I think Peter Watts' aliens in Blindsight were really cool. The fact that they were highly intelligent but non-conscious/self-aware. They also had a kind of interesting physiology and life cycle.
There's a fan theory I read about the shape-shifting alien from "The Thing". This theory posits that when the alien takes a human form, but before it's unmasked as the alien, it's such a perfect replication of the host that the alien itself is unaware of it's being an alien. It believes itself to be the human it replicated. I've found that concept to be fascinating and more than a little chilling.
A pair of alien races I find most fascinating are the two from the Expanse series. First the Ringbuilders - who are eventually revealed to be sentient light waves evolved from bioluminescent microbes and whose technology is fuelled by radiation and becomes semi-sentient by absorbing and repurposing matter (including humans). And The Unknown Aggressors, eventually revealed to be shadow-like entities from another older universe who can only be perceived by turning reality into a foam. They can also tinker with the fundamental forces of the universe, literally reducing the speed of light in a solar system and changing the physics of ions across an entire planet, all in a manner like someone twisting the knobs on a dial. When the writers made aliens here, they really went all out.
One of the most unique aliens I can remember are the Traeki and Jophur from David Brin's Uplift Saga. The Traeki were a collective intelligence created by stacking various different kinds of smaller ring-shaped life forms together. I don't recall how much of their biology was naturally evolved and how much was artificial, but the rings themselves were like neurons, though each had different capabilities physcially as well. Like you might have mobility rings with tentacles or whatever for walking, and then eye rings for seeing, a ring for the arms or tentacles they needed to manipulate the world with. Though the Traeki were a collective, they were also slow of thought and often took a long time to decide things, like an old-fashioned Greek democracy or a modern day committee. Their Patron species -- the species that Uplifted them to sentience -- were disappointed in them for those reasons, so they genetically engineered a new "control" ring that would go on top, and would turn the rings from basically a democracy/committee into a fascist dictatorship, which we got to see firsthand in the second Uplift trilogy when a hidden Traeki got siezed and given a control ring. This new control ring couldn't be sentient on its own, but when paired with the other rings, it could take control and give the collective a decisiveness and enhanced thinking speed. In the books, I remember loving the Traeki, wishing I could meet the ones that got away from their Patron species and were hiding on fallow worlds. But the Jophur, what the ones with the control ring were called, were a bunch of evil a-holes. But then, a lot of the alien species in that storyverse are evil a-holes.
The Qax from “Timelike Infinity” deserve some love. They were composed of convection cells that evolved in the turbulent waters of an ocean world. They humped around the galaxy like traveling salesmen imbedded in the stomachs of living whale-like creatures hardened and outfitted for space travel.
I love how Star Trek just has an entire classification of space-dwelling life forms, the cosmozoans. Like, not just one but dozens or hundreds of species that live and grow in the void of space.
I'm rather surprised that you didn't include The Cheela from Robert Forward's book 'Dragon's Egg'. Amazing life forms that live on a neutron star and who live their lives a million times faster than humans. I loved Forward's books. You don't get aliens much stranger than the Cheela.
I'd like to give an honorable mention to the Weeping Angels from DOCTOR WHO. They can only move and act when quantum phenomena are unresolved, which means they become immobile whenever they are observed (which collapses unresolved quantum states), appearing as stone statues. For another lifeform which relies on unresolved quantum states, I highly recommend QUARANTINE by Greg Egan. I won't spoil the plot, but it's an excellent read.
The Weeping Angels take a very fun game for children* and re-imagine it as Lovecraftian horror. * Red Light/ Green light, where one child is the traffic light and the other children are trying to cross a line while only moving while the traffic light is not looking at them [the light is green]. Anyone seen moving by the traffic light [the light is red] must go back to the start line.
the Xeelee were formed and had civilizations rise and fall during the first nanoseconds after the big bang; should've mentioned more about them. Loved your inclusion of The Thing
Great list, Darrel. Loved that you included something from Lovecraft. From the short story, I always considered "The Colour Out of Space" as a kind of living radiation. Truly alien, indeed.
I would mention the Pattern Jugglers and the Puppeteers. Props for the Tines. I found the Photino Birds to be a singular disappointment as essentially just a force of nature.
Only half way through the list, the Arrival aliens, the sentient piglets, the sandworms, the leviathans ... one of the greatest and exquisite compilations of things on YT. Very good picks until now, extremely interested in what else is there.
I was literally preparing to write a comment on how you should have included the Tralfalmadorians from Slaughterhouse Five (certainly the alien species that had the most lasting impression on me personally, even if we are introduced to them as zookeepers.) You never cease to surprise me.
This video has been very entertaining from an originality view. I’m glad you chose more underrated aliens rather than easy picks like the Xenomorph or the Yautja.
Yes but... when do the Tralfamadorians every moment all at once? If there's a part 2, AC Clarke hit the nail with his sentient solar flare, that dark "mat" on the Moon that did not live much longer, the floating, ammonia-harvesting balloons in Jupiter's atmosphere... Plus a shout out to the Babel Fish - and the Clangers!
I thought of a really cool idea for an alien species. They appear to be tiny worms to humans, but they live in huge colonies on their super earth sized planet. Entire colonies seem to merge with certain large technological things that can transport the colonies around, but there are other machines that have unknown functions.
Methane breathers from CJ Cherryh's Chanur novels, especially the t'ca. Their multi-partate brains and matrixed speech rewired my concept of alien life. But also shout out to any species invented by Diane Duane!
Does anybody remember Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials? It depicted aliens from various sci-fi books. I think it was published in 1970s or 1980s. I wished there was another illustrated book showcasing aliens from sci-fi works since then. Anybody know of any book like that?
the 2nd one sounds like a large sapient aquatic protist that seems like it's around the size of a sea due to it inhabiting a large terrestrial, or so, that's how I imagine how it'd be able to sustain itself, given what's been described about its overall size
Ths is a great video. You could also add MorningLightMountain, the Starflyer and the Prime species from the books Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, by Peter F. Hamilton.
This video popped up as a recommendation and of course, I sat down before watching it and drew up my own list of the five most unique aliens I could recall, certainly with a minute's warning. I've seen Arrival, and those are very unique aliens. I've seen Solaris, The Thing, TNG and Farscape, the others I'm not familiar with. But I'm sticking with my list: 5. Also from Star Trek, the Horta. This episode so touched me as a child watching it, and it still continues to touch modern-day TH-cam reactors. Oh, we'd all heard of silicon life forms but here was this sad and lonely being, lashing out at the humans who were destroying her eggs, beautifully realised on screen. An intelligent being, willing to forgive and even help those who had so wronged it. And it was so refreshing that it was Kirk who had the empathy: even Spock was shouting, 'Kill it!' 4. The Puppeteers from Larry Niven's Ringworld stories. Complex and mysterious, they intrigued me because I think they were the first aliens I'd come across who were descended from a herd animal, often thought of as cowards because they would instinctively turn their back on an enemy as a last defence. 3. The Moties from Niven and Pournelle's 'Mote In God's Eye'. Completely unlike anything I’d come across before, in terms of appearance, society and history. And the human society Niven and Pournelle constructed was almost as intriguing. Fyunch(click)! 2. The Cheela from Dragon’s Egg by Robert Forward. Beings living on a neutron star, the size of a lentil, living millions of times faster than humans, so that civilisations can rise and fall while their human observers are having supper. An incredibly detailed society, with its own way of thinking that is completely, well, alien to us. I would put the Cheela as the most incredible aliens I have read about in science fiction (and I’m in awe of the imagination that created them), but have to put them in second place purely because I think this next series of books is the best I’ve read. So I’m biased. 1. The Heechee from Gateway and its sequels by Fred Pohl. Vaguely humanoid but so definitely not human, descended from a burrowing species so that when faced with danger, instead of forming a circle like the Puppeteers or rushing blindly in like humans, they dig in somewhere deep and pull the covers over. Only in this case, the somewhere safe is a black hole and the covers are the event horizon. They’re fleeing a massive threat, but the humans are causing trouble and it’s time to leave the nest. I love these books. Honourable mentions to Arthur C Clarke’s Sun creature (From Out Of The Sun) and the Daleks.
Ego the living planet from the Marvel Universe is pretty unique. Well I guess you could lump it in with the sentient ocean. Also V’Ger should get a mention. It is a purely technological being that has a unique creation. First it started as just a human deep space probe but along the way some other life form altered it. In its quest to know everything that and the physical alterations made to its original form sparked sentience. The Puppet Master/Motoko Kusanagi, or the Child if you will, from Ghost in the Shell. Motoko started life as a human but very soon became just a brain in a fully cybernetic body. The Puppet Master started as an artificial intelligence. It gained sentience and wanted to procreate like biological beings do so it convinces Motoko to merge with it. In doing so they created a wholly new being.
An excellent list, well done. There could be quite a few of these videos, goodness knows there's plenty of aliens to go around. Niven and Pournelles moties, numerous aliens from Nivens 'Known Space' universe ( Puppeteers, Kzinti, bandersnatch, Kdatlyno, the Pak), Frank Herberts Gowatchin, Sapient Stars and a range of other very strange entities, Greg Bears numerous aliens from 'Eon' including the Frants and the terrifying Jarts.
I always thought symbiotes were a cool concept whether it be Venom, Parasyte, Guyver or the Trill from Star Trek. These differ from the organisms like The Thing, Alien Xenomorph, or the Color from Outer Space that corrupt the organism rather than providing mutual benefit. There are also tons of short stories involving various alien symbiotes who sometimes merge so completely it makes a third species or evolution. Likely the origin of symbiotes in stories are similar to the witches familiar in fantasy but made for science fiction. Cybernetic AIs although not typically a alien are also similar in that they can either be symbiotic like Cortana in Halo or parasitic like the AI in the movie Upgrade.
The Boneless from the Doctor Who episode Flatline are another really great example of a unique alien species. Usually in sci fi there are higher dimensional beings (4th dimensional, 5th, 6th, etc.). The Boneless, on the other hand, are a species of 2nd dimensional aliens - they come from a universe with only 2 dimensions ( x and y but no z). In the episode they invade the Earth and capture humans to conduct experiments, flattening them into 2D images on walls in the process.
Farscape's leviathans were preceeded by the Nighthawks of The Reality Dysfunction, similar living spaceships that likewise share symbiotic relationships with human captains and have complex reproductive and family lives of their own.
The Drej (Titan A.E.) were terrifying in so far that they were made of pure energy and because of the Law of Conservation of Energy, how can you eliminate an enemy that can’t be destroyed.
Well you can do what the movie does change their form of energy into something else. It’s the old Ship of Theseus question, if you replace every part of the ship is it still the same ship? If you alter the Drej’s energy can they still be called the Drej? If that energy is changed into matter would that mean mass genocide or the matter created still be Drej? Would that matter then be able to spark its own sentient patterned after what it was made with?
I think The Dwellers from Banks' The Algebraist belong on this list, possibly also the dirigible behemothosaurs also. Few others too but appreciate even two from the same author would seem to be unbalanced. Though it's not his fault he was ingenious enough to deserve multiple entries 😁
I would add the Outsiders and the Pak, also from Known Space, two very different aliens, first the ultimate traders and the second, also with three life stages that culminate in beings so smart they always know the correct answer to any problem.
Humans passing judgement on the Crystalline Entity for its method of feeding was such an apt moral dilemma! We have certainly messed up our environment for much less than necessity 🙄
I've always thought the Wraith in Stargate Atlantis were a cool alien species and adversary. The uniqueness of how they sustain themselves feeding off of humans and evolution from the Iratus bug. They are humanoid but hived minded. I've often felt there was more to explore with them. This is a great list!
Great list! If I could add anything to the list it would be the planet spaceships from Lilith's Brood. They are planted in the earth, and as they grow they start to replicate the planets environment surrounding it - growing, eating and replacing the natural ecosystems with itself. It starts to produce fruit and other foods. Anything you leave on the ground will be processed and reused or spat out by the organism. When it has encompassed the whole planet with itself, it detaches, leaving only the crust of the planet behind. Then it goes into a voyage in space together with the Oankali species, looking for more life.
From the pulp series Perry Rhodan the so-called Superintelligences (SI). A SI can have a variety of origins, but a more common pattern is when a large number of beings, often an entire species give up their physicality and individuality to form a SI. The individual memories and personalities still exist within this new entity and can be used as messengers to 'lower' life forms. Due it's nature a SI reaches a deeper understanding of the universe, but is still far from omniscient. Still, completely understanding an SI has been compared to an ant trying to understand a play by Shakespeare. SI's usually claim a territory spanning several galaxies to which they either have a symbiotic or parasitic relationship. While there are further evolutionary steps for SI's it has been hinted that they might not be the only possibilities. The same hints suggest that even the SI's do not fully know their own nature within the universe.
Personally, I like that I've managed to recognize almost all critters on the list. I also like that I missed one, so I have something to look forward to. Personally, I liked "the angels" from Neon Genesis Evangelion as they are made of light. Also, the kaiju from Godzilla Singular Point but that may have some crossover to The Colour. Great video 👍🏻👍🏻
Alien from the 70s movie specially aliens 2nd movie the reproductive cycle and how they go about it need the human body to start the cycle or the queen one of my favourite Aliens
Hello. A very nice video! I remember Arthur Clarcke's "Vanamonde", a thinking gas cloud that lives in deep space, an intellectual and telepathic being, from the novel "The City and the Stars" (1957). And the multiple "humanities" seeded throughout the galaxy by the Haini, in Ursula Le Guin's universe
Tralfamadorians concept of time is from the Block Universe - an idea originating i beleive with Eienstien - David Barbour at oxford is still a preponent of this therory
Great list. When you talked about Lovecraft's THE COLOR, it reminded of the Hooloovoo from THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. They are described as "a super-intelligent shade of the colour blue." 🤣 They interact with other lifeforms by refracting themselves into prisms. I'd say they belong on this list except that they play such a small role in the book.
Leviathans in Farscape unique in science fiction? I'm surprised you didn't mention Lexx - could you explain how the bio-ships from Farscape are different to those in Lexx (I'm not saying they are or aren't different, but they seem awfully similar to me).
I suspect that the Vorlon ships from Babylon 5 were also bio-mechanical. In one episode, I think it was G'Kar who said that Kosh's ship sang to him. Manga artist, Manabi, in his series Outlanders, also had a range biological ships and vehicles. The pilot employed their psychic abilities to project a field around their ships to protect them from harshness of space, and they too healed any battle damage, and too much damage may cause them to scream in agony, and thus be too distracted to follow the pilot's instruction. Bio-ships, really do crop up in fiction, more often than alluded to.
The crystalline entity is a classic invasive species. It goes to places where it has no natural controls and it completely destroys every new ecosystem that it encounters. Barring discovery of a star system with a robust enough ecology to keep the crystalline entity fed, without a system wide mass extinction event, the crystalline entity deserves as much sympathy as a cane toad found in Australia.
Idk. The entity seemed to be a 'one-of-a-kind' . . . . . or at least extremely rare. And in a regard of its feeding strategy,... well, it could go on a "spree" once in a while, lasting for either hours or days at most, and then it would not need to consume anything for many, many long months; this is, of course, only my speculation, but like this it'd be all sustainable. Because the thing is that "Mother Nature" and "Father Cosmos" aren't known for creating organisms/entities that would turn out to be as destructive as being prone to completely annihilating 100% of their surrounding ecosystem. It would not make sense from multiple points of view, including the one of the "abomination's" itself, because it would eventually all lead to... nothing.
@@daxbashir6232 The two things that clearly mark it as having never been sustainable is that it leaves too little behind for the ecology to recover in less than hundreds of millions of years and is capable of interstellar migration. For sustainability, it would have to leave behind a large enough remnant of the biosphere, so that it could return in a few thousand years and repeat the process. That the crystalline entity does not manage to harvest enough from a single planet to reproduce suggests that it is a doomsday weapon that was not designed to replicate itself, so that it was not guaranteed to sterilize the entire galaxy, even if it did not stop after destroying the enemy.
You mean Gomtuu (aka 'Tin Man'); not "Zontue", right? Otherwise, yes, the episode first aired in 1990. BUT, 'Flight of the Navigator' hails from 1986; a film featuring another living spaceship. And I'd bet that even this flick wasn't the very first one to come up with this sci-fi concept.
Hi Darrel, thank you for this interesting list. I recall a book by Arthur C. Clark that I read a long, long time ago. There, he described a species consisting of three sexes, all gaseous. When ‘mating’, (mixing, combining) they produced a solid form. I cannnot recall the title of the book, I am afraid. I was a child.
It's called "The God's Themselves" and it was by Asimov. They weren't gaseous as such but very soft. They had to extrude to mate and form the Hard ones. The emotional, the rational and the mother were the 3 that joined. The hard ones had a plan to explode earth's sun so they could tap the energy released. In their universe Fusion was much easier than fission and their stars died quickly hence the need for a more long lasting energy source as energy was their sustenance.
The Tralfamadorians! I totally mentioned them once to you! Was that the reason why you were extra smiling when you mentioned them? I knew you secretly liked all my lewd thirsty comments from this past year LOL I can't believe I've already been following you for more than a year. I remember saying something crazy last Valentine's. I grok you Darrell!!!! 💙
C.M. Kösemen's All Tomorrows also features some unique aliens. (They have human ancestors, but after genetic modifications, and millions of years of evolution in extraterrestrial environments, they are aliens IMO.)
Some great examples from literature and film, but I have to stick with Terry Nation's Daleks as the absolute hands down kewlest aliens of all time. A species mutated artificially to its ultimate form, and placed inside a deadly travel machine. They have a demented concept of beauty, and are at least partially driven mad by their fate. Despite their apparent limitations, they master space AND time travel, and always endure no matter how much a foe devastates them.
Darrel, yesternight I was speaking to Gemini Google AI (it will soon be launched to the general public) and asked him to tell me a sci-fi bedtime short story made by himself. Instantly he came up with the following: In the shimmering nebula of Lyra, cloaked in swirling gas giants, pulsed a curious moon named Elara. Unlike its rocky neighbors, Elara glowed with an ethereal bioluminescence, echoing the rhythm of a vast, sentient ocean beneath its thin atmosphere. On its surface, amidst bioluminescent flora mirroring the celestial dance above, resided the Lumens, beings of pure energy thriving on the moon's unique energy field. Among them dwelled Anya, a young Lumen with an insatiable curiosity. Unlike her kin content with the gentle rhythm of their existence, Anya craved adventure. The stories whispered by elders, tales of meteor showers and distant star systems, fueled her yearning to explore. One night, as constellations shimmered with renewed brilliance, Anya noticed a peculiar streak across the nebula. It wasn't a familiar meteor, but a sleek, metallic vessel unlike anything she had ever seen. Landing with a soft hum on the bioluminescent plains, fear battled with excitement in Anya's core. Driven by her curiosity, she approached the vessel, its smooth hull reflecting the starry sky. A hatch hissed open, revealing a figure clad in a strange, shimmering suit. The figure extended a hand, its light pulsing in gentle invitation. Anya, her heart pounding with a mix of trepidation and wonder, reached out and grasped it. The figure introduced himself as Kai, an explorer from a distant galaxy, his ship damaged by a rogue asteroid. Kai marveled at Elara's beauty and the unique culture of the Lumens. Together, they spent days sharing stories and knowledge. Anya learned of other worlds, bustling with technology and diverse life forms, while Kai marveled at the Lumens' connection to their natural world. As Kai's ship neared repair, a bittersweet pang struck Anya. Though she yearned to explore the cosmos, she couldn't imagine leaving her home and her people. Kai, sensing her conflict, offered a solution. He could create a small device that would allow Anya to visit his world, returning in the blink of an eye. Torn between adventure and responsibility, Anya spent the last night gazing at the starlit sky. Finally, she made a decision. With a grateful nod to Kai, she took the device, her heart brimming with excitement and a touch of fear. Stepping into the vessel, she turned back one last time, the bioluminescent landscape etched forever in her memory. As Kai's ship soared into the vastness of space, Anya, holding the device tight, closed her eyes, ready to embark on a journey beyond her wildest dreams. The story of her adventures, however, is for another time... Perhaps you'll dream of them tonight, under the starry expanse of your own world. Sweet dreams.
Isn't there a sci-fi book, or short story, in which stars could be sentient beings? Some stars had no intelligence, some you could have "discussions" with, and some were rogues. Sorry, my memory is not very good on this story, other than I found it very unique.
Well, If I remember it correctly (last read any of the geezer's works 18 years ago), H.P. Lovecraft crafted (pun not intended) one of his universes like this, with various celestial bodies' and cosmic constructs' being sentient/sapient God-like entities. Then about 30 to 40 years after Lovecraft, the likes of Erich von Däniken and Zecharia Sitchin came around and (appeared to me to have) exploited Lovecraft's legacy by their regurgitating and misusing (aka 'violating') certain elements of his works in order to promote their pseudo-scientific would-be theories. 😞
I agree that the tines are a really interesting take on group minds. Sadly it was buried in a bottom tier trash fire book, ruined by abysmal interpersonal relationships and composition dumps that feel like they were written by a child of reasonable intellect.
I think Peter Watts' aliens in Blindsight were really cool. The fact that they were highly intelligent but non-conscious/self-aware. They also had a kind of interesting physiology and life cycle.
Thank you for mentioning that. Blindtsight is such an interesting take on intelligence.
There's a fan theory I read about the shape-shifting alien from "The Thing". This theory posits that when the alien takes a human form, but before it's unmasked as the alien, it's such a perfect replication of the host that the alien itself is unaware of it's being an alien. It believes itself to be the human it replicated. I've found that concept to be fascinating and more than a little chilling.
A pair of alien races I find most fascinating are the two from the Expanse series. First the Ringbuilders - who are eventually revealed to be sentient light waves evolved from bioluminescent microbes and whose technology is fuelled by radiation and becomes semi-sentient by absorbing and repurposing matter (including humans). And The Unknown Aggressors, eventually revealed to be shadow-like entities from another older universe who can only be perceived by turning reality into a foam. They can also tinker with the fundamental forces of the universe, literally reducing the speed of light in a solar system and changing the physics of ions across an entire planet, all in a manner like someone twisting the knobs on a dial. When the writers made aliens here, they really went all out.
One of the most unique aliens I can remember are the Traeki and Jophur from David Brin's Uplift Saga. The Traeki were a collective intelligence created by stacking various different kinds of smaller ring-shaped life forms together. I don't recall how much of their biology was naturally evolved and how much was artificial, but the rings themselves were like neurons, though each had different capabilities physcially as well. Like you might have mobility rings with tentacles or whatever for walking, and then eye rings for seeing, a ring for the arms or tentacles they needed to manipulate the world with.
Though the Traeki were a collective, they were also slow of thought and often took a long time to decide things, like an old-fashioned Greek democracy or a modern day committee. Their Patron species -- the species that Uplifted them to sentience -- were disappointed in them for those reasons, so they genetically engineered a new "control" ring that would go on top, and would turn the rings from basically a democracy/committee into a fascist dictatorship, which we got to see firsthand in the second Uplift trilogy when a hidden Traeki got siezed and given a control ring. This new control ring couldn't be sentient on its own, but when paired with the other rings, it could take control and give the collective a decisiveness and enhanced thinking speed. In the books, I remember loving the Traeki, wishing I could meet the ones that got away from their Patron species and were hiding on fallow worlds. But the Jophur, what the ones with the control ring were called, were a bunch of evil a-holes. But then, a lot of the alien species in that storyverse are evil a-holes.
Always glad to see farscape appreciation.
Farce cape? :D
The Qax from “Timelike Infinity” deserve some love. They were composed of convection cells that evolved in the turbulent waters of an ocean world. They humped around the galaxy like traveling salesmen imbedded in the stomachs of living whale-like creatures hardened and outfitted for space travel.
As soon as I saw the title of the video I thought Tines! I love that Farscapes' Leviathans were included too, great video!
The Color is like an incredibly alien, malignant form of radiation. Such a strange but fascinating concept.
I love how Star Trek just has an entire classification of space-dwelling life forms, the cosmozoans. Like, not just one but dozens or hundreds of species that live and grow in the void of space.
Easily the best sci-fi topical channel on youtube. I especially like the clear and concise presentation and articulate speech.
"Easily the best"?
Weeeell,... that's at least questionable. :)
But it is certainly great nonetheless.
Fred Hoyle’s sentient and intelligent gas cloud in “The Black Cloud” deserved a mention I think
I'm rather surprised that you didn't include The Cheela from Robert Forward's book 'Dragon's Egg'. Amazing life forms that live on a neutron star and who live their lives a million times faster than humans.
I loved Forward's books. You don't get aliens much stranger than the Cheela.
I was hoping to see the Moties here.
I'd like to give an honorable mention to the Weeping Angels from DOCTOR WHO. They can only move and act when quantum phenomena are unresolved, which means they become immobile whenever they are observed (which collapses unresolved quantum states), appearing as stone statues. For another lifeform which relies on unresolved quantum states, I highly recommend QUARANTINE by Greg Egan. I won't spoil the plot, but it's an excellent read.
That a great choice I love there 1st appearance it pretty much was a non doctor episode one of my favourite episodes
The Weeping Angels take a very fun game for children* and re-imagine it as Lovecraftian horror.
* Red Light/ Green light, where one child is the traffic light and the other children are trying to cross a line while only moving while the traffic light is not looking at them [the light is green]. Anyone seen moving by the traffic light [the light is red] must go back to the start line.
@@richardbell7678 Like SQUID GAME made rl/gl into non-Lovecraftian horror. 😂
the Xeelee were formed and had civilizations rise and fall during the first nanoseconds after the big bang; should've mentioned more about them. Loved your inclusion of The Thing
Great list, Darrel. Loved that you included something from Lovecraft. From the short story, I always considered "The Colour Out of Space" as a kind of living radiation. Truly alien, indeed.
I would mention the Pattern Jugglers and the Puppeteers. Props for the Tines. I found the Photino Birds to be a singular disappointment as essentially just a force of nature.
Only half way through the list, the Arrival aliens, the sentient piglets, the sandworms, the leviathans ... one of the greatest and exquisite compilations of things on YT. Very good picks until now, extremely interested in what else is there.
Awesome video! Great collection from sci-fi. Really gets the mind going. Thanks for putting it together! Tines! Yea! 🙂
I was literally preparing to write a comment on how you should have included the Tralfalmadorians from Slaughterhouse Five (certainly the alien species that had the most lasting impression on me personally, even if we are introduced to them as zookeepers.)
You never cease to surprise me.
This video has been very entertaining from an originality view. I’m glad you chose more underrated aliens rather than easy picks like the Xenomorph or the Yautja.
So glad you listed the photino birds! The whole xeelee saga is just incredible!
For me one of the most unique aliens in the Golden Age of Science Fiction was "the Mother" from Philip Jose Farmer's Strange Relations.
Yes but... when do the Tralfamadorians every moment all at once?
If there's a part 2, AC Clarke hit the nail with his sentient solar flare, that dark "mat" on the Moon that did not live much longer, the floating, ammonia-harvesting balloons in Jupiter's atmosphere...
Plus a shout out to the Babel Fish - and the Clangers!
I thought of a really cool idea for an alien species. They appear to be tiny worms to humans, but they live in huge colonies on their super earth sized planet. Entire colonies seem to merge with certain large technological things that can transport the colonies around, but there are other machines that have unknown functions.
Methane breathers from CJ Cherryh's Chanur novels, especially the t'ca. Their multi-partate brains and matrixed speech rewired my concept of alien life. But also shout out to any species invented by Diane Duane!
Yeeeeyy!!! Our Darrel also likes Deftones!! 🙂
I loved how i learnt about the Sapor- Whorf hypothesis before I saw Arrival.
The leviathans are such a cool concept! Reminds me a lot of the Cetacyborgs from The Metabarons or the Nevronoms from Orbital.
Does anybody remember Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials? It depicted aliens from various sci-fi books. I think it was published in 1970s or 1980s. I wished there was another illustrated book showcasing aliens from sci-fi works since then. Anybody know of any book like that?
Pretty sure Barlowe's included the Tines
the 2nd one sounds like a large sapient aquatic protist that seems like it's around the size of a sea due to it inhabiting a large terrestrial, or so, that's how I imagine how it'd be able to sustain itself, given what's been described about its overall size
Ths is a great video. You could also add MorningLightMountain, the Starflyer and the Prime species from the books Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, by Peter F. Hamilton.
This video popped up as a recommendation and of course, I sat down before watching it and drew up my own list of the five most unique aliens I could recall, certainly with a minute's warning.
I've seen Arrival, and those are very unique aliens. I've seen Solaris, The Thing, TNG and Farscape, the others I'm not familiar with. But I'm sticking with my list:
5. Also from Star Trek, the Horta. This episode so touched me as a child watching it, and it still continues to touch modern-day TH-cam reactors. Oh, we'd all heard of silicon life forms but here was this sad and lonely being, lashing out at the humans who were destroying her eggs, beautifully realised on screen. An intelligent being, willing to forgive and even help those who had so wronged it. And it was so refreshing that it was Kirk who had the empathy: even Spock was shouting, 'Kill it!'
4. The Puppeteers from Larry Niven's Ringworld stories. Complex and mysterious, they intrigued me because I think they were the first aliens I'd come across who were descended from a herd animal, often thought of as cowards because they would instinctively turn their back on an enemy as a last defence.
3. The Moties from Niven and Pournelle's 'Mote In God's Eye'. Completely unlike anything I’d come across before, in terms of appearance, society and history. And the human society Niven and Pournelle constructed was almost as intriguing. Fyunch(click)!
2. The Cheela from Dragon’s Egg by Robert Forward. Beings living on a neutron star, the size of a lentil, living millions of times faster than humans, so that civilisations can rise and fall while their human observers are having supper. An incredibly detailed society, with its own way of thinking that is completely, well, alien to us.
I would put the Cheela as the most incredible aliens I have read about in science fiction (and I’m in awe of the imagination that created them), but have to put them in second place purely because I think this next series of books is the best I’ve read. So I’m biased.
1. The Heechee from Gateway and its sequels by Fred Pohl. Vaguely humanoid but so definitely not human, descended from a burrowing species so that when faced with danger, instead of forming a circle like the Puppeteers or rushing blindly in like humans, they dig in somewhere deep and pull the covers over. Only in this case, the somewhere safe is a black hole and the covers are the event horizon. They’re fleeing a massive threat, but the humans are causing trouble and it’s time to leave the nest. I love these books.
Honourable mentions to Arthur C Clarke’s Sun creature (From Out Of The Sun) and the Daleks.
Great video as always Darrel. Also have any high tech or advanced technology short story collections you recommend?
Ego the living planet from the Marvel Universe is pretty unique. Well I guess you could lump it in with the sentient ocean.
Also V’Ger should get a mention. It is a purely technological being that has a unique creation. First it started as just a human deep space probe but along the way some other life form altered it. In its quest to know everything that and the physical alterations made to its original form sparked sentience.
The Puppet Master/Motoko Kusanagi, or the Child if you will, from Ghost in the Shell. Motoko started life as a human but very soon became just a brain in a fully cybernetic body. The Puppet Master started as an artificial intelligence. It gained sentience and wanted to procreate like biological beings do so it convinces Motoko to merge with it. In doing so they created a wholly new being.
The aliens in Stephen Donaldson Gap Into series are worth reading about.
An excellent list, well done. There could be quite a few of these videos, goodness knows there's plenty of aliens to go around. Niven and Pournelles moties, numerous aliens from Nivens 'Known Space' universe ( Puppeteers, Kzinti, bandersnatch, Kdatlyno, the Pak), Frank Herberts Gowatchin, Sapient Stars and a range of other very strange entities, Greg Bears numerous aliens from 'Eon' including the Frants and the terrifying Jarts.
I always thought symbiotes were a cool concept whether it be Venom, Parasyte, Guyver or the Trill from Star Trek. These differ from the organisms like The Thing, Alien Xenomorph, or the Color from Outer Space that corrupt the organism rather than providing mutual benefit. There are also tons of short stories involving various alien symbiotes who sometimes merge so completely it makes a third species or evolution. Likely the origin of symbiotes in stories are similar to the witches familiar in fantasy but made for science fiction. Cybernetic AIs although not typically a alien are also similar in that they can either be symbiotic like Cortana in Halo or parasitic like the AI in the movie Upgrade.
Saw the Tine. Had to click.
Great video, Darrel!
The Boneless from the Doctor Who episode Flatline are another really great example of a unique alien species. Usually in sci fi there are higher dimensional beings (4th dimensional, 5th, 6th, etc.). The Boneless, on the other hand, are a species of 2nd dimensional aliens - they come from a universe with only 2 dimensions ( x and y but no z). In the episode they invade the Earth and capture humans to conduct experiments, flattening them into 2D images on walls in the process.
Farscape's leviathans were preceeded by the Nighthawks of The Reality Dysfunction, similar living spaceships that likewise share symbiotic relationships with human captains and have complex reproductive and family lives of their own.
The Thing was nightmare fuel when I saw it way too young... 🫣
Woah that must have been harsh...
Me too!
Maybe not the goriest but one the most grotesque movies I saw as a young teen.
Pattern jugglers from Revelation Space is kinda like the Solaris ocean
What about the creatures of Splinter. Novel: the mote in god’s eye by Niven/Pournelle.
Deftones!!
The Drej (Titan A.E.) were terrifying in so far that they were made of pure energy and because of the Law of Conservation of Energy, how can you eliminate an enemy that can’t be destroyed.
Well you can do what the movie does change their form of energy into something else. It’s the old Ship of Theseus question, if you replace every part of the ship is it still the same ship?
If you alter the Drej’s energy can they still be called the Drej? If that energy is changed into matter would that mean mass genocide or the matter created still be Drej? Would that matter then be able to spark its own sentient patterned after what it was made with?
I think The Dwellers from Banks' The Algebraist belong on this list, possibly also the dirigible behemothosaurs also.
Few others too but appreciate even two from the same author would seem to be unbalanced. Though it's not his fault he was ingenious enough to deserve multiple entries 😁
What about "Known Space"'s Pierson's Puppeteers? Not only their unique physiology, but their impact on that "universe"?
I would add the Outsiders and the Pak, also from Known Space, two very different aliens, first the ultimate traders and the second, also with three life stages that culminate in beings so smart they always know the correct answer to any problem.
Humans passing judgement on the Crystalline Entity for its method of feeding was such an apt moral dilemma! We have certainly messed up our environment for much less than necessity 🙄
I've always thought the Wraith in Stargate Atlantis were a cool alien species and adversary. The uniqueness of how they sustain themselves feeding off of humans and evolution from the Iratus bug. They are humanoid but hived minded. I've often felt there was more to explore with them.
This is a great list!
Great list! If I could add anything to the list it would be the planet spaceships from Lilith's Brood. They are planted in the earth, and as they grow they start to replicate the planets environment surrounding it - growing, eating and replacing the natural ecosystems with itself. It starts to produce fruit and other foods. Anything you leave on the ground will be processed and reused or spat out by the organism. When it has encompassed the whole planet with itself, it detaches, leaving only the crust of the planet behind.
Then it goes into a voyage in space together with the Oankali species, looking for more life.
Robert Forward’s Dragon’s Egg - namely the Cheela. Not only do you get unique alien lifeforms, unique environment; you also get their culture.
Stanislav Lem Invincible swarm of small metal "bees" deserve to be on this list.
Wow... That's a great list, thank you
Similar to the Solaris ocean was the organism called Erythro from Asimov's "Nemesis", a decentralized planet-spanning mind
lol good call with the grossness warning for the thing
The Qu from All Tomorrows (sooo creepy), Pattern Jugglers from Rev. Space, and Curators in House of Suns are pretty interesting.
My advice - read Terry Carr's The Dance of the Changer and the Three.
Pretty much every alien in the Xeelee sequence is one of the most unusual in all of sci-fi, and the humans are all utterly insane.
From the pulp series Perry Rhodan the so-called Superintelligences (SI). A SI can have a variety of origins, but a more common pattern is when a large number of beings, often an entire species give up their physicality and individuality to form a SI. The individual memories and personalities still exist within this new entity and can be used as messengers to 'lower' life forms. Due it's nature a SI reaches a deeper understanding of the universe, but is still far from omniscient. Still, completely understanding an SI has been compared to an ant trying to understand a play by Shakespeare.
SI's usually claim a territory spanning several galaxies to which they either have a symbiotic or parasitic relationship.
While there are further evolutionary steps for SI's it has been hinted that they might not be the only possibilities. The same hints suggest that even the SI's do not fully know their own nature within the universe.
Pequenino is such a smart name! It's like pig (pecuario) mixed with little (pequeñín o pequeñito). So cute! 🐷
I have always liked the traeki and jophur from the uplift books
Gua'ld were pretty ingenious, for their time in the 90s.
In what way?
I always saw them as a rip-off of the Trill from Star Trek.
Personally, I like that I've managed to recognize almost all critters on the list. I also like that I missed one, so I have something to look forward to.
Personally, I liked "the angels" from Neon Genesis Evangelion as they are made of light. Also, the kaiju from Godzilla Singular Point but that may have some crossover to The Colour.
Great video 👍🏻👍🏻
Alien from the 70s movie specially aliens 2nd movie the reproductive cycle and how they go about it need the human body to start the cycle or the queen one of my favourite Aliens
Is the Shrike an alien? If so it definitely makes my list
It's the end point of an AI's immune system's evolution, if I understood the books correctly (no guarantees there 😅)
The Shrike was created by the A.I. god to provoke a response from the human god.
The aliens in Blindsight
You left out the life cycle of the Sand worms.
Hello. A very nice video! I remember Arthur Clarcke's "Vanamonde", a thinking gas cloud that lives in deep space, an intellectual and telepathic being, from the novel "The City and the Stars" (1957). And the multiple "humanities" seeded throughout the galaxy by the Haini, in Ursula Le Guin's universe
Tralfamadorians concept of time is from the Block Universe - an idea originating i beleive with Eienstien - David Barbour at oxford is still a preponent of this therory
Good selection.
I would probably substitute Heinlein's Martians from Stranger for the Card entry which felt a bit derivative to me.
I always thought the angels in the Neon Genesis Evangelion get crazier in concept each time.
Lexx also had living spaceship.
deftones shirt. instantly based.
I'd like to throw in the Nildoror, from Robert Silverberg's Downward To Earth.
"Pequeninhos" is a Portugese word meaning "little pigs," and it's pronounced "pay-kay-NEEN-yos."
Great list. When you talked about Lovecraft's THE COLOR, it reminded of the Hooloovoo from THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. They are described as "a super-intelligent shade of the colour blue." 🤣 They interact with other lifeforms by refracting themselves into prisms. I'd say they belong on this list except that they play such a small role in the book.
The Moties
Who?
@@daxbashir6232 read the mote in God's eye.
Leviathans in Farscape unique in science fiction? I'm surprised you didn't mention Lexx - could you explain how the bio-ships from Farscape are different to those in Lexx (I'm not saying they are or aren't different, but they seem awfully similar to me).
I suspect that the Vorlon ships from Babylon 5 were also bio-mechanical. In one episode, I think it was G'Kar who said that Kosh's ship sang to him.
Manga artist, Manabi, in his series Outlanders, also had a range biological ships and vehicles. The pilot employed their psychic abilities to project a field around their ships to protect them from harshness of space, and they too healed any battle damage, and too much damage may cause them to scream in agony, and thus be too distracted to follow the pilot's instruction.
Bio-ships, really do crop up in fiction, more often than alluded to.
The crystalline entity is a classic invasive species. It goes to places where it has no natural controls and it completely destroys every new ecosystem that it encounters. Barring discovery of a star system with a robust enough ecology to keep the crystalline entity fed, without a system wide mass extinction event, the crystalline entity deserves as much sympathy as a cane toad found in Australia.
Idk. The entity seemed to be a 'one-of-a-kind' . . . . . or at least extremely rare.
And in a regard of its feeding strategy,... well, it could go on a "spree" once in a while, lasting for either hours or days at most, and then it would not need to consume anything for many, many long months; this is, of course, only my speculation, but like this it'd be all sustainable.
Because the thing is that "Mother Nature" and "Father Cosmos" aren't known for creating organisms/entities that would turn out to be as destructive as being prone to completely annihilating 100% of their surrounding ecosystem. It would not make sense from multiple points of view, including the one of the "abomination's" itself, because it would eventually all lead to... nothing.
@@daxbashir6232 The two things that clearly mark it as having never been sustainable is that it leaves too little behind for the ecology to recover in less than hundreds of millions of years and is capable of interstellar migration. For sustainability, it would have to leave behind a large enough remnant of the biosphere, so that it could return in a few thousand years and repeat the process. That the crystalline entity does not manage to harvest enough from a single planet to reproduce suggests that it is a doomsday weapon that was not designed to replicate itself, so that it was not guaranteed to sterilize the entire galaxy, even if it did not stop after destroying the enemy.
@@richardbell7678
Interesting and noteworthy take, also.
0:48 - You wanted to say 'film' or 'movie' instead of "novel", right? 🙂
You forgot about Zontue the living ship from Star Trek TNG long before Farscape.
You mean Gomtuu (aka 'Tin Man'); not "Zontue", right?
Otherwise, yes, the episode first aired in 1990.
BUT, 'Flight of the Navigator' hails from 1986; a film featuring another living spaceship. And I'd bet that even this flick wasn't the very first one to come up with this sci-fi concept.
@@daxbashir6232 The Axos ship from Doctor Who was biological, That was 1971
No Shrike from Hyperion cantos?
08:30 Shai-Hulud appears to have the same shape as the Guild High Liners. Any idea behind that?
Hi Darrel, thank you for this interesting list. I recall a book by Arthur C. Clark that I read a long, long time ago. There, he described a species consisting of three sexes, all gaseous. When ‘mating’, (mixing, combining) they produced a solid form. I cannnot recall the title of the book, I am afraid. I was a child.
It's called "The God's Themselves" and it was by Asimov. They weren't gaseous as such but very soft. They had to extrude to mate and form the Hard ones. The emotional, the rational and the mother were the 3 that joined. The hard ones had a plan to explode earth's sun so they could tap the energy released. In their universe Fusion was much easier than fission and their stars died quickly hence the need for a more long lasting energy source as energy was their sustenance.
Thank you! I am sorry for all the errors I made! A wonder that you recognized the story!
@@jasperdoornbos8989 no apologies necessary, it's one of my favourite stories. At least you know now.
I think I know you from somewhere...
From OrangeRiver? :)
@@daxbashir6232 yes! How did you know?!
The Tralfamadorians! I totally mentioned them once to you! Was that the reason why you were extra smiling when you mentioned them? I knew you secretly liked all my lewd thirsty comments from this past year LOL I can't believe I've already been following you for more than a year. I remember saying something crazy last Valentine's. I grok you Darrell!!!! 💙
Thanks. It's good to know I'm grokked somewhere. I always read your comments with a smile. 😀
@@Sci-FiOdyssey Just so that you know, that somewhere is Madrid. Olé 🌇
One eye One horn Purple People Eater
C.M. Kösemen's All Tomorrows also features some unique aliens. (They have human ancestors, but after genetic modifications, and millions of years of evolution in extraterrestrial environments, they are aliens IMO.)
Darrell made an entire video dedicated only to them.
Some great examples from literature and film, but I have to stick with Terry Nation's Daleks as the absolute hands down kewlest aliens of all time. A species mutated artificially to its ultimate form, and placed inside a deadly travel machine. They have a demented concept of beauty, and are at least partially driven mad by their fate. Despite their apparent limitations, they master space AND time travel, and always endure no matter how much a foe devastates them.
Darrel, yesternight I was speaking to Gemini Google AI (it will soon be launched to the general public) and asked him to tell me a sci-fi bedtime short story made by himself. Instantly he came up with the following: In the shimmering nebula of Lyra, cloaked in swirling gas giants, pulsed a curious moon named Elara. Unlike its rocky neighbors, Elara glowed with an ethereal bioluminescence, echoing the rhythm of a vast, sentient ocean beneath its thin atmosphere. On its surface, amidst bioluminescent flora mirroring the celestial dance above, resided the Lumens, beings of pure energy thriving on the moon's unique energy field.
Among them dwelled Anya, a young Lumen with an insatiable curiosity. Unlike her kin content with the gentle rhythm of their existence, Anya craved adventure. The stories whispered by elders, tales of meteor showers and distant star systems, fueled her yearning to explore.
One night, as constellations shimmered with renewed brilliance, Anya noticed a peculiar streak across the nebula. It wasn't a familiar meteor, but a sleek, metallic vessel unlike anything she had ever seen. Landing with a soft hum on the bioluminescent plains, fear battled with excitement in Anya's core.
Driven by her curiosity, she approached the vessel, its smooth hull reflecting the starry sky. A hatch hissed open, revealing a figure clad in a strange, shimmering suit. The figure extended a hand, its light pulsing in gentle invitation. Anya, her heart pounding with a mix of trepidation and wonder, reached out and grasped it.
The figure introduced himself as Kai, an explorer from a distant galaxy, his ship damaged by a rogue asteroid. Kai marveled at Elara's beauty and the unique culture of the Lumens. Together, they spent days sharing stories and knowledge. Anya learned of other worlds, bustling with technology and diverse life forms, while Kai marveled at the Lumens' connection to their natural world.
As Kai's ship neared repair, a bittersweet pang struck Anya. Though she yearned to explore the cosmos, she couldn't imagine leaving her home and her people. Kai, sensing her conflict, offered a solution. He could create a small device that would allow Anya to visit his world, returning in the blink of an eye.
Torn between adventure and responsibility, Anya spent the last night gazing at the starlit sky. Finally, she made a decision. With a grateful nod to Kai, she took the device, her heart brimming with excitement and a touch of fear. Stepping into the vessel, she turned back one last time, the bioluminescent landscape etched forever in her memory.
As Kai's ship soared into the vastness of space, Anya, holding the device tight, closed her eyes, ready to embark on a journey beyond her wildest dreams. The story of her adventures, however, is for another time... Perhaps you'll dream of them tonight, under the starry expanse of your own world. Sweet dreams.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing 😀
I can't find your books in the Kobo store.
Flense!
Thanks!
Thanks you!
Isn't there a sci-fi book, or short story, in which stars could be sentient beings? Some stars had no intelligence, some you could have "discussions" with, and some were rogues. Sorry, my memory is not very good on this story, other than I found it very unique.
Well, If I remember it correctly (last read any of the geezer's works 18 years ago), H.P. Lovecraft crafted (pun not intended) one of his universes like this, with various celestial bodies' and cosmic constructs' being sentient/sapient God-like entities.
Then about 30 to 40 years after Lovecraft, the likes of Erich von Däniken and Zecharia Sitchin came around and (appeared to me to have) exploited Lovecraft's legacy by their regurgitating and misusing (aka 'violating') certain elements of his works in order to promote their pseudo-scientific would-be theories. 😞
What about the aliens in The Theee Body Problem now They are unique
Any Alien from David Brin
Brin? The Russian co-founder of Google? :D
I agree that the tines are a really interesting take on group minds. Sadly it was buried in a bottom tier trash fire book, ruined by abysmal interpersonal relationships and composition dumps that feel like they were written by a child of reasonable intellect.
Nice video, but...
"most unique" = more one of a kind than other things that are also one of a kind.
There are no gradations of uniqueness. Just FYI 😊
Are the images ai generated?