Information AboutAlien Invasion |
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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, or in some cases, to use humans as food. 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 some politically motivated future alien invasion stories. 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. Soviet Union ) occupation and nuclear devastation of the American people. Examples of these stories include " The Liberation Of Earth " by William Tenn and '' The Body Snatchers ''. It is to be noted that in fiction the aliens tend to either observe (sometimes using experiments) or invade ('' combined with Space Travel in the first case, and Faster-than-light travel using Warp Drive Technology in the second. 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 Demon ic creatures. Alien infiltration has been a familiar 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 '', the gradual evolution of humans to `hybrid' aliens in TV's '' Invasion '', '' Threshold '', '' Invader Zim '', Robert A. Heinlein 's '' The Puppet Masters '' 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 adaptation being made by John Carpenter in 1982 as '' The Thing ''. Alien occupation can occur in many invasion stories. In short, the alien invaders win and occupy the Earth or human civilization (sometimes they even try to terraform the earth to make it suit them better), at least until a human resistance overthrows the aliens and/or their Puppet Government s. 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 '', John Christopher 's book series, '' The Tripods '', the comic book miniseries Slash Maraud and the '' Half-Life '' series of computer games. 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 repulse 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-movie s, such as '' It Came From Outer Space '', '' Teenagers From Outer Space '', '' The Blob '', and '' Plan 9 From Outer Space .'' It also appears in the film '' Signs '' as they do not want the world's powers to retaliate using nuclear weapons . The theme of beneficial alien invasion has also been explored in fiction on the rare occasion. With this type of story, the invaders, in a kind of , Arthur C. Clarke 's '' Childhood's End '', the Anime and novel series '' Crest Of The Stars '' and David Brin 's '' Uplift '' series of books. 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. Warhammer 40,000 and The '' Doom '' Computer Game series follows this concept. The novel '' Childhood's End '' may be viewed as a form of demonic alien invasion, because of the Overlords' devilish appearances. 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 two episodes of the popular sci-fi show ''''. In these films, alien races take control of earth's Monsters and use them to attack and destroy Earth's major cities, but are usually ironically defeated by the monsters themselves. An additional angle is provided by the concept of Alien invasion in the past, with a period of the recent or distant past serving as the scene of an alien invasion of one of the aforementioned types. The most ambitious project of this kind seems to be deals extensively with this theme, although the frame of reference is in the future; Borg come to Earth in 2063 , approximately two to three hundred years prior to the relevant events in the Star Trek universe. NOTABLE EXAMPLES The classic treatment was '' The War Of The Worlds '' by H. G. Wells , which was made into movies in 1953 and 2005. 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 Ronald 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 Krel's" (a fictional alien race) invasion of Earth with Francisco Pizarro 's Conquest Of Peru , as if to illustrate the horror of the real event.
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