Octo: I thought this was relevant to the discussion barely started on the "How much would the Death Star cost?" post below.
From Cracked
Number 6: Wear Something
Everyone makes fun of Signs because it depicts an alien invasion that is thwarted because the aliens die if they touch water. But that's not the issue. It's not their fault that water is like acid to them, but it is their fault that they showed up naked. You have intergalactic starships, but you don't have goddamned pants? How does a civilization's evolution just skip over that part?
See the rest here.
4 comments:
On the other post, I said this:
Oddly enough I was thinking about the economics of planetary invasion earlier this week (having just watched Cowboys and Aliens). In one of the Stainless Steel Rat books, set in a future with lots of interstellar space travel, the main character makes a point that such an undertaking is impossibly demanding in terms of resources and logistics. That, in turn, made me think that portraying civilizations that are wholly based on invasions (like the bad guys in Independence Day) is the only thing that makes sense. Unless maybe the bad guys are like the Imperial Empire and have a galaxy full of planets to suck dry on command.
And then Jordan said this:
In the early 1980s, when Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle were persuaded to write their excellent Footfall (intended as an "old-fashioned 'invasion-of-earth' tale"), Niven kept arguing that they couldn't do anything until they'd come up with a reason to invade the earth that made enough sense for him to get behind it. (This is the kind of thinking that I've always loved Larry Niven for.) ("OW!") Anyway they came up with a fantastic set of ideas as the solution. I love that book. ("OW!")
Really funny stuff. So I guess this makes the Mars Attacks aliens pretty high up on the scale of well planned attacks. If it weren't for that darn music!
I've learned my lesson. I'm not going near Cracked.com. I've got stuff to do today!
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