Flatcat
Encyclopedia
In Robert A. Heinlein
's science fiction
novel The Rolling Stones
, flat cats are a species of Martian animal.
In the chapter "Free Enterprise", the character Mr. Angelo, a shopkeeper on Mars, introduces Castor and Pollux Stone to a flat cat:
The boys take the flat cat onto the family space ship, where it soon has eight "kittens", each of which soon gives birth again, until the ship is overwhelmed with flat cats. The family solves the problem by rounding up the flat cats and putting them into the storage hold at low temperature, where they hibernate. They are later revived and sold to miners in the asteroid belt
.
Heinlein's flat cats are often said to have been the inspiration for The Trouble with Tribbles, an episode of the Star Trek
television series. (Heinlein himself said he may have gotten the idea from the 1905 story Pigs is Pigs
by Ellis Parker Butler
.) David Gerrold
, the author of the Star Trek episode, claims that he had read the Heinlein book years before writing his screenplay, and was not consciously aware of the similarities, until a routine studio clearances review prompted a contact with Heinlein who, graciously, admitted the similarities but also waived all rights.
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones (novel)
The Rolling Stones is a 1952 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein....
, flat cats are a species of Martian animal.
In the chapter "Free Enterprise", the character Mr. Angelo, a shopkeeper on Mars, introduces Castor and Pollux Stone to a flat cat:
Angelo tickled it with a forefinger; it began to purr like a high-pitched buzzer. It had no discernible features, being merely a pie-shaped mass of sleek red fur a little darker than
Castor's own hair. "They're affectionate little things and many of the sand rats keep them for pets - a man has to have someone to talk to when he's out prospecting and a flat cat is better than a wife because it can't talk back. It just purrs and snuggles up to you."
The boys take the flat cat onto the family space ship, where it soon has eight "kittens", each of which soon gives birth again, until the ship is overwhelmed with flat cats. The family solves the problem by rounding up the flat cats and putting them into the storage hold at low temperature, where they hibernate. They are later revived and sold to miners in the asteroid belt
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...
.
Heinlein's flat cats are often said to have been the inspiration for The Trouble with Tribbles, an episode of the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
television series. (Heinlein himself said he may have gotten the idea from the 1905 story Pigs is Pigs
Pigs is Pigs
Pigs Is Pigs is a story written by Ellis Parker Butler. First published as a short story in The American Magazine in September 1905, "Pigs is Pigs" went on to dozens of printings as a book and in anthologies over the next several decades.-Plot:...
by Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler was an American author.Butler was born in Muscatine, Iowa. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his short story "Pigs is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a...
.) David Gerrold
David Gerrold
Jerrold David Friedman , better known by his pen name David Gerrold, is an American science fiction author who started his career in 1966 while a college student by submitting an unsolicited story outline for the television series Star Trek. He was invited to submit several premises, and the one...
, the author of the Star Trek episode, claims that he had read the Heinlein book years before writing his screenplay, and was not consciously aware of the similarities, until a routine studio clearances review prompted a contact with Heinlein who, graciously, admitted the similarities but also waived all rights.