What happens
Georg Helmut, head of the Thinkers' Foundation in a near-future America, prepares a major meeting on building a true nuclear rocket to Mars. His colleagues fail to arrive after a cancellation message is sent in his name. Physicist Willard Farquhar and the scientist Morton Operally have been investigating the Foundation's claims, which rest on the electronic brain Maisie and its supposed Martian contacts. Helmut, confident in his mental training, confronts his partner Jan Traegarun over the cancelled meeting and the Foundation's direction. Tension rises as the men argue over whether the organization's power rests on real achievement or on lies.
America near the end of the 20th century, centered on the Thinkers' Foundation and its research facilities.
Characters: Georg Helmut, Willard Farquhar, Morton Operally, Jan Traegarun, Caddy, Maisie
Listen for: The conversation between Helmut and Traegarun in the later scenes, where the Foundation's methods and claims are openly discussed.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.