The Ray Bradbury Theater (TV Series) And the Moon Be Still as Bright (1990) User Reviews

"You think they know we're here?"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 21 February 2022]

An expedition to Mars finds that the civilization there was decimated by chicken pox from a prior landing. Spender (David Carradine) is not willing to go along with his crew to make ready for future explorations upon learning what a peaceful and advanced culture the Martians appeared to have from artifacts left behind. After donning a Martian mask of a metallic nature, Spender suddenly turns on his crew, killing several men. Determined to delay or stop the arrival of future expeditions, Spender makes his intention known to Captain Wilder (Kenneth Welsh), who attempts to reason with him to no avail. In a spaceman version of a Western style showdown, the Captain gets the drop on Spender and shoots him with his ray gun before Spender can react. But before he dies, Spender hands the Martian mask to Wilder, which presumably would have the same effect on the Captain that it did on Spender, and have him halt any further advances on the Martian planet. That's the only meaning I could take away from Spender's final words when he stated, "You've got..., quite a job ahead of you".

Martian Mumbo Jumbo

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 2 April 2015]

Several men land on Mars to check to see what happened to a civilization that was there. Analysis shows that they were wiped out by a form of chicken pox. All that is left is dehydrated ash that looks like leaves blowing in the wind. There are no Martians as far as they can tell, but their machines are left behind, and one of the Earth men gets taken over by some force. He begins to kill his own people. The sad thing is that many are undisciplined, insensitive people who have no respect for the place they are exploring. This plays into the destruction that the guy (played by David Carradine who was Cain on "Kung Fu," has in mind. For some reason this just doesn't work. There is really no point other than some obtuse ending. Sometimes Bradbury was too cute for his own good.