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Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury’s The

MISBEGOTTEN HOTCH-POTCH of 70s production values and 50s plotlines which was both bizarre and dull, often simultaneously. Long sequences of greenhouse construction in slo-mo on the Martian surface (the 70s) mixed poorly with smoking rockets, retro aliens and minimalist Martian cities (the 50s, and how!) ROCK HUDSON was head explorer, RODDY MacDOWELL head alien, and GAYLE HUNNICUT was… Gayle Hunnicut.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Mike Smith

    August 17, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    Have to correct a minor error here. Roddy MacDowell was not the head alien but the rather ineffectual cleric, Father Stone (not to be confused with the priest of the same name in Father Ted).

    I agree that it ended up as a mess, but an interesting one, despite the laughable special effects.

  2. THX 1139

    August 28, 2019 at 1:24 pm

    This was shown on Saturday nights where it failed to impress the viewing several, but I thought it was really scary, especially the bit where the old couple think their dead son has returned and is standing outside their house in the dark. Plus (controversial opinion) the music is excellent and the whole concept of the Earth being wiped out so the human settlers on Mars can never go home is very haunting.

  3. Glenn Aylett

    August 31, 2019 at 10:32 am

    I can remember one of the episodes where Earth is in ruins and some woman who was probably a stripper doing some weird dance in the ruins before the planet explodes. Rather surreal and a different BBC One offering for Saturday nights in the Bill Cotton era, and also the BBC was criticised for wasting money on The Martian Chronicles, which didn’t rate that well and was expensive. I thought it was OK, though.

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