This is the penultimate tribute to Ray Bradbury in the "As Seen On TV"
showcase, with one more running this coming Sunday.
FATHER STONE
CREATED BY:
Ray Bradbury
PORTRAYED BY:
Roddy McDowall
AS SEEN IN:
'The Martian Chronicles'
TV STATUS:
Possibly unique to this production
For Toobworld Central, a dimensional recastaway
TV DIMENSION:
Alternate Toobworld
By Ralph Dumain:
The two priests debate
theological issues as they hike back to home base. By dusk they are lost. Three
blue spheres appear. Stone is afraid, convinced it’s the devil’s work. Peregrine
is unafraid; he tries to communicate, showing his cross. The spheres depart.
But Peregrine’s shouting appears to provoke an avalanche. As rocks rain down from the mountainside, the priests prostrate themselves on the ground, fearing the worst. But a blue sphere descends from the sky, picks them up, and moves them to a safe spot. Peregrine is elated: this proves that the spheres have souls and free will. Stone as usual wants to limit his attention to Earth souls that need saving; he is averse to non-human creatures. Peregrine asks: “Can’t you recognize the human in the inhuman?” Stone replies: “I would rather recognize the inhuman in the human.”
But Peregrine’s shouting appears to provoke an avalanche. As rocks rain down from the mountainside, the priests prostrate themselves on the ground, fearing the worst. But a blue sphere descends from the sky, picks them up, and moves them to a safe spot. Peregrine is elated: this proves that the spheres have souls and free will. Stone as usual wants to limit his attention to Earth souls that need saving; he is averse to non-human creatures. Peregrine asks: “Can’t you recognize the human in the inhuman?” Stone replies: “I would rather recognize the inhuman in the human.”
I saw 'The Martian Chronicles' when it first aired on NBC decades ago and I
was excited for it to be shown, not only because it was Bradbury, but because
two of my favorite actors were in the production - Roddy McDowall and Darrin
McGavin.
McGavin was McGavin - blustery and over the top and his two storylines
served him well. But I was disappointed by Roddy's role at first. He was good
as Father Stone, don't get me wrong. But his sidekick role left him a bit of a
wet blanket with his fears of the Red Planet in comparison to Fritz Weaver's
showier performance as Father Peregrine.
And when he showed up later as yet another sidekick - this time to Colonel
Wilder on a visit to the Hathaway family - it was more like "We've got this big
star, and we haven't done that much with him, let's stick him in another
story."
Even his name, "Father Stone", was dull.
But now that I've been acting as an unofficial caretaker for the TV
Universe for a while now, I've come to appreciate his performance and realize
that Father Stone - on a televisiological level - could be the most important
character to come out of this production of 'The Martian Chronicles'.
That's because he's the only character to actually appear in the dimension
of Earth Prime-Time......
SAM CONRAD
CREATED BY:
Paul W. Fairman
PORTRAYED BY:
Roddy McDowall
AS SEEN IN:
'The Twilight Zone'
("People Are Alike All Over")
ADAPTED FROM:
"Brothers Beyond The Void"
TV STATUS:
Dimensional Recastaway
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
From Wikipedia:
A rocket piloted by two astronauts heads out on a mission to Mars. One of
them, Marcusson, is a positive thinker who believes that people are alike all
over, even on the Red Planet. The other astronaut, Conrad, has a more cynical
view of human interplanetary nature. The impact of landing on Mars is so severe
that Marcusson dies. Now alone, Conrad is consumed by fear when he hears a
rhythmic sound reverberating upon the ship's hull. Expecting some unnameable
evil, he finds his apprehension turning to joy when, upon opening the hatch, he
sees Martians that indeed appear human, have mind-reading abilities and give the
impression of being most amicable, especially the beautiful Teenya, who welcomes
and reassures him. The hospitable locals lead their honored guest to his
residence—an interior living space furnished in the same manner as one on Earth
would have been. Conrad briefly relaxes, but soon discovers that his room is
windowless and the doors cannot be opened. Momentarily, a wall slides upward,
leading to Conrad's realization that he has become a caged exhibit in a Martian
zoo. Conrad picks up a sign that says "Earth Creature in his native
habitat" and throws it on the floor. In the episode's closing lines, Conrad
yells to the heavens, "Marcusson! Marcusson, you were right! People are
alike.... people are alike everywhere!"
One of the reasons I had to banish 'The Martian Chronicles' to an alternate
TV dimension is because its timeline clashed with that established for
Toobworld. They had a colony on Mars by at least the new millennium, whereas
the first mult-staffed flight to Mars won't be happening in the main TV
dimension until 2035. ('Life On Mars' - US) (Whatever happens in the real
world by that point won't matter to me. I'll be dead.)
But there could be secret two-man flights going on already; the general
populace just doesn't know about it.
After all, Mankind had been going to the Moon long before the first
official moon landing in 1969. The spy agency CONTROL has a base there; the
remains of Moonbase Alpha are still there - they'd be smoldering if there was an
atmosphere. (I won't go into it here, but the events of 'Space: 1999' didn't
play out in Toobworld as they were depicted on TV.)
So why not manned flights to Mars in the main TV Universe? I would think
the greatest minds of the Galacticans living among the Earthlings (plus a rogue
Vulcan) probably would be helping to make it so. It would be to their advantage
as well to established a manned outpost on Mars to be the first line of defense
against any more alien incursions into the Sol system.
Sam Conrad and Father Stone share the same timeline in their respective TV
dimensions. (That 'Twilight Zone' episode may have aired twenty years earlier,
but it was projecting an event in Toobworld's future.) They look exactly
alike. So if they are the same character separated by a dimensional vortex, why
do they have different names?
Either one of them was adopted and the other was raised by his birth
parents, or they were both adopted. I'm leaning toward the idea that they
shared the same life until they were both adopted - but to different parents.
After that, their journeys through Life took different routes, but there was
always that one over-riding destiny - to go to Mars.
Both of them show trepidation at the idea of being on a strange planet and
encountering Martians. But then they each have different circumstances occur
when they do.
So - for Toobworld purposes only, of course - Father Stone is the only
character from Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" to have appeared in the
main TV dimension. At least for the time being. (He may have appeared, albeit
with a different name, in one of the other Martian episodes of 'The Ray Bradbury
Theater', but I've yet to see all of those.)
BCnU!
"Whatever happens in the real world by that point won't matter to me. I'll be dead.)"
ReplyDeleteToby -- you of all people should know that no one dies on television. You live forever.
Besides, how do you know you won't live to be 79? I *think* I'll be dead, too, but ya never know.
ReplyDeleteIf I should live to be 79 and none of my enemies have killed me by that point, then I must have done something wrong.....
ReplyDelete