If you missed the last one…
Our survey of old Science Fiction themes continuous with the Dead Planet. This idea is a world that was once thriving but now is a cemetery, a tomb or mausoleum of a planet. Best of all, there is usually some enigma or relic or guardian to contend with. The film Alien seems to me to be the best cinematic version of this idea (though Forbidden Planet comes in second with its dead Krell civilization.) LV426 wasn’t a thriving planet but it has the required secret guardians. The sequel Aliens perhaps is closer with a colony on the planet.
As with so many themes, H. G. Wells starts us off. In the The Time Machine, after the Morlocks, the time traveler goes to a distant Earth that no longer possesses humans of any kind. The world is reduced to a salty sea with a large red sun. Crab-like creatures are the only life he sees. This mournful vista is what will inspire later writers to create whole worlds desolate and unpopulated.
The first I can think of to use Wells’s idea is from H. G.’s rival, George Griffith. His first installment of A Honeymoon in Space (1901) seems to build on Wells. Lord Redgrave and Zaidie go to the Moon (which isn’t a planet but we aren’t that picky here!) Once a civilization thrived on the Moon but now there is only a massive pile of bones. They do see a single living being, a deformed and largely inhuman version of the late inhabitants.
A Honeymoon in Space may have been the prototype of the Space Opera tale. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the Pulps followed down a similar path thirty years later. Here are some dead planets, moons and asteroids from Science Fiction’s early days.
The 1930s
“The Ghost World” (Astounding Stories, April 1931) by Sewell Peaslee Wright has the crew of the Ertak land on a mysterious planet inhabited by strange bat-like creatures. For more on the John Hanson series, go here.
“The Horror on the Asteroid” (Weird Tales, September 1933) by Edmond Hamilton has people stranded on an asteroid that slowly turns you into a monster. For more on this story, go here.
“Raider of the Spaceways” (Weird Tales, July 1937) by Henry Kuttner features a battle of wits with a space pirate on a world or terrors. For more on this story, go here.
“On the Planet Fragment” (Amazing Stories, October 1937) by Neil R. Jones has Professor Jameson and the Zoromes land on what is left of a planet. For more on the Zorome series, go here.
“The Treasure of Asteroid X” (Amazing Stories, January 1939) by Frederic Arnold Kummer Jr. pits an Earthman and a Venusian in a race for uranium on an asteroid devoid of life.
The 1940s
“New Day on Aurua” (Super Science Stories, May 1943) by Stuart Fleming (Damon Knight) has a doomed crew try to save future explorers.
“Mirage World” (Amazing Stories, December 1945) by Chester S. Geier has a world hidden behind a mental screen.
“The Dead Planet” (Startling Stories, Spring 1946) by Edmond Hamilton has a crew find a strange, dead world. They find a recording of the race who once lived on the planet called…Earth.
“Dead-Star Rover” (Planet Stories, Winter 1949) by Robert Abernathy has a world reduced to sand because of war. This will be a theme Philip K. Dick will use later.
The 1950s
“Purpose” (aka “The City”) (Startling Stories, July 1950) by Ray Bradbury has a city on an empty planet where the streets open up and blades appear…
“The Beast” (IF, May 1952) by John W. Jakes has a spaceman on a strange planet facing off against a monster that could appear as anyone.
“The Gun” (Planet Stories, September 1952) by Philip K. Dick has a planet reduced to ash and sand by war.
“The Last Weapon” (Star Science Fiction, February 1953) by Robert Sheckley has men come to a dead planet looking for weapons. What they find is closer to H. P. Lovecraft’s shoggoths.
“Dead Man’s Planet” (Galaxy, February 1955) by William Morrison has a cemetery world where a lone dog is the only companion.
“The Star” (Infinity Science Fiction, November 1955) by Arthur C. Clarke destroys a world so that a famous star can be seen on Earth near Bethelem. Was it worth it?
“The Dead World” (Imaginative Tales, September 1957) by Warren Kastel (Robert Silverberg) offers up the planet filled with bones. He even has something survive and lurking, waiting for the astronauts who land there. A love triangle solved by a weird crab-like monster.
“Ozymandias” (Infinity, November 1958) by Ivar Jorgenson ( Robert Silverberg) has a world dead a million years. Archaeologists find a robot containing a civilization’s riches.
The 1960s
“The Bald-Headed Mirage” (Amazing Science Fiction Stories, 1960) by Robert Bloch, like Ray Bradbury, goes for horror. The line of bald heads on a nameless asteroid prove to be…teeth.
Conclusion
The combination of mystery, fear of the unknown, and desolation is a winner here. In Alien this was referred to as a haunted house in space. And that certainly applies to most of these stories, the best ones anyway. When the mystery is solved, the guardian revealed, the result may be a shock. For me, this is the essence of good Science Fiction, something that comes pretty close to Horror. The unknown can bring wonder as often as terror. Sometimes both.
Next time…The Sargasso of Space!
Many thanks for this feature! I’ll see if I can find some of these stories on my shelf.
Interesting article. IIRC, Mars was often portrayed as a dead or dying world in SF. Bradbury, Brackett and others took this approach, if memory serves.