Timeline for What popularized the idea of aliens having a pair of antennae on their heads?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 29, 2023 at 12:06 | comment | added | PLL | The examples in this answer are not early at all — the ones in user14111’s answer and its comments clearly show the trope was very well-established already by the early 1950’s. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 20:12 | comment | added | Barmar | @M.A.Golding My Favorite Martian was several years before Star Trek according to the answer. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 18:30 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | “My Favourite Martian”: an early role for a fresh-faced Miguel Ferrer! | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 16:20 | comment | added | lucasbachmann | @Turbo I suspect Martians has to do with science fiction needing to be a little science - and what an audience can handle. When rockets are fiction still the audience can accept travel between planets in our solar system. Across the whole galaxy is too much. Note even in the original SUPERMAN radio show Krypton was in our solar system. I think just on the opposite side of the sun. Also UFOs tend to match the observer of the time. I don't think an abductee in 2023 will be impressed by needle guages and switches and blinking lights when she has a touchscreen at home. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 15:11 | comment | added | DJClayworth | I'm going to guess that they were made popular by movies and TV. Aliens had to be played by humans, and to make them different you either have to remove from them things that humans had, or add things that humans haven't. Removing bits of humans is frowned upon, and adding new limbs or heads is really hard to look convincing. Antennae are easy to create. Other shows went down the road of extending ears or adding forehead ridges. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 10:59 | comment | added | tgdavies | The January 1960 "Worlds of If" had stereotypical LGM with biological antennas on the cover amazon.com/Worlds-Science-Fiction-January-1960/dp/1415660018 | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 6:41 | comment | added | M. A. Golding | I think that the first aliens with clearly biological antenna might have been Andorians in Star trek, first seen in "Journey to Babel" in1967. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 6:39 | comment | added | M. A. Golding | @Spencer. I just looked at a lot of images from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) and the Martians all wear helmets. So the antenna are probably machines attached to the helmets. I think it would be very hard to put on a helmet on if you had antenna in your head. Getting the antenna to fit through the antenna holes would be difficult. | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 6:26 | comment | added | M. A. Golding | I didn't find any pictures of the Great Gazoo from the Flintstones without his helmet. So to me it seems far more likely that the antenna are part of his helmet instead of being part of his body sticking through the helmet. | |
| Jan 27, 2023 at 21:14 | comment | added | Valorum | The trope was around in at least 1951, if not earlier - abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31175568956 | |
| Jan 27, 2023 at 20:59 | comment | added | Spencer | Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) has antennaed aliens. | |
| Jan 27, 2023 at 20:22 | comment | added | Zeiss Ikon | It's the fault of H.G. Wells. His War of the World gave the idea that there was intelligent life on Mars full traction in the public eye. Mars, after all, had those "canali" Schiaparelli first remarked on and others took off with -- suggesting immense public works projects. Then there was Burroughs with his Barsoom books. | |
| Jan 27, 2023 at 20:01 | comment | added | Turbo | Strange aside point, why did everyone refer to Martians specifically for so long? | |
| Jan 27, 2023 at 19:55 | history | answered | Turbo | CC BY-SA 4.0 |