Ancient Aliens - Unerklärliche Phänomene

It is ironic that the "father" of the Ancient Aliens theory, Mr. Erich Von Däniken, is the last person on earth who would sell his theories as "hard science".

In fact, having seen him in person in my youth, as well as in several excellent TV interviews, Erich will not get tired of pointing out that it's on the watchers and readers to come to conclusions on their own.

He keeps asking questions, instead of saying "it is so" as we see in the so called "established" sciences. He will ask questions like "could it be that..." instead of claiming that his theses are the last word. Heck, he even admits that he made errors in the past.

Erich is right too in pointing out that it is very often the established sciences (for example Egyptology) which is stuck in and bound by dogmas - in essence meaning that science is also more often than not a belief system, with scientists being the "believers".

The Ancient Alien theorists and "believers" make it clear and never denied that their theories are, well, speculation. Speculations which are indeed healthy because they encourage to question scientific theories and dogmas which are written "in stone" for centuries already.

There is nothing wrong with that.

Only if you ask such questions and accept alternative views you are indeed conducting real and true science.

Legends existed in China about dragons? Must've been aliens.

Mayans thought there were Gods who could influence the weather? Aliens.

Primitive cave paintings resembling weird looking humans? Aliens.

I don't necessarily think that the ancient astronaut theory is totally ludicrous, but the evidence provided by "experts" in this show is lacking, and almost entirely driven by conformation bias. They have already drawn their conclusion (aliens), and work their way backwards from there.

That said, you'll probably learn some interesting things about the past, and the idea itself is, at least for me, quite thought provoking.

I am sorry but I cannot watch this show for more than 10 minutes without shouting at the screen. It is worse now, I now find that I am getting annoyed at all TV documentaries after watch some of this show. They still talk about things as mysteries when they were solved years before, that things are fact when they aren't. They use lines like "Many People" and "Some scientists believe" never giving facts and figures. I find the main presenter patronising. Sorry I just can't watch any more of this show. Where has the Science and actual history gone. Where is the balanced reporting. How can someone look at a camera and state something to be a mystery when the facts are well known.

Should you ever encounter the History Channel (it will always be the HISTORY CHANNEL to me) documentary series "Ancient Aliens", it would be a wise choice to watch it not with a grain of salt, but rather, a whole salt shaker. The series, which chronicles theories about "ancient astronauts" and possible historical encounters primitive cultures had with extra-terrestrial life and how it impacted the world, is a fine example of pseudo-science at at times blatant science-fiction masquerading as scientific fact. While some of the stories are intriguing, and while I do indeed believe in extra-terrestrial life (and that it may have contacted the modern world), the show presents so much conjecture and idea-grasping, that one cannot possibly take this series seriously.

Each episode centers on a different topic, from alien technology, to rumored underground or underwater cities that were the result of alien/human contact. A panel of "experts" (aka, UFO enthusiasts and pseudo-scientists) discuses theories ranging from remotely credible to downright diabolically far-fetched and implausible.

Although given my complaints about the rampant idea-grasping, sensationalizing the series presents, and the blatant pseudo-science, I will give credit in that the show has a great deal of entertainment value when viewed as a piece of science-fiction and as mere entertainment. Some of the stories and theories portrayed are riveting in their own way, and it's a great deal of fun to watch. In addition, some of the "scientists" and "experts" who appear frequently serve as good presenters and real-life "characters", giving the show a bizarre watch-ability.

While the show desperately attempts to be a serious documentary series, it fails overall, and as a documentary, I'd give the show about a 3 out of 10. However, the interesting stories presented, the unintentional hilarity of the show, and the delightful "characters" who are humorously misleading and present wildly insane ideas, give this show a high entertainment value, and a likability factor of about a 9 out of 10. So, averaging those scores together, the show is elevated to a very watchable and enjoyably, slightly-above average 6 out of 10 when viewed strictly as entertainment. Like I said, swallow many grains of salt when you turn this on, and watch it is Science-Fiction, and it will provide some great laughs. But watch it as a serious, real-life documentary, and you will be sorely disappointed.

They were so irresponsible in stating facts that they assumed everything exotic will be believed by the audience. :P

They cooked up fantastic time-lines and lies about almost everything they say.

Eg:- 1) They said, "the Bhagavat Gita" or "the Mahabharata" is about an ancient Indian king Rama. Any person with a basic knowledge about India and it's religion / culture would simply ridicule them.

2) 90% of the times they said "Ancient Sanskrit writings of India", they actually showed Ancient Tamil / Telugu writings. They are as different from each other as Latin, Aramaic and Icelandic are from each other. When they spoke about India, it's so funny; each time flashed the same couple of temples which are in South India.

3) Kumari Kandam had been explored for in the Bay Of Bengal in the extreme south of the east coast (Mamallapuram in Tamilnadu to be precise). They said that they found ruins of Kumari Kandam in the Gulf Of Cambay which is in the west coast and at least 1200KM from the actual site.

4) Also, one old bald guy in the second season who speaks like he knows head and tail of the Sanskrit scriptures said "there are as many as 400000 intelligent civilizations in the universe including other dimensions", which is total bull. No such mention anywhere LOL!!!

5) Dwaraka, a 30000 BC site? No one could find a carbon-datable artifact in the under-water archaeological survey of Dwaraka or the Gulf of Cambay. That's just a made up arbitrary number. 7000 BC was the actual estimated time the place sunk in the sea.

These people are so content with their fantasies that they forgot to look for any factual information. It's like "Yeah right! Who the heck gives a rats' a-- about facts?" :P

Most of the "information" they gave of India is either wrong / blatantly made-up. I could only imagine the cooked up stuff about else where.

No wonder why the hypothesis itself is not given any credibility in the archaeological / scientific community.

I give them a 6/10 for just making the stuff up, and 1/10 for any amount of authenticity, -3/10 for their total disregard for facts. So it's a 4/10.

The rating 7.8 is proof enough for me that their target audience are the people who are gullible enough to believe even when they say 'George Clooney is an "extraterrestrial biological entity" and is the son of Osiris, the Last King of Scotland.' It's like telling the people of the "yanagapa" in the amazonian rain forests that, her Majesty Queen Elizabeth is a virgin and carried Baby Jesus on her back all the way to Lemuria which was ruled by Santa Claus who in turn is an "extra terrestrial biological entity".

Look at the goddamn audacity!

(Nevertheless, some artifacts that they showed and their implications, if proved authentic would be fascinating.. But again they were already shown in Eric Van Daniken's 1970s documentary based on his book, of the same theme)