copyright disclaimer: I do not own any copyright on this film


The Settlers

Episode 2, 28 January 1980

In the second episode, Wilder returns to the Red Planet in February 2004 with an entire fleet of spaceships, having been appointed director of the American colonization of Mars. In six months, a dozen communities are laid down. These sites, named after the Zeus mission astronauts, include: "York Plain," "Blackville," "Wilder Mountain," "Spender Hill," "Briggs Canal," and "Lustig Creek." The colonies grow rapidly over the next two years with varying amounts of success, as the colonists bring the vices of Earth (greed, corruption, bureaucracy) with them.

In September 2006, the Martian colonists start to encounter strange phenomena. David Lustig, presumed dead six years ago with the rest of Earth's Second Expedition to Mars, returns to his parents in Lustig Creek. He expresses an intense aversion to visiting First Town, the chief colony on Mars; when his parents insist on going there anyway, he suddenly goes missing. At the same time, a pair of newly-arrived missionaries, Father Peregrine and Father Stone, are rescued from a landslide by a group of mysterious blue lights. Father Stone wants to return to First Town, but Father Peregrine insists on seeking out the blue lights; when he leaves his sleeping companion and climbs to the top of a cliff and steps off, one of them appears and saves him again. They reveal themselves to be non-corporeal Martians from over 250 million years ago who live in the hills, supposedly at one with God.

They tell Father Peregrine, who has vowed to build a church in the hills with a blue sphere in place of a cross, to return to his own people and minister to them.

Father Peregrine later sees a vision of Jesus Christ in his church in First Town, but the vision begs for release: "I am not what I seem! I am not that vision!" Peregrine realizes that his visitor is actually a Martian who is forced to appear as anyone that others have strong thoughts of: David Lustig, Jesus, Lavinia Spaulding (the lost daughter of another settler couple), etc. The Martian is discovered, pursued and eventually surrounded by the residents of First Town, each of whom sees and wants him to be someone different. Under telepathic pressure to be everyone to everyone simultaneously, he dies and his body disappears. Meanwhile, nuclear war is imminent on Earth. Congress cuts the budget for space exploration, all flights to Mars are cancelled, and the colony is evacuated.

The final segment of the episode focuses on Sam Parkhill, the only survivor (aside from Wilder) of the third Zeus mission. He has opened a diner on Mars with his wife, intending to serve future truckers and mine workers. When a lone Martian suddenly appears in the diner, Parkhill panics and shoots him. Numerous Martians appear in sand ships, and Parkhill takes his wife to his very own sand ship and flees. Parkhill manages to shoot several more of them, but the Martians eventually catch up and surround the couple's ship. To Parkhill's great surprise, they bear him no ill will; in fact, they give him a land grant to half of Mars and a message: "The night is tonight. Prepare." Unfortunately, the expected fleet of ten thousand rockets filled with one hundred thousand "hungry customers" will not be coming; instead, as Parkhill views Earth through a telescope, he sees it destroyed in nuclear fire.