Line #77 StarfishAliens/LiveActionTV


1	[[quoteright:340:[[Series/{{Farscape}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/main_qimg_9be75036c81cf0f4ec5a95054c06b531_lq.jpg]]]]
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8	StarfishAliens in live-action TV.
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10	* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': The Solomons, though they spend the entire series in human form. They have no concept of human emotions, culture, or thought processes, which is where all of the comedy comes from. As for their appearance, they are regularly described as "quivering purple tubes". Their concept of gender vastly differs from that of humans, they are not subject to gravity, and they apparently live for thousands of years.
11	* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Occasional characters, such as the insectoid, methane-breathing crimelord (who was created to try to address complaints about TV sci-fi only having RubberForeheadAliens, but unfortunately the puppet broke). The Vorlons are tendril-covered EnergyBeings, and the Shadows, when visible, resemble the praying mantis. In-universe, this isn't really co-incidental [[spoiler:thanks to the Vorlons messing with the evolution of most of the younger races]]. Pretty much every one of the First Ones, including Lorien, counts as well.
12	** The Thirdspace Aliens resemble gigantic cephalopod with giant teeth, the ability to teleport, and telepathy that can overwhelm even the likes of the Vorlons.
13	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'' had some kind of corrosive life form composed of goo-ish matter bearing an uncanny resemblance to vomit, and a [[GeniusLoci Living Planet]] that raised some very ''interesting'' questions about evolution, metabolism and reproduction.
14	* ''Series/CosmosAPersonalVoyage'': One episode speculates on what aliens might look like if they evolved in the atmosphere of UsefulNotes/{{Jupiter}}. There were the microscopic "sinkers" that rode the wind currents, the "floaters" who were kilometer-wide balloons who fed on the sinkers, and the "hunters" who fed on the floaters and who looked like pterodactyls with bizarre heads.
15	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Despite the improbably large number of HumanAliens, the franchise also has its fair share of Starfish Aliens.
16	** The TARDIS herself, a multi-dimensional being of near-godlike power who zips around the time-space continuum whilst disguised as an old-fashioned British police box. Her entire species appears to be cyborgs, raised from coral, able to make psychic links with their users, communicate not in words but feelings, and have their senses distributed throughout the fourth dimension.
17	** The Daleks are basically brains with tentacles [[{{Cyborg}} living inside]] PoweredArmor that resembles floating pepper shakers. ''Especially'' the Imperial Daleks, who, amongst other things, had two brains, an exposed spine, and had their organs in a separate chamber. Ironically, their ancestors were HumanAliens, before first being mutated by radiation and then further [[{{Transhumanism}} re-engineered]] by the MadScientist Davros.
18	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E2TheCurseOfPeladon "The Curse of Peladon"]] introduces aliens from Alpha Centauri (androgynous, one-eyed, multi-legged caterpillar-like creatures; the one we meet is sweet and friendly) and Arcturus (blobby little creatures who can only visit Earth-type environments inside an elaborate life-support vehicle; the one we meet is very nasty). The Alpha Centaurian ambassador reappears in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E4TheMonsterOfPeladon "The Monster of Peladon,"]] and another member of [[InsistentTerminology its]] race gets a cameo in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E9EmpressOfMars "The Empress of Mars"]] (or perhaps it's the same one, since it looks the same and has the same voice actress; it's set centuries earlier, but we already know the Alpha Centaurians are long-lived).
19	** The Nestene Consciousness, creators of the [[MurderousMannequin Autons]], were originally tentacled creatures with an affinity for plastic, which they used to control the stuff. The "temporal stresses" of the Time War caused it to mutate into, according to the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]] {{novelization}}, a creature actually ''made'' of plastic that looks like a giant molten blob.
20	** The Fendahl from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E3ImageOfTheFendahl "Image of the Fendahl"]]: a hive-like, partially noncorporeal alien which included a possessed skull, a floating golden woman and invisible life-sucking slug things amongst its aspects.
21	** Other classic series examples include the Rutans (glowing tentacled blobs, first seen in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E1HorrorOfFangRock "Horror of Fang Rock"]]) and the Ogri from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E3TheStonesOfBlood "The Stones of Blood"]] (a giant mobile rock that makes a constant heartbeat-like noise).
22	** The Mighty Jagrafess from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame "The Long Game"]] looked like a big pink mass with a mouth full of sharp teeth and what appeared to be multiple eyes, from what was visible through the hole in the ceiling. It also has such a high body temperature that it requires cooling mechanisms to vent its heat away from it.
23	** The Weeping Angels look like {{Living Statue}}s, but it turns out they're ''weirder''. They're only statues when you're looking at them, feed on abstract concepts, any image of them ''is'' them (because their image is their power), and reproduce by infecting regular statues.
24	** ''Whatever'' they were dealing with in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight "Midnight"]]: on a planet that cannot support life as we know it, a tourist gets possessed by something that acquires language skills by repeating other people, until it speaks at the same time as them, then ''before''.
25	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour"]] gives us the Atraxi. They resemble large eyeballs fixed at the center of a large, crystalline web, and are able to travel through space without any trouble. They have incredibly deep, scratchy voices, the ability to hack into electronics, and they hold their prisoners in alternate dimensions. Now that's an ''alien'' police force!
26	** The House from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife "The Doctor's Wife"]]. It's an extrauniversal GeniusLoci the size of an asteroid that [[spoiler:''eats [=TARDISes=]''.]]
27	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E9Flatline "Flatline"]] has ''[[PaperPeople two-dimensional]]'' aliens, who are so bizarre even the Time Lords only theorised they could exist, have a language so incomprehensible not even the TARDIS can translate it, and gain power by absorbing extra dimensions. The Doctor speculates that they don't understand humans need three dimensions to live and are killing people unintentionally (citing his previous experience with other Starfish Aliens like sentient gas that throw fireballs for fun, and creatures with sixteen stomachs that disembowel each other as a greeting), but the episode never established whether or not they're {{Non Malicious Monster}}s.
28	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight "In the Forest of the Night"]]: The trees were created by dust-like creatures which have lived as long as the Earth and can spontaneously grow entire trees worldwide in one night.
29	* ''Series/Earth2'' features symbiotic creatures which are technically humanoid but with a Starfish Psychology. They were underground dwellers who burrowed through the soil like {{Sand Worm}}s, emitted a trilling starfish language, had scolexes instead of mouths, and were at various times said to either resembles plants more than animals, or to be virtually indistinguishable from the geological composition of their (living) homeworld.
30	* ''Series/Extraterrestrial2005'' (aka ''Alien Worlds''), a two-part National Geographic SpeculativeDocumentary, has fairly alien creatures. Species include gulp-hogs (wingless-bird-type hunters that evolved from squid-like creatures), mudpods (hexapodal stalk-eyed amphibians), [[GiantFlyer skywhales]] ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what it says]]), kites (tentacled aerial predator shaped like its namesake), helibugs (almost-literal starfish aliens with three-point radial symmetry), stalkers (another triradial species, with an insect-like social structure and collective intelligence), etc.
31	* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' specialized in this thanks to being produced by The Jim Henson Company. This includes, but is not limited to:
32	** The Pilot (who provides the page image), a crustacean/cephalopod-like creature literally rooted to LivingShip Moya.
33	** [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens The Ancients]], multiarmed, vaguely insectoid beings who mastered wormhole technology.
34	** The Hynerians, imperious, goblin-like amphibians with volatile, often explosive body chemistry.
35	** And too many MonstersOfTheWeek to count.
36	** Even the RubberForeheadAliens of this series, such as the [[PlantPerson Delvians]] and the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Luxans]], have enough BizarreAlienBiology to count as this.
37	* ''Series/TheFutureIsWild'': The 200 million years future era features "squibbons", intelligent tree-dwelling land squid that backflip between branches, which may be "the forerunners of a future civilization".
38	* ''Series/LookUp'': One of the hosts of the show was a small pink alien creature with a body roughly the shape of an airplane, a small triangular mouth, and big black sparkling eyes.
39	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S2E6CryOfSilence Cry of Silence]]", a couple encounters a group of aliens who possess various objects (such as tumbleweeds) and human beings. They try to communicate with the aliens, but ultimately fail because the aliens' thoughts are just too different.
40	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
41	** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E21VanishingAct Vanishing Act]]", a group of worm-like fluorescent aliens nab a hapless human through a wormhole so they can use his body as a host to experience Earth through his senses. It turns out that they also have no concept of time, only being and non-being. Luckily, they're friendly enough to return their host to his original time when it's explained to them.
42	** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S5E1AlienRadio Alien Radio]]", an alien species that exists at a different light frequency to humans plans to colonize Earth. They have taken possession of the bodies of many people worldwide without their knowledge while they await the arrival of more of their kind. Occasionally, their control of their host bodies breaks down and the host becomes aware of their presence. Humans cannot ordinarily see the light frequency on which they exist, but Stan Harbinger becomes sensitive to it when he witnesses one of them vacating the body of Eldon [=DeVries=] after his death.
43	** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S6E6TheBeholder The Beholder]]", Kyra's species lives on a different plane of existence, making them invisible to (most) humans. They are capable of existing inside a neutron star, but magnetic fields are potentially deadly to them.
44	** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E5TheVessel The Vessel]]", the alien that entered Jake Worthy's body while he was onboard the space shuttle ''Inspire'' is seemingly composed of electricity. He tells Jake that he did not believe that lifeforms such as humans could exist.
45	** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E8ThinkLikeADinosaur Think Like a Dinosaur]]", the Hanen are a reptilian species who do not have emotions and breathe air which is rich in carbon dioxide. Their lack of emotions means that their demeanor and thought processes seem as cold to humans as their blood.
46	* An episode of ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' has sentient ''fire'' from an alternate dimension (so, not really aliens, since they're on Earth, although one episode does establish that proper extraterrestrials exist). Arturo learns to communicate with it by jury-rigging a translation device that converts sound into colors. Later, though, the fire learns to speak English and even takes on a humanoid shape. It can also find its own Earth during a slide. Another episode appears to be inspired by ''Film/{{Species}}''. Maggie gets infested with an insectoid parasite from another world that uses her to mate with human men.
47	* Zini from the German children's series ''Spaß am Dienstag'' (Fun on tuesdays). A "Wuslon (pronounced: "Voozlon") from the family of electroids", Zini essentially was a computer-generated yellow-orange circle which would move over the TV screen during the show, dragging a slowly fading "shadow" along. A human speaker lent him his (electronically somewhat distorted) voice, which allowed Zini to interact with the various human co-moderators (no TranslatorMicrobes needed). Later, Zini could also change his size, shape and/or color. [[http://www.wuslon.com See also here.]]
48	* ''Franchise/StargateVerse'':
49	** The Goa'uld are snake-like {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s with GeneticMemory, and have the local {{Unobtanium}} literally in their blood.
50	** SG-1 had the Reetou, who had spider-like lower bodies, eyestalks, and existed out-of-phase from human atomic reality (in real terms, that means "they're invisible without the gadgets the gang invents mid-episode.")
51	** The Unas are LizardFolk that may be this, depending on the episode and season.
52	** ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' has '''sentient fog''' in one episode and it's basically a hive mind.
53	** ''Series/StargateSG1'' has sentient water.
54	** Later on in Atlantis we learn the true origins of the Wraith, which makes them this, rather than the HumanoidAliens they were.
55	** It also has a non-corporeal black entity in the first season which feeds on energy. As in, ANY type of energy: electricity, body heat... It only appears once and is never explained just how intelligent it is; it's apparently smart enough to recognize a trap.
56	** ''Series/StargateUniverse'' introduces two. The Ursini have monkey-like physiology, but that is as far as it goes. The other is the Blue Aliens (the Nakai) that keep trying to take the Destiny.
57	** ''Series/StargateSG1'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' both had the Replicators, a race of intelligent replicating nanomachines. Eventually they end up [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith appearing]] as HumanoidAliens despite still being Starfish Aliens due to their nature.
58	** Both [=SG1=] and ''Atlantis'' have crystalline beings. The Unity in [=SG1=] accidentally hurt a Goa'uld, resulting in their near-extinction in retaliation. They are able to take on a humanoid shape from a human's memories. The crystal in ''Atlantis'' appears to be more malevolent, invading people's dreams and killing them there.
59	** The "giant aliens" discovered by Daniel's grandfather appear to be humanoid but ''huge''. They also exist out of phase with normal reality and are at war with the Goa'uld.
60	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': The Q are so different that even the two Q who had spent the most time among humans had to have a discussion on how they were going to represent their realm in terms humans could understand. And even then, the metaphorical representation of the realm was a bit strange (at least it was the first time). They were able to convey the basic point that their society had stagnated and that Quinn felt he'd done everything he could as an immortal cosmic being.
61	-->'''Quinn:''' I traveled the road many times, sat on the porch, played the games, been the dog, everything! I was even the scarecrow for a while.\
62	'''Q:''' Oh, we've all done the scarecrow, big deal!
63	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
64	** The blob-like rock-burrowing Horta which appears in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E25TheDevilInTheDark The Devil in the Dark]]". The episode was written around the already-existing creature-prop, after the operator demonstrated how dramatically effective it could be. The Horta are doubly alien because their biochemistry is silicon-based, not carbon-based like ours.
65	** The Excalbians from "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain The Savage Curtain]]" (different rock monsters), the superheated crystalline Tholians from "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E9TheTholianWeb The Tholian Web]]", the huge hundred-tentacled Kelvans from "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E22ByAnyOtherName By Any Other Name]]" in their [[HumanityEnsues native form]], and the Companion from "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E9Metamorphosis Metamorphosis]]" (a sentient gas cloud) also apply.
66	** Medusans from "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E5IsThereInTruthNoBeauty Is There in Truth No Beauty?]]": [[DarkIsNotEvil Friendly Neighborhood]] aliens, who get along fine with human beings as long as the human beings don't accidentally ''look'' at the Medusans and [[BrownNote go raving mad as a result]].
67	** The parasites in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E29OperationAnnihilate Operation: Annihilate!]]" are individual cells of a giant alien brain entity that exists in piecemeal form and work by "infecting" and controlling other organisms that have limbs to build tools. They also can't be detected by tricorders or other sensors.
68	** Sylvia and Korob's [[ThisWasHisTrueForm true forms]], revealed at the end of "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E7Catspaw Catspaw]]", are tiny and look like a cross between a newly hatched vulture and some kind of insect. They can't survive in a Class M environment and die almost immediately.
69	** The creature from "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E13Obsession Obsession]]" looks like a cloud of smoke and can alter its chemical makeup at will, making it difficult for sensors to detect it.
70	** The Zetars from "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E18TheLightsOfZetar The Lights of Zetar]]" [[EmergencyTransformation survived the death of their race]] by turning themselves into EnergyBeings resembling twinkling lights and capable of [[DemonicPossession possessing]] people. We have no idea what they looked like originally.
71	** Red Jack from "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E14WolfInTheFold Wolf in the Fold]]" is an {{Energy Being\|s}} with no visible form.
72	** The [[EmotionEater hate vampire]] from "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E7DayOfTheDove Day of the Dove]]" is an {{Energy Being\|s}} that just appears as a floating shimmer of light.
73	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
74	** There are space-dwelling jellyfish the size of a city in their first episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E1EncounterAtFarpoint Encounter at Farpoint]]". There were also a couple of crystalline lifeforms. Of course, most of the non-humanoid sentients they met, [[InstantAIJustAddWater they made themselves]].
75	** Armus from "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil Skin of Evil]]", the creature that killed Tasha Yar, was a... well... "skin of evil" cast off by a race of "titans". Tricorders and sensors couldn't make sense of it. It presented itself as a shapeshifting black liquid which could absorb humanoids, use teleportation and other psychokinetic attacks, and inflict serious damage with energy discharges (this is how Tasha was killed). The entity was pitifully dependent on sadism for its own entertainment, and clearly distraught when it learned that it was to be stranded on a barren planet forever.
76	** From "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E2TheEnsignsOfCommand The Ensigns of Command]]" come the Sheliak, who seem not so much bipedal as merely "upright", featureless except for shiny triangular scalelike extrusions on their skin. The extraordinarily complex treaty they have with the Federation was codified in their language (which appears on-screen as layers of pictograms drifting by at different speeds), since they find Federation languages imprecise. They honor their agreement with the Federation despite the implication that they see humans as idiot vermin.
77	* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
78	** The so-called 'cytoplasmic lifeform' (most life-forms encountered in ''Star Trek'' are cytoplasmic, i.e., based on cells, and this one isn't even unicellular) in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E8NothingHuman Nothing Human]]". The [[TranslatorMicrobes Universal Translator]] can't understand its language, the [[EverythingSensor tricorder]] can't comprehend its biology, it controls a spaceship via biochemical secretions, can leap through a forcefield in a single bound, and uses B'Elanna Torres as an emergency life-support system. What a guy... err... bug!
79	** Kid Chaos in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E18TheFight The Fight]]", an entity from a completely incomprehensible reality where the laws of physics are in constant flux. Even with it and Voyager desperate to communicate with each other, Starfleet's best have to make vast intuitive leaps just to deduce its existence, and it can only communicate with them by [[spoiler:slowly driving Chakotay insane and then splicing together fragments of his visions.]]
80	** The ship-eating lifeform in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E14Bliss Bliss]]", the sentient nebula in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS1E5TheCloud The Cloud]]", and the non-corporeal life forms in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E25TheHauntingOfDeckTwelve The Haunting of Deck Twelve]]" and "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E14Coda Coda]]" should probably count as well. Oh, and the Caretaker.
81	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
82	** The Changelings were sentient beings made of ''liquid'' who lived on a planet, connected together, as one, resembling a ''living ocean''. Odo, however, takes a humanoid form when dealing with humanoids...and resides in a bucket as a liquid every 16 hours. The only Starfish alien main character in ''Star Trek'' history, though mostly he resembled a RubberForeheadAlien and rarely shifted in early seasons due to budget limitations and [[SpecialEffectsFailure the wonders of 1993 CGI]].
83	** The Bajoran Prophets, [[EnergyBeings non-corporeal]] aliens (that is, with ''no physical form whatsoever'') who resided in a [[OurWormholesAreDifferent stable wormhole]] and are worshiped as gods by the Bajorans. They communicate to Sisko only through visions in which they appear as people he knows. [[NonLinearCharacter They exist at all points in time simultaneously, and have difficulty with concepts like "future" and "past".]] Later seasons also introduced {{evil counterpart}}s called the Pah Wraiths, which had been expelled from the wormhole.
84	* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' has the Xindi Aquatics, Avians, and the web-like symbiotic organism which temporarily assimilated various crew members in order to provide the collective harmony it needed to survive.
85	* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'':
86	** The giant tardigrade seen in season one, capable of navigating through the fabric of space-time. The non-corporeal natives of Pahvo, in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS1E08SiVisPacemParaBellum Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum]]". Another non-corporeal species living inside the mycelial network, seen in the second season.
87	** Species 10-C, the {{Arc Villain}}s of season four, are unknown to the inhabitants of the galaxy; Federation and other authorities repeatedly emphasize that they have no idea what they are like, and they could be completely unlike any other known life form. [[spoiler:Indeed, they turn out to be non-corporeal, gas-giant-residing entities from outside the galactic barrier, who [[StarfishLanguage communicate through pheromones and light displays]] and [[ObliviouslyEvil had no idea their "mining" technology was causing damage to anything]], since they were unaware that there was any sapient life in the galaxy.]]
88	* ''Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth'' introduces [[spoiler:the Four-Five-Six. They're only seen in brief glimpses through a toxic fog, their preferred means of communication seems to consist mainly of shrieking and spraying bodily fluids (their English is spoken through translators), and they bind prepubescent humans to themselves to use their hormones as drugs.]]
89	** There are also gas-like creatures that possess humans and [[OutWithABang absorb their sexual partners during an orgasm]] (probably inspired by an ''[[Series/TheOuterLimits1995 Outer Limits]]'' episode with a similar premise).
90	* ''Franchise/UltraSeries'': The franchise is known more for using PeopleInRubberSuits to represent aliens, but they have pulled off a few non-humanoid aliens.
91	** ''Series/UltraSeven'' had a lot of these - Kuuru was a small crustacean-like creature with a giant brain; the Biras were snake-shrimp creatures; Metron resembled some kind of shellfish that learned to walk upright; Chibull was a tentacled BrainMonster; and Dancan was a highly intelligent shapeshifting entity that resembled a mass of foam.
92	** ''Series/UltramanDyna'''s {{Big Bad}}s were a race of intelligent orb-like beings known only as the Spheres. One episode also had a superintelligent squid/jellyfish-like alien being named Spume that sought to melt Antarctica's ice sheet to flood Earth and make the planet its home.
93	** The Visitors from ''Series/UltramanNexus'' are a highly advanced and intelligent race that resemble ordinary jellyfish. Despite appearances, they're actually a peaceful and friendly people, and [[spoiler:they're the ones who provide TLT with the technology and information needed to defeat the [[{{Kaiju}} Space Beasts]] and [[BigBad Dark Zagi]].]]
94	** In ''Series/UltramanRB'', Makoto Aizen [[spoiler:turns out to be possessed by one named Cereza, a gaseous entity with glowing red eyes who happens to be a LoonyFan of the Ultras.]]
95	%%* ''Series/YoGabbaGabba'' in the episode "Superheroes" had an alien named Starsky that the gang help get home with the help of Mos Def.
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Context StarfishAliens / LiveActionTV