Sci-fi, Aversion to Alien invasion stories?

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Stargate? The whole premise of the show is based on an evil alien race controlling other races.

BattleStar Galactica is just a spin off of Star Wars (or vice versa, which is debatable, and I won't even address that issue, because I've frankly never liked either one of them.) As far as I'm concerned, both are just cowboys and Indians set in space. Instead of finding it ironic, I found it quite appropriate that Lorne Greene starred in BG. I've never found either series to be anything close to cerebral.

Just my opinion.

Stargate has plenty of good aliens there the Nox, the Ancients, the Asgard, Tok'ra. And I'm talking about the remake of Battlestar Galactica (i don't see how ether is a spin off of star wars). And you failed to mention Halo.

I much prefer stories where the divisions between good and evil are extremely blurred. Where it's not really about good and evil as a simplistic theme, but more about far more complex relationships. More like reality. Hardly anyone in reality is purely good, or purely evil. I prefer stories where, right from the start, every character is a mix of good qualities and bad. Where everyone is has some beauty, and ugliness, like real people. I realize that many stories do eventually bring things like that to light, and the characters become more complex over time. I'd prefer them to appear that way right off the bat.

I prefer a story that right from the beginning it's hard for a reader/watcher to determine who the heck they want to route for. I don't like it being so obvious. Actually, I really like stories where I might start out unsure, and end up routing for everyone, because they're all working together.

How about the 2008 remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still"? (Remake chosen for recent-ness.) The presence of Klaatu might be a really good thing or a really bad thing depending on your point of view. He has the most benign intention- to preserve life on planet Earth. The thing is he believes he needs to destroy humans in order to save all other species. And then near the end of the movie he has a change of heart about killing all humans because he does have mercy to appeal to. He doesn't relish death. He wants to kill humans to save other species. The humans convince him this is not a necessary step and he goes along with that argument because he isn't actually sadistic or cruel- he just doesn't favor human life at the expense of all others.

I think that qualifies as morally complex.

Of course the movie wasn't well received. Keanue Reeves just isn't that good of an actor. But it does fit your desired specs of a recent movie where there is ambiguity about good and evil.

A novel I recently finished writing would actually be your sort of thing, MrXxx. It's set in a future where humanity and some alien races live in (relative) peace, but there is a strong undercurrent of tension. In fact, the novel is a science fiction conspiracy thriller, but with a really strange twist.

Did the defendant make mistakes? Sure. He did. Serious mistakes. But did he actually commit any crimes? Did he commit treason? No. I mean, it was an impossible situation. When the Cylons arrived, what could he possibly do? What could anyone have done?

[looks at the courtroom audience]

Ask yourself, what would you have done?

[looks at the judges]

What would you have done? If he had refused to surrender, the Cylons would have probably nuked the planet right then and there. So did he appear to cooperate with the Cylons? Sure. So did hundreds of others. What's the difference between him and them? The President issued a blanket pardon. They were all forgiven, no questions asked. Colonel Tigh. Colonel Tigh used suicide bombers, killed dozens of people. Forgiven. Lieutenant Agathon and Chief Tyrol. They murdered an officer on the Pegasus. Forgiven. The Admiral. The Admiral instigated a military coup d'état against the President. Forgiven. And me? <chuckles slightly> Well, where do I begin? I shot down a civilian passenger ship, the Olympic Carrier. Over a thousand people on board. Forgiven. I raised my weapon to a superior officer, committed an act of mutiny. Forgiven. And then on the very day when Baltar surrendered to those Cylons, I, as commander of Pegasus, jumped away. I left everybody on that planet, alone, undefended, for months. I even tried to persuade the Admiral never to return, to abandon you all there for good. If I'd had my way nobody would have made it off that planet. I'm the coward. I'm the traitor. I'm forgiven.

I'd say we are very forgiving of mistakes. We make our own laws now; our own justice. And we've been pretty creative in finding ways to let people off the hook for everything from theft to murder. And we've had to be, because... because we're not a civilization anymore. We are a gang, and we are on the run, and we have to fight to survive. We have to break rules. We have to bend laws. We have to improvise. But not this time, no. Not this time. Not for Gaius Baltar. No, you... you have to die, because, well, because we don't like you very much. Because you're arrogant. Because you're weak. Because you're a coward, and we, the mob, want to throw you out of the airlock, because you didn't stand up to the Cylons and get yourself killed in the process. That's justice now. You should have been killed back on New Caprica, but since you had the temerity to live, we're going to execute you now. That's justice. This case... this case is built on emotion, on anger, bitterness, vengeance. But most of all, it is built on shame. It's about the shame of what we did to ourselves back on that planet. It's about the guilt of those of us who ran away. Who ran away. And we're trying to dump all that guilt and all that shame on one man and then flush him out the airlock, and hope that just gets rid of it all. So that we could live with ourselves. But that won't work. That won't work. That's not justice; not to me. Not to me.

A novel I recently finished writing would actually be your sort of thing, MrXxx. It's set in a future where humanity and some alien races live in (relative) peace, but there is a strong undercurrent of tension. In fact, the novel is a science fiction conspiracy thriller, but with a really strange twist.

MrXxx, you might enjoy the Battlestar Galactica remake (2004-2008), starring Edward James Olmos as Cmdr. (later Adm.) William Adama and Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslyn. It's rather nuanced as to "good" and "evil", and who are the bad guys and who are the good guys (the First Cylon War apparently started when the Articles of Colonization were adopted, some fifty years before the series opens, uniting the Twelve Colonies under a common government, and the military Cylons were about to be decommissioned - or, as they saw it, genocidally obliterated).

There aren't any aliens in there - just humans, robots, and robots that look like humans (some of which are programmed to believe they are human). And the third season ends with a lovely speech by Capt. Lee "Apollo" Adama, at Dr. Gaius Baltar's treason trial (for surrendering to the Cylons at New Caprica, leading to the Occupation at the beginning of the season), pointing out that at that point in the story they weren't a civilization - they were a mob:

A novel I recently finished writing would actually be your sort of thing, MrXxx. It's set in a future where humanity and some alien races live in (relative) peace, but there is a strong undercurrent of tension. In fact, the novel is a science fiction conspiracy thriller, but with a really strange twist.

MrXxx, you might enjoy the Battlestar Galactica remake (2004-2008), starring Edward James Olmos as Cmdr. (later Adm.) William Adama and Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslyn. It's rather nuanced as to "good" and "evil", and who are the bad guys and who are the good guys (the First Cylon War apparently started when the Articles of Colonization were adopted, some fifty years before the series opens, uniting the Twelve Colonies under a common government, and the military Cylons were about to be decommissioned - or, as they saw it, genocidally obliterated).

There aren't any aliens in there - just humans, robots, and robots that look like humans (some of which are programmed to believe they are human). And the third season ends with a lovely speech by Capt. Lee "Apollo" Adama, at Dr. Gaius Baltar's treason trial (for surrendering to the Cylons at New Caprica, leading to the Occupation at the beginning of the season), pointing out that at that point in the story they weren't a civilization - they were a mob:

Sounds like my kind of novel! Except, maaaybe the "strange twist?" The twist would have to be reeealllly good to get me. I've read so many books and seen so many movies with "surprise" endings, almost none surprise me anymore. But then, there are a lot I like anyway, if they are well written. Surprise endings don't have to "get" me for me to like it.

Are you planning to publish it?

Whats The book about?

MrXxx, you might enjoy the Battlestar Galactica remake (2004-2008), starring Edward James Olmos as Cmdr. (later Adm.) William Adama and Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslyn. It's rather nuanced as to "good" and "evil", and who are the bad guys and who are the good guys (the First Cylon War apparently started when the Articles of Colonization were adopted, some fifty years before the series opens, uniting the Twelve Colonies under a common government, and the military Cylons were about to be decommissioned - or, as they saw it, genocidally obliterated).

There aren't any aliens in there - just humans, robots, and robots that look like humans (some of which are programmed to believe they are human). And the third season ends with a lovely speech by Capt. Lee "Apollo" Adama, at Dr. Gaius Baltar's treason trial (for surrendering to the Cylons at New Caprica, leading to the Occupation at the beginning of the season), pointing out that at that point in the story they weren't a civilization - they were a mob:

I said a twist, not a twist ending. In other words, parts of the story have things that seem out of place in the setting, but really aren't.

BTW, you think that showing moral ambiguity in a science fiction television series is anything new? You should really watch Blake's 7.

BTW, you think that showing moral ambiguity in a science fiction television series is anything new? You should really watch Blake's 7.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIHPCAGMCts[/youtube]

Ah! Gotcha! That's even better than a twist ending. Most of those don't work well for me anyway. The way you put it though, is a totally different thing that I do tend to like.

Not at all! Not at all. But it doesn't get the attention or $$$ that outright and clear cut conflicts do though. Sure, lot's of great stuff from BBC, though I haven't seen this one...

Yet. The fact that it's done by the BBC though, with the same cheap production quality as Dr. Who proves part of my point. Though I have to say I kind of like the cheesy quality anyway. In many ways, it's more like reading a book because I'm forced to use more imagination than I would with a high quality Hollywood block buster.

My current favorite from them, even over Dr. Who, is Red Dwarf. In spite of the fact that it's mainly a comedy, there's some really impressive Sci-Fi principles in it. Love that show!