One of the most interesting differences between The Thing and Who Goes There? is who is at fault. In the film version of this story, it’s the Norwegians who are irresponsible and dig up this alien evil and make it the other camp’s problem. However, in the original story it the Americans who dig up the Thing and bring all hell down on themselves. In a lot of ways, by having the dog/alien thrust into the protagonists’ laps, Carpenter makes them much more sympathetic. They didn’t ask for this, they’re just trying to be kind to an animal. In Campbell’s version, there is no easy sympathetic out. All of the characters’ intentionally make the mistake of melting the creature and ultimately causing their own demise.
Another interesting difference between the film and original story is the blood test, mainly the events leading up to it. In the film, MacReady makes no attempt to determine whether or not the crew has been replicated based on their own memories and experiences. In most stories with an cloning/imitation aspect, the first thing characters’ do is create ‘safe’ words or question each other about past events, which doesn’t happen at all in the movie. In the story it is explained that the creature is somewhat telepathic, precluding that possibility, but this fact is never even hinted at in the movie. It’s an assumption. To me, this shifts the fault onto the crew’s shoulders for not even considering an obvious solution, necessitating the blood test.
Continuing on the crew’s incompetency, they make the same mistake all horror movie protagonists do, which is splitting up. Characters are constantly alone, even after they know how the Thing works. It’s just plain irresponsible to have three characters leave the fourth alone when they really should be using the buddy system. They should be keeping their eyes on each other constantly to ensure that all of their efforts with the blood tests were not wasted by having a member of the crew immediately taken over. This seems like they are simply asking to be slowly picked off one by one.
Overall, there are several differences between the two versions of the story that shift who is at fault and make some characters more sympathetic than others. In the story, the crew seems more intelligent in how they deal with the monster, even though they are more at fault of intentionally bringing it back to life. The characters in the movie are less intelligent, but more sympathetic because at least they were thrown into this mess by Norwegians rather than their own intellectualism.