Mass Effect Trilogy's Mordin Solus and other esteemed extraterrestrials

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Once you're immersed in the Mass Effect Trilogy, you'll come to know Mordin Solus, seen above center. A Salarian from the planet Sur'Kesh, Solus is a professor and geneticist who was formerly an operative in the Special Tasks Group. "Lots of ways to help people," Solus famously said. "Sometimes heal patients; sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps."

Of course, Solus, featured in Mass Effect 2 and 3 of the Mass Effect Trilogy, is only the latest otherworldly celebrity in a long line of excellent on-screen extraterrestrials. Here are some other ETs we've known and loved…

• The Blob (1958): It had all the personality of a dollop of jelly, but The Blob made a young Steve McQueen into a hero.

• Alien (1979): Designed by HR Giger, the Alien's slimy tongue was tipped with a second toothy mouth.

• Tongo Rad (1969): From Star Trek "The Way to Eden," Rad and his Catullan comrades are the quintessential space hippies.

• Marvin the Martian (1948): While not named until years later, Marvin's debut was in the Looney Tunes classic "Haredevil Hare" in which he threatens our planet with a Uranium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

• Uncle Martin (1963): Years before his career-defining role as Mr. Hand, Ray Walston was My Favorite Martian.

• Mothership alien (1977): At the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, an iconic gray alien bids farewell with a sequence of Curwen hand signs.

• Thomas Jerome Newton (1976): David Bowie is The Man Who Fell To Earth seeking water for his draught-ridden home planet Anthea.

• Klaatu (1951): In The Day The Earth Stood Still, Klaatu and his robot Gort deliver a demand for peace on Earth. Or else.