Recently for no real reason I rewatched the first 4 seasons of Earth Final Conflict on Tubi. The overall premise for the show is in the near future an alien race called the Taelons show up and make contact with Earth. The aliens seem benevolent, but really they're hiding secrets, like that they're losing a war against another race called the Jaridians. A human liberation resistance tries to uncover their secrets and expose them.
It basically follows the pattern of shows like V, Dark Skies, Invasion, and of course the classic War of the Worlds where aliens show up and try to enslave humanity. Movies like Arrival, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Contact the aliens are benign and almost unknowable. And then in movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Plan 9 From Outer Space, the aliens try to destroy us as sort of a preemptive strike.
Anyway, I was thinking of a different spin on the old tropes that far better reflects our current world. The premise is: what if the aliens really are benign, but humans refuse to believe it? Like in EFC or some of those others, an alien race shows up and offers to help cure diseases and feed people and solve climate change and all that. Instead of being welcomed with open arms, they're met with hostility by fascists, religious extremists, and rich assholes who want to hold on to their power. And also the conspiracy nuts and other whackos who wouldn't wear masks or get vaccinations and cling to their guns.
So even though the aliens don't have a hidden agenda, they're met with hostility and their attempts to help us are rebuffed or sabotaged. The "resistance" would actually be people trying to help the aliens, people like scientists who think the aliens can solve a lot of our problems and move humanity forward. Maybe some anti-alien group stages a bombing or something to make it look like the aliens did it and the resistance has to find proof that they didn't--not that people believe them.
I haven't really thought it out in terms of characters and such. I don't really have time to actually write it, and no people like Offutt I'm not going to try getting "AI" to write it either. Maybe someone else could run with the idea. Just give me a cut is what I always say; don't be like "AI" and just steal from me.
3 comments:
Sounds like a good idea to me. Why not try it as a series of stories that you could later make into a "fix-up" novel? If you approached it that way, it might be easier to manage.
LOL for calling me out. I may type in your idea to chatgpt and see what spits out. If I do (I'm really busy so I may not have time), I will come here and post what it does just so you can see it. Star Trek (I think) is the best at telling alien stories because (depending on what race you interact with) things are wildly different. The Orion Syndicate kind of reminds me a little of what you may be describing here. They definitely saw the Federation as encroaching upon their territory and their slave gig that they had going. And the aliens from Talos IV who had the big heads and really strong telepathic abilities definitely didn't want humans meddling in any of their affairs.
Your story sounds interesting. I just wonder how it ends?
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