Watch the skies

Do you like science fiction? I do. Ever since I was a little kid. Maybe it was the alienation (no pun intended) I felt then. Maybe it was watching old Flash Gordon shorts with Buster Crabbe and wanting to fly in a space ship that buzzed, not roared, as it spiraled its way up into space. Whatever it was, the fascination remained.

On TNT, there's a series called "Falling Skies" now that is yet another aliens take over the earth and the remnants of humanity engage in a struggle to defeat them and save the Earth plot. It's a common theme. Aliens either are coming to invade or have invaded and we have to fight the great fight to defeat them.

Let's not dwell on the fact that conquest and exploitation of resources is a human concept. Why would aliens travel light years to attack a planet of billions? What resources would they be interested in? If their home planet and those closer to them do not have an abundance of these resources, how would they have the resources to travel this far to get them? In my youth, the aliens came from Mars or Venus... someplace close. And it was usually not clear what they wanted. Mostly just to take over and kill off all the humans, the logic behind the attack was never made clear.

I suspect that sci-fi writers just use the age old themes of history and myth.

The stories are often filled with contradictions. And the aliens are usually defeated either by nature itself (as in War of the Worlds) or by the ingenuity of a few humans outwitting a species that developed economical space travel in huge seemingly impervious space ships (as in Independence Day).

I am always amused by strange creatures with lobster claws for hand who can somehow build intricate machines. And have you noticed that the aliens are rarely clothed unless they are very humanoid in form?

But, to get back to "Falling Skies", the creatures are 6 legged insect looking creatures (also unclothed) who carry no hand weapons (but have those claws). They also have robotic "soldiers" who do have weapons built into their arms. They "walk" on two legs which is quite odd since the aliens have 6 and a six legged robot would be much more stable.

It is just fantasy, isn't it?

But what if...?