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The tendency for all [[Alien|aliens]], within a given species, [[You All Look Familiar|to look almost identical]]. This is contrary to human expectations, where the diversity of appearance within even single families of humans is remarkable. With extraterrestrials there is no evidence of this racial or ethnic diversity. Everyone from the same species will look almost exactly alike.
 
The ''technical'' reasons for this stem from the aliens' real-life origin. If they're [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]], then the rubber forehead, if it is of sufficient weirdness, makes every actor who wears it look alike. If the aliens are [[Serkis Folk]], the modelers got lazy and only designed one computer model (this is also why this is common in video games). If the aliens are [[Big Creepy -Crawlies]], well, all bugs look the same anyway.
 
If anyone tries to [[Lampshade Hanging|point this out]], an alien character may retort, "to me, all humans look the same." Alternatively, they may [[Fantastic Racism|accuse you of racism]]. Counterintuitively, this is one way in which [[Human Aliens]] are more realistic than the more "complicated" types.
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* Averted in ''[[Star Wars]]'' where most of the aliens given multiple member screen time are diverse. This includes suits (Twi'leks, Wookies, Iridonians, and Ewoks) and computer generated (such as Gungans and Yoda's people). An exception is the Gungan celebration at the end of Phantom Menace, we see a group of absolutely identical CG Gungans dancing in impossible lockstep. Like everything else about the Gungans, it was intended to be funny, but it totally breaks suspension of disbelief.
* Averted in ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'': The [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Na'vi]] all have noticeable difference in facial features.
* ''[[Cocoon]]'': Played straight with the Antareans, to such an extent that {{spoiler|Kitty can easily impersonate Phil}} in the second movie.
 
== Literature ==
 
* ''[[Out of the Silent Planet]]'' by [[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]]: This trope is touched on, and then averted in this sci-fi novel. A space traveler from earth finds he cannot tell the individuals of each local race apart, but after spending time with them, notices the differences.
* In Harry Turtledove's ''[[Worldwar (Literature)]]/Colonization'' series, which takes place over nearly a century, neither humans or the alien Lizards ever quite get the hang of even telling each other's genders apart.
* In Doris Egan's ''Two-Bit Heroes'', the heroine, Theo, is on a planet where the overwhelming majority of people have dark hair and eyes. She's bewildered when the locals insist that she closely resembles another offworlder -- at one point, someone tells her, "You could be twins" -- despite Theo having auburn hair and the other woman being blonde. Everyone having the same hair color has led to them recognizing one another by cues that have nothing to do with coloration, to the point where they don't even think about color as an identifying feature.
 
== Live Action TV ==
 
* ''[[Babylon Five5]]'' provides many counter-examples.
** The Minbari all have different head crests, starting with caste differentiations and then extending down to individual characters, and each Narn had a unique facial structure and spot pattern. Even Centauri (who were the most human-looking and thus already easily distinguishable to viewers) used their hairstyles to advertise their status. When any other race appeared in quantity, they also were all individuals.
** Even non-speaking background characters from the minor races were often diverse, although sometimes more due to [[Art Evolution]] (the makeup changing over time). Just for a few examples: Drazi sometimes have spiked cheeks, but many don't, and the scale patterns on their head are different - some even have smooth heads. The Abbai's crest comes in different lengths, and their colour ranges from orange to reddish-pink to beige, with different spot or blotch patterns. The Hyach come in different shades of orange from a near-beige to a near-red, and their scale patterns are different each time (some more pronounced, sometimes extending over the bridge of the nose). Markab sometimes have underbites, sometimes overbites. One of the Brakiri is bald, while most of his race have hair.
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*** That's right, the Sensorites were all physically identical, to the point that even they themselves could not tell each other apart except for their clothing, and not one of them had ever noticed this fact in all of the species long history.
** An odd exception: the Sontarans, explicitly described as being a race of clones, ''didn't'' all look alike, firstly because a variety of different actors played them and secondly because the costume and make-up was mildly revised for nearly each story in which they appeared. (The first and second Sontaran stories, ''The Time Warrior'' and ''The Sontaran Experiment'' averted this by having the same actor player play the three Sontarans seen in that story. Even though they did have a continuity mix-up in the latter story.) Despite there still being slight differences between the two Sontarans whose un-masked faces we see on scene in "The Sontaran Stratagem" the [[Ditto Aliens]] phenomena is lampshaded in the typical way "we say the same of humans."
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]''
** Odo on always said he had difficulty imitating humanoids (unlike other Changelings), and when someone said they thought he had perfectly imitated a seagull, he responded "I doubt the seagulls would agree."
** After Sisko ends up [[Emergency Impersonation|taking the role]] [[Tricked-Out Time|of a 21st century historical figure]], Quark fails to notice the resemblance even when it's pointed out to him, saying "All humans look alike."
* A ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode had [[Creator's Pet|Wesley]] mistake a visiting alien officer for a friend of his from the Academy. Said alien explained that members of his race who come from the same "geostructure" look identical. When asked how the aliens told each other apart he replied "We just do."
** This may be a [[Lampshade Hanging]], as the alien was played by the same actor. It's possible it was intended to be the same character, until the actor came on set and explained why that wasn't possible.
* [[Planet of Hats|Klingons]] in ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' are the archetype of the [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]], but are a good counter-example to this trope. Their ridges are family traits and the exact pattern is as unique as a fingerprint.
* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise (TV)|Star Trek Enterprise]]'' managed a slight aversion with the Andorians, who, while mostly being various shades of blue, also feature a race of white-skinned Andorians called the Aenar. In the [[Distant Finale]], we see that blue Andorian Shran married one of these Aenar, and their child is an interestingly unique Teal color.
* The Asgard in ''[[Stargate SG -1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' are all identical, though it is [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the fact that they are all clones. (In the finale Daniel Jackson says they tell them apart from their voices). Other alien races such as the Wraith, are similar to one another, but have enough differences between themselves to be unique.
** That would be a [[Lampshade Hanging]] or a [[Justified Trope]] or something, because the actor who plays Daniel Jackson also does the voice of an Asgard character.<ref>Thor himself, in fact, leading to the "I miss Thor" comment in an episode involving the much more annoying Heimdall going to Michael Shanks.</ref>
* Averted hard in ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' where pretty much all the alien species seen have distinct differences among individuals.
* ''[[Buck Rogers in The 25th Century]]'': Played straight in an episode of where one race has no diversity of appearance beyond male/female.
 
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** Lampshaded in the first game, when a human attempting to get a refund says to the turian clerk, "I know it was you, I remember your face." The turian is somewhat impressed that the human can tell aliens apart at all.
* ''[[Spore]]'', though earlier stages at least have "baby" versions with more exaggerated features. Civ and Space, though? All members of a given species are identical, including the outfits.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|The Legend of Zelda]]'': This fantasy series uses the Ditto Aliens trope a lot. When Gorons and non-lethal Zoras were introduced in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'', each had exactly one model to go around - the only ones who looked any different were the Zora king and princess, and the Gorons' tribe leader. The gorons at least had deviation in size, but it was still the exact same model, just enlarged or shrunken as needed. This is in stark contrast to the Hylians, who ''all'' looked unique.<br /><br />This was improved a bit in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' -- the Zora had two different models for standard citizens. A number of relatively important gorons got unique models as well, but the ordinary ones still all looked alike.
* Originally, ''[[Pokémon]]'' did this with all of its [[Mons]] and most NPCs. In the newer games there are now [http://www.serebii.net/diamondpearl/gender.shtml differences between genders of Pokemon]. Also, since GSC mook trainers have names.
 
== Web Comics ==
 
* Given a [[Lampshade Hanging]] in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'', when a local sapient uses "they all look the same to me" line when referring to the mercenary group, offending the titular character Schlock, who is not even remotely bipedal. Hung with an even larger lampshade in a later strip of the same comic, where the alien members of the mercenary crew are complaining that a group of new recruits are all Terrans, and 'all look the same to them'. Given that at this point in the series history, 'Terrans' includes humans, various sapient varieties of ape (pretty much anything Chimpanzee-sized and larger, up to and including Gorillas), along with sapient '''elephants'''...
* Uryuoms from ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' seem to be [[Ditto Aliens]] as well. They don't even have different genders. However, they are big on fashion and cosmetics, so apart from the basic face, they can still be differentiated.
* In one ''[[Starslip Crisis]]'' strip, when the crew is on Earth, two humans mistake Mr Jinx for their own cirbozoid employees. When Mr Jinx corrects them, one of them haughtily replies that cirbozoids all look the same... followed by a panel showing them standing next to each other, showing them to be nearly identical ([[Only Six Faces|mostly due to the strip's art style]]).
* Averted in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]].'' We've seen crowd scenes of [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090728.html dragons,] [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090314.html bigfeet,] and Fleenians, and they've always been pretty well [[Cast of Snowflakes|individuated]].
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== Western Animation ==
 
* ''[[Exo Squad (Animation)|Exo Squad]]'' plays with this; it is mentioned several times that Terrans can't tell Neosapiens apart, to the point that every Neo has to have a unique "broodmark" tattooed on his/her head in order to distinguish them. However, they all look quite different.
* ''[[Roughnecks Starship Troopers Chronicles (Animation)|Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles]]'': All the characters are [[Serkis Folk]], but the humanoid "Skinny" aliens are all the same model in (occasionally) different clothes. As are the bugs, within a given breed. The "Skinny" Colonel T'phai uses the "all humans look alike" line at one point.
* On ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'', the aliens of Omicron Persei 8 take the "humans all look the same" philosophy to ludicrous extremes by not being able to tell the difference between a woman with one eye and a orangutan wearing [[Wig, Dress, Accent|clothes, a wig, and an eyepatch]].
* Usually avoided in ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'', if only because you rarely see two aliens of the same ''species'' even if the scene is in a crowded space-prison, although you occasionally see an alien like the ones Ben can change into. There is a ''literal'' Ditto Alien, though, in Ben's Ditto form which can split into multiple copies. In ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force (Animation)|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'', however, the DNAliens and the Highbreed all look the same, and Ditto has been replaced with the sonically-empowered Echo-Echo.
** Actually, the Highbreed had differing patterns for the eyes on their face, which are sometimes asymmetric. One episode featured extended contact with a specific Highbreed individual, who returned for the finale.
** In one episode of ''Alien Force'', a dragonlike alien claims that all ''primates'' look alike to him. He was probably referring the the similarity Kevin and Gwen bear to his enemies the Forever Knights, but at the time Ben was in the form of a four-armed blue monkeylike creature.
*** You mean [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Spider Monkey]]
* Averted in ''[[Invader Zim (Animation)|Invader Zim]]''. Irkens vary widly in looks, while still obviously being the same species.
* ''[[Star Wars: theThe Clone Wars]]'' plays this very strangely in-universe. Most Gungans are fairly different looking, yet Anakin and Padmé decide that Jar Jar looks enough like an incapacitated Gungan boss to pose as him for the boss's followers, whom to [[Idiot Ball|further complicate this]] are at this point quite annoyed at Jar Jar and the Republic in general. ''[[Refuge in Audacity|And it works]]''.
 
 
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