No aliens in the 'Verse...How do you feel?
POSTED BY: BWare42
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 8, 2006 03:25
VIEWED: 20169
PAGE 6 of 9
i like how Joss puts it... 'i can make humans more scary than anything made of latex' (or something like that). Also on firefly talk they do a whole segment on it, i can't sactly put my finger on wat episode but its an earlier one, and they nail it. In that by adding Aliens it only detracts from the overall story. People fins it hard to sympaphise with aliens, make em human, bang suddenly we stay up at night hoping we don't get attackde by angery people with major facial problems.
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To me, it makes the whole Whedon 'verse more believable. Yes, I do think there is non earth-that-was intelligent life out there but the laws of probability are heavily stacked against us ever making contact with one let alone a whole galaxy of them. Read or listen to (unabridged edition) Bill Bryson's book "A Brief History of Nearly Everything" or seriously read Carl Sagan's non-fiction writing and you'll understand why aliens aren't in our future.
While on the subject of finding the new 'verse so refreshing, the fact that they don't have FTL drives is another aspect of the show I enjoy. This wasn't obvious when the series first aired (the Firefly acceleration "oil slick" effect looks a lot like other shows' FTL "engage" effect).
So, this brings it down to just one (two maybe) "suspensiion of belief" issues I can handle about the new 'verse. First is the plethora of planets (and moons) we were able to terraform in one star system. This would take some serious technology that goes beyond just making huge "atmospheric processors" as they would say in Alien(s). It would involve diddling with gravity on a grand scale, something that's obviously been conquered in the future (source of Serenity's propulsion perhaps?). Also, planets circle the star at several different orbits meaning the amount of energy they receive differs considerably. This one might be feasible but I'd question it.
Okay, enough about hard science issues, I love the show and as long as the 'verse's "fantastic-future" issues are only the ones mentioned I'll remain very happy with the way the 'verse works.
As far as aliens. If one wrinkled foreheaed critter shows up in a BDS, BDE2 I'll be VERY disappointed!
P.S. the 'verse and BSG also share this aspect of no aliens other than the ones they made (their's, Cylons, ours Reavers) but they do have FTL. However, their FTL is much more believable than "other" sci-fi shows.
Sorry for the long response. You ask an author a question and this is what you get. 
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There is aliens in the universe, and I believe its just a matter of time before we meet some. To bad I dont think it will happen in the next 1000 years.
But it is possible that aliens already is under investigation by area 51. www.belowtopsecret.com has some interesting things about it.
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Before Firefly I was into Star Wars and Farscape. Their 'verses had millions of different species of aliens and it was hard to remember 'em all. Too many aliens in my opinion.
I think no aliens in Firefly is more believable. I mean if there's aliens I don't think they'd be right next door - right on the planet or in the solar system next to us. I think our galaxy is a human galaxy.
Mal would kick Han Solo's ass.
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Yeah I think thats good for this serie too. No aliens, but what is the thing that eats the humans? with their big ships, dont remember the anmes of them.
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Quote:
Originally posted by fireflynutter:
i like how Joss puts it... 'i can make humans more scary than anything made of latex' (or something like that).
I think that's because of two things, one is that humans are scary, the other is that humans are us.
The thing that disturbs me most about the Holocaust isn't what happened, but who did it. Ordinary human beings did all of those things. Normal people. Some of them might have been crazy but the vast majority of the Nazis were completely sane.
The ability to do the worst things we can think of lies within all of us and that is, to me that is even more scary than the actual things being done.
Whenever you look at a murderer, a tyrant, a mass murderer, or anyone else doing things that make you want to retch and would keep you up at night you have to realize, on some level, that that person is just like you. That you are fully capable of being that person and everything that one does you could do.
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People fins it hard to sympaphise with aliens, make em human, bang suddenly we stay up at night hoping we don't get attackde by angery people with major facial problems.
One of the best things in Alien: Resurrection, I thought, was that when the newborn dies you feel sorry for it.
To make that happen they had to give it a mostly human face (making it human a bit) but even so they made you have sympathy for something that is definitely alien, something that isn't just a person with facial problems.
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Quote:
Originally posted by mycroftxxx:
As far as aliens. If one wrinkled foreheaed critter shows up in a BDS, BDE2 I'll be VERY disappointed!
Let me ask you something, if wrinkled forheaded critters did show up in the verse would you really believe they were aliens?
With body modification today people end up looking like all kinds of things, I don't think it would be hard to believe a group of people all formed themselves into a "new race" I wouldn't even had trouble believing that those people actually believed they were aliens.
So, if I took that into account, and a funny looking person showed up the most logical conclusion would be that it was a funny looking person.
I didn't think of that until just now.
(I'm not saying I want the funny looking person, Reavers are more than enough, I'm just saying that if someone who looked like a person in makeup came up and said, "Hi I'm an alien," my first response wouldn't be, "So you are," and that holds for the 'verse too.)
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Sorry for the long response. You ask an author a question and this is what you get.
Maybe that's why I always have so much to say. Especially since at this point I'm a failed author, I haven't been able to write fiction in so long, perhaps all of the pent up writing is being channeled out here.
I hope for the sake of you all that isn't the case, I was working on novels.
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Bumpy foreheads are already found in today's counter culture statement. Like tatooing and body piercing, how long until it becomes mainstream? 
Come to think of it Reavers "cutting all over their face" could be just an extreme case of this but I don't think so. Maybe its Joss' subtle statement on today's social scene.
Regarding, authorship... actually, I write technical books about computer aided design. My publisher still calls me an author 'cause I earn royalties on my books instead of getting paid up front (a mild form of slave labor). "Writers" are often work-for-hire types--but not always. Kinda like Jayne without the weapons.
As with all writers/authors I've got several fiction ideas and some even partially underway. Whether they ever see the light of day is another story.
BTW, there is no such thing as a "failed author" unless you are under contract with a publisher, don't deliver the goods and they cancel your contract. Kinda like Mal and Niska only not so much. It just sometimes feels like it! But, of course it has never happened to me, I just bumped my head is all...
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I think we are Alien enough to our own world and peoples in our world...Why confound the problem?
If there were Aliens out there I honestly believe they would steer clear of us or if we got in thier way we would stand no chance.Well I say we stand no chance because we would just fight amongst ourselves and the Aleins would sit back in Horror or Laughter and let us do the work for them.
If they wanted to be friends some Lunatic Fringe person would ruin that soooo...
I believe we are it folks...
If you believe in evolution then you already know the chances of life coming to being,so be honest with yourself.
If you believe in Creation then you know the answer aready.
But it is fun to Imagine other life forms diffirent from our own...
Saying that God authored confusion by creating Lucifer is like saying my sniper rifle goes out all by itself and shoots people 2 miles away so I dont get into trouble.
Ridin the Ocean's boring when there aint no waves
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Quote:
Originally posted by mycroftxxx:
BTW, there is no such thing as a "failed author" unless you are under contract with a publisher, don't deliver the goods and they cancel your contract.
I got 92,534 words (isn't word count great?) into the thing that care about more than anything else (in writing I mean) that've ever worked on or thought of. Then I couldn't go any further, I simply didn't know what happened after that.
The usual suggestion is that you go back and read what you have so far, I did that and realized that every single thing after 43,800 words (isn't word count great?) was crap.
That's more than half of it, and I still can't write anything new.
I call that failure.
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