''The Martian Chronicles'' is a 1980 television three-episode miniseries based on

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

's 1950 book ''

The Martian Chronicles ''The Martian Chronicles'' is a science fiction fix-up novel, published in 1950, by American writer Ray Bradbury that chronicles the exploration and settlement of Mars, the home of indigenous Martians, by Americans leaving a troubled Earth tha ...

'' and dealing with the exploration of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

and the inhabitants there. The series starred

Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular film stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades, and was a prominent figure in the G ...

Darren McGavin Darren McGavin (born William Lyle Richardson; May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006) was an American actor. McGavin began his career working as a set painter for Columbia Pictures. In 1954, he originated roles in Broadway productions of '' My Three ...

, Bernadette Peters,

Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was a British-American actor whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his n ...

, Fritz Weaver,

Barry Morse Herbert "Barry" Morse (10 June 19182 February 2008) was a British-Canadian actor, writer, and director. He was known for playing Lt. Philip Gerard, the principal antagonist of the American television series '' The Fugitive'' (1963–67), as ...

, and Maria Schell. It was aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

in January 1980 in three episodes with a total running time of just over four hours (nearly five hours on the DVD version). The series depicts Mars as having a "thin atmosphere" which humans can breathe, with water-filled

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

s and desert-like vegetation. The miniseries was

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

by Michael Anderson and

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

Richard Matheson Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science ficti ...

Episodes

The Expeditions

''Episode 1, 27 January 1980'' The first episode starts at the scene of ''

Viking 1 ''Viking 1'' was the first of two spacecraft, along with '' Viking 2'', each consisting of an orbiter and a lander, sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. The lander touched down on Mars on July 20, 1976, the first successful Mars lan ...

'' uncrewed probe landing on the surface of the planet Mars in July 1976. A narrator explains that the purpose of the probe is to determine whether Mars is inhabited. As the narrator is speaking, the viewer becomes aware that there are two viewpoints at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

amongst the scientists who launched the probe: One group obviously believes Mars is uninhabited, the other is open to the possibility of indigenous life on the planet. Each has its convincing arguments, but ultimately the probe indicates that Mars does not harbor life. At the close of the scene the camera pans back to show a larger view of the probe's landing area, with what appears to be indigenous Martian settlements in the surrounding terrain, with the narrator noting that, "If the probe had landed just a few miles further on, things might have been different." Afterwards the opening credits roll. The next scene places the viewer at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

in January 1999 when the first "Zeus I" crewed spacecraft to Mars is carried into orbit by a

Saturn V The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

rocket. The Zeus project represents the beginning of a major effort by

and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

to explore and eventually colonize the outer planets. On Mars, Ylla (a Martian woman trapped in a loveless marriage) dreams of the coming astronauts through telepathy. Her husband, though he pretends to deny the reality of the dreams, becomes bitterly jealous, sensing his wife's confused romantic feelings for one of the astronauts. He kills the two-man expedition, astronauts Nathaniel York and Bert Conover, as soon as they arrive. Mission control on Earth does not know the fate of the crew, and one of the senior astronauts Jeff Spender urges the project director Col. John Wilder to abandon the Zeus project because of concerns that Mars may already harbor life. Wilder (who has shepherded the project for ten years) refuses, among other things because he believes mankind might escape environmental pollution and war on Earth by colonizing Mars instead. A second mission is launched and the "Zeus II" crew lands on Mars in April 2000. To their amazement the crew (astronauts Arthur Black, Sam Hinkston, and David Lustig) discover that they have landed in a town that looks exactly like Green Bluff, Illinois, circa 1979. They are warmly greeted by close relatives and loved ones who all died years ago. In fact, the Martians use the memories of the astronauts to lure them into their old homes, where they are killed in the middle of the night. A third mission, "Zeus III", lands on Mars in June 2001. It is commanded by Col. Wilder himself with five other astronauts (Spender, Parkhill, Briggs, Cook, McClure) as subordinates. The crew discovers five ancient cities in the vicinity of the spacecraft, one of which apparently was inhabited only a few weeks ago. The scientists find that all of the Martians have died of

chicken pox Chickenpox, also known as varicella ( ), is a highly contagious disease caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV), a member of the herpesvirus family. The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which ...

accidentally brought from Earth by the first two Zeus crews. The men, except for the archaeologist Spender and Colonel Wilder, break out the alcohol rations and begin to celebrate their successful landing, becoming more boisterous. When Briggs starts dropping empty wine bottles into a clear blue canal, Spender loses his temper and punches him into the canal. He leaves the rest of the landing party to explore Martian ruins; when he returns, he is in possession of a Martian weapon and acting strangely. He kills the other astronauts except for Parkhill and Wilder, who shoots Spender in the chest before he has the opportunity to kill them as well.

The Settlers

''Episode 2, 28 January 1980'' In the second episode, Wilder returns to the Red Planet in February 2004 with an entire fleet of spaceships, having been appointed director of the American colonization of Mars. In six months, a dozen communities are laid down. These sites, named after the Zeus mission astronauts, include: "York Plain," "Blackville," "Wilder Mountain," "Spender Hill," "Briggs Canal," and "Lustig Creek." The colonies grow rapidly over the next two years with varying amounts of success, as the colonists bring the vices of Earth (greed, corruption, bureaucracy) with them. In September 2006, the Martian colonists start to encounter strange phenomena. A pair of newly-arrived missionaries, Father Peregrine and Father Stone, are rescued from a landslide by a group of mysterious blue lights. Father Stone wants to return to First Town, but Father Peregrine insists on seeking out the blue lights; when he leaves his sleeping companion and climbs to the top of a cliff and steps off, one of them appears and saves him again. They reveal themselves to be non-corporeal Martians from over 250 million years ago who live in the hills, supposedly at one with God. They tell Father Peregrine, who has vowed to build a church in the hills with a blue sphere in place of a cross, to return to his own people and minister to them. David Lustig, presumed dead six years ago with the rest of Earth's Second Expedition to Mars, returns to his colonist parents in Lustig Creek. He expresses an intense aversion to visiting First Town, the chief colony on Mars; when his parents insist on going there anyway, he suddenly goes missing. Father Peregrine later sees a vision of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

in his church in First Town, but the vision begs for release: "I am not what I seem! I am not that vision!" Peregrine realizes that his visitor is actually a Martian who is forced to appear as anyone that others have strong thoughts of: David Lustig, Jesus, Lavinia Spaulding (the lost daughter of another settler couple), etc. The Martian is discovered, pursued and eventually surrounded by the residents of First Town, each of whom sees and wants him to be someone different. Under telepathic pressure to be everyone to everyone simultaneously, he dies and his body disappears. Meanwhile, nuclear war is imminent on Earth. Congress cuts the budget for space exploration, all flights to Mars are cancelled, and the colony is evacuated. The final segment of the episode focuses on Sam Parkhill, the only survivor (aside from Wilder) of the third Zeus mission. He has opened a diner on Mars with his wife, intending to serve future truckers and mine workers. When a lone Martian suddenly appears in the diner, Parkhill panics and shoots him. Numerous Martians appear in sand ships, and Parkhill takes his wife to his very own sand ship and flees. Parkhill manages to shoot several more of them, but the Martians eventually catch up and surround the couple's ship. To Parkhill's great surprise, they bear him no ill will; in fact, they give him a land grant to half of Mars and a message: "The night is tonight. Prepare." Unfortunately, the expected fleet of ten thousand rockets filled with one hundred thousand "hungry customers" will not be coming; instead, as Parkhill views Earth through a telescope, he sees it destroyed in nuclear fire.

The Martians

''Episode 3, 29 January 1980'' As established at the end of the second episode, Mars was evacuated shortly before a worldwide nuclear war terminated all life on Earth. Wilder travels back to Earth in November 2006 in the hope he can rescue his brother and his family. He returns to the Zeus project mission control facility but discovers a video recording the deaths of everyone, including his brother, when enemy

neutron bomb A neutron bomb, officially defined as a type of enhanced radiation weapon (ERW), is a low-yield thermonuclear weapon designed to maximize lethal neutron radiation in the immediate vicinity of the blast while minimizing the physical power of the b ...

s detonated nearby. Meanwhile, Peter Hathaway has retired on Mars with his wife, Alice, and daughter, Margarite. A mechanical tinkerer, Hathaway has wired an abandoned town below his house to sound alive at night with noise and phone calls. One night, Hathaway sights a rocket in orbit and puts on a laser light show to signal the rocket. Only a few scattered humans remain on Mars. One of them is Benjamin Driscoll, the lone inhabitant of First Town. One day, as he wanders around the abandoned settlement, he hears a telephone ringing. Initially confused, he soon realizes it is an opportunity for companionship. After breaking into a home just in time to miss another call, Driscoll sits down with a phone book of Mars and starts dialing at A. After days of no answers, he changes his strategy and starts calling hotels; then, guessing where he thinks a woman would most likely spend her time, he calls the biggest beauty salon on Mars, in New Texas City. When a woman answers, he flies 1,500 miles to New Texas City to meet her. Genevieve Selsor turns out to be thoroughly

narcissistic Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive preoccupation with oneself and one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism, named after the Greek mythological figure ''Narcissus'', has evolv ...

and entirely obsessed with her own good looks. Driscoll asks her out on a date, during which she reveals that she decided to stay behind simply because "they wouldn't let me take all my clothes with me back to Earth." She enjoys having access to all the clothes, makeup, footwear, and so forth in New Texas City without having to pay for anything. At the same time, she laments that she has to do all the cooking and technical maintenance herself. She rejects Driscoll's advances but still expects him to make a nice breakfast while repairing her sauna. This is a significant departure from the original 1950 short story, "Silent Towns", in which Selsor is not self-absorbed and expectant of Driscoll's labor; instead, she is overweight, sticky with chocolate and desires to watch movies. The male character (named Walter Gripp in the original) finds her too expectant and clingy, as she shows Gripp her ideal wedding dress. In both versions of the story, Gripp/Driscoll decides that solitude is preferable to her continued company and abandons her. Hathaway at first he thinks his attempt has failed, but the rocket returns to land. It carries Father Stone and Colonel Wilder, who have returned from Earth. They reunite with Hathaway, who is troubled by his heart when they break the news of Earth's nuclear destruction, but brings the crew to his house for breakfast. Wilder remarks that Alice looks just as she was as when he last saw her, at their wedding. After breakfast, Wilder explores the surrounding area, particularly some headstones he saw earlier. He returns, pale, having learned that Hathaway's wife and daughter died in July 2000 from an unknown virus. As the Hathaways toast their guests, Peter Hathaway's heart finally fails. As he dies, he begs Wilder not to call his family because they "would not understand." Wilder then confirms that Alice and Margarite are robots built by Hathaway to replace the dead originals. Wilder and Stone depart, and the robots continue with their meaningless daily rituals until the chance arrival of Ben Driscoll. The Hathaway robots appear relieved when Driscoll decides to stay with them. In March 2007, Wilder visits Sam Parkhill again to inform him that the Earth has been destroyed and Mars is all they have left. Parkhill tells him about the "land grant" that he received from the Martians. Wilder suspects that the Martians were somehow aware of the coming war. He comes to the conclusion that the Martians desired to give the other half of their own desolate planet away to the survivors of the Earth colony, such that each surviving civilization could develop once more. Traveling the wastes alone by night, Wilder has a long-wished-for encounter with a Martian. Each sees the Mars he is accustomed to: Wilder sees ruins, while the Martian sees a living city with a festival in progress. Each seems to be an immaterial phantom to the other. Neither knows if he precedes the other in time, as they each argue that the other resides in the distant past. Despite this, they manage to come to an accord, with the Martian explaining what he can of their way of life before he and Wilder part as friends. Wilder then takes his family into the ruins of a Martian city, saying that they will live there and learn the Martian way. The first night, he burns copies of "Capital" and "

The Wealth of Nations ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', usually referred to by its shortened title ''The Wealth of Nations'', is a book by the Scottish people, Scottish economist and moral philosophy, moral philosopher Adam Smith; ...

." After promising his family that they will get to see real Martians, he points at their reflection in a pool of water and declares, "''Those'' are the Martians". Finally, he pushes a button on his remote control to blow up the last remaining rocketship which could return them to Earth.

Cast

as Colonel John Wilder * Richard Oldfield as Captain Nathaniel York * Richard Heffer as Conover *

Nicholas Hammond Nicholas Hammond (born 15 May 1950) is an American and Australian actor and writer who is best known for his roles as Friedrich von Trapp in the film '' The Sound of Music'' and as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the 1970s television series ''The Am ...

as Captain Arthur Black * Michael Anderson Jr. as David Lustig *

Vadim Glowna Vadim Glowna (; 26 September 1941 – 24 January 2012) was a German actor and film director. Since 1964, he appeared in more than 150 films and television shows. He directed the 1983 film '' Dies rigorose Leben'', which won an Honourable Mentio ...

as Sam Hinkston *

Bernie Casey Bernard Terry Casey (June 8, 1939 – September 19, 2017) was an American American football, professional football player and actor. He was a football player and All-America, All-American hurdler at Bowling Green Falcons, Bowling Green State Un ...

as Major Jeff Spender *

as Sam Parkhill *John Cassady as Briggs * Peter Marinker as McClure *

as Father Stone * Fritz Weaver as Father Peregrine *

Joyce Van Patten Joyce Van Patten (born March 9, 1934) is an American film and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in films like ''The Bad News Bears'' (1976), '' St. Elmo's Fire'' (1985) (as Mrs. Beamish), and as Gloria Noonan in '' Grown Ups'' (2010) ...

as Elma Parkhill * Gayle Hunnicutt as Ruth Wilder *

Laurie Holden Heather Laurie Holden (born December 17, 1969) is an American-Canadian actress, producer, model, and human rights activist. She is best known for her portrayals as Marita Covarrubias in ''The X-Files'' (1996–2002), Andrea Harrison in AMC's ...

as Marie Wilder * as Bill Wilder * Estelle Brody as Mrs Black * Phil Brown as Mr Black * Anthony Pullen Shaw as Edward Black * Wolfgang Reichmann as Leif Lustig * Maria Schell as Anna Lustig * Alison Elliott as Lavinia Spalding *

Jon Finch John Nicholas Finch (2 March 1942 – 28 December 2012) was an English stage and film actor who became well known for his Shakespearean roles. Most notably, he starred in films for directors Roman Polanski (''Macbeth'', 1971) and Alfred Hitchc ...

as Jesus Christ * Christopher Connelly as Ben Driscoll * Bernadette Peters as Genevieve Selsor *

as Peter Hathaway * Nyree Dawn Porter as Alice Hathaway * Linda Lou Allen as Marilyn * James Faulkner as Mr K * Maggie Wright as Ylla * Derek Lamden as Martian * Terence Longdon as Martian *

Robert Beatty Robert Rutherford Beatty (19 October 1909 – 3 March 1992) was a Canadian actor who worked in film, television and radio for most of his career and was especially known in the UK. Early years Beatty was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the son of ...

as General Halstead

Production

Filming

The series was filmed at Shepperton Studios in England and on both the Mediterranean island of

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

Soundtrack

In 2002, the Airstrip One Company in association with MGM Music, released a 3000 copy, limited edition 36 track soundtrack CD of the original Stanley Myers score recorded in 1979. This release, still available from rare Film & TV soundtrack specialists, includes a comprehensive 18-page full color and fully illustrated booklet which details various aspects of the making of this mini-series. The catalogue number of this CD is AOD 003. The CD comprises the full miniseries soundtrack, with a notable exception: the track the Silver Locusts is a shorter, completely different piece than the version that was aired. Also, the soundtrack is missing a few incidental electronic music passages. This omission is acknowledged in the CD liner notes which indicate that additional electronic music by Richard Harvey has not been included in the soundtrack.

Reception

Ray Bradbury described the miniseries as "just boring".

References in other works

The conversation between Ylla (Maggie Wright), the Martian woman, and her husband, Mr. K (James Faulkner), from episode 1, The Expeditions, was sampled by electronic musician

Biosphere The biosphere (), also called the ecosphere (), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed the zone of life on the Earth. The biosphere (which is technically a spherical shell) is virtually a closed system with regard to mat ...

in his song "The Third Planet".

References

Citations

Sources

External links

*
Review from DVD Verdict
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martian Chronicles (miniseries), The 1980s American science fiction television series American science fiction television films Television shows based on American novels Films with screenplays by Richard Matheson Adaptations of works by Ray Bradbury Mars in television Television series set in 1976 Television series set in 1999 Television series set in 2000 Television series set in 2001 Television series set in 2004 Television series set in 2006 Television series set in 2007 Films directed by Michael Anderson Films scored by Stanley Myers Television series about astronauts