Dimension X

was the first Sci-Fi anthology series to utilize published stories from established science fiction authors (2000 Plus drew its material from stories penned by its own staff writers), which gave the series an instant status of credibility to fans of the genre. It had an extremely low budget, but was the darling of the NBC staff, whose passion made the show perhaps the best Sci-Fi radio anthology of the 50s. Despite their effort, the series only lasted a year-and-a-half, and totaled a mere 46 episodes. It was later revived and became the more successful X Minus One. Unless otherwise noted, all episodes were done in half-hour format.

Currently this archive contains 46 of 46 plotlines

Webmaster Recommends:
The Green Hills of Earth | Nightfall | Nightmare | Time and Time Again | Universe | The Veldt

Jeff Dickson Recommends:
The Last Objective | The Lost Race | The Martian Death March | Shanghaied | Universe | The Vital Factor

A Logic Named Joe

An enterprising computer company releases a PC capable of answering any question put to it. Unfortunately, some of the questions people want answers to are not ones that members of a civilized society should be asking...

A version of this story was produced for X Minus One.

Almost Human

A scientist builds a robot - 'Junior' - capable of intelligence and consciousness, but the machine is stolen by a criminal who has other ideas for its uses. Junior, on the other hand, has plans of his own.

Another version of this story appeared on X Minus One. See also 'Beware Tomorrow' (The Mysterious Traveler).

And the Moon be Still As Bright

As though wiping out the Martian race with Earthborn diseases weren't enough, humans demonstrate a hostile contempt for what relics and monuments the Martians left behind—until one man with a conscience and a gun decides to stand up for the dead. Part of the Martian Chronicles future history.

Other versions of this story aired on X Minus One and Omni Audio Experience. See also 'The Martian Death March' (Dimension X and X Minus One); See the full listing of Martian Chronicles stories under 'Ray Bradbury' on the Famous Authors on Radio page.

Beyond Infinity

Seeking an exclusive on a revolt in a totalitarian nation, an American journalist contacts the underground movement and is lead to a laboratory where a scientist is experimenting with shrinking objects to microscopic size. The revolutionaries plan to use the technology to smuggle arms into the country, but the secret police are hot on their trail...

The Castaways

Nuclear testing on a remote Pacific island goes awry when the natives—rather than be relocated—threaten to commit mass suicide to put a curse on the project.

Two separate versions of this story were produced for X Minus One

Child's Play

A milquetoast lawyer accidentally receives a package in the mail containing a cloning machine from the future, with which he sets about making a duplicate capable of turning his life around.

Another version of this story was produced for X Minus One. See also 'Marionettes, Inc.' (Dimension X and X Minus One) and 'Prime Difference' (X Minus One)

Competition

A young woman hoping for a bright new life in the colonies of the Rim Worlds instead finds herself kidnapped and used as a pawn in a deadly war between rival frontier corporate pirates.

NOTE: Some commercial retailers present this episode as part of X Minus One, complete with an edited in introduction and closing. Why, I don't know.

Courtesy

An expedition to the planet Landro meets with disaster when the serum protecting against a local plague runs out. The natives are immune to the disease, but seem reluctant to explain the source of their natural immunity.

Another version of this story later appeared on X Minus One

Destination Moon

The first manned mission to the Moon must overcome government censure and numerous physical obstacles to succeed. Based on the George Pal film of the same name.

Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitorium

An Private Eye infiltrates an insane asylum to investigate rumors of strange goings-on, and discovers some bizarre physical transformations.

Another version of this story later appeared on Future Tense and X Minus One

Dwellers in Silence

Colonists from Mars return to Earth generations after the Atomic War and discover a few survivors—a family with some very odd peculiarities about them. Part of the Martian Chronicles series.

Another version of this story later appeared on X Minus One. See also 'A Pail of Air' (X Minus One).
See the full listing of Martian Chronicles stories under 'Ray Bradbury' on the Famous Authors on Radio page.

The Embassy

A detective agency is hired by a crackpot who wants them to investigate and expose a nest of Martians sent to prepare the way for an invasion of Earth.

Another version of this story appeared on X Minus One

First Contact

Classic story of the first encounter with an alien race and the mutual distrust that would involve—neither ship wishes to be the first to depart for fear of giving away clues of their origin to a potential adversary.

Versions of this story also appeared on X Minus One and Exploring Tomorrow.

The Green Hills of Earth

Classic story of a space engineer who suffers a tragic accident and ends up tramping about the Solar System singing about the life of spacers and dreaming of returning to Earth once more before he dies.

Other versions of this story appeared on X Minus One and CBS Radio Workshop; also a TV version was produced for a 50's show called 'Out There'.

Hello, Tomorrow

To escape a world of radioactive dust and intense gamma radiation, the survivors of the 3rd Atomic War burrowed underground and, over the next 2,000 years, rebuilt civilization. But with scant resources, such a civilization has no place for the genetically inferior... or for a geneticist who falls in love with one of them.

See also 'The Defenders' (X Minus One) and 'The Last Objective' (Dimension X)

Kaleidoscope

When a meteor destroys a spaceship, its crew is hurled outward into space in a dozen directions. Their suit radios will keep them in contact range for only so long. What do men talk about when death is imminent?

Versions of this story also appeared on Bradbury 13, Suspense, and The Shape of Things to Come (BBC). See also 'Program Completed' (Miscellaneous Shows)

Knock

Aliens who have no concept of natural death have wiped out humanity, literally to the last man and woman, whom they put in a zoo as public curiosities.

Versions of this story also appeared on X Minus One, Future Tense, 2000X (not to be confused with 2000 Plus) and Seeing Ear Theater.

The Last Objective

After nuclear devastation and fallout has rendered the Earth's surface virtually uninhabitable, Man continues to pursue war underground in tunneling 'warships'.

See also 'Hello, Tomorrow' (Dimension X and X Minus One), and 'The Defenders' (X Minus One).

The Lost Race

A space crew find themselves shipwrecked on a world where the ruins of a long dead spacefaring civilization hide a deadly secret that has the power to destroy the present as it did the past.

The Man in the Moon

The Federal Missing Persons Bureau receives a desperate radio message from a crank who claims to be calling from the Moon (unlikely in 1950). Of course the call is dismissed, until a minor functionary begins to suspect that the call is related to a strange series of disappearances over the past several years.

Versions of this story were produced for X Minus One and Future Tense.

Marionettes, Inc.

A husband looking to get away from his wife for a vacation purchases a robot duplicate of himself to take his place. Bad idea...

Versions of this story were made for X Minus One and an independently produced series called Audion Theater. See also 'Child's Play' (Dimension X and X Minus One) and 'Prime Difference' (X Minus One).

Mars Is Heaven!

The first astronauts to land on Mars discover... Earth: a planet where their long-dead loved ones are waiting for them in a small Midwest town just like home. Part of his Martian Chronicles series.

A popular story for radio; Two separate versions were produced for Dimension X. Other versions of this story also appeared on Future Tense, X Minus One and Escape . See the full listing of Martian Chronicles stories under 'Ray Bradbury' on the Famous Authors on Radio page.

The Martian Chronicles

A compilation of several of Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles stories, weaved into a single story line. Includes abbreviated versions of 'There Will Come Soft Rains' and 'And the Moon Be Still As Bright'.

See also 'The Martian Death March' (Dimension X and X Minus One). See the full listing of Martian Chronicles stories under 'Ray Bradbury' on the Famous Authors on Radio page.

The Martian Death March

On a Mars conquered by Earthmen, the few remaining spider-like Martians escape from their reservation and embark on a desperate trek across the deserts to their mountain homelands, lead by a human religious fanatic.

X Minus One produced two separate versions of this story. Another version appeared on Future Tense. See also 'And the Moon be Still as Bright' (X Minus One and Dimension X)

Nightfall

Classic tale of an alien civilization whose world circles a multiple star system of six suns, and faces worldwide insanity and social collapse when night descends once every several thousand years.

Another version of this story later aired on X Minus One

Nightmare

A man begins to suspect that all machines are on the verge of a unified worldwide revolt to overthrow their human masters.

Another version of this story was produced for X Minus One

No Contact

A strange invisible barrier is frustrating Man's attempts to explore the depths of space. Six expeditions have been lost trying to cross it, their fate a mystery since no signal can pass through the barrier. This is the story of the seventh...

Two separate versions of this story were produced for Dimension X; A third was made for X Minus One ; another was made for a 50's series called The Chase.

The Outer Limit

A test pilot on an experimental high altitude aircraft with only ten minutes worth of fuel disappears from radar for ten hours, yet returns safely. Of course, it is impossible, as is his story of contact with aliens and the dire warning they have for Mankind.

A very popular story with radio producers. Versions also appeared on Escape, X Minus One, Beyond Tomorrow, and two versions for Suspense.

The Parade

An ad agency is hired by a man insisting he is from Mars to promote an upcoming parade marking the arrival of Martians on Earth. Of course, he must be lying, or simply crazy...

This episode may have been later rebroadcast on X Minus One. Also, a version appeared on Future Tense.

Pebble in the Sky

A radioactive and decrepit Earth prepares in secret for a deadly gambit to reclaim its prodigal colonies and rebuild its galactic empire.

Perigi's Wonderful Dolls

A doll maker sells a father an unusual doll which seems capable of responding to people, presumably by recording voices and replaying them in its own voice. Is it just a bit of technical wizardry, or is there something more to this doll than meets the eye?

A version of this story also appeared on X Minus One.

The Potters of Firsk

A liaison officer from Earth is caught between a steely planetary administrator and a fanatical alien cult who kidnap and murder people to use as raw materials for their sacred pottery.

The Professor Was a Thief

New York city goes into a panic when Grant's Tomb vanishes into thin air. When a bookish little professor claims responsibility, the press laugh at him... until the Empire State Building goes missing, too.

Report on the Barnhouse Effect

A parapsychologist discovers the secret of mind over matter, a revelation of considerable interest to the military. The professor, however, is a born pacifist who will do anything to keep his secret out of the hands of warmongers.

Requiem

Two grounded astronauts are offered one more chance by an aging tycoon who will stop at nothing to achieve his lifetime dream of setting foot on the Moon.

Versions of this story also appeared on Beyond Tomorrow and X Minus One. See also 'The Vital Factor' (Dimension X and X Minus One)

The Roads Must Roll

In the future the country depends on an electro-hydraulic road system which acts as a conveyor belt to transport people and cargo. The system works well, until the engineers' union which maintains the roads stages a strike as a bid to gain power.

Another version of this story appeared on X Minus One.

Shanghaied

A man is drugged and press-ganged from his own stag party to serve on board a deep space freighter outward bound on a fifteen year round trip to Alpha Centauri.

Another version of this story also appeared on X Minus One.

There Will Come Soft Rains

An automated house faithfully continues its daily routines after its occupants—and the rest of humanity—have long gone.

Versions were also produced for X Minus One, and 4 separate versions for the BBC.

Time and Time Again

A soldier dying on a battlefield of the future suddenly finds himself transported back to his own childhood.

Another version of this story also appeared on X Minus One. See also "Flashback" (Exploring Tomorrow).

To the Future

A couple escape the totalitarian, war-torn world of 2155 for the carefree gaiety of 20th century Acapulco. Unfortunately, however, the government of the future considers them essential for the war effort and cannot allow them to escape. Inevitably, the Seekers are sent to find them...

A version of this story under the same title aired on X Minus One, and also as 'The Fox in the Forest' on Bradbury 13.

Universe

Humanity's descendants aboard a space Ark are divided into two factions—the lower decks occupied by humans, and the upper by mutants. One man dares probe the upper levels and his quest leads him to question not only his society's prejudices, but the ultimate truth of what might lie beyond the Ship.

Another version of this story also appeared on X Minus One. See also 'The Sense of Wonder' (X Minus One)

Untitled Story

A strange amalgam of Sci-Fi and the hard-boiled detective story. A private eye is hired by the city mayor to obtain an elixir of life from an enigmatic scientist. His investigation reveals a strange conspiracy that could have serious repercussions for the future of humanity.

The Veldt

A couple purchase a holo-theater to keep their son and daughter amused, but the recreation of the sweltering African savannah the children concoct is anything but amusing...

See also 'The House on Chimney Pot Lane' (CBS Radio Mystery Theater). One of Bradbury's most popular stories, versions appeared on X Minus One, Bradbury 13, CBC Playhouse, Mindwebs and the BBC .

The Vital Factor

Wayne Crowder, the ruthless head of Crowder Industries, assumes the Herculean task of being the first man in history to achieve space travel. Building the ship proves easy, but to propel it at sufficient speed seems impossible, until one man shows up with an answer... and a heavy price for achieving the stars.

Another version of this story also appeared on X Minus One. And yet another version was produced for television on the program Tales of Tomorrow, with Lee J. Cobb as Crowder. See also 'Requiem' (Dimension X and X Minus One)

With Folded Hands

A manufacturer of domestic robots finds his livelihood threatened by a new competitor, whose 'humanoids' are vastly superior to his and are devoted to the protection and service of mankind. Maybe too devoted...

A version of this story appeared on Future Tense. See also 'The Iron Chancellor' (X Minus One)

Zero Hour

Suddenly, children from all over the country are playing a new game called Invasion, with Zero Hour set for 5:00, today. How charming. How droll. Or is it really just a game?

Versions of this story also appeared on Future Tense, Adventure Theater, Suspense (3 versions), X Minus One, The Mysterious Traveler, and Escape.

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