Moon Doctor

1987 edition

 This is the second of four blog posts in which I look back at old science fiction stories about doctors (see Part 1). I'll also include some additional stories that might not actually be science fiction or be either about doctors or by doctors, because there's simply nothing to be gained by being dogmatic about the theme of this blog post.

First Born. Continuing with the remaining stories in Great Science Fiction About Doctors, I'll start with "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting" (1959) by Arthur C. Clarke. In this story, Clarke begins in the future year 2000 and explicitly states that in this imagined future, Wernher von Braun is still alive. However, here in the real world, Dr. von Braun (he was awarded a physics doctoral degree in 1934) died in 1977. In "Out of the Cradle", Clarke also explicitly states that in his imagined future, the 88 year-old von Braun lives on the Moon. Clarke made other "predictions", such as naming the first man to orbit the Moon (Jerry Wingate). 

the birds and the bees... on the Moon

 Moonbase 1. For "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting", Clarke also imagined that by 1977, preparations would be underway to send a manned mission to Mars, starting from First Lunar Base on the Moon. 

 Nuclear Rocketry. "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting" is told from the perspective of a Russian man (born in 1932) who was in charge of that mission to Mars. Readers learn that some sort of nuclear propulsion was developed for the manned mission to Mars and Clarke imagined that all the nations of the world would cooperate to send human colonists to Mars. 

The story is about the first human to be born on the Moon (in 1977). Yes, I suppose there may have been a medical doctor present at that birth, but the blessed event takes place "off screen". I've previously described Conklin's infatuation with Clarke, frequently including his stories in anthologies, even when doing so made little sense. 🤷

interior art for "Family Resemblance", featuring the pig baby.

"Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting" was first published in the March 1959 issue of The Dude magazine. I've led a sheltered life, so until today, I did not know about The Dude, which was "the magazine devoted to pleasure".

This Little Piggy. Also included in Great Science Fiction About Doctors was "Family Resemblance" (1953) by Alan E. Nourse. This is a joke story and in his introduction, Conklin admits that it is not really science fiction. Some young doctors play a joke on a nurse, placing a piglet in a hospital nursery.

Related. Nourse published a novel called The Bladerunner which lent its title to the movie known as Blade Runner. I've never read Nourse's novel.

1977 Ace Books edition

 Nuclear War. Also in the April 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, P. Schuyler Miller reviewed Star Man's Son by Andre Norton. It is interesting to see Norton referred to as "Mr. Norton" and called "he". I don't know when it became common knowledge that Norton was a woman originally named Alice Mary Norton. I once owned a copy of Star Man's Son that was published under the alternative title Daybreak: 2250 A.D. (see the image to the left). 

We all have swords. 45 years later, I still remember reading Daybreak: 2250 A.D. and being intrigued by the possibility that mutated humans (the story is set after a nuclear war) might develop telepathic abilities. Even the big mutated cat (Lura) is telepathic. Also included in the story are mutated rodents who can use tools. Related Rodent: see "Flowers for Algernon".

Figure 0. Editor's introduction for "A Matter of Ethics" as appearing in the November 1954 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. "Nerves" and "Country Doctor" are discussed below.
Linguistics in science fiction: The Languages of Pao.

in the Ekcolir Reality

I previously commented on "The Naked People" by Winston Marks. Published two years earlier, in 1952, was "The Brothers". According to the ISFDB, Clifton Dance only published two stories, both in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. "The Brothers", just like "The Naked People", concerns mysterious hidden people (actually, ghouls) who co-inhabit Earth with we humans. 

I'm a sucker for stories about mysterious peoples living secretly among us. However, "The Brothers" is overly long and tedious and is fantasy, not science fiction. 😢

Nerves. I've previously tried to read "Nerves" (1942) by Lester del Rey. The two standard Sci Fi plots for authors wanting to write about nuclear energy are already mentioned above on this page. 1) Clarke's story "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting" assumes that nuclear powered rockets would take humans to other planets. 2) Norton's Star Man's Son concerns an imagined nuclear war that destroys civilization. 

Nuclear Drama™; interior art by Paul Orban

  3) For "Nerves", Lester del Rey went in a less traveled direction and tried to imagine a future nuclear industry that would craft useful radioactive isotopes and compounds. Here, 80 years after "Nerves" was published in the September 1942 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction, of these three uses for nuclear power, only that imagined by Lester del Rey has happened.

 Magic Hormones. I've previously commented on "Helen O'Loy" by Lester del Rey which was one of the first stories about robots that I ever read and featured a robot who was equipped with the electronic equivalent of hormones. 

Hi Tek™ doctoring

Apparently, Rey routinely lied about his childhood and the circumstances of his early life and it is not clear if he studied science before dropping out of college. For a time, he supported himself by working as a cook. I like sensible fictional science in my Sci Fi so it should come as no surprise that Rey's silly imagined technology in his stories always leaves me cold.

Of course, a realistic account of a topic such as nuclear medicine would have been too boring for Lester del Rey, so he wrote about an imaginary nuclear accident. This approach to telling a story about a nuclear isotopes industry is the equivalent of clanking murderous robots that were popular in early Sci Fi stories.

There is a whole team of medical doctors in "Nerves". Readers are first introduced to Dr. Roger T. Ferral, the Physician in Charge at a sprawling nuclear plant run by National Atomic Products Co. Inc. 

These smoking hot nuclear doctors sure have a nerve.

 Will the Nuke Plant go up in Smoke? Since Rey was writing in the 1940s, Doc Ferral sets a good example for the workforce by smoking and being over-weight. Of course, everyone smokes because this is heartland U.S.A. in the first half of the 20th century. 

If you look on the interwebs, you'll find reviews of "Nerves" that state how Rey was a visionary for predicting the horrors that would come from nuclear power. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to count how many people were killed by 1) smoking tobacco and 2) by the nuclear power industry in the past 80 years.

Figure 1. Feldman's new life on Mars

 The Nicotine Cure. Maybe at one time, a young Lester del Rey (apparently his real name was Leonard Knapp) dreamed of becoming a doctor. Another painfully long, tedious story from Rey was called "Badge of Infamy" and it featured Dr. Feldman who, when suddenly confronted by an extremely sick patient, immediately provides a tobacco cigarette for the dying man to smoke.

Tobacco companies paid people in Hollywood to promote tobacco use and even scientists were paid to lobby in support of deadly cigarette smoking. I've long wondered if Sci Fi magazines and writers for pulp magazines were bribed to include cigarette smoking in their stories. I suppose it is also possible that old Sci Fi story tellers were simply addicted to nicotine and they found it natural to write about their imagined fictional nicotine addicts.

Figure 2. Christina Ryan.

Yes, Dr. Feldman spends his last 50 cents buying tobacco to support his addiction. He's down on his luck because in the year 2100, if a medical doctor treats a patient outside of the confines of a Medical Lobby™ hospital, then he is treated like a criminal and kicked out of the medical profession. While on a hunting trip, Dr. Feldman operated under emergency field conditions in order to save a friend's life; the man was dying from an accidental gunshot wound. Now he can no longer practice medicine. If that isn't enough of a contrived plot, the next thing we know, Dr. Feldman impersonates a dead spaceman and goes off to Mars. Lucky for Dr. Feldman, all you need to survive in the thin atmosphere of Mars is a face-mask and a bottle of supplemental oxygen (see Figure 1).

More Magic Hormones. Lester del Rey informs readers that the only reason there is commercial spaceship traffic between Earth and Mars is because there are lucrative "plant hormones" that get shipped from Mars to Earth.

Driving on Mars... who needs air?

 More Contrived. Dr. Feldman's old flame, the cute blonde Christina Ryan, also ends up on Mars and she has a Hi Tek™ camera (see Figure 2) so that she can get photographic evidence that Feldman is once again defying Medical Lobby rules by providing health care to poor colonists on Mars. It turns out, there is a mysterious disease on Mars, a new plague, and Dr. Feldman must solve this mystery and save Humanity from destruction. A line from the story: "It might prove to be the greatest killer of all time". But never fear! Dr. Feldman is a smoker, so he has the RIGHT STUFF to defeat the pandemic!

image source

 Medical News from the Future. Lester del Rey tells readers that in 2100, by order of the all-powerful Medical Lobby, everyone has their appendix and tonsils removed at birth. After much effort to find a cure for the new Mars Plague, during a smoking break good old Dr. Feldman realizes that the cure for the Plague already exists on Mars! 

 Brakatine? Dr. Feldman discovers that to cure the Mars Plague, all you need to do is smoke "brakey weed", something that grows only on Mars. The colonists on Mars declare independence, but promise to sell Earth all the brakey weed that is needed to stop the Plague. Since the magical weed smoking cure saves the life of Christina, she stops trying to get Dr. Feldman convicted of doctoring without Medical Lobby sanction and everyone lives happily ever after. 

more moon medicine in the Ekcolir Reality

  Doc Meltzer on Mars. As far as I can tell, "Country Doctor" (mentioned above in Figure 0) was first published in Star Science Fiction Stories (1953). Dr. Meltzer lives on Mars where his most important duties are caring for the valuable livestock owned by colonists from Earth. 🐄🐑 He regrets leading such a boring life. Then an emergency arises. Now he is asked to care for a big alien creature from Ganymede. 

"William Morrison" was a pen name for Joseph Samachson who had training as a scientist. I've previously commented on his story "Star Slugger", a story about playing baseball on Mars. 

The Moon Doctor. Dr. Meltzer is sent inside the ginormous creature from Ganymede. Meltzer helps the beast give birth and so he becomes famous. That's all there is to this silly story, and I'm not surprised that Conklin failed to include "Country Doctor" in his anthology about doctors.

Interior art for "Bad Medicine".

According to the ISFDB, Morrison's first published story was "Bad Medicine", appearing in the February 1941 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. Sadly, "Bad Medicine" is bad science fiction. The story is set on Saturn. Two men from Earth try to trade with the Saturnians, offering an herbal tonic in exchange for the valuable Element 102. Readers are told that the herbal tonic from Mars increases the intelligence of the Saturnians and the two Earthmen end up getting cheated. 

There is no doctor in this story and the "bad medicine" is the herbal tonic from Mars.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Alien Doctor. Morrison also published "Bedside Manner" in the May 1954 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. I wonder if Gene Roddenberry read "Bedside Manner" before developing his story that became "The Cage". In "Bedside Manner" two humans (Fred and Margaret) are killed in a rocket accident and an alien (who just happens to be nearby) reconstructs their bodies. Much of the story is about Margaret endlessly worrying that her reconstructed body will be ugly.

Two Humans To Save. In the end, the alien doctor does a fine job of reconstructing Margaret and she discovers that her new body is actually better than the original.

For "A Matter of Ethics" by Clifton Dance, readers are back in the same boat as for Dr. Feldman (above) and his struggle against the authoritarian Medical Lobby. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

Dr. Colby must deal with the rules and regulations imposed by the Intergalactic Board of Mural Cardiosurgery. Dr. Colby has no ethical qualms about having practiced his craft on condemned psychiatric patients and prisoners of war, but after more than a decade of training, he resents not being allowed to save the lives of real patients who have heart attacks.

 Magic Metal from Mars. In Jack Vance's novel The book of Dreams, the ruling council of the Institute shares a secret. They manipulate the membership of the Institute for their own secret purpose. Similarly, in "A Matter of Ethics", the members of the Intergalactic Board of Mural Cardiosurgery share a secret. When Board president Dr. Mendez is dying after a heart attack, he shares the secret of a magical metal with Dr. Colby in order to save his own life. 

 The Medical Secret. If your surgical scalpel is made out of the magical metal Maranium then your heart surgery will be much more successful! In order to promote their own economic advantage, the Board does not share this medical secret with any other doctors, even their trainees such as Colby. However, once he knows the secret, Dr. Colby shares that secret with all doctors in the Galaxy and breaks the monopoly of the Intergalactic Board of Mural Cardiosurgery.

Secrecy in the Ekcolir Reality.

 More Secrecy. According to the ISFDB  "Compound B" by David Harold Fink was first published in 1954 in 9 Tales of Space and Time. In the story, Fink stated explicitly: "We must remember that the 20th century was the age of secrecy". "Compound B" is a story told by a narrator living in the far future year of 2466, looking back at the time of a devastating nuclear war in the 20th century, about the time when Dr. Murdock discovered a magical chemical (Compound A) that could boost human intelligence, but it only worked for people with darkly pigmented skin. Now Dr. Murdock wants to discover Compound B, which will act to increase the intelligence of all other people. 

Figure 3. Interior art by Diehl

After years of effort, Dr. Murdock finds his Compound B, but it is too late; there is a nuclear war. However, by 2466, everyone has has their intelligence boosted and they live happily ever after. Again: see "Flowers for Algernon".

 Magical Pets. Maybe "Bolden's Pets" (1955) by F. L. Wallace is some kind of alien telepathy story. There are doctors and other medical personnel in the story, but they accomplish nothing when Bolden becomes sick with the Bubble Death which is caused by an alien microbe that attacks the nervous system. Lucky for Boulden, the natives of planet Van Daamas know a cure, which is why they always keep on hand some of the little furry "pets" like the one shown in Figure 3. These pets can magically transfer "energy" into the nervous system of a person afflicted with Bubble Death, allowing them to fight off the disease.

image source

"The Shopdropper" by Alan Nelson was originally published in the January 1955 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. That was the issue with "The Singing Bell", the first Wendell Urth  story by Isaac Asimov. I previously incorporated another Urth story, "The Key", into one of my own stories. "The Shopdropper" is fantasy, not science fiction. 😞

"The Shopdropper" is about a pair of magic gloves that can turn you into a kleptomaniac. However, if you wear the gloves inside-out then you become obsessed with sneaking things into stores ("shopdropping"), not stealing. The story features Dr. Manly J. Departure, so the story does involve a doctor.

Figure 4. The editor's introduction to "The Shopdropper" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

in the Ekcolir Reality

  Figure 4 shows the introduction to "The Shopdropper" which mentions another Dr. Departure story, "Narapoia". Both stories are silly but amusing.

Aliens of Procyon. As told in "Emergency Operation", a microscopic alien (Dr. M'lo) must go inside a human patient in order to save the man's vision. "Emergency Operation" was first published by Arthur Porges in the May 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 

Dr. M'lo is an Ilkorian, an intelligent creature the size of a red blood cell. Sadly, Porges never bothers to explain how the microscopic alien is able to think like a human and move through the insides of the patient like the miniature submarine in Fantastic Voyage.

Figure 5. In the Ekcolir Reality.

"Surface Tension" by James Blish was first published in the August 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. This was right when Porges began to publish science fiction and I have to wonder if Porges was inspired by "Surface Tension". In "Emergency Operation", Porges mentions that in his imagined future, the Ilkorian's came to Earth in 1960 and made First Contact with humans.

Figure 6. Image source

For my own fiction, I imagine that in the Ekcolir Reality, First Contact with aliens was also achieved in the middle of the 20th century. In my case, those aliens are not microscopic, they are the Fru,wu, a species that evolved on a world with a very thick atmosphere.

Nanotechnology in the Ekcolir Reality

The whimsical scene in Figure 5 (above) was inspired by "Emergency Operation" and reminds me of the 1941 Baseball Mystery (see Figure 6).

Porges published "The Fly" in the September 1952 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Again, I ask: might "The Fly" have been inspired by "Surface Tension"? "The Fly" is a very short story about an alien spaceship that is, at first, mistaken for a fly. I love the idea of very tiny, even nanoscopic lifeforms, but neither Porges or Blish seemed to give serious thought to the practicalities and means of making very small beings who could think like we humans. Their stories read like magical fantasy with really small elves or fairies. More small aliens: see "Gandolphus".

recording audio on wire

 Fanzines. In Operation Fantast there was a short item called "Medical Examination" by Michael Tealby. That very short stream-of-consciousness story concerned a spaceman who, having been injured during a sand storm on Mars, doubts that he will pass medical tests qualifying him for an interstellar space mission. That story is not of much interest, however...

filament recordings

...also in that issue of Operation Fantast was "Wirespondence" by Fred Goetz. One of the fun "extras" that I experience while reading old Sci Fi magazines are descriptions of new technologies (such as wire recordings) and on-going scientific research projects in the real world. Fred Goetz described his portable voice recording device and a new phenomenon that he called "wirespondence". This "wirespondence" was actually a primitive form of what we now call "podcasting". 

iPods

Sure, there was no internet in 1950, so Goetz had to use snail mail to share the metal wires that held his audio recordings, but he was sure excited about that newfangled technology. For a brief time in the middle of the 20th century, recording data on wires was a popular "futuristic" technology appearing in Sci Fi stories (for example, see Jack Vance's Star King).

art by H. R. Van Dongen

 Next: part 3 of my search for interesting science fiction stories about doctors. The image to the left shows the Astounding cover illustration that went along with Murray Leinster's 1957 story called "Ribbon in the Sky". "Ribbon in the Sky" is a science fiction story 👏 with an interesting style of interstellar space-travel. That glowing smudge in the night sky is part of a futuristic method for terraforming a frozen planet; the titular "ribbon".

Kepler-452b by SteveReeves, available under the CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

   

I like to imagine that the image shown to the right might be a suitable depiction for one of Murray Leinster's imagined interstellar cargo ships of the far future. Such a spaceship can only land on a planet with the help of a "landing grid".

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