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First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient species' first encounter with another one, given they are from different planets or natural satellites. The theme commonly explores topics including xenophobia, transcendentalism, and basic linguistics by adapting the anthropological idea of first contact to extraterrestrial cultures. [citation needed]
History edit
Murray Leinster's 1945 novelette "First Contact" established the term first contact in science fiction,[1] although the term first appeared in Leinster's 1935 story "Proxima Centauri".[2]
The conceptual idea of humans encountering an extraterrestrial intelligence for the first time dates back to the second century AD, where it is presented in the novel A True Story by Lucian of Samosata.[3] The first notable example of intelligent aliens contacting Humanity is The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, in which Martians mount a global invasion of Earth.[4]
Throughout the 1950s, stories involving first contact were common in the United States, and typically involved conflict. Professor of Communication Victoria O'Donnell presented a detailed overview of the Hollywood science fiction films of the era. She writes that these films "presented indirect expressions of anxiety about the possibility of a nuclear holocaust or a Communist invasion of America. These fears were expressed in various guises, such as aliens using mind control, monstrous mutants unleashed by radioactive fallout, radiation's terrible effects on human life, and scientists obsessed with dangerous experiments." Most films of this kind have an optimistic ending. She reviewed four major topics in these films: (1) Extraterrestrial travel, (2) Alien invasion and infiltration, (3) Mutants, metamorphosis, and resurrection of extinct species, and (4) Near annihilation or the end of the Earth[5].[6]
The 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still was one of the first works to portray first contact as an overall beneficial event.[7] While the character of Klaatu is primarily concerned with preventing conflicts spreading from Earth, the film warns of the dangers of nuclear war.[8][9]
Types edit
Due to the broad definition of first contact, there are many variations of the methods that result in first contact and the nature of the subsequent interaction.[10] As a plot device, first contact is frequently used to explore a variety of themes.[1]
Notable examples edit
This article possibly contains original research. (May 2018) |
1890s edit
- 1897: The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
1900s edit
- 1901: The First Men in the Moon H. G. Wells
1940s edit
- 1940s: In Fredric Brown's Puppet Show, an obvious and self-proclaimed alien negotiating with humans is actually something else entirely.
- 1945: "First Contact" by Murray Leinster
1950s edit
- 1950s: A classic series of stories using this theme is the "interstellar trader" series by Andre Norton.
- 1951 film "The Day The Earth Stood Still"
1960s edit
- 1960s: A for Andromeda
- 1960s: The god-like Firstborn from Arthur C. Clarke's Time Odyssey series.
- 1960s: The Star Trek television franchise explored the theme in depth and introduced the concept of the Federation's Prime Directive— a law forbidding first contact (or covert interference) with any races not sufficiently advanced for such an encounter, using capability for faster-than-light travel as the basic benchmark for first contact. The movie Star Trek: First Contact depicts humanity's first contact with an alien culture, the Vulcan race, in Bozeman, Montana on 5 April 2063, after the passing Vulcans' attention is attracted by the detection of the energy signature from scientist Zefram Cochrane launching humanity's first warp flight. In the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Carbon Creek, it is revealed that Vulcans first made contact with humans in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania in 1957, without revealing themselves as aliens. A Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "First Contact" explored the scenario from the opposite viewpoint when a Human, William Riker, is injured on an alien world while disguised as an inhabitant of the planet's civilization (which had no previous knowledge of extraterrestrials). Another notable depiction of first contact in Star Trek: The Next Generation is the episode "Darmok" where humanity (in this case the United Federation of Planets) makes first contact with a race called the Tamarians, a species that exclusively communicates with metaphors.
- 1961: Solaris (novel)[11]
- A major theme of a number of works of Stanisław Lem, the most well known being Solaris (while his most thorough examination can be found in His Master's Voice), is the inherent impossibility of meaningful communication with alien races.[12]
- 1968: His Master's Voice (novel)
- 1969: All Judgment Fled by James White features the political and psychological stresses imposed by first contact when a six-man team of astronauts is sent to investigate an alien ship that has taken up an orbit near Mars. It has been cited by the science fiction author and editor Mike Resnick as a particularly notable contribution to the type.[13]
1970s edit
- 1972: The novel The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov explores simultaneously the potential unity of all races, and the possibility of conflict inherent in all first contacts: even as members of different races understand each other, their disparate ways may endanger both their worlds, even the fabric of their respective universes. This gap between individuals and their respective societies is characteristic of the First Contact plot of E.T. Other explorations of the theme in popular culture include encounters with predatory or semi-sentient races as in Alien and Independence Day.
- 1974: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye was written to be, in Niven's words, "the epitome of first contact novels". Here it is humanity that plays the role of visiting aliens, as the religious, technological, political, psychological, military, cultural, and biological implications of first contact are explored.
- 1978: Life on Another Planet
- 1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- The theme of first contact, ranging from friendly collaboration to menace or conflict, has been visualized a number of films and television series. Among the more famous are Steven Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the television series V.
- 1979: Alien
1980s edit
- More modern treatments, using radio rather than spaceships, include The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt, Life on Another Planet by Will Eisner, and Contact by Carl Sagan.
- 1980s: By contrast, in the works of Iain M. Banks, the Contact division of the galactic civilization calling itself the Culture (which features in the majority of Banks' science fiction) frequently manipulates less advanced civilizations, steering them towards peaceful progress, especially those that may become aggressive or dangerous, under the pretext of maintaining the balance of galactic power; a notable exception being the short story The State of the Art, in which the Culture decides not to contact Earth so they can use it as a control against which they can measure their manipulations of other societies. Novels such as The Player of Games and Look to Windward delve into the psychology of first inter-species contact in considerable depth. In the novel Excession, Banks coins the phrase Outside Context Problem in relation to first contact.[citation needed]
- 1980s: Gary Larson occasionally used a humorous version of the theme in his The Far Side comics, such as showing an alien falling down the steps of a flying saucer, thereby ruining a dramatic entrance.
- 1980: The Orion Loop, Soviet film co-written by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov
- 1982: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- 1982: Nor Crystal Tears
- Also written from the alien's point of view is the novel Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster.
- 1983: V (1983 miniseries)
- 1985: Contact by Carl Sagan.
- 1985: Schismatrix
- 1986: The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt.
- 1987: Fiasco by Stanisław Lem
- 1987: The Forge of God
1990s edit
- 1990s: Examples of the mutual inscrutability and the potentially unbridgeable gaps between races which—by their very natures—are just too different to bond or even to accept each other, include Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence concept of the dark matter photino birds, the god-like Firstborn from Arthur C. Clarke's Time Odyssey series, and Stanisław Lem's planet Solaris and the events of the novel Fiasco. In other cases, such as Greg Bear's The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars, or Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix, aliens are presented as falling into a highly diverse spectrum, some easily relating with humans, others too alien for meaningful communication.
- 1993: Anvil of Stars
- 1996: The Sparrow by anthropology-trained Mary Doria Russell draws parallels with early Jesuit explorations and the philosophical or religious ethics which surround first contact
- 1996: Independence Day
- 1997: Contact
- 1998: Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, made into a film Arrival released in 2016
2000s edit
- 2006: Blindsight by Peter Watts
- 2007: Halo: Contact Harvest
- In the novel Halo: Contact Harvest, humanity's first contact with aliens is on a human agricultural colony, where an initially peaceful meeting (although preceded by aliens walking into an anti-insurgent trap set up human military) with an alien alliance known as the Covenant turns violent, eventually resulting in a 27-year war.
- 2007: Mass Effect
- The backstory of Mass Effect features the First Contact War, caused by an alien military patrol observing a human ship, which was unknowingly breaching galaxy-wide conventions, attacking it and occupying a seemingly poorly defended colony, only to learn of humanity's military prowess in a swift counterattack. The conflict was quickly smothered by the galactic community, but the reputation and bitterness persist until the events of the games.
- 2008: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, a Chinese science fiction novel (first serialised 2006)
2010s edit
- 2016: Arrival, film adaptation of the 1998 novelette Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
2020s edit
- 2020: Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis
- 2021: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
See also edit
- Ancient astronauts – Pseudoscientific claims of past alien contact
- First contact (anthropology) – The first meeting of two cultures previously unaware of one another
- Potential cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact – Topic in futurism
- Search for extraterrestrial intelligence – Effort to find civilizations not from Earth
- Extraterrestrials in fiction
Notes edit
- ^ a b Clute, John (14 March 2022). "First Contact". In Langford, David (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ^ Leinster, Murray (21 March 1935). "Proxima Centauri". Astounding Stories. Street & Smith. p. 21. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ^ Fredericks, S. C. (1976). "Lucien's True History as SF". Science Fiction Studies. 3 (8). SF-TH Inc. ISBN 0-8398-2444-0. Retrieved 21 April 2024 – via DePauw University.
- ^ Flynn, John L. (2005). "Chapter Two: The Novel". War of the Worlds: From Wells to Spielberg (1st ed.). Galactic Books. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-976-94000-5. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ^ Victoria O'Donnell, Science Fiction Films and Cold War Anxiety
- ^ Wolfe, Lisa Reynolds (14 September 2023). "The Scary Cold War: 1950s Science Fiction Films". Cold War Studies. Retrieved 22 April 2024. (mostly based on O'Donnell's article, augmented with links to Amazon Prime Video)
- ^ Etherden, Matthew (2005). ""The Day the Earth Stood Still": 1950's Sci-Fi, Religion and the Alien Messiah" (PDF). Journal of Religion and Film. 9 (2). University of Nebraska Omaha. Abstract. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
- ^ Kozlovic, Anton Karl (16 August 2021). "Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Interplanetary Emissary Klaatu Are Not Anti-Atomic: A Reassessment of the Filmic Evidence". Film, Television, and Media Studies in the Humanities. Humanities. 10 (4). MDPI (published 24 September 2021). There Is No Mention of Banning Atomic Energy or Weapons. doi:10.3390/h10040107. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ Kozlovic, Anton Karl (15 November 2013). "Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still Part I: A Religious Film?" (PDF). Features. Kinema. Waterloo Library Journal Publishing Service: 9. doi:10.15353/kinema.vi.1284. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
- ^ Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars, by Brooks Landon, p. 81
- ^ Ann Weinstone (July 1994). "Resisting Monsters: Notes on "Solaris"". Science Fiction Studies. 21 (2). SF-TH Inc: 173–190. JSTOR 4240332."Lem's critique of colonialism, as he broadly defines it,9 is articulated by Snow, one of the other scientists on the space station, who says in the book's most frequently quoted passage: We are humanitarian and chivalrous; we don't want to enslave other races, we simply want to bequeath them our values and take over their heritage in exchange. We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. (§6:72)"
- ^ Wojciech Orliński, Co to są sepulki? Wszystko o Lemie [What are Sepulki? Everything about Lem], 2007, ISBN 8324007989, p. 54.
- ^ Resnick, Mike. "Introduction from The White Papers". sectorgeneral.com. Archived from the original on 14 January 2002. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
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References edit
- "Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters" by Ronald Story (2001) ISBN 0-451-20424-7 (It was the result of a collaborative Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia Project (ETEP); excerpts online Archived 24 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine)