CIA Captain Edgar Lightfoot travels to Provo to capture some Fnools and bring them back to Major Hauk. Since they are small they are easily apprehended, but while transporting two of them back in his ‘copter he lets them smoke a cigarette. Suddenly both Fnools are now four feet tall. Back at CIA headquarters Major Hauk is in despair over a possible Fnool victory. He drinks from a bottle of scotch and hides in a bunker with his secretary. 

When Lightfoot and the Fnools arrive the Fnools overtake Lightfoot while he is preoccupied with Hauk’s scotch. The Fnools then drink the scotch and instantly become six feet tall. Both Hauk and Lightfoot realize it is hopeless, since the aliens are indistinguishable from humans at that size. That is until the Fnools encounter Miss Smith in the bunker. After this third vice, a woman, the Fnools become eight feet tall. Confident no one will mistake them for humans now Hauk is assured the Fnools will be defeated.

Cast of characters

• Edgar Lightfoot – Captain of the CIA
• Julius Hauk – CIA Major
• Miss Smith – Hauk’s secretary
• Hochflieger – a General in the West German Security Service
• Serge Nicov – local chief in Poland’s People’s Protective Agency for Preserving the Democratic Process
• The Fnools

The post The War with the Fnools appeared first on the world Dick made.

The FBI eventually shows up and burns them alive with napalm without listening to any pleas from the men who think the FBI must believe them to be Commies. 

We find out that the Mars spacecraft actually crashed on that planet’s surface two years ago and what has been repeatedly returning to Earth, twenty-one times and counting, are aliens disguised as humans (although the aliens clearly don’t know that’s what they are). The story ends with the same Mars crew, thrilled to be arriving back on Earth, again crash landing their craft outside the city. 

Cast of characters

• Captain Stone, Parkhurst, Barton, Leon, Merriweather, Vecchi – the crew of Mars explorers 
• Scanlan, Wilks – FBI agents

The post Explorers We appeared first on the world Dick made.

It’s obvious to everyone his body was taken over by a Rexorian, and the Clearance agents intend to destroy the alien, retrieve the true Lester from Rexor IV and set things back to how they were before he left. Before they can do that they have to prove in court he isn’t human. They expect his wife Jill to testify to the change she saw in him. Instead, choosing this affectionate alien to take the place of her husband, she claims she never noticed anything odd, and this Lester is allowed to live.

“Human Is” was adapted for the first season of Electric Dreams where the costumes and production design look like community theater. The husband is a military officer instead of a scientist, but otherwise the story is the same. 

Cast of characters

• Lester Herrick – a toxicologist for the military
• Jill Herrick – Lester’s wife
• Frank – Jill’s brother
• Gus – Jill’s nephew
• Clearance Director Douglas

The post Human Is appeared first on the world Dick made.

“The Father-Thing” was adapted for Electric Dreams as one of the better episodes of the first season.

Cast of characters

• Charles Walton – eight-year-old boy whose father has been replaced by an alien
• June Walton – Charles’s mother
• Ted Walton – Charles’s father / the father-thing
• Tony Peretti, Bobby Daniels – Charles’s friends who help him defeat the father-thing

The post The Father-Thing appeared first on the world Dick made.

He flees to the neighboring town of Oak Grove and attempts to warn the police commissioner there. But the commissioner explains to Loyce that the stranger was hanged in Pikeville as bait to draw out anyone from the town who wasn’t yet under the control of the aliens. Loyce realizes too late he is fated to become the hanging stranger in the similarly-overrun Oak Grove.

“The Hanging Stranger” was adapted as the more politically-minded and muddled tv episode “Kill All Others” in the first season of Electric Dreams.

Cast of characters

• Ed Loyce – owner of Loyce TV Sales and Service
• Don Fergusson – salesman at Loyce TV Sales and Service
• Jack Potter – works at the shoe shop by the town park
• Jenkins – a stationary clerk
• Margaret Henderson – works at the jewelry store by the town park
• Janet Loyce – Ed’s wife
• Tommy and Jimmy – Ed’s sons
• The police commissioner of Oak Grove

The post The Hanging Stranger appeared first on the world Dick made.

They eventually figure out Planet Blue is home to a hostile native life form that can perfectly mimic non-biological items. The only chance of escape without inadvertently bringing this murderous bugger along is to board a rescue ship sans all their clothing. Too bad in the hubbub of getting naked no one considers the life form can mimic the rescue ship too.

In 1956 this story was adapted for NBC’s X Minus One radio series.

Cast of characters

• Major Lawrence Hall 
• Lieutenant Friendly 
• Commander Stella Morrison
• Captain Taylor – attacked by a rug
• Lieutenant Dodds – attacked by his gloves
• Corporal Tenner – attacked by a safety mat
• Captain Unger – swallowed up by his car
• Gail Thomas – presumably killed by her uniform
• Corporal Hendricks – swimming with Gail Thomas when she disappears
• Captain Daniel Davis – captain of the nearest Terran cruiser

The post Colony appeared first on the world Dick made.

When Milt travels back to Earth after his successful Martian terraforming project he finds his suspicions confirmed. The Proxmen have constructed an elaborate illusion that life on Earth has continued so they can lure the human engineers back to their home planet in order to now terraform it for Prox, since the oceans were vaporized during the war.

Milt eventually resigns himself to this reality and heads back to Mars with a kitten, the titular precious artifact which is itself part of the Prox simulation, something Milt doesn’t recognize.

Cast of characters

• Milt Biskle – a terraforming engineer on Mars
• Dr. DeWinter – Milt’s psychiatrist
• Mary Ableseth – Milt’s tour guide companion back on Earth

The post Precious Artifact appeared first on the world Dick made.

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

The post Imposter appeared first on the world Dick made.