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This is our discussion of the short story....

Explorers We � (1959) by P.K. Dick

From the anthology The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories by Philip K. Dick. See The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories discussion hub for more info on the anthology and pointers to discussion of its other stories.

Also one of my fave stories so far. The fact that we don't (at least I) know who or what those men are, and why they keep coming back, well, it is chilling. I'd like to think that they are some kind of awareness of those victims who yearned for home so bad they keep coming back.

This was my favorite, until I read Waterspider. Still love this story though - I had previously read it in I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon. Another Twilight Zone-type ending.

That book is going to my wishlist, many thanks!

One of those odd, mysterious stories that declines to offer an explanation. Yeah, Twilight Zone stuff.

SPOILERS

Something keeps re-creating a spaceship and crew that are long dead. From the initial POV we, the readers, know these characters think they are the real deal. Earth keeps incinerating them each time they return, because Earth knows they aren't "real".

Differs from a traditional ghost story because there seems an obvious physical manifestation, especially the spaceship.

Does it strike anyone is strange that the FBI keeps burning them up? I mean, when it be good to interrogate them? Maybe it's one of those, "we borrowed these bodies so we could communicate with you" alien contact stories.

Question: if the FBI didn't kill them, would they keep coming?

If they keep coming back then there will be a colony of clones all with the same intention of coming home like the originals.

If it is to communicate on behalf of the aliens why these clones don't have that kind of separate awareness. They only think like their originals and fixated on that. I guess we are supposed to guess.

G33z3r wrote: "Does it strike anyone is strange that the FBI keeps burning them up? I mean, when it be good to interrogate them? Maybe it's one of those, "we borrowed these bodies so we could communicate with you" alien contact stories.

Question: if the FBI didn't kill them, would they keep coming?"

Great question. You wonder what would happen if they let the crew live. Would they be hostile or friendly? What purpose does it serve to keep creating and sending the duplicates? And of course we also wonder if the crew knows they are alien or not? Based on the dialogue among them before they land they certainly seem to think they are the real crew.

It finally clicked why the setup was familiar - it popped up in Peter F. Hamilton's most recent book, though there was no hunting down of the clones in question as they were landing in a fatal desert.

Donald wrote: "It finally clicked why the setup was familiar - it popped up in Peter F. Hamilton's most recent book, though there was no hunting down of the clones in question as they were landing in a fatal desert."

Is it possible Hamilton was inspired by this story?

You know, the fact that there are lots of questions is actually one of the things I like about this story.

Silvana wrote: "Is it possible Hamilton was inspired by this story?"

I was thinking about that when writing the message, but there weren't any obvious pointers in the story and I have no idea about Hamilton's attitude towards Dick IRL. It wouldn't surprise me at all though.