The Crowded Colony

"The Crowded Colony" by Jay B. Drexel is a science fiction story published in the early 1950s. The narrative unfolds on Mars, focusing on the interactions between a group of human colonizers, referred to as the Conquerors, and the indigenous Martians who inhabit the village of Kinkaaka. The story explores themes of imperialism, cultural misunderstanding, and the ethics of colonization, as the Conquerors grapple with their perceptions of the Martians and the consequences of their mission. The plot centers around Jack Burke, Barnes, and Randolph, three Conquerors who represent a blend of arrogance and naïveté towards the native Martians. While Burke and Barnes hold dismissive views towards the Martians, Randolph finds beauty in their culture and questions the moral implications of their colonization. Tensions escalate when they realize a group of Centaurians—a different alien species—has arrived, believing the human colonizers to be the remnants of Martian civilization. This misunderstanding sets the stage for a confrontation that unravels their expectations and challenges their predatory view of the Martians, revealing deeper themes of identity and perception between species. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Drexel Jerome Lewis Bixby was an American short story writer and scriptwriter. He wrote the 1953 story "It's a Good Life", which was included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. It formed the basis of a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone and was remade in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). He wrote four episodes for the Star Trek series: "Mirror, Mirror", "Day of the Dove", "Requiem for Methuselah", and "By Any Other Name". With Otto Klement, he co-wrote the story upon which the science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage (1966), the related television series, and the related Isaac Asimov novel were based. Bixby's final produced or published work so far was the screenplay for the 2007 science fiction film The Man from Earth.