An adaptation of the Ray Bradbury novel, this three part mini series was shown in 1980. Until recently, at least in the UK, it wasn't available on VHS release in its entirety, the first two parts were all that was on the video tape.

Starring Rock Hudson, Hudson plays Colonel John Wilder, the man who is apparently the heart and sould of the program to send a manned mission to Mars. The first two missions end in disaster, with the crews being killed by the Martians themselves, who it would seem, don't appreciate the idea of being 'invaded'. The third mission lands succesfully and the Martian cities are found deserted. Some have been abandoned for thousands of years, others for only a couple of weeks, these latter ones having dead martians inside. Supposedly the martians sucumbed to various illnesses carried by the first crews to which we are immune, a parallell to the devastion wrought on the South American tribes by the explorers from Europe.

One of Wilders crew apparently goes native (though as is revealed later, this is in question) and kills some others, and tries to persuade Wilder to leave Mars alone.

The overlying morals seem to be about the evils that man takes with him wherever he goes, add in a Cold War themed paranoia back on Earth (though the enemy of the US is never named) and you have a decent series if the effects are very dated.

Nitpick. The US flag so usually prominent on US uniforms might be in error here. During WWII, the stars were displayed in perfect vertical and horizontal columns. When both Hawaii and Alaska achieved statehood this changed to the more familiar staggered pattern, yet it's the old style flag on the shoulders. I'm not sure if this is a genuine nit or not though.

Thoughts on this miniseries?

It's now available in Region 1 DVD.

The first time I saw it, in the early 1980s (I never saw it on its original network airing), I noticed how awful the rocket effect was!

I wondered why the first expedition's ship design was different from the second and third, and why the third carried six men, not three or two like the others.

Decent adaptation of the novel, although what if it had been able to be produced, in its entirety, the way two or three of the chapters were produced in the anthology show "Ray Bradbury's Chronicles" in the 1980s and 1990s. "The Silent Towns" (about the man who replaces his family with robots) and one other I believe I have seen. The latter version of the man and his family features several children, not a single daughter, and the town has skyscrapers, not single-storey buildings.

I thought it odd the way, when Ben Driscoll was dialing phone calls, he had the immediate "NO REPLY" instead of a long series of rings. Yet, when Genevieve Selser was calling around, she let it ring numerous times on each try.

Of course, it would really slow down the show if we watched Ben Driscoll sitting there listening to the purring of the ring at the other end of the line, taking 50 seconds or so to complete the calling of just one number.

(Mind you, if nearly everyone remembered to call in and disconnect their phones before leaving, instead of "NO REPLY", the screen would show, "NOT IN SERVICE". Also, another nitpick, why would Genevieve dial a payphone? Are payphone numbers listed in MartianTel's directory?)

Also, it would take a technological leap for instantaneous communications between Earth and Mars. Wilder, trying to call Expeditions 1 and 2, doesn't allow for a turnaround time of several minutes. If Wilder can talk to his brother in real time, why can't Martian colonists dial direct to Earth and vice versa?

Since the colony is American-led, did Mars get a North American area code? I notice that Wilder referred to a NATO effort to colonize. Where were the other NATO flags? And was the "other side" sitting around letting NATO do all the colonizing?

I thought the straight columns of stars on the flag would indicate more than 50 states, but as soon as I could get a good enough look on my DVD, I saw that it was 6 by 8... only 48 stars.

Hmm... maybe West Virginia agreed to join Kentucky or re-join Virginia? Maybe North and South Dakota agreed to amalgamate? Or maybe one state seceded?

Or it was a retro touch for the story at its date of original writing!

I'm British and I noticed that the stars seemed wrong, so gods knows how many Americans noticed it.

Either that, or I've got too much time on my hands.

Bernie Casey, who played the astronaut who appeared to have 'gone native' has appeared in smaller parts in numerous shows including Babylon 5 and, I think, one part in the Star Trek franchise.

The first expidition seemed more like a futuristic LEM, though it begs the question of how those engines had enough power to break the earths gravitational hold.

The time lag in communications is a common fault in Sci-Fi, yet original Star Trek featured it quite a bit, with Kirk waiting for a few hours plus for a response from Starfleet Command.

I could never get the idea behind the evacuation. The Earth seems like its going to get blasted, yet everyone flees back there. Now some, I imagine would want to be with their families, but I wonder if the remainder were forcibly evacuated. I'm actually surprised that the top brass in the US didn't instead of trying to shut down the colony in fact use it as a safe haven to retreat to.

The series suffers mostly from having very cheap-looking effects. The effects look more Doctor Who than big budget. However, the sequence with the sandships remains fun. Darren McGavin, was wonderful, as always.

One highpoint, the series did have some wonderful music.

Agreed Treklon, the effects and costumes are pretty poor.

Bernie Casey showed up in the two-part DS9 episode "The Maquis", in which Fed citizens in the areas ceded to Cardassia decide they aren't moving out and they aren't going to accept Cardassian rule. Casey's character plays along with Sisko then shows his true colours before part one is over.

Eddington later tells Sisko that the guy is dayyyd.

They left out a few chapters when this made this mini-series.

One such chapter was Usher II, about an eccentric millionaire getting back at a book burning Fascist government (the books outlawed are ones of horror and fantasy and such).

I always found this an odd entry, because it really doesn't fit. You could have set the story on Earth and it would be basically the same.

When the Ray Bradbury Theatre (an anthology show that Mr. Bradbury himself hosted, back in the late 80's and early 90's) adapted Usher II, all references to Mars were dropped, and the story pretty much played out the same (Patrick Macnee played the eccentric millionaire).

Of course, Mr. Bradbury expanded on his idea of a book burning Fascist government in his novel, Fahrenheit 451.

Sam Parkhill (Darren McGavin), who was with Wilder on the third expedition, put up his restaurant "at the intersection of two highways", and anticipated traffic day and night as trucks rolled by.

The only roads the miniseries depicted were one lane, and Wilder had a habit of parking his big van rig in the middle of the road, blocking traffic.

They better widen those roads before the arrival of the hundreds of thousands of colonists that Parkhill is expecting or they'll have to be one-way highways.

Something in the way of local food production should have been indicated, as it would be expensive and troublesome to ship food from Earth. Of course, Mr. K and his wife had food, so maybe there is enough growing around the planet to sustain the small Martian population that remained before the chicken pox plague. As Wilder noted, a small number of people would be able to survive based on what they've learned so far.

Re the telephones. Ben Driscoll picked up a phone book that was already starting to look a little dog-eared. Phone books would be out of date immediately after each new group of colonists arrive. If this miniseries was made in 2000 instead of 1977, cellular phones would be deployed instead of wired phones, and satellites used to expand coverage to the entire planet. Driscoll could be notified of the evacuation while he was out in the wilderness.

Considering how selfish, unmotivated and technically illiterate she was, it is amazing that Genevieve Selser chose to stay on the planet just because they wouldn't let her bring her wardrobe home.

I would imagine that the first expedition's crew would have been located and autopsied, determining they died of the same mysterious weapon that Wilder and Parkhill discovered had killed their three crewmates. The second crew's bodies would have been exhumed from the graves and also autopsied, but perhaps with somewhat less conclusive results. Their last meal... cake? (When the Earthscape vanished and returned to Martianscape, the graves disappeared, but really, the surface should have been disturbed for three graves, even if it didn't look exactly the same.)

the mini-series cut or change a few things from the original stories. I already mentioned the removal of Usher II. Here are some others:

1. In the original stories, four expeditions are sent from Earth. The mini-series dropped one (The Earth Men, which was the second in the stories).

2. In the short stories, John Wilder is a relatively minor character. In the mini-series, he's the lead (and was played by Rock Hudson).

3. The bit about the Martian taking the form of the dead son of the parents was a one off character in the original story. The mini-series made it one of the dead astronauts from the second expedition (the one the Martians tricked and killed).

4. In the stories, the character of Ben Driscoll planted some trees of Mars. The guy that was left behind, when World War III broke out on Earth, was named Walter Gripp. For some reason, they dropped Gripp and replaced him with Driscoll. And the part where Driscoll finds the android family, that was originally to the min-series.

5. The mini-series drops the Way In The Middle Of The Air story. Well, considering that it showed that Jim Crow laws were still in effect on Earth, in the year 2000, perhaps that's just as well.

6. The family at the end of the stories was not the Wilder family, just some one off characters.