How Aliens are Encountered

[ZapBrannigan]

Your starship is out in deep space. There's a sensor contact. An alien ship is approaching. I like the way 'The Corbomite Maneuver" handles it: the mere fact of running into an extraterrestrial ship is a big deal and commands our full attention in itself. There's a sense of mystery and danger involved. The alien is alien. The heroes are encountering something new, they don't know what to expect, and nobody is jaded about it. "Balance of Terror" and "Arena" are in this category. [WNMHGB has a great sense of running into the unknown, at least. The Barrier may or my not be an alien.]

The opposite approach comes later, an extreme case being "The Enterprise Incident." The alien is just a foreign power we're totally familiar with, or a people so human we might as well already know them, sometimes even to the point of being able to impersonate and infiltrate them. Nobody is mystified or amazed; encountering E.T. is routine. They're just like us and we know it. "The Apple" and "Friday's Child" are prime examples. Alien contact is a day at the office.

I don't like having the heroes always stuck on the weakest ship in the galaxy (Star Trek: Enterprise), but space seems bigger and more exciting when we aren't so ready for it, we aren't jaded about aliens, and we don't know what's out there. Falling into the routine of known (or "just like us") aliens is possibly an unintended consequence of Star Trek as a weekly series premise, and for me it can drag down the realism / excitement a little.

 

[Timo]

A particular TOS/Trek flavor here is that our heroes deadpan even the most exotic encounters: they aren't even pretending to be able to afford amazement, being busy with dealing with the problem at hand instead. This deadpanning could be camp, but it sort of refuses to admit to being that...

Kirk not being amazed by a Second Earth or a Time Traveler or an Alien Lifeform doesn't necessarily mean the audience couldn't be, though. Kirk deals with a number of monsters as simple tactical exercises; we are still allowed to think a Salt Vampire or a Dikironium Cloud is a pretty amazing thing.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[uniderth]

To paraphrase Syndrome, "When everything is amazing, nothing is."

 

[C57D]

I love the "Corbomite Maneuver", and would put it as my personal favourite Trek episode of any series or decade, like evah!
The sense of mystery and tension is high, Kirk is fully in command, but sometimes a little too much of a bas€r$@d and the treat seems real and is treated as such by the crew.
First contact as it should be done!!

 

[Phaser Two]

I wouldn't hold up FC as a bad example. They go out of their way to establish that McCoy was there before, they have a briefing, and they're there to bargain for minerals. They're also beaming down to a planet in a fixed location (right? ) that they know to be inhabited, not blithely encountering a ship in space. And they are *very* surprised by the appearance of Kras, and the entire encounter with his ship makes it pretty clear that space is vast and such encounters are unusual.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I wouldn't hold up FC as a bad example. They go out of their way to establish that McCoy was there before, they have a briefing, and they're there to bargain for minerals. They're also beaming down to a planet in a fixed location (right? ) that they know to be inhabited, not blithely encountering a ship in space. And they are *very* surprised by the appearance of Kras, and the entire encounter with his ship makes it pretty clear that space is vast and such encounters are unusual.

All true. My issue with FC is that the story treats going to an alien world as being like an 18th century sailing ship calling at some island nation. We find people there, they're just like us, and right away we can talk and do business. It's a viable action adventure format, but it's not realism from a space exploration or science fiction standpoint. It's a different kind of episode.

 

[Phaser Two]

All true. My issue with FC is that the story treats going to an alien world as being like an 18th century sailing ship calling at some island nation. We find people there, they're just like us, and right away we can talk and do business. It's a viable action adventure format, but it's not realism from a space exploration or science fiction standpoint. It's a different kind of episode.

You're describing the rule among Star Trek episodes, not the exception. But in any case, the Capellans were decidedly not just like the Federation, and Starfleet was definitely not able to do business with them until proving their mettle, as it were. Actually, the Capellans are far more alien than many, many other Star Trek extraterrestrials. I don't think FC is the episode to prove your point.

 

[Poltargyst]

Your starship is out in deep space. There's a sensor contact. An alien ship is approaching. I like the way 'The Corbomite Maneuver" handles it: the mere fact of running into an extraterrestrial ship is a big deal and commands our full attention in itself. There's a sense of mystery and danger involved. The alien is alien. The heroes are encountering something new, they don't know what to expect, and nobody is jaded about it. "Balance of Terror" and "Arena" are in this category. [WNMHGB has a great sense of running into the unknown, at least. The Barrier may or my not be an alien.]

The opposite approach comes later, an extreme case being "The Enterprise Incident." The alien is just a foreign power we're totally familiar with, or a people so human we might as well already know them, sometimes even to the point of being able to impersonate and infiltrate them. Nobody is mystified or amazed; encountering E.T. is routine. They're just like us and we know it. "The Apple" and "Friday's Child" are prime examples. Alien contact is a day at the office.

I don't like having the heroes always stuck on the weakest ship in the galaxy (Star Trek: Enterprise), but space seems bigger and more exciting when we aren't so ready for it, we aren't jaded about aliens, and we don't know what's out there. Falling into the routine of known (or "just like us") aliens is possibly an unintended consequence of Star Trek as a weekly series premise, and for me it can drag down the realism / excitement a little.

I agree with what you're saying. Much of the fun of Star Trek is the wonder of adventure, the awe of encountering something new. I'm so glad TOS gave me that sense of wonder as a kid.

The other kinds of episodes can be good too. It can be fun to encounter recurring aliens too.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

You're describing the rule among Star Trek episodes, not the exception. But in any case, the Capellans were decidedly not just like the Federation, and Starfleet was definitely not able to do business with them until proving their mettle, as it were. Actually, the Capellans are far more alien than many, many other Star Trek extraterrestrials. I don't think FC is the episode to prove your point.

I don't mean to disparage FC. It's got location shooting, blazing original music, Scotty playing chicken with the Klingons, Julie Newmar, big McCoy scenes, communicator close-ups, Shatner's cool karate... a lot of moving parts. It's a very strong episode on its own terms. There's a lot to like.

And more broadly, I'd be wrong to suggest that the "unknown and mystifying" encounters are always more realistic than the "alien but people" shows. WNMHGB takes some big liberties with the science, for instance.

I'm just expressing a liking for that feeling of mystery or awe that some episodes went for. Like when the Thasian shows up at the end of "Charlie X." The mere fact that this wavering green entity shows up and talks to us is a show-stopping moment for the crew. It adds something to the plot point of Charlie being taken away.

 

[johnnybear]

Corbomite stands out really as the first contact for the crew of the Enterprise of an unknown alien race! It's weird that it was not put at the front after WNMHGB! But I suppose it was one of the many episodes not ready yet!
JB