5February 2017
There is one story in the Hawke series that has always stood out as being entirely different from the rest. UNQUIET ISLAND is exceptional in that it is entirely Earthbound, and contains nothing of aliens, supernatural forces or futuristic inventions which are the usual fare of all the other tales. It is a type of story that one would more usually associate with Modesty Blaise or James bond and has no science fiction aspects about it whatsoever. It fact there are slight pre-echoes of Ian Fleming’s Thunderball novel of 1961 which concerns the underwater retrieval of two atomic bombs.
The narrative is quite straightforward and concerns the testing, loss and retrieval of an experimental rocket , and a thwarted attempt by the Soviets to take possession of it. As the story proceeds we continually expect some Deus-ex-machina in the form of an alien craft to suddenly sweep the story into a new direction – but it never happens.
UNQUIET ISLAND makes a striking contrast with SANCTUARY , which immediately precedes it and which really sets the tone for all the subsequent stories and first lays out that Galactic landscape with its cast of characters that was to become so familiar to readers as the years went by.
I spoke to Sydney about UNQUIET ISLAND and he pointed out that it was no co-incidence that it was the first script that Willie Patterson, his future collaborator, had written on his own.
Sanctuary had been a collaborative affair, and had shown us the first glimpse of that “tipping-point” technique which was to become such a trademark of the Hawke tales.
Sydney considers that UNQUIET ISLAND can be seen as Willie taking stock of the Hawke universe , setting the characters on a firm foundation and exploring their relationships before sending them out into the unknown in the following stories.
There is more characterization in UNQUIET ISLAND and the dramatis personae are more sharply brought into focus. They are seen in everyday situations and for the first time the interplay between them is more fully explored. They appear here to be more rounded and believable . Even the two villains are developed to some extent, especially the fishing boat captain who, while he is keen enough for the pay from his foreign masters, balks at the prospect of losing his beloved boat.
Jeff, Laura and Mac become more three-dimensional in UNQUIET ISLAND, a development which continues into future stories. Skipper Prossitt
‘Unquiet Island” was written in context of the creation of the military rocket range on South Uist in 1958-59. The Range is now an important part of the island’s economy but at first was strongly opposed, inspiring “Rockets Galore”, Compton MacKenzie’s sequel to “Whisky Galore”. In the film the Range is used for development of the Thunderbird ground-to-air missile and it is now used for training with the Rapier, but originally it was for the Royal Artillery to train with the Firestone Corporal, the 46-foot rocket seen at the beginning of Mike Todd’s “Around the World in 80 Days”. At age 13 in 1959, partly inspired by ‘Unquiet Island’, I went up there in hopes to see one and due to a series of misunderstandings, I got a full tour of the facilities and in effect a missile was fired for me to watch from the grandstand. I’ve told the story in ‘The Journal of the Royal Artillery’, Autumn 2002, condensed in JHC Vol. 6 No.1. I’m contacted about it by researchers from time to time (one chap drew heavily on it for his Ph.D thesis), Heather Couper wanted to do a BBC programme on it at one point, and another plan to film it seemingly isn’t coming off – but maybe some day…!
The Unquiet Island recalls the films of the fifties. It makes it unique in the Jeff Hawke canon by displaying the domestic bliss of Laura doing the cooking!
Another nostalgic strip, the Martian Invasion takes you back to the sci-fi films of 1950s,especially ‘It came from Outer Space’.