Alfred Bester

Original music is played by George Wright.

Script is by Alfred Bester.

And any resemblance in these programs to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Nick Carter, master detective, is presented at this time and over these same stations each week by the three great Lin-X home brighteners.

I think lots of crime fiction.

Also, Alfred Bester proved that crime fiction can be done.

But in this one, he gives it to you.

It's Meridian City right in the opening, right? It's a meridian.

This was made possible by a world-changing piece of technology invented in the 80s, the jaunt.

The word jaunt was first used in Alfred Bester's 1956 science fiction novel, The Stars, My Destination.

In this novel, humans have access to personal teleporters.

Teleporting was referred to as jaunting in this novel.

When we watched this series for the first time, we played a game where we would predict what each episode was gonna be about based on the title alone.

My prediction for this one was it was gonna be a Bester episode-

Mm

... that would really kinda kick off the Telepath war, and I figured that, like, he was gonna be trying to set up a shadow politician within Earthgov, so he was gonna have to ally himself with a normal.

He's like, uh...

Oh, yeah, we did talk about this.

He, he's like, "Uh, no, this has been brewing for a long time with the Telepath underground." Um, he's like, "Also, don't forget, there was this conversation between Sheridan and Bester back in Rising Star about the coming Telepath war," to which JMS then went, "It's not my fault if you weren't paying attention." [laughs]

Afternoon.

I don't know if we talked about this.

It was written by Alfred Bester, who's, like, an old school science fiction writer.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's really cool.

So anyway, that original oath fucking rocks.

Those Alfred Bester stories are pretty short, and I think they both won the Hugo or the Nebula or something, or, like, the Retro Hugo or whatever.

Mm.

Original music is played by George Wright.

Script is by Alfred Bester, and any resemblance in these programs to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

¶¶ Nick Carter, Master Detective, is presented at this time and over these same stations each week by the three great Linex home brightens.

Linex Self-Polishing Wax, Linex Cream Polish, and Linex Clear Gloss, created by Acme, America's great producer of Acme fine quality paints.

Brett Morrison and Grace Matthews are heard as Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane, with Andre Baruch announcing.

On January 25th, 1948, Mutual Broadcasting System presented The Shadow, The House That Death Built, Episode 432, written by Alfred Bester and sponsored by Blue Coal.

Caught in a blizzard, Cranston and Lane seek refuge in an isolated, grotesquely designed house whose past is tied to a former state executioner.

Inside, several suspicious strangers are pursuing a hidden fortune, and the mansion conceals deadly mechanisms modeled on methods of execution.

Section five, Grime, Neon, and Vengeance.

Hosbrook highlights a book that completely shocked me when I realized when it was written, Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination.

Oh, man.

This was published in 1956.

It is the deep human desire to just tell the universe to stop hurting you and have it actually obey.

We also have to acknowledge the absolute titans that laid the bedrock for all of this, Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, a thrilling 1950 space opera packed with the unexpected teleportation and a protagonist driven entirely by sheer human rage.

And Frank Herbert's Dune.

The curator rightfully calls this the quintessential great sci-fi must read.