong character story.” Sounds like the film is a lot farther along than it was back then, when they were still trying to secure the rights necessary for making the film. Since JMS has written a script and turned it in, I suspect that means they now have the rights to make it. If they like what he did, this thing may actually move ahead.
If it does move ahead, if this thing actually gets made, we’re talking space opera on a scale not seen in anything since Star Wars. The scope of Lensman is huge. Talking about the size of it all, JMS tells the BabCast, “I think it really does create that world and what's cool about it is all the character stuff that's in there now. It's just the sheer scope and scale of it, which is what the Doc Smith books were always about to me to a large extent; the scale was insane. We found ways to really dramatize that.”
Then he goes on to give us a taste of just what he’s written. Says Straczynski, “Case in point, this is a very small example from the script, take this as being emblematic of the scale of the whole thing: you've got these two fleets battling it out, you've seen it a hundred times before. But now, within that massive fleet battle you have two ships locked on with gravity (lances?) firing at each other, they're linked together like scorpions in a bottle tied with a string, by the gravity beams. Inside that, you have the crew of one ship in EVA suits with armor coming out to try and board the other ship. They send their people out to stop them, so we have hand-to-hand combat.” In Smith’s books warriors use very vicious weapons called “space-axes” in hand to hand combat. Imagine armored attackers flinging themselves into cold of space ready to rip each other to shreds.
JMS is one hell of a writer. I have every confidence that he’s pulled this script off, and if he’s pulled it off, and if Ron Howard does this thing right, then when finally seen onscreen there’s a very good chance that Lensman will blow our minds. Right now everyone’s focused on Avatar but if Lensman succeeds then a couple of years ago we’ll be talking about this in precisely the same way as the next big thing.
Lensman series
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lensman series is a serial science
fiction space opera by Edward
Elmer "Doc" Smith. It was a runner-up for the Hugo award for
best All-Time Series. The winner was the Foundation
series by Isaac Asimov [1].
The series was published in magazines, before being collected and
reworked into the better-known series of books. The complete series in internal
sequence and their original publication dates are:
First Lensman (1950, Fantasy Press)
Originally, the series consisted of the final four novels published
between 1937 and 1948 in the magazine Astounding Stories. However, in 1948, at the
suggestion of Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (publisher of the
original editions of the Lensman books as part of the Fantasy Press
imprint), Smith rewrote his 1934 story Triplanetary, originally published
in Amazing Stories, to fit in with the Lensman series. First
Lensman was written in 1950 to act as a link
between Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol and finally, in
the years up to 1954, Smith revised the rest of the series to remove
inconsistencies between the original Lensman chronology and Triplanetary.[2]
Contents
[hide]
|
[edit]Plot synopsis
The series opens in Triplanetary, two billion years before the
present time. The universe has few life-forms, except for the elder race of our
galaxy, the Arisians and few planets besides their native world. The
Arisians, a peaceful race native to this universe, are already ancient at this
time and have forgone physical needs in preference for contemplative mental
power which they have developed and refined to an exceedingly high degree. The
underlying assumption (based on then-accepted theories of stellar
evolution) is that, while stars are common, planetary formation is very
rare. Thus there are comparatively very few planets in the universe.
Into this universe, from an alien space-time continuum,
the Eddorians come, a dictatorial, power-hungry race. They have been
attracted to this universe by the observation that our galaxy and a sister
galaxy (later to be named Lundmark's Nebula, still later called the
Second Galaxy) are passing through each other. According to an astronomical
theory current at the time of writing Triplanetary called the tidal theory (the
primary theory prior to the rehabilitation of the nebular hypothesis), this will result in a
unique galactic formation of billions of planets and thus the development of
life upon them. Dominance over these life forms would offer the Eddorians an
opportunity to satisfy their lust for power and control.
Although the Eddorians have developed mental powers almost equal to those
of the Arisians, they rely instead for the most part on physical power,
exercised on their behalf by a hierarchy of underling races. They see the many
races in the universe, with which the Arisians were intending to build a
peaceful civilization, as fodder for their power-drive.
The Arisians, detecting the invasion of our universe by the Eddorians,
recognize their rapacious, intractable nature. So they try to hide their
existence from the Eddorians and then begin a covert breeding program on every
world that can produce intelligent life, with the aim of producing a means to
eventually destroy the Eddorian race. This they grasp that they cannot do by
mental power alone, and they decide that much time is needed (during which
Eddore must be kept ignorant of their plans) and new races must be developed
which will better be able to breach the Eddorians' mental powers than they
themselves are. The new races, having done so, will naturally be better
guardians of civilization than the Arisians can be, and so the Arisians' role
in the universe will be ended.
Triplanetary incorporates the early history of that breeding
program on Earth, illustrated with the lives of several warriors and soldiers,
from ancient times to the discovery of the first interstellar space drive. It
adds an additional short novel (originally published with
the Triplanetary name) which is transitional to the novel First
Lensman.
The second book, First Lensman, concerns the early formation of
the Galactic Patrol and the first Lens, given to
First Lensman Virgil Samms of "Tellus" (Earth). Samms is one side of
the vast Arisian breeding program which will produce Clarissa MacDougal, the
female half of the penultimate result of their breeding program. Moreover,
along with Roderick Kinnison (a member of the other side, which will produce
the male half), they are natural leaders as they are supremely intelligent,
forceful, and capable. The Arisians, through the scientist Bergenholm (actually
an Arisian entity appearing as a human, and who "invented" the
interstellar drive), make it known that if Samms, the head of the Triplanetary
Service which administers law enforcement to Tellus, Mars and Venus, visits the
Arisian planetary system—and only if he visits the Arisian system—he will be
given the tool he needs to build the Patrol he dreams of. That tool is
the Lens. The Arisians further promise him that no entity unworthy of the
Lens will ever be permitted to wear it, but that he and his successors will
have to discover for themselves most of its abilities. They otherwise maintain
a highly distant profile and refuse to talk to other beings, stating that they
have given civilization the tool it needs to bring about a good future and that
people should otherwise not have reason to contact them.
The Lens is a form of "pseudo-life," created by the Arisians
who understand life and life-force in a way no other race does. It gives
its wearer a variety of mental capabilities, including those needed to enforce
the law on alien planets and to bridge the communication gap between different
life-forms. Thus, it can provide mind-reading and telepathic abilities
while connected directly or indirectly to the skin of its user. It cannot be
worn by anyone other than its owner, will kill any other wearer, and sublimates shortly after the owner's
death. Virgilia Samms, Virgil Samms's daughter, is later told that there is a
gender difference that renders the Lens more compatible with male minds and
that only one woman will ever become a Lensman.
Using the Lens as a means to test quality and identify the very few
exceptional individuals able to help him, Virgil Samms visits races in other
star systems, recruiting the best of them and forming a Galactic Patrol of exceptional
individuals from a wide range of species. Their opponents in turn are
discovered to be a widespread civilization based around dominance hierarchies and organized
crime. The leaders of this civilization are the Eddorians, but only the
Children of the Lens, who must ultimately defeat these, know of their
existence.
The series contains some of the largest-scale space battles ever
written. Entire worlds are almost casually destroyed (see "Super-Science
Weapons" below), while some weapons are powerful enough to warp space
itself. Huge fleets of spaceships fight bloody wars of attrition. Alien races
of two galaxies sort themselves into the allied, Lens-bearing adherents of
"Civilization" and the enemy races of "Boskone."
Centuries pass and eventually the final generations of the breeding
program are born. On each of four planets, a single individual is born who
realises the limits of his initial training and perceives the need to return to
Arisia to seek "second stage" training, including: the ability to
slay by mental force alone; a "sense of perception" which allows
seeing by direct awareness without the use of the visual sense; the ability to
control minds undetectably; the ability to perfectly split attention in order
to perform multiple tasks with simultaneous focus on each; and to better
integrate their minds for superior thinking.
As the breeding program reaches its ultimate conclusion, Kimball
Kinnison, the brown-haired, gray-eyed second-stage Lensman of Earth, finally
marries the most advanced product of the complementary breeding
program, Clarissa MacDougall. She is a beautiful, curvaceous, red-haired
nurse, who eventually becomes the first human female to receive her own Lens.
Their children, a boy and two pairs of fraternal
twin sisters, grow up to be the five Children of the Lens. In
their breeding, "almost every strain of weakness in humanity is finally
removed." They are born already possessing the powers taught to
second-stage Lensmen, with mental abilities from birth that are difficult to
imagine. They are the only beings of Civilization ever to see Arisia as it
truly is and the only individuals developed over all the existence of billions
of years able finally to penetrate the Eddorians' defense screens.
Undergoing advanced training, they are described as
"third-stage" Lensmen, transcending humanity with mental scope and
perceptions impossible for any normal person to comprehend. Although newly
adult, they are now expected to be more competent than the Arisians and to
develop their own techniques and abilities "about which we [the Arisians]
know nothing."
The key discovery comes when they try mind-merging, which they have not
tried since before their various third-stage trainings, and discover that this
is completely changed. No longer are they simply five beings in mental contact
as before. Now they discover they can merge their minds into a hive-mind, to
effectively form one mental entity, a being with incalculable abilities
called the Unit. The Arisians call this the "most nearly perfect
creation the universe has ever seen" and state that they, who created it,
are themselves almost entirely ignorant of almost all its higher powers.
The Children of the Lens, together with the mental power of unknown
millions of Lensmen of the Galactic Patrol, constitute the Arisians' intended
means to destroy Eddore and make the universe safe for their progeny species.
The Galactic Patrol, summoned to work together in this way for the first time
in its existence, contains billions of beings who in total can generate immense
mental force. The Children of the Lens add their own tremendous mental force to
this. As the Unit gather, they focus all power onto one tiny point of the
Eddorians' shields. Thus attacked with this incalculable strength and
precision, the Eddorians' strongest shields finally, after billions of years,
are destroyed and the Eddorians with them.
The Arisians, with their child races successful and safe, remove
themselves from the Cosmos in order to leave the Children of the Lens
uninhibited in their future as the new guardians of Civilization.
[edit]Sequels
Using the same fictional universe, but not concerning the central plot,
Smith also wrote the Vortex Blaster stories, including "Storm
Cloud on Deka" (June 1942) and "The Vortex Blaster Makes War"
(October 1942) for Astonishing Stories.
These stories and later additions were collected and published by Gnome Press as The Vortex Blaster in 1960 and later
reprinted byPyramid Books as Masters of the
Vortex in 1968.
This story collection can be explicitly identified as set in
between Second Stage Lensman and Children of the Lens. During
the course of the story in Vortex Blaster, the protagonists make first contact
with a race of aliens known as the "Dhilans." During Children of
the Lens, explicit reference is made to a "Dhilan Roadster" as a type
of vehicle, clearly setting the events in it after that first contact.
The story Spacehounds of IPC, while very similar to the
Lensman series in some ways, is not part of it. The technology and the
lifeforms in the story can't be reconciled with the Lensman series so it must
be considered a non-series, stand alone story.[citation needed]
In Larger Than Life, a tribute to E.E. Smith written by Robert
Heinlein, and included in Expanded Universe, Heinlein writes:
The Lensman [series] was left unfinished. There was to have been at
least a seventh volume. As always, Doc had worked it out in great detail, but
never (so far as I know) wrote it down because it was unpublishable then. But
he told me the ending orally and in private.
I shan't repeat it, it is not my story. Possibly somewhere there is a
manuscript, I hope so! All I will say is that the ending develops by
inescapable logic from clues in Children of the Lens.[3].
On July 14, 1965, Smith gave written permission to William
B. Ellern to continue the Lensman series, which led to the
publishing of "Moon Prospector" in 1966, New Lensman in
1975 and Triplanetary Agent in 1978.
Three additional Lensmen novels that feature the alien
Second-Stage Lensmen (known as the Second-Stage Lensman Trilogy) were
written by David Kyle, published in paperback between 1980 and 1983
and reissued in 2004:
The Dragon Lensman (Worsel, the Velantian dragon)
Lensman from Rigel (Tregonsee, the enigmatic alien from the system
of the blue-white star Rigel)
Z-Lensman (Nadreck the Palainian, strangest of the three non-human
Second-Stage Lensmen)
A fourth novel, which was to have told the story of the Red Lensman,
was discussed, but never completed.[citation needed]
The events in these books take place between Second-Stage
Lensmen and Children of the Lens[citation needed] and refer to events
and characters in Vortex Blaster.
Kyle was a close friend and confidante of Smith[citation needed], and (with the oversight
and approval of Smith's daughter, Verna Trestrail[citation needed]) intended his novels to
evoke the style of the original series. However, Kyle's writing style is quite
different and his books stray well outside the limits Smith set[citation needed], for example portraying
sentient digital computers and female Lensmen.
[edit]Other appearances
In 1984, an anime movie titled SF
New Age Lensman was released in Japan. It was
released in North America by Streamline Pictures in 1990. The movie is
not faithful to the series, with nearly the only points of similarity being the
names of some of the characters, the "Good versus Evil" struggle, the
outer-space setting, and the Lens itself, which possesses characteristics
distinctly different from those given for it in the novels. It spawned a
Japanese anime TV series as well as a comic book series published by Eternity
Comics and another one from Malibu
Comics.
In addition, a Lensman appears in Robert A. Heinlein's Number of the Beast and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls,
both of which refer to "Lensman Ted Smith" who interacts directly
with Heinlein characters such as Lazarus
Long and Hilda Burroughs.
In 2008, Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures began negotiations with
the author's estate for rights to film the Lensman series. The negotiations are
for an 18-month renewable option.[4] At
the WonderCon convention in San Francisco in
February 2008, J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon
[edit]Homages and parodies
Garrett also referred to the Lensmen in his Lord Darcy stories, in which similar
lenses are the badges of the King's Messengers, invented by the wizard Sir
Edward Elmer (a reference to Smith himself)[citation needed].
In the DC Comics universe, the Green Lantern Corps bears many parallels
to the Lensmen, although its principal creators deny any connection (later
creators, however, would introduce Green Lanterns named Arisia and Eddore as an homage).
The GURPS role-playing
game includes a source book describing how to conduct a role-playing campaign
set in the Lensman universe.
[edit]Planets and Places
The Lensman series takes place over a vast sweep of space and upon many
different worlds. These include the following:
Aldebaran I,
occupied by the Wheelmen, who are never stated to be a native species.
This is the scene of Kimball Kinnison's first major injury requiring
hospitalization, which leads to his first meeting with Clarrissa MacDougall.
Aldebaran II, one of the first human-settled planets, is the scene of
several of Kimball Kinnison's adventures.
Arisia, one of the most ancient worlds of our universe, originally
Earth-like, is inhabited by the Arisian Elders.
Chickladoria, planet with a native humanoid species possessing pink
skin pigmentation and triangular eyes. Frequent references are made to the fact
that they consider clothing optional. Chickladorians are described as
"thinking on a wave" unused by most species in the galaxy, which
means that hostile telepaths (such as the Overlords of Delgon, below) may
completely overlook them.
Delgon (Velantia II), located in the same system as Velantia,
Delgon is home to the soul-devouring Overlords, bred by the Eddorian Gharlane
to prey on the Velantians of Velantia III.
Eddore, world inhabited by malevolent creatures from another space-time
continuum. It is implied (though never stated) that the physical laws of the
native plenum of Eddore were grossly different from those of the Lensmen's
universe; that the atmosphere was composed of elements that were different from
those of our universe (it was explained that by the time they migrated to our
galaxy, they had become completely independent of their 'native' physical
form). The Eddorians themselves were physically similar to various lower
Earthly life-forms, reproducing by fission, but by a process more similar to budding
than to cell division, except that each being's memories were preserved in
toto. The Eddorians were highly competitive, extremely long-lived and almost
impossible to kill by any mechanism known to their own science by the time they
decided to unify and search for planets in other universes to subjugate.
Jarnevon, world in Lundmark's Nebula, home of the Eich and their
infamous "Council of Boskone," the first Eddorian puppet state to
penetrate the First Galaxy. Destroyed at the end of Gray Lensman by being
crushed between two "free" (inertialess)
planets with opposite intrinsic velocities, inerted just prior to the points of
impact.
Kalonia, a Lundmark's Nebula planet with a humanoid native race marked
by cut-steel-blue pigmentation. As hard as their pigmentation suggested,
individually they were the most able executives under the sway of Eddore. The
agents of Boskone in the First Galaxy, though reporting to Boskone, were typically
from Kalonia despite its independent status as a center of Boskonian
operations. Discovered by Kim and Christopher Kinnison during Children of
the Lens, its conquest was alluded to but never chronicled.
Klovia,
a planet made into Civilization's first base in Lundmark's Nebula. The heavily
fortified home of the Children of the Lens.
Lundmark's Nebula, the "Second Galaxy,"
which collided with the "Milky Way" or "First Galaxy" two
billion years ago, leading to the large populations of planets nurtured by
Arisia and discovered by Eddore. Home of the Eddorians, the Ploorans and the
major races of their empire, including the Eich, the Thralians, and the
Kalonians. Historical Note: Knut
Lundmark was an early 20th century Swedish astronomer. It is possible
that Lundmark's Nebula is intended to refer to the Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte Galaxy, though
Lundmark made numerous other contributions to the study of other galaxies.
Lyrane II, home of a matriarchal civilization. Its dominant beings are
women (or highly humanoid females) who retain their nearly non-sentient males
only for breeding purposes (similar to Larry Niven's Kzinti). They refer
to themselves with the neuter pronoun "it". Lyranian women possess
powerful minds, capable of telepathy and of slaying by mental force, though
they do perform the latter by what is described as a "crude, childish
technique."
Medon, originally located in Lundmark's Nebula, Medon was moved to the
First Galaxy by its technologically-advanced natives with the assistance of the
Galactic Patrol. Its people contributed extremely efficient electric insulators
and conductors.
Nevia, the amphibious Nevians invented the first crude inertialess
drives appearing in the series. They warred on the Triplanetary League, but
eventually joined Civilization when they realized that humanity was as advanced
as their own species.
Nth Space, an alternate dimension, accessed by hyper-spatial tube, where
all matter is tachyonic, moving swifter than light. Ploor and Ploor's sun
were destroyed by planets transported from Nth Space.
Onlo (Thrallis IX), see Thrale below.
Palain VII, an extremely cold planet and home world of Second Stage
Lensman Nadreck. Like all ultra-cold planets in Smith's cosmogony, the
inhabitants require a metabolic extension "into the fourth dimension"
in order to survive the liquid-helium temperatures of their planetary surface.
Smith suggested, with little elaboration, a twelve-point scale used to describe
intelligent (and possibly other) species. On this scale, humans were classified
as "AAAAAAAAAAAA" and Palainians as "ZZZZZZZZZZZZ." It is
stated that a Palainian colony had existed on Pluto for millennia before the
events of First Lensman, suggesting that the Palainians may have had the
first inertialess drive in the First Galaxy. Within the Second-Stage Lensmen,
Nadreck's ultra-caution counterbalanced Kinnison's occasional near-recklessness
and it is suggested that, were the Palainians less cautious, their species
rather than humanity would have given birth to the Third-Stage Lensmen.
Ploor, the first-tier planet of Eddorian puppets and the only one with
direct knowledge of the Eddorians. The leaders of Jarnevon, Kalonia and Thrale
were, unknown to the bulk of their populations or to most of Civilization,
under the direct control of Ploor. Since Ploor was a planet of a highly
variable sun, its inhabitants were evolved to morph their bodies on a precise
annual cycle, though none of their manifestations were even remotely human
(their winter form was ZZZZ+ or nearly Palainian). The planet and its sun were
destroyed by planet-sized projectiles from the "Nth Space" dimension
with intrinsic velocity greater than the speed of light.
Posenia (or possibly just "Posen"?) No description of
this planet occurs anywhere in the books and even its name is not explicitly
stated. However, it is the homeworld of "the Posenian surgeon
Phillips", whose research enabled the development of regeneration technology.
Rigel IV,
a hot, high-gravity world, Home of Second-Stage Lensman Tregonsee.
Tellus, or Earth. Home to the humans including the Kinnison and Samms
lines.
Thrale (Thrallis II), the capital of the
Boskonian Thrale-Onlonian Empire in Lundmark's Nebula. The
inhabitants were "independently"-evolved humans like those of Klovia
and many other worlds. They are ultimately traceable back to Arisian
life-spores permeating space at the time of the Coalescence.
Trenco, a planet where a major fraction of the atmosphere condenses
each night and evaporates each day, giving rise to exceptionally violent
weather. The planet's plant life yields the illicit psychotropic thionite.
Valeria, a high-gravity planet where natural
diamonds formed in great quantity, settled by Tellurian Dutchmen who developed
immense strength in response to the natural stresses of their planet, making
them ideal space marines.
Velantia III, home of an intelligent, winged, reptilian species, of
which Second-Stage Lensman Worsel is a member.
[edit]Technology
Hyper-spatial Tube: A "tunnel" through hyperspace, allowing galactic
distances to be traversed in minutes, as well as allowing access to other
universes. Objects and people from different origin points meeting each other
in the tube pass through each other rather than interacting. The artificial,
ultra-dense material "dureum" is an exception; it is therefore used
to create objects and weapons (axes, clubs, knives) capable of interacting with
anything and anyone in a tube. Originally invented by the Eddorians and used
for their explorations of other universes prior to their arrival in the Lensman
universe, it was given to the Boskonian subject races, and was eventually
discovered and copied by the Patrol. It has points in common with the modern
idea of wormholes to link distant points in
space.
Inertialessness: Spaceships are able to vastly exceed the speed
of light by eliminating the inertia of
their mass. When the "inertialess
drive" (which does not actually provide propulsion) is turned on, the
"free" (inertialess) ship instantly attains a velocity at which the
force of the ship's propulsion jets is matched by friction of
the medium through which it travels (such as widely scattered hydrogen
molecules in the vacuum of space), avoiding the Einsteinian
light-speed limit on normal (inert) matter, and so attaining a speed of about
90 parsecs per
hour at touring speed and about 120 parsecs per
hour at full blast. The vacuum of Intergalactic space is even more rarefied,
and the speed there is about 100,000 parsecs per hour. An inertialess drive
unit is called a "Bergenholm" after the scientist
(actually an Arisian student appearing to be a human) who improved and
perfected the original inertialess drive.
Conservation of momentum is
maintained; when the inertialess drive generator is switched off, the
spacecraft's original velocity is restored. If a ship has traveled a great
distance, inert maneuvering will be required in order to match velocity
relative to the local planet or moon. There are similar velocity-matching
difficulties with ships docking in space, and in transferring "free"
passengers from one ship to another.
Inertialess drive generators small enough for a single person are used
by Galactic Patrol staff. Patrol members can travel downward within tall
buildings, via drop shafts, by falling while inertialess. Some armored spacesuits have
individual inertialess drives installed.
Screens: Spaceships are protected by several layers of
defensive force field "screens",
including the innermost and strongest "wall shield." Smaller vehicles
and even spacesuits can carry screens of lesser power.
Spaceships: The smallest are called "speedsters" or
"flitters" and carry only the pilot, or a very small crew. They are
generally used for scouting or covert missions. Larger military ships have designations
equivalent to early-twentieth-century surface naval vessels: Destroyers, cruisers, dreadnaughts (battleships),
superdreadnaughts. In addition, there are "maulers", which are huge,
slow-moving vessels so powerful they can attack planetary bases. Slower ships
are spherical; faster ones have teardrop shapes; the fastest of all are the
"ultrafast" cigar-shaped speeders and later (Dauntless-class)
superdreadnaughts.
Thought Screens: In a universe where many alien races have
powerful telepathic
abilities, and even mind control is possible, thought screens can be
a valuable asset. They are proof against penetration by even a second-stage
Lensman's mind. The Children of the Lens are able to bypass
("think over or under", suggesting thought as a
spectrum) or even, if necessary, penetrate any non-Eddorian thought screen, and
in the final battle the Unit and the collected Lensmen penetrate even Eddorian
thought screens.
Ultra-wave: Vibrations
in the "sub-ether", used for interstellar
"radio"-like communications and detection. Ultra-wave travels at
about 19 billion times the speed of light. The use dates from the time of the
latter part of Triplanetary. Sean Barrett, in the GURPS Lensman game, has
suggested that ultra-waves form the basis for the so-called "vacuum tubes" used in the series.
Power Armour: While never explicitly given to supplying increased
strength in the manner of a powered exoskeleton, armoured space-suits
available to both the Patrol and to Boskone nonetheless contain energy shields
and inertialess drive units. Further, during the career of Kimball Kinnison
(father of the Children of the Lens) a suit was fabricated in order to permit
him to survive an assault upon the command centre of an enemy fortress which is
quite obviously both armoured to the point where a normal man could not operate
it and yet fully mobile, implying some form of load-carrying augmentation. This
would make it the first known example of powered infantry battle armour in
science fiction.
Power production: Prior to the extended version of the
novella Triplanetary for book publication, no out-of-the-ordinary
power technologies are described; however interplanetary travel with the ship
sizes and capabilities implied requires terawatt power
sources, so we can infer some version of nuclear
fission or fusion power. After the advent of the Nevians
and through the rest of Triplanetary, the primary power source for
spaceships and planetary installations is the controlled matter-to-energy
conversion of "allotropic iron", an allotrope of
iron which appears to be a dense, viscous, red liquid at room temperature.
By the time of First Lensman, allotropic iron is replaced by
an unnamed form of atomic power. Uranium is mentioned, but not explicitly as an
energy source; it is a vital ingredient in the Bergenholm, however, not as a
power source, but as part of the structure and/or circuitry. It can be inferred
that a total-conversion engine is used throughout that book, and the remainder
of the series. It is noted that power production generates radiation that can
be detected by other ships at a considerable distance and cannot be perfectly
screened. Stealth ships for covert missions can be fitted with large diesel generating
sets, capable of powering the Bergenholm and providing limited drive power for
short periods, so that the atomics can be shut down for sensitive parts of the
mission.
Atomic-power units appear to have a minimum feasible size which
prevents their use on installations smaller than a spaceship. The Bergenholms
and drivers fitted to personal space armour are powered by electrical accumulators, which despite their portable
size have capacities of many myriawatt-hours and whose charging load
represents a significant drain on the power stations of a less technologically
advanced planet such as Delgon.
By the time of Galactic Patrol and the later novels of the
series, no further developments of power technology have been described, but
the power systems' capacities are clearly based on refinements of
total-conversion technology; early in Gray Lensman,
the Dauntless is described as using "30 pounds per hour" of
power while inertialess and running at full thrust. UsingE = mc2,
this works out to 400 trillion (4×1014) watts of power (or, in terms of its
destructive potential, 100 kilotons TNT equivalent per second). With the advent of
Medonian electrical systems following the penetration into the Second Galaxy,
by the end of the series usable power on-board had been increased by another
factor of 1000.
Some time prior to the start of Galactic Patrol, the Boskonians
had developed a method of using their on-board power systems as exciters to
gather power from "cosmic energy" sources with an amplification
factor of a million times the exciter power. The Galactic Patrol, capturing
this technology during Kimball Kinnison's first major assignment, not
only reverse engineered it for routine use, but
also developed shields and screens to block enemy systems from drawing the
power, and upgraded the power systems for their "Mauler" class of
attack vessels to defeat systems reliant on cosmic-energy collection.
Spaceship drive: The Bergenholm nullifies the inertia of a
spaceship, but does not of itself provide any driving force. Driving
projectors, or "jets", are reaction
engines, using as reaction mass nascent fourth-order particles or
corpuscles which are formed, inert, in the inertialess projector, by the
conversion of some form of energy into matter. The process produces, as
by-products, a certain amount of heat and a considerable amount of light. This
light, shining through the highly tenuous gas formed of the ejected particles,
produces a "flare" which makes a speeding spaceship one of the most
beautiful spectacles known to man, but also makes it visually detectable at long
range. Stealth ships therefore make use of "flare baffles" to prevent
the escape of the light; the disadvantage is that, because the waste energy
cannot escape from the projector in the usual way, it must be dissipated to
prevent overheating, so baffles are only fitted when absolutely required.
Information processing: Computing technology as we understand it
is practically unknown, being limited to slide rules, adding
machines, and punched card tabulating machines. A
"computer" is not a calculating machine but an intelligent being
performing calculations by brain power with the assistance of the
abovementioned limited aids. Large concentrations of computing power, as
required by the C3 system of the Patrol
Grand Fleet flagship Directrix, are implemented using squadrons of
Rigellians, a naturally telepathic species, in mental communication with each
other. An explanation, of a sorts, has been put forth that this was because in
this universe the Arisians wanted the races of civilization to
develop their own mental powers and so they retarded the development of
advanced Computing technology so they would have to develop their own mental
powers to the fullest extent possible.
[edit]Weapons
The science fiction sub-genre of "super-science" is nowhere
more apparent in the Lensman series than in its (sometimes literally)
world-shaking weapons.
Space-axe: The shields of space armour are capable of indefinitely
resisting the output of a blaster. Moreover, their resistance to material
projectiles varies as the cube of the velocity of the projectile, rendering
bullets also ineffective. To counter this, the space-axe was developed. It has
an axe blade on one end and a needle-sharp spike on the other and is shoved
into targets rather than swung. To increase its deadliness, the weapon may be
inlaid with or even entirely composed of ultra-dense dureum (see
"Hyper-spatial Tube" above).
Blaster: In First Lensman, the standard blaster pistol was
the Lewiston
Semi-Portable: The Lensman universe equivalent of a
heavy machine gun, the semi-portable is a large beam weapon designed to be
carried by more than one man. It projects a beam powerful enough to overcome
personal defense screens (mounted on an individual's space armor) which cannot
be penetrated by DeLameters or other hand blasters. The semi-portable is small
enough to be used in a spaceship corridor, though it may need to be secured
with magnetic clamps.
Macro Beam: These ship-mounted beams can vaporize any matter in
moments. Only screens can provide any defense to these bluish-green beams, all
normal matter is instantly broken down into its component elements. The word
"macro" refers to the fact that the beams operate using
"conventional" wavebands, as opposed to the "ultra" bands
used by other beam weaponry.
Primary Beam: These became the primary weaponry of the warships of
space. A Macro Beam projector is so massively overloaded that it burns out
almost instantly while emitting a beam much more intense than is otherwise
possible. Invented as a dying act of desperation by a Boskonian vessel (on
which it killed each gun crew using the technique), it was adapted in more
controlled form by the Galactic Patrol, using highly-shielded primary
projectors whose spent emitters were ejected like massive shell-cases.
Secondary Beam: This is essentially the same technology as the
primary beam, but the projector is not used outside its continuous rating. The
beam is of considerably lower power than the primary, but can be maintained for
as long as a power source is available.
Duodec: In Galactic Patrol, the superior screens of a
Boskonian ship are overcome with the power of the
explosive duodecaplylatomate, described as "the quintessence of
atomic destruction," whose power is comparable to a nuclear explosion as
produced by current real-world technology and has few of the drawbacks of
atomics: there is apparently no radiation danger, it is easy to handle, simple
to use, powerful and easy to detonate. Duodec is also used by the Boskonians to
self-destruct their bases to prevent capture, by Kinnison to destroy Menjo
Bleeko's mining complex on Lonabar and in many other situations calling for an
extremely powerful explosive.
Allotropic iron torpedo: The primary power source for Nevian
spaceships in Triplanetary is the controlled matter-to-energy
conversion of "allotropic iron," an allotrope of
iron which is a dense, viscous, red liquid at room temperature. In conventional
chemistry, allotropes are substances with the same atomic composition, but
different molecular arrangements. Thus,phosphorus occurs
in the allotropes white phosphorus and red
phosphorus. However, these transformations are purely chemical and not
nuclear. Smith's fictional allotropic iron can be
made to undergo nuclear conversion as a power source, analogous to the nuclear
conversion of the catalyzed copper fuel rods of The Skylark of Space. Allotropic iron can also
be "sensitized" so as to undergo uncontrolled matter-to-energy
conversion under a suitable stimulus, thus producing an extremely powerful
explosive. A torpedo carrying a sensitized allotropic iron charge is detonated
on Nevia in Triplanetary with devastating results. In later times,
duodec is the atomic explosive of choice, perhaps due to its apparent greater
ease of handling.
Negasphere: A sphere of "negative matter" first created
in Gray Lensman. In some respects its properties resemble antimatter. If
brought into contact with normal matter, mutual annihilation results, releasing
an enormous flood of energy. But it differs from antimatter in that it absorbs
light so that it is utterly black. tractor and
pressor beams have reversed effects. Perhaps a negasphere is better described
as having properties of both negative matter and negative
energy. The negasphere is an expression of the original Dirac Sea conception
ofantimatter by Paul A. M.
Dirac as a "hole" in space which has been evacuated of
normal matter (this is of course a gross conceptual simplification of Dirac's
ideas).
Free Planet: An entire planet is rendered inertialess. If fitted
with massive power plants and screens, it can be used as a mobile fortress with
enough power to easily brush off attacks by spaceships. If properly positioned
and inerted, it can be used to crush an enemy planet in an extreme form
of kinetic bombardment.
Nutcracker: In Gray Lensman, two "free planets" (see
above) with opposing inert velocities were positioned on either side of an
enemy planet. Simultaneously inerted, they crushed the other planet between
them. Such approach will crush even a "free" planet.
Sunbeam: In Second-Stage Lensman, an entire solar system is
converted to a vacuum tube, with asteroids and planets as grids and
plates, to focus nearly the entire output of the sun into a beam capable of
melting the surface of a planet in seconds. That's the conversion of 4.26
million metric tons per second of matter into energy, or 9.15 ×
1010 megatons of TNT per second. Thus, it is a defense against attacks by
"free" planets, which are rendered inert when their Bergenholms
(inertialess drive units) are destroyed. The Sunbeam is an ultrawave vacuum
tube rather than a normal one. This is demonstrated by the fact that its beam
moves faster than light and can be retargeted on different objects in the outer
reaches of the solar system in a matter of seconds.
Nth-Space Planet: The ultimate material weapon in
the Lensman series. Also called a "Super-Nutcracker."
In Children of the Lens, an expedition travels to "Nth Space,"
another space-time continuum where physical laws are different and all matter
moves faster than light. There, a planet is rendered "free" (see
"Free Planet" above) and moved via hyper-spatial tube into our
universe. The planet is then moved close into an enemy stellar system and
inerted. The result is so violent that the Nth-Space planet launched against
Ploor's sun makes it gosupernova, still radiating the energy of 550 million Suns several years
later. It was so powerful, in fact, that there was a theoretical possibility
that its mass would be "some higher order of infinity" and that the
entire universe would coalesce around it in zero time (rather like an
instantaneous Big Crunch). Fortunately, Mentor of Arisia assured Kit
Kinnison that "operators would come into effect to prevent such an
occurrence" and that untoward events would be limited to a radius of ten
or fifteen parsecs.
During the Battle
Mind Killer: Never actually given a name, this tiny device
conceived by Worsel and constructed by master technician Thorndyke produced a
vibration that caused the disintegration of a compound vital to thought in all
living beings. The effect was so deadly that Worsel and Thorndyke agreed that
Kinnison was the only person who could be trusted with it and so presumably
only one was ever made. It was small enough to fit in a ring or other jewelry,
or even to be implanted in Kinnison's body.
[edit]See also
[edit]References
^ E.g., Astounding September
1937 p. 34 vs. Galactic Patrol p. 42.
^ Robert
A. Heinlein, 'Larger Than Life', Expanded Universe, Ace SF, Trade Paperback 1st
Ed., pp. 499
^ Staff
(8 January 2008). "Imagine,
Uni Eye Lensman Books". Sci Fi Wire. Archived from the
original on 2008-01-13. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
^ Erik
Amaya (24 February 2008). "WonderCon:
Spotlight on Straczynski". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2008-03-04.
^ Straczynski,
J. Michael (2008-06-17). "from
jms: research help". JMSNews, originally published on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.
Retrieved 2008-12-05.
Ellik, Ron and Bill Evans (1966). The Universes of E.E. Smith. Chicago
Sanders, Joe (1986). E.E. "Doc" Smith (Starmont Reader's
Guide 24). Starmont House. ISBN 0-916732-73-8.
[edit]External links
Old Earth Books Current
publisher of the original E. E. Smith Lensman series, in facsimile
reprints of the original Fantasy
Press editions
Red Jacket Press Publisher
of the "Second Stage Lensman" Trilogy by David A. Kyle
Books-In-Motion Publisher
of the Lensman Series in Audiobook Format
Triplanetary by E. E.
Smith - Project Gutenberg - Several complete books, including the
pre-Lensman version of "Triplanetary", available freely
manybooks.net Free
eBook of the pre-Lensman version of "Triplanetary" in multiple
formats.
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