Planeta Vermelho

I saw "The Martian Chronicles" as a child during its first UK transmissions between 1980 and 1984 then didn't see it for many years but so many moments from it stuck with me.

Now I've just had my video tapes of it out and watched it again for the first time in 8 years or so. The series looks very dated now in terms of special effects, photography, costumes and even in the acting - typical of late seventies US television rather than what we see today. The dates of man's arrival of Mars are now known to be rather ambitious and of course the whole "cold war" idea is something that film & television has moved on from nowadays.

Despite these faults, I still found the three episodes to be highly enjoyable. Its certainly not Star Wars or even 2001, but The Martian Chronicles gives us a refreshingly different kind of science fiction. The series is not so much about martians as about humans and many human feelings are explored - loneliness, bereavement, faith, nostalgia, vanity, greed...

What I really liked was the realization of the martian landscapes - even watching it now there's a real feeling of it being an alien planet and the strange stone monoliths and spheres linger in the memory.

Rock Hudson I found okay as the lead. Some say he's too bland but he's not meant to be a big hero or even a particularly dominant character. It's a relaxed performance that allows the story lines, rather than Mr Hudson himself, to come to the fore.

Although each episode lasts 90 minutes, they're broken up into shorter stories which are more easily digestible, although a couple of sequences are played out a little too long. The direction is functional for the most part but there are some nice touches along the way - for instance when the second expedition lands and the fog slowly clears to reveal the ship to be in what appears to an American town is very well done, and then there's a very Prisoner-esque shot early in episode three when Rock Hudson opens the double-doors of the base back on Earth and finds it deserted.

The music's quite good too!

Probably another chapter might have been needed for The Martian Chronicles mini-series to have gotten in all of what Ray Bradbury had to say in his epic science fiction work about first contact. It certainly wasn't like Star Trek's First Contact to say the least.

After a couple of failed expeditions that did not return to Earth from Mars in what was projected in 1980 to be the last dozen years or so right now, Rock Hudson the head of NASA heads the third expedition himself. He finds a presumably dead planet, but are these Martians really dead?

The 'Martians' we do meet seem to be at all levels of human development and way in advance of us on Earth. I can see where Gene Roddenberry got his ideas for the Talosian characters who can change appearance and for the incorporeal Organians for Star Trek. We'll meet both kinds in The Martian Chronicles.

Two characters really stand out for me. First is Fritz Weaver as Father Peregrine who together with Roddy McDowall has come to bring Christianity to Mars. But how do you explain religion to beings way in advance of your development. In fact though it's the Christian religion that is used here, all religions on Earth don't take into account other beings on other worlds. Every founder of every religion only had a view of the world he was on. When 'Jesus' played by Jon Finch appears to Fritz Weaver the Martians can't even grasp the nature of Weaver's conception of him. Makes for a very interesting scene.

Secondly Bernie Casey does in the old English colonial term, 'goes native' on Rock Hudson, he so identifies with the Martians as a race potentially to be exploited just as folks originating in his part of Earth were. Casey raises some interesting questions about the morality of what the Earth people are doing. There is war threatening on Earth to annihilate mankind. How many science fiction movies have as their premise a dying race coming to Earth to take it over and enslave mankind? Food for thought.

There's still enough of Ray Bradbury's ideas in this mini-series to make The Martian Chronicles good viewing. One thing I would like to say, as advanced as the Martians are, you would think that what killed them is something they would have taken measure to prevent a long time ago.

At some point prior to the original broadcast of this mini-series, Ray Bradbury was interviewed and asked how it was. His reply was that it was boring. He was right. I read this book when I was in junior high school for the first time and reread it many times after that. The book is great. This mini-series is boring. I gave it a six out of 10 more for the source material than this actual mini-series. A couple of my favorites are in here, Rock Hudson, Chris Connolly, Roddy McDowell, and Darren McGavin. Several other actors who were staples of 1970s television are also included. The problem is the screenplay. The Martian Chronicles are a series of short stories about the colonization of Mars and all connected with the constant threads of Wilder and NASA running through them. If the screenwriter had simply taken the book and wrote the screenplay directly from it, the mini-series would have been great. Instead it is more like a documentary with a narrator explaining what everyone is thinking or feeling, and a lot of just driving around what is supposed to be the Martian landscape by Wilder. I see a lot in the other reviews about the special effects. That's not really an issue for me as they are not a large part of the series. If you have no problems watching Star Trek TOS or Space 1999, the special effects here will not bother you. If you are expecting the latest from Disney, well you will be disappointed. The space craft in this series is reminiscent of what was available in the 90s and they were of course guessing what they would look like in the future. I think they did okay in that respect. If you like the premise of the series, then by all means visit your local library and check out a copy of the book. The book is great. You will see a few differences. The Bernadette Peters character was nothing like was portrayed in the mini-series for one. I would love to see Hollywood redo this but stick to the book this time. For those younger viewers who watched it and were surprised that we were colonizing Mars at the start of the 21st century, when I was in elementary school in the '60s, we were told we would have George Jetson cars and robot maids by the year 2000. We haven't come as far as we thought we would.

This is a British production, made in 1979. The same time as UK's Dr. Who. The production values are almost identical. Of course, there was whimsy in Dr. Who, that made the cheesy effects campy. But still, there they were.

As for the implausibility of a Martian atmosphere and climate like earth's, Bradbury wrote these stories before 1950, when such was considered possible. The producers made a creative choice to retain the conceit that Mars was like Nevada, so the characters wouldn't have to wear space suits all the time.

Those who trash this miniseries because of its production values miss its point. What the Martian Chronicles have going for them are terrific story lines, which the technical problems unfortunately obscure. I can't help thinking Rod Serling took a page from them when he came up with Twilight Zone, with its emphasis on people rather than the technology.

Also fascinating is how the near future is projected. As in 2001: A Space Odyssey, our advancement into space was wildly optimistic, not because it wasn't possible, but because in reality we've lacked the character to see it through. The fact that we should have settlements on Mars by now, if not manned missions to Jupiter, but don't, speaks to how contemptible we are, in choosing rather to pursue personal gratification, while accommodating the barbarous primitives among us. At the end of the Martian Chronicles is an affirmation of what we could yet be, if only we'd decide to stop wallowing in the gutter and once more reach for the stars. Too bad this message is lost on today's fatuous audience.

I saw this in 79-80, when I was 8 years old. It was shown quite late once a week on the BBC. Due to its late showing and married with my tender age, I was the only person out of all my peers who watched it. It left a big impression on me and I can still remember some of the scenes over twenty years on.....The thing is I have asked scores of people over these years to see if anyone remembered it. As the years passed and not one person said they had, I was beginning to wonder if it was a product of my fertile imagination - especially with its dreamy tone. Here we are on IMDB (one of my very favourite web sites) and you have proved to me that I am not totally mad. I hope it will be available in the UK one day so I can see just why it left this mark on me. I won't place a review though as it would be unfair after so long. LONG LIVE IMDB!!!