Light-hearted sci-fi for children of all ages, The Telescope Adventures travel to fascinating planets, to take a wry look at things we take for granted.
Doctor Dell’s telescope is a remarkable machine which seems somehow to allow travel to distant planets. All you need, apparently, is an open mind. Tom and Alex are the brother and sister who are selected by the mysterious Dr Dell to make these journeys. Their first trip is to Trebra, where quite by chance they introduce the inhabitants to the idea of money, which has previously not been thought of on the planet. The story examines how this new concept affects the lives of the Trebrans, including the brash entrepreneur Bulstrobe, his vague and enormous wife, the timid police chief Inspector Trace and the fiercely independent builder, Mr Maroni. Various problems need to be solved in original ways, notably what to use as coinage, since there are no metals on Trebra, and how to keep money safe, which involves the introduction of banks. All this allows us to take a somewhat sideways look at various things which we take for granted in everyday life on Earth.
Future adventures will take Tom and Alex to Baftersak, which is an edible planet posing its own conservation problems, Betternim, where everyone is identical, obviating prejudice (one would imagine), and elsewhere.