SCI-FI SCHOOL by Odis Chenault
ep.3 Aliens pt.1
Hello and welcome to the third installment of Sci-fi School.
If you want to be a productive member of a good Sci-fi relationship, you have to know your aliens.
Aliens is definitely too big a topic to cover in one installment. This time, I’ll just try to identify some of the major types of aliens. Alien’s can be broken into three main categories, humanoid, non-humanoid or entity. Members of these categories can also overlap.
Humanoid aliens have a human body shape. The resemblance can end there. Humanoid aliens can have the right number of limbs, but other things like color, number of eyes, fingers, etc can vary. Humanoid aliens can also posess any number of powers and abilities A humanoid alien can be a human from another world or basically anything else that has taken human form. A recurring theme in Sci-fi is that of non-humanoid aliens taking the form of the indigenous life form to blend in or adapt to the climate. It’s also a recurring theme that some unsuspecting earthling finds out that his parents were aliens or that he is special in some way.
Non-humanoids are basically your monsters. If a non-humanoid either arrived from space or resulted from mutation it is considered Sci-fi. If you find some hideous, undiscovered creature in a dark lagoon in Africa, that’s horror. By the way, supernatural themed stories are rarely Sci-fi. They’re mostly Paranormal, Occult or Fantasy. However, I have seen ghost stories set in space. Non-humanoid aliens can be microscopic.
Entity beings are usually shapeless creatures. These beings can have a lot of power. They can be single beings or community creatures. They can be in the form of gas, crystals or pure energy. They can even be liquid. Entity beings can attack one person at a time or be powerful enough to destroy a planet.
Aliens can be common species thought to have originated on Earth. Whales, Dolphins, mice, etc. I once read a story about ants being aliens that crashed on Earth and have been working hard ever since to rebuild their ship. So as you can see, aliens can be anywhere, anytime and in any form.
Good luck out there.
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