SF 68: Grenville's Planet (adapted from a story by Michael Shaara )

[james_davis_nicoll]

Grenville's Planet

A bored star explorer and his assistant explore the eponymous planet, the first terrestrial world to be found whose surface is entirely covered by water. As it turns out there are two small islands, complete with native animal life. On consideration the animals are hard to explain because once every century or so, exceptionally high tides raise the ocean levels well above the highest point of either island. As well, the islands should have been eroded away long ago. Their conclusion is some shadowy intelligence under the sea built the islands. Alas, First Contact does not go well.

Yeah, the explanation of why the manta-people built the island is odd. It's a preserve. Of what? Apparently a sense that natural worlds have animals living on land, I guess.

And that's it for SF 68. After this, it was replaced by Beyond Midnight (1968 - 1969), a supernatural anthology show also produced by Michael McCabe.

Comments

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I recall an idea from pre-continental drift times, that the eventual fate of land masses on old planets was to be worn away by erosion. Could it be the case that the artificial islands were supposed to be the remnants of old continents?

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

... Having taken a minute - and given more thought to the question than the author, probably - I'll propose this can be made to make sense. The manta people underwater were in the past space travelers, and they brought back biological samples of 'dry life' for their version of museums.

If super tides are indeed likely, there are three possibilities. Build the island seamounts higher, control the local tides, or make islands that float. (I prefer the third because it's the most whimsical.) Needless to say, detecting this would require hours of human observation, which rarely happens in period SF.