Topic: Falling Skies

[AgnosticBuddha]

Television seems to be a wasteland of nothingness this summer. I burned through season 1 of Falling Skies over the last few days seeing that season 2 premiers this Sunday. It's mediocre at best but there's absolutely nothing else on of interest to me.

Spoilers to follow:


In episodes 6 and 7 the remnants of the 7th Mass collude with the aliens, giving them children in exchange for protection. They also murder 3 soldiers from the 2nd Mass. After getting caught, the 2nd Mass just lets them all go. I'd have lined all the adults against a fence and shot them all. In episode 8, the kid Rick runs away and informs the aliens of the location of the 2nd Mass and about the attack on the alien super structure. He's allowed to come back. I'd have blown his brains out as well.  Am I showing a disregard for human life or just being pragmatic?

[Strudel]

HOW DARE YOU MISTREAT CHILDREN *BANG

5 minutes later

HOW DARE THIS CHILD BETRAY US *BANG

[mindme]

Super advanced alien species with weapons that don't seem to be able to blow up anything bigger than a small car. Ugh.

[Mormegil]

Super advanced aliens that don't grasp the concept that if you have 100% air superiority + attack aircraft with IR detection capability, you should BLOW UP THEIR BASES.

It's sad that I find myself rooting for the aliens, as the human characters are just too annoying.  At least we don't get the heavy handed history lesson each and every episode.  I get the analogy, it's like the Revolutionary War!  But did they really have to call the new government, the "Continental Congress"?!



Yet...I watch.

[mindme]

Super advanced aliens that don't grasp the concept that if you have 100% air superiority + attack aircraft with IR detection capability, you should BLOW UP THEIR BASES.

It's sad that I find myself rooting for the aliens, as the human characters are just too annoying.  At least we don't get the heavy handed history lesson each and every episode.  I get the analogy, it's like the Revolutionary War!  But did they really have to call the new government, the "Continental Congress"?!



Yet...I watch.

Season 2 ep 1. Little airbot sees a convoy and goes in for the attack. It uses a bomb just big enough to destroy the vehicle it targets. No area effect. No concept like "hey maybe people ran away". No IR to mercilessly track and kill people. Oh but then later it's revealed they do have a kind of IR but it can only pick up on engines. Human bodies, no. The producers have to believe 95% of the viewers don't watch liveleak etc.

[MikeHz]

The humans must have a heck of a support system to supply them with all that food and ammunition.

[Jim S]

The humans must have a heck of a support system to supply them with all that food and ammunition.

Well, we've also seen that when they are low on medical supplies and find a nicely stocked hospital, they only take a few satchels worth of stuff.   Bullets, butter, and band-aids just go a lot further when you're fighting aliens.

[Nacreous]

Season 2 ep 1. Little airbot sees a convoy and goes in for the attack. It uses a bomb just big enough to destroy the vehicle it targets. No area effect. No concept like "hey maybe people ran away". No IR to mercilessly track and kill people. Oh but then later it's revealed they do have a kind of IR but it can only pick up on engines. Human bodies, no. The producers have to believe 95% of the viewers don't watch liveleak etc.

Hell, why would they need IR vision?  When the humans set up a base, they usually light it up at night like Times Square (they evidently have tons of fuel for their silent generators).  The aliens would be able to see them from the air from 50 miles away.

I love TV sci-fi, but this is show is an all-time face-palmer.

[Old Hoplite]

I don't watch alien invasion shows much. Simple reason, as on sci-fi writer once put it. "Once the enemy gets the high orbitals. It is all over."

[ting-bu-dong]

Most alien invasions just don't make sense. For some reason sci fi writers got it into their heads that anyone would want Earth for its resources when mining uninhabited planets in low-g or asteroids would be so much less hassle.

[mindme]

Most alien invasions just don't make sense. For some reason sci fi writers got it into their heads that anyone would want Earth for its resources when mining uninhabited planets in low-g or asteroids would be so much less hassle.

What would be a good reason to invade?

1) Religious idea ("where the only chosen, we must kill everything else") But then if you can harness massive amounts of power to travel to earth, you can nuke the whole fucking place from orbit. Maybe your religion requires you to subjugate/enslave/hunt.

2) Rare earth. Very few world's habitable and earth just happens to be the only other one in the galaxy. And the aliens need a new planet. You can't nuke/asteroid the planet to death without destroying the environment.

[ting-bu-dong]

Those are two good ones. Religion can be generalised to ideologies that involve converting or subduing other lifeforms rather than exterminating them. The Borg as well as Brainiac from Superman make sense in that context. Humanity has something rare and valuable (information) and getting it involves destroying humanity, which we tend to frown upon.

Another one is labor. In Stargate, humanity was used as a slave species because we breed like crazy (compared to the other species in that universe) and are easily controlled.

[roadfood]

I don't watch alien invasion shows much. Simple reason, as on sci-fi writer once put it. "Once the enemy gets the high orbitals. It is all over."

Ever read Niven and Pournelle's "Footfall"? It's been a long time since I read it, but I seem to remember that the aliens do use their orbital position to good advantage (throwing asteroids at us, or something like that), but nevertheless the humans find some way to combat it (could be remembering that part wrong).

ETA: I gave up on "Falling Skies" after a few episodes, and the spoilers here reinforce that that was a good decision. The humans are just too dumb. And it sounds like now that the aliens are being shown, they're dumb too.

[Rai]

Falling Skies were pretty meh, as usual this season, but the ending could take it to interesting places.

(click to show/hide)

If I were the writers, I would have the three alien species fight an intergalactic war with each other, with Earth being one of the battlefronts. The planet wasn't invaded for resources, but because it's in a convenient spot to serve as a base of operations or whatever in a far larger conflict. And now this base is being assaulted and the humans must try to survive while the two (three) alien species battle for the dominance of this relatively uninteresting planet. Humans are the Belgian peasants of an intergalactic Battle of the Somme. I don't think this has ever been done before in Science Fiction, and has an immense potential.

[Strudel]

I like to think of them as an interstellar police force come to restore order, supply aid and leave us in peace to rebuild and progress.

Though your turn-earth-into-a-smouldering-husk theory would probs make for better television.