Celestia Forums

I saw something on the National Geographic Channel that followed along the same idea: "What alien life would be like?" It was called Extraterrestrial. Did anybody see it?

I saw that too. My favorite there on that show was the 1st planet, "Aurelia", tidally locked to a red dwarf star, which supposedly lasts up to a hundred billion years. the second world, "blue moon", is just plain unrealistic, IMO. Flying whales? please.

Oh, and one thing got to me while watching BOTH shows (Alien planet and extraterrestrial): just how in the HECK are these beings supposed to REPRODUCE (ie, mating), especially those animals that manage to stay in flight right from birth to death?!

Dense atmospheres would act something like water does. Think of them as fish.

Selden wrote:Dense atmospheres would act something like water does. Think of them as fish.

Yes, exactly.

PlutonianEmpire wrote:Oh, and one thing got to me while watching BOTH shows (Alien planet and extraterrestrial): just how in the HECK are these beings supposed to REPRODUCE (ie, mating), especially those animals that manage to stay in flight right from birth to death?!

Assuming that the species of both shows had males and females, I'm guessing they reproduce like species that are similar to them on Earth (for example, grovebacks are like turtles, so if I'm right, they would mate like turtles do), and I'm guessing the flying whales either mate like whales do while flapping or they release eggs and sperm into the air like pollen. However they do it, I agree that the shows should have covered mating.

Ah. cool

Yah, they oughta cover reproduction. Maybe they will in the next show?

Well, maybe. But then again, we could always make our own!

Soooo...did anybody else see it?

I just watched it. It's sorta okay but way to short to actually do anything with the large amount of new concepts it introduces.

Just finished watching the first showing of the program on Discovery Japan; been waiting for it since reading about it here.

Enjoyed it, but I have to agree with julesstoop; too bad it's not a series.


(Was greatly annoyed with the overwhelming number of commercial breaks; to a lesser extent with the ordering of program elements...possibly to accommodate the breaks. Ah well.)

----- (later edit)

Weird the way the brain works: I was just dozing off last night when suddenly this popped into my mind: "Hey, what about the sap-sucker pocket-forest death question?!"

When one of the probes (Ike?) is first exploring the pocket forest, it finds a dead "sap-sucker" and the narration poses the question, "Why had it died/What had killed it?" Later, going into one of the breaks, after the introduction of the gliding dagger claw critters, there was a scene showing one of them killing a sap-sucker; the narration implied there would be more coverage of this (in answer to the earlier question). But what I realized as my head was shutting down for the night was...we never saw it.

So, can anyone else who saw the show tell me: was this an oversight in the original, or did they edit it out on this side?

An update for those following:

Amazon.com is now taking preorders for the "Alien Planet" DVD:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009VRHLA/ref%3Dpe%5Fsnp%5FHLA/102-5811104-4891356

Now, if only National Geographic could get a DVD out for its recent "Extraterrestrial" program on the National Geographic Channel (airing again on 7 August).

d.m.f.
(Who doesn't get the National Geographic Channel )

It passed in Brazil,but I was travelling.
Where can I download it?

d.m.falk wrote:An update for those following:

Amazon.com is now taking preorders for the "Alien Planet" DVD:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009VRHLA/ref%3Dpe%5Fsnp%5FHLA/102-5811104-4891356

Now, if only National Geographic could get a DVD out for its recent "Extraterrestrial" program on the National Geographic Channel (airing again on 7 August).

d.m.f.
(Who doesn't get the National Geographic Channel )

d.m.falk wrote:Now, if only National Geographic could get a DVD out for its recent "Extraterrestrial" program on the National Geographic Channel (airing again on 7 August).

d.m.f.
(Who doesn't get the National Geographic Channel )

I don't get the National Geographic Channel either... I'd be very interested to see that program.