Worst designed scifi creature?

[Guardsman Bass]

I figure they go into very low energy hibernation between the nights, and live off the nutrients they stored during their last feeding.

Although we don't see it, they're also probably eating themselves down to a much smaller population, and possibly extinction. At least of what we saw in the movie, they turned on each other when there was no other food supply available.

I always figured they were an introduced species, considering the size of the bonefield plus the fact that the planet seems like it has been stripped of all surface life (one wonders as to what all those gigantic critters were eating before they were devoured).

If the Archon is any indicator, the Protoss may well be some sort of strange psionic energy beings.

True, but the Archon is like some weird spirit monster combining the souls of two protoss. They'd have to be somehow using magic - I mean, "psionic energy" - to transmute a touch of water and sunlight into a wide range of physical matter.

I mean, seriously, why would they bother to write that? I'm wondering if they were asked the "Protoss mouths" question a million times before and put the whole "sunlight food" bit in there just to screw with the fans.

[someone_else]

What about Pandora's lighted thingies? (from Avatar)

specifically, the weird animal that when toched hovers with a lighted up rotating wing.
Was it called Fan Lizard?
it traps itself by slowly hovering and quickly identifies itself as a target with that shiny glow.

[Zor]

What about Pandora's lighted thingies? (from Avatar)

specifically, the weird animal that when toched hovers with a lighted up rotating wing.
Was it called Fan Lizard?
it traps itself by slowly hovering and quickly identifies itself as a target with that shiny glow.

Could be a mating Display.

Zor

[open_sketchbook]

It's mentioned in Pandorapedia that Na'vi children love to run through big groups of them and disturb them all at once. This might actually not be a half-bad survival mechanism; a predator attacks one, and the whole group goes bonkers, disorienting an attacker with a crazy lightshow while drifting away. Seeing how even at night it is quite bright on Pandora thanks to the big gas giant in the atmosphere, it's quite possible that predators rely primarily on sight and thus would be vunerable to such a thing. Alternately, the glow might be a holdover from a mating displace that evolved into a defense mechanism, or actually act as a form of camoflague; as pretty much everything in the Pandorian forest glows, being a moving dark spot might be worse than blurring your silhoette against that of others in your group with a glow, like a zebra, just made of lightbulbs.

Additionally, just getting airborne, even for a moment, is a pretty good defense against most predators small enough to bother to attack you in the first place.

[Stormin]

They could also be insanely toxic to eat and every critter knows it. They go out of their way to be noticeable so nothing tries to snack on them by accident.

[PeZook]

They could also be insanely toxic to eat and every critter knows it. They go out of their way to be noticeable so nothing tries to snack on them by accident.

I thought that was the case, like with bright colors of some toxic fish and toads. You touch it, it flies up and basically screams "I'M HERE WATCH OUT DON'T EAT ME OR YOU'LL BE SORRY"

[Akhlut]

Edit: My point was already made earlier about cephalopods being bilaterally symmetric.

[Buritot]

Which creature or species in scifi comes across the sort that evolution would reject or a sane god wouldn't bother with? Which is the most biologically impractical or impossible? The sort of things that aren't even saved by coolness for their ludicrous appearance?

The platypus. No sane god could have thought of that. A stoned or insane one, sure, but no sane one.

[[R_H]]

The Aliens from the Alien movies and AvP movies. They mature incredibly fast, their tongues have teeth even though they're used to punch into the skulls of their prey. Did I mention their tongues?

[Rye]

The Aliens from the Alien movies and AvP movies. They mature incredibly fast, their tongues have teeth even though they're used to punch into the skulls of their prey. Did I mention their tongues?

They're not badly designed; in fact if I were to guess about the fictional monster most people have nightmares about, it would be the Aliens. As a terror weapon, they're pretty well designed; ambush predators that are extremely dangerous to kill, and one of them can make a whole hive's worth (or can make other organisms into eggs if we go by the deleted scenes from the first film).

Also, the platypus is actually well designed for its ecological niche. Its bill can detect electrical signals of its underwater prey, its fur keeps it warm, its milk gives its offspring a better chance at life and it even has poisonous barbs.

[[R_H]]

The Aliens from the Alien movies and AvP movies. They mature incredibly fast, their tongues have teeth even though they're used to punch into the skulls of their prey. Did I mention their tongues?

They're not badly designed; in fact if I were to guess about the fictional monster most people have nightmares about, it would be the Aliens. As a terror weapon, they're pretty well designed; ambush predators that are extremely dangerous to kill, and one of them can make a whole hive's worth (or can make other organisms into eggs if we go by the deleted scenes from the first film).

The rate at which the Aliens go from being a chestburster to mature is pretty damn quick (from being a few hundred grams to several tens of kilos). The tongue with jaws on it, why not just a bone spike? Are they even able to see? Their bodies are able to match the ambient temperature of their environment, yet are able to maintain high levels of physical activity in hostile environments, how is that supposed to work (I suppose they could be heterothermic like bats)?

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Their bodies are able to match the ambient temperature of their environment, yet are able to maintain high levels of physical activity in hostile environments, how is that supposed to work (I suppose they could be heterothermic like bats)?

Iirc, the only time they use thermal imagery in the movies to find them is when they're going through the central reactor. Could it be that they're actually quite warm, but the surrounding environment was just as warm, so they didn't show up on scans?

[Swindle1984]

The Predator sees via infrared, and it was barely able to distinguish between aliens and the background in both AvP movies until it switched its vision mode to an unknown configuration that made them stand out. This took place inside a spaceship (temperature unknown) and in a whaling town near Antarctica (temperature very cold).

[Oni Koneko Damien]

The Predator sees via infrared, and it was barely able to distinguish between aliens and the background in both AvP movies until it switched its vision mode to an unknown configuration that made them stand out. This took place inside a spaceship (temperature unknown) and in a whaling town near Antarctica (temperature very cold).

The canonicity of either of those travesties is rather arguable.

[Sinewmire]

The Predator sees via infrared, and it was barely able to distinguish between aliens and the background in both AvP movies until it switched its vision mode to an unknown configuration that made them stand out. This took place inside a spaceship (temperature unknown) and in a whaling town near Antarctica (temperature very cold).

The Predator helmet has many vision modes, as seen by the predator's rapid scrolling through them in predator 2. Is the predator's natural vision infrared? When it takes off it's mask to see Dutch in the original movie, it's vision mode is clearly different to it's mask-view.

The Aliens probably don't show up on Infrared as seen in Aliens - Dietrich's last intelligible words are "...maybe they don't show up on infrared at all..."

I'd agree on the admissability of AVP and AVP2 as they both, in technical terms, were crap.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

The Aliens probably don't show up on Infrared as seen in Aliens - Dietrich's last intelligible words are "...maybe they don't show up on infrared at all..."

I'd agree on the admissability of AVP and AVP2 as they both, in technical terms, were crap.

Call me overly doubtful, but I hesitate before taking the last words of a panicking soldier in a combat situation as canon. That ranks up there with the 'Laser don't penetrate deflector shields' argument. Basically something keeping cool enough to be invisible on infrared while undergoing strenuous, heat-producing activity flies in the face of physics and logic. So far an alternate explanation is available: The only time infrared is used is inside the hive. The hive is built around a giant reactor, which is likely very hot, likely the reason for the establishment of the hive there in the first place. Therefore very hot creatures are likely to blend in with an infrared scan of a very hot environment.

As for *why* they're acting surprised that warm creatures don't show up on an infrared scan of warm ambient temperatures is beyond me.

Edit: Add to that the fact that they take the infrared scans only at the very beginning of the attack, when the aliens were likely still dormant and not exerting themselves a lot, and there's plenty of reasons for them to not show up. Maybe they're just cold blooded and in a dormant state, matching the ambient temperature until movement raises their internal body temperature.

[[R_H]]

Another possible explanation is that they had crappy thermal cameras. Pit vipers are able to accurately attack moving objects less than 0.2C warmer than ambient, I have no clue if there are cameras currently available that match that sensitivity.

[Sinewmire]

Call me overly doubtful, but I hesitate before taking the last words of a panicking soldier in a combat situation as canon. That ranks up there with the 'Laser don't penetrate deflector shields' argument. Basically something keeping cool enough to be invisible on infrared while undergoing strenuous, heat-producing activity flies in the face of physics and logic. So far an alternate explanation is available: The only time infrared is used is inside the hive. The hive is built around a giant reactor, which is likely very hot, likely the reason for the establishment of the hive there in the first place. Therefore very hot creatures are likely to blend in with an infrared scan of a very hot environment.

As for *why* they're acting surprised that warm creatures don't show up on an infrared scan of warm ambient temperatures is beyond me.

Edit: Add to that the fact that they take the infrared scans only at the very beginning of the attack, when the aliens were likely still dormant and not exerting themselves a lot, and there's plenty of reasons for them to not show up. Maybe they're just cold blooded and in a dormant state, matching the ambient temperature until movement raises their internal body temperature.

Granted, but she *was* looking directly at a coiled up Alien before she turned away and was attacked.

It sounds silly to me, too, which is why I prefixed it with "probably" but sillier things have happened.

Another possible explanation is that they had crappy thermal cameras. Pit vipers are able to accurately attack moving objects less than 0.2C warmer than ambient, I have no clue if there are cameras currently available that match that sensitivity.

Thinking about it, they don't actually know what the aliens look like at this point, do they? Even if they *were* showing up on thermal how would they be distinguished from the walls of the hive structure?

[AMT]

FUCK you beat me to the Ood!

I guess that leaves me with



There must have been really limited competition on his world while he was evolving.

He still looks more sturdy than these fine examples of evolution...
or
I see you and raise you a...

[Sinewmire]

Are the Kaminoans really so bad? A low-gravity planet with an abundance of aquatic life would presumably result in comparatively thin, frail looking aquadynamic creatures. Kinda like the dianosaur-eels that the Kaminoans look like to me.

[AMT]

Are the Kaminoans really so bad? A low-gravity planet with an abundance of aquatic life would presumably result in comparatively thin, frail looking aquadynamic creatures. Kinda like the dianosaur-eels that the Kaminoans look like to me.

Thin, yes. Q-tip thin with limbs that look like they could be snapped by a strong breeze pushing them over? not so much.
Mon Cals/Quarrens were much more appropriate looking for a marine based world. These guys? Silly.

[Simon_Jester]

One thing I wonder about when I see designs like that is: how many assumptions can we make about the strength and density of tissue evolved on an alien planet? Given basically human structural strength, the Kaminoans' design is retarded; given greater strength per square inch, they might be able to survive it without being fatally fragile.

[Lord of the Abyss]

FUCK you beat me to the Ood!

I guess that leaves me with



There must have been really limited competition on his world while he was evolving.

I vaguely recall that the novel mentioned that ET's species evolved to live mostly submerged in swamps, which explains the extending neck.

[Sheridan]

<snip>So far an alternate explanation is available: The only time infrared is used is inside the hive. The hive is built around a giant reactor, which is likely very hot, likely the reason for the establishment of the hive there in the first place. Therefore very hot creatures are likely to blend in with an infrared scan of a very hot environment.<snip>

It is directly stated in the film that the marines are underneath the "heat exchangers" for the reactor. That's the rationale given for yanking the marines rifle magazines and smartgun batteries (if'n they hit the wrong thing with their AP ammo, well, the station goes up like it does at the end of the film).

It's also directly stated to Hudson by one of the other marines (I honestly forget which one, but I think it was Frost) while in the hive that it's, "Hot as Hell in here," to which Hudson replies, "Yeah, man, but it's a dry heat," in a sarcastic tone.

So, there exists some evidence for your explanation in-universe.

[Swindle1984]

The Predator helmet has many vision modes, as seen by the predator's rapid scrolling through them in predator 2. Is the predator's natural vision infrared? When it takes off it's mask to see Dutch in the original movie, it's vision mode is clearly different to it's mask-view.

Both the normal vision mode for the mask and the Predator's vision when it has no mask are infrared. The mask simply makes it easier to distinguish objects of similar temperature, enhancing the Predator's vision.