Talk:The Puppet Masters

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'There was an episode from Star Trek: The Original Series with similar creatures. Did they get the idea from the Heinlein book?

The episode was Operation: Annihilate! and the consensus seems to be that it was. Ellsworth 23:15, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

And not to mention the STTNG episode "Conspiracy" --Ron Ritzman 15:52, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

Is it just me, or is this article a little sarcastic? I'm pretty sure that a sarcastic article isn't NPOV, so I might edit this a little bit if no one disagrees. Jon Jan 5, 2005

Go for it, dude! Ellsworth 00:54, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I've deleted "award-winning" and "masterpiece." Heinlein won a bunch of Hugos and Nebulas for novels, and this isn't one of them, and that matches up with my own opinion that, while this is a good story, and turned out to be influential in some ways, it's not by any means one of his best. --Bcrowell 22:33, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Fixing date of story

The current section sounds rather vague and speculative to me (although I strongly suspect its premise is correct). I don't see how anyone could predict what a several-century-old Kansas City would be like. Do we have a source (or at least a clearer explanation) for this claim? — Jeff Q (talk) 3 July 2005 06:37 (UTC)

I've replaced the reference to "century old or more" Kansas City neighborhoods with a more specific dating reference about Stalinism in Russia "for three generations", which, barring any warping of human reproductive cycles undisclosed in the novel or alternative history theories, pretty much fixes the date as 2107. — Jeff Q (talk) 4 July 2005 03:11 (UTC)

I just reverted a more concise and bold statement about the date. I have no problems with someone writing better or more concise text. But in a novel about the future without an explicitly stated date, one cannot assume that human generations are the same, nor can one insist that "Stalinism" refers to the original 20th-century instance. As it is, the whole section borders on original research. I don't feel we can assert this date any more surely than I've stated. — Jeff Q (talk) 4 July 2005 04:53 (UTC)

I disagree with you that it borders on original research. (I didn't write the section, BTW.) The prohibition on original research has to do with verifiability; it's not a prohibition on logical reasoning. I also disagree that the sentence about the human reproductive cycle is necessary. IMO it's goofy and unnecessary, and makes the article come off as fannish and silly. The space devoted to it is way out of proportion to the length of the whole article. I've deleted it. The reader can fill in the blanks for himself, and decide whether there's some bizarre hole in the reasoning. The article doesn't state that the date is definitely 2007, only that it's "likely."--Bcrowell 18:00, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

After thinking about it some more, I've decided simply to delete the section. I don't think it's notable at all. It might have been notable if this had been a future history story, and there was some question of where it fit in; but since it's clearly not part of Heinlein's future history, I don't see that this material is even of any particular interest.--Bcrowell 18:26, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm afraid I have to agree with the deletion of the material, even though I worked on it. My attempt to be precise did sound rather fannish, and it isn't really all that important an issue. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 20:16, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm sorry to reopen what appears to be a settled dicussion, but the novel is certainly set in the first decade of the 21st Century. Towards the end of the book, there is discussion of Mary having been taken by the aliens as a child, circa 1980, and released about ten years later, in 1990. During the action of the novel she is biologically in her twenties. QED. I have therefore removed the paranthetical suggestion that the book might have been set in the early 22nd Century.Brandon39 22:33, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Extra ISFDB links.

The main title is 1358 on the ISFDB. Titles [1], [2] and [3] should be merged into it once editing facilities are opened up. since there's no way to note this on the ISFDB, I'm making a note of it here. I have currently linked only to the one canonical title record there. grendel|khan 14:27, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alternate version

Surely the reason for the cuts in the original version aren't just for length. The magazine version (excepting Horace Gold's attempts at rewriting, to which Heinlein took violent exception) also cuts the material. With examples such as its opening scene, where Sam contemplates the blonde in his bed, perhaps it was just too racy for 1951 sf? Signinstranger 15:46, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Are the references to ISBN numbers, different copyright dates and different opening words about Stranger in a Strange Land or Puppet Masters?  If they refer to SSL they shouldn't be here.  How can you differentiate between different versions of PM? Saintmesmin (talk) 17:18, 26 February 2008 (UTC)