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Looking through the latest sci-fi, I was struck by the number of aliens around that all appear to be vaguely humanoid with a lack of anything really different?
Admittedly it is always easier to film someone humanesque, but have there been any new aliens recently created which would fit the "alien" tag as in completely different?
How recent are we talking? Voyager had Species 8472, which was weird. A lot of the things in Romantically Apocalyptic are really weird, although most of them are from Earth. The Cancer isn't.
If you don't mind TVTropes, take a look at Starfish Aliens for truly weird, and Intelligent Gerbil for animal-inspired.
The Vorlons on Babylon 5 count going back, the aliens in Starship Troopers were insectoid too. Aliens in shows are typically humanoid because of budget constraints. It annoys me though that long running series like the various ST versions didn't have regularly recurring non-humanoid civilisations, except where they could be plausibly represented by human avatars, ie the betazoids were insects weren't they that melded with a humanoid host? There was also the Borg that I suppose were, at least on a societal level, non-humanoid.
More like worms: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Trill_symbiontQuote:
Originally posted by The Original An Gadaí
There were the interstellar wontons of ST:TNG "Galaxy's Child": http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Juni...orne_lifeform)
There were energy creatures of various sorts in all of the series, and the different Xindi species from Star Trek: Enterprise, too. But yes, most aliens shown were humanoid for obvious budgetary reasons.
Does Futurama count? They mix in plenty of non-humanoid aliens.
True and I think the way forward for a truly progressive, transgressive, expressive sci-fi series would be to be animated. Animating fog monsters or lobster warriors is cheaper than portraying them on real live drama.Quote:
Originally posted by What Exit?
Oh yeah, definitely. Star Trek: The Animated Series did go with some more physically elaborate aliens than TOS, too. The opportunities there were recognized a long time ago, but just need to be fully taken advantage of now.Quote:
Originally posted by The Original An Gadaí
One of my favorite non-humanoid aliens was Yivo on Futurama. So bizarre.
Falling Skies bugs me.
The first aliens, the Skitters, are somewhat human-like with faces and torsos like ours, but have insect-like bodies. A win for non-humanoid aliens. But then they introduce another alien race, this one done entirely in CGI, that are incredibly humanoid. They could have made them literally any shape they wanted but, I dunno, they got lazy or something. Very disappointing.
Then of course there's the season two cliffhanger. Grrrr.Spoiler (mouseover to read):
A third alien race, this one looking even more human-like.
IS Falling Skies worth a look?
In a word: yes.
There are parts of it that bug me. And the whole invasion subgenre of scifi bugs me. But overall it's intriguing and engaging drama.
It's funny. I really dig the original V, at least the first few parts of it even though it doesn't make a whit of sense when you think about it. Checking your brain at the door unfortunately seems to be a prerequisite for a lot of science fantasy.
No, it doesn't make sense, but it also managed to be well-done and engaging on top of that. Did anyone watch the remake? Was it any good?
The remake was...vague? It was designed to be a longer running series, so the exposition was taking longer. Then, near what would have been the midpoint of the second season, they started throwing up major plot points in an attempt to boost ratings or something.