Dimension X
Season 11, Episode 12
November 20, 2023
Stories in time and space . . . told in future tense
Re-Imagined Radio explores the history and legacy of Dimension X, a pioneering radio science fiction series broadcast on NBC from April 1950 through September 1951. We review radio science fiction programs leading up to Dimension X, and then listen to "The Outer Limit," the first episode of Dimension X, and perhaps the most often broadcast radio science fiction story. From our Tribute Series.
Access the episode script
Background
Quick Info
OTR adult science fiction series. Each episode offered, "Stories in time and space . . . transcribed in future tense."
National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC)
April 8, 1950 to September 29, 1951
30-minute episodes
Total episodes: 50 produced
Surviving episodes: 50
Of the 50 episodes total, 46 are unique, written by or adapted from works by science fiction writers of the day, many of whom are now household names.
4 episodes were repeated: "The Outer Limit" (8 April 1950 and 8 September 1950), "No Contact" (29 April 1950 and 28 October 1950), "The Green Hills of Earth" (10 June 1950 and 24 December 1950), and "Mars Is Heaven" (7 July 1950 and 7 January 1951).
Origins
Dimension X narrowly missed being the first adult science fiction radio series. In a letter to James Widner and Meade Frierson III, producer Van Woodward recalls the idea for an adult anthology series as first promoted by either writer Ernest Kinoy or George Lefferts. "We prepared an audition for the network brass using 'Mars Is Heaven' [from The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury]" (Widner and Frierson 20).
"Almost simultaneously, the NBC staff in Hollywood was cooking up a science fiction series of its own . . . and a good one," said Woodward (Widner and Frierson 20).
Woodward said, "In the end, NBC decided to produce the show in New York, probably because we had a much larger staff available to handle it there. And then we sat down to wait for a time slot to open up for Dimension X. Before it did, 2,000 Plus had beaten us on the air" (Widner and Frierson 20).
A New York Times article suggests the planned science fiction was to be called Out of This World. When NBC was unable to clear rights to use "Mars Is Heaven" the planned science fiction series was renamed Dimension X. The article described Dimension X like this, "The program which begins Saturday, April 8 at 8 p.m. will have a 15-minute prologue at 7:45 entitled 'Preview to the Future'" (Widner and Frierson 20).
And so, 2,000 Plus became the first adult oriented science fiction radio anthology series.
Adapting Original Works
With an adult audience in mind, each episode of Dimension X was adapted from original works by top science fiction writers of the day. Many of their visions—space travel, fantastic technology, for example—have proved quite accurate. Writers Kinoy and Lefferts faithfully adapted published works by these young science fiction writers:
Isaac Asimov, "Nightfall" and "A Pebble in the Sky"
Robert Bloch, "Almost Human"
Ray Bradbury, "Dwellers in Silence," "The Veldt," "Kaleidoscope," "Marionettes, Inc.," "Mars is Heaven,"
"And the Moon Be Still as Bright," and "There Will Come Soft Rains / Zero Hour"
Frederic Brown, "Knock"
Graham Doar, "The Outer Limit." Saturday Evening Post, 24 Dec. 1949, pp. 22, 23, 72.
Robert A. Heinlein, "Universe," "The Green Hills of Earth," "Requiem," "Destination Moon," and "The
Roads Must Roll"
L. Ron Hubbard, "The Professor Was a Thief"
Murray Leinster, "The Lost Race," "A Logic Named Joe," and "First Contact"
H. Beam Piper, "Time and Time Again"
Clifford Simak, "Courtesy"
Jack Vance, "The Potters of Firsk"
Kurt Vonnegut, "Report on the Barnhouse Effect"
Jack Williamson, "With Folded Hands"
Donald Wollheim, "The Embassy"
Kinnoy and Lefferts also contributed original scripts of their own.
Woodson, in his letter to Widner and Frierson (see above) said, "We went the 'adaptation route' simply because that's where the best stories are. Bright ideas for science fiction don't come on order; they're usually the product of a moment's inspiration, by a writer who is steeped in the field" (Widner and Frierson 28).
"The Outer Limit"
"The Outer Limit" is the first episode of Dimension X, and perhaps the most often broadcast radio science fiction story.
The original story by Graham Doar was first published in The Saturday Evening Post (24 Dec. 1949, pp. 22, 23, 72). The story concerns a pilot testing a new, experimental aircraft who disappears with only ten minutes of fuel left. Given up for dead, he returns ten hours later with a message given him, he says, by aliens: stop developing and using atomic weapons.
Coming just two years after the first modern report of a UFO sighting by Kenneth Arnold, June 24, 1947, Doar's story effectively combines the elements of post war angst, Cold War fears, interest bordering on hysteria for flying saucers, and popular imagination to create a template for alien "close encounter" stories that followed.
Broadcast History of "The Outer Limit"
"The Outer Limit" was used several times for radio. Here is a chronology:
February 7, 1950
Escape, Episode 97
Original story by Graham Doar, Saturday Evening Post, 24 Dec. 1949
Adapted by Morton Fine and David Friedkin
Cast: Frank Lovejoy as Major Westfall. With Charles McGraw, Jeff Corey, Stan Waxman, and Ian Wolfe.
William N. Robson produced and directed the story
February 23, 1950
Beyond This World, Audition
Original story by Graham Doar
Cast: Frank Lovejoy, Charles McGraw, Jeff Corey
Here, the series is called Beyond This World. Hosted by "Askator."
April 8, 1950
Dimension X, Pilot episode, Episode 01
Original story by Graham Doar
Adapted by Ernest Kinoy
Cast: "Joseph Julian as Steve, Wendell Holmes as Hank, and Joe De Santis as Major Donaldson. Your host
is Norman Roses. Music was by Albert Berman. Sound designed by Simon Roe. Edward King directed."
April 13 or 18, 1950
Beyond This World series retitled Beyond Tomorrow, Episode 04
Original story by Graham Doar
Same as audition, but with different introduction. Here, the series is called Beyond
Tomorrow.
September 8, 1950
Dimension X, Episode 23
Original story by Graham Doar
Adapted by Ernest Kinoy
Repeat of Episode 01
February 15, 1954
Suspense, Episode 539
Based on the earlier script used for Escape
Cast: William Holden
Credits: Elliott Lewis, producer/director
November 16, 1955
X Minus One, Episode 25
The Dimension X adaptation by Ernest Kinoy
Cast: Joe Julian, Wendell Holmes, Joe De Santis, Bob Hastings, James Dukas, Freddie Chandler
March 17, 1957
Suspense, Episode 690
Cast: Frank Lovejoy
Credits: William N. Robson, producer/director
Legacy
In addition to wide re-broadcast of "The Outer Limit" episode, Dimension X provided the essential radio storytelling DNA for X Minus One, perhaps the most acclaimed science fiction radio series ever broadcast. Fourteen episodes from Dimension X were reused as the first episodes of X Minus One (DeForest 198).
Resources
Dimension X episodes at Internet
Archive.
Doar, Graham. "The Outer Limit." Saturday Evening Post, 24 Dec. 1949, pp. 22, 23, 72.
Science Fiction in Radio. Old Time
Radio Catalog website.
Dimension X radio logs at Jerry Haendiges Vintage
Radio Logs website
Dimension X log by James Widner
The Definitive Dimension
X at Digital Deli Too
Dimension X plot summaries and credits at Radio Gold Index
website
Episodes of Dimension X at Internet
Archive website
Works Cited
DeForest, Tom. Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular
Fiction
in America. McFarland, 2004.
Widner, James F. and Meade Frierson, III. Science Fiction on Radio: A Revised Look at
1950–1975. AFAB, 1996.
Production
Contents
The first half of this episode is sampled from the following pioneering science fiction radio programs:
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, perhaps the earliest example.
The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon, created specifically to compete with
Buck Rogers.
The FURTHER Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon, because even though the original
series ended audiences wanted more adventures.
Latitude Zero, a summer filler that disappeared but Re-Imagined Radio hopes to return,
soon.
Beyond Tomorrow, one of the earliest science fiction radio programs intended for adults.
But it was cancelled before its first broadcast. The first and last episodes were "The Outer Limit,"
about which we will learn more shortly.
Space Patrol, which began as a television program and then moved to radio and introduced
listeners to ray guns, Space-O-Phones, and atomolights.
Two Thousand Plus, the first adult science fiction radio series. Eighty nine melodramatic
episodes were produced. Sixteen are said to survive.
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, follows Corbett Corbett and friends Roger Manning and Astro, a
Venutian, as they train at the Space Academy to become members of the Solar Guard, an interplanetary
police force that helps maintain the Solar Alliance of Earth, Mars, and Venus.
Planet Man, who, forbidden to use violence, except in self-defense, patrols the galaxy for
The League of Planets, keeping the peace.
Captain Starr of Space, which continues the tropes of spaceships, space travel, ray guns,
futuristic technology, and systems of justice.
X Minus One, known for high quality radio adaptations of stories by leading science fiction
writers that appeared in Galaxy Magazine.
The second half is "The Outer Limit" in its entirety.
Cast
Joe Di Santis, Wendell Holmes, Santos Ortega, Joseph Julian, Jan Miner, Roger De Koven, John Gibson, Ralph Bell, John Larkin, Les Damon, and Mason Adams.
Credits
Directed by Fred Weihe and Edward King
Narrated by Norman Rose
Episodes adapted/written by Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts
Significance
Neither the earliest nor the most famous of the many science fiction series heard on radio from the 1930s to the 1950s, and despite its short life span, broadcast less than a year, only fifty episodes, Dimension X pioneered science fiction radio storytelling, according to James Widner and Meade Frierson, "using imagination to experience whatever is being talked about, read or acted out" (8). In doing this work, Dimension X provided the essential radio storytelling DNA for X Minus One, perhaps the most acclaimed science fiction anthology radio series ever broadcast.
Producer's Notes
The biggest challenge producing this episode of Re-Imagined Radio was what to include, and what to leave
out. My solution was to include those radio programs offering a clear connection to the eventual
evolution of Dimension X. You can read about each, and others, in this episode archival
webpage and the episode script. From this lineage comes Dimension X. The opening episode
was "The Outer Limit," which we offer in its entirety during the second half of this episode.
— John F. Barber
Promotion
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