Startrekisms - part 2
Star Trek is a worldwide phenomenon, much more popular than its original creator, Gene Rodenberry, could ever have have imagined. However, I have a slight problem with it, as I do with most mainstream science fiction: the aliens. Don't get me wrong, I love Star Trek and it is easy for me to suspend my disbelief while watching it. I love following the lives of Captain Picard and the crew as they boldly go around the galaxy finding themselves in sticky situations and generally getting into trouble. However, since people first watched the original Enterprise with its lovable crew the aliens have almost always been humans-with-funny-noses. This is understandable since creating for television in the 1960's with a small budget and tight time constraints, it wasn't possible to have animatronics, or fullbody latex costumes, or computer graphics (CG). Actors were all they had.
Another slight problem is the one-dimensional aspect of the alien species' behaviour. For example, in Star Trek, many alien species are created by taking a single human 'quirk' and driving it to the extreme: The klingons are honourable, the vulcans are logical, the romulans are sneaky and the ferengi are moneygrabbing. By pushing the aliens' personalities to the extreme, it is making them appear slightly alien, while still allowing the viewers to identify with them and kind of understand why they do the things they do. It also makes for some interesting plot devices.
This tendency of science fiction creators to push a single personality trait leads on to a somewhat more unforgivable tendency. That is of thinly disguising a real earth culture or minority as alien in order to create a species or, worse still, spout some social commentry. Star Trek is guilty of that. For example, the klingons are mixture of viking and japanese, the ferengi are jews, the cardassians are nazis, and so on. People argue about the real-world inspiration of these species but the point is that they are created that way to allow lay-people to understand the plots at a cultural level. Some episodes are overtly blatent in their twisting of sterotypes. The original series of Star Trek had an episode called "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", which was a clumsy, but noble attempt to show the absurdity of racial prejudice. The Next Generation was equally blatant with their discussion of homosexuality in the episode "The Outcast". Star Wars is equally guilty of using thinly disguised human cultures and characteristics to create aliens. Someone mention Jar Jar Binks or Watto? *shiver* However, the universe of Star Wars is populated by much more varied creatures, while still usually humanoid, there are also many types of body structures.
One more way of creating aliens for mainstream is the chimera. A chimera is a invented animal made by combining pieces of existing animals. Acient mythology is rife with these, as is fantasy and very, very soft science fiction. Head of a tiger and body of a duck, tail of a monkey with arms of a shrimp. By cutting up and stitching together animals you can create any species imaginable. It is like having an infinite set of jigsaw pieces to stick together to creat a frankenstein's pet. Obviously, humans are always in there and mixed with other animals to creat non-humans. Angels, devils, centaur, minotaur, satyr, and many more are created this way. Completely biologically implausible, but fun nonetheless.
The increasingly widespread phenomena of proclaimed "abductees" who claim to have had contact with extraterrestrial on earth suffers from the same flaw. The "greys" which most people claim to see are merely warped humas with insect-like attributes. If aliens are out there it is almost certain that the will not look like us at all. While it is slightly possible that they may have four limbs and a head with eyes and mouth, the particular arrangement of those features will bear very, very little resemblance to that of humans. That is not to say it couldn't happen, it is just highly unlikely, and they are just as likely to look like any creature on earth.
These days, those responsible for Star Trek have the excuse that they are somewhat confined to the legacy of Rodenberry's original vision, to keep the universe somewhat coherent. That is not true for other TV series and films. The main reasons we see so many humanoid aliens is that the idea is ingrained in our culture, it is still easier, quicker and cheaper to use latex noses on actors and that a human actor is so much better at acting than a polygon model or motor-driven puppet. When all is said and done, as long as people can suspend their disbelief and enjoy the real point of the story - the struggle of hearts and the fight against evil - it is rather unimportant if the aliens are biologically plausible or not.
Ultimately, these methods of creating aliens by warping human features and characteristics and understandable when one considers that they are aimed at the widest possible market possible. Even my mum loves Star Trek and she wouldn't even know what a science fiction novel was! If the science fiction you are making is soft, with the intended audience ranging from housewives to physicists, then creating humanoids will always be good, as long as you can find original aspects to distort, or new animals to merge. There is more than one way of putting non-human humanoids into hard science fiction: genetic engineering, parallel universes (but not humanoid dinosaurs) and androids.
However, if your SF is hard and you need plausible aliens, then steer well clear of humanoids. Human form and behaviour comes from our own unique evolutionary and cultural history. Using human-inspired creatures allows for classical tales to be told once again in a science fiction or fantasy setting. On the other hand, using biologically plausible creatures allows for a whole new range of stories resulting from the interaction of humans with these aliens.
Another slight problem is the one-dimensional aspect of the alien species' behaviour. For example, in Star Trek, many alien species are created by taking a single human 'quirk' and driving it to the extreme: The klingons are honourable, the vulcans are logical, the romulans are sneaky and the ferengi are moneygrabbing. By pushing the aliens' personalities to the extreme, it is making them appear slightly alien, while still allowing the viewers to identify with them and kind of understand why they do the things they do. It also makes for some interesting plot devices.
This tendency of science fiction creators to push a single personality trait leads on to a somewhat more unforgivable tendency. That is of thinly disguising a real earth culture or minority as alien in order to create a species or, worse still, spout some social commentry. Star Trek is guilty of that. For example, the klingons are mixture of viking and japanese, the ferengi are jews, the cardassians are nazis, and so on. People argue about the real-world inspiration of these species but the point is that they are created that way to allow lay-people to understand the plots at a cultural level. Some episodes are overtly blatent in their twisting of sterotypes. The original series of Star Trek had an episode called "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", which was a clumsy, but noble attempt to show the absurdity of racial prejudice. The Next Generation was equally blatant with their discussion of homosexuality in the episode "The Outcast". Star Wars is equally guilty of using thinly disguised human cultures and characteristics to create aliens. Someone mention Jar Jar Binks or Watto? *shiver* However, the universe of Star Wars is populated by much more varied creatures, while still usually humanoid, there are also many types of body structures.
One more way of creating aliens for mainstream is the chimera. A chimera is a invented animal made by combining pieces of existing animals. Acient mythology is rife with these, as is fantasy and very, very soft science fiction. Head of a tiger and body of a duck, tail of a monkey with arms of a shrimp. By cutting up and stitching together animals you can create any species imaginable. It is like having an infinite set of jigsaw pieces to stick together to creat a frankenstein's pet. Obviously, humans are always in there and mixed with other animals to creat non-humans. Angels, devils, centaur, minotaur, satyr, and many more are created this way. Completely biologically implausible, but fun nonetheless.
The increasingly widespread phenomena of proclaimed "abductees" who claim to have had contact with extraterrestrial on earth suffers from the same flaw. The "greys" which most people claim to see are merely warped humas with insect-like attributes. If aliens are out there it is almost certain that the will not look like us at all. While it is slightly possible that they may have four limbs and a head with eyes and mouth, the particular arrangement of those features will bear very, very little resemblance to that of humans. That is not to say it couldn't happen, it is just highly unlikely, and they are just as likely to look like any creature on earth.
These days, those responsible for Star Trek have the excuse that they are somewhat confined to the legacy of Rodenberry's original vision, to keep the universe somewhat coherent. That is not true for other TV series and films. The main reasons we see so many humanoid aliens is that the idea is ingrained in our culture, it is still easier, quicker and cheaper to use latex noses on actors and that a human actor is so much better at acting than a polygon model or motor-driven puppet. When all is said and done, as long as people can suspend their disbelief and enjoy the real point of the story - the struggle of hearts and the fight against evil - it is rather unimportant if the aliens are biologically plausible or not.
Ultimately, these methods of creating aliens by warping human features and characteristics and understandable when one considers that they are aimed at the widest possible market possible. Even my mum loves Star Trek and she wouldn't even know what a science fiction novel was! If the science fiction you are making is soft, with the intended audience ranging from housewives to physicists, then creating humanoids will always be good, as long as you can find original aspects to distort, or new animals to merge. There is more than one way of putting non-human humanoids into hard science fiction: genetic engineering, parallel universes (but not humanoid dinosaurs) and androids.
However, if your SF is hard and you need plausible aliens, then steer well clear of humanoids. Human form and behaviour comes from our own unique evolutionary and cultural history. Using human-inspired creatures allows for classical tales to be told once again in a science fiction or fantasy setting. On the other hand, using biologically plausible creatures allows for a whole new range of stories resulting from the interaction of humans with these aliens.
posted by Daley Paley at 12:27 AM
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