The second series, The Red Planet, followed the adventures of the crew in their first attempt to reach and explore Mars. Several new characters were introduced, the most notable of which were Frank Rogers and James Edward Whitaker, the two original crewmen of freighter #2. Chilton took the name Whitaker from a copy of Whitaker's Almanack which was sitting on his desk.
In addition to the main characters, other characters in The Red Planet included:
| Actor | Character(s) |
|---|---|
| David Jacobs | Frank Rogers and miscellaneous characters |
| Anthony Marriott | James Edward Whitaker |
| Miriam Karlin | Mrs Barnet (Lemmy's mother) |
| John Cazabon | Australian control voice, dingo hunter, flying doctor, John Bodie (sheep farmer), Bill Webster |
| Madi Hedd (*) | Martha Bodie (sheep farmer's wife) |
| Don Sharp | Sam (factory controller) |
(*) Married to Bruce Beeby, who played Mitch.
The most memorable catchphrase from this series was "Orders must be obeyed without question at all times", which was often repeated by many of the 'conditioned' characters, especially Whitaker. Episode 19 of the series rated a 17% audience share, whereas the newsreel broadcast simultaneously on BBC TV had an audience share of 16%. This was the last time that a radio show achieved a higher rating than its TV opponent.
During the first broadcast of this series, the Radio Times featured Journey Into Space on its cover, showing Andrew Faulds as Captain "Jet" Morgan. His spacesuit (which was used by several of the cast members for publicity photos) was a prototype being developed in Britain at the time.
During the recording of The Red Planet, Guy Kingsley Poynter was also starring in The Teahouse of the August Moon at Her Majesty's Theatre.
The British Empire Exhibition was referred to throughout the episodes.
In the table of episodes below, the numbers marked with # refer to the numbered freighters of the Mars fleet.
| Episode | First broadcast | Brief plot summary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 Sep 1954 | April 1971. Jet and Mitch travel from Earth to the Moon by rocket. The Mars fleet (the flagship Discovery, 8 freighters and 20 men) begins its journey. During an EVA, Mitch's safety line fails, leaving him adrift. |
| 2 | 13 Sep 1954 | Jet manages to rescue Mitch, using a miniature rocket unit. Frank tells Lemmy he's not getting on at all well with Whitaker, his shipmate. Whitaker starts behaving very strangely while Jet is questioning him. |
| 3 | 20 Sep 1954 | While Whitaker is in a strange deep sleep, both Frank and Lemmy have nightmares. Radar suddenly reveals a huge meteor swarm ahead of the fleet, blocking its path. A large meteor destroys #7. |
| 4 | 27 Sep 1954 | Control discovers very odd information about Whitaker (apparently born in 1893, disappeared in 1924, etc.). The fleet changes course twice to avoid the meteor swarm, but both times it moves to block their path again. |
| 5 | 4 Oct 1954 | The fleet enters the swarm. Peterson reports an emergency on board #6 with Whitaker. On leaving the swarm, #6 is nowhere to be seen, and the swarm is now blocking radio contact with Control. |
| 6 | 11 Oct 1954 | A radio message (apparently from Control) orders the fleet to return home, but the message is later found to be a fake. #6 is sighted ahead of the fleet, and Discovery draws up alongside it. |
| 7 | 18 Oct 1954 | Whitaker is found badly injured in #6, but Peterson has vanished. Jet has a strange dream, and Whitaker dies, suddenly transforming into an old man. Recordings reveal Whitaker faked the radio message. |
| 8 | 25 Oct 1954 | Peterson's suicide recording is found, and radio contact with Control is restored. The fleet enters orbit round Mars, and Discovery lands at the North Pole, but a strange soporific noise troubles the crew. |
| 9 | 1 Nov 1954 | #1 lands alongside Discovery, and Jet and Mitch explore outside, but they soon get lost in a dense fog. They see a mysterious orange light, and a soporific noise causes them to lose consciousness. |
| 10 | 8 Nov 1954 | Doc and Frank rescue Jet and Mitch, and Jet says he dreamed of a ruined city in a valley. Discovery's crew begin the exploration of Mars in the land trucks, but #2 hears the soporific noise and crashes. |
| 11 | 15 Nov 1954 | During the night, Discovery's crew see a moving white light in the direction of #2. Once they reached the crashed freighter, there's no sign of its crew, and there are strange marks in the ground nearby. |
| 12 | 22 Nov 1954 | While #1's crew is occupying #2, a 'sphere' (spherical UFO) arrives and its crew (three humans) attempt to enter the freighter. Discovery's crew reach a valley which is identical to the one in Jet's earlier dream. |
| 13 | 29 Nov 1954 | Discovery's crew explore the valley's ruined city, but Lemmy vanishes, and experiences a hypnotic dream. He's later found with McClain (pilot of #2), who is now mysteriously able to breathe the Martian air. |
| 14 | 6 Dec 1954 | Doc realises that Whitaker and McClain had been 'conditioned' (hypnotised), allowing them to be controlled. Mitch becomes separated from the others, and meets a man who claims to be a dingo hunter in Australia. |
| 15 | 13 Dec 1954 | McClain, pretending to be Mitch, enters the land truck and tries to overpower Lemmy. Meanwhile, Mitch comes across a house inhabited by a man and woman who claim to be sheep farmers living in Australia in 1939. |
| 16 | 20 Dec 1954 | Jet, Doc and Lemmy discover the same house, and find Mitch inside it. But Mitch is now 'conditioned' to believe he's in Australia, and doesn't recognise the others. He refuses to rejoin them, and attacks Jet. |
| 17 | 27 Dec 1954 | A 'flying doctor' arrives in a sphere, and manages to capture Doc and Lemmy. He tries to 'condition' them using the soporific noise, but they manage to resist. Meanwhile, Jet escapes back to the land trucks. |
| 18 | 3 Jan 1955 | The sphere arrives at Lacus Solis (the Martian capital), and the flying doctor reveals the Martian plan to invade the Earth in 1986. Frank, flying in #1, hears the soporific noise and his freighter crashes. |
| 19 | 10 Jan 1955 | Doc and Lemmy overpower the flying doctor, and escape in the sphere with Mitch, who recovers from his 'conditioning'. Jet is contacted by Webster, a man trying to return to Earth, and learns more about the Martians. |
| 20 | 17 Jan 1955 | Jet, Lemmy and Webster try to rescue Frank, but they fail, and Webster is injured and dies. The crew return to Discovery at the North Pole, and take off for home, escaping a pursuing fleet of spheres. |
Read more about this topic: Journey Into Space, The Original Three Series
Famous quotes containing the word red:
“look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i’ll give them all to you to hold”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)