THE DARK EQUATION

   THE DARK EQUATION was one of the projects of my youth, a Twilight Zone/The Outer Limits-inspired television series I tried to get off the ground. It was a no-go, and upon reflection I'm a little relieved as my writing skills have greatly improved since then!

   I recently ran across some of the remains of the project, including a write-up in an old issue of AMOH. Quite embarrassing, that review, which strained to make the project seem more legitimate than it actually was (although it was right in line with how I viewed the project at the time). My scheme was to write each episode and even act as host via Rod Serling under the name Howell Pathfinder. Pathfinder would play 'himself' and at least once each episode would interact with the other characters. At this time, I had not yet seen One Step Beyond or The Veil, I should note.

   I did actually plan out an entire run of episodes, with titles for each and several monster designs as well. I even built a few props in my enthusiasm for the project, and had plans of asking Charleton Heston (!), and later Rex Reason (!), to provide the opening and closing narration!!! I was ambitious, there's no question!

   Here are the original episode titles, in their planned order:

The Photo

Creature

Ghost of Blood

The Brain

The Deadliness of Non-living Things

Inside a Killer's Mind

Like a Hunting Shark

The Living Arm

Beware! Werewolf!

Our Own Apocalypse

How To Make a Killer

A.G.E.

A Case of Missing Time

Inhuman

The Flower

Voice of the Darkness

A Look Apart

Curse of the Vampire

Destroy Antaculus!

Missing Images

Blood to Stone

True Identity

Unnatural Selection

The Dead Say Little

Attractions

This Cold Stone

   Here're some of the monster designs I did.

   Nothing ever came of the project, unless you count a pair of stories that appeared in The AMAZING MONSTERS OF HOLLYWOODLAND under the Dark Equation title. I changed the plot of "Ghost of Blood" and wrote it out as a fiction feature. To punch it up, and maybe fool myself into thinking I was an actor, I included some photos in a 'process' I lamely called STILLOVISION! Below you can see me playing Dr. Glenn Lindstrom stalking into an island jungle to confront the titular ghost. Said ghost was an effect I created with the family computer's editing program. 

   I may not have been very honest with myself, but I was sure having fun!