The 1980 television three-episode miniseries The Martian Chronicles is based on Ray Bradbury’s 1950 book of the same title. The screenplay by Richard Matheson is largely respectful of the original material.

Part 1 begins with the 1976 Viking Lander successfully reaching Mars. It goes on to portray that space exploration, specifically to Mars, has advanced rapidly since then. Since it uses the original dates given in the book, the action takes place between 1999 and 2007 and seems very dated as of 2026. In later editions of The Martian Chronicles, all the dates were revised by approximately 25 to 31 years. This review is being written on the date of the first moon launch since 1972 so it’s obvious space exploration has not been a big priority, which Bradbury lamented.

Some of the preliminary material gets a little slow and boring but part of its purpose is to introduce the characters. Captain John Wilder from the book, who has been promoted to Colonel in the miniseries, played by Rock Hudson, is the central character, which is one of several necessary changes in creating the miniseries. The book has no central character except Mars itself. The pace picks up a bit as the action commences, but bored viewers should not feel bad. Ray Bradbury himself called the miniseries boring.

Changes from the book include combining elements from certain stories and having certain characters come into stories in which they did not appear in the book. Other than this, much of the miniseries’s action is from the book.

Part 1 covers the expeditions. The second expedition from the book is skipped and the third becomes the second, which is a little disconcerting to fans of the book but was perhaps necessary for length. The earth men (the miniseries sticks to the book’s premise of no women on the expeditions) expect a successful landing on an uninhabited planet, but the native Martians have other ideas.

The Martians appear less than in the book, probably due to time constraints and because the makeup was so challenging. The main native race of Mars is dark and golden-eyed. The miniseries chose to make them bald and earless, though the book makes it clear they had hair. They may not have got the skin tone quite dark enough, but they did impressively well with the golden eyes, though it’s distracting thinking how much those contacts must have hurt.

The story “And the Moon Be Still As Bright,” contains a race swap, with Bernie Casey playing Major Jeff Spender as a black man. The book does not describe his appearance, but it’s clear from the dialogue that he is white, unless of course he was a black person adopted by a white family which is possible...the parents in the book were white. This race swap works very well. It sets Spender apart from the other men and makes his identification with the Martians more touching.

Part 2 deals with the settlers and Part 3 with the Martians. As in the book, there is quite a bit of violence with not much else objectionable.

Overall the acting was very good. My only problem is with Darren McGavin as Sam Parkhill. McGavin is far too likable. Even if not played for comic relief as he mostly is, he would be incapable of conveying what an utter bastard Sam Parkhill really was. The fantastic ending to “And the Moon Be Still As Bright” is skipped entirely.

This miniseries must have been fairly expensive, with exotic locations, large sets, and elaborate props as well as special effects. A good effort was made although of course it was impossible to convey the true beauty and delicacy of Mars as evoked in the book. They must have obtained permission to use the name and logo of NASA, which is never mentioned in the book as it wasn’t founded until 1958. Overall I would say nice try for its time, needs a remake.