Skip to main content

story identification - Science fiction radio drama: aliens find Earth deserted




Anyone know of a radio drama about an advanced alien civilization visiting Earth (we don't know it's Earth until the end). Everything is deserted. They send down teams to investigate and one team accidentally engages the drive in a high speed underground shuttle that takes them into a tunnel and beneath a major city (NYC?). The mothership can't get to them. One member of the team is a different race, an organism that has an identical counterpart on the mothership. They are separate but are parts of a whole and communicate as one organism and it is from these special crew members that they finally get help and are rescued by the mothership. The captain on the mothership is able to locate them and blasts a hole down to retrieve them.


The planet (Earth) is soon to be destroyed by some catastrophe such as a colliding planet or the sun going nova. So they rush to find their team before the planet is destroyed and they stuck below and up on the mothership all are killed too.


The episode ends with the team being rescued and all escaping the dying planet just in time. Then scanning ahead and seeing thousands of ships in the distance, apparently the last inhabitants of the dying planet Earth who had already fled. It's a rag-tag fleet. The captain makes a joke at the end that perhaps they'll do just fine and be at their own level...in about a million years from now. It was produced in the 70s or 80s.



Answer



"Rescue Party" by Clarke was adapted for the very-short-lived cassette series OMNI AUDIO EXPERIENCE; it's not clear to me if these were also played in the 1980s as a radio series or not.



A story about space travellers on a mission of mercy to save what inhabitants of a world they can from an impending supernova, only to find a bizarre mystery once they arrive.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more