The Castaways
Original Radio Play: Ernest Kinoy
Originally aired: 11 August 1950
Child's Play
Author: William Tenn
Originally aired: 21 June 1951
This story was remade by X Minus One, and I have reviewed this version here.
Rating: * * *
Competition
Author: E. Mayne Hull
Originally aired: 19 November 1950
Plot synopsis: A woman hoping to start a new life on another planet finds herself entangled in a web of intrigue, becoming an unwitting pawn in a competition to develop a new space drive. Based on a short story first published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine, in June 1943.
Favourite line: 'I like new cities, new planets. They're soulless, they have no culture, no institutions with hardening of the arteries.'
Review: This is a remarkably dull and unengaging episode that I struggled to finish listening to all the way to the end. The heroine comes across as wet and rather pathetic, while the main male character seems arrogant and overly full of himself. As for the plot, there is nothing very interesting about the race to invent a new space drive, and all the scheming and espionage business is just tiresome. After it had concluded, I simply could not think of a good reason to bother with this episode.
Rating: *