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Alien invasion

Alien invasion: Encyclopedia - Alien invasion

The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which a technologically-superior extraterrestrial society invades Earth with the intent to replace human life, or to enslave it under a colonial system. The invasion scenario has been used as an allegory for a protest against military hegemony and the societal ills of the time. Wells' The War of the Worlds is often viewed as an indictment of European colonialism and its "gunboat diplomacy" —setting a common theme for future alien invasion stories, that force audiences in modern societies (U.S., UK) to em ...

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Alien invasion - Variations

Alien invasion - Notable examples

Alien invasion - External link

Alien invasion, Alien invasion - External link, Alien invasion - Notable examples, Alien invasion - Variations, Invasion literature, Outside Context Problem

Alien invasion: Encyclopedia - Alien invasion

Alien invasion

The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which a technologically-superior extraterrestrial society invades Earth with the intent to replace human life, or to enslave it under a colonial system.

The invasion scenario has been used as an allegory for a protest against military hegemony and the societal ills of the time. Wells' The War of the Worlds is often viewed as an indictment of European colonialism and its "gunboat diplomacy" —setting a common theme for future alien invasion stories, that force audiences in modern societies (U.S., UK) to empathise with the conquered rather than the conqueror.

Prospects of invasion tended to vary with the state of current affairs, and current perceptions of threat. Alien invasion was a common metaphor in science fiction during the Cold War, illustrating the fears of foreign (i.e. Communist) occupation and nuclear devastation of the American people. Examples of these stories include "The Liberation of Earth" by William Tenn, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

It is to be observed that the aliens tend to observe (sometimes using experiments) or invade (Plan 9 from Outer Space, and the Daleks and others in the long-running series Doctor Who) rather than help the population of Earth acquire the capacity to participate in interplanetary affairs (with a few exceptions, such as the original encounter involving Vulcans in Star Trek).

Examples of people from Earth invading other planets, or being invited to join in invasions appear to be fairly rare. In the dystopian universe of Warhammer 40,000 the Imperium of Mankind is a major power in the galaxy and it seeks to destroy all Xenos (aliens) for the expansion of mankind. Another exception is in the animated TV series Futurama, where the main character, Fry, enlists in the military and is sent to invade a planet with a native sentient race that are basically giant, bouncing balls.

Alien invasion - Variations

The most well-known alien invasion scenarios involve the aliens landing on Earth, destroying or abducting people, fighting and defeating Earth's military forces, and then destroying Earth's major cities. Usually the bulk of the story follows the battles between the invaders and Earth's armies, as in The War of the Worlds. However, not all alien invasion stories follow this plot. In some accounts, the alien invaders will covertly subvert human society using disguises, shapechanging, or human allies. In other depictions, the aliens score an overwhelming victory over humanity and the bulk of the story occurs after the aliens have taken over. Sometimes, the aliens do not come from space, but from another dimension. And in some fiction, the invaders may not actually be aliens, but demonic creatures.

Alien infiltration has been a familar variation on the alien invasion theme. In the infiltration scenario, the invaders will typically take human form and can move freely throughout human society, even to the point of taking control of command positions. This type of invasion usually emphasizes paranoid fears and was very common during the Cold War, with the Communist agents suspected everywhere, but has also become common in during any time of social change and unrest. The classic examples of this would be Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the John W. Campbell, Jr. short story, Who Goes There?, which was made into 1951 Howard Hawks film The Thing From Another World, with a more faithful adaption being made by John Carpenter in 1982 as The Thing. Recently, the cancelled CBS TV show Threshold detailed such a scenario. The film The Faculty features a high school where the teachers are taken over by parasitic aliens, with the only only hope being that of a group of students.

Alien occupation can occur in many invasion stories. In short, the alien invaders win and occupy Earth or human civilization, at least until a human resistance overthrows the aliens and/or their puppet governments. Many occupation stories are influenced by the real human invasions by totalitarian governments, such as Nazi Germany, in which the alien invaders support existing human government infrastructures that welcome their new alien overlords or purge opposition governments and rebuild them in their own image and the enforcement of their rule through the use of collaborators and secret police. Examples of life under alien occupation can be seen in the TV series V and John Christopher's book series, The Tripods.

Alien raids are short-term alien invasions. The aliens are incapable of supporting a large-scale invasion due to small numbers and instead use the shock of their arrival to inspire terror. Other stories following this line of reasoning would have the alien invaders conducting reconnaissance and probing raids on the Earth's population and especially their military forces. Also, the invaders will try to choose isolated spots, such as the desert or farmlands of rural America, as a staging area or landing zone. This type of plotline provides a better possibility of small groups, like local police and military, or even ordinary civilians, the ability to repluse the invaders and return to normal life after the event. Because of budget constraints, this variation was fairly common in the 1950s science fiction B-movies, such as It Came from Outer Space, Teenagers From Outer Space, and Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space. A more modern take on this variation would M. Night Shyamalan's 2002 film Signs.

Another conception of the alien invasion theme is a demonic alien invasion, in which the invaders are Biblical or religious-inspired demonic beings, who infiltrate the Earth, attack mankind, take over human society (disguised as humans themselves) and make war upon the saints, fulfilling the events described in the Book of Revelation or another religious prophecy, occasionally invented for the story itself. The Computer game Doom follows this idea. The novel Childhood's End may be viewed as a form of demonic alien invasion, because of the aliens' devilish appearances in the book.

A new type of alien invasion theme is an Extragalactic Alien Invasion where the invaders are from another galaxy. A notable example is the Yuuzhan Vong of the Star Wars: New Jedi Order books, where they are extragalactic invaders who invade the Star Wars Galaxy.

Occasionally, two or more themes can be used as a combination. For example, the aliens may first infiltrate society secretly, then, after gaining human trust, they will suddenly begin destroying Earth's cities, with the humans taken by complete surprise. Another example of this is in 2 episodes of the popular scifi show "Stargate SG-1" an Alien race known as the Aschen befriend humans and share there advanced technology and medicine freely in exchange for stargate addresses. But is soon becomes clear that the Aschen who actually look remarkably like humans plan to a eradicate the human race slowly by making both women and men infertile so the human race dies out over generations.

Invasion literature, Outside Context Problem

Alien invasion - Notable examples

The classic treatment was The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. Other treatments have posited biological invasions (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), or cultural invasion (The Uplift Wars by David Brin).

The 1988 cult film They Live uses its own alien infiltration backstory as a satire on what some perceived as Reagan's America and the 1980s as an era of conspicuous consumption, in which the hidden aliens and human members of the elite oppress poverty-stricken humans and a shrinking middle class.

John Kessel makes use of the metaphor of alien invasion in his short story Invaders, by contrasting the Earth invasion of the Krel with Francisco Pizarro's conquest of Peru, as if to illustrate the horror of the real event.

Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
V (TV series) - Drama about reptile aliens disguised as humans.
Doctor Who
The Day the Earth Stood Still -alien invasion movie (1951), in which the alien being (played by Michael Rennie) and his robot/android demonstrate their superior technology and fire-power by neutralizing all of mankind's electronic machines (i.e. cars, trucks, planes, trains, etc.). The theme of the movie is pacifism/anti-war/one-world government: the alien attacks provoke the mutually-hostile human national governments to set aside their differences and to join forces, in an attempt to combat the overwhelming alien threat.
Half-Life 2 illustrates the effects of a prolonged occupation of Earth by an alien empire known as "The Combine", an alien civilization in its post-Singularity age. After humans accidentally open a portal to another dimension, Earth is invaded by alien soldiers and wildlife. Earth's military forces are defeated in the Seven Hour War, allowing the Combine to take over the planet. Humanity is eugenically culled via reproduction suppression and the brutality of the Combine's human allies. The Combine's motives are unclear, but humans are seen being honed into another weapon fit for the Combine's arsenal.

Alien Siege sees aliens demanding the lives of millions of people in return for vast amounts of knowledge and technology.

ID4, instead of the typical large fleet of UFOs, aliens used large destroyers to cover an entire city and sychronize with each other worldwide by using artificial satellites so they could strike at the same time. Also very importantly, they used one giant heat ray to disintegrate the building it was hovering over, producing a large wall of fire that destroyed anything it touched in a circle pattern.