First aired on 19 July 1951 and adapted from Ray Bradbury's "Dwellers In Silence". This episode was written by George Lefferts and directed by Fred Weihe. Norman Rose is the Narrator, describing the premise of the story.
Part of the The Martian Chronicles, "Dwellers" occurs after "And the Moon Be Still as Bright", and is the last of the stories adapted for Dimension X. Captain John Parsons (Peter Capell) and his crew have come back to Earth to see if anyone has survived the disaster. They find Dr Hathaway (Bill Griffiths) and his family (including Alice, played by Gertrude Warner). However, certain things don't add up right, like the age of Dr Hathaway's son and the way he sneaks off alone.
"Dwellers in Silence" contains examples of:
- The Ageless: The robot Hathaway family isn't capable of aging. They don't know how long they will last, but they do not grow old like Dr Hathaway (their creator) does.
- Artificial Family Member: To help against his loneliness (Dr Cornelius Hathaway is the only survivor on Earth), he created robot copies of his deceased wife and children; Alice, Susan, Marguerite, and John.
- Audio Adaptation: An adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Dwellers In Silence", adapted by George Lefferts.
- Colonized Solar System: The survivors of the Earth Wars established a settlement on Mars.
- Deathbed Confession: When Captain Parsons confronts Dr Hathaway, he admits that he is the only human who survived, implying that the "family" living with him are all robot copies. Implied in his confession is the request that his family not be told about the truth of their construction.
- Deceptively Human Robots: Dr Hathaway built life-like robot replacements of his family. Alice Hathaway is aware of being a robot, but the children haven't been told.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dr Hathaway sneaks away to the graves of his family, and two of the Martians follow. When Dr Hathaway begins to die, Evans is instructed to hold him.
- Earth That Used to Be Better: Earth was rendered a radioactive wasteland by the devastating fallout from the Earth Wars in 1987, leading the survivors to evacuate the planet and establish a colony on Mars.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Dr Hathaway has used his knowledge of robotics to create the impression that he isn't alone. He rigged a recording of his own voice to call him, he wired recordings up to city loudspeakers, he even built realistic robot duplicates of his dead family.
- Homeworld Evacuation: Earth was evacuated on June 18, 1987 in the aftermath of the Earth Wars. By this time, the radioactive dust cloud had already encompassed New York City and was heading west. The comparatively few survivors settled on Mars.
- Last Request: While Dr Hathaway is dying in the arms of Captain Parsons, it is implied that he doesn't want his children to know they aren't human.
- Mercy Kill: Evans plans to kill the robot family so that they will not be lonely, but he ends up being unable to do so. Captain Parsons tells them that he will return with more fuel to bring them to Mars, instead.
- Sole Survivor: Dr Cornelius Hathaway is the only surviving human on Earth in 2007 as all other survivors of the Earth Wars settled on Mars 20 years earlier. Hathaway managed to survive as he was in his lead-lined laboratory in the Sierra Mountains when the radioactive dust cloud enveloped the United States. His family didn't.
