Post by Catsmate on Aug 23, 2021 10:59:57 GMT
The Zanti Misfits
The Zanti Misfits was an episopde of The Outer Limits broadcast in 1963. The basic plot was simple; an alien race demands that Earth provide a penal colony for those of them who cannot be accommodated in it's society, criminals and other misfits.
In fact they have a different plan.
. The criminals are grotesque, rat-sized, ant-like insectoids with almost human faces.
Opening narration
Plot (lifted from Wikipedia)
Military forces have cordoned off a ghost town, aptly named Morgue, located in a remote section in the deserts of California while awaiting the arrival of a spacecraft from the planet Zanti. The perfectionist rulers of that planet, after making radio contact with our government, have decided that the Earth is the "perfect place" to exile their undesirables and criminals in exchange for sharing technological advances with Earth. They threaten total destruction if their penal ship is attacked, or if their privacy is not maintained. During the negotiations, Ben Garth, a bank robber on the run, along with his reluctant, morally deficient accomplice/girlfriend, Lisa, cross the cordon, and run down an armed sentry during the approach of the Zanti ship. After seeing the ship land, Ben climbs a small mesa to investigate the landing site. A Zanti regent emerges from an open hatch of the ship and kills Garth. The Zanti are revealed to be grotesque oversized ant-like beings with malicious human-like faces. The Zanti regent pursues Ben's now-terrified accomplice. Believing that their privacy was violated, the remaining Zanti prisoners commandeer the penal ship and land it atop the roof of the military command post. When the Zanti prisoners attack Earth's nervous soldiers, a brutal firefight ensues, and all of the aliens are massacred. The soldiers and airmen anxiously await the expected reprisal, but, instead, they receive a message of thanks from the Zanti leaders who explain that they were incapable of executing members of their own species so they sent them into the hands of a race who possessed no qualms about killing — the human race, referring to us as "practiced executioners".
Now here's my idea for integrating this into the Whoniverse.
1. There are more than one such 'delivery'; the first happens in 1963 (before UNIT) but there are others every (say) eight years.
2. The Zanti live a substantial distance from Earth and maintain a relay/surveillance probe in the Sol system fro communication and observation.
3. The 'deliveries' are dropped off, with a couple of weeks notice, in a different country each time.
4. After UNIT is formed (and learns about the shipments) the problem is dumped on them. Though the 'host' nation wants access to any useful technology.
5. The shipments consist of one small starship (with it's interstellar drive melted to slag) a few metres long, containing about three hundred to five hundred Zanti.
6. The Zanti misfits aren't armed; however some of them are smart and technically adept. And they all have a mouth-stinger that injects a toxin that'll kill a human in a couple of really unpleasant minutes of screaming and convulsing.
7. Biologically all that's known (by the time UNIT gets involved) is that:
8. The 'misfits' are just that. Social deviants, killers, criminals, the insane, mad scientists and similar. Sooner or later they'll come up with their version of 'conquer the Earth and use it as a base to return'. This would be a Bad Idea for Earth; if they look like succeeding it's likely their government would obliterate the planet. Once communication is opened3 they'll lie and boast a lot, some are compulsive liars, many are manipulative psychopaths.
Most of then don't have great technical skills4 and aren't actually going to help understand Zanti technology much
And there you have it.
Anyone for a Predator style alien hunt in an isolated region, against a few hundred insane, alien bugs with poison stingers? All in an afternoon's work for UNIT...
Ideas.
1. For the Classic UNIT feel then it'll be either the second or third shipload. How cooperative will the Russians or Chinese be? Perfect for an alien hunt with unreliable backup and no comms.
2. For the current day then a trek through the Amazon jungle (complete with it's own wildlife, temporal anomalies and Mysterious Lost Cities) is the perfect job for a group of UNIT troops, with Brazilian army assistance. Aren't you glad that Brazil is one of the few countries that still makes flamethrowers?
3. You can omit UNIT and have the deliveries found by a group of time travelling PCs, this could happen in a different period. Fancy a Pulp era jungle crawl? Or an Old West desert battle?
4. Then again the aliens could arrive during a human war. The 2011 'deliver' hits during the Arab Spring, but how about 1939 Poland or altering the sequence for a delivery to Vung Tau in '63.
Comments? Suggestions? Ideas?
1. And if you haven't, be thankful.
2. They're puzzled about why humans find this odd or repulsive.
3. A fun task for Osgood.
4. The average human psychopathic killer is pretty ignorant after all.
The Zanti Misfits was an episopde of The Outer Limits broadcast in 1963. The basic plot was simple; an alien race demands that Earth provide a penal colony for those of them who cannot be accommodated in it's society, criminals and other misfits.
In fact they have a different plan.
Throughout history, compassionate minds have pondered this dark and disturbing question: what is society to do with those members who are a threat to society, those malcontents and misfits whose behavior undermines and destroys the foundations of civilization? Different ages have found different answers. Misfits have been burned, branded and banished. Today, on this planet Earth, the criminal is incarcerated in humane institutions.....or he is executed. Other planets use other methods. This is the story of how the perfectionist rulers of the planet Zanti attempted to solve the problem of the Zanti misfits.
. The criminals are grotesque, rat-sized, ant-like insectoids with almost human faces.
Opening narration
Plot (lifted from Wikipedia)
Military forces have cordoned off a ghost town, aptly named Morgue, located in a remote section in the deserts of California while awaiting the arrival of a spacecraft from the planet Zanti. The perfectionist rulers of that planet, after making radio contact with our government, have decided that the Earth is the "perfect place" to exile their undesirables and criminals in exchange for sharing technological advances with Earth. They threaten total destruction if their penal ship is attacked, or if their privacy is not maintained. During the negotiations, Ben Garth, a bank robber on the run, along with his reluctant, morally deficient accomplice/girlfriend, Lisa, cross the cordon, and run down an armed sentry during the approach of the Zanti ship. After seeing the ship land, Ben climbs a small mesa to investigate the landing site. A Zanti regent emerges from an open hatch of the ship and kills Garth. The Zanti are revealed to be grotesque oversized ant-like beings with malicious human-like faces. The Zanti regent pursues Ben's now-terrified accomplice. Believing that their privacy was violated, the remaining Zanti prisoners commandeer the penal ship and land it atop the roof of the military command post. When the Zanti prisoners attack Earth's nervous soldiers, a brutal firefight ensues, and all of the aliens are massacred. The soldiers and airmen anxiously await the expected reprisal, but, instead, they receive a message of thanks from the Zanti leaders who explain that they were incapable of executing members of their own species so they sent them into the hands of a race who possessed no qualms about killing — the human race, referring to us as "practiced executioners".
Throughout history, various societies have tried various methods of exterminating those members who have proven their inability or unwillingness to live sanely amongst their fellow men. The Zantis tried merely one more method; neither better, nor worse than all of the others, neither more human, nor less human than all others, perhaps merely- non-human.
Now here's my idea for integrating this into the Whoniverse.
1. There are more than one such 'delivery'; the first happens in 1963 (before UNIT) but there are others every (say) eight years.
2. The Zanti live a substantial distance from Earth and maintain a relay/surveillance probe in the Sol system fro communication and observation.
3. The 'deliveries' are dropped off, with a couple of weeks notice, in a different country each time.
- 1963 - The United States
- 1971 - The Soviet Union
- 1979 - China
- 1987 - Britain - moorlands of Scotland
- 1995 - Franco-German border (inside part of Zone Rouge)
- 2003 - Canada
- 2011 - Tunisia - the southern tip sandwiched between Algeria and Libya.
- 2019 - Brazil - the Amazon rain-forest
- 2027 -
4. After UNIT is formed (and learns about the shipments) the problem is dumped on them. Though the 'host' nation wants access to any useful technology.
5. The shipments consist of one small starship (with it's interstellar drive melted to slag) a few metres long, containing about three hundred to five hundred Zanti.
6. The Zanti misfits aren't armed; however some of them are smart and technically adept. And they all have a mouth-stinger that injects a toxin that'll kill a human in a couple of really unpleasant minutes of screaming and convulsing.
7. Biologically all that's known (by the time UNIT gets involved) is that:
- They're really unpleasant looking. They resemble 20cm ants with six legs (which have manipulators), bulgy eyes (that see into the IR and UV spectra).
- They have an unpleasant 'chemical' smell (chlorinated hydrocarbons) that repels terrestrial insects.
- Their voices are equally unpleasant; very shrill (extending well into the ultrasonic range above human hearing, repellent to many Terrestrial animals) and faster than human speech. Electronic assistance is needed to communicate.
- Humanity doesn't know their language.
- When they die they emit an odour and noise that humans really can't stand. Think thioacetone if you've encountered it1.
- They're hermaphrodites. Those sent to Earth have implants that prevent reproduction, until they run out (a couple of years). They manage their population by eating most of their eggs2.
- They can't eat most Terrestrial food. On the ships there are food machines. Given time these could be adapted for human power supplies or Terrestrial foods like fungi bred or chemically modified.
- They're fast over short distances but can be out run over longer (>30 metres) by most humans.
- They're physically tougher than you'd expect; stomping them to death needs a hard surface and good boots (which shouldn't be touched afterwards until thoroughly cleaned).
8. The 'misfits' are just that. Social deviants, killers, criminals, the insane, mad scientists and similar. Sooner or later they'll come up with their version of 'conquer the Earth and use it as a base to return'. This would be a Bad Idea for Earth; if they look like succeeding it's likely their government would obliterate the planet. Once communication is opened3 they'll lie and boast a lot, some are compulsive liars, many are manipulative psychopaths.
Most of then don't have great technical skills4 and aren't actually going to help understand Zanti technology much
And there you have it.
Anyone for a Predator style alien hunt in an isolated region, against a few hundred insane, alien bugs with poison stingers? All in an afternoon's work for UNIT...
Ideas.
1. For the Classic UNIT feel then it'll be either the second or third shipload. How cooperative will the Russians or Chinese be? Perfect for an alien hunt with unreliable backup and no comms.
2. For the current day then a trek through the Amazon jungle (complete with it's own wildlife, temporal anomalies and Mysterious Lost Cities) is the perfect job for a group of UNIT troops, with Brazilian army assistance. Aren't you glad that Brazil is one of the few countries that still makes flamethrowers?
3. You can omit UNIT and have the deliveries found by a group of time travelling PCs, this could happen in a different period. Fancy a Pulp era jungle crawl? Or an Old West desert battle?
4. Then again the aliens could arrive during a human war. The 2011 'deliver' hits during the Arab Spring, but how about 1939 Poland or altering the sequence for a delivery to Vung Tau in '63.
Comments? Suggestions? Ideas?
1. And if you haven't, be thankful.
2. They're puzzled about why humans find this odd or repulsive.
3. A fun task for Osgood.
4. The average human psychopathic killer is pretty ignorant after all.
Another excellent way to deal with the annoying types. The Zanti could have established some sort of base, if they'd had enough time to remove the useful bits of their ship.