"The Martian Chronicles" (1980) TV mini-series

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Michael Anderson

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

27 January 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Mars | Martian | Plague | Telepathy | Lost Civilization

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

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)
Richard Heffer	...	Captain Conover (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)
Terence Longdon	...	Wise Martian (3 episodes, 1980)
Richard Oldfield	...	Captain Nathaniel York (3 episodes, 1980)
John Cassady	...	Briggs (3 episodes, 1980)
Anthony Pullen Shaw	...	Edward Black (3 episodes, 1980)
Burnell Tucker	...	Bill Wilder (3 episodes, 1980)
Peter Marinker	...	McClure (3 episodes, 1980)
Vadim Glowna	...	Sam Hinston (3 episodes, 1980)
Alison Elliott	...	Lavinia Spaulding (3 episodes, 1980)
Derek Lamden	...	Sandship Martian (3 episodes, 1980)
Phil Brown	...	Narrator (3 episodes, 1980)
Estelle Brody	...	Mrs. Black (3 episodes, 1980)
Laurie Holden	...	Marie Wilder (3 episodes, 1980)
Stacey Sipes	...	Margarite Hathaway (3 episodes, 1980)

Series Directed by
Michael Anderson		(unknown episodes)

Series Writing credits
Ray Bradbury		(3 episodes, 1980)
Richard Matheson		(3 episodes, 1980)

Series Produced by
Richard Berg	....	producer (unknown episodes)
Andrew Donally	....	producer (unknown episodes)
Charles M. Fries	....	associate producer (unknown episodes)
Charles W. Fries	....	executive producer (unknown episodes)
Milton Subotsky	....	producer (unknown episodes)

Series Original Music by
Stanley Myers		(unknown episodes)

Series Cinematography by
Ted Moore		(unknown episodes)

Series Film Editing by
Eunice Mountjoy		(unknown episodes)

Series Casting by
Caro Jones		(unknown episodes)
James Liggat		(unknown episodes)

Series Production Design by
Assheton Gorton		(unknown episodes)

Series Costume Design by
Cynthia Tingey		(unknown episodes)

Series Makeup Department
Colin Arthur	....	makeup artist (unknown episodes)
Jeanette Freeman	....	key hair stylist (unknown episodes)
George Frost	....	makeup designer (unknown episodes)
Mark Reedall	....	makeup artist (unknown episodes)

Series Production Management
Graham Ford	....	production manager (unknown episodes)
Thomas Fries	....	post-production supervisor (unknown episodes)
William P. Owens	....	production manager (unknown episodes)
Malcolm Stuart	....	executive in charge of production (unknown episodes)

Series Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
David Bracknell	....	assistant director (unknown episodes)
John Stears	....	second unit director (unknown episodes)

Series Art Department
Stuart Rose	....	propmaker (unknown episodes)
Rodger Shaw	....	property master (unknown episodes)
John Spottiswood	....	scenic artist (unknown episodes)

Series Sound Department
Ron Davis	....	sound editor (unknown episodes)
Bob Jones	....	sound recordist (unknown episodes)
Teddy Mason	....	sound editor (unknown episodes)
George Stephenson	....	sound recordist (unknown episodes)

Series Special Effects by
John Stears	....	special effects supervisor (unknown episodes)

Series Visual Effects by
Jonathan Angell	....	model maker (unknown episodes)
Jon Bunker	....	model maker (unknown episodes)
Ray Caple	....	matte artist (unknown episodes)
Enid Malik	....	model maker (unknown episodes)
Mick Mindoodt	....	visual effects assistant (unknown episodes)
Henry Richardson	....	visual effects liaison (unknown episodes)
Arthur Stovell	....	visual effects technician (unknown episodes)

Series Camera and Electrical Department
Bob Kindred	....	model photographer: second unit (unknown episodes)
Mike Roberts	....	camera operator (unknown episodes)
K.H. Wallis	....	camera operator: aerial sequences (unknown episodes)

Series Costume and Wardrobe Department
Yvonne Zarb Cousin	....	wardrobe assistant (unknown episodes)
Bridget Sellers	....	wardrobe supervisor (unknown episodes)

Series Editorial Department
Michael John Bateman	....	assistant editor (unknown episodes)
Marcel Durham	....	assistant editor (unknown episodes)
John Jympson	....	supervising editor (unknown episodes)

Series Music Department
Richard Harvey	....	composer: additional music / composer: electronic music (unknown episodes)
Laurie Holloway	....	composer: additional music (unknown episodes)

Series Other crew
Rufus Andrews	....	location manager (unknown episodes)
Ron Atkinson	....	production administrator (unknown episodes)
Cheryl Leigh	....	script supervisor (unknown episodes)
Sam Silver	....	gold contact lenses (unknown episodes)
John Whalley	....	production executive (unknown episodes)

Production Companies

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Charles Fries Productions
• Polytel International Film
• Stonehenge Productions

Distributors

• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1980) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Image Entertainment (laserdisc)
• International Video Entertainment (IVE) (video)
• USA Home Video (II) (198?) (USA) (VHS)
• Vic Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS) (compact version)

Other Companies

• Airstrip One Company, The  soundtrack album (2003)

Runtime:

360 min | Brazil:165 min (compact video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Robert Powell was asked to play the Jon Finch cameo

Goofs:

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

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...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mission to Mars (2000)

Earth Colonizers

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.