Re: Review: Alien Planet (2005)
- From: "Flypaste Wingnut" <elflypasteo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 02:34:59 GMT
I thought it sucked pretty thoroughly.
"Mark Leeper" <mleeper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:436B38E3.90904@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> .
> ALIEN PLANET
> (television review by Mark R. Leeper)
>
> The Discovery Channel's special "Alien Planet" blurs the
> distinction between science and science fiction, but for good
> purpose. "Alien Planet", based on Wayne Barlowe's book EXPEDITON
> is a dramatization of a plausible visit by mechanical probe Van
> Braun to the earthlike planet Darwin IV. Darwin IV has life
> forms that may have evolved in the planet's earth-like
> environment. Two sub-probes descend to the surface of the planet
> and explore. The probes are given the names Leo for Leonardo Da
> Vinci and Ike for Isaac Asimov. As the story proceeds it several
> scientists comment on what is happening in the story. The
> scientists include string theorist and science popularizer Michio
> Kaku, paleontologist Jack Horner, and Stephen Hawking.
> Supplementing the scientists are science fiction film maker
> George Lucas and artist Wayne Barlowe, whose specialty is
> scientifically and artistically representing alien life forms.
> The probe Leo floats like a dirigible and has a birdlike head on
> the end of a long neck, much like an ostrich. Leo crawls on the
> surface.
>
> Darwin IV is in what the scientists call the Goldilocks Zone. It
> is so called because small environmental changes manifest
> themselves in giant changes in the life that could develop on
> these planets. Things have got to be "just right." The program
> considers only very earthlike planets. "Alien Planet" seems to
> presuppose that life will be what "Star Trek" would call "life as
> we know it." It may in fact be true that we will consider life
> will have to be very earth-like to be recognizable as life.
> There might well be some sort of plasma-based intelligent
> lifeform living at the center of the sun. Could we recognize it
> if there was? Would we have anything to say to such a different
> lifeform?
>
> The program shows very strongly that it is a product of Wayne
> Barlowe and is illustrated with a menagerie of different sorts of
> alien beasties. Fourteen different creatures are described with
> varying degrees of scale up to huge by earthly standards. At
> each step in the process we have inserts with the scientists
> commenting on the animals and how they function. One assumes
> that Barlowe updated the animals in his 1990 book with feedback
> from the scientists and they are all reasonably credible, but
> that does not prevent it from being amusing. It is all a lot of
> fun and is even more so because it is presented absolutely
> deadpan. We see some creatures that look like futuristic life
> forms and a thing that looks like a mesa that walks on
> elephantine legs. The CGI effects are not as photo-realistic as
> those are in programs like "Walking with Dinosaurs," but we get
> the point of what we are seeing.
>
> The program has been run before, but will be repeated on
> Thursday, November 10, at 8 PM EST and then again four hours
> later at midnight.
>
> There is a web site that goes along with the program and
> illustrates it. However, I would recommend that it should not be
> visited until after seeing the program since it is full of
> spoilers.
>
> The site is
> <http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/alienplanet/splash.html>.
>
> The program is also available on DVD, which would be more
> enjoyable than watching it on Discovery where the commercial
> breaks come a little too frequently.
>
> This is a program that should be of a fair degree of interest by
> just about any science fiction readers.
>
> Mark R. Leeper
> mleeper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Copyright 2005 Mark R. Leeper
>
.
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