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Old radio show originally.

Only one type of creature on the planet, it had different types of “meat” which was eaten by the crew. Some men went missing but were found to have cocooned and changed into these creatures.

The doctor had a bad stomach and lived off rations until the end where he gave up.

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  • Oh I know this, just can't remember what it's called. Was there a predator type creature, only to realize those creatures were once men?
    – ArlettaS
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 12:21
  • This sounds exactly like Bugsnax, if it had been intended for adults instead of ages 7 and up.
    – Kevin
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 22:46
  • see also scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/264292/… (probably about the short story on which the radio show was based)
    – Otis
    Commented Jun 13, 2022 at 16:41

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17

I'm pretty sure that the story in question is "Drop Dead" by Clifford Simak. The title comes from the fact that that's what the "critter" would. They just walk into the explorer camp and drop dead. The rest is pretty much as LSerni describes it. The last line is "What have you got for supper?"

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/titlecovers.cgi?45910

Follow-up shows that it was produced as a radio play.

https://www.audible.com/pd/X-Minus-One-Drop-Dead-August-22-1957-Audiobook/B00YAP6JWE

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  • Pulled down "All the Traps of Earth" and read it the story from it - you nailed it.
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 21:20
  • Interesting. In the late 90s / early 2000s I read a comic story by Bonvi that has an identical story. The creatures coming up to the human explorers to drop dead whenever they were hunger, the captain having a stomach problem and being on diet, the astronauts turning into a cocoon and then alien creatures. Also the final line is the same with the captain deliberately eating an alien creature to turn himself into them.
    – Duncan Drake
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 21:41

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