Equity Library Theater presents a reading of "The Star" by H.G. Wells

“On New Year's Day (about 1900, presumably), astronomers announce that the orbit of the planet Neptune has become erratic. Soon it is discovered that a strange luminous object has entered the Solar System, its gravitational pull causing the disturbance. This story is often credited with having created a science fiction subgenre depicting the impact event of a planet or star colliding, or near-colliding with Earth.”

This story is often credited with having created a science fiction subgenre depicting the impact event of a planet or star colliding, or near-colliding with Earth. However, it was preceded by two stories in 1894: Omega: The Last Days of the World by Camille Flammarion (the astronomer of the Flammarion Catalog) and Olga Romanoff or, The Syren of the Skies by George Griffith. In 1895, Griffith used a comet disaster again in The Outlaws of the Air. Edgar Allan Poe's 1839 The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion depicted an Earth collision with a comet that altered the atmosphere, causing a higher concentration of Oxygen which subsequently immolates to destroy all life on Earth. Jules Verne's 1877 novel Hector Servadac describes a comet colliding with Earth, taking bits of land (and inhabitants) with it on its orbit around the Sun.

The story is mentioned in Arthur C. Clarke's novel “Rendezvous with Rama”, and Clarke also used the title for a story of his own. The radio anthology series “Radio Tales” adapted the story into an episode called "Asteroid". The graphic novel ”Bloodstar” uses Wells's story as the prelude to the post-apocalyptic situation in which the plot - itself derived from a short story by Robert E. Howard - is set.

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