X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.
Hear more science fiction dramatizations.
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"[X Minus One] brought current SF to radio, providing adaptations of many excellent new stories and thus allowing the public to appreciate the best science fiction available at the time." (Michael Ashley, The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines)
"A classic in context"
This is the story of Rhysling, the blind singer of the spaceways. The character and his music (particularly this song) appears throughout Heinlein's "Future History".
I can't decide if I'm mad or happy that they replaced Rhysling's squeezebox with a guitar, but after a lifetime of Heinlein devotion, I finally got to hear some of Rhysling's songs as *songs*, rather than as poems. "The Green Hills of Earth" has always been words on a page to me... to hear Rhysling sing "We pray for one last landing...." produced an expected emotional reaction.
This is a wonderful adaptation of the story-- yes, the audio is a little lacking, but bear in mind that this show is fifty years old. You could probably clean it up, but this is how it was heard back then. I bet someone could adapt this, make it sound slick, and take the 1950's styrofoam cheese flavor out of it... but it would be a shame. This isn't just something that happened to take place in the fifties... this is a piece of 1955-- radio history, science fiction history, and American history.
I buy everything with Heinlein's name on it that I don't already have, and I suspect that after I am done with the Heinlein episodes of this series and the one that followed it, I will probably be checking out some of the others.
An old broad that enjoys books of all types. Would rather read than write reviews though. I know what I like, and won't be bothered by crap.
"Hokey story by Heinlein."
It wasn't much science fiction. I wouldn't have done the story at all.
Of course, he has some classic sci fi. This just wasn't up to his standards.
The actors were fine, the premise was stupid.
Not turn on Country music radio.
This was a story about a blind musician. It could have been done anywhere. It was not what I expected and was pretty lame.
"Needs better audio"
Great story, Great Actors, but the experience is ruined by very poor audio... the sound effects overwhelm the dialog to the point of making it unbearable to listen to. PLEASE PLEASE check the Levels and re-release.