Falling Skies Alien Types - Skitters and Mechs

Falling Skies premiered in the USA on Sunday June the 19^th 2011. According to the broadcasting figures over 5.9 million people watched the two hour premiere of Falling Skies. What people seem to be most intrigued about are the aliens.

Two types of aliens have been introduced in the Falling Skies TV show thus far; the Skitters and the Mechs.

Skitters look like giant arachnids that shuttle about on eight legs and can also move and hang upside down from ceilings and other surfaces. We saw in a recent episode of Falling Skies that they actually sleep upside down like bats and are vulnerable to attack while asleep.

Skitters can move very fast and seem to have a connection to harnessed kids. The Skitters are able to control harnessed kids and communicate through them, using them effectively as a mouth piece. These aliens also have the ability to communicate using a natural internal radio which emits short wave radio signals which are relatively weak.

It is possible to kill a Skitter. The common mantra on Falling Skies is, “you just have to get close enough.” There seem to be a few possible methods to killing a Skitter. The first is to shoot off a few of the Skitters legs making it immobile. This allows you to be able to shoot the Skitter in the head. The other is to distract the Skitter while someone comes from behind and shoots it in the head.

Skitters also have a pressure point in the inside of their mouths. When this sensitive area is hit they lose consciousness and collapse.

Mechs and Skitters are very different. Mechs are very brutish and strong. They are covered in armor and have weapons attached to their arms. They have targeting devices which helps them to aim at their prey and kill it.

Unlike Skitters, Mechs are bipedal like humans. Mechs are to be feared more than Skitters, as they are so much harder to kill. Mechs cannot be killed with small arms fire as their armor is too thick and protects them. To kill a Mech you need to use weapons that pack a greater punch, such as explosives and rocket launchers.

Falling Skies initially introduced two types of Alien before finally showing us another type of alien. These aliens were more of the traditional type of alien, long body small head etc. We have yet to go aboard their vessels or some of the smaller aircraft they use so there may be yet more types of aliens. Guess we'll have to wait until season 2 summer 2012 to see what awaits Tom Mason. One things for sure, Skitters and Mechs aren't cute and Fuzzy like ET.