Over the last 50 years the Universe, Space, the Unknown and Aliens have become a big part of the Science Fiction universe. Think back to movies like 2001: A Space Odyssee and Star Wars, and you should instantly realise that without the Universe, without Space, without the Unknown, and without Aliens these great movies would never have existed.

However, this is not the only place that Science Fiction used these elements. Look at Doctor Who and Star Trek. Television Series that explored Space and the unknown, meeting new creatures, Aliens, in their travels.

But if you don't want to look back over the last 50 years for Aliens in Science Fiction, just look at more recent movies and Television Series. Star Trek has grown and is now one of the most popular science fiction series, with many movies. Television programs like The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The X-Files, Earth: Final Conflict, Andromeda, Stargate SG-1, Farscape, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Roswell and Red Dwarf all have Alien Creatures of some sort in them. So do movies like Contact, Starship Troopers, Lost in Space, Galaxy Quest, Evolution, The Alien Trilogy and Startgate.

There are also Aliens in many Science Fiction books nowadays. Some of these books have come from television series like Star Trek, some are novilisations of movies like 2001: A Space Odyssee, and some are original Science Fiction stories, and may be part of a series of books like Point Sci-fi.

Whether you want to accept it or not, Aliens have become a large part of the Science Fiction world.

But how did Aliens become such a large part of the Science Fiction World?

Reason 1: Space Exploration

As people began to travel into space, people begin to wonder what is out there. Television and movie producers took advantage of peoples interest in Space and the unknown, and made movies and television series about them. These became big hits, so more were made. Very soon, a new brand of science fiction had been formed. With each new movie or television series was a different idea about space and aliens. With so many different ideas it wasn't hard to create new movies or television series that were different and original. New books were written about people having adventures in space and meeting strange new creatures. Each new book was original and exciting. Some we even turned into films. Movies, television series and books about space became much more common and interesting once man had landed on the moon. For the first time, the thought of travelling out into space and visiting new worlds was more realistic, and people could only imagine what they would find on these new world.

Reason 2: Peoples' Imaginations

With space travel becoming more of a reality, people could only imagine what they would find on other planets. Millions of people had totally different thoughts and ideas about what would be out there. Some peoples' ideas spread. Some people had similar ideas. Some people wrote down there ideas. Movies and television programmes were made based around peoples ideas, and books were written about them. Very soon the idea of aliens had become a large part of the science fiction world.

Reason 3: Real Aliens

Another possibility is that real Aliens caused Aliens to become such a large part of the science fiction world. If people saw real Aliens on Earth and told people about them, then this would definately increase peoples' interest in Aliens. However, as easily as Aliens on Earth could have done this, the simple rumour and idea of Aliens on Earth could quite easily have the same effect. Whatever it was, Aliens on Earth is certainly part of the science fiction world. A good example of this is the movie Men In Black.

Alien Types

Aliens appear in a number of different forms, however, there are certain types of Aliens that regularly appear in Science Fiction.

Alien Animals

Alien Gods

Humanoid Aliens

Martians

Non-humanoid Aliens

Other Entries in this Project