In the TV Times for the weeks April 17 1964 to May 29 1964 1964, an adaptation of the episode The Evil Eye Of Venus by Roberta Leigh appeared. Here are the next two installments:

A Splendid new fantasy in space by Roberta Leigh

Roberta Leigh started to make a puppet world come alive when she created a rabbit called Hoppity for her son Jeremy. Others were to follow - including Torchy the Battery Boy, and Twizzle. Here Roberta begins a Space Patrol adventure story out among the planets which she has written specially for TV Times.

The Evil Eye Of Venus: Part Three

Part Three of ROBERTA LEIGH’S space age fantasy

A radio message flashed to Galasphere 347 warns Captain Larry Dart and his crew to divert and postpone landing on Venus until the Evil Eye’s death ray is extinguished. Meanwhile Professor Borra, the only man who can control the Eye, gambles on a new invention to destroy it..

Twenty-six million miles away on Earth, Colonel Raeburn, head of the United Galactic Organisation, relaxed.

“We’d better call Professor Borra and tell him he needn’t use his ray,” he told Marla, his glamourous secretary. “He can turn off the Evil Eye by normal means.”

He stopped as the video screen flashed on to show the Venusian president.

“Borra is dead.”

“What!” Raeburn was staggered.

“How did it happen?”

“He switched on the ray and it blew up! I’m afraid the Eye is still working.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve managed to get Dart.” Raeburn’s voice deepened with sympathy. “It’s a terrible tragedy that Borra had to die.”

“It’s more than a tragedy - it’s a disaster. Borra was the only person who knew how to work the Eye.”

“Then you’d better get it dismantled. Once that’s done we should be able to understand the mechanism.”

“But you don’t understand,” the President’s voice shook.

“We cannot put it out of action. While Borra was using his ray to try to stop the Eye, he upset the electronic brain.”

The President paused and Raeburn realised there was worse to come.

“No-one and nothing can go near it. It is not only destroying alien metal, it is destroying anything that comes within three miles of its beam.”

“Then explode it with rocket missiles.”

“The Eye blows them up when they are three miles away.”

Raeburn swallowed hard. “Then dig an underground path to it and destroy it from below.”

“That won’t work, either. The Eye is round. It is a grave problem, Colonel, and as you are the head of the United Galactic Organisation, it is your problem.”

As always, when faced with trouble, Raeburn turned to Professor Haggarty, Aloysius O’Rourke O’Brien Haggarty, who was, as his name implied, Irish and, like many of his fellow countrymen part eccentric, part genius.

He spent most of his time in his laboratory where - when not working for the U.G.O. - he was invariably engaged on some weird invention.

As usual when Raeburn entered Haggarty’s laboratory, the Professor greeted him sarcastically, for their affection for one another was always hidden beneath pretended short temper or humour.

“Don’t tell me,” Haggarty said. “I can see by your face that you’re in trouble.”

“Stop gloating and listen.” As concisely as he could, Raeburn explained.

Haggarty did not appear to listen, for, while Raeburn was speaking, he was busy pouring liquid on to a small plant bedded in a pot.

“I wish you’d stop feeding that leek.”

“You know very well it’s a plant from Uranus.” As Haggarty spoke the plant started to wave its leafy arms. “There,” he said. “Now it’s had something to eat it’s starting to talk.”


NEXT WEEK
Professor Haggarty has a brainwave - but Colonel Raeburn is sceptical that his plan will destroy the Evil Eye.


The Evil Eye Of Venus: Part Four

Part Four of ROBERTA LEIGH’S space-age fantasy

The Evil Eye stands poised on a hill overlooking Cresta, the capital of Venus, ready to destroy anything that comes within its range. Professor Haggarty, the eccentric genius, is called in to put it out of action. Instead, he feeds a mysterious plant which suddenly springs to life and starts talking....

Colonel Raeburn, head of the United Galactic Organisation, said impatiently: “I can’t hear it.”

“Of course you can’t,” Haggarty replied. “Its voice is in the ultrasonic range like a bat.”

“I haven’t time to bother about bats or plants,” Raeburn said crossly. “We’ve got to find a way of stopping that Eye. It’s perched above Cresta and as long as it’s working no Galasphere or spacecraft can get near the city.”

“Who’d want to go to Cresta anyway?”

“Plenty of people. Now come on Haggarty. Leave that plant alone and do some thinking.”

“If you want to destroy the Eye with a rocket, you’ll have to use the atomic bomb. You can drop it four miles away from the Eye and the force of the explosion will destroy it completely.”

Raeburn threw up his hands in disgust. “The force of the explosion will also destroy Cresta. Think again.”

“I can’t. But I’ll call you if I can.”

But the days passed and Raeburn heard no more from Haggarty, though each day the Venusian president spoke to him on the sonar beam.

“I know you have great faith in this Professor of yours,” the President said on the sixth morning. “But we cannot go on like this. No craft can land or take off from Cresta, and if tourists cannot come here there will be great unemployment and hardship.”

“Give Haggarty a few more days. If he can’t think of something, no-one can.”

“Very well.” The Presidents voice was reluctant. “But if nothing happens within a week, we’ll have to destroy the Eye with an atomic explosion. I know it will mean destroying Cresta too, but we will have to evacuate the people and build our capital again.”

“A week,” Raeburn murmured as the video screen went blank. “I wonder what Haggarty is up to?”

Travel from one part of the city to another presented no difficulty in the year 2100. Each building was linked to its neighbour by plastic steel tubes down which hurtled cigar-shaped monobiles at a speed of 200 m.p.h.

Within moments of leaving his office, Raeburn was in Haggarty’s laboratory where the Professor was engaged in a fierce argument with a mauve, feathered bird almost as large as himself. It was the Gabbledictum, a martian parrot given to the Professor by Husky.

Like most parrots he was quick to learn English and was always so busy telling people what to do and how to do it, that he had been nick-named Gabbler.

As always, the Gabbler was convinced he knew how to destroy the Eye.

“Use a laser beam. That will burn through anything.”

“A laser beam can’t penetrate roxite, and the Eye has a roxite shield over it.”

The Gabbler gave a shrill squawk. “I’ll have to think again.”

“Don’t strain your bird brain,” Haggarty said sarcastically.


NEXT WEEK
Larry Dart, Captain of Galasphere 347, volunteers for a “suicide” task force to try to destroy the Evil Eye.

© 1964 TVTimes & Roberta Leigh
No infringement of copyright intended.

To be continued in our next update.

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Space Patrol - The Website wishes to acknowledge, with grateful thanks, the help from Mike Noon and Andrew Pixley in researching this feature.