Strangers in Strange Lands

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It’s_About_Time_(TV_series)

Strangers in Strange Lands

By Ray Tabler

Take a black pebble from a pile of black pebbles. Put it in a pile of white pebbles. Or vice versa. The contrast is stark, and demands contemplation. That’s a literary and dramatic device which has been used numerous times in science fiction. Take a human, and plop him in among aliens. Or land an alien on Earth. Strangers in strange lands.

These stories fall into three broad categories; humans among aliens, aliens among humans, and both at the same time. To my surprise, once I started looking into this sub-sub-genre, there are relatively few humans among aliens and mixed/both, and a lot of aliens on Earth. That makes sense for a couple of perspectives. Economically, it’s cheaper to make a movie or TV show set here on Earth. And, we humans are always more comfortable watching a stranger adapt to us, than the other way round. More viewership that way.

So, let’s address the two smaller themes first, then tackle the elephant in the room.

Mixed/Both – The quintessential story of stranger in a strange land is, of course, Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. An expedition to Mars comes to grief, and the only survivor is an infant born on Mars, raised as a foundling by Martians. All well, and good until a subsequent expedition retrieves the now adult Valentine Michael Smith back to Earth. Biologically human, but mentally Martian, Smith struggles with his being both, and neither. As does humanity. This is a complex book, and I cannot do it justice here. I encourage you to give it a read.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, It’s About Time was a 1960s TV show about a pair of modern astronauts who, somehow, travel back in time to the stone age. They are chased by dinosaurs and cavemen. Then, a prehistoric family crowds into the capsule for the return trip to 1967. Hilarity ensues. Okay, there aren’t any legit aliens in volved here. But this is such a small category, I’m going to allow it.

Humans Among Aliens – There are numerous examples of humans out among aliens. That’s a big part of sci fi. But relatively few have the humans marooned there. The only ones I can recall are John Carter on Mars (Barsoom), Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, and Ryk Spoor’s Castaways novels. If I relax the constraints, the movie Soldier (with Kurt Russel), the TV shows Terra Nova, and La Brea, and Buck Rogers also qualify.

As mentioned above, movies and TV shows with aliens are inherently more expensive. Not only do you have to spend money on makeup, to make some of the characters look, well, alien. But otherworldly sets are expensive. And you deal with set designers too. ‘Nuff said. Plus, you can never tell which flavor of strange the viewing public is going to vibe with.

Aliens Among Humans – Throughout history, there’s always been a big market for fools. Court jesters, that is. Common garden variety fools are abundant, but ones that can entertain us are rare. That’s the draw for stories about aliens marooned here on Earth.

We can receive small doses of strange, amid comfortable surroundings. That strangeness might make us laugh, or scare the pants off us, or somewhere in between. But, when the credits roll, things usually go back to normal.

Comedy first. My Favorite Martian, Mork & Mindy, ALF, Resident Alien, 3^rd Rock from the Sun, and the Coneheads all follow the antics of a single alien (or a small group) stuck here on Earth. Sometimes they get back home (for a while), or they get off-planet visitors. But, most of the action addresses the aliens puzzled and perplexed by our wacky human society. It’s a nice, safe way to poke fun at ourselves. The aliens get jobs, try to fit in, fall in love. You can think of these as the Beverly Hillbillies, except they come from the Orion Nebula not the Ozarks. And, just like the Clampetts, the aliens are the sympathetic characters.

Now the Scary Aliens – When truly alien aliens come to town, run like hell. The Thing is the best example of a hostile alien marooned on Earth. This one isn’t interested in cultural exchange. It just wants to absorb human DNA, and make improvements. Other examples include The Blob, Buckaroo Banzai, and The Body Snatchers. This is really a colony of horror, which has set up shop withing science fiction.

Making Us Think – This is the most interesting category of all. Although leaven with some laughs, marooned aliens who just want to get home is a serious business. The situation divides humanity into two camps, those who want to help the castaway, and those who want to profit from it. ET, Starman, Super 8, The Iron Giant, and Witch Mountain tell of one or two aliens running from shadowy (usually government) groups who covet the power they might offer. The fugitives typically are befriended by compassionate humans, who help them escape.

Alien Nation, and District 9 both tackle what would happen if shiploads of aliens wash up on our planet. In these two tales, both groups of aliens are slaves, escaped from alien overlords. That adds a moral twist to how we deal with these outsiders. The authorities in Alien Nation attempt to assimilate the freed alien slaves into out society. The, admittedly much stranger, castaways in District 9 are herded into large internment camps, remaining separate from humanity. Neither approach is free from problems.

Another marooned aliens tale is Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. Something goes wrong with the operation of a ship full of insectoid aliens. I recall they resemble 5- or 6-foot-tall grass hoppers. The aliens land in 1300s Germany, eventually interacting with, and even aiding the locals. I won’t spoil the novel for those who haven’t read it, but it’s optimistic that humans and aliens can get along, even if they’re giant grass hoppers. One minor aspect of Eifelheim which always disturbed me was what went wrong with the alien ship. Their FTL drive still worked, but the pilot had lost track of where/when they were, or which way was home. If you operate a machine that instantaneously zips you from one point in space/time to another, you do have to keep track of that type of thing. Otherwise getting hopelessly lost is a distinct possibility.

And Then There’s Superman – Kal El is a strange visitor from another world. His planet blew up, and he’s more-or-less stuck here. A benefit of the move is that radiation from our sun bestows upon him super powers. Superman tries to walk a fine line, using his powers to help us weak, greedy humans, while hiding in plain sight as mild-manner Clark Kent, utilizing the brilliant disguise of a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. The hokeyness of this set up aside, Superman is a rich vein of moral and societal quandaries to mine. Kal El is undeniably a superior being, physically and ethically. Why does he feel the need to help us? What is it about us that forces him to hide? There is no right, wrong, or comfortable answer to these questions.

Take a white pebble and place it among black ones.

END.