Thebug-eyed monster (BEM) is an earlyconvention of thescience fiction genre.[1]Extraterrestrials in science fiction of the 1920s through to the 1960s were often described (or depicted on covers ofpulp magazines and in films) as grotesque creatures with huge, oversized orcompound eyes and alust for women, blood, or general destruction. Their ubiquity was such that authors and readers alike began referring to them as "bug-eyed monsters", "BEMs", or "bemmies".[2][3][4] The biology of a typical bug-eyed monster was questionable, particularly in visual depictions.[1]
In thecontactee/abductee mythology, which grew up quickly beginning in 1952, the blond, blue-eyed, and friendlyNordic aliens of the 1950s were quickly replaced by small, unfriendly bug-eyed creatures, closely matching in many respects the pulp coverclichés of the 1930s which have remained the abductor norm since the 1960s.
William Tenn'sThe Flat-Eyed Monster (1955) is a story that effectively reverses the roles seen in a typical bug-eyed monster scenario. The human character, Clyde Manship, is teleported to a planet inhabited by creatures with large eyes on their tentacles and clusters of smaller eyes in their bodies. In his efforts to get back to Earth, Manship develops an ability to kill telepathically and then goes on the run through an alien city; the bug-eyed monsters' reaction to his escape attempt evokes the reactions of the human protagonists in a more typical BEM story, including describing Manship as the eponymous flat-eyed monster and urging each other to "blast it before it starts reproducing".[5][6]
WhenDoctor Who was created, the BBC producers stated that the show would be a"hard" science fiction show, and there would be no bug-eyed monsters[7][8] – a policy explicitly stated by show creatorSydney Newman.[9][10] WriterTerry Nation created theDaleks for the show'ssecond serial, with their design resembling a bug-eyed monster much to Newman's disapproval.[8][10] WhileVerity Lambert insisted to Newman that the Daleks were not in fact bug-eyed monsters,[11] Nation himself would describe them as being so.[12] The Daleks' subsequent popularity with viewers would pave the way for other BEM-type monsters to appear throughoutDoctor Who's history.[9]
In "What Is This Thing Called Love?",Isaac Asimov's parody of both pulp fiction and the bug-eyed monster idea, a woman captured by aliens for the purposes of study keeps using the term when referring to her captor.
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