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[Dirst]

I have a problem with a grating aspect of the Funny Forehead Syndrome.  This particular nit was while watching Defiance, but it's damned near everywhere even when the movie/series budget isn't a constraint.  I don't mean the funny foreheads themselves... the actors are humans and CGI isn't quite there yet for doing Jar Jar Binks on a weekly series budget.  I mean the alien species that always seem to have the exact same ethic groups as humans.

It makes sense that aliens would have ethnic groups, but it defies probability that the skin-eye-hair clusters would be the same as Earthlings'.  Tuvok downright broke suspension of disbelief.  The Andorians were done well, but that's a lone exception in a long list of lazy efforts.

Specific to Defiance, the Ilrathients are the obvious culprit here.  The Castithans are also a crappy FFS design, but they are all painted the same color regardless of the actor's ethnicity, and the makeup itself is pretty impressive.  They show Castithans getting wet, dirty, bruised, bloodied, etc. while maintaining that every-so-slightly-pink complexion.  The plot-before-any-plausible-science conceit is that Ilrathients and Castithans can both interbreed with humans unaided (haven't seen any evidence that they can interbreed with each other, but the two don't exactly get along).

[LordBaal]

In my book, interbreed unaided between species, and even some times aided demotes any "Sci-Fy" to technological advanced fantasy. Not only is illogical is stupid.

When I said aided it might be some freakish experiment or something, or when is established that both species come from the same one but thousands of years of separation and quick morphologic phenotypes changes have made them look different. IE Dogs have this capacity to breed phenotypical differences really darn quickly. It would be reasonable that dogs separated from a hundred or thousand years in different planets would look really different but could be capable of interbreeding relatively unaided.

In Star Wars EU material the Duros are said to be among the first "contemporary" species to have reached for the stars and colonized planets thousands of years ago, this led to subspecies like the race of the guys from the Trade Federation. The humans also had this happened to them and so on....

Startrek has this as excuse, stargate also have something along those lines.

Lately I can't stand any show that try to pass "true" aliens as simple people with different skin colour and rubber forehead. Convergent evolution is something that can happen yes, but c'mon, the exact same kind of features in the exact same places with only a few addons? This is something Halo have made really good, granted it started as a game so they had an advantage, but still.

Sadly this kind of thing will remain even after CGI tech have advanced, people simply relate better to humans than to a thirty eyed turtle with a starfish for head and the bottom part of a snail.

[Shazbot]

Just repeat to yourself "Its just a show, I should really just relax."

[wierd]

I have that thought too.

There are many body plan types besides bipedal hominid that would lend themselves well to a technologically advanced civilization-- Say, a hexapoid species, with a long. flat body plan. (Four legs, 2 grasping limbs).  They could theoretically run faster than a biped, would have the advantage of being able to lean up for vision, and would have limbs free for technological use.

Hollywood is just afraid of the Uncanny Valley in story telling. The role of "The other" is meant to illustrate something about humanity, and for some strange reason, there is this unnatural fixation in today's media for everything to be an excuse for SexyTime.  No, serving on an alien starship for a time to book passage does NOT mean that you or they are going to find the idea of SexyTime appealing.  Remember, bipedal humans look just as damned ugly as hell as 6 limbed aliens with weasel like gait patterns (and who knows how many eyes, or what all kinds of sensory organs) is going to be to humans.  Hell, they might be so biochemically alien that even ATTEMPTING SexyTime can cause a severe allergic reaction for both participants--- Because that is what the damn reality of that kind of situation would be.  Instead of focusing on how freaking hard it would be to move about in a ship that has low ceilings bcause of the alien's body plan (Basically going on all fours all over the place, because the ship FORCES you to just to get around) or some other practical matter, they make every damned thing into an excuse for having the SexyTime scene between the niave/handsome progtagonist, and the charming/exotic alien love interest.

Gag me with a salad serving spoon. 

[Neonivek]

Tuvok to what I know of... is a Vulcan from a rarely seen side of the planet.

[LordBaal]

Just repeat to yourself "Its just a show, I should really just relax."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Neonivek]

I hate that tendency of people

"Stop feeling your emotions, feel mine instead!"

MAYBE people take their entertainment seriously... because part of the point is to take it seriously.

Just this non-stop "Stop having fun guys!"

[Dirst]

Sadly this kind of thing will remain even after CGI tech have advanced, people simply relate better to humans than to a thirty eyed turtle with a starfish for head and the bottom part of a snail.

People could relate just fine with Yoda and Toothless.  Yes, there will be some constraints on how facial expressions work to keep things accessible, but I'd rather see some artistic experimentation than stick with FFS.

But like I said I understand why FFS is there.  My problem is with matching the heavy makeup to the actor rather than doing something alien-looking for ethnic groups.  I recall that there was some variation among the Narn of Babylon 5 and the Newcomers of Alien Nation, but in both cases dealt with the size and frequency of their spots and might have been simple individual variation.

[wierd]

In Alien Nation's defense, there was also the consequences of the overseer caste's influence on genetic manipulation of the species, where different genetic subgroups existed with different physical and behavioral characteristics for specialized labor types.

Some seemed mildly mentally retarded, but were VERY good social workers, etc.


(But Alien Nation suffered the "Lets have alien-human SexyTime!" problem, as did Babylon 5.-- Hey other humans, ProTip--- There are all kinds of rewarding relationships people can have that do not involve sexual feelings or acts. Contact with alien body fluids that cause poison ivy like allergic reactions, tends to make the idea of sex, even with protection, a very unpleasant thought-- and truly alien physiologies are likely to have that kind of effect on each other. Differences in reproductive strategy might also make this a non-starter-- Like say, having a detachable, spike encrusted penis that blocks off the reproductive tract of the female after copulation, for instance. It works for THEM, but-- really? Still gonna trying hitting that? For real?)

[Dirst]

(But Alien Nation suffered the "Lets have alien-human SexyTime!" problem, as did Babylon 5.)

Alien Nation did allude to people getting injured from "doing it wrong," but the fact that it's possible at all (especially since Newcomers have three genders) is just plain dumb.

I only recall one scene of interspecies SexyTime in Babylon 5, and neither was human.  It was a marsupial Narn and a mammalian Centauri, and in the context of the show those two getting together was downright hilarious.

[LordBaal]

Sadly this kind of thing will remain even after CGI tech have advanced, people simply relate better to humans than to a thirty eyed turtle with a starfish for head and the bottom part of a snail.

People could relate just fine with Yoda and Toothless.  Yes, there will be some constraints on how facial expressions work to keep things accessible,

Both of them had more or less the same plan that we do, two eyes, a nose between, a mouth below...

This would be some at least more believable aliens, where convergent evolution have made them bipeds and with two upper limbs, that's it. Their faces are not human or even human like faces, they are truly alien.

but I'd rather see some artistic experimentation than stick with FFS.

Me too.

[wierd]

(But Alien Nation suffered the "Lets have alien-human SexyTime!" problem, as did Babylon 5.)

Alien Nation did allude to people getting injured from "doing it wrong," but the fact that it's possible at all (especially since Newcomers have three genders) is just plain dumb.

I only recall one scene of interspecies SexyTime in Babylon 5, and neither was human.  It was a marsupial Narn and a mammalian Centauri, and in the context of the show those two getting together was downright hilarious.

Ambassador Dalenn and Sheridan.

[TempAcc]

I like how the thread became less about movies and more about how sex with aliens is not a very sexy idea

[Dirst]

(But Alien Nation suffered the "Lets have alien-human SexyTime!" problem, as did Babylon 5.)

Alien Nation did allude to people getting injured from "doing it wrong," but the fact that it's possible at all (especially since Newcomers have three genders) is just plain dumb.

I only recall one scene of interspecies SexyTime in Babylon 5, and neither was human.  It was a marsupial Narn and a mammalian Centauri, and in the context of the show those two getting together was downright hilarious.

Ambassador Dalenn and Sheridan.

Gaaah!  Very true.  Though she underwent some pretty hefty modification to become compatible with a human.

Trivia: The Minbari were originally written as a genderless species, but the first test screenings were done before all of the Minbari voices were electronically altered.  They cast an actress for Dalenn because they knew the character would be modified later in the story, and for whatever reason the test audience liked the distinctly male and female voices.  This is part of why Minbari look a bit different in the series than the pilot (and with significantly more gender dimorphism).

[wierd]

It just irks me that hollywood writers cant seem to pull off a human interest story without using sex.

It gets double plus ungood when they do that with aliens in sci-fi.