Bandersnatches
I went with BOB because of the 3 x's so thought you'd come up with perhaps a female named species like Sue

I do know where your coming from with possible alien appearance...I guess we'd all like 'em to look like (in my case Michelle Pfeiffer) perhaps in yours? (George Clooney) or at least appear to be something we could easily accept....but that's not the way of the world, I recently caught the ending to a programme about disfigurement, sorry but I forget the name of the programme and the courageous fella on it (on BBC3 I think?) and his face many would agree was difficult to view (at first) & yet over time you got used to it, ageing has done me no favours thesedays even in my mid 40's but compared to what this guy has had to deal with we are very lucky indeed (there but for the grace of ...) he's gone through hell just because of his appearance...it is simply NOT right...it's difficult but i wish we could accept such differences.

Might we encounter a race that could horrify us by their looks? lets for arguments sake say yes, so long as they were not aggressive I'd really like to think I'd overcome this (it's not their fault...and we might look just as horrifying to them!) in which case I'd like to think i had the courage to still meet with them.

Spiders & most insects & animals I have no problem with...I think we have some truly amazing & beautiful animals on this planet (the dolphin, the panda, the elephant just a few) my nightmare would be an alien race the size of us in the shape of a WASP I've had two very bad experiences with them as a child and even today i can't stand them! a 6 foot wasp type intelligent alien but with a killer sting...wow! could I still meet with something like that? put me in a protective suit and I might

Sadly your right about the BIG budgeted Science Fiction films of today...they do favour aggressive alien races (danger appeals) but as you seemed to infer there are some that are just as entertaining that do not feature such races...2001 my fav, Close Encounters, Cocoon, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Contact, Star Trek: The Motion Picture & Interstellar (you must see this!!!)

It is interesting isn't it that we are one of only a few species here on Earth that does (I'm ashamed to say) kill each other, I still think we'll grow up & grow out of this phase one day, might it be religion, politics are to blame? well let's no go there but something is the cause.
Yes I think even if we encountered an aggressive species I think one way or another we'd give 'em hell, I doubt we'd be submissive to them & hopefully we'll never have to as I'd hope they'll be different to us (in a better way) but who knows?

Ding Ding (Rocky III reference) Round 3

Strange my reply to your posting is not showing up
Maybe it's been delayed in LIMBO Land!!!

Paul, here's an interesting story by John Varley about intelligent aliens, or maybe they're not intelligent, or alien ... www.minerva-inn.com/get/89860423 - let me know what you think?

Interstellar is def on my list, just when the evenings are shorter!

I think we end up killing each other because we're not very good at violence

Sorry for short reply, long day yesterday.

Kerry, i'll have to get back to this short story (probably next week) sounds intriguing.
So much going on at the moment...Fantasy Football League overload I must have entered about 4 now!

Tomorrow's the Day...Can't wait...but what a shame the Premiership have again fragmented it over 3 days (on the opening day of the season)
Tradition means nothing to the people running this thing!!!! ALL opening games should be played on the same day and same time! (as at the end) even if the rest of the season is all over the place, FA Cup Final Semi Finals should not take place at Wembley!
But these are money men...who think only of this! such a shame, Football rant over...COME on CITY

Paul...you aren't taking time dilation into account! If we managed to invent a spaceship that could travel close to the speed of light (faster is impossible, 9.99% is possible) then unless you take the whole of humanity with you there s not really much point. After a 28 year journey to visit another star and possible planets, by the time they came back to show everybody the great images and science, Earth will be 30,000 years older! However this does mean that time travel forwards will be possible.

Darryl Icarus Interstellar have a great kickstarter campaign going at present, i recommend you take a browse at Interstellar hackathon. I am a member.