There are as many opinions about what First Contact will be like as there are people pondering it, so approach this as ONE opinion, but it's a good one. Many of us prefer to imagine Them landing on the White House lawn, without any advance brouhaha, but this one goes the SETI route (SETI could well have produced it - they've accepted a lot of funds for a lot of years and yielded ZILCH, leading many to wonder why they exist, so if you swallow this saga, it means they're needed). They receive The Message: We're On The Way! We fuss, we bother, we freak. They arrive. That's all the detail you'll wrestle out of me. It runs on The Science Channel in two episodes, usually run back-to-back, and since The Science Channel creates all of about twelve new hours of programming a year, chances are excellent that a rerun of this is on now as we speak. It's a good watch. And by the way, when first contact happens, whether it's White House lawn, a 'We're On The Way' message, or something else...DON'T freak. First impressions are EVERYTHING.
7 Reviews
A "must watch" about the "what if".
TrekTriviaGoddess9 March 2015
What if another species, alien to us, contacts us and says they are on their way? Assuming that the secret gets out to the general public, how would we react? What would you do? What would your neighbor do? What would your government do?
Based on a theory of "if" aliens do arrive and what events might take place, we are shown how we humans might react given the current technology that we have.
It's a great look (alone) into the future of what our own science and technology could be.
Could an alien species bring order? Or chaos?
I look forward to seeing a completion of this series.
Based on a theory of "if" aliens do arrive and what events might take place, we are shown how we humans might react given the current technology that we have.
It's a great look (alone) into the future of what our own science and technology could be.
Could an alien species bring order? Or chaos?
I look forward to seeing a completion of this series.
Almost an 'Ancient Aliens' on steroids...
bheadher26 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
While this is NOT Ancient Aliens, it never the less 'feels' like it when you watch it. This premise is more along the lines of 'How The Universe Works' stuck in reverse. A good portion of the series uses a fictitious format to present an 'almost' entertaining show. Unfortunately (for me) it ends up being far to bland to watch for long.
My big disappointment is that they use far to little actual science to present it; and then throw outright fictitious aliens in for variety...sorry, but I'm turning the channel...
My big disappointment is that they use far to little actual science to present it; and then throw outright fictitious aliens in for variety...sorry, but I'm turning the channel...
GREAT Docu-Drama
soulbrutha6525 May 2017
Early 21st Century ET ... with science ... & no ugly critters
gortfulcanelli26 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Competing quantum computers. Hybrid kids versus the "normal" (?!) kids. A smorgasbord of science & technological currencies - almost a decade ago from to-day (2022) - and a slew of specialists chiming in their views for our qualified / unqualified consideration.
This is fun. A lot to learn, unless one's scientific & technological & military & space warfare is so vast all one's acquaintances very seriously wonder why one isn't heading DARPA, or the JASONS, or IAS, etc.
I am laughing at some of the reviews here whining about there being "not enough science". What? What are they scientist wannabes with cognitive dissonance issuedms?
This is a docudrama (loose on the docu and the drama( posing a very intruiging "what if...?" scenario of an ET intelligence interacting with earthlings.
We get actual scientists discussing the current (2010-2014) state of one subject in their field (lots of QC discussion, nano AI birds designed for spying, etc etc) along with futurists astrobiologists and scifi writers, inter alia, discussng various topics as the fun drama proceeds between ETI & humans.
This is one of those old sci docudramas, now a decade old but still, in some aspects, today fresh.
A great springboard for those who either actually paid attention & studied their science in high school / early college or pursued it with ability and intellectual honesty afterwards.
Science & futurist dummies stay home and continue ignoring these type subjects. You are not aware enough what is truly going on anything beyond ESPN, CNN, FOX and morning time PBS anyway.
This is a great fun entertaining series and a springboard for one's evaluating how much have we advanced in the subjects discussed a decade after this came out.
Fun fun fun stuff.
This is fun. A lot to learn, unless one's scientific & technological & military & space warfare is so vast all one's acquaintances very seriously wonder why one isn't heading DARPA, or the JASONS, or IAS, etc.
I am laughing at some of the reviews here whining about there being "not enough science". What? What are they scientist wannabes with cognitive dissonance issuedms?
This is a docudrama (loose on the docu and the drama( posing a very intruiging "what if...?" scenario of an ET intelligence interacting with earthlings.
We get actual scientists discussing the current (2010-2014) state of one subject in their field (lots of QC discussion, nano AI birds designed for spying, etc etc) along with futurists astrobiologists and scifi writers, inter alia, discussng various topics as the fun drama proceeds between ETI & humans.
This is one of those old sci docudramas, now a decade old but still, in some aspects, today fresh.
A great springboard for those who either actually paid attention & studied their science in high school / early college or pursued it with ability and intellectual honesty afterwards.
Science & futurist dummies stay home and continue ignoring these type subjects. You are not aware enough what is truly going on anything beyond ESPN, CNN, FOX and morning time PBS anyway.
This is a great fun entertaining series and a springboard for one's evaluating how much have we advanced in the subjects discussed a decade after this came out.
Fun fun fun stuff.
fun drama but extremely disappointing "science"
bdwilneralex25 June 2014
The plot lines are reasonably entertaining in this miniseries, but the overpowering ignorance of the "scientist" and "sci-fi author" contributors is, to me, extremely disappointing. I shall provide several examples that hail from but a single episode, to wit, the one that aired this week detailing the American attack on the alien Quincy computer.
1. We were told that lasers can be "converted" into electricity. While this is not strictly correct, I'll accept the terminological laxity as a generalization. However, the "scientist" contributor indicated that the key was recognizing and receiving the proper "frequency" of the laser. This is utter nonsense. Laser light is laser light because of its collimation, not because of its frequency (= color).
2. A sci-fi author told us that electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons disable systems by "overcharging electrons." I guess this gentleman never took junior high school science, where we learn that the charge on an electron is fixed at approximately 1.6 x 10^-19 Coulomb. It is the electromagnetic waves impressed into the conductors by the EMP that fries the circuits, which has zero to do with the charge on the electron.
3. The DoD's "Queen" computer displayed statistics indicating that an EMP of so many amperes was to be transmitted. Amperes are a measure of current. EMP would be measured in transmitted power (viz., watts) or energy (viz., joules); the current induced in this medium or that is a function of its electrical resistivity and magnetic permittivity.
4. Orbiting debris lines up along the "magnetic field lines" surrounding the earth, sweeping from north to south. This is utterly nonsensical, looking more like a high-school text's depiction of magnetic field lines. In actuality, the "field" (no such thing, by the way: it's merely a mathematical abstraction) is EVERYWHERE, and nothing would line up along particular north-south lines, which would be basically indistinguishable from neighboring (=1 cm to the east, or what-have-you) lines.
5. We learn that we can protect things from EMP by disconnecting antennas. Is that so? Antennas are irrelevant to the susceptibility of electronic systems to EMP.
I get so frustrated by this pseudoscience that it makes it almost painful to watch the show. Next, when these clowns get into "quantum entanglement" and describe "verifying experiments" that are themselves riddled with errors and oversights, I want to head for the hills . . .
1. We were told that lasers can be "converted" into electricity. While this is not strictly correct, I'll accept the terminological laxity as a generalization. However, the "scientist" contributor indicated that the key was recognizing and receiving the proper "frequency" of the laser. This is utter nonsense. Laser light is laser light because of its collimation, not because of its frequency (= color).
2. A sci-fi author told us that electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons disable systems by "overcharging electrons." I guess this gentleman never took junior high school science, where we learn that the charge on an electron is fixed at approximately 1.6 x 10^-19 Coulomb. It is the electromagnetic waves impressed into the conductors by the EMP that fries the circuits, which has zero to do with the charge on the electron.
3. The DoD's "Queen" computer displayed statistics indicating that an EMP of so many amperes was to be transmitted. Amperes are a measure of current. EMP would be measured in transmitted power (viz., watts) or energy (viz., joules); the current induced in this medium or that is a function of its electrical resistivity and magnetic permittivity.
4. Orbiting debris lines up along the "magnetic field lines" surrounding the earth, sweeping from north to south. This is utterly nonsensical, looking more like a high-school text's depiction of magnetic field lines. In actuality, the "field" (no such thing, by the way: it's merely a mathematical abstraction) is EVERYWHERE, and nothing would line up along particular north-south lines, which would be basically indistinguishable from neighboring (=1 cm to the east, or what-have-you) lines.
5. We learn that we can protect things from EMP by disconnecting antennas. Is that so? Antennas are irrelevant to the susceptibility of electronic systems to EMP.
I get so frustrated by this pseudoscience that it makes it almost painful to watch the show. Next, when these clowns get into "quantum entanglement" and describe "verifying experiments" that are themselves riddled with errors and oversights, I want to head for the hills . . .
First contact mediocrity
L-I-Z-A-R-D-O22 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This series is just okay. First, it's incredibly boring to watch through the lens of what we now believe could be possible. I'm sure that if a race of aliens was this mediocre, it would take them a long time to get here. Maybe they would have to make their presence known because they are so slow? Lol. So, I guess this is bracing us for first contact with a race of that nature. Meanwhile, people all over the world, including the militaries of every country have been dealing with contact from aliens that probably don't take so long get here. Millions of years of advancement can do that. Maybe we have to realize that aliens may not care enough to address us all at once like in the movies.
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