Thanks to 'The Ray Bradbury Theater', there are at least three different
Toobworlds in which the events of 'The Martian Chronicles' take place. Proof of
this can be found with the character of John Wilder. In 'The Martian
Chronicles', Colonel Wilder was played by Rock Hudson.
But the character was recast twice in 'The Ray Bradbury Theater' - George
Touliatos played the role in the episode "The Long Years", while Kenneth Welsh
was Wilder in "And The Moon Be Still As Bright."
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| JOHN WILDER [KENNETH WELSH] |
 |
| JOHN WILDER [GEORGE TOULIATOS] |
So each of those episodes and the mini-series means that we're seeing "The
Martian Chronicles" from three different TV dimensions.
Another example:
 |
| TWO DIFFERENT WILDERS WITH TWO DIFFERENT PARKHILLS |
And yet neither of them are of Earth Prime-Time. Bradbury's vision of Mars
clashes with what was established in other TV shows like 'Alfred Hitchcock
Presents', 'The Twilight Zone', 'The Outer Limits', and of course, 'My Favorite
Martian'.
His timeline also skewed wrong with that established in Toobworld, as
already recounted here in Inner Toob.
As the years in the real world got closer to the date of death for the
Hathaways, one might have thought Bradbury would have pushed it farther into the
future. But apparently he remained adamant on that point. And I think I know
why......
Bradbury would insist that the only piece of science fiction he ever wrote
was "Fahrenheit 451", that everything else was fantasy. By making it impossible
for his Martian stories to jibe with the timeline of the real world, they are no
longer the possibility promised in science fiction. They are tales of
fantasy.
(It's funny - Bradbury would argue that his works were fantasy while Anne
McCaffrey would argue that her series of books about the Dragonriders of Pern
were science fiction. Yet many fans would hold them both to be the
opposite.)
Out there somewhere in the dimension of Earth Prime-Time is the main
Toobworld's own "Martian Chronicles"; one that won't clash with the established
Martian history.
It just hasn't happened yet....
BCnU!
2 comments:
Toby, Toby, Toby....O'Bviously the trip to Mars encountered a rip in the space/time continuum that was unforeseen by Earth-bound mission planners.
See: Theyr thar Be Tygers another Ray Bradbury short story giving rise to Back to the Future
LOL, Jim! You'd like my buddies in the TVCU (although Grandmaster Wronski is moving away from printed word sources). 'Sliders' has a stronger hold on this type of splainin, being from Toobworld, so I'll stick with the multiversal theory.
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