Possibly misleading title: Bizarre Alien Biology

Bizarre Alien Biology found in: 699 articles, excluding discussions.

This title has brought 717 people to the wiki from non-search engine links since 20th FEB '09.

The trope means that Human Aliens have different internal workings than humans, but the issue was sort of raised Here, where several images suggested were of the "aliens that look bizarre" variety.

I'm wick-checking right now.

edited 27th Jul '11 5:55:12 PM by SalFishFin

Hmmm. Yeah. way too general for the trope. Only Alien Inside?

Wick Check Results:

Correct:

• Amazon Brigade, with respect to Simuon

• Batman Can Breathe in Space: No nostrils on their heads.
• Ascended Meme: 4 Testicles.
• Everythings Squishier With Cephalopods
• I'll Take Two Beers Too: Refers to a 2-headed alien
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Refers to aliens that don't look human
• Your Head A-Splode: refers to an alien whose head is one big eyeball
• The Mote In Gods Eye: Asymetrical anatomy
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: refers to Starscream, a giant robot alien.
• All Trolls Are Different: "Trolls are a type of toadstool."
• Amusing Injuries: Refers to Zim
• Animorphs: Andalites, which are essentially blue centaurs with antennae.
• Apprentice Adept: Refers to Blob creatures.

• Enders Game. Doesn't say if Pequeninos are Human Aliens
• Girl's Night Out Episode: Does Teal'c from Stargate SG 1 look human?
• Everythings Better With Chocolate: I really don't know.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause w/respect to Star Trek something-or other: Who is Riker? Does he look human?
• And Some Other Stuff: I don't even know.
• Aliens And Monsters: Potholed to "Strange"
• Badass Back: "Naturally Evolved.

Okay, I Know I haven't done 50 yet, but I seriously think we can call this one. 2/5 of the way through and only 1 certain case of correct use. We need a new trope for "Human on the outside, Alien on the inside," and keep Bizzare Alien Biology for "Alien on the Outside."

edited 27th Jul '11 6:21:54 PM by SalFishFin

How is the misuse rate? I've always seen it as weirdness on their abilities.

I'm tempted to suggest Rubber Brained Alien, but meh.

I think Bizzare Alien Biology would make a good supertrope for alien biology is weird. With everything else as subtropes.

The Enders Game example is definitely incorrect. It matches the name perfectly, but not the trope.

I made a page action crowner for options.

• Enders Game. Doesn't say if Pequeninos are Human Aliens
  • Incorrect. Wikipedia says this: "They were given the nickname "piggy" by the colonists of the planet Lusitania due to their pig-like appearance. ...the pequeninos exhibit an extreme case of sexual dimorphism, a form of paedogenesis, and ... plant/animal symbiosis"
• Girl's Night Out Episode: Does Teal'c from Stargate SG 1 look human?
  • Good; yes, he does
• Everythings Better With Chocolate: I really don't know.
  • Pointless Pothole
• Alien Non-Interference Clause w/respect to Star Trek something-or other: Who is Riker? Does he look human?
  • Riker is completely human. He's masquerading as a Malconian but when he's injured, his internal anatomy would reveal that he's not one. So, Good
• And Some Other Stuff: I don't even know.
  • Bad The aliens are completely different from humans. They're parasites who take over human bodies.
• Aliens And Monsters: Potholed to "Strange"
  • Either way; almost any alien trope would work there just as well.
• Badass Back: "Naturally Evolved.
  • Oh, hell, wrong. So, so wrong. Here's a description of a puppeteer: "having two forelegs and a single hindleg ending in hooved feet and two snake-like heads instead of a humanoid upper body. The heads are very small, containing a forked tongue, extensive rubbery lips, rimmed with finger-like knobs, and a single eye per head. The Puppeteer brain is housed not in the heads, but in the "thoracic" cavity well protected beneath the mane-covered hump from which the heads emerge."

Two of them are good, three are bad (two of these would have to work hard to be wronger), one could go either way.

edited 27th Jul '11 6:47:45 PM by Madrugada

But all of them would be right if we made this trope Exactly What It Says on the Tin and made it a trope for alien biology is weird.

But is that a trope?

I think it is. It's saying "Aliens are different from real people. Here's how."

Related to (possibly same as or supertrope of) Starfish Alien? (Which seems to be what a lot of these examples were looking for.)

Supertrope, then.

Yeah, it's a supertrope to a lot of other tropes including the current trope and Starfish Aliens.

Modified the crowner to reflect that.

Another option is a trope transplant and make this name a redirect to Starfish Aliens.

Yeah, but then it would make Starfish Aliens get misuse because just having one thing weird about an alien race doesn't make them a Starfish Alien. Rubber-Forehead Aliens can have weird stuff too, it just tends to be either internal, or their rubber forehead.

I mean, a woman who had eight eyes and very long fingers wouldn't be a Starfish Alien but would still be Bizzare Alien Biology.

edited 27th Jul '11 7:14:07 PM by shimaspawn

Hm, we've got a lot of different alien tropes. I think Bizzare Alien Biology would work best as a supertrope/index. I mean, what's there currently only applies to Human Alien and possibly Rubber-Forehead Alien, but not things like Humanoid Alien or Starfish Alien.

Also, I question the Teal'c example. He's a "normal" human in a verse with Ancient Astronauts that moved humans around. Having an alien parasite in your belly does not make you an alien.

edited 28th Jul '11 4:20:45 AM by Deboss

They do make it a plot point that he is alot different than humans and not just the pouch. More than once they have to find another to save his life since humans couldnt.

Yeah as well as Rubber-Forehead Aliens can have external things too. Like the guy in MIB with his balls as his chin, or Star Trek VI with the guy who has his genitals on his knee.

Then there are subtle differences in stuff like Ears or nose pieces, Bajoran women sneeze instead of have morning sickness while pregnant, Spock's Green Blood etc .

edited 28th Jul '11 4:39:09 AM by Raso

It's a pretty big supertrope, but we need more of those. It can just get a note on it not to list anything if it fits entirely in one of the indexes better.

On the Teal'c thing, there's a lot of evidence that the Jaffa are a divergent species. It's like a Humans and Chimps thing. Even though they may have had the same ancestor at one point, they've evolved in different directions for thousands of years.

Most of what I've seems to derive from having a symbiote. Since that's pretty much all of the interesting ones, I'm not sure how to classify them.

They have those pouches from birth. They've basically been genetically manipulated by the gou'a'uld into being living incubators for their spawn. Most of the differences are based around the symbiotes but that's because that's their divergence point.

Okay. It's been a while since I've seen it, and I only saw most of the last seasons.

This has been stable for a couple of days, with transplant at +6 (yeas:7 nays:1) 7.00 : 1, and all other options fairly far in the red. Last call for votes.

To recap for latecomers (since the last few posts were tangential), the current definition is exclusive to Human Aliens! Human Aliens with secret alien differences. Starfish Aliens do not count as having Bizarre Alien Biology!?

Yes, there is rampant misuse. (What a shock!) Thus the suggestion for a trope transplant, to make Bizarre Alien Biology Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a supertrope for all manner of alien weirdness.

I think it's time to call this vote settled and proceed to the next step.

edit: later, la-de-dah, I wonder what the next step is, anyway. Do we need a new name for the existing trope, so we can do the transplant? I'll start by looking through Alien Tropes for biology-related tropes.

edited 4th Aug '11 7:58:49 PM by Xtifr