Best Fictional Aliens

[Ray Zdybrow]

The Wunch from Charles Stross's "Accelerando". "We like to experience other cultures" = "We like to eat aliens"

 

[CupofJoe]

Mimics from Edge of Tomorrow.
I like that you didn't really get to see them for most of the film. They were mostly flash-glimpse-death.
There may also be the case made for them that they killed Tom Cruise... A LOT!
Also
The extra-terrestrial life in the film Monsters.
They were were oddly beautiful and graceful, for the most part.

 

[Matteo]

Space Girl from Lifeforce. *cough*

"cough" indeed .

But otherwise I'd also go for the Vorlons.

 

[Matteo]

Of course, as your post specifies, those are fictional aliens...

Otherwise I would vote for myself you puny Earthling !!

 

[Jubal_Harshaw]

I've always liked the Kzin from Niven's Known Space series.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Broa are a little known alien species.

They are the antagonists in Michael McCollum's Gibraltar trilogy. They control an economic empire of thousands of stars and destroy any species that does not submit to their control.

Gibraltar Earth

Trade paperback version of science fiction novel. Book …

www.goodreads.com

Only one Broa ever meets humans but the author introduces Broan characters explaining their responses to human probes into their empire.

 

[Parson]

I like the Atevi in C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner universe. They seem to be well thought out and other than form, very truly alien in thought and action.

 

[Guttersnipe]

All three species of Mars in Out of the Silent Planet, because they're far more benevolent than most humans.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'd also go for the Alien and the Thing. Neither is very biologically feasible, but they're certainly scary.

The Idirans from Consider Phlebas were vicious fanatics, and made for excellent villains. Banks generally writes good aliens. The Yilane from Harry Harrison's West of Eden books were technically from Earth, but they were very well thought out. Wells' Martians were a clever extrapolation of Darwinism, especially for the time of writing.

And, of course, the Clangers.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I'd also go for the Alien and the Thing. Neither is very biologically feasible, but they're certainly scary.

The Idirans from Consider Phlebas were vicious fanatics, and made for excellent villains. Banks generally writes good aliens. The Yilane from Harry Harrison's West of Eden books were technically from Earth, but they were very well thought out. Wells' Martians were a clever extrapolation of Darwinism, especially for the time of writing.

And, of course, the Clangers.

Are they washable and wrinkle resistant?

 

[psikeyhackr]

I've always liked the Kzin from Niven's Known Space series.

There could be a Kzin-Klingon War in the Star Trek animated series.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Alien
The Predator

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

The Alien
The Predator

When those two are on screen together, it always feels like the names are the wrong way round. The "Predators" are an advanced spacefaring alien civilisation, who hunt for cultural reasons. The "Aliens" are more like animals, voracious predators / parasitoids just looking to eat whatever they can find.

 

[BAYLOR]

When those two are on screen together, it always feels like the names are the wrong way round. The "Predators" are an advanced spacefaring alien civilisation, who hunt for cultural reasons. The "Aliens" are more like animals, voracious predators / parasitoids just looking to eat whatever they can find.

Interesting take .

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

All three species of Mars in Out of the Silent Planet, because they're far more benevolent than most humans.

Nice and varied, too- the earthy, amiable Hrossa and the eerie, ascetic Sorn really stuck in my memory.