Alien. Foreign. Strange. Though the term generally refers to a lifeform not of Earth, it can also be used to describe anything, including objects, from another world or system.

learn more… | top users | synonyms (1)

5
votes
1answer
32 views

Book about two boys who crash into a cave, and an alien life form protects them but wont let them leave?

Trying to find a book I read in highschool in the early-mid 90's, and it may have been part of the highschool reading list (in australia) .I vaguely remember that one or two boys crash into a cave (or ...
4
votes
1answer
111 views

What are the SciFi children's books from the 80s about a professor who used his smoking pipe to teleport himself, a girl and a boy to other worlds?

I cant remember the name of these books but they are old SciFi children's books from the 80s about a professor who used his smoking pipe to teleport himself, a girl (I think his niece or grand ...
2
votes
1answer
49 views

Which Year's Best Science Fiction contained Cilia of Gold, The Remoras

What year's best science fiction had the story Cilia of Gold, Remoras on the outside of an immense interstellar travelling planetoid, and a dormant alien who arrives on Earth and mistakes smiling ...
4
votes
2answers
173 views

Science fiction novel about benevolent aliens landing on Earth

I read this when I was a child (late 90's to early 00's - your cue to feel old) so my memory of the details is a bit hazy, but the story concerned an alien race making contact with humans. The main ...
10
votes
1answer
134 views

Relative morality among aliens: human individualism vs insect collectivism vs hedonism

I once came across an online science fiction story dealing with the relativity of morality. In it, humans on an interstellar mission come across a kind of insectoid species with crystaline bodies (if ...
-2
votes
1answer
105 views

Only one more intelligence life exists in the universe? [closed]

All UFOs and Space-ships (almost) look same. Does it mean that there are only one more intelligence life exists somewhere in the near universe?
4
votes
0answers
110 views

Looking for a specific horror/science fiction children's anthology from the 90s/early 2000s

I'm looking for a specific short story anthology, I'm pretty sure it was a children's book. Among the stories in it were: 1) a story where a girl was investigating her friend's death in a car crash, ...
3
votes
1answer
168 views

Help me identify this B-movie about plant-like aliens that crash land

About 12 years ago I was in Blockbuster and while looking for something different I ventured into the VHS section. I can't quite remember my selection vividly because that night I rented 4 VHS for £1 ...
6
votes
1answer
197 views

Book series about a man who discovers advanced alien artifacts on the moon

I am trying to recall the title of a book series I read in 1980-1981 where the hero was a human astronaut that discovered an alien aircraft crashed on the surface of the moon. His investigation of ...
4
votes
1answer
97 views

1970s (or older) book about a werewolf on an alien planet, who probably became one through alien technology

I'm trying to remember then name of an old book I read as a kid, hope someone can help locate it? Ok the book I read was part two of a trilogy from around the 70s maybe 80s, it starred a hero who was ...
10
votes
1answer
228 views

The title of a Mars-based movie

Can anyone could help me remember the name of a "journey to mars"-type movie. All I remember is that you see the groups of guys (about 3) chill behind some rocks and they see a group of these short ...
3
votes
3answers
218 views

Extraterrestrial life or something else

In the Wikipedia article for the film Apollo 18, the rock-like spider creatures featured are often referred within the movie as 'aliens', but is that what they really are? Are they aliens or could ...
2
votes
2answers
232 views

A book where 2-dimensional species evolved on rapidly changing environment

I remember a book that described various lifeforms evolving in the galaxy (and i think may be the overriding theme was extinction). One of them was 2-D species evolved on rapidly changing environment ...
2
votes
1answer
141 views

Story about a deadly alien creature on another planet that has some chemical in its body that makes it faster

I can not remember if it was a short story or a novel, but I am leaning towards it being a novel. There is a colony of humans and I can't remember if they crash-landed or not. There is a creature ...
2
votes
2answers
219 views

TV show about a woman only one man can see

Ok so I have memory as a kid sitting down every weekend with my parents to watch a sci fi programme on terrestrial tv but I can't think of what it was called and neither can they. One episode is ...
2
votes
0answers
109 views

Cannot remember the name of this book

I read a book back in the 80's about an alien virus that jumps from person to person on a cruise ship (or may have been a luxury space ship). The book was really well written up until the last two ...
2
votes
1answer
461 views

Sci-Fi Drama TV Series about telepathy between an alien and a boy

I'm trying to remember this show, 80's or early 90's, about a boy who receives telepathic messages from an alien, and his family thinks he's going crazy. All very serious and dark. The only thing I ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views

Why is Pandora's atmosphere so toxic to humans, yet still so conducive to life?

I wasn't able to put my finger on it. Avatar wiki says: Pandora's toxic atmosphere is unbreathable by humans due to the presence of high concentrations of carbon dioxide (>18%) and hydrogen ...
4
votes
1answer
124 views

Trying to identify 1970s kids show with solid blue eyed humanoid called Sky (?)

In the early '70s I saw a kid's show where the title sequence showed a presumably crash-landed humanoid unconscious in a forest, slowly covered with falling leaves. In the first episode he is found by ...
4
votes
3answers
438 views

How can the Xenomorph see?

If you just look at a picture of one there are no eyes readily apparent but they clearly know where they are going. Could their screeching be some form of echo-location?
1
vote
1answer
145 views

A young-adult SF book about a boy being saved by good aliens. The bad aliens caused black liquid to come from the nose

I vaguely, very vaguely remember this book. It was part of a series, with different books about different Sci-fi topics. It involved a boy, his sister, and the good aliens. I remember the bad aliens ...
5
votes
0answers
112 views

Looking for author - IASFM late 1980s - first contact short story

I am looking for the author and title of a short story that appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in the late 1980s: likely 1988 or 1989. The plot is that the main character has a job ...
0
votes
1answer
88 views

Incongruous cover art for Phule's Paradise by Robert Asprin

I am rereading the Phule's Company series by Robert Asprin. I have "Phule's Paradise" in paperback (Feb 1992 printing by Ace) and it has cover art by Robert Grace. The cover art shows a particular ...
6
votes
2answers
377 views

What are the origins of the Xenomorph?

I have see several of the Alien movies and Prometheus but in none of them do they ever mention anything of the alien's home planet. Recently a friend claimed that they came from a far away planet ...
2
votes
1answer
238 views

Why didn't Zoidberg know that Leela wasnt an alien?

In "The Tip of The Zoidberg" both the professor and mom claim that Zoidberg is an excellent doctor for aliens. But if that is true why didn't he know that Leela wasn't an alien before she found her ...
1
vote
1answer
163 views

Short story,from early 70s where the hero is a bandit

I read this story in the 70s; is about an astronaut running from the law, he crash landed in a "deserted" planet and got badly injured, to the point that he cannot move at all. Then this small ...
5
votes
0answers
143 views

Looking for a book about alien contact/testing people

I read a book many years ago, and I'm trying to find it again. The story started out with aliens contacting the earth and leaving several devices that basically did a psychology exam of the people who ...
4
votes
2answers
215 views

Has there been a story of Predators mutated by and into Aliens?

In Prometheus, the ancient was orally violated by the mutated octopus-like love child of Elizabeth Shaw. After its progeny bursted from the ancient's chest it resulted in the original Alien creature ...
7
votes
2answers
268 views

Story where one man chosen to represent all earth interviewed by alien galactic empire

Here's the story and you'd think if I could remember all this detail I'd know the name: A man is selected by some random process to represent all of Earth and he's being interviewed by an alien ...
3
votes
1answer
306 views

80s TV series with aliens that grow in small pods

I have vague remembrances of watching a TV series as a child (UK, late 1980s or early 1990s) that featured men that looked like humans who carried around briefcases that had a bed of soil with a grid ...
5
votes
1answer
134 views

Trying to identify pre-1970s short story involving multiple humans absorbed into an alien blob

I think this story dates from the 1950s, plus or minus a decade - I read it about 30-35 years ago in a (then) fairly old story collection. It involves explorers on a planet falling into a gelatinous ...
3
votes
1answer
170 views

Movie Id: first contact filmed like it was real life

Hard to describe the film in the subject, sorry about that... I remember watching this movie more than 10 years ago. Somehow (I don't remember the details) an asteroid is detected in a collision ...
14
votes
2answers
355 views

Is the Borg Collective limited to bipeds?

How does the Borg deal with non bipedal sentient lifeforms? Are there any in the Borg Collective?
0
votes
0answers
137 views

Prometheus questions [closed]

(I'm sorry if these questions have been answered before, but I can't find the answers if they have. I will grow in my knowledge and ability to use the site as I go.) How did Shaw's offspring, which ...
6
votes
0answers
234 views

Short story about alien military telepathy?

I am trying to find a short story that I read in my youth. I unfortunately can't remember anything of the title. I thought it had been written by Arthur C. Clarke, but a search of his short stories ...
5
votes
1answer
212 views

alien race gives us the ultimate weapon “for good and evil” which works both ways - probably 1950s

In this movie, an alien race gives mankind an "ultimate weapon". It's a small capsule-shaped thing which, when activated, kills everybody within some large radius. One scientist offers to test it on a ...
4
votes
1answer
321 views

Planet with butterfly-like aliens is contacted by humans

I read this in the mid-70's in my high school library. The story starts out on the alien planet, following the female lead through her day-to-day life, explaining the alien society and biology. Human ...
2
votes
1answer
237 views

What is the name of this old sci fi movie

I watched this sci-fi when i was about seven sometime around 1964. It started I think in a diner on an old deserted road in what looked like Arizona. There were teenagers dancing to some music. It was ...
7
votes
1answer
301 views

Telepathic Teenage Boy Alone on Planet Who Hears Alien Voice in His Head

I remember this juvenile Sci-Fi novel I read sometime when I was a teenager; so it probably was written in the 1960s, or possibly in the early 1970s. One of the central characters is an adolescent ...
15
votes
3answers
649 views

A story about fossilized alien remains being discovered on earth

I'm looking for a specific Science Fiction short story or novella. I've searched high and low on the Internet to no avail - maybe you guys can help me out. The story is set on present-day earth and ...
2
votes
0answers
142 views

What story features an alien who lands on a warring earth and maintains he could stop it if he taught humans his language?

I have been told about a story and wondered if anyone could tell me what it is/where it comes from? The plot is: An alien visitor (crash?) lands on earth Alien is taken prisoner by humans Alien ...
6
votes
0answers
267 views

Please help me identify a sci-fi short story

A group of astonauts travel to a mysterious plant where they find an empty city. One of the crew is stung by a "bee" and when they begin travelling back to Earth the swollen sting area hatches and ...
4
votes
0answers
196 views

Identify story about a fantasy world threatened by aliens

Children's / YA book, don't remember too much about it. Main character is a wizard/apprentice? Prophecy of imminent destruction, quest to prevent it. Other fantasy races: trolls, living in ...
4
votes
1answer
136 views

Orphan siblings from another planet search their family's origin

I am trying to find the name and author of a story that I read during my teenage years. The story involved a family of descendents from another planet. The story involve a brother and sister. The ...
3
votes
1answer
174 views

What is the name of the SF novel that takes place on a planet called Ragnarok?

In my youth I read and enjoyed a SF novel that took place largely on a planet called Ragnarok. I'd like to rediscover it, if I could. Some details I remember: Humans are fighting a war with a ...
3
votes
1answer
179 views

Story about teenagers' rites of passage and telepathic aliens (human??) who partially erase memories?

I read this book in the 80s and I'm going crazy trying to remember more of the story. A group of teenagers are sent on their Rites of Passage. Only one member of the group survives the ordeal, but is ...
1
vote
0answers
134 views

Story about a weather-controlling machine in an english village

I'm trying to find the title of a graphic novel I read in the 90's (at least, I think it was a graphic novel... possibly just a book) that took place in a remote village in northern England. The ...
8
votes
4answers
477 views

Why do alien cultures tend to have one language, one religion etc

What are some common logical reasons given within any sci-fi universe for the lack of cultural diversity within a single alien race? Examples of what I mean: Star Trek: Vulcans come from Vulcan and ...
6
votes
0answers
181 views

Story about a hunted man and alien

Around 2005, I was reading a science fiction book in the middle school library and I was wondering if you could help me identify it. The point of view started as first person and after a few chapters ...
7
votes
1answer
191 views

Old story about two men fighting over a water hole and the alien who tries to make peace between them

This story is 40 or 50 years old or more. There is a drought; the men, normally friends, are fighting over the last water hole because there is only enough water for one of their two families. An ...

1 2 3 4