Space explorers find a civilization destroyed by the nova. It was pretty famous, any idea about the title and author?
And of course a quick trip to Google reveals it was “The Star” by Clarke. NM.
The Star, by Arthur C Clarke.
My Sci-fi Christmas story premise has Mary getting abducted by aliens who impregnate her with highly advanced DNA. Some shepherds have a close encounter with the aliens at one point. Then, while the UFO is monitoring the situation from geo-synchronious orbit, some Persian astrologers triangulate its position over Bethlehem and set out to investigate.
Already done, sorta, Alien Worlds in the second season’s Earthlight episode.
CMC fnord!
Moving to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Clarke’s famous story may be found in Christmas Stars.
Along with two poems by the late John M Ford: “Winter Solstice, Camelot Station” & “A Holiday in the Park.” In which we see the holiday through the mind of a lover of The Matter of Britain–as interpreted by T H White. With a touch of Kipling:
They were both nominated for The Rhysling Award; the first won…
There was another story in an old anthology I had that had the line “The Lord is my Shepherd” in it as a kind of reveal near the end. The premise was an advanced being came to this nuclear scientist to tell him that they were changing nuclear reactions in “the yard,” and that he would be one of the ones to lead Man to safe use of nuclear energy.
I totally spoilered it, didn’t I? But, even with knowing the ending, I would periodically reread it. I haven’t seen it in about 20 yrs now. Any takers? (Very hard to web search the 23rd Psalm as a sci fi plot)
Not to mention Chris De Burgh in the “A spaceman came travelling song”, without the Mary impregnating though
Yes, this matches Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star”. The main character is a Catholic priest who, as a result of the discoveries
loses his faith.
Asimov “The Pause” The Pause - Wikipedia
I always wondered if R.E.M. was singing about that story.
not really
Sweet!
What search terms did you use?
I recognized the story and remembered it was Asimov, then checked the table of contents of several of his collections on ISFDB.org until I recognized the title (it’s collected in “Buy Jupiter and other Stories” which I probably read in 1977 or so); then I googled “Asimov” and “The Pause” to see if I could find some info to confirm my memory, and the wikipedia page popped up.
I saw a TV adaptation of what I assume was The Star, although I don’t recall it being a priest. I assume it would have been a segment of Amazing Stories.
–Cliffy
Looks like it was the New Twilight Zone The Star (The Twilight Zone) - Wikipedia
Yeah, and IIRC, they totally tried to “redeem” the end by trying to find meaning in the aliens’ destruction.
Kinda vitiates the whole point of the story, IMHO.
I was going to post that I remembered this as a New Twilight Zone first and a short story second.
There’s also the Rachnos WebStar in the reboot of the BBC’s Doctor Who