Ancient Aliens

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.

I'm not going to bore you with a synopsis of my personal beliefs here, nor pick apart the assertions made by the show's creators and contributors. Ancient Aliens is equal parts compelling and laughable. Both thought-provoking and ludicrous. Always, however, entertaining. The show is well put together, and moves along well. Did E.T. visit our ancient ancestors? Did they influence our modern religions? Was alien technology used to help the ancients build huge megalithic structures? The show's "experts" say yes, and attempt to put forward evidence to back up their claims. Yes, it is slanted in one direction. I'm being more charitable than other reviewers here though. After all, the title is "Ancient Aliens". What else would you expect? In any case, if you're a critical thinker who also doesn't mind stretching credulity for the sake of good entertainment, you'll enjoy this. For every time I scoffed, there have also been parts that really blew my mind. Give it a try.

You know what I find funny..All the debunker's trying to debunk but offer no viable counter-argument to anything that is said in this documentary. If anything they only offer another side of speculation. The Egyption Saqqara bird..actually looks similar to a bird but upon closer examination from where the wings are placed to the tail it really does resemble more of a glider craft. As far as I know all birds have their tail feathers horizontal, NOT VERTICAL and bird wings are not located atop their back. They actually state this many of times. There are a lot of archaeological mysteries out there. I don't think all of them can be considered related to aliens granted. That does not mean that it is not a possibility. The fact remains that there are mysteries out there and people are ignoring them for what ever reasons. WHY?!!!? Now what is the deal with the Bermuda Triangle and The Dragons Triangle being on the same latitude where both sites have said to be hot spots for UFO activity? As well as well as having weird magnetic phenomena oh and the Yoniguni monument thats literally right off the point of the dragons triangle..now before you naysayers say anything. UFO means UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT. IT DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN IT IS EXTRA- TERRESTRIAL.. How about the Vihmana Story? How old are vedic texts describing vihmana or (flying machines). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see correlation between flying machine and a god that comes from the heavens..that maybe..hmm.. maybe it was an alien. Now I have to mention the correlation between every religion in the world having a being come down from the stars "heavens" and teach them culture, technology, way of life. This is a prominent experience shared by all cultures and religions in the world. Especially more curious as to why cultures that seemingly had no contact with each other decided to all start building pyramid type structures around the world. For gods sake man they brought in skilled stone masons and architectural engineers to take a look at some of these old stone monolithic creations..and even they are confused and state that recreating the same structures would be incredibly difficult with today's technology. Sure it may be a little brash to jump the gun and claim its all ancient aliens.. But seriously for the people who naysay or try and debunk do a little research into the field before you start making absolute claims on a subject you know absolutely nothing about. Science is subject to the same blind faith dogma as religion or any other belief system. With that in mind there will be fanatics going every which way. Ancient aliens and dogmatic science. I'm shaking the foundation of your ivory tower to tell you that I killed your high horse. Watch this series with an open mind. Draw your own conclusions and research, research, research. There is a lot of information out there pertaining to this vast subject. Remember and I know its cliché' we thought the world was flat once..Galilleo said non sense..we burned him for it. Its no surprise that information like this will rock the cradle for the mass fragile minds that can't think outside the box if there life depended on it. It's funny how debunker's will nit pick to spin their argument the way they see fit..totally ignoring information and documented accounts of said subject which lends even if small, credence to the idea of Extra- terrestrial contact/inter-dimensional contact or advanced military technology. They accuse the conspiracy theorists of straw-manning when the debunker's are doing the exact same thing..OHH THE HYPOCRISY! Through the entire series everything that was proposed is proposed in maybes, ifs, could bes, plausibles. This is a good thing because they are not making ABSOLUTE statements. Although when one researches and draws correlations between certain events and phenomena..one starts to see the maybes, ifs, and plausibles turn into Most likely. Last time I looked, the scientific community is still trying to prove the big bang, dark matter etc. All they have is a theory. A plausible one at that but there are many holes and many contradictions and these are theories that have yet to be proved. Yet for some reason most mainstream scientists and physicists take it as fact. I wonder how many times our science textbooks will have to be re-written due to new physics laws etc.. Remember. Our technology is relatively primitive. Earth is only 4 billion years old..There are planets out there billions of years older. THINK, DRAWING CORRELATIONS. DEDUCTIVE REASONING IS NOT A BAD PRACTICE!

...white people didn't do it, doesn't mean it was aliens

I use to love this show i still do like most of the previous seasons, especially the first few. But now every season is just re used content, nothing is new. I'm sick of them showing that Tic tac clip, give it a rest! It's time to cancel, if they can't find anything new what is this point.