Return to the Planet of the Apes #1 - Visions from Nowhere

Author: William Arrow (aka William Rostler)

First Published: 1976

Pages: 183

Planet of the Apes was massively popular in the UK when I was still in primary school. I can remember being with my classmates and re-enacting chase scenes from the 1974 television series in the playground. I had dark curly hair and my best friend was blonde. So we had to be Peter Burke and Alan Virdon, with someone else playing the part of chimpanzee Galen - whilst every other boy in our year pretended to be part of General Urko's gorilla army and chase us down repeatedly. We used to regularly be 'caught' in the gorilla's nets and tumble over and over on the dirty concrete. Those were the days!

By 1975, the short-lived TV series had gone (I was devastated) and was replaced by a children's animated series, Return to the Planet of the Apes. This new venture did not fare very well and lasted only 13 episodes. I'm pretty sure, at that time in my life, I was of the same opinion that it wasn't very good, and the animation was "rubbish". I would have much  preferred the TV series back and already had copies of the novelisations by George Alec Effinger (one of my favourite genre authors by the way). A number of novelisations of the animation episodes were released, I have no memory of seeing them in the UK, so when I recently was made aware that they were available in eBook format I decided to indulge myself in some nostalgia.


The novelisations are published under the name of William Arrow, a pen name used extensively by William Rostler and borrowed for Book Two in this series by Donald J. Pfeil. Rostler was a fascinating character. Born in 1926 in California, Rostler co-wrote Shiva Descending with Gregory Benford and was also very active in other Sci-fi series fiction, among them Star Trek, Tom Swift and the Marvel Metaverse. Rostler was heavily involved in the pornographic industry, being a stills photographer, film director and actor (!). He was also a keen science fiction fanzine illustrator and was encouraged to begin writing by Harlan Ellison in the late sixties. His short stories, illustrations and cartoons went on to appear in a multitude of magazines for the length of his career.

This is the first of three novelisations, the middle book written by Pfeil. Each book encompasses the story lines of three of the TV episodes. Visions from Nowhere being the opener, it covers the arrival of the key human characters to the Planet of the Apes world. The animated series took a different route for its depiction of the Ape world. Creator Doug Wildey (Jonny Quest) had only ever seen the first two motion pictures, Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes, so he based his new product on the story lines and characters from those instalments of the franchise. Subsequently we have chimpanzee husband and wife Cornelius and Kira, orangutan elder Dr Zaius, the Underdwellers from Beneath, references to previous film astronaut Brent and savage female humanoid Nova. Into this mix however Wildey introduces TV character General Urko (presumably being promoted from 'Chief' Urko).

For anyone who has seen Beneath the Planet of the Apes, clearly the end of that movie is ignored for the premise of Return. Return also takes a sideways step for the setting; the Apes are more technically advanced than their film versions. They have cars, televisions and motor boats at their disposal now (although I do wonder if this was so that the animators would not have to illustrate moving horses!).

In terms of the plot, there is nothing to shout about. Basically Visions from Nowhere is the plot of the first two films merged together with the added interest of three astronauts, Bill, Jeff and Judy replacing those of Taylor and Brent. There is some political intrigue in the background of the Ape culture with Urko and his gorilla army becoming more and more threatening to the traditional hierarchical structure of Apes being ruled by the orangutans. The addition of more advanced hardware for the Apes brings a new slant on things. But in terms of character development - it is severely lacking. Personally I couldn't see the join between the two first episodes - but the third act is more clearly spotted in the novelisation.

This is taking nothing away from Rostler. I actually think he does a very good job with so little source material. He is given rein to expand upon scenes, and we do get to experience inner monologues and thoughts from the main cast that must have been absent from the televised version. I also found it quite exciting to read, and enjoyed the action scenes in it. It's a nice touch for the whole book to start from a female perspective as well.

It was not badly written, and I did genuinely enjoy reading it. Overall, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone unless they were either an Apes fan, or someone looking for a very quick easy read who wants to wallow in a bit of nostalgia from their childhood.

I purchased Visions from Nowhere from Amazon UK for £3.99. It is part of the Planet of the Apes Omnibus Volume 4 published by Titan Books. Considering it also contains books two and three, I think that's very good value.