INTRODUCTION

First published in the June 1944 edition of Astounding Science Fiction, Brown’s story was instantly hailed as a classic and has been reprinted numerous times. In 1970 the Science Fiction Writers of America voted it one of the 26 greatest science fiction short stories of all time.

One of his most famous short stories, "Arena", was used as the basis for the episode of the same name in the original series of Star Trek, written by producer Gene Coon.

Gene Coon’s teleplay bears little resemblance to the story other than the basic premise of a human and alien forced into combat in an "arena," with the destruction of the loser’s race as the stakes. In their “behind the scenes” book, Inside Star Trek, Herbert F. Solow (former executive in charge of production for Desilu Studios) and Robert H. Justman (Co-producer of Star Trek) avow that Coon wrote the script in one weekend and only became aware of its similarities to Brown’s story when it was pointed out by a member of the studio's research team.

It was also the basis of a 1964 episode entitled "Fun and Games" of The Outer Limits, probably the Space: 1999 episode "The Rules of Luton", and possibly the Blake's 7 episode "Duel".