A is for Alien

I love aliens. My belief is that science fiction is a genre which may and should deal with serious themes and complex ideas, but it’s also a form of fiction which is uniquely positioned to celebrate the full gamut of the fantastical and the amazing and the extraordinary.

In other words, unless the SF writer in question has a compellingly good excuse, there should ALWAYS be aliens.

Some aliens are allegorical; they’re a way to explore themes of, er, alienation and identity. Some aliens are just B.E.M.s — aliens of the bug-eyed and monstrous variety, who are only there to be zapped or blown up by a muscular hero. But some aliens are the good guys, who rebuke us with their higher moral code. That can be a little tiresome — my own theory/thesis is that for all its flaws, the human race will not prove to be the MOST evil or pernicious species in the universe. Plus, nobody loves a goody-two-shoes.

It is, I’d argue, pretty much impossible to write a credible alien, unless you ARE one. All a writer can do is hint at a strangeness beyond comprehension; which tends to result in aliens that come across like Buddhist monks, or dysfunctional nerds with no social skills. I know no examples of the former;  but most of my friends fall into the latter camp. So, actually, aliens to me aren’t all that strange.

It’s also pretty much impossible to create an ORIGINAL alien. There are only so many permutations of carbon-based life-forms that can be imagined. Two legs, three, four, or many more. Head in the wrong place. Different eyes, more eyes than we’re used to, no eyes at all. The marvels of the insect kingdom have inspired many SF writers;  the monsters of the ocean deep are also a great source of inspiration. But frankly, if it’s not a crab or an insect or a squid or a snake or a dog with the head of a jackal, it’s going to be an alien disguised as a human being.

However, I’m endlessly fascinated in aliens; as a theme, and as a source of entertainment. In my first novel Debatable Space (UK | US | ANZ) an alien called Alby was the best friend of my hero, Flanagan. In my second novel Red Claw  (UK | US | ANZ) I chose to explore the classification of aliens by human scientists — who are thrilled beyond belief to have so much so many new species and types of life to study and taxonomise – in the context of a  revenge thriller storyline.

And in my newest novel Hell Ship  (UK | US | ANZ), I decided to step aside from the human universe entirely. Hell Ship is a story about courage and cowardice and fear and hope and love in many universes, none of which are our own. All the characters are alien to us, and to each other; and yet, between them, friendship and — dare I say it? — romance can be possible.

And so I thought I’d write a massively dense and highly researched blog about my favourite aliens, from books, TV and film. And, since I’m a nerd, (N is for…) I thought I would do it as an A-Z.

Then I thought that would be WAY too hard. So here’s an alphabet sprinkling:

 H     is for Hroshia. In Robert Heinlein’s delightful book The Star Beast a giant alien called Lummox lives in a suburban home, eating next door’s roses, having stowed away on a spaceship many years ago. Lummox is big, he has eight legs and he appears to be as smart as the average dog. In fact he’s superintelligent and a spaceship full of Hroshii have come to rescue him … Daft stuff, but I love this beast.

 E     is for ET,  of course. ET is modelled on aliens supposed encountered during the heyday of nutso alien sightings; and it’s no coincidence that he looks like a foetus. Or is he more like a worm? Childlike yet wrinkled and old; there’s something utterly loveable about him. The genius of the film (scripted by Melissa Matheson, directed by some bloke with glasses) is that you see everyone and everything from a child’s POV (literally so in the opening sequences, where the camera appears to be held by a man walking on his knees.) Like Heinlein with his Hroshia, Spielberg/Matheson play the alien = cute card, to great effect

  L     is for Lirilla. She’s my favourite alien in Hell Ship — a mysterious elusive beautiful creature who speaks without syntax and flies with astonishing speed from one part of the eponymous Hell Ship to the other in the blink of an eye. In my mind (a strange place without doubt, but my thoughts do dwell there) she’s Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream; and she’s also the hummingbird in Red Claw.

 L     is for Luxan. If you like your aliens baroque, extreme and comical, look no further than Farscape, the Australian sci-fi show that was made in conjunction with Jim Henson’s company. There is only one human character in this entire series (well, apart from one episode which APPEARS to be set on Earth). His name is John Crichton, and he’s a bit dull. But among the aliens who share his ship is Ka D’Argo, a huge Luxan warrior with tentacles sprouting from his head and funny coloured skin. This is one of those roles which actors dread — a five year contract, spent ENTIRELY IN A LATEX BODY SUIT. No word he’s so darned cantankerous.

 S     is for Spock. Unlike Ka D’Argo, Spock is only a LTTLE bit alien. If it weren’t for the ears, he could pass for human easily; and often did in those time travel episodes. Spock is one of the great creations of SF, because he is human in every respect bar one — his lack of emotion. Except, in very many episodes, and numerous movies, he DOES have emotion.  Grudging emotion, that only emerges in the closing stages of the story, like Colin Firth in The King’s Speech. Essentially Spock is  a Yorkshireman; it was cowardly of Leonard Nimoy not to play the role in that accent.

 H     is for Hive-Mind. Ah! A sneaky one. A category choice rather than an actual alien; although there are a number of fictional aliens actually called Hive-Mind. But the kids in Midwich Cuckoos are a hive-mind. The Borg are a hive-mind.  The Overlords in Childhood’s End are a hive-mind. It’s a simple alien-by-extrapolation-from-the-insect-kingdom concept.

 I     is for Isaac. I did wonder about featuring the Ixtl — who feature in a great A.E.Van Vogt story The Voyage of the Space Beagle — but I decided to err on the side of plugging another of my books. Isaac is a major character in Red Claw; an intelligent avian with telepathic powers who is befriended by our protagonist; and who has a bizarre sexual cycle. ‘Nuff, as Stan Lee used to say, said.

 P     is for Puppeteers. The Puppeteers — who feature in several of Larry Niven’s stories, including Neutron Star and Ringworld — are centaur like beasts with mouths on their arms (like puppets) who are quintessential capitalists but utterly cowardly. Apart from one called Nessus, who is capable of bravery — and has therefore been diagnosed as insane. These witty weird monsters captivate me; and yet they are not alien at all. They are utterly recognisable types, in a strange morphology.

However my favourite aliens of all times are the Tribbles. Those loveable fast-procreating creatures starred in the memorable Star Trek episode The Trouble with Tribbles. They were created by newbie writer David Gerrold who, so the story goes, admitted to the producer that he’d been influenced by a Robert Heinlein story with a similar concept. Heinlein was therefore contacted to see if he was  liable to sue for plagiarism; and he admitted he’d nicked the idea from someone else.  Cool!

But I can’t include Tribbles in my brief list, because that would spell:

H

E

L

L

 

S

H

I

T

And that would NOT be a good idea.