Exhibit Galleries :: Alien EncountersAcross the spectrum of SF, humans and aliens meet in classic contact stories. Why are some encounters hostile while others benign? Why do some result in conflict while others lead to lasting friendship? Here are examples of peaceful and not-to-peaceful encounters between humans and aliens and inquiries into what it means to be "human" and our tolerance for "the other":
Books
| Title |
Author |
Year |
| The War of the Worlds |
H.G. Wells |
1898 |
| The Puppet Masters |
Robert A. Heinlein |
1951 |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers |
Jack Finney |
1955 |
| A Case of Conscience |
James Blish |
1958 |
| Solaris |
Stanislaw Lem |
1961 |
| Babel-17 |
Samuel R. Delany |
1966 |
| Stranger in a Strange Land |
Robert A. Heinlein |
1961 |
| Downward to the Earth |
Robert Silverberg |
1970 |
| The Fifth Head of Cerberus |
Gene Wolfe |
1972 |
| Rendezvous with Rama |
Sir Arthur C. Clarke |
1973 |
| Ender's Game |
Orson Scott Card |
1985 |
| Gateway |
Frederik Pohl |
1977 |
| Uplift series |
David Brin |
1980- 1998 |
| Contact |
Carl Sagan |
1985 |
Media
| Title |
Director/Producer |
Year |
| Them! |
Dir. Gordon Douglas |
1954 |
| Star Trek |
Gene Roddenberry |
1966- 1969 |
| The Man Who Fell to Earth |
Dir. Nicolas Roeg |
1976 |
| Close Encounters of the Third Kind |
Dir. Steven Spielberg |
1977 |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers |
Dir. Philip Kaufman |
1977 |
| Superman |
Dir. Richard Donner |
1978 |
| Alien |
Dir. Ridley Scott |
1979 |
| E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial |
Dir. Steven Spielberg |
1982 |
| The Thing |
Dir. John Carpenter |
1982 |
| Brother from Another Planet |
Dir. John Sayles |
1984 |
| Predator |
Dir. John McTiernan |
1987 |
| Alien Nation |
Rockne S. O'Bannon |
1989- 1990 |
| The Abyss |
Dir. James Cameron |
1989 |
| Babylon 5 |
J. Michael Straczynski |
1994 |
| Independence Day |
Dir. Roland Emmerich |
1996 |
| Earth: Final Conflict |
Gene Roddenberry |
1997- 2002 |
| Men in Black |
Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld |
1997 |
| Starship Troopers |
Dir. Paul Verhoeven |
1997 |
| The X-Files |
Dir. Rob Bowman |
1998 |
| Signs |
Dir. M. Night Shyamalan |
2002 |
