Dimension X

Dimension X: Adventures in Time & Space is a compendium of a dozen episodes of the radio programmes, featuring dramatisations of classic SF stories from the 50s. It’s a nice clean recording, complete with newsbreaks such as the declaration of war between North and South Korea.

Worth a listen to realise how SF has grown, and how time-bound many SF stories have become. Includes some classics which have become clichés.

Contains: The Outer Limit, by Graham Doar; Jack Williamson’s With Folded Hands;  Report on the Barnhouse Effect by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr;  George Leffert’s No Contact; Frederick Brown’s Knock; Robert Bloch’s Almost Human; Murray Leinster’s The Lost Race; Donald A Wollheim’s The Embassy; Robert Heinlein’s The Green Hills of Earth;  an adaptation/preview of the George Pal film of Heinlein’s Destination Moon; Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains / Zero Hour;  Murray Leinster’s A Logic named Joe; Ray Bradbury’s Mars is Heaven; George Lefferts’ The Man in the Moon;  and Villiers Gerson’s Beyond Infinity.  In short, the first sixteen episodes of the show, originally broadcast from April to July, 1950. Listening to the series I can’t help noticing the underlying paranoia in many of the stories, possibly a result of the cold war. Despite that, it’s a good collection of stories.