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Control yourself, Doctor...
you have the love bug!
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Going Viral. Below on this blog page is the third of four blog posts in which I comment on a series of old science fiction stories about doctors. I called
Part 1 of the series "Love Virus" because I provided a detailed commentary on a story by Winston Marks called "Mate in Two Moves". In that 1954 story, a team of two doctors works to discover the cause of a strange pandemic. People all over Earth are falling in love! Yes, there is a new virus that infects endocrine glands and causes people to fall in love. Here in this series of blog posts, we even get to meet the doctor who was first person to photograph a virus...
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alien medicine
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Treating Aliens. I called
the second post in this series "Moon Doctor" because it contains my comments on a story called "Country Doctor". In that 1953 story by William Morrison, the intrepid Dr. Meltzer must go
inside a ginormous alien creature from Jupiter's moon Ganymede in order to treat this ailing patient. Will he make it out alive or will he simply be digested by the alien?
Beyond Sci Fi. I began my exploration of science fiction stories about doctors with an anthology called
Great Science Fiction About Doctors, by Groff Conklin. Sadly, some of those collected stories don't really qualify as science fiction and so that opened the door to magical fantasy, detective mysteries and even a dash of horror. However, my interests are fairly constrained and so I will try to stay focused on stories about doctors that include interesting imaginary science and futuristic technologies.
Future Technology. Notice that not all of the stories that I've included in this series of blog posts are about medical doctors. I've also had my eyes open for stray stories about PhDs who get themselves into trouble and can solve their problems by deploying exciting imaginary technology from the future. Only the future? No. Some of the stories that I discuss in this series were published in the 1800s and they deal with pseudoscience topics from out of our past. Sometimes we can even be grateful when ancient Egyptian technology from 5000 years ago enlivens a limping story.
However, next up is a true Sci Fi story with an actual medical doctor from the future named Dr.
Calhoun. So, on to Ribbon in the Sky.....
Med Service. The first in a series of futuristic
Med Service stories by Murray Leinster was "Ribbon in the Sky" which was published in the
June 1957 issue of
Astounding Science Fiction
with cover art by H. R. Van Dongen. "Ribbon in the Sky" is set in the
far future when it is a trivial matter to jump into your interstellar
spaceship and go zipping off to visit any of the colonized planets of
the galaxy. 🚀
We all have swords spears. The cover art by Dongen (Figure 1)
shows a man named "Pat" who lives on a "lost world". Notice the spear!
While living cut-off from galactic civilization, the people of this
world (let's call it "Planet X") have reverted to a state of ignorance
and superstition while still making use of a few Hi Tek™ relics from
their past... like that clunky smartphone. 📱 Pat is chatting with his
girlfriend while they are both on guard duty. Sadly, Pat is from City 2
and she's from City 3 and "everyone knows" that people from a different
city carry diseases that will kill you. 💀☠⽍
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Figure 2. Just say "Chee!"
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Future Technology.
The futuristic science deployed by Leinster has not aged well. The
interstellar spaceships all use some sort of "jump drive" technology.
Leinster spends the first several pages of "Ribbon in the Sky" making it
excruciatingly clear that each time the jump drive is used, all the
spaceship passengers experience space-sickness. In this case, there are
only two passengers, Dr. Calhoun and his side-kick Murgatroyd (an alien
monkey-like creature), who always says, "Chee!" (see
Figures 2 and 5).
What's a Transistor? Dr.
Calhoun is making a routine visit to the planet Merida because... plot.
Let's just say that in the future, doctors still make house-calls.
Anyhow, the Hi Tek™ navigation system of Calhoun's spaceship was not
correctly programmed so he is LOST IN SPACE. You might wonder how such
navigation programming is accomplished in the future. Apparently, space
ship navigation involves a punch card and someone made an error punching the punch card for Calhoun's trip to Merida.
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recording a navigation program for interstellar travel
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Planet X.
Lucky for Dr. Calhoun, the erroneous navigation program sends him to
within a few light-years of a star which immediately shows signs of
having been previously colonized. In orbit around this little yellow
star is a LOST WORLD that long ago was of interest to a mining company
as a source of valuable metals like iron. We all know how rare
iron is
in the galaxy... right? Anyhow, Dr. Calhoun quickly exposes a few
photographic plates, identifies the location of the nearby star and we are on our way to an antibiotic-enabled medical adventure on Planet X.
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Figure 3. The page 1 interior art for "Ribbon in the Sky". The huge girders of a landing grid.
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Figure 4. Always bring a blaster to a knife fight!
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Figure 3 shows the reason that iron is so important for space travel. That is Dr. Calhoun's interstellar rocket (lower right), dwarfed by a mile high
magnetic field generator (Leinster calls this device a "
landing grid") that makes it possible for interstellar spacecraft to land on planets without having to carry any fuel.
The Titular Ribbon. The ribbon is visible in the night sky of Planet X as depicted in Figure 1 (above). When humans first arrived at Planet X, it was an ice world, completely covered by snow and glaciers. Then a "space ribbon" was constructed just beyond the orbit of Planet X.
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Figure 5. Murgatroyd and the rabbits.
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Teraforming.
This space ribbon is some kind of nanotechnology; a very thin ribbon
that reflects sunlight with the goal of heating up Planet X. And it is
working! Now Planet X has a thin equatorial
Hotlands that is warm enough
to sustain life. I love the idea of
terraforming
worlds to make them more suitable for life, but we are left with the
mystery of why a terraforming project was started for Planet X and then
abandoned.
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Murgatroyd scavenging for nuts in the Hotlands.
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When
spacecraft no longer visited Planet X, that allowed a few cut-off
colonists to be isolated from galactic civilization and they began to
sink into... well, let's just say a less technological state of
civilization. Leinster suggests that the residents of Planet X started
using fossil fuels as an energy source. Maybe Leinster imagined that in
the distant past, Planet X was not an ice planet and it had an ecosystem
and geological processes that built up fossil fuel reserves that could
be used by the human colonists. In any case, Dr. Calhoun and Murgatroyd
eventually visit the
Hotlands and find that creatures from Earth have
been seeded there, including cute rabbits (see
Figure 5).
Back to the Lovers. Arriving on Planet X, Dr. Calhoun teams up with a man named Hunt. Hunt is Nym's father. Pat is Nym's boyfriend, the dude in
Figure 1
(above). Pat and Nym, knowing that their love affair is forbidden,
strike out across the glacial wastes in a desperate attempt to reach the
Hotlands.
Figure 4
depicts the dramatic moment when Calhoun and Hunt catch up to Pat and
Nym. Pat (on the right) gallantly pulls out his knife 🗡, but Dr. Calhoun
blasts the knife out of Pat's hand with his blaster. Then the four of
them continue on to the
Hotlands.
I'm glad I read "Ribbon in the Sky" because I now suspect that Jack Vance was influenced by this story. Vance set many of his best stories in a galactic Oikumene of the far future where it was also possible for colonized planets to become "lost worlds".
Fun With Slavery. I've seen it suggested that Murray Leinster's
Med Service stories were inspired by a similar story about a traveling doctor of the future called "Ole Doc Methuselah" (
1947)
by L. Ron Hubbard. Ole Doc Methuselah has an alien side-kick (named "
Hippocrates", see the
image to the right) who merrily and worshipfully thinks of itself as
Doc's slave.
Shortly before Leinster started the
Med Service series, he published "Sand Doom" (
1955), the first story of his
Colonial Survey
series. For a reader in this century, it is interesting to contemplate
this question:
Which is more offensive to modern sensibilities, "Ole Doc
Methuselah" or "Sand Doom"? In the case of "Sand Doom", the story
quickly introduces Aletha Redfeather, (see the image to the left) who is
a member of the
Amerind Historical Society. Readers get a running commentary on Aletha from the perspective of senior Colonial Survey officer Bordman.
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page 1 interior art for "Sand Doom" by Freas
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Yes,
we are in the far future when Earthlings are colonizing many exoplanets
of the galaxy, but the look and feel of the story continually reminds
us of the good old days of European colonialism on Earth. At the start
of the story, Bordman is caught up in an emergency situation onboard the
spaceship
Warlock, but his though bubble contains the fact that
Aletha is "unusually lovely" for an Amerind. Bordman is impressed that
Aletha is so self-sufficient, because, well, you know, she's a girl.
Luckily, Aletha knows how to sew, so she does not get in the way of the
all-male crew during the space voyage to the newly colonized planet
Xosa II.
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Page 10 illustration for "Sand Doom". That's Ralph Redfeather.
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Future Mining. "Sand
Doom" could easily be viewed as a prequel to "Ribbon in the Sky",
however Xosa II is an inhospitable desert world, not an ice planet. The
only reason for colonizing Xosa II is to mine it for metal. It takes ten
pages for Leinster to finally get Aletha and Bordman onto the surface
of Xosa II (see the image to the left) a world that is like an inferno
with "
monstrous deserts". Aletha is not daunted because, as she puts it, "
My ancestors used to hold tribal dances and make medicine and boast about how many scalps they'd taken and how they did it." While landing on Xosa II, the crewman flying the landing craft curses and readers are told: "
The engineer said words it was not appropriate for Aletha to hear."
The dude on the horse sand scooter who comes to meet the landing craft is Aletha's cousin, Ralph.
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The "paleface" Bordman suffers and sweats in the heat of Xosa II.
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Doctor in the house on the planet.
Out on the surface of Xosa II, Aletha dresses as shown in the cover
illustration while the pale-skinned Bordman wears a protective
heat-suit. Ralph and other Amerind colonists were busily building a
landing grid on Xosa II when a ginormous sand storm buried it. Without power from the
landing grid,
Dr. Chuka and his miners cannot supply more metal. It is a bad
situation, but Aletha, Ralph, Chuka and Bordman work together to get
themselves out of the pickle they are in.
Future Technology. A functioning mile-high landing grid
not only allows interstellar spacecraft to land on a planet, it can be
used to tap an endless supply of energy from the ionosphere. How? Sadly,
Leinster never explains that, but readers are told that in a pinch, a
solar mirror can shine reflected sunlight on a mountain side, melt the
iron ore and allow an emergency supply of metal beams to be quickly produced. Whew! 😅
Paleface. Here is a line of dialog from Aletha: "
No paleface husband for me!"
Dr. Chuka and his miners all have very darkly pigmented skin. Leinster
makes a big deal out of the idea that the Amerinds like Ralph have no
fear of heights and so they are great at building the mile-high
landing grid out of iron beams.
Similarly,
Dr. Chuka's dark-skinned miners are presented as the logical choice to
function as laborers in the mines. Sadly, there seem to be few robots in
this Hi Tek™ future of galactic civilization (we do hear mention of "robot ships"). 🤖 But that is par for the
course... all of the administrative records for Xosa II are kept on
paper in loose-leaf notebooks.
No spoiler. And what about Bordman? He figures out a clever way to dig the 80% completed landing grid out of the wind-blown sand that covered it. You'll have to read "Sand Doom" to discover how the team managed to move "hundreds of millions of tons of sand" and save the doomed Xosa colony.
Clorophage. Murray Leinster published a story called "Doctor" in the February 1961 issue of Galaxy Magazine. The chlorophage is a virus which readers are told is the "most terrifying thing in the universe". Chlorophage can turn green plants into colorless husks and spaceships like Star Queen all rely on plants to produce oxygen during interstellar voyages. Dr. Nordenfeld is the doctor on the spaceship Star Queen and he is watchful when new passengers come onboard. Chlorophage can also feed on human hemoglobin. But soon after a young passenger (see the image to the right) brings chlorophage onboard, Dr. Nordenfeld discovers another microbe that eats chlorophage. Now chlorophage can be controlled.
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Figure 6. Blurb at the start of "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment".
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page 1 interior art for
"Doctor O'Glee's Experiment"
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Amazing Mining in 1929. I'm particularly interested in the science fiction stories that were published in
1929 because that was when
Isaac Asimov began reading the old Sci Fi pulp magazines. It is fun to read those old stories and imagine how they influenced Asimov's writing. "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment" was written by
T. Proctor Hall. According to the
ISFDB this was the only Sci Fi story that
Hall published.
Hall had some scientific training and even went to medical school (apparently, the short-lived
National Homeopathic Medical College in Chicago).
Finding Gold. Depicted in the image to the left is William Brown who wants to use short radio waves to detect mineral deposits. Also at the start of the story is the blurb shown in Figure 6 (above). Readers learn that Brown's metal detector can identify an "ether wave" that is characteristic of gold. Brown teams up with a prospector named Smithkins and they head into the wilds of Colorado to test the Hi Tek™ metal detector. Having no luck in their search for gold, Brown does the obvious thing... he heads for Alaska. Readers can only wonder what any of this prospecting has to do with diseases of the mind... until Dr. O'Glee finally walks on stage...
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Doctor O'Glee experiments on Norine.
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Telemedicine. Brown meets Dr. O'Glee who shares Brown's interest in radio waves. Dr. O'Glee has a "sensitive detector" that can monitor electrical activity in the brain. (
Related: see the
Gernsback thought detector.) O'Glee is studying a girl (Norine) who was born with some developmental defect which prevented her brain cells from maturing normally. Dr. O'Glee is trying to revive Norine's "dormant" brain cells by exposing her to "
a properly selected electric wave".
The Carnac Box. For Hall, there is no limit to the wonders of electromagnetic waves. Dr. O'Glee has a magical detector box that can scan a hand-written letter and return an accurate evaluation of that person's personality and health. This device is used to identify a nurse with good character and suitable qualifications who can help care for Norine: Miss Angnes Gem. 💎 However, before the nurse is hired...
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by detecting the "8mm wave",
the sleeping Norine is quickly found
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...Brown and O'Glee fall into an intense discussion of their wave detectors and they do not notice that Norine has wandered into the forest. But never fear, the two men quickly devise an electronic child detector that leads them to Norine (see the image to the left).
A Polished Gem. The story is called "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment" (singular), but O'Glee takes time out from treating Norine to expose Miss Gem to another magical "ether wave". Gem has fallen in love with Brown and O'Glee does not want that to disrupt Gem's work as Norine's nurse and his ongoing experiment to stimulate the development of Norine's mind. So, O'Glee casually exposes Gem to a specific "ether wave" that suppresses her feelings of love for Brown.
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who emits the murder wave?
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Even More Experiments. Brown conceives the idea of using O'Glee's behavior-altering "ether wave" device to cure criminals of their criminal propensities, so there is a whole series of assorted experiments of different types in the story. Eventually it is discovered that the brains of murderers emit a specific type of "ether wave".
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Another specific "ether wave" causes people to speak the truth. Interior art for "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment".
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| Figure 7. Text from "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment". |
The 1938 Influenza Outbreak. When a bad flu epidemic begins, O'Glee uses a "wave transmitter" to prevent the virus from spreading to new hosts in a nearby town. Is there any problem beyond the power of the electrical waves to correct? As shown in the image above, O'Glee's "wave transmitter" can be used to make criminals confess their crimes.
The Psychological Age. Dr. O'Glee also used his "wave transmitter" to put an end to a riot. By electrically inducing fear in the rioters, they all run away.
Hall's story "Doctor O'Glee's Experiment" reminds me of "
The Brain of the Planet", also published in 1929.
As shown in Figure 7, Hall described Jagadish Chandra Bose as "the greatest of all modern physiologists". According to the ISFDB, Bose published a science fiction story called "Palatak Tuphan" which I think can be translated as "Runaway Cyclone". After reading this story by Bose, you might wonder why the Indian subcontinent still suffers from deadly storms.
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interior art for "Dead-End Doctor"
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In
Part 2 of this series, I mentioned "
The Shopdropper" by Alan Nelson, which is an amusing fantasy story about a strange new psychological malady which causes people to leave their belongings in stores. In the February
1956 issue of
Galaxy Science Fiction was "Dead-End Doctor" a short story by Robert Bloch, and it is another joke story. Dr. Anson is the last psychiatrist on Earth and he has no patients. In the future, robots do all the boring labor and endocrinologists can cure little human problems like anger when they occasionally crop up. Thus, humans live in a wonderful world without any mental problems. However, without patients, poor Dr. Anson can't pay his rent. Luckily, his girl friend, Sue Porter, comes to the rescue and pays his bills. Sue's father manufactures robots, so the Porter family has plenty of ca$h.
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| robotomy |
Cure That Robot. However, the robots are becoming increasingly sophisticated and human-like. Dr. Anson discovers that he can use his medical training to fix robots who malfunction. In particular, he performs a successful "
prefrontal robotomy" and is given a job working for daddy Porter.
The Dog Cure. I'm a sucker for robot stories like "Dead-End Doctor", but what about our ages old companion, the dog? In Part 1 of this series, I mentioned "The Ananias Gland" by W. Alexander. In the September 1929 issue of Amazing Stories was "The Dog's Sixth Sense", another silly story by W. Alexander. Dr. Wentworth has been performing eye transplants and restoring lost vision to patients. Wentworth discovers that transplanting a dog's eye will confer amazing telepathic abilities on the transplant recipient.
Next: Part 4 of this series on Sci Fi about doctors
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