Beautiful Aliens?

[MAPNUT]

Science fiction is full of hideous and bizarre aliens, but can anybody think of any beautiful aliens? Other than humanoid, that is. I wonder if there is any artist capable of creating a fictitious creature that would be beautiful by any standard, while bearing no resemblance to a human. Of course there are many creatures on earth, especially birds and fish, that are far more beautiful than humans. But has anybody created an intelligent creature, capable of advanced civilization, yet of extraordinary beauty? There would be certain prerequisites, presumably bifocal eyes and some sort of hands. As far as I know, the most idealized aliens in movies haven't gone far beyond the Roswell type, as in "Close Encounters".

[Hamlet]

Science fiction is full of hideous and bizarre aliens, but can anybody think of any beautiful aliens? Other than humanoid, that is. I wonder if there is any artist capable of creating a fictitious creature that would be beautiful by any standard, while bearing no resemblance to a human. Of course there are many creatures on earth, especially birds and fish, that are far more beautiful than humans. But has anybody created an intelligent creature, capable of advanced civilization, yet of extraordinary beauty? There would be certain prerequisites, presumably bifocal eyes and some sort of hands. As far as I know, the most idealized aliens in movies haven't gone far beyond the Roswell type, as in "Close Encounters".

The movie "The Abyss" had aliens which, if not beautiful, were at least not the usual visage of a "monster". Their natural environment was the deep sea. They were bioluminous and a bit transparent and glided through the water effortlessly.

They also weren't out to conquer us, steal our water, or use us for food.

[jokergirl]

Ah, but if you looked closely, those Abyss things were steered by the bigheaded variety. Yuck! I hated them for this.

I've always thought cats were aliens.

So long, and thanks for all the fish

[JimTKirk]

Hamlet - Life's Abyss and then you dive! :wink:

Jokergirl - Wasn't that a Douglas Adams book?

[RichField]

I think that this is a tough request since beauty is such a subjective matter. Even if you were to allow humanoid type aliens, there would be room for disagreement. A lot of the non-humanoid aliens I've seen have either been intentionally hideous, and often just a combination of many characteristics of animals found on Earth. It also doesn't seem like there are a lot of options since plot or budget considerations often call for hideous and/or humanoid, but maybe I just haven't watched enough sci-fi.

I started thinking that people can often find inanimate objects like cars and buildings beautiful. What inanimate object-like aliens have I seen that would fit? The first thing that came to mind was Disney's "Flight of the Navigator".

Assuming the alien comprised the entire ship, it was asthetically pleasing, definitely advanced and intelligent and certainly non-humanoid.

[dgruss23]

Not only is "beauty" subjective, but beauty has different meanings. A view of a sunset can be beautiful, an animal can be beautiful, and a person can be beautiful. Something beautiful is visually pleasing.

When you're talking about beautiful people, there is most of the time the element of sexual attractiveness involved. So it would be impossible to create a non-humanoid alien species that was beautiful in that sense. Instead, you would have to come up with a species that was beautiful in the same sense as when a person says an animal of some type is beautiful.

So has anybody done that? Or how about a humanoid alien species that is sexually attractive? I think I'm asking for trouble here - Supreme Canuck watch yourself!

[The Supreme Canuck]

Hey! Why do I always get picked on?

Nuts.

[eburacum45]

I can think of two elegant nonhumanoid species, and probably more-
the Puppeteers from Niven's Known Space were dainty three-legged, two headed deer;
and Olaf Stapleton's Sentient Sailing Ships must have been a sight to behold.

[Carv]

What about the cloners in Attack of the Clones? Granted, they were almost as hominid as the green chicks on Captain Kirk's resume...

[man on the moon]

TNG series premiere, Mission to Far Point (at least i think it was that one... :-? ) where the entire station wa an alien that could take on any form. in it's natural form it was reminiscent of a luminescint jellyfish, quite beautiful IMO.

[Colt]

Yeah, that was beautiful, Mothem (heh, man on the moon..).

I think that the Aliens in ALIENS are beautiful in a scary sort of way. -Colt

[dgruss23]

Nuts.

My point exactly!! :wink:

[man on the moon]

oops, it was called "Encounter at Farpoint"

apologies if i confused anyone. ops:

[SpaceTrekkie]

I was watching a Movie on Disney channel...either the first or second Zenon movie (can't remember which) anyway these aleins need to get home and they are like energy that has a form and they were glowing purple and blue and green....absolutly beutiful IMO.

wow i really showed how young i am in this post. If n e body knows what i am talking about please say so.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Nuts.

My point exactly!! :wink:

Double nuts!

[Iain Lambert]

At the risk not only of stating the obvious but breaking the rules of the game too, I know plenty of women (and a few men too) who would say that David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth meets the criteria...

[kucharek]

Don't know what a psychologist would say about this, but the Borg queen in "First Contact" was a hell of a woman... ops:

[Colt]

Don't worry, Kucharek, I agree. She was.. Interesting in an odd way. :P -Colt

[snowcelt]

Both RichField and dgruss23 said that beauty is subjective. I would like to say that beauty is objective. Why? Because, as a whole, we (humans) tend to place people, places, animals, and other things into two catigories: ugly or beautiful. Why is it that a sunset is beautiful to most people? Why is it that garbage is ugly? I think that beauty is objective. If there are other beings out there, we will, undoubtabily find either beauties or beasts.

[captain swoop]

How about the robot in Metropolis?

[kucharek]

How about the robot in Metropolis?

I'd prefer Brigitte Helm

[Reacher]

Pilot from Farscape. And Moya, although she is part machine, as I understand it.

[darkhunter]

[snip]

I think that the Aliens in ALIENS are beautiful in a scary sort of way. -Colt

Thier graceful, purposeful design; form following function into a beautiful, focused, whole...there is no fear, only awe at the wonderful design, and questions about from whence they came....

Bioengineered, intellegent, weapons? Intellgence born of being the apex-predator of a very hostile ecosystem?

[eburacum45]

The Epona Project created some interesting and haunting images of alien flying creatures;
http://home.earthlink.net/~wewritean...OGINTERIOR.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~wewritean...s/NewAvian.jpg
set on an Earth-like world around 82 Eridani;
and also our own Paulans from Orion's Arm;
http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/bilder/nautil3.JPG

[Doodler]

Sil and Eve from Species. Even being as Geiger-ed up as they were, had a lot of feminine sensuality packed into their forms that carried with them a very Gothic beauty. Personally, and not homosexually, I think he really dropped the ball with the male counterpart. He looked clumsy and bulky in comparison to Sil's very sleek and agile curves.

[freddo]

Alien Nation. Featured aliens who, while being devoid of hair on their heads - were otherwise much like us. They could even interbreed. So you ended up with little aliens with hair.

I hated that show - but some of the 'aliens' were quite becoming.

[daver]

[snip]

I think that the Aliens in ALIENS are beautiful in a scary sort of way. -Colt

Thier graceful, purposeful design; form following function into a beautiful, focused, whole...there is no fear, only awe at the wonderful design, and questions about from whence they came....

Bioengineered, intellegent, weapons? Intellgence born of being the apex-predator of a very hostile ecosystem?

Hmm, from the book it was fairly clear that the Alien was a generalized bioweapon. Lifestyle went (1) egg; (2) face hugger; (3) stomach sucker; (4) adult. Adult propagates either through (3) or (1).

I thought it reasonably clear that the stomach sucker that burst from the alien pilot was much larger than the human-sized stomach sucker. So, the phase 2 (face hugger) alien was an analyzer; it would determine the target species' environment and size, and tailor the characteristics of the phase 3 and 4 aliens (obviously an Alien adult the size of the alien pilot couldn't navigate through the Nostromo). Once the aliens had adapted to their targets, there would be no need for the phase 1 or 2 aliens until the target species had been exterminated. At which time it is time to lay eggs to wait for the next host.

However, they cut the scene from the first movie where the captured crew had been infected, and the second movie invalidated this rather elegant life cycle.

[darkhunter]

[snip]

I think that the Aliens in ALIENS are beautiful in a scary sort of way. -Colt

Thier graceful, purposeful design; form following function into a beautiful, focused, whole...there is no fear, only awe at the wonderful design, and questions about from whence they came....

Bioengineered, intellegent, weapons? Intellgence born of being the apex-predator of a very hostile ecosystem?

Hmm, from the book it was fairly clear that the Alien was a generalized bioweapon. Lifestyle went (1) egg; (2) face hugger; (3) stomach sucker; (4) adult. Adult propagates either through (3) or (1).

I thought it reasonably clear that the stomach sucker that burst from the alien pilot was much larger than the human-sized stomach sucker. So, the phase 2 (face hugger) alien was an analyzer; it would determine the target species' environment and size, and tailor the characteristics of the phase 3 and 4 aliens (obviously an Alien adult the size of the alien pilot couldn't navigate through the Nostromo). Once the aliens had adapted to their targets, there would be no need for the phase 1 or 2 aliens until the target species had been exterminated. At which time it is time to lay eggs to wait for the next host.

However, they cut the scene from the first movie where the captured crew had been infected, and the second movie invalidated this rather elegant life cycle.

Unfortunately, never read the book. After watching the second movie when it came out, my friends and I had hours of fun debating thier origin...with no satisfactory resolution.

edit: I had more than one friend at the time :P

[Markus Woitzik]

Hi!

What about ALF? He is not beautiful, but cute... :lol:

[informant]

How about the dancer in Jabba's castle, in Return of the Jedi? (Oola, I think.)
Or the aliens in Cocoon?

Or Trance (Andromeda) and Greedo (Star Wars).