Nonhumanoid

Malcolm Knight was reading the item about Skos for the tenth time, frowning with the effort of translating the difficult symbology. “Skōs,” he read, “sole satellite of long-period eclipsing binary, components red and blue-white. (For primaries’ details see appropriate listing in Volume III.) Mass 9/10 earth normal, radius 11/10. Breathable air, drinkable water. Climate mild, uniform, equable. Three land masses. Inhabited by native nonhumanoid race, slurb, extremely friendly and hospitable. Restricted planet, landing only by permit. Coordinates. . .”

Nonhumanoid aliens and terrestrial monsters in almost every SF film combine biology and technology in various ways so as to become living contradictions.

“You and me, we’re gonna work our way back to the show, setting down on a bunch of Community worlds along the way and working on our act. On the humanoid worlds, I’ll be the trainer and you’ll be the animal; and on the nonhumanoid worlds, or at least on planets where you don’t look too much out of place, you’ll be the trainer and I’ll be the animal. We’ll flim-flam ’em six ways to Sunday!”