Science Fiction Trivia

[hiran]

Where is the computer game category?

How about Zak McCracken and the alien mindbenders?

[ffutures]

Film: Slither (2006) - alien worm creatures land on a meteor and take over a small American town by spreading through the drains and infecting the locals. Comedy horror which ends with the scene everyone expected at the end of Alien.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slither_(2006_film)

[MrFlibble]

<lowest hanging fruit>
Stargate SG1, season 6 episode 5, Nightwalkers.
The short description is that the small town of Steveston, Oregon, United States, is implanted with cloned Goa'uld, which turn out to still keep their "ancestral memories", and start driving their hosts to build a spaceship.

I hadn't thought about single episodes of a series... But as this was <lowest hanging fruit>, consider it picked.

The radio category must be a whole series.

[MrFlibble]

Where is the computer game category?

How about Zak McCracken and the alien mindbenders?

Ah now... If there were a game category, I'd have to disallow that as the invasion is distributed not localised.

[MrFlibble]

Film: Slither (2006) - alien worm creatures land on a meteor and take over a small American town by spreading through the drains and infecting the locals. Comedy horror which ends with the scene everyone expected at the end of Alien.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slither_(2006_film)

Accepted. Haven't seen that one, which oversight I must remedy.

[ffutures]

Does a novelette count as "book"? I do have one, but I'd prefer to give someone else a chance first.

[Disembodied]

Radio: Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully.

[MrFlibble]

Radio: Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully.

Podium #3. Great stuff. That's the one I had written down.

[MrFlibble]

Does a novelette count as "book"? I do have one, but I'd prefer to give someone else a chance first.

Podium #4 is available and I'm feeling kind, so I'll accept a novelette.

[spud42]

ok, for radio i propose Hitchikers guide to the galaxy.
Arthur dents village is "invaded" or visited by the alien Ford Prefect.
Then the Vogons turn up and things get hectic... BUT before they turn up ford has ben on earth for quite a few years.

[MrFlibble]

ok, for radio i propose Hitchikers guide to the galaxy.
Arthur dents village is "invaded" or visited by the alien Ford Prefect.
Then the Vogons turn up and things get hectic... BUT before they turn up ford has ben on earth for quite a few years.

Nice try.

Reminders.

• A second answer will be provisionally accepted in any one of the categories, to be superseded if an answer in the 'stage' category is forthcoming before the fifth podium is taken.
• "Book and Radio must not be commonly available in the other forms. Others may have been a book."

HGTTG has also been a TV series, books, and a film.

I grant you that it began on radio, and briefly did not exist in the other forms. However, it's all the above now, so this is not acceptable as a second answer in the Radio category.

Further, in HGTTG, the "village invasion" is a back story which gets only brief mention. As far as I know, Ford did not limit his earthly activities to Arthur's community.

I realise I asked for "examples of", where perhaps I should have asked for "stories mostly about", the latter being how most appear to have interpreted the question thus far.

Disembodied already gave us "Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully". That whole radio-only series is based entirely on the topic at hand.

Current podiums:

1. TV Series (episode accepted as first answer): Commander_X : Stargate SG1, season 6 episode 5, Nightwalkers.
2. Film : ffutures : Slither (2006)
3. Radio Series : Disembodied : Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully

The book category is still wanting, but remember I'm looking for one that's not commonly found in the other formats listed.
Also a stage production, or in the absence of that, a good second answer in one of the other categories will be accepted.

I must have been influenced by chalice toxins when I first wrote this. Now I have most of my wits back, please allow me to clarify: The majority of the plot must be concerned with a localised alien invasion.

[ffutures]

The book category is still wanting, but remember I'm looking for one that's not commonly found in the other formats listed.
Also a stage production, or in the absence of that, a good second answer in one of the other categories will be accepted.

This makes things a little tricky, because every book and story I can think of on these lines has eventually been turned into a film, TV series or whatever - they've repeatedly been strip-mined by Hollywood. The example I had in mind has been filmed twice. Fortunately I can think of something recent that Hollywood hasn't touched so far:

Lagoon (2014) by Nnedi Okorafor - aliens land in the sea off Lagos and try to make peaceful contact, but doing so changes the world, by imposing a more "magical" version of natural laws, and it's widely perceived as (and is) a form of invasion. The more that humanity tries to fight it, the worse things get. To quote Wikipedia

Lagoon develops its ... narrative across three acts: "Welcome" (in which the aliens make contact with the people of Lagos), "Awakening" (an explosion of violence across the city after contact is made), and "Symbiosis" (a period of utopian transformation, in which the aliens and humans come together to form a new postcapitalist Nigeria). Across these three acts, the novel's primary plot revolves around the alien ambassador, Ayodele, and her interactions with three human protagonists: Adaora, a marine biologist; Agu, a Nigerian soldier; and Anthony, a Ghanaian hip-hop artist. Blending its SF topoi with fantasy and folklore elements, we learn that the three human protagonists have special abilities (Adaora can create a shield around herself and breathe underwater, Agu has superhuman strength, and Anthony can make his voice heard and understood at great distances). Alongside these fantastical powers, the novel also incorporates various Nigerian folkloric and mythical entities, which physically manifest themselves and interact with the material world after being awakened by the aliens in the second act. Such figures include Udide Okwanka, a trickster spider and master weaver of tales from Igbo folklore; Legba, the Yoruba trickster god of language and the crossroads who is recast as an expert 419 scammer, but who also shows up in spirit form as Papa Legba; and new figures such as the Bone Collector, a sentient stretch of the Lagos-Benin highway that attacks humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoon_(novel)

[MrFlibble]

The book category is still wanting, but remember I'm looking for one that's not commonly found in the other formats listed.
Also a stage production, or in the absence of that, a good second answer in one of the other categories will be accepted.

This makes things a little tricky, because every book and story I can think of on these lines has eventually been turned into a film, TV series or whatever - they've repeatedly been strip-mined by Hollywood. The example I had in mind has been filmed twice. Fortunately I can think of something recent that Hollywood hasn't touched so far:

Lagoon (2014) by Nnedi Okorafor - aliens land in the sea off Lagos and try to make peaceful contact, but doing so changes the world, by imposing a more "magical" version of natural laws, and it's widely perceived as (and is) a form of invasion. The more that humanity tries to fight it, the worse things get. To quote Wikipedia

Lagoon develops its ... narrative across three acts: "Welcome" (in which the aliens make contact with the people of Lagos), "Awakening" (an explosion of violence across the city after contact is made), and "Symbiosis" (a period of utopian transformation, in which the aliens and humans come together to form a new postcapitalist Nigeria). Across these three acts, the novel's primary plot revolves around the alien ambassador, Ayodele, and her interactions with three human protagonists: Adaora, a marine biologist; Agu, a Nigerian soldier; and Anthony, a Ghanaian hip-hop artist. Blending its SF topoi with fantasy and folklore elements, we learn that the three human protagonists have special abilities (Adaora can create a shield around herself and breathe underwater, Agu has superhuman strength, and Anthony can make his voice heard and understood at great distances). Alongside these fantastical powers, the novel also incorporates various Nigerian folkloric and mythical entities, which physically manifest themselves and interact with the material world after being awakened by the aliens in the second act. Such figures include Udide Okwanka, a trickster spider and master weaver of tales from Igbo folklore; Legba, the Yoruba trickster god of language and the crossroads who is recast as an expert 419 scammer, but who also shows up in spirit form as Papa Legba; and new figures such as the Bone Collector, a sentient stretch of the Lagos-Benin highway that attacks humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoon_(novel)

Reasonably localised. I'll take that as #4.

[RockDoctor]

Localised alien invasions.

I want five examples of alien invasions/incursions which are set on Earth, and limited to a village or town, with no or little knowledge outside that community during the invasion/incursion.

Well, before reading the rest of the replies (I see another page worth), two come to mind. But I'll check for poisoned chalice-traps before posting.

Film : "Cowboys and Aliens", starring Indiana Jones, Han Solo and Jimmy Bond, with some of the crew from Carry On Cowboy (maybe only in the scriptwriter's department).

Book and film : "The Midwich Cuckoos" by John Wyndham. Not sure if this ever made it to the radio, but given that several of his other books were done by Auntie, I wouldn't be surprised.

Could you consider "ET" as an "invasion movie"? Never seen it myself (why would I?), but from the unavoidable clips, the X-files contingent were trying to keep the incursion localised and under wraps. And if you'll swallow that, then probably the whole of the X-files falls in that category too. (Ditto : never seen more than clips.)
Now, checking the other replies ...
Ohhh, sound-effect : JAWS theme. The chalice awaits.

[RockDoctor]

[Exit stage left, to launch a single-ship invasion of Beenbeor.]