Reviews

I've just watched a DVD call "UFOs and Aliens" with Jeri Ryan as narrator (she played 7 of 9 in the Star Trek: Voyager TV show) and I'm assuming this IMDb entry is the same show (although the version I watched was dated 2003, but it could just be a re-edition of the 1999 US version. I don't know).

Anyway, this is a good basic show that probably won't make the pure sceptics or the hard-core believers happy because it takes the middle ground ('we can't prove or disprove UFO visitations').

It has 3 main chapters (about 50 mins each) that cover alien encounters, UFO technology, the search for aliens through the SETI program and other scientific theories such as interstellar time/space travel.

The part I found fascinating was the hypnotist called 'Kreskin the Amazing' who convinced a test group that they could see UFOs and aliens out in the garden! One poor woman suddenly 'remembered' being probed by an alien as a child in her bedroom and how she has seen them many times since and they have messages for her which she'll now consider writing a book about (the show implies she had no prior interest in aliens). This obvious example of the unreliability of human psychology and perception is balanced by alien abduction experts who state abductees tell such a consistent story that there must be something going on.

The Extras has a short summary on the US military investigations (Project Blue Book, etc) from the 1950s onward, where the military (yes, the actual military) came to the startling conclusion that they should cover-up genuine UFO encounters because it could lead to human society being subsumed by a superior alien culture (presumably because aliens would run the earth better than the US government!).

The Extras also includes some movie moments from "Encounter of the Third Kind", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", and "ET" to show how popular culture has shaped our ideas of aliens. I just hope real aliens haven't watched these movies because we tend to want to blow them up a lot.

I'd recommend this even if it does seem a bit cheesy and clunky (the animation is a bit dated). If you are a believer it won't convince you to stop, but if you are a total sceptic it might convince you to reconsider your view.

And it is not really scary or anything, so if aliens creep you out this is a good place to start to get a well-balanced primer.

For non-Americans the US Christian Fundamentalists movement (or whatever they call themselves because I think some of them don't like being called fundamentalists) is a fascinating thing to behold. Sort of like visiting an unfamiliar and weird country and being glad you don't live there, but also glad you went.

Andrew Denton is famous in Australia for his interview shows (such as the Money or the Gun, and his current Enough Rope). He is one of the best interviewers I've seen because he gets his guests to talk about the intimate details of their lives, including their flaws, in great depth. He is like a father confessor.

He also has a real knack in letting people explain themselves without judgement. His non-emotive questioning is the trick and he uses it well in this documentary. I already knew a bit about the evangelical movement (although the Rapture was not something I'd heard of until a few years ago) but it is the wonderful explanations that he gets from convention stall holders themselves that is the real treat. The Jews promoting Israel to the Christians (so they can visit where Jesus walked) is amusing, and the European guy trying to be diplomatic about the singularly American Christian beliefs was so amusing it kept a smile on my face well after leaving. Just make sure you sit through the credits to see more footage and a joke from Denton.

A gentle documentary more suited for TV, but well worth wasting an hour and a half on.