Here be...

Desert islands have nice white sandy beaches, lots of heroes and cocktails by the sea as you watch the sun go down. But if there's one other thing that islands have - think Skull Island, the Island of Dr. Moreau, even the island on Lost - it's monsters. Now no one likes to think that the Desert Island has monsters but let's face it, it probably does.

What I find interesting about the word monster is how it has multiple meanings. How it can be applied to everything from an enormous tentacled squid to a cold blooded serial killer. How it can refer to size, attitude, endeavour or crime. And how it's often applied to people or things that aren't well understood.

I think there should be more monsters in fiction. Telling stories is one of the ways we deal with our fears. I think too often we have taken that fear factor away and we have done that by domesticating the monsters. And when we do that, they aren't as interesting or complex. (Over the next three days if anyone has any monster recommendations please include them in the comments. They don't have to be hairy, scaly or furry. Vampires and werewolves that actually behave like vampires and werewolves, witches that aren't like Glinda the Good, Fae that really do steal children and swap them for changelings).

To get back to todays post, the monsters I'm going to be talking about are of the creature feature variety. And I've split my monsters into three broad groups and over the next three days I'll be sharing my favourites with you.

We'll start off with the most deceptive group.


The Cute Monsters

These are the guys who lure you in with a false sense of security - think the Gremlins before the transformation. Sure they're fluffy, but forget one of the rules and you've got one heck of a mess on your hands.

But that's not the monster I'm picking for the cute category.



Oh yes, you're completely immune Spock. (The other thing I love about this clip is Kirk's first few lines, if you didn't know it was from the actual series you'd think it was a parody).

Tribbles are the ultimate cute monsters. You start out with one and before you know it you've got thousands. I think my favourite thing about tribbles is that they are the mortal enemies of the Klingon empire. But, not only have they evolved to be an incredible ecological pest (a fact that only Klingons seem to realise) as the only things they do are eat and reproduce; they've taken cuteness to a whole new level. They are soooo cute that most humanoid species are unable to kill them.

So does anyone have any cute monster favourites? Or do you prefer to think that the monsters are all happily living on the other side of the island?