What's New - This Year
Changes to the Plot Spot which have occurred during this calendar year.Previous Years:
2023 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000
Feb 20, 2025
Updated the 2000x page.
2000x
- Repaired all broken navigation links
- Updated page encoding from xhtml 1.0 to html5
- Modified the layout slightly to provide better layout on cell phones
- Added semantic tags to structural elements for better usablility with screen readers
Feb 18, 2025
Added (5) new reviews for various Nightfall episodes, courtesy of David Schwenker.
Nightfall
- After Sunset -- review
- All-Nighter -- review
- Angel of Death -- review
- Angel's Kiss -- review
- Appetite of Mr Lucraft, The -- review
Feb 16, 2025
Added (6) new CD covers for various BBC episodes to the CD Artwork page, courtesy of Barry Piggott.
Feb 14, 2025
Added (2) new plotlines and (2) new reviews for various The Haunting Hour episodes.
The Haunting Hour
- Date in the Dark -- plotline and review
- Devil's Deep, The -- plotline and review
Feb 12, 2025
Updated the 2000 Plus page.
2000 Plus
- Repaired all broken navigation links
- Added cast credits for most episodes (when they were announced)
- Added OTRR as a data source
- Added plot summaries (from OTRR) for the LOST episodes
- Updated page encoding from xhtml 1.0 to html5
- Modified the layout slightly to provide better layout on cell phones
- Added semantic tags to structural elements for better usablility with screen readers
Feb 10, 2025
Added (2) new reviews for various Fear on 4 episodes, courtesy of Skomo.
Fear on 4
- Snowman Killing, The -- review
- William and Mary -- review
Feb 08, 2025
Added (1) new review for an Beyond Midnight episode, courtesy of Skomo.
Beyond Midnight
- Short Circuit -- review
Feb 06, 2025
Added (6) new CD covers for various BBC episodes to the CD Artwork page, courtesy of Barry Piggott.
Feb 04, 2025
Added (2) new plotlines and (2) new reviews for various The Haunting Hour episodes.
The Haunting Hour
- Breakdown -- plotline and review
- Case of the Lonesome Corpse, The -- plotline and review
Feb 02, 2025
Added (8) new reviews for various Nightfall episodes, courtesy of KingSpook.
Nightfall
- Love and the Lonely One -- review
- Monkey's Paw, The -- review
- Welcome to Homerville -- review
- Hands Off -- review
- Tell-Tale Heart, The -- review
- Late Special -- review
- Future Fear -- review
- How Did You Get My Name? -- review
Jan 31, 2025
Added (2) new plotlines and (2) new reviews for various The Haunting Hour episodes.
The Haunting Hour
- Assignment: Death -- plotline and review
- Bird of Death -- plotline and review
Jan 29, 2025
Updated the Famous Authors on Radio page with (3)* new stories and (14) additional broadcasts, based on feedback from Aaron S.
Cain, James M.
Double Indemnity -- BBC (SNT-1993)
*Postman Always Rings Twice, The -- BBC (SNT-1993); Screen Guild Theater (x2)
Coward, Noël
Brief Encounter -- Academy Award Theater
Grubb, Davis
Night of the Hunter -- correction: Afternoon Play ==> BBC (SNT-1993)
Hall, James Norman
Mutiny on the Bounty -- BBC (SNT-1973)
Hammett, Dashiell
Maltese Falcon, The -- Academy Award Theater; correction: Afternoon Play ==> BBC (SNT-1985)
Hart, Moss
Lady in the Dark -- Lux Radio Theatre
Hilton, James
Lost Horizon -- Academy Award Theater
Hope, Anthony
Prisoner of Zenda -- BBC (SNT-1973); Screen Guild Theater
*Rupert of Hentzau -- BBC (SNT-1973)
Maggs, Dirk
Second Batman project -- correction: Nightfall ==> Knightfall
Milne, A.A.
*Toad of Toad Hall -- BBC (SNT-1973)
Morley, Christopher
Kitty Foyle -- Academy Award Theater
Sherwood, Robert E.
Abe Lincoln in Illinois -- Lux Radio Theatre
Waterloo Bridge -- Hallmark Playhouse
Williams, Emlyn
Corn Is Green, The -- BBC (SNT-1945)
Night Must Fall -- BBC (SNT-1985)
Jan 27, 2025
Added a new Suspense CD cover to the CD Artwork page, courtesy of James S.
Jan 27, 2025
Denny Lien points out that the Beyond Midnight episode "The Speciality of the House" could very well be based on the Stanley Ellin story of the same name. I agree, but without either a recording or the script there is no way to know for sure. If anyone has a script, please let me know!
Beyond Midnight
- Speciality of the House, The -- updated the (likely) author
Jan 27, 2025
Added (1) new review for an SF 68 episode, courtesy of Skomo.
SF 68
- Andover and the Android -- review
Jan 25, 2025
Listener, steelman, rightfully points out that The Hall of Fantasy episode "The Sea Monster" is not lost. Based on available plotlines published at DigitalDeliToo and RadioGOLDINdex "The Sea Monster" and "The Sea Phantom" are almost certainly the same story. The original name, "The Sea Monster", was likely changed to "The Sea Phanom" in the AFRS re-broadcast.
Hall of Fantasy
- Sea Phantom, The -- updated plotline
Jan 23, 2025
Yet another sharp-eared listener, Tony W, has identified the electric bass movement in the background of Mindwebs episode "The Day of the Butterflies". It is "Moana I" from Eberhard Weber’s 1977 contemporaray jaz album The Following Morning -- a slow-moving, contemplative piece that matches the mood of the episode very well.
Mindwebs
- Day of the Butterflies, The -- review
Jan 21, 2025
Another sharp-eared listener, Brandon W, sent me a link to an episode of The Witch's Tale that is very similar to "The Devil Doctor" except it has a different ending and, possibly, a different cast. He wondered where it came from.
In my opinion the exemplar he linked is a previously unknown (to me) Australian recording from the 1940s, possibly part of the 1943 run, possibly part of an unknown later run.
Witch's Tale
- Devil Doctor, The -- reasons for my identification
Jan 19, 2025
Sharp-eared listener, Max S, sent me a link to an Exploring Tomorrow episode that he could not identify. It was labelled as "The Last Doctor", but clearly was not. It's actually "The Escape" by John W. Campbell Jr -- an episode I thought had been LOST.
"The Escape" was originally published in Astounding Stories (May 1935), but subsequently republished in the book The Cloak of Aesir (1952). I have updated the plotline, added a snippet, and included the opening lines in the "First Lines of John W. Campbell's Introduction" section. I've also marked it as available for the Listening Booth.
Exploring Tomorrow
- Escape, The -- plotline and snippet
Jan 17, 2025
Added (1) new review for an X Minus One episode, courtesy of chris G.
X Minus One
- Junkyard -- review
Jan 15, 2025
Updated the Famous Authors on Radio page with (3) new credits, based on feedback from sharp-eared listener Ed Frond.
CBS Radio Mystery Theater
- Boatman and the Devil, The -- adapted from "In Exile" by Anton Chekhov.
- Night of the Howling Dog -- adapted from "The Camp of the Dog" by Algernon Blackwood.
- Watchers of the Living -- adapted from "The Plattner Story" by H.G. Wells.
Jan 13, 2025
Added (1) new plotline and (1) new review for a Dark Fantasy episode, courtesy of george K.
Dark Fantasy
- Pennsylvania Turnpike -- plotline and review
Jan 13, 2025
Added (1) new review for a Nightfall episode, courtesy of Mark Watkins, Reading, UK.
Nightfall
- Welcome to Homerville -- review
Jan 13, 2025
Added (1) new review for a Mindwebs episode, courtesy of Prophet Wing.
Mindwebs
- Rebel -- review
Jan 11, 2025
Added (1) new plotline for a Theatre Five episode, courtesy of chris M.
Theatre Five
- New Order, The -- plotline
Jan 11, 2025
Added (1) new review for a Alien Worlds episode, courtesy of Raymond H.
Alien Worlds
- Earth Light -- review
Jan 11, 2025
Added (1) new plotline for a Vanishing Point episode.
Vanishing Point
- Unlived Lives -- plotline and snippet
Jan 09, 2025
Received a very nice email from Maolsheachlann OCeallaigh asking for the plot details of a radio episode which was almost unlistenable due to extremely poor audio quality. This prompted me to create a new page, Spoilers, where I can detail plot elements that could... well... spoil the plot!
The first entry, as per OCeallaigh, is "The Confession" from The Witch's Tale.
By the way, that's such a cool name that I did some additional research on it and found: On the name Maolsheachlann
Jan 07, 2025
Added Canadian author David Helwig to the Famous Authors page due his story "Unlived Lives" on The Vanishing Point.
Jan 05, 2025
Added (1) new review for a Vanishing Point episode, courtesy of tom M.
Vanishing Point
- Unlived Lives -- review
Jan 05, 2025
Added (1) new review for an Alien Worlds episode, courtesy of Raymond H.
Alien Worlds
- Resurrectionists of Lethe, The -- review
Jan 05, 2025
Added (1) new plotline for an Escape episode, courtesy of Powel Crosley.
Escape
- Faraway Island, The -- plotline
Jan 03, 2025
Updated the Links page.
Over the past 7 years, most of the hobby sites that I loved have disappeared and have been replaced by Coporate and AI-generated for-profit sleeze. That makes me sad. And disheartened. So much time and effort, gone. I find that the Internet is not nearly so much fun as it used to be. Or maybe that's just me, getting old and crotchety. Bah. Humbug.
Then, a couple of months ago I got an email from Jeff Dickson (remember him? He's the one who created this website), and I realized that this site has been online for almost 1/4 of a century! I thought about it and realized that I enjoy listening to OTR and writing plots/reviews more than anything else I do online.
So here I am, starting up the Plot Spot again.
I replaced all the broken links with links that now point to archived pages (where possible) at the Wayback Machine. But the Wayback Machine archives only HTML pages, and only some of those. Anything that was stored in a database is gone for good. But at least I've got something to look at to remember those Internet pioneers: Digital Deli, Jim French, Yuri Rasovsky, Bill Hollweg, Zombie Astronaut, The Whirlitzer of Wizdoms, The Nightfall Project, Quietly Yours, Dinosaur Gardens, Exploring Dystopia, The Grand Guignol On-line, Jim Widner, Jerry Haendiges.
Cheers.
Jan 01, 2025
Hahaha. Well here I am, making new promises to myself. Just like every year. I hope you all don't think too harshly of me.
This year, I hope to catch up on 5 years of correspondence and post tons of material that users have submitted.
Time will tell.
Cheers.