Ray Bradbury's work was adapted into this lengthy three part mini series for TV back in 1980 as The Martian Chronicles, broken down into three chapters – Part 1: The Expeditions, Part 2: The Settlers, and finally Part 3: The Martians. With a combined running time of just under five hours in total length, The Martian Chronicles was an ambitious endeavor that made a valiant effort to make an honest adaptation of the renowned science fiction author's work.

Part One – The Expeditions: In 1999 the first manned space expedition to Mars is launched, headed by John Wilder (Rock Hudson). They intend to colonize the planet in hopes of moving some of the Earth's ever increasing population there to avoid overcrowding. Wilder and company lose contact with the two man ship though, almost as soon as it lands on Mars. They try and reinstate communications, but it's to no effect – the two men who went to Mars are gone. So they send a second team up, this time consisting of three men, but when this party lands on Mars they're shocked to find out that they've somehow landed in a small American town – or at least it seems that way, until again, mission control loses contact with yet another Mars landing party. Having had quite enough of this, Col. Wilder decides to lead a third space mission to Mars himself to find his lost men and conduct the necessary research himself. Strange things happen on this mission too though, and some of his crew members begin to act strangely.

Part Two – The Settlers: Once Mars undergoes human colonization, the Earth illnesses like chicken pox kills off the Martian people. To make matters worse, Human industry has decided to take many of the Martian relics and artifacts dear to their culture back to Earth to put into museums or use in amusement parks and other entertainment ventures, to capitalize and exploit the planet and its heritage for all that it is worth. Wilder continues to oversee projects on Mars and the planet very quickly becomes a hot bed of industry and commerce. Because Mars provides such opportunities to the various countries and corporations of Earth, countries begin getting aggressive with each other in regards to ownership and rights issues and soon enough it's all out war on Earth and Mars over who owns what in regards to the planet.

Part Three – The Martians: When a full scale nuclear war completely destroys the planet Earth, the only surviving members of the human race exist on Mars. There aren't many humans left, though Wilder is one of them. Most of the colonists went back to Earth just in time to be killed in the war. Wilder finally comes face to face with an actual Martian, and learns a great lesson, thus ending the series on an ironic but interesting note.

The film banters about some interesting social commentary and seems to be making some comment on the nature of man to destroy what he doesn't understand and how greed can be the great corrupter even on another planet. At times it's a little heavy handed, and at times a little oblivious. Some of the effects are interesting but many of them haven't aged particularly well and come across as obvious. Many of the matte and blue screen effects are perfect examples of this and while it isn't really the films fault that it's aged, it still warrants mentioning.

Aside from some serious plot holes and a few odd moments that don't really fit the rest of the film, the biggest flaw in the series is the casting of the late Rock Hudson, who is so utterly unconvincing and uninteresting in the lead that it does impede one's enjoyment of what could have been a very cool sci-fi mini series. Hudson lacks much range in his performance here and as such comes across as quite detached from his character's surroundings and dilemmas. The rest of the cast, sadly, isn't a whole lot better ranging from just plain bad to mediocre.

Video:

The movie was made for TV so it should come as no surprise to find it presented in a fullframe aspect ratio. Colors are strong and stable except for the reds, which appear too bright and at times almost bleed into the other colors here and there. There isn't much in the way of print damage though there is a fine coat of grain across the entire image more of the time, but that's to be expected. Most of the matte effects and blue screen effects appear extremely obvious on this transfer, due in part to the enhanced picture quality that DVD offers compared to how this would have been viewed during its original broadcast in 1980.