THE MUMES (1935)
SOURCES:
"Zora of the Zoromes" (Amazing,Stories, March 1935)
DESCRIPTION: “...The organic Mumes were strange creatures. They appeared to the professor as large spiders with cranial superstructures. Their globular bodies, slightly flattened at top and bottom, were equipped with eight jointed appendages, while from the top center of their bodies projected a head, a smaller blobe atop the larger one.” (“Zora of the Zoromes” by Neil R. Jones) NOTES: The Mumes are a race of aliens living on the planet Mumed. Originally thought to be a good choice for the mechanical process of the Zoromes, they filled their ranks with dissentors and madmen, until the two races came to fight a space war. The Mumes have enslaved another race called the Ablenox of the neighboring planet Ablen. The Mumes are led by a lunatic genius named 6D4, a mechnical man. He fills his machine ranks with conscripts who have yet to live their organic lives. His plans for imperilistic expansion include goading the Zoromes into a battle near the Mumes' planet and wiping out the Zorome fleet. Afterwards the Mumes would take the planets of Zor. The organic Mumes are spider like creatures. The Mumes develop certain weapons for their space war. Their planet is protected by a force field shield, they have guns that specifically burn holes in metal (anti-Zorome gun) and a "locator veil" which allows ships to hide unseen in space. The Zoromes defeat this weapon by following the detector beams back to their source. The Mumes also have a gigantic space net called an enveloping ray which captures the Zorome space fleet and is about to crush it by constricting but two Zoromes (Professor Jameson and 6W-438) destroy it after infiltrating the Mumes. The evil 6D4 escapes to Ablen but dies when an Abelonox drops a boulder on him. HISTORY: Jones's evil version of the mechanical Zoromes reminds me of the Daleks. 6D4's conscripts remind me of the Cybermen and the "locator veil" and space battles all sound like Star Trek 30 years early. Science Fiction television did not create its ideas from nothing, but had a short history to borrow from.
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