George Bamber had a favorite genre for his writing, “enviro-disaster,” and this episode fits that category with a background of Cold War atomic annihilation playing a big role in the storyline. A group of scientists aboard a space ship set out to explore the mysteries of an unknown planet. As they circle the celestial body, they spot an island, surrounded by water on four sides. They manage a safe landing and begin to make their way around. Finding no living persons around, they conclude that the place has not been inhabited for perhaps a thousand years. None of the party can unravel the mystery except Dr. Siddons whose explanation of the phenomenon is both interesting and startling.
The story is predictable, but even so, you still want to hear how the predictable ending plays out and what clues are provided. It must be remembered that the story may not have seemed as “predictable” then as it does to modern ears who have had a steady diet of science fiction as social commentary and surprise endings. Star Trek was not on the air yet, so this story may have had a greater sense of novelty in 1960.
Much of Bamber’s influence was derived 1950s science fiction (he was a big X Minus One fan) and Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone was a favorite television program for him. This story gave him the opportunity to do so with a story based in Cold War tensions and fears of atomic annihilation, and a twist ending. The script was used again on Theatre 5 on 1965-07-26 as In Absence of All Intelligent Life.
“Dr. Siddons” was planned to be played by Richard Kendrick but he was replaced by Les Damon. The “Captain” was originally to be played by Al Hodge (early TV’s star of the sci-fi show Captain Video, was replaced by Les Damon, but changed to John Larkin; Hodge was one of the actors who starred as The Green Hornet in its radio heyday).
Not a real spoiler alert: there are so many hints in the dialogue that they are over Manhattan Island and that their landing spot is Central Park. The crosshatches they keep mentioning are the network of streets and avenues they see from above. The “monuments” are apartment buildings and office skyscrapers (the dialogue “Such crude dwellings. They must have lived absolutely one on top of the other” is quite funny). No spoiler alert is necessary.
The real question is if the characters are from 1,000 years after the annihilation of the Earth’s population, are the characters descendants of Earth humans who traveled to other planets? One would think not, since they express disgust at the way Earth people look based on their reaction to a sculpture of one.
The dialogue mentions some devastation “one hundred miles south and west of here” which would be the Philadelphia area.
The program was recorded on Tuesday, July 7, 1960. Rehearsal began at 4:300pm and ended at 7:30pm. Recording was done from 7:30pm to 8:00pm.
There are two recordings that have survived. All of the network recordings are airchecks that have been heavily edited. The one for this episode is well edited and is in superb sound. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#793) is preferred because of its better sound quality. It is new to circulation among classic radio enthusiasts.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600710
THE CAST
Les Damon (Doctor Siddons), Phil Meeder (Collins), John Larkin (The Captain), William Mason (Lieutenant Jeffries)
Warren Sweeney substitutes for Stuart Metz as the announcer.
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