THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES is an Anglo-American miniseries vaguely remembered with some affection by those who saw it on its broadcast in 1980 . Having seen it again it's a fairly entertaining SF epic about the colonization of Mars by humanity , something that might have still seemed possible on it's original broadcast but now seems dated in its optimism . It's also a miniseries that suffers from some blatant flaws
One of the major flaws revolve around Ray Bradbury's original source material . It's not a novel as such , more a collection of vignettes and short stories published in the 1940s by Bradbury and as such such the miniseries doesn't have a central plot . Adapter Richard Matheson does try to bring a linear structure by making Colonel John Wilder a linking device but the fact remains there's not a central structure to the story . In many ways it's similar to James A Michener's Centennial except it's set on Mars and the parallels to the colonization of the New World are maybe a little too obvious to be entirely successful .. Characters come and go but often don't contribute much to the story and disappear never to appear again . It's not helped that the cast list is the same for every episode . The vast majority of the cast just appear as cameos
The cast themselves are very uneven , so much so that the acting veers from the very good to the embarrassing that a viewer may suffer from seas sickness . Darren McGavin is okay as Sam Parkhill second in command of the third expedition to Mars but is laughably bad when it's revealed he now owns a hamburger joint on a Mars freeway . It's one of those camp cowboys characters that only exists in cheesy American TV series . Nicholas Hammond is very wooden as Captain Arthur Black . His mission to Mars finds himself landing in " Illinois " and he seems only slightly puzzled by this . Oh he landed on the wrong planet and he's only slightly puzzled , a highly unlikely reaction . Perhaps the two best performances are by Fritz Weaver as a idealistic missionary who sees a vision of Jesus played by Jon Finch only for the missionary to realise " Jesus " is in fact a Martian . It's a beautiful scene about idealism , hope and soul crushing disappointment and one people can relate to regardless of their eccelistical beliefs and is probably the most memorable scene from the series
Michael Anderson is probably best remembered in Britain as being the director of THE DAM BUSTERS , a classic war film with a legendary soundtrack . The one flaw with that film were the special effects and this is also a flaw with this miniseries especially much of the model work where the Martian sandships look like tiny models that are given away free with brands of cereal . This might have been down to the budget running out . The location work in Malta and Lanzarote must have cost a lot along with the actor cameos and you are left with the impression that late in the day the money run out . Whilst being never being up to the standard of THE DAM BUSTERS the soundtrack is memorable , very much love it or hate it and apart from the acting and model work the only serious fault Anderson makes is casting an attractive blonde as Geneviere
Richard Matheson probably does his best with the original episodic source material . As stated Bradbury wrote his stories before science had any knowledge of Mars hence settlers can walk around a planet that has Earth like gravity and an atmosphere . One flaw that does seem unexplained ( Correct me if I missed the explanation ) is that the settlers are warned of an oncoming war and are evacuated back to Earth where they are wiped out in a nuclear holocaust . Certainly one of the main reasons for traveling to other planets - a view loudly stated by Prof Stephen Hawking amongst many other eminent scientists - is that " the eggs are no longer all in the same basket " so why bother going back to a planet that is about to become a radioactive cinder ? He does however make it very easy to empathise with the characters . The Martians themselves are very benign and only kill humans in order to protect themselves
After a period of almost 30 years you might just find THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES a little disappointing . Maybe as not as disappointing as seeing Jesus only to find out he's not what he seems to be , but still disappointing nevertheless but this is mainly down to its dated values . It still has a high watchability factor however and has some entertaining moments and even if you're not a die hard SF fan you still might like o give it a chance
One of the major flaws revolve around Ray Bradbury's original source material . It's not a novel as such , more a collection of vignettes and short stories published in the 1940s by Bradbury and as such such the miniseries doesn't have a central plot . Adapter Richard Matheson does try to bring a linear structure by making Colonel John Wilder a linking device but the fact remains there's not a central structure to the story . In many ways it's similar to James A Michener's Centennial except it's set on Mars and the parallels to the colonization of the New World are maybe a little too obvious to be entirely successful .. Characters come and go but often don't contribute much to the story and disappear never to appear again . It's not helped that the cast list is the same for every episode . The vast majority of the cast just appear as cameos
The cast themselves are very uneven , so much so that the acting veers from the very good to the embarrassing that a viewer may suffer from seas sickness . Darren McGavin is okay as Sam Parkhill second in command of the third expedition to Mars but is laughably bad when it's revealed he now owns a hamburger joint on a Mars freeway . It's one of those camp cowboys characters that only exists in cheesy American TV series . Nicholas Hammond is very wooden as Captain Arthur Black . His mission to Mars finds himself landing in " Illinois " and he seems only slightly puzzled by this . Oh he landed on the wrong planet and he's only slightly puzzled , a highly unlikely reaction . Perhaps the two best performances are by Fritz Weaver as a idealistic missionary who sees a vision of Jesus played by Jon Finch only for the missionary to realise " Jesus " is in fact a Martian . It's a beautiful scene about idealism , hope and soul crushing disappointment and one people can relate to regardless of their eccelistical beliefs and is probably the most memorable scene from the series
Michael Anderson is probably best remembered in Britain as being the director of THE DAM BUSTERS , a classic war film with a legendary soundtrack . The one flaw with that film were the special effects and this is also a flaw with this miniseries especially much of the model work where the Martian sandships look like tiny models that are given away free with brands of cereal . This might have been down to the budget running out . The location work in Malta and Lanzarote must have cost a lot along with the actor cameos and you are left with the impression that late in the day the money run out . Whilst being never being up to the standard of THE DAM BUSTERS the soundtrack is memorable , very much love it or hate it and apart from the acting and model work the only serious fault Anderson makes is casting an attractive blonde as Geneviere
Richard Matheson probably does his best with the original episodic source material . As stated Bradbury wrote his stories before science had any knowledge of Mars hence settlers can walk around a planet that has Earth like gravity and an atmosphere . One flaw that does seem unexplained ( Correct me if I missed the explanation ) is that the settlers are warned of an oncoming war and are evacuated back to Earth where they are wiped out in a nuclear holocaust . Certainly one of the main reasons for traveling to other planets - a view loudly stated by Prof Stephen Hawking amongst many other eminent scientists - is that " the eggs are no longer all in the same basket " so why bother going back to a planet that is about to become a radioactive cinder ? He does however make it very easy to empathise with the characters . The Martians themselves are very benign and only kill humans in order to protect themselves
After a period of almost 30 years you might just find THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES a little disappointing . Maybe as not as disappointing as seeing Jesus only to find out he's not what he seems to be , but still disappointing nevertheless but this is mainly down to its dated values . It still has a high watchability factor however and has some entertaining moments and even if you're not a die hard SF fan you still might like o give it a chance