X Minus One – Mars Is Heaven. ep3, 550508.

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Today is that day wen man first lands on Mars, with all it’s secrets to be revealed. A rocket lands in the dark. April 20, 1987. Wow, so that’s when it was. Funny, I don’t remember that happening. Although I think I was out of the country at that time.

The captain of the Naval vessel prepares his crew for what to expect, and rules to follow once they open the airlocks and take their first steps on the Red planet. The astronauts nervously smoke cigarettes, and talk about their hometowns. Wow, now that’s intelligent, smoking in the high oxygen environment in their space craft.

The landing party exits. What will the trigger happy crew find? A regular old fashioned house, complete with crowing roosters, pianos, porch swings, and everything a hometown back on Earth would have. What logical reason could be behind this? Has the rocket ship went backward in time, and landed on the Earth of 1928?

One of the crew finds his grandparents, and they claim that they’ve been there since they died several years before. Is Mars heaven?

Back at the ship the captain thinks they’re being overrun, but it’s a swarm of long dead relatives there to greet the crew, and welcome them. Reunions and celebrations are the word of the day. Everybody but the ship doctor seems to have found family members on Mars. It’s time to call it a night, but should the crew return to their ship, or just stay with the new found relatives.

In the wee hours of the night, the ship doctor and captain talk about the happenings. The doc hits on a theory of what’s going on, but will anybody believe him? Is there some kind of mind control trick going on? What will be the fate of the heros in the cfrew when the Martians show their true faces?