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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dhevan" data-source="post: 950809" data-attributes="member: 12362">When it comes to TV and movies, it's rare that aliens deviate from the human standard pattern. Some of it is based on limited budget. It gets really expensive to have CG special effects every time you see a main character. It's also a matter of letting the actor be able to express themselves (with human based emotions of course), which is hard to do when your face is hidden under layers of latex. HR Giger's aliens were never meant to emote, so they were never a problem. On B5, all of the main ambasadors had fairly simple make-up that left their faces free to emote. This is one of the main reasons that Star Trek has the "bump-on-the-nose" aliens.As for books, the authors can go farther afield, not limited by special effects. While I like Larry Niven's Pupeteers, the most "alien" aliens that I have read would be David Brin's aliens. Both Uplift trilogies had truly unique and interseting aliens that were not simply based on one prevailing human trait. They also have unique phisiology, and not limited to the human template (some were, but the more interesting were not).The problem is that by making the alien too "alien", then there's no chance for the audience to identify with it. We can understand if someone gets angry because they are jealous, or threatened. These are normal human (and animal) responses. Unfortunatly, other than by observing animals around us, we don't have any examples of any other form of behaviour. (Which is why many aliens are based on the insect template. They act in a manner that is the most foreign to our own.) David Brin did an amazing job of interpreting Dolphin behaviour in "Startide Rising" (Dolphins influenced by Human genetic engineering) into something that still had identifiable emotions, but not human.Personally, I get really tired of the same old aliens again and again. The worst is when the heroes go to an alien planet, break the law and somehow end up in a western style courtroom. "The defence rests your Gleshbak!" I certainly like it when the creators at least make an attempt at making their aliens differ from human by more than an extra wrinkle on their nose. The Shadows and Vorlons from B5 (more at the begining) were quite good for that. The best from B5 was the first season episode where Sinclairs girlfriend went out and encountered one of the elder races. Basically, it didn't even care that she existed. I've always liked stories where Humans were not necessiarily the most powerful force in the galaxy.There really needs to be more veriety of planet types that would influence an aliens biology and behaviour: High/Low gravity, atmosphere, hot/cold climates, different atmosphere, etc. The thing that always dissapointed me about Star Trek was that every time they landed on a planet or met an alien race, they always breathed the same atmosphere.Looking back at my long winded post, I realized that I just basically agreed with everything that was said already, but just took a long time to do it.Here's my point: Even though I understand the limitations of actor and special effects, I would like to see more Aliens aliens rather than the old human in a costume.-Dhevan</blockquote>

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