Great Tales

1944

Edward Hamilton Waldo changed his name at the age of 11 and is known to science fiction fans as Ted Sturgeon. He was born in 1918, so this year (here in 2018) I have been celebrating 100 years of Ted Sturgeon by looking back at some of his stories.

Killdozer comic

Sturgeon's 1944 novella "Killdozer!" was the inspiration for a 1974 TV movie. I remember advertisements for that movie, but I never saw it (review). I lived another 44 years not realizing that Ted Sturgeon was in any way connected to that movie. There was also a comic (review) that was based on Sturgeon's story.

cover by Karen Nelson

Here in 2018 I finally read "Killdozer!" in my copy of Great Tales of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Here is what it says on the inner flap, "... Killdozer! tells what happens when a mutant energy force with intelligence and a will to destroy is liberated ...".

The introduction to Great Tales was written by Isaac Asimov and it is called "The Age of Campbell". Asimov described how John Campbell dominated science fiction during the 1940s and how he had taught dozens of writers that "... science fiction was not about adventure primarily but about science. It was not about mad scientists, but about hard working thinkers."

"The Wages of Synergy"

After all of his highfalutin words in the introduction, Asimov did not say anything about Sturgeon. Apparently Sturgeon went through a rough period in the early 40s and he actually worked for a time operating a bulldozer.

Standard advice is "write what you know", but really now, are there any science fiction fans who want to read about bulldozer clutches?

In the Ekcolir Reality

The Dead Hand of Campbell

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Upon looking at the text of "Killdozer", I noticed that it has three parts. The first page, 7 paragraphs, is entirely in italics and it is easy for me to imagine that it was either written by Campbell or lifted by Sturgeon from old stories such as Campbell's 1932 "The Last Evolution". I can picture a scene with Campbell handing Surgeon a sheet of paper with those 7 paragraphs and asking Sturgeon to write a story based on Campbell's idea. I wonder if a young Campbell had nightmares about monsters under his bed and those frights set the tone for his science fiction.

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7 paragraphs
Imagine an ancient technologically-advanced alien civilization that created "electron-beings" that were "spawned in mighty machines". Those artificial lifeforms "became the people's masters" and "great were the battles that followed". Eventually, it was discovered that the great war could be ended by using neutronium as an insulator that could trap and imprison the enemy, the "mental life-medium".

Cthulhu

Then the bulk of the story begins. A construction crew is using a bulldozer to dig up some old stone ruins, the stones shift and, "... something whooshed out of the black hole where the rocks had been. Something like a fog..." Suddenly the bulldozer throws off its driver and starts running itself and killing off members of the construction crew.

Who goes there?

The third part of the story is the ending, the final page. Again, I suspect it was written by Campbell. That last page is a confused mess, but I think it was Campbell's attempt to put an end to the alien being that turned the bulldozer into a killing machine.

Exode saga

Did the evil alien force migrate from the bulldozer into the IRBM that is mentioned on the last page of the story? Should we assume that the alien being took control of the experimental rocket and tried to continue its mayhem? I don't know. 

Alternatively, was it well meaning Earthlings who deployed the missile in an attempt to explode the fuel drums and dynamite stores on the island and make certain that the evil alien force was stopped? 

Anyhow, apparently the page limit had been reached and the story had to be ended, so Campbell ended it.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Arnold Kohn
and Frank Freas.

Exode

"Killdozer" is of interest to me because I've recently included an ancient alien artifact in the Exode saga. The problem I face is that for my story I want an alien artifact that can both 1) be quickly recognized as being of alien origin and then 2) just as quickly have its existence be expunged from the record.

I must confess that I have been struggling with this question for my story: exactly how many people must die in order to erase physical evidence of the artifact from Earth? Is even one death too many? 

This is usually the place in my own stories where I arrange for the person who must be killed to be duplicated and sent off to Observer Base.

Ya, my stories have lower body counts than a Ted Sturgeon story such as "Killdozer!".

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