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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 495909" data-attributes="member: 3887">Glad you liked B5's aliens HB... I did too, but for exactly the opposite reason. I liked how human they were. Their motivations were all immediately understandable: pride, vengeance, love of kind and country. For the most part, B5's alien major alien races --with the exception of the Vorlons-- eschew the concept of 'alieness' entirely and instead act as stand-ins for real human cultures. The Centauri are the Romans, with a dash of Czarist Russian thrown in. The Narn are the Palestinians, and every other oppressed people who became as bad as their oppressors in their quest for freedom. And the Minbari always struck me as a little Asain-influenced. Honor and tradition bound, known for their warriors and mystics.... Alien-ness is tricky business. Succeed too much and you fail. How could a reader indentify, or find any value in reading about a consciousness so far removed from their own? How could a writer imagine something honestly non-human? Aliens are great foils: usually embodying certain very human traits in uncommon proportions. Or their like B5's: clearly evocative of real people from real cultures...If you want to read a great treatment of The Alien, read Lem's Solaris --I'd say see the new film, but I haven't seen it yet. And I can't honestly recommend the Russian version unless you're had a problem sleeping --for the last decade or so...</blockquote>