Comments on: Alien planet

Alien planet

dhruva — Mon, 09 May 2005 22:41:07 -0800

Alien planet "The drama takes place on Darwin IV, a fictional planet 6.5 light-years from Earth, with two suns and 60 percent gravity. Having identified Darwin as a world that could support life, Earth sends a pilot mission consisting of the mothership and three probes." Discovery channel feature, Flash heavy site, via Pharyngula.

By: reflection

reflection — Mon, 09 May 2005 23:21:50 -0800

kinda funny to think that we are the aliens.

By: flaterik

flaterik — Mon, 09 May 2005 23:33:43 -0800

It speaks to the huge budget of modern video games that many of them lookas good - or better than - most 3D for TV.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Tue, 10 May 2005 00:05:46 -0800

Hmm, wasn't educational television at one point educational?

By: raygun21

raygun21 — Tue, 10 May 2005 00:51:35 -0800

Hmm, wasn't educational television at one point educational? Yeah, that Stephen Hawking dude is just a cheap front to bring the kids in (I hear he's a huge draw for the "under twenties" and "'tweens"). Like bigger than Jessica Simpson and Miss Piggy combined. Jack Horner's not so bad lookin' hisself. But I think I'd still take Michio Kaku over the other two. His hair is just so dreamy. Lemme guess, you hated The Future is Wild too?

By: solid-one-love

solid-one-love — Tue, 10 May 2005 01:19:03 -0800

The special is based on the book Expedition, by noted SF/F illustrator Wayne D. Barlowe. Major differences between the book and the TV show include the omission of the intelligent aliens who help us get to Darwin IV. Still, it's an interesting book, well thought-out, based around an ecosystem where none of the 'animal' lifeforms ever evolved eyes.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Tue, 10 May 2005 02:57:29 -0800

God I hate the Discovery channel and it's ilk. This crap is even worse than the reruns of the Leonard Nimoy UFO specials they used to run daily. Now they generally run in phases, switching back and forth between:

Sharks
Hitler
Choppers
eXtreme Renovations, now with a foam mockup of Bob Vila's head mounted on an oak veneer covered aluminum diamond plate
UFOs
Hitler

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Tue, 10 May 2005 05:07:40 -0800

It was cute and fuzzy, but didn't have a good rock beat so I couldn't dance to it. I happen to agree with a lot that was said, so if I actually had cable I might tune in to it just to be a part of the choir to which they preach, but that's just spinning wheels. I mean okay, it's a big universe, and the odds of us being the only game in town are objectively pretty low. We like to think we're the master of our domain but that's just cuz we've managed to push most of our actual predators on this planet towards extinction. We think that's cuz we're a superior intellect, but a lot of it had to do with luck. Put a naked human alone in a cage with a hungry lion or an angry hyena, we'll see who's actually on top of the food chain. This isn't going to convert many rich conservatives into shelling out the billions of dollars it would take to get us to another star by the midpoint of the twenty-first century. That's just not gonna happen. They shoulda called this thing Castles In The Sky rather than Alien Planet. It's a lot of speculation that won't amount to much. Whether there actually is life out there, or whether or not one could lay odds on it and gamble the money they'd planned to use on the track that day, is rather silly. We simply don't know. They also gloss over the facts of how a discovery of alien life is going to affect human culture, philosophy, religion, and a host of other things. They talk about people needing to have an open mind, but since when have human beings ever proven they can do that? Many will either try to pretend they're not there, or shoot first and ask questions later. As a race we still cling to thousands of years old dogma that science has largely dismissed at bogus, because the thought of us not being God's Chosen People is too frightening for some to even contemplate. It's blasphemy to even question it. Catholicism wants people to concentrate on the importance that we believe in God, when the truth is there's no evidence supporting that any supreme intelligence out there in the cosmos believes in us, or even acknowledges our existence. That's gonna turn humanity upside down, when uncertainty becomes more certain than we can even fathom.

By: toftflin

toftflin — Tue, 10 May 2005 05:21:15 -0800

Oh, jeez. All you have to know is that Michio Kaku is involved and you know it's crap science... That guy is the biggest scientist media whore ever... And where are they getting this idea that we'll reach extra-solar planets anytime this century? I think the fastest man made object ever currently can go something like one thousandth of one percent of the speed of light. Even if we could get to one percent of the speed of light, it still would take 400 years to get to the closest star, let alone one known to have orbiting planets...

By: piskycritter

piskycritter — Tue, 10 May 2005 05:45:09 -0800

So much hating going on. Admittedly, this post smacks of Pepsi Blue, but Discovery does seem to have accomplished a fairly faithful rendition of Barlowe's work. However, these hour-long specials always seem like 15-30 minutes of real content repeated between 5-minute commercial blocks. Still, how do we ever expect to get to the stars if we never imagine what it's like? I'd rather see more of this ecological approach to alien ideas rather than less. Also, as many of you know, the movie Pitch Black was influenced by the same source.

By: ToasT

ToasT — Tue, 10 May 2005 06:15:30 -0800

Ye cats. It would have been nice if they had at least mentioned Barlowe somewhere. His designs are the only reason to watch. Personally, I'd rather see some CGI Thypes.

By: poppo

poppo — Tue, 10 May 2005 08:24:51 -0800

Come on, this is science fiction, and personally I'm going to sit down and enjoy it as such. I also watched the one about Dragons from about a month ago and I liked it.

By: Ty Webb

Ty Webb — Tue, 10 May 2005 08:57:29 -0800

I saw a commercial for this a few days ago, immediately recognized Barlowe's designs. My college roommate had Expedition, it's a fantastic book to have for when the acid/mushrooms start to wear off.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Tue, 10 May 2005 09:15:53 -0800

I loved The Future is Wild, so will definitely tune in for this. thanks!

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Tue, 10 May 2005 09:41:55 -0800

Lemme guess, you hated The Future is Wild too? Dude, it had sharkopaths. Pretty profoundly silly. I suppose I should be thankful that it didn't have any mansquitoes.

By: ErWenn

ErWenn — Tue, 10 May 2005 10:24:47 -0800

I loved _Expedition_, but I'm a little weirded out by the way they're choosing to present this story. Since Discovery treating the designs as though they were come up with by a team of experts, it makes me wonder how many of their other speculative works are based on some classic work of fiction that I _haven't_ heard of. The renderings seem faithful, and if they left out the aliens that helped us get there, that's fine by me. I just wish they would be more upfront about their source material.

By: Lex Tangible

Lex Tangible — Tue, 10 May 2005 12:25:02 -0800

I always loved Wayne Barlows work all the way back to his Illustrated Guide. I own Expedition. It really makes me sad that just how pathetic our ever shrinking real Space Exploration Programs are. I'm quite annoyed that they are pimping this thing as what "Science" thinks is out there. Well at least the Chinese show some promise.

By: mouthnoize

mouthnoize — Tue, 10 May 2005 13:31:18 -0800

Agreed - there's no mention of Barlowe anywhere, but surely he had to participate in the 3D design? Expedition was awesome - I spent hours pouring through that thing till the binding came apart. Better than Trek, man.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Tue, 10 May 2005 13:40:37 -0800

I enjoyed The Future is Wild. I was highly skeptical of the Dragons show, too, but I stumbled into it and got hooked.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Tue, 10 May 2005 14:23:29 -0800

It kind of looks like they used Expedition as a handy pre-made ecology to wrap a general discussion of xenobiology around. The book is excellent, and I'll watch the show even if the talking heads are pointless. I love Barlowe's work.

By: jb

jb — Tue, 10 May 2005 20:39:19 -0800

Why are they talking to physicists? They are going to talk to biologists as well, aren't they? I'm sure the physicists are really bright, but this isn't exactly their field. But they are famous scientists, and that's enough, isn't it? A really solid discussion on xenobiology would be a very good show.