Thursday, September 4, 2008

Trouble in Warp Space (#172)

Trouble in Warp Space cover

Plot: Iola wins a small role in the cable TV show, Warp Space, in a contest, and Frank, Joe, and Chet accompany her to the accident-prone — or is it sabotaged? — set.

“Borrowing” from the past: Curiously light on the past continuity, although it should be noted that the Morton siblings appear and Callie is at least mentioned.

Weary and wary of finding himself in another mystery, Frank mentions it feels like he’s “been chasing criminals for seventy-five years”; Trouble in Warp Space was published in 2002, the 75th anniversary of The Tower Treasure, the first Hardy Boys book. Frank uses a karate chop against a crook; he’s used several styles of Asian martial arts over the years, but he first used karate in an original text in The Clue of the Hissing Serpent (#53). Frank and Joe mention their rescue training, which they have used many times over the years; Joe’s is first mentioned all the way back in The Secret of the Caves (#7), while Frank has to wait until The Disappearing Floor (#19) to “emergency” bandage his father (I think after a tiger attack) and The Mystery of the Flying Express (#20) to attend to the victims of a massive train derailment.

Jewel Ridge, Conn., appears again, this time as the location of Warp Space’s home studio. Although the state isn’t mentioned, it’s obviously the same Jewel Ridge Frank and Joe invaded in A Game Called Chaos (#160).

Dixon knows sci-fi: There are quite a few allusions to sci-fi shows, movies, actors, and books, although I’m quite sure I didn’t pick up on a lot of them. Warp Space is heavily influenced by Star Trek, with “Spacefleet” standing in for Star Trek’s Starfleet, for instance. Iola plays a green-skinned girl from Betelgeuse, calling to mind Star Trek’s green-skinned Orion slave girls (Betelgeuse is a star in the constellation of Orion), although I assume Iola was wearing far more clothes than a scantily clothed slave girl. Female co-stars Jerri Bell and Claudia Rajiv allude to Jeri Ryan, Star Trek: Voyager’s resident Borg, Seven of Nine, and Claudia Christian, who played Commander Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5. Stan Pekar, the venerable and honored effects and makeup expert for Warp Space, calls up Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor, make-up artist, and film director Stan Winston. (And possibly someone else; is Pekar someone / nearly someone?) And I’m sure the Slayer from Sirius is an allusion to something, but I can’t think of what. Can anyone help me out?

The best, however, is when Jerri and Claudia take the chums to Club 451, a restaurant that obviously takes its name from Ray Bradbury’s classic sci-fi novel, Fahrenheit 451. Incidentally, Fahrenheit 451 has one of the best opening lines in literature: “It was a pleasure to burn.”

Dixon doesn’t know sci-fi: On the other hand, there’s a lot here that makes Warp Space sound horribly camp. I mean, Jerri Bell’s character is named Ensign Allura, for Crom’s sake.

But the author makes quite clear: Frank and Joe aren’t geeks. No, sir. That’s what makes their jokes so horrible: they’re throwing around random sci-fi buzzwords they heard somewhere.

Affection? Really?: After the shocking flirting and touching in The Test Case, the dirty, dirty overfriendliness between Joe and Iola continues here. Iola calls Joe handsome; Joe says Iola’s “as beautiful” as Jerri or Claudia, then gives her a hug. Iola gives Joe a kiss on the cheek, and Joe later gives her a another “quick” hug. Joe even grabs Iola … under the arms! Sure, it’s to keep her from falling into water and being electrocuted, but weak excuses like that are open invitations to sin.

A new dimension in their relationship: On the other hand, there are points when it’s obvious Joe and Iola are at least reasonable facsimiles of teenagers. Joe admires how Iola looks in a Spacefleet uniform, and I don’t believe he’s thinks she looks merely “cute.” Normal, sure, if tame. But later, they are “dancing amid the … pulsing,” and they disappear for half an hour while they “looked for suspicious characters.” I’ll bet I know what they were looking at, all right. Most damning, though, is Joe forgoing a trip to the cafeteria with Frank and Chet, saying he’ll “‘do lunch’ with Iola.” I know why “do lunch” is in quotes — it’s Joe clumsily trying to sound like someone in show business — but I have this picture in my mind of Joe giving Frank a nudge in the ribs while saying it, complete with air quotes around “do lunch” so Frank knows exactly what Joe will be doing.

The law is a plot device: For once, Joe actually wants to call the police — contrast this with Daredevils (#159), when Frank and Joe avoided the police at all costs because they wanted to solve the case themselves. Of course, the stakes were different; in Daredevils, it was multiple attempts at murder, while Warp Space only has assault, theft, and sabotage. Such low stakes — no wonder Frank and Joe want to hand it off.

When Frank and Joe need contract details about some of Warp Space’s crew, the executive producer, Sandy O’Sullivan, balks, saying she doesn’t think it’s legal. Please, Sandy — Frank and Joe had, at that point, just broken into a man’s apartment and his private locker. Your concern is quaint. The law is what Frank and Joe want it to be. So much so, in fact, that Joe is shocked when yelling, “Hold it, you!” fails to get a fleeing crook to stop.

So young, so cynical: When Chet and Joe examine the fridge after a large meal — Joe says it’s in case the urge for a midnight snack strikes — Iola storms off, after yelling, “Men!” Iola, babe, you don’t know the half of it — and if I remember later Hardy Boys books correctly, that’s literal: Joe liked to flirt with the ladies while on vacation in strange lands. On the other hand, maybe she does know; Frank mentions the trouble Joe would be in if Iola saw how he was looking at Ensign Allura, alluding to Iola’s violent streak, which was seen in Past and Present Danger (#166).

In response, Joe says Callie would give Frank double. Maybe that helps explains Frank’s relative constancy and the lack of physicality between him and Callie. Your eyes or hands strays, Frank, and all the karate in the world won’t save your little detective and its chums from Callie’s wrath.

Opinions: Despite the hokeyness of Warp Space, this one comes across well. There’s a little too much set up, both in the exposition about the show and television in general, and a shortage of investigation time. But that’s made up for by the unusual touches: Joe and Iola act like a real couple — well, one that has signed an abstinence pledge and have spent most of their time together on supervised church “dates,” but still one that could be found in nature. Frank and Joe get their asses handed to them by a single crook, who knows — wait for it — kung fu. Kung fu obviously trumps karate, then. And Chet does good work on one of his outlandish jobs, succeeding after getting a spot as a stuntman in a costume. Who knew his association with the Hardys would come in handy here? A willingness or maybe even a desire to hide himself after all the fat jokes and the ability to take multiple punches turn out to be future job skills, not just fun hobbies.

Grade: B

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