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Ray Bradbury is one of the pioneers of science fiction. The man’s sci-fi stories have inspired countless writers and directors over the decades, including an adaptation of the author’s own book, “The Martian Chronicles.” NBC converted the collection of short stories into a miniseries that ran from January 27-29 of 1980. Described as a television movie, the three-part event was highly anticipated and featured a cast and crew that included the, in certain circles, still somewhat under-appreciated writer Richard Matheson, who had already made a mark with his work on the essential science fiction series that is “The Twilight Zone.” One notable figure missing from the production, though? Bradbury himself.
On the surface, everything was set for a smashing success. The only problem? The show just wasn’t very good. And that’s not just the public speaking. Sam Weller’s book “The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury” explains that the author himself was asked about the then upcoming show during a press conference. He had already seen a screening, and he had a one-word answer: “Boring.” It got worse. The writer went further by telling his own friends that his idea of Hell was needing to sit through the series.
The head of NBC followed up on the gut-wrenching single-word response at a cocktail reception, asking if that really was Bradbury’s opinion of the show. Bradbury asked if the executive had seen the series yet, which they hadn’t. Here’s his response:
Well, you better see it because you’ve got a boring miniseries on your hands.
To their credit, NBC postponed the series’ release for a few months based on the strong feedback. But in the end, Bradbury reported that all the network did was tinker with the show a bit before releasing it as is.
What is The Martian Chronicles about?
The audience response to “The Martian Chronicles” has lent credence to Ray Bradbury’s concerns. Even modern reviews continue to be middling at best, with viewers clearly being disappointed by the experience. Notably, one anonymous Rotten Tomatoes reviewer succinctly summed up their original feelings from the ’80s by writing:
I saw this series on a 13″ black and white tv the first time in the 80s. I read the book later and never looked back. It just wasn’t great.
This steady negative feedback begs the question: What is the original book even about? Bradbury published “The Martian Chronicles” in 1950, framing it through a series of short stories. These are set on a timeline that starts in January 1999 and continues through October 2026. While this provides a sense of coherence and progression throughout, in reality, this is just a framing device for a string of 26 short stories that, for the most part, aren’t related to each other at all, other than that they take place within the same larger narrative.
The breadth of topics across these stories is wild. Some of them are run-of-the-mill recaps of planetary exploration as humans arrive on Mars, colonize it, and then collapse into anarchy and chaos. But there are also one-off installments that go off on wild rabbit trails, too. One chapter follows Martians trapped in a dead marriage. Another features a rebellious crew member from Earth fighting zealously to defend the dignity of a dead Martian civilization. And yet another features a vengeful man who sets up his own replication of Edgar Allan Poe’s House of Usher to horrific effect.
Could The Martian Chronicles make for a good adaptation?
The diversity of storytelling in “The Martian Chronicles” doesn’t set the book up for success as a single, cohesive, scene-for-scene translation to the screen. A truly faithful adaptation would require an endlessly revolving cast of characters and a shift between genres every other episode. I’m not saying this would be bad, but it would be jarring, and the lack of consistency would make it difficult to attract and retain a core audience.
But I do think there is a path to a good adaptation here. A couple of paths, actually. One is to focus on individual stories. Several of the chapters are strong on their own and could easily be either their own film or a standalone story in a miniseries.
The other option is to take the “inspired by” approach and create a whole new story that works to incorporate the important elements of Ray Bradbury’s original book without holding too closely to the details. This has worked well for “Foundation,” which a lot of people considered unfilmable before Apple TV’s hit series cracked the code. A lack of consistency is the issue there, too. (Isaac Asimov himself said that the “Foundation” novel series is “not completely consistent, since I did not plan consistency to begin with.”) That story extends across centuries of time with very few repeating characters. To solve that problem, showrunner David S. Goyer came up with a handful of individuals to anchor the plot as they went along. Some of these were expanded original characters. Others were brand new. If a “Martian Chronicles” adaptation took this approach (and did it well), it could create a dramatic, serialized narrative that traces a failed colonization of Mars across a compelling quarter of a century of fictional interplanetary history.
