Master of Science Fiction

A Clean Escape is a 1985 short story by John Kessel, later adapted into a play by Kessel in 1986. It features a psychiatrist attempting to cure the President of the United States of his amnesia so that he can be held accountable for precipitating a nuclear holocaust. The story was adapted by Sam Egan as the script for the first episode of Masters of Science Fiction, which first aired August 4, 2007.

In the middle of a ferocious firefight outside of Baghdad, US soldiers discover a mysterious body—one that they can’t even identify as human. Swiftly, all over the earth, more such creatures appear and begin to communicate. With this contact, the world is forced to choose between peace and destruction.

Mr. and Mrs. Bronson Van Vogel are the seventh-richest couple in the world. Pleasure is their only work; mundane or dangerous chores are done by anthropoids. All the anthropoids—a few strands of human DNA, grown into a baby and fused with plastics—are named “Joe.” Somehow, Mrs. Van Vogel’s dormant compassion is awakened by a Joe named Jerry. What traits would prove that Jerry is, indeed, a man?

Una nave spaziale in orbita attorno la Terra contiene le persone infettate da una malattia che provoca mutazioni.Un ambasciatore dalla Terra viaggia sulla nave e rivela che la malattia si è diffusa sulla Terra. Una cura richiederebbe il sangue dei reietti a bordo della nave. Promette agli emarginati, che potranno tornare sulla Terra.

In a future world where courtrooms exist without human judges or juries, automated justice is the law of the land. Sitting before a kiosk which is itself the judge, jury, and executioner of the future, Fredon must find a way to convince the machine of his innocence – or find some other way to save himself before time runs out.

It seems the perfect solution to a ballooning crime rate – filling the skies with flying robotic droids that can prevent murder before it takes place. However, nobody told these “Watchbirds” that all life depends on a formula of carefully balanced killing. Robert Sheckley’s renowned story examines one of the most important questions of our time – is it wise to sacrifice our liberty in the name of our security?