This stuff is so much fun. You may know of the classic old Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man, where aliens come to earth and solve all our problems (food, disease), and all looks really peachy (I'm piecing this together from memory) but at the last moment as our scientist protagonist is walking up the gangplank to visit the alien's world, his assistant who'd been trying to translate the alien book they'd gotten hold of, "To Serve Man," runs up telling him to run because she'd just figured out [SPOILER ALERT] that *it was a cook book*! The protagonist tries to break line but the aliens push him aboard. Good eating! Any Twilight Zone nerds out there feel free to correct any details.
This is offline but you might find it interesting - from Tobe Hooper who directed Poltergeist and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a sexy alien movie called Lifeforce that came out in 1985 (a great era for pulp/drive-in movies) about space vampires where a beautiful, constantly naked young woman moves from man to man like a succubus, draining his lifeforce, and turning him into a space vampire too. Here's a trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpTNBFbYqUI
This is also making me remember a video I recently saw about how amazingly intelligent octopuses are, saying how they seemed to develop along a different track that any of our more familiar critters/relatives. It makes sense that a lot of aliens look octoputic, when they don't look humanoid.
I like the alien depiction in Galaxy Quest, The Abyss, and also Contact - they used a comforting figure from the mind of the traveler to communicate with them. I love the movie Arrival. It’s one of my all time favorite movies.
Aliens are always fun to speculate about. Have you seen Prometheus yet? If not, you might really enjoy that one... it's "thinky" along similar lines, IMO, and very well executed. BIG questions asked and answered, as in Arrival, but different questions.
Loved the phrase dubiously coiffed abductee. Made me smile.
One (major) reason why aliens are typically humanoid is that it is the cheapest way for Hollywood to make aliens (masks over actors). Another is panspermia which I think is highly unlikely. With CGI, I hope Hollywood becomes much more creative. Like Armus and Tholians from Star Trek:TOS.
That's such a good point that it's just practical. But all these people who claim alien encounters with similar looking stock must drink from the same Kool-aid. Panspermia, what a great topic to consider that I hadn't thought of (future post??), according to Wikipedia: Panspermia (from Ancient Greek πᾶν (pan) 'all ', and σπέρμα (sperma) 'seed') is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and planetoids, as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms, known as (directed panspermia). The theory argues that life did not originate on Earth, but instead evolved somewhere else and seeded life as we know it. [For the sake of anyone reading who didn't know, as I didn't]
This stuff is so much fun. You may know of the classic old Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man, where aliens come to earth and solve all our problems (food, disease), and all looks really peachy (I'm piecing this together from memory) but at the last moment as our scientist protagonist is walking up the gangplank to visit the alien's world, his assistant who'd been trying to translate the alien book they'd gotten hold of, "To Serve Man," runs up telling him to run because she'd just figured out [SPOILER ALERT] that *it was a cook book*! The protagonist tries to break line but the aliens push him aboard. Good eating! Any Twilight Zone nerds out there feel free to correct any details.
This is offline but you might find it interesting - from Tobe Hooper who directed Poltergeist and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a sexy alien movie called Lifeforce that came out in 1985 (a great era for pulp/drive-in movies) about space vampires where a beautiful, constantly naked young woman moves from man to man like a succubus, draining his lifeforce, and turning him into a space vampire too. Here's a trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpTNBFbYqUI
This is also making me remember a video I recently saw about how amazingly intelligent octopuses are, saying how they seemed to develop along a different track that any of our more familiar critters/relatives. It makes sense that a lot of aliens look octoputic, when they don't look humanoid.
Love all this! Especially the word octoputic. So much good stuff to explore!
I like the alien depiction in Galaxy Quest, The Abyss, and also Contact - they used a comforting figure from the mind of the traveler to communicate with them. I love the movie Arrival. It’s one of my all time favorite movies.
I love how essays lead to more essays and many more things for my playlist!
Aliens are always fun to speculate about. Have you seen Prometheus yet? If not, you might really enjoy that one... it's "thinky" along similar lines, IMO, and very well executed. BIG questions asked and answered, as in Arrival, but different questions.
cool, I have not. Will do!
If you hate it, sorry! But honestly, it'll be fun to talk about.
if "thinky" as promised than I'd never hate it.
Loved the phrase dubiously coiffed abductee. Made me smile.
One (major) reason why aliens are typically humanoid is that it is the cheapest way for Hollywood to make aliens (masks over actors). Another is panspermia which I think is highly unlikely. With CGI, I hope Hollywood becomes much more creative. Like Armus and Tholians from Star Trek:TOS.
That's such a good point that it's just practical. But all these people who claim alien encounters with similar looking stock must drink from the same Kool-aid. Panspermia, what a great topic to consider that I hadn't thought of (future post??), according to Wikipedia: Panspermia (from Ancient Greek πᾶν (pan) 'all ', and σπέρμα (sperma) 'seed') is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and planetoids, as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms, known as (directed panspermia). The theory argues that life did not originate on Earth, but instead evolved somewhere else and seeded life as we know it. [For the sake of anyone reading who didn't know, as I didn't]