X minus One, Vol. 2 Audiobook (Free)

“Countdown for blastoff … X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one … Open fire! From the significantly horizons from the unknown come transcribed tales of new measurements in time and space. They are stories into the future; escapades where you’ll reside in a million could-be years on one thousand may-be worlds.”

Hence began each episode of X minus One, a half-hour science fiction radio series that was broadcast from 1955 until 1958. Primarily a revival of NBC’s Dimension X, the first fifteen episodes had been about X minus One, Vol. 2 fresh versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC personnel writers of recently published research fiction stories by leading authors in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl, and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some unique scripts. Paving the way with fresh, imaginative tales, X minus You are widely considered among the finest research fiction dramas ever produced for radio.

Episodes Included are: “Dr. Grimshaw’s Sanitorium,” “Shanghaied,” “The Castaways,” “Essential Element,” “Hallucination Orbit,” “The Defenders,” “IN THE EVENT THAT YOU Was a Moklin,” “Wherever You May Be,” “THE FINAL Martian,” “The Moon is normally Green,” “Venus Is definitely a Man’s Globe,” and “The Capture.”

“X Minus One was an anthology research fiction series, broadcast by NBC from 1955 to 1958, and is probably the best OTR plan of this genre…Many episodes were adapted from tales by the main science fiction writers from the era, including Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Philip K. Dick, and generally continued to be faithful to the originals. What may shock contemporary listeners-used to Hollywood’s assumes stock science fiction ideas-is how dark and bleak lots of the tales could be, with downbeat endings where the dashing hero does not save your day. This reflects the time in which the series was made, with Cold War-era paranoia and anxiety infusing many of the stories…Yet the best stories transcend their period and still give powerful and exciting visions, both into the future and the present.”-OldTimeRadioReview.com