TALES OF TOMORROW- "The Dune Roller" – 1952
An excellent early sci-fi television episode from the 1951 to 1953, series, TALES OF TOMORROW. It ran for a total of 84 episodes. While it might seem corny and rushed to today's viewer, it was shot live and with a minimum of special effects. The stories, are what truly makes this series so good.
This one takes place on a small Lake Michigan island. Bruce Cabot, the local doctor and an amateur rock collector, is going over some strange stones he has found. Long time resident, Truman Smith, tells Cabot about the local legend of a "Dune Roller". It is a something that comes out of the dunes and has lightning bolts shoot from it. There have been several men "fried" on the island. Hence, the island is called, "Lightning Island".
Cabot of course gets a good laugh out of the story. Teenager Lee Graham now enters Cabot's office. She has found some more of those strange rocks Cabot is interested in. She is collecting a dime apiece for turning them in. Also arriving on the scene is, Grahame's father, Nelson Olmsted and his other daughter, Nancy Coleman. Olmsted is a University biologist who spends his summers on the island.
Cabot places the rocks in a jar and sets them aside. Coleman calls everyone in for dinner. Cabot has not noticed that he placed the rocks near a hot sterilizer machine.
After dinner Cabot returns to his desk. He discovers that the two stones have became one and have quadrupled in weight. Strange? How has this happened? It must have been the steam from the sterilizer. He will need to have a further look in the morning.
The next day, all he finds is that all his samples are gone. And there are burn marks on his desk, as well as the floor. They lead to the door where a large hole has been burnt through.
Needless to say this is going nowhere good. The rocks are slowly melding together into a large boulder, and it moves. The thing also emits massive amounts of heat as it searches out more rocks. Cabot and Olmsted decide it is some sort of alien meteorite. It must of shattered when it hit the earth. It is now be trying to reassemble itself.
They soon discover that the thing is dangerous and that they need to defend themselves from it. The boulder rolls after beachcomber, Truman Smith, and leaves him a burnt to a crisp corpse.
Cabot just happens to have a supply of explosives handy. Cabot digs a hole and plants the dynamite at the bottom. He then throws in some more of the strange rocks as bait.
Sure enough, the boulder comes a calling. Once it enters the hole, Cabot blows the beast into a million bits. As the group views the destruction, Cabot says. "No way it could assemble itself now!" As the group returns to the cabin, the camera shows us fragments starting to glow as they move towards each other.
Bruce Cabot is best known as the man who saves Fay Wray from the beast in the first, "King Kong". (B/W)
An excellent early sci-fi television episode from the 1951 to 1953, series, TALES OF TOMORROW. It ran for a total of 84 episodes. While it might seem corny and rushed to today's viewer, it was shot live and with a minimum of special effects. The stories, are what truly makes this series so good.
This one takes place on a small Lake Michigan island. Bruce Cabot, the local doctor and an amateur rock collector, is going over some strange stones he has found. Long time resident, Truman Smith, tells Cabot about the local legend of a "Dune Roller". It is a something that comes out of the dunes and has lightning bolts shoot from it. There have been several men "fried" on the island. Hence, the island is called, "Lightning Island".
Cabot of course gets a good laugh out of the story. Teenager Lee Graham now enters Cabot's office. She has found some more of those strange rocks Cabot is interested in. She is collecting a dime apiece for turning them in. Also arriving on the scene is, Grahame's father, Nelson Olmsted and his other daughter, Nancy Coleman. Olmsted is a University biologist who spends his summers on the island.
Cabot places the rocks in a jar and sets them aside. Coleman calls everyone in for dinner. Cabot has not noticed that he placed the rocks near a hot sterilizer machine.
After dinner Cabot returns to his desk. He discovers that the two stones have became one and have quadrupled in weight. Strange? How has this happened? It must have been the steam from the sterilizer. He will need to have a further look in the morning.
The next day, all he finds is that all his samples are gone. And there are burn marks on his desk, as well as the floor. They lead to the door where a large hole has been burnt through.
Needless to say this is going nowhere good. The rocks are slowly melding together into a large boulder, and it moves. The thing also emits massive amounts of heat as it searches out more rocks. Cabot and Olmsted decide it is some sort of alien meteorite. It must of shattered when it hit the earth. It is now be trying to reassemble itself.
They soon discover that the thing is dangerous and that they need to defend themselves from it. The boulder rolls after beachcomber, Truman Smith, and leaves him a burnt to a crisp corpse.
Cabot just happens to have a supply of explosives handy. Cabot digs a hole and plants the dynamite at the bottom. He then throws in some more of the strange rocks as bait.
Sure enough, the boulder comes a calling. Once it enters the hole, Cabot blows the beast into a million bits. As the group views the destruction, Cabot says. "No way it could assemble itself now!" As the group returns to the cabin, the camera shows us fragments starting to glow as they move towards each other.
Bruce Cabot is best known as the man who saves Fay Wray from the beast in the first, "King Kong". (B/W)