The best aliens are the ones we don’t know who they are. Does anyone remember The X-Files? Remember how this grand conspiracy swept the show, yet the audience didn’t have a clue as to what was going on? We know, but we don’t know. We think we have it figured out, but it changes. Maybe.
Monday Mayhem has always been about zombies and aliens. From the beginning, I outlined the focus right from the first few posts. There is a plan at work here. Have you figure it out yet?
All right, as I’d mentioned, the best aliens are the ones who we haven’t a clue who they are, what they want, and their motives for doing what they do. Let’s talk about The Thing. A story that scares the sweet nothings out of me, the 1982 film introduces us to an alien that changes forms as it kills its prey. To make this real, imagine your best friend suddenly behaving strangely, turning into someone you no longer recognize. Apart from the fact that in real life we do have friends like that, my tongue is firmly planted in cheek as I write this, it would be a devastating thing to live through.
Those aliens who take our form are far worse to fight than those who you see coming.
Another example is the symbiont alien that affects Peter Parker in the 2007 movie Spider-Man 3. Amplifying Peter’s negative attitudes, the alien changes him into someone who is an exact opposite of who he is. Again, this is a far worse enemy than those detestable aliens from Independence Day. Because we can’t see their real form, we have our imaginations to rely on, pondering what happened to our friends in the interim.
It doesn’t end there. The 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of the scariest movies to watch on a cold Friday night. It presents as its stage a small town overrun by alien duplicates of its citizens—another opportunity for aliens to show their ingenious and devilish ways when assimilating a nation. What makes this story unique is its reference to communism, but I won’t get into that.
The last, but best of all examples of aliens attempt at taking over the world in human form is the TV miniseries V. The gist of the story goes like this: alien ships appear in the sky and by all accounts, they come in peace, wanting to share their technology with humans and their advancements. Little does anyone know that beneath their skin lies a monster so incredible that I can’t bear to spoil the story for you. You’ll just have to watch it to find out what I mean. This is must viewing for alien aficionados.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if shape-shifting aliens do exist? The world would make a whole lot more sense given how people change once they receive money and power. I won’t use example here, but I’m sure you can come up with your own.
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What do you think? Are we living in a world already filled with aliens impersonating humans?
Looking to God 
We both seem to like the same scary stuff and I think that’s why the X-Files worked so well. I think when we’re dealing with an entity that can take over our mind and bodies like The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers or even the demon from The Exorcism, it is downright frightful.
Heh. One of my favourite book series when I was in grade school was called Animorphs…where aliens lived in the brains of human hosts, and you never knew who was and wasn’t an alien controlled slave…
When I was young I seriously thought my parents were pod people…ya know from the invasion of the body snatchers?? 🙂
it was either that or that I was adopted!!
I’d go with the pod people theory. Can’t be ’cause you were adopted. Not a chance. 😉
If you can, find a copy of something called “The Canadian Conspiracy”, a mockumentary highlighting the insidious influence and infiltration of aliens (Canadians) into American society. It blamed Canada soooo much better than the boys from South Park.
There is a movie from the blast. The aliens come and reproduce themselves to look like us to repair their ship. They have no feelings one way or another to us. My big question was why duplicate us. If they originally built the ship why do they need our forms to repair it?
the invasion is not coming. There are no aliens out there just forms of life that do not mean anything to us. Why would they come here? Our spas do not appeal to them and our flesh is nasty. Our minds to conquer would be puny. We are not worthy. No the enemy is within. The brain is morphing into accepting atrocities that are unspeakable. In the future Soylent Green will exist but it will be no secret. We will eat the unwanted, the dead and deformed. We will debase ourselves into non human entities following a God of need. We will be Hannibal Lectors on steroids. Fauva beans will be a side dish. Liver and onions will have a new meaning. White meat and dark meat will also be served with yellow meat. We are the enemy. Welcome to the future were zombies will be the norm.
This isn’t really a shape shifter, but there’s the movie ‘The Invasion’. Honestly, I never saw it and it’s based on the Bodysnatchers. I believe it was an alien fungus that took over people when they fell into REM sleep. Seems like a lot of these alien types come back to the Bodysnatchers. The only other shape shifter that I can think of is Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Not sure about aliens hiding among us. My only reason for being unsure is that I tend to believe that aliens avoid Earth. We’re a rather violent race when it comes to facing things that are different. Any being that does space travel and is smart enough to infiltrate might just sit back and wait for us to take ourselves out.
It would be awfully hard for an extra – terrestrial, or group thereof to observe us if they looked like a fungus or, say, the Shadows from Babylon 5. Creatures like the fictional Vorlons can take different shapes for limited lengths of time.
I’m an open – minded skeptic about alien visitations, abductions & such. I’d like to believe that other civilizations might be interested in observing then possibly making contact with us, then another area of my mind goes ” why ? “. ” They’re primitives, Jor – El. Thousands of years behind us ” ( Gratuitous Superman reference ).
I think a fungus would work those. Microscopic spores could help them get everywhere and people don’t really pay much attention to them. We tend to always think of mushrooms, but molds and mildew are in that family as well. Blending into the dominate species can work, but it does run a high risk of detection. An alien can make a mistake that reveals their true identity or even get killed by strange circumstances. Imagine being an alien scout and you’re killed by someone running a red light. Rather embarrassing and the autopsy might cause some issues. So it might be a smarter move to observe us as a creature that tends to go unnoticed.
What about highly intelligent nanites ? They could hitch a ride on any life form from a fly to a horse to a human. Depending upon their memory capacity, they could store several lifetimes’ worth of experience ( even though, granted, the lifespan of a fly wouldn’t be all that long ) from many carbon – based life forms.
That would work and you can have them constantly upload their information to a central unit. That way they don’t have to be retrieved.
Automation ( space probes, cloaked eavesdropping drones or nanotech observers ) would be an ideal way to observe the happenings on our insane little planet without much risk.
I think one of the creepiest things about the current series ‘Falling Skies’ is the concept of ‘harnessed’ children, which the invading aliens can control, and make do their bidding. The idea that aliens could take over our minds and body, and turn us against our fellow man is truly scary, and not that implausible from a biological perspective. There are plenty of things here on planet Earth that can take over the bodies of others, so if life exists elsewhere, there’s a good chance that it could have this ability, too.
The uncertainty factor is major here. ” Know thine enemy ( thy ? ) ” is very hard to keep to when they look pretty much like you.
Very true. It also applies when an army faces a situation where they can’t tell the difference between allies and enemies.
& of course, the revamped, re – envisioned Battlestar Galactica, where the Cylons came in humanoid as well as ” toaster ” form, even though they weren’t invading Earth, as such.
& the Zygons of ” Doctor Who “. They brought them back for the 50th anniversary of the series. In their natural forms, they’re covered with suckers like a squid or octopus sans tentacles, but they can change form to look human.
In the series ” Enterprise “, First Contact or at least observation was supposed to take place during the 1930’s ( ? ), with Vulcans hiding their pointed ears. Whatever happened to their molecular surgery ?
Remember the 1960’s Quinn Martin production ” The Invaders ” with Roy Thinnes ? He was the only human to witness a spaceship landing & to find out about a nefarious plot by aliens from a dying world to take over OUR world. & we wouldn’t realize it, because they could resemble US !
& the ” War of the Worlds ” second season displaced the original would – be alien invaders ( Who took over human host bodies ) with another species who could CLONE human bodies suited perfectly to their needs & move their consciousness into them. The 1st invaders were just foot soldiers & / or spies, apparently, & were executed for their ineptitude.
Zathra, I remember The Invaders. It was one of my favorite shows way back when. I loved how bodies dematerialized into thin air in a wave of color. Thanks for the memory.