No aliens need apply

POSTED BY: SittingDuck
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 22:43
VIEWED: 6195
PAGE 2 of 3

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 NEXT PAGE

WREN

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 7:36 PM

Didn't Red Dwarf have the Psirens and Kinitawowi?

EDIT - sorry ignore this. That will teach me to read things properly before I respond to a post.

WEERWOLF

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 8:05 PM

Darwin the dolphin was cool... But it's not a space show. It's a seashow. Question was for spaceshows/movies without aliens.

Not even Total Recall counts, does it? no aliens themselves, just this huge hunk of atmosphere reactor build by them.

"Wash, take us out of the world."

KIZZY

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 8:16 PM

Wasn't Maya on Space 1999 an alien?

MSCKAREN

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 9:30 PM

Going Back... "The Prisoner" unless you think aliens were behind the whole thing or you viewed this more as a mystery than SF.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Appears they've canceled the show and we're still here. What does that make us?"
"Big damn junkies, Sir!"
"Ain't we just."

DAVCO92

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 10:02 PM

Space 1999 had LOTS of aliens, pretty much a new one (almost) every week. Yes, Maya was also an alien.

Burn the land, boil the sea...

EMBERS

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 11:22 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SittingDuck:
FIrefly is unconventional in that it's a show set in space that has no aliens. Can anyone else think of other space based SF without aliens?

what about Kubrick's
2001 A Space Odyssey in 1968?
wasn't that all humans/human mind...?

ZOID

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 1:46 AM

SittingDuck, et al:

Mind if I weigh in? I've been avoiding the FTL and single-system v. galaxy threads, 'cause frankly, I'm not sure where I stand, or even if I care enough to take a side. I don't think those technical details matter that much; I'm down with the majority of fems on this one: the characters are all that matters.

Having said that, those issues are pretty important factors when discussing the possibility of encountering alien intelligences in Firefly.

If Firefly takes place in either a single system or a small cluster of stars, then if there are no aliens native to that neighborhood, the chances of running into aliens is almost astronomically small. That's why we haven't had alien encounters here on Earth (with all apologies to drunken fisherman in the Ozarks). Why would an alien race beat the bushes, way out in the sticks where we live? Chances are, we're on our own, unless we figure out how to go visit 'galactic central points' ourselves, where chances of running into sentient non-humans are greater based strictly on the number of stars available.

If on the other hand, Firefly travel is FTL, and the stories are set on several star systems throughout the galaxy, then the probability of getting into the vicinity of a spacefaring race increases proportionally to the number of systems humans inhabit.

The Milky Way galaxy contains an estimated 100 billion stars. The chance that the Earth is the only planet within the galaxy to have given rise to life seems very remote indeed, especially given that self-organized complexity appears to arise spontaneously in nature. There should be a lot of alien life in our galaxy (and who knows how much in the millions of billions of galaxies in the universe, each with roughly a hundred billion stars). Does that life reach intelligence? Has ours, by any measuring stick other than our own? Are those alien intelligences driven by curiousity about alien lifeforms like us, or is that a uniquely human drive, spawned by the circumstances of our evolutionary influences?

As I have indicated elsewhere, I'm tinkering with a sci-fi novel. Without giving anything away, my protagonists may communicate with alien intelligences by means of sub-space transmissions, but cannot travel FTL and so will never encounter any aliens without taking a trip of several thousand years. The same is true of all the aliens my humans communicate with; as a result, and since they are 'old hands' at this particular conundrum, the aliens could care less whether or not humans talk to them, or if they annihilate themselves. They've seen it all before. While they are willing to communicate with other sentient species, they are not avid to do so, they are indifferent.

In short, I believe it's supportable that alien intelligences do exist elsewhere in our galaxy. If Firefly is FTL and many-system, it's conceivable that her crew might encounter some of them. If it's single system and no FTL, it's highly unlikely -- the odds are definitely against it -- unless that system is considerably farther in toward the galactic core than Sol is.

The terraforming of planets and smaller satellites raises questions of ethics and potential genocide; but, I'll save that opinion 'til later...

Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Even back when, River had that indefinable 'it', y'know? Inquisitive, insightful -- Very focused... Some things never change."

- 'Wash' Warren, Chief Architect and co-proprietor, "Cretaceous Park", Hera; from A Child Shall Lead Them: A History of the Second War of Independence Wilkins, Richard

FARWALL

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 5:04 PM

I may have missed something here but Red Dwarf did have quite aliens didn't it? The first things that spring to mind are the huge hairy ugly things that Lister gets roped into marrying. Don't remember them having any connections to earth.

----------
I have no faith but it's all that I want
to be loved and believe
in my soul.

GUNRUNNER

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 5:12 PM

Outland had no Aliens.

Space: Above and Beyond technically had no Aliens since the Chigs (sp?) evolved on Earth. But we find that out in the last new episode shown!!!

The Firefly CCG Web Site:
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/Bllm119/firefly_ccg_web_site.htm

KNIBBLET

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 5:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
In my opinion, the alien thing has been done enough. I like Firefly because it focuses on the human experience and human issues in the 'verse.
Aliens are fine, don't get me wrong....the plot seemed to lose sight of the human condition

All genre of fiction is about the same thing - the human condition and human motivation.

In Star Trek, aliens were simply a convenient way of packaging human problems, prejudices and horrors in a "safe non-threatening" package.

The half black - half white guys in classic Trek were a way of presenting color prejudice in a way that would get past network censors and narrow-minded bigots.

The gender neutral people who reproduced assexually in TNG weren't about gender neutral people - they were about homophobia and how people try to label homosexuality a sickness to be cured.

The Gorn wasn't about a lizard. The Gorn was the danger of hating an enemy so much, you destroy yourself in the process.

I could cite hundreds of references, but Haken needs the bandwidth to support all conversations.

"Just keep walkin, preacher man."

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 NEXT PAGE