Based on the novel by Ray Bradbury, the Martian Chronicles was transformed into a mini-series during the late 70’s, thanks to director Michael Anderson who was also responsible for the classic, Logan’s Run.

The first protagonist of the series is Colonel John Wilder (Rock Hudson), an astronaut who is the first to visit Mars in the late 1990’s. Later on, he becomes one of the first colonists to call the red planet home. Interestingly enough, The Martian Chronicles is split into three chapters which translates rather well to three different movie length episodes, each focusing on a certain aspect of man on Mars.

At its core, The Martian Chronicles is a thinking man’s science fiction as it dissects the psyche of humankind away from Earth and how they have brought their own issues with them as well. From the first few steps of Mars (Hudson) to the colonisation (Darren McGavin and Roddy McDowell) and finally the war on Earth, The Martian Chronicles is an interesting story that contains some quite watchable acting of the era and more importantly, a plot that you can follow.

It brings forth many issues of the time such as the extermination of the indigenous Mars population by chicken pox and the unfair treaty by Earth to the Martians which is quite reminiscent of the Native American Indians. However, the biggest problem with the Martian Chronicles is that it has dated quite poorly and although some of the ideas are quite interesting such as shape shifting Martians or the Wild West attitude of the colonists, the special effects are poor, especially when you compare it to something like Star Wars of Star Trek of the 70’s.

Nonetheless, this is strictly for fans of the original story or science fiction historians… it’s not bad, it’s just dated! The video and audio quality has seen better days!