Tag Archives: aliens
Over the last few weeks, I’ve watched (on Netflix) two seasons of Resident Alien, a SyFy television adaptation of the same-named comic series. A third season finished airing on the SyFy channel earlier this month but isn’t yet available on Netflix.
Both the comic and its adaptation are stories about an alien stranded on Earth, but the adaptation is a severe departure from its source text. Worse from my point of view, the television show is an Idiot Clown comedy, and I’ve never cared for those. In its favor, though, it stars the inimitable Alan Tudyk.
The pity is that the comic story is much better — and much smarter — than the adaptation but has been almost entirely discarded.
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7 Comments | tags: adaptations, aliens, comics, science fiction, science fiction TV | posted in Sci-Fi Saturday, TV
Speaking of women-centric movies and TV shows, recently I watched Hulu’s Prey (2022), the latest entry in the Predator franchise. Not to be confused with the Aliens vs. Predators mini franchise, the crossover with the Aliens franchise.
The evening was a double feature. First, I watched the second entry in the AvP series, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). I can’t say I’m a huge fan of these movies, but I’ve generally enjoyed them. Prey got lots of praise, and I’ve long wanted to see The AvP sequel (although I wasn’t expecting much from it).
As it turned out, AvP: Requiem won the night. Prey has a lot going for it but has too much Mulan and Dances with Wolves for my taste. I found it distracting and detracting.
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6 Comments | tags: aliens, science fiction movies, SF Movies, women | posted in Movies, Opinion
I actively try to avoid “the buzz” — for most definitions of the word (“beer buzz” is a whole other thing than I’m talking about here). I mean the buzz of current memes and all the popular things I’m supposed to think, feel, and be. As I’ve said before, I’m deliberately allergic to trendy — I refuse to swim in the main stream.
That applies especially to the books, TV shows, or movies, that I’m supposed to see. I’m even more resistant to things I’m supposed to either hate or love. (I still have never seen ET — never will.) I generally don’t read or watch reviews until after I’ve read or watched what they review.
Which brings me to Axiom’s End (2020) a debut novel by Lindsay Ellis.
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18 Comments | tags: alien contact, alien races, alien vistors, aliens, first contact, Lindsay Ellis, science fiction, science fiction books, SF, SF Books | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
I’ve written before about Drake’s Equation and the Fermi Paradox. The former suggests the possibility of lots of alien life. The latter asks okay, so where the heck are they? Given that the universe just started, it’s possible we’re simply the first. Maybe the crowd comes later. (Maybe we create the crowd!)
Recently, one of my favorite YouTube channels, PBS Space Time, began a series of videos about this. The first one (see below) talks about the Rare Earth Hypothesis, a topic that has long fascinated me.
The synchronicity in this is that I’d just had a thought about basic probability and how it applies to our being here…
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15 Comments | tags: alien contact, alien races, alien vistors, aliens, ancient alien races, ancient aliens, anthropic principle, Drake Equation, Fermi Paradox, PBS Space Time, Rare Earth Hypothesis | posted in Opinion, Science
You may know about the Drake Equation, which is an attempt to quantify the number of intelligent species that evolve in a galaxy. Depending on how you set the parameters, the answer varies from “lots!” to “almost none.” The first answer leads to Fermi’s Paradox: Okay, if there are lots of aliens… where are they? So far we’ve seen no signs (pardon the reference).
If you read science fiction you may also be familiar with the idea of Ancient Alien Ancestors (AAA) who are now long gone leaving only a legend. Sometimes there are The Ancients (now long absent), the current Elder Races (powerful, not always wise, not always kind), and the Younger Races (which Earthlings invariably belong to).
But what if we are those Ancient Ancestors?
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28 Comments | tags: alien contact, alien races, alien vistors, aliens, ancient alien races, ancient aliens, Drake Equation, Fermi Paradox, Rare Earth Hypothesis, science fiction | posted in Brain Bubble, Sci-Fi Saturday
The other day I was Wiki Walking and ended up reading about the Rare Earth Hypothesis in reference to the Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation. We’ve discovered that most stars in our galaxy appear to have planets of some kind, although ones with human-friendly environments may be quite rare. The presence of a plethora of planets presumably provides a potentially large factor for at least one part of the professor’s pretty problem.
But it’s possible that some of its other factors are extremely small. They may be much smaller than anyone had imagined. They may be so small as to ensure that we are alone in the galaxy.
It’s even possible we are alone — or nearly alone — in the universe!
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6 Comments | tags: alien contact, alien vistors, aliens, Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, Drake Equation, Fermi Paradox, Golgafrincham, Hitchhikers Guide, Prime Directive, Rare Earth Hypothesis, Star Trek | posted in Basics, Science
I was digging through boxes I’ve carted around for four decades looking for a short science fiction story I wrote in high school. I haven’t found it, but I refuse to believe it’s not there somewhere. There’s a lot to go through; I’d forgotten how much writing I did in high school and into college. Most of it is embarrassing juvenile crap (I may share some of it with you just for laughs).
I did find a piece I wrote seven or so years after college. Reading it made me laugh out loud (but I’m easily amused). Perhaps it will tickle your funny bone as well.
[Update July 23, 2016: I did eventually find The Lost Story.]
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6 Comments | tags: alien vistors, aliens, humor | posted in Brain Bubble
I want aliens to come to earth.
It’s going to be a very long time (if ever) that we go traipsing around the galaxy visiting others. If we do, of course we’ll be the aliens (which has made for some good SF stories and a recent cute film). Our tech is a long way from a galactic bus, so that’s one thing. Another thing is that we have no idea where to go. So far SETI hasn’t SEEN; for all we know we’re alone in the local universe.
You may have heard of the Drake Equation, which starts with the huge number of stars and calculates that even if a fraction of a fraction of a fraction (and so on, several times) of them have the conditions necessary, there are still many possible worlds with intelligent life.
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8 Comments | tags: alien contact, aliens, Contact (book), Contact (movie), first contact, Planet 51, The Day the Earth Stood Still | posted in Books, Movies, Philosophy
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