And the Moon Be Still as Bright story
During an expedition to Mars, an archaeologist turns against his crew in defense of an extinct Martian race. Directed by: Randy Bradshaw. Story by: Ray Bradbury.
12 total · 2 choice · 5 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| accidental alien destruction of planetary civilization | choice | A point of the story is that humans had once arrived on Mars and, one way or the other, unwittingly destroyed the ecosystem that sustained a native civilization on the Red Planet. |
| the desire for vengeance | choice | It is ambiguous whether the archeologist simply went mad and murdered his fellow humans with vengeance for the Martians as a pretext, or whether the vanquished Martians somehow posthumously orchestrated the events. Either way, murdered natives of Mars an their seeming desire for retribution are a key component of the story. |
| alien brought pandemic | major | Spender deduced that a prior mission to Mars had inadvertently transmitted the chicken pox virus to the native inhabitants, resulting in their extinction. |
| colonization of Mars | major | A point of the story is that humans had traveled through space in order to explore Mars but had ended up inadvertently, perhaps by spreading chicken pox virus, exterminating the native civilization there. It feature a later expedition that had come with the, perhaps hypocritical, mission to establishing a colony while somehow honoring the civilization that had once been. |
| interplanetary space travel | major | The story concerns an expeditionary crew landing on Mars with the intent of colonizing it. |
| Martian extraterrestrial | major | It is ambiguous whether the archeologist simply went mad and murdered his fellow humans with vengeance for the Martians as a pretext, or whether the vanquished Martians somehow posthumously orchestrated the events. Either way, murdered natives of Mars an their seeming desire for retribution are a key component of the story. |
| misanthropy | major | In one interpretation of the story, the Martians had nothing to do with the strange series of events. Spender said "we humans have a talent for ruining big beautiful things". He displayed contempt for some of his fellow crewmen and ultimately went on a killing spree. |
| commander and subordinate | minor | Spender and Captain Wilder had a complicated relationship. |
| creative writing | minor | In the introduction, Ray Bradbury shared with the viewer the wellsprings of creativity that inspire his writing. |
| manners | minor | The archeologist Spender sucker-punched a fellow crewman whom he thought was behaving in a disrespectful manner towards the Martian civilization, which humanity had caused the extinction of. |