Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

[gewing]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

Don't wait on my account. The reviews of the shows I've mentioned were generally good' date=' they just didn't impress me. Mostly that's because they were more "fluff" than anything. Hmm. Hard to explain. I guess "more neat-o pictures than talking about [i']why[/] a lifeform that looks like this would look the way it does."

 

I've not seen his book Expedition, but the show being based on that does explain why the creatures look like his style.

 

IIRC

I thought that probably the biggest problem in expedition was the evolution of two legs fore and aft from a four legged critter. The issues of balance and such bugged me a lot. How do they stand up if they lay down?

[Susano]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

IIRC

I thought that probably the biggest problem in expedition was the evolution of two legs fore and aft from a four legged critter. The issues of balance and such bugged me a lot. How do they stand up if they lay down?

 

There's a few designs in the book that have that problem. One's a two part animal. I have a hard time seeing that work.

[CSgeekHero]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

I was quite underwhelmed to say the least.

 

The creatures seemed a bit of a stretch. One has been critiqued by Trebuchet and it just seemed a little out there by having so many predators and not a whole lot of prey.

 

The production with the flashbacks to Earth where the scientists explain the animals was annoying. If you start out with a National Geographic style, stick with it. If you really need the talking heads, then do it in a voiceover or something else less distracting from the watching of the fictional creatures.

 

I just, I mean, I felt underwhelmed and glad I taped it for later viewing so I could do something else that night. Otherwise, I might have a harsher review.

[Thrakazog]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

I had the opposite reaction. I found it to be the most stimulating and entertaining Discovery Channel show I've seen. I was completely engrossed, and I look forward to watching it again.

 

EDIT: As for the "science" complaints, I think part of the point was that we'll likely encounter things that we won't readily be able to explain, like how the gyrosprinter maintains it's balance. Much was based on science as we know it, and bits of the unexplained were added. No big deal, but certainly entertaining and fun.

 

I also found the scientists' input rather insightful and complimentary. It wasn't just a "here's what we might find", but it was also a "here's what our best minds will do when approaching the data".

 

I also liked Henson's quote (paraphrased from memory): "If we're not stretching ourselves to find out as much as we can, to learn everything that there is to learn about ourselves and the universe, then we're not being fully human."

[Vanguard00]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

I'm with Thrak on this. I enjoyed the show immensely. The landscape, the "hard science" behind the ecology, flora and fauna found, and the scientific insights provided by the experts made for a wonderfully stimulating imagination-fueled escape. There was nothing that presented itself as impossible, or even particularly implausible. Even the gyrosprinter is plausible if only because the halteres function as a sort of "balancing sense", and it's not necessary that we fully understand how. That's part of the fun.

 

Yep. Good fun.

[Thrakazog]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

Okay, that's it. Now I have to run a Star Hero campaign using the world from the show.

[Susano]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

Get the book, the added detail is well worth it.

[AlHazred]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

One note, although I haven't watched the show yet, I've read the website's intro. It seems that they posit a probe launched by a multinational project. In the original book on which it's based, it's actually a multispecies effort - humanity has met a more technologically-advanced alien species, that helped us get back on our feet after an ecological catastrophe. They allow human scientists and thinkers to tag along on their expedition to help out, but they call the shots. Hence, the humans are constrained by the aliens' unwillingness to allow any sort of manned landing - the observers use remotes to do all their scientific analysis from orbit.

 

Amusingly, Barlowe is allowed along because the aliens think the human nature illustrators bring something to the project that photographs fail to capture. I find that funny because Barlowe's paintings, even of alien subjects, are far more photorealistic than most illustrators.

[Lightray]

I also found the scientists' input rather insightful and complimentary. It wasn't just a "here's what we might find"' date=' but it was also a "here's what our best minds will do when approaching the data".[/quote']

I found their commentary on what the probes were finding to be complimentary. I found the "gee-wiz" comments -- particularly George Lucas -- to be distracting.

 

I thought most of the useful commentary could have easily been handled by the voiceover, and by cutting out the talking head headshots in front of the greenscreen they'd have had a few more minutes to show shots of Darwin IV.

[Thrakazog]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

I found their commentary on what the probes were finding to be complimentary. I found the "gee-wiz" comments -- particularly George Lucas -- to be distracting.

 

I thought most of the useful commentary could have easily been handled by the voiceover, and by cutting out the talking head headshots in front of the greenscreen they'd have had a few more minutes to show shots of Darwin IV.

 

 

You may be right, but consider my philosophical argument: it is good to give these people face time simply because what they do is far more important to society that most famous individuals. We should promote the people as well as the science. More rewards for them might mean more people pursuing the science track.

[Southern Cross]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

This is true.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

You may be right' date=' but consider my philosophical argument: it is good to give these people face time simply because what they do is far more important to society that most famous individuals. We [i']should[/i] promote the people as well as the science. More rewards for them might mean more people pursuing the science track.

I couldn't agree more. Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Feynman, Robbert Bakker, and other scientists in multiple fields have always been heroes to me, and well worth trying to get others to emulate.

[Lightray]

We should promote the people as well as the science. More rewards for them might mean more people pursuing the science track.

True. I am a 38 year old chemical engineer, and I know American schools are weak in producing science students -- I've been involved in hiring quite a few times in recent years. It hasn't been pretty.

 

Okay, you've convinced me the face time was worth it for the scientists.

 

But I'm not budging on Lucas' presence being wasted airtime.

[Southern Cross]

Re: Discovery Channel: Alien Planet

 

Fair enough.