How Many Aliens Does It Take to Screw in a Light Bulb?

If you look at most Sci-Fi franchises, they are way past answering the question: “Are we alone in the universe?” The answer seems to not only be “yes”, but that there are as many different aliens in space as there are species of animals on earth.

Each franchise takes a different approach. Star Trek leads the way with the “Most Humans in Make-Up with Prosthetics” category. There are humans with the cabbage leaves taped to their heads (Cabbage Patch Klingons), those with ribbed noses and funky hair that look like surprised chickens and some with just plain ol’ run of the mill spots. Babylon 5 and Stargate also fall into this category. Star Wars employs the most exotic range of aliens, having the advantage of CGI and a bigger budget. The only exception to the plethora of alien races is Firefly. The only sentient creatures in the universe of the Serenity are humans – and we are our own worst enemies.

Star Seeker has many similarities to Firefly. The main difference instead of being scoundrels with a heart of gold (a trope “borrowed” from George Lucas who “borrowed” it from Edgar Rice Burrows), the Scouts can say with Judge Dredd but with better diction: “I am the law.” My approach to aliens is deliberate. I am opposed to having multiple “human races.” In Star Seeker, just as in reality, there is only one human race. The unscientific concept of different human “races” was an attempt of a bygone century to justify certain social and political philosophies. Time for science and society to meet and shake hands on this one. Okay, okay. I will stop now before I really start to preach.

The Star Seeker Universe takes its inspiration for aliens from the pages of the Chronicles of Narnia. Adapted from Adam’s catalogue of animals, the finished product is anthropomorphized creatures that can talk, reason, emote and have opposable thumbs. That is why Star Seeker has gangster dinosaurs, ninja lions and musketeer bears. And within each of those groups are not only different species (lions and tigers and leopards, Oh My!), but also those of mixed race. Yes Virginia, there is a Liger. And there is a purpose behind that as well.

Star Seeker takes advantage of the settings and conflicts caused by true mixed racial discrimination. The main example is that of the ursoids. Many Browns (Grizzlies) have intermarried with Blacks (Black bears) to the point where they can be considered a different race. The difference between the two parent races are few being mostly size and the muscle hump between the shoulders of the Grizzly. (Young males wishing to assert their manhood may even wear an artificial hump beneath their clothes) Otherwise, in the parent races colors can be nearly identical: some black bears are brown.

The Mudans (Polar bears), however, are another story completely. Duke Erid Brachensclaw (a Grizzly) has a cousin that is of mixed Mudan-Brown heritage. The differences are striking: a “grolar” bear is much larger than a grizzly, has a different shape body, a longer snout and hairy palms which have a strong sent so they can mark their territory as they walk. BTW, Grolar (Grizzly father) and Pizzly (Polar bear father) bears are rare, but do exist in nature. Scientists are still scratching their heads bout that one. Different species are not supposed to mix in the wild.

Duke Erid’s challenge is to overcome the prejudice and neglect of his Brachensclaw cousin begun by his father and carried on through his own neglect. Will he deal with his own heart, confess that he has sinned against his cousin and offer him acceptance into the family or not? This is another example of what I call “the superiority of science fiction.” Even though the narrative of Book 5 Betrayal on Brachensclaw and Book 6 Lords of Luthoria is about ursoids, it applies just as well to work-a-day world. The books explore other “racial” conflict as well.

So the question that Sci-Fi authors of both book and film seem to have bypassed is still unresolved, having skipped to the conclusion without dealing with the messy variables. Science used to think there were only three requirements for life. Now, that number has grown to over 50 and continues to climb. As science continues to bridge the gap between what we know and what we thought we knew, the probability of sentient life outside of this terrestrial ball declines sharply. But even so, an answer to the bypassed question: “Is there life on other planets?” can be found with certainty. The answer is clear. It is the same answer we have for sentient life on this planet:

That brings us back to our original question. "How many aliens does it take to scre in a lightbulb?" Only one; but God had to create the alien first.