First published in Astounding Science Fiction Jun 1953
During a war with Alpha Centauri on Earth Spencer Olham is captured by the government under suspicion of being an alien masquerading as a human. He escapes and attempts to prove his innocence, but it turns out he was this alien imposter all along and didn’t know it.
Dick had written nearly fifty short stories at this point as he really starts to dig into ‘what is human?’ a question he would spend a lot of time with in his later books and stories.
Gary Sinise stars in a 2002 movie, but there’s not much to recommend about such a dull adaptation… at least they kept the ending.
Cast of characters
- Spencer Olham – part of a team developing a weapon to use against the alien invaders
- Mary – Spencer’s wife
- Nelson – works with Olham
- Major Peters – member of government security