Arena by Fredric Brown

"Arena" by Fredric Brown was adapted (sort of) twice for TV...

...first, in 1964, on the Outer Limits as "Fun and Games", starring Nick Adams.

You'll note a number of differences between the story and the episode, including a pair of new characters, a mate for the alien, and a woman with a hidden past who works with the hero!

A year later the story was reused, on Classic Star Trek as "Arena"...

...except it wasn't...exactly.

Gene Roddenberry's right hand man, producer Gene Coon, had submitted a story about Capt. Kirk fighting an alien starship commander to see whose ship would survive.

When the story was fact-checked, it was discovered that Coon had inadvertantly used numerous elements from Brown's story, which Gene had probably read years earlier!

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Carson, a space fighter pilot on station at the edge of the solar system intercepts an alien ship, but before he or the intruder can fire, they are both teleported from their ships to a planetoid, where unarmed, they face each other.
A voice explains to the two combatants that they must fight to the death to decide the conflict, thus avoiding the mass destruction to both sides that a full-scale war would cause.
A force field separates the combatants, but they are told they can utilize the materials at hand to create weapons.
The opponents discover they can't pentrate the force field, but inanimate objects can!
They throw rocks at each other, but rocks alone won't provide a victory for either side...or will they?

This extremely-faithful adaptation of Fredric Brown's short story was created by writer Gerry Conway, penciler John Buscema, and inker Dick Giordano.
Be here tomorrow when we take a look (and listen) at some less-accurate, but far more famous adaptations!

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Part 1

It's the sci-fi tale so nice, they adapted it twice...

...first on Outer Limits, then, two years later, on Classic Star Trek!

Will human ingenuity, cunning, and strength triumph?

Or will the alien win?

Be here TOMORROW for the answer!

This extremely-faithful adaptation was created by writer Gerry Conway, penciler John Buscema, and inker Dick Giordano.

The short story it's based on, by Fredric Brown, first appeared in Street & Smith's Astounding Science Fiction (June, 1944).

It was voted one of the Top 20 Science Fiction Stories before 1965 by the Science Fiction Writers Association and included in the must-have (if you're a serious sci-fi fan) anthology Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol 1: 1929-1964...which is still in print.

You can read the taut tale of terror HERE.

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Reading Room CAPTAIN ROCKET "Monstroids of the Underworld"

The final (in more ways than one) Captain Rocket tale...

is not an outer space adventure, but an inner space one!

Wow!

We had an atomic war in 1962...and nobody told us?

And Cap's adventures take place eons (or many millions of years) from now?

Both writer and artist(s) of the never-reprinted final story from PL's Captain Rocket #1 (1951) are unknown to everyone, even the eagle-eyed crew at the Grand Comics Database.

Captain Rocket didn't have a second issue, and the character never reappeared, though his name has been used for video games and halloween costumes!

Little is known about PL Publishing, one of the least successful comic publishers in history, lasting less than a year and producing only eight titles, none of which ran more than three issues!