Aaaaand we’re back (FINALLY)  headed for alien territory! Since I was 8 years old, I’ve looked to the stars, hoping the extraterrestrials would come and take me away. But those early spacefolk I was exposed to were pretty benign – we’re talking Close Encounters of the 3^rd Kind, E.T. and Cocoon – and of course our friends from Mork & Mindy and 3rd Rock from the Sun. I always loved the idea of the friendly alien who was here to teach us stuff. But this is not what I’m discussing today.

Today, it’s all about the evil aliens that just want to KILL US ALL! Get rid of the human race. Either use up all our resources and move on, or take our planet for themselves as part of our empire and enslave us/get rid of us/harvest us for food. Independence Day, for example, didn’t even want to have anything to do with us – they didn’t bother trying to enslave humanity or harvest us – they just wanted us GONE and exterminated. In Colony, we still haven’t met the actual aliens yet (after 2 seasons), but we know they’re out there and they’re actively using us against each other, thus creating a dystopia amongst humans…because, as in Animal Farm, “some animals are more equal than others”.

The particularly chilling thing about this is that I always assumed humanity would band together to find AGAINST the aliens, but in Colony, the as yet unseen aliens are using us against each other, leveraging creature comforts, hierarchy, etc. And some humans are eating it up and falling right in line. Well, Americans anyway, which shouldn’t be surprising, since all we seem to pace value on anymore is the almighty dollar. So, Colony’s take, while unnerving and disappointing (in the human race – not the series, at least so far), seems pretty realistic. Though of course, there’s also a resistance. V (from the 80’s) was similar.

Defiance did an altogether different thing which was quite interesting: different alien races from a faraway star system were hovering over the earth, seeking refuge. Humans saw the ships, decided the aliens were all evil and shot at the ships. The ships crashed to earth…but unfortunately, they all had different terraforming materials aboard corresponding to their specific planets, which, after falling to earth, completely transformed our planet into something we didn’t recognize. All the surviving aliens had nowhere else to go, so they had to stay, so the remaining survivors of ALL the races were now here in this transformed Earth that kind of belonged to no one and belonged to all, and humans were actually directly responsible for the transformation by shooting at the alien ships. And now on Earth, all the alien races plus humans had to figure out how to get along…no easy task!

What’s interesting about most of these different tales is that usually, there is one, or a faction of “friendly” aliens who actually don’t want to destroy humanity, and who are often great allies in the resistance, though the ally-ship is often fraught with cultural (speciesist?) misunder-standings & miscommunications. My favorite example of this is in Falling Skies, also with several warring species of aliens – there was one ally, Cochise, who was extremely sympathetic to humans and actively tried to persuade his own people to work with them, even confronting is higher-up father about it. He was my alien hero.

But there’s plenty more where that came from! Which books/media regarding alien apocalypse have I left out that should be here?

Books: Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke,  Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher, The Settlers by Jason Gurley, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

Movies: Independence Day, War of the Worlds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Oblivion,

TV Series: V, Falling Skies, Colony, Defiance