X Minus One

X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 on NBC.

Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first few episodes of X Minus One were revised versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon. Kinoy and Lefferts also provided some original scripts. Most of the new stories were taken from SF pulp magazines Astounding and Galaxy.

An unsuccessful attempt to revive the series was made in 1973 with the broadcast of the final episode, an adaptation of The Iron Chancellor by Robert Silverberg.
Episode 1: No Contact

​A strange invisible barrier is frustrating Man's attempts to explore the depths of space. Five expeditions have been lost trying to cross it, their fate a mystery since no signal can pass through the barrier. This is the story of the sixth...

​First broadcast: 24 April 1955.
Original Story by George Lefferts and Ernest Kinoy.
​Cast: Ken Williams, Luis Van Rooten, Matt Crowley, Wendell Holmes, William Griffis, Bill Smith, Donald Buka.
Episode 2: The Parade

​An ad agency is hired by a man insisting he is from Mars to promote an upcoming parade marking the arrival of Martians on Earth. Of course, he must be lying, or simply crazy...

First broadcast: 1 May 1955.
Original Story by George Lefferts.
​Cast: Alexander Scourby, Agnes Young, Joseph Curtin, Joe DeSantis, Ellen Denning, John Thomas, Arthur Anderson, Wendell Holmes, William Keene.
Episode 3: Mars Is Heaven

The first astronauts to land on Mars discover... Earth — a planet where their long-dead loved ones are waiting for them in a small Midwest town just like home. Part of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles series.

First broadcast: 8 May 1955.
Original Story by Ray Bradbury.
​Cast: William Zuckert, Bill Lipton, Margaret Berlin, William Griffis, Ken Williams, Ethel Everett, Edwin Jerome, Wendell Holmes, Peter Capell.
Episode 4: Universe

Humanity's descendants aboard a space Ark are divided into two factions — the lower decks occupied by humans, and the upper by mutants. One man dares probe the upper levels and his quest leads him to question not only his society's prejudices, but the ultimate truth of what might lie beyond The Ship.
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​First broadcast: 15 May 1955.
Original Story by Robert A. Heinlein.
​Cast: Abby Lewis, Donald Buka, Edgar Stehli, Ian Martin, Jason Johnson, John Seymore, Peter Capell, William Griffis.
Episode 5: Knock

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door." Aliens who have no concept of natural death have wiped out humanity, literally to the last man and woman, whom they put in a zoo as public curiosities.

​First broadcast: 22 May 1955.
Original Story by Frederic Brown.
​Cast: Alexander Scourby, Lori March, Luis Van Rooten.
Episode 6: The Man In The Moon

The Federal Missing Persons Bureau receives a desperate radio message from a crank who claims to be calling from the Moon. Of course the call is dismissed, until a minor functionary begins to suspect that the call is related to a strange series of disappearances over the past several years.

​First broadcast: 29 May 1955.
Original Story by George Lefferts.
​Cast: Ed Latimer, Joe DeSantis, Luis Van Rooten, Bob Haag, Ross Martin, Santos Ortega, Sydney Smith.
Episode 7: Perigi's Wonderful Dolls

A dollmaker sells a mother an unusual doll which seems capable of responding to people, presumably by recording voices and replaying them in its own voice. Is it just a bit of technical wizardry, or is there something more to this doll than meets the eye?

​First broadcast: 5 June 1955.
Original Story by George Lefferts.
​Cast: Janet Alexander, Ann Pitoniak, Nelson Olmsted, Joe DeSantis, Frank Milano, Michael O'Day, Ken Lynch.
Episode 8: The Green Hills of Earth

Classic story of a space engineer who suffers a tragic accident and ends up tramping about the Solar System singing about the life of spacers and dreaming of returning to Earth once more before he dies.
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​First broadcast: 7 July 1955.
Original Story by Robert A. Heinlein.
​Cast: Bill Lipton, Ken Williams, Matt Crowley, Nelson Olmsted, Tom Glazer (singing), Wendell Holmes, William Griffis, William Zuckert.
Episode 9: Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitarium

A Private Eye infiltrates an insane asylum to investigate rumours of strange goings-on, and discovers some bizarre physical transformations.

​First broadcast: 14 July 1955.
Original Story by Fletcher Pratt.
​Cast: Arthur Maitland, Bill Lipton, Frank Milano (as a cat), Leon Janney, Peter Capell, Roger De Koven, Rosemary Prinz, Ted Osborne.
Episode 10: Nightmare

A man begins to suspect that all machines are on the verge of a unified worldwide revolt to overthrow their human masters.

​First broadcast: 21 July 1955.
Original Story by Stephen Vincent Benét.
​Cast: John Gibson, Joyce Gordon, Luis Van Rooten, Joseph Julian, John Seymore, Owen Jordan, Santos Ortega.
Episode 11: The Embassy

A detective agency is hired by a crackpot who wants them to investigate and expose a nest of Martians sent to prepare the way for an invasion of Earth.

​First broadcast: 28 July 1955.
Original Story by Donald A. Wollheim.
​Cast: Audrey Blum, Clarke Gordon, Jack Orrison, John Larkin, Reese Taylor, Theo Goetz, Virginia Payne, William Zuckert.
Episode 12: The Veldt

A couple purchase a holo-theatre to keep their son and daughter amused, but the recreation of the sweltering African savannah the children concoct is anything but amusing...

​First broadcast: 4 August 1955.
Original Story by Ray Bradbury.
​Cast: Beverly Lunsford, William Quinn, Charles Penman, David Pfeffer, Mary Patton.
Episode 13: Almost Human

A scientist builds a robot - ‘Junior' - capable of intelligence and consciousness, but the machine is stolen by a criminal who has other ideas for its uses. Junior, on the other hand, has plans of his own.

​First broadcast: 11 August 1955.
Original Story by Robert Bloch.
​Cast: Guy Repp, Jack Grimes, Jone Allison, Joseph Julian, Lynn Cook, Merrill E. Joels, Nat Polen, Santos Ortega.
Episode 14: Courtesy

An expedition to the planet Landro meets with disaster when the serum protecting against a local plague runs out. The natives are immune to the disease, but seem reluctant to explain the source of their natural immunity.

​First broadcast: 18 August 1955.
Original Story by Clifford D. Simak.
​Cast: Arnold Robertson, Bret Morrison, Edwin Jerome, William Griffis.
Episode 15: Cold Equations

Classic story of a space pilot on an emergency medical run who finds himself carrying a stowaway. His shuttle, however, does not have enough fuel to land with the extra weight.

​First broadcast: 25 August 1955.
Original Story by Tom Godwin.
​Cast: Bob Hastings, Court Benson, Jack Arthur, Jay Meredith, Milo Boulton, Walter Kinsella.
Episode 16: Shanghaied

A man is drugged and press-ganged from his own stag party to serve on board a deepspace freighter outward bound on a fifteen-year round trip to Alpha Centauri.

​First broadcast: 1 September 1955.
Original Story by Ernest Kinoy.
​Cast: Ivor Francis, Jack Grimes, Jack Hartley, James Dukas, Luis Van Rooten, Lyle Sudrow, Robert Dryden, Ross Martin, Sid Raymond.
Episode 17: The Martian Death March

On a Mars conquered by Earthmen, the few remaining spider-like Martians escape from their reservation and embark on a desperate trek across the deserts to their mountain homelands, lead by a human religious fanatic.

​First broadcast: 8 September 1955.
Original Story by Ernest Kinoy.
​Cast: David Pfeffer, Edwin Jerome, John Thomas, Lawrence Kerr, Matt Crowley, Ralph Camargo, Stan Early.
Episode 18: The Castaways

Nuclear testing on a remote Pacific island goes awry when the natives, rather than be relocated, threaten to commit mass suicide to put a curse on the project.

​First broadcast: 15 September 1955.
Original Story by Ernest Kinoy.
​Cast: Bob Hastings, Joseph Julian, Karl Weber, Leon Janney, Luis Van Rooten, Reese Taylor, Roger De Koven, Staats Cotsworth, Stan Early.
Episode 19: And The Moon Be Still As Bright

As though wiping out the Martian race with Earthborn diseases weren't enough, humans demonstrate a hostile contempt for what relics and monuments the Martians left behind — until one man with a conscience and a gun decides to stand up for the dead. Part of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles future history.

​First broadcast: 22 September 1955.
Original Story by Ray Bradbury.
​Cast: Clarke Gordon, John Larkin, Lawrence Kerr, Nelson Olmsted, Richard Hamilton, Stan Early.
Episode 20: First Contact

Classic story of the first encounter with an alien race and the mutual distrust that would involve — neither ship wishes to be the first to depart for fear of giving away clues of their origin to a potential adversary.

​First broadcast: 6 October 1955.
Original Story by Murray Leinster.
​Cast: Wendell Holmes, Bob Hastings, Clarke Gordon, William Malley, Stan Early.