The Old Martians by Rog Phillips Episode #21
Rog Phillips | June 14, 2022-
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The Old Martians by Rog Phillips Episode #21
Rog Phillips
THE OLD MARTIANS
Episode #21 · Written by Rog Phillips · Narrated by Scott Miller
At first, Mars is only a backdrop for photographs and guided commentary. But for one man on the tour, the ruins provoke a growing certainty that refuses to stay buried. Familiar shapes, untouched stones, and forbidden zones awaken a conviction that something he once hid here is still waiting.
An agent trained to detect dangerous patterns recognizes the signs and stays close, watching as certainty hardens into intent. What begins as observation turns into a race against time, as ancient structures, sealed chambers, and forgotten devices threaten to become active again.
The tension in The Old Martians unfolds through restraint and proximity rather than spectacle. Every decision tightens the situation: when to intervene, when to observe, and when stopping a man may mean preventing knowledge that cannot safely exist.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rog Phillips published dozens of science fiction and fantasy stories throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, appearing frequently in Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, Planet Stories, and Astounding Science Fiction. His fiction often focused on psychological instability, institutional control, and the hidden dangers embedded in advanced technology.
Stories like The Old Martians reflect Phillips’s interest in how ordinary people react when confronted with knowledge they are not meant to possess. Rather than presenting cosmic threats as distant or abstract, he placed them within tightly managed systems—tours, agencies, and rules—where a single failure of containment could have irreversible consequences.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to The Old Martians by Rog Phillips — a vintage science fiction story where buried Martian technology turns memory into a deadly liability.
RELATED STORIES
Mars has always been the most familiar of alien worlds, close enough to imagine and distant enough to remain dangerous. Vintage science fiction turned the red planet into a testing ground for human ambition—an empty frontier, a dying world, or a civilization older and stranger than Earth itself.
These stories send explorers, settlers, soldiers, and scientists across the void to a place where survival is never guaranteed. Thin air, vast deserts, and abandoned cities create a landscape that is both harsh and haunting.
Whether the planet is home to ancient Martians, fragile colonies, or the last hope after Earth’s decline, Mars stories are about adaptation.
- Dwellers in Silence by Ray Bradbury
- Death-Wish by Ray Bradbury
- Defense Mech by Ray Bradbury
- The Visitor by Ray Bradbury
- The One Who Waits by Ray Bradbury
- The Crystal Egg by H. G. Wells
- Never on Mars by John Wyndham
- Return of a Legend by Raymond Z. Gallun
- Message From Mars by Clifford D. Simak
- The Monsters Came By Night by Robert Silverberg
- The Martians and the Coys by Mack Reynolds
- A Zloor For Your Trouble by Mack Reynolds
- The Weapon by Isaac Asimov
- Arm of the Law by Harry Harrison
- Monster by William Morrison
- Fee of the Frontier by H. B. Fyfe
- A Message From Our Sponsor by Henry Slesar
- Two Weeks in August by Frank M. Robinson
- Duel on Syrtis by Poul Anderson
- We're Off to Mars by Joe Gibson
- Death Walks on Mars by Alan J. Ramm
- The Old Timer by Richard R. Smith
- Trainee for Mars by Harry Harrison
- The Hermit of Mars by Stephen Bartholomew
- Martian Homecoming by Frank Belknap Long
- Lake of Fire by Frank Belknap Long
- The Hated by Frederik Pohl
- The Old Martians by Rog Phillips
- The Martian Shore by Charles L. Fontenay
- Madmen of Mars by Erik Fennel
- Martians Never Die by Lucius Daniel
- What's He Doing in There? by Fritz Leiber
- Don't Look Now by Henry Kuttner
- Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury
- The Goggles of Dr Dragonet by Fritz Leiber
- The Foxholes of Mars by Fritz Leiber
- Alien Equivalent by Richard R. Smith
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The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 34 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.3 million listens.
Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.
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