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A POX ON THE WORLD
SCIENCE FICTION’S MOST DISTURBING ALIENS, IN
STARCRAFT
As a
life-long science fiction fan, I am familiar with most of the really outstanding
alien races of the genre. The Star
Trek universe gave us some of the very best and, though originally
portrayed as opponents, they had enough attractive qualities to be more than
single-dimension villains, especially with the introduction of Star Trek:
The Next Generation. The
quintessential Star Trek opponents, the Klingons, developed into
creatures of honor and the warrior ethic, worthy though emotionally unruly
allies of the Federation, a kind of samurai race with forehead ridges and
dirty hair. Similarly,
the Romulans were aptly-named in that they always maintained a very Roman
sense of dignity and decorum, tempered by an equally Roman penchant for
cutthroat politics. The Next
Generation went even further than it did with the Klingons, by introducing
the notion that the Romulans were redeemable.
They were long-lost kinsmen of the Vulcans, and when last we saw Spock
he was sowing the seeds of their redemption through a promising missionary
effort, bringing them Vulcan philosophy of logic and self-control. The Vulcans
themselves amount to a Faustian bargain, in which the barbaric and violent
traits of their nature is vanquished with their rejection of emotion. But, the original series continually asked,
what good was discarded along with the evil aspects of that emotion? This conflict, embodied in the half-human
Spock, was eternally compelling and vital to the series. They were
also tragically doomed. Of course
the central conflict on In
literature, my favorite alien race is the Moties from The Mote in God’s
Eye and its sequel The Gripping Hand, by Larry Niven and Jerry
Pournelle. They are so far removed from
human norms of anatomy and physiognomy that they are asymmetrical in the
layout of their limbs, with enhances their ability to function as the
galaxy’s greatest tinkerers, which leads them into epic feats of inadvertent
vandalism. They
further embody conflict, being doomed to repeat cycles of self-destruction
and rebuilding on their home world. Any mention
of the word alien has to include the movie Alien and its
sequels, featuring an H.R. Giger nightmare come to ravenous life. As with the Moties, this species explicitly
rejects an important aspect of human anatomy, in this case the presence of
eyes, while embracing the insectoid exoskeleton, spiked and flailing tail,
slime-dripping mouth, and rending claws that trigger elemental emotions of
fear and dread in the base of our reptile brains. Even this
is just the culmination of a lifecycle calculated to shock, and bearing no
resemblance to anything on this wet blue planet. Whereas the Star Trek and Bablyon
5 races tended to be mirrors of different aspects of the human
psyche-----after all, one could always reason with a Vulcan or drink with a
Centauri, as long as you didn’t trust the latter not to cheat at
cards-----the beings of Alien are entirely outside the realm of human
reasoning. They kill. They reproduce. They eliminate any human
whom they encounter. End of
discussion. But for me,
these are not the most disturbing fictional aliens. That honor has to go to
the Zerg of the Starcraft real time strategy game, from Blizzard
Entertainment. Playing as
the Terran, my introduction to the Zerg was probably similar to most Starcraft
players, and that was as the target for a massive alien attack. The “Zergling” warriors look and act on the
screen something like a cross between the creatures in Aliens, although in
even larger numbers, and the Arachnids of Starship Troopers (more the
movie than the book version). Zerglings
and their larger combatant cousins swarm over everything, winning through
sheer insect-like mass as much as anything.
There comes a time, and it is liable to happen many times, that a
strong human defense suddenly looks like the speed bump that it really is,
regardless of bunkers, tanks, and aircraft.
Marines might kill Zergs, and even kill a lot, but if they really want
to wipe out the Terrans there are always more, and if the defending military
units are wiped, even a few acting with impunity can wipe out an entire base. The game’s
designers created a social structure and lifecycle for the Zerg that is as
creative as anything in science fiction, including novels. As with the Arachnid “Bugs” that Robert
Heinlein created for Starship Troopers, Zerg lack individuality. For most, their pitifully primitive brains
can handle none but the most basic functions and directives. For higher mental powers, they rely on Zerg
“Overlords,” which float over the game like malformed jellyfish, and perform
much the same function as Heinlein’s “Brain” Bugs. These in
turn are subordinate to the Overmind.
The Overmind is the central reasoning and decision-making entity of
the entire Zerg species and, like the Borg collective of Star Trek,
assimilates all the knowledge of the species that its servants
assimilate. But most unlike the Borg,
who have concern for the biological attributes of their victims, the Zerg
also assimilate their DNA sequences. Both the
Zerg and the psionically-gifted Protoss, the other alien species of Starcraft,
were created by long-lost Xel’Naga race, given to manipulating the genetics
of selected species to improve them in the creators’ own image. But the Zerg, in an act of rebellion that
goes beyond the Biblical, rose and overwhelmed their creators, with the
Overmind absorbing their mental essence and physical genetic material. In effect,
the Zerg killed and ate their gods, and thus became gods themselves. The Zerg
concern for DNA is vital to their character, as they are a metamorphic race,
capable of altering themselves genetically to adapt to a specific
purpose. This goes right to their
heart of their lifecycle. They begin
life as larvae. A Zerg larva is the
t-cell of its race, as it can be changed into any of the more specialized
subtypes: In the beginning these are the worker drone, the overlord, and then
the fighting Zergling. As time goes on
and capabilities build, they can also morph into more advanced warrior types
that crawl or fly. The
crablike drone is not necessarily done with its changes. The Zerg do not build structures, as the
humans do. Instead, they become
structures. For example, whereas
Terran workers would build a gas refinery, a Zerg drone would move to the
gasfield, and actually metamorphize into a refinery. The same
goes for all the other structures that add capabilities. Just as larvae do when they enter an egg
state before becoming more functional types, drones become disgusting,
pulsating sacs of flesh anchored to the ground. Then they hatch with a revolting, squishy
sound and the rending of the sac. The creep
is the most disturbing Zerg characteristic of them all. Very few of their living structures can be
built on normal land. What they need
is a carpet of alien secretion that Starcraft terms creep. Specialized Zergs spread it to enlarge the
colony, and one can often judge its age and vitality by the amount of creep
surrounding it. This is the
final element in portraying the Zerg as something familiar to many Earthbound
humans: They are cancer. I have seen
cancerous lesions up close and personal, and can attest that creep looks very
similar. In fact, I have never seen
anything on this Earth that looked so alien as cancerous tissue, and firmly
believe that if I even did meet a real alien, I would be less horrified. Creep does
not just look like cancer, it acts like it too. Creep spreads from the center of infection,
and covers, and chokes, all terrain in its path. Furthermore,
many of those other Zerg changes bear resemblance to tumors as well. Even when they do not, the game does an
amazing job of making them look just plain wrong. The word
“infestation” occurs more than once in Starcraft when it comes to the
Zerg. They can infest human assets,
and people, thereby turning them to Zerg purposes, again much as cancer
hijacks cellular processes to replicate its own mutated cells. These are
the most disturbing, often disgusting, fictional aliens I have ever
encountered in literature, film, television, or gaming. In Starcraft, the Zerg are an alien
species, and much more. They are a
disease, and the game uses all the images to call cancer to mind. I would find it extremely difficult to
believe that this was an accident, or that the designers and artists had
never seen a tumor or lesion with their own eyes. Science fiction is full of species that can be described as malign. But the Zerg stand out as being genuinely malignant. If the creators of Starcraft intended to originate a species embodying dread and horror, they have succeeded admirably. For some, the cancerous nature of the Zerg might hit too close to home for comfort. Yet that elemental discomfort is what makes them a most horribly memorable and effective instance of alien evil.
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