THE OLD TIMER

Episode #422 · Written by Richard R. Smith · Narrated by Scott Miller

In The Old Timer, Richard R. Smith transports readers to a worn and weathered Mars—one that has surrendered its oceans, thinned its culture, and endured the careless footsteps of colonizing Earthmen. At the center of this somber landscape is Shakish, a ferryman who is literally the last of his kind: the last Martian possessing the internal gills that once defined an amphibious people. As he sits among the crumbling buildings of Dankor, watching the double shadows cast by twin moons and the flickering light of rooftop fireflies, he carries not only his passengers but the entire memory of a fading civilization. When two drunken Earthmen approach, lured by rumors of “dancing girls” across the canal, their rudeness, impatience, and prejudice reveal the widening gulf between conqueror and native.

The slow journey across the water becomes a study in tension—an old Martian struggling to maintain dignity against men who see him as little more than a relic. But Shakish’s belt, studded with diamonds and etched with the history of his people, hints at the deeper story: a lineage of adaptation stretching back to the oceans of ancient Mars. Smith carefully shifts the narrative from quiet melancholy to raw conflict as the Earthmen’s greed escalates into violence. What follows is a revenge both natural and inevitable. The canal, the dark water, and Shakish’s true nature all converge into a reckoning shaped by biology, history, and the arrogance of those who never bothered to understand the world they invaded.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard R. Smith is one of the many talented but lesser-known writers who contributed to the golden age of digest-sized science-fiction magazines in the 1950s. Although his bibliography is modest, his stories reveal a deep interest in cultural contact, colonial disruption, and the quiet resilience of marginalized peoples—often seen through the lens of alien societies. Smith’s style is crisp, atmospheric, and grounded in character; he builds tension through environment and implication rather than spectacle. His Mars is not the bustling frontier of optimistic space opera—it is a place of loss, memory, and stubborn endurance.

Smith’s work appeared in magazines such as Super-Science Fiction, a short-lived but high-quality publication known for giving newer writers a platform alongside names like Silverberg, Vance, and Knox. The Old Timer, published in February 1958, is perhaps Smith’s most enduring story, remembered for its striking mixture of melancholy world-building and brutally poetic justice. Though little biographical information survives, the work he left behind demonstrates a writer who understood the dramatic power of small encounters, cultural friction, and the final spark of a dying civilization.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to The Old Timer by Richard R. Smith — a fascinating vintage sci-fi short story of Martian survival and human arrogance.

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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 43 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 4.2 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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