0 Plus 1950 07 05 (17) A Veteran Comes Home

Picture this: it's July 5th, 1950, and America is still adjusting to peacetime after five years of global war. Tonight's broadcast of 2000 Plus asks a haunting question—what if a soldier returned home, but not quite to the world he left behind? In "A Veteran Comes Home," listeners will follow the disorienting journey of a man stepping off a transport ship into a future that's somehow familiar yet profoundly alien. The episode crackles with that distinctive post-war unease: the wonder of technological progress shadowed by the fear that humanity itself might be left behind. As the protagonist navigates streets that seem wrong in indefinable ways and encounters people who speak with unsettling knowledge of his past, the tension builds toward a revelation that challenges everything we believe about time, memory, and sacrifice. It's the kind of story that would linger in listeners' minds long after the final fade-out.

2000 Plus arrived at a peculiar moment in science fiction radio—that brief window when the medium was simultaneously becoming more sophisticated and racing toward obsolescence as television loomed on the horizon. Produced by Robert A. Arthur, the show distinguished itself through its focus on near-future scenarios rather than far-flung space opera, making its speculative world feel unnervingly plausible. Each episode was built on a single "what if" premise, examined with the thoughtfulness of serious drama rather than pulp sensationalism. Episode seventeen showcases exactly what made the series resonate: emotionally grounded characters confronting extraordinary circumstances, all rendered in that warm, intimate medium where listeners' imaginations became co-creators of the experience.

Don't miss "A Veteran Comes Home"—a masterclass in science fiction drama that reminds us why radio remains an unmatched vehicle for exploring the frontiers of human experience.