Friday's Favorite OTR

Dimension X: “The Veldt” 8/9/51




Ray Bradbury’s stories were borrowed by a variety of radio shows during the 1950s. This isn’t surprising; structure a radio script so that the narration and dialogue preserves Bradbury’s wonderful prose intact and you are guaranteed to have a great episode.



Dimension X (and its successor, X Minus One) turned to Bradbury a lot. This one involves parents who buy their two children a holographic nursery. It’s a room that reads the children’s thoughts, then creates whatever environment they desire.


But when the parents allow their spoiled children to spend too much time in the nursery, they eventually learn just how real (and how deadly) the creations of that room can be.


Bradbury was commenting on inattentive and lax parents in this story, but human nature being what it is, he comes across as downright prescient. One can’t help but think of kids today who spend more time in front of TVs and computer screens than they do interacting with their parents—or of the parents who allow this. Of course, those real-life children can’t access technology that allows them to take out their inattentive parents.



At least—not yet.

You can download this episode or listen to it HERE.