Ambiguously Human / Live-Action TV

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Ambiguously Human in Live-Action TV.

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• Kenneth Parcell from 30 Rock looks human but as the series goes on it becomes less clear. There are numerous references to him being immortal or a supernatural being.
  Kenneth: Who said I've been alive forever?!
  Kenneth: I hope I photograph okay. Because every time I look into the mirror, there's just a white haze.
  Kenneth: When I first started working here, an 8-year-old Shirley Temple taught me how to roll a cigarette.
  • His mom comes to visit in one episode and fondly recalls his first words, literally moments after his birth when the doctor put him in her arms, "Mama, I am not a person. My body's just a flesh vessel for an immortal being whose name, if you heard it, would make you lose your mind." Kenneth smiles awkwardly and treats it like any other embarrassing parental story from childhood.
• The Addams Family all look human (with the exception of Lurch and Itt; and Itt is only a cousin and therefore possibly not a blood relation, while Lurch is merely the hired help) and have no explicit supernatural powers, yet are usually treated as monsters by the narrative. The Movie reveals that they can survive crippling injuries without problems and apparently enjoy some sort of immortality — but whether that's because they're actually immortal or just too insane to realize they're human is never made clear.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • When Skye proves to be surprisingly compatible with an alien serum, Coulson theorizes that she might not be human. Turns out she's an Inhuman, which means that she is, for all intents and purposes, a baseline human unless exposed to Terrigen Mists... which happens halfway through the second season.
    Skye: [jokingly] Like, what, you think I'm an alien?
    Coulson: Well...
    Skye: Hold on, are you saying that I'm an alien!?
    Coulson: It's a theory.
    Skye: No, a theory is what scientists use to prove things in nature; this is you telling me that I might be an alien! That's not something you just say like it's no big deal!
    Coulson: I was trying not to rattle you.
    Skye: Guess what? Epic fail!
  • The Koenig brothers, a group of Inexplicably Identical Individuals (all played by Patton Oswalt) who all act very much the same (with the exception of Thurston), with Billy (the second one introduced) being functionally a Backup Twin to his late brother Eric. Throughout the first few seasons, there's a minor Running Gag regarding the brothers' true nature, with implications that they may be clones or (more commonly hinted) robots (Eric was definitely human, but was killed by Ward before the running gag started). Eventually, the episode "Hot Potato Soup" reveals that the Koenig brothers are just identical quadruplets, although there's one final tease that they were connected to the LMD project... as technicians, not robots.
• Angel: Gwen, the sole employee of the Files and Records department at Wolfram and Hart, looks like a normal clerk, but there's a lot of strange things about her. She acts like a living search engine, i.e. she appears to be effectively omniscient at least as far as Wolfram and Hart is concerned, she has memorised every line in every file of the cavernous records room but won't tell you any of it unless you explicitly ask her to, and begins almost every sentence with "I'm Files and Records, it's my job". At one point, she is implied to sit at her desk for fourteen hours without going home or changing clothes. Also, when she is recalling something her eyes flicker. Exactly what she is — demon, robot, magical construct or very specialised witch/psychic — is never stated.
• Barry: Lily Proxin is capable of so many near-impossible physical feats and has such feral behavior that Fuches and Barry become convinced that she's not even human.
  Fuches: [after watching Lily climb up a tree, leap onto the top of her house, and perch there] Okay, she's not human.
  Barry: That's what I said, man.
  Fuches: She's not human, she's something else. I don't know what.
• The witches and warlocks from Bewitched are immortal, can teleport, and can do all manner of supernatural things by twitching their noses. However, it's unknown if they're a separate species from humans or not. Samantha (a witch) and Darren (a normal person) interbred and had a daughter named Tabitha, but when Samantha was pregnant, Darren said that he hoped the baby would be "human". As it turns out, she is a witch, suggesting that being a witch or warlock is genetic. Endora once berates Darren for being mostly water, suggesting that they're biologically very different from humans, but Tabitha has the same needs as a normal baby (naps, diaper changes, and feedings) suggesting that they're biologically similar.
• Blake's 7:
  • Is Cally a Human Alien telepath or from a race of humans who have artificially modified themselves to possess psionic gifts through cloning and genetic engineering? The series is confused on this issue.
  • Dayna is also referred to as an "alien" at one point, but that may have been a legal as opposed to a biological definition: the implication being that she couldn't receive medical treatment on Earth because she wasn't an Earth citizen.
  • In-universe, the common claim that all intelligent life originated on Earth is disputed, and there are several "alien" civilisations of human-looking people that may or may not be descended from colonists from Earth.
    • The writers couldn't agree on this out of-universe.
• In Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the Draconians are... probably aliens? Some fans assume that they're just a much more successful group of the humans who left Earth after the nuclear holocaust; after all, the whole second season was devoted to finding other such groups. If they are aliens, then they are extremely human-like ones.
• In The Crossing, the Apex are stated to be the next step in human evolution, with physical and mental abilities far above normal humans, but it is unrevealed whether they are the product of a mutation or whether they were somehow enhanced through artificial means.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Doctor themself (and, by extension, all other Time Lords) was depicted this way throughout the '60s, with the range of ambiguity Depending on the Writer. The Doctor & Susan possessed some extra-human abilities like a Psychic Block Defense, telekenesis, absurdly good memory, and amplified vitality, and different stories would alternate between calling the Doctor human, alien, and a human biologically modified by extensive time travel (with the show most strongly leaning into some variant of the "futuristic human" characterization). Even regeneration was depicted as an artificial process performed by the TARDIS and other Time Lords. Eventually, the Third Doctor's debut story would retcon Time Lords as having Bizarre Alien Biology, while his last story would redefine regeneration as a biological phenomenon, definitively establishing Time Lords as aliens (and forcing Expanded Universe writers to explain why the First Doctor had one heart instead of two).
  • The series often gives no indication whatsoever about whether humanoid cultures in "space" stories are Human Aliens (of which there are many, especially in pre-2005 stories) or far-future descendants of human colonies.
  • The Peladonians in "The Curse of Peladon" are said to be a technologically backwards culture who are only just becoming involved in interstellar politics. However, they look completely human and might be a lost human colony. They are explicitly stated to be able to interbreed with humans without any high-tech biological intervention, which would support this in most universes... but then again, in Doctor Who, humans are capable of interbreeding with cats.
  • It is canon from their first appearance that the Daleks are heavily mutated versions of an originally humanoid race, although their actual backstory is very inconsistent (nuclear radiation causing mutations in "The Daleks", intentional genetic modification in "Genesis of the Daleks"). However, how human this precursor race is goes back and forth. In "Genesis of the Daleks" a Kaled scientist notes that although Harry (a human) looks like them his internal workings are completely different, yet in "The Parting of the Ways", the Doctor explains that humans were used as the source for the new Daleks because of their genetic similarity; and in "The Stolen Earth", the Tenth Doctor tells Donna that the Kaleds were just like humans but with slightly bluish blood and a few fewer ribs. (Both of these can be explained with in-character behaviour — the Kaleds have an insanely racist culture where any deviation from the norm makes someone a subhuman, and the Doctor could have been exaggerating or lying to make a point.) At least one Dalek story went so far as to suggest the Daleks weren't even slightly human/Kaled or organic, just being robots rather than a Little Green Man in a Can.
  • There's at least one case of the show's ropey visuals creating an Ambiguously Human Alien species: "The Keys of Marinus" is ambiguous on whether the Voord are monsters or just a particular culture of sea dwelling Marinus natives Dressed All in Rubber. The Expanded Universe follows suit. The Target novelisation changes the dialogue ambiguities to make them definitely monsters, while some books make them definitely human. Four Doctors depicts them as symbiotic combinations of a humanoid species with living organic coatings that give them a Hive Mind. The Grant Morrison Doctor Who Magazine comic "The World Shapers" retcons them into the ancestors of the Cybermen, which the TV series would retcon again as just one case of convergent evolution.
  • The Drahvin in "Galaxy 4" look like Rubber-Forehead Aliens and have a unique culture and method of reproduction, but Maaga refers to her people as 'humans' and 'human beings' several times. This could be a purely literal description or a word-play: she's a 'human' being meaning she has feeling and understanding or the Drahvin could be heavily genetically altered human colonists.
  • Condo in "The Brain of Morbius" is The Igor, talks in a You No Take Candle style and looks deformed. Solon tells us he's rescued from a Dravidian slave ship, but we know from "The Infinite Quest" that Dravidians are an insectoid species. Other than that, nothing about his species is mentioned.
  • Solomon from "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" looks human, but the episode takes place in the 24th century, and one of his robots makes a comment implying that they've been on the titular spaceship for 2,000 years.
  • "The Rings of Akhaten": There are many people in the Bizarre Bazaar who look human, most notably Merry Galel and the choristers, but there's no indication if they actually are.
• Sebaceans in Farscape. When John first sees Aeryn on Moya in the pilot episode, he thinks she's human while she assumes he's Sebacean. At the end of the series, it is revealed that Sebaceans are the descendants of humans or early hominids who were taken from Earth and genetically modified long ago.
  • Some aliens with either no makeup or a very minimal makeup are a case of "Ambiguous Sebaceans..." Notably the Clansmen, Acquarans, Kanvians and Litigarans, as well as others.
• In The Flash (2014):
  • The Reverse-Flash, Big Bad of Season 1, certainly looks human from a distance, but he's also constantly vibrating in an unstable manner, lets out inhuman screeches on several occasions, has glowing red eyes, and claims that his goals are beyond the understanding of normal humans. And just a general vibe of unnaturalness. Take a look◊. He's even able to make his glow without his suit.
  • Zoom, Big Bad of Season 2, is enough that in-universe people doubt there's even a human underneath his costume. The only part of his body that his semi-organic looking suit doesn't cover is a pair of shark-like black eyes. He's fast enough to grab lightning and throw it. His voice is deep and almost Satanic. Wells of Earth 2 says he was human. Even when we confirm what he looks like under his mask, the fact he can turn his eyes black rather than make them glow and actually deepens his voice rather than make it vibrate makes him unsettling.
  • Due to not being from Earth-1, Earth-19 or Earth-38, the show is ambiguous as to what the Music Meister is. Is he a metahuman? Maybe an alien? Is he magical? Or is he something else? The fact that he could escape a cell in the Pipeline, something no other metahuman is capable of, without anyone knowing and his powers are far more fantastical than what Barry or Kara usually deal with suggests he might not have been something they are used to. When asked if he's from another Earth, he gives a vague response that the heroes wouldn't understand where he came from.
• A Running Gag in Girl Meets World is that Farkle might be a clone or a robot; he's never seen his own birth certificate. He's eventually revealed by his mother and his birth certificate that he's "Farkle Minkus, real boy!"
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Rashid says some odd things that could hint to being older than the young man seems, including "electronic mailbox" (the term "e-mail" was coined by CompuServe in 1981) and "Dubai is a child" (Dubai was founded in 1833). Daniel's notes even catch and comment on Rashid's strange choice of words. In the 1973 scene of the sixth episode, Rashid appears the same as he does in 2022, so he's definitely not a regular human. The Season 1 finale affirms that he's a 514-year-old vampire named Armand.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Kamen Rider Decade: Some doubts about Tsukasa arise just from the fact he can hit baseballs hard enough to break through metal and shrug off stab wounds. His past as the Great Leader of Dai-Shocker suggest it might be because he was modified for the part. On the other hand, there is no explanation to his control over the alternate realities that he claims to be an inate part of himself. Overall, it's remains unanswered whether he is an altered human, Humanoid Abomination or something completely else.
    • And that extends into Kamen Rider Zi-O, where he was shown to be able to manipulate dimension walls even with both halves of his Rider Powers in possession of someone else, meaning that the ability to jump between dimensions is something that has always and will always be a part of him.
  • Kamen Rider Ghost: Alain looks human, but he's able to summon Ganma under his own power and Javel (a Ganma) states he's the son of 'the Great Ruler'. He is ultimately confirmed to be a Ganma in Episode 12 when he turns into a Ganma Eyecon to return back to their world. As it turned out, the Ganma Eyecon is his artificial body. His real body is physically the same as a human one, zigzagging this trope.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Parado appeared to be a human working with the Bugsters until he was seen using some of the Bugster powers. Still, he was not confirmed to be one himself until later into the story.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O: Large Ham tendencies and funny clothes aside, Woz leaves a pretty normal impression. Especially when stuffing his mouth with an apple pie. The more questionable part is that he appears out of nowhere, seems to able to spontaneously time travel and is strong enough to stop a punch from Another Rider barehanded. It's suggested he is a Quartzer, warden of time, but what that means is left ambigious.
• In the original Icelandic stories and plays, Sportacus from LazyTown is explicitly called an elf. The releases in other countries make his race a bit more ambiguous, leaving his ears covered at all times.
• In The Magicians (2016), Travelers are described as "hybrids", and Penny tells Julia at one point that he's not exactly a normal human. The specifics aren't clear, however.
• Similarly to the Addams family, there's Marilyn from The Munsters, who looks like a normal human but is biologically related to the rest of her clearly non-human family. She shares some of the other members' inhumanness like her very low body temperature.
• Mr. Bean. Some elements of the show imply that he's an alien, for example being dropped in via spotlight in the intro and beamed back up in the outro, and his effect on electronic devices like television sets. To say nothing of his utterly bizarre behaviour and thought processes which seem to border on Blue-and-Orange Morality.
• Mr. Young:
  • Mrs. Byrne looks, behaves, and is treated like a human, but is billions of years old.
  • Jordan Slabinski is another example. He looks and is treated like a human, but it's stated in one episode that he looks the same now as he did when he was born. Another episode shows that he also looked the exact same when he was still in middle school, at least 7 years ago. This is made even weirder by the fact that he's noticeably larger than all of the other characters, most of whom are teenage or adult humans. He also appears to have slightly superhuman durability as in one episode an anvil breaks when dropped on his head, and he doesn't even notice. Adam, upon first seeing him, says, seemingly seriously, that he "can really see the Bigfoot".
  • Dang also looks and is treated like a human, but can teleport, defy gravity, be in two places at the same time, go inside a computer screen, and hear whenever someone says his name, no matter how far away they are. Also, his brother, Ding, was able to produce offspring with a duck.
• In Night Court, most jokes made at Bull's expense channel this trope.
• Common in Power Rangers as there are humans who live in space and aliens who resemble humans.
  • Scorpina in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers certainly looks like a beautiful young Asian woman, but when Rita uses her magic to make her grow, she becomes a grotesque scorpion monster. We never get clarification if the monster is her true form or just a transformation she takes on.
  • The Magna Defender of Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is at least humanoid, but he is never seen out of his armor, thus we're not sure if he's human or just human-like. Even in death, his ghost still wears it.
  • The Black Knight from Power Rangers Time Force episode "Beware the Knight". He's the only villain not associated with Ransik, therefore not a mutant. However, he's been alive since the middle ages and never takes off his armor. Considering that episode dealt with magic instead of science, perhaps he used magic to live hundreds of years or is in fact something more supernatural (which isn't out of place in Power Rangers).
  • Power Rangers S.P.D.: Due to the show never going into her past outside of wanting to remain a child, we never learn what Morgana is. Is she a human with magical abilities, a Human Alien with abilities like the people of KO-35 or an alien that just looks human?
  • Power Rangers Operation Overdrive: We never learn what Miratrix is. She appears to be a normal looking woman, something she takes advantage of in several episodes, but her species never gets mentioned.
• Sesame Street:
  • The show has monsters, Grouches, humans, normal animals, Animate Inanimate Objects, and then there's the non-fluffy characters played by puppets. Their skin is different colours and they are typically shorter than humans, but they're not monsters. Sometimes, they're referred to as "Muppets", so they could be the same species as the puppet characters from The Muppet Show, whatever species they are.
  • Two animated characters Ned and Suzie Kabloozie look human, but their skin is yellow and orange respectively (Susie's dad also has orange skin). Ned also apparently walks around naked, yet doesn't have visible genitalia (thankfully, since this is a kids' show) and in the littering short, he seems to have pockets built into his skin.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: One scene has two children on the Promenade, running in a circle around Odo. They're seen from a distance, so it's unclear if they're humans or Bajorans.
• Star Trek: Discovery has Cleveland "Book" Booker, Michael Burnham's boyfriend from the 31st century. He looks perfectly human and his name, while unusual, is a human one. However, he has a strange connection to plants and animals, which is described as "empathic", yet he can't outright sense emotions like a Betazoid. He could be genetically engineered, a very human-looking alien or part human, part alien. It's eventually confirmed that he is an alien — specifically, a Kwejian — and that his birth name was Tareckx; he took the name of his late human mentor.
• Lazarus from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Alternative Factor" and his alternate universe counterpart: were they human, or Human Alien? The episode itself seemed confused on this point.
• Thadiun Okona, the man who defined Informed Ability, from Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Outrageous Okona": Human or from a race of Human Aliens? Again, not otherwise specified. It's the same with the people from the two planets that he has dealings with.
• Star Trek: Enterprise has Daniels, Captain Archer's personal steward who reveals himself to be with the 31st-century Time Police.
  Archer: Are you human?
  Daniels: More or less.^note Another episode implies this might mean that he has ancestors from other species but has enough human ancestry to appear human, as that exact situation was the case for a corpse they found of another 31st century time-traveller
• Truth Seekers: JoJo74 and Dave, Gus' boss, look and act human, but The Reveal in the season finale indicates that this may or may not be their true forms, although if they are human is unknown; the finale would seem to imply they're otherworldly beings that look human.
• Will & Grace features Karen Walker who looks outwardly human but is capable of consuming drugs and alcohol in quantities that would kill anyone else. There are also several instances of dialogue which imply she is well over 100 years old.
• Wonder Woman (1975):
  • Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and the Amazons of Paradise Island look like beautiful human women, but are much stronger, more agile, and immortal. The reasons for this are only tangentially explained.
  • Andros Sr., Andros Jr., and the other aliens. In "Judgement from Outser Space" and "Mind Stealers from Outer Space", human looking aliens visit Earth for various reasons. Andros Jr. played by Dack Rambo, has a particular goal in mind.
• Worzel Gummidge has the Crow Man, who made the scarecrows. He looks human, but sometimes he implies that he's got Psychic Powers and there's the fact that all the scarecrows he makes come alive (and he's also brought two scarecrows, Aunt Sally, Saucy Nancy, and possibly more "humanoid objects" to life, and Dafthead, a scarecrow that Worzel made, also came to life) and Worzel claims that he (and therefore the Crow Man) are hundreds of years old (although he does claim that it's because he's "as old as I wants to be") and occasionally, it's implied that the Crow Man Speaks Fluent Animal, too. Even if he does have those powers, he could still be a human with powers. Then, there's his healing tonic from "A Fair Old Pullover", which works for everything and he keeps changing its origin...
• General Anous, from Sky One's Yonderland, has never been confirmed one way or another. He looks like a tall, pale man with a bald head, which—while off-putting—isn't particularly supernatural on its own. But he sleeps upside down like a bat, can move as silently as a breeze, and is strong enough to make a smaller character explode into goo simply by squeezing the latter's throat hard enough.