It was an alien the whole time!
April 13, 2014 3:50 PM Subscribe
A short story with a surprise ending where the protagonist is an alien, and the spacecraft that crashed in the woods contains a human. This has been done before, right?
A friend of mine is writing a bunch of short stories, and I'm serving as one of his first readers. He just sent me one where an old man is sitting on his porch, drinking wine, when he sees something come out of the sky and crash into the woods. He decides to go investigate, and when he gets there, he sees some kind of spacecraft. Something emerges from the craft ... and it's a human being! The protagonist is an alien! Wotta surprise.
So, I know I've read or heard basically this exact same plot somewhere before, but can't remember where. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't want my friend sending out this story and getting accused of stealing the plot, so I want to point him to the place(s) it's been done before.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
A friend of mine is writing a bunch of short stories, and I'm serving as one of his first readers. He just sent me one where an old man is sitting on his porch, drinking wine, when he sees something come out of the sky and crash into the woods. He decides to go investigate, and when he gets there, he sees some kind of spacecraft. Something emerges from the craft ... and it's a human being! The protagonist is an alien! Wotta surprise.
So, I know I've read or heard basically this exact same plot somewhere before, but can't remember where. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't want my friend sending out this story and getting accused of stealing the plot, so I want to point him to the place(s) it's been done before.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
The idea of "We are the aliens" is a very common theme in science fiction. Recent examples would be Farscape's "I, E.T.", Earth 2, Avatar, etc.
That said: someone could always tell a good new twist on this tale. That's part of what makes for good tales.
posted by jammy at 4:47 PM on April 13, 2014
That said: someone could always tell a good new twist on this tale. That's part of what makes for good tales.
posted by jammy at 4:47 PM on April 13, 2014
I read a story a long time ago which was just like that. I think it might have been James Blish. A ship crashes, and a couple of boys find two small aliens and put them in a cage, to keep as pets. It turns out that the two "aliens" are human space explorers, and one of the boys, named "Red", has tentacles.
But I cannot for the life of me tell you the name of it, or the author for certain. (If it wasn't Blish, then it had to be Sheckley.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 5:04 PM on April 13, 2014
But I cannot for the life of me tell you the name of it, or the author for certain. (If it wasn't Blish, then it had to be Sheckley.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 5:04 PM on April 13, 2014
Youth by Asimov, not Blish.
posted by Leon at 5:05 PM on April 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Leon at 5:05 PM on April 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
Yes, this has been done. Planet 51 is ostensibly this story in animated form.
posted by Hermione Granger at 5:29 PM on April 13, 2014
posted by Hermione Granger at 5:29 PM on April 13, 2014
Thank you, Leon; you are right!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:03 PM on April 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:03 PM on April 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
Starman...with a twist - the alien looks like her late husband.
posted by vitabellosi at 8:47 PM on April 13, 2014
posted by vitabellosi at 8:47 PM on April 13, 2014
Yes it's been done to death, a favorite trope of PKD: he also did one where it turns out the protagonist/narrator is a dog, the attacking spaceship is a garbage truck and the alien is the driver.
posted by Dr Dracator at 9:22 PM on April 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Dr Dracator at 9:22 PM on April 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
Impostor was also made into a passable film starring Gary Sinise (2001; IMDB)
posted by flippant at 1:00 AM on April 14, 2014
posted by flippant at 1:00 AM on April 14, 2014
Do you need spoiler warnings for this thread? Obviously SPOILER WARNING.
Without it really mattering very much to the thrust of the story, Neal Stephenson's doorstopper Anathem relies on this. Except maybe parallel universes instead of alien planets exactly, but they use the fact that the visitors can't digest their food to identify them.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:54 PM on April 14, 2014
Without it really mattering very much to the thrust of the story, Neal Stephenson's doorstopper Anathem relies on this. Except maybe parallel universes instead of alien planets exactly, but they use the fact that the visitors can't digest their food to identify them.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:54 PM on April 14, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mochapickle at 3:54 PM on April 13, 2014 [4 favorites]