Time Travel with Phil ROUS 7:29

Posted on the 10 February 2012 by Polycarp55 @polycarp55

Harvey the Rabbit


Death Ship by Richard Matheson (1953)

"Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you've felt that way."— Charles Bukowski

Non Spoiler Summary


  • Length: 20 pages.
  • Genre: Science Fiction.
  • Category: Time Travel-Golden Age of Science Fiction.
  • Rules and Possible Paradoxes of Time Travel:
  • Year Story Is to Take Place: 1997
  • Characters in Story: Mason, Captain Ross, Mickey,

What's It About?

Three astronauts find a wrecked space-craft. The space-craft holds their own bodies, dead, decaying, in the wreckage of time. They must find an answer to the paradox, what happens when you find yourself dead in the future, because you found yourself today through time travel.

First Sentence


MASON SAW IT FIRST.

Last Sentence


"Progress," he said bitterly, and his voice was an aching whisper in the phantom ship."The Flying Dutchman takes to the universe."

Favorite Quote


It was as if some enormous child had lost fancy with the toy model and had dashed it to earth, stumped on it, banged on it insanely with a rock.

What I learned About Writing

Have a problem that needs to be solved.

Turnip Tidbits

  1. Matheson wrote I Am Legend.
    • Death Ship
    was made into a Twilight Zone Episode that aired on the fourth season.
  2. In the August 7, 2009, issue of Entertainment Weekly devoted to vampires, Anne Rice stated that when she was a child, Matheson's short story "A Dress Of White Silk", was a prime early influence on her interest in vampires and fantasy fiction. (Wikipedia Article on Matheson)

Where to Find The Story