The movie plays out differently than the novel but this concept is almost certainly lifted from the story "Times Last Gift" by Philip Jose Farmer. At least it fared better than Farmer`s Riverworld ....As a science fiction writer he was more fiction than science, but he did create some expansive and interesting environments and could spin a very engaging tale when he was at his peak.
shareThe Wikipedia article says Jerome Bixby conceived this in the 1960's, but never finished it until he was on his deathbed in 1998. As the story is copyrighted 1972, it's unlikely it was "lifted".
Quite often there's "something in the air" culturally or scientifically, so that several people do similar things at about the same time.
well he can certainly "claim" that he had the idea in the 1960s but it doesnt make it true ...
Nee ta ma duh tyen-shia suo-yo duh run doh gai si
So maybe we have a "he said / she said" situation, where there's some doubt about both alternatives, and so far none of us has any definitive information either way.
shareConsidering that Jerome Bixby made the concept a big part of an episode of the original Star Trek that he wrote in the 1960s, there really is no doubt about it. Bixby most definitely came up with it in the 1960s.
shareI don't think you realize who Jerome Bixby was. Of course he actually had the idea in the 1960s! It's right there, plain as day and in your face, in an episode of the original Star Trek that he wrote called Requiem for Methuselah!
shareIncorrect. You must not have ever seen the original Star Trek episode "Requiem for Methuselah," which Bixby wrote in the 1960s. The concept is right there, four years before Farmer's novel.
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