This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Looney Toons: In re: the Kryptonian/human issue, backstory provided in a number of sources, most notably Elliot S! Maggin's late-70s/early-80s novel "Superman: Last Son of Krypton", indicate that Earthbound humanity and Kryptonians are two branches of the same species, despite (as is noted in the entry) massive implied and explicit physiological differences between them.
Gus: For those who have yet to read "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex"
Looney Toons: By science fiction author Larry Niven, I'll add in passing. Good idea to link to that, Gus. Larry's essay is a lot of fun, and surprisingly chock-full of hard science. For a slightly different POV on the subject, though, check out Tom Smith's filksong, Superman Sex Life Boogie, which was inspired by the essay.
Red Shoe: Are the Roswell kids really Human Aliens? I seem to recall some kind of implication that they're really Traditional Roswell Grays with the ability to shapeshift, but as I've seen like three episodes, I have no idea what I'm talking about.
Drop Dead Gorgias: You know what, I'm trying my damndest to remember the specifics of that show, and I can't remember. If I'm wrong remove them. What were those kids powers anyway? Other than the healing and brooding...
Looney Toons: You know, I never watched the show, really, but I do remember the implication at least that they were disguised Greys.
Tragic The Dragon: Yes, they definitely were Greys in human form. Furthermore, they were in these human forms when they started exploring outside their crashed ship as children. Why they knew to mimic humans was HandWaved later on by implying that they were Half-Human Hybrids.
I am remembering way too much about this show. <:/
Looney Toons: Unnamed user at 206.114.20.121 — your alleged description of Time Lord physiology ("eg. eight-chambered heart, green-colored blood") does not in fact have any relationship to the established physiological characteristics of Time Lords. For example, it's well known — and established on-screen in more than a few episodes, including "Dalek" in the the first season of the new series — that Time Lords do not have one eight-chambered heart, but two four-chambered hearts. The description you've offered sounds more like the Vulcans from Star Trek, though. I have replaced it accordingly.
Ununnilium: And what about Scarecrow's brain?
Looney Toons: He's an Artificial Human. Or a Rubber Forehead Alien. He doesn't count. Or maybe he does, but only to ten. <grin>
Seth: That Simoun thing should have been spoiler tagged, god damn i hate who ever wrote that in the middle of an article.
Paul A: I'm confused now. Are you talking about the thing that, in nearly every Simoun reference on this wiki, is treated as a basic obvious part of the series premise?
Seth: In the terms of the series they arent aliens, they are terrestrial to their planet unless later in the series (A point i havent seen) they are revealed to be off world. If there is no such revelation that they are not native to that planet then they are not aliens and it isnt a spoiler, neither is it an example really since they wouldn't be aliens. Just a fantasy race on their own world.
You dont call an elf an alien since in most stories they are terrestrial in origin, as far as ive seen so far in Simoun that's the case for them too. When i read the example i assumed that there was another Wham Episode later revealing them to be non-terrestrial.
Morgan Wick: Bolted this...
- Invader ZIM provides an interesting subversion of this trope, where the titular alien's flimsy human disguise features just a few contact lenses and a wig, leaving green skin and a lack of both ears and a nose. Yet, somehow, only two people (Dib and Gaz) have realized that he is an alien.
...as belonging better in Strangely Effective Disguise.
Semiapies: Moved the dinosaurians example over to People in Rubber Suits; you'd have to put an actor in one or cover the actor's visible skin in latex appliances to resemble on TV.
Medinoc: Why is the Farscape example potholed to Did Not Do The Research, even though the example itself insists that it was not natural ?
Actually, we know for sure that there are human aliens in the universe (they live on planet Earth). We don`t know if there are any non-human aliens. So, statistically, it makes sense to assume that all aliens will be humanoids.
VVK: That reminds me of the picture on the You Fail Statistics Forever page.
Mutant Rancor: Exhaustive explanation of the history of the Human species in Star Wars added. It might resolve the little Natter argument going on in the Film section; if so it may need cleanup. 10-30-09.
VVK: I think the last paragraph in the description should be removed... well, I'm going to go ahead and remove it after giving my reasons, but I'll write this here in case someone wants to argue: From what we do know, this trope can't possibly be Truth in Television, because it would require the aliens to be ridiculously human, not "evolved from something completely different to us but getting similar features as a result of parallel evolution," which is what that argument is actually about.
pagad: Can people stop adding Warhammer 40,000, please? The definition of the trope is "When a creature from a planet other than Earth looks like a human, sounds like a human, acts somewhat like a human and gets confused for a human." No other 40K races could be mistaken for humans. The closest you get are Eldar, and as pointed out on the Humanoid Alien page, they're impossibly tall and thin compared to humans.
