ALIENS IN THE MIND
[RADIO-SERIAL]
Although this is really a science-fiction series (and with a misleading title to boot), it cries out to
be mentioned in these pages if only for the fact of it being the only radio pairing (apart from an
episode of The Price of Fear) of those two legends of horror cinema, Vincent Price and Peter
Cushing.
“Aliens in the Mind wasn’t created as a vehicle for these two horror giants—it was originally
written as an episode of Dr. Who called Aliens in the Blood and took place far in the future rather
than in modern times. Robert Holmes, Alien’s writer, had the Doctor pitted against ‘Mark II’
humans who protested the placement of the Outer Space Commission of Control offices on their
native island by wrecking spacescraft with Uber-ESP. When this idea was rejected, the script was
rewritten with the help of Rene Basilico…”
“Holmes submitted this idea on October 22, 1968, shortly after completing work on The
Krotons. Script editor Terrance Dicks was wary of the proposal, feeling that OSCOC bore
similarities to the eponymous facility in The Wheel in Space… ‘The Aliens in the Blood’ was
rejected soon thereafter. Years later, however, Holmes was commissioned to write an amended
version of the serial—now set in present-day Chile and with the Doctor and his companions
replaced by Dr. John Cornelius and Prof. Curtis Lark—for BBC Radio 4. Cowritten with Rene
Basilico, it was transmitted in six weekly episodes as Aliens in the Mind from January 2, 1977.”
ORIGINATION: Radio 4, London (BBC).
DURATION: January 2-February 6, 1977.
PERSONNEL: Rene Basilico (scriptwriter), John Dyre (producer), Robert Holmes (scriptwriter), Chris
Jenkins (effects).
CAST: Joan Benom, Fraser Carr, Sandra Clark, Peter Cushing, Shirley Dickson, William Eagle, Michael
Harver, Richard Herndle, Joan Matheson, Clifford Norgate, Vincent Price, Andrew Spear, Henry Stamfer,
James Thomlinson, Steve Titus, Irene Tucklef.
[CHRONOLOGY]
ALIENS IN THE MIND (RADIO 4, LONDON)
[Sunday—7:02-7:30 PM]
January 2, 1977 [1] “Island Genesis”
January 9, 1977 [2] “Hurried Exodus”
[“…Cornelius and Lark try to get Flora off the island of mutants…”]
January 16, 1977 [3] “Unexpected Visitations”
[“…Curtis and Lock get more than they bargained for back in London…”]
January 23, 1977 [4] “Official Intercession”
[“…How far will certain parties go to conceal Flora’s presence?...”]
January 30, 1977 [5] “Genetic Revelation”
[“…A colony of mutants exists in the heart of London but the only person
with powers to help in the crisis is murdered…”]
February 6, 1977 [6] “Final Tribulation”
[“…An MP finds out that he is a mutant being manipulated by an
unidentified Controller…”]
[GALLERY]
Peter Cushing & Vincent Price