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.
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 41: A Gun For Dinosaur
A safari into the Cretaceous to hunt for Tyrannosaurus Rex is endangered by a reckless glory hound, whose ineptitude and arrogance are matched only by his capacity for murder. First broadcast: 7 March 1956. Original Story by L. Sprague de Camp. Cast: Alistair Duncan, Wendell Holmes, John Gibson, Donald Buka, Warren Parker, Alan Hewitt. |
Episode 43: A Thousand Dollars A Plate
Astronomers on a colonized Mars take on the local casino syndicate to stop the nightly fireworks which are fogging their photographic plates. First broadcast: 21 March 1956. Original Story by Jack McKenty. Cast: Bob Hastings, Karl Swenson, Mandel Kramer, Mercer McLeod, Alan Hewitt, Ralph Bell. |
Episode 44: A Pail of Air
In a future where the Earth has moved away from the Sun and lost its atmosphere, a lone family of survivors struggle to survive in the ruins of a dead city. First broadcast: 28 March 1956. Original Story by Fritz Leiber. Cast: Richard Hamilton, Rita Lloyd, Ronald Liss, Eleanor Phelps, Joe DeSantis, Pamela Fitzmaurice. |
Episode 45: How-2
A man orders a robotic dog kit in the mail, and instead receives an android — one ready to serve in every capacity and equally ready to reproduce himself a thousand-fold. All his problems vanish — until the government sticks their bean-counting nose into it. First broadcast: 3 April 1956. Original Story by Clifford D. Simak. Cast: Alan Bunce, Anne Seymour, James Monks, Joseph Bell, Lawson Zerbe, Les Damon, Santos Ortega, William Keene. |
Episode 46: Star, Bright
Children are apparently evolving at an alarming rate; what to do when your six-year old daughter demonstrates an IQ of over 400, and starts to experiment with previously unknown physical dimensions? First broadcast: 10 April 1956. Original Story by Mark Clifton. Cast: William Quinn, Billy Harris, Kate Wilkinson, Lawson Zerbe, Ralph Bell, Sarah Fussell. |
Episode 47: Jaywalker
A pregnant wife stows away on an Earth-Moon liner to be with her husband the pilot, unaware that space travel is fatal both to her and her unborn child. Her husband must choose between their lives and a manoeuvre which could kill everyone on board. First broadcast: 17 April 1956. Original Story by Ross Rocklynne. Cast: Connie Lembcke, Eugene Francis, Bob Hastings, Teri Keane, Raymond Edward Johnson. |
Episode 48: The Sense of Wonder
The inhabitants of a generation starship have long ago forgotten their origins and purpose. To them, ' The Ship is All', until one low caste Attendant questions the pseudo-religion which has grown up around the archaic manuals left by the vessel's long dead crew. First broadcast: 24 April 1956. Original Story by Milton Lesser. Cast: William Quinn, Edwin Jerome, James Monks, Joe DeSantis, Raymond Edward Johnson, Richard Hamilton, Vera Allen. |
Episode 49: Sea Legs
A homesick space jockey returns to an overcrowded, authoritarian Earth whose welcome is little warmer than the cold of space. First broadcast: 1 May 1956. Original Story by Frank Quattrocchi. Cast: William Redfield, James Stevens, Stan Early, Charles Penman, James Dukas, Richard Hamilton, Jack Orrison, Jack Grimes, Craig McDonnell, Ralph Bell, Kermit Murdock, Fredericka Chandler. |
Episode 50: The Seventh Order
A robot shows up at a college professor's doorstep to announce he has come to prepare the way for an alien invasion. He is armed with enough personal firepower to take on anything we can send against him. Or is he? First broadcast: 8 May 1956. Original Story by Jerry Sohl. Cast: James Monks, Nelson Olmsted, Kate Wilkinson, Bob Hastings, Richard Hamilton, James Rafferty, Reese Taylor, Jim Stevens, Wayne Chappell. |
Episode 51: Hallucination Orbit
Stationed alone on Pluto for six years and suffering from isolation psychosis, a man begins to have 'visitors'. First broadcast: 15 May 1956. Original Story by J. T. McIntosh. Cast: William Redfield, John Larkin, Vera Allen, John Moore, Teri Keane, Richard Hamilton, Hope Risman. |
Episode 52: The Defenders
Mankind has retreated underground to escape the horrors of a surface decimated by World War Three, leaving the machines to continue the fighting. First broadcast: 22 May 1956. Original Story by Philip K. Dick. Cast: Grant Richards, Ivor Francis, Lydia Bruce, Michael Ingram, Robert Dryden, Stan Early, Warren Parker. |
Episode 53: Lulungomeena
Tensions at a deep-space relay station erupt over a veteran's claim that his homeworld, Lulungomeena, is the most beautiful in the galaxy. To resolve the dispute, the crew must rely on the arbitration of an alien Hixabrod, the most literal and honest race in the universe. Part of Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series. First broadcast: 29 May 1956. Original Story by Gordon R. Dickson. Cast: Ralph Camargo, Ned Wever, Jack Grimes, Bob Hastings, Kermit Murdock. |
Episode 54: Project Mastodon
Entrepreneurs appeal the government to award official state recognition to their own personal republic of Mastodonia, 50,000 years in the past. Sounds like a great opportunity to make a fortune, but the past is not all it's cracked up to be... First broadcast: 5 June 1956. Original Story by Clifford D. Simak. Cast: Bob Hastings, Charles Penman, Floyd Mack, Frank Maxwell, John Larkin, Joseph Julian, Raymond Edward Johnson, Richard Hamilton. |
Episode 55: If You Was A Moklin
The primitive, native Moklins are so enamored of humans that they want to be just like us. But the humans soon discover that imitation can not only be flattering, but deadly... First broadcast: 12 June 1956. Original Story by Murray Leinster. Cast: Dick Janaver, Helen Gerald, John Marley, Joseph Julian, Karl Weber, Patricia Weil, Ralph Camargo, Stan Early. |
Episode 56: Project Trojan
An odd episode about the British hiring a Sci-Fi writer to fool the Nazis into thinking they have developed a super Death Ray. Hopefully, the Nazis will divert their scientific resources from the V-2 program to developing an 'impossible' counter-weapon. First broadcast: 19 June 1956. Original Story by Ernest Kinoy, from an idea by H. L. Gold. Cast: Alfred Shirley, Alistair Duncan, William Quinn, Burford Hampden, Ivor Francis. |
Episode 58: Mr. Costello, Hero
A star freighter's crew is glad to see the end of their enigmatic passenger, Mr. Costello. During their run through the circuit of Earth's colonies he has managed to either manipulate or destroy everything and everyone around him. But pity the poor isolated colony world where they dump him... First broadcast: 3 July 1956. Original Story by Theodore Sturgeon. Cast: Joe DeSantis, Bob Hastings, Teri Keane, James Stevens, Raymond Edward Johnson, James Dukas, Wendell Holmes, Mandel Kramer. |
Episode 59: Bad Medicine
A New York jet-bus driver with a simple case of homicidal mania purchases a home computer therapist, unaware that this particular machine has been programmed to treat only Martian psychoses. First broadcast: 10 July 1956. Original Story by Robert Sheckley, as Finn O'Donnevan. Cast: Allan Mason, Charles Webster, Cliff Carpenter, Joseph Sullivan, Norman Rose, William Griffis, Bill Britton, Joseph Julian. |
Episode 60: The Old Die Rich
An unusual number of elderly turn up dead with money stuffed in their pockets, yet having died of starvation. The investigation leads to an unscrupulous woman who is using a time machine to send people back in time to make her fortune. First broadcast: 17 July 1956. Original Story by H. L. Gold. Cast: Jim Boles, Jan Miner, William Zuckert, Guy Repp, Wendell Holmes, Ralph Camargo, Ivor Francis. |