Alien Universe

by Don Lincoln

  X-Files

  We mentioned the television show The X-Files at the beginning of chapter 2, and we return to it here. The examples of Aliens represented in the movies and television shows we’ve been talking about up until now were obviously fictional, and there was no real attempt to make them sound believable. However, there are movies and television shows that depict fictional Aliens much more closely to what Americans believe that Aliens “really look like.” We’ll talk about two of them here. The first one we’ll discuss is The X-Files.

  The X-Files premiered in September 1993 and ran for nine seasons through 2002. During its heyday, it was the longest-running single science fiction series in American television history, although it was subsequently passed by Stargate SG-1 in 2007. The X-Files resonated with a country that had gone through Watergate and Iran-Contra and was highly suspicious of the government and what it was doing behind the scenes. In addition, The X-Files was born in the same environment that brought us the fake Roswell Alien autopsy, also shown on the Fox Network.

  That The X-Files tapped into the American distrust of government can be seen in some of the taglines used to advertise the show: “Trust No One,” “I Want to Believe,” and “The Truth Is Out There” (figure 4.3). The show followed two FBI agents (Fox Mulder and Dana Scully) as they investigated cases that were deemed interesting but unsolvable. As an example, according to the mythology of the series, the first X-File was started in 1946 by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The file contained information about a series of murders that occurred in Northwest America during World War II. The victims were killed, ripped to shreds, and eaten. It looked like they had been attacked by a large animal, but the victims were found in their own homes with no signs of forced entry, and it appeared as if they had invited the killer to enter. Agents investigating the murders cornered what they thought to be the animal in a cabin and killed it. However, when they entered the house, they found no animal, but rather the dead body of a man named Richard Watkins. Hoover deemed the case unsolved and filed it away. While fictional, the tale is reminiscent of a werewolf story. The X-Files has some similarities to the far less successful 1974 television show Kolchak: The Night Stalker. The original X-File didn’t involve extraterrestrials, but they appeared soon enough.

  FIGURE 4.3. This advertisement for the television series X-Files tapped into the undercurrent in American society that believes that the Earth has been visited by Aliens and that the government knows more than it is telling us. 20th Century Fox.

  The X-Files had two basic plots, the first was “monster of the week,” in which cases involving werewolves, vampires, and other supernatural creatures were investigated. These shows were pretty much stand-alone plot lines. However, throughout the show, there was also the recurring story of Aliens, alien visitation, and the idea that the government knew more than it was telling us. The paranoia of Roswell was well represented in this television series.

  In the show, Mulder was a firm believer in the supernatural and extraterrestrials, while Scully was the skeptical scientist. In many shows, Scully was able to rationalize the evidence they uncovered but never completely. Over the course of the series, Scully became increasingly dissatisfied by her inability to explain away what they found. She never became the believer that Mulder was, but she was more willing to give greater weight to his far-ranging theories.

  Mulder’s belief in Aliens stemmed from his sister’s having been abducted when he was 12 years old. This incident threads itself throughout the series. Mulder and Scully become allies as they encountered a sinister and shadowy arm of the government called the Syndicate. The Syndicate is comprised of the classic “Men in Black,” agents who cover up inconvenient incidents that the government doesn’t want the public to know about. Mulder and Scully’s primary antagonist is an agent known only as the “Cigarette-Smoking Man.” He is a ruthless and compassionless killer and a man with powerful connections. It could be said that he has the Illuminati on speed dial.

  The Syndicate is mankind’s liaison with Aliens intent on taking over the Earth. These shadowy figures have not only infiltrated the American government but all governments. They are the “real” power in the world. This theme explains the series popularity with the conspiracy theorists among us.

  The series ends with Mulder’s being subjected to a secret military tribunal, charged with breaking into a top secret military base and viewing the plans for the Alien invasion and subjugation of the Earth. Mulder is found guilty but escapes with the help of other agents, and he and Scully become fugitives.

  The impact of the show The X-Files is hard to judge. On the one hand, it is fiction; on the other hand, it reinforces ideas present in our society. There are many among us who claim that there is more going on than we are led to believe. Conspiracies like those said to be related to the JFK assassination, the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11, the Illuminati, and so on, are believed by some and suspected by others. We know of incidents when the government withholds or manipulates information to lead us the way it wants to. The show’s tagline “Trust No One” reinforces our collective paranoia.

  As a scientist, I am concerned about an even more pernicious effect. In The X-Files, the two main characters represent the believer and the skeptic. As the show progresses, the skeptic becomes less skeptical, showing that the believer was right all along. In the show, the characters encounter data that makes this a reasonable progression, but it is, after all, fiction. However, I worry that shows of this type reinforce the dangerous idea that irrational people are more rational than the rational. It’s one thing to have an open mind. It’s quite another to think that a literal werewolf is a real possibility.

  Still, as a piece of fiction, The X-Files is an excellent show, which reflects a particular vision of Aliens that is commonly found in our culture. The saga of Betty and Barney Hill and Roswell is alive and well.

  Close Encounters of the Third Kind

  Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) is one of the better Alien movies from the point of view of incorporating “real” phenomena as reported by people who claim to have had some extraterrestrial contact. Because the movie touches on so many of the classic extraterrestrial stories, I describe the movie in more detail than I have in other cases and point out the depiction of iconic extraterrestrial elements as they are occur in the narrative.

  A little, glowing, red will-o’-the-wisp depicts the foo fighters of 1945. Multiple, multicolored glowing craft, zooming through the air, are classic UFOs, which include observation by passenger aircraft in-flight. People who encounter the flying lights feel compelled to go to a certain place at a certain time (as was reported to have occurred with George Adamski). People were abducted, and the government knows more than it’s telling. One element of Alien lore that we did not discuss in chapter 2 occurs: military pilots who “just disappeared” while on a flight mission are returned. When finally observed in person, the Aliens turn out to be Betty and Barney Hill’s Grays. The movie is a colorful spectacle, reflecting an artistic and masterful directorial eye.

  The story opens in the present day (1977) in the Mexican Sonora desert, where Mexican soldiers or police have discovered a circle of vintage World War II fighter planes in perfect condition. An American team shows up and looks over the situation and finds that the planes start easily. By looking at the serial numbers on the engine blocks, they are identified as being “Flight 19,” which was lost off the Florida coast in 1945. (Fact: Flight 19 took off from Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station on December 5, 1945, with five Grumman Avenger Bombers. All planes were lost, including a float plane that went out to look for them. UFO enthusiasts have long noted that the planes disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.)

  While in the desert, we encounter a French-speaking UFO expert (although we don’t know this yet) and his interpreter, who was a cartographer by trade. They find an old man who tells them that the planes had just appeared in the middle of the night. He is sunburned and he tells them, “The Sun
came out last night and it sang to me.”

  In a series of little vignettes, the director shows us an encounter between a UFO and a TWA flight outside Indianapolis. In a rural house in nearby Muncie, a little boy named Barry is asleep, when his electrically powered toys go crazy. Awakened, he sees flashing lights outside and, when he goes downstairs, he sees that the house’s appliances are all on as well. He heads outside to look at the lights. By now, the blinking and moving toys awaken his mom, Jillian, who goes out into the night to search for her son.

  In the next scene, we meet our main character, Roy, who works for the power company in the Indianapolis area. He gets a phone call that the electricity is out all over the place. Roy is sent out to a specific area to see if he can get the equipment back online. First he sees a bunch of mailboxes jumping around and a railroad crossing sign shaking wildly. Then the batteries die in his truck and flashlight. A bright light shines down on the truck, giving him a sunburn over the half of his face that was looking up. The light goes out, and he sees a darkened, slow-moving UFO flying overhead.

  Roy hears radio reports of UFOs in another part of the county and speeds over there, nearly hitting little Barry, who is rescued in the nick of time by his mom. While Roy is making sure everyone is OK, the wind picks up and several very colorful UFOs fly over, including a little floating red light the size of a basketball. This light is highly reminiscent of the foo fighters of World War II.

  Roy goes home and drags his wife and kids back out to look for more UFOs. They see none, and his wife starts to suspect his sanity. The next day, the newspaper’s headline reads, “UFOs Seen over Five Counties,” but his wife hides the story from him. Roy begins to be fascinated by mounds of stuff: shaving cream, a pillow, a mud pile, mashed potatoes. He is drawn to try to sculpt them but without really understanding why.

  The film then changes direction to a scene in India, in which a large crowd is sitting and repeatedly chanting a particular five-note tone that they had heard the night before coming from the sky. The French UFO expert and his translator are there to record the chant. The two characters are next seen at a conference and then a radio telescope facility that has been receiving music tones similar to the chant in India. The telescope is also receiving a series of numbers, which the cartographer deciphers as latitude and longitude coordinates. The location: the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

  We jump back to Jillian and Barry. Barry is playing the same five-tone chant on a toy xylophone, and Jillian is drawing mountains. Outside, it looks like a storm is coming, with roiling clouds. In a scary sequence, UFOs surround the house and Barry is abducted.

  The American UFO experts, including the Frenchman and his interpreter, have initiated an expedition to Devil’s Tower. They devise a way of evacuating the area and settle on a fictional deadly chemical spill. We see a military unit getting together the required supplies and shipping them to Wyoming in trucks disguised as standard commercial transports.

  Roy, meanwhile, is trying to bring some normalcy to his life, but his behavior still troubles his wife. While making yet another mound, he becomes frustrated and pulls off the top, leaving a mesa. Suddenly, he knows what he was missing. In an episode of what could easily be considered craziness, he goes outside and yanks plants and bushes out of the yard and throws them into the house through his kitchen window. He tosses spades full of dirt, a garbage can, and chicken wire. Overcome by the spectacle, his wife takes the kids and leaves. Roy makes in his living room an 8 feet tall detailed model of a mesa.

  The stories start to come together when the government reports the fake chemical leak on the television. Roy sees it and realizes the mesa in his living room is obviously a model of Devil’s Tower. Meanwhile, Jillian sees the same news coverage, and we see that she has been drawing the mesa herself. Roy and Jillian independently realize that they need to travel to Wyoming.

  When Roy gets to Wyoming, he stumbles on what might be called a circus atmosphere of evacuation. He meets Jillian and, since they don’t know that the chemical spill story is a fake, they buy gas masks from impromptu vendors in the circus. They set off toward the mesa in his station wagon, bypassing army checkpoints and heading to Devil’s Tower. Unfortunately, they run into an army convoy and are captured. They are brought to an assembly point, where the French UFO expert is stationed. Roy gets interrogated. There is an argument between the UFO expert and the army commander, and the army wins. Roy and Jillian are put on a helicopter (along with many other people with similar stories) to be evacuated. At the last moment, Roy and Jillian make a break for it and head up the mesa. As they crest a rise, they see a base on the other side.

  The base looks a little like a big helipad, surrounded by cameras and klieg lights. A voice on the intercom tells them that there are radar contacts and the base bustles as scores of experts take their position. The familiar UFOs and foo fighters arrive. As they hover over the helipad, the humans play the five-note tone. The notes correspond to lights on a large display behind them. After a few attempts, the UFOs play the tones back, but then the UFOs leave.

  While the experts begin congratulating themselves, a huge roiling of clouds appears on the other side of the mesa, heralding the arrival of the mother ship (figure 4.4). What follows is what one might call a high-tech version of “dueling banjos.” The humans and Alien craft play passage after musical passage, copying one another, all the while accompanied by synchronized colorful lights.

  At the conclusion of the lightshow, the bottom of the mother ship opens, and many humans disembark, including World War II pilots, perhaps from Flight 19. None of the people have aged at all. Barry also leaves and is reunited with his mother. The door of the ship closes and reopens, this time with Aliens emerging. The first to emerge is a tall and very thin version of the familiar Grays, followed by dozens of more traditional Grays, perhaps 4 feet high (figure 4.4).

  FIGURE 4.4. The mother ship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (left) was huge, many hundreds of feet across, while the Aliens (right) were classic examples of the diminutive Grays. Two humans are shown for scale. The black-and-white figure showing the mother ship doesn’t do it justice. You really have to see the movie to appreciate the magnitude of the spectacle. Columbia Pictures Corporation.

  The humans had prepared a group of astronauts who they hope will leave with the Aliens. At the last minute, it is decided that Roy will join them. Roy is welcomed by the Grays with open arms, and he is guided onto the ship. It is implied, but not obvious, that he is joined by the other astronauts. The Aliens all reenter the ship, and the door closes for a final time. As it rises majestically into the sky, Barry closes the movie by saying, “Bye!”

  Close Encounters of the Third Kind incorporates many of the “right” elements as believed by UFO enthusiasts, and it resonated well with that community, although, as always, there were purists who quibbled with this point or that. The movie was a huge commercial success, grossing more than $300 million worldwide.

  The title came from a scale devised by astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek and popularized in his 1972 book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. His scale classified UFO sightings as close encounters of the first kind and sightings with physical evidence, like scorch marks or lost time (à la Betty and Barney Hill), to be the second kind. Close encounters of the third kind required that one encounter “animate beings” with the UFO. The name was vaguely chosen to allow for the possibility that perhaps UFOs were not extraterrestrial in origin. There have been subsequent extensions of the Hynek scale, but these are not universally accepted. Fourth is abduction with retained memory. Fifth is for regular conversations (like the Adamski experience). Sixth is an encounter that causes injury or death to a human. Finally, close encounters of the seventh kind requires human/extraterrestrial mating that produces an offspring, often called a “star child.”

  The idea of this interspecies mating has been reported by some of the post–Betty and Barney Hill abductees and also proposed by von Däniken and
his contemporaries as possible explanation of, for example, the human/beast hybrid gods of ancient Egypt. Even a cursory knowledge of genetics shows how ludicrous this idea is. Think about it: humans and oranges share a genetic history and have appreciable genetic overlap, yet a human/orange hybrid is unthinkable. In contrast, Aliens and humans have no shared genetic history; indeed it is unlikely that the genetic material of Aliens looks much like the DNA of Earth-based life. From mankind’s recent advances in genetics, we know that it is possible for genetic material from one species to be transplanted to another, but the merging of human and Alien genetic material seems very unlikely.

  Nonserious Depictions of Aliens

  While we have spent a lot of time talking about Aliens as they are depicted in literature, radio, movies, and television, there is also a class of Aliens that we aren’t meant to take seriously. These are just representations that allow us to watch a charming or funny story.

  Of the nonserious depictions of Aliens, perhaps the most serious is the 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. A group of Alien botanists sampling the plant life on Earth are startled and they take off, leaving one of their members behind. The Alien encounters a ten-year-old boy who helps him get back to his own kind. The movie does utilize some of the classic Hollywood techniques to tell the story of Alien contact, for instance when the government gets involved and tries to capture E.T. for study. But, given its intended audience, it is difficult for the movie to seriously depict Aliens.

  In television, Aliens are sometimes used as the basis for a sitcom. The silly behavior of creatures who have no idea how human society works can easily be exploited for laughs. Mork and Mindy (1978–1982) used the frantic humor of Robin Williams as Alien Mork tries to live among us. The eponymous ALF (for Alien Life Form, 1986) was played by a hand puppet. He was born on the Lower East Side of the planet Melmac. He crash-landed in California and moved in with a family he encountered. He is a sarcastic wise guy and is often trying to eat the family’s cat. My Favorite Martian was a 1963 television show with a similar premise. A Martian anthropologist crash-landed on Earth and moved in with a human while he tried to repair his craft. Only his roommate knows he’s a Martian. To a degree, there is a similarity to the more famous Bewitched, in which Samantha the witch lives among us, known only to her husband.