The Tom Corbett Space Cadet Megapack. Carey Rockwell

INTRODUCTION: MEET TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET!

      OVERVIEW

      This volume collects 7 Tom Corbett novels (the 8th volume is unavailable due to rights issues), plus 3 bonus young adult science fiction novels from the same period: Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet, by Blake Savage; Star Born, by Andre Norton; and The Secret of the Ninth Planet, by Donald A. Wollheim.

      MEET TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET!

      Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of Tom Corbett—Space Cadet stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, coloring books, punch-out books and View-Master reels in the 1950s. The stories followed the adventures of Tom Corbett, Astro, and Roger Manning, three cadets at the Space Academy as they train to become members of the elite Solar Guard. The action takes place at the Academy in classrooms and bunkrooms, aboard their training ship the rocket cruiser Polaris, and on alien worlds, both within our solar system and in orbit around nearby stars.

      TV is the medium where Tom Corbett first appeared. The stories initially closely followed the scripts written for the unpublished newspaper comic strip Tom Ranger, Space Cadet, by Joseph Greene from 1946. Green revised and renamed his lead character to more closely match Robert A. Heinlein’s young adult science fiction novel, Space Cadet, which appeared in 1948. The series aired, in different years, on all four major television networks: on CBS from October 2 to December 1950, ABC from January 1951 to September 1952, NBC from July to September 1951, DuMont from August 1953 to May 1954, and on NBC again from December 1954 to June 1955, with the final broadcast on June 25, 1955.

      The science of the Tom Corbett universe was, in hindsight, wrong in many places. Mars was portrayed a desert, Venus was a steaming jungle, and the asteroid belt was a haunt of space pirates. Still, in those days long before space probes, the conventional wisdom was that, for example, Venus was a steaming jungle. Nevertheless, Tom Corbett—Space Cadet was the most scientifically accurate series then on television, partly due to its science advisor, Willy Ley, and later because its star Frankie Thomas took an interest in astronomy.

      TV CAST

      Tom Corbett—Frankie Thomas, Jr.

      Astro—Al Markim

      Roger Manning—Jan Merlin

      Captain Steve Strong—Edward Bryce

      Dr. Joan Dale—Margaret Garland

      Commander Arkwright—Carter Blake

      Cadet Alfie Higgins—John Fiedler

      Cadet Eric Rattison—Frank Sutton

      Cadet T. J. Thistle—Jack Grimes

      Technical Advisor—Willy Ley

      Writers: Albert Aley, Stu Byrnes, Frankie Thomas, Jr., Ray Morse, Jack Weinstock, Willy Gilbert, Alfred Bester & others.

      Michael Harvey played Captain Strong for the first six episodes of the CBS series; Pat Ferris played Dr. Dale for two episodes of the DuMont series

      BOOKS

      Grosset & Dunlap published a series of Tom Corbett books between 1952 and 1956. Written under the pseudonym Carey Rockwell, with Willy Ley as technical advisor, they are:

      Stand By For Mars (1952)

      Danger in Deep Space (1953)

      On the Trail of the Space Pirates (1953)

      The Space Pioneers (1953)

      The Revolt on Venus (1954)

      Treachery in Outer Space (1954)

      Sabotage in Space (1955)

      The Robot Rocket (1956)

      The first 7 are collected here. The eighth, The Robot Rocket, is unavailable at this time due to rights issues.

STAND BY FOR MARS!

      CHAPTER 1

      “Stand to, you rocket wash!”

      A harsh, bull-throated roar thundered over the platform of the monorail station at Space Academy and suddenly the lively chatter and laughter of more than a hundred boys was stilled. Tumbling out of the gleaming monorail cars, they froze to quick attention, their eyes turned to the main exit ramp.

      They saw a short, squat, heavily built man, wearing the scarlet uniform of the enlisted Solar Guard, staring down at them, his fists jammed into his hips and his feet spread wide apart. He stood there a moment, his sharp eyes flicking over the silent clusters, then slowly sauntered down the ramp toward them with a strangely light, catfooted tread.

      “Form up! Column of fours!”

      Almost before the echoes of the thunderous voice died down, the scattered groups of boys had formed themselves into four ragged lines along the platform.

      The scarlet-clad figure stood before them, his seamed and weather-beaten face set in stern lines. But there was a glint of laughter in his eyes as he noticed the grotesque and sometimes tortuous positions of some of the boys as they braced themselves in what they considered a military pose.

      Every year, for the last ten years, he had met the trains at the monorail station. Every year, he had seen boys in their late teens, gathered from Earth, Mars and Venus, three planets millions of miles apart. They were dressed in many different styles of clothes; the loose flowing robes of the lads from the Martian deserts; the knee-length shorts and high stockings of the boys from the Venusian jungles; the vari-colored jacket and trouser combinations of the boys