 Family Theatre presents Barry Sullivan and Jim Bacchus. From Hollywood, the mutual network in cooperation with Family Theatre presents The Other Sheep starring Jim Bacchus. And now here is your host, Barry Sullivan. Family Theatre's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives if we are to win peace for ourselves. Peace for our families and peace for the world. Family Theatre urges you to pray. Pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama The Other Sheep starring Jim Bacchus as Bert. You'll step out onto your front porch and you're fortunate enough to have a clear night where you live. You'll see the stars. And they'll look like they've always looked like a thousand bright specks against the darkness of night. But this time, look a little longer and think of them for what they really are. There are stars like our own sun burning with an almost impossible fury in envelopes of their own flaming gases. Orbiting planets which reflect the fires of their suns. And if you'll look for a long time, you'll probably see a shooting star which is actually not a star at all, but a meteorite. Perhaps no larger than a grain of sand exploding with heat on meeting the friction of Earth's atmosphere. Then there's another kind of star, a kind you'd never see from your front porch or even in the reflector of a powerful telescope because it gives no light. Our story is about such a star and about four men and a woman who visited a hundred years in the future. Now, pardon me, could you direct me to Area 12? Area 12. That's a restricted area. Well, they gave me this pass. I'm supposed to report to a Captain Eaton of the James Fargo. Oh, well, you can come along with me. That's where I'm going. Name is Bert Kinney. I'm with the International Geographic. Oh, yes. That outfit that makes the pictures with stereo. We do a lot of stereo vision, but we're a publishing company primarily, Commander. I'm a Lieutenant, Mr. Kinney. Oh. Here. Right through this gate. I didn't catch your name. It's James Dunney. You're an Annapolis man? Up through the ranks. You seem to have considerable equipment with him. Come and take some pictures of the blast off. From what they tell me, I'm supposed to be going along. Really? No, it's a little unusual. That's what I thought. Are you assigned to the James Fargo? Yes, I am. I'm the physical science officer in the contact team. Well, it'll be nice to have an acquaintance on board. I doubt if we'll be seeing each other, Mr. Kinney. As I said, I'm on the contact team. If you'll take whatever papers you have of that man over there, I'm sure he'll take care of you. He's Captain Eaton. Thanks. All right. That'll be a service. I'll just bet you were. Well, Captain Eaton. Yes? My name's Kinney. Oh, yes. From International Geographic. I've got a letter here somewhere from Comstar Pack 7. No need to give it to me right now. You have it, though you wouldn't have gotten this far. Here. Let me give you a hand with some of that gear. It looks heavy. Thank you, sir. So, you're going with us to the Dark Star. So, don't they tell me, sir? And I confess I'm a little curious about the trip. Dark Star sounds foreboding. Oh. I'm afraid I'm not allowed to give you much information until we're underway, but I can tell you that we don't expect the outcome of the voyage to be too foreboding. And God willing, you may have something great to report when you get back. I just hope I don't get in your hair too much. I'm afraid, Mr. Kinney, there won't be much chance of that. In fact, we won't even see each other until we get back. You know, that's the second time I've heard something like that in the last ten minutes. Oh? Lieutenant has said he was on the contact team. Oh, that explains it. They're pretty much the elite force of the Navy. The man I talked to seemed pretty well aware of that, Fat Captain. What's his name, Donny? Well, yes, sir. I've heard that about the man before. He has the unhappy faculty of being able to make enemies easily. Captain, isn't that quite a handicap for a career Navy man? For most men it would be, Mr. Kinney, but Donny hasn't been passed over yet. You see, he also has the faculty. One was always being right. And it's his judgment we're interested in this trip, not his personality. Well, here we are. I'm afraid this is as far as I can take you. Short ride by elevated and you'll be in your quarters. I'll just put your gear down on the platform and why don't you do the same. When you get up top, the others will help you unload. Oh, fine, that stuff gets heavy. Well, thank you, Captain. I suppose I'll see you later on. I'm afraid I'll have trouble you with one of your papers, Mr. Kinney. Oh, the letter, just a minute. No, not the letter. Your shot record. Oh, shot record. Oh, the paper they gave me at the medical center. That's the one. I think I packed it in my suitcase. Can't I drop it by your cabin a little later? I'm sorry, Navy regulations. I have to check it before you go aboard. I'm afraid you won't be seeing me till the end of the voyage anyway, Mr. Kinney. You see, you'll be cut off from the rest of the ship. Cut off? My orders from section seven say you're annoyed with the contact team. And frankly, Mr. Kinney, I kind of envy you. What are the thoughts of the man about to travel in deep space for the first time? About to travel with the elite force of the ship? Well, first you're excited and curious about the kind of an expedition it is, because basically you're a newsman, and the Navy wouldn't be taking you unless it wanted to witness to something important. Then as you ride the elevator up the mirrored side, you wonder about the ship itself and about the strange cloister they call the node. As you reach the top and step through the hatch, you meet the members of the contact team, two men and a woman, all in the blue uniform familiar to the Navy for almost 200 years. After the introductions, the woman gives you a pill to ward off acceleration sickness, and a beefy man named Edmunds gives you water to wash it down with. Less than five minutes later, you're leaning back in your bee chair, trying to hide your nervousness from the members of the team. From lift. The ship is now on storage atmosphere, so the smoking lamp is out and will remain out on all stations till the completion of the voyage. Stand by for the countdown. A little nervous, Mr. Kinney? Maybe just a little. Me too. I bet I've done this a hundred times. Still get nervous. Minus 13. On earth gravity, I weigh 212 pounds. During the first 20 seconds of blast-off, we gain 4 Gs. That makes me weigh 848 pounds for 20 seconds. I hate blast-off. Minus 15 seconds. How much you weigh, Mr. Kinney? About 140. Oh, you've got it made. Minus 10, 9, 7, 6. Mr. Kinney? Huh? Are you all right? Yeah, I think so, did I? Pass out? Acceleration does that to some people. Yeah, for long? Oh, about 15 minutes. Wow. Don't you want a last look at home? We're not still on the ground. No, no, I meant earth. You might not see her again for a couple of weeks. I'd like to see it. No, it's all right. I can get it by myself. There it is. Now, that is something to see. One of the jewels of God's creation. God? Oh, that's right. You don't believe in God, do you? Now, where'd you get that information? It's on the manifest. First time I've ever seen that kind of information, but it's there. It's blue, isn't it? Earth? Or is the viewport glass tinted against... It's polarized, but it's not tinted. Earth's blue, all right. It's beautiful, isn't it? It's unbelievable. It looks... Well, it looks like a bright gem set on the background of black velvet. A little like a star sapphire. This is your first trip into space? Yes, I'm afraid. I'm pretty much of a green horn at what you call a dodo. After the extinct and wingless bird, it's kind of poetic, you know. Not just a little insulting? No, not for me, not at least anymore. I'm in space. It doesn't apply to me anymore. That's right. I suppose we get back to earth I'll be impossible to live with. 15 minutes out from earth and I'm already filled up with the wonders of space travel. Probably talk about it the rest of my life. I wouldn't be surprised. But then that's really your job, isn't it? Well, yes, a good part of it. You're with International Geographic, aren't you? That's it. The real job is to write about the trip and film everything interesting that might happen. And to think when I got the assignment I was a little afraid I'd be having to do a little nature-faking. Nature-faking? Yes, yes. It's a device in stereo vision. It's as old as the hill. It's back more than 100 years of television, documentary motion pictures, news writing. You see, a reporter just uses his imagination to make something as interesting as he thinks it ought to be. Sort of like, well, mixing a little fiction with the fact, Miss Miller. It's Mrs. Miller. Oh, that's right. Yes, I forgot. Well, tell me more about this nature-faking. You know, I should really be asking you the questions. Maybe I can help. Oh, Lieutenant Edmunds, I was just about to ask Mrs. Miller about some of the facts of this expedition. I'll be happy to fill in for her if she'll get us some coffee. He's got more of the answers anyway, Mr. Kinney. If you say so. Has Lieutenant Donny had any coffee? Nope, I was getting it for both of us. Okay. Good girl, Ed. Seems like it. How do you say we sit down, Mr. Kinney? I pack a little too much bulk to enjoy standing for long. Even at LEG. LEG? Oh, yeah, less than Earth gravity. That's better. Sorry, I forgot you were recently a dodo. Well, what do you want to know? Well, just about everything. I didn't have much notice of this assignment from IG. IG? International Geographic. Oh. I forgot that you were a non-dodo. Touche. That's your publisher. Yeah, that's right. That's a good outfit. I've seen some of the films your people have made. Say that one on Mars. You know, that was almost better than the real trip. In fact, that was a little frightening. Well, thank you. Yeah. My wife, you know, she insists on one of those large screen sets. Sometimes I think that makes things a little too realistic, especially for the kids. You have children? Oh, I've got three. I've got two girls and a boy. I've got some pictures of them here someplace. Let me see. Oh, look at me, would you? You ask about the trip, and I start showing pictures of my kids. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. I'd like to see them. Well, a little later than maybe. As a special treat. Pretty special kid. Oh, yeah. Pretty special. Well, you wanted to know what? Everything, huh? Well, you see, I've never been in space, and I've had no briefing. Why is this trip so important? That I don't know. Not yet, and not for certain. I can give you a few facts. True. You're in the contact node of the United States spacecraft James Fargo. That's a vessel in the straight liner or destroyer class. Length, 86 meters. Mass, 1100 metric tons. Power, general electric solar radiator with thermal catalyst reactor for deep space operations. With, of course, an RCA disorder for faster-than-light travel. Fargo was built by the Navy at the Black Hills Dakota Shipyards, commissioned about 16 years ago. On October the 16th, to be exact, the year of our lord, 2041. And that, Mr. Kinney, is the way she's written up in the log. What was that for? The bell means we've reached maximum acceleration. Going into the jump in about 15 minutes. The jump? Mm-hmm. More than a century ago, somebody came forth with the idea that space is warped. And somebody else, a few thousand years before that, figured that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. You're still with me. I think so. Yeah. Well, now this, the business of the space, of the universe we know being warped, it makes it pretty well impossible to travel in a straight line as long as we travel in the known universe. So we don't. We don't? No. With a distorted, we jump out of the sidereal universe for a few seconds, and then we jump right back in. Once out of it, we can travel in a straight line. It's a little hard to grasp. Brother. Well, anyway, in 15 minutes, we jump out and then we jump back in a couple of seconds later. Now, in those two seconds, we'll have traveled 500 light years. Quite a little distance. Mm-hmm. 500 years it'll take a beam of light and we'll do it in two seconds. How far would that be? No, you don't. No, sir. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. You figure it out. Now, about this contact node. Oh, that, yes. Well, the Fargo carries a complement of 35. And according to Bupers regulations, no more than four may make first contact on planets that might have vegetable or animal life. Four people out of 35 must be a pretty select group. Well, we are, in a way. You said four. You include yourself. Well, you know, I am a part of it. This trip anyway. But what about the others? Jean Miller, for instance. Biologist. And I'll bet she's a better photographer than you are. Her husband's a meteorologist in the main complement. And Lieutenant Doni? James Doni. Said you want the ranks of these people. Later. All right. James Doni is a physicist. And he's a pessimist and he's an atheist. I gather you don't like him a whole lot. Oh, I usually give what I get. He doesn't like me. Besides, anybody who's an atheist in this day and age, well, I suppose I'm not very tolerant. And you? What do you do? Oh, I'm an archeologist, psychologist. And a father. You want to see the pictures of my kids? And now watch on your mind. Well, you're an archeologist and psychologist. How are you going to help in this thing? What do you mean? Well, I mean, don't both of your specialties demand, well, civilization? Well, sure. As long as you're putting two and two together, let's see what you think of some of my two and twos. For instance, don't you think it's a little strange Mrs. Miller is in the node? She said she was just about the bend. Well, yes. But man, this is a Navy ship. Contact is a man's job. Now, why would the Navy send a woman out to do a man's job? Okay. Why is she here? Well, the way I see it, simply because she is a woman. I don't follow you. According to some reliable rumors about six months ago, the Survey Ship Americas recorded evidences of civilization on the planet we're going to visit. Civilization? Mm-hmm. I know, but we've never... Right. We have never, in 40 years, we've never found it before. So it's important that the first contact be friendly. I think Mrs. Miller is along because she's a woman. Because the very fact that we bring one of our women just might reassure any alien about our peaceful intentions. That makes sense to you? Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense. Bet you thought I got lost. Oh, the coffee. About time. Well, that automatic makes it so strong we could use it in the reactor. I had to start from scratch. Oh, I forgot the cream and sugar. You don't take it, do you? No, no, this is fine. The black is fine with me, too. Oh, you sure? Just take a minute. No, no, no, this is the way I like it. Oh, that's good. And just hot enough, too, Jeannie. Some things take a woman's touch, huh, Mr. Kinney? You may be right, Lieutenant Edmonds. You may be right. What's that for? Well, that should be for breaking. Breaking? Oh, wait a minute. Attention all stations, one minute to jump. All hands secure for breaking. Well, everybody back to the beach, chairs. Yeah. Oh, no, not again. No, it's not going to be bad this time. Nothing like the first time anyway. The jump pretty rough. No, the jump's nothing. But immediately after, they've got to fire up the forward drive tubes to decelerate. When you're traveling in light years, it isn't at all hard to overshoot your destination. Right, Lieutenant Donnie? That's right. Better secure that seat belt, Mr. Kinney. You test the safety harness with your shoulders and thighs and watch the viewport as you listen to the countdown. Then, for the two longest seconds in your life, the stars blink out. And when they come on again, you hear the forward drive tubes firing and yourself gain weight through the artificial gravity of deceleration. Then, almost before you realize it, the breaking is finished and you're gazing at the faintly luminous sphere of the dark star through the viewport and you're listening to the voice of the captain on the intercom. Joe's signs of recent civilization that this is the result of ANOVA seems proper. Members of the contact team for this voyage have been chosen very carefully. Yes, yes. You will be acting as a member of that have the same weight as the opinions of your companions. Is that understood? Yes, yes, sir, I understand. Which authorize this expedition have already come to some tentative conclusions based on photographs taken by the Americas. Because of their importance, those conclusions will not be published on Earth until you verify them through your investigations. Fargo will land on the third planet at 07-hour. Disembarkation for the contact team will be at 07-15. There is no atmosphere on the third planet so you do your investigating in a pressure suit. The end of the first day leaves you astonished and full of new questions about the planet. I tell you, it's like a movie set. Period fiction, vintage 1927. But no evidence of people. It's, well, like everybody just locked up in left town. It's almost perfectly preserved. It's almost as if God picked up everyone and moved them away. It's a great conclusion. Well? How long are Ed and Donnie going to stay out there? I talked to them just before I came in. It shouldn't be long now. Maybe we'd better give them a call. Good idea. Edmunds first? Yeah, he's on frequency six. I know. Hello, Ed. Not yet. What have you found out? Still no. What? What? Donnie hasn't come in yet. What have you found out? There are no locks on the doors. Did you notice that? No locks. Anything else, Ed? No other places of worship. But not one hospital or anything resembling a hospital. And a few other things, I'll tell you. Starting back now, I'm going to need all my wind for walking. Anything else? That's all, Ed. No locks, no hospitals. Call Donnie. Hello, Lieutenant Donnie. I was just about to call you. Here. Hello, Donnie. Find out anything? I found what looks like a spaceport. Spaceport? The vehicles I saw in town were about on a par with the engine Model T Ford, and Donnie's talking about spaceports. I heard that, Kenny. It sounds like you're right. I'm passing one of your Model T's right now, but I found the launching rack for a spacecraft less than two hours ago. I'm sure of it. He's a physical scientist, he ought to know. And I've got a rough date on when it was last used. A date? What do you mean? The spacecraft were atomic powered. Judging from the half-life of the slag and the blast pits, they were last used between 25 and 2700 years ago. I'll have to investigate further, of course. I'm coming in. Talk to you later. As the days go by, the scientific and physical evidence mounts up. Other launching platforms are discovered, and all of them show the same approximate date of last use. Then, on the last day of the investigation, the plaque is found in the square of the city, and you and the others bring it back to the Fargo for decoding. Then, through the Dupla Tiber, each of you submits his private and final conclusions to the captain. The investigation of the third planet of the Dark Star is now completed. Here are the findings of the contact team, they are conclusive. This planet was inhabited 2700 years ago by a race of people physically similar to us, but to whom violence, disease, war, and crime were unknown. No device for the study of the stars. They nevertheless were aware that their sun would nova and of the date of their solar flare up. Though still in the early development of their machine age, they used atomic power to migrate in Toto to another planet, which other planet was not learned. This sun, being exactly 500 light years from Earth, the nova or the solar flare up would have been visible on Earth at approximately five times the brilliance of a first magnitude star. It would have been first discernible on the night of December 24th at the exact beginning of the Christian era. The graph analyst has decoded the writings on the plaque found in the alien city by the contact team. It says, He said that we must leave and we asked, where will we go? He said, I will prepare a place for you, for I must use your sun for a sign that men may know. And we said, master, we need no sign. And he answered, other sheep I have, which are not of this flock. Lieutenant Doni, still an atheist? Are you? I was just wondering about the pensive look. Oh, that. Well, Mr. Kenia, I was just wondering. About what? Well, I wonder how much the wise man really knew about the star of Bethlehem. This is Barry Sullivan again. Folks, we're on the eve of a couple of great political conventions in the middle of an election year. Don't get me wrong, this is not a political talk. Because really, the fate of the world doesn't depend so much on who or on which party is in office. As it does upon the worth, well, bluntly the moral and spiritual worth of the nation as a whole, meaning its people and its families. Politics are all well and good, and we all have preferences, and some of us will get pretty excited this year. But we're not going to get peace, still less peace of mind by means of plans and platforms. That will depend not on candidates or presidents, but on us. And the first step, the first step, it seems to me, is to decide that each of our families will become a family of daily family prayer. Civilization isn't going to survive except on a spiritual basis. It's too late, things have gone too far. Now the family, the family on the other hand, is the basic unit of society. If a majority of American families could be found praying to God, well, we'd have a lot less to worry about. Because it's not only true that the family that prays together, stays together, but also that a world at prayer is a world of peace. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood Family Theater has brought to you transcribed the other sheep starring Jim Baggis. Barry Sullivan was your host. Others in our cast were Vic Perrin, Barbara Eiler, Lawrence Dobkin, Tony Barrett, and Alan Reed. The script was written and directed by Robert Hugh O. Sullivan with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman. This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program, by the mutual network which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of stage, screen, and radio who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is George Crowell expressing the wish of Family Theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting you to join us next week when Family Theater will present Big Day starring Stephen McNally. Ruth Hussie will be your hostess. Join us, won't you? Family Theater's broadcasts throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. This is Mutual, the radio network for all America.