S is for Space
Doubleday & Company, August 1966.

16 Stories.

Summary: Story of Smith, a man who turns green and his body hardens into a chrysalis-like shell. As he lies dormant, three doctors argue over his fate. Will he emerge a changed superman? A monster? Should they kill him now while they can? Too late. He’s re-emerged...and he hasn’t changed a bit. Or has he?

Comments: The three doctors are named Rockwell, Hartley, and McGuire. There is a vague character called Murphy near the beginning of the story. It’s unclear if he is a separate character or if it’s a mistake and supposed to say McGuire.

There is a completely different "Chrysalis" in The Cat's Pajamas.

Summary: William Lantry emerges from his grave in the year 2349. He had died in 1933. He is the last "dead" man on Earth. All cemeteries have been "cleaned-up" (the bodies dug up and burned in huge incinerators). Lantry decides to teach this new world about death and fear, creating some friends along the way.

Comments: This story fits into a sort of subgenre of Bradbury’s: Antiseptic Future World That Has Lost Its Imagination. These are the stories that lament the lack of appreciation for authors such as Poe, Lovecraft, Derleth, Machen, Dunsany, Hawthorne, Bierce, etc. Other examples of this type of story are "The Exiles" and the superior "Usher II."

Radio: National Public Radio did a faithful adaptation on the 2000X series (sometimes called Beyond 2000). It was about 50 minutes long, hosted by Harlan Ellison, and starred Allan Miller as Lantry. The acting was excellent except for the child voiced by an adult. That's always creepy. Learn more here.

Summary: Have you heard about the invasion? It's the latest thing. All the kids are just crazy about it. Seven-year-old Mink tells her mother all about it during lunch.

Comments: Science-fiction is often dismissed as silly with sceptics taking the attitude of "that could never happen." But authors often use exaggeration and sensational situations to portray serious subject matter. Tone this story down just a bit and you have the Columbine High School tragedy.

Ray Bradbury Theater #44 stars Sally Kirkland as the mother and Katharine Isobel Murray as Mink. The child actors upstage the adults, but that's only fitting considering the plot.

There is also a 20-minute "Zero Hour" which was most likely made for PBS. The credits on the video show a copyright date of 1977, and there is mysteriously no cast listing. The Internet Movie Database has no listing for this film at all. If you have information about this film, please E-mail me.

Radio: In 1950 Dimension X did this story in the same episode as "There Will Come Soft Rains." It starred Denise Alexander as Mink and Rita Lynn as the mother. Escape presented "Zero Hour" in 1953, starring Evelyn Ashdowne as Mink. This script was redone with Miss Ashdowne on Suspense in 1955. This is the best version I've heard so far.

Summary: Captain Hart and his rocket crew are the first to land on a remote world, but Hart is puzzled when no one from the nearby city comes to welcome them. He cannot believe that his own dramatic arrival has been upstaged by "The Man" who passed through town the day before.

Comments: This story features an apparatus that instantly translates from any language to any other language. It is described as a box on a tripod. No wonder Douglas Adams went with the babelfish. Also, the other main character is a rocket crew member named Martin.

Radio: I never cared for the original story, but it may be the best Bradbury 13 episode I've heard. The superb characterizations, together with the sound effects, create an episode you can almost see.

Summary: School teacher Mr. Fields uses a time machine to bring three children back to the "ancient" year 1928. He shows them outdated horrors such as a circus, the Fourth of July, and Halloween.

Comments: Another story setting a future "antiseptic world" against Bradbury’s nostalgic Illinois childhood. In the future there are "decent holidays like William C. Chatterton’s Birthday..." Chatterton is a character name from "Here There Be Tygers," but it is unclear if this is a reference to him as no first name is given in that story. Bradbury often recycled names and there may be other Chattertons out there.

Summary: A.D. 2053. Mr. Leonard Mead is out walking in the November night. Everyone else in the city is at home watching TV. But Mr. Mead is walking. Just walking.

Comments: Why do I picture the pedestrian as an older man? Because he’s always called Mr. Leonard Mead? Because he’s walking which is obviously an old custom? Or is it because he said he’d given up his writing years ago? Perhaps he seems older simply because he is wiser than everyone else.

Ray Bradbury Theater #23 features David Ogden Stiers as Mr. Leonard Mead. He is supposed to be 50 years old. Bradbury re-wrote the story to include two pedestrians--otherwise there could be no dialog.

Summary: This is the one about the "boy" who never ages. He’s forty-three years old and stuck inside the body of a twelve-year-old. He travels from town to town being adopted by new parents every few years, because a few years is all it takes before people start to suspect.

Comments: This character would have felt right at home in Summerton, Arizona. See Somewhere a Band Is Playing.

Ray Bradbury Theater #28

Radio: This was part of a CBS Radio Workshop episode featuring two Bradbury stories. The other was "Season of Disbelief." The two stories make a nice pair since one is about a boy who has been denied adulthood, and the other is about a woman having her childhood stolen.

Summary: A lonely hag named Old Lady uses "magic" to make a boy named Charlie "invisible." Then she explains all the problems and dangers of invisibility so that he is afraid to go home. In this way she plans to keep him with her and end her loneliness, but things don’t quite work according to plan.

Comments: There’s a technical error in the "magic" used here. Old Lady tells Charlie he must keep the dead bat bundle in his pocket to be invisible. Later, when Charlie is running around naked, Old Lady is shocked and doesn’t know what to say without giving away the fact that he’s not really invisible. She could have shrieked and said, "Charlie, why did you take the bat from your pocket? I can see you now!" It would have been funny, and it would have kept him in his clothes.

Film: The Learning Corporation of America produced a short film of "Invisible Boy" in 1982. It's faithful to the original story, but still not very interesting. Kate Reid and a young Christian Slater are sufficient in their roles, but the overall production is rather dull. Although the ending is the same as in the short story, I never understood why she makes a sticks-and-rags effigy of Charlie. Isn't the whole point that she's pretending he's still there, still invisible?

For another fumbled metaphor see "Green Wine for Dreaming."

Summary: Hugh Fortnum's son Tom is growing mail-order mushrooms in his cellar. His neighbor, Mrs. Goodbody, is spraying for flying saucers. And his friend Roger has mysteriously disappeared. What does it all add up to?

Comments: This story seems ready-made for comic book form. Artist Dave Gibbons gives it a classic 1950s treatment in The Best of Ray Bradbury: The Graphic Novel.

Ray Bradbury Theater #30

Summary: An Earth family arrives on Mars for a picnic and a little fishing. They stay a million years.

Comments: This serves as the final chapter of The Martian Chronicles, a book which can be read as a novel or as a collection of stories. The point-of-view here is that of Timothy, the oldest boy, and it is consistent and convincing as such. Dad provides the moments of wisdom which, thanks to the P.O.V., are limited to his dialog. This is a man trying to educate his sons, and his words fit naturally into the story, avoiding the sermon-like qualities of stories like "The Strawberry Window."

If you get a chance to see the TV mini-series, watch for the ending where Rock Hudson and his family are looking down into the water. Their reflection is not backward like it should be. Oops. Most of the effects in that movie are comical, but keep in mind it was made in 1979. It's the slow pace that drags it down.

Radio: Dimension X adapted this into their "Martian Chronicles" episode.

Summary: Ten-year-old Margaret Leary hears a buried woman screaming under the empty lot behind her house. But no one believes Margaret. And surely the woman is running out of air.

Comments: In Bradbury Country children are often smarter than adults, which could account for his popularity among young readers.

Ray Bradbury Theater #5 stars Drew Barrymore in her prime.

Radio: Suspense featured Margaret O'Brien in "The Screaming Woman" on Thanksgiving 1948. The same script was shortened a bit for the March 1955 broadcast starring Sherry Jackson. Both versions are set on Thanksgiving and use a doll as an important clue. The Bradbury 13 episode sticks to the song clue from the original story.

See also: "Zero Hour" is a more sinister example of what happens when parents don't listen to their children.

Summary: People line up for a chance to spit at the Mona Lisa which is apparently the last relic of a civilization gone wrong.

Comments: None.

Summary: Americans arrive on Mars, seeking peace from the Earth war. They start settlements with their families, but something isn’t quite right. Things just aren’t the same, and Harry Bittering can’t quite put his finger on it. And why isn’t anyone else concerned?

Comments: In this story the husband is panicky and wants to return to Earth, but his wife and kids seem to enjoy life on Mars. This is almost an exact opposite of "The Strawberry Window."

There are a number of small differences between the U.S. edition of this story and the U.K. version published in The Day it Rained Forever. The U.S. version has three children: Dan, Laura, and David. The U.K. version changes Dan to Tim. Some of Bradbury's more interesting imagery was also omitted from the U.K. book.

The Best of Ray Bradbury: The Graphic Novel includes a version of "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" adapted by Kent Williams and John Van Fleet. The same book includes Van Fleet's version of "Picasso Summer."

Radio: Bradbury 13 uses the name Tim and there is no David at all. I think I like this show better than the original story (even if the two men from town sound like the old geezers that did the Autolite spark plug commericials on Suspense).

See also: The original magazine title of this story should not be confused with the short segment called "The Naming of Names" in The Martian Chronicles.

The first light on the roof outside; very early morning.

Summary: Mr. Tridden, the trolley conductor, gives the children of Green Town a final ride before the trolley is replaced by modern buses.

Comments: This story isn't much on its own, but its placement in Dandelion Wine makes it more significant. It follows "The Green Machine" which is also about a last ride. (Doug's reference to the Green Machine was apparently added for the novel's continuity, as it doesn't appear in S is for Space.) We are now halfway through the novel and things are taking a turn toward sadness and finality. Doug starts the summer by recording each "first" of the season, but now he is forced to face "final" things. Bradbury's choice of "Statues" for the next story shows that this patchwork novel was carefully sewn together.

Summary: China, 400 A.D. A man catches the Emperor’s attention by flying.

Comments: To read about the invention of the first bicycle see "The Ghost in the Machine."

Summary: On the night before the first flight to the moon, a rocket pilot dreams about the history of flight.

Comments: Written in the mid-1950s, this story predicts the first moon mission to be August 1, 1971--only two years off the mark, not too shabby. For more info on Bradbury’s moon-landing predictions read Mars and the Mind of Man.

This story was made into an animated film which received a 1962 Oscar nomination.