Aliens

The Truth Behind the V Franchise

We mentioned earlier that V might be heading back to television. The big news is that the book that could inspire this V resurgence will hit store shelves tomorrow. But how well to you remember this show and its creator? Creator Kenneth Johnson gave us the original Bionic Woman, and we all know how that…

Television Kevin Kelly Feb 4

Alien Lizards Are Making A Comeback

Is it time to bring back V? In 1983 we had the two-part miniseries called V, then the following year they gave us V: The Final Battle, which spawned a TV series called, appropriately enough V: The Series. But it’s been 20 years since we’ve heard from those reptilian alien invaders who pretend to be…

Television Kevin Kelly Feb 4

Historic Western Art — With Aliens

Nothing like a few aliens to spice up the history of Western art. Breda O’Donoghue takes classic art by famous Western artists like Michelangelo (above), Matisse and Frida Kahlo, replaces some of the key characters in the piece with aliens, and redraws them. Because it’s so much more interesting when man is reaching into the…

io9 LISA KATAYAMA Feb 4

TV This Week: A Virus Turns Men Into Psycho Killers

Finding worthwhile science fiction on television is definitely more challenging than it should be in sweeps month, thanks to a certain writers’ strike. Luckily, our AI has scoured the TV listings in search of all the coolest new SF programming, including a new science fictional episode of anthology series Masters of Horror, some cool movies…

io9 Charliejane Feb 4

Teaching Asian Schoolchildren How to Talk to Aliens

A traveling alien exhibit makes its way to the Miraikan, a science museum in Tokyo, in March. It may not be first time that the children of Asia will get to interact with extraterrestrial life, but it’s probably the first time they’ve done it in a museum. The best part? The exhibition teaches kids that…

io9 LISA KATAYAMA Jan 31

How Could We Talk To Alien Life Forms?

Chances are when alien visitors show up, they won’t speak any language we can recognize. We’ll be lucky if they have recognizable music, like the aliens in Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow. They may not have eyes or ears, as we understand them. So how can we prove to our first contacts that we’re smart…

io9 Charliejane Jan 16

An Alien Prepares for Her Nuptuals

Kimiko Yoshida is a Japanese artist who likes to dress up in wedding garb. The wedding veils she chooses, though, are nowhere near conventional. On her web site, she has sixty-some photos of herself dressed as brides from different ethnic groups. Here, she takes a break from her anthropological self-fashioning to become an alien. Isn’t…

io9 LISA KATAYAMA Jan 16

Science Fiction Angels Who Are Really Aliens in Disguise

The Left Behind books (and movies) are one of the most popular edge-cases in the science fiction world. They’re shunned by many SF fans as too cheesily religious, yet embraced by zillions of Christians who made this many-volumed tale of the Rapture and Armageddon into bestsellers. They’re an odd anomaly hovering between great apocalypse scifi…

Movies Annalee Newitz Jan 15

The Monster Queens Of England

In the title story of Michael Swanwick’s demented new collection The Dog Said Bow-Wow, a monstrous genetically engineered Queen Gloriana rules a dark future England. She’s the size of a truck and has 36 brains, connected by thick ganglia in a “hypercube configuration.” In other words, she’s a huge organic computer with no sex life.…

io9 Charliejane Jan 11

The Great Miss Universe Scandal of 2381

Behold Ed Emshwiller’s magnificent cover for the February 1959 issue of Future Science Fiction. Yes, it gives away the ending of “You Do Something To Me,” Calvin M. Knox’s story of the “the white-skinned hideous horror from a distant world,” but isn’t it worth it? (Trivia moment: Calvin M. Knox is a pseudonym of Robert…

io9 Peril Jan 9

Boys Don’t Cry Director Tackles Trippy Scifi Classic

Arthur C. Clarke’s weird science fiction novel Childhood’s End could soon be a movie directed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry, and the upcoming Stop-Loss). Peirce says she’s attracted to the challenging themes of Clarke’s 1953 novel, but she’ll have a hard time turning it into a big-budget movie. The novel inspired songs with the…

io9 Charliejane Jan 9

Won’t Somebody Rescue This Kid From Earth?

Teenage uberdork Mike Pillsbury manages to MacGyver his satellite dish into an interstellar communications relay so he can ask aliens to rescue him from Earth in this demented scene from 1999 TV movie Can Of Worms. Everything about this scene is awesome: the weird science, the breathless speechifying, and the burning desire to be free…

io9 Charliejane Jan 4

Space Age Noir in the Original “Day the Earth Stood Still”

I think we’re all dreading the remake of stately, spare 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still because the original is still so visually stunning even after all these years. Here, a human who has befriended visiting alien Klaatu has to tell Klaatu’s super-robot Gort to help her rescue the endangered alien. The scene…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 3

SETI @ Home Ready to Look for More Aliens

The upgraded Aricebo telescope will be sending more space noise data to SETI, whose ongoing project to scan the heavens for signs of extraterrestrial radio emissions has been going on for almost a decade. Hopefully that means we’ll be tuning in outer space radio soon, though not in a scary way like in Mary Doria…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 2

Don’t Mock Our B.O., AVP-R Director Whines

Don’t call Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem a flop, pleads co-director Colin Strause. After all, it’s made back its budget and done quite well overseas. “I admit I wish it did better in the US, but these numbers are nothing to feel bad about,” he adds. As for the chances for a third AVP movie? it’s…

io9 Charliejane Jan 2

Every Holiday Loves a Monster

Aliens vs. Predator Requiem made $9.5 million at the box office on Xmas Day, putting it in a respectable third place after what-the-hell-fest National Treasure 2 and postapocalyptic thriller I Am Legend. That means two out of three Xmas movie hits were scifi, and one out of three had child-killing via extraterrestrial chest-explosion. So screw…

Movies Annalee Newitz Dec 27

Aliens vs. Predator vs. Turducken

It was a sold-out afternoon show for Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem in downtown San Francisco yesterday, and I was sitting in between two huge family groups who had helpfully brought about half a dozen kids under the age of eight. Good call! This was a family movie, starting off on the right foot with a…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 26

Japanese Military Prepares for Alien Invasion

Japan’s Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week announced that although the Japanese Pacifist Constitution prevents the country from using military force in most situations, he wouldn’t be averse to using military might to defeat invading extraterrestrials. His comments came after a top government spokesman said he believed in aliens. [NYT]

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 24

Dune Remake Will Be Budget-Killer

A new Dune movie will be “big big big,” says director Peter Berg (The Kingdom.) The David Lynch version was dandy, but “that interpretation has left the door wide open for a remake,” Berg says. If it wasn’t for the writers’ strike, he’d be working on his version of the Frank Herbert mega-novel right now.…

Television Charliejane Dec 24

How Would We Kill Aliens Without Faster Than Light Travel?

What if warp drive, hyperspace and wormholes turn out to be fantasies? We’ll still need to kill aliens from other solar systems. What will we do? Take the poll after the jump! Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

io9 Charliejane Dec 21

The Truth Behind the V Franchise

Alien Lizards Are Making A Comeback

Historic Western Art — With Aliens

TV This Week: A Virus Turns Men Into Psycho Killers

Teaching Asian Schoolchildren How to Talk to Aliens

How Could We Talk To Alien Life Forms?

An Alien Prepares for Her Nuptuals

Science Fiction Angels Who Are Really Aliens in Disguise

The Monster Queens Of England

The Great Miss Universe Scandal of 2381

Boys Don’t Cry Director Tackles Trippy Scifi Classic

Won’t Somebody Rescue This Kid From Earth?

Space Age Noir in the Original “Day the Earth Stood Still”

SETI @ Home Ready to Look for More Aliens

Don’t Mock Our B.O., AVP-R Director Whines

Every Holiday Loves a Monster

Aliens vs. Predator vs. Turducken

Japanese Military Prepares for Alien Invasion

Dune Remake Will Be Budget-Killer

How Would We Kill Aliens Without Faster Than Light Travel?

‘Man of Tomorrow’ Is On the Hunt For Maxima

Shokz OpenRun Pro Bone Conduction Headphones Are Briefly Back at Their Lowest Price on Amazon

HP Laptop With Microsoft 365 Hits Record Low After Multiple Price Cuts, Now Cheaper Than A16 iPad

Artemis 2 Day 9: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

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Google Quietly Drops Nest Cam (2nd Gen) to All-Time Low on Amazon, Turning It Into a Budget Home Security Pick

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‘The ‘American Horror Story’ Reunion Could Be a Sequel to ‘Coven’

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

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Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

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