Episode 101 - With host Craig Norris
First Broadcast on Edge Radio, 1 March 2025.
Delving deeper into the world of radio drama to uncover the layers beneath the stories, we explore an intriguing episode from X Minus One, “Mars is Heaven” by Ray Bradbury. There are some interesting deeper meanings in this story, which I’ll explore by looking into its historical context and seeing how the ideas of some theories and ideas can help explain these.
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TRANSCRIPT
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CRAIG NORRIS
Welcome to Episode 100 and one 101 of Medium Mother Ship broadcasting out of Edge Radio Studios in Nepaluna, Hobart. Tasmania on media Mother ship we explore everything in and around the world of media in particular how it can shape our understanding of the world around us, where streaming on edge radio org dot au as well as over at YouTube and Twitch. So if you want to find us, just search media mother ship on YouTube or. Which were also on the DAB. Message us in during the show. If you have any questions via the chat on YouTube or Twitch and feel free to SMS US directly into the studio on 0488811707. I'm your host, Craig, and today's topic is looking into the world of radio dramas. Again, going back in time to 1948, exploring a really fascinating little radio drama story from the X minus. One anthology series, so we'll be unpacking that mainly in result of my current fascination with the Netflix series, based on the quite well known Chinese science fiction novel 3 body problem, which raises some interesting questions around. A number of fascinating paradoxes, including the farmer of paradox. So let's explore some of these ideas of alien life through science fiction writing.
Speaker 4
Ohh.
CRAIG NORRIS
Alright, welcome back here. So we're exploring on medium motherships episode today. A really interesting episode that we're going to dive deeper into from the world of radio dramas and we're going to uncover some interesting layers and ideas within the story. Will dive into, so we're going to explore. Really intriguing episode from the X, This one science fiction anthology series called Mars is heaven by the well known classic science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. There's some really interesting themes and ideas in this story around. Identity and nostalgia, and most importantly, I think for today's world ideas of fiction versus reality. How well can we trust the reality we think we're seeing around us? We'll look at unpacking this through some really interesting cultural theories as well, to see what sense we can make of it, where the significance of these series really helps us understand something, maybe a little more. Deeper. So let's start by, you know, I'll set the scene by getting us into the. Mood by playing the the start of the episode so we can again transport US back to 1948 when this episode for First aid on the American science fiction anthology series X -, 1 This in fact was was amongst another there early episodes.
Speaker 5
Count Dawn for blast off X -, 5 -, 4, -, 3, -, 2, X -1 fire. From the Far Horizons will be unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll live in a million could be years on 1000, maybe worlds.
Speaker 4
Ohh.
Speaker 5
The National Broadcasting Company Presents Act act minus minus minor.
Speaker 6
Minor minor. 111 wow.
Speaker 5
The night story Mars is heaven. When the first space rocket lands on Mars, what will we find? Only the ruins of a dead and deserted planet. Or will there be life intelligent life in some strange form that we can only imagine? Will we be welcomed with open arms, or will the Martians treat us as invaders? Only one thing is certain. Someday a giant metal ship will take off from Earth to travel through. The black velocity lies the silent goats of space to descend that last into the darkness of the upper Martian atmospheres, and on that day man will finally know the answers. The day we first land on Mars.
CRAIG NORRIS
All right. So that we have the setup the 1st 2 minutes from the X -, 1 minus is heaven's story and what we see that they're setting up here is this story of the the first kind of manned. Mission. Expedition to Tomars and it's set. There's of course was written in 1948 and the year in which this adventure is taking place in the far flung future from 1948 is because 1987 this was set. So we didn't quite make it to Mars by 87, but nevertheless it's it's a story of the first mission to Mars. And as the story goes on, the crew of the spaceship after landing on Mars, uh, amazed by the discovery of perfectly preserved. 1920s American town that they found, they're expecting to see a A, a kind of red Martian surface in hospitable, but instead they're confronted with what appears to be an American 1920 city. So about 28 years before this story was written. So this this astonishes them and they try to figure out is this time travel that they've happened, particularly as they start encountering. The population of the town, which is populated by their deceased loved ones, so their parents, their relatives, their friends who had passed away during their lifetime. But somehow I've ended up on what they believe is still Mars. And it's it's an American village populated by their loved ones and friends and acquaintances who had died. So again, there's that idea of the story being Mars is heaven, so at first they start thinking and the population themselves say maybe this is heaven. Right. So initially, the astronauts believe that they've in fact maybe reached heaven for somehow in some cosmic way, people who have passed away on Earth have ended up reborn on Mars. Ohh. However, in the third act, as night falls, the sinister truth emerges that the town in fact is a. Elaborate illusion. The inhabitants. Everyone else, illusions created by the Martians to lure the crew out and to create a false sense of security before ultimately killing them. So it's a really masterful story. You know, we've got aspects particularly in that third act of horror and psychological suspense. And it's using these ideas of memory, longing and most importantly, the dangers of bland, blind trust, right? Why are these characters start particularly the captain as very cynical, and by the book, yet become seduced? By the the family that he encounters on Mars. So it's an early twist that I think really nicely challenges this core idea that has fascinated media mother ship on the show for a while. We've looked at a number of stories and texts which play with our perceptions of reality through media, right, virtual reality. You know, in today's space, deep fakes, you know, I noticed the BBC News radio station I can local BBC Hobart as well having playing these clips of the upcoming election cycle, creating a deep fake of Jackie Lambie voice and seeing if electorates food is in her electorate would be able to figure out that the message of Jackie Landy petitioning the government to move the capital from melt Canberra to Tasmania. In her voice they've created. This little and I created voice dub is actually fake or not. So again, it's this concern over how trust thing we are of the reality we see around us, how it can be manipulated, how could be altered and bribery story back in 48 is quite a a fun little short story that unpacks in the science fiction setting of these themes.
Speaker 7
Yeah.
CRAIG NORRIS
These topics of being. Through through memory longing, you know, wish fulfilment. What's the dangers of having bit of of of blind trust? One of the things I'd like to pick up on is a little bit of context of the radio anthology series Golden Age of Radio period. So you know, 40s into the 50s of X -, 1 X -1 anthology radio series produced in America. It's really quite a significant series. I do encourage people to go and dive deeply into some of the great little stories in there. The first one is absolutely fantastic. What is it? Nothing behind the door. And it's a wonderful cosmic Horror Story, which we might get around to discussing the future episode, but as the this story suggests, the main focus of the X -, 1 Series science fiction stories, and they explore kind of either futuristic or speculative themes. So in this one it's it's a man first manned mission to Mars and what they might encounter, we'll play some experts during today's episode, and I think you'll hear quite high production values that they bring to bear with some great sound effects, nice backing mean. Music and as well as the fact as we can hear in this episode, it's adaptations or scripts of quite famous and renowned genre authors. So in this one Ray Bradbury, there's also been stories from Isaac Asimov. Philip Kate deck. Yeah, Robert Heinlein, which also are in these anthologies series, so it's worth digging into it to hear some more of these kind of innovative stories way back in the 40s and 50s. That a you know immensely popular for their time and engaged really in in, in, in being the popular culture of that time and within that of course what we'll look at is some of the anxieties, the historical anxieties, if we're looking at something made in 1948, what type of historical anxiety that is in conversation with and interestingly, how that also is maybe prescient, or evokes or can communicate to some of the. Issues and concerns thought provoking issues that we have today, so I don't think this has than aged badly at all this episode and we'll play some little clips to dive deeper into. As I said, I was reminded of this episode as I was watching the very dystopic science fiction series. And I've started reading as well the three body problem, Chinese science fiction trilogy that tells similar to this of Earth's first contact with alien intelligence, and where that may or may not. Be to our advantage and as I was digging into three body problem story, one of the ideas which came up again and again was how it's in conversation with the Fermi paradox, which we'll get to to later kind of classic science question about aliens and where we haven't encountered aliens yet. That's. So X -, 1 really fantastic nostalgic series that has long legacy, very influential, and this is an episode from many people. Consider this one of the better episodes that are in this anthology. As I mentioned this episode, Ed in 1948. So I guess historically we're looking at a period just after the end of World War 2 in 1945 and the start of the Cold War period. So this budding of ideological heads between the communist block and the democratic. Block me countries formed around democracies, so there's a lot of global political, social structure, cultural norm, tensions that are happening this time and probably predominantly this fear of nuclear annihilation, which was there as the Russians began to develop atomic weapons as well. The threat of communism and you know within this as we can see in episode like this, a lot of optimism about technological progress. So the idea this series 1948 this episode. And and it's set in a far flung future of 1987 where we would have landed finally on Mars. So again, this, you know, aspects of it are quite utopic in terms of that. But this is a quite dark episode by the end, as I've said, where the human crew full of hubris a are are are undone, the killed by the end of the episode. And I think that's kind of in conversation if you think that in this episode 1 of the core themes, one of the way in. Which the human. Astronauts I deceived was. Meeting nostalgic lost weight, like the their loved ones that had died. So again, this this story that's based within the stalgia and loss of the characters. Um are being deceived by the feeling of loss that the all these characters have that when they. There, confronted with, I guess, you know if this is 1948, if you think of what that generation of uh, the world's been through Americans throughout the world had been through. We're looking at a period maybe where where ideas of of a peaceful past had been lost right in 1948 coming out of World War 2. The devastation. It's interesting. One of the core characters like favourite character in this series, Doctor Horst, is a survivor of Dachau concentration camp and he's the only one that can see through the deception the. Martians. Had so again within this idea loss. Nostalgia, a technological optimism that that by 87 America will have all these lunar missions and and missions to Mars. But but it's interesting that the Mars mission is full of anxiety and indeed a a kind of cosmic horror. They experience um to their detriment by the end. So there's a there's there's some wonderful kind of Cold War paranoia within this story right by the end, with a character's realise. Well, the only two Sivan characters realised that there will be fooled. This type of subterfuge, they've realised they've been the victim of is classic Cold War. Kind of paranoia that that I think this is in conversation. I also much like some really nice science fiction. SO3 body problem is A is a current dystopic vision from science fiction. Equally, this has a kind of balancing act between our utopic and dystopic vision that's being explored here. U topically presenting this idea of of of a powerful American hegemony that's been able to make it to Mars, that dystopic in terms of the. The victim, they fall into the the type of paranoia that they end up suffering by the end of it. So in terms of its historical location in 1948, it's a really interesting moment in time for a story like this to have been written. And you can see that it's very much in conversation with it, much like in today, we have Black Mirror and other science fiction anthology series that are talking about psychological manipulation. You know the fragility of human perception. Similarly, this this episode back in 48 raising similar issues. And you can see the kind of influence that Ray Bradbury's Mars is heaven story that we're talking about here has bequeathed science fiction and and discussion now. So I wouldn't dig a little deeper. Firstly, into some of the really interesting ideas and meanings that are in this story. If we think firstly of the type of America that's getting portrayed, so I'll play it a short sequence here. This is a sequence where the astronauts have just landed on Mars and they've started exploring to not find their bearings and to explore the region immediately around this. They ship and what they're confronted with there is this really fascinating, idealised version of mid 20th century American life, right? So let's hear now the sequence in the first act. As the spaceships landed, they've started exploring and they've got this, I guess. Um, what is it? Invitation to adventure, where they're confronted with this thing they know shouldn't be there an American 20th century house. In Mars. So we'll see how the story unfolds with that idea. Uh here?
Speaker
Aye.
Speaker 8
And there, sitting on the lawn in the middle of Mars.
Speaker 9
I don't understand.
Speaker 7
Look around the mists lifting.
Speaker 6
Hey, captain. Looked there to house our regular old fashioned house.
Speaker 10
On Mars, good Lord.
Speaker 9
I haven't seen carved scrolls and gingerbread like that in years. Look at that porch. Swing the geraniums.
Speaker 6
There.
Speaker 10
At it was a rooster, captain.
Speaker 9
Give me the glasses, Lustig. I want to take a look through that front window. Now there's an upright piano, some sheet music on it. Think it's it's beautiful Ohio.
Speaker 7
Yeah.
Speaker 10
I can't be Sir horse.
Speaker 9
Horse do you think that civilization of two planets could be identical?
Speaker 8
I don't know. That's specific variety of geraniums is only 50 years old on Earth.
Speaker 9
Is it logical that they should develop in Myers? How about that port swing of the piano and beautiful Ohio lights? Impossible, captain black.
Speaker 10
This looks like a town I was born in.
Speaker 9
Well, it looks like my hometown.
Speaker 10
Ohh I thought it something Sam. It's the only solution. Maybe. Maybe we're not the first ship to reach Mars from Earth.
Speaker 9
Don't be ridiculous. Lasting.
Speaker 10
Ohh how else can you explain it? That's suppose some scientists got together. They they. They invented some spaceship and and planted a colony year. That's the only.
Speaker 9
Answered some possible estic been space travel. It couldn't be secret. You have any idea what ships cause what? Industrial powers needed ohh. There's got to be some logical reason.
Speaker 8
I think perhaps we might find out, captain, the light just went on. And then hard, I said.
Speaker 9
Kingston. Cover that door of the machine gun time. I'm like, come on horse. We're going to ring that doorbell has got to be a scientific answer to Wallace.
CRAIG NORRIS
All right. So, Phyllis, captain. Captain Black and Doctor Hurst. You know that guy who's gonna start figuring out slowly as well as some of the other crew members have been confronted by what seems to be this typical 20th century American house. Yet how could it be there in Mars so? What's really interesting here will be this conversation that they set up a, you know, in how they they they they're falling into this illusion. So at first they're they're kind of trying to struggle with with. Why is this happening? How could this be happening and we'll hear a little bit about how they'll start believing in this illusion.
Speaker 7
There's something moving in.
Speaker 9
There, staring back. Cost.
Speaker 8
Give me a clear shot on you.
Speaker 7
Sure, a bullet can stop a Martian.
Speaker 9
Steady now.
Speaker 11
Ohh can I help you?
Speaker 4
All right.
Speaker
Alright.
Speaker 11
Well, we if you're selling anything, it's much too early.
Speaker
I.
Speaker 9
No, no, no. Wait just a minute. What? What town is this?
Speaker 11
What do you mean? Are you census takers?
Speaker 7
No, no.
Speaker 8
With strangers here, we want to know how this town got.
Speaker 11
Here is this a game?
Speaker 7
No, no, it's not a game.
Speaker 8
We are from.
Speaker 11
Earth from where? From Earth, do you mean out of the ground? Are you sure you're feeling well?
Speaker 9
Madam. We've came in applying ship across space. We're from the third planet Earth. This is Mars. Now, do you understand Mars?
Speaker 11
You go away now, you here. I'll call my husband brought stairs and he. Will chase you. Go on.
Speaker 8
This is mom's, isn't it?
Speaker 11
This is Green Lake. I'm fine. And United States of America bounded on the east by the Atlantic and on the West by the Pacific. Now go away. Goodbye.
Speaker 10
1st.
Speaker 9
The suppose it's really possible. I've got to find out more about this.
Speaker 11
I told you I call my husband. Now you go away.
Speaker 9
You've gotta tell me one thing first. What year is this year?
Speaker 11
1928, of course, for goodness sake.
Speaker 9
You hear that horse and we know it's 1987 and we know this is Mars. Questions and possible that we got pulled up made made some tremendous blunder. Circled around and landed back.
Speaker 8
On Earth in 1928.
Speaker 9
Well, maybe some switching time or dimension. Could we have shifted somehow?
Speaker 6
Gone. Gone backward in time.
Speaker 9
Ohh horse would have this won't hold water, it's it's not logical we we checked every mile we went past the moon out in the space where we're on Mars. Lustig out at point.
Speaker 6
Hey.
CRAIG NORRIS
Alright, so then they are struggling to figure out how this idyllic American town is there.
Speaker 12
Them.
CRAIG NORRIS
And as they're starting to figure it out, this construction of reality, we're here in this next section, a really fascinating. As Bradbury moment of Burberry's writing, as he tries to breakthrough into the desires and memories of these astronauts rather than the objective truth. So it's a nice little first act script writing moment there where you see this objective truth, Captain Black, the voice of Captain Black. We're hearing there interrogating it, judging it rationally, saying this can't be happening rationally. You know, you could understand how spaceships, the economy and so forth works. They can't just have somehow sent other human missions here that have somehow made in America in 1920s village. It can't be real yet, as we'll hear in this next section, which I think really is a nice encapsulation of of this issue of um, you know the the struggle over the identity of these astronauts, whether or not they're a kind of homesick identity, you know, longing for the security and safety of familiarity. Or with their brave adventurer astronauts, risking it all to, you know, Star Trek it and and and conquer and discover up the the universe around them. So in this next section, we'll have a listen to a struggle over identity as a character. Um. Believes he's seeing his deceased ones. He's loved ones that had recently passed away, but is, as we know, really seeing the replication of these loved ones by the Martians and the struggle that Captain Jack Black has with the crew to struggle with this identity as they are. You know, they either Star Trek explorers or, you know, sad emotional humans who are longing for connection and familiarity. After you know however many years the the voyage took them or months. Um, so this tension really plays out really nicely around how fluid and how quickly the characters start losing their grip on reality.
Speaker 9
It's been in the rare keep that gun at half load, I said first. There's got to be some cold logical solution.
Speaker 6
But that that house down the street, the white or the green shutters. Leslie, what's the matter? I never thought. I never thought thank God running for that help. Nothing but they come. Back here. Crazy fool. Offering quick bus. They stop. Come down over that part. Never pepper. What do you think you're doing?
Speaker
Albert. The.
Speaker 4
Ohh, grandma and Grandpa is you last week.
Speaker 9
What is going on here?
Speaker 4
Yeah, but you see, it's been so many years.
Speaker 12
How you've grown, boy.
Speaker 10
It's so good to see.
Speaker 6
Lieutenant gassing up Captain a grandma.
Speaker 10
I want you to meet my friends. This is Captain bike captain. I want you to meet my grandfolks.
Speaker 4
Howdy, any friend of our books is a friend of ours.
Speaker 10
How long have you been here, grandma?
Speaker 12
Ohh good many years. Ever since we died.
Speaker 9
Ever since you what? Ohh.
Speaker 10
They've been dead 30 years, but ohh no.
Speaker
The.
Speaker 12
Don't you travel yourself? It's alright. We're alive again, that's all.
Speaker 9
You mean to tell me that Mars is heaven?
Speaker 4
On nuns in. No, all we know is here we're alive again. And who are we to question God's infinite ways?
Speaker 9
Bye. Last week, we're going back to the ship, captain.
Speaker 10
I I want to talk to my grandpa.
Speaker 9
Kind of Lustig. I don't like any part of this. You'll come back with us if I have to. Club when Kerry, I said.
Speaker 10
Well, let's go.
Speaker 9
Heaven only knows what they've run up against back of the ship.
Speaker 6
Hard. Look at that crowd around the ship.
Speaker 8
Looks like we're being welcomed.
Speaker 6
With a celebration captain celebration. Live abandoned ship report is open. No guard said yo. Yo, master, how you Captain beat my old dad? Dad, that's. God. Is that a bad guy for not hatston?
Speaker
How are you?
Speaker 6
What's it bring that band back? Use force or you have to ohh. Excuse me, Sir, is my uncle joy. It's gonna be right back having joy. The devil is going on here. So they've all found friends and relatives that they're all here, right? My pound of the Whole Foods out.
Speaker 8
In the crop.
Speaker 6
But I gave orders coming in. Orders don't understand, Kevin.
Speaker
You.
Speaker 6
I understand nuclear. I don't care how many relatives show up. I'll have. Come on, Johnny, you old son of a gun.
Speaker 9
It's Joe, Edward and happy.
Speaker
Awkward.
Speaker 4
Of course it is, Johnny.
Speaker
Johnny will.
Speaker 6
And had one. 10.
Speaker 9
Doctor Horst, this is my brother Edwin.
Speaker 8
How you doing?
Speaker 5
No.
Speaker 4
Hello Sir.
Speaker 9
It's wonderful to for sure. You, Edward. Look, I've I've got to get back to my ship on Johnny.
Speaker 4
Wait, I almost forgot. Mom's waiting at home.
Speaker 9
Mom.
Speaker 4
Yeah, I'm dead too.
Speaker 9
Mom and Dad are alive.
Speaker 6
Then then you're real. Ed will have cars. Don't I feel real? Bad. Why add M?
Speaker 4
We we've got lunch for you.
CRAIG NORRIS
Donny.
Speaker 4
Mom's making corn fritters.
Speaker 9
Doctor Harris diving 2.
Speaker 6
Found anybody?
Speaker 8
Ohh no cabin, I have nobody more than you.
Speaker 9
Come on home with me.
Speaker 6
Right ad why?
Speaker 4
Sure.
Speaker
Hi.
CRAIG NORRIS
Alright. And there we go. The moment in the episode where the rational scepticism of our Captain Black, the only one that had been holding out with Doctor Hurst, sceptical of what they're seeing around them, has collapsed as the kind of American dream that they're presented with this perfect suburban setting. U and and within that hinted that because of their reuniting with their loved ones, this idea of a promise of the of a kind of eternal happiness, that they may have found with these loved ones. So, as happens next, Doctor Hurst and Captain Black get taken home to Captain Black's family and we have this quite nice little critique, I guess, of this ideology of the American dream, where underneath this apparently perfect suburban setting and and eternal happiness with love. Ones is a very dark underbelly that this perfect town is is an illusion. And again, we'll we'll explore why that illusion's there and why it would benefit the Martians. But it's it's it's a really fun, I guess again, you know, moments W. And you see these anxieties creeping in on of, you know, again, maybe a post World War 2 era, Cold War, dystopic vision that this perfect life has irreversibly been lost. You know the the experiences of World War 2, the Cold War, the atomic bomb has rendered this fair as a fantasy that that the past is nostalgic past with loved ones has long passed away. A. Appears to be a simpler and safer time. You know, make America great again, but in fact it tidying a dark underbelly of. Deceit and not at all in your best interest. So as Doctor Hurst is invited back, we'll see in the dinner scene that will listen to now as we head into Act 3, the struggle between the American dream and our only character. Now that Captain Black has been seduced by this. Simpler, safer. Past that, the Martians have created these completely. Believed it. Doctor Hurst is the only one who hasn't any family and friends and happy memories after being liberated as a child from the Dachau concentration camp. So it's fascinating also that we have a character in 194548 in conversation with recent traumatic history of of of genocide against the.
Speaker
Use.
CRAIG NORRIS
That is a pivotal plant movement. He's the only one that isn't evil to have his memories read to find a loved 1, to seduce him into the past and and within that. Yeah, interesting critique maybe of and the. The peril. The deception as you're pursuing something that you want. So let's jump forward now as the struggle between the American dream that all the other characters feel they've encountered. And. This desire to protect yourself. So in this scene will have talked to Hurst.
Speaker 4
To be with Edward.
Speaker 12
So you could talk the way you're used to we.
Speaker 9
Well, we can't put Doctor Horse on the day bed. I think we better.
CRAIG NORRIS
So just to set up the scene in. This scene gloves.
Speaker 8
Back is delicious new biscoff range. Perfect.
Speaker
Ohh. No, no, no.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
CRAIG NORRIS
And see what's happened. Is that so? They've had a wonderful dinner and they haven't been able to trap Doctor Hurst. There's no one there that's been able to seduce him except for a fake. Memory. You know why that gets explained in the scene. So they're just trying to figure out this. Do they go back and protect the ship, or do they stay in this house?
Speaker 10
And she's coming over here first thing.
Speaker 4
In the morning. So you have to stay over.
Speaker 9
Yes, but that settles it.
Speaker
Okay.
Speaker 9
Then you stay here. Horst, you can bunk with me and. My old room.
Speaker 10
Yeah, but.
Speaker 9
Johnny, we thought you would like to.
Speaker 12
Be with Edward. So you could talk the way you're used to.
Speaker 9
We can't productor horse on the day. I think we better share the room tonight. Be plenty of time for talking head.
Speaker 4
Yes, I guess so.
Speaker 9
That's. Was I better drop back to the? Yep, you know Ed security check.
Speaker
What?
Speaker 12
Why do you have to do that? Here.
Speaker 9
I I don't know. Mom is no good reason. I guess it was. Suppose we skip it tonight. Well, goodnight everybody.
Speaker 12
Hi, good to have you home, Johnny.
Speaker 9
It's good to be home, mom.
CRAIG NORRIS
I love that use of your kind of leave it to Beaver Classic 1950s, late 40s suburban ideal American Music that we listen to there. And again, the idea that they've been completely taken. Into a a mediated impression of what the American dream is that, except for Doctor Hurst, they've all been convinced by this illusionary American dream of idyllic apostle exurban setting with a kind of promise of of you always be with your loved ones. However, in this scene will see this the importance of Doctor Hurst's character, which is kind of wasted. Unfortunately, by the end of Act 3 here we have a great scenes. Doctor Hurst starts to figure it out, and particularly given his identity as a survivor of the Dachau concentration camp and the type of unique experience and perspective that brings to be able to see through this deception and illusion. And because we can imagine, I mean the reason bribery maybe choose a character that has this background is that from enduring the the horror and the incomprehensible reality of of human atrocity that he's the the character which has a deep seated awareness of the cruelty and manipulation which is out there is the only one which is scamp. The call and is pragmatic about what's occurring and sees this as potentially a cruel environment, whereas all the other characters, and again, it's fascinating to think of exploring the outer space world sees it much more utopic. Really, we were in a utopia now, yet Doctor Hurst is the only one that begins to feel this is actually maybe a dystopia. And potentially drawing upon the horrors he experienced as a child in Dachau and that historical context of World War I in the hole. Lost a being in conversation with in this piece, so let's listen now as Doctor Hurst tries to put it together.
Speaker 7
Got black. You sleep.
Speaker 9
No, no. I I've been thinking about what we were expecting. Green skinned margins all the time. There was only mom and dad and Edward waiting. That's funny. What tricks your imagination can play on you? Ohh, I guess Mars is heaven Horst.
Speaker 7
You know.
Speaker 8
I've been thinking about Martians too.
Speaker 7
Hmm happened. That's suppose, suppose the word Martians and they saw us land. And suppose they caught the bus invaders. What would be the best weapon? They could use against our atom bombs.
Speaker 9
I don't see what you're getting at.
Speaker 7
It would want to disarm us first to Wipeout all suspicion and make us feel at home. Suppose this house isn't green. Suppose the people are just images stolen from our own memories by Martians, created for us by telepathy hypnotist.
Speaker 9
Ohh that's that's a craziest theory.
Speaker 8
I ever heard.
Speaker 7
Maybe that's why there was one for me, because in all my life there is no happy memory, no real love person. Not even my mother. I don't remember her. Only the piles of rotting corpses of Doha. There was number happy emotion for these people to. Recreate.
Speaker 9
How about that phone call, Anna?
Speaker 7
Yes, Anna, I didn't remember who she was, but I do now. I just remembered when I was freed from the harbour. Sick. Delirious. I reigned about a wonderful kind nurse named Anna to Carrabba words.
Speaker 9
Logical. She's coming to see.
Speaker 7
You tomorrow, but there was number Anna. I've been nursed by a man. What? Anna was only. Team and there's only one way they could have learned about her by reading my subconscious minds possible heart.
Speaker 9
That's impossible.
Speaker 7
Why a whole crew was thinking of home. Suppose the Martians read our mind.
Speaker 9
Yes, but if there are.
Speaker 7
Margins, if there are. They have a separated each man in a different house, sleeping trustee. No one at the guns.
Speaker 9
I lick my pistol downstairs.
Speaker 8
Do you?
Speaker 9
There's something to this horse.
Speaker 7
Perfect trap. Trap. Who would suspect his own mother? His grandparents. How easy? Just a knife in the heart of each sleeping.
Speaker 9
That's impossible, horse. But we've got to get back to the chef.
Speaker 7
Listen, the crickets have stopped.
Speaker 6
Come on.
Speaker 7
We don't know him. They change back to whatever they really are. Careful.
Speaker 4
Where are you going, John?
Speaker 9
Where? We wanted to drink of water. That that's all Ed.
Speaker
Okay.
Speaker 4
You're not thirsty, John.
Speaker 8
You don't wanna drink.
Speaker 6
Look out.
Speaker 4
You don't want that to change.
Speaker 6
That's great. It's changing. He's a marsh, right? Horse run. Ya can't get away them my heart.
CRAIG NORRIS
Alright. And the fantastic moment of the twist being revealed are characters realising it's been a trap all along. Wonderful suspense building up there through the horror and suspense as. Who you really does reflect that anxieties that the you know, the longing for this simpler, safer past, as has has has ohh being served by the the the anxieties of of the life that this Martian town they realise is is, is, is, is a complete trap. And you know, it's interesting. Again, you're drawing upon that kind of make America great again. Vibe this idealised past, you know, suburban 1920s America. I guess it's not a depression era America, but certainly the the reuniting with loved ones, this type of idyllic American suburban set. Thing it is nostalgia for that, I guess ultimately it's a it's a very nostalgic trap that's being laid and the they're clinging to that.
Speaker
I.
CRAIG NORRIS
The danger of wanting this unattainable ideal of being reunited with deceased loved ones and ideally America, it's it's a it's a wonderful drama which I think upends this idea of pursuing your type of Star Trek new front. Here and instead having a experience of of of deception that actually this environments and going in into space is. Dangerous that in fact. We will a not be met. With Ohh hugs and embrace but instead attacks and again thinking of the three body problem Idea Book series, I was struck by the fact that many people have been exploring that idea through the Fermi paradox. So let's have a look at that Fermi paradox quickly, now that we're at the scene where we realised that the Martians had simply always been there, even though we didn't realise that Mars was inhabited at all, they'd been hiding. Then they'd launched a psychological trap. Up that had, that will dissect, decimate will kill all the humans on this ship. So the Fermi paradox, really interesting theory. Uh. From the again around this time. Which? Said there's there's a paradox. There's there's a contradiction between what we know mathematically and scientifically of the universe around us suggests there must be quite a high probability of some life being out there. Statistically, it's simply must be the case as life out there. Yet if we accept that. Proposal that there must statistically be life out there because of the preponderance of inhabitable stars of the the statistically say there there should. There are a number of stars which or planet circulate circling stars that should have life. Why is there no evidence for it? Why is there no evidence yet of life then, and that is the Fermi paradox. Why is it that we haven't yet found life out there, or life has contacted us? And there's a number of theories around won't want might be the reason for that. If we accept that paradox, one which is in a serious story such as this is the dark forest hypothesis, and that's the idea that you can explain the Fermi paradox. Why haven't we yet encountered life given statistically, they're probably is life out there. Is because other civilizations deliberately are remaining silent, because if you do. Let people know you're in the universe. Ohh you will attract hostile audience that it's a hostile environment out there. It's not a safe, welcoming environment. It's a hostile environment and the dark forest is much like in hunters and a dark forest, stealthily and quietly stalking around other, you know, trees and so forth in the dark. If they see something, it's best to shoot first rather than risk not doing that and be attacked. So Mars is heaven. This series of illicit sector will listening to now is presents a similar scenario where you know we've gone to Mars. There's been concern and anxiety. What will we discover? We don't know if there's life there or not. We've been deceived. The Martians cleverly have hidden themselves and have hidden themselves with a kind of psychological deceitful attack that has made the humans believe that the surrounded by the humans lowering their God, allowing themselves will to be destroyed, hinting again at this dark forest hypothesis that the world around Earth is actually hostile and. If you reveal your your presence, if you go to Mars and reveal yourself and justice kind of stumble along. Hopefully you know, making friends along the way. Instead, you'll simply be annihilated, and that, again, is one of the answers to the Fermi paradox that the potential reason we've not to take Dexter direct extraterrestrial signals is cause everyone's hiding. Everyone's hiding. Which the Martians are doing. The Martians are very cleverly hiding with these psychological virtual reality type attacks, and it's it's a nice little thought experience there from 1948. And again, if you're interested in similar dystopic answers to the Fermi paradox, I do suggest you go ahead and read the really interesting Chinese science fiction Series 3 body Parrot. The three body paradox. Or the three body problems. Sorry all the the Netflix series from it. It's it's a. It's a fun, paranoid contemporary story, engaging with similar issues U I'm grand, you know, questioning the illusions that were presented by much like Mars is heaven. Ultimately, this really interesting point there about questioning these illusions, you know, examining, trying to examine late Doctor Hurst does critically what these experiences are. They might be very comforting illusions, but is there a deceptive narrative within them? Particularly if they coming from maybe a technology and ideology, a political entity, you know what kind of questioning of this illusion, if it is one, maybe emotional resilience. I mean the character of Doctor Hurst being a Dahl survivor, you know, experiencing the cruelty of humanity in that experience. Um. And you're giving him insight, but I I guess more profoundly than that, seeing how quickly the. Characters the other astronauts on this journey were feeling alone, were feeling isolated, atomised, not part of a female family network. And so when they were presented with a family network, they embraced it. So maybe mental health issues, right? How? How, if we're not, I mean, I don't think the mental health of that spaceship was very good. If if the character is so immediately embraced this fan. To see UM suggesting a huge amount of loss and longing that they'd experienced and and that could be in conversation with the immediate post World War 2 America. You know the experience of loss or around the world globally, the sense of loss and the sense of of of never being able to recapture maybe something you feel has been the reversible, irrevocably lost. You know that the sense of fan. Really. And finally, yeah, this idea of vigilance, transparency, the dangers of. I believe. In some of these depictions, these things are also picked up in a couple of other types of series. I mean, there's the 2016 film arrival similar to Mars is heaven. Tells the story of of an arrival in this case on earth of extra terrestrial beings, and how the humans respond to. That that isn't a Black Forest response. It's it's a kind of miscommunication response. It's that you know the reason. The reason that arrival postulates I'd say for the Fermi ohh no question is that ohh we've just never been able to communicate and understand each other that we have been getting signals we've just not understood them and isolation probably closer to Mars is heaven in terms of its this great movie from 2018 about the psychological and physical effects of encountering an alien environments similar to the type of uncanniness which. Bedevils the crew of this first Marge landing those those two movies I'd say are certainly worth checking out if you're curious about this Black Forest theory as well as the three body problem, uhm and other kind of dystopic or cosmic horror type versions of alien contact. So that's pretty much brings us to this episode. Thanks for listening. Um, this is being doctor Craig from media mother ship for another. Week we'll just play. What do we go on? A few minutes left, so I'll just play the final scene. Where our Captain Black is made it back to the spaceship and is trying to warn the rest of humanity not to come to Mars.
Speaker 6
Don John Black, the XR53 calling from ours. I've locked myself in the ship, but they've crippled it. I can't take off a fire. The guns and they're coming for me now. The martians. I'm all alone here. All the rest are dead. Pinched and Lustig. Doctor Horst. Poor Hershey didn't even reach the door. Listen, listen. They're trying to breakthrough the Edward and Mom, dad, all the folks. But changing now that they're melting and changing back into their marching and you understand Martians, black men, they they think that Mars was heaven and we felt that the craft. Can you hear me? You've got to stop the next rocket. Listen, tell my brother will tell my brother not to come. They'll trap until killem all. Hello. Hello, can you hear me here? This is John Black on Mars. Hello Earth, this is John Black on Myers. Hello. Hello.
CRAIG NORRIS
Alright, so that was X -, 1 with Mars Haven.
Speaker 8
I have -1 has blocked.
CRAIG NORRIS
You can listen to other episodes of Media Mother ship, though on YouTube and Edge radio.org.uk or via podcast. We're on Facebook and Instagram too, so do feel free to reach councillors there and next week we'll be diving into some more fun media stuff. Next week, we'll see if we can line up. A local Hobart musician talking about how they've created the kind of media music through YouTube and their recent experience in the USA, so that will be a fun interview next week. Um, so keep listening now to Edge radio with cool tunes and music.
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