Fairy Tale Spotlight: Unidentified Flying Oddball [Book Review]

"Unidentified Flying Oddball" is a book written by Vic Crume and published in 1979. It was an adaptation of the Disney movie, which in turn was an adaptation/spoof of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." And right off the bat, I want to say how absolutely horrible the name of this book and that movie is. I just need to get this out there. "Unidentified Flying Oddball" is the most ridiculous, stupid, and inappropriate title to represent what is actually in the story. The movie has actually had a different title based on where it was released. The other title was "A Spaceman in King Arthur's Court," which is a waaaaaay better title and is a good callback to its inspiration. Whoever had the idea to give it its current name is an idiot. He just is. I'm not taking it back.

Okay, now that I got that out of the way, the story here is about astronaut Tom Trimble and his look-alike android Hermes as they accidently go back in time in an experimental spacecraft. They end up in Camelot, much like Hank did in Mark Twain's book. Here they go on a brief adventure where different levels of technology clash in some very amusing ways. It is intended as a comedy, and it does a good job to amuse the reader.

The main villains are Sir Mordred and Merlin who are trying to plot a take over of the throne. This plotline is really where the story differs from Mark Twin's vision. But there are some aspects of the plot that do borrow from it, such as the false imprisonment of a man in order for Sir Mordred to do a land grab. The book still shows the problems with the mistreatment of peasants, but it never harps on it like Twain did. It keeps the mood fairly light and friendly.

I do enjoy the fun use of modern/futuristic tech that Tom uses to defeat Sir Mordred throughout the book. Some of the stuff he uses are probably not even possible, but I guess everyone back then thought NASA was capable of anything... even laser pistols. It did not bother me. It was fun seeing clever Merlin take to the technology with his natural cleverness.

So let me lay it out for you: This book is silly. It is not to be taken seriously, and to be honest, it's not really that great an alternative to the movie. Having experienced both, I think the movie is just better. The book feels like it just kept to the movie's narrative with strictness, only sidestepping occasionally to explain what someone was thinking or feeling. There's no reason to read the book if you have seen the movie, but I still think the movie is better in this case.

"Unidentified Flying Oddball" is not recommended if you can get your hands on the film. I have no regrets in reading it though. Sometimes movie adaptation books are based on original scripts which can cause it to have new scenes or better insights into what is going on. The "Return to Oz" book and "Tron" are good examples of this happening, but it doesn't always work out, and this is a good example of that. But seriously guys, why the heck did they pick that stupid title?!

This blog was written on April 17, 2022.

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