Who Goes There?

infobox Book |
name = Who Goes There?
author = John W. Campbell, Jr
country = United States of America
genre = Science fiction
publisher = Astounding Stories
release_date = August 1938
media_type = Magazine

"Who Goes There?" is a science fiction novella by John W. Campbell, Jr. under the pen name Don A. Stuart, published August 1938 in "Astounding Stories". In 1973, the story was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the finest science fiction novellas ever written, and published with the other top vote-getters in "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two".

Plot summary

A group of scientific researchers, isolated in Antarctica discover an alien spaceship buried in the ice. They try to thaw the inside of the spacecraft with a thermite charge, but end up accidentally destroying it when the ship's magnesium hull is ignited by the charge. However they do recover the alien pilot, which the researchers believe was searching for heat when it froze. Thawing revives the alien, a being which can assume the shape, memories, and personality of any living thing it devours. It immediately becomes the crew's physicist, a man named Connant, and with some 90 pounds of its matter left it tries to become a sled dog. They kill the alien as it becomes the dead dog.

The researchers try to figure out who may have been replaced by the alien, simply referred to as the Thing, and to then destroy the surrogates before they can escape and take over the world. Ultimately, they realize that even small pieces of the aliens will behave as independent organisms, and use this weakness to test which men have been "converted" by taking blood samples from everyone on the base and dipping a hot wire in the vial of blood. Each man's blood is tested, one at a time, and the donor is immediately killed if his blood recoils from the wire. The original Thing had (unbeknownst to the researchers) taken control of a man named Blair, who'd had a nervous breakdown when they discovered the creature's abilities and had accordingly been isolated to a small cabin. With the monsters inside the base destroyed, the surviving humans enter the cabin to find and kill the creature which had once been Blair, just as it finishes building an anti-gravity harness that would have allowed it to escape.

Characters in "Who Goes There?"

econdary Magnetic Expedition

Although thirty-seven men comprise the expedition housed at Big Magnet, only half are mentioned by name in the story itself, all but three by last name alone. By story's end, fifteen are replaced by alien impostors.

*Barclay: present at alien excavation.
*Benning
*Blair: biologist, present at alien excavation.
*(Bart) Caldwell
*Clark: dog handler.
*Connant: physicist, cosmic ray specialist.
*Dr. Copper: physician, present at alien excavation.
*(Samuel) Dutton
*Garry: expedition commander.
*Harvey
*Kinner: cook.
*McCready: expedition second-in-command, meteorologist, present at alien excavation.
*(Vance) Norris: physicist.
*Pomroy: livestock handler.
*Ralsen: sledge keep.
*Van Wall: chief pilot, present at alien excavation.
*Vane: physicist.

Non-human characters

*"The Thing"
*Charnauk: lead Alaskan husky, first openly attacked by alien.
*Chinook and Jack: two other huskies.

Movie adaptations

"Who Goes There?'" has been adapted three times as a motion picture: rather loosely in 1951 as "The Thing from Another World", with James Arness as the Thing, Kenneth Tobey as the USAF officer, & Robert Cornthwaite as the lead scientist. In 1973 it was the obscure "Horror Express" (although it is debatable whether this is an adaptation or if it simply incorporates themes from the short story), and in 1982 by director John Carpenter as the film "The Thing", from a Bill Lancaster screenplay. Currently, there are plans to make another film adaption.fact|date=June 2008 Scripts have been planned for a sequel, prequel and remake of the original Thing movie.fact|date=June 2008

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Highrise/3756/jc/who/bonusid.htm "Who Goes There" by J. W. Campbell]