First Contact by Murray Leinster

When human beings make first contact with an alien species in deep space, the encounter soon becomes a stalemate, with neither captain of their respective spaceships willing to depart the area for fear of leading the potentially hostile other vessel back to their homeworld. Based on a short story first published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine, in May 1945; and later in Murray Leinster's short-story collection The Best of Murray Leinster, in 1978.

This classic story originated the term “first contact” to describe the first meeting between humans and aliens. It also introduced the idea of a universal translator to allow for communication without having to rely on the implausible notion that aliens might somehow speak English. The episode unfolds in a tense, intelligent manner, as the two races try to find a way to break the deadlock, making this one of the best X Minus One episodes. It is interesting, though, that this radio adaptation opts for a different (less optimistic) ending to the original short story. Yet both are strong, so it is worth checking out the original to see how they diverge.

X-Minus One was the radio extension of Astounding Science Fiction. It’s one of my favorite of the old time radio shows that you can find floating around Archive.org.

It featured full-cast renditions of stories—and not just stories that published within the pages of Astounding.

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