X Minus One "There Will Come Soft Rains/Zero Hour"

This might not even be a real episode. It contains both the regular X Minus One intro and half of the Dimension X intro. I can't remember where I read about it but these might be hobbled together...I can't find it so I can't really explain it. Anyway, in some collections this mishmash exists and we reviewed it. Richard staged his usual effort to redeem Bradbury in defending the ultimately pointless House of the Future death story "There Will Come a Soft Rain" and we loved the basis for the series "The Whisperers" "Zero Hour," the story of aliens using kids to stage an invasion of Earth mostly for it's well constructed and creepy ending. Richard gave it an 8, Ryan gave it a 7.

X Minus One: "The Outer Limits"

While testing an experimental rocket in the outer limit of the atmosphere a test pilot encounters aliens who give him an ultimatum regarding nuclear bombs, but can he convince the people in time? We ultimately felt it was a flawed story with typical Ernest Kinoy enjoyable characters. Ryan was a little tired of it and gave it a 5, Richard had not heard it as much and gave it a 6.

Special Bonus Mini-Episode--Who Wore it Best: X-1 vs Escape "Mars is Heaven"

In a special episode we compare the adaptation of the Ray Bradbury story Mars is Heaven from X Minus One and Escape. We find the characters more vibrant and the story telling more efficient in the X Minus One version and ultimately heaping more praise on Ernest Kinoy.

X Minus One: "Dwellers in Silence"

After 20 years on Mars avoiding a deadly nuclear war on Earth a small contingent returns to find someone alive, a famous brain surgeon with his strangely ageless family. We ultimately found it kind of goofy and the were as frustrated as the family members that the main characters didn't catch on. Richard gave it a 4.75, Ryan a 4. Ted joined us and gave it a tepid version of his rating system.

X Minus One: "Hello, Tomorrow"

Two thousand some years in the future we all live underground and our genetic pairings are strictly monitored and 'mu-taints' are isolated or destroyed...until, love. A decidedly goofy story, one Ryan thinks is goofy enough to make worth listening to but Richard disagreed.

X Minus One: "Requiem"

The man who invented space travel isn't allowed to go to the moon and has to enlist a down on his luck astronaut to make that final trip. We ultimately found it charming but lacking a little bit of depth, Ryan gave it an 8 and Richard gave it a rounded up 7.

X Minus One: "Child's Play"

A nervous type character accidentally receives a 'build a man' kit and promptly builds himself without hang ups, that turns out to be a jerk. We were both charmed by the story while finding it largely problematic in its portrayals of just about everything. Sevens all around.

X Minus One "First Contact"

A deep space exploration team comes in contact with aliens for the first time, but now what? We both kind of liked it but Ryan was disappointed it wasn't the version with the bombastic captain. We were both instead consoled by the fact that the ship was manned by professionals instead.

X Minus One "And the Moon Be Still As Bright"

The fifth expidition to Mars finds that whatever the Martians did to the first wave of Earthlings chicken pox has wiped out the Martians. The crew's callous disregard for the genocide rubs the ship's archaeologist the wrong way and sends him on a killing spree. We both kind of liked it, Ryan gave it a 7.5 and Richard gave it an 8.

X Minus One: "The Castaways"

A native population of a South Pacific island refuse to leave before the testing of an experimental bomb and cast a curse on the General sent there to blow it up. It's kind of a silly story that we ultimately found kind of charming. Ryan gave it an 8, Richard gave it a 7.5.

"Martian Death March" X Minus One

Lead by a 'crazy' stump preacher, the martians leave their reservations to return to the mountains where they used to live. The 'true' story of the death march is told years later by the kid that accompanied them. Kind of dry, we ended up giving it a 5.

X Minus One "Shanghaied"

It's a regular ol' Shanghaied story, but in space. The heir to a shipping fortune is shanghaied onto one of his own ships and...results are pretty predictable. Neither of us liked it all that much, Richard more than Ryan, 4 vs 5.5.

X Minus One: "Cold Equations"

A supply ship with life saving serum and a very precise fuel load discovers a stowaway which unbalances a cold equation and has a grim conclusion. It's a somber and well acted, well written adaptation that we both like a whole lot.

X Minus One: "Courtesy"

An expedition teams discovers that their vaccine for the deadly disease that plagues the planet they're exploring has expired so they must seek out the technology shunning natives to see if they have a cure. Spoiler, the cure turns out to not be a jerk. It's an odd episode, one of the first overtly anti-colonial ones. We were split on it being almost good or almost not bad.

X Minus One: "Almost Human"

A crook looks up an old flame who is a caretaker to a scientist who has created a robot with an AI equivalent to a six year old child and uses it for crime with unforeseen consequences. Adapted from a short story by the author of Psycho, it's kind of a middling robot story that ultimately we felt was a better fit in a half dozen other otr radio shows. We both rated it a 4.

X Minus One: The Veldt

In the future automated houses do everything for you, including entertain your kids. A holodeck-style nursery takes over for a set of bridge playing parents until children's unrestrained imagination gets gruesome on the African veldt. Ryan didn't think the story stood up over time and Richard, while not his favorite and argues again that Ray Badbury isn't really a science fiction writer, argues that there is a poetry in Bradbury's writing that makes it all worth it.

X Minus One "The Embassy"

A strange man hires a private investigator to find the 'Martian Embassy,' but what are his strange motives? Not particularly hard to work out. Sort of a drier version of "The Parade," we couldn't decide if it was Lefferts being restrained by an adapted story (Lefferts wrote the Parade and adapted The Embassy) or if it was just a boring story. The best character just isn't in it enough. Both of us gave it a 4, and we established the curve of our ratings.

X Minus One: Doctor Grimshaws Sanitorium

A private detective discovers some strange goin's on at a mysterious sanitorium in a story told from the transcript of a tiny note found in a pen from the burnt down sanitorium...shrinking. It's a shrinking story. Sorry if that's a spoiler. It's a silly episode. Neither of us liked it.

X Minus One: Nightmare

The machines rise against us for some reason. A statistician figures it out only to become their puppet. Or, it's all in his head in Nightmare, an X-1 episode based on a sci fi poem. We were so not into it that we discussed other radio programs and tv shows and speculated wildly about X-1's main writers in a story that made less sense the more you paid attention. Richard gave it a 3 Ryan gave it a 4.

X Minus One: The Green Hills of Earth

A "Behind the Music" review of the life of the 'singer of the spaceways" Rhysling in Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth" where a Pete Seeger/Woody Guthrie style blind folk singer bounces around the space ways in an utterly charming episode complete with original folk songs about space labor. We both gave it our highest rating, 10.