A short-lived series from-- appropriately enough-- 1968, out of South Africa, produced and directed by the dean of radio drama in that country, Michael McCabe. SF 68 featured stories from established science fiction writers, drawing inspiration from the likes of Bradbury, Ellison, and Leinster. Most of the copies which have reached North America are somewhat scratchy and garbled (at least the ones I've been able to hear) , which is unfortunate, since the shows were well made and the stories interesting. The series was dropped in favor of a mystery/horror series called Beyond Midnight, whose run was far more successful. All episodes of SF 68 are in half-hour format.
Currently this archive contains plotlines for 15 of 18 episodes
WEBMASTER RECOMMENDS:
Space Cow; Grenville's Planet
Andover and the Android Robots
An ambitious businessman feels the need for a wife and so purchases a 'female' android off the black market.
See also 'Marionettes, Inc.' (Dimension X and X Minus One), and 'Prime Difference' (X Minus One)
The Answer
American and East German nuclear tests each bring down what appears to angels, bearing a message for humankind.
A Sound of Thunder Time Travel
Time Safari, Inc. offers hunting enthusiasts the chance of a lifetime, the opportunity to travel back to the Cretaceous to bag the biggest trophy of all time-- Tyrannosaurus Rex. Story by Ray Bradbury.
Versions of this story also appeared on Bradbury 13 , the BBC's Golden Apples of the Sun, and as 'An Imbalance of Species' on Future Tense.
See also 'A Gun for Dinosaur' and 'Project Mastodon' (both from X Minus One)
Reviews:
Markedly inferior to the version done for Bradbury 13. - Webmaster
The Cage Aliens/ Space Exploration
Space explorers marooned on a distant world are 'rescued' by aliens who think them to be indigenous animals. Story by A. Bertram Chandler.
The Castaway Aliens
When an alien is sighted landing in a remote rural area, the local yokels decide the best way to get interstellar relations off on the right foot is to hunt it down and kill it. Then again, several people have disappeared.... Story by Murray Leinster.
Death Dust Space exploration
The first expedition to the Moon discovers that Moondust is corrosive to all living things.
Grenville's Planet Space exploration
Two explorers land on a world covered by ocean, save for one enigmatic island where strange events begin to occur. Story by Michael Shaara.
See also 'The Silver Sky' (BBC Sci-Fi )
Homecoming
Jenny With Wings
Convinced she's alone and a misfit, a young woman born with wings finds temporary solace with a traveling circus as a fellow freak, but betrayal sends her off where she is now thinking of suicide.
Last Rites
A priest answers the desperate summons of a dying and lifelong friend who has a seemingly impossible secret he must reveal before the end comes.
Reviews:
Some radio dramas seem like wannabe "My Dinner with
Andre" audio movies. Two guys forever yakking it up in a boring talkathon.
Not so here. Yes. it's just two guys talking, ah, but what do they talk about?
Life, death, spirituality, the Soul, technological shock, social shock, - in
what could possibly be a literal and troubling prognostication of a very Asimov-like
future. - Bruce Fisher
The New Wine Future Earth
An interstellar exploration mission returns to Earth to find the world virtually depopulated.
The Noon's Repose
The Quest Future Earth
In a future Megalopolis run by machines, a man searches for the meaning of reality.
Reviews:
highly original SF social commentary about one man's odyssey for something
"real". The best episode in this all to short series. Very well
written, acted, and plotted and with a great, but disturbing "sound the
alarm" - hopefully incorrect - very dire prediction in grand
ole Sci Fi tradition. - Bruce Fisher
Routine Exercise
A nuclear submarine encounters some very odd occurrences which seem to suggest they have somehow traveled millions of years onto the past. But if so, who is it that is tracking them on sonar ?
Space Cow
A ship en route from Ganymede back to Earth is waylaid on Mars when the indigenous leviathan they are carrying in their cargo hold becomes ill and needs treatment. A vet is called in, but how do you treat a 400 foot long alien animal that no one has ever seen before?
Wanted in Surgery Future Earth/ Robots
A surgeon in the future resents the roboticization of medicine, and resolves to take drastic action. Story by Harlan Ellison.
Watchbird Future Earth/ Robots
Omnipresent robot drones programmed to detect and intercept violent crimes before they occur prove to be a bit too well designed. Story by Robert Sheckley.
Other versions of this story were produced for Tales of Tomorrow, and 2000 X.
The Will
Story by Walter M. Miller.