Richard Matheson scripted the entire miniseries adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, and the second part of the series aired on 28 January, 1980. The series aired on three consecutive nights.

This episode, as hinted by the title follows the Earth settlers on Mars, and their encounters there with the remnants of the Martian society.

Wilder (Rock Hudson) and his wife, Ruth (Gayle Hunnicut) have joined thousands of colonists on Mars, where most of the original inhabitants have been wiped out by disease brought by the colonizers (that sounds familiar).

But there are still remnants.

There are rumors of strange lights and a pair of priests, Father Peregrine (Fritz Weaver) and Stone (Roddy McDowall!) venture out into the wilderness to investigate. There, they encounter the lights, some artifact of the Martian soul, or spirit, and this allows Peregine to see his religion in a new way, though he tests them, and his faith.

The story moves to the Lustigs, a couple who live by one of the canals. They are in their retirement years, and have decided to spend them on Mars. Lafe (Wolfgang Leichmann) and his wife, Anna (Maria Schell) have settled in niceely, but are haunted by the loss of their son, David (Michael Anderson Jr.), who was lost during the second expedition.

That is until he arrives in the middle of the first rain of the season.

He’s obviously not David, but a surviving Martian, using his telepathic ability to pass. And the trio temporarily form a family unit of sorts. That is until they head to First City, overseen by Wilder, and the needs and desires of so many people (including Peregrine) wreak havoc on the Martian’s ability, to horrible consequence.

Wilder receives word from Earth, they are recalling colonists, nations are preparing for war. But there are those who will elect to stay, including Parkhill (Darren McGavin), who has opened his diner, and dressed for the role appropriately.

He and his wife, Elma (Joyce Van Patten) rebuff Wilder’s statements about an impending war, and then have an encounter with a Martian with a gift… that goees badly, and leads into a horrible chase sequence filled with possibly worse modelwork than was featured in the first episode. A sand ship chase, and it looks terrible, even for the time.

The episode ends with a horrifying conclusion, as Matheson’s script explores the themes put forward in Bradbury’s text of colonization, eradication, and our violent nature towards ourselves and our environment.

There are some interesting moments throughout the episode. As sad as it is, I do like the Martian in First City story thread, especially Peregrine has. Watching it now, it’s no wonder that I liked the first episodde more as a kid, this one is a little more cerebral in the handling of its subject matter, and didn’t have the exploration sidde of things that drove my curiosity as a younger viewer (and still does.

As mentioned in the first review, I’d love to see an update, and I think the themes Bradbury spoke of are as relevant today as they were then, if not more so.

I love a Matheson script, and I get that the series was contrained by late 70s budgets but I just wish some of it had looked better.

Let’s see how the final episode plays out in The Martians.