People Are Alike All Over story
Two astronauts take an expedition to Mars, where one dies in a crash landing and the other learns how alike people really are. Directed by: Mitchell Leisen. Story by: Paul Fairman, Rod Serling.
11 total · 2 choice · 4 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| fear of strangers | choice | Conrad feared what people he would find on Mars; his fears were allayed by their hospitality but then justified when he was put behind bars because the Martians, in turn, feared primitive human savagery. |
| human nature | choice | The moral of the story was spelled out as: "people are the same everywhere" while emphasizing that we all have ugly character flaws, foremost xenophobia. |
| foreign point of view | major | The Martians built a house for Conrad to observe him in his native habitat. |
| human vs. captivity | major | In a surprise twist, Conrad discovered that had mistook the Martians for being friendly when in reality they were preparing for him to be exhibited in a zoo. |
| Martian extraterrestrial | major | Conrad and Marcusson went to visit the Red Planet's inhabitants. |
| what if I was a specimen animal in a zoo | major | We saw Conrad placed in an alien zoo, and must ponder what that'd feel like. |
| interplanetary space travel | minor | Conrad and Marcusson went on a mission to Mars. |
| mind reading ability | minor | The Martians read information from Conrad's mind in order to build him a house that he would feel at home inside. |
| speculative spaceship | minor | The protagonists arrived on Mars in a regular rocketship. |
| telepathic ability | minor | The Martians used telepathy to communicate. |