Theater of the Mind
X Minus One
120 episodes · 1955–1973 · NBC, Armed Forces Radio Service · Sci-Fi
Play X Minus One on Radio Days
X Minus One counted down on NBC from April 24, 1955, to January 9, 1958, for 126 episodes. Its first fifteen shows were new productions of scripts from Dimension X (1950-51). Staff writers Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts wrote most of the radio scripts, drawing on stories from Astounding and Galaxy magazines by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon and others. Announcer Fred Collins opened every show with the countdown: "X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire!"
Sources: X Minus One, Wikipedia
Episodes
Tap a year to see its episodes, then a title to play it on Radio Days.
195532 episodes
- Xminusone and the Moon Be Still and Bright
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - No Contact
The first show, picking up where Dimension X left off: the sixth ship to try for the planet Volta nears the Galactic Barrier. - The Parade (1955)
A real Martian hires an ad agency to publicize a parade. The Martians are coming. - Mars Is Heaven
The first men on Mars land in what looks exactly like a small town back home, full of faces they know. From Ray Bradbury's story. - Universe
Generations of people live aboard a giant ship on a journey with no end. - Knock
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door. - The Man in the Moon
An SOS from the moon, and with good reason. - Pyrigi's Wonderful Dolls
Mr. Pyrigi's strange little dolls, led by Toto. Every little girl would want one. - The Green Hills of Earth
Rhysling, the blind singer of the spaceways. - Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitarium
Missing bodies at a mental hospital, and a mad scientist or two. - Nightmare
A lowly clerk uses his computer to find out what the computers are up to. - The Embassy
The search for the Martian embassy, somewhere in New York. - The Veldt
In a house that does everything for them, two parents start to worry about their children's nursery, where the African veldt, lions and all, seems a little too real. From Ray Bradbury's story. - Almost Human
A crook teaches a robot to rob and kill, and the robot is eager to learn. - Courtesy
A plague is wiping out an Earth colony on another world. The natives know the cure, but will the Earthmen accept it? - The Cold Equations
The pilot of an emergency rocket finds a young girl stowed away, and he has fuel for only one. From Tom Godwin's story, and there is no happy ending. - Shanghaied
A young man is shanghaied onto a spaceship just before his wedding. - The Martian Death March
Man's cruelty to the Martians, an allegory of the treatment of Native Americans in the West. - The Castaways
Islanders put a curse on the soldiers who will destroy their atoll with an atomic bomb. - And the Moon Be Still as Bright
Earthmen land on Mars and start turning it into a slum. - First Contact
A ship meets an alien vessel in deep space, and neither dares let the other go home. - Child's Play
A man receives a Build-a-Man kit from the future. - Requiem
An old, rich man wants only to see the moon before he dies. - Hello Tomorrow
People return to the surface after the bombs, and the question of who is perfect. - Dwellers in Silence
Twenty years after mankind leaves Earth, a ship from Mars lands. - The Outer Limit
An end-of-the-world story set in the far future of 1965. - Zero Hour
The Archive copy has no date; Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists this title on November 23, 1955, the date used here. - The Vital Factor
A ruthless millionaire will be first into space, whatever the cost. - Nightfall
On a planet with six suns, night has not fallen in more than two thousand years, until now. From Isaac Asimov's story. - To the Future
A trip two hundred years into the past, to 1955. - Marionettes Inc.
In 1990 a man buys a robot double to stay home with his wife. The robot has ideas of its own. - A Logic Named Joe
Want to know how to do anything? Just ask your Logic.
195646 episodes
- The Roads Must Roll
The engineers who keep the moving roads rolling go on strike. - Time and Time Again
A soldier from the war of 1975 is thrown thirty years into the past. - The Parade (1956)
A real Martian hires an ad agency to publicize a parade. - The Cave of Night
An astronaut stranded in space, with a surprise ending. - The C-Chute
Captured humans plan to take back their ship from the aliens. - Skulking Permit (1956)
A long-lost colony tries to prove it's civilized by producing a criminal. - Junkyard
On a planet of alien junk, spacemen lose their memories, including how to fly their ship. - A Gun for Dinosaur
A time-travel hunt for dinosaurs eighty-five million years ago. - The Tunnel Under the World (March 1956)
A man wakes up and it's June 15 again, and again. - A Thousand Dollars a Plate
Astronomers on Mars try to stop a casino's fireworks. - A Pail of Air
The last family on a frozen Earth. - How to
A man buys a do-it-yourself dog kit and ends up with a robot with a mother instinct. - Star Bright
A little girl travels through other dimensions and decides not to come back. - Jaywalker
A pilot's wife stows away on his ship and endangers the flight. - The Sense of Wonder
A ship on a ten-thousand-year voyage comes back to Earth, and only one passenger wants to get off. - Sea Legs
A spaceman comes to Earth for the first time and finds it isn't all it's cracked up to be. - The Seventh Order
A powerful robot comes to prepare Earth for invasion, and a professor must stop it. - Hallucination Orbit
A stranded spaceman sees beautiful women in orbit. Is one of them real? - The Defenders
Robots run the surface of the Earth while the last humans live far underground. - Lulungomeena
Lulungomeena, the most beautiful place in the galaxy. Just ask a Hixabrod. - Project Mastadon
The Archive copy has no date; Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists this title on June 5, 1956, the date used here. - If You Was a Moklin
An Earth trading post on Moklin, a planet with very friendly natives. - Project Trojan
A secret weapon will change the war, but the weapon has a secret weapon. - Wherever You May Be
A researcher in the Ozarks meets Abby, a girl with very unusual abilities. - Mr. Costello, Hero
A satire of McCarthyism: Mr. Costello spreads suspicion aboard a rocket ship. - Bad Medicine
A man who wants to kill his friend gets therapy from a Martian-model machine. - The Old Die Rich
Old people are found starved to death with money in their pockets. The cause: time travel. - The Stars Are the Styx
Young Tween waits on a space station for her chance at the stars, but she's an albino. - Student Body
A small animal on a far planet adapts to anything. - The Last Martian
A man says he's the very last Martian. Is he? - The Snowball Effect
A sociology experiment snowballs into world government. - Surface Tension
With the sun about to explode, scientists create tiny humans to live in a drop of water. - The Tunnel Under the World (September 1956)
A man wakes three days running to find it's still June 15. - The Lifeboat Mutiny
A rescue vessel programmed to protect its occupants decides who they are. - The Map Makers
The only navigator on a spaceship dies, and nobody else knows the way home. - Protective Mimicry
A Treasury agent hunts the source of impossibly perfect money. - Colony
A distant colony is attacked by creatures that pose as ordinary objects. - Soldier Boy
War between the planets has reached mankind, and the battle is about to begin. From a story by Michael Shaara, who later wrote The Killer Angels. - Pictures Don't Lie
A radio signal from deep space turns out to be a television picture, sent from an alien ship on its way to Earth. From Katherine MacLean's story. - Sam, This Is You
A telephone lineman gets a call from himself, in the future. - Appointment in Tomorrow
A plan to expose the Thinkers who rule the world with their computer, Maisie. - Chain of Command
A comedy about clever mice loose in a top-secret laboratory. From Stephen Arr's story. - There Will Come Soft Rains and Zero Hour
Two stories: the death of the house of the future, and children playing a game called Invasion. - Hostess
An alien ambassador visits a typical Earth couple, and his hostess learns another meaning of the word. - The Reluctant Heroes
A moon veteran is tricked into another tour of duty. - Honeymoon in Hell
With the birth rate falling before an atomic war, a couple is sent to the moon on a honeymoon.
195739 episodes
- The Moon Is Green
After the atomic war, a woman looks out the window and sees a man living in the open. - Saucer of Loneliness
A flying saucer lands in Central Park, and the woman who gets its message won't tell. - The Girls from Earth
Two drifters on Mars plan to sell girls from Earth to the uranium miners. - Open Warfare
A golfer plays a perfect robot golfer for a millionaire's daughter. - Caretaker
An Earthman is rescued after twenty-two years alone on a distant planet. - Venus Is a Man's World
A battle of the sexes on a ship to Venus. - The Trap
Two hunters in the mountains and the pleasures of osmotic suction. - Field Study
The mysterious Mr. Trancor can cure anything. - Real Gone
Ralph Therian and his unusual art medium. - The Seventh Victim
A hunter after his seventh kill for the Tens Club meets a victim with an unusual defense. - The Lights on Precipiece Peak
Two climbers find the source of mysterious lights, but no one would believe them. - Protection
A student is protected by an alien Durg, which has its drawbacks. - At the Post (March 1957)
A racetrack tout helps aliens plan the end of mankind. - Martian Sam
The Dodgers sign a real Martian pitcher with a lot of arms. - Something for Nothing
A man gets a wishing machine from the future, with a catch. - The Discovery of Morniel Mathaway
An egotistical artist and a time traveler with a startling revelation. - Man's Best Friend
Is a man's best friend his mother, his computer or both? - Inside Story
A reporter enters the enclave of people with Null-E fever. - The Category Inventors
Robots have taken most jobs, so a man invents a new one. - Skulking Permit (1957)
A space colony suddenly needs a genuine criminal. - Early Model
An explorer on a faraway planet is shielded by an early-model protective suit. - The Merchant of Venus
Getting people to colonize Venus is easy. Keeping them there isn't. - The Haunted Corpse
Swapped bodies and a plan for immortality. - End as a World
The day the world ended, but not the way you think. - The Scapegoat
An obnoxious visitor from another world. - At the Post (August 1957)
A racetrack tout helps aliens plan the end of mankind. - Drop Dead
A planet with one very obliging inhabitant, the Critter. - Volpla
Talking birds from another world, a practical joke, but on whom? - Tsylana
A visit to Utopia, where everybody is happy. Right? - The Native Problem
Colonists meet a native on a distant planet who says he's from Earth too. - A Wind Is Rising
Two-hundred-mile-an-hour winds on another planet. - Death Wish
Three men in a wrecked spaceship look for the answer to a hard question. - Point of Departure
The shocking secret of tablets found under the Pyramids. - The Light
The first men on the moon find footprints. - Lulu
A lovesick spaceship that likes poetry. - The Coffin Cure
A cure for the common cold, and what a cure. - Shock Troop
A battle for control of a strange creature, from the inside. - Double Dare
Two scientists defend Earth's honor. - Target One
A plan to end atomic war with time travel.
19582 episodes
- Prime Difference
A henpecked husband gets help from an android. - Grey Flannel Armor
The last show of the series: a city romance service isn't what it promises.
19731 episode
- Xxx the Iron Chancellor
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.