A family of four lives in a paradise. They are the survivors of a colony. While doing research in some remote place, they missed an evacuation and had to stay on Mars. Now twenty years later, a rocket arrives and they are going to go home. The weird thing is that while the father has aged normally, his whole family is still the same age (young wife, teenage daughter and son). Those who arrive are confused by the above issues. One actually knew the son who should be his age. It turns out that John Hathaway, the father, lost his whole family to some sort of Martian virus. But he was a master engineer. He produced androids of his whole family Of course, he had to build them in his image, using features that he found attractive. The issue in this episode is what do they do now? What is next for the family when only one of them is truly human?
5 Reviews
Beautiful tribute to The Lonely
kalibeans26 June 2021
Ray Bradbury sprinkles in tributes to those he admires throughout The Ray Bradbury Theater. The Long Years airs some 30+ years after Rod Serling's poignant tale The Lonely, a tale of a prisoner (the great talent Jack Warden) "jailed" alone on an asteroid, with only a very brief supply ship crew that comes a few times a year as human contact. Bradbury even names the lead female "Cora", in The Long Years, just like The Lonely. The stories differ in most every other respect. (Trying hard not to contain a spoiler) Two tales of man's primal need for human company. I wish The Ray Bradbury Theater had remained with Home Box Office, it's original home. They seemed to value the strength of the actor to bring the story to life above expensive sets. Bradbury's tales simply don't need them. The show bounced around a good bit, even having Granada (a very fine production company who did the entire fantastic Jeremy Brett led Sherlock Holmes series) for a time as one of the producers. Each transition in sponsor seemed to place the value of the story as a distant second to fancier sets. They are all well worth watching all the same!! At least every episode remained a Bradbury story, unlike The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (it too is still worthy of watching). As we approach leaving Earth to live on other planets in reality, these early science fiction writers genius truly do serve as cautionary tales to be taken, and planned for, seriously.
"We're going home."
classicsoncall2 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Like another reviewer for this episode, I too thought of a Twilight Zone entry titled 'The Lonely' from the very first season of that series. Both stories explore man's dreaded fear of isolation and loneliness, not only placing their main character in a strange environment, but then placing that environment millions of miles from nowhere. With this one, you have to overlook how John Hathaway (Robert Culp) managed to build a modern day home on a distant planet and how he was able to create his android family. But the story does strike a nerve, especially when John's wife Cora (Judith Buchan) explains how her husband never taught her and their kids how to be sad or lonely. The story could have gone in an entirely different direction if Hathaway hadn't had his heart attack; would he have agreed to return to Earth or not? The rational answer would suggest that he would, but you can never account for feelings in stories like this. That would have made for another interesting Bradbury tale.
Junk science, but I don't mind in this case!
joegarbled-794824 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I remember a Ray Bradbury interview regarding the Apollo 11 landing, and his feelings of wonderment and that "If I could have, I'd have climbed into the tv screen." Back then, it was genuinely believed that manned missions to Mars were next (Vice President Spiro T Agnew stuck his crooked neck out on that announcement).
So here we get Ray Bradbury's vision of the future with Earthlings living on the planet Mars and it being very very Earthlike, no problems with an unbreathable atmosphere. Naturally for modern viewers, this gives about as much reality as a dusty tome written by Jules Verne. But if you can force yourself to ignore the junk science, you'll find "The Long Years" to be a beautiful story.
Earth sends a mission to Mars to pick up, and return to the Earth, a family of pioneers. The head of the household is John Hathaway (Robert Culp). The rescue party notice something very strange: whilst Hathaway looks his age, his wife and two kids don't look their age at all and they never seem to eat or drink anything. The astonished Earth party say nothing at first, and go-along as if everything was as it should be.
The leader, Capt Wilder (excellently played by George Touliatos) finally gets the truth out of John Hathaway. I'm no great fan of Robert Culp, I found him to be stiff/wooden too often and better at playing "mean" types (eg his radio jockey in "A Cry For Help") but the scene where he explains that his wife, son, and (gorgeous looking) daughter died of illness years ago and that he had constructed android versions of them was very well done. If WE had that ability, might not we do the same?
As the final pay-off, Hathaway suffers a heart attack. The rescue party bury him with his family and leave. To make the family complete again, the android wife makes an android of John Hathaway.
The story was well written (obviously greatly influenced by Jack Warden's criminal falling in love with an android female, or otherwise go crazy on his lonely asteroid prison.) and it was well acted. The best bit is that Hathaway's android family MUST have learned to love him, or why bother making an android facsimile of him?
Solid 10/10 episode in what could be a very hit or miss series.
So here we get Ray Bradbury's vision of the future with Earthlings living on the planet Mars and it being very very Earthlike, no problems with an unbreathable atmosphere. Naturally for modern viewers, this gives about as much reality as a dusty tome written by Jules Verne. But if you can force yourself to ignore the junk science, you'll find "The Long Years" to be a beautiful story.
Earth sends a mission to Mars to pick up, and return to the Earth, a family of pioneers. The head of the household is John Hathaway (Robert Culp). The rescue party notice something very strange: whilst Hathaway looks his age, his wife and two kids don't look their age at all and they never seem to eat or drink anything. The astonished Earth party say nothing at first, and go-along as if everything was as it should be.
The leader, Capt Wilder (excellently played by George Touliatos) finally gets the truth out of John Hathaway. I'm no great fan of Robert Culp, I found him to be stiff/wooden too often and better at playing "mean" types (eg his radio jockey in "A Cry For Help") but the scene where he explains that his wife, son, and (gorgeous looking) daughter died of illness years ago and that he had constructed android versions of them was very well done. If WE had that ability, might not we do the same?
As the final pay-off, Hathaway suffers a heart attack. The rescue party bury him with his family and leave. To make the family complete again, the android wife makes an android of John Hathaway.
The story was well written (obviously greatly influenced by Jack Warden's criminal falling in love with an android female, or otherwise go crazy on his lonely asteroid prison.) and it was well acted. The best bit is that Hathaway's android family MUST have learned to love him, or why bother making an android facsimile of him?
Solid 10/10 episode in what could be a very hit or miss series.
Like the story....but...
tles715 November 2020
Too many of these Martian stories show Mars with a breathable atmosphere. At the time this show was made...showing Mars looking like Earth and with no enclosed environment or the use of space suits just makes no sense for a modern audience.
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