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| 2 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16767784810.57712300 |
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| 5 | [[quoteright:349:[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tokath_and_giral.png]]]] |
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| 7 | |
| 8 | ->''"I'd buy a big prosthetic forehead\ |
| 9 | And wear it on my real head\ |
| 10 | Everybody wants prosthetic\ |
| 11 | Foreheads on their real heads"'' |
| 12 | -->-- '''Music/TheyMightBeGiants''', "We Want a Rock" |
| 13 | |
| 14 | The tendency for several sci-fi alien species to merely be one or two facial features away from humanity. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Sometimes they're not even that far away. They look totally human and sound human. In some cases, this may well be a disguise or AFormYouAreComfortableWith, but in others this appears to be their natural appearance. See HumanAliens. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | You'd think that alien species would be radically different -- insectoids, three-legged wombats, [[MegaNeko giant cats]], etc. -- but animal-cruelty laws tend to discourage fitting animals with prosthetics, and the effects budget only allows for latex and makeup, so we get humans with brow ridges, humans with extra nostrils, humans with UnusualEars, humans with bony protrusions, and so on. (Of course, the makers of ''Franchise/StarWars'' found a way around this by building and operating startlingly lifelike puppets, making HumanoidAliens and StarfishAliens possible.) One odd consequence of this, however, is that in the Federation Council scenes in the ''Star Trek'' movies, you often see very strange, non-humanoid (or only partly humanoid) aliens, because the movies have the necessary additional budget for them. These additional races are, of course, never seen in the TV series at all. Similarly, written and animated adaptations and entries tend to showcase a wider variety as well. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Creator/GeneRoddenberry gave more reasons for this in an interview once. Budget constraints aside, if you try to make aliens look completely alien, you'll firstly make them look ridiculous (cf. ''Series/DoctorWho''), and secondly make it doubly hard for the actor playing the alien to do anything mildly resembling acting. This has actually been isolated to extremely specific requirements: if an audience can't see an actor's ''eyes'' or ''mouth'', their ability to empathize with or emotionally invest in that character is significantly impaired. If they can see neither, it's difficult to empathize with them at all. This is one reason why {{mooks}}, especially SF mooks like the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 Cylons]] or the [[Franchise/StarWars Imperial Stormtroopers]], are so often uniformed in [[FacelessGoons face-obscuring helmets]]. While not totally undoable with the post TOS ''Star Trek'' budget, the flamboyant and outlandish alien designs of ''Franchise/StarWars'' appeal to a more pulp SpaceOpera aesthetic from which ''Star Trek'' has historically chosen to distance itself, at least onscreen; the expanded universe of comics and novels is a different beast. Additionally, Roddenberry had always insisted that ''Franchise/StarTrek'' was [[MostWritersAreHuman about human issues]] and that the aliens are intended as vehicles for social commentary. This required aliens that may have been scientifically implausible (humanoid appearance, ability to communicate in English and emote like humans, etc) but easy for the human characters to interact with and the audience to relate to in the narrative. ''Trek'' fans may assume that the pure hard science fiction adventures and alien encounters occur offscreen (indeed, the animated shows tend to have even less humanoid aliens). |
| 21 | |
| 22 | The {{anime}} equivalent is the alien with PointyEars, [[FacialMarkings colorful facial markings]], [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation chromatic skin tones]] (sometimes hair too, if humans are restricted to normal colors), or [[LittleBitBeastly cutesy animal-like traits]]. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | A scientific explanation of this trope is the theory that most advanced alien species will look roughly similar to humans due to the theory that our physical layout is the most efficient one for an oxygen-breathing carbon-based life form. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | The next step past Rubber Forehead Aliens (catlike or buglike or lizardlike aliens that can still sit in chairs and hold weapons) is HumanoidAliens, possibly overlapping with {{Intelligent Gerbil}}s. Contrast with StarfishAliens. The UnintentionalUncannyValley can result if your RF Alien looks a little ''too'' human. Possible sister trope to BizarreAlienLimbs, if the make-up crew opts for weird rubber hands instead of facial appliances. A definite sister is PaletteSwappedAlienFood, where alien food looks like oddly-colored human food. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | On a side note, [[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2909963/ Bill Blair]] holds the [[Literature/GuinnessWorldRecords Guinness World Record]] for the most Rubber Forehead Aliens (202). His first science fiction makeup role was in ''Series/AlienNation'' and he never stopped. For starters, not only has he played in various ''Star Trek'' franchises as Cardassians, Jem'Hadar, Klingons, Borg and Vulcans (yes, all plural), but he has appeared in nearly every ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode as well as both movies. His credit on the show? [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep "Alien Actor"]]. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | !!Examples: |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 36 | * In UK advertising, the Tefal Eggheads. |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 40 | * ''Manga/OutlawStar'': The C'tarl-C'tarl, are essentially {{Cat Girl}}s (and boys of course) from space. [[spoiler: ''Were''-Catgirls, as we later found out.]] |
| 41 | * ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'': The Vegans and other alien races have strangely-shaped heads or unusual skin or hair colours at the very least. [[DragonInChief Gandal]] has blue skin and his head looks cubic due to his very angular features, his wide forehead, and that the top of his head is nearly flat. [[TheDragon Blackie]] has dark-purple skin, pointy ears and a very pointy, hairless head. Even the most human-looking aliens -like Rubina- have bluish or abnormally pale skin, black irises or green or aquamarine hair (keep in mind no human character in this anime is blue-haired). |
| 42 | * ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' does this with many inhabitants of the magic world; they look like normal people, but with horns or weird shaped ears or something. The rest are {{Beast M|an}}en. |
| 43 | * The Saiyans in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' are just humans with tails in appearance; that turn into giant monkeys during a full moon. ''Dragon Ball Z'' is ''very'' bad about this. There's even a whole race of "humans but skin is different color"; the Brench-seijin, which Jeice and Salza belong to. Most of the major races fall into this. Most prominent besides the Saiyans are the Namekians, who are green-skinned and fanged with antenna and long pointy ears, but otherwise resemble human men, and the Shinjin, who look like humans with long pointy ears and weird skin colors (e.g. red, green, purple). In-universe, Earthlings and aliens are all classified as "humans" (sometimes localized as "mortals"), which shows that they aren't really all that different from each other. |
| 44 | * Practically all aliens in ''Anime/{{Leijiverse}}''. Mazone, Illumidas, Tokarga... they're all humans with slightly different skin colour, even the Mazone who are plants. Miime's race is unrevealed, but she's also fully humanoid apart from not having visible mouth in most? story versions. |
| 45 | * ''Literature/CatPlanetCuties'' features LittleBitBeastly aliens like the Catians (cats) and Dogisians (dogs). Hilariously, the Catians originally called their home planet Earth and referred to themselves as Earthlings -- they changed the name of their planet and species to Catia out of courtesy. A race of bunny girls is also briefly mentioned. |
| 46 | * ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' has many examples, with the most notable being the Zentraedi; once you got past the whole [[OurGiantsAreBigger size difference thing]], they're nearly identical to humans, with the exception of skin and hair tones of varying offness to human norms. Later entries also tended to give pointy ears to Zentraedi (and humans with Zentraedi ancestry). This similarity is because both species' evolutions were heavily influenced by the [[{{Precursors}} Protoculture]]. |
| 47 | ** The Zolans in ''Anime/Macross7'' are another Protoculture-influenced species who appear mostly similar to humans, except for very PointyEars, two-toned brightly-colored hair, and prominent fur on the forearms of the men. They are also implied to be marsupials, like most of the lifeforms on their homeworld. |
| 48 | ** The Ragnans of ''Anime/MacrossDelta'' basically look like dark-skinned humans who happen to have [[ApparentlyHumanMerfolk gills, webbing, and fins]]. There's also the Windermerians, who are physically indistinguishable from humans outside of having at least one antenna-like tentacle growing out of their hair, and the Voldorians, who are basically LittleBitBeastly CatFolk. Like humanity, Zentraedi, and the Zolans, the natives of Ragna, Windermere, and Voldor are "children of the Protoculture". |
| 49 | * One of the main characters in ''Anime/{{Ulysses 31}}'' is Yumi, a young Zatrian girl. The Zatrians are a humanoid race with pale blue skin, orange eyes, light blond hair and pointed ears. |
| 50 | * ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' actually has this in the form of [[Anime/DigimonFrontier Agunimon]], whose appearance is justified by him being the Human [[ElementalEmbodiment Spirit]] of [[PlayingWithFire Flame]]. He looks mostly human, except that he has EightiesHair, fangs, and red markings on his face. Oh, and his boots are designed to accommodate claws. |
| 51 | * ''Anime/DairuggerXV'': The aliens of Galveston are basically humans with blue skin and red eyes. Keats and Kirigas, the two Rugger team members from planet Mira, are a different shade of blue and have pointy ears. Kreuz, the only team member from planet Sala, is yet another shade of blue with a tiny circle on his forehead. |
| 52 | [[/folder]] |
| 53 | |
| 54 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 55 | * Harry Vanderspeigle, the protagonist of ''ComicBook/ResidentAlien''. He has a similar physique to a human but has characteristics like purple skin and pointed ears to set him apart. |
| 56 | * Lampshaded in some ''Space Agent ComicBook/{{Valerian}}'' book. There are quite a few non-human aliens but also a multitude of practically humans, to the point where it's mentioned that "one head, two hands, two feet, two eyes, could be anyone". |
| 57 | * The Kree, from ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'', are extraterrestrials with two main races: the blue-skinned (such as Ronan the Accuser), and others who seem completely human (such as [[Characters/MarvelComicsMarvels Mar-Vell]] and [[Characters/YoungAvengersTitleTeam Marvel Boy]]). There's a little problem: the blue Krees are dominant in the Kree social hierarchy, and treat the others as worthless slaves. With such a background, [[FantasticRacism Ronan's original opinion of us humans]] is nobody's surprise. He eventually [[HeelFaceTurn got better]], up to and including marrying the human-looking Inhuman princess Crystal and defending her and her kind against other blue Kree who called them 'pink-skinned lab apes', and later becoming an ally to the Guardians of the Galaxy, but the social attitude still persists in other Kree. |
| 58 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': |
| 59 | ** The Qwardians, like Kaliber from ''ComicBook/SuperboyAndTheRavers'' and the ComicBook/GreenLantern foes the Weaponers of Qward, look like large pink hairless people wearing odd contacts. |
| 60 | ** The Graxians from the ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' story arc ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' are blue-skinned humanoids with flat noses and cow-like ears. |
| 61 | ** ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'': In issue #21, Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} and Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}} come upon the Seeders, basically humanoid but with pink skin, blue-hair and vaguely-feline features. |
| 62 | ** The Warzoon from ''ComicBook/WarWorld'' are red-skinned, fanged humanoid aliens. |
| 63 | ** In ''ComicBook/{{Crucible}}'', Lys Amata's unnamed alien species are pink-skinned, blue-haired humanoids with long oblong faces and black eyeballs. On the another hand, Tsavo is a Ngoan, and they look like humanoid, long-tailed, thick-furred cats. |
| 64 | ** The Vrangs from ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'' and other stories are hairy humanoids with brownish-grey skin, pointed teeth, huge lower fangs and large lobed ears. |
| 65 | ** ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'': Reign, who belongs to an unnamed alien species, is grey-skinned, her eyes' sclera is pitch-black, she lacks eyebrows, and her flat and wide nose resembles a monkey's. |
| 66 | ** In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsShazam'', [[BigBad Karmang]] is a Martian whose skin is chalk-white and hairless. |
| 67 | ** In ''ComicBook/WayOfTheWorld'', Krallian aliens look right like blue-skinned, blank-eyed humans. |
| 68 | ** "ComicBook/SupermanVsMuhammadAli": The warlike Scrubbs are green-skinned, big-foreheaded aliens; otherwise they look right like humans. |
| 69 | ** ''ComicBook/WorldsFinest1941'': In issue #176, Superman meets Dur, an alien from the Sirius solar system who looks like a human, if humans had scaly, chalk-white skin and large bulging black eyes. At the same time, Batman finds an alien called Tiron, who looks like an earless, blue-skinned, black-eyed human. Justified because [[spoiler:both aliens are really an extremely well made-up and disguised human actor]]. |
| 70 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': |
| 71 | ** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The Geni just look like human men with green skin and mustaches. |
| 72 | ** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The Kreel, who are the ruling people of the Sangtee Empire, look like humans wearing red contacts, purple paint, fake pointy ears with incised helixes and some prosthetic makeup bits covering up their hair and giving them barbels and flattish hair substitutes. |
| 73 | * ''ComicBook/{{Lobo}}'': The Czarnians (Lobo's species) were (or just barely ''are'', since Lobo is [[LastOfHisKind the last one]]) basically human except for red eyes, pale gray skin, and ''huge'' EightiesHair (usually black). |
| 74 | * While ''ComicBook/TheWorldsOfAldebaran'' features a huge variety of alien species, the only sapient aliens encountered so far look very much like humans, except that they are entirely hairless and have a flat nose reminiscent of a cat's muzzle (an impression reinforced by their yellow eyes and slit pupils). They do have a semi-aquatic life cycle, [[spoiler: much like the Mantrisses, who come from the same planet.]] |
| 75 | * As in the source material, namely the Barsoom books, Martian civilizations in ''ComicBook/WarlordOfMars'' are indistinguishable from humans except for their unusual skin tone and laying eggs instead of giving birth. The First-Born are grey skinned, the Okarans have golden-skin and the Red Martians are reddish-copper toned. The Therns are the closest to HumanAliens and the Green Martians [[HumanoidAliens are on way another level]]. |
| 76 | * The Psycogs and the Ethereals in ''ComicBook/KhaalTheChroniclesOfAGalacticEmperor''. The former are human beings with different colors and exotic head protrusions while the latter have three fingers and long tails. |
| 77 | * ''ComicBook/{{Copperhead}}'' is home to a ridiculously diverse alien population. Some are distinguishable only by nonhuman skin color (Thaddeus) or unusual ears (Nestor and Zolo). |
| 78 | * ''ComicBook/{{Hawkman}}'': Thanagarians look exactly like humans save for their giant wings. |
| 79 | * Tamaraneans such as [[Characters/TeenTitansStarfire Starfire]] of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' fame, are indistinguishable from humans, save the solid green eyes and gold/orange colored skin, yet are specifically stated to taxonomically be ''felines'' rather than apes. Anyway, Tamaranians look enough like humans that for a time, Starfire had a successful career as a fashion model. |
| 80 | * The Yargonians in ''ComicBook/TraggAndTheSkyGods'' look mostly human but with golden skin, green hair, pointed ears and slanted eyes. |
| 81 | [[/folder]] |
| 82 | |
| 83 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 84 | * ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'': Not an alien, but The Brow certainly had an unusual forehead. |
| 85 | * ''ComicStrip/DanDare'': The Atlantines are human but with blue skin and a visible lump on the forehead. A nice subversion [[spoiler:later reveals that they are descendants of people kidnapped from Earth aeons ago, and their differences from Earth people are adaptations that evolved to enable them to survive on Venus]]. |
| 86 | [[/folder]] |
| 87 | |
| 88 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 89 | * {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d slightly in ''Fanfic/AChangedWorld'', based on ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''. Dr. Warragul Wirrpanda, USS ''Bajor'''s chief medical officer and a human, tells a time-shifted Bajoran that "the only significant difference between you and a female of my species is some uterine quirks. Now, Bolians, those are a real challenge." |
| 90 | [[/folder]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 93 | * In ''Film/ThisIslandEarth'''s Metalunians were similar to humans except for huge foreheads and white hair. |
| 94 | * In ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', the character of Dr. Lazarus from the ShowWithinTheShow is played by Alexander Dane (who is in turn played by Creator/AlanRickman) wearing a rubber forehead. The Thermians think he is a real alien, [[SubvertedTrope even though]] his rubber forehead begins to show damage and develop holes over the course of the adventure. The Thermians themselves are a subversion of this: on first appearance, they look like short-ish humans who have Vulcans for hair stylists, but it's later revealed that this is just AFormYouAreComfortableWith. |
| 95 | * The movie ''Film/TrailOfTheScreamingForehead'' takes this to the logical extreme. The aliens ''are'' foreheads that attach themselves to humans. The movie is pure, high quality B grade. |
| 96 | * ''Film/TheFifthElement'' has a variety of particularly tacky examples. The alien opera-singer sort of looked like a hybrid between an [[Franchise/MassEffect Asari]], a [[Franchise/StarWars Twi'lek]] and a [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorph]]. Mangalore warriors from the same movie appear to be this but were actually the products of CGI and animatronic costumes. |
| 97 | * ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' featured the Psychlos, whose main distinguishing features were that they were big, had eyebrows that joined their hair, high foreheads, and dreadlocks. |
| 98 | * ''Film/PrinceOfSpace'': the men of Krankor are rubber ''nose'' aliens. This might have been slightly more badass had the noses not had a silhouette much like a chicken beak. |
| 99 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'' generally tries to avoid relying on this trope by including a number of BeastMan, StarfishAliens and HumanoidAliens that require full body costumes, puppetry, animatronics and later SerkisFolk to do. However, there are quite a few species that look almost human; the most famous example is probably the head-tentacled Twi'leks. |
| 100 | * ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' has multiple examples among its main cast, to say nothing of ''hundreds'' of extras: |
| 101 | ** [[TheLancer Gamora]], a GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe with a few little markings on her face and no eyebrows, who otherwise looks human. |
| 102 | ** [[TheBigGuy Drax]], a large grey-skinned (but not [[TheGreys a Grey]]) humanoid alien covered in red tattoos. |
| 103 | ** [[BigBad Ronan the Accuser]], a blue-skinned Kree (see the comic book section above), albeit a sicklier, more greyish blue than his comic book counterpart, and with purple eyes and unevenly-shaped irises. |
| 104 | ** Nebula, Gamora's adoptive sister, an originally purple-skinned, bald alien woman, now a {{cyborg}} with extensive areas of blue grafted synthetic skin. |
| 105 | ** Carina, the Collector's pink-skinned Krylorian (in this universe, essentially a ''literally'' pink Kree) assistant. |
| 106 | ** TheCollector himself might qualify, seeing as he has a handful of facial markings that could be natural or could be tattoos or makeup. |
| 107 | ** Mantis in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' looks like a human woman with two antennas sticking out of her forehead, an odd skin tone, and large black eyes. The Sovereign race looks like tall humans with gold skin, hair, and eyes. |
| 108 | ** Most of the background races in the ''Guardians'' films qualify as well, usually having [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation an inhuman skin tone]] and/or one or two prosthetics (e.g. forehead ridges, horns, pointy ears, some combination thereof) as their sole distinguishing features from humans and HumanAliens, though [[https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Pluvians there]] [[https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Kronans are]] [[https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Lem a]] [[https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Sakaarans few]] HumanoidAliens scattered about, most notably [[PlantPerson Groot]]. |
| 109 | * The ''Film/MenInBlack'' films have a mix of this and StarfishAliens. The former is significantly more prominent in ''Film/MenInBlack3'', in the 1969 MIB headquarters, which is a deliberate nod to TheSixties' sci-fi films. |
| 110 | * In ''Film/MetalstormTheDestructionOfJaredSyn'', the Nomads have skin growing over their right eye sockets. |
| 111 | [[/folder]] |
| 112 | |
| 113 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 114 | * Tie-in books based on ''Franchise/StarWars'' have a ''lot'' of humanoid aliens. The most human-like aliens are called [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Near-Human near-human]], and are considered to have descended from humans |
| 115 | ** The blue-skinned, red-eyed but otherwise human Chiss are typical. |
| 116 | ** ''Literature/NewJediOrder'': The [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yuuzhan_Vong Yuuzhan Vong]] look like big, muscle-y humans with a few deliberate errors- their skin tones are varying shades of grey rather than brown, they have talons instead of fingernails, their foreheads are prominent and sloped, their eye-sockets droop like a basset hound's, and their hair is almost always black when they're not bald (which is more common among them than it is among humans). Artists also commonly depict them with pointed ears, though this is never described in the novels. Since they treat ritualized BodyHorror as a mark of high status, the higher-ranked a Vong is, the less humanoid they usually look (for example, having "skull-faces" due to slicing off large sections of their noses). |
| 117 | ** The [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Noghri Noghri]] (Darth Vader's, Grand Admiral Thrawn's, and eventually Princess Leia's personal bodyguards) look basically like short, bald humans - but they also have claws, fangs, gray skin, large black eyes, and bony ridges on their skulls. |
| 118 | ** The [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yevetha Yevetha]] could pass for emaciated humans if not for their armor-plated skin, pure black eyes, gigantic claws, and six fingers on each hand. |
| 119 | * The Psychlos in L. Ron Hubbard's original ''Literature/BattlefieldEarth'' novel are vaguely-described, but come across as big, hairy humans, save for inexplicable "eyebones" and "mouthbones" instead of eyelids or lips. |
| 120 | * Discussed by Sarah in ''Literature/InCryptid'', who calls them "''Franchise/StarTrek'' aliens". The inhabitants of the dimension in ''Calculated Risks'' look humanoid except for PointyEars, rosette FacialMarkings, and slightly-larger eyes in yellow and green. |
| 121 | * E.E. "Doc" Smith's SpaceOpera ''The Literature/{{Lensman}} Series'' had human, humanoid and utterly alien species. It also had a guiding sentient race that was controlling evolution on many different planets. |
| 122 | * Justified in the early science fiction novels, ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen''. The varieties of human aliens are a result of original humanity escaping from a dying Earth. For two billion years, humanity evolves through nine different stages and splits off into a smaller set of subgroups. |
| 123 | * The axxa from S.F. Said's ''Phoenix'' have horns, hooves, and glowing eyes, but otherwise look human. [[spoiler:It turns out that the horns are a hairstyle and the hooves are boots, but the glowing eyes are genuine.]] |
| 124 | * ''Literature/WickedLovely'' tends to go this route with a lot of TheFairFolk. [[TheWoobie Niall]], for example, is described as having "too-sheer skin, like parchment by a flame, and too many joints." |
| 125 | * The aliens in ''Literature/{{Deathscent}}'' by Creator/RobinJarvis are somewhere between this and HumanoidAliens. While both races look quite like humans - enough that when one first arrives the human characters don't realise what he is until they see him in the light - their biology is very different. One of them perceives the world primarily through sense of smell, has four nostrils (one of which is in the forehead) and speaks a musical StarfishLanguage. |
| 126 | * A large number of the [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]]'s alien species are near human. It was explained away as a convergent evolution thing. In fact, most of the books take place before humanity as we know it achieves spaceflight. Most of the Culture's citizens are HumanAliens and no distinction is made between them and us. |
| 127 | * Creator/CJCherryh's series ''Literature/Foreigner1994'' deals with the deceptively humanoid alien race known as the Atevi. While they look similar to us, they [[InhumanEmotion think]] very different than Humans. |
| 128 | * Many of the land-dwelling races in the ''Literature/BooksOfTheRaksura'' are human-looking, but with a trait such as fur, horns, oddly colored skin, or the like. |
| 129 | * Subverted in Creator/DavidBrin's ''[[Literature/{{Uplift}} Uplift Storm Trilogy]]'' novel ''Brightness Reef''. The Rothen, a human-like alien race trying to con human beings, wear artificial foreheads and other facial prosthetics to make themselves appear more human-like. The Tymbrimi are genuine Rubber Forehead Aliens, mostly-human looking though with different proportions and facial features, granted they're minor shapeshifters who can gradually change their features over time. All the other aliens in the series are {{Intelligent Gerbil}}s or StarfishAliens. |
| 130 | * In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheStarBeast'', the Rargyllian Dr. Ftaeml is described as a Medusiod Alien, being a humanoid with tentacles on his head resembling snakes. There is also passing mention of exchange students from Procyon VII who are "cephalopods". |
| 131 | * OlderThanFeudalism: The very first "science fiction" novel, ''Literature/TrueHistory'' by the {{Ancient Rom|e}}an author Lucian, has rubber forehead aliens living on the Moon... and the Sun and several stars. A Moon-person looks basically human but has one toe on each foot, a marsupial pouch in his belly, a leaf growing out of his butt, and leaves for ears. They do have a lot of BizarreAlienBiology (removable eyes and genitals, hermaphroditic/all-male reproduction, the ability to grow people on trees, etc.) |
| 132 | * The Catteni from Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''Literature/{{Catteni}}'' quartet would be HumanAliens except for their grey skin. This is made fairly explicit when several human characters successfully disguise themselves as Catteni with face paint. |
| 133 | * In Walter Tevis' original novel ''Literature/TheManWhoFellToEarth'', Thomas Newton is described as having albino-white, curly hair, fair, hairless skin, pale blue eyes, thin and long fingers, and an "elfin"-looking face with wide, "boyish"-looking eyes; only four toes on each feet, no appendix and no wisdom teeth, and a more well-built respiratory system that makes it "impossible [for him] to develop hiccups". |
| 134 | * In ''Literature/Wasp1957'' by Eric Frank Russell, the Sirians are similar to humans, their most striking feature being their purple skin, a "bow-legged gait", and a number of other minor differences. This helps Mowry (a human) in passing as a Sirian without suspicions. |
| 135 | * Zaphod Beeblebrox in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'' could be considered one. He looks perfectly human except for his extra head. In the movie, the head is implied to be artificial just like his third arm, but [[LiveActionAdaptation all versions]] of Zaphod's (and Ford's?) species seem to require more than two sexual partners to reproduce: "He shares three of the same mothers as me." Not to mention that such an arrangement could result in one black kid and one white kid, meaning skin tone must work more like hair color does for humans. |
| 136 | * ''Literature/XandriCorelel'' averts this for every species except the Anmerilli, who look almost exactly like humans except for their cheek ridges, bulbous foreheads, longer ears, and tails. Xandri describes the similarity between the two species as "one of Mother Universe's cosmic jokes." |
| 137 | * ''Literature/TheOccupationSaga'': |
| 138 | ** Shil'vati have skin in the purple to pink range and average seven feet tall in females and a little under six in males, but otherwise look wholly human aside from having small tusks on their lower jaws (giving them a resemblance to orcs). |
| 139 | ** Halkam look like grey-skinned humans with snake-like scales. |
| 140 | ** Jason compares the Nighkru to glow-in-the-dark [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons drow]]: they're black-skinned SpaceElves with patterns of bioluminescent microbe colonies in their skin and eyes. |
| 141 | * ''Literature/CrestOfTheStars'': The Abh are distinguished by their blue hair, though some of them also have pointy ears. This one ''does'' get justified, though, in that the Abh are in fact ''genetically altered humans'', who even call their stellar nation the "Humankind Empire Abh" (or a variant, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS depending on how you translate it]]); the Abh see themselves as humans with a few different traits, while their (non-modded) enemies tend to see them as vile aliens, wholly different from humanity. One of the narrative thrusts of the work is examining just how human they really are -- or aren't. |
| 142 | * Invoked in ''Literature/TheRedVixenAdventures'' when Salli is watching a [[ShowWithinAShow foxen kaiju movie]] and wonders aloud, "Who are those humans in the [[SpaceClothes silver jumpsuits]] with the prosthetic foreheads?" |
| 143 | [[/folder]] |
| 144 | |
| 145 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 146 | * ''Series/AlienNation''. They're bald and their foreheads look like Mikhail Gorbachev's turned [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]]. |
| 147 | * ''Series/AliensInTheFamily'': Cookie looks mostly human, but she has blue ridges on the sides of her head. |
| 148 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'' is almost a case study on alien race-types on television. The Shadows and Vorlons were StarfishAliens. Then, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, the minor powers of the region, were a mix of this and HumanoidAliens. The Minbari were Rubber-Back-of-the-Head Aliens, being bald humans with a bony crest covering the back of their skulls (which they apparently actually carved into the elaborate shapes we see much as humans cut hair), and the Narn were fairly elaborate Rubber Forehead Reptilians. The Centauri were a bit of an odd bird, since they were superficially HumanAliens (which was actually a part of their backstory, Centauri explorers/con artists almost convinced humanity we were a lost Centauri colony, until someone got hold of a Centauri DNA sample and figured out we have more genes in common with octopi), and their BizarreAlienBiology was rarely shown outright[[note]]their reproductive organs are on their torsos and they have no major blood vessels in their wrists[[/note]], but was frequently referenced and became a plot point fairly frequently. |
| 149 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' have a lot of demonic races that are essentially humans in various different colors of facepaint. However, this is justified because almost all demons that appear are possessing or have interbred or been contaminated by humans. The few Pure Demons that have appeared didn't look remotely human: |
| 150 | -->[[AffablyEvil The Mayor's]] final form, a giant insectoid serpent.\ |
| 151 | The demon below the Hellgate, a mass of tentacles with a never seen "true face".\ |
| 152 | Illyria, a metal-clad, taloned mass of tentacles. |
| 153 | * The Martians in ''Series/ElChapulinColorado'' are normally actors (most commonly Rubén Aguirre who was very tall in real life (1,90 meters or around 6,23 feet) with a bold cap and heavy make-up. |
| 154 | * Most of the demons on ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' looked like humans decked out in heavy makeup, ear extensions and snaggle-teeth. |
| 155 | %%* In the ''Series/CousinSkeeter'' TV movie "New Kids on the Planet". |
| 156 | * Multiple Votan species in ''Series/{{Defiance}}'' look a lot like humans. |
| 157 | ** Irathients have bright red hair, red and white skin patterns, and a slightly more prominent forehead. |
| 158 | ** Castithans have very pale skin and white hair. |
| 159 | ** Indogenes have no hair and white (actual white) skin covered with hexagon patterns, justified as they are cyborgs. |
| 160 | ** Bio-men on the other hand are hulking, blue-skinned, and bald, but are actually human {{Super Soldier}}s. |
| 161 | ** Omec have purple skins with patterns, silver irises, and [[ToServeMan large canines]]. |
| 162 | * A few (not many) alien species in ''Series/DoctorWho'' fit in this category. |
| 163 | ** Thals are no different from humans other than bleach-blonde hair (with makeup-like facial markings in the non-canon Cushing movies). The Kaleds, encountered later, are all black-haired humanoids, until the species became Daleks, anyway. |
| 164 | ** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E7TheSpaceMuseum "The Space Museum"]] (a rare monster-free story) Moroks have exaggerated hairlines, while Xerons have a second set of eyebrows and shadowed eyelids. |
| 165 | ** The Drahvin in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E1Galaxy4 "Galaxy 4"]], who look like blond women except with dark spotted patterns in place of eyebrows. |
| 166 | ** The Inter Minoran bureaucrats in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E2CarnivalOfMonsters Carnival of Monsters]]" have grey skin and bald pates. ([[SpecialEffectFailure One slips off in the ending scene, if you're looking for it.]]) The Lurmans have orange-toned skin. |
| 167 | ** Peladonians in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E2TheCurseOfPeladon The Curse of Peladon]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E4TheMonsterOfPeladon The Monster of Peladon]]" have naturally multi-toned hair — strawberry blond and white for aristos, kinky brown with blond stripes for the working class. The hairlines are lowered and join to the eyebrows over the temples for some characters. |
| 168 | ** Referred to in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight "Midnight"]], in which two characters discuss meeting an alien with a large forehead. |
| 169 | ** Argolins from "The Leisure Hive" have yellow-green skin and strange hair and pods in their hair. |
| 170 | ** According to ''The Writer's Tale'', the aliens that were to become the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime Vinvocci]] were called the "Prostheticons" in the rough draft. |
| 171 | ** The Kahler from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E3ATownCalledMercy "A Town Called Mercy"]] look human save for FacialMarkings on one side of their forehead. [[spoiler:The Doctor exploits this: knowing that the cyborg-assassin AntiVillain is trying to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties, he paints the birthmark of his intended victim onto the faces of several humans and forces him to disable his auto-targeting software.]] |
| 172 | ** The ExpandedUniverse has offered an explanation; Rassilon, the founder of Time Lord society, was a bit of a [[FantasticRacism racist]] and deliberately tinkered with evolution so that races resembling his own would be more likely to evolve. While it's uncertain if this is considered canon, the show has addressed that humans and Time Lords look almost identical. |
| 173 | --->'''Amy:''' You look human.\ |
| 174 | '''The Doctor:''' No, you look Time Lord. We were here first. |
| 175 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E10TheBattleOfRanskoorAvKolos "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos"]]: The only feature that distinguishes the Ux from humans are spiral-shaped, raised FacialMarkings on their cheeks. |
| 176 | * In spite of its subversions of this trope, ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' has a few species of these floating around, albeit usually more a case of body painted and AnimeHair wig aliens than rubber-forehead. |
| 177 | ** Nebari look human except for their monotone grey skin and the fact that their hair colour depends entirely on their gender. |
| 178 | *** Subverted wonderfully in the 19th episode of season one, in which Chiana, a Nebari, dons utterly unconvincing magnolia-coloured pancake makeup and a black wig (which might count as cross-dressing for a Nebari woman). She does this in an attempt to pass for Sebacean, where Sebaceans look exactly like humans, but does nothing about her enormous aniridic pupils or grey lips. [[InvisibleToNormals For some reason]], it works for a while. |
| 179 | ** Delvians look like blue, scaly humans. The series' main Delvian is bald, but others have hair. All that said, they're actually a race of humanoid plants. |
| 180 | ** Kalish have intense blue-green eyes, copper-red hair and a few transparent scales on their temples. |
| 181 | ** Interions are almost completely humanoid except for their ridged foreheads and higher hairlines. They're a close enough genetic match to humans that members of the two species can serve as medical donors for each other. |
| 182 | ** The Luxans have a fairly elaborate tentacle-featuring face prosthetic, but still count as an example of this trope. |
| 183 | ** Most Sebaceans look exactly like humans ([[spoiler:justified, since they are TransplantedHumans with some genetic engineering thrown in]]), but we see several with skin and eye colors not seen on Earth which would qualify if the whole race shared them. There are also several individuals and cultures whose race is ambiguous; they may be ethnicities or they may not. One episode had a race that the Sebaceans claim is a lost colony of a Sebacean subspecies, although the locals deny any biological connection. |
| 184 | * The early 1970s Roddenberry production ''Genesis II'' had post-humans with ''two navels'' as their "distinguishing characteristic". That was mostly a "screw you" towards the censors. For some reason, up until then navels were considered taboo. |
| 185 | * A recurring sketch on ''Series/HumanGiant'' is an actor who plays one of these on a show called [[ShowWithinAShow Battle Sector 17]]. Fed up with having to spend the time to apply the make-up he gets surgery to make it permanent... just before the [[ShaggyDogStory show is canceled]]. He then spends several episodes trying to get work but no one will take him because of the make-up, not even for his old Battle Sector 17 character. When he finally gets a job he has to spend hours to get make-up to make him look human, it doesn't [[UncannyValleyMakeup quite work.]] |
| 186 | %%* Played straight in ''Series/{{Hyperdrive}}''. |
| 187 | * Except for Yaphit, (a sentient blob), most aliens we've seen so far in ''Series/TheOrville'' are rubber-forehead ones; this includes the ridge-headed Moclans, and the Xelayans who have PointyEars and some marks on their noses and over the eyebrows. (In order to let Lt. Kitan to be an [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Alien Space Babe]]). |
| 188 | * In the season finale of ''Series/OtherSpace'', an alien reveals that its insectoid appearance is actually a mask and that its true form is this. |
| 189 | * The Zatarians in ''Series/{{Pandora}}'' have some ridges along their forehead and around their eye sockets, but otherwise are fairly human-looking. |
| 190 | * Used in ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' on those rare occasions when aliens aren't either people in full-body rubber suits or [[HumanAliens regular actors using a silly name]]. [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Aquitians]], for example, have a purple... thing on their head (external braincase?), and [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Xybrians]] have green hair and a gem embedded in their forehead. |
| 191 | ** Franchise/SuperSentai is known for being far less elaborate with theirs - ''Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger'' has the Ryujin, who merely have four tiny claws over their cheekbones. ''Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger'' in particular spammed the use of full-head rubber masks (over very mundane clothing too), unlike ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' which relied a lot on prosthetics. A full nonhuman body typically indicates the MonsterOfTheWeek. Except, of course, for the Muppet {{Catfolk}}. |
| 192 | ** ''Dekaranger'' also has aliens use human disguises a la ''Film/MenInBlack'', presumably to save budget. |
| 193 | ** Zayto from ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'' is from the planet Rafkon and has a pair of antenna on his forehead. |
| 194 | * The Coneheads from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' were conceived as a parody of the '50s B-movie Rubber Forehead Alien. |
| 195 | * Parodied by Creator/BillBailey in ''Space Cadets''. Interlock fingers of both hands. Place palms on foreheads. Voila! Instant Klingon. |
| 196 | * ''Series/SpacePrecinct'' loves it some actors with rubber heads on. The sheer contrast between big rubber head and undisguised human body gives the whole thing a farcical charm. |
| 197 | * Most "aliens" in the ''Franchise/StargateVerse'' are just humans, [[TransplantedHumans transported]] from Earth in antiquity. But of those that don't, some — particularly other species used as hosts by the Goa'uld — still fit this Trope. |
| 198 | ** The Unas are humans with scales, chin spikes, and only four fingers, which puts them more in the HumanoidAlien category. |
| 199 | ** Wraith from ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' fit well enough though, once you get past their (justified) BizarreAlienBiology. {{Inverted|Trope}} by a Wraith in "Vegas": he uses cosmetics to turn himself into a Rubber-Forehead ''Human'', which goes [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight completely unnoticed]]. |
| 200 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Klingons, Vulcans, Bajorans, Ferengi, and Cardassians, just to name a few. The majority of all races encountered in every Star Trek series share the same basic outline of a human, with many differing from human solely by slight variations in their forehead, ears or bridge of the nose. The exceptions are usually MonsterOfTheWeek types. Some specific acknowledgements of the trope throughout the various television series include: |
| 201 | ** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E18TheChase The Chase]]" provides a tidy explanation (part {{retcon}}, part LampshadeHanging) for the prevalence of these in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe. All the main races in the universe (humans included) were created from "seeds" placed in their respective worlds' primordial oceans by an even more ancient humanoid race. |
| 202 | ** Lampshaded when the Bajoran Ro Laren, who has something of a chip on her shoulder, refers to herself as "the token bumpy-head" in one of the novels. Behind the scenes, Bajoran makeup was specifically designed to be minimal so that the actress who played Ro would remain attractive. (This turned out to be a blessing when ''[=DS9=]'' rolled around and required lots and lots of Bajoran extras. The makeup people grew very skilled at getting them quickly and efficiently "nosed," as they put it.) |
| 203 | *** The same thing happened when the appearance of the Trill was retconned from their first appearance in ''TNG''. When the makeup was applied to Creator/TerryFarrell as she prepared to play Jadzia Dax on ''[=DS9=]'', even the minimal Bumpy Forehead they made for her was thought to obscure her beautiful features too much, so they toned it down still further to the leopard spots that became the appearance of all subsequent Trills. (The ''[=DS9=]'' novels eventually reconcile this and other differences with ''TNG'' by saying that they simply represent ethnic variations within the Trill humanoid species.) |
| 204 | ** Another LampshadeHanging occurs in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E14Chimera Chimera]]" in this conversation between two changelings, Odo and Laas (who usually ''[[AFormYouAreComfortableWith appear]]'' as Rubber Forehead Aliens, even though they're actually liquids): |
| 205 | --->'''Laas''': And humanoids are not very tolerant of difference. |
| 206 | --->'''Odo''': Some of them are. There are dozens of species on this station. They tolerate each other's differences very well. |
| 207 | --->'''Laas''': He has bumps on his forehead. She has a wrinkled nose. But they're basically alike. They're bipeds that eat, sleep, breathe. You and I are nothing like them. |
| 208 | * ''Series/TenMilesOfPeachBlossoms'': It's fantasy rather than science-fiction, but most of the Ghost Tribe look like ordinary humans with horns growing from their faces. |
| 209 | * The television series of the novel trilogy ''Literature/TheTripods'' averts this, just as the books do. The Masters were tripedal creatures that differed a bit from their book description, but it was still one of the first times a television series did not employ this trope. |
| 210 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': |
| 211 | ** One interpretation of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E6EyeOfTheBeholder The Eye of the Beholder]]". [[spoiler:It's revealed at the end that the doctors' snoutlike noses and enlarged upper lips are the norm, while the seemingly beautiful patient is considered hideously deformed. She may be a {{Human Alien|s}} in a Rubber Forehead race.]] |
| 212 | ** There are some hilarious rubber-foreheaded aliens in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E19MrDingleTheStrong Mr. Dingle, the Strong]]" which feature one race as two guys stuck together with metal antennas on their heads and another race as children with painted mustaches partially inflated balloons on their head and two bug-like antennas. Thankfully, the episode was meant to be a comedy. |
| 213 | ** The episode titled "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E28WillTheRealMartianPleaseStandUp Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?]]". The setting of this episode is a rural restaurant. During the 25-minute episode, we wonder which one among a group of people is the alien. It turns out, we were seeing the alien all along, and that there were two of them. One alien has an extra arm (this one is from Mars). The other one has a third eye (he's from Venus). |
| 214 | ** The infamous "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E24ToServeMan To Serve Man]]" features tall aliens with larger brains. |
| 215 | * Kind of a given on the make up effects reality show ''Series/FaceOff''. Though there are a few challenges where they are forced to come up with more unique designs, like the [[AlienAnimals Alien Zoo challenge]] and the [[ChromaKey Green Screen Alien challenge.]] |
| 216 | [[/folder]] |
| 217 | |
| 218 | [[folder:Pinball]] |
| 219 | * Featured among the various aliens in ''Pinball/BigBangBar''. |
| 220 | * The alien leaders in ''Pinball/{{Firepower}}'' are orange-skinned humanoids with oversized wrinkled foreheads. |
| 221 | * Averted in ''Pinball/AsteroidAnnieAndTheAliens'' -- none of the aliens look close to human, and the closest ones are clearly HumanoidAliens. |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 225 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 226 | ** The in-universe setting book ''Xenology'' references this. While the Eldar, the Tau, and (to a lesser extent) the Orks look outwardly humanoid, inside the races are nothing alike. The tech-priest doing the dissections is extremely confused by this, especially since his other subjects aren't remotely humanoid. What the tech-priest doesn't know that players and fans do is that many species were [[JustifiedTrope created by]] [[AbsentPrecursors the Great Old Ones]]. |
| 227 | ** Speaking of which, the [[SpaceElves Eldar]] straddle the line between this and HumanoidAliens. They are thin, graceful, pointy-eared ([[OurElvesAreDifferent Elf]] [[{{Expy}} expies]] [[RecycledInSpace In Space!]]), but their body structure is much more lithe and spindly. |
| 228 | ** Orkoids: |
| 229 | *** Orks look like, well, Orcs. They're humanoid, but green and have small eyes, exaggerated lantern jaws, [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily large numbers]] of long, thick teeth with a pair of prominent tusks for their lower canines. The thing that starts to test the limits of this trope is the size of them, as Orks get bigger the older and more battle-hardened they become; the average Ork boy is the size of a large human athlete, but warbosses become inhumanly huge. There are even recorded, very rare instances of Orks who become the size of small buildings. |
| 230 | *** Grots and Snotlings, the Orks' smaller, goblinoid brethren are somewhat different. Grots could pass for this trope, since they are about the size of a child, being about 1 meter or so tall. Snotlings are visually similar, but even smaller. |
| 231 | *** Squigs avert this trope entirely, as they are animals. Even if you wanted to wrap this trope around the animal kingdom, most squigs don't really have a good analog, since most are egg-shaped critters that are basically rudimentary biological and locomotive systems wrapped around an enormous, fang-lined maw. Some squigs become more analogous to actual creatures, like sharks or mammoths. |
| 232 | ** Tau are much better fit to this trope, as they are humanoid, but are distinctive enough. They have hooves for feet, hands with four fingers apiece, have skin tones that vary between blue to grey, have solid red eyes, and have a single slit in their head for a nose. Certain castes have differing builds, but the only real outlier are the Ethereal caste, who have a bony protrusion on their forehead, and it's speculated to be related to why the other castes are so fanatically and blindly loyal to them (as the Tau are mentioned to have been uplifted by some Eldar in old fluff, though it is unclear if this is still canon). Oh, and despite what the [[AdaptationalAttractiveness countless pieces of fanart]] would tell you, female Tau aren't very attractive by human standards. |
| 233 | * ''Space {{Munchkin}} the RPG'' parodies this trope with the "Bumpy Headed Alien" racial choice. You choose, among other things, your facial bumps, the [[PlanetOfHats concept your entire species is devoted to]], and the one aspect of human culture your species doesn't understand ("we do not have a word for this thing you call 'hygiene'") |
| 234 | * ''TabletopGame/TeenagersFromOuterSpace'' divides aliens into one of three types: Near Humans (which tend to be either this trope or HumanAliens), [[HumanoidAliens Not Very Near Humans]], and [[StarfishAliens Real Weirdies]]. |
| 235 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', elves are AncientAstronauts from Castrovel who got to Golarion through long range portals. They still look basically like humans with pointy ears. |
| 236 | [[/folder]] |
| 237 | |
| 238 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 239 | * The Split race in the ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' games are tall human-like aliens with very rough looking narrow faces, and odd colored skin. |
| 240 | * ''VideoGame/AdibooMagicalPlayland'': Adiboo is an alien who looks like a normal human aside from the PointyEars and yellow-ish skin. |
| 241 | * The dominant race in the ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' series are humans with excessively long pointy ears. |
| 242 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' with Newmans/Numans, and later Beasts in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse''. Sure, they look human enough, save for their ears and (in the case of Beasts) their harelips and eyes ... but they aren't actually aliens at all. They're actually genetically engineered ''humans.'' Played straight, though: The three planets' humanoid species are Parmanian/Palmanian (humans), Motavian ([[HumanoidAliens furred, beaked humanoids]]), and Dezolisian/Dezorisian (Rubber Forehead Aliens with green skin). |
| 243 | * In ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', the people of Ultra Megalopolis are [[AnotherDimension extradimensional]] humans with blue skin, who Hau outright refer to as aliens. |
| 244 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 245 | ** Asari fit the trope perfectly, being [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe blue-skinned alien space babes]]. Although their tentacles are actually on the ''back'' of their heads, where a human would have hair[[note]]In the third game, Liara describes them as "semi-flexible cartilage-based scalp crests that grow into shape"[[/note]]. While they wear the same armor as humans in-game, ''every'' race sees them as their equivalent of [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe blue-skinned alien space babes]] except possibly the Krogan, who still see them as attractive. |
| 246 | ** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', if a male Shepard romanced Tali and saved the quarian fleet, Tali will leave a photo of herself without mask or helmet on his nightstand. It turns out that were it not for the skin markings, purple-tinted skin, the three-digited hands and feet, and the avian legs, she could pass for human. It helps that her "photo" is literally [[spoiler: [[http://x1.fjcdn.com/comments/Pic+related+it+s+her+unmasked+_9632f0ef344f6b921bde9f50649ed03e.jpg a photoshopped stock image of a model]]]] |
| 247 | ** The batarians are the closest ''Mass Effect'' species to this trope, as unlike the asari (who are all female) or the quarians (who, as mentioned, have three digits on each hand and foot and digitgrade legs), batarians have the same sexual dimorphism as humans, human-passing skin tones (various shades of brown), and are identical to humans from the neck down, to the point that the only way to tell batarian and human enemies apart when they're wearing face-concealing helmets is that the batarians' grunts have a filter applied to them. They differ from humans only in that they have four eyes, needle-like teeth, and [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/masseffect/images/4/4e/Bray.png/revision/latest?cb=20130511044038 ridges along the fronts of their faces]]. They'd definitely look at home in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise. |
| 248 | ** On the technical side, the developers of ''Mass Effect'' admit that when it comes to fighting their alien designs were limited to [[HumanoidAliens bipeds with human proportions]] because of the Unreal engine's combat system. That's the reason you never see any of the more alien races such as the elcor or hanar in-combat; each race would require whole new skeleton rigs of their own. |
| 249 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' has a bit of fun with this trope, since the angara are humanoid(ish), but with vastly different physical builds, for the reason given just above. An asari scientist is disappointed by the physical similarities, and at least some angara are weirded out by humans (these are the nicer responses), with one e-mail found at one point of an angara wondering if the human explorers modified their appearance to look less alien to them. |
| 250 | * In ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' series, if a major species of aliens are not HumanAliens, they will be this. The only truly strange aliens are either AlwaysChaoticEvil, or one-off weirdos, like inventors in ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime Till the End of Time]]''. |
| 251 | ** ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanFantasticSpaceOdyssey Fantastic Space Odyssey]][=/=]The First Departure'': |
| 252 | *** Fellpools allegedly descend from cats, and for some reason possess tails and pointy ears. They also have copper-based blood, which, [[NoBiochemicalBarriers somehow]] doesn't prevent them from interbreeding with Earthlings. There are also their subspecies - Highlanders and Lesser Fellpools. The former have striped skin in addition to tails and pointy ears, while the latter are full-blown {{Cat Girl}}s. |
| 253 | *** Featherfolk are {{Winged Humanoid}}s, who can use [[MagicByAnyOtherName Symbology]] without {{Power Tattoo}}s. |
| 254 | ** Tetrageniots from ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory TheSecond Story]][=/=]The Second Evolution'' have a ThirdEye that gives them better depth perception. |
| 255 | ** And then there are three different species of SpaceElves - Nedians from ''The Second Story'' and Eldarians and Morphus from ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope The Last Hope]]''. They have pointy ears, and that's about it. The latter game, however, raises the possibility [[spoiler:that Morphus ''are'' Nedians, or at least their offshoot group]]. |
| 256 | * Miriam in ''VideoGame/ShiningForce Feather'' might be a living LampshadeHanging. She meets our protagonists and is immediately amazed, as she hasn't ever seen a human before. Never mind that Miriam is an elf, and that the only difference between her and Jin are her pointy ears, slanted eyes, and skinnier build. One scene later, she meets Alfin and is equally wowed, as she's never seen a Core Unit before, despite that Core Units are... RidiculouslyHumanRobots. Meanwhile, she meets all the varieties of {{Beast M|an}}en with no more than [[GenkiGirl chipper enthusiasm]]. |
| 257 | * Stellar Santiago in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestVIRogerWilcoInTheSpinalFrontier'' (though this trope is otherwise mostly absent from the ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' series). |
| 258 | * Most barbari races of ''VideoGame/TamingDreams'' fit the description. Bold have a furry nose and a cleft upper lip and the Meek have doe ears and antlers on the males. |
| 259 | * [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Gandrayda]] from ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' is one of these; While she's one of the more humanoid characters among the cast, she has translucent pinkish-purple skin that reveals an odd skeletal structure and weird tentacle-like hair |
| 260 | * In ''VideoGame/TheSims'' franchise: |
| 261 | ** In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' and ''VideoGame/TheSims3'', alien sims are just like human sims, except for the green skin and the completely black eyes. |
| 262 | ** In ''VideoGame/TheSims4'', alien sims remains not so physically different from human sims, except that they now have different sets of inhuman skintones (like blue and purple) and eyes. |
| 263 | * On the initial release, ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' deliberately averted this; aside from humanity, the selection was a mixture of roughly HumanoidAliens and truly bizarre forms. Eventually, [[EnforcedTrope by popular demand]], an entire (relatively small) category for humans and very human-like aliens (include SpaceElves and Klingon look-alikes) was added. The "Humanoids Species Pack" then added a few more, most of them being based on typical fantasy races, such as orcs, dwarves or cyclopses. |
| 264 | * Astaroth from ''VisualNovel/MarcoAndTheGalaxyDragon'' is an alien who looks like a bald, extremely muscular man with chalk-white skin and black sclera, and he has snake-like appendages growing from the base of his skull. This is in contrast to his daughter Haqua, who is a straight-up {{Human Alien|s}}. |
| 265 | [[/folder]] |
| 266 | |
| 267 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 268 | * ''Webcomic/{{Ayuri}}'': Dobeks, which are domesticated humanoids with the intelligence (and [[NakedPeopleAreFunny fashion sense]]) of a dog. |
| 269 | %%* Inverted in a strip of ''Bogleech Comics'', where the vast majority of aliens appear very similar to [[http://www.bogleech.com/comics/comic125-galactic.htm sharks]].%%Dead link |
| 270 | * ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': {{Subverted|Trope}}: Sam Starfall ''looks'' humanoid, but it's really a suit to let him operate in an Earth-like environment. We don't get to see his true appearance, but it involves tentacles, and humans apparently find it disgusting. |
| 271 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': The [[AllTrollsAreDifferent trolls]] make reference to a ''lot'' of BizarreAlienBiology endemic to their species, like "chitinous windholes", "auricular sponge clots", "porous cranial plates", and various colors of blood, but outwardly just look like grey-skinned humans with [[SupernaturalGoldEyes yellow-orange eyes]], horns, and fangs. Complicating this is the fact that some of the BizarreAlienBiology seems actually more likely to be bizarre alien ''terminology'', instead, or a very idiosyncratic translation convention if you presume they're not speaking English in the first place. |
| 272 | * ''Webcomic/{{Terra}}'': All the known nonhuman species fall here. The Azatoth would be HumanAliens but for a heavier brow ridge and a couple nodules on the sides of their noses; they also tend to be a foot taller than the average human. The Vareliens look like asari with longer, more flexible head-tentacles. The Shintari have swept-back conical heads and orange skin. |
| 273 | * ''Webcomic/{{Zukahnaut}}'''s protagonist is a palette-swap and a new pair of ears away from looking like a passable (if ugly) human. |
| 274 | * ''Webcomic/LeavingTheCradle'': Utterly averted, despite being SpaceOpera. None of the species of the galaxy resemble anything human except for, well, humans. |
| 275 | * ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'': Justified. In addition to some aliens that ''are'' humans with some minor modifications (enough humans have been abducted that they have a stable population in space, and they have access to genemods), [[https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-759-its-evolutionary-my-dear-washington-post/ Dabbler explains]] that the humanoid form is evolutionary advantageous in most areas. Two arms, two legs, and two eyes are an improvement over anything with fewer arms/legs/eyes, but adding more produces diminishing returns for increased calorie requirements. There definitely are really strange alien races out there, but a very noticeable percentage of sapient species are humanoid. |
| 276 | * ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': Both largely averted and deconstructed. |
| 277 | ** Loroi look just like humans, except for the pointy ears, blue skin tones, odd eye and hair colors, and their males being smaller than and far outnumbered by the females. This similarity is noted as a significant abnormality by everyone, considering that the rest of the races go from notably physiologically different to being StarfishAliens. The fact that humans also seem to be resistant to the Loroi's telepathy implies that this may be far more than mere coincidence, but [[http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider066.html when Tempo makes a fairly loaded implication implying Jardin of being a physically-tailord spy]], [[http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider067.html Jardin testily counters]] that it would be extremely stupid for the Umiak to create a mole that sticks out like a sore thumb as much as he does. |
| 278 | ** An interesting detail revealed in the Insider posts is that there's another species, the Nibiren, that is to the Barsam -- a species that, along with the Loroi, is part of a group of biochemically related organisms related to a powerful {{Precursor|s}} civilization -- what the humans are to the Loroi, i.e. different in coloration and a few physical details but otherwise startlingly similar. Rubber Forehead Aliens to another alien species, essentially. The conclusion reached by the Barsam is that they were genetically engineered with the Nibiren as a model. If this is true, it might have interesting implications for the relationship between the humans and Loroi. |
| 279 | [[/folder]] |
| 280 | |
| 281 | [[folder:Web Originals]] |
| 282 | * The "Alienoids" of the ''Webcomic/{{Garnet and Gure}}'' short, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IigI2VMRthw Holiday Quickie-Toon]] resemble cheesy black-and-white style spacemen with over-long eyebrows. |
| 283 | * In the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' episode "buried", Strong Bad unearths what he believes to be an alien artifact. He states that the earth was colonized by extraterrestrials, and that it explains "why all beings look the same except for slight differences of our foreheads!" |
| 284 | * Due to non-professional special effects and costumes, Noah Antwiler (from ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'') portraying Terl from ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' in some episodes of Channel Awesome's review shows and the fourth year anniversary ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' looks much more human than the version portrayed by John Travolta. It also means most "rubberhead" effects could not be recreated. However, it's still clearly a Psychlo. |
| 285 | * ''WebVideo/EarthlingCinema'' series of fictional reviews is hosted by alien Garax Wormuloid, who is just the creator with eyebrows significantly wider than his head. |
| 286 | [[/folder]] |
| 287 | |
| 288 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 289 | * A number of the extraterrestrial characters in ''WesternAnimation/DefendersOfTheEarth'' fit this trope: |
| 290 | ** The show's BigBad, Ming the Merciless, has green skin and pointed ears, traits shared by his children, Kro-Tan and Castra. In the original "Flash Gordon" comic strips, Ming resembles an oriental warlord, but he was given a more obviously alien appearance in the Defendersverse to avoid any UnfortunateImplications. |
| 291 | ** Princess Astra from "The Revenge of Astra" has pointed ears, but otherwise looks human. |
| 292 | ** The Psychic Warriors from "The Evil of Doctor Dark" are humanoids with EightiesHair and antennae which they use to focus their powers above their eyes. Mara, the youngest of the trio, who defects to join forces with the Defenders, also appears in the sequel, where her skin (blue in the original episode) has a more human tone, though she retains her characteristic hair and antennae. |
| 293 | ** The title character in "The Starboy" is a humanoid child who appears to be a little younger than Kshin. He is hairless with white skin and the star which gives him his name on his forehead; this star changes from red to blue based on his mood. |
| 294 | * The majority of alien species ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' are more or less humanoid, including all the main cast. That being said, the show does have a wide array of odd aliens (sentient nebulae, sludge monsters, swarms of flies, etc) and robots who are either minor recurring characters or the focus of individual episodes. Subverted with Leela, who is revealed in an early season to be a remarkably minimally mutated human mutant who was raised to think she was a LastOfHerKind alien. |
| 295 | * Warhok and Warmonga, the {{Proud Warrior Race|Guy}} aliens who appear in season four of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' are an animated version of this. They're nine feet tall and have green skin, but otherwise identical to humans. |
| 296 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': |
| 297 | ** [[MageSpecies Witches]] look human save for their elf-like PointyEars, and an extra organ attached to their hearts that allows them to cast magic (though that's not visible from the outside). Witches also have a greater variation in hair and eye color than humans do (Amity has yellow eyes, and Raine's hair is naturally teal). Some witches also sport explicitly more non-humanoid features, like Boscha's three eyes, Adrian Graye's tail, and Amber's bat-like nose and ears, likely due to cross-breeding with the much more animalistic demon-population. |
| 298 | ** [[spoiler:Grimwalkers are made to look exactly like witches. While they are made of completely different stuff and are likely more ''tree'' than witch, the only external feature that distinguishes a Grimwalker from a witch is the fact that Grimwalkers always have bright pink eyes.]] |
| 299 | * The Bortronians from ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' resemble humans, but are all very stretchy, have thin faces, and wear space-suits. |
| 300 | * The Gems in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' generally look like human [[OneGenderRace women]] except for their [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation skin tones]], hair colors, [[ImprobableHairstyle hairstyle]], and having a gemstone embedded somewhere in their bodies. That said, their figures are often drawn more exaggerated than humans, and the series increasingly shows types of gems [[HumanoidAliens that are still humanoid but with blatantly inhuman features]] (Nephrite is a {{Cyclops}} whose gem functions as an eye; Sapphires, Aquamarines, and Rutiles are TheNoseless; many types are inhumanly large or small), and that's before getting into [[FusionDance gem fusions]] which are generally larger than any human, frequently possess ExtraEyes and [[MultiArmedAndDangerous limbs]], and sometimes are only partially humanoid. Technically, their gemstones is their HeartDrive and ''actual'' form, while their bodies are a HardLight projection, so they can actually shape-shift at will as a result, meaning their normal shapes are preferred forms than anything else. |
| 301 | * Starlee from ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward]]''. Her race look almost exactly like humans, except for having blue skin and pointy ears. |
| 302 | * [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Starfire]] of the WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans|2003}} (and the rest of her race) has orange skin and BizarreAlienBiology (including superpowers), but looks entirely human otherwise. |
| 303 | * The Alteans in ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' look almost exactly like humans, but have a few differences, such as the small marks of color next to their eyes. However, the other alien species tend to look more...alien. |
| 304 | * On ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice|2010}},'' Rannians are depicted this way, with pale yellow skin, pointed ears and, at least in Alanna's case, purple eyes. This is a change from the comic books, where they're HumanAliens. |
| 305 | [[/folder]] |
| 306 | |
| 307 | [[folder: RealLife]] |
| 308 | * The hormonal condition acromegaly can cause a person to develop blockily-exaggerated cheekbones, brow, and chin, as if these features have been bulked up by RubberForeheadAliens' prostheses. |
| 309 | * By comparison with other great apes, ''humans'' look like this trope, with our long overhanging noses, domed foreheads, jutting chins, and barely-discernable brow ridges. |
| 310 | [[/folder]] |
| 311 |
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