"When the first space rocket lands on Mars, what will we find? Will we be welcomed with open arms or will the Martians treat us as invaders? Only one thing is certain, one day a giant metal ship will take off from Earth to travel through the black philosophies ... the silent gulfs of space, to descend at last into the darkness of the upper Martian atmosphere. And on that day, man will finally know the answers. The day we first land on Mars!"
Thus begins the Dimension X adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Mars is Heaven (1948), a short story later collected as a chapter ("The Third Expedition") in The Martian Chronicles (1950). With the recent news about water on Mars and the release of the movie The Martian (which was a fantastic book, by the way), this one seemed appropriate.
Having said that, this story isn't really about Mars. It's a horror story, which is also timely since Halloween is only a few weeks away.
Spoilers ahead...
As the astronauts land, they discover a small Earth style town populated by the crew's deceased family and friends. Is Mars heaven? Only, the townfolk are not as they appear. Instead, they are dopplegangers that may be a literary analogy for Communist subversion, a theme common in 1950's science fiction. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a story in a similar vein, was written in 1954 and made into a movie in 1956. Also, Bradbury penned Marionettes, Inc. in 1949 and Heinlein wrote The Puppet Masters in 1951, both featuring entities that pose as/replace people. The paranoid message of these stories is clear, don't trust anyone, not even your friends or family. "They" are out to get you! Whether "they" are robots, aliens, or Commies. One of the ongoing subthemes in these stories is the loss of emotion; the entities that replace humans must fake emotion or simply lack it. As if the thing that is the true litmus test of humanity is passion and the ability to emote. You don't have to look very far to find other examples of this premise, such as the character of Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
It should be noted that Bradbury was investigated for communist sympathies by the FBI in 1959. So I don't suppose that he was anti-Communist (or pro-Communist for that matter). It was clearly a complicated time in U.S. history.
Dimension X #14
Mars is Heaven
7 July 1950
19500707(014)_DIMX_MarsIsHeaven.mp3
Ray Bradbury (author), Ernest Kinoy (adaptor), Wendell Holmes, Peter Capell, Norman Rose (narrator), Albert Berman (music), Bill Chambers (engineer), Van Woodward (producer), Edward King (director), Robert Warren (announcer), Frank Martin ("Wheaties man"), Joel McCrea (guest)
Thus begins the Dimension X adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Mars is Heaven (1948), a short story later collected as a chapter ("The Third Expedition") in The Martian Chronicles (1950). With the recent news about water on Mars and the release of the movie The Martian (which was a fantastic book, by the way), this one seemed appropriate.
Having said that, this story isn't really about Mars. It's a horror story, which is also timely since Halloween is only a few weeks away.
Spoilers ahead...
As the astronauts land, they discover a small Earth style town populated by the crew's deceased family and friends. Is Mars heaven? Only, the townfolk are not as they appear. Instead, they are dopplegangers that may be a literary analogy for Communist subversion, a theme common in 1950's science fiction. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a story in a similar vein, was written in 1954 and made into a movie in 1956. Also, Bradbury penned Marionettes, Inc. in 1949 and Heinlein wrote The Puppet Masters in 1951, both featuring entities that pose as/replace people. The paranoid message of these stories is clear, don't trust anyone, not even your friends or family. "They" are out to get you! Whether "they" are robots, aliens, or Commies. One of the ongoing subthemes in these stories is the loss of emotion; the entities that replace humans must fake emotion or simply lack it. As if the thing that is the true litmus test of humanity is passion and the ability to emote. You don't have to look very far to find other examples of this premise, such as the character of Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
It should be noted that Bradbury was investigated for communist sympathies by the FBI in 1959. So I don't suppose that he was anti-Communist (or pro-Communist for that matter). It was clearly a complicated time in U.S. history.
Dimension X #14
Mars is Heaven
7 July 1950
19500707(014)_DIMX_MarsIsHeaven.mp3
Ray Bradbury (author), Ernest Kinoy (adaptor), Wendell Holmes, Peter Capell, Norman Rose (narrator), Albert Berman (music), Bill Chambers (engineer), Van Woodward (producer), Edward King (director), Robert Warren (announcer), Frank Martin ("Wheaties man"), Joel McCrea (guest)
Ray Bradbury
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