back to article Ten... alien invasions

Earlier this week, alien hunters donned their tinfoil hats for World UFO day and with Yanks celebrating Independence Day today, the topic of extra-terrestrial takeover lingers in the air. The public has even been debating who would be best equipped to tackle an alien invasion. Whether that's Mr. Obama, his political opponent or …

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      1. Nigel 11

        Re: What about Chocky?

        Triffids weren't aliens. We made them.

    1. Nigel 11

      Re: What about Chocky?

      And there's the comedy version - Gremlins

    2. breakfast Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: What about Chocky?

      There should definitely be some Wyndham here- Day Of The Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos and The Kraken Wakes are all fantastic alien invasion stories.

      1. h4rm0ny

        Re: What about Chocky?

        The Kraken Wakes is one of the best alien invasion stories ever written. Not purely for the well-thought out attack or for the acknowledgement that the aliens may actually have different environmental needs than us, but for humanity's inability to operate on the time-scales necessary to counter the alien threat. There's a conversation in it where the viewpoint characters who are journalists, interview a scientist (Professor Brock?) who completely fails to understand how the general public aren't alarmed by the same things he is alarmed by. Quite chilling and far too believable.

        1. BorkedAgain
          Thumb Up

          Re: What about Chocky?

          +1. Spot on. John Wyndham has long been among my favourite sci-fi writers because his scenarios are so far beyond the obvious straight-on battlefleets-in-the-sky idea most folks seem to favour. I have to admit a weakness for the slightly twee characters as well, but they're proper characters with believable voices.

          I'm not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that nobody's done a movie of The Kraken Wakes. If it were done well it could be spectacular (the night of the sea-tanks?) but some idiot would ruin it with 3-d effects (tentacles whipping out at the viewer... Yawn...) and flying monsters. If it watched like it read, I'd go see it...

  1. Graham Dresch
    Facepalm

    Just a few errors...

    The Alien Invasion episode was Quatermass II, where the aliens descend in aerodynamic capsules and take over the population of a small village 6 miles from Carlisle ( actually Hemel Hempstead )

    The only acceptable version of War of the Worlds was the 1953 version by George Pal, the 2005 remake had the wrong story, the wrong location and the wrong cast, I'm still waiting for somebody to film this true to the original book.

    How you can describe any remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers magnificientis a huge fail, nothing comes close to the original Don Siegel version.

    and some you missed, on the basis of actual invasion by aliens...

    Village of the Damned

    Plan 9 from Outer space

    and... To Serve Man by Damon Knight ( Twiglet Zone 1962 )

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just a few errors...

      The "Twiglet Zone"? Sounds horrifying!

  2. John G Imrie

    How can you mention War of the Worlds...

    and miss out Orson Welles

  3. Why Not?

    Sub optimal

    Day of the triffids, cocoon?

    Oh and of course BATTLEFIELD EARTH.

    I vote for V both versions, teenage dreams of Diana Mark 1 & mature appreciation of Mark 2 in her Birthday suit!

    1. Thorne

      Re: Sub optimal

      Old day of the triffids was ok (except they're not alien) New series was pitiful.

      Battlefield Earth was a lemon. Story made no sense at all.

      The new series of V could have been good but the moment it started on religion all hope was lost.

  4. veti Silver badge
    Trollface

    War of the Worlds deserves a place in history

    In 1953, when the first movie version of 'War of the Worlds' was made, it had the distinction of being the Only Film in the History of Hollywood in which US Marines were defeated.

    But what I'm more upset about missing from this list is daleks and cybermen...

    1. Nigel 11

      Re: War of the Worlds deserves a place in history

      Cybermen don't qualify. They're not aliens, they're technologically-created zombies.

      Daleks really should be on the list, though. Any Dr. Who saves Earth from Daleks sequence beats "Independance Day" on every front, including plot intelligence and plot believability.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: War of the Worlds deserves a place in history

        Doctor Who has had an alien invasion of Earth pretty much every week - Daleks trundling across Westminster Bridge, Yetis in the Underground, Krynoids lurking round Mick Jagger's mansion, mummies lurching around the same mansion, Julian Glover pulling his face off in Paris, and Cybermen (yes they are aliens) stomping around St. Pauls just being some of the better ones.

        1. stucs201

          Re: War of the Worlds deserves a place in history

          Well with Cybermen it depends. New cybermen are from Earth (even if it is a parallel one). Proper Cybermen are aliens though.

  5. Graham Marsden
    Happy

    Try watching...

    ... Independance Day and Mars Attacks back to back like I did...!

    1. Graham Bartlett

      Re: Try watching...

      And you still didn't tell the Syrian police what they wanted to know? Man, you're tough!

      1. Graham Marsden
        Happy

        Re: Try watching...

        I was laughing so hard they just gave up in disappointment!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm looking but I don't see...

    The Day The Earth Stood Still.

    Was it as thought-provoking as I remembered?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Black Helicopters

      Re: The Day the Earth Stood Still

      The original was pretty good. The remake, with Keanu Reeves planking the lead role, is sort-of-OK too, though Jennifer Connelly is wasted (i.e. not a cleavage-lifting satin dress in sight). It begins with the old staple of a sudden rush to gather experts together in secret because, as everyone knows, whenever a culture meets a technologically superior culture the inferior one is always completely wiped out. Which if you actually stop to think about it is a distinctly american-centric paranoid-power-mad point of view, that doesn't actually pan out when you consider worldwide history; or just listen to Paul Simon's 'Graceland' album.

  7. Blake St. Claire
    Alien

    District 9, an alien invasion?

    More like an alien's space ship broke down on the freeway and now they're panhandling at the gas station.

    And Footfall wasn't a movie or a TV show like everything else on the list. (And Pournelle was just a fscking hack leaching off Niven as far as I'm concerned.)

    1. Rob 5
      FAIL

      Pournelle

      Come back when you've gained a couple of PhDs (back when that was hard), been an advisor to a US president on SDI and other stuff, been Barry Goldwater's campaign manager, started the world's first blog (before the word "blog" existed and which is still going strong today), written a shed load of successful novels in your own right, edited Survivalist magazine, been a contributing editor/columnist for Byte (which you're probably too young to remember) and a shed load more that I can't be bothered to type and say that.

      We'll still think that you're an idiot.

      1. Aldous

        Re: Pournelle

        agreed, even if that was the case (which it isn't)who cares as the pair wrote many great books together. unless i've missed something the only person that could justifiably make this claim is niven himself and i've not seen that anywhere.

    2. Rob 5
      Facepalm

      And another thing

      It's "leeching" not "leaching", unless you're claiming that JP has a business extracting metals by converting them into soluble salts in an aqueous media contained in Niven's cellular membranes.

      Which would be technologically impressive, I'll grant, but is probably not what you were trying to say..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Up

        Re: And another thing

        THIS ^ is why I love reading El Reg comments....

  8. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

    Obvious candidate, though the fact that everyone in 2150 dressed and talked like 1965 is a bit awkward now I think of it.

    1. hplasm
      Happy

      Re: Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

      London never really recovered from the 2012 Olympics...

      /retcon

  9. Torben Mogensen

    Other invasions

    District 9 has basically the same premise as Alien Nation: Aliens are stranded on Earth and become a new lower class.

    As for War of the World adaptations, I quite like the Marvel comic book series that shows Earth under Martian rule after a 2nd invasion. It started out being called "War of the Worlds" but was later named after its lead character "Killraven". A similar premise is used in John Cristopher's Tripod series. So it would be fairly safe to say that WotW has been the inspiration of quite a few alien invasion stories.

    1. BoldMan

      Re: Other invasions

      I recommend the graphic novel adaptation by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli

      http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/13-190/H-G-Wells-The-War-of-the-Worlds-HC

      plus they did two sequels which showed the effect Martian Technology had on the British Empire - excellent stuff!

      Not forgetting Volume II of The league of Extraordinary Gentlemen...

    2. Graham Bartlett

      Re: Other invasions

      Similar premise anyway - Alien Nation has more "human" aliens.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tripods?

    OK, only suggesting it 'cos I slept with one of the extras.

    Happy days but a crap show.

  11. Spoonsinger
    Happy

    I read this whole article "With Folded Hands".

    But then I'm not here to serve you.

  12. The Jon
    Thumb Up

    Bad Taste?

    Crumbs Crunchy Delights.

    An entire alien invasion thwarted by a man called Derek.

    1. Fibbles

      Re: Bad Taste?

      Stick all the bits of brain in a plastic bag, Barry.

  13. handeldujour
    Holmes

    Childhood's End vs 2001

    Kubrick only read Childhood's End in the latter stages of 2001 production - and so liked it, he wanted to change the ending.

    But fortunately this was downvoted by AC.Clarke. These days 2001 is presented as being written "during the filmmaking" but at the time 2001 was a development of "The Sentinel" short story and the book was (chicken-and-egg) written prior to the film.

  14. andy gibson

    Rendezvous with Rama?

    OK. so it didn't make it into a film, it wasn't an invasion as such, but what a cracking UFO novel.

    Speaking of UFO - Gerry Anderson's "UFO" was superb.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Rendezvous with Rama?

      Not exactly a feature length, but well worth watching.

      http://vimeo.com/9739256

  15. Maxson

    Word has it that...

    ...Spieberg walked all over the existing material and took a big steaming shite on it too.

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  17. Aulty

    You missed my favourite

    Invaders, or was it "the invaders" with Roy Thinnes I think.

    Loved that as a teenager.

    The invaders looked human, apart from one flaw.

    Was it their little or ring finger was at an angle AFAIR.

    Absolute classic. mind you, I thought shoestring was classic when I was young.

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