X Minus One cover art

X Minus One

Marionettes, Inc. (Dramatized)

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X Minus One

By: Ray Bradbury
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About this listen

 How can you escape your wife? Just buy a robot duplicate of yourself. Great idea? Maybe not. Based on a story by Ray Bradbury, this episode of X Minus One originally aired on December 21, 1955.

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

©2006 Radio Spirits Inc. (P)2006 Radio Spirits Inc. Fantasy Science Fiction

Critic reviews

"[ X Minus One] brought current SF to radio, providing adaptations of many excellent new stories and thus allowing the public to appreciate the best science fiction available at the time." (Michael Ashley, The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines)
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What did you like most about X Minus One?

The clever story with its terrific twists and ambiguous ending is portenteous, particularly when we now have computers passing the Turing test and showing self-awareness.

What other book might you compare X Minus One to, and why?

Science fiction which could become science fact - Philip K Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep' or 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale' come to mind.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

This is a dramatisation, and of its time (1965). Interesting as a period piece and lots of fun, but I think I'd rather read/listen to the unabridged version.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It's not moving, but very clever - the moment the protagonist finds out that his wife has raided their joint bank account and the likely reason why is both funny and chilling at the same time.

Any additional comments?

Even if you're not a great sci-fi fan, this is a great story well told.

Clever and portenteous

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