Farewell to the Master is Harry Bates science fiction story written first published in 1940. It provided the basis of the noted 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still and its 2008 remake. Cliff Sutherland, a free-lance picture reporter, who is present when a mysterious "curving ovoid" ship instantaneously appears in the grounds of the United States Capitol in Washington, D. C. Two days later, "visitors from the Unknown" emerge: a "god-like" person in human form and an 8-foot tall robot made of green metal.