The Princess from Planet Alpha

The Princess from Planet AlphaWhy do the inhabitants of Planet Alpha want to destroy the human race? Does their intention have something to do with the fact that their own planet is arid and unattractive compared with Planet 432 (their name for our planet), with its mountains, rivers, waterfalls, oceans, clouds and forests?In their eyes, humans are small and malignant, apparently determined to destroy not only large numbers of their own people but the very fabric of the globe they live on. One member of the spacecraft’s crew dissents from the opinion of her colleagues. She is the Second Navigation Officer, familiarly known as SNO or Esseno, who volunteers to spend a year among humans, her exceptional height and unconventional body disguised as far as possible. She comes to like many of the humans she meets, and cannot agree that they deserve extermination. Persuasion, she thinks, is the answer, though it is doubtful how successful her efforts are going to be.Esseno is struck by the paradox of humanity. Why are individuals so agreeable, so amiable and so thoughtful, whereas in the mass they can be warlike, unthinking and cruel? She takes it on herself to persuade them to change their ways, while at the same time trying to convince her fellow crew members that the human race does not deserve the extermination that they intend to recommend in their report to the Central Government of Planet Alpha.There is humour in the situation, as when Esseno tries to explain the concept of a joke to her uncomprehending colleagues, and, later on, when she introduces them to the intricacies of Old Time Dancing in the restricted confines of their inter-planetary spacecraft.In its relentless exposure of the human failure to maintain their planet in a satisfactory state, The Princess from Planet Earth can be seen as a Gulliver’s Travels for our time.