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The Vine: July 22, 2011

Submitted by on July 22, 2011 – 8:35 AM10 Comments

Help! When I was an early teen (25-30 years ago!), someone gave my sister a bag of stripped books. I loved one of them and it seemed like the start of a series, but it fell by the wayside and all I have now is a fond memory.

Okay, here’s what I remember:
1) It was set in space, I think on a spaceship
2) The heroine was blind, psychic and had frizzy hair. I think she was blinded by watching a supernova when she was younger.

I think that the ship was boarded at the end and that there may have been a war on, but I’m fuzzy on the detail.

CurlyQ

*****

Hi, I’ve been going crazy trying to remember an old made-for-TV movie, or possibly a failed pilot. It must have come out in the late ’70s or early ’80s, and my memories of it are very poor. All I can remember is that it was a sci-fi adventure featuring a crew or team of people in some kind of craft, I want to say a drilling machine, that goes to the center of the earth or goes back in time. There have been a ton of Journey to the Center of the Earth/Lost World type stories in this vein, but I can’t seem to figure out which this one was.

I can say that the setting was contemporary or near future for when the thing was produced, it was not one of those adaptations set in Victorian times. I cannot remember if they had troubles with dinosaurs or cave people or whatever, I do remember that the vehicle they came in ran on batteries, and those batteries were drained and needed to be recharged before they could go back to “our world.” I seem to remember some crusty engineer type complaining about “having no juice!” for the batteries. I also seem to remember an image of their vehicle coming up from underwater into the middle of a pond or lake.

That’s it. ’70s, ’80s, expedition to the center of the earth or possibly time travel, a small group of people, in a vehicle, possibly a drilling machine, that ran on batteries that were drained, possibly surfacing in a pond or lake.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? Any help would be appreciated.

Len

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10 Comments »

  • Laura says:

    The first one reminds me vaguely of Andra by Louise Lawrence, though I’m pretty sure that’s not it because the heroine winds up with a brain graft that cures her blindness. Also now that I think about it, I think they live underground and not in space.

  • Colette says:

    The first one reminded me of a book I read as a kid or rather, what could have happened after the book I remembered. It took me a few hours to remember it was “The Tomorrow City” by Monica Hughes. Sadly, it doesn’t have a sequel, so it’s not the one you’re looking for.

  • Wendy says:

    That first one reminds me somewhat of the Patricia Kenealy-Morrison series The Keltiad, and you can just search for her on Amazon (the link I was going to paste was crazy-long). Celtic books set in space with a red-haired heroine.

  • Jennie says:

    The TV show sounds like one of Gene Roddenberry’s failed pilots, either Genesis II or Planet Earth. Something like that– they’re all well-described on Wikipedia.

  • Sandman says:

    Is it possible that the second one is Genesis II? No drilling vessel, as far as I can remember, but it seems I do remember something about a vessel on water, and worries about failing power batteries in a futuristic (possibly post-apocalyptic?) society. Hope you can find it, Len. (C’mon, Nation!)

  • CurlyQ says:

    Hi all!
    I’m CurlyQ. It’s not any of the books mentioned.The Andra looks like it might have been a lot more literary. And the Patricia Kenneally books were published too late (as an offshoot, was she ever able to prove that she was married to Jim Morrison?)

    This would have been late-70s/early-80s as a cut off.

    Thanks so much for all your answers!

  • Melissa says:

    The second one sounds vaguely familiar to me, though I am blanking on the name as well. Did it air on Nickelodeon in reruns at all? Cause I remember a show about a family that went back in time, and played with dinosaurs and whatnot, and then came back with some past things. Huge drama ensued, followed shortly by cancellation, I would guess, since I don’t recall a resolution…anyway, if it’s the same some, maybe someone else remembers the name? :)

  • Kate says:

    Hi CurlyQ, This is a long shot, but your description made me think “The Rowan” by Anne Mccaffery. Which is about a young woman with great psychic abilities and frizzy white hair and does have something to do with a supernova. It wasn’t published until after your cut off date, but doing a little bit of digging, I found that it was originally published as a short story. The short story was called “Lady in the Tower” in her book Get Off the Unicorn in 1984. In Get Off the Unicorn, there’s a story called “Great Canine Chorus” about a dog who is is possessed by a psychic child who is blind, deaf and parapalegic. So maybe you’re combining the two stories together, or maybe i’m just completely off the wall.

  • Adie says:

    Melissa, that sounds like Land of the Lost, the newer version that aired on CBS on Saturday mornings in the early 90’s.

  • DCB says:

    Hi CurlyQ! The sci-fi book could have been “The Space Pirates”, the second of the Lord Tedric series, written by Gordon Eklund masquerading as E.E. “Doc” Smith.

    If I’m right then the character you’re refering to would be Alyc Carey, who was blinded by directly viewing a supernova and subsequently gained the ability to overhear the telepathic chatter of the Scientists and the Darker Forces, the two groups of manipulators behind the heroes and villains of the series.

    The series ran for four books and then petered out. I always had the feeling that Eklund coun’t figure out how to take Tedric on from fighting minions of the Darker Forces to confronting them directly in any effective fashion, and so left the series at the end of the first major story arc.

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