Human Aliens: Difference between revisions

[[File:JLAliens_6167.jpg|link=The DCU|frame|"Justice League of Aliens." Yep, [[Superman|the guy with the big red "S" on his chest]], the [[New Gods|white dude with the silver helmet]], and the [[Green Lantern|Guy]] with the buzzcut, too.]]

 

 

When a creature from a planet other than Earth looks like a human, sounds like a human, acts somewhat like a human and gets confused for a human.

** When C-3PO introduces himself, he always adds, "human-cyborg relations". It seems they are human after all. Then again, he's [[Fridge Logic|not a cyborg]].

* ''[[The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra]]'' used this trope with the "Marvans" as part of an affectionate spoof of low-budget sci-fi horror movies from the 50s.

* ''[[Race to Witch Mountain]]''. The aliens look ''exactly'' like humans... but then there's the superpowers.

** When Dwayne Johnson's character [[Invoked Trope|points this out]], they [[Hand Wave|respond]] with "What's an alien ''supposed'' to look like?"

** Some of them ''are'' human, a result of [[The Culture]] grabbing some of them to spread out across the universe.

** The essay [http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm A Few Notes on The Culture] deliberately sidesteps the issue:

Each story is too complicated to relate here. }}

* In [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula K. LeGuin's]] series the Hainish Cycle, this is because all the humanoid races are from planets colonized by the titular Hainish. Including Earth humans. Despite a common ancestry, they don't all look like us. The Cetians are hairier, for example, and the Athsheans are green (fairy green, not Martian green) and diminutive.

** Earlier, the [[Expanded Universe]] lore had come up with a completely different [[Lampshade Hanging]], also involving the Time Lords. The Time Lords evolved first out of all sentient species. Therefore, the [[wikipedia:Morphic field|morphic resonance]] of Time Lord-ness propagated throughout the universe.

** Yet another [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade was hung]] in the Easter 2009 special ''Planet of the Dead''. A similar conversation between Amy and the Doctor was repeated in "The Beast Below", the following year.

'''Doctor''': You look Time Lord. }}

*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKQNZweeAi8 A DVD-exclusive scene] bridging "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Beast Below" lampshades it further: Amy hypothesizes that the Doctor's [[Mobile Suit Human|a tiny little slug in a human suit]]. The Doctor is not amused.

*** A similar situation does appear in the Slitheen two-parter "Aliens of London" / "World War III" where Mickey asks Rose how she doesn't know the doctor isn't just wearing a human suit like the Slitheen.

** This comes up in the classic series as well, most notably in 1973's ''Carnival of Monsters'', where a travelling Lurman showman named Vorg remarks upon the strong resemblance between his species and the human race (known to him as Tellurians):

'''Vorg''': These are the only Tellurians in captivity. Some scientists think that their discovery refutes Valdek's theory that life in the universe is infinitely variable. }}

** Thals and Kaleds look like humans. "The Stolen Earth" reveals that they have fewer ribs than humans and [[Bizarre Alien Biology]], though.

* Mork, from ''[[Mork and Mindy]]''. He was even able to have a kid with Mindy (although he was the one who laid the egg, and the kid was middle-aged Jonathan Winters.)

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' ''really'' abuses this trope, invoking it for more or less anyone who isn't a [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|rubber-forehead-alien]] or a robot-ish thingy. They even stated that aliens can be human, but they never explained how the same species can exist in multiple planets.

* ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' features space pirates who come to Earth at the beginning of the series, so they do fit this trope. With the exception of the [[Ascended Fanboy]] [[Sixth Ranger]] from Earth, that is.

* The Centauri from ''[[Babylon 5]]'' look outwardly exactly like humans, except for their barely noticeable [[Cute Little Fangs]]. They also have distinctive hairstyles - the men wear their hair in fans like peacock tails and the women shave their heads - but this is a cultural difference rather than a physical one.

* The aliens in ''[[The Event]]'' are distinguished from humans only by their longer lifespans and certain undescribed "skeletal and serological abnormalities". The latter are pronounced enough that a blood test will reveal them, and one plants himself with a tube of human blood to avoid arousing suspicions during a blood test. A DNA test will also reveal them, and [[Evil-Detecting Dog|dogs sometimes bark at them]].

* So you're watching ''[[Blake's Seven|Blake's 7]]'' and you find yourself wondering whether the very-human looking primitive tribe on this episode's guest planet are alien humanoids or descendants of a lost human colony? Don't bother thinking about it that hard. The series itself even lampshaded this in the 4th season:

'''Tarrant''': Most well known facts are. }}

* ''[[Animorphs (TV series)|Animorphs]]'' did this most of the time with Ax and Visser Three, for budget reasons. It was a *lot* more common than the books.

* In the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series, two of the four alien species involved in the wizardly cultural exchange program look human. And there's a guest appearance by a [[Doctor Who|Time Lord]]. A few of the [[Mooks]] are [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]]. All the rest of the aliens are definetly not human, with a few of them being [[Starfish Aliens]].

* Some of the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novels have the Doctor come across as mildly not-so-human, to generally [[Uncanny Valley|creepy]] effect. Anji seems to be particularly prone to noticing this. In one scene, when he does strike her as a convincing human, she considers him "a fake" and refers to him as "the alien" and "it" before she remembers he is, after all, [[Platonic Life Partners|her friend]] and a nice guy. In another scene, they'd have ''really'' run up the special effects budget if it were TV, just to make people go "[[Squick|Jesus Christ, ewwww]]" at the protagonist:

* Averted in the ''[[Sector General]]'' series. Sure, they have one species of Human Alien, but they have seventy species total, so that is to be expected eventually. There are also species which look nothing like humans but look a lot like each other, inverting the trope.

* ''[[Animorphs]]'' pointedly averts this trope. The most humanoid alien ever mentioned in the series is a species of amphibious monkey. Also, the Hork-Bajir feature basically the same head/two arms/two legs body shape, but otherwise go even beyond [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]] (in fact, they more closely resemble dinosaurs. The torsos of Andalites look fairly human, and the head has a [[Rubber Forehead Alien]] quality to it, but otherwise they are very different (having a basic body structure like that of a Centaur). Aside from those three, none of the alien races/species portrayed or mentioned in the books look anything even remotely human. Some of them even stray into [[Starfish Alien]] territory.

== [[Radio]] ==

* Parodied in the ''Captain Kremmen'' radio spoof, when Kremmen first encounters the Thargoids.