“Alien Siege” Discussion

vanyel
writes, I watched Alien Siege tonight (aired
yesterday on SciFi), though it was a close call.
It’s really frustrating when stories have such
interesting possibilities, and completely throw them
away with tired old cliches.
vanyel has more to
say, which you can find below.

They could have really explored some major ethical
dilemmas here, and instead they treated it as a cheap
rehash of V. Sigh.

If you haven’t seen the previews or the show, a
technologically advanced, all too human, alien race
shows up and threatens to destroy the planet if we
don’t give them 8 million people to be killed to make
a vaccine for a virus that will wipe out their
species back home.

The possibilities were ripe:

1. Decision to fight or not when resisting would end
up with more people dead?

2. Does blackmail ever really end?

3. Political fallout of the governments caving
(though not without a fight glossed over during the
opening credits).

4. They got here via a one-way wormhole, sorta —
they could send ships with the vaccine back, but one
big enough to enable life to survive would somehow
result in earth’s destruction (though I never caught
a good reason why), so the aliens knew they were on a
one-way trip — they weren’t really intending to be
evil, just saving their race.

5. Would a culling actually help the human race?
Yeah, I can’t see that making it into a tv
show ;-)

6. Would some people volunteer? What would the
various government’s selection criteria be?

Alas, it was not to be…

4 replies on ““Alien Siege” Discussion”

  1. Disappointing
    I agree, there were a lot of avenues left unexplored. As far as I can tell, the aliens were completely legitimate about their need for the humans.

    However they left a lot of things sorely unexplained. Why a concentration of abnormalities in the US. Three viable abnormalities in such a small grouping of people. Also, when chasing humans, why shoot to kill? Why not stun and harvest these people.

    All in all a very poor story which could have been so much more. At least I still have BSG to help keep faith in SciFi.

    Clutch

  2. America, Canada, Europe, ect…
    I did not WTFM, but I don’t think any American, European, or Canadian would have anything to fear from something like this. The leaders of all the big powers in the world would point to a couple 3rd world countries and those 8 million people suddenly becomes Somebody Else’s Problem.

    • Re: America, Canada, Europe, ect…

      I did not WTFM, but I don’t think any American, European, or Canadian would have anything to fear from something like this. The leaders of all the big powers in the world would point to a couple 3rd world countries and those 8 million people suddenly becomes Somebody Else’s Problem.

      The following suggestion is purely hypothetical:
      What about the military… The unspoken agreement between members of the miltary and their superiors is that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines will do everything in their power to “defend the Consitution of the United States, from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” This includes the understanding that they might one day be ordered to hold their ground to buy time for some else to escape, knowing that to stay and fight is certain death.

      In this case, the military wouldn’t have to fight… all they would have to do is stand up and die…

      • Re: America, Canada, Europe, ect…

        I did not WTFM, but I don’t think any American, European, or Canadian would have anything to fear from something like this. The leaders of all the big powers in the world would point to a couple 3rd world countries and those 8 million people suddenly becomes Somebody Else’s Problem.

        The following suggestion is purely hypothetical:
        What about the military… The unspoken agreement between members of the miltary and their superiors is that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines will do everything in their power to “defend the Consitution of the United States, from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” This includes the understanding that they might one day be ordered to hold their ground to buy time for some else to escape, knowing that to stay and fight is certain death.

        In this case, the military wouldn’t have to fight… all they would have to do is stand up and die…

        No, that would never happen. Not a single Citizen of the US, Canada, and Western Europe would have to fear anything from this. The aliens would probably be smart enough to tactfully and secretly discuss the idea with global leaders. A coverup with the resources of the aliens should be pretty easy to do. Something like an ebola outbreak.

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