Journey to the Unknown
Entry updated 22 December 2025. Tagged: TV.
UK tv series (1968-1969). Production companies Hammer Films, 20th Century Fox. Executive producers Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd. Produced by Anthony Hinds. Directors include Roy Ward Baker, Don Chaffey, Alan Gibson, Peter Sasdy and Robert Stevens. Writers include Michael J Bird, Robert Bloch, Julian Bond, Oscar Millard and Anthony Skene (1924-2000). Cast includes Barbara Bel Geddes, Michael Callan, Joseph Cotton, Patty Duke, Vera Miles, Stephanie Powers, Michael Tolan and Zena Walker. Seventeen 50-minute episodes. Colour.
This Television Anthology Series, produced by Harrison and Lloyd – previously of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1965) – has been compared to The Twilight Zone (1959-1964). It was unhosted and primarily dealt in suspense and twist endings; many episodes were of genre interest. "Girl of My Dreams", adapted from Richard Matheson's "Girl of My Dreams" (October 1963 F&SF), concerns a woman (Walker) who has Precognitive nightmares about Disasters, and her unscrupulous boyfriend (Callan) who wants to exploit her power. "The Indian Spirit Guide", by Robert Bloch, concerns a woman seeking to contact her deceased husband and a boyfriend who is intent on debunking spiritual mediums. "Jane Brown's Body", adapted from the Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968) story "Jane Brown's Body" (March/April 1938 All-American Fiction), involves an experimental serum which brings a dead woman (Powers) back to life after her Suicide. "The Madison Equation" by Michael J Bird deals with a superComputer programmed for murder. In "Matakitas is Coming" by Robert Heverley a present-day mystery writer (Miles), trapped in a Library after hours, finds herself transported back to the 1920s, to the time and place of a murder she had been researching. "Paper Dolls", adapted from The Paper Dolls (1964) by L P Davies, is about a teacher (Tolan), who trails identical quadruplets who were fathered by the victim of Nazi medical experiments, and who have dangerous Psi Powers. "Stranger in the Family" by David Campton centres on a sought-after teenage Mutant who can control others and make them do things against their will. Other episodes included adaptations of "The Crowd" (May 1943 Weird Tales) by Ray Bradbury as "Somewhere in a Crowd", adapted by Michael J Bird; and of the classic novella by Oliver Onions, "The Beckoning Fair One" (in Widdershins, coll 1911), adapted by John Gould and William Woods.
After the initial run of Journey to the Unknown, four pairs of episodes, each pair spliced back-to-back, were released as four Television movies, with new filmed introductions by Sebastian Cabot, Joan Crawford, and Patrick McGoohan. [LW/DRL]
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