Commander Perkins is a German science fiction series by H. G. Francis, published partly as audio plays and partly as a series of novels.
Background The series is set approximately 50 to 100 years in the future. Mankind has settled the Moon, where the Moon base "Delta-4" is a central setting, while the rest of the Solar System is being explored. The scientist character of Professor Dr. Arthur Common has created (with the assistance of his daughter Cindy) the "Dimension Transmitter." With this device, users can overcome arbitrary distances without time delay. Via an enormous energy expenditure from the Transmitter, the Time/Space dimensions break open to allow small groups of humans to visit alien planets without transport.
Based on this premise, in this series, the protagonist Commander Randy Perkins and his friend and colleague Major Peter Hoffmann, often accompanied by the professor's telepathically gifted son Ralph, undertake voyages into alien worlds, often involving the ill-prepared Earth in intergalactic events.
Main characters Commander Randy Perkins, an experienced officer and main protagonist. Major Peter Hoffmann, Perkin's best friend. Tends to panic during action, but makes characteristic humorous and sarcastic remarks. He has a crush on Cindy Common. Professor Dr. Arthur Common, scientist, is the inventor of the Dimension Transmitter. Cindy Common, his impulsive young daughter and assistant, she is a physicist and mathematician. She has a crush on Perkins and fends off Hoffman's flirting with wicked humor. Ralph Common, the telepathic 12-year-old son of the professor. Oberst (Colonel) G. Camiel Jason, the administrator of Moon base Delta-4. Unsympathetic, stubborn and impulsive, he is much an antagonist as the various aliens Perkins has to fight. General Basil Lucan Crinian, the chief of the Armed Forces of Earth. Camiel, individual class robot, brings humor into the series.
The Vega Series The Wega Series is the first series that consists of six audio plays that were produced in 1976–1978 by Europa (audio play). It was directed by Heikedine Körting, with scripts written by H. G. Francis. The playing time of the individual audio plays varies between 35 and 50 minutes.
Episodes: The Gate to Another World (1976) In the Tide of Infinity (1976) The Secret of the Ufos (1977) Bordon The Immortal (1977) Saturn Calling Delta-4 (1978) Expedition Into the Past (1978)
Starring Commander Randy Perkins: Horst Stark Major Peter Hoffmann: Gernot Endemann Professor Dr. Arthur Common: Franz-Josef Steffens Cindy Common: Gabi Libbach Ralph Common: Mathias Lorenz Colonel G. Camiel Jason: Andreas von der Meden (Ep. 2), Karl-Ulrich Meves (Ep.5) Bordon The Immortal: Lothar Grützner (Ep. 4), Gottfried Kramer (Ep. 6), General Oregon: Helmo Kindermann (Ep. 3) General Crinian: Hans Daniel (Ep. 4) Telepathic Voice: Wolfgang Kaven Also Starring: Andreas Beurmann, Volker Bogdan, Volker Brandt, Werner Cartano, Peter Kirchberger, Ernst von Klipstein, Lutz Mackensy, Rolf Mamero, Christian Mey, Hella von der Osten-Sacken, Jochen Sehrndt, Horst Schick, Heinz Trixner, Claus Wilcke.
Plot summary The Dimension Transmitter is still in the experimentation stage. However, there is already contact with the eighth planet of the Vega system. With cameras and probes, data was collected from that planet. On the Moon base, Ralph Common is lured into the Dimension Transmitter by a telepathic voice. He overrides all safety locks and is transported to the Vega planet, where he is detained by the locals. Professor Common asks Commander Perkins and Major Hoffmann to bring back his son to the Moon. They succeed; however, Ralph Common tells them that there must be a connection between Earth and Vega, since there are maps showing the area of the Mediterranean Sea. Communication with the Vegans is not yet possible, with the exception of the telepathic voice, which only Ralph can hear.
The Vegans realize that there is a dimension portal between the worlds. By waiting at its warp point, they send an emissary to the Moon who, however, is killed by accident. In an attempt to mediate, Perkins, Hoffmann and Ralph take another trip to the Vega. They fail, and Perkins is captured. A release attempt succeeds, but apparently the commander was brainwashed and remains in a kind of waking coma. Perkins awakes after half a year, and at the same time a Vegan spaceship appears on Earth, which is later accidentally shot down (the ship creates an energy field which scrambles electronic processes in both machines and the human body). Vegan survivors try to reach the Dimension Transmitter in order to return to their home world. Professor Common wants to release the Vegans, but the military wants to cross-examine the extraterrestrials. But while transporting them back to the Vega, an error occurs, Perkins, Hoffman and the Vegans are hurled not just through space and to the Vega planet, but also into the past, where the two humans witness the accidental death of a nobleman and are blamed for murder. At the last second, Professor Common finds the two men and brings them back. During this episode, clues are found that the Vegans had something to do with the Biblical disaster of Sodom and Gomorrah.
All the Vegan men of the shot spaceship are declared dead, and in retaliation the Vegans send a space fleet to Earth to take revenge. The destruction of mankind seems inevitable. Perkins, Hoffman and Ralph travel to Vega to settle the conflict; there they meet Bordon the Immortal, whose aging process had been stopped by a curse (which is linked to the death of the nobleman Perkins and Hoffman had witnessed). Together they manage to halt the attack on Earth, but it proves to be only a temporary solution.
As the Vegans poise to strike against Earth, Perkins takes a desperate gamble. Against the strict orders of Colonel Jason, he hides Professor Common on a deserted Moon station and merely disables the Dimension Transmitter, since he knows that the device is mankind's only hope of ending this conflict. The Vegans invade Delta-4, but come up empty-handed and - as Perkins has hoped - are now willing to negotiate. To his surprise, the Vegan high commander turns out to be Bordon, who is also revealed as the telepathic voice which had lured Ralph into the Dimensional Transmitter. Bordon is participating in the war to prove that the humans are the ones to blame and the Vegans therefore have the right to retaliate. After much arguing, Perkins persuades the Immortal to find the roots for the Vegan antipathy against the humans - by means of controlled time travel back to the last days of Sodom and Gomorrha.
Along with Ralph, Perkins, Hoffman and Bordon arrive near the two cities just in time to see a Vegan spaceship landing. As it turns out, Sodom and Gomorrah had been the landing site of an ancient Vegan expedition. One of its members, Drapondor (an Immortal like Bordon himself), had disappeared, and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are suspected by the Vegans of having murdered him, thus causing the conflict between the two people. As Perkins' group enters the city, they attract unwelcome attention and seek refuge in the house of Lot, where they find Drapondor, infected with leprosy, which is also the cause of his detachment from the expedition force. As events transpire as recorded in the Bible, Perkins and his group, taking Drapondor, Lot and his family with them, escape just before the Vegans drop an atomic bomb, eradicating the two cities. The time travelers are whisked back into their own time at the last second; in Delta-4 Drapondor is cured of the disease, and the series ends with Bordon making a public apology to the people of the Earth.
The First Novels In 1979, Franz Schneider Verlag published two Commander Perkins novels. Francis does not take any references to the audio plays in those two books. With the second novel a new character, Camiel the robot, is introduced.
The Red Fog (1979) Planet of the Soulless (1979)
Plot summaries The Red Fog A red veil deposits itself around Earth which lets humans disappear when it lowers to the ground. It is found out, the fog originated from the Dimension Transmitter as a small ball came and damaged. After the repair Commander Perkins, Major Hoffmann and Ralph Common travel to the planet Empty, from which the fog came and investigate, how to fight the strange substance, threatening all life on Earth.
Planet of the Soulless Ralph Common and all the psi-talented humans on Earth lie in dying, a telepathic power of the planet Psion seems to destroy their brains. In the last second Ralph can be protected with a special helmet against the psi attack. Commander Perkins, Major Hoffmann, Ralph Common and the robot Camiel travel to Psion investigating the cause of the attack. They determine that on the strange planet, all inhabitants act like soulless machines.
The Arrow Trilogy The second series consists of three audio play episodes that appeared 1980 under the direction of Heikedine Körting under the label Europa. The scripts were again written by H. G. Francis. A 4th and 5th episode were announced, however they never appeared. H. G. Francis also never wrote scripts for those. Why those episodes did not appear is not completely clear. However low sales figures of the first three audio plays might have been decisive. The action placed around the planet Arrow and The Middle Eye is incomplete. H. G. Francis used elements from the Arrow Trilogy in the Copanian plot, which resulted in some inconsistencies in the novels. The playing time of the individual audio plays is approximately 33 minutes each.
Episodes: Lost in Infinity (1980) The Galactic Weapon Master (1980) The Middle-Eye (1980)
Starring Narrator: Karl Walter Diess Commander Randy Perkins: Horst Stark Major Peter Hoffmann: Gernot Endemann Professor Dr. Arthur Common: Franz-Josef Steffens Cindy Common: Gabi Libbach Ralph Common: Mathias Lorenz Colonel G. Camiel Jason: Karl-Ulrich Meves Polcor: Reiner Brönneke Also Starring: Volker Brandt, Peter Buchholz, Werner Cartano, Wolfgang Jürgen, Harald Pages.
Plot summary Professor Common discovers a planet that is littered with spaceship wrecks. The military (including Colonel Jason) have a primary interest in retrieving weapons from the destroyed spaceships. During the exploration, the Humans are frightened by a highly sophisticated people. One of their scientists, Coleman, even alerts the aliens to the humans' presence by activating some of the wrecks' equipment.
An evacuation of the planet takes place immediately, but documents determining the galactic position of the Earth brought along by Coleman remain on Arrow. Perkins and Hoffman, with the scientist in their company, are sent back to the ship graveyard to retrieve or destroy them, but the aliens (which resemble humanoid panthers) are alerted and Coleman begins to act increasingly irrational. As it turns out, he has come under the mental control of a metal-devouring creature the aliens use to dispose of the wrecks, which later kills the scientist. Perkins and Hoffman are taken prisoner.
In the meantime, Professor Common, Cindy and Colonel Jason try their best to retrieve Perkins' team, but they do not succeed. Instead, a strange device appears in the Dimension Transmitter which emanates strange impulses which grow stronger and stronger. The professor, assuming that the device is either a weapon or a homing beacon, immediately sends it to another solar system.