The Martian Chronicles (1980– )

Earth sends its first manned probe to Mars in 1999, and a jealous Martian murders the two astronauts when his wife has erotic dreams of meeting them. Members of a subsequent expedition are ... See full summary »

Stars:

Rock Hudson, Gayle Hunnicutt, Bernie Casey

1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Rock Hudson	...	Col. John Wilder (3 episodes, 1980)
Gayle Hunnicutt	...	Ruth Wilder (3 episodes, 1980)
Bernie Casey	...	Major Jeff Spender (3 episodes, 1980)
Christopher Connelly	...	Ben Driscoll (3 episodes, 1980)
Nicholas Hammond	...	Commander Arthur Black (3 episodes, 1980)
Darren McGavin	...	Sam Parkhill (3 episodes, 1980)
Roddy McDowall	...	Father Stone (3 episodes, 1980)
Bernadette Peters	...	Genevieve Seltzer (3 episodes, 1980)
Joyce Van Patten	...	Elma Parkhill (3 episodes, 1980)
Maria Schell	...	Anna Lustig (3 episodes, 1980)
Fritz Weaver	...	Father Peregrine (3 episodes, 1980)
Linda Lou Allen	...	Marilyn Becker (3 episodes, 1980)
Michael Anderson Jr.	...	David Lustig (3 episodes, 1980)
Robert Beatty	...	General Halstead (3 episodes, 1980)
James Faulkner	...	Mr. K (3 episodes, 1980)
Jon Finch	...	Christ (3 episodes, 1980)
Terence Longdon	...	Wise Martian (3 episodes, 1980)
Barry Morse	...	Peter Hathaway (3 episodes, 1980)
Nyree Dawn Porter	...	Alice Hathaway (3 episodes, 1980)
Wolfgang Reichmann	...	Lafe Lustig (3 episodes, 1980)
Maggie Wright	...	Ylla (3 episodes, 1980)
John Cassady	...	Briggs (3 episodes, 1980)
Alison Elliott	...	Lavinia Spaulding (3 episodes, 1980)
Vadim Glowna	...	Sam Hinston (3 episodes, 1980)
Richard Heffer	...	Captain Conover (3 episodes, 1980)
Derek Lamden	...	Sandship Martian (3 episodes, 1980)
Peter Marinker	...	McClure (3 episodes, 1980)
Richard Oldfield	...	Captain Nathaniel York (3 episodes, 1980)
Anthony Pullen Shaw	...	Edward Black (3 episodes, 1980)
Burnell Tucker	...	Bill Wilder (3 episodes, 1980)

Storyline

Earth sends its first manned probe to Mars in 1999, and a jealous Martian murders the two astronauts when his wife has erotic dreams of meeting them. Members of a subsequent expedition are hypnotized into believing that they have landed in the childhood community of their leader and have been reunited with deceased family and friends, and they are poisoned by the Martians. Col. John Wilder leads a third expedition and learns that a chicken pox virus brought to Mars by the first two expeditions has almost eradicated the Martian population. A member of Wilder's team becomes obsessed with protecting Mars from Earthman and murders some of the others in Wilder's party, before Wilder kills him. Colonists arrive on Mars to settle, among them priests seeking God, and a lone Martian masquerades as the most desired persons of various settlers. Global war on Earth reduces man's natal planet to radioactive waste, and most of the settlers returned there prior to the holocaust. Wilder struggles to ...

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Plot Keywords:

martian | fictional war | space colony | end of the world | outer space | 

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Taglines:

... a warning to all mankind.

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 January 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Crónicas marcianas

Filming Locations:

Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charles Fries Productions, Stonehenge Productions, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

281 min 165 min (compact video) 293 min (DVD) 360 min 110 min (theatrical)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A 90 minutes version, edited out of three episodes of the series, was theatrically released in France a year before the complete version was weekly aired on television.

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Goofs

[Probably intentional] People on Mars move about in normal Earth gravity, but Mars has only about 38% of the gravitational pull of Earth.

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Quotes

Maj. Jeff Spender: I just believe in things that were done. And there were so many things done here. Streets and houses and books and big canals and clocks and places with names - things that were used and touched for centuries. And I don't see how we could ever use them without feeling uncomfortable. Oh, we could change the names, but the old names will still be there. So no matter how we touch Mars, we won't be able to really touch it. See, that'll make us angry. We'll get mad at that and just rip it up. We'll ...
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Ghosts of Mars (2001)

User Reviews

Haunting at times...

I remember seeing this series when it was first shown circa 1980 in the UK, and could not wait till the next part was shown.

Of course the special effects weren't that special then - but I really don't think this takes much away from it. The sequences I like the most are the lights that appear to the monks, and save one when he tests them by throwing himself off a cliff on Mars. Very spiritual overtones here - makes me shiver now just to think of it.

Also, I love the way the Martians dress - the loose-fitting robes, and those masks - excellent. Their lack of cranial hair and gold eyes, also make for a very other-worldy effect.

I borrowed the video tape "version" of this film, but was dismayed to find that about 20 minutes had been cut out - beware! I read the superb Ray Bradbury novel this was based on (originally entitled The Silver Locusts) after I saw the series, and was suitably impressed. A great atmosphere in both, but much more in the novel, I think.