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The 10 Best Sci-Fi Aliens of All-time (any storytelling narrative)
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Interesting list. What does 'best' mean?I am especially impressed with The Thing. I also often saw Cthulhu as a mythical monster, but you reminded me how it came from the stars.
Some possible entries: Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still, the intelligent fungus from Sid Meier's Alpha Centari, The Zerg from Starcraft (very similar to the aliens from Starship Troopers), Klingons from Star Trek, Chang-lings from Deep Space 9, Yuuzhan Vong from Star Wars, Body Snatchers, and The Blob.
I had to add the Silence from Dr Who - the whole idea that you forget they exist unless you are directly looking at them! Creepy!http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia...And of course the Daleks - an entire race bent on genocide but reside within a machine.
http://www.google.com/url?url=http://...
Goodreads is theoretically about books, so why not make a list of best book aliens?Mine would include the Guild from Dune, the Tandu/Gubru/Jophurs/Tymbrimi/Hoon from the Uplift series, the Templars/Ousters (maybe questionable, because they're probably nominally human) and Zeppelins from the Hyperion series, the Samlon/Grendels from The Legacy of Heorot, the Moties from The Mote in God's Eye, the Runa in The Sparrow, the string-puller in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
Jen I didn't even THINK of I Have No Mouth. Brilliant.
I'm not sure what my list would be, but I'm pretty sure it would somehow include the guys from Killer Klowns from Outer Space.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095444/
For something machine-related, instead of Transformers, I might have picked one of these:Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers
The Borg from Star Trek (OK, started on TV, but I'm sure they're in plenty of licensed books by now)
I'm sure others can suggest alternative alien machines/cyborgs/whatever....
William wrote: "Jen I didn't even THINK of I Have No Mouth. Brilliant."Pretty sure the controller in that was a crazy AI, not an alien.
I'm actually not too keen on aliens. Only Cthulu on your list does anything for me. The rest are either monsters, robots, muppets, or humans in funny suits.Aliens are difficult to do effectively.
My all-time favorite alien species are the aliens in
I found them very intriguing and the entire world setting very believable
AlienPredator
Puppeteers
Kzin
maybe wookies (aboriginal tech genius is an interesting twist)
Whatever Thrawn was
and of course:
http://revoemagblog.files.wordpress.c...
Vasquez: Anytime, anywhere, man!
Hudson: Right, right. Somebody said "alien" she thought they said "illegal alien" and signed up!
:)
Adam wrote: "Surely Alien from Alien did something for you? Perhaps the best "man in a suit" Alien of all time, close second being Predator."Those were monster films. They were fun entertainment, but the aliens weren't any more interesting (or plausible) than Godzilla.
Adam wrote: "Micah wrote: "William wrote: "Jen I didn't even THINK of I Have No Mouth. Brilliant."Pretty sure the controller in that was a crazy AI, not an alien."
They started out as organic lifeforms. Did..."
I was talking about the bad guy in I Have No Mouth. It was a crazy super computer created by humans. It wasn't an alien.
For me, definitely the best literary aliens are the aliens in Blindsight by Peter Watts.In TV, the all-powerful aliens in Stargate Universe really scared the crap out of me.
I have to admit, I rate the xenomorphs from Alien pretty highly. I watched the film as a kid, and it stuck with me.
Whatever the creature is in "Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death" by James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon), or the thing in "VOR" by James Blish.
In movies, my favorite aliens were the technologically advanced aliens in "Contact."
BooksLamotiens -- from Jack Chalker's Well World series, they are small, sort of globular creatures who can change shape at will, grow hair quickly and join into colonies to form larger creatures, sometimes imitating other beings.
Puppeteers -- from Larry Niven's Known Space series. They fancy themselves the masterminds of the galaxy but are defined by their cowardice and herd-like mentality. They have three legs and two heads, with their "hands" being the lips on the heads. Their brains are inside their body proper. They have three sexes.
Fuzzies -- H. Beam Piper created the prototypical "super cute alien" with these guys, while also building an interesting discussion about the nature of sentience around them.
Pak Protectors -- Also from Known Space, these are possibly my all-time favorite aliens. Basically they are humans who go through a radical transformation to become super-intelligent super-warriors. They start off as essentially Australopithecus (the "breeder" version of the species) who get an uncontrollable urge to eat a plant called Tree of Life when they hit middle age, transforming into the "protector" stage. Protectors have one mission: protect their lineage at all costs. Mutations are killed, other family lines are destroyed and aliens are ruthlessly exterminated. Human beings on Earth are descended from a lost Pak fleet. (Which is as silly as Superman, but I don't care.) Because we start off so much smarter than breeder Pak, human protectors are also much more intelligent than Pak protectors. They live for thousands of years, are nearly unkillable and are possibly the most intelligent creatures ever, so you can't out-fight or out-think them, but their one great weakness is that they will always, always, always chose the most logical answer to save their kin.
Movies
The Thing -- this sucker is just creepy. It takes you over and imitates you perfectly... until it needs to transform into something else? Ick.
Xenomorph -- From Alien. I'm partial to the idea that these are biological weapons that got out and destroyed their masters.
Video Games
Rikti -- From the late, great game City of Heroes, the Rikti were alien invaders which devastated the world and killed most of Earth's superheroes. Since the game is long dead, killed too soon by corporate nonsense, it's not much of a spoiler to reveal that the Rikti were actually from a parallel universe and were, in fact, human beings mutated by even more powerful aliens. There were two factions within the Rikti: the war-loving Traditionalists and the peace-seeking Restructurists. Since Rikti were once human, that means humans of other universes can also be turned into Rikti. The Traditionalists use these transformed humans as cannon fodder, while the Restructurists employ them as intermediaries.
Michele wrote: "In movies, my favorite aliens were the technologically advanced aliens in "Contact.""I loved that movie. It's one of my favourite "cerebral" sic fi movies. I wish they made a sequel to it or something because it looks like they could come up with more.
L.G. wrote: "Michele wrote: "In movies, my favorite aliens were the technologically advanced aliens in "Contact.""I loved that movie. It's one of my favourite "cerebral" sic fi movies. I wish they made a sequ..."
YES!! Contact Sequel. Yay!
Adam wrote: "And plausible? One of the main reasons the ET was so horrifying and memorable was because it was modeled on real, plausible biology. The life cycle of the amazonian spider wasp...."There are many implausibilities implicit in the Xenomorphs, chief among them is that they are silicon based lifeforms but we see them feeding on humans--carbon based lifeforms. Silicon life could more feed off carbon based lifeforms than we can feed off of computer chips.
Secondly, their elegant (but complicated) life cycle is 100% implausible for a race that is supposedly a generalized predator. That life cycle is one that is highly specialized to predate one particular species: Man. Note that the opening of its eggs is perfectly sized to a human head. The squid thing that comes out: perfectly sized to fit a human head and wrap its tail around a human neck. The tube it uses to force its embryo down a throat is perfectly placed and sized to fit our mouths. And finally, its embryo is perfectly sized to reside in a human stomach until it's ready to bust out.
Yet this species has never preyed on humans before (according to the first two films). Yet it HAS preyed on the big alien pilot...whose physiology is somewhat similar to ours, but totally out of scale for this particular breeding strategy.
And sulfuric acid blood?
They were fun scary monster films, but as far as their plausibility...It. Don't. Work.
The films themselves were groundbreaking because they introduced the idea that space travel might not always be the sterile, hygienic, orderly experience we were used to seeing in flashy SF and chilly Kubrick films.
Adam wrote: I would highly recommend watching Ishirō Honda's original 1954 version..."The topic here is aliens, not the merits or demerits of the films they're in. The original Godzilla may well have been a multi-layered film, but its alien is really nothing more than a monster: a manifestation of Nature's retribution against the sins of man. Which means its only purpose is to crush puny humans and destroy our world. It's a monster, plain and simple.
I couldn't agree more about "The Thing". I think it stands as the greatest expression ever of the horror of loss of self. Once infected, it was only a matter of time before you weren't "you" anymore. The invader not only stole your body cell-by-cell, it took your memories and everything that made you who you were. The worst part being that you were helpless to stop it. You're only alternative was to ask someone to burn you alive to ensure every cell died. The terrifying thing that it never spoken of directly in the film, is how many victims knew they were infected, but chose to allow themselves to be devoured. They chose a slow, horrible death through the dissolution of self rather than being burned alive quickly.
Shudder.
Micah wrote: "Adam wrote: "And plausible? One of the main reasons the ET was so horrifying and memorable was because it was modeled on real, plausible biology. The life cycle of the amazonian spider wasp...."T..."
We also did see some adaptive capabilities hinted at in Alien 3. The alien in that sequel used a dog as a host and the resulting offspring took on canine aspects. If you think about that, its one hell of a survival strategy. They can steal millions of years in evolutionary survival adaptations in one generation. You never get a home field advantage against them.
Michele wrote: "L.G. wrote: "Michele wrote: "In movies, my favorite aliens were the technologically advanced aliens in "Contact.""I loved that movie. It's one of my favourite "cerebral" sic fi movies. I wish the..."
Who would be best to write it?
Micah wrote: "There are many implausibilities implicit in the Xenomorphs, chief among them is that they are silicon based lifeforms but we see them feeding on humans--carbon based lifeforms. Silicon life could more feed off carbon based lifeforms than we can feed off of computer chips."I believe in the novelization the xenomorph actually did eat parts of the ship. Don't quote me on that; it's been 35 years since I read it.
I'm partial to the theory that the xenomorphs were a biological weapon engineered by the space truckers and they got away from them, wiping them out. My personal addition to that theory is that in a universe as big as ours they would be a match to more than one species, and it was just our bad luck we happen to be compatible with them.
It's still wildly implausible, but then so is all of science fiction, really.
Mawgojzeta wrote: "I would put Octavia Butler's Oankali on my list (https://www.goodreads.com/series/4174...)."arghhh that's what I came here to post.I'm currently reading Dawn and it's awesome so far!
Trike wrote: "Micah wrote: "There are many implausibilities implicit in the Xenomorphs, chief among them is that they are silicon based lifeforms but we see them feeding on humans--carbon based lifeforms. Silico..."If you watch Prometheus, that seems to be the most plausible theory. Of course, the movie's script was hacked up so much that it's no wonder the end product doesn't make a great deal of sense and lacks the verve of Alien.
Sandy wrote: "Michele wrote: "L.G. wrote: "Michele wrote: "In movies, my favorite aliens were the technologically advanced aliens in "Contact.""I loved that movie. It's one of my favourite "cerebral" sic fi mo..."
That is a really tough question. No one really jumps to mind as being ideal for writing it. I don't really see a lot of movies or books like that - it felt not unique, but different somehow.
Mawgojzeta wrote: "I would put Octavia Butler's Oankali on my list (https://www.goodreads.com/series/4174...)."I agree, the Oankali are great aliens. Dawn is an awesome book.
Pilots, Leviathans, and Ancients from FarScapeThranx from Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth books
Formac from Ender's Game
Pernese Dragons from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern
Species 8472 from Star Trek: Voyager
Xindi-Insectoids and Xindi-Aquatics from Star Trek: Enterprise
Asgard from Stargate: SG-1
F.J. wrote: "Pilots, Leviathans, and Ancients from FarScapeThranx from Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth books
Formac from Ender's Game
Pernese Dragons from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern
Species 8..."
Oh yes. I LOVED the Asgard from SG-1.
For all of you who loved the viral version of the Thing, as opposed to the Giant Carrot/James Arness version, I recommend you try the Ukiah Oregon series of books by Wen Spencer. The villains of the book are the Ontongard, intelligent pond scum that take over the bodies of the species they come in cntact with and have only one desire, to spread as far as they can.I also liked the Tyr from The Madness Season.
Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers Yes I like that
Primes from Pandora's Star - Peter Hamilton
Ythri The Earth Book of Stormgate - Poul Anderson
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Books mentioned in this topic
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The Legacy of Heorot (other topics)
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