The Troublemakers

In Short

Set in a hyper-managed future where Earth's Department of Domestic Tranquility uses pharmaceuticals and prescribed media to flatten human personality, The Troublemakers follows two nonconformists: Gloria Hanford, an spirited young woman who refuses to be tranquilized, and Howard Reed, an ambitious Junior Spaceman frustrated by Bureau bureaucracy. When Gloria flees criminal charges for disrupting society and Howard uncovers a suppressed galactic drive, their paths collide in a desperate escape. George O. Smith crafts an entertaining mid-century satire exploring how state control unwittingly breeds the very pioneers needed to colonize the cosmos.

The Story

On an overpopulated, meticulously conditioned Earth, human behavior is strictly monitored to prevent social friction. Citizens who display excess passion or lethargy are prescribed customized audio programs and mood-altering pills by officials like Scholar Norman Ross of the Department of Domestic Tranquility. Gloria Hanford, a lively young woman with an unruly spirit, resists this forced passivity. When Ross attempts to match her with Bertram Harrison, a dull young man whose passivity is reinforced by heavy medication, Gloria rebels. She rejects Bertram, tosses him into a fishpond during a party, and unintentionally triggers a medical crisis when Bertram suffers severe cognitive regression after mismanaging his tranquilizer dosage. Facing severe legal charges of "fifth-degree homicide"—defined by the state as the impairment of another’s intellect—and the threat of invasive neuro-cerebral surgery to enforce docility, Gloria decides to run.

Concurrently, Junior Spaceman Howard Reed languishes in the Space Service. Assigned to remote, automated listening outposts and stuck doing theoretical calculations, Howard longs to explore the Galaxy. While investigating a long-abandoned theoretical drive mechanism known as "Hansen's Folly," Howard tests hardware on a remote station and discovers that the drive actually functions, drastically expanding mankind's reach beyond its seventeen-light-year limit. When he attempts to report his breakthrough to senior officers, including Commander Breckenridge and Commander Hughes of the Bureau of Justice, his discovery is dismissed, suppressed by bureaucratic inertia, and written off as an impossibility by military researchers. Realizing the system is rigged to penalize initiative and hide scientific advances, Howard decides to commandeer a droneship equipped with the forbidden drive.

As municipal police raise an elaborate net across the city to trap Gloria, she uses her wits and a transit kiosk escape route to evade capture. Desperate for a passenger to slip past military skycab checkpoints—which avoid stopping civilian females—Howard crosses paths with Gloria. She steps into his vehicle, seeking only to get away.

Recognizing that they are both outcasts with no future under Earth's totalitarian regime, Howard and Gloria launch into deep space together aboard the equipped craft. Outpacing long-range tracking stations, they set a course for the outer stars. Unbeknownst to them, the high-ranking officials of the Bureau of Justice, Research, and Domestic Tranquility gather at the Officers' Club to toast their departure: the entire oppressive apparatus was secretly designed as a screening filter to push rebellious "troublemakers" out of a stagnant, over-crowded homeworld and force them to settle new planets across the Galaxy.

How It Unfolds

The domestic assessment Scholar Norman Ross visits the wealthy Hanford residence to address the wild behavior of young Gloria. He prescribes strict audio-visual programming and behavioral pills, insisting that crowded urban conditions require absolute emotional conformity.

Frustration in the service Junior Spaceman Howard Reed pleads with his commanding officer for an active flight assignment after three years of solving theoretical problems. He is instead tasked with analyzing "Hansen's Folly," an allegedly impossible faster-than-light drive concept.

The failed match At a dinner party meant to pair Gloria with the lethargic Bertram Harrison, Bertram takes a double dose of go-pills while Gloria refuses her tranquilizers. Infuriated by Bertram's awkward advance, Gloria hip-tosses him over a terrace railing into a pond.

Hardware in space Stationed at an automated beacon post, Howard ignores official theory and builds physical tests of the Hansen drive. He inspects an incoming automated drone and discovers its drive uses the very principles his superiors claimed were mathematically flawed.

Threat of surgery When Bertram suffers severe intellectual decline from mixed medications, Scholar Ross warns the Hanfords that Gloria faces radical re-orientation—involving brain surgery and conditioning—unless she accepts state control or flees.

Justice denied Howard presents his working hardware proof to Commander Hughes at the Bureau of Justice, only to realize the military hierarchy intends to hide his findings and penalize his insubordination. Howard flees the building as alarms sound.

Flight across the city Alerted by Ross that Bertram’s father is filing criminal charges against her, Gloria packs her bags and executes a swift escape through subway kiosks and skycabs, staying one step ahead of a converging police dragnet.

Escape to the stars Howard recruits Gloria as his passenger to bypass military airspace patrol, and together they launch the Hansen-drive ship into deep space, leaving Earth behind to chart a new life on distant worlds.

The secret revealed Senior commanders and Scholar Ross gather at the Officers' Club, raising champagne to toast the runaway couple, revealing that the state's bureaucratic tyranny was a calculated ruse to drive independent thinkers into colonizing the stars.

The People

• Gloria Hanford begins as a restless, impulsive socialite who refuses to swallow the state's tranquilizing pills or adjust her lively personality. Desiring genuine passion rather than forced domestic calm, she fights back when cornered by police and medical authorities. Facing invasive brain surgery, she chooses flight, ultimately becoming an decisive partner on an interstellar voyage.
• Howard Reed is a capable Junior Spaceman whose desire for deep-space exploration is repeatedly checked by red tape and risk-averse superiors. Passionate about empirical science, he refuses to accept official dogma regarding faster-than-light travel. His persistence leads him to prove "Hansen's Folly" works, driving him to steal a ship and claim the stars for himself.
• Scholar Norman Ross serves as the precise, ideological face of the Department of Domestic Tranquility. He firmly believes that high population density mandates emotional regulation through drugs and prescribed media. Though outwardly rigid and cold, he secretly understands the larger, covert goal of the state's oppressive policies.
• Bertram Harrison is an indolent young man whose passive nature is exacerbated by state-prescribed "go-pills." Lacking internal drive, his botched attempt to court Gloria ends in physical humiliation and medical breakdown, serving as the catalyst for Gloria's legal prosecution.

In Its Own Voice

"When we live so close together that no one can raise his voice in anger without disturbing his neighbor, then we have the right to pass laws against such a display of temper."

Scholar Ross explains the totalitarian logic of Earth's social control to a defiant Gloria.

"I am competent to pilot--or at least that's what the flight simulators say in my checkout tests. I'm a junior spaceman--yet every time I apply for active space duty, I'm refused!"

Howard Reed vent his frustration to his commanding officer over being grounded on routine duties.

"Fifth degree homicide comprises the process of causing by any means the loss of impairment of personality or intellect. In layman's terms, brain-washing."

Scholar Ross warns Gloria via vidphone of the severe legal charges she faces after Bertram's mental collapse.

What It's Really About

The Troublemakers examines the inherent conflict between absolute social stability and human progress. In a world where high population density makes individual passion dangerous to the collective order, society turns to chemical sedation and psychological conditioning to enforce peace. However, the story argues that the very traits labeled as "delinquency" or "insubordination"—willfulness, curiosity, and anger—are the essential engine of human expansion. By framing bureaucratic oppression as an intentional filter, the narrative suggests that a comfortable, perfectly managed society inevitably stagnates unless it deliberately ejects its most defiant citizens to push beyond established frontiers.

Why Read It Today

George O. Smith's novella offers an entertaining, fast-paced slice of 1960s satirical science fiction that blends mid-century domestic satire with classic space opera mechanics. Readers who enjoy dystopian social commentary lightened by brisk, clever plotting will appreciate the story's cynical take on bureaucracy and medical compliance. The prose reflects its period through clean, swift action, mid-century social mannerisms, and light technological jargon like "vidphones" and "stereofac paper."

The story moves with crisp efficiency, balancing snappy dialogue in carpeted living rooms with high-stakes escapes across futuristic transit grids and deep-space outposts. While modern readers may notice the mid-century gender dynamics and simplified psychological concepts, the central premise remains fresh: an ironic look at how state control unwittingly breeds the exact pioneers needed to save humanity from self-absorption. It is a quick, satisfying read that leaves you chuckling at the ultimate cosmic joke played by the establishment on its own dissidents.