{"id":679108,"date":"2025-07-25T14:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/?p=679108"},"modified":"2025-07-25T14:53:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T18:53:28","slug":"the-trouble-with-alien-zombies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/movies\/the-trouble-with-alien-zombies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble with Alien Zombies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This week\u2019s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds<\/em>, \u201cShuttle to Kenfori,”<\/a> saw Captain Pike and Doctor M\u2019Benga visit an abandoned science outpost, because that is always a great a plan. It wasn\u2019t long before they discovered that the episode title was a sneaky roundabout reference to the Korean movie Train to Busan<\/em>, because this outpost was overrun with Klingon zombies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a pretty original take on zombies, as it happens, caused by moss as opposed to the more popular fungus or viruses. The episode used a minimalist, but traditional version of the zombie movie set up \u2013 instead of a shopping mall you had a small circle of forcefields, instead of a band of characters with clashing personalities that put you all danger, there was just one pissed off Klingon. Even the episode\u2019s outer space setting wasn\u2019t as much of a departure from the genre as you might think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Night of the Living Dead<\/a>,<\/em> the zombie apocalypse (although again, by the end of the film the \u201cghouls\u201d seem to have been mostly mopped up) is the result of strange radiation emerging from a probe that has returned from Venus. The trope goes back even further than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the few films that can make a claim to an earlier take on the zombie apocalypse than Night of the Living Dead<\/em> is the timeless classic Plan 9 from Outer Space<\/a><\/em>. In that film, which we will not be making any jokes about, aliens reanimate the recently dead and drive them to attack the capital cities of the Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, if you want to find pre-George Romero examples of zombie apocalypse stories, the original series of Star Trek<\/em> has done two. In the episode \u201cMiri<\/a>\u201d the Enterprise encounters an exact duplicate of Earth, except that humanity has been wiped out by a deadly pandemic that turns every adult human into a violent, raging monster. It\u2019s a premise explored in more detail by Charlie Higson\u2019s YA zombie series The Enemy<\/em><\/a>, and the Netflix series Daybreak<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Star Trek<\/em> also gives us the brilliantly titled \u201cOperation — Annihilate!<\/a>\u201d, where a swarm of spacefaring parasites sweep through the galaxy, infecting humanoids and driving them to a violent rage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, zombie purists might claim both of these are close to 28 Days Later<\/a><\/em>\u2019s \u201cRage infected humans\u201d than true zombies, but in truth, the genre is big enough to include multitudes, and anything that A: uses human bodies, to B: create more entities like itself, while C: Not appearing<\/em> to be intelligent, will usually create a story that looks a lot like a zombie story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Star Trek would come back to space zombies again, once more in the\u00a0Star Trek: Enterprise<\/em>\u00a0episode, \u201cImpulse<\/a>\u201d, where radiation created Vulcan zombies, and again in the\u00a0pilot episode<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Star Trek: Lower Decks<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is There Death on Mars?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Star Trek is not alone in drinking from this particular well. Early in its run Dark Matter<\/em> had a space zombie episode<\/a>. Doctor Who<\/em> has done two space zombie episodes in the new series alone, \u201cThe Waters of Mars<\/a>\u201d, and \u201cOxygen<\/a>\u201d (which used zombie movie tropes for their intended purpose- bringing down capitalism), and that\u2019s just including the ones actually set in space. Hell, even the primitive bandage-and-hospital-gown-wearing Cybermen from \u201cThe Doctor Falls<\/a>\u201d have a very<\/em> George Romero vibe to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appeal of putting a zombie in a spaceship for a TV show is easy to see. Zombies are a cool and instantly recognisable monster. Spaceships are a cool and instantly recognisable setting. What\u2019s more, while your production values may vary, zombies on a spaceship is a pretty damn cheap concept to realise on screen. Zombies are just however many extras you can afford with some gory make-up. All you need for a spaceship is some suitably set-dressed corridors and maybe a couple of exterior model shots if you\u2019re feeling swish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as with the zombie apocalypse genre as a whole, the audience instantly and instinctively understands \u201cthe rules\u201d of a zombie story, allowing you to focus on your characters and the solutions they come up with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movies are no stranger to the space zombie either. The most straightforward example being The Last Days on Mars<\/em><\/a>, which is pretty much a note-for-note remake of Doctor Who<\/em>\u2019s \u201cThe Waters of Mars\u201d but without David Tennant. Mars is a popular venue, in fact as we see also Martian zombie apocalypses in Doom (2005)<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Doom Annihilation (neither of which I watched to research this article, because there are limits). Even the \u201cGhosts\u201d in Ghosts of Mars<\/em><\/a> (which I did watch) may resemble more of a cross between Mad Max baddies and Evil Dead<\/a><\/em>\u2019s Deadites than zombies, but still, have a certain zombieness about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, in 2020 Bruce Willis starred in\u00a0not one<\/a>, but\u00a0two movies<\/a>\u00a0with sub-Doctor Who<\/em>\u00a0production values where he fights space zombie-like adversaries (I\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0watched\u00a0Breach\/Anti-Life<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Cosmic Sin<\/em>, so don\u2019t know why I thought I could get away with being snobby about the Doom movies earlier).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Doom<\/em> also raises another point about space zombies – a really popular venue for the extra-terrestrial undead is video games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is for surprisingly very similar reasons to why space zombies are popular on telly and in film. Videogames will get far more creative in designing the appearance of their space zombies\u00a0 – with the Dead Space<\/em> trilogy setting the bar with their gloriously gory Necromorphs – but the AI for a zombie, environmental navigation aside, seldom needs to be much more complicated than that of a Pac-Man ghost. Space has been a popular videogame setting for as long as videogames have been a thing, thanks to the handy black background it offers, and once again, corridors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve seen them in Dead Space<\/em>, in all the Doom<\/em> games, but also the Halo<\/em> games in the form of the fungal, cancerous looking, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis<\/a>-inspired Flood. Mass Effect<\/em> gives us colonists zombified by the sentient Thorian<\/a> plant, as well as the more technological \u201cHusks<\/a>\u201d. And of course, there\u2019s that one Call of Duty<\/em> map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the makers of the original\u00a0Dead Space<\/em>games have got back in on the action with their game,\u00a0The Callisto Protocol<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, while the appeal of space zombies is undeniable, by the same token they just don\u2019t feel quite like \u201cproper\u201d zombie stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Shout \u201cBrains!\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The problem is this: Your archetypical zombie story is ultimately a siege narrative.\u00a0Night of the Living Dead,\u00a0Dawn of the Dead,\u00a0<\/em>Shaun of the Dead<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0even twists on the formula like\u00a028 Days Later<\/em>,\u00a0Train to Busan,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Pontypool<\/em><\/a>\u00a0all operate on a similar premise to \u201cShuttle to Kenfori\u201d. You and some humans you probably don\u2019t get on with are trapped in a structure (in\u00a0Train<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s a moving structure, but still counts). Outside of that structure, there are somewhere between hundreds and thousands of zombified humans who want to get in and kill you. The humans keep arguing until the zombies get in and kill everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this to work you need a structure with a lot of room around it, and a big population of people to be turned into zombies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately the living conditions in space, even in our wildest space future fantasies, tend to be A: Quite claustrophobic, and B: Don\u2019t have many people in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in Dead Space<\/em>, arguably the best example of a space zombie story, you very often find yourself thinking that if zombies hadn\u2019t killed off this mining ship\/space station\/mining colony, overpopulation would have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, spaceships, space stations and colonies tend to have really good, robust metal doors separating any two parts of the habitat, quickly reducing any zombie plotline to this XKCD cartoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are workarounds, and ways to use these restrictions to your advantage. Zombies are, by nature, pretty rubbish, slow-moving, stupid, easy to kill in small numbers. Most zombie stories get around this issue by throwing loads of them at you. Space zombie movies can make use of those corridors we mentioned earlier, showing how much scarier a single zombie can be in enforced close quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zombies also have one major advantage over their living victims – they don\u2019t need to breathe. This is a major<\/em> plus point in space, offering you the chance to have hordes of zombies crawling along the outer hull of the ship – something we\u2019ve seen in Dead Space<\/em> and Doctor Who<\/em>\u2019s \u201cOxygen\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the space setting also emphasizes another key aspect of the zombie story – resource management. In space there is no huge abundance of well-stocked shopping malls or bunkers full of firearms. One of the ways The Last Days on Mars<\/em> manages to make its very small number of zombies threatening is that their small hab modules have very little that you could use as a weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, space zombies still lack a certain something of their terrestrial counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Undeath, Jim, but Not as We Know It<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, aside from anything else, zombies are a transformation of the familiar. They look like more beaten-up versions of your neighbors and co-workers. The zombie apocalypse is a scene you can easily imagine on your street, at your pub, your local shopping centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Las Vegas-zombie-heist movie Army of the Dead<\/em>\u00a0(with its zombie virus from Area 51) gets this \u2013 no matter where you are in the world, the iconography of the Las Vegas strip is familiar and we enjoy seeing it overrun by the undead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And spaceships just aren\u2019t<\/em>. You might conceivably end up on holiday in Vegas. You\u2019re statistically unlikely to be an astronaut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s more than that. Zombies are far more than cheap monsters that require little in the way of make-up or AI programming. The symbolism they carry is incredibly weighty. Earthly zombies have been used to represent capitalism, conformity, Vietnam soldiers, couch potato culture, mob mentality, our instinct towards violence, poverty, our obsession with mobile phones, and our ability to dehumanise one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divorced from our world, from us<\/em> as we recognize ourselves, that symbolism becomes a lot harder to nail. The zombies in The Last Days on Mars<\/em> are just zombies. Dead Space<\/em>\u2019s Necromorphs are maybe a legally-safe satire on Scientology? Pandorum<\/em> <\/a>gives us extremely pale evolved human descendants that are extremely zombie-ish, and they certainly exhibit some of the worst bits of humanity, but they also live in a darkened, claustrophobic Hell, so it\u2019s hard to hold it against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Space zombies rarely\u00a0represent<\/em>\u00a0anything in the way Earth-bound zombies do. At least, nothing human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrian Tchaikovsky\u2019s Children of Ruin<\/em> features a sentient alien slime mould-like creature that, in its curiosity and need to explore, infiltrates and takes over the nervous system of the humans it encounters. To an outside observer, they look extremely like zombies, but the lifeform itself isn\u2019t aggressive, just very, very alien. Andrew Skinner\u2019s Steel Frame<\/em> gives us not only space zombies, but space zombie mechs<\/em>, and again the \u201cFlood\u201d (not the Halo one) that infects them is implied to be a kind of hivemind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the space zombies we\u2019ve seen here aren\u2019t what purists would call \u201ctrue zombies\u201d but are some manner of hivemind. This is true of Halo<\/em>\u2019s Flood, Mass Effect\u2019<\/em>s Thorians and Husks, and if we throw the doors to zombie-dom wide open, while they\u2019re very different in the TV series, the Borg of Star Trek: First Contact<\/em> come across as alien cyber-zombies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One book to feature relatively harmless alien-created zombies is Arkady and Boris Strugatsky\u2019s Roadside Picnic<\/em>. In that book the aliens aren\u2019t robots or little green men, we just encounter their leftovers and garbage, which are artefacts strange and incomprehensible to humans. That these artefacts somehow raise the dead as mindless automata is a minor side issue – the book is about how alien intelligence might be something so different from ourselves we don\u2019t even recognise it as intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\r\n\n\t\t