One of my favourite science fiction short stories of all time is Junkyard by Clifford D. Simak. It tells of a team of astronauts who land on an alien planet to investigate a strange tower surrounded by discarded rocket parts and machinery. They climb the tower and discover an alien artifact inside, but soon realize they are stranded on the planet and can no longer take off.

I first heard the story on a late-night radio rerun of the vintage sci-fi series X Minus One; the themes of memory and loss of identity still haunt me today. I’ve toyed with the thought of adapting the story for a very, very … very long time, and I recently dug the project up again and dusted it off.