As an aside/addendum to the "God" option: I once had a full 4-part storyline in the works (for the 7th Doctor and Ace) based on the idea of a (human) evangelist turning up on an alien planet, with the intent of reaching out to the natives and making the first steps in translating the Bible into their language. Since they didn't have any sensors for optical EM wavelengths (all the species on the planet would be shown to have highly developed senses that did not use EM radiation, in particular the "Listening Camels"...), this was going to be a bit of a challenge, what with all the light- and sight-related imagery in the Bible, so he needed to learn somethhing about how the locals ("Olfers") sensed/"saw" the world.
Over the course of the story he learns that his challenge is even bigger than he suspected - not just the language, but their entire conception of the world around them is different - but in the meantime, he helps the Doctor uncover and defeat a plot by a self-seeking human scientist to use and abuse the Olfers.
The trick was, that this evangelist had a full and more-accurate-than-normal "God-sense" (to borrow smallship1's term). So while in himself he was a bit naive, and had a lot to learn about the world, and was liable to rush into things quoting scripture when he should be sitting back and listening to what was really going on, he also had a genuine functioning hot-line to God, which sometimes put him one-step ahead of the Doctor, and sometimes, quite deliberately (on God's part!) one step behind.
The title was "The Blind" - the idea being that, apart from the obviously "blind" Olfers (whose primary sense is smell, hence the name), everyone in the story was blind to something(s), in one way or another, including the Doctor.
In retrospect, it might have worked nicely as an NA/MA, but I doubt I could have got it past a script editor on the show itself (and if I had, I'd have been in a pickle: So much of what I wanted to convey could only sensibly/plausibly be conveyed in "internal monologue" or narrative. It probably would have ended up as a run-of-the-mill "human colonisation and subjugation of alien species" story; Not a patch on Kinda, and probably as forgettable as "The Mutants". =:o\ )
There's a rich SF tradition of spectacular human failures at bringing relijin to the aliens - Bradbury's "The Fire Balloons" is a hoot, and Harry Harrison's "An Alien Agony" isn't - which I assume is a response to colonialism. Come to think of it, so are Kinda and The Mutants, of course. I was fascinated by an interview with some Creationists who said there couldn't be life on other worlds, because it wouldn't be fair that they'd missed out on God's involvement with Earth.
"I was fascinated by an interview with some Creationists who said there couldn't be life on other worlds, because it wouldn't be fair that they'd missed out on God's involvement with Earth."
[FACEPALM] So damn parochial. Just think of everything we've missed in God's involvement with all those other planets! =:o\
I'm particularly chuffed with my Listening Camels, but in twenty years I've never been able to get them into a story that worked.
Basic idea: The planet (or this region of it, at least) is densely forrested and so damn noisy, what with all the smaller creatures chittering to each other and echo-locating their way around and wotnot, that hearing a stealthy predator coming is hard work. So big slow-moving mammals (of which there aren't many) need really clever hearing, or some other sense altogether. The Listening Camel has a body that looks roughly like a camel, except with neck about half as long as a giraffe (that's normally kept sagging in "U" bend so that the head is in a camel's normal position), a head with two ears tilted slightly forard and a third ear at the back... and big wide bony collar rising out of its shoulders that just happens to be a pretty good approximation to a parabolic reflector. =:o}
By shifting their heads from side to side they can scan the horizon for sound sources (head left to scan right, and vice-versa); by shifting the head further away from the body or nearer they can focus at specific distances; and if the alarm goes up that something's going on outside of their quadrant of interest, they can pop the head straight up, above the reflective collar, to get an omni-directional overview. They tend to stand around grazing in groups of three or four, with their backs to each other, each monitoring a different quadrant, and tapping a hoof on the ground to alert the others if needed. They're actually more vulnerable when moving than when standing still: the leader walks head down, scouting ahead; the ones in the middle of the train walk heads-up, ducking down occasionally to check out suspicious noises, and the youngest and most agile/whoever drew short straw has to cover their retreat by walking backwards, which makes the whole group slow but quiet - unless a hungry is actually spotted, when they all just face front and run like hell!
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-11-18 03:03 pm (UTC)Over the course of the story he learns that his challenge is even bigger than he suspected - not just the language, but their entire conception of the world around them is different - but in the meantime, he helps the Doctor uncover and defeat a plot by a self-seeking human scientist to use and abuse the Olfers.
The trick was, that this evangelist had a full and more-accurate-than-normal "God-sense" (to borrow
The title was "The Blind" - the idea being that, apart from the obviously "blind" Olfers (whose primary sense is smell, hence the name), everyone in the story was blind to something(s), in one way or another, including the Doctor.
In retrospect, it might have worked nicely as an NA/MA, but I doubt I could have got it past a script editor on the show itself (and if I had, I'd have been in a pickle: So much of what I wanted to convey could only sensibly/plausibly be conveyed in "internal monologue" or narrative. It probably would have ended up as a run-of-the-mill "human colonisation and subjugation of alien species" story; Not a patch on Kinda, and probably as forgettable as "The Mutants". =:o\ )
no subject
Date: 2009-11-19 12:05 am (UTC)There's a rich SF tradition of spectacular human failures at bringing relijin to the aliens - Bradbury's "The Fire Balloons" is a hoot, and Harry Harrison's "An Alien Agony" isn't - which I assume is a response to colonialism. Come to think of it, so are Kinda and The Mutants, of course. I was fascinated by an interview with some Creationists who said there couldn't be life on other worlds, because it wouldn't be fair that they'd missed out on God's involvement with Earth.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-19 12:56 am (UTC)[FACEPALM] So damn parochial. Just think of everything we've missed in God's involvement with all those other planets! =:o\
I'm particularly chuffed with my Listening Camels, but in twenty years I've never been able to get them into a story that worked.
Basic idea: The planet (or this region of it, at least) is densely forrested and so damn noisy, what with all the smaller creatures chittering to each other and echo-locating their way around and wotnot, that hearing a stealthy predator coming is hard work. So big slow-moving mammals (of which there aren't many) need really clever hearing, or some other sense altogether. The Listening Camel has a body that looks roughly like a camel, except with neck about half as long as a giraffe (that's normally kept sagging in "U" bend so that the head is in a camel's normal position), a head with two ears tilted slightly forard and a third ear at the back... and big wide bony collar rising out of its shoulders that just happens to be a pretty good approximation to a parabolic reflector. =:o}
By shifting their heads from side to side they can scan the horizon for sound sources (head left to scan right, and vice-versa); by shifting the head further away from the body or nearer they can focus at specific distances; and if the alarm goes up that something's going on outside of their quadrant of interest, they can pop the head straight up, above the reflective collar, to get an omni-directional overview. They tend to stand around grazing in groups of three or four, with their backs to each other, each monitoring a different quadrant, and tapping a hoof on the ground to alert the others if needed. They're actually more vulnerable when moving than when standing still: the leader walks head down, scouting ahead; the ones in the middle of the train walk heads-up, ducking down occasionally to check out suspicious noises, and the youngest and most agile/whoever drew short straw has to cover their retreat by walking backwards, which makes the whole group slow but quiet - unless a hungry is actually spotted, when they all just face front and run like hell!