X Minus One cover art

X Minus One

Skulking Permit (Dramatized)

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X Minus One

By: Robert Sheckley
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About this listen

The colonists on New Delaware are told they need to be "civilized". That means they must have jails. The only problem is, they have no criminals. Based on a story by Robert Sheckley, this episode of X Minus One originally aired on February 15, 1956.

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

Future past: hear more classic science-fiction dramatizations.©2006 Radio Spirits Inc. (P)2006 Radio Spirits Inc.
Fantasy Science Fiction

Critic reviews

"[ X Minus One] brought current SF to radio, providing adaptations of many excellent new stories and thus allowing the public to appreciate the best science fiction available at the time." (Michael Ashley, The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines)
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I'd never listened to the X-1 broadcasts before now. I bought a bundle of them to listen to while travelling on holiday: only 45p each - bargain. You have to be prepared for 1950's Americana. Plenty of shouty men who purport to be top doods, but seem remarkably slow on the uptake. Sadly there only seem to be two plot-lines. One is shared by all the episodes except Skulking Permit & Skulking Permit has the other. its a really quite clever, thought-provoking one. So if you only want one of these broadcasts make it this one.

Best of the Robert Sheckley Vintage American Radio Broadcasts

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