in the final episode of season one, "The Voice of Reason". There, clips from "The Sandkings" are used to support an argument that the Earth is undergoing a number of different alien invasions. Later in the episode, two alien conspirators acknowledge, in private conversation, that the Sandkings could become a serious problem in about thirty years, assuming that they could survive in a methane-based atmosphere, which the aliens intended to gradually transform from the Earth's human-friendly one. In the sixth-season episode "Final Appeal", we discover that the Sandkings plague has been eradicated, which took "the better part of a decade" to complete. Differences from the original story The action of the original story Sandkings by George R. R. Martin takes place in the distant future on a faraway planet colonized by humans. The original story does not specify the planet of Sandkings' origin. Simon Kress is possessed by neither scientific interest nor desire to receive the Nobel Prize but simple cruelty (there is a difference between cruelty and aggression), the application of which influences the sandkings. There are no Maws that act to control the Sandkings. No betting takes place, even though that is a fairly major plot point in the original story. The faces don't change based on the SandKing's perception of their "God". There are only 2 groups, not 4. There is no psionics explaining any of the characters' action. There are two murders instead of at least ten. There is no real elaboration about the Sandkings. Most of the horror elements have been removed; the original story was mostly science fiction with a small bit of horror. All of the actions taken to destroy the SandKings are changed. The protagonist is a family man, as opposed to a wealthy bachelor in the novelette. Without the Maws and their increasing size and intelligence as well as their psionic ability, there is no way to examine the idea of superintelligence or evolution. In the original story, at least one alien is involved in importing the Sandkings; in this retelling, humans bring the Kings back themselves. The episode examines the themes of hubris and ecological catastrophe rather than the responsibility of a parent ("God") to a child and how that child will "grow up". Awards and nominations In 1995, for the role of Simon Kress, actor Beau Bridges was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category "Outstanding Guest Actor