Next: The Aries 1B Earth-Moon Shuttle (“2001: A Space Odyssey”)
Here’s an alien presence that’s brilliant via understatement. This probe is nothing more than a cylinder, floating through space, a cylinder that houses some sort of glowing orb that descends in an attempt to communicate with Earth’s oceans. But that one act alone is enough to bring humanity to its knees, disrupting Earth’s weather and atmosphere to the point that Starfleet issues a planetary distress call. What I love about this is the way an innocuous object proves itself more powerful than all the star destroyers ever imagined – and how it suggests that the most powerful species on our planet might not be man at all.
Next: The Aries 1B Earth-Moon Shuttle (“2001: A Space Odyssey”)
