Dimension X - The Martian Chronicals - #20

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Harold's Old Time Radio

Episode: Dimension X - The Martian Chronicles - #20

Date: May 5, 2026
Host: Harold's Old Time Radio
Source Material: “The Martian Chronicles” by Ray Bradbury

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Episode Overview

This episode presents a dramatized adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, as performed on the classic radio program Dimension X. The episode paints a sweeping tale of humanity’s journey to Mars — from the first rocket launches on a winter’s morning in Ohio to the eventual devastation of Earth and the transformation of the last Earth settlers into “the Martians.” The adaptation touches on themes of colonialism, loss, nostalgia, cultural erasure, and the cycles of civilization.

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Key Discussion Points & Plot Segments

1. Rocket Summer and the Martian Dream

• [01:35-04:13]
  • Ohio, 1999: A sudden wave of heat in winter signals the launch of Earth’s first rocket to Mars, dubbed “Rocket Summer.”
  • On Mars: Ela, a Martian woman, dreams of a tall Earth man, Nathaniel York, who arrives via rocket. Her husband is unsettled by her obsession.
  • Notable Moment: “But it isn’t cold. It’s warm outside. It’s rocket summer.” – Timmy ([02:25])

2. Premonitions & Tragedy

• [04:13-10:32]
  • Ela’s dreams imply a psychic link with the Earth explorers.
  • Her husband grows jealous and ultimately leaves with a weapon, heading toward Green Valley.
  • The rocket arrives, and a single shot signals betrayal and the death of hope.
  • Quote: "You know I can read your mind. You can't keep secrets from me." — Elah's Husband ([08:31])
  • Notable Scene: Ela’s haunting song, “Drink to me only with thine eyes,” as her dreams die ([10:49]).

3. Landing on a Dead Planet

• [11:26-15:46]
  • Earthmen land and find Martian cities empty, the Martians wiped out by chickenpox brought from Earth.
  • Quote: “You won't believe it, Captain. Chickenpox.” — Jeff Spender ([12:28])
  • Some, like Sam Parkhill, celebrate thoughtlessly; others, like Spender, grieve for Martian culture and fear the ravages humans will bring.
  • Notable Reflection: Jeff recites Byron:
    "So we'll go no more a-roving so late into the night..." ([14:49])

4. Colonization and Earth’s Collapse

• [17:16-22:03]
  • Waves of settlers arrive on Mars for diverse reasons: escape, adventure, or necessity.
  • Parallel story: Back home in Ohio, a fully automated house continues its routines, juxtaposing Earthly stability with cosmic upheaval.
  • Poetic Highlight: “There will come soft rains...” by Sara Teasdale is recited, underscoring the theme of humankind’s fragility ([21:19]).

5. Sam Parkhill and the End of Civilization

• [22:03-24:10]
  • Sam Parkhill sets up a hot dog stand on Mars, anticipating crowds from Earth.
  • They witness Earth burning in nuclear fire, dooming his entrepreneurial hopes.
  • Quote: "Go ahead, Sam — switch on more lights, turn up the music, get the hot dogs on the fire. There’ll be another batch of customers coming along in about a hundred million years." — Ela ([23:41])

6. The Last Earth Family & The New Martians

• [24:10-26:43]
  • With nearly everyone gone, a single family (the McClellans) lands on Mars, fleeing the ruins of Earth.
  • They go for a “picnic” by the Martian canal and break the news to their son, Timmy: Mars is their new home.
  • Timmy asks when he’ll see Martians. His father replies:
    • Quote: “There they are, son. Look down at the water… You see, we’re the Martians now.” — Dan McClellan ([26:20], [26:35])
  • The family’s reflection in the water becomes a symbol of new beginnings and the cycle of civilization.

7. Earth’s Epilogue & Closing Poem

• [27:06-27:33]
  • The automated house on Earth continues, reciting “There Will Come Soft Rains,” with only ruins and empty routines remaining.
  • “And Spring herself when she woke at dawn, would scarcely know that we were gone. That we were gone. That we were gone…”

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Notable Quotes & Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Moment | |-----------|------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:25 | Timmy | “But it isn’t cold. It’s warm outside. It’s rocket summer.” | | 05:01 | Elah's Husband | “A really ill. And he said, ‘I've come from the third planet in my ship. My name is Nathaniel York.’” | | 08:31 | Elah’s Husband | “You know I can read your mind. You can't keep secrets from me.” | | 12:28 | Jeff Spender | “You won't believe it, Captain. Chickenpox.” | | 14:49 | Jeff Spender | Recites Byron’s poem: "So we'll go no more a-roving so late into the night..." | | 21:19 | House/Phonograph | "There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground..." | | 23:41 | Ela | "Go ahead, Sam — switch on more lights, turn up the music, get the hot dogs on the fire..." | | 26:20 | Dan McClellan | “There they are, son. Look down at the water.” | | 26:35 | Ela | "You see, we're the Martians now." | | 27:13 | Mrs. McClellan | Recites, "Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly..." |

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamps | Highlights | |-----------------------------|--------------|---------------------------------------------------------| | Rocket Summer/Ohio | 01:35-02:30 | First rocket to Mars launched from wintery Ohio | | Martian Dream/Jealousy | 04:14-10:32 | Ela’s visions, husband's jealousy, tragic first contact | | Martian Civilization's End | 11:26-15:46 | Discovery of dead Martians, cultural loss | | Earth Family, Automated Home| 18:41-22:03 | “There Will Come Soft Rains” segment | | Sam’s Hot Dog Stand | 22:03-24:10 | Earth destroyed, dreams dashed | | Final Family on Mars | 24:10-26:43 | Becoming the “new Martians,” theme of rebirth | | Epilogue/Poem | 27:06-27:33 | Closing: reciting Sara Teasdale’s poem |

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Tone & Style

The episode is permeated by a tone of wistfulness, melancholy, and quiet awe, mirroring Bradbury’s sensibilities — at times playful, often poetic, and ultimately elegiac. There’s a palpable nostalgia for a vanishing Earth and a deep ambiguity toward human progress.

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Conclusion

This radio adaptation of The Martian Chronicles distills Bradbury’s grand meditation on civilization, loss, and hope into a tapestry of memorable scenes and lines. The episode’s structure offers both a cautionary tale about cultural hubris and a poetic vision of renewal, ending with the haunting realization: “You see, we’re the Martians now.”

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Transcript

[Frank Martin]

By transcription it's national wheaties week. Yes, it's national wheaties week. And wheaties present dimension x.

[Narrator]

On stage tonight. Dimension X, Another in the Wheaties big parade of exciting half hour presentations.

[Frank Martin]

It's National Wheaties Week. The week to buy Wheaties and eat Wheaties and enjoy em as never before. The time to really find out what difference a good breakfast with Wheaties can make. You know you're getting protein when you dip into a bowl full of Wheaties. You're getting whole wheat minerals and vitamins. You're getting whole wheat energy. Yup, there's a whole kernel of wheat in every Wheaties flake. That's how a better breakfast beginning with Wheaties can help you step lively all morning long. And that's why all over this big country folks are celebrating National Wheaties Week and steppin lively. So how about it? Get out the big cereal bowl and help celebrate breakfast of champions. Pour out those golden flakes. Put on the milk, put on the fruit and let's have National Wheaties Week. You ready? Let's go.

[Narrator]

Tonight, Dimension X presents the Martian Chronicles. A dramatization of the new novel by one of our most brilliant young science fiction writers, Ray Bradbury. The Martian Chronicles. January, in the year 1999. One minute. It was Ohio winter with doors closed, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on snowy slopes. And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town, a flooding sea of hot air.

[Timmy]

Bye, Mom. I'm going out.

[Mrs. McClellan]

William McClellan, you come back here. You know you can't go out in winter without a cold.

[Ela]

You want to catch your death of cold.

[Timmy]

But it isn't cold. It's warm outside. It's rocket summer.

[Mrs. McClellan]

Rocket summer.

[Timmy]

You know, like Indian summer.

[Narrator]

The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and heat, cracking the icicles, melting the snow, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts. It seared the floor of the watching crowd and drove them back. And then they saw the red fire and heard the big sound as the silver rocket shot up toward Mars and left them behind on an ordinary Monday morning on the ordinary planet Earth. They lived in a house of crystal pillars on the planet Mars by the edge of an empty sea. And every morning you could see Elah eating the golden fruits that grew from the crystal walls. Or her husband sitting alone in his room, reading from a singing metal book over which he brushed his hand as one might play a harp. Ela and her husband were not old. Once they had liked painting pictures with Chemical fire swimming in the canals when the wine trees filled them with green liquors and talking into the dawn together. But no more. Marriage sometimes makes people old and familiar while still young. And Ela was not happy now. This morning she sat dreaming between the crystal pillars and wished that somehow a miracle might happen. And then suddenly.

[Elah's Husband]

Hila, did you call?

[Ela]

No.

[Elah's Husband]

I thought I heard you cry out.

[Ela]

Did I? I was almost asleep and had a

[Elah's Husband]

dream in the daytime. You don't often do that.

[Ela]

Strange. How very strange. I dreamed about a man. A tall man. Six feet tall.

[Elah's Husband]

Oh, how absurd. He'd be A giant. A misshapen giant.

[Ela]

I know. And yet somehow he looked quite handsome. He was dressed in a strange uniform, and he came down out of the sky in a long silver craft.

[Elah's Husband]

Out of the sky? What nonsense.

[Ela]

He spoke pleasantly to me in another language, but somehow I understood him with my mind. Telepathy, I suppose.

[Elah's Husband]

A really ill. And he said, I've

[Ela]

come from the third planet in my ship. My name is Nathaniel York.

[Elah's Husband]

Stupid name. Who ever heard of a name like that?

[Ela]

Perhaps they have names like that on Earth.

[Elah's Husband]

That's ridiculous, Hila. Everyone knows the third planet is incapable of supporting life. There's too much oxygen in their atmosphere, I suppose.

[Ela]

But haven't you ever wondered if. Well, wouldn't it be fascinating if there were people there and they traveled through space in some sort of ship?

[Elah's Husband]

Really, Eli, you know I hate this emotional wailing. Now, let's get on with our work.

[Narrator]

Evening came. The twin white moons of Mars were rising, and the house closed itself in like a giant flower. A wind blew among the pillars, stirring Ela's russet hair crooning softly in her ear.

[Elah's Husband]

And it was then that she began singing the song.

[Ela]

Drink to me, only thine eyes, and I will pledge with mine.

[Narrator]

You know.

[Elah's Husband]

What's that song?

[Ela]

I don't know.

[Elah's Husband]

What do you mean, you don't know? I've never heard it before. Did you compose it?

[Ela]

No. Yes. No. I don't know, really. I don't even know what the words are. They're in another language. It was part of a dream I had, I guess.

[Elah's Husband]

Oh. You know, you haven't been yourself lately. It might do you good if we went away to the Blue Mountains for a week or so.

[Ela]

What?

[Elah's Husband]

Did you hear what I said?

[Ela]

I'm sorry. I was watching the sky.

[Elah's Husband]

You're certainly interested in the sky tonight.

[Ela]

It's very beautiful.

[Elah's Husband]

Well, what about my suggestion? Shall we leave for the Blue Mountains in the morning?

[Ela]

You mean go away now? Oh, no, no.

[Elah's Husband]

Why not? Why don't you want to go?

[Ela]

I don't know. I just don't want to, that's all. For leave a kid.

[Elah's Husband]

Ela. I'm sick of that silly song. It's late. Let us sleep.

[Narrator]

From the crystal walls poured a soft carpeting of mist to support Ela where she lay down to sleep. But through the night she tossed restlessly until just at dawn the dream recurred. Hila. Hila, wake up.

[Ela]

What? Oh, what is it?

[Elah's Husband]

You've been dreaming again. You talked in your sleep.

[Ela]

Did I?

[Elah's Husband]

Yes. What were you dreaming?

[Ela]

The ship. It came from the sky again. And the tall man stepped out and talked with me. Telling me little jokes and laughing.

[Elah's Husband]

What else happened?

[Ela]

And then this Captain York. Oh, I can't. It's all so silly.

[House Voice]

Tell me.

[Ela]

He said I was beautiful. And then he kissed me.

[Elah's Husband]

I thought so.

[Narrator]

What else?

[Ela]

Why, eel, you're so bad tempered. It's only a dream.

[Narrator]

Is it?

[Elah's Husband]

You know I can read your mind. You can't keep secrets from me.

[Ela]

Well, all that happened was this. Captain York told me. Well, he told me he'd take me away in his ship into the sky. Take me back to his planet with him. It's quite ridiculous, really.

[Elah's Husband]

Ridiculous. Is it? You should have heard yourself pouring on him, talking to him, singing with him all night. In your dream, he landed in Green Valley, didn't he?

[Ela]

Please.

[Elah's Husband]

And he told you he was coming today.

[Ela]

Yes, but. What's come over you? It was only a dream. You can't be jealous of that.

[Elah's Husband]

No. No, I suppose not. Forgive me. I'm being childish.

[Ela]

Eil, you're sick. You've been working too hard.

[Elah's Husband]

No, no, I'm all right. But perhaps you're right. Maybe I could use a little relaxation.

[Ela]

Yes.

[Elah's Husband]

I think I'll take the morning off and go hunting.

[Ela]

Hunting?

[Elah's Husband]

Yes. In Green Valley.

[Narrator]

Numbly, she watched him go to a closet and draw forth an evil looking weapon. And then her husband was gone, walking toward Green Valley. And Elah waited, watching the sky for an unknown thing, trembling with a nameless fear. And then it happened. A whirring, rushing sound. The warmth as of a giant fire passing in the air. The gleam of metal in the sky.

[Ela]

He's come. It's true. The dream is true.

[Narrator]

A rocket vanished over the hill.

[Elah's Husband]

The sky was empty again and trembling.

[Narrator]

Ela waited again, looking toward Green Valley and seeing nothing. Listening for sounds and hearing nothing.

[Sam Parkhill]

Until

[Narrator]

a shot sounded very sharply. The sound of the evil weapon.

[Ela]

No. No. No. No.

[Elah's Husband]

Her body jerked with the sound and

[Narrator]

she wanted to scream and never stop Screaming. For now she knew the dream could never come true. There was nothing left but the song. The strange and fine and beautiful song.

[Ela]

Drink to me only with thine eyes. And I will pledge with mine olive kiss within the cup.

[Narrator]

But still the rockets came. The next ship came down from the stars and the black velocities and the silent gulfs of space. And landed by night near a Martian city. The men made their way to the

[Elah's Husband]

outer rim of the dreaming city.

[Narrator]

And then Jeff Spender went in to reconnoiter. While the others watched and waited. Waited for something to stir in the haunted city. Some gray form to rise. Some voice to break the unearthly stillness.

[Elah's Husband]

Where were the people?

[Narrator]

Where were the Martians? Nothing stirred to disturb the silence until.

[House Voice]

Halt.

[Sam Parkhill]

Who goes there? Don't shoot.

[Dan McClellan]

Hold it, Parker. Let's Spender and his party. They're coming back.

[Sam Parkhill]

Captain Wilder, over here.

[Jeff Spender]

Well, Captain, we've searched the city. People were living here last week.

[Dan McClellan]

People?

[Jeff Spender]

Martians.

[Dan McClellan]

Where are they now?

[Von Dexter]

Dead. Dead?

[Dan McClellan]

What did they die of?

[Jeff Spender]

You won't believe it, Captain. Chickenpox.

[Dan McClellan]

Good Lord, no.

[Jeff Spender]

Yes. No resistance to an Earth disease, I guess.

[Dan McClellan]

So the other rocket did get through to Mars?

[Jeff Spender]

It looks like it, Captain. God only knows what the Martians did to them. But at least we know what they did to the Martians.

[Sam Parkhill]

You mean they're all dead?

[Jeff Spender]

Yes. This planet is through.

[Sam Parkhill]

Hey, you hear that, guys? We're safe. Break out a bottle, Cookie. Let's have a drink to celebrate. Stop it, Park Hill.

[Jeff Spender]

Put down that bottle.

[Sam Parkhill]

What's eating you? Spend of the planet's hours now. We got a christener, don't we? I christen thee the City of. I christen. Hey, Park Hill City, huh?

[Ela]

Park Hill.

[Sam Parkhill]

I warned you. All right, Spencer, that's enough.

[Dan McClellan]

That'll cost you a $50 fine. Pokey, McClure, take care of Parkill. Spender, you come with me. All right. Spender. Why did you hit him?

[Jeff Spender]

I don't know, Captain. I was ashamed, I guess. Ashamed of Sam Parkhill and the noise and the spectacle the whole crew is making?

[Dan McClellan]

It's been a long trip. It's only natural they'd want to have their fling.

[Jeff Spender]

Yes, but where's their sense of what's right? Their respect for what's happened here? Captain, a race builds itself for a million years. Refines itself. Builds cities like this one. Does everything it can to give itself respect and beauty and. And then it dies. Of what? Not anything fine or majestic or fitting, but. But a dirty little thing like Chicken Pox and Sam Parkill. Wants to celebrate, I know.

[Dan McClellan]

No spender. But you've got to remember you've a different way of seeing things.

[Jeff Spender]

I'm seeing things, all right. I'm seeing what we'll do to Mars. We'll rip it up. Rip the skin off. Ruin it the way we've ruined our own planet. Captain, look at the city. It may be the last time you'll ever see it this way.

[Dan McClellan]

Beautiful in the moonlight, isn't it?

[Jeff Spender]

Yes. There's a poem by Byron that describes it. And how the Martians would feel tonight if there were any of them left to feel. So we'll go no more a roving so late into the night Though the heart be still as loving and the moon be still as bright for the sword outwears its sheath and the soul wears out the breast and the heart must pause to breathe and love itself must rest oh, the night was made for loving and the day returns too soon yet we'll go no more a roving by the light of the moon

[Narrator]

Without a word the Earth men stood

[Elah's Husband]

and looked at the city.

[Narrator]

The bottle lay shattered at Sam Parkhill's feet. And the sour stench of liquor filled the cool air. The men of Earth had come to.

Dimension X will continue in just a moment.

[Frank Martin]

It's National Wheaties Week. Yes, the week when everybody tries Wheaties, even an orchestra leader. And here he comes from behind the scenes in radio to help celebrate national wheaties week. Mr. Von Dexter.

[Von Dexter]

Thank you, Frank. Hello, folks. I understand this is National Wheaties Week. I kinda get a kick out of that. The only breakfast food in the world would a week of its own. And I'm here for just one thing. To ask you to try Wheaties during National Wheaties Week. There are a lot of us whose voices you've never heard on the Wheaties big parade of radio programs. You know, backstage, people like musicians. Right, Frank? Like musicians. We get great pleasure from knowing you like these programs well enough to buy a box of Wheaties tomorrow. Wheaties are good. They're nice to eat.

[Frank Martin]

I like them.

[Von Dexter]

I think you will try them once during National Wheaties Week. Will you do that, Vaughn?

[Frank Martin]

I think the folks will.

[Dan McClellan]

Good.

[Von Dexter]

Thank you. Good night.

[Narrator]

The men of Earth came to Mars. They came because they were afraid or unafraid. Because they were happy or unhappy. Because they felt like pilgrims or did not feel like pilgrims. The government posters screamed, there's work for you in the sky, Seymour. The men shuffled forward, all kinds of men, all coming for different reasons. The rockets came like drums beating in the night. They came like Locusts swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke. Mars was a distant shore, and the settlers spread upon it in waves. First the pioneers and builders, then the people of civilization. Some came because they were afraid of a coming war on earth. Some came because they were afraid of nothing. Some came to escape from the smell of the subways and the cabbage tenements. And some came from houses like the one in Ohio. It was a good house, the house in Ohio. And for six years the family had lived there, contentedly enjoying music and poetry and the rich, warm things of life. For the house had been built to be lived in in the year 2020. It contained all the latest automatic devices, from talking book recorders to singing clocks.

[House Voice]

Seven o'. Clock. Time to rise. Open your eyes. Tick tock. Seven o'.

[Mrs. McClellan]

Clock.

[House Voice]

Time to rise. Open your eyes.

[Narrator]

As the family rose and dressed, the beds whirred electronically and made themselves in the kitchen, the stove side, and ejected from its warm interior. Eight eggs, sunny side up. 12 bacon slices, two coffees and two glasses of milk.

[House Voice]

Seven, nine. Breakfast time. Common dine. Seven, nine.

[Narrator]

Beside the breakfast table, the facsimile machine clacked and deposited the morning paper on the table. The headlines today spoke ominously of the danger of a coming war, and the man frowned as he read the news.

[Elah's Husband]

Today is August 4, 2026. Insurance, gas and atom heat bills are due. And today, remember, the family has planned a picnic.

[Timmy]

Gee, dad, are we really going?

[Dan McClellan]

Sure, Timmy. Why not?

[Timmy]

It's raining now.

[Dan McClellan]

It's not raining where we're going, son. Now run upstairs, pack your fishing tackle. We're going on our picnic. All right.

[Timmy]

Okay, Dan.

[Ela]

Bill, are you sure we ought to go?

[Dan McClellan]

Yes. Have you seen the headlines this morning?

[Ela]

Looks bad, doesn't it?

[Dan McClellan]

The rocket's ready. All we have to do is pack and take off.

[Ela]

I know, but, well, flying to Mars. It seems so crazy. Well, all right, then, we'll go. Should we tell the children why we're going?

[Dan McClellan]

No, not yet. Let them enjoy the picnic.

[Narrator]

The house went on with its appointed tasks.

[House Voice]

9, 15, time to clean. 9, 15, time to Clean.

[Narrator]

Out of the molding darted hundreds of tiny mechanical mice, all rubber and metal. They sucked up the dust and dirt in the house and popped back into their burrows in the walls. Relays clicked. Memory tapes bl glided under electric eyes. Recorded voices moved under steel needles.

[House Voice]

12 o'. Clock.

[Elah's Husband]

2 o'.

[House Voice]

Clock.

[Dan McClellan]

4 o'.

[Ela]

Clock.

[Elah's Husband]

6 o'.

[Ela]

Clock.

[House Voice]

Tick tock. 8 o'.

[Ela]

Clock.

[Narrator]

Evening came in the living room, the hearth fire bloomed out of nothing and the Phonograph spoke from beside the fireplace.

[Elah's Husband]

Mrs. McClellan, what poem would you like to hear this evening? Mr. McClellan? Since you express no preference, I shall select at random from among your favorites. Sarah Teasdale. There will come soft rains.

[Mrs. McClellan]

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground and swallows circling with their shimmering sound. And frogs in the pool singing at night. And wild plum trees in tremulous white robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence wire. And not one will know of war, not one will care at last when it is done. Not one would mind neither bird nor tree if mankind perished utterly. And spring herself when she woke at dawn, but scarcely know that we were gone.

[Narrator]

The phonograph finished the poem, but there was no one there to hear, for the family had gone to Mars. On the Martian desert beside the highway, there rose a blare of red and yellow neon lights that spelled the death of Jeff Spending. Sam's hot dog stand is what the sign read. And Sam, of course, was the same Sam Parkhill who had fought with spender years before. 10,000 rockets were reported leaving soon for Mars with a hundred thousand hungry customers, and Sam wanted to be ready for them.

[Sam Parkhill]

Hey, look up there, Elmo. See that green star up there?

[Dan McClellan]

That's Earth.

[Sam Parkhill]

Ah, good old wonderful Earth. Makes you feel almost Reverend, don't it?

[Ela]

Yeah.

[Sam Parkhill]

Send me. You're hungry and you're starved. Something, something. That's a poem I learned in school. Come on, Earth. Send me your rockets. Here's Sam Parker with the only hot dog stand on Mars.

[Ela]

Sam, what if the rockets don't come? What if there's a war on Earth?

[Sam Parkhill]

Ah, don't worry. They're coming, all right. Ain't nothing gonna happen to spoil my plans, baby. I figured it all out.

[Ela]

Hey, Sam, look up there.

[Sam Parkhill]

Earth or what?

[Dan McClellan]

Oh, no.

[Ela]

It's catching fire. It's burning.

[Sam Parkhill]

Oh, no, that can't be Earth. Elma, they can't do this to me. I got all our money invested in this place.

[Ela]

Go ahead, Sam. Switch on more lights, turn up the music, get the hot dogs on the fire. There'll be another batch of customers coming along in about a hundred million years.

[Dan McClellan]

Oh, no.

[Narrator]

No, it couldn't be.

[Ela]

What a swell spot for a hot dog stand. Let you in on a little secret, Sand. This looks like it's gonna be an off season.

[Narrator]

The light beam radio crackled with the news. By morning, the shelves of the luggage store were empty and the rockets were blasting off, headed back to Earth. In a few days, everyone was gone. And the planet of Mars once more lay deserted and silent. And then, after all the rest had been gone, one last rocket landed on Mars. A small family sized rocket come all the way from Earth. It seemed a long way to go for a picnic, but dad had suggested a fishing trip and mother thought the whole family would enjoy a vacation. So here they were, floating down a Martian canal with Timothy sitting in the back of the boat with dad and mother up front holding Alice, the baby. And the deserted Martian towns drifting slowly by.

[Timmy]

Dan?

[Dan McClellan]

What is it, Timmy?

[Timmy]

When do we see the Martians you promised we would?

[Dan McClellan]

Soon, Tim, soon.

[Ela]

Oh, but William, the last Martians died out years ago. They're a dead race now.

[Dan McClellan]

Not quite. Don't worry, son. I'll show you some real live Martians later on.

[Timmy]

Gee, this is swell. I wish we didn't ever have to go home. How long can we stay?

[Dan McClellan]

A million years.

[Timmy]

A million years?

[Dan McClellan]

Yes. It's time we told you, son. We're not going home. This is where we'll live from now on.

[Timmy]

But what about the rocket? What about Ohio?

[Dan McClellan]

There's nothing there now but ruins. The last Earth radio just went off the air. That means the war is over and Earth is finished. We're going to blow up our rocket and start all over. See if we can't build a better world up here.

[Timmy]

You mean Mars is gonna be our home?

[Elah's Husband]

Yes.

[Dan McClellan]

I hope you don't mind too much.

[Timmy]

No, sir. But what about the Martians? When do we get to see them?

[Dan McClellan]

There they are, son. Look down at the water.

[Timmy]

I don't see anything.

[Dan McClellan]

There, beside the boat. Look at the reflections in the water.

[Frank Martin]

But.

[Timmy]

But that's us down there. Just you and me and mom and the baby.

[Mrs. McClellan]

Yes, son.

[Ela]

You see, we're the Martians now.

[Narrator]

For a long silent moment, Timmy stared down at the reflections of the family in the waters. And the Martian stared back up at him. Then he lifted his eyes to the deep ocean sky, trying once more to see Earth and the house he had always called home. But Earth was too far away. And the house was now only a heap of radioactive rubble.

[Elah's Husband]

Only one wall remained standing.

[Narrator]

And within the wall a voice spoke

[Elah's Husband]

again and again and again.

[Mrs. McClellan]

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly. And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, would scarcely know that we were gone. That we were gone. That we were gone. That we were gone. That we were gone.

[Elah's Husband]

Today is October 5, 2026.

[House Voice]

Today is October 5, 20. 20.

[Narrator]

You have just heard the Martian Chronicles, a dramatization of highlights from the new

[Frank Martin]

novel by Ray Bradbury.

[Narrator]

Your narrator was Norman Rose and featured in the cast were Inga Adams, Roger de Koven and Donald Bucha. Music by Albert Berman. Engineer Bill Chambers. Dimension X is produced by Van Woodward and directed by Jack Cuney. In a moment, we'll tell you about next week's show. And now, here is your Wheaties man, Frank Martin.

[Frank Martin]

Go out and get the Wheaties. It's National Wheaties Week. Yep, this is the week everybody's trying Wheaties. See yourself how wheaties at 7 can help at 11. A better breakfast beginning with Wheaties can help make a wonderful difference because there's a whole kernel of wheat in every Wheaties flake. So eat happy work happy Wheaties breakfast of champion. Get yours, get yours. It's National Wheaties Week.

[Narrator]

Next week, the strange and chilling story of the parade. The parade that suddenly turned into a funeral procession for the world of tomorrow, the world of Dimension xx.

[Frank Martin]

And this is the Wheaties man, Frank Martin, inviting you to listen on Saturday. That's tomorrow night to Joel McRae in Tales of the Texas Rangers on the Wheaties big parade. See you then. Remember, it's National Wheaties Week. Swing ya partners right and left It's National Wheaties week Come on everybody to the Wheaties party Eat a lot of Wheaties like the champions to dance together cheek to cheek this is National Wheaties week Eat a lot of Wheaties like the champions do Wheaties at breakfast the champion. The preceding was transcribed. Coming up, is Jack late? Listen for Bill Bendix October 6th on NBC.

[House Voice]

It.