I have read and watched so much science fiction content in my short sixteen years on this earth. I cannot even emphasize how much, but take my word for it that it is likely my most-read category of books and most-watched category of movies and TV shows.
With science fiction, you can often bet that aliens might make an appearance eventually, or they may be the focal point of the story, and this is where we diverge into my obsession with the portrayal of aliens in certain works of fiction.
Aliens tend to serve as a plot device that supports the attempted theme of the novel, like the Formics from “Ender’s Game” appearing to be hominid insects as a way to provide an excuse for those on Earth as to why they should eradicate them; they’re bugs to be squashed. Or you could maybe take a look at the human-like aliens in Ben Bova’s “New Earth,” where their appearance serves to be unnervingly similar to that of the mission specialists from Earth, looking for a new place to call home.
Other times, aliens serve to portray a new and undeniably unfamiliar threat, like those in the movie “Independence Day,” or the bane of my existence, “The Tomorrow War” (This movie nearly rose my cholesterol to the point where I would’ve sued Amazon. Spoilers will be a part of this parentheses rant, so be warned.
So first of all, no one thinks to tell the people from the past that the alien JUST APPEARED WITH NO WARNING? And then these things shoot knives out of their body: where do these knives form from, are they refuse from the body? They seem to never run out of these knives? Also, if they are aliens, how do they have perfectly intact double helical DNA with the same four bases as us?
When I saw that DNA and then they talked about how they dug out of the earth from that volcanic eruption, I was so excited because I thought it was going to be a whole spiral about how they had always been under the earth because they were actually from the same planet as us and that would explain their genetic info but NO of COURSE they are STILL aliens. It’s a despicable movie.)
Not only do I consume a lot of science fiction, but I also love learning about science, specifically space. I love when sci-fi is somewhat accurate, but the “Moon Base Alpha” series by Stuart Gibbs (to this day) is my absolute favorite example of aliens in contact with humans in any example of sci-fi.
The basis of this children’s trilogy surrounds the life of young Dashiell and his fellow moonies on the first ever moon colony. There’s drama, there’s research, and most scandalously, there’s murder! And though I won’t really be covering the plot or the characters, this is a series I am glad that children now will grow up with and will likely cause so many young people around the world to discover their love of the world of reading. It’s so well written, inclusive, and genuinely entertaining! But I am going to focus on the presence of aliens in these novels, and why I LOVE it compared to so many other depictions of aliens, especially in comparison to the “Tomorrow War.”
Dashiell communicates with the resident alien of the series, Zan Perfonic, through a mental bond that Zan establishes and Dashiell later learns to utilize. While that may lean on the fiction portion of the genre as of now, Zan’s explanation of why she can’t describe herself when asked by Dashiell was so refreshing to me: she says she simply can’t explain herself because she doesn’t look like anything he could ever imagine.
If our world were to interact with aliens, they would be just that: alien. Our version of life is what it is (depending on what you believe) because of exceedingly rare and preferential circumstances surrounding the correct combinations of elements and environmental conditions to bring about life.
The assumption that they will look anything like us or something else on earth is misguided and unrealistic; where their life thrives, maintaining a hominid body or walking in general could be unsuitable. Everything about us is made for the convenience of our planet: we have skin for protecting our organs, we have pigment for protecting us from our distance from the sun, we walk because it’s faster in our planet’s relative level of gravity’s influence, we have eyes because we have an abundance of light at all times, we breath air because it’s the correct compound to fuel life and is protected by the ozone layer while being spouted from plants, and there are even more never-ending examples.
Gravity, atmosphere, elemental basis: there are literally endless influences to what could make aliens different from us. Even further, their genetic information could be absolutely different from ours in every way, depending on what suits their way of life. Our endless genetic diversity on one planet results from infinitely unique sequences of data from four bases. FOUR! Imagine how many others they could have, imagine their nitrogenous bases are found in a different elemental bond: the differences are endless!
Zan Perfonic tries her best, but she can’t qualify her own appendages, her own functions, into that of humans. Her language doesn’t transcend planets, her body doesn’t, her world doesn’t. For the sake of Dashiell’s understanding, she appears in his mind as a normal human woman, and communicates with him in English. Later, you find out that she lives on an ocean planner and that she’s comparable to an unimaginable cephalopod-type species.
I love this explanation because she suits the environment she lives in: she likely doesn’t breathe oxygen (or need it at all), her movement is supplied by appendages made for water, their technology exists in a state preferable for underwater life— it’s unimaginable, it’s unique, it’s hard to grasp: it’s alien.
Gibbs does an excellent job throughout this entire series to establish a story that’s larger than life, but still grounded in reality. He includes pages of the moon base’s guide book for exposition, scientific backing, and key facts that will provide context for big plot events and reveals. He could tell me anything in the entire series, and I’d be knocking at NASA’s door asking for an explanation as to why we don’t already have a colony on the moon.
Not only are these pockets of science perfect for progressing the story, but they are also explained masterfully for children’s understanding and appreciation: these stories could not only introduce kids to reading, but also to the magic of science. I may be a sixteen-year-old ranting about the accuracy of a children’s series, but I’ll be damned if I don’t have standards for the children’s books I rant about.
I highly recommend the “Moon Base Alpha” series by Stuart Gibbs to all ages, and I commend Stuart Gibbs for pioneering this explanation of truly alien aliens. All of his books are exceedingly entertaining, and I always find it endearing to watch an author be so creative and genuine in their pursuit of stimulating the young minds of the future. Read his books and keep it up, Stuart!