Space Tank

Space Tank is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Dr. Eustace Sladek in 1972. Originally a five part book series, Space Tank was later adapted for television and film. Space Tank has been a cult phenomenon for decades, with many clubs and organizations based around it.

Conception and Setting
Dr. Eustace Sladek, an official scientist and member of the esteemed Knowledge Club, came up with the idea for Space Tank after finding himself dissatisfied with mainstream science fiction. Dr. Sladek felt that mainstream science fiction was not viewed favorably by the literary establishment due to its lack of exploration of themes of morality and ethics, as well as it's reliance on cliches and stereotypes. Determined to fix this and seal science fiction as a serious literary genre, Dr. Sladek began work on his book series in 1959. After years of dead ends and frustration, Dr. Sladek found new inspiration in 1969 when he ingested LSD during a visit to San Francisco. His creativity renewed, Dr. Sladek was able to finish the first book in the series by spring 1970, which saw release on March 18, 1972.

The story drew influences from Greek Mythology as well as Symbolist writings from the 19th century. It follows the adventures of the crew of the Space Tank during a fictional war set in the future known as The G'Bar War. The exact dates that the story take place in are never specified, as Dr. Sladek believed that Space Tank should focus more on complex characters and metaphors rather than details or rigorous science.

Much of the series is highly symbolic and deals with issues of morality and metaphysics. Many aspects of the plot are allegories of contemporary issues such as civil rights and the Vietnam War. Dr. Sladek wanted to show a progressive political and ideological viewpoint to reflect the emerging counter culture of the era. This led to some issues in publishing, as many publishing companies did not share the liberal views and believed that a science fiction series that dealt heavily with politics and philosophy would not be as marketable.

Beginnings
Dr. Eustace Sladek was a Professor of Knowing Things for Harvard University in the late 1940's until the mid-1960s. Every Sunday evening, he and a group of friends who came to be known as The Smart Pack would gather in a local coffee shop and discuss such diverse topics as art and thought. One day, in 1955, The Smart Pack began discussing the state of the science fiction genre in modern literature. Most of The Smart Pack agreed that science fiction was not a serious genre and should not be thought about in detail. Dr. Sladek viciously disagreed, but when prompted to list examples of "like, totally deep" science fiction novels, Dr. Sladek found himself at a loss for words. This humiliation drove him to create a science fiction novel that could truly set the standard not only for the science fiction genre, but the literary world in general.

However, Dr. Sladek was unable to come up with any good ideas. For a while, he toyed with the idea of a space boat, a space plane, and even a space car, but none of these ideas sparked his imagination very much at all. Then, one day in 1959, Dr. Sladek read an essay about the use of tanks in World War Two and became wildly inspired, coming up with the basic ideas for Space Tank within weeks.

Unfortunately, Dr. Sladek hit a period of writer's block in 1960, which would last until 1969. During this period he became extremely depressed by his lack of progress and turned to alcohol to alleviate his mood. This caused him to fall out of favor with the Harvard Administration, which resulted in the loss of his job in 1965. Broke, homeless, and with nowhere to go, Dr. Sladek resorted to cannibalism and was soon arrested. Thanks to a drawn out trial and a jury literally made of monkeys, Dr. Sladek was released from prison in 1968, and he then proceeded to journey out west.

Journey to San Francisco and New Inspiration
Once in California, Dr. Sladek found himself swept up in the hippie youth culture of the time, where he began sampling the drugs of the area. One day in May 1969, he ingested LSD and his long forgotten Space Tank novel came back to him, this time with such a wealth of new ideas that he immediately began writing his novel while still under the influence of the hallucinogen.

Aided by the encouragement of the hippies around him, Dr. Sladek quickly found his novel exceeding his original intended length. Rather than attempting to edit anything, Dr. Sladek decided that he would make Space Tank a series. By late 1969, he had completed 3 volumes of his epic, each averaging about 2500 pages.

Attempt To Find A Publisher
In 1970, Dr. Sladek decided to publish the first 3 volumes, so he began the task of finding a publishing company that would take on this massive project. Unfortunately, Dr. Sladek quickly found that the size and subject material of Space Tank was considered by many to be unpublishable. Returning to alcohol, Dr. Sladek hit another slump in his writing until he met Gene Johannason, the founder of The Wellness and Spiritual Secrets Society, who inspired him to continue his series. Johannason offered to publish the series under his special publishing company, which Dr. Sladek graciously accepted.

Release
In 1972, Wellness Publishing published an edited version of Space Tank, which promoted Johannason's teachings. Dr. Sladek was infuriated, but his book quickly hit the top of the bestsellers list, where it remained for 78 weeks. Dr. Sladek became a celebrity, but found himself under the thumb of Johannason, who insisted on showing up to every interview and saying a piece about his society. Infuriated, Dr. Sladek publicly slandered Johannason in 1973, leading to Johannason claiming the rights of Space Tank to be his. Dr. Sladek quickly took this to court in a case that dragged on until 1975, when the court ruled in Sladek's favor. Dr. Sladek then released the first volume of Space Tank again in 1976, after some rewrites. It was hailed as a masterpiece and immediately hopped to the top of the bestseller list, also bringing the Johannason version with it, causing two versions of the same book to compete with each other on the bestseller list for most of 1976 and 1977.

Volume 2 and Space Tank: The Movie
In 1978, MGM came to Dr. Sladek about an adaptation of Space Tank to the big screen, which Dr. Sladek quickly agreed to. Meanwhile, he began work on volumes 4 and 5, while polishing volume 2 for release. Space Tank: The Movie was released to theater on May 25, 1979 and was a box office hit grossing $110 million on release. The studios began putting pressure on Dr. Sladek to release volume 2, which he begrudgingly did on September 24, 1979. Volume 2 also soared to the top of the bestseller list, and MGM quickly began work on a film adaptation.