Spacemens Luck

 

Where Tom Corbett, Captain Video, CMDR Corry and Other Spacemen Still Live

Our story opens with the announcer: “When the first space rocket lands on Mars, what will we find? Only the ruins of a dead and deserted planet, or will there be life? Intelligent life in some strange form that we can only imagine. Will we be welcomed with open arms? Or will the Martians treat us as invaders? Only one thing is certain. Some day a giant metal ship will take off from earth to travel through the black velocities, the silent gulfs of space, to descend at last into the darkness of the upper Martian atmospheres. And on that day, man will finally know the answers, the day we first land on Mars.”

This show is a radio adaption of a short story from Ray Bradbury’s classic series of short stories “The Martian Chronicles.” The short story collection chronicles the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from a troubled and eventually atomically devastated Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists.

Read the rest of this entry »

A not so successful Madison Avenue ad executive named Syd Ryan is setting at his office desk when his assistant Oliver comes in and states that there is potential client waiting to see him. Syd has him sent in. The client identifies himself as simply Looshaw a Martian and says he wants to engage the ad agency for a campaign to announce the “Martians are Coming.” Thinking he’s a nut Syd immediately begins to throw Looshaw out when he offers a $5,000 cash retainer.

Once Syd gets his creative thoughts going he proposes a suspense campaign with some mysterious press releases announcing “The Martians are coming. ” Looshaw wants the ad campaign to culminate in a parade on June 1st which will be called “Martian Day.” The parade will herald the Martians arrival. Looshaw immediately approves authorizing a one million dollar budget. Looshaw continues that “We are selling a concept,” he tells the ad-man Syd Ryan. “The concept of invasion–from Mars.”

Read the rest of this entry »

This episode is one of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. The story begins in 1987 when the first astronauts from Earth aboard the spaceship XR-57 and a 17 Man crew have just landed on Mars. The landing party leaves the ship into a fog and the first thing they hear after emerging from their ship is the crowing of a rooster. Then they find an old fashioned lawn ornament in the shape of an iron deer sitting in the yard of a regular old fashioned house complete with a porch swing. As the fog clears the crew are shocked to discover a Rockwellian 1920′s small town, eerily similar to those they left on Earth.

Peering through the first house’s window they see a piano complete with sheet music. Their confusion becomes even greater when a little old lady answers the door bell. When they explain that they are from Earth the lady replies “you mean out of the ground?” Captain Black insists they are from earth and that this is Mars she replies insistently that this is Green Acres, Wisconsin in the United States of America in 1928.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the future year of 1955 a mysterious visitor, named Graffious, to the Broderick Detective Agency, in downtown New York, hires Detective Broderick and his assistant “Iron Man” Doolan to find the Martian Embassy. Both Broderick and Doolan think Graffious is crazy and start to throw him out of their office. But Graffious flashes a $500.00 bank note and suddenly they are all ears.

Grafiius explains that he is an eccentric that believes that if the Martians were on Earth they would be here only as a prelude to an invasion. That if they are indeed on Earth they would have their “Embassy” in New York the center of economic and political activity. Their Embassy would act as a listening post to gather intelligence for their planned invasion.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Veteran Comes Home is about a space soldier’s return home from a war on Mars to his anxiously awaiting wife and son, whom he last saw 5 years before as a baby. It’s a touching “comes home from war all confused and conflicted” story that is as much about the early 1950s as it is about today.

The story begins with Mary and her young son Billy at the space port waiting for the arrival of her husband and his father back from the wars on Mars. Michael, a Space Soldier, has been on Mars for the past 5 years fighting a war against the Martians.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is the far distant future and the date is 16 May 2040. The International League of Planetary Scientist have concluded that an expedition to Mars is plausible. Professor H. D. White, the Chairman of the League, has issued a statement that intelligent life on Mars like our own is highly probable and that a space journey towards the fourth planet now looks possible.

Two teenager boys begin to ponder the meaning of life and wish to make a name for themselves by being the first people on the red surface of Mars. Mickey Turner and Jink hear the news announcement and can’t help but feel excited about a space flight to Mars. Mickey, in particular, can’t wait to go to Mars, and even imagines being the first person to land there. Fueled by this daring idea, Mickey persuades his friend Jink to help him build a ship that would fly them to the red planet.

Read the rest of this entry »