Though I have read several discussions of science fiction films derived from
science fiction novels, I can recall no mention of the film This Island Earth ( 1955),
based on Raymond F. Jones's novel of that name. Some scholars may be unaware
of the novel's existence or may have been unable to obtain a copy, since it quickly
went out of print after appearing in 1952 and did not resurface until its inclusion
in a 1994 anthology, Reel Future, edited by Forrest J. Ackerman and Jean Stine.
Other scholars may have recognized, or surmised, that Jones's novel was not
exactly a science fiction classic on a par with other, more prominent novels turned
into films, like Dune or The Martian Chronicles, and decided that it did not merit
much attention. For whatever reason, neglect of the novel This Island Earth is
unfortunate, for examination of its contents helps to explain why the film is so
distinctive, so haunting, and so difficult for critics to approach.

The textual history of Jones's novel is not particularly complicated, but it has
never to my knowledge been explained in detail. First, in the June 1949 issue of
Thrilling Wonder Stories, then a bimonthly science fiction magazine, there ap-
peared Jones story "The Alien Machine," divided into four chapters, which with
minor changes became the first four chapters of the novel. The first story describes
how radio engineer Cal Meacham of the Ryberg Instrument Corporation receives
an astounding piece of electronic equipment, followed by a catalog, from a myste-
rious company; he orders the materials to build a device called an interocitor; after
days of painstaking labor involving thousands of parts, he successfully assembles
the device, and a man appears on its television screen to explain that Cal has passed
the test and is now being offered the opportunity to work for the organization; then,
at the designated time, Cal arrives at a runway to be met by a pilotless plane, ready
to fly him to his unknown destination.

Since the next Meacham story did not appear until three issues later, it is rea-
sonable to suppose that Jones finished "The Alien Machine" not entirely sure how,
or even whether, the adventure would continue, and one can appreciate the story

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