von daniken

back in my early days in college, i thought von daniken had some really good ideas. i revamped some of those ideas after i had a long talk with one of my anth profs who had been to all the south american sites he talks about. i loved it when she told me that one of the things he didn't take into account at Macho Pichu is that parts of it were reconstructed in the 50's, which accounts for his "electrical conduits" were probably set upside down during the restoration rather than being that way originally. she also said the legendary "can't get a knife blade between the blocks" isn't a reality. the guides demonstrate that there is plenty of room to slide a thin blade between many of the stones in the walls. she also had reservations about the nazca plain as an intergalactic landing field. seems some of the gravel scratchings on the plain can be disturbed by high winds -- the kind of thing vtol vehicles make a lot of, so unless magnetics are being used ---- probably not a landing site. prof also said that the drawings are clearly visible from a nearby mountain side, even if mr. von daniken didn't manage to locate the mountain <g>.

oh my -- that could make an interesting plot bunny, ufologist tangles with shado while they're trying to fend off real aliens who are ruining ancient artifacts. *cxhuckle* (hmm, looks like a precolumbian laugh <g>) which is suppose is better than the archaeologist with the alien mummy intrusion <g>

laters

ryuu



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I remember when Carl Sagan talked about Van Daniken's
thereories (sp) and mentioned the Nazca Plains with
the long runways and he set it up by saying that, as
the alient spacecraft approached the Earth, having
traveled millions of light years from another solar
system, it glides down into the atmosphere and the
skies open to reveal.....a craft with landing gear
that requires a long strip to slow down on
touchdown?!?! I'm just paraphrasing but I remember
logic interfering with VD's ideas....



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--- In [hidden email], ultramannick <ultramannick@y...> wrote:
As others have expressed here, when UFO came out and I was an
impressionable little kid, I used to think that UFOs were real for a
fact and that they looked in real life just like in the series.

To this date, I haven't found a single well-respected scientist that
believes that UFOs have visited the earth. Perhaps the most famous
earth and planetary scientist was Carl Sagan, I think he strongly
believed that there is "life" outside earth (as I believe), but no
UFOs have visited the earth.

A few years ago I though that the crop circles phenomena had a good
chance of being real, but after a while and hearing the opinion of a
couple of respected reporters, I now believe this is an elaborate
hoax.

Does anyone know, what was the reason Gerry decided to do a series
around UFOs? (I'm sure there is no simple answer). Did the series
come out at a time where there was high speculation and interest
about UFOs??

David Levine

I believe the reports of UFO "sightings" were pretty
high and picking up steam back then. Remember, another
UFO kinda show was the American series The Invaders.
Everyone there thinks people who see UFO's are
crackpots (they could all be right, who knows?). It
became almost a new National Pastime in the US with
Redneck white trash hilbillies saying they were probed
by aliens. It was somewhat more likely they were
probed by their cousins.

Honestly though, people have been reporting sightings
for over 50 years. I think Gerry just thought it would
be a good idea to exploit. He was right. It's been
fodder for a number of shows, not the least of which
was The X-Files.m I just think Gerry was ahead of his
time. Again.

Scott

"dlevine2100" wrote:

> Does anyone know, what was the reason Gerry decided to do a series
> around UFOs? (I'm sure there is no simple answer).

His biography quotes him as saying: "I had heard many accounts of
Unidentified Flying Objects .. but of all the photographs I saw
there wasn't one that I would say was a substantial piece of
evidence; most looked like a blank piece of paper featuring a blob
of dirt. Nevertheless it was a big subject and I decided this would
be our next move".

Perhaps, having had relatively lesser success with Joe 90, he
wanted to reuse the more dramatic Captain Scarlet 'humans vs
aliens' formula. It's fair to say, I think, that UFO is a
descendent of 'Captain Scarlet' in some respects.

> Did the series come out at a time where there was high speculation
> and interest about UFOs??
>

Not particularly, I think that was at its peak about ten years before
then.


James

While I may not agree with the theories put forth by von Daniken and other
UFOlogists necessarily, and I know where Carl Sagan stood on the subject, SF
has always been about speculation, with a foot firmly placed within real
science to some degree - that's what made trek such a geek's delight. In
some cases, SF writers and some SF movie and TV producers came up with ideas
that actually predicted futuristic gadgets and technological developments -
or in some cases, predicted real events.

For me, as writer, I tend to take those theories which have often been
forward enough to at least capture the public's attention, and then I tweak
it into a story. Whether or not UFOs actually exist or not, or whether we
have been visited by aliens or not is not the main question for me. Is it
something which will get people to read my work, think about the
controversy, and discuss it? I'm glad this site allows room for
conversations among us all on such diverse subjects, and those subjects
almost always touch back to UFO no matter what.

Pam