Time Enough at Last: SF Stories That Inspired Classic TV

by Jean Marie Stine (Editor), Lyn Venable (Contributor), Paul W. Fairman

Great SF that Became Great Television SF! This one-of-a-kind anthology gathers together seven science fiction novelettes and short stories that were adapted into classic episodes of legendary television series like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Tales of Tomorrow, and From Out of This World. Here are Lyn Venable's "Time Enough at Last," the classic short story that inspired The Twilight Zone episode that was voted number twenty-five on TV Guide's list of the one hundred all time favorite TV episodes. You will also find stories that inspired other classic TZ shows as Paul Fairman's "People Are Alike All Over," Jerome Bixby's "It's a Good Life!," and Malcolm Jameson's "Of Late I think of Cliffordville," along with and Eando Binder's "I, Robot," inspiration for a moving Outer Limits episode, Rog Phillip's "The Yellow Pill," filmed for the British series, From Out of This World, and Raymond Z. Gallun's "Stepson of Space," adapted as "Many Happy Returns" for the legendary Tales of Tomorrow. In addition, you will find videographies listing each story's first appearance, the name of the screenwriter who adapted it for television, the episode's director, air date, length, cast, and more. This is your chance to read seven of the most famous science fiction stories ever written, including one, Gallun's "Stepson of Space," which is reprinted here for the first time ever since its original magazine appearance.

148 pages, Nook

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only complaint was that this was too short! It was a sincere pleasure to read these vintage stories. Some of them I was familiar with (from watching the tv shows), but I had never read any of the original stories on which the shows were based. Without exception, they were a fine bunch of well-crafted stories.

Now, they've been dated a bit, and you can't compare them really to current SF stories being published in the magazines and online, but even so, they are completely readable and the quaintness of some aspects of these stories did not detract in any way from my enjoyment of them.

One of the best anthologies I've read in a long time. Highly recommended.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the Twilight Zone - the "classic" episodes, at least, and recently watched a number of them. That show is interesting because it managed to avoid the censors, for the most part. Somehow, I'd missed the literary beginnings of many episodes (possibly because I was to young for it to matter - I didn't care about the censors until recently either), so went looking for the stories. There are quite a few in this book. Overall...they are depressing. Upon reflection, that is consistent with the episodes. There is a theme of the inevitability of the end of the world - or of some tragic ending - that was, part of that time. On film, the end of times can be somewhat campy; in print, its depressing.