"The Impossible Planet" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in the October 1953 issue of Imagination . It has been reprinted over 30 times, including Brian Aldiss's 1974 Space Odysseys anthology. [1] It was also published in Dutch, French, German and Italian translations. [2] The writer originally submitted it to the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on February 11, 1953, with the title "Legend." [1]
A 350-year-old woman asks the captain of an interplanetary ship to take her to Earth. As Earth is believed to be a myth, the captain finds a record of a planet that is not called "Earth" but has one moon, and is in a star system of nine planets. [3] The four main characters take the journey to this inhospitable destination: the captain, his more ethical crew member, the old woman, and the woman's robotic servant. [4]
The story was adapted and directed by David Farr as an episode of the Channel 4/Amazon Video anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams . [5] The script is somewhat faithful to Dick's original story, but with the addition of a romantic sub-story, and with a more ambiguous ending. [6]
Space tourism guide Brian Norton routinely augments the experiences of tourists with lighting tricks. While not conning the customers, he seeks a promotion and transfer to the tourism agency's corporate offices to please his upwardly-mobile girlfriend, Barbara. [7] Norton and cynical space tourism agency branch manager Ed Andrews are approached by a 342-year-old woman, Irma Louise Gordon. Facing death from a heart condition and nearly completely deaf, [8] Irma offers them each five times their annual salary to take her on a trip to Earth. [9] As they are not sure the planet still exists, having been evacuated centuries before due to solar flares, they head for a similar planet. Irma's protective robot servant, RB29, deduces and maintains the subterfuge. Irma has a very specific dream about her grandparents swimming in a river in Carolina, and wants to re-enact this with Norton, who closely resembles her grandfather. [3]
Philip Kindred Dick, often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer and novelist. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. He is considered one of the most important figures in 20th-century science fiction.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a 1968 dystopian science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where Earth's life has been greatly damaged by a nuclear global war, leaving most animal species endangered or extinct. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who has to "retire" six escaped Nexus-6 model androids, while a secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-par IQ who aids the fugitive androids.
"Second Variety" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953. Set in a world where war between the Soviet Union and United Nations has reduced most of the world to a barren wasteland, the story concerns the discovery, by the few remaining soldiers left, that self-replicating robots originally built to assassinate Soviet agents have gained sentience and are now plotting against both sides. It is one of many stories by Dick examining the implications of nuclear war, particularly after it has destroyed much or all of the planet.
"Autofac" is a 1955 science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick that features one of the earliest treatments of self-replicating machines. It appeared originally in Galaxy Science Fiction of November 1955, and was reprinted in several collections, including The Variable Man published in 1957, and Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities published in 1984.
Total Recall 2070 is a science fiction television series influenced by the work of Philip K. Dick. It was first broadcast in 1999 on the Canadian television channel CHCH-TV and later the same year on the American Showtime channel. It was later syndicated in the United States with some editing to remove scenes of nudity, violence and strong language.
"Sales Pitch" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Future Science Fiction magazine, June 1954. The premise is the omnipresent, intrusive and even aggressive advertising and marketing. At the end of the story, the protagonist is driven mad by a robot who can forcefully market himself, and refuses to take no for an answer. The subject was of concern to Dick, and features in his early works such as The Man Who Japed.
Tim Pratt is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and poet. He won a Hugo Award in 2007 for his short story "Impossible Dreams". He has written over 20 books, including the Marla Mason series and several Pathfinder Tales novels. His writing has earned him nominations for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker awards and has been published in numerous markets, including Asimov's Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, and Strange Horizons.
Matthew Graham is a British television writer, and the co-creator of the BBC/Kudos Film and Television science fiction series Life on Mars, which debuted in 2006 on BBC One and has received international critical acclaim.
The bibliography of Philip K. Dick includes 44 novels, 121 short stories, and 14 short story collections published by American science fiction author Philip K. Dick during his lifetime.
"Human Is" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Startling Stories, Winter 1955. The plot centers on the crisis facing a woman whose cold and emotionally abusive husband returns from a survey mission to the dying planet Rexor IV, changed for the better—his psyche was replaced by a Rexorian, glad to have escaped the confines of its dying planet.
A Handful of Darkness is a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published by Rich & Cowan in 1955 and was Dick's first hardcover book.
The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick is a collection of 118 science fiction stories by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published by Underwood-Miller in 1987 as a five volume set. See Philip K. Dick bibliography for information about the mass market reprints.
"The Commuter" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in the August-September 1953 issue of Amazing Stories. It has been reprinted over 20 times, including Croatian, Dutch, French, German and Italian translations. As with much of Dick's fiction, it is an exploration of the boundary of existence.
Michael Dinner is an American director, producer, and screenwriter for television.
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, or simply Electric Dreams, is a science fiction television anthology series based on the works of Philip K. Dick. The series consists of ten standalone 50-minute episodes based on Dick's work, written by British and American writers. It premiered on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 17 September 2017, and in the United States on Amazon Prime Video on 12 January 2018.
"The Hood Maker" is a short story by Philip K. Dick, originally published in the June 1955 issue of the magazine Imagination. It was adapted by Matthew Graham into an episode for the 2017 TV series, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.
Impossible Planet may refer to:
"The Hanging Stranger" is a science fiction-horror short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, originally published in December 1953 in the magazine Science Fiction Adventures. It has been reprinted in several anthologies, and published in French, Italian and German. It was adapted by Dee Rees into the episode "Kill All Others" or "K.A.O." for the 2017 television series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. A book was also released to republish "The Hanging Stranger" along with the nine other stories on which the Electric Dreams episodes were based.
