Why Scavenger's Reign Actually Feels Alien

it's an unfinished country it's still prehistorical the only thing

that is lacking is is the dinosaurs here it's like a curse Weighing on

an entire landscape and whoever goes too deep into this has his share of

that curse so we are cursed with what we are doing here

while I was watching the Stellar new animated science fiction show scavengers Reign about

human being stranded on a beautiful

and terrifying Alien Planet I kept thinking of wner Herzog specifically this famous clip

of him from the documentary burden of Dreams where he talks about the Amazon

rainforest taking a close look at at what's around us there there is some

sort of a Harmony it is the harmony of overwhelming

and Collective murder and we have to become humble in front of this overwhelming

misery and overwhelming fornication

and overwhelming lack of order we have to get acquainted to this idea

that there is no real Harmony

as we have conceived it it's easy to laugh at Herzog with his German

accented intensity and Grave sometimes grandiose language

but he's conveying what I think is ultimately a profound perspective on nature

and Humanity's relation to it a perspective that's evoked by his own movies

and by scavenger's Reign burden of Dreams documents the making of Fitz galdo herzog's

film about a man's determination to drag a massive 360 ton steam ship over

a mountain in the Amazon jungle a feat

that Herzog his crew

and local indigenous tribes actually accomplished

as the doc shows making Fitz galdo was a punishing experience The NeverEnding hardships

of living and working in the jungle running parallel to the never-ending hardships of

the characters in the movie for Herzog

that was the point only a real confrontation with nature he felt could capture

its immensity and volatility

and brutality on film

and then transfer those senses to the viewer in Fitz galdo

and herzog's other film set in the Amazon Aira the wrath of God Colonial

explorers and wouldbe conquerors are confounded defeated

or driven mad by the jungle Herzog doesn't present nature

as an antagonist to his characters

but as something that exists outside of human attempts to conceptualize it

which is ultimately more terrifying

and awe inspiring and

that is exactly how scavenger's Reign presents the ecosystem of its Alien Planet Vesta

Miner scavenger's Reign tells the story of maroon space Travelers the surviving crew of

a downed Interstellar cargo ship who are fighting to stay alive

and searching for a way home

but as much as this crew is Central to the show the main character

is really the planet itself the artists

and animators spend a lot of time showing the plant

and animal life of Vesta Miner

and how they interact in a complex ecosystem what's equally complex are the interactions

between the planet and the humans the characters use nature

and are used by it they threaten

and are threatened they're terrified

and bewildered delighted and astonished they form symbiotic relationships with alien animals they become

par sites and hosts the AI robot Levi is nurtured

and enlightened while the crew member Cayman is exploited

and literally consumed the show skillfully avoids simplistic readings of nature the planet is

not an enemy or a friend besta Miner isn't just a Garden of Eden

and human beings aren't just avaricious destroyers instead of a mock environmental message the

creators of the show opt for something more Sublime a truly alien alen world

you know viewers and critics keep coming back to this point

that scavenger's Reign actually feels alien personally I don't think that's down to the

bizarre and gorgeous gorgeous creature

and landscape designs which are really no more bizarre than what you might see

in a David Attenborough documentary I think it comes from the presentation of a

world like herzog's presentation of the Jungle

that is indifferent to the human need to understand it in this respect there's

something essentially alien about Earth

as well something that fills us with Dread

and wonder something that makes our values look absurd it reminds me of this

great scene from Air where the leader of the Conquistadors who are days hours

away from being fully destroyed by the jungle suddenly announces the jungle's response to

this ridiculous pronouncement is silence

and that unfathomable silence is what's alien what's foreign to us

as Herzog says there is no Harmony

as we have conceived it the key word being conceived there's a reality beyond

our conception one we can never access in daily life we're great at avoiding

this fact Humanity loves its illusions of control

and understanding one of Science Fiction 's great strengths is its ability to peel

back those Illusions and confront us with a radical strangeness this is what scavengers

Reign accomplishes by foregrounding the ecosystem of Vesta Miner in

that ecosystem in that strangeness we feel our limits

which is humbling even a little disturbing

but that feeling is also the closest we can ever get to the real

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