What happens
Robert Craig, a veteran spaceman, returns to Earth after sixteen years in space, hoping to settle there. Upon arriving at Los Angeles he finds the planet rigid with rules, ration cards and surveillance, and he is quickly drawn into the world of the city's underground. The episode is adapted from the Galaxy Science Fiction story Sea Legs by Frank Patroky and is part of the X Minus One series, which first aired on NBC on May 1, 1956. William Redfield plays the lead role of Craig in this production.
Earth and nearby space, in a tightly controlled future society, including a Los Angeles control board office and a hidden underground district in the ruins of old Los Angeles.
Characters: Robert Craig, Captain Wyandotte, Charlie Brockman, Gloria, Brannigan, Cocktail
Listen for: Pay attention to Craig's growing unease with the restrictive Earth bureaucracy, and to the conversation with the underground group in which its aims are described.
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.