Portrayal of Aliens in Science Fiction

Greetings, my fellow Starfleet officers! We've

returned from shore leave! I am your captain

of this intrepid vessel, which I'm really surprised

we haven't crashed yet. I'm Mike at the Birdman's,

and joining me at the helm is my lovely XO. I'm

just so lovely. Yeah, as I was about to say,

I couldn't think of another dramatic word. I'm

sorry. You're very handsome. How's that? It's

so delicious. Steve Megatron Phillips? And yes,

we are back here on Future Imperfect, this week

in Geek .net's Star Trek show, which has had

an erratic schedule over the last year, but 2015,

new rules, new star dates, shows when we can.

We are brought to you by SFI .org, Starfleet,

the world's largest Star Trek online fan club.

You should check them out. I'm pretty sure my

membership due is coming up pretty soon. So as

far as I know, we're still sponsored, but...

Let's really get back to my Starfleet Academy

studies at some point. Should do that. But on

today's show, the replicator is offline. But

we do have the entirety of the Star Trek The

Next Generation Blu -ray series up for review.

I just got the last volume over Christmas. So

I might give you guys a general overview of the

series in terms of what the special features

offer you, whether you should be upgrading. or

not, and the individual releases that have come

along the way. Hope there's more Star Trek on

Blu -ray to come this year from Paramount. I

would love to see Voyager get a re -release with

updated special effects and whatnot, but I don't

know if that's going to happen. We'll have to

wait and see. I'm sure there'll be some kind

of an announcement regarding that. So in this

episode, we're going to be taking a look about

aliens in sci -fi, not just exclusive to the

Star Trek universe, we're talking Doctor Who,

Stargate, movie aliens, like maybe even the Xenomorph,

uh, aliens in popular media, such as, let's say,

the X -Files, um, kind of think of other shows,

maybe even Battlestar Galactica, stuff like that,

and kind of how aliens are kind of viewed in

sci -fi, are they a force to be fought, are they

our friends, are they just... People like an

alien nation, they just happen to come to Earth

sort of thing. Or are they like, you know, Independence

Day, and they're here to wipe us out and take

our resources. So... When we think of Star Trek,

we think of the classic aliens, we think of Vulcans,

we think of Klingons. And if you're a bit of

a mo - If you're a bit hardcore of a Trekker,

you would say stuff like Romulans, the Borg,

uh, the Andorians, re cardassian i'd really have

to stop myself saying cardassian i really have

to try actually i'd i'd almost thought you're

going to say that i don't think it don't say

it don't say it uh... and then you get into more

obscure species like the horta you can even argue

q as an alien species as opposed to omnipotent

gods or you know really want to get nerdy species

eight four seven two stuff like that and Most

people when you say aliens they think of the

ones that I mentioned you think of Klingons you

think of Spock But aliens in sci -fi obviously

have a long and varied history. You look back

at say flash Gordon in the merciless. There's

a big alien The aliens from HG Wells war of the

world the big tripod thingies um And there is

something about aliens in popular media, which

I'll talk a little about later in this episode

to bring a little bit of the conspiracy to us.

Why are so many movies about aliens in the last

20 years? But anyway, so Steve, in the context

of this conversation, not what's your favorite

color, but what's your favorite Star Trek alien?

My favorite Star Trek alien. It's kind of difficult

for me because... Oh, the humans. No, I'm just

joking. That would just be a bad, bad cop out.

I would almost say the Q Continuum is my number

one, but that's because I really like their powers

and what they can do. That being said, if I were

to cancel them out, I'd almost have to go Klingon

Empire just because I love their honor system,

their battle, the way that they carry themselves,

all of their kind of shiny garb that they have.

Just the fact that they're always ready for battle,

but that there are some that are more like us

than like them. For myself, and this one you

probably saw coming a mile away, my favorite

Star Trek alien is the Borg. Without a doubt,

it's been the Borg pretty much since I first

saw Descent Parts 1 and 2 when I was a kid. I

saw that before I saw Best of Both Worlds. And

I think it comes down to creature design. And

then once I got a little bit older, I started

learning about the lore of them. I started kind

of realizing how much more I really liked them,

and then Voyager filled in a lot of those gaps

in just how the Borg worked with episodes like

Raven, and then introducing a character like

Seven if not, which some might argue really demystified

the Borg. and to the point where Janeway could

negotiate with the board, but that's a whole

different conversation for a different day. Anyway,

though, I like the structure of Star Trek's aliens.

They seem to make a little bit more sense than

certain other franchises. Aliens like, say, the

Mon Calamari, for example, from Star Wars. They

see Admiral Ackbar's people, the giant fish people

in Star Wars. There is a comparable species in

Star Trek, but they're not as fantastic, I would

say. And one of the biggest running jokes for

Star Trek aliens is, oh, they have the funny

noses or the fucked up ears. Yeah, I can't count

that. I really can't. I mean... I remember in

Voyager, one of the characters they introduced

to be, he was a former Borg, but at the end of

the day he was just a guy with shit on his nose,

was Echid. And I can't remember what the deal

was with his species, but yeah, he just had a

really weird fucked up nose. And then the Bajorans

had the thing on their nose, but I guess they

had the weird earrings too. But then there were

species that looked near human, like, say the

betazets, though they had really weird rituals

where they'd get married naked and have singing

face -boggling. Or the Romulans and the Vulcans.

You can tell them apart by looking at them, but

you have to know what you're looking for, specifically.

Face ridges! Yeah, face ridges, more or less.

You have to know to look for that. And, you know,

there's always the big running joke with the

Klingons how in the 60s they're just guys with

Fu Manchu mustaches and shoe polish and then

in Star Trek the Motion Picture or Star Trek

2 there are these they're they're badasses they

look really cool um and ridges but evidently

that's something with a genetic experiment they

explain it in Star Trek Enterprise kind of but

whatever um One thing, I'm actually going to

look through the book of Star Trek Aliens, and

where I'm getting this is from the Decipher Star

Trek Role Playing Game, which came out, I think,

2003. I bought this book on eBay for $10, totally

worth it. But if anybody has the main book to

this, please let me know. I'd love to buy it

off you. I'm looking at them, and this book has

a bunch of different species. Some of these I've

never heard of. And it sucks, because when people

think of it, they think of Star Trek. And I'm

just going to read off some of these people,

Steve. Tell me if you've heard of some of these

people. Endorians. Yep. Antikids. Nope. Benzites.

Yes. Betelgeuseans. No. Bolians. Yes. Um, El

Orens? Yes. Um, Kelvins? Yes. Wow. Um, Nausicaans?

Yes. Um, I'm trying to find ones you may not

have heard of. Um, Teloshians? Uh, sounds familiar.

I'm going to say yes. Telerites? Yes. The Deans.

No. Organs. No. Vorta. I recognize it. Uridians.

Yes, I know what that was. It's weird. I'm looking

at all these species, and I've heard of some

of them, but not all of them. Yet, when I look

at other franchises, for example, Doctor Who,

I can name a shit -ton of species and not even

blink. And I know exactly what they are. And

that's something else, too. Like, it seems to

me, like, despite Star Trek being around for

40 or 50 years, it seems like people are forgetting

a lot of the species and a lot of aliens that

have come out of that, which I think is really

unfortunate. And I think that's the disservice

of not having a Star Trek on TV, because the

movies only really gave us Klingons and Romulans

in the Borg. Hard assets to a very very limited

extent And it's and I'm not saying it was a whole

lot of who gives a shit but I can't I It sucks

to say this, but I don't I don't see a lot of

these a lot of these creatures being super super

memorable Outside of like the big Star Trek races

yet. You look at something like Doctor Who you

can name the the Daleks, the Cybermen. Let me

see, I'm trying to think of other species off

the top of my head. And now, of course, I fucking

forget. The Autons, which is like the living

plastics, stuff like that. But I guess the advantage

Doctor Who has over Star Trek is they can have

the fantastic aliens, the ones that are really

out there. True. For example, the living plastic.

Or, whereas in Star Trek, we're more likely to

get a near human as opposed to a psychic gas

creature, which can only exist in the 18th century

or something like that. One other thing that

I've noticed, Star Trek shies away from this,

or at least not so much, is you never hear about

a lot of mechanical -based races. And I take

example with this in the episode - Pretty much

data. yet data and i was actually going to bring

up the episode uh measure of a man where they

determine is data a person and on the back of

star trek's uh role -playing game here the card

system to data in birthright and it kind of made

me think of this you are a culture of one which

is no less valid than a culture of one billion

i just got to thinking about that thinking In

Star Trek, I don't know if there's a comparison

to a race like, say, the Cybermen. I guess you

could compare the Borg to the Cybermen because

they're both cybernetic creatures. But then I

looked at a TV show, let's say Battlestar Galactica,

which just has the one alien race, but it's still

one that's to be measured with, the Cylon. It's

a completely mechanical race that eventually

develops biomechanical people, I guess. I guess

you call them cyborgs because they're... I don't

know, that's weird. They have metal spines and

they they glow and they all look like Tricia

Halfer. Nice. But I don't know, that's one thing

you you you never hear them talk about is artificial

intelligence as species, yet in in other in other

um in other mediums there are other ones like

that like I said there's pylons You couldn't

count the Daleks because they're partially biological

as well. In essence, they're just squids inside

bio suits. I know in Star Wars there's completely

mechanical races. I guess you could even count

droids as their own race because there's people

like the assassin droid IG -88. But even he had

five Clones or brothers, I guess you could call

them from that assassin droid series, but You

can't argue the sentience of r2 or say 3po you

recognize them as people Yes, Star Trek doesn't

At least with data they grant him rights as a

person under Federation law ish Yeah, I don't

know Yeah, it's just one of those things about

Star Trek is, like I said, I always thought it

was the alien thing, because a lot of episodes

deal with, we're going to Telos 4 to go hang

out with these guys, and ambassadors from their

race are coming aboard the Enterprise, and hilarity

ensues. But I don't remember a lot of them, and

I think that's really a failing of it. But again,

I guess the object of Star Trek is not necessarily...

to have the fantastic bad guys that are out there

to kill us. Whereas Doctor Who, almost every

alien species, is hostile. Or, if it isn't, they

find a way to deal with it and it's not like

they coexist on Earth, like it's not like you're

gonna have humans and zygons hanging out at the

same time. I really wish I had my my Doctor Who

book open right in front of me to pull out a

few more species. Another thing that Star Trek

never really deals with is monsters. true alien

monsters and Think of the franchise Alien, I

do not know if there are creatures like the xenomorph

in Star Trek a creature that's literally just

an alien bug you never hear them talk about wildlife

on planets in Star Trek Yeah, they really don't

kind of go that direction. Do they? Yeah, cuz

about the same cuz you'd think with you know

Sure, it's interesting to talk about cultures,

you know, background and where they come from,

but I want to know more about their biosphere,

about their ecology and whatnot, because obviously

these cultures who evolved, they had to come

from a planet, which means they had to come from

a biosphere. So, you know, when the giant probe

in Star Trek IV came to talk to the whales, what

built that to talk to whales? You know what I

mean? And I don't know if they ever followed

up on that plot thread. And like anything else.

But just one of those things. And you think of

Star Trek, or sorry, Star Wars. Gundarks, Wampas,

that giant space slug thing. The Sarlacc. Even

the Salacious Crumb, the lizard monkey. You can

name easily 10 or 15 creatures from Star Wars.

I can't name five from Star Trek and one of them

is a triple and that's a guinea. I can't think

of anything else. I can't either. Yeah. And like

I said, I'm not trying to rag on Star Trek for

that. I'm really not. I'm just thinking for all

the cultural exploration that we talk about,

we do never talk about the conservative of nature.

But then again, when you look at when these series

were made in the 60s, 80s and the 90s to limit

it except the 2000s, it's not like they had a

budget to build a lot of Stan Winston's workshop

or ILM or anything like that. I mean, we saw

a monster in Star Trek 09, the giant thing that

chased Kirk, if you want to count that as something.

And then the thing that ate that one? Yeah, I

mean, okay, so there's two monsters. And the

thing that... Doc Brown fed his Klingon dog thing

in Star Trek III, I guess. So there's that. Thinking

else here of other creatures and aliens. Although

one thing Star Trek does have an advantage over

most other ones is they do fill up the culture

roles very well. Like when the Enterprise is

called to a planet or whatever. you get a really

good sense of how the cultures work. They always

answer that question almost immediately, if not

through exposition dialogue, through the episode

itself. For example, you know, the Quezon are

split into different houses and castes, I think.

How one might rule this section and they want

to claim dominance over this because they have

more technology or how the hunter society of

the Hirogen works. If Star Trek does anything,

it does societies very well. I don't think it

does the aliens themselves very well, if that

makes any sense. No, that's an area I think Star

Wars does better. Yeah, because you know what

a Wookie is. You know what a Transdotion is.

You know what, um... Think of other species that

you would know right off the hop. Um... Rodians

right and it isn't until you delve into the Star

Trek expand or Star Wars rather expanded universe

That you really got a concept of how these cultures

work Star Trek didn't need that If it has any

significant advantage yet, you look at Star Wars

creatures. They're much more Fantastic. You look

at the Moss Isley Cantina scene That has more

aliens on screen The only okay, I thought of

a scene where I can think there was a bunch of

aliens on screen in Star Trek. The Senate scene

at Starfleet Academy or whatever, in Star Trek

IV, when the aliens are attacking San Francisco

or whatever, and they're all in that giant room,

they're like, Kirk, we need your help. And you

see a bunch of different aliens there. That is

their equivalent of the Mos Eisley Cantina scene.

If anybody can argue this, though, Feedback at

thisweekendgeek .net, because I'd love to have

this debate. What was Star Trek's Mos Eisley

scene? Yeah, I don't really know if it had one.

I mean, another one I guess you could argue is

maybe whenever you're on a Borg cube, sometimes

you'll see different species assimilated. I don't

know if that counts. Because I remember there

was a series of toys that came out in the early

2000s and They had different species assimilated

as board like a herogen a Klingon and all these

other species Assimilated and I remember sometimes

if you look on board board cubes when they're

doing that panning shot going through the different

corridors Sometimes you know, they oh look that's

a Klingon or that's a Cardassian when the Star

Trek card game was out once again. I think it

was by Decipher, the same company that makes

some of the role -playing game here. I remember

for the first Contact cards, they had different

species done up as Borg. That's the only time

I can think of, and I guess you can maybe make

a case for any time they go to a market scene,

but they're just random alien number 12 that's

never given a description or a species, at least

in Star Wars when you look at the Mos Eisie scene.

I can name 99 % of those characters in there

and what species they're from. Hell, even the

giant camel -looking thing, Yak Face, at his

palace, has a backstory in all this shit, which

is admittedly pretty fucking stupid, but still.

That's the one thing I have to give Star Wars,

though, props at, is the fact that their lore

seems to cover every aspect, whereas Star Trek

doesn't. Yeah, and that's really unfortunate

because I've always seen Star Trek as the more

I'm not gonna say intelligent sci -fi but a little

bit more grounded in reality and That's kind

of unfortunate because I said I really want to

know the lore of these planets the lore of this

species I mean I'd like to know more sort of

thing and that and I guess that's up to people

that write the novels or the comic books. But

the only species in Star Trek that I can figure

that have been totally fleshed out, the Bajorans,

Cardassians, Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans, who

am I leaving out? Maybe the Jem 'Hadar. And to

a lesser extent, the changelings. Yeah. I mean,

in Voyager, I guess you get a really good sense

of the Hirogen, because there's a number of Hirogen

episodes. You get a number of different Kazon

episodes and a number of different Borg. And

I guess you learn a lot from Neelix about the

Talaxians, but you don't really see more Talaxians

until the seventh season. And even then, Neelix

fucks off. So you don't really get a sense of

his people outside of him. And... Although, like

I said, Star Trek does one thing well. It does

culture. But I think, Steve, I think I just figured

this out. Star Trek does culture well. Star Wars

does lore well. But Star Wars does not do culture.

No. Like, I know they try and describe how Wookiees,

like how their trials work, how they become adults.

The only culture that's really covered is maybe

like even Jedi stuff. like how you get trained

under a master and how there's Always to sith

and all this shit and even in some of the expanded

universe Yeah, they try to explain the culture

a little bit more because I know there was a

series of novels I think it was called the Corellian

crisis or something like that or the black fleet

crisis and it all happens around Corellia like

try and give that species a little bit more to

do but Other than Jedi shit, nothing has ever

really fleshed out. Although, I guess maybe the

military, okay, there's some we can even kind

of talk about. If you look at how the militaries

or the different organizations work, Star Trek

is right down to the article. Hell, we represent

Starfleet to an extent here on the show. People

can live by the articles of the Federation if

they still want to yet in Star Wars Yeah, there's

the 501st, which is the costuming group and how

they follow the Imperial shit, right? But I don't

know whether they could tell me the differences

between how the army of the Imperial Army Of

the Imperial Armed Forces work and say the stormtrooper

divisions And again, there's also a similar gap

in Star Trek, with evidently Starfleet has Marines.

I didn't know this until I played Starfleet Command,

I think, Brit Simulator back in 1995 or something.

That doesn't surprise me, actually. Which, well

I guess I want to bet a guess, lore versus culture,

or lore versus societies even. Doctor Who has

only fleshed out a couple of species really well.

Obviously the Daleks are a big thing. They like

to flesh those creatures out because they're

pretty awesome. The Cybermen, the Weeping Angels

were a creature that got really well -defined

in later seasons and how they function. But creatures

in Doctor Who, they're almost always, they're

just bad guys. I mean even the Time Lord Society

has not even really been fully explained, because

to do so would eliminate the mystery of them,

plus a lot of the old lore that was established

with Doctor Who got washed out in the 2005 series

when the Doctor created the Time War and the

species was lost. Because back in the day in

the 80s and 70s, the Time Lord councils were

always around. Gallifrey was always interfering.

with time. Hell, they banished the Doctor to

Earth. They took away his TARDIS. It was like,

hey man, you're fucking people up, stop it. And

stuff like that. And they even had, you know,

bad guys there. They had like President Rassilon

who came back in like the fourth series with

David Tennant or whatever. And now the Master's

back in Doctor Who as a woman and... I'm sorry

if you haven't seen that far, but you've had

weeks, so whatever. I don't know, I'm trying

to think of other movie series where I really

feel the culture or the monsters are really,

really, really well explained. Steve, what do

you got for that? What do you think? I don't

know, I'm - Or maybe I'll mention these shows.

See, I'm kind of having a hard time because a

lot of the shows I watch are either Star Trek

or Star Wars kind of related and - Maybe Stargate.

Stargate dealt with it pretty well. I didn't

watch that per se, but I think that and Star

Trek are very militaristic compared to Star Wars.

And whenever they do flesh out a species, they

give you just enough. I know in Stargate, it's

not a show I've got a whole lot of experience

with, but from what I've observed, and I've read

part of the role -playing game main book, the

species that was based around the Egyptian people

are really well fleshed out. Stuff like that.

So I guess they fleshed out the species they

need to for that series. When I look at another

series like say the X -Files to bring up another

alien species, that series dealt with aliens

a lot. It dealt with more of them as a creature

with an agenda but not a society. And what I

mean by that is They start out as the black oil

but they evolve into the grays but only after

there's like a gestation period they turn into

monsters for like a week and then they turn into

the little green people and then there's a species

of alien rebels who make who are like shapeshifters

but they put stuff over their eyes and mouth

and ears so the black oil can't get inside them.

Stuff like that. So they have an agenda. They

want to take over the world Yeah, bees that carry

a virus and makes you into the black hole. It's

weird. Um Cool, but weird. Um So that's another

popular species the Cylons I'm trying to think

would you really even classify them as aliens

because they were creatures that we created as

robots and they revolted You classify them as

aliens Would probably say yes, I mean cuz you

can you can argue data is an alien. I mean he

was created by man Yeah, and he is a as Picard

said you're a culture of one. I Guess the Cylons

have the different there's the Warriors There's

whatever the different models are and how they

have a religion which is literally based around

God Stuff like that Um, I haven't seen a lot

of far scape Or Or Andromeda to speak to how

they portray aliens But I would imagine they

flesh out their creatures Just enough With a

lot of wiggle room if you need it, although I'm

pretty sure far scape did a lot better job with

it Than Andromeda and that may just come down

to writing Andromeda tried of other shows or

other series or even movies that really flesh

out aliens well, in terms of enough for you to

get a feel for them. You know what? I kind of

wonder if I've got nothing on that. I kind of

think I got nothing too, only because I'm drawing

a blank. We're recording this at one o 'clock

in the morning, folks, just so we're crystal

clear. Now to go down a really weird street here

Actually, no way. I thought of a series. It's

unexpected. But Steve you'll see it as soon as

I mentioned it Transformers, yeah, they're really

end to see well fleshed out more And they are

for all intents and purposes aliens that is true

Another cartoon, I think cartoon shows may actually

be a really good point to start looking at this.

Another show that really flushes out aliens well

is Robotech, which is an anime cartoon show that

aired in the 80s when they flushed out the Zentradi

and then when they flushed out the Robotech Masters

and then later the Invid. But then again, I guess...

once again it depends on the strength of the

series on how well they want to flesh it out

um hell i can't believe i'm gonna make this comparison

because it's so odd dragon ball z i love that

show i just i can't believe i didn't even think

about that because i've been watching the movies

lately since i watched the uh Battle of gods

or whatever. Yeah battle of gods or whatever

I just watched that and I've gone back and I've

started watching a lot of the old ones also I'm

playing Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi On the

360 so I've been Enjoying that. Yeah, I mean

you look at how well they flush out Saiyans or

how well even Piccolo's Society of Namex is really

well flushed in. Well, then you get Frieza and

all his You know, I mean pretty much everybody

has a backstory. Yeah, and they don't they They

don't necessarily tell you the huge lore behind

the species but for Namix they did for Saiyans

they did um Even the androids, but I guess they're

more robust than there or anything another series

I've only seen part of the first season, so I

can't really speak to but I'm pretty sure this

is accurate um Babylon 5 All those aliens like

man The Mimbari, stuff like that. Whatever species

Kosh is a part of. And stuff like, you know,

Babylon 5, but then again, that was meant to

be a lore heavy show. And, you know, the voralons

and the shadows and all that shit. You know,

once again, well thought out. Different than

Star Wars and Star Trek, but equally as fantastic.

Though... I imagine at some point, Steve, we're

going to have to do a Babylon 5 show on a Star

Trek show, if that makes any kind of sense. I'll

actually have to watch that. I've never seen

it. I've seen, like I said, part of the first

season, and I've seen some of the movies, and

I really enjoyed it. It's really cool. Mr. Garibaldi

is the fucking shit, and the Psi Corps operatives.

So check that shit out, guys. Highly recommend

it if you haven't seen it yet. J. Michael's...

Strahinsky, the same guy that wrote Captain Power,

The Soldiers of the Future, and did a really

awesome run on Spider -Man. Now, this is gonna

be a little bit out there from left field. They're

with me, folks. So, I like conspiracies. And

aliens, obviously, people talk about them. And

I'm pretty sure we've talked about this on the

show before. But there's this theory, or there's

a math equation or whatever, that looks at the

amount of hospitable life alien civilization

that could be out there in the Milky Way galaxy.

And even Stephen Hawking, as early as last year,

has said, guys, if there's an alien civilization

out there, we maybe shouldn't be in such a hurry

to say hi. And you may be wondering why is that?

Well, I invite you to look at history. I'm Native

Canadian, Aboriginal, Chippewa of Nahuatl Indian.

Let's just say it didn't work out too well for

my people when people came to the New World back

in the day. Because you were technologically

superior. So imagine what would happen if ET

showed up with an Armada. And they start coming

down to Earth saying, okay, who's in charge?

Yeah, that would be major ass. Yeah, I guarantee

it. We ain't gonna fucking last long. Sure, we

can split the atom. That's awesome. These motherfuckers

just flew across galactic distances. I'm pretty

sure our nukes are gonna be a minor annoyance

at best. But one popular theory that I've heard

if you hang around in some of the conspiracy

circles... is if you look at the amount of aliens

that have been portrayed in popular media, either

as helpful or doing good things for humanity

or, you know, paying them in a fairly positive

light, you have to wonder if society is secretly

being prepared for the possibility of aliens.

And even this has been brought up as early, once

again, as last year. People were wondering if

the Vatican preparing the world for because I

think there was a quote from last year actually

from the Pope that if aliens do exist they are

welcome under God as well they're God's children

just not the ones that we might recognize so

Steve if do you think the world could handle

we are not alone I don't think so I think people

would lose their shit I think that We would try

and put these stipulations on these aliens and

they'd be like to hell with you And I really

think humanity needs to kind of warm up to that

possibility that We may not be alone in the universe

because I really I mean, I don't mean to sound

like an elitist asshole, but It's kind of ignorant

to think that we're the only life out there in

a universe that is billions upon billions of

years old and upon billions upon billions of

light years wide and deep. But someone at once

said this to me, and I kind of wonder if it makes

sense, maybe we just missed it. If there is alien

life out there, what if it just evolved before

us and they're gone? Like literally the phone's

ringing, but nobody's home So to speak and That's

a possibility too. Is that out there in the great

cosmic distances of space? Maybe alien civilizations

have come and gone and like us they can't necessarily

Leave their solar systems because maybe faster

than light travel isn't possible but then again,

we look at stuff like wormholes and we're talking

about using black holes and solar cell all sorts

of technology that we've talked about before

on this show um travel these vast cosmic distances

and I don't know I mean I really hope humanity

at some point can be ready to answer that question

are are we alone but I think you're right Steve

people are gonna flip their shit we're a destructive

species by nature yeah we're aggressive we attack

what we don't understand which that's pretty

much damn near all the time Yeah, exactly. It

hasn't worked out too well for people, like I

said, like myself, but not. And we look at how

we treat each other. And I don't know, there

was this great, there was a great joke by George

Carlin. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was George Carlin.

He was talking about, you know, if aliens are

watching what TV signals are going out there

in the space and how we can beat each other up

and have all these horrible things happen to

each other. Maybe they're not such a rush to

say hi after all. And I remember Men in Black

made a joke about this too. Human thought is

thought of as an infectious disease on some planets.

You have to wonder, hell, even Men in Black,

there's another alien thing. But they're just

funny creatures. They don't flesh out any kind

of alien. Um, but... I think we've taken this

as far as we really can. And it's more or less

just talking about aliens in sci -fi. And I'd

like to hear your guys' thoughts. Are there creatures

or books or series that we've missed that really

give aliens or alien life more life than what

they're given on necessarily the big or small

screen? Are there sci -fi series we're missing?

Like, who knows? Maybe Greg Dwarf has some incredible

insights into their creatures. I don't know.

I haven't seen a lot of it. I couldn't really

tell you. So once again, if you want to interact

with the show, we do have a voicemail on it,

which is 817 -717 -7202. Feedback at thisweekengeek

.net. Subject line, future imperfect. Our Twitter

is Steve, what is yours? Mine is at scp21. The

show's is at thisweekengeek. on Twitter. My personal

one is at Birdman Died. We also have a Facebook,

which is This Week in Geek. You'll find us on

there. And we welcome any interaction to the

show. In fact, if you guys have any topics for

us to discuss that you think maybe you're an

expert on, maybe you are an expert on Benjamin

Sisko, maybe you're an expert on Galactic Warfare,

explain to me, why did DS9 go down the way that

it did? Should the Dominion have won? Stuff like

that. We'd love to have you on the show. So please

reach out to us Speaking of our next show probably

gonna come back in very early February and We're

we're gonna continue our series of the captains

and we're gonna once again delay Benjamin Sisko,

but don't worry We're gonna make it so we're

gonna talk about everyone's favorites favorite

captain Captain Jean -Luc Picard captain of the

enterprise from Star Trek The next generation,

the latest movies that were actually any good

will have that debate too. That's all what we

got coming up on Future Imperfect. So Steve,

any closing thoughts on Aliens? No, I think that's

it. All right then, so for Future Imperfect,

we have been Steve Megatron Phillips. I've been

Mike the Burn Man Dodd saying, live long.