The Martian Chronicles
- TV Mini Series
- 1980
- 6h
In the 21st century, Earth begins the colonization of Mars. However, things do not go as planned, at first due to the hostile Martian natives and later because of the self-destructive Earthm... Read allIn the 21st century, Earth begins the colonization of Mars. However, things do not go as planned, at first due to the hostile Martian natives and later because of the self-destructive Earthmen.In the 21st century, Earth begins the colonization of Mars. However, things do not go as planned, at first due to the hostile Martian natives and later because of the self-destructive Earthmen.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe miniseries was originally scheduled for release in September 1979 as a major kickoff to the 1979-80 season. Unfortunately, it fell victim to some negative publicity from Ray Bradbury himself. Although Bradbury had worked with scriptwriter Richard Matheson in adapting his book to the small screen, he was less than thrilled with the final production. At one point, shortly before the miniseries' scheduled release, Bradbury found himself the sole representative of the production at a press conference. When one reporter asked him what he thought of the miniseries, he responded candidly, "Booooooooring!" NBC soon shelved the miniseries and did not air it until January 1980.
- Goofs[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. Oh, we could change the names, but the old names will still be there. So no matter how we touch Mars, we won't be able to really touch it. See, that'll make us angry. We'll get mad at that and just rip it up. We'll change it to suit ourselves. And ruin it. Just like we've ruined Earth.
Col. John Wilder: We won't ruin it.
Maj. Jeff Spender: No? Us Earthmen have a talent for ruining things. If there are any Martians alive in those hills, they're going to grow to hate us.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Vita Carnis: Cook At Home Kitchen - Cheese Crawl Penne Cook-along (2022)
I suppose you need to have seen this miniseries as a child in order to like it. Short of that, its shortcomings must really seem unforgivable for a late 70's production. And yet there are so many aspects that make this show highly enjoyable. And first and foremost its lessons: colonization is not all good; in the process of wiping out the strange and the unknown in order to make room for the newcomers and allow them to settle in comfortably, a lot of interesting and possibly life-changing ideas are lost.
As for the cold war and the message from the Chronicles being outdated, surely the world is no better today place than it was 40 years ago...
To me, visually outdated as it is, the Chronicles still retain the charm of a frontier tale about how important it is to open up when traveling to new strange shores, as opposed to taking your whole world with you ( a theme brilliantly exploited in The Beach for instance). I told you, this is no Sci-Fi !!!
- eric_oliver_nicolas
- Sep 28, 2009
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Die Marschroniken
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro