The tone of science fictionfilms is often a guide to the tone of the times the film was made: other worlds and species are viewed in turn as wonderful, terrifying, threatening, incomprehensible, and childishly benign.
... and then to an enzyme called NADP+ reductase[?] which uses them to drive the reaction
NADP+ + H+ + 2e- → NADPH
This consumes the H+ ions produced by ...